4 days after arrival.
Ashley stood at attention as the four Councillors looked at her from their perch above. Long training kept her from fidgeting in her Alliance blues belying the nerves she felt.
"We appreciate you being here. for this despite the situation. Councillor Anderson has explained the situation to us. What did you find other then the vid feeds?" Trevos said.
"No other then what we the damage we found, It matches the reports of being bombed out by explosives with nuke power without the radiation fall out."
"Yes we read the reports." Sparatus said with venom in his voice as he hated being wrong. "The Reaper's, hard to believe they do exists. We have been talking about what to do about this situation. We have come to an agreement to create a special unit, lead by a Spectre similar to what Commander Shepard was doing."
"This team will be used to gain what they can and do what they can to assist each galactic nation and fight back against the Reapers." Valern said.
"Ashley, given your experience with Commander Shepard we have agreed you promote you to Lieutenant Commander effective immediately. We want you to join the spectres. However due to the situation at hand we'll forgo the speech till a later date." Anderson said before continuing. "Your mission, is to assist in the destruction of the Reapers in anyway possible."
"I accept your offer, I will do what I can." Ashley said saluted before turning and walking off. "The curse is gone now, time to show the Reapers who they are dealing with."
OOOOO
The Normandy few through space at breakneck speeds towards Tuchanka. As it did John and Ashley where in the gym doing a bit of a workout on each other with kicks and fists. In the years before after the Crucible, Ash had made sure to work out as best she can. So much so that she put up a strong fight against John causing the both of them to draw multiple times. Both of them then relaxed on a bench sweating like there was no tomorrow. John was in a simple tank top and shorts while Ash was in a sports bra and shorts.
"Hufff that, was tiring." he muttered. "And fun."
"Yeah, hadn't had a work out like that in years. While I was a Commander for New Olympus I trained with a few of my troops. I cannot tell you how many landed on their asses after challenging me." Ash said with pride.
"Sounds like it." John smiled before EDI came on.
"John, the architects for the city have got their blueprints ready and would like you to take a look." she said.
"Ok, I'll head to y room." he said as he stood but EDI came on again.
"Commander, one of the upgrades to the Normandy was holo emitters in each room where you can take a look at your messages and other things about the ship." she said making Ash slap her head.
"Damn I forgot that feature." she muttered as John walked over to wall and an orange hologram appeared before him.
The city itself was in a large crescent like shape that was spread out with the middle being where people did stuff and the outside being houses for people. To the north at the west part of the city looked like the industrial district while the east was the leisure district as the location seemed to be set next to the sea which was a good idea as it meant no droughts. A river ran though the city as well giving the city two sources of water. There was a debate for a protective wall between the engineers and architects who designed the city. John looked at it while stroking his chin looking at it with Ash standing and walking over to have a look as well.
"Huh, looks good." she said. "But we need defences and outposts in other area's to make sure we don't get any unwanted guests."
"Agreed." John said as he pressed approve. "How long till we get to Tuchanka?"
"Around 4 hours." EDI said.
"Ok good, time to relax." John said. "Ash you up for it?"
"Wish I could, but I need to see Liara first." she said but a bit of a smirk. "Maybe afterwards."
OOOO
Ash walked into Liara's room gaining her attention.
"Hey Ash." the Asari broker said.
"Hey Li, find anything?" Ash asked as she walked up to the Asari.
"Yeah come and take a look." Liara said as images and words came up on the screens. "Aside from the Cerberus team all of your former team have done what they can to survive. But I've got some bad news."
"Liara tell me, if they're alive we need their help." Ash insisted.
The Asari sighed and nodded. "Ok, well, for starters Samara and Thane are dead. Samara tried to help a group of slaves in one of the Warlords camps however it failed and she was shot. She died in vain."
Ash hung her head. Samara was quite the noble warrior and fighter and could have helped with the training of biotic soldiers. But then gain that oath of hers would get in the way in this new world, so in a sense she wasn't too surprised. Just upset.
"As for Thane, he died on a hospital bed next to his son. As far as I can tell no one was in the room except for them. But being the information broker I am..." she said with a sinister smile. "… he was given a grey box with his father's memories. It's possible that Thane has passed the torch to his son."
"That's good, Kolyat was a good kid. Hopefully we can find him soon. What else?"
"Well Kasumi fell off the grid, however on one of the planets in Omega territory there is a well known thief who operates jobs for the highest bidder. That might be Kasumi trying to scrape a living in this new world."
"Yeah, she was a good infiltration specialist. We need her to train our own infiltrators." Ash said before moving over to the bed and sat down. "That's everyone, Jacob died at the Collector base, Miranda stayed with us James disappeared… humm is been a long time since then. Seems like a lifetime ago."
"Yeah, I hear you." Liara said relaxing in her chair. "By the way, do you now what happened to my leopard print underwear?" she asked making the marines eyes widened.
"Sorry, not a clue." she quickly said making the Shadow broker's brow raise.
"Ok, probablt misplaced them."
"Yeah, I would think so. Now if you'll excuse me." Ash said as she got up and left.
As soon as she left, Liara looked at the cams to her room and witnessed Ashley enter and take her leopard print undergarments. She then checked the camera in John's room.
"Why you little..." she muttered as her mind began to spin for idea's for revenge.
OOOOO
"Aria is crossing the line Wrex, we have to do something." said one of the Korgan clan leaders.
The Koran clan leaders where seated around a round table like section while Wrex sat on a stone throne.
"Aria may hate us, however we do not have the numbers to wage war against her. Our numbers have been falling faster, if we wage war now then out entire race will become extinct." another clan leader said.
"Coward." another one said.
"WHAT?!" the clan leader yelled as he stood.
"ENOUGH!" Wrex yelled making all eyes turn to him. "Sit down."
The clan leader sat down while looking at the leader who called him a coward.
"The situation is grim, but we have to take everything into consideration." Wrex said calmly. "Our race has been on a steady decline for decades, now we only number a few thousand. War maybe possible but victory may not, strength isn't all that matters in war, but number, skill, strategy, technology and training. We only have strength little else. Victory is not assured, especially against a Warlord master."
A silence fell over the other leaders, while their minds told them that they would win. But given Wrex's attitude at the moment no one dared speak up. After the war, he was very concerned about going to war and for good reason. The Reaper war drasticly reduced their numbers to literally thousands in the entire galaxy. With the Genopahge slowly killing them now that a war would finish the off and make their race go extinct.
Before anyone else could speak a Krogan walked into the room.
"Clan master." he said. "Representatives from the Solar Empire have arrived to speak to you."
"The Solar..." Wrex mutter before his eyes widened and stood. "This meeting is dismissed."
With that the Clan leaders stood and walked out as John, Ashley and Liara entered the chamber. The three walked up to Wrex who smiled. He then walked up to Shepard who he tapped him making sure he was real before embraceing him much to the dismay of the commader.
"Shepard it's been too long." Wrex said.
"Werx...crushing … me … let...go...please..." John wheezed.
Smiling the Clan master let him go. "Owww." John muttered as he rubbed his back convinces that he have had a few of his bones broken.
"Humm, good to see you again old friend. Guess the void couldn't hold you." Wrex said as he lad the group to an 'office' and poured some diluted ryncol into cups.
"You kidding, it swallowed me and spat be back out." John replied.
"Ha I bet." Wrex said turning. "The void is only there for those who have deserved to die, you quite clearly have not earned the right to rest yet."
"How poetic." Liara said.
"Thanks, I try." he said as he handed them a cup each. "To old friendships."
They all drank but all those who weren't Krogan choked on the strong alcoholic beverage.
"Fuck that's strong..." John said slamming his chest.
"It'll put hair on your back. But I suspect, your not here just to catch up." he said walking around a desk and sitting down.
"Yeah, we know your having trobble with Aria." Ash said.
"Indeed, it's no secret that we have been a thorn in her side since I took over. War with her is inevitable, but we do have a month to prepare."
"What?" John asked. "Why a month?"
"One of out agents intercepted a communication between Aria and one of her trainers and said that they'll attack in a month once her part of her army is fully trained." Wrex said looking down a moments slice fell over them before John spoke up.
"We can use that to our advantage." he then said making eyes look to him.
"How?" Liara asked.
"Ever heard of the Trojan horse?" he asked but Liara shook her head as did Wrex. "To make a long story short, a group of warriors from a nation created a wooden horse after a long siege. They presented it as a gift to the city which the people took in then at night they attacked killing everyone. We can do the same thing, this early one, Aria will be unprepared to face a head on strike at Omega. We'll have the element of surprise, we use some of our own ships and re-colour them into Omega alliance colours then send them in to disable communications. We then bring the fleet in to take Omega."
A moments silence filled the room with a big smile from Wrex who stood. "Shepard, that is the best plan I ever heard. I'll call an emergency meeting."
OOOOO
Wrex, Liara, John, Ashley and several Korgan clan leaders with holograms of EDI and Hackett stood around large round holotable.
"Ok Wrex, we're here what is it?" one of the clan leaders asked.
"Our allies cam come up with a plan to take down Aria." the Clan master said as Liara stepped forward.
"By using three Batarian raiders in Aria's colours we can use them to gain entrance to Omega station. Once in the area, they will then jam communications while the fleet of what we can spare comes in to begin the attack on the station." she said.
"Humm sounds like an idea." one clan leader said.
"Agreed however jamming communication will be a bit of a problem. I recommend that the Normandy comes in as well and engage in a cyber war, that way we'll be able to prevent any SOS's getting out." EDI said.
"Agreed on that." Hackett said. "So the targets are Omega and Aira?"
"Yeah, we capture them then the Alliance will fall." Ashley said.
"Then might I suggest another target." he said before trying and an image of a woman with a line of hair leading to a ponytail appeared on the table.
"Jack." both Ash and Liara said.
"You know her?" John asked.
"Yeah, she was on the dossier's that Cerberus managed to get to help us along. She was supposed to be on a prison station called Purgatory, however she already escaped but the Warden wanted me and Liara to 'sell us off to the highest bidder' not giving two shits about the war going on. We only found out after we practically killed all of his security and raided his office. Jack escaped two weeks before as she hijacked a cargo ship after beating up the guards escorting her to cryo." Ash said.
"Well, thanks to Liara's network we know that she's a biotic trainer. One of the best, she'll be a must to capture." Hackett said concerned. "Biotics are a problem to deal with." he said earning nods from the others
"Why are you so concerned about biotics?" John asked.
All looked around before Liara hit her head. "Shit, I forgot. While the crucible was being created refinery's for Eezo where going fast, as such we had to make do with pure unrefined Eezo. When the Crucible fired it overcharged the powers of biotic uses." she said before turning to a bolder behind her and raised her fist.
Her arm glowed blue for a moment before a blue projectile came out of her arm and hit the bolder. It was reduced to pebbles making John's jaw drop, she turned to face him.
"Biotic blast, one of the new powers we have. Capturing Jack will ensure that we will have better trained biotic soldiers. So that's three targets in all."
"Right are we all in agreement?" Wrex asked.
The Korgan clan leaders looked from one another before nodding.