Mass Effect: Maelstrom Siblings

by Leaf Ranger

When faced with protecting an entire galactic community, it's always good to have friends and squad-mates at your side. But it's even better when you've got your brother with you as well. Get ready galaxy, because here come Alicia and Naruto Shepard, the Maelstrom Siblings. Rated M for swearing, action, gore, and implied sexual situations.

24. A Strained Bond

Okay, so…here we go. I am…really nervous about this chapter. Like…oh my gosh. Wow. Just…wow.

Alicia: Jeez, what is up with you? *Is lounging on the couch, watching TV*

Leaf Ranger: This chapter is going to be a big one. One that I REALLY hope I get it right.

Diehard ShepardTali LeafRanger: That big huh?

LR: Yeah. I've basically been building to this moment ever since chapter three, to be honest. So it's…really built itself up in my head.

Diehard FemShepLiara LeafRanger: Dude, just calm down and take it in stride, alright?

LR: I know, I know, I just…I want this to come out right. Not just for me, but for the readers. It's nice when they enjoy it as well, so I really want this to work.

Alicia: …you're honestly freaking me out here now. Seriously.

LR: I guess I just need to get going on it. But first, got two anonymous reviews. To Guest…Lieutenant Allen was wounded on Feros and had to be transferred to a medical ship. So that's what happened.

Wrex: …who the heck was Lieutenant Allen?

LR: He was the officer in charge of First Squad of Normandy's marine complement. Essentially was Naruto's second in command since Naruto is in charge of the ship's marines.

Everyone: Ooohhh

LR: Yeah. And to the other Guest, thank you for your review. I'm glad you're enjoying my fanfic so far. And I appreciate the idea but sadly I already have plans for Jack, so I won't be able to do that. Still, it is an interesting one, so thank you for sharing it. Anyways, that's it, so let's get to the chapter then.

Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto or Mass Effect. They are the property of Masashi Kishimoto and Bioware respectively. This is a non-profit work of fan-made fiction. Please support the official releases.

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Chapter 24

A Strained Bond

Planet Virmire

Captain Kirrahe of the 3rd Infiltration Regiment of the salarian's Special Tasks Group, or STG, briefly looked away from the map on the table in front of him to take in the rather scenic view of the ocean nearby. The planet Virmire was definitely quite an attractive one, almost reminding him of Sur'Kesh, the salarian home-world. It was simply too bad he was unable to enjoy the view, given current circumstances.

His unit had been one of the ones tasked by both the Salarian Unions and the Council with searching for Saren Arterius, the turian Spectre gone rogue. Officially they were to find his location and report it back to the Council. Unofficially, they had been given the go-ahead to try and remove or capture Saren on their own if possible. The Council apparently felt it would be somewhat better if they could discretely remove Saren from the picture, to create the image that the Council could effectively deal with such a problem rather than having to rely on a brand-new Spectre from a race that was still rather new to the galactic scene.

Kirrahe's unit, a platoon of twenty-five salarian operatives, had been dispatched to scout out the Sentry Omega nebula cluster. There had been reports from unmanned probes of increased activity within the nebula as well as information from the mass relay control network regarding increased use of the cluster's mass relay. Flying in one of the specialized corvettes used by the STG for covert operations, they had eventually found an unregistered facility on the planet Virmire in the Hoc System.

They had begun a descent down to the planet in order to get a better look at the facility, confident that they were hidden from the enemy's sensors by the latest in salarian radar and sensor masking technology installed in their ship. They were rudely awakened when the large AA guns they had detected quickly began firing upon their vessel. Despite their best efforts to evade the incoming fire, their vessel had been badly damaged when one round ripped through the engine pods, disabling most of their propulsion. They were barely able to land the vessel and were forced to quickly salvage anything and everything they could before patrols found their ship. Thankfully the ship was designed so that important components could either be easily removed and carried or destroyed, and so by the time geth patrols found the salarian ship it was little more than a useless damaged derelict. The crew itself was gone, disappearing into the wilds around the facility.

Following protocols, Kirrahe had his men set up a base camp once he felt they were in a safe location and attempted to send out a signal to the Council on their current status. Unfortunately their signal had been jammed, and the salarians had been forced to relocate before they could be found by geth forces tracking the communication signal. The next step was to scout out the facility and attempt to sabotage it in any way possible, if not outright remove it altogether. Kirrahe had split his platoon up into small squads to maximize the ground they could cover as well as how much damage they could do if they could infiltrate the enemy lines or the facility itself.

Everything had been fine at first as they edged along the outskirts of the facility, mapping out the locations of outposts, defensive positions, and noting that the entire facility was defended by both geth and krogan, something that chilled even the most experienced of them to their core. But as they began to scout further inwards, attempting to infiltrate the facility, things had suddenly taken a turn for the worst. The geth's detection capabilities proved far more advanced than Kirrahe and his platoon were expecting, and three separate infiltration attempts so far had met with unmitigated disaster. Over half the platoon had been captured or killed, and Kirrahe now found himself leading a mere ten commandoes of the original twenty-five. He had been forced to halt all attempts to infiltrate the facility, and now instead was focusing solely on getting a message out to the Council.

He looked up as his second in command, Lieutenant Rentola, entered the command tent. "Sir, we're ready to try to send the transmission." (1)

Kirrahe nodded as he stood. "Have the men make ready to break camp at a moment's notice. The geth won't take long to track the signal as soon as we start transmitting," he said, moving past Rentola and heading to where one of the other salarians had been attempting to modulate their transmission frequency to bypass the jamming signal put up by Saren's facility.

The armored salarian looked up as his commanding officer approached before he quickly stood. "I've done what I could sir, but it's no guarantee. Whatever jamming technology the geth are using adapts too quickly for me to exploit any weaknesses."

"Understood soldier. Get ready to break camp," Kirrahe ordered, moving to the communications unit. Taking a deep breath, he made sure all his remaining soldiers were ready to go before activating the communications unit. "This is Unit Ho'tem contacting Clutch Base, do you read me? Unit Ho'tem contacting Clutch Base. Facility commanded by rogue Spectre Saren located on Virmire, Hoc System, Sentry Omega Nebula. Facility is Level 5 threat, repeat, Level 5 threat. Request response Level 4. Unit Ho'tem will continue observation until relieved. Out."

He quickly cut the message off, checking the communication device. The readouts indicated the message had been sent, but he had no idea if it truly made it past the jamming signal or not. At this point all he could was wait and hope. He stepped away as the private returned to begin packing it up while he signaled the rest of his troops. "Move out! I want us out of here three minutes ago!" He shouted, moving to join his men as they began scurrying about, quickly packing up what little equipment was left.

Five minutes later a squadron of geth recon drones flew into the clearing, only to find it empty and abandoned.

Normandy

"You know…some people might find it a bit creepy how that Conrad guy always seems to find you when you get on the Citadel," Naruto commented as he and Alicia were heading down to the crew deck. The duo had returned to the ship from the station, and now the Normandy was pulling away as it prepared to exit the system. Jiraiya had informed them of a promising lead that he was tracking down, one connected to Saren or Benezia, and so the team was heading out to be on station when he reported back to them.

Alicia shook her head. "I just can't believe he honestly thought that I could make him a Spectre. Or that he even was Spectre material in the first place," she said, sighing softly. "At least I was able to let him down easy."

Naruto just chuckled at that. "I doubt he'll be the last one though. Price of fame, right sis?" He asked, with Alicia letting out a long-drawn suffering sigh.

"Tell me about it. I thought it was bad after Elysium, but since becoming a Spectre…uurrgghhh," she muttered, shaking her head.

The duo soon reached the mess area, only to stop as they saw the entire ground team sitting around the table, chatting. Alicia couldn't help but smile slightly at the sight, a sense of accomplishment coming over her. When she had first put this team together, they had all been willing but hadn't been on good terms with each other. Ashley had barely been able to look in Garrus' direction without barely hidden mistrust, and had been a bit stand offish to Wrex and Liara. Garrus had also managed to cause problems with Wrex and Tali, with the latter feeling unsure about how much she could help the team out and the former essentially staying away from everyone. Only Liara and Kaidan seemed to have little to no problems, beyond Liara adjusting to life as a combat operative instead of an archeologist.

Yet now Ashley and Garrus were trading friendly insults over their marksmanship while Tali and Kaidan talked shop on tech. Wrex would chime in with some story of his mercenary adventures while Liara listened, occasionally commenting or questioning something someone would say.

Naruto couldn't help but grin as well as he joined her. "Looks like things are finally working out," He said as Alicia nodded.

"And now we just need to track down Saren and end this whole chase," Alicia added before moving over to the table. "So, what are we talking about today?" She asked, taking one of the few empty seats.

"Just making a bet with Vakarian here on who'll be the one to put a bullet between Saren's eyes," Ashley said with a grin. "He's got money on you to do it, Skip."

Alicia gave a mock pout. "Don't tell me you're betting against me Ash," she whined, only for Ashley to shrug.

"Sorry Commander but I've seen what Capn' over there can do. My money's on him," she said with a grin while Naruto chuckled softly.

"You gotta admit Commander, I'm the one mostly likely to hit him first between the two of us," he added.

Alicia gave him a stink eye look. "Only because you'll be over a hundred meters away with your sniper rifle. Without that I know I'd get to him first," she said, defending her 'honor'.

Most of the others chuckled, save for Liara. "Garrus…do you mind if I ask you a question?" She asked.

"Go ahead T'Soni, what is it?" The young turian asked, facing the asari archeologist. She cleared her throat for a moment before speaking.

"May I ask…why you don't seem too troubled about such talk regarding one of your people?" She asked him. Everyone turned to Garrus, showing a large amount of curiosity on the subject.

Garrus blinked in surprise before shrugging. "I suppose it's because I never really trusted Saren. Not sure why Councilor Sparatus trusts him either."

"What do you mean?" Kaidan asked him. "What did he do that makes you not trust him?"

"He's barefaced," Garrus explained, causing everyone to look at him in confusion. "He…doesn't have any face markings? Like these?" He explained, pointing at his own blue markings.

"And that makes him untrustworthy?" Tali asked, her voice thick with confusion. Garrus nodded at that.

"It dates back to the Unification War, when all the colonies began to fight with each other and the Hierarchy. Turians from different colonies wore different colored and shaped markings to denote their pride in their colony. Even Palaven, in time, adopted face markings. To be barefaced meant one of two things: you either had no pride in your colony and people, or you were exiled and denied the right to mark yourself. Either way, you were considered untrustworthy because of it. Today…well the stigma still holds true. We consider any turian with no markings to be someone who is likely deceitful, untrustworthy, or dangerous. Or…you know…a politician," he said with a grin at the end, earning some chuckles from the group. "But I guess beyond that…there's also the fact that what little I did know or hear about Saren never warmed me to the idea of him. Too many of his missions tended to have high body counts, especially when humans were involved in one way or another. I never could get any official data because of his Spectre status, but I did find enough to make me think he was perhaps abusing the amount of operational freedom the Council gives to Spectre's. And it seems I was right."

"I see then. I suppose from a cultural perspective that makes sense then," Liara said thoughtfully. "Still, he must have done something to earn the Council's trust."

"Perhaps, but I think at this point it maybe goes to show he knows how to pull a long con," Garrus responded back. "Either that or something changed in more recent years to make him turn his back on the Council. Either way…he betrayed the Council and he betrayed every turian who still knows what it means to be a son or daughter of Palaven. In my book, hunting him down and either putting him behind bars or in the ground is a service to my people and the galaxy as a whole."

Wrex grunted in approval. "I can get behind that. I'll miss the fighting when he's gone, but the sooner we get him, the better."

"That just leaves us with the problem of finding him," Alicia said, leaning back in her seat. "He slipped up with the attack on Feros, but since then he's gone to ground and all we've got are rumors and hearsay. Hopefully he'll surface sometime soon."

"You'd think with all the Council's resources, they could track him down easily," Ashley groused a bit, only for Garrus to shake his head.

"If he's got the geth with him, he most likely has free reign to keep roaming the Terminus Systems. The only one out there strong enough to fight him off would be Aria T'Loak on Omega, and I doubt he's dumb enough to earn her ire," he said, causing almost everyone to nod in agreement, save for Liara.

"I've heard that name before but…who is she? And what is Omega?" She asked curiously.

Naruto grinned as he spoke. "She's the 'Queen' of Omega, a giant eezo mining pirate station out in the Terminus Systems. She's pretty much ruler of the pirates and criminals of the Terminus Systems as well, though they'd never admit it. I was part of a team that had to pursue a deserter, an N7, who ran to Omega a couple years back. Only reason we got off that station alive was because Aria told the big gangs not to kill us. Of course, that didn't stop every two-bit gun for hire and mugger on the streets from coming after us because they thought they'd get an easy score."

Alicia nodded at that."Suffice to say, she's probably the number one reason the Terminus Systems haven't been completely overrun by the Council Fleets. If the Council ever tried to send fleets in to do a full-scale cleanup of the criminals and pirates populating the Terminus Systems, she'd have them rallied in a retaliation strike in no time. And a lot of colonies bordering the Terminus Systems would burn, mostly human and asari ones. So instead, we do our best not to antagonize her, and she keeps most of the Terminus Systems in check. Especially in…well…the aftermath of Torfan," she said, her voice growing quieter.

And suddenly there was a slight shift in the mood as several of those present sent glances towards Alicia. The Battle of Torfan had been a major victory for the Alliance against the batarian backed pirates, slavers, and raiders that had been plaguing human colonies for years. But the battle was mired with rumors and accusations of criminal actions on the part of Alliance ground troops against some of the defenders of Torfan. Including claims by the Hegemony of troops under the temporary command of then Lieutenant Alicia Shepard murdering unarmed pirates who had surrendered to them. While the Alliance had officially declared there to be no validity to those claims, it hadn't stopped the batarian Hegemony from continually decrying the hero of the Skyllian Blitz as a murderer and war criminal, giving her the infamous moniker 'the Butcher of Torfan' alongside her title of 'Blue Maelstrom'.

This was something that most everyone at the table had heard about in one form or another, save for Tali and Liara. The former due to how insulated the Migrant Fleet was from events in the galaxy, and the latter only hearing about it quite recently.

A slight awkwardness hung over the group now until the intercom buzzed. "Commander Shepard, we're receiving a communication from Arcturus Station," the communications officer reported.

"I'll take it in my cabin," Alicia said, standing up quickly and moving away to the captain's quarters.

As soon as she was out of earshot, Ashley turned to Naruto. "Captain…do you know what happened on Torfan?" She asked him.

Naruto let out a long slow sigh, slumping in his chair. "I wasn't there, if that's what you're asking. I was in a coma following a pirate raid on a transport I was catching a ride on to the rendezvous point. I know both what the Commander and what the Alliance said, and I trust them at their word. And no…I'm not going to tell you guys," he said, seeing some of them gaining interested looks. "It's not my story to tell. Suffice to say that as far as I'm concerned, the batarians are spewing bullshit like they usually do. That's all you really need to know."

Wrex let out a grunt of disappointment. "Too bad. I'd love to know all the details. Everything I've heard about Torfan makes it sound like it was a hell of a fight."

Naruto shook his head. "Trust me. From what I've read and heard, it was no picnic for anyone down there," Naruto said before going silent, not wanting to continue the topic.

In her cabin, Alicia was sitting down as the communication came through. "Commander, Admiral Hackett. Do you currently have any leads on Saren?"

"No leads at the moment. An independent source is tracking down a promising lead, but otherwise we still have no information on his location," Alicia reported.

"Then I'm afraid I'm going to need to redirect you Shepard. A situation has come up and we require the Normandy and your ground team to investigate. We need you to head towards the Asgard System of the Exodus Cluster. A situation has arisen with the colony of Terra Nova," Hackett said.

"What's the situation Admiral?" Alicia asked, her eyes narrowing slightly at that.

"The colonists on Terra Nova were moving an asteroid into orbit of the planet to mine it out before converting it into an orbital facility to support the colony's recent expansion. Approximately eight hours ago the colony lost all communication with the team on asteroid X57 and the fusion torches that were used to propel it on its course were relit, steering the asteroid on a collision course with the planet. Attempts to re-establish communication have failed and contact was lost with a shuttle from the colonial garrison that went to investigate. We believe a critical situation has arisen on the asteroid and we need you to use your ship's stealth systems to land on the asteroid, assess the situation, and shut down the fusion torches before its path is irreversible. You have ten hours before the asteroid is too close to Terra Nova to be safely maneuvered away from the planet."

Alicia grimly nodded. "Understood sir. We'll leave immediately," she said.

"You have your orders then Commander. Hackett out," the admiral stated before ending the communication. Alicia quickly stood up, activating the intercom.

"Pressly, set an immediate course for Terra Nova," she ordered before switching over to the helm. "Joker, as soon as you get the coordinates, maximum speed. Push the engines to the red line if you have to, but I want us on station as soon as possible."

She didn't even wait to hear from Joker before switching to ship-wide. "This is Commander Shepard. All hands are to report to duty stations. We have an emergency situation. Ground team, report to the briefing room immediately," she ordered, soon leaving the cabin.

The others, still at the table, were quickly standing as she moved past them towards the stairs, with Naruto quickly falling in behind her. "What's going on?" He asked her as he quickened his pace to keep up with her.

"The usual. Civilians in danger and we're the only ones who can save them," she quipped over her shoulder.

"Same old same old for the crew of the Normandy?" Garrus asked, shaking his head a bit.

Alicia gave a quick grin over her shoulder. "That's what you all signed up for, right? Adventure, saving the day, getting the guy or girl in the end?"

"I wouldn't mind maybe the occasional boring patrol now and then," Kaidan said as the crew filed into the briefing room. A few of the others chuckled, but there was a tension among all of them as they prepared for whatever this new mission was.

Noveria, Horsehead Cluster

Matriarch Benezia watched as her commandoes loaded the last of her 'supplies' onto a shuttlecraft before turning to a pair who stood nearby with a few of the large crates they had brought with them. "Remember to place those throughout the garage and the valley road. We do not want any…'surprise' guests to interrupt us. Then join us at Peak 15," she ordered.

The two commandoes nodded and quickly began moving the cargo trolley carrying the crates towards the elevator down to the garage. Benezia turned to the other commandoes who now were securing the last of the cargo onto the large transport shuttle before securing themselves into seats. She took a seat as one of the commandoes now went to the cockpit to inform the transport pilot they were ready to go.

As the shuttle began to rumble, the thrusters powering up to lift them off the ground, she could only frown at having to come out here. Saren, thanks to the trade made with the Thorian and the efforts of Shiala, had gained the ability to understand the vision left behind in the Prothean Beacon on Eden Prime. However, the message had been somewhat fragmented, most likely due to damage the beacon had sustained at some point. Thankfully Saren had been able to procure a second beacon from a world deep in the Terminus Systems, one that his geth had secured and brought to him. With it he had been able to gain a clearer understanding of the vision and what it entailed. They finally had the location of the Conduit, only to run into another obstacle: its location was in a system that currently could not be reached by mass relay. The only known connecting relay had been lost for centuries and no explorer known to the Council races had ever found it. But there was perhaps another source of information on its location.

Benezia was here to extract the information from the source, but had found her job to be somewhat complicated. Noveria, a privately owned corporate world, allowed a number of corporations to engage in research and technological breakthroughs that they would not be able to conduct normally at any other location within space controlled by the Council or its affiliates. A number of large facilities had been built in the snowy mountains and glaciers of Noveria, all of which were equipped with everything researchers, engineers, and scientists needed to conduct their work. Of course, each facility was also equipped with an impressive array of security features that could be adapted to handle whatever kind of problems might arise from the usually borderline illicit programs and research going on in said facilities. If worse came to worse, orbital defense stations could easily be used to destroy the facilities before anything dangerous escaped them.

At the moment, the Peak 15 facility that housed Saren's secret project had sent out an alert, a Code Omega, before going silent. Saren had dispatched her to investigate the facility, deal with the situation, and learn the location of the Mu Relay no matter the cost. A mission Benezia had gladly accepted, taking with her all of her commandoes as well as some extra 'insurance'.

As the shuttle began to leave Port Hanshan, the 'capitol' of Noveria, Benezia couldn't help but feel disappointed. Her daughter, it seemed, was lost to the light that was Saren's wisdom and cause. She had learned of how Liara now worked and fought alongside Shepard, and thus opposed Saren's will. It disappointed her, but so be it. The return of the Reapers was too important for anything, even family. Yet even as she thought that, she could feel a part of her negatively react to her thoughts, causing a twitch on her face and a flinch in her hands. She banished such thoughts, focusing instead on the task at hand.

Asgard System

The Exodus Cluster was home to two systems that housed two of humanities most celebrated colonies. The Utopia System was home to the colony of Eden Prime, a beautiful agricultural colony world that had been made rather infamous recently due to the surprise geth attack that had ravaged it. The neighboring Asgard System was home to Terra Nova, the Alliance's largest colony world and the first extra-solar colony founded by the Systems Alliance beyond the Charon Relay. While not quite as beautiful as Eden Prime, Terra Nova was still quite a lovely world, especially to those who called it home.

Now though, that home was in danger as the asteroid designated X57 was on a potential collision course with the planet. Already some people were attempting to escape, but there was no way a full-scale evacuation of the planet could be completed before the asteroid arrived. Thankfully, hope had also arrived for the colony.

The SSV Normandy soared through space, her stealth systems active as she approached the asteroid. Alicia was currently on the bridge, watching the holographic display that usually showed the galaxy map but was currently displaying the asteroid instead. Thanks to VI drones and satellites from Terra Nova, the stealth frigate didn't need to use its own active sensors to get a read on the asteroid, instead using its passive sensors in conjuncture with the active feeds from these other sources.

Alicia quickly highlighted a portion of the asteroid's surface. "Looks like we've got an impact crater on the surface. And possibly some wreckage around it," she observed, her words being carried over the communications to the garrison commander on Terra Nova, a Colonel Sylvia Hartson.

"I see it…damn…I guess I know what happened to my team then," the female marine could be heard letting out a sad sigh. "Any indication what could have done it?"

Alicia frowned as she studied the impact site. "It doesn't look like a straight impact. It seems like they hit the ground and skidded, leaving a trail here. Judging by the speed, they were either trying to make an emergency landing…or they had zero control over the craft. Either an engine malfunction or…well…"

"Or something shot them down," the colonel finished. "That seems the most likely outcome since the torches were reignited."

Alicia crossed her arms, studying the asteroid. "The question is who would go to all this trouble? If this is an intentional act, whoever is doing this is committing a war crime. Who would be willing to risk the wrath of the entire Council to strike at one human colony?"

There was a pause on the other end before Colonel Hartson responded. "Perhaps the geth? If they were able to sneak a team behind our lines and seize the asteroid, it could cause confusion and chaos that could weaken the defensive line holding them back. We'd have to draw ships from the frontlines or the regular patrols to deal with the fallout. Or…well I doubt it, but the batarians might try it as well."

"Maybe…we'll know soon enough I suppose. I'm going to take my team down and stop this thing one way or another. Normandy out," she said, cutting the communications and switching to intercom. "Joker, take us in and get ready for a Mako run. Pressly, you have the conn," she ordered before heading down to the hanger deck.

Down below the ground team members were waiting patiently, checking their weapons and armor over, especially focusing on their armor suit seals. The last thing any of them wanted was a seal malfunction in the vacuum of space. Alicia grabbed up her weapons, checking them over before locking them onto her armor. "Alright team, here's what we know at the moment. The marine shuttle that came up here apparently impacted into the asteroid hard. We're looking at either an engine malfunction or weapon's fire, with the probability being the latter. Our objective is to seize and shut down the three fusion torches currently propelling the asteroid towards the planet Terra Nova. As it stands, we still have some time before impact becomes inevitable, but the sooner we get this done, the better. We don't know the full situation down there, so I don't want any itchy trigger fingers until we know what's going on, understood?"

Everyone nodded as Alicia grabbed her helmet and pulled it on, checking the armor seals. "Then mount up people!"

The ground team quickly climbed into the Mako, taking their customary spots. And as was quickly becoming customary, half the ground team also began muttering quiet prayers. Garrus was pleading with the 'Spirits' to keep him from throwing up in his helmet, Tali was begging her ancestors to keep them from flipping over, Liara was praying to some goddess called Athame to help her get used to this, and Naruto simply was praying in his native tongue. Alicia just pouted as she heard all this.

"Seriously, can't any of you have any faith in me?" She asked, looking over her shoulder and seeing the trio of aliens staring back at her through their helmet visors. She shrugged and finished the start up for the IFV.

A few minutes and one exhilarating drop later, the Mako rolled to a stop on the asteroid's surface. Alicia quickly checked over the drive systems while Naruto began using the scanner to make sure there were no hostiles present. After a few moments he pulled back, shaking his head. "No contacts Commander," he said.

Alicia gave a nod at that. "Alright then. Normandy Actual, this is Normandy 1-1, requesting coordinates to first fusion torch."

"Roger that 1-1, coordinates sent," Pressly responded, with Alicia checking the navigation computer. Seeing a waypoint pop up she nodded and gunned the engine, driving forward as her newest selection of music, a band called Sabaton, began to pound over the speakers.

The terrain was rather rocky, a mixture of hills, valleys, and crater impacts from all the smaller spatial debris that had slammed into the asteroid over the millennia of its existence. This made driving a bit difficult as the terrain constantly shifted and undulated. Fortunately, the Mako's mass effect field made it easier to handle the inclines and declines when combined with its suspension and rugged engine. Eventually they crested a hill and found themselves peering down into a valley where the first fusion torch was located.

The massive engine was lit up as its exhaust was a massive plume of fire, pushing the massive asteroid closer towards the planet. While all three of the fusion torches could be controlled from a central command building, each also had their own separate secondary control building where their controls could be manually overridden.

The original plan had been to immediately head for the main control building. However, Alicia stopped when she saw the secondary control building. Or rather, saw the two much smaller structures mounted to either side of said building. She immediately zoomed in with the Mako's optics. "…Williams, are you seeing what I'm seeing?" She asked.

Ashley, in the turret, nodded as she zoomed in with the cannon's viewfinder. "…aye-aye ma'am. Two automated defensive turrets. Not sure on type though," she said.

Alicia quickly switched back to the comms. "Normandy Actual this is Normandy 1-1. Can you confirm with Nova command on whether the engineers up here were supposed to have defensive ordinance?"

It took a few minutes, but eventually Pressly responded. "Negative on that 1-1. The team ground side was mostly engineering and construction teams with a small detail of private security. Small arms only."

"Then transmit to Nova Command, confirmed presence of hostiles. Moving to secure fusion torches individually," Alicia reported before looking over her shoulder. "Williams, I'm going to head straight at them. As soon as you're within range, open up on those turrets. Everyone else, get ready for combat deployment," she ordered before turning forward again.

In the infantry compartment, the others all now tensed up with the confirmation of a hostile presence. Wrex and Kaidan both immediately began checking their armor's shields, as they would be the first ones to deploy and provide protection for the rest to follow suit. Tali meanwhile was checking her omni-tool to make sure that her various combat programs were ready to go, before checking that her recon drones were within easy reach.

The Mako roared down the hill now and onto the valley floor, heading straight for the two automated turrets. Both of them began to rise up as the vehicle neared, but Ashley was quicker, lining one up in her sights and firing. The six-inch shell slammed into the kinetic shielding around the turret, making them flare as the two cannons fired in return. Alicia swerved, both cannon shells slamming into the ground where they had been and sending up plumes of dirt and rock. Ashley opened up again with a second shot, this one slamming into the turret again and dropping its shields altogether. Alicia was throwing the Mako into a series of swerves, even using the jump thrusters to make the vehicle an erratic target. The two turrets tried to track them, but it was obvious from the slow speed and reaction time that these were not state of the art weapon emplacements.

Ashley grimaced as she did her best to aim while Alicia threw the vehicle around before pumping a third shell into the turret, obliterating it. Grinning she swung the turret over to the second emplacement, using the co-axial gun now that they were closer to rapidly drain its shield.

Alicia rapidly turned the Mako as the turret fired again, the round impacting several feet away from them as they now drove parallel to the turret. Ashley watched as its barriers flickered before disappearing, quickly switching back to the main cannon and finishing it off with a shell. The turret exploded in spectacular fashion, leaving the area clear of hostiles.

Alicia quickly turned, driving up to the control building before parking. "Williams, cover the deployment. Everyone else, move out!" She ordered, quickly unbuckling. Quickly the ground team poured out of the vehicle, weapons drawn as they covered each other while Ashley covered them with the turret. As soon as they were all on the ground, the gunnery sergeant joined them, drawing her Vindicator.

Alicia quickly motioned to the door and Kaidan moved up to it with Garrus, Naruto, and Wrex behind him. The rest followed as Kaidan quickly began working on the door, hacking the security protocols. He looked up with a nod before opening the door, allowing Wrex to quickly move in with shotgun at the ready. The airlock beyond was empty, so the rest of the squad filed in, keeping their weapons up and ready to go as the airlock cycled and they soon were in the facility itself.

They found themselves in a large room with storage cabinets for worker's space suits, as well as a security checkpoint. Liara gasped as they could see what looked like blood splatter on the wall behind the security desk, most likely caused by the hostiles shooting the security guard in the head while they sat in their chair. Alicia gripped her shotgun a bit more tightly before nodding to the guard's desk. "Kaidan, Tali, see if the security feed is still up," she ordered.

The two tech specialists quickly moved over to desk, hacking into the computer before Tali shook her head. "No good Commander. Whoever attacked here completely scrambled the security systems. There's not even a recording left of what happened."

"Guess we're going in a bit blind," Garrus said. Alicia, however, shook her head in response.

"Not exactly. Kaidan, see if you can crack that door open a bit. Tali, send a Seeker in there. See if you can give us a visual," she ordered.

The two of them nodded and quickly set to work, Kaidan manipulating the door programs to crack it open just enough for Tali to slip a Seeker-recon drone in before activating it. The small drone quickly floated up, with Tali looking at the feed on her omni-tool.

"I see…five people…all armored. No wait…three more in a corner…and…two varren," she reported.

"Varren? Only some merc bands, krogan, or batarians use combat varren," Wrex muttered as Alicia stiffened.

"…Tali, focus on the armored figures. Can you identify them?" She ordered, moving to get a better look at Tali's screen. The quarian nodded as she shifted the drone around.

"There are…no females amongst them. The armor and builds are all masculine. Human-esque, given the leg shape…wait, one's taking off their helmet…batarian," she said, looking up at Alicia.

Inside her helmet, Alicia's eyes were narrowed dangerously as she took in what Tali's drone was transmitting. It was relatively easy to mistake armored humans and batarians, as their body builds were far too similar. Even the helmets were similar, though batarian visors tended to be broader in order to accommodate the extra eyes. These individuals were wearing a mixture of armor's indicating they were likely some type of pirate or criminal group, with the only uniformity between their armor's being all of them were emblazoned with a clenched fist holding a dagger over a moon.

"...they're definitely batarian. Not standard military, so they're criminals or they're terrorists," she said, turning to the others. "Kaidan, on my order you'll open the door. Williams, Uzumaki, flash-bangs first. We'll go in during the confusion and take them down. Vakarian, you take out the varren. T'Soni, if any of them start to fire, you get them off their feet. Singularity, pull, throw, I don't care. Just take them down," she ordered. "Understood?"

The others all confirmed they understood, but they couldn't help but notice something of a change. Her voice was harder, more crisp and forceful then any of them had heard before. And the more observant among them also saw her posture was a lot more rigid now. Naruto was the only one who knew what was going on, and mentally he was cursing as he drew his Lancer off his back, the others drawing out assault rifles, shotguns, or SMGs.

Alicia gave the signal to Kaidan as Naruto and Ashley prepared a pair of grenades. With a few deft commands into his omni-tool, the door cracked open again and the grenades were thrown in before the door closed. There were some shouts as the clatter of the grenades alerted those within, before there were two loud 'whumps' followed by cries and yelling. Immediately the door opened and the ground team entered.

The flash-bangs had apparently caught all those within off-guard. The two varren, large quadrupeds that looked like a weird hybrid of wolf, lizard, and fish, were howling and rolling on the ground, pawing at their heads. The batarians meanwhile were disoriented, their suit's audio receptors and visors disrupted by the flash-bangs. The one who had removed his helmet was even worse, rolling on the ground as he covered his ears.

Within moments the ground team was firing, taking out their targets. Garrus quickly fired on the varren, killing both with single shots from his Phaeston. The others quickly engaged the batarians, most of whom had no idea what was happening until it was too late and their armor shields failed. A couple managed to stagger behind some large crates for cover, but the rest were cut down within moments.

Alicia quickly pointed to where the remaining batarians had taken cover. "T'Soni, singularity," she ordered. The asari quickly drew on her biotics, launching a bolt of energy which quickly expanded into a biotic singularity. The two batarians yelped as they were yanked into the air, before a biotic throw from Naruto detonated it and killed both of them.

Alicia nodded as she turned to her team. "Alright then. Wrex, Williams, Uzumaki, cover the door in case any more of our friends here decide to show up. Everyone else with me. We're heading for the control room," she ordered, pointing to a set of stairs nearby. The stairs led to an upstairs room that was situated right above the doorway on the wall opposite to them, with said doorway leading to the engineering sections of the facility and fusion torch.

As the trio assigned to guard duty took up position, Alicia led the others up to the control room, where a quick sweep revealed it to be empty. Inside were several consoles situated beneath a number of windows looking over the engineering area. Alicia quickly pointed to the consoles. "Tali, Kaidan, get to work hacking the system. I want you to shut this thing down then secure the controls so they can't restart it," she ordered, moving away to stare back out into storage area.

The two tech-minded operators immediately set to work, leaving Liara to frown as she watched Alicia. It was hard to miss the change in the human Spectre. Her posture was rigid and her usual jokes and energy were gone, replaced by a cold, hard aura that felt slightly oppressive. She could see Tali occasionally shoot glances back at Alicia as well, obviously confused and worried about this sudden change.

Alicia, meanwhile, kept staring down into the storage area, specifically at the strewn bodies of the batarians they had killed. She gripped her Crusader tightly, her blue eyes glowing ever so slightly from her biotics, before her radio buzzed. "Commander, we have a situation at the main entrance. Couple of human engineers just popped up. One of them claims to be the lead for the engineering team," Naruto reported.

"I'm on my way," she responded before turning to the others. "Finish up here then return to the entrance," she ordered curtly, quickly moving away and down the stairs.

In the security antechamber, she was met with the sight of three figures wearing engineering EVO-suits, one of them having removed their helmet to reveal an older man. She studied him for a moment before speaking. "Commander Alicia Shepard, Alliance Navy."

"Simon Atwell. Chief Engineer. Glad to see you Commander," the older man said. "We caught sight of your Mako and once we saw you entering the building here, we decided to make ourselves known."

Alicia simply nodded at that. "Can you tell me what the situation is here? All we know is that batarians are apparently responsible for reactivating the torches."

"They landed a day or so ago. I was out with a couple of my engineers, surveying parts of the asteroids in preparation for the mining and renovating. We were contacted by one of my technical engineers back in the control facility, Kate Bowman. She told us they arrived without warning. Just stormed in and starting shooting and rounding everyone up. She managed to escape with her brother and has been sending info whenever she can since then."

"Does she know what they're hoping to achieve?" Naruto asked now, causing Simon to turn to him.

"That's…a bit murky. Seems from what she overheard, the initial group was made up of slavers, but another group arrived before they could leave. Sounds like they're some kind of extremists or terrorists. Led by a guy named Balak. At least, that's what Kate's told me," he said.

"Hmmm…heard of him," Wrex rumbled out, drawing everyone's attention. "Some of the batarian mercs I've worked with told me about him. He's a real fanatic type, always preaching about the 'abomination of humanity'. Always looking to recruit any batarian willing to go after human and Alliance targets."

"Still, I can't believe he's willing to drop an asteroid on a planet. It goes against the Citadel Conventions. The Council would be forced to respond and most likely declare war against the Hegemony if they don't hand him over for war crimes," the head engineer responded.

"Fanatics like him don't care. He thinks his cause is just, and that's all that matters," Alicia stated coldly. "Either way, he's not going to succeed. We'll shut down the other two fusion torches, and then round up whatever is left of his group at that point. I suggest you and your engineers stay here, just in case," she said, turning away to call the others.

"Wait, there's a problem though. You saw the turrets they put up around this facility. They did the same with another of the torches. But on the third, they placed a bunch of our mining charges down to act as mines. If you try to drive over them, it'll blow you right off this asteroid," Simon cautioned her, causing Alicia to pause and frown.

"…then we'll need to split our forces," she said, turning back to him. "Can I ask you to take half my team to that fusion torch? I'll take the rest to disable the one protected by turrets."

"Are…you sure that's a good idea? There's still a fair amount of them out there," Simon said, sounding worried.

As the rest of the ground team joined them, Alicia just smirked behind her breather mask. "I think we're more then up to the challenge," she responded before barking out orders. "Wrex, Williams, Tali, you're with me in the Mako. Vakarian, Alenko, T'Soni, you'll go with Captain Shepard and Mr. Atwell here. We'll take both the remaining fusion torches at the same time before regrouping outside the main control facility and sweeping up the remainder of these batarians. Mr. Atwell, do you have a mode of transport?"

The lead engineer slowly nodded. "We've got a Buffalo sitting outside," he said, referring to the unarmed transport variant of M-35 Mako. The Buffalo had the six wheels, armor, and rugged frame of the Mako, but lacked the shields, and weaponry, though it made up for this with increased passenger and storage space.

"Good then. What about your companions here?" She asked, indicating them.

Atwell looked to the two of them. "Hymes, Mendel…you two stay here and monitor things from this end," he said, drawing the pistol from his side and handing it to one of them, the female of the group. "…you saw what they did to Montoya. You know what's at stake. If they come…"

"They won't take us," the woman, Hymes, said, her voice cracking a bit but her grip on the pistol remaining firm. Atwell nodded before donning his helmet.

"One more thing Commander," he said, his voice now tinged by the filters of his suits radio. "I want to give you Kate's frequency. Just give me a second," he said, bringing up his omni-tool. "Kate, we've gotten some backup here. I'm giving them your frequency so we can stay in contact."

There was no answer, before a hushed female voice could be heard. "I understand chief. You better hurry though. I think they know something's up here. There's a lot more activity and I think they're sending out some reinforcements…I need to go."

Atwell nodded before sending the comm frequency to Alicia and Naruto. The two quickly attuned their suit radios before nodding.

"Alright then people, let's move out," Alicia said, quickly heading to the airlock with everyone in tow.

The two teams divided up, quickly climbing into their respective vehicles. Naruto paused before climbing into his, looking over at Alicia before switching over to a private channel. "Williams, private channel," he ordered.

The Alliance sergeant, already in the Mako, soon responded. "Private channel sir."

"Listen…I don't know what's going to happen, but I know something bad is likely going to occur. The Commander get's…more aggressive when batarians are involved. So if things start getting dicey, focus on getting everyone out in one piece. Keep an eye on Tali, since she'll be the one in most danger if something goes down," Naruto warned her.

"Understood sir," Ashley responded before hesitating. "…is it really going to be that bad?"

"I hope not Sergeant. I hope not," Naruto said, before cutting the comm and climbing into the Buffalo. Within moments the two vehicles were heading out, splitting up as they headed in two separate directions.

Inside the Mako, Tali glanced nervously up at the driver cabin, where Alicia sat alone. There was no music now, just the sound of the engines and electronics as they rolled over the asteroid's surface. She looked to Wrex, who was simply staring at the wall of the IFV, his face hidden by his helmet. Suddenly, despite already having been in several missions and fights, Tali felt more nervous then she had ever been since joining the ground team. The reassuring feeling she usually had at Alicia and Naruto's presence, a feeling born of fighting alongside them, had seemingly vanished. She gripped her restraining harness as she hoped she just was overreacting, and that everything was going to be fine.

Main Control Facility

The main facility that had been the base of operations for the relocation of asteroid X-57 was quite a large construct. It had been built to serve as both a control facility for the fusion torches and a living space for the team of construction and technical engineers that had made the entire endeavor possible. It was intended to act as the central starting point for both the mining and renovation of the asteroid into the orbital docking facility for the colony. A large central atrium connected the entrance airlock and ante-chamber to the rest of the facility, with the fusion torch control, living quarters, and engineering sections placed at the other cardinal points around the atrium from the entranceway.

Currently though, it was not engineers walking the halls of the base, but armored batarians, armed with an eclectic assortment of weapons. Some of them wore armor with matching color schemes and an emblem of a clenched fist holding a dagger over a moon. The rest also wore an array of armor, except these had no such matching colors and emblems. Yet it was these batarians who seemed to be in charged, led by one in red armor with striped fur along the sides of his head.

Ka'hairal Balak, a commanding officer in the Batarian 'External Forces', gritted his teeth as he looked over a display showing the status of the three fusion torches. One of them was offline, and he had no luck in contacting the batarians who were supposed to be holding that facility. He turned away, snarling angrily as he slammed the intercom. "Charn, get up here now," he all but shouted in an angry, guttural voice.

A few minutes later another batarian joined Balak in the control room, trying to hold back a sigh. "What is it?" Charn, head of the 'Lunar Blades' slaver group, asked. His voice was somewhat deeper, with the guttural tone being milder in comparison to Balak.

"We've got intruders on the asteroid," Balak snapped as he pointed to the display. "Maybe some humans survived that shuttle we shot down, or maybe some engineer we missed. Either way, I want you to get out to the closest fusion torch and guard it. We need just one of them operational in order for this to work."

Charn closed his eyes behind his helmet's visor, trying to fight down his annoyance and headache. "Look, Balak…this is getting out of hand. My men and I signed up for a slave run, not to wipe out some colony. Let's just grab the slaves and get out of here before-," he started to say; only to find a pistol pointed at his head.

"You'll do what I say. You agreed to follow my orders if it meant getting this deep into Alliance space while their fleets were busy with the geth. If you don't want your ship shot down as soon as you try to leave, you'll follow orders. Got it?" Balak said, his voice deadly serious as Charn stared at the gun pointed at him.

"…fine," the head slaver said, backing away. "Fine. But any men I take with me mean less here to search for whoever is communicating with the stragglers out there."

"Just get it done. Once we get close enough to the colony it won't matter," Balak snapped as he turned away, focusing again on the fusion torches. Charn just shook his head before leaving to form a team of his slaver group to join him.

Fusion Torch Beta

On a bluff looking over the second fusion torch, Naruto crouched next to the Buffalo as he scanned the area with his sniper rifle. The control facility was exactly like the one they had left, with the only difference being a lack of turrets protecting it. Instead, there were a few armored figures stationed outside the facility.

Naruto lowered his rifle before climbing back into the truck. "There are at least five of them outside the base. But I didn't see any signs of those charges you mentioned," he told Atwell.

"They're there. They didn't bring enough of those turrets with them, so they grabbed the charges and planted them to act as a defense. Anyone going in would be caught in their makeshift minefield without realizing it. Though going off the blast radius of each of them, I think they left a path straight through them to give themselves an out," the chief engineer said while bringing up his arm and accessing his omni-tool. "I'm not sure where exactly the path is but if you can reconfigure your omni-tool to scan at this frequency range, it should allow you to detect the mines and avoid them."

"Captain, I should be able to find the path if you keep me covered," Kaidan said, moving forward a bit in the cargo area to get closer to Atwell. Naruto nodded at that, so Atwell turned to send the frequency to Kaidan, who reconfigured his omni-tool to begin scanning. Seeing him nod, Naruto turned back to Atwell.

"Alright then. Take us in. When we get close to the minefield, stop the truck. We'll pile out and you pull back to a safe distance. Wait for us to signal you before you return to the area for pickup," he said. Atwell nodded before driving forward, taking them down the hill.

It didn't take the batarian sentries outside long to notice the vehicle barreling down towards them, and immediately they began to open fire with assault rifles and pistols. Rounds hit the ground around the vehicle, but due to the distance the fire spread was substantial. A few rounds did impact the vehicle but its rugged design held for the moment.

As soon as they reached the valley floor, Atwell quickly braked, allowing Naruto's team to pile out of the rear of the vehicle. Liara threw out a biotic shield, giving the team more room to deploy and ready themselves. As soon as she dropped the shield, both Garrus and Naruto fired on the batarian sentries with their sniper rifles. One of the sentries dropped, cursing as his shields had been heavily depleted by a round from Naruto's Viper. The one hit my Garrus' Mantis dropped to the ground, a gaping hole through the center of his helmet as the round had penetrated right through his shields and helmet.

Kaidan quickly moved forward as the two snipers kept putting fire on the sentries, doing their best to keep them pinned. Liara followed behind Kaidan, ready to throw up another biotic barrier to add to Kaidan's own tech armor and shields. The Sentinel lieutenant quickly brought up his omni-tool, checking it as he moved forward. Within moments it started to ping, the pings growing in frequency as he stepped forward. He quickly turned to the left, moving in the direction as the pings lessened, then sped up again, with Kaidan continually trying to move in a direction where there were no mines.

One of the batarian sentries popped up to shoot at him, barely getting a burst off with his assault rifle before rounds from both snipers ripped through his shields and suit, leaving him venting precious oxygen into the vacuum of space as blood seeped out of his wounded arm and froze. He screamed in agony at the near instantaneous feeling of freezing cold seeping into his wound and arm, before another pair of sniper rounds ended him. The three remaining sentries quickly fired as they ran for the airlock, though only two would make it. The third would be brought down by the pair of snipers before all was silent.

Kaidan continued to map out the path through the mines, transmitting the data back to the others so their HUDs could highlight the way for them. With no threat present the trio of Liara, Naruto, and Garrus followed the path, until all four stood safely near the control building.

"Alright, that's one obstacle down. Now we just need to deal with however many batarians are still inside," Naruto said, checking his thermal clips. "Kaidan, take point. I'll follow up behind you. Liara, you're behind me. Garrus, bring up the rear. Check your targets and keep your heads down," he ordered.

The rest of his squad nodded in understanding before Kaidan finished hacking the airlock and gained them entry into it. Soon they were inside, sweeping the security checkpoint for any sign of their enemies. Yet much like the first one, it was empty as well.

"Looks like they're going to defend the storage area," Naruto said before turning to the squad. "We don't really have the firepower to get into a prolonged fight. Kaidan, can you try to hack into the systems from the security console?" He asked, indicating the desk where the security guard would have been station to check those entering the building.

"I can try Captain, but no guarantee on anything," Kaidan said, moving to the console. He quickly began hacking into it, frowning as he worked. Naruto and Garrus took up position near the door to the storage room, in case the batarians decided to launch a counter attack.

After a few minutes Kaidan nodded. "Good news commander. Looks like whoever took over this facility didn't bother scrambling the security console like they did at the first one. I've got security cameras as well as access to internal defenses."

Naruto moved over to look at the security cameras as Kaidan brought them up, showing perhaps a half dozen or so batarians currently hiding behind crates, support pillars, or any cover they could find, their weapons trained on the doorway leading to the security annex. Naruto studied their positions before looking to Kaidan.

"What kind of internal defenses are there?" He asked. Kaidan began checking that.

"It looks like…three retractable defensive turrets, and a paralysis gas. I'm guessing something designed to defeat suit filters, as otherwise it'd be next to useless. I can activate them both, but it'll take time for the gas to disperse after we use it," the lieutenant replied.

The vulzan marine studied his options for a few moments before nodding. "Input our suit transponders into the computer and designate us as friendly's. Then activate the turrets. They should provide enough of a distraction at least."

"On it," Kaidan said, setting to work. Naruto moved to the doorway, drawing out his Lancer.

"Alright. I'll go in first this time to draw fire from anyone who isn't distracted by the turrets. Garrus, pick them off as soon as you've got a shot. Kaidan, Liara, you two follow me in, get to cover, and provide covering fire so Garrus can move to a better vantage point. We need to take them down quickly and get this torch shut down." He looked to each of them as he finished outlying his plan, getting nods of understanding from each of them. Kaidan soon finished his work, giving Naruto a nod. "Do it!"

There was a few moments silence, then the sound of automatic fire and the muffled cries of batarians. Kaidan quickly opened the door and Naruto sprinted in, his HUD immediately highlighting one batarian who was turned away from him and firing at one of the turrets. Naruto charged towards him, raising his Lancer up and firing at the batarian even as he registered his suit's shields taking some hits on his right side. He focused instead on his target, dropping their shields as the batarian swung around towards him, but it was too late. With a yell Naruto unsheathed one of his gauntlet blades and drove it right through the batarian's neck, killing him. At the same time, he heard the loud crack of Garrus' sniper rifle, and saw a red blip on his mini-map disappear. Naruto quickly yanked his blade out of the batarian's neck, letting the corpse hit the floor before he peeked out of his new cover, taking stock of the situation.

Three batarians currently were doing their best to find a place to hide from the defense turrets spraying rounds at them. A fourth batarian lay on the ground, the large pool of blood around him a clear indication the turrets had riddled his body. There was no sign of any other batarians besides the corpse at his feet, while his team was quickly entering the room and taking cover.

Naruto's eyes narrowed as he saw two batarians taking refuge behind a large crate, giving him an idea as he turned back to where Liara and Kaidan were. He quickly pinged the crate with his HUD, marking it for his team to see. "Kaidan, Liara. On my count, biotic throws on that crate!" He shouted, even as he began to channel his own biotics to his hand. The two of them nodded, both becoming engulfed in blue aura's while Naruto was engulfed in red.

"…NOW!" Naruto shouted, launching his biotic throw at the crate. The red ball of dark energy was joined by two blue ones, all three of which slammed into the crate and sent it flying right into the two batarians crouching near it. They both were smashed into the far wall, the crate crushing them and embedding their corpses into it due to the force of the three biotic throws propelling it.

The last batarian, seeing this, quickly threw his gun down and raised his hands. "I surrender! I surrender!" He shouted as loudly as he could, keeping in cover from the turrets.

"Lieutenant, deactivate the turrets! Vakarian, secure the prisoner!" Naruto shouted, stepping out to quickly scan the room for any sign of hostiles.

Kaidan quickly activated his remote hack of the security terminal to shut down the turrets, while Garrus advanced on the batarian, Phaeston raised and aimed right at him. Yet the batarian didn't move at all until Garrus was on him and forcing his hands behind his back, slapping a pair of omni-cuffs on him.

"Smart move," the turian said, quickly dragging the batarian to his feet. "Prisoner secured Captain," he reported.

Naruto gave a nod at that. "We'll take him with us back to the Buffalo. Atwell can keep an eye on him until this whole situation is resolved. Alenko, get to the control room and shut this torch down," he ordered. "T'Soni, with me. We're going to hold the entrance until the torch has been shut down."

Liara nodded and followed behind him as Naruto headed back to the security checkpoint, hoping his sister's team wasn't running into any complications.

Several minutes earlier

Alicia grimaced as she spun the Mako into a defensive turn, dodging another rocket from one of the defensive turrets surrounding the third torch control building. The ground near them erupted in a fountain of rock, dirt, and fire, but other than the vehicle being rocked slightly from the explosion there was no harm done to it. That is until the shield began to sparkle as numerous rounds from an automated machine gun turret slammed into their shields. Alicia began twisting and turning, making the vehicle an irregular target as Ashley swung the turret around, firing a cannon shell into the rocket turret and blowing it to pieces. She switched to the co-axial gun, firing at the machine gun turret to drain its shields while the cannon loaded next shell, all while Alicia continued to do her best to dodge rounds.

The facility had been guarded by three separate turrets when they arrived, and they had witnessed another Buffalo pull up to the facility with a few armored figures quickly entering it. It didn't take a genius to figure out the batarians were reinforcing their position after the first torch was put out. They had rolled in to engage the turrets, which led to this moment where Ashley quickly blew up the machine gun turret, leaving just one rocket turret left in their way. Alicia spun the Mako around in a U-turn, just as a rocket hit the ground where they would have been if they kept going straight. Ashley was forced to rapidly rotate the turret, but she soon had it around and was firing on the rocket turret as it tried to track them. It soon fired another rocket, and this time Alicia couldn't quite get out of the way in time. It exploded against their rear left quarter, the shields barely absorbing the blast. It would be the turret's last chance though, as Ashley soon blasted it apart with a well aimed cannon shot.

"You're pretty damn scary controlling that turret," Wrex commented as Alicia now drove straight towards the facility, with Ashley rotating the cannon forward.

"Don't worry, I only aim it at allies when they annoy me," Ashley quipped back, earning a chuckle from Wrex. But there was no response from Alicia, who would have at least snorted or chuckled as well. Instead, the N7 vanguard simply parked the vehicle near the control building for the torch.

"Let's move it people. Wrex, on point," Alicia curtly ordered, getting out of the driver's seat. The others did as well, feeling a bit more on edge thanks to Alicia's current attitude.

At the airlock Tali began to hack into the door, cursing a bit. "It looks like they tried to introduce a new security code underneath the normal programming code," she said, looking up from her omni-tool. "I can breach it, but it'll take me a few extra minutes."

"Sooner the better," Alicia stated before pointing to Wrex. "I want you on point. Tank their hits long enough for me and Williams to engage. Tali, follow up behind us but keep in cover. Disable them as best you can, take out any you see an opportunity for, but keep your head down otherwise. We need you to disable the torch. Everyone else…do not let up. Put these bastards down," she ordered.

The others nodded as Tali set to work, hacking her way through the door programs. After a couple of minutes she stepped back, drawing her shotgun as the door lock cycled and the airlock opened, allowing them entry.

A brief air-cycle later and the team were entering the security annex, finding it empty. "…stupid. They could have tried to catch us in the airlock and gunned us down," Wrex muttered, slowly sweeping the area with his Eviscerator shotgun.

"Well let's be glad they were too stupid to do the smart thing," Alicia commented while pointing to the doorway to the storage area. "They'll likely be waiting for us there. Tali, I want you to get another Seeker drone through there and-," she started to order, only to be interrupted by an intercom blaring to life.

"Whoever you are, listen and listen carefully. We're going to open the doors. I don't want any violence, I just want to talk," a gravelly batarian voice spoke over the intercom.

Everyone stared up at the intercom before they looked to doors to the storage room, watching as they opened. Alicia frowned before signaling Tali, who sent the Seeker drone in to scout things out.

"…Commander, they're standing in the open. I count six batarians. They all have weapons drawn, but none of them are in a ready position," Tali reported, looking up from her omni-tool.

"…Tali, I want you to keep scouting for any signs of additional enemies or traps. Williams, you'll hang back here at the doorway. Get ready to pick them off the instant things turn ugly. Wrex, with me," Alicia said, heading to the door with the large krogan in tow. Ashley followed, stopping at the door with sniper rifle drawn, watching the entire scene as Tali continued to search the area with the recon drone.

Alicia and Wrex both slowly moved to a position opposite the six batarians, the human's eyes narrowed as she took them in. All of them wore armor painted in the same scheme they had previously encountered, but the types of armor varied slightly, showing no real uniformity. The same held true for their weapons, a collection of assault rifles, shotguns, and pistols from various races and companies. The way they held them indicated at least some familiarity with weapons, though none of them held the weapons with the same skill and care experienced soldiers and long-time mercenaries did.

She stopped a good twenty feet away, watching them carefully as they did the same, their helmets moving slightly as they kept switching between Alicia and Wrex. The one in the center stepped forward, his weapons secured on his armor as he looked to Alicia. "Huh. Wasn't expecting Alliance special forces," he said, his gravelly voice tired sounding. "Or a krogan," he added, taking in Wrex's form.

Alicia just kept a firm grip on her shotgun, her blue eyes narrowed behind the visor of her helmet. "What do you want?" She snapped, getting straight to the point. The batarian looked back at her, his frame tensing ever so slightly.

"Fine, to the point then. I'm not interested in getting into a fight," he said. "I didn't come here to start a war, I came here for profit. And it's looking a lot like I'm not even going to get that. So I'm here to make the best of a horrible situation."

"You should have thought of that before trying to drop a fucking asteroid on a colony," Alicia shot back, her voice laced with venom. The batarian quickly waved his hands.

"That was not my idea at all. Balak came to me looking for some extra help, and I agreed, thinking it was just going to be another slave run while the geth had you distracted. Next thing I know, we're piloting this hunk of rock right towards your planet," the batarian quickly said. "I just want to get out of here in one piece. Surely we can come to an arrangement?"

Alicia watched him for a few moments before speaking. "What's your name?"

"…it's Charn. Why do you-?" Charn started to ask, only to be interrupted.

"Well here are your choices Charn. You and your buddies there can drop your weapons, sit on the ground, and peacefully surrender. Or you can fight us. Those are your options," Alicia said, her voice hard and unyielding.

Charn shook his head. "We'd be lucky if we ended up in jail! My men and I didn't want this. Look, I'll give you the passkey to get into the main facility, and even draw my men out so you have fewer enemies to deal with. Surely that's worth letting us go, right? We're not terrorists, we're just-."

"Slavers. You honestly think you're getting out of this without repercussions?" Alicia shot back, trembling ever so slightly as she felt rage starting to build in her. "You expect me to just let you go so you can go and destroy another family? Rip people away from their lives and sell them into a life of servitude and abuse!? Cause all kinds of emotional pain to people knowing they'll never see their loved ones again because you kidnapped or killed them?!"

She did her best not to burst, but there was the faintest hue of blue energy starting to form around her as her emotions began to swirl within her. "I don't think so. Surrender or fight. Those are your options," she said.

Charn took a glance at his men, before looking at her. "…I tried to be reasonable," he said, before making a play for his guns as his men did the same, either trying to draw or raise their weapons.

Alicia was faster, however, as she became enveloped in biotic energy and charged Charn, slamming into him. The batarian was lifted off his feet and thrown back before a solid slug ripped through his armor and chest, obliterating it. Alicia turned as one of the batarians tried to bring his shotgun up. Her biotic shrouded fist slamming into the batarian's helmet, snapping his neck from the force of the blow.

Another of the batarians never stood a chance as the biotic shrouded form of Wrex slammed into him, picking him up and smashing him into a wall. Wrex whirled, firing his Eviscerator at another batarian, dropping their shields with a few pieces of the shrapnel-like buckshot ripping into their armor plates. He whirled back, slamming his helmeted head into the batarian he stunned before firing his shotgun point blank range into their chest plate, completely obliterating their chest cavity in a spray of blood and viscera. As he turned back to the other one he had shot, a sniper round ripped through their helmet, dropping them on the ground in a spray of blood.

The last two quickly ran, trying to get into some cover as Tali darted into the room, taking cover as well and quickly hacking her way into the wireless signal transmitted by their weapons to their suit computers. A quick sabotage program later and their weapons were rendered useless as the onboard programs rebooted. One of them dropped their rifle and tried to grab their pistol, only to be yanked out of cover by Wrex with a biotic pull before Alicia hit them with a throw, sending them smashing head first into a wall. The last batarian, seeing all his comrades dead, quickly threw down his weapons and raised his hands in surrender.

Alicia advanced on him, shotgun at the ready. "I gave you all a chance to surrender," she said, her voice tinged with anger and the barest hint of hatred. She stood over the batarian, staring him down, her hands twitching as she slowly began to raise the shotgun up, only for Ashley's voice to cut in.

"Commander?" The marine sergeant watched Alicia pause before lowering her shotgun, turning away from the batarian.

"…Williams, secure the prisoner. Wrex, watch the entranceway for additional enemies. Tali, get this torch offline," she snapped, moving over to Charn's corpse and crouching down, grabbing his arm to access his omni-tool. Wrex immediately followed her order while the other two hesitated for a moment or two before following suit. Alicia quickly brought up her own omni-tool, running a simply security hack and soon finding herself with access to everything on Charn's omni-tool. She quickly began to download anything relevant and then moved away as Ashley finished securing the surviving batarian.

"What do we do with him ma'am?" Ashley asked as she pulled him up onto his feet, his arms handcuffed behind him.

Alicia looked at him before jerking her head towards the entrance."We'll take him in the Mako before we hand him over to Terra Nova's marine garrison. They can hold onto him until the Alliance…and maybe the Council, decide what they want to do with him."

"Yes ma'am," Ashley said, pulling the batarian away and leaving Alicia to stand in the middle of the carnage. She closed her eyes, trembling as memories, dark ones, reared their head. The trembling continued for a few moments before she shook her head, holstered her shotgun and activated her squad comm channel. "How's it looking Tali?"

"Almost done here Commander. A few more moments and this torch will be offline," the quarian reported.

"Good. I'll let the other squad know," Alicia replied before switching channels. "Normandy 1-1 to Normandy 2-1, copy?"

There were a few moments silence before Naruto's voice echoed in her helmet's receivers. "Copy 1-1, this is 2-1. Torch Beta is offline and we are preparing to head to main facility."

"Copy. Torch Charlie is being secured. We'll rendezvous at main facility shortly. Contact Atwell's inside source for enemy numbers and disposition," Alicia ordered.

"Understood. 2-1 out." Naruto ended the transmission, leaving Alicia to go join Tali and check on her status.

Meanwhile, in the Buffalo, Naruto turned to Atwell. "Is there any sort of signal or warning I need to send before contacting your engineer?" He asked the man.

The engineer kept his focus on the terrain outside the vehicle as he answered. "Send three pulses. She'll respond if it's safe to do so. Otherwise, she's not in a position to send or receive transmissions."

Naruto nodded, bringing up Kate Bowman's frequency and sending the three pulses. He waited a few moments before a reply came through. "Atwell?"

"This is Captain Shepard. We've secured the torches and are heading for the main facility. Can you give us an idea of what we're facing?" Naruto asked quickly.

"I…I can try. We've been hiding for the most part, but I've seen quite a few of them. They have maybe a dozen or more men here, all armed. That's about what I've seen and-," she started to say, only for them to hear a guttural yell in the background, followed by her letting out a cry and some gunfire being heard before the communications cut out.

Next to him, Simon cursed and accelerated, pushing the vehicle faster as Naruto quickly switched back to Alicia. "Commander, our contact was likely found out. Enemy strength is estimated at twelve troopers minimum."

"We're mounting up in the Mako now. ETA to main facility is five mikes," Alicia responded.

"Roger that. We'll be there in two," Naruto responded before cutting the line and looking over his shoulder. "We're going in hot people! Lock and load! And someone make sure the prisoner isn't going anywhere," he ordered.

Kaidan quickly checked on the cuffs now securing the batarian to a handrail in the cargo area. There'd be no way for him to escape now unless he could hack the omni-cuffs and deactivate them. Even still, Atwell would be staying with the vehicle until given the all clear, and Naruto had already armed the man with his sidearm, leaving the vulzan with his assault rifle and sniper rifle.

Garrus and Liara both were prepping themselves; Garrus making sure his weapons were slotted with fresh thermal clips while Liara quickly drank down a small energy drink to recover from using her biotics. As soon as she finished, she quickly slipped the breathing mask back into place on her helmet, ensuring it was tightly secure and functioning.

Soon enough they were cresting a hill and found themselves near the main facility, the first building that had gone up during the operation to move the asteroid to Terra Nova. The building would operate as a storehouse for materials, a living quarters for all personnel on-site, and a command center to manage all the operations in surveying the asteroid, building the fusion torches, and controlling them for the journey back to Terra Nova. It would also serve a mostly similar purpose for the teams that would begin excavating the asteroid and building the space port facilities within, and would later serve as the nerve center for the space port when it was finished.

Naruto gestured for Atwell to stop as soon as they saw the building, before he began scanning the area for any potential threats. At first glance there appeared to be none. Besides the main airlock for engineers on foot to enter or exit the building there was also a garage that was currently sealed up tight, as well as a landing platform where they could see three vehicles. One was a human civilian transport, while the other two vessels were batarian in design. One was little more than a transport ship, being what seemed like a large roughly shaped square with a pair of forward swept wings and a pyramid shaped bow that housed the cockpit, with two large engines mounted into the hull beneath the wings. The entire vessel was painted up in a way similar to some of the armors on the batarians they had encountered. The other ship was smaller by a few meters, most likely a corvette. Its hull was shaped more like a trapezoid with a similar pyramid shaped bow, with two forward swept wings mounted near the rear of the craft and a pair of small canards near the front. It too had engines mounted under the wings, but also had a thick stubby tail rising up near the back, on which was mounted a small turret with a pair of cannons. (2)

Naruto quickly identified the pair before of ships before making another sweep of the area to make sure there were no threats. Seeing none, he contacted Alicia. "1-1, we've reached the facility. No signs of exterior defenses. Confirmed two batarian ships on landing pad. One standard Hegemony Vrezek-class corvette. Second vessel batarian transport ship, potential pirate or slaver vessel," he reported.

"Copy that 2-1. Relaying information to Normandy Actual. Proceed with securing entrance, we'll be there shortly," Alicia responded before ending the transmission.

Naruto nodded before signaling Atwell, who drove the vehicle closer. Stopping a dozen or so feet from the facility, he watched as Naruto and his squad quickly exited the vehicle, setting up a defensive perimeter around the airlock. A couple of minutes later the Mako crested the hill and joined them, the turret continually swiveling to watch the area as Alicia, Tali, and Wrex climbed out of it. Wrex was dragging another armored batarian with him, one that they soon transferred into the Buffalo and 'chained' up with the other batarian. Seeing both prisoners secure, Alicia turned to focus on the airlock.

"Kaidan, Tali, take a look at it," she ordered, watching the two tech minded members of the squad moving to the airlock. Kaidan quickly hacked in, allowing Tali to watch as he began working on the airlock control programs.

"…they've added a second layer of security in. If I try to override or access the airlock controls, the security program will seal the door shut and delete the control programs. There will be no way to open the doors short of explosives," Kaidan responded.

"We could try to hack their security program, but it'll take us quite a bit of time," Tali added, only for Alicia to shake her head.

"Time we don't have. I've got this," she said, bringing up her omni-tool and approaching the door. She quickly used the security key Charn had on the door and it opened without any problems. "Let's move people," she ordered.

The airlock was sadly too small for the entire ground team, so they divided back into their respective squads. Alicia would enter first with her team to secure the entrance, allowing second squad to enter while they held position. It put pressure on her team, but she was confident they could pull it off. After all, something like this is what she specifically was trained to do: hit the enemy line and establish a beachhead for other troops.

This time, however, she switched out Tali for Kaidan, to add an extra layer of defense to her squad to help hold until second squad could follow. This gave her both Wrex and Kaidan for frontline defense, herself to breach, and Ashley to pick off stragglers or flankers. Naruto would follow up with Garrus, Liara, and Tali in order to finish securing the entrance.

The first squad entered, Kaidan making sure his tech-armor was up while Wrex readied himself with his biotics. Alicia was right behind them both, readying to biotically charge in and clear out whatever defenses the batarians had put down. Ashley checked the thermal clip on her Vindicator before rolling her shoulders, calming her breathing as the airlock cycled.

The holographic lock flickered away as the door opened, with Kaidan immediately stepping forward, Locust up and at the ready. And on cue, rounds starting impacting his shields and armor. Two batarians were currently firing at him, one armed with an assault rifle and the second with a pistol he was rapidly firing.

Before Kaidan's shields could dip too low Wrex was beside him, throwing up a barrier that protected them both. The two batarians ceased their firing, only for the one with the assault rifle to get hit by a glowing blue Alicia in her biotic charge, slamming him into the wall behind him. The human vanguard turned and slammed the butt of her shotgun into the other batarian, the weapon breaking the visor of their helmet and sending them stumbling. A trio of cracks were heard as Ashley fired, the rounds slamming into the batarian's shields and lowering them before Alicia fired a point blank slug from her Crusader into the batarian, their armor's plating ripping apart as the slug penetrated and buried itself deep in their torso.

The other batarian was shakily standing, finding it hard to breathe as most likely his ribs were cracked from Alicia slamming into him. He shakily raised his assault rifle, only to get yanked by a biotic pull right into Wrex's outstretched hand. The krogan casually snapped the batarian's neck, dropping the corpse on the ground as Kaidan and Ashley quickly moved forward to finish securing the entranceway.

Seeing the area was clear at the moment, Alicia quickly signaled the second squad as she and Wrex also finished sweeping the entranceway and securing it. A couple minutes later the rest of the ground team joined them.

"Alright. Unfortunately, the enemy most likely knows we're now in the building, so we're going to proceed ahead carefully. Kaidan and I will advance first. When we stop, Uzumaki and Wrex will advance past us to about twenty feet on the opposite side. Tali, Williams, you follow up behind them, Vakarian and T'Soni will follow behind us. Keep your eyes open and watch your motion sensors," Alicia ordered, now switching to her Lancer. As the others nodded and divided up into their pairs, Alicia joined Kaidan. With a nod to him the pair began to advance down the left side of the hallway connected to the entrance area, doing their best to use any cover they could find. When they stopped, Alicia checked for any signs of movement before signaling to Naruto. Both he and Wrex began to advance now, weapons up and at the ready as they moved forward, reaching and then passing where Alicia and Kaidan were holed up. Behind them, Tali and Ashley moved up to a point roughly equal to Alicia and Kaidan's position while Garrus and Liara held back a bit behind them.

Naruto and Wrex soon stopped with Naruto checking his motion scanners as well as visually scanning the area. He and Wrex now were at the bottom of a broad stairway, and Naruto silently signaled his sister when he saw no signs of enemies. The vanguard and sentinel advanced past them, crouching as they made their way up the stairs to try and keep out of sight as long as possible. When they reached the top, they found themselves looking over the main atrium of the building, a large area lined with benches and some offices, as well as a few trees in the central area surrounding a lower floor where passengers and cargo going to or coming from the landing pad could enter or leave. A broad walkway ringed the 'upper' part of the room, with two hallways on the left and right sides leading off to elsewhere in the facility. On the opposite side of the room was another broad but short stairway, likely leading up to the main control area.

There were also a dozen or so batarians seemingly working to gather up equipment, though a few seemed instead to be working on installing some devices along a couple of walls. Alicia zoomed in with her helmet visor to try and see what they were, but couldn't identify the devices due to the batarians blocking her view.

She tapped Kaidan's shoulder and gestured to back up, and the two crouch-walked back down the stairs out of view, signaling the others to join them. "The batarians are congregated in the main atrium," she reported quietly once they all were regrouped. "It looks like they're preparing to bug out. But I don't see any signs of the hostages. All I can see is some of them trying to install some devices on the walls near the staircases. Could be some type of booby traps, could be explosives."

"What's the plan then skipper?" Ashley asked quietly. Alicia turned back to look up the stairs, as if contemplating the layout.

"…Shepard, you'll take Williams and Vakarian. There are two ramps on either side of the stairway leading to an upper walkway. Take cover there, using it as a sniper perch. Tali, you'll go with them as close in back up. Wrex, T'Soni, Alenko. You're with me. We're going to try to reach the railing overlooking the lower area, use that for cover. No one fire until I give the command or they spot us. Understood?" She asked everyone. Seeing them all nod, Alicia turned back to Tali. "If we make it that far without being seen, I want you to use another Seeker to find those hostages. We'll move when we find them. Naruto, your team will go first. We'll wait till you're in position, and then make our move. Let's go people," she ordered.

The now reformed second squad soon was moving forward, each member doing their best to move carefully and quietly as they slowly slipped over the stairway and turned, using the two stairway ramps to reach the top. Naruto directed Garrus and Ashley to one side while he kept Tali with him, since his faster firing Viper would let him more rapidly put rounds on target while Garrus and Ashley could use their Mantis' to alternate fire, one firing as the other cooled down, allowing them to have a constant barrage of powerful sniper rounds heading out. The quartet managed to get into position, though there was a tense moment when a batarian started turning in their direction right as Tali was nearing the top of the second stairway. Thankfully she got into cover before she was seen.

Naruto peeked over, watching the movements of the enemy before activating his radio. "You're clear," he whispered.

Rather than respond to him, Alicia signaled her squad forward, the four of them moving as quickly as they could without causing too much noise. Not exactly easy since one of them was a large massive krogan, something that was usually quite noticeable. Not surprising then that one of the batarians looked up and saw the quartet moving across the atrium towards the railing. Before he could call out though, three separate rounds from the trio of snipers ripped into him, downing his shields and killing him before he could call out.

Of course the batarians were still alerted by the rifles going off, but without a proper warning they were all frantically looking around, buying Alicia's team the precious few seconds they needed to dive into cover. "IT'S AN ATTACK! GET THEM!" One of the batarians roared, pointing towards the figures huddled behind the railing. That is until a Mantis round slammed into his shields and depleted them, staggering him back before a second round slammed into his chestplate and dropped him to the ground. He was wheezing and pawing at the chestplate, the armor plating cracked but somehow having managed to hold up. Ashley cursed as she saw him starting to get up."Guess not all of them could have cheap crap for armor," she muttered as Garrus aimed and fire, taking the batarian right in the visor as he started to get back up, dropping him.

The other batarians were scattering, though one of them dropped after repeated hits from Naruto's Viper wore down his defenses and a round ripped through his neck, ending him quickly. The other batarians were attempting to get into cover, a few trying to make a break for the lower level and the airlocks there. They were quickly dissuaded from the idea when Liara, following Alicia's orders, threw down a singularity right in their path. A couple of them were yanked up by it, left suspended as the remainder backed away and tried to run for cover, just as a warp from Liara slammed into the singularity and detonated it. The batarians caught in the biotic explosion were killed instantly while another too close to the explosion was sent flying.

Within a couple minutes, five batarians were already down, leaving slightly under a dozen left standing and now in cover. The batarians were now cut off from their best escape, as Liara could very easily drop another singularity if they tried to escape. Unable to make a break for the hallways leading out of the atrium due to the trio of snipers covering them, the batarians hunkered down, rising up to fire at any targets they could see. Alicia's squad was much in the same situation though, unable to get to any cover closer or further from the batarians without being caught in the open. A couple of the batarians were attempting to suppress Naruto and his sniper team, but due to the range and none of the batarians using sniper rifles, it was rather ineffective.

Naruto turned to Tali as he waited for his Viper to cool down, giving her a nod. "This is the perfect time to use your Seeker, while they're distracted," he ordered her before raising up long enough to find a target and fire. One round hit the batarian's shields, forcing him into cover as the other two Naruto fired hit the crate he was using for cover only an inch or two from where his helmeted face had been.

Tali, hunkering behind the walkway railing, quickly drew out another Seeker drone and sent it off, keeping it down low and scooting along the railway. She winced as she heard rounds impacting the railing near her and Naruto, but kept focused on the screen of her omni-tool, watching the feed from the drone as it darted into the right-hand hallway.

On the ground, Wrex grunted in annoyance as he dropped down as low as he could behind the railing, his shields heavily depleted. "Shepard, we gotta break this stalemate. I can't keep popping up and losing half my shield before I can even shoot," he said.

Alicia, firing off a shockwave and seeing it send two batarians flying out of cover, couldn't capitalize because at least three separate batarians were all shooting at her, forcing her back into cover. "I know, just give me a second here," she said, fumbling for a grenade and pulling it out. Setting it for a somewhat lower yield to minimize damage to the area she chucked it, the explosion a few seconds later sending one batarian flying, their body riddled with shrapnel. Another batarian rose up, firing their assault rifle wildly at the railing, only to be gunned down by Garrus and Ashley working in tandem.

Kaidan, peeking over the railing, began arming up a sabotage program when he saw a round disk sailing towards them. "Grenade!" He yelled out, grabbing Liara and pulling her with him as he dived away from it. Wrex whirled, trying to grab the grenade with his biotics to throw it back, but it exploded, sending the large krogan staggering back as his shields fell and his armor was pockmarked. Cursing he scrambled back into cover, even as more rounds ripped into his armor.

Naruto, seeing the other squad in trouble, signaled to Ashley. "Try to move around the railing and flank them! I'll do the same over here," he ordered, crouch-walking along the walkway. Ashley quickly did the same as well, the two of them doing their best to move undetected. As soon as they were in new positions the two popped up and immediately began putting flanking shots into the batarians, catching them off guard as they received fire from the sides.

Tali's drone, meanwhile, was in the medical area of the facility and found a locked door that was apparently connected to an observation room. Moving to the windows looking in, the drone soon was sending back video of perhaps a dozen and a half humans trapped within. A couple of them were bent over a large object in one corner, apparently fiddling with whatever it was. Tali ordered the drone to return before switching her suit radio over to Alicia's channel. "Commander, I found the hostages. They're in the medical wing, locked in some kind of observation room. It looks like two of them are fiddling with something though, so I don't know if they're trying to escape or if there's something in there with them," she reported.

Alicia, who was seeing the remaining batarians start to retreat towards the main control room now that their defensive positions were flanked, nodded. "Alright. We'll mop up these guys then rescue the hostages. Everyone, get ready to move forward as soon as they break for the control room, and-!"

"Humans! Cease fire now!" One batarian voice shouted out angrily, as a figure clad in red armor and with no helmet stepped forward. He glared in the direction of Alicia and the others as he held up a remote. "Hold your fire or I blow the hostages to pieces!" He shouted again.

Alicia glared at him before signaling to the others, who all stopped firing but kept their weapons at the ready. The batarians did the same, though a couple quickly grabbed a single wounded batarian lying on the ground. There was about five or six left now, not counting the one who was speaking.

Alicia slowly peeked up over the railing in case it was a trick as she identified the speaker. "I'm guessing you're Balak," she said, gripping her Lancer.

"I am. Come out here in the open where I can see you," he snapped, hand still raised and showing the remote.

Alicia slowly did so, Lancer still held firmly in her grip, ready to be raised up at a moment's notice. The others all watched as she moved forward into the open, watching the batarians for any sign of a double cross. The batarians likewise were eyeing the ground team, looking very nervous due to being outnumbered.

"Who are you?" Balak demanded, his four eyes narrowed as he tried to discern anything about the figure in front of him. All he could tell was that the female in front of him had blue eyes and was Alliance special forces, given the N7 armor she wore.

Alicia studied him carefully before speaking. "Commander Alicia Shepard, Alliance N7, commanding officer SSV Normandy, and Council Spectre," she spat out quickly. Every batarian reacted when they heard that though. More than one of them whispered quietly, their frames tensed now while Balak's eyes now narrowed in recognition and hatred.

"Well well well…guess I shouldn't be surprised the Alliance would send the Butcher of Torfan to deal with batarians," he spat out in turn, his voice dripping with anger, hatred, and contempt.

Alicia just scoffed at his words. "Honestly, I'd say your luck is just that shitty, that we were the only ones who could investigate what was going on," she said mockingly, contempt evident in her voice. "So, what brand of hypocritical pettiness are you going to claim justifies your attempted war crime?"

"War crime? This is justice, human. Justice for everything your race has done to my people! All the crimes your kind have committed, the hardships and suffering my people have endured!" Balak shouted at her.

Alicia rolled her eyes behind her visor. "Right. How absolutely dare humans try to survive and exist in this galaxy as well. Such a terrible crime," she responded.

Balak growled at her. "Your kind stole that which was ours! You claimed the worlds that were ours, took the resources meant to help my people! Countless batarians forced to suffer for lack of resources that your kind stole from us! You even turned the Council against us when we defended ourselves, and-," he started, only to be interrupted.

"Shut your motherfucking lying mouth, you sack of shit," Alicia spat out, causing everyone, batarian and her own ground team, to look at her in surprise. The batarians because of the venom in her voice, while the ground team was shocked at just how much aggression and hatred they could hear from Alicia. Most of them were used more to her energetic, relatively happy or helpful attitude. How she worked to make everyone feel like part of the team, to earn their trust and help each other out. Her sometimes goofy and comedic antics to lighten the mood. And they had seen her passionately defend both themselves and other people.

This…was different. Much like the colder Alicia they had been seeing since they first encountered the batarians on this asteroid, this angry, almost hateful Alicia was something they were not expecting. Only Naruto seemed unsurprised by it all, though if they saw his face they would see the pain and sadness in his eyes.

Alicia took a step forward, her arms raising a bit and causing the batarians to tense. "As soon as my people entered the galactic community your government started screaming bloody murder, claiming we were stealing your worlds that they had done nothing with and demanding we be punished, all while your pirates and slavers descended on our people and started looting and harassing. You didn't even try once to be diplomatic so that we could work things out. When the Council refused to do anything, your government arranged countless terrorist acts and pirate attacks that killed or enslaved hundreds, if not thousands of humans. When we finally stood up for ourselves, you cried foul to the Council, claiming you were the victims instead of the perpetrators. And then you ran off like bitches, throwing a temper tantrum because you didn't get your way. Everything that has happened to your people has been the fault of your government and brainwashed, deluded assholes like you who think you're the victim even as you gun helpless people down or ship them off to live a life of slavery and abuse! So don't you fucking dare sit there and try to play the victim in front of me, not when my father's blood is on the hands of one of your fucking slavers."

Balak returned the look of absolute hatred that Alicia was giving him through her helmet. "And what of you, who led the slaughter of how many during the Battle of Torfan? How many of the so-called pirates and slavers who were surrendering to you died at your command? Are your hands anymore clean, human?" He shot back at her.

Alicia stared at him long and hard. "I would say you don't know what the hell you're talking about, but even if you did you'd just deny the truth because it doesn't fit what you want to believe."

"That makes two of us, human," Balak spat out before raising the remote up. "If you don't want those hostages to die, you're going to order your troops to stand down and let us leave. Otherwise, I'll detonate the bomb and they die."

"And what's to stop me from shooting you here and now?" Alicia asked back, only for Balak to smirk.

"Because I rigged a transmitter connected to my armor's life support monitors. If I die, it sends a signal to start the timer on the bomb…as well as activating the force field emitters set up between here and where the hostages are. You'll never reach them in time to save them," he said, as Alicia narrowed her eyes.

"…and what if I think their deaths are worth it to stop a fanatical mass-murdering psychopath like yourself?" She asked, immediately wiping his smirk away.

Tali and Liara both gasped as they heard this as every member of the ground team stared in her direction. Most of them were horrified at her callous remark, with Naruto finally speak up. "Commander...we can't-," he started to say, only to be interrupted.

"Lock it up Captain," she snapped out quickly, not looking in his direction. "We've seen what kind of danger he is. If we let him go, then millions of lives will be at risk."

"Commander, we know for certain that those hostages are in danger. We cannot simply discard them because of what might happen," Naruto said quickly before she could interrupt him again.

"We will be preventing more from ending up in similar or worse danger," Alicia said, her voice strained either from stopping herself from verbally lashing out at Naruto or from knowing he was right but not liking it.

"We took an oath as Alliance soldiers. It is our sworn duty to protect humanity and the Alliance. If we don't protect the people here and now…we're failing that oath…we're failing to live up to the example HE set for us," Naruto said.

Alicia stiffened as she heard the emphasis Naruto put on the word 'he' before trembling. Ever so slowly she lowered her arms and Lancer into a non-threatening position before angrily jerking her head at Balak. "Get the hell out of here. But if I see you again…you won't live long enough to even speak," she snarled out.

Balak glared at her before giving a curt command to the batarians with him. One of them handed him a helmet that he quickly pulled on before they all quickly moved to the airlocks to leave. Naruto took a deep shuddering breath, slumping a bit as the tension slowly left most of the ground team. Yet all of them could still only stare at the rigid form of Alicia, her turned helmet focused on the airlock doors the batarians left through. Despite the fact that they had succeeded…none of them felt like this was a victory.

SSV Normandy

It was a few hours later as Alicia sat in the captain's quarters, staring off into space. The ship was currently still in orbit of Terra Nova, keeping guard incase anything else should happen until they could be relieved by another Alliance frigate. Her ground team had released the hostages and remained on the asteroid until the marine garrison on Terra Nova could dispatch a couple squads to secure the asteroid and the two batarian prisoners left behind. It had lifted their spirits somewhat to learn that Kate Bowman, the engineer insider, hadn't been killed, though she had lost her brother in the brief struggle that had led to her capture.

The return to the Normandy had been a quiet and tense affair. There was an aura of unease that had followed them all the way up to the ship, and even now permeated the decks, affecting the crew as well. Alicia had disappeared into her cabin after giving two orders: that she was not to be disturbed and that Naruto was to report to her cabin at 1300 hours. Her gaze swept over to the chronometer on the work desk, seeing it was nearly that time, before looking down at her half-finished report. She pushed it away before standing up, pacing.

As soon as the chronometer beeped, indicating the hour change, there was a chime at her door. "Enter," she ordered curtly, back to the door. She heard it slide open, the soft thuds of boots on the deck-plating, and then the door closing.

"Captain Naruto Uzumaki Shepard, reporting as ordered ma'am," Naruto said, his tone professional and emotionless. She glanced over her shoulder, seeing him at attention and saluting. She finally turned and returned the salute, but said and did nothing else, leaving him standing at attention.

They remained like that for a few moments before she finally spoke up. "Captain…your conduct on the mission today was out of line," she said. "You questioned my authority in the field, and brought up personal matters that had no business being aired in the middle of a mission. We already have had enough problem members on this team, we don't need another. Especially from my second in command in the field."

"Request permission to speak ma'am?" Naruto requested, before receiving a curt nod from her. He continued to stare straight ahead, seeing through her as he maintained the at attention stance. "My record as the commanding officer of the Normandy's marine detachment and as your second in command on the ground team speak for themselves ma'am. My actions were in keeping with the ideals and conduct expected of every Alliance soldier. I was acting in the interests of humanity and the Alliance."

"Your actions may have led to the deaths of thousands, allowing a criminal, a terrorist to escape," Alicia said, barely stopping her anger from leaking out. "Balak's escape could mean death for countless humans. How is that in the best interest of humanity o the Alliance?"

Naruto was silent for a few moments before speaking again. "Request permission to speak freely ma'am," he said.

Alicia was silent for a few moments before nodding. Naruto immediately looked at her, the professional mask slipping as he confronted her. "We both know you weren't thinking of the Alliance when you wanted to kill Balak," he said.

Alicia's eyes widened in shock before her face twisted in anger. "Where the hell do you get off saying that?" She demanded, glaring at him. "That son-of-a-bitch has already proven he's willing to drop a fucking asteroid on a human colony! He's willing to start a fucking war between not just humanity and the Hegemony, but the Council as well! You know they'd never be able to sit back and ignore a fucking asteroid drop like that! If he's willing to go that far, he's a clear fucking danger!"

"He is, but you weren't thinking that. All you were thinking about was how much you wanted to kill him and every other one of his men there," Naruto countered. "Don't try to bullshit me Alicia, I know you too well."

"Shut the fuck up Naruto," she said, her voice growing quieter but more dangerous. "Don't you fucking go there."

"Alicia, wake up! You were willing to sacrifice civilians if it meant killing him! That isn't you!" Naruto said, his voice gaining a bit of a pleading edge to it. "Anytime we run into batarians, you start to lose it and-."

"And with good fucking reason!" Alicia shouted back, turning away from him as she slammed a fist down on her desk. "You haven't seen what those fuckers can do to people Naruto. I have. You know that. They killed my dad; enslaved, tortured, and murdered I don't know how many people! And not just humans, they do it to everyone! And then have the gall, the fucking gall, to play like they're the victims in all this!"

She turned back to her, her blue eyes blazing with all the anger she was feeling. "He sat there, spouting out those lies, trying to pretend his people are the victims when they're the perpetrators! He'd have felt justified in killing who knows how many innocent people just because they're human!"

"And can you say you're much better?" Naruto asked her, causing her glare to grow more heated. "Look at you Alicia. You've got all this anger, this hatred building up inside of you, that it's twisting you. Do you remember why we joined the Alliance? We did it because we wanted to protect people so they wouldn't go through what we did. We joined the Alliance because we wanted to stop some other girl or boy from growing up without their parents. We did it because we wanted to honor dad. Do you think this…being willing to sacrifice innocent people to kill one man, is what he'd want?"

Alicia snarled in anger, getting up into Naruto's face. "Don't you dare bring dad into this! They gunned him down like a fucking dog and nearly destroyed our family! They took him away from me!" She almost screamed t him.

Naruto looked her in the eyes, trying to make her see the truth. "They took him from me too, Alicia. You don't think I feel hatred for them as well for that? But he wouldn't want us to destroy ourselves like this."

Alicia shoved him away as she felt her anger finally boil over. "You don't fucking know what he'd want! You're just the fucking stray my parents took in out of fucking pity!" She screamed at him.

Her voice echoed for a few moments in the silence that followed as Naruto's face went white, his eyes wide in shock and hurt. It took Alicia a few moments to realize what she had just said and in an instant she felt her anger melt away, replaced by gut-wrenching pain and horror. She quickly took a step forward as she reached out to him. "N-Nauruto, I-I didn't mean that," she said quickly, only for him to brush her hand away.

"Request permission to leave ma'am," he said, his voice quiet and emotionless as his face became blank, his eyes lifeless as they focused on the wall past her head.

"Naruto, please, let me-," she begged, only to be interrupted by him.

"Request permission to leave…ma'am," he said, his voice more forceful this time. His whole frame was tense but his face betrayed nothing.

Alicia looked at him, before slowly lowering her hand. "…permission granted," she said quietly. As he turned to leave she looked to the floor. "I'm sorry," she said quietly, even as the first tears fell from her eyes.

Despite hearing her Naruto did not react, instead stiffly marching through the door, leaving her alone as the door sealed shut behind him.

---

Fucking finally! You would not believe the shit I put myself through trying to get this chapter done! Besides crap I was dealing with here at home that slowed me down, I kept writing and rewriting it over and over and over again because I wanted to get it right, and I still feel like it's not good enough. I'm so sorry for making you all wait this long.

Alicia: …*gets up and leave*

DFSLLR: Dude…what the hell?

LR: This…is the result of me traumatizing Alicia by having her father killed off on Mindoir. Ever since that moment, I've been building up to this…well this and a reveal in the next chapter. It's part of making Alicia my own unique Shepard, by having this trauma and the character development that's going to come with it. As well as showing that despite their sibling bond, things are not perfect between Alicia and Naruto.

DSTLR: Yeah but still…I mean what the hell?

LR: *shrugs* I love some drama and thought this worked really well to make Naruto more than just a background character.

Wrex:…hell, even I think that was kind of harsh.

LR: *Sighs* Look…I couldn't just put Alicia through that trauma as a teenager and simply let it go. It had to end up coming back up at some point. And this is how I thought it would. It's to show that even the best paragon can turn to renegade with the right trigger. This is going to be something Alicia has to overcome; a flaw she needs to deal with. It helps show that Naruto and Alicia can still have problems despite how close they've been as siblings. And more importantly, this adds something to Alicia's character that can actually benefit her down the line. I'm not certain of everything, but I can think of a couple characters in ME2 at least who allow certain things to control them and how they act, and how Alicia's experiences will allow her to better interact with them.

RS19: I guess. Still…jeez…

LR: Anyways, now that I've finally got it done, I'm hoping it…well that it's good enough. I don't know, I'm worried…I mean I always worry, but I am especially worried here because this chapter…well yeah. It's a big one I've been planning for a long time. And I really hope I got it right.

Anyways, thank you all for reading and I hope you enjoyed it. Thanks go to a7xfanatic1195 for his help in betating the fanfic. I hope you all are staying safe, and thank you for reading.

1. I know the game labels him as Commander Rentola, but this stems, again, from the weird attempt to merge both marine and navy ranks together that Bioware did. Something that I don't honestly agree with. Since Kirrahe definitely has an army or marine rank (he's later promoted to major), I'm sticking to army/marine ranks for the STG when necessary.

2. I have been unable to find anything that is 100% confirmed for the batarian ship design, so I took creative liberties. I have seen images people have done, but since I had no desire to use their designs without permission and didn't want to wait for said permission, I've created my own designs.