Chapter 4: The Krogan

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SSV Normandy SR-1

En route to the Citadel

Shepards head felt like it had been sat on by an Elcor.

His head was all foggy. Ughhh…. What happened? He thought to himself.

A somewhat familiar voice answered his internal question. "Doctor? Doctor Chakwas? I think he's waking up." Was that…. What's her name? Ashlyn? No. Ashley? Yes, Ashley. But why's she…. Eden Prime. He began to sit up and put his hand on his head as he groaned. When he felt skin touch his head and not gauntlets, he realized he wasn't in his armor anymore, instead in his Alliance BDUs. He looked up when he heard footsteps approaching him and saw Dr. Chakwas.

"You had us worried there, Shepard. How are you feeling?" She asked, picking up a datapad.

Shepard put his hand back on his head and shook it. "Like the morning after shore leave." He heard stifled laughter from behind him. "How long was I out?"

The Doctor looked at him. "About fifteen hours. Something happened down there with the beacon, I think."

He heard Williams start to speak, so he turned around to face her. "It's my fault. I must've triggered some kind of security field when I approached it. You had to push me out of the way."

He cracked his neck and shrugged. "It's not your fault. You had now way to know what would happen." He mentioned honestly, and he could see a layer of tension roll off the Gunnery Chief's shoulders. Now that he had thought about it, this was the first time he got a good look at her without her helmet on. She looked vaguely familiar, but from where he had no idea. He heard Chakwas start speaking again so he turned back to her.

"Actually, we don't even know if that's what set it off. Unfortunately, we'll never get the chance to find out."

The Gunnery Chief then went to explain, as she walked around the Commander so she was standing next to the Doctor. "The beacon exploded. A system overload, maybe. The blast knocked you cold. The Lieutenant and I carried you back to the ship."

He nodded his head gratefully. "Thanks. I appreciate it."

Chakwas looked at him, narrowing her eyes. "Physically, you're fine. But I detected some unusual brain activity, abnormal beta waves. I also noticed an increase in your rapid eye movement, signs typically associated with intense dreaming."

He put his left hand on his chin in a contemplative manner. "I saw… I'm not sure what I saw, exactly. Death. Destruction. Nothing's really clear."

"Hmmm. I better add this to my report. It may- Oh, Captain Anderson."

The Captain nodded at the three of them as he walked over. "How's our XO holding up, doctor?"

"All the readings look normal. I'd say he's going to be fine." Chakwas responded.

"Glad to hear it." He then turned to the Commander and continued. "Shepard, I need to speak with you… In private."

Shepard and Chakwas nodded and Ashley saluted as she spoke. "Aye, aye, Captain. I'll be in the mess if you need me." She then proceeded to leave the med bay, alongside the doctor.

Ashley didn't know what to feel.

On one hand, she'd just lost her whole squad so she was obviously distraught about that. But as with everything, there was a silver lining: she had been officially transferred over to the Normandy. Her first shipboard posting, and for once, it seemed like she was actually wanted here. The rest of the ground team especially seemed to like the idea of her serving with them, as she had gotten transferred by a recommendation from Lieutenant Alenko. Also, after the Commander had finished his debrief with Captain Anderson he came out to find her in the mess hall and they had a short conversation where the Commander had told her that from what little he had seen, he thought she was a good soldier… and an even better sniper.

She decided she liked the Commander and that she could see them and the Lieutenant working well together in the field. She reminded herself that eventually she'd have to ask Shepard about some of his more "interesting" scars. While they were talking, she had been focused on one that went down from his forehead,over his eye and down the right side of his face to his cheek.

But none of that mattered right now.

Because right now they were on the Citadel, looking for a Krogan bounty hunter in order to find evidence against Saren. She knew that he was probably their best lead, but she could tell the N7 was enticed at the prospect of having a Krogan on the team.

Currently, the three marines were walking through the wards in order to get to C-Sec Academy. The Volus they had met earlier, Barla Von, told them that the Krogan would be there. They stopped at a vista to look out at the ward arms of the Citadel. They leaned on the side and looked out.

Kaiden exhaled and started. "Big place."

Ashley slowly turned her head towards the Lieutenant, who was on her left, with slightly narrowed eyes and a smirk. "That your professional opinion, sir?"

She then heard Shepard, who was on her right join in the conversation with his own astonishment at the view. "This isn't a station; it's a city."

"There must be millions here. It can't be possible to track everyone coming and going." Kaiden added.

Ashley let her eyes lazily follow a ship that was drifting into dock. "This makes Jump Zero look like a porta-john. And it's the largest deep space station the Alliance has."

Kaiden shook his head. "Jump Zero was big. But this is a whole nother scale. Look at the ward arms. How do they keep all that mass from flying apart?"

Shepard turned to the two marines. "The Council represents more races than I thought. No wonder they're careful with newcomers."

"They probably just wanna keep everything running smoothly. It has to be hard keeping all these cultures working together." Kaiden agreed.

"Or maybe they just don't like humans." Ashley shrugged.

Without missing a beat, Shepard, still looking out at the various ships passing by, responded. "Why not?" He then turned back to them and began counting on his fingers as he listed the pros that their species had. "We've got oceans, beautiful women, this emotion called love." He shrugged. "According to the old vids, we have everything they want." He said flatly.

Ashley, thinking he was attempting to flirt with her, shot back without thinking. "If you expect to get me in a tinfoil miniskirt and thigh-high boots, I want dinner first." Her eyes widened when she realized what she had said, to her commanding officer of all people, and tried to amend her statement. "...Sir." She quickly added and turned away from him as she felt her cheeks reddening from embarrassment.

The biotic could see her trying to retain her composure, so he jumped in to keep her from saying anything more embarrassing. "That'll be enough, Chief."

"At ease, Lieutenant. I can't see her in a skirt anyway." Shepard responded, trying to play it off.

The sharpshooter hesitantly looked at her commander and responded. "Dang straight you can't."

"Ready to move out, sir." Kaiden voiced.

The three went down a stairwell that led to the elevator that would take them to C-Sec Academy.

When they got there, they found the biggest Krogan any of them had ever seen (Which was none for Ashley,) arguing with a group of C-Sec officers. When he saw the three Alliance marines, he walked towards the group.

He got in Shepard's face, snarled at him quickly, then spoke. "Yes, human?"

Ashley was surprised because Shepard seemed completely unfazed. She thought he would've flinched or something, but he just stood and crossed his arms as he began. "I'm trying to bring down Saren. Barla Von said you're the one to talk to."

The Krogan nodded his head approvingly. "Barla Von is a wise man. We may share a common goal, human."

"Enlighten me." Shepard stated, crossing his arms.

The Krogan Lowered his voice so it was just the three marines that could hear. "I've been hired to kill the owner of Chora's Den, A man named Fist. He did something very foolish."

Shepard could see where this was going. "Let me guess. He betrayed the Shadow Broker."

The Krogan nodded and grunted in affirmation. "A Quarian showed up here on the Citadel. She was on the run. She wanted to trade information for a safe place to hide, so she went to Fist. He promised to arrange a meeting between her and the Shadow Broker. Instead, he contacted Saren."

Shepard shook his head. "Fist's not too smart."

"He's just greedy. Saren paid him a small fortune for the Quarian. He had to. She has evidence connecting him to the Geth." The Krogan responded.

Ashley knew this was serious and spoke up. "If we can get that evidence, we can prove that Saren's a traitor."

"The Council will have to listen to us." Kaiden agreed.

Shepard nodded his head in agreement with his teammates. "Where's the Quarian now?" He asked the Krogan.

"Last I heard, Fist still had her. Probably somewhere inside his club." The Krogan paused for a second, then continued. "You let me kill Fist, she's all yours."

"I have no problems with that." Shepard answered.

"What about Garrus, that Turian? He wants to take Saren down too." Ashley asked, remembering their encounter in the Council chambers.

"Yeah, you're right. He might come in handy" The Commander agreed.

The Krogan knew who that was. "He was here just before you showed up. Said he was going to follow up a lead on his investigation. Wanted to speak to the doctor at the med clinic."

Shepard then introduced himself and his associates. "I'm Commander Shepard by the way." He gestured to his right. "This is Gunnery Chief Williams," He then gestured to his left. "And this is Lieutenant Alenko."

The Krogan stuck out his hand. "Urdnot Wrex."

Shepard accepted Wrex's hand and gave it a firm shake. "I think we'll get along just fine, Wrex."

A/N: Sorry I've been gone for so long. I actually had this half chapter ready to go for a month but didn't know if I would be able to continue the story. I don't curse, but because there is a lot of it in the games, I didn't think I could do the characters justice (especially once ME2 rolls around and I'd have to write for Jack and Zaeed.) But I've decided to give it a shot. So I'll probably be gone for a little while again so I can make the next chapters longer, but I have not abandoned you!

I hope y'all enjoy it even with the changes ;)