"Alright," Shepard said when the airlock finally finished cycling. "Go get cleaned up, Garrus. We'll debrief when we're clean and out of armor."

"Aye aye," he acknowledged, his voice drained, and began walking towards the lift.

Shepard rolled her shoulders and sighed. She'd had worse missions, true, and ones that had gone more dramatically off the rails, but she'd never had one as personal as that clearly had been go in such an unexpected direction.

Hard to get your inspector's loyalty by wrapping up his unfinished business if you end up stepping all over his code of ethics in the process, she thought grumpily to herself.

"Shepard?" Liara asked, stepping in from the cockpit. "What happened?"

"You heard most of it," Shepard said with a sigh. "Saleon had his victims rigged up with batarian slave collars. Either Saleon activated them remotely, the batarians betrayed him, or there was a technical glitch, because they went into full suicide attack mode. We won't know who was directly responsible until we interrogate the batarian Wrex dragged in."

"Ah… him. Wrex has commandeered the medical bay's storage room for use as a brig."

Shepard snorted. "Did he ask first, or just toss a terrified batarian in and tell you to get your stuff out?"

Liara hid a smile. "He was quite polite about it – to me, at least. The batarian, I'm afraid, did not fare as well."

"Really? Well, that's good… I think," she said. "As long as he's able to talk. Where's your stuff now?"

"Sitting in the medical bay, at the moment," Liara admitted. "Chakwas suggested we wait on moving it further until you decided what to do with the batarian."

"Sensible," Shepard said. "Who's guarding him now? Wrex?"

"I believe so," Liara replied. "He is being supported by two of the Normandy's marines."

"That should keep him from committing too many war crimes," Shepard said. "Also sensible. Okay, for now, leave your things where they are unless Chakwas needs them out of the way. If we haven't dropped off our resident slaver by nighttime, you can sleep with me."

I need to let Weapons Development know that a stealth frigate without a brig is an amazingly stupid idea, she thought, mentally adding another task to her to-do list before Liara's expression caught her eye. "Liara? Something wrong?"

The asari's face had turned a deep purple, and Shepard quickly thought over what she'd said. Oh. "I mean, if you'd prefer, we can go get another cot, and..."

She trailed off, sighing. "I'm sorry. I'm not good with these things, and I forget the meaning things have sometimes."

"No, no, that is- I mean, it makes sense," Liara said in a rush. "I was just… not expecting it, that is all. In all the ways I imagined being invited to your bed..."

She trailed off, blushing ever more deeply, and Shepard ran a weary hand through her hair. "I both said and meant just sleeping, you know. You did say you wanted to take things slowly, and while I might not be the most romantic soldier around, I like to think I'd proposition someone with a little more gravitas than that."

Liara giggled. "Tact, too, I imagine."

"No guarantees there," Shepard said with a smile. "Anyway, gaffes aside, is that okay with you? I'd prefer to get this slaver clear of the Normandy as soon as possible, but if he gives up the location of a camp or staging area we're probably going to have to hit it before we can drop him off with the Saints."

"I, uh…" Liara swallowed. "I don't mind. And may I say that while I am deeply grateful for everything you and the Alliance have done for me, those cots are… rustic."

"I'm pretty sure the deck is more comfortable than those cots," Shepard muttered. "Okay, that's settled then. I'm going to go get clean."

"Before you go," Liara said, biting her lip, "what happened to his victims? I do not need to be as psychic as the rumors make us out to be to tell it was not good, but..."

Shepard hesitated, then sighed. "We had to kill them. They were drugged to the gills, aggressive, and equipped with suicide bomber collars."

"Goddess," Liara whispered. "That's..."

"Bad," Shepard finished for her. "There's a reason Wrex wasn't being gentle with the batarian we found."

"I can understand that," Liara said. "It still does not sit well with me, but… I understand."

"Sometimes that's all we can do," Shepard said. "Right. Clean time. Debrief in… oh, call it an hour? That should give Garrus and I both time."

Liara nodded. "I will spread the word."

"Appreciated," Shepard said, then headed for the showers.

By the time she reached the showers, Garrus had already settled in to his own stall and, if the cloud of steam was any indication, drowning himself under the hottest water the unit offered. She tossed her own belongings in the rack, peeled off her armor, and began her own, slightly less flesh-searing wash.

"You know," Garrus said over the hiss of the water, "I think this is the first human ship I've been on with showers that get properly warm."

"Well, it was co-designed," Shepard pointed out. "Turian or human, we both like our facilities to be something we're comfortable with, so it's not surprising that it accommodates both of our preferences."

"I guess that makes sense," he said, then fell silent.

Shepard didn't mind. She knew he was still thinking over what had happened, and that some of it would come up at debriefing, but if he wanted to spend his shower time in silent reflection – or simple dissociation staring at the stall wall – that was fine by her. Truth be told, she didn't like having to try to tease peoples' desires out. It was much easier if they'd just tell her what they wanted, and she could figure out whether or not it was reasonable to do.

Besides, if C-Sec was anything like the military or other police organizations she'd seen, there was probably still a pervasive culture of "don't talk about your feelings." It wasn't healthy, to be sure, but it was common, likely owing its origin to the need to establish emotional distance from the frequently terrible people and traumatic events they had to work with and endure on a regular basis.

In any case, unless he was obvious about it, she would let him pick when to deal with what had happened.

She spent her time washing up, idly reviewing the course of the fight in her mind while working the cinnamon-scented soap through her hair. She'd made a few mistakes, and that bothered her – not checking both paths off the hallway was sloppy, and if she'd clarified Garrus' priorities properly ahead of time, she might have saved some of the victims – but despite that, they'd executed the mission well. Saleon was dead, none of her people were seriously injured or mentally broken, and even if it wasn't the most efficient use of their time, they'd still made the galaxy a better place.

Humming to herself, she turned the water off, toweled herself dry, and slid into a clean jumpsuit before leaving the turian to his scalding retreat.

"-and then we returned to the Normandy," Shepard said, shutting off the holo projector and bringing the room lights back up.

Normally, she didn't bother doing reconstructions of her missions during debrief, but given the sensitive nature of the mission and the radio presence of the whole team, she figured it would help avoid confusion.

"Keelah," Tali whispered. "All those people..."

Ash nodded, her lips a thin line. "I'm not one to second guess, ma'am, but are you sure there was no way to save them?"

I could have saved some of them, certainly, but saving them wasn't my goal. "Maybe, maybe not. If we'd been willing to set aside the primary objective of bringing Saleon to justice, it might have been possible to save some of the more recently operated on victims. Many of them were too far gone to save, unfortunately."

"What do you mean? Were they too badly injured?" Kaidan asked.

"Whatever had gone wrong on that ship went wrong at least a few days ago," Shepard explained. "Between the work Saleon did on them, the lack of supplies, and the drugs, Chakwas says most of them were in pretty bad shape."

It wasn't technically a lie. They had been in bad shape, and the logs they'd recovered from the ship's computer indicated that there had been several system failures and a lockdown initiated roughly three days prior. The misleading part was the implication that their injuries were potentially fatal or would lead to a quality of life so low as to not be worth living, which there was no way to tell so quickly after the fact.

In the end, it keeps them from feeling bad about something they cannot change and that they were not responsible for in the first place. I'll take that.

"Better to put them down cleanly," Wrex said, a somber tone in his voice. "Let them die in battle, rather than rot out from the inside out for that salarian."

"They weren't krogan, Wrex," Ash said, "but I think I agree. At least this way they're not hurting any more."

"Where there's life, there's hope," Kaidan argued. "I'd have liked to at least had the chance to try."

"In any case," Shepard saving, waving the philosophical debate aside, "we're left with a dead doctor, a bunch of dead victims, two dead batarians, and one very terrified alive one."

"You should let me at him," Wrex said, a wicked gleam in his eye. "I know all sorts of tricks to get him to talk."

Kaidan looked vaguely green. "Shepard, you're not going to..."

"No, we're not going to torture him," Shepard said clearly, prompting an exaggerated pout from Wrex and a relieved sigh from nearly everyone else. "It's against the law we're supposed to be upholding, it causes all kinds of mental damage to the ones inflicting the torture, it's mostly useless for extracting information… the list goes on. Really, the only reason to torture someone is to tell the galaxy that you're willing to torture people."

"Don't underestimate that," Wrex said ominously. "Why do you think everyone is afraid of being captured by batarians?"

"That's different," Ash protested. "They make you into slaves – or worse."

Wrex cocked his head at her. "Torture can include slavery."

"We're not really planning on going to war with the batarian slaving community at this point in time, so it's sort of moot," Shepard interrupted before Ash could reply. "I'll conduct a brief interrogation of our guest, but I don't really expect to get a whole lot out of him. We'll drop him off with the SAINTs before we go checking on the old probes. After that-"

The squawk of the ship's intercom interrupted her. "Uh, 'scuse me, ma'am, but you've got a priority call incoming from the Council."

"The Council?" Shepard frowned. "Put them through."

The room lights dimmed and the projector flickered back to life, materializing slowly into the image of Councilor Valern.

"Councilor," Shepard said with a polite nod of her head. "What can I do for you?"

"I have just received word from the Special Tasks Group," Valern said bluntly. "They have a team who has fallen out of contact on the planet Virmire, and have requested you investigate as soon as possible."

Shepard blinked. The STG was infamous for playing their cards close to their chest, to the point where even the Salarians' allies often didn't know what the bulk of their military was up to. If they were going to the Council and bringing humanity into direct contact with one of their operations, they were either desperate or she really was the only one who could do the job."

Which, in turn, means it's a job for the Normandy, she thought. "Do you have any additional information?"

"I am sending you everything we have," Valern said. "And Spectre… while we generally do not take a direct hand in the day-to-day affairs of our Spectres, I would like to stress how important this task is to you in light of your recent detractors."

Translation: If I bail the STG out, they'll have my back if the corporations try to play hardball. Fine. I've done worse things for aid.

"Understood, Councilor," Shepard said with a polite nod. "Drop us that data packet, and we'll set a course."

"Very good. Valern clear," the salarian said, and dropped the connection.

Shepard pursed her lips. "Okay, new plan," she said. "Joker, get us to Virmire ASAP. Make sure we're set for long-term stealth if you can. Everyone else, go make sure your gear's in order and be back in fifteen for a briefing."

She didn't even wait for the chorus of acknowledgments before heading out the door for her office.

"This," Shepard said with a wave of her hand at the holographic planet floating before them, "is Virmire. Unlike nearly every other planet we've visited so far, the weather on this one is actually quite pleasant – twenty to thirty five degrees, relatively gentle local flora and fauna, and it even has nice beaches."

"Unfortunately, that's where the good news stops," Shepard said over the chuckles. "It's a hot mess, politically speaking, and as a result the whole place is crawling with pirates, mercenaries, slaver staging camps, raiding fleets, contraband laboratories, and what have you. There were some moves to try to secure it by the Council, but the group they were negotiating with fell apart and things returned to the status quo."

"Councilor Valern forwarded us the rumors the STG team were investigating, which basically boiled down to hearsay from captured criminals about a large scale construction project taking place somewhere along one of the equatorial coastlines. The last report we have from the team says that they confirmed the existence of some kind of heavily defended base and were going to gather more information before reporting back."

She tapped a button on her omni tool, and the slowly rotating planet stilled and zoomed in on a small patch of coastline just north of the equator. "Thanks to the Normandy's stealth systems, we've been able to take a few low orbit passes to get a look, and things aren't good. The facility is big, at least a couple kilometers of buildings and infrastructure, and it's very well defended. There are several anti-aircraft weapon emplacements around the perimeter extending out in in a circle at least thirty kilometers from the facility itself, as well as what we assume are ground security outposts to go with them."

Ashley let out a low whistle. "That seems a bit out of our ability to hit, ma'am, if you don't mind me saying so."

"Yes and no, Chief," Shepard said. "First mitigating factor is that we're not trying to capture or clear this place, we're trying to determine if it belongs to Saren. If it doesn't, that makes life easier – if it's a government or corporate site, we might be able to just get back in our ship and leave."

"That'd be nice," Kaidan said with a smile. "Imagine not shooting our way out for once."

"Might have picked the wrong profession for that," Shepard remarked. "In any case, that's our ideal scenario. If this does belong to Saren, things get a hell of a lot more complicated, and broadly speaking our mission boils down to two goals: Figure out what he's doing, and then stop it. Of those two, figuring out what he's up to is the hard part."

"Really?" Ash said, her arms folded across her chest. "Because I don't know about you, but I don't think I have ammo blocks that will get rid of buildings."

"But the Normandy does," Shepard said. "Official secrets act violation time, everyone. The second mitigating factor is that the Normandy is a stealth frigate, and despite being called a scout vessel in most of the public justifications, its actual combat role is far more akin to a twentieth or twenty-first century nuclear submarine."

Ash flinched. "Wait, you mean-"

"That the Normandy carries weapons of mass destruction? Yes, I do," Shepard said, and a ripple moved around the room. "They're under lock and key for good reason, but the Normandy has both missile and man-portable nuclear weapons."

"Not antimatter?" Garrus asked, and Shepard shook her head.

"No," she said, "it's Systems Alliance policy not to use antimatter in weaponry for safety reasons, and frankly, I agree with them. If you're carrying a fission device in a backpack and you get hit by an anti-material round, your team might have a minor radiation hazard on their hands. If you're carrying antimatter in a backpack and get hit with the same anti-material round, suddenly everything within a few kilometers is gone… and that includes containment on every other antimatter device in the vicinity."

"Hierarchy has the same opinion," Garrus said. "I just wanted to be sure."

"So… if this is Saren's base… we go in, figure out what he's up to, and blow everything up once we know?" Ash asked.

Shepard nodded. "Pretty much."

Kaidan coughed. "I feel obliged to point out that it's against the Citadel Conventions to use weapons of mass destruction on garden worlds."

"I'm well aware, Kaidan," Shepard said. "And frankly, if we can pull this off without nuclear weapons, I will be overjoyed, but we don't really have anything in the Normandy's conventional arsenal that will work on reinforced bunkers like we're seeing here. That said, if we're lucky, there is a third option."

"What's that?" he asked.

"If we find out that it belongs to Saren, but we don't need to take immediate action for some reason, we have some more flexibility. In that case we blow up enough of their anti-air defenses to let us fly out, report to the Council, and it becomes their problem. In a sense, this is ideal, as it would make this the first major installation he's worked on that we capture intact. It would also help open up a whole new avenue of investigation for us."

"How's that, ma'am?" Ash asked. "Interrogating people working there?"

"Potentially, yes, although with how fond Saren is of mind control, I doubt that will bear fruit," Shepard said, and Liara grimaced slightly. "The more useful aspect will be figuring out what he's trying to do with the Conduit, whatever it is, as well as identifying more of his backers. You don't set up a facility like this without serious money."

Shepard pressed another button, and the display tilted, showing the installation covered by a large red hemisphere.

"Now, as for our approach. We can't take the shuttle down – there's not enough room for the gear or the people we'll need to pull this off, which means we're taking the Normandy herself. Our stealth systems will work in atmosphere if we stay out of direct line of sight and keep subsonic, which means we're dropping down over the horizon and flying in low."

"What if they have guns we haven't seen?" Wrex asked. "Wouldn't put it past them to have a few tucked away. Pirates do it all the time, hiding them in rocks and crap."

"We'll have surprise, Joker's piloting, and speed on our side on the approach." Shepard said. "Once we're down, we can either shut them down from the facility itself, or we can dispatch the Normandy's marines in ground transport to take them out."

"Hrh," Wrex grunted. "I don't like it."

"If you have any suggestions, now's the time," Shepard pointed out.

"We can't just bomb it from orbit?" Wrex said with a small grin.

"The Normandy doesn't have bunker-busters, and even if it did, blowing it up without investigating would leave us no closer to figuring out Saren's next move. Besides, the STG is down there, and the salarians might object if we nuked their scouting team," Shepard said.

"Ha!" Wrex barked. "Would serve 'em right."

"Some day, Wrex, nuking an installation from orbit will be the right solution," Shepard promised. "Just not today."

"What about Saren's ship?" Tali asked. "If Saren's there, where's the big ship that attacked Ash's home?"

"We've seen no sign of it," Shepard said, "and that worries me, as well. If it shows up, all bets are off, and our first order of business is getting out in one piece. If it arrives before we've taken the anti-air defenses offline, we either take our chances fleeing under enemy fire, or we ditch the Normandy and go to ground. From there, we make for one of the pirate camps, assault it, and steal transport off world and sneak out when he leaves. If it arrives before we have the chance to get clear..."

She glanced over at Liara and sighed. "While I won't tell anyone they have to take the gentle way out, I can say with certainty that you do not want to be captured by Saren."

A heavy silence fell over the room.

"But," Shepard said, "even in a worst-case scenario, we likely have at least forty five minutes, maybe even an hour before his flagship shows up."

"How do you figure that, ma'am?" Ash asked. "It sure hit Eden Prime hard. We had minutes before the first alert went out until the colony got hit."

"Because we know where it isn't," Shepard said. "We know it's not in orbit, and we're pretty sure it's not within thirty light-minutes of the planet itself, although we can't be completely certain. Because there's no relay in the system, there's no superluminal communication channel out. That means the earliest he can hear that his facility is under attack is however long it takes a message probe or light-speed alert to reach him, and if he's not within thirty light-minutes of the planet..."

"Then he won't even know he's under attack until we've been there for half an hour," Ash said, nodding. "Makes sense."

"Add in turnaround time, and we're looking at slightly longer than that to hit this place, raid its databanks, plant a present, and leave," Shepard said. "Make no mistake, this isn't going to be easy, and the fact that we're going in mostly blind makes it worse."

"In that case, ma'am," Ash said, raising her hand. "What kind of loadout do we run?"

"Good question," Shepard sighed. "We know Saren has geth in his service, and we've seen him make use of other robotic drones. However, we also know he has backers who have been working on rachni drones, which means it's possible we'd see them, too. Since we can't take the entire armory with us, I'd suggest splitting your kit – run armor-piercing in your primary of choice, but carry a backup with something that'll take out lightly armored targets."

"Copy," Ash said. "Heavy weapons, too?"

"Yes," Shepard said. "If they end up being too much to carry and we have to ditch them, that's fine. Our goal here is to gather info and blow everything up, not to make sure the Alliance quartermaster gets all his toys back."

"Now, assuming we do break in before he shows up with his big ship, we'll have quite the job for us, and I'm going to be relying on the more technically inclined among us there."

Tali straightened in her chair. "I'm ready for anything, Shepard."

"Good," Shepard said. "Because the way I see it, there's only a couple things Saren's doing with a facility this large: Building an army, developing one, or both. In either case, he's going to have computer systems there detailing plans and schematics. I want to get as much of what downloaded before we leave as physically possible. If that means ripping computers off the walls and dragging them with us, fine, but I would prefer if we could just take his data storage and wreck everything else."

Tali nodded. "I've got a bunch of spare drives I can take that I normally use for flash dumps from dying geth," she said. "They're not the largest, but they're rugged and very fast. If he has geth schematics or anything like that, they should be enough."

"Good. Kaidan, before we drop I want you to talk to the QM and see if we have any backups for the Normandy's computer hardware we can use as well," Shepard ordered.

"Can do, ma'am. Joker also, ah, might have some we can borrow."

She smirked. "Of course he would. I leave that in your hands."

"Wrex, I know you're planning on bringing half the armory-"

The krogan slammed his fist into the chair, leaving a small dent. "You bet your ass I am," he said, a wicked grin on his phase. "Hope you're not planning on stopping me."

"Far from it," Shepard said mildly. "I just want you to leave some space in your bag. You and I will each be carrying a special package."

"Uh..." Ash said, while Wrex stared. "Is that legal, ma'am? I mean..."

"I don't care," Shepard said, her voice cold. "Of all of us, Wrex knows best what they do and what it means to use them. He's also the least likely of us to be taken down in combat, and if the worst happens and we're all overwhelmed, the most likely to be able to set one off anyway."

"I… Jesus," Ash muttered. "Okay. Yeah."

"You've thought about this," Wrex said, his former levity gone.

"I have," Shepard said. "Now. Garrus."

"Ma'am," Garrus said instinctively.

"After we finish here, I am putting you on a priority call to the hierarchy. I got a briefing of Saren's combat abilities, but I know there were things left out. You will call whoever you think has information on him, on my authority, and you will find out what he can do."

Kaidan paled. "Wait, is he-"

Shepard nodded. "A biotic, yes," she replied, and Kaidan swore under his breath.

"Uh… I'm new here, why is that bad?" Ash asked. "I mean, we've fought biotics before."

"I will explain," Liara said. "In biotic combat, power and skill matter, obviously, but because combat biotics are so devastating, even a weak biotic can easily kill a strong one if they do something unexpected. Among asari, the winner of a biotic duel is almost always the one who knows what the other one will attempt first, rather than the one with the greatest raw strength."

Shepard made a there you go gesture at Liara. "Precisely. His Spectre file has a few things, but turian biotics are rare, more so than human ones, and there is precious little information on his abilities. If I know what he likes to do, I stand a far better chance at living through the opening salvo. If I can live through that, I can get into close range, and if I make it to close range, I win."

"Wait- really? He's like, two and a half times your size," Ash said doubtfully. "You want to fight him in melee?"

"I'm a lot more dangerous in close quarters than I look," Shepard said, a little ruefully. "Besides, I'm not actually that good with ranged biotics. Almost all of my training is around getting in close and fighting there, rather than fighting from a distance. If I can get him in hand to hand, I'm confident I can disable or kill him. At a distance, if he's good, that becomes much harder."

"I'll take your word for it, ma'am," Ash said.

"Do so," Shepard said. "Now, unfortunately, that's all I have for this briefing. The rest of the marines are kitting up, and Pressly is briefing them. As soon as we're ready, Joker will drop us out of orbit and we'll get rolling. Does anyone have any other questions?"

The ground crew shook their collective heads, and Shepard nodded. "Good. Wrex, come with me. The rest of you are dismissed. Meet in the cargo bay when you're ready."

"Alright, Shepard, what's this about," the krogan rumbled as they left the conference room for Garrus to make his calls.

"You, Pressly, and I are going to go speak to the quartermaster," Shepard said. "Because on this frigate, he is also the ordnance master."

He stared at her. "So you weren't joking, then."

She began walking for the elevator, and motioned for him to follow. "Did you think I was?"

"Most people wouldn't give a krogan mercenary a nuke," he said.

"I'm not most people," she said, and turned to face him. "And you're not most mercenaries."

"I'll give you that," he rumbled, then smirked. "Most mercenaries get paid more."

"That's one of the problems with heroism – nobody wants to foot the bill," Shepard replied absently, looking over the krogan's shoulder at the approaching form of the ship's navigator-turned-XO. "Hello, Pressly."

"Commander," he said tersely, his eyes flickering toward Wrex. "You intend to go through with this plan, then?"

"I do," she said simply, and he sighed.

"I was worried you'd say that. This is all kinds of illegal and will kick up a hornet's nest back home, you know that, right?"

She shrugged. "As I told Udina before we left, I might have to step on a few toes on this mission. This is one of those times."

"This is less stepping on toes and more blowing off legs," the older man muttered. "Well, I've made my objections clear, but you are the commanding officer, and from a tactical perspective your plan is sound. Let's get this done with."

Shepard gave him a slight nod, and set off in the direction of the armory.

For a device capable of such massive devastation, it was almost alarmingly easy to gain access to them. She and Pressly recited an authorization code, provided a handprint, and then the quartermaster made a nervous note of the weapons they'd taken.

She glanced down at the pair of plain-white cylinders, undecorated save for a small control panel, a stenciled metal instruction pane, and the classic radioactive trefoil. They were nearly as simple internally as they were externally, with the original design dating back more than two and a half centuries. Despite minor updates over the years, the core mechanism remained much the same.

Part of that persistence was the elegance of the design. The primary problem with fission weaponry was the irksome tendency for the core, in the process of producing its trademark destructive energy, to tear itself apart fairly early on in the process. This would cut the reaction short, wasting a great deal of potential energy, and spread radioisotopes all over the target. The addition of an external gravitational confinement field provided by an element zero shell around the core solved that problem, but the power required to contain an supercritical fission reaction was orders of magnitude higher than all but the most powerful starship reactions could sustain.

The key word, however, was sustain. While creating a gravitational trap strong enough to contain a nuclear explosion was huge, nuclear reactions were fast. The bomb reached the terajoule yield point after only a few microseconds, and peak energy production took less than a millisecond. An explosive flux generator, invented way back in the 20th century, could provide terawatts of electrical power for a few microseconds. Chaining several of them together in quick succession would last long enough to contain the reacting core until the desired yield was reached.

At that point, the field vanished, and two to four hundred terajoules of radiation, heat, and a soup of subatomic particles would fly out in an expanding sphere of nuclear annihilation.

"So that's it, huh?" Wrex asked, peering at the pair of bombs. "Always thought they'd be bigger."

"Some of them are," Shepard said, carefully stowing each weapon in a hard-sided case. "These are the smallest the Alliance makes, and they're meant for ground soldier use."

He just shook his head. "How do I use it?"

"First, you take this," she said, holding out a small plastic block to him. "It's an arming key. Without it, all you have is a slightly radioactive brick. To activate the weapon, put that in the slot on the front – the weapon should power up. At this point you can adjust the yield with the dial marked 'yield,' set a countdown timer, and activate the weapon with the big red button under the flip shield. If you've made a mistake, you can always remove the key and the bomb will shut off without detonating."

The krogan took the key, examined it, and tucked it in a pouch on his armor. "Can you shut 'em off or set 'em off remotely?"

"Not with these keys," Shepard said. "The bomb is pretty simple, but the control panel supports a lot of different tech that you can put in the arming keys, including radio activators, proximity sensors, and the like. We're taking the simple ones, because I don't want anything remotely accessible when we're dealing with geth."

"Alright," he rumbled. "Uh. What happens if that gets shot?"

"Depends on where it gets shot," Shepard said. "Worst-case scenario, it sets off the high explosives in the flux generator and you have a kilo or two of HE going off on your back. Best case, it makes a thunk noise and nothing happens."

"It won't go off by accident?"

Shepard shook her head. "No. There's a physical gap between the generator and the element zero that's only closed by the control panel before detonation."

"Right." He stared at the weapon in its case for a moment, then shrugged and hoisted it onto his shoulder. "Guess I'll go load this up, then."

She watched the krogan battlemaster slowly make his way out of the corner of the Normandy's bay that constituted the armory and mentally shook her head. She was missing something, she knew it, but she didn't have the first clue what it might be.

Well, she thought, no point in worrying about it now.

Besides, she had her own kit to take care of.

A/N: And there we go! Next chapter: VIRMIRE!

Did I spend a week learning about nuclear weapons? Maybe. Do I have anything better to do now that my country is sheltering in place? No. Will this means I write more? WHO KNOWS?!

For the record, I'm fine, my family is fine, and our government is being sensible, so we're not personally too affected by all this. My heart goes out to the folks who are – stay safe if you can.