Chapter 13

Training Room - SSV Normandy SR-1

A loud thud echoed across the training room as the people standing around the squared mat watched in fascination. Ash and Kaidan were spotting each other while lifting weights, and Tali simply sat in the corner, her workout long over with. Standing in the center of the sparring mat was Commander Shepard in her PT pants, wearing a black, tight fitted top, and wrappings around both her hands and feet.

Panting, she released the human that she had just flipped onto his back, leaving him stunned. "Sorry Tyson, but you're years too green to take me on," she said playfully as she gripped his hand and yanked him back to his feet.

"Wow Shepard, how'd you do that? I didn't even see it coming?" asked the supply officer, who was also in his PT gear.

"Martial arts helps a lot in special forces. Especially when you get into a situation where your gun can't save you," she said as she patted him on the shoulder. "Consider taking some courses when you get some free time."

Suddenly, the door to the training room opened and in walked the turian fire team. The leader was Praetor Gavos, who had a much lighter carapace than Shepard was used to seeing on turians, as well as white paint that slashed across her face like an off-balance V. The turians stopped when they saw that the room was already occupied, the fire team behind her looked around with uncertainty.

"Oh, sorry. We'll come back later…" said Zannia as she went to step back.

"Nonsense! We can join you guys, right Shepard?" asked Garrus as he stepped in from behind them.

"Of course. Just be gentle, I don't know if the human ego can stand watching a turian work out," she said with a grin, getting a slight chuckle from the turians. She wiped her sweat away with a forearm as they entered the room. "Speaking of which, I never got the chance to thank you guys. First for not killing me on Edolus. That was some pinpoint work you guys pulled off," she said with a large smile.

Zannia stood almost stiff at the claim, looking from Garrus, back to her fire team comrades, before turning back to Shepard. "It...it is our duty. We are grateful to have the opportunity to serve," she said as she gave a very turian salute by placing the clenched talons of her left hand against the center of her chest.

Knowing the importance of duty to the turians, she simply returned the salute, before holding her hand out to the woman. "We don't know each other very well yet, but I want you to know that I appreciate you all as much as I do any human member of my crew. Your spirits can rest easy on board this ship," she said with a firm stare.

The surprised looks from the turians made her slightly nervous, but a chuckle from Zannia lessened her worry. "Thank you, Commander. We were definitely nervous having a human Captain a ship for us. But I'm happy to see that you more than understand us," said the woman as she reached forward and clasped wrists.

Jane let out a heavy sigh of relief and nodded. "Please let me know if I can make your stay on the ship any easier," she said genuinely as she stretched herself out.

"Will do Commander," said Zannia as she headed towards the treadmills on the far side of the room.

"So, Shepard, judging from Tyson's stiff shoulders, I'd say you know a few fancy human martial arts. Is that right?" asked Garrus as he stepped up to the mat wearing nothing more than what amounted to a loincloth.

"Uhhh...you know you're naked, right?" asked Tyson as he stepped off of the mat and eyed Garrus curiously. Looking over, Tyson eyes widened as he saw the females wearing almost bare minimum as well.

"Turian genitals are internal unless mating is taking place. So, no worries, you won't see anything," said Garrus as he turned back to Shepard. "Besides, there aren't many clothes that would be able to stand up to a turian workout regimen, especially with how our bodies are designed."

"Good enough," said Shepard as she bounced on the balls of her feet and began flexing her hips. Using them to flip Tyson several times had given her quite the kink. But as soon as she did, she noticed an odd look on Garrus' face before he turned his head away. Looking over at the other turians, she noticed the males among them staring at her as well. "Is something the matter?"

Garrus cleared his throat somewhat and stepped up next to the commander before leaning down to whisper to her. "Uhhh...turians...especially males, have a fascination with...hips," he said, choosing his next words carefully. "It's like female breasts to male humans...they kinda draw the gaze," he said, slightly nervous.

Shepard chuckled, knowing that if turians could blush, Garrus might just have a beet-red face right now. "Sorry, I'll keep the hip swinging for later then," she said as she took a few steps back and held her arms forward in a martial stance. "So, I assume you asked about my hand to hand combat because you wanted to see it, right?"

Garrus nodded and began stretching his legs. She noticed that he wore what looked like tight leg warmers around the heel area of his digitigrade legs. Noticing her curious stare, he spun around and kicked the air in front of him. "Turians can get a bit heated in battle, so to make sure nobody accidentally gets jabbed, we wear sheathes over our spurs," he said, showing the protective cover over the heel.

"Glad I won't have to visit the clinic when we're through," she said with a smirk as she raised her stance again. "You ready Vakarian?"

"Oh Shepard, I've been waiting for this," said the turian with a chuckle as he raised his arms as well. Shepard was startled to see how similar his stance was to those who practiced Thai kickboxing back on Earth. Though, given a turian's constant use of their legs in combat, it shouldn't have surprised her that much. She would have to watch out for his kicks. Even without the stingers, a strong turian could break the neck of a human with a full force kick.

Apparently, Garrus thought she needed some goading because he stepped forward and sent light kicks at her head, watching as she easily blocked them with her forearms. Despite his poking, she continued to stare at him silently while the other turians stopped their regimen to gather around the mat with the humans. Even Ash and Kaidan began watching in their own PT uniforms while Tali merely sat in the corner with a bottle of water, stunned at the development.

Garrus went for another kick, but Shepard grabbed his leg in mid-air and lashed out with her own, swiping his grounded leg out from under him and causing him to faceplant into the mat. "Come on Garrus, you're going to have to take me a little more serious than that," she said as she took up her stance again.

Garrus chuckled and got to his feet, raising his hands once more. "Alright, Shepard. Just remember, you asked for this," he said before stepping towards her again. This time when the kick came, she barely dodged it. She felt the force from the wind blow against her hair, making her glare thoughtfully. If she tried to block that, it would cause serious bruising, if not a break in her arm. So dodging was her only option as he lashed out again in another roundhouse kick. "I'm just gonna keep kicking until you do something Shepard," snarked Garrus with an amused twinge to his voice.

She didn't fall for his goading, however, and waited. Dodging one more time, she let him kick again before ducking down. As soon as his leg was above her, she thrust upwards, impacting his leg with her shoulder. The turian tilted off balance before Shepard reached forward and grabbed one of his flailing arms, then slammed her hip into his knees, sending him into a rolling slam that left him flat on his back and gasping for air.

She stared down at him curiously, as did Ash, Tali, and Zannia. "Garrus, are you alright?" asked the quarian curiously.

His response was to let out a squeak as his large lungs began pulling in air once more. "Y-Yeah...I'm good," he wheezed as he got back to his feet.

"I've squared off with turians before. Something tells me you've never gone toe to toe with a human who knew what they were doing," said Shepard as she accepted a towel from Kaidan.

"Thought I had until I found myself staring at the ceiling a moment ago," responded Garrus with a chuckle. "I guess we all have something to learn in the ways of combat…"

"Humans have four main weaknesses," started the woman, getting a surprised look from Garrus. Taking his taloned hand, she pressed his fist against her nose. "When struck in the nose, we get a bit of a sensory overload. The cartilage it's made of is weaker than regular bone, so it breaks easily with a punch or kick, and can stun us."

"Teaching me your weak spots Shepard? Should I feel insulted?" asked Garrus with a chuckle.

"Shut up Vakarian," she said playfully before turning her head towards Tali and the other turians as well. "We're probably going to run into plenty of humans that need killing or disabling as well. You should really know these if you're going to be in any kind of combat with our kind," she said as she turned back to Garrus. "The second is here," she said, placing his fist against her throat. "Obviously, we breathe through these, so striking them hard enough will crush our only method of breathing and can kill us. If you don't punch hard enough, it'll still close for a short time, stunning us, or even knocking us senseless."

Garrus stared in disbelief at Shepard as she explained. "Are humans really that easily taken out?" he asked in disbelief. She was sure that he had fought his share of humans back in C-Sec, but most of them were likely to have been taken down by a kick to the gut.

"We are pretty squishy," said Ash from the sidelines. The turians next to her looked over curiously and she shrugged. "No point in denying what you can find online. Humans don't have scales or a carapace. Our skin breaks easily, and our weak spots are plain as day," she said with a shrug.

"She's right. Humans evolved using tools and animal companions to do most of their work, even to protect against the elements. So, hair is really the only kind of protection we got," she said as she ruffled her own short red locks. "In any case, anywhere in this area is one of the deadliest places to hit a human…" she said as she gestured around her throat. "So just know that if you hit someone there, you're aiming to potentially kill them. Now, here is number three," she said as she moved his fist down and placed it directly where her ribcage ended.

Garrus looked away for a moment, coughing slightly. "Uhhh...Shepard," he said nervously.

"I have clothes on Garrus, you're fine," she said in amusement. "Now, do you feel where my ribs end?" He looked at her again, his mandibles twitching.

"I do," he said apprehensively.

"Here you have a sweet spot. This is where our diaphragm rests, which does most of the controlling of our lungs. If hit hard enough here, you can knock the wind out of us, and paralyze the diaphragm for a good minute, preventing us from breathing properly for that short time. I don't know if you've ever been forced to stop breathing, but we tend to panic when that happens," she said, releasing his hand.

Garrus flexed his talons curiously. "Is that it?" he asked, almost in amusement of how many weak spots humans had. So, when she spoke up again, he was surprised.

"One more. All humans, but especially those with external genitalia, suffer severely from shots between the legs," she said as she gestured to her pelvic area. "If you were to send a full force kick directly to someone with an external scrotum, you could blind them, paralyze them, or knock them unconscious from a single blow," she said as she placed her hands on her hips.

Garrus, as well as the other turians just stared incredulously at Shepard. "You know, they give you some training in C-Sec in regards to hand to hand, but I guess even our instructors hadn't fully grasped humans yet because they didn't mention any of this," said the turian as he stretched his leg.

"How did humans survive with so many vulnerable areas?" asked Zannia curiously as she eyed Shepard.

"Humans are stubborn creatures, and extremely resilient. We've had a few cases since the creation of firearms where a human was shot in the brain but managed to survive. We've had people who cut their own arms off to save their lives, people who live every day in the hottest and coldest climates on our planet just because we can," said the redhead with a grin. "Humans are squishy, but you'll find it hard to kill us," she said playfully.

"Uhhh...Commander?" came Joker's voice over the intercom.

Looking up, she lifted an eyebrow at his voice. They were currently in the shade, which meant that most of the crew was sleeping. So, he shouldn't even be at his station. "What is it Joker?" she asked curiously.

"I hate to interrupt your little pow-wow down there, but you've got a high priority call from the Citadel. Crewman Tanaka was looking for you to give you the message. They said they need to talk to you in the comm room," he said urgently.

"Understood. I'll be right up," she said as she turned to the others. "Ash, show Garrus how resilient humans are," she said, getting a smirk and a nod from the woman. As she left the mat, Ash took her place as Garrus' opponent.

"Don't get any funny ideas Vakarian. She may have shown you our weaknesses, but no using them here," she ordered as she took up a boxing stance.

"Yeah yeah, I got it," said Garrus in return as he too took up his combative stance.

Shepard smirked as she left the training room with a towel around her neck. Rather than heading to her room, where she would normally get dressed for a meeting with Alliance brass, she went straight for the comm room instead in her wrapped hands and feet with her sweat covered PTs still on. She wondered who exactly it was contacting her at this time of the afternoon. Normally the Councilors had a heavy workload that they had to push through around this time. It could have been Udina, but he didn't have access to the quantum communication unit that led to the comm room at this time of night. He would have had to contact her omni-tool personally, which wasn't easy when they were this far away from the Citadel.

As she entered the comm room, she got her answer immediately. Her eyebrows shot up as she saw the ghostly form of Tevos, the asari councilor smiling at her from the holographic display. "Greetings Spectre. I hope I didn't catch you at a bad time," said the councilor as Shepard approached the comm, her eyes scanning the woman up and down.

"Not particularly. I was just training some of the crew in hand to hand while we went under for the evening," responded Shepard with a small smile. She was somewhat relieved to see the woman standing alone. Of the other two, she could usually tolerate Valern despite his constant dismissal of her experience from the beacon. But Sparatus and her could have had bruises on their foreheads with the number of times they had and would continue to butt heads in the future. Of all three of them, Tevos was the most receptive to Shepard and her plight, which made her much easier to talk to.

"I see. Well, first, I wanted to congratulate you on all you've done thus far. Sparatus may not like it, but you've shown your worth already by cleaning up that mess on Trident," started the graceful woman as she stood tall in all her elegance. Despite her regal form, however, she still stood a few inches under Shepard herself, who stood around a hundred and seventy centimeters.

Shepard chuckled lightly as she pulled the towel free from her shoulders. "Valern wasn't too fond of the fact that I purged the data after making sure it couldn't be replicated," she said as she crossed her arms.

Nodding lightly, Tevos continued. "You must understand. Valern is a scientist. While he understands why you had to do it, he mourns the loss of such data on an intellectual level."

"Noted," said Shepard with a friendly enough smile. "So, Councilor, I doubt you called this late just to congratulate me. Did you need me to do something?" asked the woman curiously as she eyed the painted-again asari.

"Of course. I had some new information regarding your mission to find Saren," said the asari, getting a raised eyebrow from the human. "You remember Matriarch Benezia?"

"The asari women we heard in the recording?" asked Shepard, her curiosity piqued.

Tevos nodded dutifully, her arms folded gracefully behind her back as she spoke. "Matriarch Benezia, who is currently acting as Saren's aide, actually has a daughter. After our meeting here in the Council Chambers, I used some of my resources to see if I could find out where she was in case she had something to do with this whole situation. While I am still unaware of her allegiances, I did manage to find out from the curator of the T'Lana Institute's Prothean Exhibit that her daughter, Liara, recently left on an excursion to a prothean dig site out in the Artemis Tau cluster."

"Dig site? Was she looking for another beacon?" asked Shepard curiously, wondering if this daughter was, in fact, working for Saren.

"While I can't confirm that, I will say that this wasn't unusual behavior for her. She earned a doctorate from the University of Serrice back on Thessia. Aside from the legendary brandy created there, the college is most famous for its studies of ancient culture. So Liara earned her doctorate decades ago and has since been studying the protheans extensively. She's quite talented in the field, and has discovered a number of incredible artifacts," said the asari woman as if speaking proudly of her own daughter. "Though, my people are quick to attribute these findings to her teacher rather than her due to her young age…"

"I see, so she's an archaeologist. Which means she could be in the ruins because she's doing her job, or because she's looking for more clues for Saren…" grumbled Shepard, realizing she had little information to go on as far as whether the asari scientist had turned.

"Indeed. I did, however, manage to get her location. It turns out that she rushed out, saying that she was heading to the Telsakka ruins, which reside on the volcanic planet of Therum in the Knossos system. I will send you a nav point for the ruin that should catch up to you before you arrive," said the woman, who bowed her head politely.

"Thank you again Councilor. We'll head there as soon as possible," said the Spectre respectfully.

"I expect great things Shepard. I eagerly await your report," said Tevos before she finally vanished from the comm.

Turning away, she activated her omni-tool. "Joker."

"What's up Commander?" asked the pilot, his tone lacking the usual humor.

"Set a pilot up for tonight. We're not drifting, we're flying to Artemis Tau during light's out," she ordered as she left the comm room.

"One grumpy Lieutenant coming up," he said, his joking manner returning.

Shepard closed down her comm before letting out a sigh. Once she reached her room again, she stared at the bed, her tired eyes twitching at the sight of it, wondering if her sleep would be infiltrated by nightmares once more. Shaking her head, she turned towards the shower.

Captain's Quarters - SSV Normandy SR1

"Commander, we've arrived in the Knossos system and have the Council's navpoint uploaded. We're heading to the ruins now," came Joker's voice over her room's intercom.

Shepard stared at the clock next to her bed in annoyance. Her eyes somewhat burned, and she felt like her mind was playing tricks on her. It had all been so fast. She laid on the bed, closed her eyes, and again was assaulted by the memories of the beacon. Screaming, horror, despair, all of it assaulting her mind in a flash, then she opened her eyes again and found herself staring at her stupid clock. According to the damn thing, six hours had passed in nearly the blink of an eye. And while her body didn't feel any worse for wear, her mind reeled from the lack of peace.

She had laid there for minutes until Joker's call came, making her get up with an aggravated sigh. Donning her armor, she glared the entire way to the CIC. "Let me know when we're above the drop point. Until then, call Zellin, Ashley, and Garrus to the CIC and have them ready to go planetside in twenty."

"Yes sir," responded Joker before the comm died.

She made her way through the mess hall, grabbing a quick hash brown before heading down to the armory. Once there, she took her weapons but didn't get away before the armory chief noticed her agitation. "You alright Commander?" asked Williams as she eyed the CO curiously.

"I'm fine," responded the redhead pointedly. Williams raised her hands defensively to show she understood, then proceeded to take her own weapons down. Within minutes, the group was assembled in the CIC and was more than ready for the drop. Shepard turned to the two, trying to hide her frustrated look. "Alright, so we're here to get in touch with an asari known as Liara T'Soni. She should be inside of a prothean dig site that we're approaching now…"

"Does she have any relation to Saren?" asked Garrus curiously. Shepard and Ash both eyed him. "I'm just asking because you had us fly here overnight after getting a call from the Council," he said with his mandibles twitching curiously.

Shepard nodded with a smirk on her face. "Good catch Vakarian. Yes, it relates to Saren. Or more specifically, Matriarch Benezia. Liara T'Soni happens to be her daughter, so we're here to determine whether she is working with Saren and potentially extract her if necessary."

"What would deem it necessary?" asked Ashley curiously as they headed down into the cargo bay together, shortly followed by the salarian spectre.

"If she's working for a war criminal. Otherwise, if she seems compromised, or perhaps threatened in any way. They said she seemed urgent in her coming to these ruins, so she may have come out under duress," responded the commander as she stepped towards the shuttle that they were due to take down to the surface.

Suddenly, the ship jarred, nearly knocking everyone in the cargo bay off their feet. "Commander! We've got incoming fire from the surface near the ruins!"

Growling at the circumstances, Shepard sprinted over and hit the intercom. "How big are the targets?"

XO Pressly spoke up this time. "Small Commander. But they're huddled together if you want us to hit them with the Excalibur…"

"We shouldn't do that Commander!" came Zannia's voice over the channel as well.

"Why not Fire Team?" asked Shepard curiously.

"Under normal circumstances, we could easily eradicate them using the main gun. But these attackers have specifically located themselves on top of the ruins!" she started as the ship jerked again.

Garrus nodded thoughtfully. "If we use the main gun, we could end up punching right through the ground and collapsing the ruins on top of Doctor T'Soni's head…"

"Exactly," responded Zannia.

"Then it looks like we have to take them out ourselves…" snapped Shepard as she turned away from the shuttle. Raising her omni-tool, she called out to the crew through the CO channel. "We're going ground side in the Mako instead. Joker, get me a landing vector so that we can get down there and take them out," she ordered as she jumped up on top of the armored vehicle.

"You got it Commander. Calculating now," said the pilot as Zellin hopped up with her.

"Shepard," called the salarian as Shepard slipped into the driver's seat of the armored vehicle. Following her in, the other spectre sat next to her while Ashley and Garrus sat in the back. "I want you to know that this will be our last mission together."

Despite the urgency of their current objective, Jane did stop and eye the salarian curiously. "Seen all you need to then?"

"I have, though the mission ahead will refine that," he said as he waited for her to say something. But she simply nodded and prepared the vehicle. "You do not wish to know my assessment?"

"If you wish to tell me, then do so. But me asking isn't going to change your mind about what you liked and did not like. Nor is me knowing going to do anything more to help me with my mission. If it is imperative for you to tell me though, then I will listen. But right now, we have an important task ahead of us," she said firmly. Her eyes nearly widened when she saw him smirk slightly at her answer. Then, he simply sat back in the seat.

"Commander, we've got it lined up," said Joker urgently over her omni-tool.

"Good. Cargo bay has been cleared. Let's get on the ground!" she ordered, watching as the bay doors began opening, causing the wind inside to whip around at breakneck speeds.

Outskirts of Telsakka Ruins – Therum

If the landing itself wasn't hell, then everything that followed definitely was. As soon as the six wheels of the vehicle hit the ground, the alarms of incoming fire started going off immediately. Even looking at the landscape around them showed them glowing masses of plasma flying at near light speed towards them and blasting the landscape apart. To keep from getting immediately melted into molten slag, she had to hit the accelerator and spin the vehicle in almost a full donut to avoid some of the shots.

Releasing her turn on the wheel, she gunned it for the nearest bend that allowed her to get access to the attackers. "Williams! Get your ass on the gun and provide return fire as best you can!" shouted the commander over the explosions of dirt and volcanic dust that was being thrown into the air.

"On it sir!" shouted Ash as she rose up and grabbed the cannon controls. Immediately, the weapon spun on the top of one of the vehicle and aimed in the direction in which the incoming bolts of plasma were shooting from. The gunnery sergeant spotted a large, quadrupedal, machine that was glaring right back at her with a familiar looking ocular light. "Commander! I think we're fighting the Geth!"

"What the hell are the geth doing here!?" shouted Garrus as he held onto the safety rail above for dear life as Shepard banked the vehicle hard.

"They're definitely here for T'Soni. There's no way in hell they just happened to be here at the same time as her!" shouted Shepard as Ash finally unleashed with the cannon. The 155mm cannon roared across the landscape, narrowly missing one of the unflinching armatures as Shepard began swerving the vehicle towards them. "Williams, this serpentine isn't going to save us!"

"I got it Shepard!" shouted the gunnery chief as she aimed with the sights again. She could easily see the monstrous head of the machine glowing as it primed another bolt of plasma to fire at the tank. But she aimed carefully, making sure to lead her shot with Shepard's driving, then hit the button.

The shot rang out again, but this time the MAC round flew and smashed through one of the knee joints of the mobile geth tank. The blast sheared through its leg and sent the appendage flying, causing the mechanical behemoth to tilt rapidly before eventually face planting directly into the dirt. And as soon as it did, its plasma blast fired, obliterating the ground and its head.

"Nice shot chief!" shouted Garrus over the sound of the engines.

Snorting happily, the armory chief spun the gun again and began focusing on the next target.

Geth Outpost - Telsakka Ruins – Therum

After long minutes of the hellish fight along the winding path toward the Geth outpost, there were only two of the monstrosities left. Shepard decided to split the workload this time, and while Ash zeroed in on the other with the autocannons, the commander gunned it directly for the last of the goliath machines.

The auto fire chipped away at the armature's thick outer shell before finally penetrating its inner core and destroying the automaton's motor functions. Once it had fallen, the Mako swerved into a drift that led to a loud thump against the side as the armored vehicle smashed into the last of the Geth tanks. Its legs buckled beneath it and sent it rolling down a hill, almost comically slowly, before finally its light was seared out by the noxious molten rock that awaited below.

As the armature shrieked out its demise, Shepard finally let out a sigh of relief and rested her sweating brow against the wheel of the vehicle. "You alright sir?" asked Ashley curiously as she looked down from her spot in the gunner's seat.

"Yeah…" she said as she sat up again and stretched her neck. "Was kinda hoping this one would have just been a pickup mission though."

Garrus chuckled from behind her seat. "Oh Commander, you should know better than that. You're a magnet for trouble after all…"

"You're not lying Garrus. That's why you're here," she said, giving him a playful smirk before beginning to steer the vehicle towards the small mountain range again. "Now, we know that the incoming fire on the Normandy came from this base. So, we have to take out those damn air cannons if we want to get off this rock. Problem is…"

"There's probably more of those armatures inside…" started Zellin.

"And turrets," said Ash.

"And probably Geth ground troops as well," finished Garrus.

All three of them received a glare from Shepard. "How did I pick a group of people less optimistic than me?" she asked as she pulled the vehicle around, hiding it inside the curve of the range they were driving through. "It's within walking distance and given the very little amount of room we have to maneuver in the valley, that makes the Mako a stupidly easy target for the turrets. So, until they are out of the picture, we're going to have to leave it behind.

"Actually Commander...I have an idea…" said Ash as she smiled nervously from the gunner's seat.

Geth Outpost - Telsakka Ruins – Therum

"You're out of your mind, you know that right!?" asked Garrus as he clenched the safety rail above for dear life.

"We checked ourselves Vakarian! There are no turrets or armatures inside the walls!" shouted Shepard with a grin as Ash continued to scan ahead with the cannon, a firm smirk on her face. Currently, the Mako was ramping over large hills and mountains, going in and out of cover too fast for any of the turrets or even the Geth themselves to properly target with any effective fire.

"You're all still insane!" shouted Garrus as a harsh jump caused him to thump his helmet against the roof. "Oww…"

Suddenly, they burst from the top of a mountain and ramped into the air, the jets on the Mako activating and sending the heavy vehicle soaring over the walls faster than the turrets could track. When she finally released the jets, the tank dropped down in the middle of the small outpost, crushing two mobile geth platforms and a crate that was sitting nearby them.

As soon as the vehicle landed, weapons fire started coming from each of the structures and raining down on the vehicle. Fortunately, the thick armor and heavy shielding of the tank deflected nearly all of them while Ash spun the main weapon around and blasted the shooters with the autocannons. After a full minute of firing, she released the trigger, allowing the smoking weapons to stop firing. "Got most of them, but a few ducked inside of the structures. We'll need to go in after them if we hope to disable the ground and air turrets," said Ash as she spied through the window of one structure. Then, realizing what she had just said, she looked at the others to see them staring at her. "Uhh...I mean...sir…" she said, her face slightly tinted red.

Shepard chuckled and reached up for the hatch. "You heard what the chief said. Get a move on!" said the commander as she opened the vehicle. "Williams, keep their heads down while we go in."

"Y-Yes sir!" shouted Ash as she zoomed out slightly so she had a better field of vision on the three buildings.

When they were free, Shepard drew her pistol and pointed to one of the buildings. "Vakarian, you take that one. Spectre, you've got the south. I'll take north," she finished before activating her cloaking.

Garrus looked around, trying to see her, but could only barely make out the small warping of the landscape around her. Were he not intentionally looking for it, he would never have been able to spot it, even with his enhancing visor. "I've got to learn to do that someday…" he said as he drew his assault rifle and headed in the direction of the building.

Once inside, the turian took stock of what was inside. A small walkway circled around a bunch of tall generators, no doubt here to power and recharge both the turrets and the armatures. He placed one side against the giant batteries, then popped out and aimed his weapon between two of them, making sure there were no geth hiding in the nooks of the plant. He moved forward, then did the same thing until he cleared the entire row. Finally, he circled around the batteries and aimed down the long stretch behind them that also held the gate controls they would need to get out of the outpost with the Mako.

Opening his own omni-tool, he began to slowly move forward, concluding that this building was perhaps empty. "Williams, I'm going to open the gateway to the north. Prepare to take down the turrets," he said as he reached the end.

"Ready. They'll be scrap when you get back out here," said the gunnery chief confidently.

Reaching up, the turian activated the controls with his omni-tool, causing the gate outside to drop. And he saw the turrets through the blast shield next to him get ripped to shreds by the powerful cannon on top of the Mako. Chuckling, Garrus turned around to leave when he slammed into something solid, almost knocking him backward. "Shepard? Is that you?" he asked, clenching his weapon.

His blue blood ran cold, however, as the only response he got was a series of chirping clicks. He went to raise his weapon, but it was knocked out of the way violently before he felt an icy claw grip around his throat. Reaching up, he grabbed the invisible limb with his talons, trying to pry it open, but the crushing force was almost too much. Finally, he threw out a last-ditch move by launching his armored leg up and slamming it down onto what he thought was the shoulder of the monstrous creature. The spur blades on the back of his legs slashed through something, and suddenly he fell and hit the ground, gasping for breath and prying the metal claw free from his wheezing throat.

Suddenly, its cloaking vanished, showing that he had just cut the arm off of a rather large geth infiltration platform. Raising his hands, he kicked out as it raised its other arm to grab him. The force sent the wiry robot stumbling before Garrus kicked out again with his spur blades, this time catching the unit in the spinal column as it tried to regain balance. Like a switch, the light in its ocular lamp, as well as along its body went out. The entire thing slumped forward over the railing as Garrus pried his spur blade out of its back. "Noted…" said the turian as he cleared his throat slightly before jumping the railing to grab his gun again. Once it was secure, he ran outside the building to see the other two already heading back towards the tank. He jogged out to catch up.

Seeing the turian, Shepard smiled genuinely. "What's the matter Garrus? Not out of breath already, are you?" asked the commander.

He chuckled, which caused his throat to hurt as he bent forward in front of her. "That joke warrants an ass kicking, Shepard…"

"Any time Vakarian," she said playfully as she hopped back into the tank.

CODEX ENTRIES

Praetor | Military | Palaven Hierarchy
The equivalent of a 1st lieutenant in the Alliance military, they are typically put in charge of small squads that are utilized for specialized missions that require them to be away from the Hierarchy's main forces.

Spur Sheath | Culture | Turian
With the turian's militaristic culture, turians take out a lot of their aggression and anxiety through sparring with one another. But, in sparring the goal is to exhaust and train oneself, not to kill or maim. So the turians developed sleeves that fit over their spurs that prevent potentially poisoning their partners with a misplaced kick. This is a common safety feature in turian sparring gear.