Hello again, everyone, and welcome back to my MechWarrior/BattleTech - Mass Effect crossover. Thank you all for your wonderful support and feedback. I greatly appreciate it.

My apologies for not being able to upload this chapter earlier. Life was going on, and things were busy. Either way, thank you for your patience and support, and I hope to continue to receive that patience and support as this crossover progresses.

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Disclaimer: I do not own the MechWarrior/BattleTech or Mass Effect franchises. They are the respective properties and trademarks of Electronic Arts, BioWare, FASA Corporation, FASA Interactive, Catalyst Game Labs, Piranha Games Inc., etc. Any material original to the franchises belongs to their respective developers and publishers. Any material not original to the franchises is of my own invention. I do not own any music listed in each chapter. Any music listed belongs to it's original composers and/or artists.

MDS Cavalier

Crossing IV

March 17th, 3020

The interior of the DropShip was alive with activity as technicians and repair personnel went to work conducing repairs on the 'Mechs that had been involved with the fighting at New Aberdeen. For the most part, there wasn't anything to worry about, as the only damage done was to the armor, not to the internal components of the 'Mechs themselves. The only other thing was a damaged Autocannon that had been 'fixed' during the fight.

That was the real reason why Fahad was currently looking for Wrex. If there was one thing that irritated the Chief Technician the most, it was MechWarriors abusing their equipment on the battlefield. Part of this was due to the mentality that most MechWarriors had, with most seeing themselves as some incarnation of knightly order. The other part, was usually due to desperation if something went wrong.

It didn't take him long to find Wrex, who was inside a storage room, reading something while sitting on his cot. "Wrex," Fahad asked. "You got a minute."

Wrex frowned. He knew that his chewing out was coming sooner rather than later. Might as well get it over with, he decided. "Yeah. I take it that you're wanting to talk about the Autocannon?"

"Bloody right you are," Fahad nodded, the irritation in his voice showing through. "I got that thing fixed and ready to go, then you break it out there, you clumsy arse! Do you have any idea as to how long it takes to fix one of those bloody things?!"

"I know," Wrex replied. "If it helps, I didn't do it because I had a choice. I was in a fight when it jammed up on me, so I had to use a rock to 'unjam' the thing. I won't do it again, though. That was a one-time thing."

"That had better be the case, Wrex. I don't want to bust up that thing any more than I have to. You're fortunate, though, that we found a better Autocannon in the salvage that we got. At least it won't jam on you anymore. Just don't do it again."

"I won't," Wrex agreed.

"Good." With that, Fahad left the storage room, satisfied that he'd made his point loud and clear to the Krogan.

Mason, who'd been watching the entire thing, shook his head in respect towards Fahad. I was a little worried that Wrex would be difficult, based on what that noteputer about his species said, he thought to himself. I'm relieved to see that he's calmer than the noteputer suggested he would be. In fact, I'm quite happy to see that he's doing well.

Walking towards his quarters, he climbed up the steps and entered his room. Activating the flat-screen monitor, he began to review the financial report for the Mason's Cavalier's Mercenary Company. Well, it's not too bad, he thought. We've got around eight million C-Bills in our bank account, and the repairs ate around half a million C-Bills. Still, it's cheaper than repairing in contested areas. The demand for spare parts and equipment due to the ongoing conflicts there causes the price to skyrocket, and high prices are not conductive to long term business.

As he worked, his mind began to drift towards the performance of Shepard and his alien friends. They did really well, he smiled. They kept the DCMS away from us while we conducted salvage operations, and they hammered the enemy forces. If I didn't know any better, I'd say that they were born MechWarriors. He reminded himself to give Garrus and Shepard a little bonus pay for their excellent showing of skill.

With that, his eyes drifted towards a photograph on his desk. The photograph showed him standing alongside a man with brown hair that was starting to show hints of gray. A pair of green eyes looked out from the frame towards him, with both eyes framed by a handsome face. In the photo, the man was wearing a Cooling Vest, and had a neurohelmet nestled in his left arm, while his right arm was wrapped around the shoulders of the other person.

Picking up the photograph, Mason couldn't help but shed a few tears for the man in the photo: his late father, Nikolai Mason. Even after all this time, the emotional pain from losing his father still echoed powerfully in his mind. Stroking the photo, he thought, I'm sorry I couldn't bring you home, dad. The least that I can do is make those bastards pay for what they did to you.

He put the photograph down on the desk again. I don't care if it takes a year, or most of my life, but I will avenge your death, dad. Until the man that killed you is dead, I will not stop hunting him. His hands tightened in contained rage at the image of the 'Mech that had fired the shell that killed his father. Breathing in and out, he forced the emotion back down.

It was at moments like this that he could hear his father's voice in his mind. Calm yourself, he could hear his father's voice saying to him. A good MechWarrior always keeps his emotions under control, even when he is in a highly stressful situation. Breathing in and out, he felt the rage from earlier fade away, leaving nothing but a quiet weariness behind. Sighing, he went back to work making sure the merc company's financial future was secure.

. . .

While this was going on, Shepard was moving through the 'Mech Bay towards the gymnasium. As he walked along, he spotted Fahad and a few others pulling the damaged AC/10 off of the Centurion Wrex had piloted on their previous mission. Walking over, he asked, "Wrex's doing, I take it?"

"Yep," Fahad nodded. "Bloody idiot 'tapped' the muzzle of the Autocannon in order to 'unjam' it. Got that right, but he damaged the muzzle of the gun. Now we're having to repair and replace it."

"I see," Shepard observed. After a moment, he asked. "You know, I didn't spend too much time thinking about the various models of Autocannons out there. Which one is this?"

"This one 'ere?" Fahad replied. "This AC/10 is the Luxor-D Series. It's a good Autocannon, except for the fact that it's known to have feeding problems. Something about the autoloader causes it to jam at times. I've looked at ways of coming up with a fix, but I haven't found one that wouldn't cause even more problems. I even checked the schematics to see if I could come up with a solution that wouldn't cause problems. No such luck there either."

"Perhaps it's a bad autoloader design?"

"Maybe, but it could be any number of things for all we know. Still, given that we managed to salvage a higher quality AC/10 out of the muck, we're giving your big friend a much needed upgrade."

"What Autocannon did you find?"

"A SarLon MaxiCannon. It's similar in a lot of ways to the ChemJet 185mm Gun, but it's much higher in terms of quality. Now, if we really could, I'd slap a Western Heavy into this thing. That is, in my honest opinion, a bloody excellent AC/10. The real cream of the crop."

"Let me guess. It fires the fastest out of the AC/10's and has excellent range and accuracy?"

"Pretty much, Shepard. Those Concordat folks know how to build an Autocannon, or at least an AC/10, the right way."

"I see," Shepard nodded. "I won't take up anymore of your time. Hope the refit goes well."

"Me too, Shepard. Also, nice work keeping your 'Mech intact."

"Thanks." Turning around, Shepard began to head for the crew quarters.

Walking inside, he found Nyreen and Garrus sitting on one of the bunks in the room. Once more, Nyreen was breastfeeding one of her children, cooing happily as her child drank the milk that her breasts produced for the infant. Garrus, though, was scowling as he changed out Nihlus' diapers. The smell was almost immediate, with Shepard wrinkling his nose at the odor. "Good day, I take it?" he asked.

"For her, yes," Garrus replied. "Not for me, though. I pulled the short stick, so I have to take care of Nihlus' diapers." As if he'd been insulted, the infant looked at Garrus with the infant's equivalent of an insulted expression. "I know, Nihlus, but that's how it is," he said to the infant. A moment later, he got the clean diapers on and said, "There, all finished. Happy?"

"Sure looks like it," Shepard remarked. Turning to Nyreen, he watched as she covered her breast up, having finished nursing Celicia. "She doing good?"

"Certainly," Nyreen replied. "She's getting heavy, what with all the milk that I've been feeding her. Still, I wouldn't want it any other way." She nuzzled Celicia as she said this, purring all the while.

That was when something interesting happened. Shepard was about to talk when Celicia said something. It was unintelligible to Shepard, but the moment Nyreen heard it, her eyes widened with amazement and wonder. "Shepard," she gasped. "She just said 'mama', or at least tried to."

"What?" Garrus asked, coming over. "What happened?"

"Celicia's learning how to speak," Shepard replied. "We just heard her first word."

The moment he heard that, Garrus' face lit up with the same kind of joy that he'd felt when Nyreen had given birth. "That's… that's wonderful!" he beamed. "Celicia's starting to make some headway. I hope Nihlus can do the same."

"He will," Nyreen replied, a similar joy on her facial plates. "I'm just happy that Celicia is starting to make the first steps towards learning how to talk. I wonder if she can walk, though."

"Let's find out," Garrus nodded. Taking Celicia out of Nyreen's arms, he gently placed her two feet onto the ground, while gently holding her upper torso up with her hands. "I'm going to let you go now, Celicia," he warned the infant. "OK?" When no response came, he let go of the child.

At first, Celicia stumbled to the ground, but then she surprised everyone. With some effort, and quite a bit of clumsiness, she slowly got up onto her two feet. Moments later, she began to walk forwards; at first she fell over, but as the minutes passed, she quickly began to gain some form of coordination, though her gait was quite wide.

Garrus, seeing this, let out a deep, throaty and joyful laugh as he picked Celicia up. "She can walk!" he beamed. "She's still quite unsteady and uncoordinated, but she can walk!"

"How old is she?" Shepard asked.

"I think she's around twenty two months old," Nyreen replied.

"Then that makes sense," Shepard replied. "According to Chakwas, Human toddlers learn how to walk when they're around fourteen months old. Celicia and Nihlus are certainly older than that, though, to be fair, I don't know how long it takes for Turian children to walk."

"Around twenty months," Garrus clarified. "Still, I'm deeply happy to see that our children can walk. Soon, we'll be able to home school them. Now that will be a rewarding experience, wouldn't you agree?"

"I do," Nyreen beamed.

"What's going on?" came a familiar voice. Turning around, Shepard found Mason looking inside of the quarters, both eyes looking around. "I heard something in here."

"Garrus and Nyreen's children can walk," Shepard replied. "We were just discussing when they were able to walk."

"That explains the laughter that I heard," Mason remarked. Looking at the two toddlers, he said, "You know, I never really got to spend time around them, what with the affairs I usually have and all. Mind if I…?"

"Certainly," Nyreen replied. "Just be careful, though. They're still quite young, and I don't want them getting hurt."

"I'll do my best," Mason nodded. Walking into the room, he sat down on one of the cots and took Nihlus in his arms. The toddler didn't know him at all, though it was clear to him that, if his mother and father were willing to allow this unusual looking thing to hold him, then he was going to be fine. As such, Nihlus remained quiet, though he began to play with Mason's beard.

"Ack!" Mason mock-gasped as the toddler played with his facial hair. "You're a curious one, aren't you?" At the lack of a response, he said, "Well, don't worry. Soon, you'll be able to run around and play." Looking at Garrus and Nyreen, he said, "It's a shame we can't have them running around when we're in port. Kids need social interaction with other kids."

"True," Shepard nodded. "If time permits, we could swing around to New Avalon."

"Agreed, though only if time permits," Mason nodded. "Besides, our contracts might take us all the way to the Lyran Commonwealth, for all I know. Gotta follow the contracts and money, after all."

"That's very true." Getting up, Shepard said, "It was good talking with you, Nyreen. I hope you and your children continue to do well."

"Thank you," Nyreen replied.

Just as she said this, Nihlus began to whine and complain. A confused expression came over Mason's face. "Uh, did I do something wrong?" he asked.

"No," Nyreen replied, taking back Nihlus, while exposing one of her breasts. "He's hungry. Turian children become vocal when they're hungry." Nestling the toddler in her arms, she gently leaned his head towards the nipple that would allow the toddler to drink the perfectly formulated milk that her body produced for toddlers of his age.

"And this is my cue to exit stage left," Mason nodded. "See you around."

"Same here," Shepard replied. With that, he walked out of the quarters with Mason, while Nyreen's cooing echoed from the room as the door slid closed. "She's an excellent mother," he admitted to Mason.

"True," Mason agreed. "You know, in an odd way, she reminds me of my mom. Call me emotional, but she reminds me of a more… innocent time. She also reminded me of my mom and dad too."

"Who were they?"

"My dad was Nikolai Mason. He married my mother, Choe Reed, shortly after she started the merc company that I'm running. Back then, it was called 'Chloe's Cavaliers. Dad never really talked about where he came from, though I think Mom knew. Still, we had a good relationship, he and I. He never talked about his past, but he was a damn good man, and a good father at that too."

"I take it life wasn't easy then?"

"It never was. We always had to worry about how much money we had, or if we could put food on the table. It was a rough, but happy time.

"Eventually, they made the big time, and we had plenty of money. The best part, though, were the relationships that we had with each other. Mom was stern, but kind, and the same went for Dad. I think he enjoyed being a mercenary more than anything."

"So, what happened?"

"Someone killed my father," Mason replied, the tears threatening to return, even as he furiously blinked them away. "We were out on a mission to make sure someone paid their bills on time when we were ambushed by another mercenary group. Dad kept telling me to get out of the area, while he held them off. I tried to save him, but one of those bastards killed him. Cored him through the cockpit with an Autocannon shell. I…" He trailed off, unable to continue from the dark memory.

Shepard, though, knew the pain that Mason was going through. "I… I'm sorry," he said sympathetically. "I didn't mean to bring up painful memories."

"It's alright," Mason replied. "You didn't know what happened, so there's no need to apologize. Still, I appreciate your candor. Not much of that around here nowadays." Clearing his throat and wiping at his eyes, he said, "I also wanted to tell you that you did an excellent job out there, Shepard. Few MechWarriors have that kind of skill right out the gate."

"Thank you, though I'm certain that there are MechWarriors that are smarter and better than I am out there."

"True, but that's why I like you, Shepard. You're honest with you and your friends capabilities. Too many MechWarriors inflate their sense of worth far past what they really are. I try to avoid them as much as I possibly can."

"Thank you for those words."

"You're welcome," Mason nodded. After a moment, he said, "Thanks for sweeping by, Shepard. I appreciate it."

"You're welcome. Any new missions yet?"

"Well, Ryana's currently working on lining up more contracts for us. The Davion/Kurita Frontline area is still rife with contracts, though I want to build up our rep with House Davion. Besides, the Draconis Combine doesn't really like mercenaries like us; they tend to shirk us on pay and salvage rights."

"Sounds like you don't like them at all."

"I don't. I did a contract with them around two years ago. Never want to work with those assholes again. They make the Capellans look nice, and that says a lot about them."

"I believe you there. Vega said the same about them." After a moment, he said, "I should probably go check on my Marauder. Make sure it's ready when I need it."

"Smart plan," Mason agreed. "You can never check up on your 'Mech too many times in my opinion." With that, both men went their separate ways, one to manage finances, and the other to make sure his gear was ready to rock.

. . .

Meanwhile…

If there was something that Dr. Cranston had to admit, it was that he never knew that working with an Artificial Intelligence, much less one like EDI, would be such a privilege. Sipping at some warm coffee as he leaned back in a staff breakroom, he looked at a noteputer that had a report on the current status of NAIS' efforts to reverse-engineer some of the LosTech that they had.

Hhmm, looks like our efforts to reverse-engineer the so-called 'quantum blue-box' are proceeding slowly, but steadily, he noted to himself. In his honest opinion, reverse-engineering the technology on the Normandy was, by far, the most difficult endeavor that the scientists at NAIS had ever undertaken. Still, if there was one thing he knew about the people at NAIS, it was that they relished a challenge like what the Normandy had presented.

As for his area of expertise, it was doing quite nicely. Dr. Cranston was on the team that was currently working on reverse-engineering the Battle Computer that had been recovered from the Helm Field Library. It had taken a few months to work out the basics with EDI's help, and now they were busy working out how to manufacture the damned thing.

Still, if all goes well with reverse-engineering the tech that Shepard's crew brought along, we can render the Tacticon B-2000 Battle Computer obsolete, he thought. Their tech will cause a major revolution in microchip and memory storage technologies. We might even be able to make our own 'Omni-Tools' if all goes well.

That led him to remember a term that the NAIS personnel had coined to describe the technology that Shepard and his team brought along. After talking with Engineer Adams, some of the personnel had taken to calling the Normandy a collection of so-called 'MassTech', a shorthand way of referring to 'Mass Effect Field Technology.' It was a good term, as it was memorable, and perfectly described the tech in question.

That led his mind to drift back to EDI. The Normandy's AI was turning out to be quite a helpful researcher herself, despite the fact that she was originally created for cyber warfare. Despite her original purpose, she was able to run computations and simulations in seconds and minutes, that would otherwise take hours, if not days, to perform with the computers in the lab.

As he finished the report, he heard an aide walking up to him. "What is it?" he asked.

"We've got some good news," the aide replied. "We've managed to work out how to manufacture a suitable copy of the Tacticon B-2000 Battle Computer."

The news caused Cranston, who'd been sipping his coffee at the exact same moment, to choke on it for a moment. Spitting it out, he coughed loudly as he used a napkin to clean himself off. "Come again?" he strained out. "You what?"

"We found a workaround for creating something very similar, if not completely identical, to the Tacticon B-2000."

"H-how?" Cranston asked, surprised. "I thought it would take a few years before we figured out how to do that."

"So did we," the aide nodded. "Surprisingly, though, Engineer Adams, along with EDI, had an epiphany. After working through some of the schematics, they determined a suitable workaround for creating something similar after they identified where previous efforts to replicate the Battle Computer failed. Once they told us that, we looked for a potential supplier given what we were working with. The good news is that we found one, thanks to EDI and Engineer Adam's efforts to find a solution to the problem."

"Really?" Cranston asked. "That's amazing! At least our hard work is finally beginning to pay off. What about the rest of the LosTech and MassTech that the others are working on?"

"Still coming slowly, but steadily," the aide replied. "I predict that it'll be around five years before we reverse engineer a fraction of the LosTech that we found, and around two decades before we reverse engineer the MassTech Shepard's team brought along."

"Well, that'll be enough for me. Keep working at it. I've got a good feeling coming from this."

"Me too."