A/N - Seems I'm releasing at half my original rate because I'm writing out ahead. I'd apologize, but the chapters are still twice the size of the ones that were biweekly, and nobody's sent any nastygrams; thanks. Several new favorites and follows, though; thanks a lot and welcome!

*** Therum: Landing ***

The view outside Normandy's hangar door rolled and shuddered as the ship descended through more turbulence, but they were under the three-kilometer cloud deck, and the only ground visible looked like a field of volcanoes.

Kaidan watched the Launch Coordinator on his ARO, graphics and numbers following his gaze across the Mako's avionics.

Joker's voice spoke over the 'comm, "Launch in three, two…one…Go!" As he said "go," the catapult made a zip noise right before it accelerated the Mako to the end of the ramp, shoving everyone back into their seats.

There was a disconcerting silence as they hurtled through the air. What had been visible of the ground tilted down and out of view as the Mako entered freefall; the cabin briefly became a zero-gee environment.

Braking jets fired, slowing their forward motion and drop speed. Everyone was shoved firmly forward and down as Normandy roared past overhead.

"Contact in five seconds," Kaidan called out. He paused. "Four…three…braking jets firing…!"

The Mako hit the ground and bounced once, jarring everyone forward again, then squeaked to a stop.

Garrus looked around. "Hey, that was pretty good."

"Thanks," Kaidan said. He moved the control sticks in opposite directions, rotating the Mako in its own length, then stopped to study the ground sitrep on his ARO.

The Mako had landed at the end of a low box canyon composed primarily of reddish volcanic rock. The sky overhead remained clouded and gray, with hints of red reflected from below. In the distance were 3-meter pipes in bright chrome, connecting processing and extraction stations. Circular tuberamp entrances dotted several of the nearby slopes.

Their internal comms crackled briefly as Joker came back on, "Mako, Normandy Flight. Commander, we're picking up some strange readings…I mean really strange, like 'off the damn charts'."

There was an awkward pause as Shepard looked across at Kaidan in disbelief. The biotic looked away from the road just long enough to shrug. Shepard frowned, "Are you kidding me? What am I supposed to do with, 'off the damn charts'? Put Pressly on, will you? Or Gladstone. Or the Boatswain."

"All right, keep your hair on." The comm chirped as Joker switched settings, "Sensors, tell the ground team what you told me."

A new voice said, "Sensors here, sir. Sorry about that…I may have gotten a little too technical for the Flight Lieutenant. I'm seeing…uh, lots of the same signals as we saw on Eden Prime. I think the geth are here in force."

Shepard was all business. "Numbers?"

"At least thirty infantry units at the AO. Some bigger ones than we saw on Eden Prime, too…probably mobile artillery."

"Tanks? Rocket Launchers?"

"Both, sir. Looks like two or three units with big eezo-based linacs. Just a moment, sir." The comm went silent.

Shepard glanced at Alenko, gestured ahead. "Let's go."

"Movin' out," Alenko said. The whine of six MilSpec electric motors filled the cabin as the Mako accelerated; the Mako's comm chirped as Tanaka came back on the line. "Sir, Ident says it looks like those heavy launchers are a match for your shields. You might be able to take a couple of direct hits, but they can tear you apart if they get a lock on you."

Shepard put a hand to his ear, taking the call to private mode. "What are we talkin' about here?"

"Almost 80% efficiency at five grams, sir. And big generators, not just multicaps; those things are meant to stay in the field for a long time. But with those esigs, uh…I can't find the eezo that would indicate linacs. There's something really weird about these things. But I can see that they have enough power to throw ten gram slugs at point two cee."

Shepard blanched, swallowed, and shook his head.

A text window opened up on Shepard's ARO: A. Williams: What's the word?

"Thanks, Normandy. Do you have fixes on the heavies?"

"Yes, sir; I've updated your Nav."

Shepard frowned. "Is that big ship of theirs here again?"

"Negative, sir. If I'd seen that, I'd have told you as soon as I knew."

"Good job, Tanaka. What else do you have?"

"The planet appears to be largely unpopulated…like Io. Got four or five extraction and processing stations with Eldfell-Ashland transponders within five kliks, but there's one that's claiming to be from an asari university…Serris? Ser-ees?"

"Serrice," Shepard corrected.

"Serrice University, yessir. Looks like it's only a few kliks northwest of the LZ."

"Thanks, Normandy. Let me know if you find anything else." Shepard released the privacy toggle. "All right team, here's the drill." Alenko released the throttle; the Mako rolled freely down the low hill as Shepard continued, "We're going to be up against some heavy artillery. If past experience is a guide, they will be using jacketed rounds with shield-piercing capability, and I don't know how much damage we'll be able to do. Every shot will have to count. Alenko, speed will help only if we can be unpredictable."

Kaidan nodded soberly as the Mako squeaked to a stop.

Shepard glanced over his shoulder. "Williams, you ever kangarooed in a Mako?"

"Not in a Mako, but we had a few M-29s at Sargon." She sounded confident. "They don't hop as high, but I did learn how to do it." She glanced down into the cockpit. "I'd like to fire off a few practice shots if we can. Whaddya say, LT?"

Alenko checked the Mako's sensors, "We will partly be advertising our presence, but I think now's a better time than later. I recommend firing towards our eight. Still, the Mako is a little different than the Grizzly. There's a jump jet trigger at your left foot." He reached behind him at armrest height and patted its cage, "And it's enabled now. You stomp it, and it gives you better control over the timing of your shots. Otherwise, the turret's software should keep you steady regardless of where I turn or jump.

"If we switch you to full control, you get the throttle and steering on your left stick." Kaidan stuck a thumb over his shoulder. "Right trigger fires the 5mm, left trigger fires the 10mm cannon. Cyclic on the cannon is about five seconds."

Ash exercised the sticks, "Hey great, and about time." The turret atop the Mako swiveled, its heavy motors growling as the turret panned left and right, the elevated gunnery chair did not. She flipped open the trigger cover on the right stick, "Who says you can't teach an engineer about fighting?"

Shepard glanced over his shoulder, tried to sound hurt, "Hey."

"Probably the same idiots who say you can't teach a soldier about thinking," quipped Tali.

Before Ash could react, Kaidan emulated Shepard's delivery, "Hey."

"All right you clowns," Shepard interrupted, "Let's not get dead. Williams, you wanna normalize your suit to it?"

"Yes, sir." She tapped the foot control, and the Mako bounced on its suspension. She floored it, and the vehicle launched into the air. "Wow! Compared to the Grizzly, this is an aircar!" She hopped the Mako a few more times, and then fired the cannon at the top of its jump. "Controls locked in," she gloated, "This thing is awesome! I could shoot the eyebrows off a wasp at 300 meters!"

Shepard pointed ahead. "Let's go." He leaned back in his seat and lit the console interface as the Mako accelerated. "Williams, you've got the eyes. I want to dig for some intel about this Serrice University expedition."

"I'm on it," Ash said.

They rolled along in silence for a few minutes.

Tali leaned away from her seat and looked forward, trying see out the artificial windscreen. Reddish, basaltic igneous formations were everywhere, white clouds of vapor drifting lazily over the surface as if it had just rained on a hot skillet. "It's like we landed in a volcano," she said, "Does it all look like this?"

Shepard didn't look up. "From the intel I have, it does. This world is apparently claimed by the Alliance, and there are…" he shook his head, "fifty…maybe sixty mining operations, most of 'em autocorps, all working to strip-mine it to nothing. But there are also Prothean ruins, and the Universities and Council are trying to catalog and record them before they go away."

"Good luck with that," Garrus said.

"No, really. From what I'm seeing here, the Alliance appreciates their potential value. They're letting the researchers and archaeologists take deep sensor readings and mark out the areas that can be worked first. I've been getting warning pop-ups every few seconds." He pointed at the simulated windshield with highlights that only he could see.

"Smart," Garrus nodded. He was becoming increasingly unnerved at the krogan's unblinking stare. Though the Mako bounded and lurched its way across the landscape, Wrex hadn't moved since the landing. He finally asked, "Wrex, are you all right?"

The krogan, wearing Blood Pack armor from which the markings looked to have been obliterated with a rock, was filling an enormous percentage of the space in the cabin, but sitting so still he could have been a statue. As the turian spoke, the krogan blinked, and turned his head slightly. "What?"

Garrus articulated more carefully, "Are you all right? I noticed you hadn't moved since we landed. I was hoping you weren't dead."

The krogan laughed heartily, swatted at the turian's chest, "Ha hah! Then you must not be a real turian!" He guffawed and snorted at his own joke, then added, "No, no…I was just resting. Never miss a chance to nap or crap, right? Come on, you've been in the service. Uh…haven't you?"

Garrus' talons played quickly across the armor, examining it for damage by touch alone. "Well, I did my civil service in the Fleet marines." Satisfied the sheen of matte finish had not been marred, he looked up. "Then joined C-Sec. Less actual death, more bureaucratic frgh–" the Mako screeched, seemed to bounce up, and then continued.

"Sorry," Kaidan called back to them. "The terrain is unstable, and GPR is having trouble scanning ahead with this kind of soil."

"Yeah, tell me about it," Wrex leaned back, but nodded toward the turian. "As often as I have to go there, you'd think they could give me a break once in a while. Usually takes two days to clear for Wards access. You could go bankrupt paying Presidium prices for berth and board just waiting." He shook his head in recollection, "And people wonder why my rates are so high."

"Have you ever tried the shelters?" Garrus offered, "You don't have to be a refugee to use the dispensers. And they have drawerberths. Some of them even have AutoDocs."

"Yeah…foodpaste if you're a turian."

"Or a quarian," added Tali.

"No, they have levo paste, too," Garrus added, "You just have to select it. And they have a good array of flavor-adds. Some of the pelats have open-source competitions for flavor hacking. They use olfactory and chemsamp tech to figure out what things taste like to each other. Did you ever wonder where Kabliss got started?"

"Ehh…" Wrex waved him off. They rode in silence for a moment, the Mako squeaking and rattling as it trundled along. The road was becoming less obvious.

Tali tilted her head as she regarded the krogan. "Have you actually tried dispenser food? It's not just paste, you know. Synthfood gets a bad reputation with the word. You can shortwave it into little crisps, or thermacook it into biscuits or muffins, or—"

"Can you make it into meat?" Wrex interrupted. "I'm a meatatarian."

Tali seemed to brighten at the challenge. "Not only can you, I have some some process apps that cook up Panto HealthCHON into something that tastes just like mee'dwi in under twenty seconds. It even has the texture."

Wrex sniffed with disdain. "Mee'dwi? That's a snack food."

Tali teased back, "How about shratha? Cook it for twice as long, and I'll bet you could make it as hard to chew as that." She noticed Garrus' slight head movement; he was listening again.

And Wrex knew it, too. "Turian shratha? Feh. I squish that stuff between my teeth after I've chewed it to liquid. Can't you do something with real texture like…I don't know…like varren?"

Tali wasn't sure where this was going, but she was enjoying herself. "I think I could do that. I'll bet I could even throw in some gravel if you want a real challenge."

"Well, maybe…but it has to be seriously big gravel, not just sand or dirt."

"Now you're just being silly."

Garrus leaned forward so he could see around the krogan. "Well, only partly. As I understand it, krogan cuisine is kind of constrained by field prep issues. On those few occasions when they actually cook before they eat, they use whatever's handy, like flamethrowers or by siphoning gel off an incendiary ammodder." He shook his head in recollection. "It's easy to drop something when you're trying to get it to cook evenly, so you end up looking for the tastiest dirt to cook over, 'cause if you don't set it on fire remotely, you just know you're going to drop it at least once."

"Hey, don't knock it 'til you try it," Wrex said to Garrus, "If you overcook something, there's no blood to run down your armor and make you look all terrifying in combat." Wrex thumped his own bloodied chest.

Garrus looked at the krogan as if for the first time, waved vaguely toward the krogan's armor. "Are you telling me this is all because you're a messy eater?" Mandibles splayed, he shook his head in mock amazement.

"Well…" the krogan seemed slightly embarrassed. "Not all of it." He looked pointedly at a splat of dried brown on the red armor near his left shoulder. "You didn't see when I got that one human in a headlock at Chora's Den." He tapped part of the trophy, "I'll bet if you looked close enough at this, you could see what the last thing was that went through this guy's mind. Oh, wait…" Looking up and right, Wrex put a finger thoughtfully to his chin, "It was me."

Tali smiled to herself, but Garrus seemed taken aback. "What? Where was he?"

"Behind the security booth to the right of the door," Wrex seemed pleased with himself. "If you don't know there's cover there, you can miss him until it's too late." The unspoken implication was that the krogan had saved the turian's life.

There was almost a minute of silence as Garrus replayed the footage from his suit's NetBite; the turian's fringe contracted slightly. "So it would seem. Uh…nice work, Wrex. Thanks."

"Aw, don't get all weepy on me, ya big sissy. I didn't do it for you. Who do you think would have to carry you to the hospital? I was just saving myself work."

Tali leaned forward so she could see Garrus. "Hey, wait a minute. Did you just say there's a way to experience the taste of levo food even if you're a dextro?"

"And vice versa," Garrus nodded, glad of a topic change.

"Do they have chocolate?" Tali seemed suddenly interested. "I've heard about it; the humans seem to really love the stuff."

"Yeah, there's chocolate. If you try it, try the milk chocolate. But don't get your hopes up. What makes chocolate so appealing to humans is the endorphins it emulates in their brains."

"Endorphins?" Ash interrupted, "What? Really?"

"Really. It's the same reaction you have when you're in the presence of someone with a genetic structure that fits well with yours. It's all chemistry; you're not conscious of it. Turians don't have many foods that cause the same reaction…which is probably related to why there aren't many fat turians."

"That's just because you store your extra energy as deposits under your collar and torso plates." Tali tapped the base of her neck. "A trim waist is attractive to males, and more deposits make the waist look slimmer, right?"

Garrus tilted his head oddly as he looked suddenly toward Tali. "Well…that's true, but it's not the whole story. Thousands of years ago, a…successful female could attract mates by showing she could kill effectively and reliably; a supportive waist both…uh…indicates and is caused by those deposits." He twitched his right mandible unconsciously; he hoped no one noticed. "But the kind of pherochemistry that humans use at distance doesn't really start to work in turians until you get within a few centimeters."

"Which you won't unless the female sees similar deposits on you," Wrex nodded. "Humans even have an expression about females like that: maneater."

"It's not the same thing," Garrus shook his head, "Turian females don't eat unsuccessful suitors."

"Neither do humans," Ash said quickly.

"Not usually," Kaidan added.

Wrex was still looking at Garrus, "Of course not…they leave them for the shratha." He seemed disgusted.

"Seriously?" Tali seemed horrified.

"That hasn't been the case for…tens of thousand of years," Garrus explained quickly, "Flage and thardia growers figured out that the little ones were easy to keep, and made for a reliable food supply. No need to risk your life trying to take down the big prey."

Tali's VI called up images of the small animals native to Palaven as Garrus continued, "And with enough nutrition, you could have the right build to be attractive to a female of…the right temperament. Besides, no one actually keeps a shratha."

"Sure they do…I saw it on a turian vid," Wrex said, "Tanira was her name, I think."

"No." Garrus was completely dismissive, "Not even a little. Wild Empress is adolescent fantasy trash."

"Hey, these are kind of cute, especially the thardia," Tali said as she scrolled through images, "You mean to tell me you eat them?"

"Oh, they're cute all right, especially when they're little, but they're mean, and they reproduce like crazy."

Ash didn't look away from the targeting systems, "Born pregnant?"

"Eh…not quite…" Garrus looked up toward the gunnery cage, "But they reach sexual maturity in weeks."

"What's wrong with that?" Wrex asked suddenly.

Garrus shrugged theatrically, "Nothing at all! Who said there was anything wrong with it?"

Wrex laughed, elbowed the turian. "Easy there, spike…just playing with you."

"Yeah, I know," Garrus nodded, checking his armor again.

"You don't have any of that chocolate flavor-add with you, do you?" Tali asked Garrus.

"No, but I carry the DFP file for it," Garrus illuminated his omnitool, waved it subtly. "You never know when you might end up on a ship full of levos, and get stuck with the six default flavors of…well, you know."

"I sure do," Tali agreed. She paused thoughtfully. "You sure know a lot about them," Tali spoke past Wrex toward Garrus. "The shelters, I mean."

"I…spent a lot of time under cover. Had to keep up the look and life for several weeks to build up good street cred, to be trusted."

"Trusted? Trusted by whom?"

His fringe contracted slightly. "Some low-lifes. Uh…" he seemed very uncomfortable talking about it, "There are still some people who insist that replacement organs have to be grown in vivo rather than in vitro."

"Hmm…" Tali said thoughtfully, "How quaint."

There was a momentary silence. Wrex turned his left eye on the turian. "Do what to huh?"

"That just means they have to come from live donors rather than be printed or grown in a lab," Tali clarified. "So what's wrong with that?"

"I'm…uh…well, I shouldn't talk about it. The investigation is…still ongoing."

"Hm. Oh well." Tali shrugged, looked around the cabin, "Can I patch into the turret view?" She looked up at Ash. "Chief Williams, does this ground car have a p-net?"

"No," Ash said flatly.

Shepard noticed a signal on the sensor displays, and highlighted it on the virtual windscreen so Kaidan would be sure to see it.

"Uh…actually..." Alenko sounded like he was actually trying to reassure Tali, "Not only does the M-35 have a hardened p-net, but I've upgraded it to give you access to the external—ah, hold it…here come our first customers. You ready up there?"

As they pulled up to a stop short of the next ridge, the comms crackled, "Mako, Normandy Flight. Uh, better stop there, Commander; Tanaka says the first group is over the next hill."

Shepard didn't look up from the Mako's sensor displays. "Kaidan already saw 'em. And we're stopped. Stand by, we're gonna handle 'em." Shepard lifted his finger from the PTT key on the console, studied the tactical display being transmitted from Normandy's orbit. "Looks like three." He looked up and out the simulated window, with its appearance of an AR overlay giving informative updates. "Chief. Three targets at 170 meters, zero-two-five. Looks like the middle one of 'em's got a missile launcher. I want him out first."

Kaidan lifted his hands off the sticks, "Turret, control is yours."

"Control is mine," Ash gripped the firing controls, grinning angrily. "OTH has a locks on three." She tapped the jump jet control and the Mako hopped about a meter into the air; high enough for Williams to see her targets. The main cannon thundered, and one of the geth, dutifully closing on the Mako, disappeared in an explosion.

Text appeared on Shepard's ARO: K. Alenko: Using a sledgehammer to swat a fly?

Shepard touched his left thumb to his middle finger, subvocalized, Kaidan: Maybe, but she's got some understandable issues. I'm guessing this could be therapeutic vengeance. We just have to keep it from getting out of hand.

The Mako leapt into the air again, and another expert shot from Williams detonated another geth mobile rocket launcher. The flaming wreckage continued to burn as it described a graceful arc, bounced, disintegrated.

Shepard looked over his left shoulder; Ash's eyes were obscured by her helmet's PVR mode, but he could see her slightly bared teeth. He heard the jump jets fire, the muffled thoom of the turret's main gun.

Get them, he thought, Make them pay!

As the Mako settled back onto its suspension, Kaidan nodded his approval. "Mighty impressive, Chief," he said, "Three shots, three kills."

Her grip on the controls looked firm as she toggled the PVR holograph, looked down at them and grinned. "You ain't seen nothin' yet. Next time, two shots." She flicked her thumb at a virtual toggle, pointed ahead. "Let's go!"

Shepard nodded, but as Alenko pressed the throttle, the turbine-like whine they heard was not coming from the Mako's motors. Shepard looked up quickly. "Air support incoming! Ten high!"

A bug-like vehicle, easily as big as Normandy, howled over the peaks to their left, slowing as it approached.

Williams was stunned, "Where did that come from? Why didn't Normandy tell us about it?"

"Must have been on the ground when we got here," Shepard worked the sensors. "Have they seen us?"

The craft yawed slowly to starboard and decelerated further; two smaller metallic shapes dropped from the alien ship, landing with thumps that resounded like gunfire.

"They saw us," Kaidan said dryly.

"Troops…?" Shepard realized, "They're landing troops!"

"We've got no cover," Ash looked quickly to both sides, "There isn't even any I can see!" She spun the gun left and up, and thumbed the firing key. An explosion erupted on the side of the metallic-green ship as the Mako's autoloader fed another slug into the linac and charged the MEFGs. "I don't know what I'm shooting at! Where is it soft?" The cannon shook the Mako again.

Shepard accelerated to 4x, noting the weapons library had no data on this design of ship they were fighting. He gestured for RTM. Tali, do you have any intel on this kind of ship?

There was a pause that seemed to take far too long. Shepard's VI continued to search his Library and NetBite for anything else useful.

VI Analysis of vessel reduced by neurotronics priority. Reducing color depth.

"Heading for cover; taking control back," Kaidan gripped the control sticks and headed for a clump of rocks to their left.

"You have control," Ash panned the turret as she held the right trigger, drawing a line of fire across the side of the ship with full-auto. Sparks and shrapnel erupted from the side of the geth craft, but didn't even leave scorch marks.

Tali'Zorah: No. I've never seen a ship like that anywhere. We know the geth have come back through the Veil, but we don't know what they are doing or want. The only reports we have are of small groups. The geth I got that audio clip from were in the Vostok system running a mining operation, not air assault. I'm sorry.

Alenko slowed and stopped the Mako behind the rocks, switched the Windshield View to Aft. "There's not enough cover here," he realized aloud, "I'm taking us back over that last rise." The Mako accelerated backwards up to the crest of the hill and back into cover…assuming the new ship didn't drop mobile artillery behind them, too.

The Mako's cannon continued to have no visible effect on the buglike ship; the thing continued its slow turn, and began to climb away; presumably it was heading for the dig.

"Dammit!" Ash snarled, "Come back and fight, you cowards!" She spun the turret right and got off one more shot at its "head" before the geth ship managed its escape with a rising screech.

Meanwhile, the lumps of gray metal that had been dropped were unfolding; they reminded Shepard of giraffes. Their main guns were clearly designed to provide "high ground" advantage, even on flat terrain. "Ground units are firing," he noted aloud. Blue bolts flared on the tops of each, but moving at speeds he could follow with unenhanced vision. "Those aren't linacs, they're…something else! Gunnery, take 'em down!"

"Give me the tank," Ash quickly rotated the turret around to port.

The Mako rolled to the top of the hill; Kaidan lifted his hands, letting an onboard VI temporarily drive the Mako as control was made available to the turret. "Gunnery, you have control!"

"I have control!" Ash didn't sound panicked; she nearly sang it. She moved like a machine; gripping the steering lightly with her left fingertips, her right hand toggled to a spectrometer view, and then rolled the Mako forward, jumping over a shot from the geth walker. The cannon began blasting salvos regularly, the smaller "machine gun" firing almost continuously between them as she continued to avoid incoming fire; on the third cannon shot, the geth unit on the right exploded brightly.

"Hah! Got you!" Ash rotated the turret to the other unit and saw it had fired again; she stomped the Jump control, leaping them over the blue bolt. "Pilot, can you get me in closer?" Ash flipped the toggle. "We're not going to get anything useful out of that one."

"You bet," he answered, "I have control," Kaidan said. The Mako turned as Ash continued her assault on the remaining geth artillery unit. Kaidan hopped another shot and turned to face the target, backing up to the top of the hill again.

Shepard kept his attention on the sensor display, tracking the geth vessel as it climbed back toward orbit; the Mako launched off the hilltop and bounced down the incline.

Shepard's console chirped at him: The sensor VI concluded that the geth were using a plasma-based weapon probably intended for shielded non-moving targets that simply had to be worn down. Those things are for a serious attack of a fixed location, he realized. They're aggressors.

The cannon shook the Mako again, and Ash let out a whoop of victory. "And that's why you don't put mobile artillery on legs," she gloated as the second walker collapsed. She continued to fire on it until they were too close to fire on it safely. At that point, it was just mangled wreckage.

Best practice with an unknown, Shepard mused, Burn it to ashes and then burn the ashes. If it really was an AI, it might still present a threat.

"Stop near that thing," Shepard said as he released his harness, "Alenko, Williams, on sentry. Keep a sharp eye out. Garrus, Tali, you're with me. I want a close look at this tech. Wrex, uh...smoke 'em if you got 'em."

"What?"

"You got five minutes. If you want a biobreak, now's the time."

Wrex snorted a laugh. "Biobreak? I'm good for days, pal."

Shepard grabbed the bar above the low door and jumped out. As he approached the smoking pile of geth, Tali and Garrus followed.

"Sniffer says the atmosphere's unbreathable," Garrus noted. "Even if you could breathe it, it's gonna smell like sulfur."

"Sure does," Tali said.

Garrus turned quickly, "What? How can you smell it?"

"Quarian enviro-suits are almost always equipped with sensor augmentation; mine's automatic. Not just sight and sound, but smell and touch, even in hardsuit mode. I can adjust the sensitivity, too."

Shepard stopped in front of the huge geth, which was still burning. "I'm glad to hear it," he said. "You two are into your own aspects of tech, hopefully complimentary to mine. We don't have a dedicated science team, and I didn't think to equip the Mako before we left. Can you help me analyze this thing?"

"Ha!" Tali laughed, "Try and stop me. I want to find out everything I can about the geth, and find out something new…not just something we forgot, but something the geth have done to themselves, or developed on their own." She crouched as she walked, her omnitool aglow as she circled the wreckage. "This could be another big break."

"Sounds like we can help each other," Shepard said. He noticed the turian was just standing there. "Don't be shy," he gestured at what was left of the geth walker. "There's room for two."

"Well…yeah, but…um…geth?"

"That's what my VI said."

"Definitely geth," Tali looked up from her omnitool. "But this one's slag. I can hardly find a single core cluster." She stood again, still looking at her omnitool, "The energy weapon is interesting, but really inefficient. I wish…I'd sure like to know what they think it's good at before finding out in combat."

Garrus lit his omnitool, waved his palm over the inert mass of twisted, blackened metal. "Hmm…"

"Something interesting?"

"Probably not. My omnitool is tweaked in criminal forensics. DNA, ballistics, prints, thermal signatures. I'm going to have to add back in a field science database. But my military time has me looking at this from a field artillery perspective." He pointed at the smoldering wreckage, "Been a while since I actually saw any, and this looks like exactly what it is: A walker that was hammered at 600 meters." He glanced toward the Mako. "That is one effective weapon."

"In the hands of a competent user," Shepard agreed. He turned to Tali. "So are you finding out anything you didn't already know?"

"No." She sounded dejected as she stood from the smoldering wreckage, "Next time, maybe we can only kill them just a little?"

# # #

Having launched the ground team, Joker pitched Normandy's nose up, climbing back up to a synchronous "spotter" orbit. This would put the ship within range of the team, able to provide parallax scanning, triangulation, orbital strike, and other combat services.

He nudged the Effective Mass control up, still holding the ship's realized mass under five kilograms. This would give them the ability to ascend the gravitational vector quickly, while requiring less of the heat sinks and thus keeping them hidden more efficiently. He was not quite satisfied with their position yet.

"Flight, Sensors. Got two bogeys changing vector. Now on your SVS."

Joker had noticed the two signals at the same time; he glanced at his infolens to confirm that the stealth systems were engaged. "Got 'em, Sensors; good work. You sure they're hostiles?"

"No IFF or transponders, Comm says the one now climbing to orbit from the surface dropped troops on the ground team. The other is moving to intercept them, probably at the AO."

"That's pretty hostile, alright. Where's Pressly? Why didn't he–" Joker cut himself off, "Crap." He studied the callout on the unknown climbing to orbit. "We have any idea what that thing is?"

"Not directly, sir; Active will give us away. Real big for an LV, kind of small for a troop carrier. Doesn't look like it's in a hurry, though."

"He probably doesn't know we're here," Joker grinned to himself.

Pressly's voice sounded over the Command Channel, and from the PA system with a few milliseconds' delay: "Red Alert. Red Alert. All hands to combat stations. Flight, maintain stealth and configure for Atmospheric Flight Geometry. Weapons, design long range attacks on both ships, prioritize the one on ascent. Engineering, I want full stealthed delta vee available in thirty seconds." He repeated the order as Joker began to study the situation details.

A red arc appeared over the planet shown in Joker's SVS display, describing a ballistic flightpath that would allow Normandy to quickly attack both ships without detectably compromising their stealth, or staying on the same vector from which the attack had been launched.

Joker switched channels angrily. "Weaps, Flight. Belay that, we're too high for AFG. I'm declaring Flight Command. Redesign firing solutions for IFG, I will be taking us to…uh…" He selected a point in space using the SVS, "Zenith twenty Kilo, same relative azimuth. I want them as far away from the ground team as possible. Weaps, is that firing solution ready on Bogey One?"

"Aye, sir; target locked in."

Pressly ran onto the bridge and hurled himself into the Navigation chair. "Keep it simple," he cautioned. "They'll be evaluating our tactics and technology, we don't want to give away any more than necessary. Hit the empty one first because he'll have higher potential delta vee."

"And he's closer." Joker held down the mute on his 'com and added, "Thank you, Captain Anderclone. Like I didn't know that." He twisted the controls in opposite directions, pitching the ship forward as range decreased, precisely aligning the guides until they changed to green. "Ready on Target One."

Pressly checked the reload time, and relative angles on the anticipator. The computer added a series of position-versus-speed scenarios in a rainbow of colors on his console. He touched the green one, sliding it toward an icon for the Weapons Station. "Weaps, design for Bogey Two, designated Target Two. I want to hit the heavy one ASAP; before he has a chance to return fire, or drop troops on the ground team."

"Target Two locked in," the Weapons Officer answered immediately. "Designed for optimal firing with retargeting time."

Joker glanced at the plan and nodded. "Firing solutions look good, I can make that transition without getting fancy. We can expect to get off only one shot before they get a good lock on our vector, but we might as well give them something to shoot at." He reached into the space ahead of himself, designing a course for the ship. "Okay, compute for Two using that. Ready to fire four on Target One. I repeat, fire four on Target One. Six seconds. Five…"

Below and aft of the bridge, Normandy's single Mass Effect Railgun system received electronic commands; minute adjustments were made to the aim, compensating for vibrations in the ship. A control sequencer waited until the last possible instant, signaling LIDAR to paint the target, directed charges to the eezo modules and magnets along the eight-meter length of the accelerator, and then shoved a 64-gram pointed cylinder of titanium metamaterial down into the end of the shaft.

As it was loaded, the rod fractured precisely into a row of nested cones. An actuator hammered the back end of the shaft 170 times over nine tenths of a second, propelling each hollow cone vertex-first into the first accelerator node at the back of the accelerator, and then advancing the rod forward. The node contained an arrowhead-shaped cell of element zero that – when charged – emitted a field that reduced the effective mass to that of a few electrons, and supercharged magnets that accelerated it forward.

Four millimeters down the shaft, the next node – rotated minutely clockwise with respect to the one behind it to add some spin – kept the mass reduced with its eezo module, and imparted more speed on the cone with its own magnets. This was repeated along the rest of the linac "barrel" until the cone was expelled from the end of the main gun at thirty-three percent of the speed of light. Following right behind it were the other 169 cones, the formation burning brightly in the reduced upper atmosphere of the planet. The result looked like a spear of red-tinted light, and was followed by three more.

The weapons intelligences aboard Normandy had evaluated the LIDAR data and adjusted the aim of the railgun by fractional arc-seconds to target the geth ship's reactor core using its emissions as a guide. The pointed tips of the cones slammed into the target, overloading shields, shattering armor, burning composites, destroying everything in their path. Million-degree plasma erupted from the middle of the ship in a blossom of orange and white as the convoluted toroidal reactor vessel failed.

The ship broke into two large sections that continued to climb, but the laws of ballistics were already at work; they climbed until the planet's relentless gravity overcame their inertia, and then they plunged into the gravity well, tumbling through the thick atmosphere.

Meanwhile, the other geth ship had collected enough data from Normandy's first two shots to determine the attacking ship's vector, and the third shot verified it.

Geth sensors focused on the area, and outboard cannons powered up and came to bear, aiming at where the invisible attacker would have been. Focused electromagnetic sensors reported nothing; the weapons were directed to fire a spread across the possible paths the ship was likely to have taken, assuming it had changed its course after firing.

Normandy's sensor operator watched as fire was returned. "They're firing where we were; very quick response time, sir." Raymond Tanaka looked toward the pilot's seat. "Looks like they had no idea you were going to backtrack on them, though they did fire a spread out ahead of our original vector." He studied the silhouettes captured by the ship's optics of the fast-moving munitions for a few seconds. "Nothing that would have gotten through our shields, but I think they were just trying to figure out where we were before they fire anything significant. But they were real fast, sir; like they were expecting it."

Pressly spoke over his shoulder, "Of course they were, they saw the Mako and sent ground forces after them. There had to be something to bring it, all they had to do was wait."

Joker had maneuvered the ship around to be where their initial vector would have put them, and the geth would be left to wonder how they had simply missed. "Firing solution for Two is in queue," Joker said, "Firing time coming up in four. Three…"

Pressly agreed, "Fire Control, take 'em out."

The FCO waved an index finger through a holographic key. "Three away."

Three more spears of light leapt across the distance separating the two ships; Joker directed Normandy higher.

"Three hits," reported Tanaka, "But their shields held. They must have powered up after our first attack."

"Crap, they were just waiting for us to show them what we can do," Joker glanced at the heat sink status, and rotated the ship on its reaction wheels, aligning for a high-efficiency thrust.

"They're firing again," Tanaka reported, "Larger spread, more rounds." The ship juddered slightly, as if taxiing over gravel.

"Shields holding," Pressly observed. "But they're sure to know where we are now. Helm, evasive."

"Evading, aye. Lock on Two and prepare to fire in…eight seconds," Joker couldn't spare the time to snipe at the XO. "Weaps, hit 'em hard this time, I'm diving in close. Don't want to miss."

Thrust rings glowed as the engines accelerated the ship toward the planet; by continuing to turn the ship and steering the engine nacelles toward center, Joker kept the detectable thrust behind Normandy's silhouette.

The FCO touched a control. "Six away."

The main gun fired six times as Normandy closed the distance to the geth ship. The first three bursts dissolved against kinetic barriers, the next two burned along the thrust axis, clearing the way for the sixth, which found its way to the reactor. A plume of searing blue-white exploded forward, propelling the ship backward, and a jet of core materials toward Normandy's firing position.

As soon as the last shot had been fired, Joker steered up and to port, rotating the ship to present a smaller cross-section and keep the stronger forward shields between them and the geth. The sentient ship erupted in a blaze of light and shrapnel.

"Splashed two," Joker gloated. "Heading back to Spotter Orbit."

"Travel lightly," Pressly said over his shoulder. "We may not have seen all the attackers. LRSA didn't show these guys; there may be more."

Joker checked his displays, gestured for contingency analysis. "We can go straight back and be on station in about three and a half minutes, or continue around the planet to flush any bad guys out in about 30 minutes. What's the order?"

"The ground team will be at the OA long before then. We'll stay in support mode."

"Returning to Spotter Orbit," Joker said.

Pressly thought for a few seconds, and then put two fingers to his ear. "Air Boss, Bridge. I want a sensor drone launched ballistic around the far side of the planet to intercept us at our Spotter Orbit. Signal when ready for launch."

The wall speaker replied, "Thought you might want that, sir. Drone is in launch position."

"Sierra Hotel, Kobunde. Launch drone."

# # #

Salarians have their own native tongue, with a range of sounds and noises from a trilling chirp to a gutteral croak. Most humans who heard the full spectrum coming from a single speaker often find it bafflingly diverse, hysterically funny, or both. But if the conversation had been rendered into Alliance English, it would have sounded something like this:

Battle-scarred veteran: "Reached mandatory retirement age two years ago, still too much to do. Invoked Clear and Present Danger clause to remain on Active status."

The administrator nodded. "Yes. Assisted at review board hearing. Unanimous motion due to exemplary service."

"Genophage project still active. Long-term results unknown. Must invoke CPD again to remain active."

"Board approved. But vetoed by STG superiors. Consider genophage project closed, results satisfactory."

"Fft! Project not complete. Species viability still not determined. Evolutionary effects unknown. Social effects still barely understood. All require long-term monitoring."

"Yes. But superiors annoyed at…extracurricular activities. Concerned of cognitive decline or…eccentricity."

"Irrelevant! Mission success rate higher with experience, and higher still with neural enhancements and cybernetics!" Mordin tapped his extended collar with an opposition digit. "Strongly advise general use by all STG agents!"

"The body still ages, Doctor. Superiors consider you highly capable…but not as capable as younger agents."

"Know monitoring sites from project deployment. Know Tuchankan environment from decades of operations. Have always been field agent. Should remain field agent, like Kendig. Genophage project not complete!"

"Kendig is board member with Field status, and authority to keep it. Last field operation was three years ago."

Mordin paused for almost half a second, gathering his thoughts. The exchange became rapid-fire:

"Could go dark."

"No openings."

"Could overrule."

"Board support not unanimous."

"Could ignore."

"Not crazy."

"Objection."

"Board expected this; personally consider their decision to be ill-informed, but Board has revoked my authority to do so."

Doctor Mordin Solus nodded, rose from the chair, and bowed. "Has been honor working with you."

The bureaucrat rose and bowed even more deeply. "Honor has been mine, Doctor. Wish you every success. Glad to see you are not burning the tree you have climbed."

"Thank you, Administrator. Good day."

Mordin knew his data was safely duplicated, and any favorite equipment was fairly easily reproduced, so he simply walked out of the building, knowing the sensors and guards would not let him back in, at least not in a professional capacity. He stroked his chin as he rode a slidewalk to the public transit station, then took the train home.

Into a few interlocking cases he packed a library of biobricks, a few billion species of synthetic microbiota, and a sensor fabricator, then checked that his hardware subscriptions were paid up before checking himself out of the flat.

At the spaceport, the ticket kiosk did not know that Jaless Homdi had a missing horn; it did not even know that a one-way ticket to Erinle was a roundabout way of getting to Omega.

*** Glossary ***

AFG: Atmospheric Flight Geometry; compared to IFG, AFG optimizes the profile for lower friction, and higher thrust efficiency to provide greater maneuverability in the high friction of an atmosphere.

AO: Area of Operations; the location of an intended operation, even if remote from the LZ or DZ.

delta vee: change in velocity [see velocity]

DFP: Dextro Food Printer

DZ: Drop Zone; the location where personnel or supplies are dropped, which will usually be remote from the AO if the operation is covert

GPR: Ground-Penetrating Radar

Infolens: a translucent display of ship instrumentation that follows the general gaze of the user, but supplies them with preferred realtime data that the user has chosen, or that VI monitors determine to be critically relevant

IFG: Interplanetary Flight Geometry; compared to AFG, IFG aims the main drives in a wider spread so as to allow easier attitude control in a vacuum, extends sensor arrays to get better detection at longer ranges.

Kabliss: a neurosensor product that calculates absorption rates for nutrients versus flavor; over time, it optimises foods for one's personal microbiome, and even curates internal flora and fauna

kliks: kilometers

LIDAR: Laser Radar, technically Light Detection And Ranging

LRSA: Long Range Scan and Analysis

LV: Landing Vehicle

LZ: Landing Zone

MEFG: Mass Effect Field Generator

mee'dwi: Native to Palaven, this slow-moving, armored animal is shaped like a sausage with ten to twenty sets of legs; the species is ancient, in some ways analogous to trilobites of Earth

NetBite: similar to internet cache data, a Netbite is gathered by a VI from the extranet (and from user sensors such as cameras, microphones, omnitools, etc.) in anticipation of user needs in the future; the size varies by user, but 270 petabyte NetBites are not uncommon in 2183

OTH: Over the Horizon

Panto HealthCHON: Carbon, Hydrogen, Oxygen, and Nitrogen make up practically all food, and the feedstock slabs of it (colloquially, "CHON") are used in food printers everywhere; Panto TCI makes a variety of CHON that includes trace elements, thus their claim to "HealthCHON"

Pelats: long-term residents of shelters, derived from a turian word for vagrant, but when rendered into Thesserit, less charged with the negative connotation.

PTT: Press To Talk; a manual communications control rather than voice activated (VOX)

shratha: a very dangerous, intelligent predator, native to Palaven, often hunted for sport by adventurers

sitrep: situation report

SVS: Synthetic Vision System. A 360-degree Virtual Reality mode that reduces everything to computer-generated imagery [CGI]. Prevents overloading glare, allows VI-controlled imagers to highlight potential threats at greater distances regardless of location.

TCI: Thessian Collective Interest, the closest analogue to a corporation under asari republic law

varren: also known as "fishdogs," these vicious predators double as nuisance pets (like the cute raccoon one might watch messily scrounging through someone else's trash) and a food source

velocity: speed plus direction; note that it is always both

VOX: voice-operated transmission (the word "transmit" being shortened to Xmit provides the "X" because the prefix "trans" means "across," and the "X" is a kind of cross;) the microphone engages when the user starts speaking, freeing up hands for other tasks

XO: Executive Officer