A/N: Italics indicate internal thought.

Bold indicates Shepard Reaper speech

Bold Italics indicate Reaper internal speech

Please comment and review

This is my first attempt at a story, so I am open to constructive criticism. Also If anyone has suggestions for the story feel free to give them.

AN: I apologize if some of my information is not canonically correct

In response to reviews

Guest: You'll have to keep reading to see what happens

ChildofDragons: If you read chapter 42, you'll see that is part of the plan

Into the Maws of Akuze

Location: Akuze

Time: 1000 CST

Date: 17th March 2184

John had a grim look on his face as he grasped the support railing of the Kodiak shuttle which was descending onto the planet surface. In the week since the massive slaver attack on the Citadel races, their populations had demanded more direct action against the Terminus's slavers, they wanted the criminals punished and their people rescued. John couldn't help but snort at that, humans had been suffering such attacks for years, and they had been told that it was just how the Galaxy was, but now it was their people who were the victims of slavers, it was now an 'unspeakable' crime. The hypocrisy of it made John furious. The one bit of good news was that the Hierarchy granted permission for Alliance forces to engage with much less prevarication. This led to their current situation, they had finally scored a lucky break, and had located a slaver base, that for once seemed to have no idea they were coming, with several frigates docked at the base. They knew that if they went straight for the base, the slavers were likely to flee at the first sign of the superior force, with any prisoners they might have. So, the plan was to land a small force on the planet and launch a ground attack to prevent the slavers from making a quick getaway. That was the objective of his squad, they would be the first to touch down and secure a landing site for the rest of the attack force.

What was causing Shepard's sour mood, was who they were undertaking this mission with. The operation was being overseen by General Arterius. That in itself wasn't the problem, he seemed as determined to rescue human captives as much as the Turians ones, and treated Anderson as an equal instead of a subordinate. The problem, was that it meant Liz and Ashley were part of this mission. He'd seen them both during the briefing and if looks could kill he would be dead a dozen times over from the glares Liz sent his way. She had not forgiven him for 'abandoning' their sisters. Currently they were both waiting in other shuttles, for his squad to secure the site.

John felt the shuttle touchdown and he quickly unholstered his rifle as the door opened. Several other shuttles followed, deploying more soldiers. His unit quickly formed up and he carried out a quick observation of his surroundings. Akuze had a breathable atmosphere but it was a pretty barren planet, with almost nothing of value in terms of resources, in short, the perfect place to hide. In the distance he could see the base positioned at the edge of a cliff. They had landed in the middle of a wide valley between two small mountain ranges, the valley headed in the direction of the base, and the idea was that it would provide cover and keep them hidden from the bases' lookouts until they were close enough to attack. Shepard looked around once more, there didn't seem to be any hostiles present but he couldn't shake the bad feeling he was getting, he could see multiple crevices and caves in the valley face and was slightly doubtful if this was a completely safe route for the large force they were planning to deploy.

"The area is secure Lieutenant," one of the soldiers reported, a corporal Tombs if he remembered correctly. Shepard narrowed his eyes and kept looking around, eventually his eyes locked on a particularly large cave in the side of the valley. "Check that cave," he ordered, pointing to it, "it's an ideal spot for an ambush." Shepard walked up to the entrance of the cave, accompanied by several soldiers, including Kaiden and Tombs. They activated their flashlight tools and began to look around. John immediately noticed that it was very long and narrow for a normal cave, and as he shone his light against the wall, he could see that it was covered in what appeared to be strange scratch marks. Out of the corner of his eye he saw that Tombs had kneeled down to look at something, turning to see for himself he froze at the sight of the green viscous slime.

Tombs had been looking at the strange substance, and he didn't notice someone was behind him, until the Lieutenant grabbed him by the shoulder and threw him back. "What the hell Sir?" he asked, slightly irritated. "Quiet," Shepard responded in a frantic whisper, the other soldiers looked at the exchange puzzled. John kneeled down, activated his omni-tool and scanned the slime, the reading it gave only confirmed his fears. He slowly stood back up and activated his comms, "this is Lieutenant Shepard, all forces quietly and carefully head back to the shuttles immediately," he ordered, the whisper doing nothing to hide the frantic tone. "Sir what's wrong?" Kaidan asked, before Shepard could respond, the comms activated again. "Lieutenant Shepard this is Captain Vakarian with the rest of the ground forces, what is the delay securing the site?" the Turian questioned. "I've confirmed the presence of a Thresher Maw." Several shocked gasps and whispers were heard from both the soldiers with Shepard and soldiers on the other side of the comms, "Thresher Maws, those things are real?" Tombs asked rhetorically. "Lieutenant this is Captain Anderson, General Arterius is also connected. Please confirm, you're saying there's a Thresher Maw presence." "I'm sending a feed up from my helmet now Sir," John responded. After a few moments he heard the voice of one of the Turian officers over the comms, "you found a cave with some slime human," he said in an arrogant tone, "that hardly proves there is a Thresher Maw in the area. If you're going to get jumpy at every little thing, you should let someone more capable take command." John clinched his fist in anger at the Turian's words. "Captain if there is a Thresher Maw here the entire force could be slaughtered before getting anywhere near the base," he tried to explain, ignoring the Turian and speaking to Anderson. He then formed a snarl, "maybe that doesn't matter if they're only going to deploy the human forces down here." He then gained a smirk, "of course if the Turians lack spines, they're welcome to stay on their ships while our people handle this." He could hear several chuckles behind him at his direct insult of the Turians. "You filthy ape, I'll-," the Turian officer started before being cut off, "enough!" said Saren, loudly, "Lieutenant Shepard has found evidence that a Thresher Maw presence is highly likely," the General continued, "Lieutenant evacuate your men, we'll need to find another landing site." "But Sir," the voice of Captain Vakarian was heard over the comms, "the longer we wait to attack, the greater the chance of the base detecting our presence," Impatience was evident in his voice. Garrus Vakarian was in command of the Hierarchy portion of the ground forces, during the briefing he had given the impression that he was extremely eager to get to the base as fast possible. "I understand Vakarian, but a Thresher Maw in that valley would wipe out the entire force before they got within a click of the base," Saren responded.

Shepard and his men slowly made their way back to the shuttle, John was constantly looking around for any signs of an unusual attacker. The rest of the unit were already re-boarding shuttles, and some of them had already lifted off. They were just walking up to their KODIAK, and that's when Shepard heard it.

The sound of rumbling.

It still sounded like it was quite a distance away, but it was closing fast. John frantically looked around, none of the other soldiers had noticed it, he likely had because of his enhanced senses. He refocused his attention on the status of his troops, most of the shuttles had taken off again, thankfully now out of reach, there were only two left, including his own. But, to his horror, the rumbling grew louder, now everyone could hear it. Some of them began to look around frantically, trying to find the source.

And that's when the ground burst open.

The large wormlike body of the Thresher Maw could only be partially seen exiting its subterranean tunnel. Running along both sides of its body was a series of legs, in a similar manner to a centipede. The body supported a large bulbous head, covered by a carapace with blue highlights and connected to larger scythe like appendages. The creature had two short luminescent eye stalks and four protrusions formed around the monster's gaping maw, its long electric blue tongue waving back and forth.

"Holy shit!" Tombs yelled, as he and several soldiers cried out in shock, John immediately shouted, "open fire!" as he and the other soldiers began to open fire on the Thresher Maw. The high velocity slugs didn't even seem to be successful in gaining the creature's attention. The other shuttle began to elevate, causing the Thresher Maw to turn towards it. Seeing the creature rear its head back, John knew he had to think fast if he wanted to save his men, seeing no better option he primed one of his grenades and threw it. It exploded against the side of the Thresher Maw's head, and while it only seemed to give it a few burns, he did succeed in gaining its attention. John immediately began sprinting away from his squad, thankfully drawing the Thresher maws attention away from them. He returned fire again, despite knowing the futility of it and stopped as he saw the sacs on the Maw's head bulge, he leapt to his right and narrowly dodged a massive glob of acid, launched in his direction. He turned around, and winced slightly as he saw the acid completely eat through the stone.

"Lieutenant, hold on!" he heard Kaidan yell. "No!" he shouted back, "get back to the shuttles! That's an order!" He saw the looks of horror on his friends face as he nodded and joined the others on the shuttle. John breathed a sigh of relief as he saw both shuttles' head into the sky out of range of the Thresher Maw. Now he just had to focus on saving himself. He ran further into the valley, he kept his ears peeled, and sure enough, he soon heard a sickening hacking sound. He quickly glanced over shoulder just in time to see the Thresher Maw launch another glob of acid at him, he dived to his side and dodged it by inches. Not wasting a second, he jumped back to his feet and continued running. He dodged a couple more shots of acid, before he heard the Thresher Maw let out a screech, return back underground and then heard the returning sound of rumbling as the creature borrowed towards him. John was racking his brains for a way out of this situation, he knew he was perfectly capable of fighting off a Thresher Maw, but his helmet cam was still active. 'I need to find a way to defeat it without showing my powers,' he voiced internally, 'why John? If our plan proceeds, there will be no need to hide who you are,' the entity spoke. 'But if they discover who I am before we're ready it could complicate things,' he responded. John desperately looked around as he heard the Maw approaching him. Suddenly he saw a small cave to the side, and an idea began to form in his head, it was risky but right now he didn't have any other options.

He dived into the small cave, just as the Thresher Maw erupted from the ground again. John just managed to clear the entrance as the worm's head slammed into the cave mouth, it struggled desperately trying to get deeper within to reach its prey but the tunnel was too small for it. John didn't relax, he knew it was a manner of seconds before the Maw attempted to burrow through the earth and he immediately began running further into the cave. As he ran, he felt his instincts warn him of something, he spun round and pulled out his combat knife, just in time to see the Maw's long blue tongue about to latch onto him. He slashed at it, severing one of its fork tips, causing the tongue to retreat, accompanied by loud screech. John continued running and turned a corner into a much wider cavern, as the familiar rumbling returned.

Shepard desperately looked around for some place to hide, he knew every step he was taking was like a gong to the Thresher Maw. As he heard the rumbling get louder and felt the earth around and begin to shake, he finally saw it, a crevice in the ground. It was wide enough for a human to fit but there was no telling how deep it went. Realising he had no time to consider this, John jumped in, he fell a few feet and then pushed out with his legs, pressing both his feet and his back against both sides of the crevice and sliding to a halt. He heard another crash above him as the Thresher Maw reappeared in the tunnel. This was what it hinged on, Thresher maws usually hunted by sensing vibrations from underground, when they arose above ground they had to rely on eyesight. So, if he was able to get out of its line of sight and remain perfectly still, so as not to cause any vibrations, while in an open space, like this cavern, he hoped it would eventually move on.

John looked up and could make out the large head of the Thresher Maw above him, he held his breath, even the slightest sound could alert it to his presence. A tiny glob of acid fell from the giant worm's mouth, skimming against the edge of his hard suit. John had to immediately stop himself from moving. Unfortunately, things became worse when the Thresher Maw's large tongue began to snake down into the crevice, eagerly searching for any prey. John kept perfectly still as the tongue came closer and closer, soon it was only an inch above him, thankfully he was able to duck underneath it by a millimetre and remain hidden.

The Tongue was about to come back when the sound of a rockfall could be heard echoing through the cave. The Thresher Maw immediately pulled its tongue back up and shot off in the direction of the fall, naturally believing the cause was something it could devour.

John held his breath until he was certain that the creature had gone, then he breathed the biggest sigh of relief he ever had. Relieved that he was now out of immediate danger he quickly pulled himself out of the crevice, and slowly and carefully made his way back out of the cave into the valley.

John reactivated his comms, "Captain Anderson, I was successfully able to escape the Maw," he reported. "That's good to hear soldier, stay where you are, we'll send a shuttle to pick you up," Anderson responded. Shepard pondered that for a moment as he turned his gaze back towards the base in the distance, "Sir do we have a new plan for seizing the base?" he asked. "Unfortunately, not Lieutenant," came Saren's voice, "even if we find another suitable landing site for the ground forces, there could be a chance it is also compromised by the Thresher Maw." Shepard growled in frustration, it could be days before they came up with a new plan of attack, and that was time the slavers could use to escape, he wasn't going to allow that to happen. It was then that an idea struck him, "Sir, I have….an idea, but it's completely insane, but it could provide the necessary distraction to capture the base before the slavers escape," John said. "Are we expected to believe that this degenerative could come up with a feasible strategy?" voiced the arrogant Turian Captain. "Silence Captain," Saren said, disapproval evident in his voice, "what's your idea Lieutenant?" Saren asked. Shepard growled internally, to be honest, he disliked having to interact with any of the Turians for this 'joint' mission, but he had dealt with worse. "I'm gonna need a Mako, if we do it correctly, we can drop it off without alerting the Thresher Maw again. I'm also gonna need some extra ordinance."

000

As expected, there had immediately been a lot of yelling about how insane his plan was, he'd even heard Ashley and Liz yelling that he was gonna get himself killed. Kaidan and Anderson had also expressed their concerns, but he believed this was more from the risk of him exposing himself than fear for his life. Vakarian seemed to be torn between refusing to let Shepard go on a suicide mission and his own eagerness to attack the base. Most of the other Turians were indifferent about his actions, some even saying they shouldn't stop him if he wanted to kill himself. Finally, Saren had agreed to Shepard's plan.

They had successfully dropped the Mako at John's position, he proceeded with a painstakingly slow and overly cautious drive through the valley. He had finally cleared it, and now had a clear line to the base. The structure was fairly standard, a large main building, with a walled off inner compound, several guard towers connected to said walls and a few frigates docked next to the base. John knew he would have to be careful for the next step, their intel said that this base had several heavy weapon turrets. He began to drive forward carefully, and once he was in range, he opened fire with the Mako's main gun. The shots impacted the side of the wall causing some damage, but that hasn't been the main goal, the aim had been to gain their attention. Immediately alarms began to blare inside the base, several anti-infantry turrets open fire on his position, but thankfully their aim was too wide. John immediately threw the Mako into reverse and pulled himself out of range.

John brought the Mako to a halt and waited, hoping the slavers would react like he wanted them to. And indeed, he felt a grin form on his face as the base's front doors opened and several armoured vehicles drove out and began to head in his direction. He waited until they were close enough, then he revved the Mako's engine and began driving back towards the valley. "Shepard," Anderson spoke, "we've been able to find the frequency of the slavers communications, we're patching you into them." "Thank you, sir," John responded. As he pulled ahead of the slavers, several of them started to open fire. The chassis of the Mako was peppered by high velocity slugs, though not enough to do serious damage. Another opened fire with a canon, which he narrowly avoided. "Watch your fire, we wanna try and take him alive. See if he's got any friends," he heard from the slavers. Shepard grinned he could work with that. As he got closer to his target, he poises his hand over the release button for the Mako's rear doors, then he performed a really sharp turn, causing the Mako to skid. Then he hit the button, the back doors opened and two large cylinders flew out the back. Shepard checked his omni-tool to see that they had deployed successfully, unfortunately his turn had enabled several of the slavers to get in front of him, forcing him to stop. Several slavers disembarked from their vehicles and aimed their weapons at him. The top of one of the enemy vehicles opened up, and a Batarian partially emerged, "You've got one chance to get out of there, or we'll make that tin can your coffin," he said. He activated his Mako's external speakers and began chuckling into them, "hehehe. How about I give you one chance. You've got five seconds to start running," John said. Even though they were silent, John got the impression they were laughing inside their vehicles. "Run? Run from what you bastard? You're on your own," they responded. "Not for long," John stated and activated his omni-tool. The two devices he had just deployed detonated with a deafening explosion.

But seemingly too far away to cause damage to any of the slaver vehicles.

No one said anything before, "was that supposed to kill us," the slaver said, "ha ha ha, you missed us you idiot." Shepard could only grit his teeth as he hoped his plan would work, then his attention was drawn to the Mako's detection instruments as they began flashing warnings, and he smiled. "That wasn't supposed to kill you….. this is."

Then the ground began to rumble again.

[BGM start: 'Legendary' by Skillet]

The slavers began to look around.

Then the ground under their feet exploded, sending both men and vehicles flying. The lead tank had been right at the epicentre, the force had been so great that the Batarian had been launched out of it. Time seemed to slow down, as the Batarian hovered in mid-air, then from the dust cloud the monstrous form of the Thresher Maw appeared, and the Batarian could only scream as he fell into its waiting mouth. The other slavers could only stare in shock, giving the Beast the chance to lash out with its tongue and grab several more slavers and pull them into its mouth. The remaining slavers immediately overcame their shock and began to open fire, but the high velocity slugs had no effect on the massive creature. One of the vehicles opened fire with its heavy weapon, but the gunner missed as the shot passed the Maw's head. The worm turned to look at its would be attacker and launched a glob of acid, screams were heard as it ate through both the metal of the vehicle and the flesh of the passengers. The Maw dived on top of another group, retreating below the ground while acquiring another meal.

Seeing the opportunity John fired the Mako's main gun, destroying one of the enemy vehicles and providing an opening for him. He dropped the boot and accelerated across the terrain and towards the slaver base. As he did so, he continued to hear the rumbling and crashing of the Thresher Maw as well as screams of the slavers behind him. John couldn't help but grin after the Maw had dealt with those slavers, he could continue to lead it towards the base, where it would do some serious damage and prevent the slavers from making a quick escape. Then he would have to kill it before the Alliance and Hierarchy forces could land, but fighting a Thresher Maw with a Mako wasn't an impossible matchup. "Sir I think you can start to deploy your troops towards the base, wait till I've neutralised the Thresher Maw before you land," he informed Anderson.

Suddenly, warning signs began to flash on the Mako's instruments again. Warnings about something that completely threw his plan off the rails. Thresher Maw's only hunted for themselves; they didn't hunt in packs. In addition, Thresher Maw spores were launched through space to reach a new planet, this meant that the chances of finding two Thresher Maw's on the same world, never mind the same area, was extremely unlikely. Unfortunately, the Mako sensors didn't lie, there was a second Thresher Maw here.

And it was chasing him.

John accelerated, but unlike the other one, this one was focused directly on him. Shepard gritted his teeth in frustration and decided to proceed with his original plan, he just had to take out both Thresher Maws afterwards. He raced towards the slaver base, narrowly keeping ahead of his pursuer. This was made more difficult when the bases guard towers began to open fire on him, he swerved out of the way of the incoming gunfire, however every time he did this, it allowed the Thresher Maw to gain on him. John could see that the worm was practically right on his tail now, he was so focused on that he barely dodged another stream of high velocity slugs, curtesy of a defence turret. They did however hit the ground behind him, punching deep into the ground and it was soon followed by a high-pitched screech. Realising the opportunity this presented John headed in the direction of the guard tower, he soon passed under the turrets fire, but he didn't slow down. At the last second, he swerved around the tower and the edge of the base, with his pursuer seemingly no longer following him. The Turian operating the turret tried to bring it around to fire at him again. But those attempts were soon abandoned as the Thresher Maw exploded out of the ground, rearing up as high as the tower. The Turian screamed and desperately tried to flee, but it was futile as the Thresher Maw lashed around the top of the guard tower with both its tongue and arms. With a mighty heft it completely ripped it off, causing the whole tower to collapse to the ground and creating a massive hole in the bases wall.

Shepard turned the Mako around and made ready to engage the Thresher Maw, he could already make out the other Thresher Maw heading in this direction, presumably after killing all the slavers, but then his situation went from bad to worse as something erupted from the ground directly beneath him, causing the Mako to go flying in the air. John quickly opened the door, and jumped out. He uses his biotics to slow his descent, thankfully he was close enough and had been launched high enough, that he was able to land on the wall of the base. John turned around, desperately hoping that he had not been attacked by what he thought he had been. Unfortunately, his fears were right as he turned around to see a third Thresher Maw, glaring at him.

"You cannot be serious!" John yelled, the Thresher Maw let out a massive screech and lunged at him, forcing John to jump off the outer wall and into the interior courtyard of the compound. He used his biotics to slow his fall again, and he narrowly escaped as the outer wall buckled under the Maw's strength. John turned around just in time for the worm to fix its gaze upon him again, knowing what it was going to do, John dived behind a nearby supply crate just as the Maw fired a glob acid. The crate barely protected John as it practically dissolved. "Shepard, we can't land troops with those three things there," Anderson said. "I know. I'll try and deal with them," John responded, "deal with them?!" He heard the incredulous voice of his sister, "you think you can fight three Thresher maws…..on foot?!" "I don't really have any options, wish me luck," John said as he deactivated his comms.

John stepped out from behind his hiding place, the other two Thresher maws were attacking the base at different points and he could already hear screams from slavers. However, the third Thresher Maw was still nearby, half of its body still under the ground the top half feeling around the inner courtyard, seeking him out. John glanced around, and saw a ladder that would take him back up to the outer wall of the base. He desperately ran towards it, not turning around at the sound of the Thresher Maw coming at him. He started to scale the ladder, and had just neared the top when something impacted the wall just below him. It caused significant structural damage to the wall, but more immediately, it caused the ladder to buckle and him to fall backwards.

Right onto the back of the Thresher Maw's head. Noticing its passenger, the giant worm immediately began swinging around in an attempt to dislodge him. John began to slip down the side of the Maw's face and desperately tried to find something to grab onto, and thankfully was able to grip the creatures left eye stalk. The Thresher Maw immediately increased his thrashing, desperately trying to shake the human off, but Shepard's grip refused to yield. John knew he had to act fast, the Thresher began to bring up its blue tongue, so he unholstered his assault rifle and opened fire. The high velocity slugs ripped through the sensitive tongue, causing it to retract with a shriek of pain. Then he pointed his weapon directly at the creature's eyeball and fired again. The Thresher Maw's screams increased, as did its shaking, but John refused to let go. He re-holstered his rifle and pulled out his combat knife. He drove it into the Thresher Maw's flesh, although it probably felt like a thorn to the beast, he used it to pull himself back on top of the creature. From this position, the other eye was within reach, so he opened fire, successfully blinding it. Unfortunately, his hold was weakened and he was sent flying off the creature.

He once again used his biotics to slow his descent, he didn't want to have to explain how he survived falls like that, but he still landed with a tumble outside the base's walls. He looked around and saw that he was actually relatively near the edge of the cliff, he turned back to the blind Thresher Maw, still thrashing about wildly, he knew his plan was insane even by his standards, but like he said before, he didn't really have any options. He opened fire, it didn't hurt the worm but it did get its attention, even blind, it turned to face him, just as he wanted. He then began sprinting towards the cliff edge. He heard the Maw dive back underground and start borrowing towards him. It was gaining fast but John didn't slow down.

He soon skidded to a halt right at the edge of the cliff, he turned around and not a second later the Thresher Maw burst out of the ground, seeking to pounce on him. He dived out the way just as the Thresher Maw hit the edge of the cliff. It let out another screech as it plummeted down, before abruptly going silent. John peered over the edge and could make out the splattered remains of the creature down below, "can't fly can you, asshole," he joked.

John, however, had no time to enjoy his victory, as the ground beneath his feet began to crack, he desperately began to run away from the cliff edge, even as the rock directly under his feet began to crumble, with one finally leap, he landed back on solid ground. His attention was drawn back to the base, he saw one of the Thresher maws still there attacking the few remaining slavers, but there was no sign of the second one. That was a bad sign.

As he looked round John's eyes fell upon another way he could neutralise one of these oversize worms. Near the docked frigates were several large silos, fuel silos. John immediately began running in their direction and sure enough, he saw a passage of disturbed earth coming at him from his right. It was on an intercept course, but John didn't stop, the Thresher Maw leapt out of the ground and lunged at him, but John used a biotic charge that transitioned into a power slide to get past it and proceeded to keep running. He came to a stop with the silos positioned on his right and waited, sure enough the Thresher Maw burst out of the earth to face him. It reared its head back to launch another shot of acid, but Shepard acted first, he activated his biotics and grabbed one of the silo connector pipes and ripped it away. Instantly the Thresher Maw was sprayed by a torrent of fuel, completely soaking it, the Thresher Maw shrieked in annoyance, soon however the silo emptied and the spray of fuel came to a halt. It turned its gaze back to the human, it's animal brain failing to realise the massive pool of fuel that had formed.

John only smirked at the creature…and then ejected his thermal clip. Everything seemed to slow down as the thermal clip landed at the edge of the fuel, and then in a split second it ignited. The flames spread across the entire pool and up the Thresher Maw's entire body. The creature could do nothing but scream in pain as it was burned alive, eventually it fell to the ground completely incinerated.

Unfortunately, before John could even catch his breath, he heard another rumble from behind and then he was covered by the shadow of the final Thresher Maw, which was currently getting bigger as it closed in on him. He didn't have time to run, he did have time to dodge, there was only one thing he could do. He primed his remaining grenade, then he threw it upwards, just as the Maw came down on top of him. The Thresher Maw engulfed John for a split second, before its head exploded with gore flying all over the area.

[BGM end]

For a while nothing happened, then the form of John staggered up, completely covered in Thresher more entrails and panting heavily. He gingerly smacked off a large chunk of Thresher Maw resting on his head and activated his comms. "Sir, the area…..the area is clear," he reported. He didn't receive a response immediately and was worried something happened to his comms, "that's….. That's impressive works soldier," said Anderson completely stunned, "our troops are enroute." Soon enough John could see several shuttles heading towards the base. John turned to look at the frigates, even if they lifted off this second, they wouldn't be able to escape. But Shepard considered something, if previous experience had taught them anything it's that they wouldn't find any information about the slavers' main headquarters from this base, maybe if they wanted to find the nest, that had to let one of the rats run back to it.

Deciding on his course of action he immediately proceeded into the base, he was heading to the loading bay, where he could hear several voice talking about 'getting the hell out of here', when he stopped just before he passed another room, a room that had something he desperately needed. A Shower.

000

Anderson stood on the bridge of the SSV London, watching several Kodiak shuttles make their way down to the base. He could hear the mumblings of everyone else on the bridge, discussing the incredible feat just witnessed, and he couldn't blame them he knew what John was truly capable of, and even he was stunned. Suddenly his attention was drawn as one of the slaver frigates was attempting to leave the atmosphere. "Set course to intercept that ship, we're not letting those bastards escape," he ordered. "Wait sir," Shepard yelled on the comms, "the ship that's leaving, I placed a tracker on it. I think we can use it to lead us to the main base. Don't worry they don't have any slaves on board." Anderson considered John's words, "all right Shepard I'll trust your plan, meet up with our troops." "Yeah…small problem," John responded.

000

Liz didn't know whether she wanted to strangle John as soon she saw him or hug him and never let go. She was torn between being completely stunned at the fact that he killed three Thresher Maw's on foot, and frustrated that he even attempted such a thing in the first place. She looked down slightly, she knew she had been acting cold towards him recently, she just couldn't understand why he hadn't wanted help save their sisters, and it wasn't as if he was acting any different, he hadn't even been to visit them after they had been rescued.

Putting those thoughts to the side, she believed she would come to a decision when they finally found him. She and Ash had landed with the rest of their squad, many of whom were still trying to believe what her brother had done. They also joined up with John's squad, including Kaidan Alenko, who was, for some reason, not as floored by John's actions as many of the other soldiers were. They had searched all over the base, the few surviving slavers had immediately surrendered, they also found a few gunned down, most likely by Jonathan, but no sign of him. "Captain Anderson, we can't find Lieutenant Shepard," she spoke. "Well, we've learned there is a reason for that," he responded, "what do you mean?" Liz asked. "You know when Shepard informed us that he had placed a tracker on the ship that we let escape. Well, he forgot to inform us of one detail."

000

The slave ship flew through space, all on-board breathing a sigh of relief that they had escaped by the skin of their teeth. Completely unaware of an Alliance soldier currently stowing away in the cargo hold, water still dripping down his hardsuit.