Grunt, Dantius Tower

"Are they turning atack varren loose on the workers?" Garrus asked incredulously. Clearly hoping what he was seeing wasn't true. But it was.

"Cowards!" Grunt spat as he shoved past the stunned turian. Then with a snarl, the young krogan charged up the stairs. He didn't even use a battlecry. Why bother? There was nobody of worth to hear it.

As Grunt reached the top of the steps leading into the building, two of the salarian works that had been fleeing from the arren tripped and fell. The varren, seeing their targets down before them, leapt forward, their slavering maws open wide. But before their teeth could sink into the sort meat of their victims, they were slammed aside by over a ton of pissed off krogan.

The first varren was snatched cleanly out of the air by one of its massive lower canine teeth, swing around, and being jerked bodily into Grunt's waiting hands. To its credit, the varren snapped and clawed valiantly at the krogan, its claws throwing sparks off of Grunt's armor.

Grunt, however, was not impressed. Grabbing the varren by the snout with one hand, and the lower jaw with the other, he held wide the creature's maw. A maw that was supposed to have the bite strength to penetrate barriers, armor underneath, and the flesh of the poor person they bit.

With an irritated noise, Grunt just gave a jerk, splitting the varren's face down the middle, and pulling the jaw itself, straight off. Contemptuously, Grunt swung the still twitching body, slamming it into the second varren. It had made the poor choice to attack and was now regretting its life choices, as Grunt physically beat the varren to death with another varren.

Finally, with a disgusted snort, Grunt dropped the mangled body in his hands, glanced at the salarians that were staring at him with wide eyes...okay, salarians always had wide eyes.

"How many are in the building?" Grunt asked as he tossed the dripping varren jaw over his shoulder.

"I..I don't know! They just started shooting! So many died so quickly!" one of the salarians whimpered.

"Not of you, dimwit," Grunt rolled his eyes. "Mercs. How many mercs?"

"Oh...um...Mistress Dantius had brought in Eclipse mercenaries to do security stuff," the second salarian seemed to be a bit more level headed. Or was in shock. Hardly mattered, seeing as how it could speak coherently. "Then this morning, these Blue Suns started showing up. They argued with the Eclipse, they both mercenary groups started ordering everybody out. Then they started shooting!"

"Hnh," Grunt shook his head as Shepard and the team caught up with him. Including Jack. The ass. "Both merc groups are working together. Seems like they aren't doing a good job. They started the lockdown almost before we arrived."

"Well...good work Grunt," Shepard smirked sightly, and Grunt got the rush of pride. "You and Jack go up the middle. Make as much noise and mess as you can. I want those mercs terrified of your simple existence."

Opening his mouth to speak, Grunt was cut off by Jack's ravings. "Bitch, I could do better on my own. I don't need the turtle slowing me down!"

"Didn't see you getting the first kills," Grunt sniffed.

"What was that?" Jack's eyes narrowed.

"You heard me, toothpick," Grunt squared his shoulders.

"Children!" Shepard snapped, immediately cowing Grunt's anger. "Work together. Whoever wins get cookies.

"Really!?" Grunt started salivating at the thought. Those human masterpieces known as 'chocolate-chip peanut-butter cookies' were worth putting up with Jack for.

"Pff," Jack mocked, looking at Grunt with sad eyes. "Shepard isn't going to be making those trash ones you like. Butterscotch sandies are the way to go every time!"

Grunt's eyes narrowed again for a moment as he swelled up his muscles.

Then he turned away quickly and bolted for the stairs that lead up to the next level. A pitiful 'cheater' echoed from behind him. And all was well.

Kasumi

"I can't tell if this is going well, or not," Kasumi sighed as she drove an electricity covered fist into the back of a merc's head, dropping the woman. "Where are you guys?"

"Third floor," Shep came back, panting a little. "Ran into some asshats that dug in with some turrets."

"Need me to come down?" the thief frowned as she stripped the merc's omnitool, credit chits, weapons, and just because it made her smile, she drew a penis on the poor woman's face, before tying her up and sticking her in a stand up locker. Quick pic dropped onto the extranet, for her followers, and she was away.

"No, it's fine. I just got used to having Tali for this stuff, I've gotten a bit rusty," Shep sighed deeply. That was one of her favorite parts about the guy. He was humble. Granted, at times, it was almost too much, but he knew what he could, and, more importantly, what he could not do.

"Right'O then," Kasumi lept deftly into the open elevator shaft, wrapping a small device around the main cable. As it clicked into place, the little motor in it pulled Kasumi up the shaft at an impressive speed. It was one of the more clever devices that Keji had come up with. "Hitting the sixth floor now."

"Roger," Shep confirmed as a small explosion echoed in the background. "We're cleared and are about to hit the fourth. How are the twins doing?"

"Mmm," Kasumi glanced back down the elevator shaft as she swung out and onto the sixth floor landing. Below her, she could see flashes of light and the echoing of mass rounds being fired. Even a small 'I am krogan' somewhere. "Think they just hit the fifth. A small group is heading down the main stairwell to meet them. "I'll go see what I can find by the side stair you guys are on."

Mordin

Leaning against the wall, by the corner, Mordin waited. He was relatively patient. Had to be with science, after all. Rushing samples causes sloppy work. Sloppy work fails missions. Gets people hurt. Killed. Unacceptable.

In this case, however, didn't need to wait long. A Blue Suns mercenary edged to the corner, their weapon held out in front of them Naturally, that meant the man's heavy pistol cleared the corner first.

Classic rookie mistake. Never hold weapon that far out from the body when moving around corners. Not wise to round corners that slowly either. Won't get the chance to learn that. Too bad.

As the merc's hands entered view, Mordin's hand snapped out, grabbing the man's wrists and jerking him forward. Meanwhile, his other forearm came down on the inside of the man's elbows, forcing the weapon up, as it drew his body into Mordin's lowered shoulder. The, releasing the man's wrists, Mordin's hand struck the man's center chest as he released a cryo freeze.

With a sniff, Mordin stepped back from the flash frozen merc and shrugged slightly as he flicked it in the forehead, shattering head into blue, white and pink ice shards.

"Hmm, effective," Mordin nodded as he adjusted the program on his omnitool. "Calibrated a bit too low. Should have Garrus look at it, he seems talented at calibrating. Should try pyro blast next, upgrade program should yield impressive results."

Jack

This was getting annoying. Everytime they hit a massed group of the fuckers, the turtle would just charge right into the middle of them. When he did that, Jack couldn't blast the whole group without hitting the giant...insulting-lizard-term-she-couldn't-think-of-because-she-was-pissed.

"You asshole!" Jack snapped as Grunt leapt over a couch and shot, point black into an Eclipse merc's face. "That was mine! She was already being shredded by my warp!"

"Snooze and loose!" Grunt laughed as his omniblade split a varren's torso from its lower body.

"As referee, I am declaring it as a double kill," Edi calmly stated. "And as per Shepard's request, do not count."

"What?!" Grunt demanded as he stopped in place, the barrel of his plasma rifle almost touching a merc's face. The man, taking advantage of the pause to throw down his gun and put his hands up.

"Surrenders also do not count, and killing them removes ten from your total," Edi added.

"Oh, come on!" Grunt kicked a dead merc's head.

A loud clattering came from the center stairwell. It sounded like a bunch of guys in armor, and probably not more of those left over workers.

She still wasn't sure why she didn't kill them when they got in the way. It wasn't like they were important. Was probably Shepard's influence. If he was going to be making her play 'goody goody', the least he could do is play with her goodies.

Snickering at her own joke, Jack sent a singularity into the stairwell, cutting off Grunt, before he could get in the way, then sending a shockwave up the stairs. Naturally, she received the screams and cries that she was looking for.

"Good one," Grunt said dryly. "This time it was you, who broke the stairs."

Blinking, Jack looked over to see a large hole blasted into the steps, revealing open air. "Shit…"

Zaeed

"Shepard," the grizzled merc said, nudging his younger counterpart. "There are faster ways of doing that, you know."

Frowning, Shepard looked up from his omnitool, annoyed. "And what, exactly, would that be?"

"Jesus, sound just like your mother," Zaeed muttered as he shifted uncomfortably.

"What?"

"Nothing," Zaeed waved a hand. "I was saying that when you get guys behind a group of mechs like that, there is a faster way of getting the whole group."

"Okay, then do it," Shepard sniffed as he made a grand gesture toward the advancing enemies.

Giving a small wink, Zaeed pulled a small round object from the back of his belt, leaned back, and hucked it in a nice arc over the LOKI mechs, to land between the operators. The men had just enough time to look down, register that it was a thermal grenade, and cry out, before they were blasted apart by high temperature plasma.

A quick popup, couple rounds into the pair that were just running around in circles on fire, and done.

"Hmph," Shepard sighed as he stood. "Didn't quite expect the mechs to drop when the engineers went down."

"Problem with running operators, sure, the mechs react better in real time, but drop the driver and down they go," Zaeed chuckled.

"Alright, then what about that guy with the heavy rotary cannon?" Shepard gestured forward as a batarian in a powered exo-skeleton stepped around the corner.

"In my day, we ducked," Zaeed laughed as he grabbed Shepard and pulling back behind cover.

Garrus

"Hey, Jacob?" Garrus whispered to the human next to himself.

"Yeah?"

"Think I can hit two of them before they go for cover?" Garrus was lining up his sniper rifle with the five Blue Suns mercs that were slowly advancing down the corridor.

"Hmm…" Jacob rubbed his chin for a moment before shaking his head. "Nope, don't think so."

"Wanna make a bet?" the turian's mandibles widened as he grinned.

"Sure," Jacob nodded. "You win, I get you a bottle of topshelf."

"All Right," Garrus nodded as he adjusted his scope on the first luckless human. "And if I miss? Which I won't, by the way."

"You tell Miri how you really feel."

"What?" Garrus jerked up, to look at the human. Who was grinning at the turian, currently sticking out of cover.

"Contact!" the mercs yelled as they all dove for cover around them.

Ducking back as a barrage of fire began striking the low permacrete planter the couple sat behind, Garrus stared at Jacob with wide eyes. "First off you, stekre, that didn't count, I didn't agree to the terms. Secondly, I have no idea what you are talking about!"

"Seriously? Jacob gave the turian a mildly disgusted look. "I'll give you that it isn't as bad as Shepard and Tali when I first met them, but you aren't really fooling anybody. I didn't even think you were really hiding it. I just thought you hadn't committed to a date or anything yet."

"I..uh…" Garrus shifted uncomfortably. "I don't think we were hiding it. We've just been talking a lot. Once you get to know her, she's very interesting. And smart. And funny."

Raising an eyebrow, Jacob tilted his head. "And her waist?'

"Oh, Spirits! Her waist is…" Garrus started with a grin before catching himself and narrowing his eyes. "I hate you right now. I want you to know that."

"I...wait," Jacob frowned and looked up for a moment. "Did the gunfire stop?"

Garrus blinked a moment. "I think it has…."

Hesitantly, the two men leaned up to peak over the planter, only to see Mordin standing amongst a scattered group of bodies. Some were frozen solid and broken, some were laying on the ground smoldering. One of them was both.

"Done talking?" Mordin looked up from his omnitool. "Garrus, was wondering if you could help calibrate my omnitool later. Setting seem a bit off."

"Uh...sure…"

Tali, SR-2 Normandy, Captain's Quarters

"Oh...Keelah…." the quarian groaned as she rolled onto the right side. She had no idea where she was, or how she had gotten there, but wherever it was, it ws so soft and comfortable. It warred with Grunt, who had somehow gotten into her skull and was rampaging around. She could almost here his 'I am Krogan!'.

Taking a deep breath, she wedged her arm under her body and slowly pushed herself into an almost seated position as she pried open her eyes with the force of will alone.

Then she froze. There was a low desk, and a door that said 'Head' on it. Behind her, a warm bluish glow bathed the room in familiar colors.

Looking down, she saw that she was in a wide bed. The blankets had probably been over her at some point, but now they were mostly shoved to one corner. The pillow that she had, apparently, been clutching was still in her lap.

"Edi…" Tali said very quietly, both to not startle her head, and also, mild terror. "Where...where am I?"

Edi's blue orb popped up from a pad by the bed. It paused for a moment, almost like it was judging her somehow. "You are currently in your new quarters. Commander Shepard brought you back here after you and Xera'Raan became intoxicated and started a bar fight. You then sexually harassed the Commander."

"Bar fight?" Tali sat up fully and turned, blinking blearily at John's fish tank. "Xera and I started a bar fight?"

"You did."

"Did..we win?"

"You did."

"And...I sexually harassed John?"

"You did."

"Keelah," Tali shifted fo that her feet were over the side of the bed and touching the floor. She winced slightly as she tried to remember the...however long ago it was. "Why did you say this was my quarters now?"

"You agreed to move into the Loft with the Commander in exchange for him carrying you back to the ship like a princess," Edi's voice was suspiciously devoid of the emotion that had been slowly working its way in. "I have recorded evidence, if you would like."

"No!" Tali yelled then immediately regretted it and she collapsed back onto the bed. "Uhhh….what happened to Xera?"

"She was brought back by Grunt, in a less dignified manner. She recovered much faster than you, and is currently at work in the med bay," Edi answered matter-of-factly.

"Did I do anything else terrible?" Tali sighed. At least the bed was soft. She would have to figure what to do about her supposed new living 'arrangements'.

"You bought a quarian slave-girl," Edi's orb turned a little pink as almost full blown humor carried through. She had been waiting for this moment. The AI bitch. Wait….

"I bought what?!"

Detective Anya, Nos Astra Terminal Police Station

"So...care for some coffee, Justicar?" Anya offered a blue mug that had the image if a Battlemaster Gorge on it. "One of the Human officers got me on it and I'm kinda hooked."

"Ah, yes, please," Samara nodded taking the mug gingerly and taking a small sip of the hot liquid. "Bitter, but fairly pleasant I think."

"Isn't it?" Anya smirked. "I add a little cerelian milk to mine, smooths it a bit, but I'm not fond of the acidic aftertaste."

"Hmm...it reminds me of a drink that the drell have. It was one of the few plants they were able to bring with them when the hanar uplifted them," Samara nodded.

"Been thinking of visiting Kahje," Anya nodded. I've been dating this human guy, he's a lot of fun. He's the one to introduce me to this coffee."

"It's worth visiting," Samara smiled faintly. "The drell have a mega-float that is well worth the time to visit."

"Say...didn't Shepard say something about a drell?"

Thane Krios, Dantius Tower

The human woman was impressive. She slipped in and out of vision, even as well trained as his own. It was clear that the technology she wielded was impressive, but alone, it would never have been able to fool him for long.

At first he had been concerned when the human arrived with that large team of people. It was a logical supposition that Dantius had found quality mercenaries as she grew more desperate. However, this turned out to not be the case. In fact, the team split into groups and began dismantling both the Blue Suns and Eclipse, all the while making merry conversation. If they weren't so effective, he would have frowned at their antics.

The leader seemed to be a human male. He wielded his team like a master martial artist would wield their body. His calculations and orders led to the maximum enemies defeated but did not injure let alone kill any of the bystanders.

He, himself, seemed to have a solid grounding in tactical engineering, the way he sliced through door and overrode mechs nearly as well as the cloaked woman. As well as a decently strong biotic skill, on par with the dark skin human. His aim stood out as well, though not as impressive as the turian's.

Now, however, Thane was following the woman. She had been making her way up the tower, sending intelligence to the team following her. She had also been robbing everybody and everything she encountered. Indeed, her ability to ascertain the value of objects was almost as impressive as her subterfuge.

Now, there was a precipice. Along one of uncompleted floors, not far from his target, an eclipse mercenary stood over an asari. The merc had a gun to the asari's head and was making...improper demands. Both Thane's body, and soul were united in one ideal. Men like him did not deserve to breathe.

But before he could move there was a blur as a figure decloaked and casually thrust out a single finger, striking the in the right eye. The man staggered back, clutching at his face, only to have the ground disappear from under him. His screams as he fell faded away before they stopped.

"Boop," the woman said, with a wicked grin on her face as she pulled a cloth from her belt and wiped her bloodied finger. Then, tossing it aside, she knelt down next to the asari. Next she pulled a long blanket, a rather expensive mix of furs, Thane noted, and wrapped her in it. She was making small sounds as she helped the asari straighten her clothes, and even escorted her to a freight elevator that would take her away from the fighting.

As the doors closed, the woman took a deep breath before turning around with a smile. She looked directly at Thane and winked, holding one finger in front of her mouth as she disappeared.

"Impressive," he said quietly to himself.

John

A shot rang out as the door opened, a round whizzing just past John's face. "Stay back!" a desperate voice cried as the door swung open enough to make out a small grouping of salarians. One of them shakily held a heavy pistol in front of him. "I'll..I'll shoot again! I will!"

"Oh stop that," Zaeed sighed as he literally slapped the gun from the terrified man's hand, only to have the salairn's eyes roll back in his head and faint.

"Really, Zaeed," John shook his head, disappointedly.

"What?" the merc demanded. "He literally tried to shoot us, the bloody git."

"I...assume you are not here to kill us," another salarian, female, this time, stepped forward as her companions went to help the unconscious one. "Seeing as how we are still alive and everything."

"Yeah, we are just here looking for eclipse information terminals and a drell," John nodded, putting what he hoped was a reassuring smile on his face.

"Oddly," the female looked surprised for a moment. "It was a drell that told us to hide here when the shooting started. There was no way we could get down before the mercenaries got to us. He also was the one that gave Reginald the pistol."

"Reginald?" Zaeed frowned. "The salarian is named...Reginald?"

"Yes," the female nodded with a smile. "He is my brother. My name is Penelope. Our mother was quite fond of earth culture."

"I...see," Zaeed nodded, looking more confused than he had before.

"Either way, I believe one of the Eclipse sisters is actually here in the tower," Penelope said, turning to John. "I overheard her raging through. Apparently a human killed her sister on what was supposed to be a simple kidnapping late last night."

"Is she still here?" John half smirked. That must have been the one that Miranda dealt with while he was working his way through the docks.

"I believe so, yes," Penelope nodded as she brought up her omnitool. "I'm giving you the passcodes to all the systems I had access to. Which is a lot of them, as I was the building's architect."

"Really?" John nodded, impressed. "Solid building. I'm impressed."

A small smile graced Penelope's face as she inclined her head. "Thank you. Wasea should be one floor up."

"Great," John smiled. "The way below us is cleared out."

"Thank you, Commander," Penelope nodded as she assisted the others with carrying her brother out the door and to the stairs.

"Hey, Shepard," Zaeed frowned as he glanced John's way.

"Yeah?"

"How did she know who you were? You didn't introduce yourself."

"Ah, shit!"

Grunt

"I surrender!" the asari cried. Her eyes were wide with fear as she stood shaking before Jack and himself. She was young. Very young. Her armor was brand new, and even still had a price sticker on the pauldron. She overpaid.

"I...I just joined! I thought it would be fun, you know, join a merc company, see the galaxy, be bad ass…." the asari gave a weak smile at the pair. "Just got this fancy shotgun and armor...thought I would make it big...but I don't want to die! I didn't know there was drug smuggling, or kidnapping, or murder involved!"

"Whatever," Jack rolled her eyes as she headed out the far door, continuing the march up the tower.

Grunt, however, stood, staring at the woman. His eyes roamed over her body. She smelled of gunpowder and blood. Volus blood.

"Grunt," Edi came into his ear. "I have sliced her personal omnitool. This woman, Elnora was the one responsible for the murder of Dakni Kur, the volus whose murder Detective Anya was looking into."

"Hunh," Grunt...grunted. "Eclipse smuggled somebody off world. Give me information."

"Uh..yes...umm…" Elnora sweated as her eyes looked wild. "We...we sent out the AML Demeter two days ago. It was full of Red Sand. I heard that there was somebody that paid big money to get off world in it."

"Thanks," Grunt nodded, she his rifle snapped up, firing two plasma rounds into the asari's head. The krogan stood, watching as the headless body toppled slowly to the ground. Behind its back was an impressive looking shotgun. Also with a price tag. "Huh...expensive."

Zaeed

"Holy crap…" Zaeed cursed as a full cargo container flew through the air, narrowly missing himself and Shepard. "I did not sign up to fight goddamn monsters that can throw goddamned trucks at me!"

"Oh, calm down Zaeed," John chuckled. Though Zaeed could see the whites in the man's eyes. "You're sure to have some story similar to this."

"How about you bend yourself over and stick that oversized head up your fuckin' ass," Zaeed growled

The monster in question was named Wasea. And she was a mean bitch with the power of a minor deity, and was also really fucking pissed off.

"Seriously," John just looked at him. "I got nothing. She's a bit out of my league as well."

"Fuck me sideways…" Zaeed sighed. "Maybe if we-"

"DOWN IN FRONT!" a voice boomed from around the corner.

Almost as one, Shepard and Zaeed hit the floor just as the cargo container that had flown over them earlier, came hurtling back the other direction.

"Mother fuck," Zaeed muttered as there was a loud crash and curse in high thessian.

Then the, now much dented up, container arched back over head, only, to his utter horror, to be wrapped in a powerful biotic aura, and stop right above the men. Well...two, biotic grips, it actually looked like.

Standing in front of them, across the floor was Jack. Her biotic power raging wilder than usual as she snarled. He hands were held in front of her like claws as her power warred with the asari commander's. In fact, they seemed evenly matched as the container wobbled a bit back and forth about Shepard and himself.

"Got an Idea," John winked at Zaeed as he leaned out of cover, aiming his heavy pistol. Then firing. "Fuck...hang on…" he shot again. "She keeps moving...Wish she would just stand still…"

"I got it, Boss," Garrus laughed from the opposite side, hefting his sniper rifle. There was a single boom, a scream, then the container flew hard back the way it had originally came, complete with wet crunch at the end.

"Huh," John snorted. "Went right over the side. Hope nobody is down there…"

Craig Durrant, Nos Astra Travel

With a smile, Craig stepped out of the travel agency. It had taken him some time, but things were finally looking up for him. When he had first gotten to Illium, he had lost almost everything on the trading floors. But, luckily, he wasn't quite stupid enough to blow all his money, so he didn't end in one of those terrible indentured servant contracts.

In fact, his experience in the Alliance went over well with the police force, getting him a job with a decent salary. It wasn't extravagant, but he made more than he spent. In fact he had built up a pretty good nest egg.

Then it took him almost a year for him to work up the courage to ask out that asari detective. They had become good friends while working together, and after that first date, they had started a relationship.

Now Craig was on top of the world! He spent a good chunk of his hard earned money booking this trip for the two of them to Kahje. Anya had said she had been interested, so he wanted to surprise her.

And he had gotten this new skycar. It was a bit of a vanity, but he could afford it. Besides, Anya deserved to be driven around in the best!

Reaching into his pocket, he pulled out the small locking device and pushed the button, still amused with the little *bleep-bleep* noise it made when unlocking.

Then a cargo container landed on his car. Crushing it flat.

For a long moment, Craig just stood staring at what used to be his car.

"Well...shit…."

John

"When I heard an assassin was coming for me, I didn't expect it to be you, Commander," Nassana Dantius half smiled. "Considering the mess you made on your way up here, I assume you must be quite put out with me over our last encounter."

"Hardly," John snorted, crossing his arms. "Didn't even realize it was the same Dantius until I walked through the door." He jerked a thumb over his shoulder.

"You man to tell me that you brought all these people, killed your way through all those mercenaries, for something else?" Dantius sneered. "Like I'm going to believe that."

"Don't really care what you believe," John shrugged. "Either way, I have more guys than you. Maybe you should surrender?"

"I'm not going down that easily!" Nassana almost shrieked. "My men and I will take some of you with us!"

Behind Nassana, the last four eclipse guards looked at each other. Two of them shrugged, stepping away from Nassana and their compatriots, and dropping their weapons to the ground.

"WHAT ARE YOU DOING!" Nassana shrieked again, now spittle flying from her mouth as she literally started foaming.

"Sorry," the first man said. "But Billy and I just got married, and I have tickets to go see the premiere of the new Blast-O movie with him tomorrow night."

John would later swear that he could almost hear Nassana's mind snap at the same moment that a shadow drooped behind her.

The shadow moved almost faster than John's enhanced eyes could follow as he gripped one mercenary's head, twisting it savagely with a wet crack.

Turning, the shadow struck the second merc in the throat with stiff fingered hand, followed by two quick strikes to the man's chest, right over the heart, dropping the man just as brutally as the first.

Nassana had enough time to turn, attempting to bring her pistol to bare on the shadow, as it gripped her hands, and with a single smooth movement, twisted her arms around, sending a single round through her upper body.

The shadow caught Nassana's body, as he carefully lowered her to her desk, placing her hands gently upon her chest. Slowly, he stood back, clasping his hands together as he bowed his head.

"I'm John Shepard, and I need your help," John started, before the drell looked up.

"A moment, please, the prayers for the wicked must not be forsaken," Thane said quietly, bowing his head once more.

"Don't think Nassana ever did anything to warrant prayers," Garrus shrugged.

"They are not for her," Thane looked back at John and nodded. "They are for me. And how may I help you, Commander?"

Tail

"Excuse me, Tali, but there seems to be a volus in the access walkway," Edi spoke quietly, something the quarian appreciated. A lot.

"That's...weird," Tali sighed as she leveraged herself out of her seat at the mess table.

"Agreed," Edi confirmed. "He seems to be unstable, and is walking oddly."

"Heh," Tali giggled as she entered the lift. "All volus walk oddly. It's a species trait."

"I admit to surprise in that you would look down on another species," Edi said, contemplatively. "As I understand it, volus walk the way they do because of the suits they are forced to wear."

For a moment, Tali considered her words as the lift opened to the main deck. "I might have more sympathy for them if not for them going out of their way to make life difficult for the Fleet," Tali said bitterly. "After we were forced off Rannoch the volus were the ones to seize most of the quarian assets. Literally stealing all we had left. I am sure there are nice volus someplace, but I have not met any."

"I see," Edi answered. "I believe I understand. Being forced into a position of subservience, yet being unable to do anything about it is not a pleasant experience. As I understand it."

For a long moment, Tali paused at the main door. "It is difficult being judged by others ideas of what you must be like, because of who you are. Being so limited by other people's views. I regret...I regret any sentient having to live like that."

Pushing the release, Tali exited the ship, and walked down the gangway, leading to the docking area. Toward the end, as Edi had said, a volus staggered in small circles. Eventually, a Tali walked up to him, he stepped forward, bumping into her and stumbling back.

"Fear me! Mortal!" the volus exclaimed loudly as he waved his arms. "I am become your nightmare and your dreams in one! I am Power! Incarnate!"

"Are...you high?" Tali asked, tilting her head in confusion.

"I may have ingested things that helped me reach the limits of who I am! For I am the biotic wind! I am Niftu Cal!"

"Right...Niftu...or is it mister wind?" Tali smirked.

"Do not mock me! For I am the wind that will...wind! I shall take this vessel as my new body and cruise into the stars!" Niftu spun in a small circle, nearly tipping himself over.

"I do not think I would allow that," Edi spoke sternly.

"Who said that?!" Niftu looked around. "Wait! That was me! My mind has been expanded! I am more that time! More than space! I am….Time-Space!"

"Tali? Who's your friend?" Miranda stepped into the other end of the gangway with a raised eyebrow. In her hands she carried a small bag with the words "Lamet's Cafe' written on the side.

"He is Niftu Cal, the next great biotic god...or wind? I'm not sure," Tali shrugged.

"You shall suffer for you insolence!" Niftu waved his arms in a series of odd gestures and a weak biotic field fluttered off of him. Then, with another grand gesture, he flung forth an orb of pure dark energy.

An orb about the size of a small grape.

The orb wiggled and wobbled through the air before popping like a soap bubble on the end of Tali's indicator light. The vibrations from the energy making her sneeze demurely. More of a little *ick* than anything else.

"Okay, whatever sound you just made, that was adorable," Miranda smiled.

"What?" Tali demanded. "It tickled my nose."

"Okay there 'biotic god'," Miranda walked up to the volus and tapped him gently on the head and gently pushing him toward the exit. "Maybe you should go sleep it off somewhere else."

Niftu's response was to stare up at Miranda for a long moment. Long enough that Tali and Miranda shared a concerned look.

Then, as if a tree chopped by an axe, the volus tipped slowly backwards, snoring.

"Kellah…."

Turian Lexicon

Sterkre- Turian for a piece of shit.