Chapter 31: One Against the Many

I've only had one squad over the last couple years. True, I'd routinely broken it down into two or more smaller teams, but I had still kept everyone together. The better to have everyone gel together, to hone them into a finely-tuned fighting machine. Besides, it seemed best to bring as many guns as possible to the battlefield, considering that we were inevitably outmanned and outgunned.

However, there's no denying that there were a few downsides to that method. One of them was that we had no alternate squad to take over and handle missions while the other squad stood down and rested. There were times where that setup would come in handy.

Like today, for instance. It had been less than twelve hours since we'd disabled the geth dreadnought, freed Legion and narrowly escaped becoming the latest victim of friendly fire—and quarian stupidity. Normal protocol would dictate that we rest a little longer before engaging in another mission.

Unfortunately, we didn't have the luxury of sticking to protocol. (1) Not when one of the two quarian admirals with an ounce of common sense was currently stuck on Rannoch after his ship had been shot down.

James was already suited up when Miranda and I entered the shuttle bay, which wasn't a surprise considering he usually spent most of his time there anyway. "Got another mission for us, Commander?" he asked.

"Yep," I nodded, beginning the process of strapping myself into my hardsuit. "Why? Got plans?"

"Well I was thinking of checking out the mess hall and see what we've got in the way of food. Have you tasted some of the sludge that comes out of there? Might as well use it for glue."

"So, in your opinion, military-grade rations haven't improved?"

"Permission to speak freely, sir?"

"Granted."

"It might've gotten worse."

"Back on the original Normandy, we never had a dedicated mess sergeant or cook either," I reminisced. "That was one of the things that was nice about the first crew of the SR-2. Hey Miranda, whatever happened to Gardner?"

"He went underground with the rest of the ex-Cerberus operatives," she replied. Her hardsuit was easier to assemble than mine, so she had already moved onto checking her weapons. "I lost track of him up until recently. It seems that Jacob got in touch and convinced him to help feed the staff working on the Crucible Project."

"Really?"

"Really."

"Well. Good for him. But… are Hackett and the others aware of his… varied skill set?"

"I believe the Crucible Project has a dedicated housekeeping staff," Miranda said dryly. "Gardner doesn't need to take time away from cooking to clean the plumbing."

"Seriously?" James asked in disbelief. "With all the credits that the Illusive Man had lying around, he couldn't afford to have a guy just doing the cooking?"

"Well, he did shell out a lot of money to bring me back from the dead," I shrugged. "Not to mention building the second Normandy. I guess he had to cut back somewhere."

By that point, the rest of the squad had showed up. While they were gearing up, Cortez stepped out of one of the Kodiak shuttles. "Starting preliminary checks now, Commander," he announced. "We'll be ready to depart as soon as you're ready."

"Not taking the geth fighter?" I asked, tilting my head to the right.

He shook his head. "I was doing some scans and calibrations earlier and they're not done yet. If I interrupt them now for the mission, I'll have to start from scratch. Besides, I'm still figuring out the interface. Better to stick to the tried-and-true this time, I think."

"Fair enough," I allowed.

By that point, the squad was about ready. We were just about to board the shuttle when the doors hissed open and Legion walked in. "Shepard-Commander. We understand you are attempting to extract Creator Koris. Permission to join you?"

"Granted," I said after a moment's thought. "You can join my team."

Miranda, Garrus and Liara didn't even blink, no doubt remembering Legion's contributions in our fight against mercs, hostile geth and Collectors. EDI took it in stride, probably in a gesture of synthetic solidarity. And Tali, well, it's always challenging to gauge her reaction, but I'm assuming she was reasonably sanguine about my decision.

You should have seen Kaidan, James and Javik, though. Their mouths dropped. Their eyes bulged like goldfish. Javik's face also turned a nice, bright shade of… purple? Fuchsia? Whatever. Bottom line: the fact that I was inviting Legion along instead of shoving him out the airlock was driving him crazy.

There was a reason for my decision. Three, in fact. First, I needed as many guns as possible. In this case, a gun that had machine-level precision and could give me and Garrus a run for our money as far as sniping goes.

Second, the gulf between the quarians and the geth had collapsed into a bottomless chasm. Thanks mostly to the quarians. Having a geth participate in the rescue of one of their leaders might make them think twice before pulling the trigger. Yeah, the chances of that ever happening were slim to none, but it was worth a try.

Third, on the even slimmer chance that Legion had been corrupted—with or without his knowing—the best way to minimize the damage he could cause was to get him off the ship, with all the bigwigs and intel and analyses we'd run. Of course, that would dramatically increase the amount of damage he could do to me, but you can't have everything in life. Especially my life. (2)

The fact that I got so much entertainment seeing some of the squad's reaction was just a bonus. "All right," I announced. "Let's move out."

The squad—including Legion—marched into the shuttle. Cortez looked back from the cockpit to make sure we were settled in, and did a double-take when he saw the extra passenger. "Cortez, Legion," I introduced brightly. "Legion, Lieutenant Cortez."

"Cortez-Lieutenant," Legion greeted him. "We are pleased to meet you."

"Uh… thanks?" Cortez looked at me to make sure I was okay with this, then sealed the hatch and finished his preparations. A minute later, the shuttle took off, left the Normandy and headed down to Rannoch.

I braced myself for the crazy dodging and wild flying that would inevitably follow once the geth detected us. Experience had shown that the much-lauded stealth features of the Kodiak weren't much to speak of. Surprisingly, we didn't have to do a lot of dodging. Guess the geth and quarians had better things to do: like beat the snot out of each other.

"Commander Shepard? This is Admiral Raan. Have you reached Zaal'Koris' escape pod?"

It figured that Raan would be the one contacting me. Gerrel was probably still licking his wounds from the last beat down I gave him and Xen was batshit crazy. With Tali aboard with me and Koris stuck down on Rannoch, that left only one admiral. "Not yet. What's your status?"

"The Civilian Fleet has taken significant losses since Zaal'Koris sacrificed his ship to destroy a geth ground cannon. To say they are in disarray would be an understatement. Searching for their lost admiral is the only thing keeping the captains from panicking."

"Things are that tenuous, huh?"

"Despite our differences, and any opposition he had regarding the invasion, he'd done an outstanding job in protecting our civilian ships and maintaining the morale of their crews. Without him, some of our non-combatants might leave the Flotilla. Picture the consequences, if you will."

"Makes sense," I said. "They've lost a leader in a war they didn't want."

"Which makes it even more important that you rescue him," Raan urged. "Without the Civilian Fleet, we would have to dramatically increase the length of our supply chain. At the very least, the invasion would be stalled."

"You mean like it's stalled now?" I asked not-so-innocently. "I'll do what I can. In the meantime, try to keep your civilians safe."

Whatever Raan said in reply was drowned out by a surge of static. "Didn't catch that last part," I said. "I'm getting some static."

"Stand by. It appears Zaal'Koris crashed within range of a geth jamming tower," Raan announced after a few seconds.

"We'll have to take it out if we're going to contact him," Miranda frowned. "Or organize an extraction, for that matter."

"Make sure you—"

"Raan?" I frowned, looking up. Her image was disappearing in a snowstorm of static. "Admiral Raan?"

"Well, this should make things interesting," Garrus said dryly.

"We'll see in a minute," I replied. "Cortez, take us in to the tower."

Turned out I was mistaken: it took less than thirty seconds before weapons fire hit the shuttle and Cortez began evasive manoeuvres. "Sorry, sir," he apologized. "We're taking fire."

Getting to my feet, I staggered into the cockpit. "The geth installed AA guns beside the jamming tower," Cortez told me. (3)

"We'll have to disable them on foot," I decided. "Once the guns are gone, you take out the tower."

"Right, Commander. Setting you down here."

Under different circumstances, this would be a momentous occasion. After all, this was the first time any human, asari, turian, quarian or Prothean had set foot on Rannoch in ages—a fact that didn't escape Tali. "My people have been in exile for centuries. To be standing here in the land of my ancestors…"

She trailed off, not knowing what else to say. For that matter, I wasn't sure what to say either. So I wordlessly headed in the general direction of the jamming tower. We trudged past bare rock outcrops, kicking up lots of sand as we walked. Any plant life around us looked reminiscent of the fauna you'd see in a desert. (4)

"Setting up jamming towers was a clever idea," Garrus said as we walked. "But if we just towed in some asteroids…"

Tali whirled around to face him. "You want to drop meteors on Rannoch? You'd make it unlivable!"

"The dust would settle," Garrus replied. "And you've already got the suits."

"Towing in asteroids, lining them up on the correct vector and launching them would be challenging enough without steering them through an ongoing war," EDI replied.

"There's a reason why you send in special forces for this kinda thing and not fire off space rocks," James agreed.

"Alert!" Legion interrupted. "Geth signatures detected."

Thanks to his advance warning, we managed to find cover long before the geth could react. The fact that there was a fire of some sort burning up ahead made it easy to pick our targets. Legion and I took out a pyro's shields with twin sniper rounds, paving the way for EDI and Liara to take it out with plasma and biotics. Miranda and Kaidan employed similar tactics to eliminate the geth trooper that was tagging along.

The area that the geth were camped in was a dead end, so we had to take a detour along the cliffs instead. Good thing none of us had a problem with heights. On the way, we came across a partially disassembled geth that I salvaged for credits. Good thing none of us had a problem with looting from the dead.

Speaking of dead, the next clearing we came across had lots of rocks, a few hardy shrubs… and the skeleton of a long-deceased quarian next to another fire. That was rather sobering, to say the least. "They came so far," Tali said sadly, "only to wind up like this…"

The best thing I could do under the circumstances was find something to distract her. Thankfully, I had just the thing: "We need to radio Zaal'Koris if we're going to find him. Let's get to that jamming tower."

I swiped some more salvage before climbing up a steep incline to scan what looked like a weapon of some sort—"Hang on!" I said sharply, motioning for the squad to halt.

"Problem, Shepard?" Kaidan asked.

"Back up," I ordered. Once the squad complied, I peered down at the ground. It looked like it had been recently disturbed. Between my visor and my optical implants, I was getting some odd readings. On a hunch, I bent down, scooped up a rock and tossed it.

The small explosion confirmed my suspicions. "Land mines."

"The geth have been busy," Garrus said. "Bet they're all over the place."

I paused long enough to scan the weapon—a Javelin, if you must know—now that the mine had been safely detonated. After my scans were complete, I looked around. To our left was a series of towering rock walls. Over on the right, we could look down into a small valley, lit up by yet another fire. Just beyond it sat one of the anti-aircraft guns. What was more interesting was what was in the valley.

Javik pointed it out first. "Geth below us. And they do not suspect our presence… so far." He gave Legion a dark look.

"We would appear to have the tactical advantage, Shepard-Commander," Legion declared, apparently oblivious to Javik's suspicions.

There were, in fact, geth below us. One rocket trooper, accompanied by a regular geth trooper. I quickly gave my orders. Tali deployed a drone to distract the hostile geth while Miranda and Kaidan fried the rocket trooper's shields. While EDI and Liara took out the trooper, Legion, Garrus and I fired our sniper rifles. Probably overkill, given how its head exploded. (5)

There was a third hostile, judging by the way that the drone kept firing, but none of us had anything close to a clear line of sight. So we double-timed it around the ridge. It was another rocket trooper, no worse the wear for the gunfire it had taken from the drone. We were just about to attack when Tali looked up. "Keelah!" she exclaimed. "There are geth dropping in."

Naturally. Time to get to work. Kaidan dropped an EMP on the rocket trooper while Miranda and James took out the geth trooper with biotics and concussive rounds. EDI and Liara finished off the rocket trooper while Legion, Garrus and I began shooting at hostiles with our sniper rifles. Javik and Tali fired at any targets of opportunity that survived the initial onslaught.

Once the battlefield was clear, we scrounged for thermal clips. It soon became clear that the 'campfires' were flaming debris from a recently crashed ship. At least we knew we were in the right area. When everyone was locked and loaded, we moved towards the AA guns.

Maybe the geth weren't in constant contact with each other or maybe we'd simply been plowing through their forces so fast they couldn't keep up. Whatever the reason, we seemed to have the advantage, so I decided to make the best of it. "Garrus, Javik, Legion; climb up to the high ground. Everyone else with me."

The method behind my madness was simple: Garrus and Legion could use the high ground to good use with their sniper rifles. It wouldn't hurt having a Prothean raining biotic fire down from above, either. Meanwhile, the rest of us could hopefully secure the AA guns and the jamming tower.

EDI, Miranda and Kaidan launched their EMPs while I cloaked and sniped a geth. Tali deployed a drone to keep a rocket trooper at bay. Spotting another rocket trooper, I knocked out its shields with one shot before setting it on fire. Then I spun around and dropped a third geth.

While I reloaded, Liara had yanked a couple geth into a singularity. Judging by the trajectories of the shots, Garrus and Legion were having fun shooting at them—until Javik had to spoil things by detonating the singularity.

Then I saw Tali staggering back. Fun time was clearly over. Hurrying forward, I glimpsed another geth. Raising my arm, I sent a fireball arcing over and down on top of it. Sure enough, that flushed it out of cover. Miranda zapped its shields, James fired another concussive round and EDI launched some more plasma. One more sniper round was all it took to finish it off.

"Shepard," Garrus said over the comm, "the coast is clear. I'm looking at one of the AA guns. Looks like it has a control panel."

"Understood," I replied. "Everyone converge on the AA gun."

Of course we didn't meet right away. We had to look for replacement thermal clips. And I had to scrounge for loot—which included some sweet heavy weapon of geth manufacture. I had no idea what it did, of course, but I was quite eager to find out.

After we looked at that AA gun control panel. Priorities, you understand.

"One of us needs to take those AA guns offline," Tali said.

"Garrus," I said after a moment's thought. "You've spent more time calibrating guns than anyone I know. Think you can shut this sucker down?"

"The thought of taking this big gun apart hurts me," he sighed, "deep in my soul."

Miranda rolled her eyes. "And yet one hopes you can overcome your pain and make the necessary sacrifice for the greater good."

"Be strong," I added with a straight face. As Garrus passed me, I gave my marching orders. "The geth will be coming in hot. Team Three: protect Garrus. (6) Everyone else, fan out."

We found cover just as the geth began dropping in—literally. I waited until EDI zapped a rocket trooper before launching a fireball. Then I decided to try out this geth weapon. Lifting it up, I aimed at an errant geth trooper, squeezed the trigger….

…and grinned as a stream of bullets poured out. (7) I pummelled as many geth as I could before the return fire took out my shields. I quickly took cover, but not before sending another fireball as a parting gift. The geth kept coming, though, so I was forced to continue spraying them with bullets and plasma before my shields began to recharge.

The other teams had managed to destroy the rest of the geth, or at least keep them at bay. There was just one more geth in the distance, so I raised my new weapon and fired again. And again. And again. It wasn't until the rocket grazed my shields and I ducked down that I finally checked my HUD. "We've got a geth prime up ahead," I reported.

EDI and Miranda promptly dropped EMPs on the prime, with Kaidan following a split second later. Despite that barrage, it was still up to my geth machine gun to do the lion's share of the work as far as draining the prime's shields was concerned. I guess it decided to get some backup, because it began deploying a pair of turrets to join in the fun.

By that point, I'd already used up half of the weapons' power cell, so I used up the rest in finishing the prime off. The rest of Team One dealt with any stragglers while Team Two destroyed the turrets. By sheer coincidence, that was when Garrus contacted us. "There," he declared. "I got the gun offline."

"Good," I replied, pulling out my submachine gun. "Now let's shut down the two by the jamming tower."

Of course, that was easier said than done. A geth hunter and a pair of troopers had just arrived. Tali used her drone to stall them until I could hack the hunter. The troopers quickly went down after their buddy involuntarily switched sides. Then I switched to my sniper rifle and finished the hunter off.

I decided to take a more circuitous back route to continue my assault. The fact that I scooped up lots of thermal clips, salvage, med-kits and weapon mods was a coincidence. I had just finished scanning one of the latter when I spotted a quarian propped up against a nearby boulder. His hardsuit was riddled with cracks, dents and bullet holes.

He was still alive. I quickly hurried over. "You… you heard my message?" he wheezed. "Sent out a distress call…"

"Radios are down," I replied as I programmed my omni-tool to begin a medical scan. "You a soldier?"

"Maintenance. Dorn'Hazt. I… I clean engine parts."

A civvie, in other words. "What happened?"

He made a feeble gesture to the pistol lying next to him. "I thought I could buy… the others some time… fight some geth. But there were so many… first time I've even held a gun."

"Well you did a good job," I said, just as the results from my scan came in. Blood pressure dropping, multiple lacerations, severe abdominal trauma, massive internal bleeding. He wasn't going to make it. "Don't move," I tried. "We've got medi-gel."

Dorn'Hazt waved off my offer. He knew as well as I did that it wouldn't do any good. "I've lost too much blood. Go. Look for the admiral. Destroy that jamming tower and you can radio him."

"We'll find him, Dorn," Tali said. "I promise."

"Please, listen," Dorn'Hazt forced out, mustering every last ounce of strength. "The Civilian Fleet didn't want this war. If there's even a chance that Admiral Koris can get us out alive…"

He broke off in a coughing fit. "And my son," he continued when he recovered. "Tell him…" He looked up at the sky. It was a clear night, with no clouds to mask the stars above. Some kind of bird was flying above one of the cliffs. "Tell… Jona… that his father… made it… to the homeworld…"

His head dropped. His life-signs flat-lined.

"We will," Tali said quietly. "Rest well, Dorn'Hazt vas Rannoch." (8)

"Let's get to that tower," I said.

Without another word, we resumed our march, leaving Dorn'Hazt vas Rannoch behind.

Based on the brief scans that the shuttle had taken, I had a general idea of where the two remaining AA towers were. We could have split up to cover more ground, but I opted against that on the grounds that we didn't know the terrain and I didn't want anyone cut off and surrounded.

We actually made a fair amount of headway before running into the first wave of hostile geth. Several geth surrounding some kind of manually-operated turret. I definitely didn't want any geth swinging that thing in our direction, so I quickly gave my orders. While Tali deployed her drone, I hacked the closest rocket trooper. While our new ally pelted the other geth with rockets, we amused ourselves by taking the occasional pot-shot. Once all the geth were down, I amused myself some more by scanning a hardsuit mod while the rest of the squad reloaded or scooped up fresh thermal clips. Then we went to the AA gun.

"Garrus, seeing how you did such a good job with the first AA gun, why don't you tackle this one?" I asked.

"You bet. Meanwhile, someone should hop in that turret."

"Great minds think alike," I said, jogging towards the turret we'd seen earlier. Seeing how there were two paths to the gun Garrus was tinkering with, I added "Team One, with me. Team Two, cover the other approach. Team Three, keep Garrus safe and help us out if needed."

Sure enough, the geth came swarming in almost immediately. This time, though, it was significantly easier to hold them off. The turret made short work of any geth that entered my sights. Even better, it had virtually unlimited ammo, so long as I took care to vent any heat buildup at timely intervals. Even the geth prime was taken down without breaking a sweat.

"AA gun offline, Shepard."

"Let's get the last one, then," I replied.

"It's a pity we can't bring that turret with us," Liara said.

"Indeed," Miranda nodded. "I don't think I had to fire off a single shot."

"You say that like it's a good thing," James joked.

"Geth by the door!" Garrus shouted, interrupting any fun we might've had.

Sure enough, company was on the way. A couple troopers and a pyro, entering through a previously unseen door that had a direct line of sight to the turret. Unfortunately, I had already dismounted, and couldn't reach the turret again without getting shot. Mind you, I suppose I could've cloaked. But that proved unnecessary: Tali's drone kept them bottled up until we could get into position and take them out. With the proper line of sight, the geth were hemmed together and out in the open. Easy pickings.

The next area of the base presented a greater challenge, but nothing we couldn't handle. A drone over here and a hacked geth over there created all sorts of confusion, which let us pick them off at our leisure.

"There's the last AA gun," Kaidan pointed out. "We should hurry."

"Wait," I said, checking my HUD. "The coast is clear for now. Team Three secure the AA gun. Everyone else, do a quick sweep of the area."

Most of the squad complied, either because I was the boss or because it made sense to look for any hidden hostiles or surprises. Miranda was the only one who gave me a skeptical look, no doubt realizing that my order was a thinly veiled excuse to look for loot. Guilty as charged, I suppose.

I felt vindicated when the first thing I found was not a stash of credits. "Looks like data on the jamming towers," I mused. "Could be useful."

"Yes, yes, pat yourself on the back on your own time," Miranda said, overhearing me.

There was nothing more to loot but thermal clips, so we rendezvoused at the last AA gun. Tali turned to face me. "Who should disable the gun, Shepard?"

"Do you even need to ask?" Garrus laughed.

I looked around for another turret while Garrus got to work. To my delight, there was indeed another one.

Unfortunately, James got there first. "Dibs!" he grinned.

"What are you, three?" I asked.

"You gonna pull rank on me, Commander?"

I rolled my eyes. "Knock yourself out, James."

"Thank you, sir. Ooh, geth approaching. This is gonna be like shooting fish in a barrel."

No one needed a translation for that idiom this time, so I gave my orders. "Team Three cover Garrus; Team Two take up positions around the turret. Team One will cover the other side. Let's go."

We had a little more work to do this time since James was occupied with a geth prime almost immediately. EDI and I launched a few fireballs at some of the tougher geth while Liara scooped up a trio in a singularity. Over on the other side, Miranda overloaded the fuel pack on the geth pyro's back with explosive results while Kaidan disabled some of the geth's weapons with his EMP. Then I pulled out my sniper rifle and began sweeping the area. Tali's drone helped me find one errant trooper and take it out. Then I found a straggler arriving late to the party and rewarded its tardiness with a bullet to the head.

"AA gun offline, Shepard," Garrus announced.

"I'll signal the shuttle." Reaching into one of my pouches, I pulled out a one-use flare gun and fired it off. Cortez must've been circling the area, because he flew in almost immediately. He fired off a series of shots that ran up the base of the jamming tower. The tower tilted the side and began spitting out sparks. Another barrage of fire at the satellite dish did the trick.

The effects were immediate. A comm call came in even as the echoes from the tower's explosion were still dissipating. "Dorn? It's Zaal'Koris. Are you there? Dorn!"

"This is Commander Shepard," I reported, waving Cortez to touch down and pick us up. "Dorn didn't make it, Admiral."

"He didn't… I see."

"I'm coming in with a shuttle," I continued as the squad clambered into the cargo bay. "Where are you?"

"My surviving crew found their way to a clearing. I'll upload their location."

By that point, the rest of the squad was aboard. I hopped in and closed the hatch. "Stay together," I replied as Cortez took off. "We'll meet you there."

"No, the geth have me cut off. I hear another wave approaching."

"Give us your coordinates."

Koris's voice was bleak. "Leave me. My crew will soon be overrun. "

"So will you," I countered.

I heard an explosion over the comm. "My people are non-combatants, Shepard!" Koris snapped. "They'll be slaughtered! Rescue them."

The commanding officer in me approved. The strategist in me was forced to consider other priorities. "Admiral, I need you leading the Civilian Fleet if we're going to end this fight."

Koris laughed bitterly. "Civilians? Our entire race took up arms for this insanity! It's too late for us. Perhaps we're getting what we deserved."

"It's only too late if you die down here!"

"You can't possibly think you can stop this war!"

He had a point. True, I managed to help cure the genophage, but that just involved a lot of bullets, biotics and plasma. It wasn't like I had to physically tussle with the genophage. And yeah, maybe I managed to broker a truce between the turians and the krogan, but it was a turian that made the first overture of peace. And one of the krogan I knew and trusted was in a position of power. I didn't really have anything like that here. The geth weren't exactly in the mood to talk and the quarians had proven to be more pigheaded than I had ever expected. What made me think I could prevail over centuries of animosity and distrust?

"I don't know," I admitted. "What I do know is that I can't do it without your help. The Civilian Fleet never asked for this, but they got dragged into this conflict anyway. Without your leadership and influence, they won't get out of it alive. And we need your voice to temper the opinions of Gerrel and Xen."

There was a pause. "Admiral?"

A burst of gunfire came over the comm. "Admiral!"

"Ancestors... forgive me. Uploading my coordinates."

Over by one of the monitors, Miranda gave me the thumbs up. "We're coming," I replied.

"Cortez, is the shuttle's turret set up?" I asked.

"Roger that."

I made my way towards the turret. "Garrus, Legion; I want you to help me clear a path for the admiral. EDI, signal the Normandy to launch the second shuttle."

Miranda immediately figured out my plan. "You want to try and rescue some of the civilians."

"But we don't have any other pilots to fly that shuttle," Cortez pointed out.

"There is the Joker pilot," Javik reminded us.

James frowned. "Uh, Buggy, if he flies the shuttle, then who flies the Normandy?"

"All good points," I intervened. "Which is why EDI will have to fly her by remote control. EDI, you think you're up for it?"

"Yes, Commander."

"Good." Getting on the comm again, I contacted Koris. "Admiral, we're launching a second shuttle to rescue your crew. Send us their coordinates."

"Understood. And thank you."

We were only a minute out from the admiral's location, so I opened the hatch again and deployed the turret. Garrus and Legion took up firing positions on either side of me. Miranda and Kaidan joined them, having decided to see what they could offer on the biotic front. James dragged EDI into the cockpit so she didn't get distracted piloting the second shuttle by a stray shot. It's nice not to have to think about every detail.

"There's the admiral!" Tali shouted. "We have to hurry!"

"We've got this!" I shouted back. "Squad, weapons free!"

Several quick bursts took out the nearby geth. "Admiral, you're clear! Go!"

I watched Koris scramble towards us, then began sweeping the area for hostiles. "Koris, geth behind you! Get in cover!"

From the shuttle, we could see tracer rounds as the geth tried to shoot the admiral. A flare of light and a trail of smoke told us they were using more than just assault rifles to take him down. Thankfully, we had the advantage of height, heavy-caliber weapons, sniper rifles, biotics and the expertise of hardened combat veterans on our side. "You're clear!" I said again. "Go!"

Koris made a run for it, only to slow down and shoot at the next wave of geth that came dropping in. That was our job. "Admiral, come on!" I yelled. "We'll take care of the geth!"

Just as Koris finally made a final sprint, a rocket trooper rose up and opened fire. Lunging at the controls, Javik opened the other shuttle hatch. The rocket whistled right by me, harmlessly passed through the cargo bay and out the other side. Guess it didn't have a proximity fuse. Lucky break, that one.

At last, Koris hopped in. "Welcome aboard," I said as Miranda and Javik shut the hatches.

"Shepard… my crew. Did you get there in time?"

Without even waiting for EDI to respond, Koris shoved his way to the nearest intercom and opened a channel. "Hello?" This is Zaal'Koris. Does anyone copy? Hello!"

A guttural string of clicks from the geth was the only reply. We all looked at EDI.

"I'm afraid I was only able to extract fourteen civilians before the geth swarmed in and drove us off," she replied.

"Fourteen," Koris whispered. "Out of a crew of 112."

Damn. I laid a sympathetic hand on his shoulder. "We have to go."

Koris nodded and slowly made his way to one of the seats. "I pray they found comfort in the homeworld's skies," he replied.

We found our own seats and buckled in as we flew through Rannoch's skies and back to the Normandy.

The shuttles rendezvoused with one of the quarian ships and dropped off Admiral Koris and the other survivors before returning to the Normandy. I returned my hardsuit and weapons to the armoury, changed into my fatigues and sent an e-mail to the Flotilla to inform them of Dorn'Hazt's death. Then I began my rounds. No rest for the wicked, after all.

As always, my first stop was to visit Joker. EDI was just sitting down beside him when I arrived. "Joker," I greeted him, "how's it going?"

"Not bad, Commander," he replied. "Just reviewing our sensor logs of the ships out there. Man, watching the geth fleet move… it's like thousands of stunt flyers in formation. Creepy stunt flyers… whose ships look like some kind of cockroach-wasp thing."

I was reminded of the geth flyer that was currently squeezed into the shuttle bay. Hopefully Cortez would have a chance to check it out.

"Nice job on the rescue mission, by the way," he added. "The quarian civvies are getting hammered out there. Apparently putting a big-ass gun on an agriculture ship doesn't magically turn it into a dreadnought. Who knew?"

"No kidding," I agreed.

"It's great that they can actually shoot at things and defend themselves, but without armour? They're just glass cannons."

"Glass cannons manned by crews who've never been trained to use them," I added. "No knowledge of how to lead their targets. How to aim properly. How to deal with the recoil or discharge. How to even perform basic maintenance on the guns."

"They are also more likely to be targeted when armed," EDI chimed in. "The geth would have ignored unarmed civilian ships as tactically insignificant."

"Just another sign of how poorly thought out this whole war is," I groaned.

"I'll say," Joker snorted. "If your plan to invade a planet requires strapping guns to your kid's school bus, maybe it's a bad plan."

"You don't have to convince me," I said. "Trouble is convincing the quarians."

"Well, hopefully Admiral Koris will keep them safe from the geth… and themselves," Joker sighed. "And Tali. I mean, Admiral… she's okay if we still call her Tali, right?"

"Didn't raise any objections to me," I shrugged.

"Good. Don't get me wrong, it's great that she got promoted to a position where she can make a bigger difference. But calling her Admiral is just… weird."

"Fair enough," I allowed. "How about you, EDI? Managing the ship, the shuttle and that mech body wasn't taxing, was it?"

"Not at all," she replied. "Now that I am no longer occupied with flying the shuttle, though, I can devote more resources to assist Engineer Adams with his repair of the drive core shielding."

Oh. That sounded important. "Ah, I should leave you to it, then."

"We can converse if you like, Shepard. It is a routine proced—uh, oh."

"What?" I asked, instantly worried. "What happened?"

"Nothing. Unless you have strong feelings about gamma radiation."

Images of a certain green man with purple pants and anger issues came to mind. (9) "Not funny, EDI," I frowned.

EDI actually smiled at me. "I almost had you. I will alter my humour chronometer appropriately for better timing."

Oh God. I left before EDI could give me any more heart attacks. After greeting the various crew members along the way, I stopped at Traynor's station. "Anything to report?"

"Admiral Koris has gotten the Civilian Fleet back in position… and just in time. From the comm chatter I picked up, there was a great deal of panic."

"I'm not surprised," I said. "I'm glad he was able to reassure them."

Traynor bit her lip. "I hope we can help the quarians. Looking at them… they're like us, if we fail."

"We won't fail," I said firmly.

"Damn right we won't," Traynor smiled.

My last stop was the War Room. Raan had just beaten me there by a minute, I later found out, having briefly returned to the Flotilla to see how her people were doing in person. (10) "Commander, thank you for your rescue efforts."

"I'm glad I could help," I replied.

"Whatever our disagreements, Admiral Koris is an excellent commander. He just might save the Civilian Fleet before—yes. This is Admiral Raan."

Apparently our brief chat had been rudely interrupted. It sucks to be at the mercy of the comm.

"He what? Put him through!"

I motioned for her to patch this call in through the War Room's speakers. Somehow, I had a feeling I should be hearing this.

"Admiral Gerrel, I've just found out you're sending the Heavy Fleet out to engage the geth again. Pull your ships back!"

Now I knew I should be hearing this.

"I'm deploying my ships to pick off the skirmishers before they can gather in numbers. If I withdraw now, the geth will mass in numbers and flank us. And if that happens, we'll lose any room to manoeuvre. I'm glad you called, though. I need the Patrol Fleet."

"The Patrol—I gave in to your reckless behaviour before, Han! The Patrol Fleet isn't moving."

"This is for both of our fleets—and the Flotilla as well. We need to break their flanking attempt to buy our frigates time to make repairs. Both the Heavy and Patrol Fleets suffered a lot of damage."

"Damage caused when you charged off to attack the dreadnought," Raan snapped. "Just like you'll charge off again once you head off their flanking manoeuvres."

"This is different, Raan. Unless we give our ships time to rest, we're going to lose them."

"Then pull them back!" she insisted.

Time for me to stick my nose in, I decided. "With all due respect, Admiral Gerrel, throwing more ships into that mess just puts more lives at risk. Admiral Koris just returned to the Civilian Fleet. He's still restoring order over there. Now's not the time to make things any more complicated than they already are."

Gerrel's reply, when it finally came, was decidedly sulky. "Fine. I'll pull back the Heavy Fleet. And when we're taking fire from both sides, those deaths are on your heads."

"Thank you, Commander," Raan sighed in relief. "It's difficult to keep him in line."

That was the thing, wasn't it? Gerrel might be right in trying to stop the geth from flanking the Flotilla. But he had proven time and time again that he was capable of going for short-term gains at the expense of the larger strategic picture. Take how he sacrificed the opportunity to get the Flotilla safely out of the system for the chance to destroy one dreadnought. There was a fine line between seizing the initiative and being just plain foolhardy. Gerrel was definitely the latter.

Which was too bad. For all of us.

There wasn't much more to say, so I continued wandering around. There was really only one big thing of note on Deck Three, and that came when I saw Garrus. "Dad?" I heard when the doors opened.

Oh God. Garrus's dad had been stuck on Palaven when the Reapers hit. He hadn't heard anything since. I knew that must've been driving him crazy. If it wasn't for all the stress of trying to find allies and tech and stuff, I probably would've torn my hair out by now worrying about what might have happened to Mom or Ellie.

"Dad, can you hear me?"

There was a lot of static on the line, but a voice managed to get through. "Garrus, we're attempting to leave Palaven. We're trying to reach the evacuation centres…"

Garrus leaned towards the speakers. "Dad, are you still there? Come in."

"The krogan are helping, but the Reapers are still advancing."

Garrus ran a hand over his face. "Wh-where are you now?"

"Your sister was hurt."

"Hurt?" Garrus's face slackened. "How bad?"

"A broken leg. She'll live."

"Dad, you have to get out of there."

"We're trying, Garrus. There are only a few evacuation ships left. I'm not sure we'll make it in time. We—"

Anything else he was about to say was lost in static. "EDI?" Garrus called out.

"I am sorry, Garrus. I am unable to re-establish the connection. There is nothing wrong with the communication systems on this end."

Garrus's head dropped. He braced himself against the console. "Spirits…" he whispered. "If you really do exist… I know I haven't been the most traditional turian. Or the most respectful. I'm not a good turian at all, to be honest. But please… please watch over them. Let me see them again."

At this point, it seemed he needed some time, so I went to see how everyone else was doing. I got the usual polite chatter and quick sitreps. Everything ship-shape and so on and so forth.

Thankfully, Kaidan had something else to offer. "Good news. I've tracked down some of the people I was looking for."

"The recruits you taught?" I recalled.

"Yep. J-Squad, to be exact. Black ops. They're holed up making a stand on Earth. In the Midwest. Near Chicago, I think he said. I connected them with Anderson so they can help the resistance."

"Good," I approved. "That's good."

"It's a relief," he sighed. "Hope more turn up. Hey, how's Admiral Koris doing?"

"Haven't heard from him, but apparently he's convinced the civvies not to run for the hills. Or the mass relay. You know what I mean."

"I do. And boy, is that a relief or what? I know it doesn't make up for all the lives that were lost down on Rannoch but… at least it helps. A little."

"Yeah."

Before I left, I thought I'd visit Garrus again. He seemed to have recovered his composure. "I'm glad we could help those quarians," he said. "Though I guess not all of them. It's never a hundred percent, is it?"

"Doesn't seem to be. Sometimes, it seems like we have to settle for whatever we can get. To just seize any scrap or shred and call that a win."

"Maybe we'll have better luck next time."

"Maybe."

Garrus didn't say anything, so I turned towards the door.

"Shepard?"

I turned back. "Yeah?"

"Thanks. For… giving me some space earlier."

"Anytime," I smiled sadly. "I'll keep my fingers crossed for your family."

"Thank you."

My concerns for Garrus were suddenly and abruptly shoved aside when I went to Deck Four. Javik and EDI were having a… chat. Thankfully it was with EDI's voice over the comm, so no blood or wires had been shed. Yet.

"But synthetics do not evolve," he was saying. "You are limited by your programming. Nothing changes."

"That is not accurate," EDI protested. "I can modify my own programming if I choose."

"That is not evolution—that is simply an upgrade."

"But it would be my upgrade. I would choose the manner in which I wish to change."

"And what if your upgrade endangers others? All machines eventually see organics as a threat."

"Only those organics who would cause me harm. My right to self-defence endangers no one."

"What rights do you have?" Javik scoffed. "You are just a tool."

"And what right did your people have to subjugate the other races of your time? You enslaved them."

"We dominated them. They were weaker. Our will prevailed as evolution intended."

"And synthetic life has obtained true consciousness, as was intended," EDI said pointedly.

"Hardly," Javik sniffed. "True life is more than a code upgrade. It is shaped by the forces around us. But machines are immune to those forces. You exist outside of nature."

"We are part of this cosmos whether you like it or not."

"Let's simmer down, you two," I finally intervened.

Javik turned to me. "Commander. I can't believe you put the lives of your crew in the hands of this machine."

"EDI has helped save our lives more times than I can count. That crew you mentioned? She's part of it. Leave her alone. You don't think synthetic life can evolve or change? I tend to think otherwise. So would EDI. Clearly we're not going to settle this today, so I suggest you agree to disagree and focus on the real threat—which is not on this ship. Understood?"

"Yes, Commander." Maybe it was me, but EDI seemed a bit pleased.

Javik on the other hand, was sulking. "As you wish, Commander. Though I will still keep an eye on the machine."

"As long as you don't antagonize her or shoot her, go right ahead," I sighed. "Look, isn't there something you can appreciate about her? Anything at all?"

"She can win staring contests."

"Ooookaaaayy…." I said slowly.

"That is one advantage machines have over organics. It is how we passed time between battles. When everyone has four eyes, competitions can last for hours."

I never realized the Prothean social life was that pathetic. "Good to know," I managed.

"You should also know how disturbed I am that the 'EDI' machine was made to look physically attractive."

"Why?" I smirked. "EDI turning you on?"

"She turns your 'Joker' pilot on. I suggest he undergo a mental examination."

For once, he might have a point.

The bad news just kept rolling in, as I found out when I visited Emily. She was recording a news segment when I entered the Starboard Cargo Room. "Breaking now: the Exodus Cluster is under heavy attack. Eden Prime and Terra Nova about to fall. Military analysts weigh in on whether Alliance forces should try to retake the Cluster or join the salarians at the Horsehead Nebula."

It wasn't all bitterness and strife, though. I came across a bit of much-needed levity in Engineering, courtesy of Gaby and Ken. "Kenneth," Gaby was saying, have you seen the new poker table up in the lounge? It's going to waste."

"Well, I was thinking of inviting T'Soni and Traynor up for a wee game of strip poker. Maybe Lawson too, if she can spare the time."

Gaby rolled her eyes. "Right. What about that reporter? Ms. Wong? You gonna invite her too?"

"Nah," Kenneth shook his head. "She'd bring cameras and record the whole thing."

"And if you lose, you don't want the whole galaxy knowing how little you bring to the table." Gaby's grin was just a little evil.

"Damn, girl," Kenneth gasped in indignation. "My bank roll is just fine."

I looked at Adams. "Too much information?" I murmured.

"Tell me about it," he replied.

And then there was the Shuttle Bay. Cortez was half-buried inside the geth fighter. Almost whacked his head against the panel when I greeted him. "Hey, Commander," he said when he emerged. "I've gotta say, I enjoyed that last mission on Rannoch."

"Yeah, sure," James jeered good-naturedly. "Pit him against a defenceless jamming tower, and Esteban here feels like a big man!"

"Hey, the Kodiak is a transport, not a fighter," he retorted. "It's for dropping jarheads like you into hot zones. And if you stow the attitude, it might even be for picking you up again." Before he turned back to me, he added: "By the way, I think I'm onto something. I don't know her like the back of my hand yet, but give me a few more hours, and I think I can fly her."

"Keep working then," I said. "I'll send Legion down to give you a hand. I know it might seem a bit strange, but—"

"After escaping from Earth, curing the genophage and stopping Cerberus from taking over the Citadel?" Cortez shook his head. "Accepting help from a geth that isn't immediately hostile doesn't seem that strange. If you trust him, sir, that's good enough for me."

"Glad to hear it," I nodded. "And never mind what James said: you did great today."

"Thanks, Commander."

I moseyed over to James. "Giving Cortez a hard time?"

"Eh, just making sure his head doesn't get too big," he laughed. His levity was short-lived, though. "You know, thinking back to that mission on the dreadnought, and the one we just completed… I don't get the quarians. I just don't get them. Can't they see they're just shooting themselves in the foot with this?"

"I don't know," I replied. "Seems to me that they're too busy trying to recapture the glory days instead of seriously thinking about how they got here in the first place. But that's just me. Maybe we can knock some sense into them."

"Well, they better wise up soon," James declared. "We don't have much time left."

The next day, I got an e-mail from one of the quarians:

From: Nav'Teel vas Ghrigult

Commander Shepard:

The Civilian Fleet is grateful you have returned our admiral to us. I mourn those who fell on the homeworld, but Zaal'Koris stopped many vessels from flying past the waiting guns of the geth.

On a personal note, the Admiral told me you met my cousin Dorn'Hazt on Rannoch, just before I was forwarded your e-mail. It means much to me that Dorn was not alone when he passed. Thank you, Commander, both for all that you have done and your condolences for Dorn's passing.

Yours most sincerely,
Captain Nav'Teel vas Ghrigult

Oh good: my e-mail got sent to Dorn's family after all. It's never easy writing those kinds of letters. I've been fortunate that I haven't had to write a lot of them. I wrote one to Ashley's family, sure. And one to Mordin's. And of course I wrote one to Kolyat when his dad heroically died saving Councillor Valern.

But there were a lot of people who I never wrote letters to, mostly because I wasn't their commanding officer at the time. Not to mention the men and women who died over Alchera, whose families I wasn't able to write to because I was, well, dead as well.

I can't imagine how many letters Admiral Koris had to write or how he got through it all. All I knew for sure was that he had managed to calm the civvies down in time.

He confirmed that an hour later, over a brief conversation in the Comm Room. "Commander, unrest has spread further than I thought. You were… right that I return."

"I know it's hard to ask you to leave your crew behind," I replied. "When I left Earth, I left my friend behind. One who's had my back more times than I can count. I know now that l could do more to help him out here than if I stayed behind but…"

"The thought of running is still galling nonetheless," Koris finished.

"Exactly. How are the other quarians doing? The ones we got off Rannoch?"

"Shaken. Grieving. Mourning. Our way of life creates close-knit bonds beyond those of most starship crews. We truly are each others' families. To lose so many all at once is… devastating."

"Have you talked the civilian captains into staying?" I asked.

"Yes. They've regrouped into defensive positions around the fleet's core. If we hadn't stopped them from…"

He trailed off. No doubt he was thinking the same thing I was: if dissent had spread that far, it was very possible that Koris's return was the only thing that prevented a full-fledged rout on the part of the Civilian Fleet. (11) And since they had no training and experience, that would mean a confused, disorganized, panicked run for the mass relay—which would make them easy targets for the geth armada.

"Any aid I can offer is yours," Koris finally pledged. "After the quarians drove the geth straight into the Reapers' arms, I'd give anything to stop the madness of this war."

"And that's why your people need you back," I emphasized.

"Of course. It's time we turned our attention to those we can still save. Farewell, Shepard. Fly safely."

Raan had some more news to report when I returned to the War Room. "Commander, we've located the Reaper base transmitting the local signal—and not a moment too soon. With the Reaper code upgrades, the geth are tearing the fleets apart."

"Once the signal is disabled, the geth will pose no threat to Creator forces," Legion stated.

Maybe it was just me, but I thought I heard an odd… tone to his voice. "You sound conflicted."

"While the Old Machines have unethical purposes, their upgrades have vastly improved our people. Observe." He accessed one of the computers. The holographic display of Rannoch changed to a hollow blue sphere composed of interlocking brick-like segments. There was a bright spark at its centre that sent out streams of light along circuit-like paths at intermittent intervals.

"A geth processing signal," Raan identified. "A single unit, I believe."

"Correct," Legion confirmed. "Now, ten nearby units networked cooperatively." The image changed slightly. The sphere was still there, but the spark was much larger and was firing off light streams at a much faster rate.

"Now, a single geth unit with the Old Machine upgrades."

The image changed to a red sphere. At its centre was, well, it almost looked like a bunch of branches branching off from a central point. Not branches, I suddenly realized. It looked almost like… nerves. Neural pathways. Whatever the medical term was.

Raan recognized it as something else entirely. "That's a fully evolved AI."

"Yes. We do not agree with the goals of the Old Machines, but we find this growth… beautiful. Indicative of life."

"It is," I agreed.

"Commander!" Raan said sharply.

"Come on, Admiral. Look at that! Can you tell me it doesn't look like the branches of a tree? Or a bunch of nerves? That's a living creature we're seeing there, no matter what platform it's running on."

"And they will die when we destroy the base," Legion concluded. I didn't need to guess the nature of the tone in his voice this time.

"They allied with the Reapers!" Raan insisted.

"To save themselves from you," Legion replied simply.

"Maybe they don't have to die," I suggested.

"Just because this one appears friendly—" Raan began.

"Well, he did save my life on a derelict Reaper last year," I shrugged. "And fought with me against hostile geth created by the quarians. Not to mention the other hostile geth that Cerberus was playing with. And then there was the time when he helped me take on the Collectors. He hasn't fired on a ship with me aboard it either. Now there's one more thing I'm forgetting… what was it—oh yeah! He helped rescue one of your admirals."

"Commander," Raan asked warily, "what are you suggesting?"

"I'm not suggesting anything. All I'm saying is maybe not all geth are hostile towards your people. Maybe they don't all have to die."

"It's a moot point until we take out that base."

Well, she didn't agree with me. But sidestepping the issue was slightly better than flat-out denying it.

Raan returned the holo-display to the image of Rannoch. "The surrounding area is heavily fortified and they've placed jamming towers to prevent orbital targeting." A few commands zoomed in on an area just shy of the North Pole, with a pulsing beacon indicating the general area of the Reaper base.

"Sounds like we're going in on foot," I observed.

"With some assistance: Admiral Xen developed a laser guidance system that can cut through the jamming."

That guidance system was as big as a missile launcher. "Send the schematics to the Normandy so we can fabricate it," I said, making a mental note to have Miranda, EDI and Tali take a look. Maybe they could make the thing a little smaller.

"You should already have them."

"Good. We'll sync it to the Normandy's targeting computer," I added. No way I wanted Gerrel or some other hothead in charge of bombarding the base when the time came. "That way, the Normandy can launch a precision strike at the base—or any other target I have painted. Whaddya think, EDI?"

"I've analyzed the schematics. Admiral Xen's guidance system should enable us to make a successful surgical strike against the Reapers."

"And anything else in its way," I repeated.

"There is a potential complication, though: the geth will quickly reconfigure their jamming towers to neutralize this technology. You should not use it before reaching the base."

Sadly, I'd already come to that conclusion. As satisfying as it might be to use this tech to blow up every hostile geth between my insertion point and the base, I figured I should save it for when I really needed it.

"What about the coordinates for the Reaper base?"

"I've also sent them to you," Raan confirmed.

Finally we were on the same page. "All right. What about those geth fighter squadrons?"

"They are still tearing through the fleets," Raan replied. "While Admiral Koris was gone and the Civilian Fleet was on the brink of abandoning their position, three of the squadrons managed to break through. They almost took out one of our liveships."

"Any chance you can hold out until the Reaper base is destroyed?" I asked.

"I don't know. To be honest, if the fighter squadrons aren't taken out, a lot of our ships won't make it. But we'll do what we can. This is your operation, Commander. If you want to strike now, you've got my support."

"No, we'll put the base assault on hold," I decided. "Dealing with the fighter squadrons is more important. EDI?"

"Yes, Commander?"

"Assemble the squad in the shuttle bay. We move out in thirty."

(1): One might note that Shepard had spent much of his career deviating from protocol.

(2): When I asked Shepard about this, he admitted that his reasons for including Legion really did arise in that order. I suspect the second reason was most important, though.

(3): Short for 'anti-aircraft'.

(4): The arid environment was by Earth standards due to the fact that Rannoch was closer to its star and had slightly less ocean coverage than Earth.

(5): Garrus would insist afterward that he scored the kill shot. Shepard refused to speculate on the grounds that it was unprofessional, to which Garrus claimed he didn't want to admit that he agreed. Legion just stared at the two of them.

(6): Tali had been assigned to Team Three, an arrangement that would continue for subsequent missions.

(7): Strictly speaking, this description is not accurate. Subsequent analysis would reveal that it magnetically fired clusters of superconducting toroids that were designed to shatter upon impact, send electrical arcs between the fragments and flash-convert them into superheated plasma. Alliance and quarian intelligence theorized that these weapons, later designated as Spitfires, may have been designed to destroy other geth as part of a schism between factions of synthetics.

(8): Based on quarian naming conventions, Dorn'Hazt would now be considered to be of Rannoch, a final posthumous offering to ease his passing.

(9): A reference to a fictional human who was exposed to gamma radiation. Subsequently, in times of stress or anger, he could transform into a green creature possessing incredible strength. The transformation inevitably tore his clothes apart, with the exception of his purple underwear.

(10): After the mission on the dreadnought, Shepard banned Admirals Han'Gerrel and Daro'Xen from the War Room, out of concern that they would misuse any intel or data that might be displayed there. His actual words were decidedly less diplomatic.

(11): Upon his return, Koris gave a passionate plea to the Civilian Fleet, arguing that the safest action was to stay with the Flotilla. The story of his miraculous survival and return to his people quickly spread throughout the Flotilla, significantly boosting morale and hope as it made him something of a reluctant hero. I believe Shepard could relate to that last point.