Chapter 16

I don't own mass effect

Hello everyone new chapter :)

Also come on guys review, I only got a couple last chapter. More reviews= more chapters and faster updates as I prioritize the story that has the most reviews or followers.

Next chapter might be delayed, I want to put another chapter out for rabbit bites or shield of destiny as it's been far too long since I released a chapter for either.

I'm still going with Solana as romantic partner though I have had some thought and doubts mainly about Liara and Gamora as Tali is already in my other story and they have a way around the suit problem

With Liara the problem is that the initial interest that made her fall for Shepard isn't there for Callum. As for Gamora she's already started her interest and Callum did convince the Thorian to change it's mind but it would affect something I've already planned for her down the line. Also not many stories have a female turian as the romantic partner and it's something I already decided before I started writing thanks to vetra

So Gamora or Solana? What you think?

Liara and Kaiden selected the Eagle (assault pistol)

Shepard and Gamora both selected Dirty Harry (heavy pistol)

Ash and Garrus went for the Zorax. (assault rifle)

Solana and Tali took the Pra'za (shotgun)

The other weapons are merely standard except for Shepards shotgun which used to be Nilus, and Tali is now using his pistol

Story start


As we headed back to the Normandy I decided to ask

"So how did the girls thing go?" I asked, once again noticing that Tali...was acting a bit off

"It went well, you could say we had...a lot to talk to talk about." said Ash slyly, making Solana give the turian version of a blush.

Just what was going on?

"But then this bitch of a reporter comes over and starts giving me shit, I have to say it wasn't going well." said Shepard

"But then Tali of all people hacked her drone and had it start ramming into her." finished Ash before adding "If I didn't know any better I'd say she was a bit tipsy."

"I was not." defended Tali before becoming accusatory and pointing a finger at Shepard "Besides I didn't know those drinks had any alcohol in them."

"Ehh, they didn't have much." deflected Shepard "Like 5%, 8 at most."

"I still would have liked to know." muttered Tali

Tali, always a lightweight

"Besides everything ended well, and considering the fact I was thinking about whether shoving that drone down her throat or up her ass, that's all one can ask for." said Shepard, getting a blush from Tali and Liara.

It also made Kaiden nervous, Gamora on the other hand...

"Why would someone wish to insert such a large object into either of those orifices?" asked Gamora clueless and managing to weird out everyone. Except for Wrex who clearly didn't give a fuck one way or the other

"Ahhh..." trailed off Shepard as wondered how to answer it before realising. Why answer when you can throw someone else under the bus? "Hey Callum want to.."

"Nnoooppp!" I said cutting her off, adding extra emphasis of the p an the end "not touching that."

"Maybe the oldest here should answer the question?" suggested Garrus

As one we all looked at Wrex

"Unless someone wants to become traumatized I'd suggest you look elsewhere. You don't want to know half the shit I got up to when I was younger." growled Wrex "I'm nearly a millennium old, there's not much I haven't done."

"I still wish to know the answer. Why would a fleshing wish to insert such a large object into anothers' orifice when they are clearly not designed to hold such objects?" repeated Gamora

Unfortunately for everyone, a human couple with an eight-year-old boy just happened to be passing at that exact moment. The look the mother gave the lot of us as she covered her child's ears was not pretty.

"..."

"...what about Dr Chakwas?" suggested Kaiden, a suggestion that Shepard immediately jumped on

"Done! Gamora, when we get back to the Normandy go ask Chakwas that question."

"You do know she's going to be annoyed at you for that right?" asked Tali

"I do, but that's a problem for future Shepard. Fuck her, my only concern is for current Shepard and current Shepard does not want to have the talk with an asari clone or the kinky shit that it can involve thank you very much." responded Shepard

"What does k-" started Gamora before Shepard interrupted her

"Ask Chakwas!"

Back on the Normandy

"Everyone aboard Pressley?" asked Shepard

"Affirmative Commander." replied Pressley

"Good, Joker take us out. Destination Pinnacle station at the Phoenix system inside the Argos Rho cluster." ordered Shepard

"On it Commander." replied Joker

"Good, everyone else come with me to the Comms room."

A short time later

"Okay as you know we've been invited to participate in a state-of-the-art training simulator, we'll be there for a day or two. While we're doing this the rest of the crew will be taking some downtime. Now they've sent me some documents and notices. First of which is a reminder to make sure none of the guns you're planning on using isn't carrying anything other than a rubber ammo block. Looking your way here Callum, you too Wrex." said Shepard getting a snigger from Ash

"Hold on, Wrex I get, but why me? Also, why was my name first?" I asked defensively

"Because Wrex is Wrex, and your weapons are completely overpowered and one of their tech officers by the name Alud Ochren has made it very clear that he's sick of soldiers destroying the rooms because they forgot to swap ammo. That's with a regular gun, I'd hate to see how he'd react with the damage caused by your guns." answered Shepard before continuing

"It also means I doubt you'd be able to use your bow and they will provide us with grenades that can be used inside the simulator. Now, we'll be there for a couple of days, for the first one we'll be showing how we've been dealing with the geth. They also have pirates if you want to switch things up, there are multiple scenarios and in each one your time, 'kills' and hits are recorded to tell how well you did at the end."

"The scenarios range from survival where your score is based mainly on how long you survive to hunt which emphasizes how many enemies you take out before you're 'killed' or rendered incapacitated. Though I imagine for close ties they compare how accurate you were or how many kills you got." said Shepard using finger quotes when she said killed

"Is the scoring done individually or by teams?" asked Ash

"Both, you can do the scenarios individually or in teams, though the teams have a secondary score where it divides the total score by the number of people you have on your team to discourage everyone from forming large teams without restricting team numbers too much." explained Shepard before continuing

"Just remember, we'll be there for a couple of days so they'll be plenty of time to do what you want. For most of the first day we'll be breaking into teams and trying out scenarios. From what I can see there are about...four. Survival, Capture, Hunt and Time, all are self-explanatory. While we are doing this the rest of the crew will be enjoying some downtime, you're welcome to join them after a couple of scenarios. Just so you know, you're also welcome to keep doing scenarios as a team or as individuals.

Each map has multiple scenarios, feel free to pick whichever you want but at least one of each. Later on we can switch maps if we want, also I think the rest of the crew will be doing a movie marathon or something so feel free to join in with that." said Shepard idly "Anyway for teams, I've thought about it and we'll be doing me, Kaiden and Garrus as team 1. Team 2 will be Ash, Wrex, Tali and Liara. Final team will be Solana, Gamora and Callum. The person I named first will be the primary and the leader." Instructed Shepard

When Shepard finished speaking we all broke up into teams to discuss the upcoming simulations, when that was done the first thing Solana did was turn to me.

"Before we discuss anything I just want to know if you have any problems with me leading the team?" asked Solana looking at me carefully

"None." I replied truthfully

"Really?" asked Solana in surprise "May I ask why? Shepard is leading one team. Ash is leading the other and you are Alliance after all."

"I agree, from what was talked about at the... 'girl time' was it called?" asked Gamora, getting a light blush and nod from Solana. Just what had happened there? I wondered and nearly missed when Gamora resumed speaking

"You seemed to think quite fast on your feet and can come up with strategies that have a high chance of success."

"That may be true but I'm only a private and a recent one at that. Solana has a greater amount of experience and knows how to lead teams which I think is why Shepard chose the leaders she did." I answered "Plus just because I have good ideas doesn't mean I'll make a good leader or be able to carry them out all the time."

"Well, I just wanted to make sure. Now let's talk strategy, for now as it's our first time working as a team we'll keep it simple. I'll be at the front providing close-range support, Gamora you'll be right behind me with Callum backing us up. If we need to switch things up we'll do it later. Any problems?"

"...that sounds fine." I answered, not being able to think of anything to improve the idea

"I agree." stated Gamora simply

"Good." said Solana before opening her omni tool "Now the scenarios are hunt, capture, survival and time. Capture seems to be a good one to start with, we'll do a couple of rounds of that one to get the kinks out of us working together as a team. It will also get us used to how the simulations work before we move on to the more complicated scenarios.

"Capture has three maps, volcanic, tropical and subterranean. Any preference?" asked Solana

"Well in my mind tropical suggests water, we could use that to slow them down. With volcanic I get the feeling that we'll be at risk of stepping into larva the second we stop paying attention to the floor, subterranean suggests to me close quarters, underground combat." I answered carefully thinking about it, I couldn't really remember much about pinnacle station.

"Tropical it is, well we have a few hours until we arrive so until then I want you to get geared up and practise swapping heat clips. They're different than what we're used to so I want smooth reloads when we need as fumbling them would be an easy way to lose." said Solana

And that's exactly what we did, we headed to the cargo bay to gear up and practice, making sure we switched ammo blocks and purged any leftover shards. And we weren't the only ones to do so, the rest of the ground crew seemed to have the same idea. We also discussed what weapons we would bring, Solana would bring her shotgun, assault rifle and pistol, Gamora would just bring her pistol and assault rifle. For me, it was sword, pistol, rifle and assault rifle.

A few hours later

Eventually, we made it to Pinnacle station and we disembarked. After the airlock, the first room we came to was guarded by four turian guards.

"Oh shit, is that the Commander Shepard? The first human Spectre?" asked one of the guards quietly

"Spectre or no it's always fun to see humans get trashed in the simulator. The turians and krogan should be able to help her get threw though." said another turian disparagingly.

Continuing past them we entered a large room with multiple people working at screens and multiple doors. Overlooking the room was a massive window showing off the stars. In the middle of the room on a platform was a man in military dress with a single gold bar on each shoulder turning to face us.

"Commander Shepard it's nice to meet you, I'm Admiral Tadius Ahern and welcome to Pinnacle Station. I see you've brought everyone on your ground team." said the Admiral

"Is that a problem?" asked Shepard

"No, as long as you're in more than one team. The rooms aren't big enough to fit all of you in a single one, well you could but it would be awfully crowded." advised the Admiral

"Two teams of three and one team of four." said Shepard "Before we begin how do the simulations work?"

"If you want a detailed explanation you'll have to talk to Ochren or one of our other technicians. But put simply each room is made up of real, physical objects and holograms. The physical objects make up the surroundings and environment while the holograms are whatever enemies you select as well as to help make everything look more realistic. We have pirates, terrorists, mercenaries down to individual gangs, even rouge military organisations.

For now, we'll have you dealing with geth, your team has the most experience fighting geth, experience we need. For the most part we've used your reports and other incidents both recent and historic to get the basic behaviour down, along with theory and the other enemies to help fill in the blanks but it's still a long way off. So if any of you notice the behaviour is in any way off let one of the technicians know and they'll make adjustments. To ensure you don't walk through the holograms, they have kinetic barriers. VI's will monitor your damage output and accuracy to calculate when an enemy is taken out.

If you want to know more see one of the techs, you'll also need to see them so they can fit you with specialized VI that will replicate being hit with real weapons and grenades. Also, the simulation may only use rubber ammo so it won't kill you but unless you want to risking losing an eye you'd want to keep your helmet on at all times.

We've got a number of rooms and levels, you've been assigned 5B, D and G, their our Tropical, Volcanic and Subterranean. We have others, such as warehouses, urban, jungle etc but if you'll have to wait your turn if you want in on those."

"Understood admiral, which way to the rooms?" asked Shepard

"Go straight forward and take the elevator on the left, there's a lot of you so you'll have to take a couple trips down. First level down is bathroom, shower and cafeteria I suggest you use it when you want a break." suggested the Admiral "Also your first round of any scenario you choose will be a scalled-back demo to get you used to the simulation and scenario before things get difficult."

"Thank you admiral." replied Shepard as she turned to leave, the rest of us following her

"Commander." added the Admiral making Shepard stop "This is one of most state-of-the-art facilities there is, thousands of people compete for the honour of training here and only the best or those slated for special training makes it. Make sure you and your team keep that in mind during your stay here."

With the Admiral's warning, clear everyone headed to the tech area so the techs could apply the VI and answer any other questions we had. After that we took turns entering the elevator and travelling down, something that took a decent amount of time. I was amongst the last to arrive at what looked like a decent-sized room that was octagonal in shape with multiple doors, one on each side. Ash was the first one to open an assigned room

"Holy shit...this place is massive." breathed Ash walking inside as a blast of hot air goes past us.

And it was, after a short corridor we reached a room that was roughly circular in shape and that looked to be 2 to 3 stories in height. It looked like it was based on the planet where we picked up Liara on, even the temperature was somewhat similar if somewhat less extreme. There were plenty of boulders laying about, some quickly fabricated buildings as well as a walkway and a large silo.

"I have to say they really outdid themselves. I wasn't sure what I was expecting but this just blew it out to the water, if all the rooms are going to be like this..." trailed off Shepard

"Speaking of which, now that we're here does anyone have a preference on what room?" asked Kaiden

"We're interested in the Tropical." spoke up Solana

"If you don't mind I'm all for the Subterranean, it sounds like it will be close quarters, just the way I like it." said Wrex with a grin

"That sounds good to me too." agreed Ash "Most of our weapons are close-ranged."

"That just leaves the Volcanic for us which I'm guessing is this one." finished Shepard "It's got some nice sniping spots for Garrus and open areas for me and Kaiden to use our biotics. We'll see how we go and switch rooms if we want later let's meet up the cafeteria in an hour or so."

Leaving the Volcanic simulation we each find our own rooms which in our case was tropical. In the centre of the room was a large mountain that dominated the landscape, water all around.

"Ash was right this is just incredible, just how have they been able to do this?" asked Solana in shock "Just how much time and effort it must have taken."

"Yeah, I'm getting some Star Trek vibes here." I added

"Star Trek?" asked Solana curiously

"Old Earth tv show, good ideas and universe building but absolutely shit graphics and acting. At least in the first few series, one of the things it had was holodeck which could create literally anything by rearranging molecules. Could turn an empty barren room into a cafe' full of furniture and people, all of which you could touch, food and beverages you can actually eat and drink."

"That sounds remarkable." said Solana

"It was ahead of its time." I agreed "In fact, it has a lot of species that have similarities to real ones in Citadel Space. Still a ton of shit acting at times."

"Is that so, well regardless we need to focus on completing the demo simulation." finished Solana

"And what is the goal for this simulation?" asked Gamora l, speaking up for the first time

"There will be a number of strategic points that we'll need to take and hold. Like I said before, for now let's not focus on how long it takes us but just focus on getting used to working as a team." Instructed Solana "Now is everyone ready...good."

Pressing a few buttons Solana started the simulation.

The first capture point glowing a bright orange appeared in front of us up a ramp and on a veranda-like balcony overlooking the water behind us. It was also connected to a walkway that continued further on.

We made it there without incident and started scanning the surroundings. I had my rifle Settler out, Gamora had Dirty Harry and Solana had her assault rifle out.

"Anyone see any geth?" asked Solana

"No...wait I see one." I answer as I see a single geth slowly making it's way towards us from further up the walkway.

Using the heads-up display I take aim and quickly take two shots taking it out easily.

"There is one approaching from my side also." remarked Gamora before she took it out

"...okay either they really scaled things back or they got the difficulty setting completely wrong." remarked Solana "Everyone hold fire for a second."

Putting an arm out of cover Solana waits until another geth troop appears and takes aim at her arm

"Looks like they can do some damage after all." said Solana as her barriers recharged

"How much damage did it do?" I ask

"A bit less than usual, I guess they couldn't fully replicate the geth's damage output with rubber rounds." remarked Solana

The demo round was almost too easy to complete, I barely received any damage and it didn't take too long o finish. But I guess that was kind of the point.

"Alright do you two want to do the demo round again? Or do a real round?" asked Solana

"I think we're ready..or at least close enough." I answered

"I doubt the demo can teach us anymore." agreed Gamora bluntly

Making our way back to the console we started a real round.

Arriving at the first flag the difference was immediately noticed. There were far more geth incoming from both sides simultaneously, three on my side. Opening fire with Settler I fired five shots into the chest of the first geth taking it out while the one next to it dropped a shield. Hiding behind it the two geth remaining sent a volley of gun fire my way causing my kinetic barriers to activate.

To be on the safe side a create a barrier around myself before I flicked the oneshot switch. Firing an overpowered round into the shield I cracked it, flicking the switch again another overpowered round was enough to take the shield down completely. I used a third and fourth oneshot to take out the geth hiding behind it, a fourth geth appeared which I took out with a throw sending it flying over the walkway rail.

I doubted it took the geth out as the distance it had to fall wasn't that much but it would be a while until it rejoined the fight again unless it tried climbing back up the walkway.

While I was dealing with those geth Gamora was dealing with those on the other side with Solana providing assistance. As I watched Gamora inserted a new heat clip and put the old one onto her belt.

"Venting." I said out loud. There were no geth at the moment so I wanted to take advantage of that.

"Covering." anwered Solana loudly, putting a short burst into a geth that appeared down the end of the walkway halfway through my venting

When I had finished a short time later I put a couple of rounds into it taking it down. Since I only used 3 overpowered shots the cool-down didn't take that long.

Soon we had captured the first flag and we had started to move on.

"Gamora singularity behind us, Callum singularity in front." ordered Solana before adding "Way up front."

Creating a singularity far in front, just before the turn were we could find the second flag I kept a good eye on the mountain while Solana and Gamora focused on the geth that appeared from the path that cut through the middle of the mountain. The basic layout of the map was sort of like a disfigured 8.

"You see anything up there?" asked Solana, noticing where I was looking.

"No but it would be a good spot for one of those hopping geth to ambush us so I want to be careful." I answered

"Good idea, Callum detonate the singularity in front of us. Gamora put one down in front of the pass when we're almost out of sight. I don't want any geth appearing behind us." said Solana

Throwing a shot at the singularity to detonate it, there wasn't any geth caught up in the singularity but I was hoping that there was at least some geth on the other side that would be blown back by the detention at the very least.

Moving on we take the second flag, the number off geth increased drasticly. They were mainly coming from the front but it wouldn't be long until Gamora's singlurity collapsed freeing the way for geth to attack us via the back.

"Venting!" called out Solana, ducking back into cover to vent her assault rifle while Gamora just inserted a new heat clip.

Performing a slam I was able to get four geth into the air before sending them crashing to the ground before they flickered out of existence

"I'm starting to think I should have picked the assault rifle or one of the pistols." remarked Solana as she switches from her assault rifle to her shotgun as geth started to appear from the way we came. "Callum I've got right, you help Gamora with the left."

"I'll focus on the ones at the back, you deal with the one's closer. If any get too close I'll switch to my pistol." I said to Gamora "And it wouldn't surprise me if we brought some more gear from Qorach if Shepard is happy enough with the ones we already bought. Though they'd probably be for the entire ground crew to use and not for specific people like last time." I said as I quickly take out two geth at the back while Gamora took out one closer to us.

Meanwhile, Solana's shotgun gave two loud barks taking out a geth that was approaching on her side.

"Move on." ordered Solana "Gamora singularity behind us again."

Heading onto the third location we were putting ourselves in a position of weakness. With three different paths leading to the flag it was the hardest position to hold in the entire map.

"Callum watch the front left, Gamora the back. I'll cover the side." said Solana

Placing myself near one of the crates I take aim overlooking the water and sand. Taking aim at the first geth I spot I fire three rounds into it's chest. With three more rapidly approaching I push up the bolt-lever and pull it back. Going from medium-sized grain to large.

The next geth received two rounds, one in the upper collar bone, or its geth equivalent and another in the base of the neck. Doing a quick scan to make sure that no one was being overwhelmed I turned back only for my eyes to widen

"Geth Prime!" I shouted

"SHIT! Callum focus on that! Let us know when it, or any geth from your side gets close to the ramp." ordered Solana when she saw the large, red, telltale frame of the geth Prime coming at us.

Almost as if my shout had offended it, the geth Prime sent a rocket our way.

Throwing up a shield I was able to block it with a little time to spare. Grabbing a geth I had yet to take out, I sent it flying into the Prime.

Doing so though felt weird, not only wasn't there any real weight behind the geth but there was also the slightest delay with the hologram moving in response to my biotics.

The geth Prime, or more accurately the hologram of the geth Prime barely stumbled before opening fire. Throwing a singularity at the foot of the geth to slow it down I hired overpowered round after overpowered round into the Prime, five in total. When I thought it was close to going down I detonated the singularity sending it over the edge.

Turning around I saw Gamora and Solana finish up with the geth on their side. When that was done we moved on to the final flag. Thankfully there wasn't any more geth Primes only the standard troops.

When the last flag was captured we made our way back to the consol to check our time.

"Okay, apparently that was the standard scenario 'A rough estimation on the resistance you would normally espect going against the geth' they also have 'heavy' and 'extreme' which we just unlocked. That to me either means more geth we have to deal with, or there are more heavy units over standard troops. Our time was...4 minutes." said Solana reading the console

"I believe we could easily take 3 minutes off our time if not more." said Gamora seriously

"If we rush yes." agreed Solana "But we're not doing that."

"I thought that was the point of this exercise?" asked Gamora confused

"It is, but it's also to test and improve our teamwork." I said getting a confused look from her "There's a human expression, don't run before you can walk. It means don't do things that are difficult before you can do something that is easy. Another term is taking baby steps, doing little can lead to big if you do it long enough. Sure if we rush we can complete the scenario quicker, hell if we split up and everyone goes for one flag before we meet up in the middle we can cut down the time to a third. But the point is to improve teamwork, rushing before we can work as a team properly will disrupt that instead of helping to build it as it will be more like individuals working together rather than a team covering each other's weakness. Understand?" I ask

"...no." answered Gamora bluntly getting a sigh from me

"Think of it this way. We need to learn how to work together now so we can do it later. If we focus on doing the best we can individually then later on when we need teamwork the most we won't be able to pull it off. With the Thorian we were heavily outnumbered, if we had been fighting as individuals we would have been overwhelmed. Some like Wrex might have lasted longer but eventually there would have been too many hostiles and not enough friendlies, thanks to teamwork though we were able to hold our own.

Two teams were able to hold back the creepers while a third was able to prevent...your sisters? from joining the fight as well as giving assistance to the other teams. However, if one of the teams had pushed too hard, too fast or gotten overwhelmed then things could have caused the plan to fall apart. Going at a reasonable pace though everyone was able to cover everyone else."

Seeing where she was going I added

"It's like I've been teaching you in swords, you need good flow. Structure and flow is how well the team works together, pressure is how hard you go at the enemy. Too much pressure and you can leave yourself open, too little and they can force an opening.

Bad structure or flow on the other hand will immediately cause the team to fall apart the second things start to go wrong. That's what we want to do here, learn good structure and flow so we can use the right amount of pressure later. Do you understand now?"

"I think so." said Gamora "Working as a group can allow one to defeat enemies a singular opponent cannot, the Old Growth knows this but I was not aware it could be this...complicated."

"It can be, if you can't work well in a group the group can't take down a strong enemy. If we rushed like you suggested and got too far apart from one another then it would be 3 individuals and not one group making it much easier to take us out.

The longer you work in a group the easier it gets to tell if you're pushing too much. Also, you seem to be working in a team well so far, just want to make sure you know fast doesn't always mean good." said Solana

"I will go over the memories given by the Old Growth and the asari later. There should be something I can learn from." promised Gamora

"Remind me to also send you some links about ancient human armies. Mainly Roman, Greece and Spartan. A single roman soldier might not hold his own against say a krogan but a shield wall could very well have held up to a krogan charge." I said before adding "...or at least allowed them to inflict fatalities then they would have normally."

After that we restarted the scenario on the heavy setting. There were significantly more heavy units instead of just the one as well as a single geth hopper and there were multiple times we lost or nearly lost our kinetic barriers before we had to duck into cover.

Progress was much slower than before and I was almost exclusively using one shots to take out the larger geth units while using the largest grain size to deal with the others quickly.

When I needed to vent or change heat clips I threw down a singularity to buy myself time while Solana or Gamora covered me. I would then detonate it and provide cover while they did the same before repeating.

When I didn't have time to vent I would switch to my pistol, only going for my assult rifle when they got too close but not close enough for my sword. That, with the number of geth we were against...wasn't something I was interested in trying out unless I had to.

Using the pistol lowered my damage output but it also freed up an arm making it easier to pull off biotic techniques such throwing smaller geth into the bigger ones as well as using shield which had the added bonus on providing Gamora and Solana with more cover and increasing their damage output making it a good trade.

Other techniques I used were slam if there was a group of geth together at a distance and shockwave if they were closer or getting to close for comfort and I needed to stumble a geth Prime or Juggernaut.

There wasn't any geth drones though, something I was thankful for. They might have been easier to take down then a typical geth unit but the number of places could fire from made them incredibly dangerous. Especially in a large group, arguably even more then a geth Prime, at least that was a singular target. If any of them came around while we were pinned we'd literally be sitting ducks.

Thankfully no drones appeared and we eventually reached the last flag and finished the scenario.

"I can see why you insisted on no rushing, if we had not been able to support each other we would have not been able to complete this attempt." said Gamora

"Well that was a lot harder than I expected." agreed Solana "Now how about we go for the extreme and see how we go before switching to a different scenario? I don't know how well we'll do but we'd most as well try."

Selecting the hardest setting Solana said

"Now everyone be careful, we don't know what they'll have but from the last one I'm guessing more heavy units."

When the scenario started we all heard loud noises coming from the right.

"Spirits you have to be kidding me!" exclaimed Solana

It was a fucking geth tank

"MOVE!" shouted Solana

Running up the walkway we immediately encountered two geth primes and three normal geth one of which had a rocket launcher. Ducking into cover I immediately took out the rocket trooper with a single overpowered shot, it was overkill but I wasn't taking any chances and I needed to thin the numbers as quickly as possible before the geth tank got into position. If we ended up pinned from two directions we were all but stuffed.

Gamora put down a singularity which I immediately detonated with a Shot, a small ball of biotic energy before I replaced it with my own singularity. It didn't really do anything aside cause the big guys to stumble a little bit and the normal geth units were too far away to be affected but I hoped it would at least deal enough damage to their shields to make it count.

If it was just the geth tank or Primes we were facing then we would have made it, instead we had to deal with both as the Primes were in front of us and the tank had far stronger shields then them we decided to leave the tank for later if we even got that far. Unfortunately by the time we were able to take one of the geth Primes out the other one was on us and the tank was in a position where it could start shooting at our backs.

Solana was the first to go, I had completely overheated my rifle dealing with the geth units and taking out one of the Primes before switching to my assault rifle with the others to take out the final Prime. When it finally looked like the Prime was close to going down Solana switched to her shotgun and jumped over the barrier while I continued laying down some covering fire to distract the Prime as much as I could.

As it went down I quickly swapped the universal heat clip with another while Solana backed off enough to avoid the explosion that came after its death but she wasn't out of sight from the geth tank. Unfortunately, though she wasn't out of sight of the geth tank and one of the glowing rounds landed quite close to her. Since it was only a hologram it didn't send her flying but her omni-tool bleared red and gave off a loud noise.

A number of angry clicks that came out of Solana's mouth didn't translate but I'm pretty sure it meant something along the lines of Fuck fuck fuck!

"Well that's me out, you two keep going I'll wait here."

Not that Gamora and I made it much further, at the next flag we encountered two Primes coming at us from both directions we were completely over helmed. Even spamming singularities to slow them down and drain their shields didn't help. We were able to take one down and weaken the rest but without the added firepower of Solana we weren't able to take them down.

Gamora was the next to go, she was hit by a rocket from one of the Primes while her shields were still depleted from previous fire and her omni-tool went off signifying her 'death' in the game. With only myself left I drew my sword and covered it in biotic energy. Considering the circumstances it was an incredible gamble, but it was the only way I could possibly get any further. The first slash caused one of the Primes to flash, as did the second, the third blow caused it to fall down.

Knowing that it was seconds from blowing up I instinctively 'wished' myself away. Then, somehow I instinctively pulled off a move I've been trying to do fo a while...a biotic evade. The closest way I could describe it was I was 'pulling' myself in a certain direction, I tried to do it before but aside from the time I felt like I nearly dislocated a limb I didn't get anywhere.

Unfortunately, thanks to a combination of my surprise at pulling off a biotic technique I've been trying to do for a while and the two Primes that were still very much active I was quickly taken out and the scenario ended in a fail.

"Never seen you use that biotic technique before." said Solana "What is it?"

"It's something that I've been trying to do for a while without success, I'm pretty much 'pulling' myself in a certain direction, its like a younger sibling of the biotic charge. Today was the first time I managed it though, I've used biotics to increase the punch of my sword but with this, I can double if not triple the range I can effectively use it. I've also been working on increasing and decreasing my mass in case I ever take a fall." I said

"Well that ended as well as I thought it would, still though I think the addition of a geth tank was a bit much. Even if the scenario was on extreme." said Solana

"Shall we try again?" asked Gamora

"...no, while our weapons are good enough to do it our gear currently isn't. Also, there's no point in struggling to complete an almost impossible task when we can still learn more from one that's less intense. Let's try a different scenario, what do you think hunt or survival?" asked Solana

"I reckon we go with hunt. Now we've gotten to know how to work as a team let's put it to the test." I said

Doing the demo was a bit annoying but it helped to point out the difference in the scenarios. We completed the standard and heavy with decent times before deciding to stop for lunch. It was a bit earlier than we originally intended but I was starving, one of the benefits of being a biotic was the higher metabolism. I could eat what I want and how much I want without much risk of gaining weight as long as I was careful.

Getting to the cafeteria we found it nearly deserted, with only a few people in the large room such as a large krogan a few heads shorter then Wrex digging into a steak...it was a bit messy.

Finding the console that displayed the menu we went over the options. While the food was far superior to that on the Normandy it seemed they didn't have an onboard chief. Instead, it seemed like they bulk-ordered a number of preserved meals that would be stored. It was like one of those easy cook meals that they had in the frozen section of the supermarket, except the heating up was done for you.

Going between the parma and lasagna I ended up going with...the lasagna with Gamora copying me. Solana went for a steak of some sort with some sort of red sauce.

"I'm curios, can say human and turians really not eat each other's food? I swear I remember hearing something about a human drinking some turian brandy or something." I said thinking of one of the times I made Shepard pass out drunk "Unless it was just made by turians and not for turians?" I asked

"It's complicated." answered Solana "It's neither a yes or no answer, it's more like an allergy that you may or may not have. Some can eat or drink it without any problems, I have a couple of friends like that who's bodies can break it down with little issue aside from maybe a slight loss of nutrients. Others can get only discomfort while others can go into shock and die, there's also the taste difference to consider. Turians are full-on meat eaters, so why take risks on food we don't like and turian dishes are to 'tangy' for most humans."

"Huh, I guess that makes sense." I said, while the biology and DNA structure was different it was all carbon-based and whatnot

"There's a few tests you can take that will show if can consume levo or dextro food if your interested but again most don't like the taste difference in what is considered 'good good.'" said Solana

With that we continued eating and engaging in small talk, not that Gamora was that goo in small talk.

Eventually, two more competitors entered the cafeteria. Two asari, one of which was wearing heavier armour than was usual. Seeing us, or more probably Gamora they head our way.

"Well hello, you must be one of the new teams?" asked the one in the light armour

I don't know if it was her tone or their posture but I was immediately reminded of one of those female characters. You know the ones that are pretty, popular...and had an absolutely horrible attitude.

"You know I never saw a green asari before." said the one in almost heavy armour "Did your mother fuck a tree?"

That seemed to get a giggle out of both of them. Just incase I put a hand on her shoulder, something that they noticed.

"Have a thing with asair do you? If you're interested you should try a more 'traditional' asari." said/offered/suggested the asair in heavy armour

"Why would he be interested in you when I am the superior female?" asked Gamora which got a negative reaction out of the asari, in particular from the one in heavy.

"Oh really? You want to go?"

"Calm down! Aita." hissed the other asari

"Fine." snarled the asari in heavy armour "You're not worth it, what asari has green skin?"

With that crisis avoided, we resumed eating until we were joined by Shepard and her team.


I changed pinnacle station a bit, the way I see it the energy costs to erect a barrier over a mountain the size of a small ship is much more expensive than building a fake mountain in the long run. Also, since it's state of the art having more simulations than volcanic, underground and tropical just makes sense. Seriously 3 maps for an entire station I don't think so.

Also I tried to find any conversation between the asari and Shepard online so I had to make up there personalities on what I can remember, what they look like and how other asari in their kind or profession act