John Shepard, Korlus

"Seriously, what is Rana Thanoptis?" Garrus shook his head as he gazed out the window. "I'm not sure if she goes looking for Evil Overlords, or she has some sort of weird attraction to them."

"What? Like some sort of evil magnet?" Kasumi raised an eyebrow at the turian as she worked on the asari assistant's desk, digging through its system for useful data.

"Should follow her then," John shrugged. "Maybe we could harness her powers for good."

"Interesting idea," Mordin agreed. "Statistical model of her employers versus her encounters with you. Insurance companies would pay out."

"Oh, Har har," John shook his head as he approached next door. The door that, in theory, led them to the one they had come here for. "Opening."

As if on cue, the door slide open before any of the team was able to hit the release, and standing, backlit, was a heavily armored krogan.

"Huh, Solus," the krogan grunted as he turned away, stomping back into the lab.

"Okeer," Mordin nodded as he replaced his heavy pistol at his hip and followed the warlord.

With a shrug, Garrus lowered his rifle and followed. "That was easier than expected."

"No, sure, go ahead. Go right on in," John grumbled as he lowered his SMG. "No need to wait for the team leader's orders."

"Don't worry, Shep," Kasumi chuckled as she faded from view. "I'm behind you all the way."

Biting back a retort, John sighed in defeat and followed his team into the lap, and froze, like the others had.

Standing in a giant tube, filled with some sort of greenish tinted fluid was a krogan. A particularly large krogan. It's head plates were still disconnected and loose on it's head, showing its relative youth, even if it's size was nearly that of Wrex, in John's estimate. It's muscular body was clad in a silver armor that looks as high tech as the tube it rested in.

"My life's work," Okeer said simply as he stood in front of the tube. "I sacrificed...more than I can say. Or would care to remember. With this, the perfect Krogan, I have defeated you, Solus."

Mordin, for his part was scanning the tube and frowning. "Defeated me? Perfect krogan? No such thing. This krogan has all the genetic markers of the genophage."

Okeer laughed deeply as he glared down at the salarian. "In my life I have learned many things. One of those is quality matters. This krogan," he gestured grandly at the tank. "He is perfect. He will lead the krogan revival. His blood and brains are distilled from the finest, strongest krogan in our history. He will make the krogan stronger!"

"Your way of overcoming the genophage...is to ignore it?" John nodded appreciatively. "That's pretty damn krogan."

"Heh," Okeer nodded, slapping John's back hard enough to stagger him several steps. "Good. You have potential, human. You're people will make a fine slave race one day."

"Well….on that cheery note," Miranda cut in, stepping in front of the tank. "Can we get the hell out of here now?"

"I am prepared," Okeer nodded as he stared once more at the tank. "Bring my masterpiece and I am with you."

"What?" Miranda scoffed. "That wasn't part of the deal!"

"Hnph," Okeer snorted, ignoring the woman. "I distilled everything a krogan can be into my ovum. He is my people's future. He goes with me."

"Wait…" Garrus froze, his mandibles loose in shock. "You...you're female?"

One slow blink, and Okeer reached up and slide a hand down her cracked and battlescarred, downward curved head plate. "I get that a lot."

Jane'Shepard, Quarian Corsair Perugia, Dholen System

"How many guns we have left?" Jane asked curtly as she tapped her fingers on the arms of her command seat.

"Starboard gun is warped a bit, but fireable," Semma answered back from his tactical station. "Both batteries of torpedos are green, and three banks of the GARDIAN lasers."

"Shields?" Jane asked next.

"Full power," Lema said. "As per orders, they were priority."

"Perfect, now we can get the hell out of here and call in a big gun," Jane smirked rubbing her hands together.

"Ummm, How are we going to do that?" Garcia shook his head. "As it is, it's all I can do to keep the planet between us and those geth?"

Strapping herself into her seat, Jane started to cackle. "Simple. We are going to go through the Relay, backwards."

"WHAT?!"

Xera'Raan, Haestrom

"Log," Tali said, bringing up her omnitool. "Pathway to the observatory is blocked off by a caved in ceiling, and the geth are advancing too fast. Icen's sacrifice slowed them down, but not enough. We found a crate of old demolition charges that look functional. On Therum, Shepard used a mining laser to clear out a path. I'm thinking with these charges, we can do the same."

"And she's talking to herself again," Loots chuckled as he set his heavy rifle onto it's bi-pod, facing the heavy door they had come through.

"Somebody has to tell the tale of our heroic deeds," Xera smirked as she slapped the patch she had finished placing on Kal'Reeger's arm. "There. Dropped a dose of antibiotics into you, so you should be good until we get back to ship."

"Don't know about you, ma'am," Kal grunted as he rubbed his arm. "But I feel like punching your patients over their wound is counter productive to the healing process."

Shaking her head, Xera tsked at the male. "It's negative reinforcement, Kal. Don't get injured, and I won't do it."

"Hey!" Kamp'Somia, called from the top of rubble stack. The sniper had climbed up, looking for a spot for overwatch. "The geth are moving! I- AGH!"

Spinning around, Xera brought up her rifle as she saw a pair of geth platforms, strange ones that slunk around on all fours, leaping onto the trapped sniper. She could see Kamp's rifle clatter down the slope she was atop of as her pistol swung up and fired into the first hopper, sending it sparking to the side.

The second hopper, using the first as cover, dropped on the woman, it's limbs striking down with sickening crunches. Again and again is swung, its fists coming up red and wet. Until, cursing, Kal'Reeger unloaded a burst into the thing.

"I got the doors to move!" Tali yelled over her shoulder as the loud, grinding squeal echoed. It was only a two meters or so, but it was enough to slip through.

"Let's get out of here!" Xera yelled as she scrambled up the fallen stone pillar that blocked most of the door.

As she glanced over her shoulder, Xera saw Kal'Reeger, kneeling next to Loots, then she saw his helmet drop with a slight nod. Taking the rocket launcher that Loots offered, he turned away and began climbing.

"Kal?" Tali swallowed. "What...what's going on?"

"Go, Tali," Xera said weakly. "Just go. Loots has a solid position."

"What?" Tali shouted back, incredulous. "No! We can make it!"

Reaching the top, Kal placed a hand on the engineer's shoulder, gently pushing her toward the door. "Not with the geth cutting through that outer door. Don't make this in vain."

For a long moment Tali stared at Kal's hand then glanced down at where Loots was laying out various clips and grenades. Then, with a small nod, she turned and began squirming through the passage.

John, SR-2 Normandy

"I still think that thing is dangerous," Miranda half shouted as she paced back and forth in the conference room. "We have no idea what it was programed to do!"

"Not entirely true," Mordin said, with a small lifting of his hand. "Scans on the tank showed advanced neural programming, yes, but seems to be tactics, knowledge, history. Nothing to shape personality."

"I dunno, it seems that giving a krogan all his people's battle kills, then telling him how badly they got screwed by the galaxy, well, that might not be the safest course of action," Garrus spoke up. "Just saying."

"Potential, yes," Mordin allowed as he gave a small head shake. "But no proof. And battle against superior foe, such as Collectors? Superior warriors may be what we need."

"Think I'm with the mad scientist on this one," Zaeed growled. "We can use all the punch we can get, that that is a damned big fist."

Opening his mouth to speak, John was interrupted by a beep from his omnitool before Kelly's voice overlaid. "Commander, I'm getting a message, it's marked emergency. I...I think it's from your sister."

Jane

"Okay…" Garcia sweated and his hands danced over his boards. "Approaching Relay…."

"Activating signal," Lema said, her own attention riveted to her own station.

"Weapons hot," Semma squeaked, his voice giving way slightly.

"Roll on my mark," Jane's eyes narrowed as she watched her own display. "Three….two….one...MARK!"

At the Captain's insane command, the Perugia rotated. The ship's main engines cut as the retros in the nose fired up, pushing the front of the ship on it's long axis. As she finished coming about, the ship's nose now faced the opposite direction as it's momentum. Then in the next instant, the Relay fired, and she was gone.

Then she was back in real space.

"Status!" Jane yelled over the shuddering whine of her ship.

"Shields are oscillating," Semma called out. "We are creating a hell of a Mass wake!"

"Reports from engineering," Lema reported. "Core is unstable, they are working to lock it down. Odds of us exploding...Two to Five!"

"Hundred credits says we die," Garcia groaned. "Having trouble bringing us back around."

"Bet taken!" Jane laughed as she turned to Semma. "Arm the torpedoes and drop them like mines!"

"You do know that mining Mass Relays is illegal, right?" Semma asked, even as he carried out the order.

"Beh," Jane waved a hand dismissively. "Only geth are on the other side of this Relay. Anyway, I know would be by? Comms, get me signal!"

"Who are we calling in anyway? The Migrant Fleet? I don't think they have anything they can send," Conway asked, as she connected with the local comm buoy.

"Nah, something way more dangerous, if a lot whiney," Jane chuckled, bringing up the extranet address.

After a bare thirty seconds, the call was picked up. "Jane? What's going on?"

"Johnny, if you want to save your girlfriend, I need you here, right fucking now."

Tali

"Move!" Xera yelled as she grabbed the back of Tali's belt, half lifting her, and half throwing her over the low walkway railing. Luckily, quarians two hundred years ago seemed to like their solid stone.

"Keelah," Tali cursed as she rolled with the impact. "Was that necessary?"

"Eh, probably not," Xera admitted with a pleased tilt of her helmet. "Fun though."

"Anybody want to talk about the geth that have us surrounded and the open courtyard we have to cross to get to that observatory?" Kal'Reeger asked, crossly.

"I'd rather not, no," Xera sighed as she shifted herself up enough to get a peek over the edge. "Nothing in the actual yard that I can see….Some up on the crosswalks above it though."

Tali head hung low for a moment before she started to growl. It started as a low rumble, but grew slowly until it was a full snarl. Her fist began striking the ground next to her as she reached a crescendo.

"Tali!" Xera yelled as she lunged at the furious woman, catching her wrist midswing. "Tali! Call down! This isn't a time to lose yourself to derrohmI!"

"No! That's not…." Tali snarled again, though quieter, as she jerked her hand back. "This is all wrong. We were supposed to be in and out. A simple data grab. There were supposed to be this many geth!"

"So...are you saying…." Kal'Reeger began, his voice low with concern. As he realized what Tali was inferring.

"We were betrayed," Xera nodded. "I can see it."

"Leaving that aside," Kal cleared his throat. "We need to finish this before we go back to the Fleet and figure out who set us up, if that's what happend."

"Could use some more people," Xera sighed, glancing over the cover again, only to yelp and duck back as plasma fire rained down.

Then, almost as if on cue, "-Lo? Anybody ali-? This is sq-d three. Is any-dy out there?"

"Okay, that was spooky," Xera chuckled as Kal brought up his omnitool.

"This is Kal'Reeger, Report!"

"Oh! Hey, Kal!" the female voice responded as Tali worked her magic on the signal. "We still good for that vid night on the Quas'bah?"

"..." For a moment Kal blinked and looked down at this omnitool before shifting uncomfortably. "Yes, Lakes, sounds good, assuming we-"

"Ah, ah!" Lakes giggled. "Don't go there. I'm doing overwatch as Poolo and Saverov work their way to you. We picked up Chief Golds along the way and we hotwired an old quarian….car...thingy."

"A folsten?" Xera couldn't help but ask, shocked. "A real one? That worked?"

"Yeah! That's what Poolo called it! Got shot down though," Lakes sighed. "From your signal though, we are about ten minutes away on foot if we push it."

"Do it," Kal ordered. "When you get here we can make a final push."

"Rodger, rodger!"

John

"Commander, are you sure this is a wise course of action?' Edi asked, her blue orb seemed to watch him accusingly. "I feel that it might be a good idea to at least inform Miss Lawson or maybe even Mister Massani."

"No...this is probably a terrible idea, and the others would try to stop me," John admitted as his eyes slid over Okeer's tank. And her 'son' within.

"I believe they all had valid points about-" Edi was saying before John cut her off impatiently.

"Enough, Edi….Open it."

As a reply, the tube began to drain of it's fluid, pumping it into a storage tank behind the tube. Once empty, the front plasti-glass section swung up, even as the krogan within tumbled forward, landing on its knees, coughing up the birthing fluid.

Kneeling down, John looked over the scaled face for a moment. "Can you understand me?" he asked at last.

In answer, the krogan snarled, lunging forward. His meaty forearm caught John but the chest, shoving him up and back. Powerful strides carried them across the cargo hold as the krogan smashed John into the wall.

"Name," the voice rumbled. Deep, but where Wrex had the growl of experience, this krogan had the air of youth about it.

"Commander John Shepard, Alliance, and Council Spectre," Was John's only replay as he calmly stared back into the krogan's brilliant blue eyes. There was intelligence there.

"Not yours," it snarled, sounding disgusted. "Mine. I need a name. Thoughts are swirling in my head. Words. One of them repeats...grunt...Grunt. It will do."

"Okay then, Grunt," John nodded. "What exactly do you intend to do now?"

"I could kill you," Grunt said matter-of-factly. "Why shouldn't I?"

"A few reasons, actually," John smirked now. "I have an enemy that needs killing. My 'clan' is strong. You could make it stronger."

"Enemies…" Grunt nodded after a moment. "Yes. Who?"

"Geth," John stated simply. "I need to rescue somebody important to me, and I have an army in my way."

Grunts eyes narrowed slightly. "Not much in my memories from Okeer. Dangerous, though. Why else?"

"Well…" John raised an eyebrow as he tapped the barrel of his carnifex against Grunts stomach, directly at a seam between his chest plates.

"Ha!" Grunt laughed as he dropped John to the ground. "Good! Offer peace with one hand, but arm the other. I will fight for you until I find my own clan. Then I shall be proud to pit them in battle with you."

"Aw," Kasumi sighed as she decloaked, sitting cross legged on a crate behind the massive krogan. In her lap sat a heavy combat shotgun. "I didn't even get to do my big reveal…."

"Sorry Kasumi," John shrugged. "Next time."

Jane

"Back in system," Garcia confirmed.

"Debris around the Relay," Lema reported. "Looks like one of those geth ships had a bad day."

"Good," Jane nodded. "Send the disarm signal to any remaining torpedos, then tell the Normandy."

"They just dropped out," Lema confirmed. "Sending data now."

"Good, they can go first this time," Jane leaned back in her seat with a deep sigh.

"Acknowledgment from Normandy," Conway swiveled in her comm seat. "The pilot wants to speak with you personally."

"Ha!" Jane snorted. "Put him through."

"Hey! Captain! How you doing? Want to go on another date?" Joker asked simply.

"With you Joker, we can get a drink anytime," Jane smirked as her crew gave each other confused looks.

"Also wanted to tell you, The Seedy Tavern got shot up, then blown up by your mother. Everybody important was fine though. And I Garrus got some good footage or your mom and dad punching out the Commander," Joker added. "What's that worth?"

"Joker," Jane stared at the holo display on her seat intensely. "For that footage I'll wear something small and black when we go out."

"Well shit….I'm sending it now!"

"Can we go save my crew now, please?" John cut in sourly.

Kal'Reeger

"I'm in position," Lakes spoke quietly. "Holy crap, I can see four Primes. About a dozen regular platforms….a hopper...yeah, that's all I got from my angle."

"Acknowledged," Kal nodded, even though the woman couldn't really see him. "Poolo, you and Golds?"

"Almost," Poolo whispered.

"Saverov?"

"Good to go," the medic chuckled. "I'll get anybody that gets it."

"Hopefully we don't need you," Tali added. Her voice was subdued, almost bitter. That could be a problem. He had seen that before in commanders. Ancestors, in the beginning, when he had first started leading squads, that was where he was.

"Tali," Xera said, her hand lightly touching the engineer's arm. Kal had seen that before as well. "You need to focus. If you are going to get out of here to help Shepard, you need to focus."

Slowly, Tali's helmet turned to regard Xera. She didn't speak. She didn't move. She just stared. Then, just as slowly, she nodded.

"Good," Kal said shifting forward to look over the wall. "I'll cut left, try to get up on that other walkway. Tali, you and Xera cut right, go through that observation level and get to the main building."

"Yes, dad," Xera sighed. "Poolo and Golds will pop from underneath, and Lakes has overwatch. Saverov will pick up wounded if he can. We know the drill."

For a moment Kal just stared at the little female, and wondered if he could pass off pushing her off the cliff as an accident. Then she tilted her head in that smile….

"Right, we go on three," Kal nodded checking his rifle for the fifth time. "Three...two...one...HIT IT!"

Almost the moment Kal pushed out from cover, geth plasma began tracking him, ripping up the stone and sending slag flying.

From the side Kal could see Poolo's biotics crack open a stone drain grate so that Golds, who rushed out first, could lay out coverfire.

Tali and Xera sprinted from their cover, flashing briefly across the courtyard ahead of the geth fire, before ducking behind the low wall of the observation deck. A place that, in peaceful times, should have been where lovers met to see the stars and deepen their bond.

Two echoing reports signaled Lakes contributions, as one of the Primes exploded apart.

Then it all began to fall apart.

"Shit, drones incoming," Lakes cursed as her rifle fired off, another geth was thrown to the ground.

"Golds! Fallback!" Poolo's voice called out, causing Kal to glance over, only to watch in horror as a Prime unit droped from a hidden alcove above the woman. It's heavy frame caught the woman on the shoulders, crushing her body to the ground with a sickening sound of snapping bone.

The sight caused Kal to skip a step. A hiccup that probably saved his life, as several plasma bursts tore up the ground in front of him, one clipping the right side of his chest and spinning him over a small wall.

"Kal!" Saverov called out.

"Alive," the marine commander yelled back. "Don't come, too many hostiles. Give me some cover and I can probably make it back to the original position."

As an answer, the medic leaned out from his location behind one of the massive pillars and sprayed the geth with fire, blowing apart two of them, and giving Kal the breather he needed to limp his way back to original ramp.

Meanwhile, the Prime that had crushed Golds had turned, its arm was trying to reach onto the drainage pipe that hid Poolo, its own red armor actually hindering it.

More plasma fire, in turn, rained from the sky as four drones swept in, driving Saverov back behind his pillar.

"Chiktikka!" Tali called out as her omnitool lit up, conjuring her combat drone. "Go for the optics!"

At her command, Chiktikka arced out, small micro missiles firing at the geth. A small aerial combat display forming as they all bobbed and weaved around the stone buildings.

"Fuck," Lakes spat. "I have some geth coming up on me from behind. Going dark."

Kal drug himself to the top of the platform he leaned up, firing over the railing. Mostly hitting only stone, but managing to drive some of the geth into cover.

Then, Xera and Tali hit the door, it slid smoothly open, only to reveal another geth Prime unit.

Xera

Firing a steady stream of rounds into the geth unit, Xera slowly stepped back, pushing Tali behind her, even as the Prime stepped out to meet the pair.

"Well, fuck you too," Xera swore as she frantically looked around, but seeing no avenue of escape.

From above, she could hear the detonation of Tali's drone, signaling that there was about to be an oncoming rush from behind as well.

"Keelah," Tali's shotgun barked twice, ripping into the Prime's shields and staggering the machine to the side.

Giving Xera an opening.

Reaching back with her right arm, Xera grabbed the front straps of Tali's suit and spun. Using her own weight behind the augmented strength of the cybernetic arm, Xera flung Tali, bodily through the air and into the observatory itself.

"Sorry Tali, you have too much to go back to. Complete your soul," Xera smiled sadly as she unloaded the last of her clip into the door's control panel, its doors slamming shut.

"Now for you, you det kazuat…." Xera spat as she turned and charged the Prime. As she reached it, Xera lept into the air, throwing her meager weight behind the swing of her right fist and smashing it squarely into it optic lights.

The quarian's impact shoved the Prime back into the open sun, where, it's shields, already broken by Tali's shotgun, popped, it's armor immediately started to boil, and giving Xera the precious seconds she needed to swap a new thermal clip into her smg.

"Come on you fucker," Xera taunted, shifting sideways along the line of shadow that separated her from the overactive sun. "You aren't so tough."

If the geth understood her, or even heard her, didn't matter, as the machine caught its footing and sighted on her. Its heavy plasma cannon came up and it pulled the trigger. Only to have the weapon explode in a cloud of sparks and shrapnel, the suns rays having damaged it.

However, the geth was unfazed.

It's right arm now missing from the elbow down, it's shields destroyed and it's armor melted, the Prime rushed forward, faster than an organic could track.

Lashing out with it's left fist, the Prime caught Xera's center chest, throwing her back the several yards to crash into the main doors.

As she staggered, Xera could feel the broken ribs as she struggled to breath. Coughing, blood spit up into her helmet. But she didn't fall.

"T'at all...you got...fucker…" Xera wheezed as she took a step forward, and bringing her SMG up.

But before she could fire, the Prime moved in again, now it's fist caught the side of Xera's helmet. With a dull cracking sound, Xera's visor and a section of her lower helmet was ripped apart, her body hitting the doors again. But she didn't fall.

"N't...yet…" Snarling, Xera spit out a pair of her fangs, as she clung to the door, the only thing keeping her standing. Desperately, Xera turned her right side towards the geth, her left eye having gone dark.

The Prime walked forward slowly, almost contemptuously, if a machine was capable of such feeling such emotions. As Xera struggled to raise the pistol in her left hand, the Prime reached out, it's own hand enveloping her's, and squeezing.

Xera screamed as she could feel the bones in her left hand slowly ground into powder. The pistol she had been trying to raise crushed into the ruined pulp of her hand. Then she screamed again as the cold machine lifted her into the air, looking her over slowly with it's cracked optical sensor.

Xera struggled against the pain. She pushed back the dark that threatened to close over her as she spat thick blood into the geth's eye, blinding it for a moment. Long enough for her to say two clear words. Human words. Her favorite words. "Fuck….You…."

She pulled the trigger of her SMG, it's barrel jammed into a crack in the thing's armored hide. Disrupter round poured into the Prime as Xera screamed her hate into it. The machine staggered back, dancing with the bullets as sparks, then fire billowed out of the chassis. Then finally, unable to take any more, yet determined to take her with it, the Prime exploded.

A small smile still upon her lips, Xera fell.

Quarian Lexicon

Derrohm: Quarians have risen above their baser instincts, but at times when intense anger or fear, what a human would refer to as 'fight' instinct kicks in. Under the influence of derrom, quarians can possibly hurt themselves, or others around them. The quarian's mate is usually required to calm them down. Or they get locked in a room until the rage passes

Folsten: a type of quarian transport used before the war. Similar to a shuttlecraft, it was able to reach suborbital flight to quickly move about the world. It was usually controlled by a hardwired geth platform. The platform itself was implanted in the vehicle, so that only a torso, arms and head, stuck out. The geth was then dressed in the manner the owner desired, from formal wear to the equivalent to a 'tank top and shorts' casual.

Det kazuat: Term of curse, considered especially crude. Literal Translation: Living sack of excrement. The Otquer, a large predatory lizard, will pass its meal neatly wrapped in a membranous tissue. Inside the sack, the enzymes used to break down the meat of the prey while still in the lizard continue to act as a stimulant keeping the indigestible brain synapses of its last meal still working until the sun dries the sack out.