"This is madness! With our numbers so low we cannot afford to…"

Wrex grunted in annoyance as Weyrloc Karr rambled in protest to several of his new policies. Leadership wasn't hard, but it was more boring than watching two armless pyjack fight it out. Heh. Armless pyjack. Now there's an idea with some worth to it. More worth than this idiot's spew of archaic nonsense.

"…imperative that you do not-"

"Time's up pyjack breath, Chief has a visitor"

As the new Weyrloc Chief went to turn his ranting towards the guard he noticed who the guest was. He turned away shaking his head and walked off in disgust. Wrex, however, bellowed in joy.

"Shepard! Haha! I knew you could do it. I bet those collectors didn't even know what hit them! Come, come! We'll have a feast in your honour! Bring Liara, I'd love to see- what's wrong?"

"I have good news and I have bad news."

"Hhhgh. I'll clear the room."

"Sorry, it's not secure enough here. Could you come on board the Normandy?"

The Krogan battlemaster grunted again and followed his friend back to the ship. Whatever this was it clearly wasn't good. Or maybe it was and it was just too important to say in public. Bah, knowing Shepard it was probably something apocalyptic.

One of the humans brought a barrel of… something into the meeting room and left three glasses. It was… ryncol?

"All right Shepard, I'll bite. What's going on."

Shepard poured himself a glass in silence and downed the whole thing in one go. Impressive.

"Wrex, I'm going to Andromeda"

"What the hell is that?"

"Another galaxy. I'm bringing as many people as I can. Nearly a million if the last numbers I saw were right."

"Hmhgh… The Reapers?"

"Yeah."

"I'm guessing this good news is going to be some reason for me to come with you then."

"I'll let the doctor explain it."

Wrex turned around as the door opened and a Salarian who was… chipped? A chipped Salarian strolled right in, poured himself a glass, and downed it in one go. Impressive.

"Hello. I'm Professor Mordin Solus, ex-STG. Specialty: Genophage. Why I quit. Inhumane. New plan now, Shepard's plan, cure Genophage. Interested?"

"Shepard, are you telling me this Salarian is going to cure the Genophage?! Ha! This must be some joke"

"Bit tasteless for me. We're not joking. Everyone has to be frozen to go to Andromeda for somewhere between 600 and 700 years. Mordin thinks we can use the time to apply gene therapy to the Krogan who come."

"Yes yes. Not enough to fully cure Genophage but could theoretically stop stillbirths and increase fertility to match Turian levels."

"He's saying the Krogan would be able to reproduce at a similar pace to everyone else." Shepard took another swig. He clearly wasn't certain which way Wrex would go.

"No more dead babies…"

"The Krogan would enter Andromeda as equals, same as the Quarians. Andromeda is a fresh slate. You don't have to decide now, but if you join us you can bri-"

The Krogan interrupted Shepard by grabbing the barrel, bringing it to his mouth, and drinking several huge mouthfuls. He'd call that impressive as well.

"Shepard, brother, and you, Salarian," Wrex smiled, "You can count the Krogan in! I'm going to enjoy seeing Salarians struggle with calling us equal, no offence" He chuckled deeply. With any luck he'd be able to bring all of Clan Urdnot with him. There was much planning to do.

Ex-Specialist Traynor didn't expect to be in the situation she found herself in right now. She always thought she'd be just some colony girl doing her term of duty in the Alliance. She thought of herself as average at best, an unremarkable comms specialist doing her bit for her people. Well, she corrected herself, that's what she used to think.

Traynor kept finding discrepancies in the systems. Supplies were vanishing, personnel were disappearing, even entire ships simply stopped responding to transmissions. When her superiors did nothing about it, she started digging further unravelling a logistical conspiracy of unprecedented proportions. Just as she was getting close to making a major breakthrough, however, Traynor was abducted on her way to work and brought before one of the most beautiful Asari she had ever seen.

"Junior Specialist Samantha Traynor, your name keeps popping up in my reports,"

"Who on Earth are you then? I didn't think anyone read my reports."

The Asari gave her a pleasant smile that almost made her forget the fact that she had been literally kidnapped.

"I've read your reports as well and you're onto something. I'm Liara T'Soni, we have much to discuss."

From there Traynor went on to learn all about the impending Reaper invasion, all of Shepard's adventures, and – of course – the Andromeda Initiative. Honestly, she felt a little bit in awe and had to really try hard not to fangirl.

"I'll cut to the chase Ms Traynor; I am very impressed with your abilities. I had some of my best operatives cover our tracks and you still managed to uncover it all. Had we not intervened I'm certain you would have provided your superiors with a reasonable casus belli to come after us."

"So… what now then? You're not going to kill me are you?!" Adrenaline filled the meek human as the possibility of death entered consideration but the Asari just chuckled.

"Nothing so barbaric, I'd like to offer you a job. One of my previous regional managers was just killed in a manufacturing accident. He was about to go into the position of Initiative Superintendent. You seem like you'd make a good replacement."

"Pardon sorry?"

"I'm offering for you to join the Andromeda Initiative as Superintendent. You'll handle logistics, communication, construction, and plenty more. I know it's a huge jump from your last job so I'll have you phased into the job through a few training positions."

So here she was. Traynor didn't expect to be in the situation she found herself in right now. She never expected she'd become someone, well, important. Dr T'Soni seemed to believe in her though and Samantha was determined to do as great a job as possible.