Argos Rho:

As the Normandy headed towards the Argos Rho, Shepard had some time with the crew and decided to talk with Kaidan. Of all the crew members, Shepard had known Kaidan the longest and she was always curious about the backgrounds of her crew so she went to see Kaidan who greeted her when he saw her "Hey Commander, how are you going?" he asked

"I'm fine Kaidan." Shepard replied "I had some time to pass so I thought I should get to know you better since we're been on this mission since the start but I don't actually know much about you."

"Well my life has not been easy." Kaidan stated "I was born into a military family just like you were. My father served in the Republic army so he was proud when I joined. But I also developed force sensitive powers at a young age and so I spent quite a lot of my younger years at the Jedi Temple."

The Jedi temple was located on Arcturus Station and was the headquarters of the Jedi Order, the Republic's biotic community. Because of accidents with Element Zero, it caused people to develop special powers that were known as Force powers. The power of this force was better understood when the creature known as Yoda was discovered and the Republic created the Jedi Order so that these force sensitive's had a place to learn. Not every force sensitive had to join but if you had strong force powers then it was advised as you may lose control of your powers by accident. The Jedi Order members were trained in different ways, some become scholars who seek knowledge while others became soldiers who could use their powers on the battlefield or stealth missions just like the Asari Commandos.

"What was it like in the Temple?" Shepard asked

"They had a strike routine." Kaidan replied "It was like being in military school and you had to train all the time to the best. There were many other people just like me at the Temple. I became skilled with both the force and a lightsaber by the time I reached 16."

The lightsaber was a Jedi's special weapon, it was an energy sword that was powered by a special crystal known as a Kyber crystal that were found on the Planet Ilum. Jedi younglings would find these crystals as part of a training test before constructing their lightsabers. Depending on your powers, the lightsabers could be different colours such as green, yellow and blue. A few powerful Jedi even had a rare purple lightsaber. These lightsabers could cut through pretty much anything and deflect blaster bolt from blasters.

But this caught Shepard attention, Kaidan never fought with a lightsaber, he always fought with a pistol "Why don't you fight with a lightsaber?" she questioned "I've never seen you fight with a lightsaber at any point."

Kaidan sighed "Well, I don't have my lightsaber anymore." He stated "I was stripped of it?"

"Why were you stripped of your lightsaber?" Shepard asked

"Because I got kicked out of the Jedi order!" Kaidan pretty much shouted which made Shepard step back in shock and then sighed "I'm sorry Shepard, I don't really want to talk about it but I made a mistake many years ago that got me expelled from the Jedi Order. I was out of work for a while until I met this former Asari Commando who helped train me in combat and then I was able to join the military with help from my father. Maybe one day I will tell you about the incident that got me expelled."

"Thanks for telling me that Kaidan." Shepard stated "And no matter what you did, you are still a member of my crew."

"Thanks Shepard." Kaidan replied.

...

The Argos Rho cluster was a cluster of three systems that tended to be ignored by the galactic powers as there were no habitual planets and so no colonies that could be developed so it was a haven for criminal activity. The systems in this cluster were named after mythical creatures from Greek Mythology, the Gorgon, the Phoenix and Hydra System. The system that the Normandy was going was the Gorgon system as that system was where the data said the Rachni came from.

The Star Gorgon was a B-type Star and had 5 planets in the system. Two of the planets, Wuo and Camaron were tidally locked to Gorgon which made one side of these planets scorched and the other side frozen and the other three planets, Vectra, Slekon and Sharblu are all gas giants so there were no suitable planets for colonies which made the Gorgon system a great place to set up a secret base. The Gorgon system was home to an unidentified space station known as Depot Sigma-23 which was where the supply ship had come from that the Rachni may have been onboard.

Shepard arranged her team which included Ashley, Wrex, Liara, Tali and Bakira and they headed down to the cargo bay where Luke took them from the Normandy to the base using the Shuttle. They landed in the hanger of the base but the whole base was deserted and looked like it had been for some time. Just as Shepard feared, there were Rachni infesting the base and as soon as the door to the shuttle opened, Wrex and Ashley blasted the Rachni and then they all disembarked.

"Luke, wait here, we'll radio when we get back." Shepard said to Luke as she left the Shuttle.

"Yes Commander." Luke replied

Shepard and her team switched their torches on as the base was completely dark and it seemed that the power was out. There was also Rachni in the base and there were a few nests. Shepard decided that the best thing to do was to blow the base after they collected evidence and so Bakira found some old explosives in a storage room which had once been the armour and rigged them to explode. She did not set the charge yet as she needed to wait until they gathered any data to give to Colonel Yularen when they got back to Arcturus Station. Bakira also found a fuel supply and rigged that to explode to ensure that the base was destroyed.

Eventually Shepard's team found the main commander's quarters where a deactivated protocol droid was in the corner. With help from Tali, the droid was reactivated but was still damaged "I am the Personal data recorder for Major Elena Flores." The droid stated but nothing else.

Major Flores must have been the base commander for this station but the Republic had no bases in the Argos Rho so who did Flores work for? "Shepard" Tali stated "I can find three data entries in this droid's data banks." Tali stated

"Play the first entry Tali." Shepard ordered and Tali used her engineering skills to activated the recording from the droid's data banks

"Sigma-23 is almost fully operational. The barracks and storage lockers are complete and we've begun stocking the munitions. It's highly unlikely that the Republic will patrol in the Nebula. I suspect that our only risk will be from pirates and who will believe them. It looks like we'll have space for two reinforced platoons of Cerberus commandos."

"This base was not set up by the Republic." Ashley stated "But who is this Cerberus that is mentioned?"

"And what of the Rachni?" Wrex questioned

"I guess another entry will explain" Shepard stated "Play the second entry Tali."

After Tali activated the droid, the recording continued "The package arrived today for field testing. I'm told that they're fundamentally similar to the units being developed on Noveria. They promised that this batch will be stable. Something about them developing in proximity to the master control unit. We've detected some pirates setting up anchorage in a neighbouring system. I think we'll try deploying them there first."

"They must have been trying to weaponize the Rachni." Bakira stated "I guess it didn't work in the end."

"Play the final entry Tali." Shepard ordered "I need to see what happened."

Tali activated the last entry "They've escaped from captivity. Clever bastards, we treated them like animals, we should have treated them like P.O.W.s. They're spreading, boarding the supply ships and sending them to random destinations. They'll be all over the cluster in a week. General Pryde, if you recover this message, my advice is screw the Rachni. They're too smart, use one of the other projects. Flores signing off for the final time."

"Man that's another batch of experimental Rachni that have gotten loose." Ashley stated

"We have what we need." Shepard stated "Tali, take the droid with is, I'll have Chos look at it latter. Head back to the shuttle, once we're off, Bakira will set the charges."

They all went back to the shuttle carrying the deactivated protocol droid. After Luke took off in the shuttle and took them back to the Normandy, Bakira activated the explosives and they watched as the base exploded into scrap.

...

As Shepard arrived back on the Normandy, Doka contacted her "Commander you better come to the communication room" she called "I've got a message coming in which you should hear

"I'm on my way." Shepard stated and eventually made her way into the Communication room where Doka was waiting for her "So what's this message."

"I'm playing it over to you now." Doka stated and she activated the communications array where a message played.

Most of the message was static so it was hard to hear what was being said '... general distress call... Sacred Angel medical transport... critical system failure... losing power... emergency landing... –gos Rho... repeat Argos. Communications failing... life support... emergency transponder... won't last... please hurry."

"Where is this message coming from?" Shepard asked

A nearby Astro Droid which was used to track the messages beeped and Doka who understood what the droids said was able to translate "The message came from the Planet Metgos in the Hydra System which is not far from hear."

Shepard knew what they were doing next, she radioed Joker to set a course to the Hydra System and Shepard went to prepare her new team since it wouldn't take them long to arrive.

...

The Hydra system was named after the mythical hydra, a seven headed serpent in Ancient Greek mythology and this system have 5 planets but they were all uninhabited since there were no suitable planets for colonies. The first planet was Varmalus, a scorching hot planet with a thick atmosphere of nitrogen and helium. The planet was home to life as under the surface were underground tunnels where primitive life forms have developed but was unsuitable for a Republic colony.

The planets Theyar and Syba were both gas giants and Theyar had large storms as the planet had been hit by an 12 kilometer asteroid at some point. The planet Canrum had been the site of a major battle of the Krogan Rebellions as the female Krogan Warlord Shiagur had been defeated by Turian peacekeepers while fighting until the end with her band of warriors which while small had many strong Krogan which put up a major fight and even when the fighting was over, Krogan admires swore blood oaths against the Turians involved and thousands of Turians who were involved in the fight were in killed in the following years. Items from the battle remained as scans found a highly radioactive item in orbit and after Engineer Adams did a full scan, a warhead with the markings from the Turian Parthia Colony was found. It was left alone due to how dangerous it was.

But it was the planet Metgos that was the one that Shepard had come to the Hydra system as this was where the distress signal was coming from. Pekue got the Mako ready and as she had no idea what was going on, Shepard took Wrex, Liara, Tali and Ashley with her on this mission.

...

The planet Metgos had a level 2 heat hazard so it west best that no one went outside. The extreme of the planet would kill them within minutes even with the space suits on so Shepard wanted this mission done quick and thanks to Tali, they were able to track where the distress signal was coming from. Shepard hoped that the life support was still active otherwise there was no chance for anyone to be rescued even if they survived the crash.

Pekue drove the Mako towards where Tali had recognised where the signal was coming from but on the way, they came across some old wreckage which the quickly investigated. It was not wreckage from the ship as they saw markings from the Turian Gothis colony so this may have been from the battle that killed the Krogan Warlord. After examining the wreckage, Pekue drove towards the site where the distress signal was coming from.

After driving further, they eventually saw the wreckage of the crashed ship "There's the wreckage Shepard." Ashley pointed out "It seems to be a medical frigate."

The crashed ship was one of a EF76 Nebulon-B escort Frigate. The wreck lay against a rocky hillside with the bottom of the front section crushed from impact. The wreck also looked like it had seen battle as there were signs of a battle along the hull as sections of the ship had been blown off.

"Careful, I have a bad feeling about this." Wrex stated

"As do I." Liara added "This ship was clearly attacked, this cannot have been from a malfunction."

"The question is who attacked?" Ashley stated

Shepard looked at Pekue "Take us closer Pekue." Shepard stated "But stay alert, Ashley get into the turret in case we get any company."

Pekue drove the Mako closer to the wreck and they tried to see if there were any survivors. But so far there was nothing, parts of the wreck were on fire and Tali couldn't get any messages over the radio. But they soon spotted something "Shepard, I can see an escape pod nearby." Tali stated

"Take us closer to the pod." Shepard ordered "I'm going out there with Wrex and Liara."

"Be careful Shepard." Ashley warned.

"I will." Shepard replied and as they got close, Shepard, Wrex and Liara left the Mako dressed in breathing equipment and went closer to the pod. But when they saw through the front of the pod, they saw that the pod had been blasted open and the crew were dead inside.

Then a shot struck the pod and the three of them looked around to see a Geth Sniper standing on a hill "Geth, it's a trap!" Wrex yelled and as the Geth prepared to fire, Ashley fired the Mako's cannon which struck the Geth and destroyed him. More Geth arrived included a few Geth Armatures. Liara, Shepard and Wrex ran back to the Maki with Wrex and Shepard managing to destroy several Geth rocket troopers with their machine guns.

As they boarded the Mako, Ashley fired the cannon and destroyed one of the Armatures while Shepard used the machine gun to destroy several rocket drones. The Mako took a few hits from rockets but the shields held strong and allowed the Mako to destroy all of the Geth.

When the last Geth unit was destroyed, the crew breathed a sigh of relief "Well I guess the Geth are the reason this ship was destroyed." Ashley stated

"They attacked the ship then killed any survivors." Tali stated "The whole crew of the ship are dead."

"I'll report this loss back to Yularen." Shepard stated "Now let's get to the Normandy."

...

As soon as the Mako was picked up, Shepard began to leave the Mako but Wrex tapped her on the shoulder "Shepard, can I have a word?"

"Sure thing Wrex." Shepard stated and Wrex led her to where he would normally stay "What is it?"

"I was talking to some of your crew and they mention something about the Mandalorian Wars, what are they about."

Shepard had heard about this war, it was the last Republic War before First Contact with the Turians "The Mandalorians were a warrior like people who lived in the Mandalore System. They're not actually natives, there people who established their own civilization in the system and they became a warrior culture. In fact they're just like the Krogan, they love going to war not for riches or power but for the thrill of the fight."

"I guess the Krogan and the Mandalorians do have something in common." Wrex stated

"The Mandalorians were valued warriors who played big roles for the Republic, but when they weren't fighting enemies of the Republic, they were fighting each other. Have you heard of Death Watch?"

"Yeah I've heard of them." Wrex stated "One of the Terminus Systems power crime factions, they fight for the thrill."

"They were once a group of Mandalorians who decided that the Republic didn't mean anything so about 50 years ago, they attacked another Republic colony. Then they staged a coup on Mandalore and took over the colony. Other colonies in the Mandalore system joined in and eventually the Republic sent a task force to occupy which resulted in Death Watch fleeing. Mandalore came under Republic military occupation until the Citadel discovery. Fear of war between the Republic and Citadel made the Senate believe the Mandalorians were needed in the event of a war."

"I can see the value of having skilled warriors like them." Wrex stated "I've fought Death Watch before and they were some of the toughest people I've faced. But I didn't just want to speak of history, I've been thinking about family. I told you about how I killed my father but I made a promise to his father that I would recover his Battle Armour, it was taken from him after the Krogan Rebellions."

"What's so important about this armour?" Shepard asked

"In truth it's useless to what we have now." Wrex stated "But it's a relic, worn by generations of my family, it's rightfully mine. After the rebellions the Krogan weren't allowed armour or weapons after the war so the armour was held by the Turian military. But now it's in the hand of a Turian scumbag called Tonn Actus. He was actually a Terminus criminal whose made millions by selling Krogan relics that rightfully belong to us."

"Wait, wasn't Tonn Actus one of the Turian warlords involved in the Skyllian Blitz?" Shepard questioned

"He was." Wrex stated "And he's got several bases where he stores his goods but I know where he has my battle armour and I've heard a report that he's there. The base is located here in the Argos Rho in the Phoenix System. I ask that I get the chance to recover my armour."

"We're not far from there now." Shepard stated "Besides Tonn Actus is a criminal the Republic have been hunting for years. We'll kill two birds with one stone. Recover your armour and take out Actus."

"Thanks Shepard." Wrex stated.

...

The Phoenix System was not far from the Hydra System so it didn't take long for the Normandy to arrive. Unlike the Gorgon and Hydra Systems, the Phoenix System actually had a base known as Principle Station, a space station built out of an old Asteroid and had been a command centre during the Krogan Rebellions and was now a high military training base for the Citadel Spectres and the simulations allowed Spectres to train in different hazardous situations and had a population of 1200.

Also in the Asteroid belt, scans found a weak signal coming from a carbonaceous asteroid which Tali recognised as Quarian and she led a small team which found an abandoned freighter. She did not know why it was here but she recovered a Prothean Data Disk on board.

The Phoenix System had five planets, the first of which was called Patashi, a sun blasted terrestrial world whose atmosphere had been blasted away by the Phoenix star leaving the planet tidally locked to the star and had molten metal covering the side facing the sun. The second planet was Sylsalto a standard hydrogen-helium gas giant with no features worth mentioning. Then there was Intai'sei, an earth like planet that was one of the few planets suitable for colonisation but high temperatures and an arid climate made agriculture hard. Several Republic cities were founded but the majority of the colony's population of 150,000 people were scattered across the planet's deserts operating wind farms and research stations as several fossils left over from the Rachni Wars had been found. The Republic had to make a special agreement for this colony since the system was home to a Citadel owned station but because the station is only used for training, the Republic control the system but the colony is still not large enough to have a seat on the Senate. The planet Vebinok was a small terrestrial world with an atmosphere of xenon and krypton. This planet also had a story where a Turian cargo ship carrying bulk gas was attacked by pirates and made a rough landing on Vebinok which melted some of the ice on the planet and ruptured the shipping containers spilt LOX across the surface.

But the planet that Wrex had stated his armour and Actus were on was the fourth planet in the system, Tuntau, an enormous low density terrestrial planet with a thick atmosphere of methane and helium and a crust of sodium and silicon dioxide. While not a habitable planet, this planet was used by pirates as a staging ground and several times, the Republic had attacked the pirate based to protect their colony on Intai'sei.

Shepard took Bau, Wrex, Tali and Liara on this mission and the Mako quickly landed on the surface of Tuntau. As the Mako landed, Shepard saw a pyramid in the distance and Pekue drove towards that first. Shepard investigated an Asari body and found the writings of Matriarch Dilinaga on her. This Asari must have found them in the nearby ruins. After that, Pekue drove south to where the radar showed the base was. As soon as they arrived, the base looked empty as there were no guards but this was a warehouse, not a pirate base to plan raids.

Shepard and her team entered the base and Wrex stated "This is the place, my armour is here somewhere."

"Let's find your armour and take out Actus." Shepard stated and Shepard carefully opened the next door while Bau knelt down with his sniper rifle to get a look. He too knew about Actus and he knew what he looked like. So he got a look through the door to try and find him.

"Actus is here Shepard." Bau stated "I see him on the upper walkway talking with someone who I believe is his second in command. I have a clear shot on him, do you want me to take it?"

"Do it Bau." Shepard stated "But the head off the snake." Bau fired and shot Actus in the head killing him instantly. The shot and death of their leader threw the pirates into chaos and then Liara used her biotics to start throwing crates at them while Shepard and Wrex charged in with their guns firing. The suddenness of the attack meant the fight was over quickly and soon all of the pirates were dead.

With the pirates dead, Shepard and her team entered the upper office which was Actus' office and Tali hacked the terminal to find data that Actus had which showed that he was planning a few raids so Shepard had this data downloaded so she could warn colonies of incoming attacks. There was also some valuable pieces of armour and weapons which they took as it would help them in their mission. Wrex managed to find a powerful M-300 Claymore Shotgun, a powerful shotgun that was often used by Krogan warlords so Wrex took it. But it was the main safe that had the armour. Tali found a database on one of the terminals which listed what was in the office and the armour was in process of being sold to a wealthy collector.

"Well, that collector won't be getting the armour now." Wrex stated once Tali showed him the data. The safe was locked tight but since Tali was good at hacking, she was able to open the safe quickly revealing Wrex's family armour. "This is it." Wrex stated as he pulled out his armour which to be honest was not as strong as the armour Wrex wore now "I can't believe my ancestors ever wore this piece of crap. But I'm glad I have it back now."

"I'm glad we could help you get it back Wrex." Shepard stated

Wrex smiled "You know, I'm glad I came along with you Shepard, I haven't done a mission like this for a long time."

"We should go now" Shepard stated "I feel like it's time to head back to Arcturus Station. I need to report to Yularen and get further orders in hunting down Saren."

Shepard and her team head back to the Mako and radioed Joker to pick them up.

...

Once back on the Normandy, Shepard came into the bridge "Where to now Commander?" Joker asked

"It's time to head back to Arcturus." Shepard stated "We need to inform Colonel Yularen and get further information about Saren."

"Understood Commander." Joker stated "Plotting a course to Arcturus." Soon the Normandy was on its way through hyperspace to Arcturus Station.

Chapter end:

Notes: Well another chapter is complete and I have done the entire Argos Rho cluster in this chapter. I did a few changes and included more Star Wars in this chapter by having the wrecked ship as in Mass Effect, you only found the crashed pod before the ambush and instead of a terminal to get the information, I used a deactivated droid in order to bring more Star Wars into the story. I also brought in my version of Kaidan's back-story which I plan to reveal more in a personal quest for Kaidan in a latter chapter, that might replace one of the normal missions in Mass Effect which I don't think will fit with the story. I did have a few people saying that there was not enough Star wars in this story but you will be seeing more Star Wars in future stories in this series. Next chapter will actually focus on a personal mission for my created character Bakira, the Batarian explosives expert.