Mass Effect: Of Lions And Angels

by jerseydanielgibson

Jane Catherine Shepard and Sara Elaine Ryder, the spacer brat and the Cit-born, the Lion of Elysium and the Angel of Illyeria, lifelong friends and almost-sisters, find themselves mired in events concerning ProTech and a diabolical scheme. Can a SPECTRE and a Corpsman along with an eclectic crew stop a Turians' plan that may rattle the very galaxy itself? (ME AU, major changes)

9. Fall Of The House Of Therum, IV

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Dig Site Alpha, Therum, Knossus System, Artemus Tau Cluster, June 15, 2183

Author's Note (4/11): Happy Birthday, Shepard! You're now... 10?

---

"So… where are my Marines?"

Fuck.

Commander Jane Catherine Shepard stood in front of Petty Officer (Third Class) Sara Elaine Ryder, seeing her for the first time in over two years. The last time Jannie had seen her outside of a selfie or a still was when Sara had graduated from the prestigious Presidium Academy of Education, taking a short leave to the Cit to watch her friend walk the aisle, so to speak. Aunt Ellen had been all but at death's doorstep, but Doctor Ellen Harlow-Ryder held on long enough not only to see her twin children graduate from their respective schools, but also to see them pass Boot Camp as well. Jannie remembered that day well, seeing Sara in her Academy educational robes, receiving her diploma from one of the most prestigious schools in the entire galaxy, the only Human good enough to attend.

That required dedication. Sara Ryder was quite possibly the most dedicated person Jane Shepard had ever met.

And this dedicated Hospital Corpsman with a Fleet Marine Force Insignia was asking where her Marines were. My Marines… she had said. Jannie had served with combat Corpsmen, ones with the FMF Badge, and she knew their motto, their duty, their dedication. A unit didn't get a Doc; Doc received a unit. The men and women under an HM 8404 were theirs and no one else's'. Doc would fight for you, right by your side. Doc would run through fire and bullets to reach you in your time of need, to pull you into safety, to heal your wounds. Doc would kill the motherfucker responsible, too. Jannie had seen Docs of all shapes and sizes, Sailors and N's, but they all had the same mentality; selfless dedication to their peers. In that, they were all giants. Doc's duty was to the safety and lives of their men, and they would gutter-stomp the shit out of anyone that endangered those beloved members.

And Jannie was about to tell her friend the horrible truth.

"Sara…" Jannie saw it, the look in Sara's face, those magnificent blue eyes recoil in shock, her face falling as the blow came. How I wish I could lie to you…

"H-how many?" The Petty Officer gulped visibly as Shepard saw the six other Marines standing not even a couple of meters away, their faces indicating that they had overheard. She was about to tell them the news. Sara was steeling herself for it, but there was nothing that could really prepare one for this for the first time. Losing men hurt, Jannie knew all too well. She had lost men under her command. It never got easier. Never.

"All of them."

Sara's face fell.

"N-no! A-all of them?" Blue eyes shrank as they grew moist, tears threatening to spill over the lids as the Corpsman took the blow, hard. Jannie felt her heart twist at the sight as Sara snapped her eyes shut, aborting the grief for the time being. There was a lull, but they were out of danger. Ryder willed to feel the loss later, but not now. Doc still had men to look after, and a Petty Officer had Enlisted Members to command. Two years… Sara had grown up, she had matured. She had grown harder, no longer the petite, spunky little teenager whose mouth was a kilometer-a-minute. Now stood before the Commander was a Fleet Marine Corpsman and Non-Commissioned Officer in the depths of hellish battle, strong and proud, ignoring all else until necessary. This Corpsman had kept her Marines alive for damn near a Solar day, with tactics and medical knowledge. But there was always a price, every Goddamn time.

Sara's eyes opened once more, and the tears were gone, replaced with absolute conviction and vengeance. Jannie knew that look well; Staff Sergeant Ashley Madeline Williams had those same eyes on Eden Prime and anytime anyone brought up the Geth or Saren. Ryder made a fist with her right hand, holding it in front of her, crushing the fist tighter and tighter until her armor creaked from the intensity. The Angel took a deep breath and let it out malevolently as she released her fist and looked at Jannie. The Angel of Illyeria was no longer a cherubic-faced teenaged girl brimming with insatiable curiosity. No, she was now battle-hardened, tested and proven, and very eager to to met out revenge on the Geth.

Jannie almost felt sorry for them. Almost.

"Collect your men, see to your wounds." Shepard said softly, looking at Sara's face, seeing her jaw tightening, her face cast in stone. The redhead noted the battle damage to Sara's Phoenix Armor, the scores and pits of rounds finding their mark when kinetic shields were overwhelmed, or when a round was too strong to be stopped by that protective barrier. Hell, Sara was a Biotic, too, capable of creating an extra layer of protection with her born abilities, taught to her at the Presidium Academy by Asari Instructors that were former Sister Commandos, no less! Men had been in danger, and Doc had risked life and limb for them. "Restock and get ready to move in five, we're getting you the fuck off this shithole."

"Okay." Sara took a deep breath, getting control of her emotions as she looked to Jannie. "We're damn near bingo on Cells and Blocks, and we ran out of grenades forever ago. All we got in ready supply is foul language." There was an almost half-smirk to the Petty Officers' face. Jannie looked over to see two Asari standing near the Marines and the armed Turians, one Asari with a mess of yellow markings on her face armed with an Asari-manufactured submachine gun she didn't recognize, and another with hardly any markings at all carrying a rather common Teguza Elite Thexder Pistol in her hands. The three Turians were armed with Haliat Armory KAL-25 Personal Defense Weapons that every Turian Citizen not in the military seemed to be armed with, a carbine weapon that was somewhere between a submachine gun and an assault rifle. It was a good if underpowered weapon to have. "Centurion? Let's get integrated. If anyone's got a hurt, speak up now. Once we start moving, we may not have the time to stop to attend to it later."

"Reservists?" The N7 asked, getting a nod from the Corpsman. "Well, that's good." It was certainly a better thing than some Human with no training or experience holding a firearm during a stressful situation. Those usually got killed quickly or endangered friendly forces with bullshit they'd seen in movies and video games. "There were civilians here. What happened to them?"

"Evacuated with the help of Centurion Abadexus Linaseus and his men here," Ryder indicated the Turians, who all nodded with the recognition, "as well as that of Professor T'vara and Doctor T'soni here." Jannie found herself looking at the Asari with the almost complete absence of facial markings standing there. Shit, all three of her objectives were standing right in front of her! Well, that was good. No use looking a gift firearm down the barrel. "The Citadel Department of Prothean Knowledge had sent a small team here yesterday after the incident with Doctor Sanders to investigate, and that was nine more warm bodies to fit in the shuttles that we already didn't have space for. Linaseus and his men volunteered to take rear-guard to give room for the Citadel Personnel, as well as Professor T'vara. Doctor T'soni here actually stumbled upon a security device that she was able to somewhat configure to our advantage, and stayed behind to help us combat the Geth. Everyone else has left at one hundred percent accountability save those who are here."

"Good." That meant the Geth hadn't killed them and converted them to Husks. Lord only knew what non-Human Husks would be like. Turians came with talons, and Asari had Biotics. Thankfully, they wouldn't be finding out today. That was one less problem to worry about. "Let's do a quick roll call while everyone checks their equipment out so we're not having to play the 'hey you' game."

"Okay, for my Marines," Sara began, indicating her team of scuffed and sweaty Marines, "we've got K-Pop, Ballsack, Lapdance, Blowjob, Brassiere, and the Kenyan." Jannie had to chuckle at the names; she had almost forgotten that Marines called everyone and everything something demeaning. Cortana already updated her ARO display with the names, highlighting each Private and Lance Corporal identified. "For the Reservists," the three Turians were equally as scuffed and grimy as the Marines, "we got Centurion Linaseus, as well as Hasti Korvan and Raminion. Then we have Doctor T'soni and Professor T'vara." Both Asari lowered their heads in greeting.

"For my team," Jannie began, "we got Lieutenant Kaidan Alenko, Staff Sergeant Ashley Williams from the Eden Prime Colonial Army," both Humans nodded their heads. "The big guy's Urdnot Wrex. The purple Quarian is Tali'Zorah, and the blue one is Niki'Raan. The Salarian Agent is Not-Dalatrass Zevin Raeka. And then there's Detective…"

"Holy shit! Garrus Vakarian!" That had Jannie pause.

"It is good to see you again, little one." The two-plus meter tall Turian said out loud as Vakarian took a step forward, having disengaged his helmet along with the others when Shepard had done so when reconnecting with her friend. One mandible quirked some facial expression, something probably resembling a crooked smile for Turians. She was never as good as identifying alien non-verbal cues as Sara and Scott had been. "When the Commander said the name 'Sara Ryder', I had wondered if it was the same Sara Ryder I knew from the CitEMS."

"You two know each other?" Sergeant Williams asked, frowning a little, her tone curious. Ash wasn't exactly keen on non-Humans, but she had done well working alongside them.

"There was this case that Special Crimes was looking into in a hard way, and I got involved as a consultant because there weren't really too many Human Doctors on the Cit, especially ones who would keep their mouths shut about what we were finding." Sara replied, and Jannie remembered something about that. Ryder had been tight-lipped about a week and a half portion of her duties involving her being called in by the Special Crimes Unit investigating something called a 'Red Harvest' when she was about almost seventeen. All Jannie had known was that Sara had been asked by name by the C-SEC SCU and the RRU for her medical expertise. Obviously, Sara and Garrus had met then. "I can't believe you managed to rope in Detective Garrus fucking Vakarian, Auntie! You know he's the premiere shot in the RRU? Once shot a terrorist from across the Cit! That's from one Arm to another, had to account for traffic. Ten point two kilometers, if I remember correctly. " The Detective grunted, but made no correction.

"Damn." Williams was impressed. Jannie was, too. A ten kilometer confirmed kill? That was beyond impressive! Sure, the Cit was probably the 'best' environment for a long-distance shot, considering that gravity and air pressure were limited to only a dozen or so meters above the tallest buildings, without wind or weather to change trajectories. Still, one could easily miss at that distance. Through traffic? Damn, indeed.

"Okay, folks, let's get back on the clock." They were wasting time, and the Geth were better at using it efficiently than most. "Marines? I'm putting you under the command of Staff Sergeant Williams. She's a survivor and a veteran of Eden Prime, so she will be your Commanding Officer for the duration of this mission." The six Marine Enlisted nodded their heads, the move not unusual. Likewise, Sergeant Williams was also nodding. Putting men under her command was a good move, as well as putting Geth War survivors together. "Doc? I need you to do your job; keep us healthy."

Corpsmen weren't 'leaders' despite having ranks that would make them so. Yes, a Hospital Corpsman could and would be in charge of a Dispensary, or even a medical platoon. But Docs like Ryder were generally exempted from normal Non-Commissioned Officer duties, such as combat training, planning and organization, and leading men into battle. Their profession was so much more important than that, after all. Sara had done very well in keeping twelve people alive with knowledge and skills, but the situation had changed, and for the better. Sara was nodding with the orders, knowing what Jannie wanted. There was no other real medically-trained personnel on the ground. Some skills? Yes. Shepard, Williams, and Alenko had all been trained in Basic Combat Medical; courses intended to have a common combatant to treat their comrades with basic techniques o keep them from bleeding out. But there was a world of difference between what Jannie knew and what Sara knew. Likewise, she also know how to treat others as well, something that the N7 never trained on or had to do. If Vakarian or Raeka had gotten shot, she would do her best, but she might cause more damage than prevent. That was why she wanted Sara on the SSV Normandy; she was likely the best in the Alliance, and even possibly in the galaxy. Exactly what a SPECTRE needed.

"On it." Sara nodded. "Anything I need to look at before we move?"

"Not at this time." The N7 replied, her back painfully reminding her of the damage she had taken fighting that Armature, but that could wait. The damage was already done, and Jannie wasn't about to start peeling her armor off in the bottom of a cavern in hostile territory. Sara wasn't fooled as her eyes narrowed and looked right at the redhead, obviously noting that someone had been wounded, and that someone had been her. "Later, Doc. Area isn't secured, and it's been decently dealt with for the time being. Afterwards you can mother hen me to death."

"I did treat it, and it isn't combat-limiting." Ash spoke up, the Corpsman looking to the Staff Sergeant. "It looks painful as hell, but I put on ointment, gave her some anti-inflammatory meds, and dressed it with dry dressings. Your stock, actually."

"Just had to go raid Doc's goodies." Sara grumped, making one of the Marine Privates chuckle, the one she called Lapdance. "Did you steal the lollipops, too?"

"Um… you had lollipops?"

---

The Normandy ground team, now twenty strong, moved deeper into the Prothean Dig Site, towards what Professor Irissa T'vara called the 'Fall'. Commander Jane Shepard saw why; there was another chasm, and this one had a floor made out of lava. Therum was a geologically-active planet, and it made no sense to settle some colony or research station upon a tectonically-active, lava-spewing, volcanic hellhole in which the environment would fuck with or ruin the endeavors that were centered at the facility. The only thing that Jannie could think of was that this site had to be a Black Site; a plausible deniability research station doing research and development into something illegal or unethical back during the Prothean Era, a place that they could bury and the planet itself would destroy the evidence in the near future. Except that it hadn't happened, and the ruins had survived fifty thousand years with little to no structural damage or loss of integrity. The Protheans really knew how to build their shit, evidently. The engineer in Shepard could only marvel at the ingenuity of such a feat. Nothing man-made on Earth came even close to that save for some arrow points or perhaps a rock hammer.

"Through this way is the access that will lead us towards the extraction point." Professor T'vara spoke softly, her hands cradling an Asari-made submachine gun that was more ergonomic and elegant-looking than anything Humanity made, with white ceramic pieces that were gracefully curved and swept back almost like an Asarikin's crest. Humanity made guns to be functional and purposeful; Asari evidently thought to make their firearms look 'pretty'. That was just retarded. "While the shuttles have already left, there is a secondary exit protocol that would have the personnel travel further and out of the complex through a small tunnel that leads outside into the environment of Therum. It is not far from the Dig Site entrance itself, and the tunnel is almost impossible to see from the sky or the ground."

"Good. We have a vehicle that can provide ground evac, as well as a vessel we can call for." Jannie replied as she led the team through the route, traveling through tunnels that were recon'ed and scanned by her drone Ghost, observing ahead for the presence of enemies and any other obstacles. "You said something about an elevator?"

"A Prothean-built lift, yes." The Dean of Prothean Research and Studies from the University of Serrice of Thessia replied, nodding her crested head. "Doctor T'soni had activated the security fields to protect the path to keep the Geth from making their way towards the personnel while we protected the security suite itself. While she had only a limited understanding of the device in question, she used it to good purpose."

"Yes she did." Jannie was all about fighting the enemy, but if she had to chose between killing a bad guy or saving an innocent life? Well, it depended upon the circumstance, though she generally saved the life of the innocent. It couldn't always be the case, sadly; that was war. There were seven names tattooed on her left forearm for that reminder, seven names for the seven teachers that stood with her to defend Illyeria High School from slaving pieces of shit. The galaxy remembered the Lion, the movie portrayed the Lion, but only the Lion remembered the seven men who had taken up arms to protect and defend their students, unarmored and wielding civilian-oriented pistols. If it hadn't been for their choice and their sacrifice, Jannie really would have died at the school, sooner than later, and those kids would have been taken. Those seven names on her arm were what she used whenever she came across one of those decisions; stop the threat, or save the life. It was never clearly defined or easy to contemplate, but those names helped. "How many more lava pools we gonna walk by?"

"Several." Shepard grunted at that as she stepped onto a catwalk, testing it out first before stalking forward, her M-99 Saber Battle Rifle leading the way as she took point for the team, Professor T'vara right behind her. With so many people of different specialties, the order of march was mixed up now, though she had Staff Sergeant Ashley Williams in the back in a Platoon Sergeant position for command and control. The addition of the Marines and the Turian Reservists were nice, but none of them were armed with anything potent or exotic. Then again, they had been fighting the Geth for almost a complete day with normal weaponry, too. The Professor had gently insisted on being second for two purposes; one for directional guidance, and the other because the Geth evidently had no defense or ability to update against Biotics. That was something to note later on, but for now, they were going to use it. "The lift is just up ahead, Commander."

"I see it." Jannie moved forward as she entered through the opening that led onto a disk-like platform for the elevator, a large circular lava tube in which someone had built an elevator with a central support strut in the middle to move it as oppose to several outer struts. Jannie did a slow sweep of the platform as she took a knee and scanned everything with her Saber and her eyes, making sure the platform was clear of any threats. "Vakarian, Raeka? Move forward and clear the upper levels while we infill. I don't want any surprises." There was no cover on the elevator minus the large central support, which wasn't nearly enough for a team their size. Both snipers moved forward with their respective weapons, using their scoped rifles to scan upward in sweeping concentric circles to visually clear the next few levels. Jannie knew that they wouldn't be able to clear the whole thing due to the increasing angle they higher they went, but at the last they might be able to spot an immediate traps. "Ghost? Head on up and check as high as you can go." The contragravity drone complied as it took position by the strut and floated upward, only able to ascend approximately fifty meters. Still, it was an elevated position.

"Jane, I detect no organic presences or synthetic bodies at this time." Ghost delivered via Cortana as the drone floated back downward towards the position. "Be advised, I noted several access doors that were closed, and I am unable to penetrate the material for accurate scans."

"Noted, we're not out of the shit yet." Jannie reverified to everyone within voice range as she dislodged Bastila from her back, the contragravity assault turret hovering less than a meter from the elevator's surface. "Weapons ready and prepare for the worse with no cover."

"We've got that covered." Niki'Raan nar Tombay called out as both Quarian Pilgrims brought up their respective OmniTools, and Jannie saw two separate OmniGel-encased drones that surrounded a pair of Universal Power Cells, hovering around the Quarians. Their three-fingered hands flew over their OmniTools as the drones flew forward and several meters apart only for a pair of glowing circular walls of energy to appear, growing outward from the drones. Deployable shields!

"That's totes cool." Petty Officer Sara Ryder said to Private Holland 'Lapdance' Hoss, Jannie snorting in agreement. "Wish I had thought of that." Ryder surprised Shepard by tapping at her own OmniTool and watched as fluid gushed over her Sirta Foundations' Phoenix Light Medic Armor, solidifying after a few seconds into a thin, hardened layer of… armor? It wasn't deployment armor, flash-forged layers of OmniGel fitted and added to armor before a deployment for security. Sara had done it right in front of them in a matter of seconds!

"Is that deployable OmniGel armor? I'm jealous!" Tali'Zorah gushed, pulling out her Quarian-made Reegar Carbine EME Shotgun. "Can we trade?"

"Think you might have made a few friends, kiddo." The N7 told her friend, the RRU Sniper snorting as Detective Garrus Vakarian switched out his Armax Arsenal M-98 Widow Sniper Rifle for his ERCS M-15 Vindicator Battle Rifle, the weapon obviously heavily modified by a dedicated shooter devoted to his profession. Jannie had served in the Teams for years, but she had certainly never been a part of such a diverse and eclectic group before. She had been amongst some of the best Humanity had to offer, but working with this group now?

It was too early to tell, but this crew certainly had promise.

"Marines! Take defensive positions behind the shields!" Sergeant Williams called out as the six Enlisted Marines moved to the flanking positions of each of the shields, three on each outer side and positioned to where they could maximize the use of cover while keeping their area of engagement towards the most likely threat area as Jannie took position at one of the inner areas of the shield with Detective Garrus Vakarian right behind her, towering over her with his Vindicator at the ready while Lieutenant Kaidan Alenko took the low position on the other side with Urdnot Wrex above him, hoisting his Cipritine Armory Phaeston Heavy Automatic Rifle with Sergeant Williams taking a knee beside him. Agent Zevin Raeka was queuing up something on her OmniTool while Tali'Zorah and Niki'Raan took positions at the center of the shields, the both of them readying their Quarian weapons while Doctor T'soni was gestured by Professor T'vara to do something with her hands, and Jannie was amused to see both Asari spring up a slight blue warbling nimbus of energy about them as another layer of protection sprung up in front of the shields while the Turian Reservists took a knee besides Shepard and Alenko, ready to add their own KAL-25 submachine guns into the fray while Ryder stood just above them, a Hahne-Keder M5 Stinger in one hand while she kept her left ready, obviously for her Biotics.

"Exit level, please." The N7 ordered as Doctor Liara T'soni nodded in compliance, moving a meter or so to the central support where the elevator control was located. She hit an appropriate toggle on the device, and Jannie felt the platform jostle once before it began to rise, the elevator as slow as the ones on the Cit. That had her grunt out in exasperation. "What is it with Prothean engineering and slow fucking elevators?"

"You don't even notice it after a while." The Not-Dalatrass answered as an orangish OmniGel-encapsulated drone was printed out of her OmniTool, no doubt one of her Kamikaze drones that would zero in on a target and launch itself forward with fiery effect. She also had one that had fired like a dozen little ones that sought out random enemy IFF's and knocked them around a good bit. The STG did not fuck around. When everyone got back in the Normandy, there was going to be a Tech Show, and there was going to be some mad-ass drug deals going on. The platform continued to move upward as Jannie shouldered her M-99 Saber, seeing the first 'level' pass by, an access door that would exit onto it closed. She briefly wondered if the Expeditionary Teams had explored everything here, or had only gotten so far. Well, they knew about the elevator and had come up with two evacuation points. Someone had their head screwed on right. If Jannie had to guess, she would have put hard credits on Professor Irissa T'vara, if what Sara had told her was true. The Asari Matriarch was a former Sister Hospitaller, a Commando Medic in the Asari Republican Forces, and Shepard guessed that some mentalities never did fade away, even after centuries.

"How many levels until the exit?" Jannie asked casually, knowing that several people could answer that question.

"Three." Centurion Linaseus replied, his flanged voice calm and steady as the platform continued upward in elevation. The Reservists were all Turians who had served their fifteen (or more) and had gotten out for a quasi-civilian life, signing on for the Reserves for the benefits it offered from the Hierarchy as long as stipulations were met. As Jannie understood it, Reservists had to maintain themselves and a weapons system, as well as volunteering during times of need to retain that status. That… actually said a good deal, honestly. "There will be some gantries along the way, so be mindful of mass and where one steps."

"Gantries?" Tali'Zorah asked, not knowing the term. Well, it wasn't like a race that lived entirely on starships would need to know about construction practices on planets.

"Catwalks, suspended metal walkways along the cavern walls." Sara informed the Pilgrim, holding her Stinger flush to her shoulder, crouched in a kneeling position. "Abadexus is right, we'll need to be mindful of how many are on it at one time. There was never more than seven at any one time, but…" Jannie noted the Angel was looking at the Krogan. "Big guy here might have to make the walk solo just to be safe. Wasn't exactly constructed with Krogan in mind."

"Did you just call me fat?" The big game hunter asked, his tone amused as one of the Marine Privates, Ballsack, snickered off to one side, being shushed by another, K-Pop. They passed by the second level, slowly, and the access door there was also closed. So far, so good.

"One more to go." Doctor Liara T'soni stated the obvious, and another of the Marines snorted. "We are unsure if there was any activity up in these level after the evacuation. There was not when the shuttles left, but there was nearly eighteen hours for the Geth to have infiltrate their way to these levels through other tunnels and constructed walkways."

"Got it." It was rather obvious that the good Doctor didn't have any practical military training or experience. Well, she was a Doctor of Protheantology; not exactly battlefield material. "We reach the top level? Myself, Ash, Wrex, and Garrus will clear the immediate access and vicinity. Everyone else prep for movement and action." Shepard saw the ones she called out nod in acknowledgment. Out of everyone, they had the heaviest armor and the heaviest guns save for Lieutenant Kaidan Alenko. Jannie wasn't about to let the EOD Officer start lobbing grenades towards a constructed walkway over a chasm or whatnot where splash damage could compromise the structural integrity. "Here we go." The elevator was finally reaching the third level after what seemed to be the same amount of minutes, the device taking its sweet time.

They reached the upper level, and Jannie wasn't really surprised at all to find that they had company.

---

There was a hierarchy to the galaxy, where the strongest survived, that those who were not were ruled by those who were, or were crushed underfoot. Before Mankind had discovered ProTech in 2148 in Desoto Crater on Mars, that very law had created civilization, nations, wars, and evolution on Earth. After the First Contact War, Humanity learned very painfully that the law applied to the galaxy at large, and Mankind was somewhere near the bottom of the ladder. All the major galactic civilizations had more colonies, higher population rates, and larger militaries. Even the minor ones were several steps ahead with 'current' technology and practices while the Sons and Daughters of Earth struggled to catch up. The game was skewed in favor of those born powerful; the long-living Biotic Asari, the highly-militant Turians, and the ceaseless and restless Salarians. Even some of the minor races looked down upon Humanity, seeing them as yet another up-and-coming race burgeoning on the galactic scene; the business-oriented and filthy rich Volus, the impossibly strong yet thankfully docile Elcor, and the highly-insular and hardly-understood Hanar. The Batarians were a field unto themselves at the very least. There were dozens and dozens of races in the galaxy living in the age of Eezo-powered technology, and Mankind struggled in that war of survival.

The Krogan were certainly no exception to that rule.

Commander Jane Shepard found herself looking at half-a-dozen healthy specimens standing before her ground team, having exited out of the access door that they needed to take to leave the Prothean Site. Each of them were exemplary examples of their species; tall, thick of body and limb, with broad bony headplates adorning their skulls and large humps sticking up from their backs. Each of them were armed and armored with Korogish arms and protection, and Jannie noted that each of them wore the glyph that marked them the Blood Pack Mercenary Company; a band of Krogan-of-Fortune working together to destroy whatever opposition they were hired to smash. These guys were most definitely the 'don't fuck around' crew.

"Saren wants the Doctor." The largest of the Krogan spoke, a deep, guttural tongue that was all bass, almost neon green eyes looking at each individual of the ground team independently. Assessing threats, so a smart brute. "And whatever Saren wants, Saren gets." Wow, no arguing with this guy! The other five Krogan were armed with weaponry similar to Urdnot Wrex's, long heavy weapons that were likely half again more powerful than anything most carried, and would likely break through their shields and armor in no time. Jannie noted that two of them were carrying fire-based weapons, and… was one of them carrying a fucking warhammer? "Hand the girl over. Or not. That'll be fun." One of the other Krogan brutes chuckled at that, holding what looked to be a TST Duel-Staged Linear Motor Rifle, more commonly known as a ChemRail. That bastard had BlackTech in his hands.

"We outnumber you twenty-to-six!" Shepard pointed out, hoping that the Krogan would see reaso… wait, what the fuck was she thinking? They were Krogan.

They thrilled on battle.

"Exhilarating, isn't it!" The lead Krogan replied, giving off a toothy grin. "But just because you have twenty doesn't mean we're outnumbered, Human. Hand the girl over, or we'll take her over your corpses. Saren will pay us either way."

"Y'know… I've never met a Krogan lap dog until now."

Jannie felt her jaw drop at the sound of Petty Officer Sara Ryder's voice. The N7 looked over as she watched the Hospital Corpsman stand up from her kneeling position near the middle of the defensive position, resting her Hahne-Keder M5 Stinger submachine gun on her right shoulder like some colony redneck as the Firstborn stood tall, proud, defiant. What was the fool girl thinking?

"Even went and made himself some Turians' bitch." Sara wasn't stopping. Jannie was discretely trying to get her friends' attention, but without avail. "Kid's these days." Sara let off a faux long-suffering sigh as she elbowed Wrex beside her. "They'll suck anyone's vnark these days for a Cred."

"Damn." Staff Sergeant Ashley Williams intoned as Lieutenant Kaidan Alenko whistled once, indicating the same thing.

"Oh Goddess…" Doctor Liara T'soni moaned out loud to Jannie's port, the Asari's teal skin going grayish. Wrex was just chuckling as Centurion Abadexus Linaseus snorted, saying stiffness to THAT one's plates under his breath. Shepard was pretty sure what that meant.

"What did you just say, whelp!" The lead Krogan took a step forward, his tone murderous as both of his neon green eyes zeroed in on Sara, the other Krogan taking a step back. Jannie realized what was going on. It wasn't retreat.

Sara was calling the leader out in an one-on-one duel.

The Krogan were more-or-less a blight on existence. Once haled as galactic heroes and saviors for their efforts and victory during the Rachni Wars some two thousand years prior, the species from Tuchanka had royally pissed everyone off by attacking and killing the Salarian Councilor in a fit of rage over some unsanctioned colonization efforts on the Krogan when they went and moved upon a planet already populated by the Salarians. Thus the Krogan Rebellions, a war that lasted well over three centuries with the fatality count in the billions. The ultimate card had been pulled upon the Tuchankans when the Salarians had devised some synthgene plague called the Genophage and delivered it to several major Krogan breeding sites to sterilize the species, erasing their ability to reproduce so rapidly and in such great quantity. Though the Rebellions weren't quelled for another eighty years or so, the death stroke had been enacted as mothers started giving birth to stillborn Krogan babies by the dozens, only one or two surviving birth.

Scuttlebutt was that if one went seventeen hundred light years away from Tuchanka, one could still hear the wailing cries of grieving Krogan mothers from the act.

Krogan were, strangely enough, a race of honor. Fucked up honor, but still honor. If one fought or insulted a family member, be prepared to fight off the family. If one fucked with a Krogan child, expect every Krogan male in the next Parsec to viciously hunt your ass down and murder you in ways that would make a cannibal throw up. Krogan never lied, disdained narcotics, and absolutely loathed any crime that involved children, even murdering anyone that would mess with a Turian hatchling or a Salarian taddi. Jannie never got Krogan, only knowing the basics; tough, resilient, strong as hell, fast as hell, carried big weapons, able to recuperate and regenerate wounds faster than anyone else, and with skin and muscle density that made round penetration from lighter calibers a joke. Most of what she actually knew was from Sara, who had actually known a few from the CitEMS, blowing Shepard's mind away that there were Krogan medics. The males were like bulls from Earth; the hunters, the leaders. And in charge of any pack, there was an Alpha.

If one dueled and Alpha and won, the rest of the pack would bow out gracefully. It was Korogish Law.

The N7 realized what was going on when Sara baited the lead Krogan, talking mad shit to the tallest of the group and making him step forward; she was calling him out, and he stepped forward to acknowledge the challenge. Sara was easily the smallest of the group, Humans generally being smaller than the rest of the major species, Turians towering over them while Asari only being a little bit taller. Sara was rather petite for a Human, and even so for a Human female, standing tall at one hundred and sixty centimeters/sixty-three Imperial inches tall. She was five foot fucking three and she was baiting a Krogan that topped seven and a half!

Sara, I'm going to rip you a new fucking asshole for this! Jannie thought to herself as she stayed in place, queuing electronic orders through Cortana to relay to everyone else in the ground team to remain in place and do nothing. It was a one-on-one duel, and there would be heavy casualties if they had to face all six on an elevator platform with no cover. That's why Ryder was doing this; Doc was looking out for her men, putting herself into harm's way to save lives. She had spent the past Solar day keeping them alive, and successfully so, yet on the Cit-born's mind was the crushing number of thirty-one Marines that didn't; her Marines. No doubt Sara was thinking 'not one more'. That should be me out there, talking mad shit to the 'roid-freak Krogan. I'm going to rip you a new fucking asshole, Sara Elaine Ryder!

If you survive, Jannie thought with a pane in her heart.

"Hey! It's okay!" Sara smiled as she stepped forward as well, sauntering as if without a care on the planet, her Stinger still propped on her shoulder like she was some colonial croppie, her other hand tapping on the butt of her Hahne-Keder M9 Kessler Combat Pistol. Neither one of those weapons were exactly… impressive. Standard-issue munitions for Navy Corpsmen. Good for Wack-A-Pirate and Batarian ex-patriates. Not exactly appropriate for huge-ass Krogan. "Whoring yourself for a Turian, not judging at all! I've heard the rumors, too!" God, she was really going to talk herself to death! "They are well-hung, right? Like an Elcor? You'd know."

"WHAT!"

"Oh shit, Doc." That was Brassiere, shaking his head as the Private gaped.

"Hey, afterwards? You can jump on a table and shake your little ass-tail for a bonus!" Doc was on a roll, and Shepard had to grit her teeth to keep from jumping in. "I'll throw in a complimentary brass pole so you can spin around like a Bar-sari stripper. If you need a bra and a thong, I'll lend you mine."

"You… DARE!" The Krogan was pissed. Real pissed. He was breathing in hard snorts, his teeth bared, and moving in agitated jerks. There was a word for a condition, a very scary word; Bloodrage. A Krogan in a bloodrage was practically an unstoppable force of strength and fury, often taking hours to calm down from the condition. By that time, everyone in the nearby vicinity was usually in bloody pieces. What the fuck was Sara thinking? Not only was she about to get on a one-on-one duel with a huge ass Krogan, but she was obviously coaxing him into a bloodrage! "I have the blood of Shiagur in me, puny water bag!"

"Earned your red wings, did you? Not suppose to swallow afterwards, that's just gross." That almost had Jannie gag as Alenko coughed uncomfortably while about half of the Marines hooted at that. Go figure the Jarheads would be eating this shit up.

"Red wings?" Detective Garrus Vakarian whispered.

"Involves orally pleasuring a woman during her menstrual cycle." Shepard answered with a wince. She didn't even want to know who came up with the term. Or how Sara learned it.

"Barbaric." Abadexus Linaseus coined beside her, the Centurion obviously disgusted. "Unless… is that a good thing for Humans?"

"Nope. Barbaric."

"I am going to crush you limb from limb!" The Krogan shouted, his deep voice reverberating off of the elevator shaft walls as he holstered his enormous-looking shotgun, what looked to be a Nakmor Arms M300 Claymore Heavy Objective Shotgun. In lieu of the bodysplitting shotgun, the Krogan pulled out a fucking sword that was almost as long as Sara was tall from his back! Great, armed with two claymores! "And then I am going to drag you by your entrails as you beg for death, shit-flinger!" Well, that was a colorful racist term. Jannie thought. Usually, it was 'monkey'. But somehow some of the species in the galaxy discovered that some of the more playful Terran primates were known for throwing shit at their enemies or to mark their territory. And the name stuck, unfortunately. "I will crush your skull with my boot and listen to your last gurgling breaths with a smile!" Oh yeah, definite Bloodrage, that one. Sara! I just fucking rescued you! Yet the Corpsman didn't look perturbed at all at the sight of an enraged half-ton Tuchankan holding a meter-and-a-half blade in both hands.

"Come get you some, bitch." Sara Ryder smirked as she lifted up her left hand and gestured the Krogan to do just that. "Let's see how well you can give me some head."

The Krogan roared in absolute Bloodrage, lowering his bony headplate, and charged.

While most digitigrade species, like the Turians and Quarians, were faster than their galactic plantigrade kin, the Krogan were the exception to that rule. Krogan were the fastest sprinters amongst the galactic races in short distances, clocking in at some one hundred kilometers an hour at distances just short of a kilometer. When said Krogan weighed in on average at five hundred kilograms, that generally equated to an organic wrecking ball. It was one of the things that made the Krogan so dangerous, feared throughout the galaxy as one of the toughest warriors in single-combat. With their thick hides that could bounce light rounds and protect against medium-powered rounds, dense bone structure that protected against broken bones and small explosions, multiple redundant organ systems to keep a Krogan alive through the ghastliest of wounds, nigh-bulletproof headplates, and the ability to regenerate from their wounds in a remarkable short period of time, Krogan were nearly an impossible foe to defeat in up-close battle. The elevator platform wasn't large, had no cover, and would make fighting the Krogan a very nasty encounter. There would be heavy casualties, and likely the Alliances' ubiquitous clause 'Critical Mission Failure' or the more-accurate 'Total Party Kill'.

Sara found a way to even the odds, and then she used the oldest trick in the book; she got the Krogan stupid.

The distance between the Krogan and Sara Ryder had been an easy five meters, just enough space for someone to react if paying attention. While Krogan were great sprinters, it still took a second or two for them to get up to speed, and the normal method of a Krogan charge was to lower their heads and use their bony headplates as a battering ram. The consequence of this was the fact that all of them were nearly blind to what was in front of them while they did so. For a species evolved upon a planet where everything was a meal to anything else, the act seemed almost suicidal folly, to charge in blindly. Yet that was what the Krogan did, holding his enormous sword one handed, not even in a striking position as he lowered his brownish headcrest and leapt forward, trunk-like legs pumping to accelerate into killing speed. Sara was standing at a ready crouch when the Krogan let off his bestial roar, ready to dive out of the way as the Krogan sprinted right for the Firstborn, Jannie's heart leaping up into her throat at the sight, damn near pulling the trigger on her M-99 Saber on the Krogan as he bulled right towards Sara at a speed that sickened the N7.

Sara merely waived her left hand upward, as if shooing off a fly.

And much to Jannie's surprise, the Krogan went flying before he ever collided with the Sailor.

The Tuchankan rocketed with all his speed, albeit airborne, right into the central elevator support strut in the middle of the platform, behind where the ground team was positioned. The Krogan struck it at a speed likely near a hundred kilometers an hour into the ultra-dense metal of Prothean manufacture, striking it with a sickening thud with his face as he rebounded off violently and fell to the platform several meters downward, bouncing only slightly. Jannie had pivoted to track the Krogan, and observed that he laid upon the ground, as still as death.

"Get some, Doc!" Hooted Ballsack, as the other Marines cheered and roared with mixtures of Get Some!, Fuck Yeah! and Hoo-rah! Sara turned from her position forward of their defenses as she sauntered towards the Krogan, a wicked smile upon her cherubic features.

"Knife." She requested out loud.

"Here." Centurion Abadexus Linaseus pulled out and handed over his Talon, and Jannie felt her eyes go wide at that, immediately knowing the significance. The sixty-centimeter long claw dagger known as the Talon was an honor weapon amongst the Turians; they weren't purchased, but earned in battle or won in duels. A Turian who had shamed himself could regain his honor by committing sepikku, or gift it to a warrior more superior than he, or bequeath it to a son. A Turian could win one in battle, delivered to him by his Commanding Officer, or in a duel, handed over by his defeated foe. A Talon was a near-holy object for the militant-minded Turian, and for one to even lend one was an act of great respect. "Use mine."

"Thank you." Shepard could tell that the Corpsman was touched by the gesture as Detective Vakarian purred through his mandibles above Jannie, probably in agreement or approval. Sara took the curved blade with its inner curve sharpened, made out of what appeared to be forged titanium. That wasn't a common blade, and Jannie spotted a Turian insignia on the pommel. It… it was a Blackwatch Talon, once own by a member of the Turian Elite Combatant Group. That meant that Abadexus Linaseus had received it from a member of the Blackwatch for one reason or another. Sara moved towards the fallen Krogan, barely stirring upon the platform as the Corpsman raised up her left hand, the air around it wavering like a mirage as the Krogan was pulled from the ground in something closely resembling a kneeling position. In her right hand was the Talon, held properly in the reverse grip, the curved blade running along her forearm with the sharp inner-curve ready to slice and maim.

"Threatened my family." Sara spoke, her tone neutral but hard as she stood before the Krogan, whose head lolled about, conscious but incapacitated. "Threatened my friends. Threaten my Marines." Jannie felt her heart hiccup a little at Ryder's voice, listening to this woman that looked like her friend… but two years had changed her. Made her strong, made her hard. "You threatened that which is most important to me, turtle, intending to take away all that I hold dear.

"Time to return the favor. Bitch."

Jane Shepard watched with utter amazement as Sara took the Talon and executed a backhand stab with the curved blade, and shoved the sixty-centimeter blade under the bony headplate of the Krogan right in front of her. His neon-green eyes shot open in fear as he whimpered, vowel-less cries uttered for but a brief moment before Ryder took the palm of her right hand and with all of her might hammered the Talon inward and upward, the meat of her palm striking the pommel with a meaty smack. There was a disgusting suction noise, as if something was being unpuckered off of wet glass, as the Krogan cried out once, pain and fear in his bass-like voice as Sara's face grew ugly as she pulled out the blade, reached for the lip of the headplate and with a mighty yank, popped it open like a can of LightSpeed.

The headcrest came right off in her hand.

The Krogan, on his knees, made a choking noise as his thick, stubby arms went upward for a moment, three-fingered paws reaching for what was once topping his head… and finding nothing there. The next sound he made sounded a great deal like a kicked puppy in Jannie's ears as she looked upon what had been underneath the bony headplate and seeing a blue/grayish mass of… well, brains. The Krogan was trembling and whimpering as he burst into tears, cries that echoed throughout the elevator shaft.

"A skull. For the Skull Throne." Sara announced in a cold tone, the Krogan's headplate still in her left hand.

"Fucking get some…" Commented Lapdance, his voice in awe as the Marine just stared. The rest of the Marines just watched, transfixed.

"Spirits, witness these deeds…" Centurion Abadexus Linaseus breathed out, his flanged voice too in awe.

"Beautiful…" Urdnot Wrex breathed out through a toothsome smile.

"Goddess, praise the strong who would stand for the weak." Professor Irissa T'vara spoke with reverence.

"Ancestors, please don't let me regurgitate in my helmet." Tali'Zorah whimpered slightly, her vox transmitting it.

Doctor Liara T'soni noisily retched upon the floor in front of her.

"Sara…" Jannie was unable to comprehend what she had just seen. In her mind, she saw the young perky teenager, a whirlwind of bubbly enthusiasm whose main goals in life were pranking her twin brother and ripping mods into games to make them non-vanilla and more exciting. She was having a hard time comparing the eternally-effervescent, sweet and caring young Sara Ryder with this… this hardcore badass! She just cracked upon a Krogan's' skull like a cold one! It had been two years since Jannie had physically seen the young woman, and obviously she had grown since then. Shepard was now witnessing how much Ryder had grown. She was Doc, through-and-through; saving lives with medical knowledge and rushing into the fray to pull out a comrade in need, and obliterating anyone that would injure one of her Marines in the first place.

Sara turned from the Krogan, still weeping as his hands covered his exposed cranial organ, a bitter wreck, as the Corpsman stomped towards the five remaining Krogan, who had all watched the fight without voice or interference as she stood before them, tossing the headplate onto the platform's deck right in front of their feet, the bony trophy clattering with a hollow sound.

"I am victorious." Sara said in an even tone, looking at the five heavily-armed Krogan as Jannie watched Doc fold her arms across her chest, her chin up, strong and defiant. "Me and mine shall pass."

"A worthy victory, battle kin." The Krogan carrying the warhammer replied, nodding his head as he shouldered the massive melee weapon. His tone was conversational, even polite. "What Clan do you hail from, sister?"

"Ryder Sara, daughter of Alec." The Corpsman replied, saying her surname first in lieu of a Clan, as Krogan were wont to do. She had also included her lineage, much like Krogan and Turians did.

"The Human Pathfinder." The Krogan nodded his head, surprising Jannie. Alec Ryder was a name well-known amongst Humanity, but the N7 was surprised that a Krogan would know of it. "Tough bastard, that one. He would be proud of his heir, Sara daughter of Alec. May the ground quake at your tread, and may your enemies know no mercy." One red eye moved to look at the cast-down headplate. "Collect your trophy before you and your Grant leave. You have earned the right to place it upon your mantel of conquests."

---

The Krogan were thankfully true to their word; they had let the SSV Normandy Ground Team and its collection of additions leave the elevator shaft unmolested. Unfortunately, the Geth weren't so accommodating.

Commander Jane Shepard was firing steadily with her AOFI M-99 Saber Battle Rifle with practiced ease, firing through its eight-round heat capacity before ducking behind the cover of a small rock berm to vent heat before getting back into the shit, using Ghosts' sensors to keep track of enemy numbers and positions while she was under cover before kneeling up to fire upon more Geth hardware platforms. The enemy easily numbered well over a hundred in the small cavern that they had encountered the Geth in, the units seemingly moving in coordinated seek-and-destroy operations when Ghost detected their presence at the same time the Geth detected them. Sadly, the cavern in which they were fighting in had several levels of possible positions in higher elevations, in which the Geth occupied. The Normandy crew, on the other hand, were stuck with a small beachhead in front of the tunnel that they had exited from and the tunnel itself. Their position wasn't big enough to get everyone in on the fighting to maximize their firepower or to take advantage of the Geth tactically. The five-man front that Jannie had established was taking fire from four different major positions and three minor ones from multiple units at each position, not to mention the rushers and assaulters that tried to flank them.

"Alenko! Keep saturating that high position!" The N7 coordinated the battle as she popped up out of cover and fired her Saber as fast and as accurately as she could to whittle the number of platforms down, grunting as her shields took a beating, rounds slowed by the Kinetic Shielding of her Armax Arsenals' Predator H-Series Armor before impacting sluggishly against her heavily-reinforced ceramic plating constructed of carbon nanotubes and synthdiamonds. Normally, such impacts were barely felt due to the Magnetorheological Newtonian Fluid layer underneath the reinforced ceramics and sandwiched between hardened duel-layered piezoelectric thermoplastics made to self-heal when punctured, the fluid engineered to fill in the puncture site and stiffen to seal the breach and keep structural integrity and damage protection at optimal levels. But with the damage she had already taken with her fight with the Armature and the ten minute battle they were currently clocking at against the Geth, her armor had just about reached her limit. Not to mention she was damn near black on Universal Power Cells to recharge her shield batteries whenever the Geth overwhelmed them with whatever technological trickery they had in their arsenal. "Wrex, Focus on the bigger ones! Williams, suppress port-side positions. Vakarian, keep up those chest shots, and knock out their optics if that's the only thing presented! Raan, tag and zap the drone-happy motherfuckers!"

The Geth had adapted against them at least a dozen times, and the longer the fight went, the better the synthetics got.

"Auntie! Keep it up!" Petty Officer Sara Ryder called out from inside the tunnel where most of the ground team was holding position, switching out members to combat against Geth updating and giving members a chance to rest and recuperate from the heavy fighting. They had already taken two casualties; Raeka and Blowjob. Agent Zevin Raeka had taken a round through her left shoulder early in the fight when trying to fire her swarm of micro-rockets at the Geth, only for the targeting systems to be reversed and the explosive munitions turned against them, the Not-Dalatrass almost got blown up by her own tech candy, and had taken a Geth round when her shields had snapped. Marine Private Mikael 'Blowjob' Holodansk had been almost gunned down throwing a grenade while out-of-cover; the Private had stood up to get better visual and aim to launch the explosive device against a nearby position. Sara had pulled him away after protecting his body with her own when the Marine nervelessly dropped the activated grenade after being hit half a dozen times, his shields overtaxed and his armor punctured. While Doc had pulled him to the tunnel and had gotten to work on him, it had been touch and go for several minutes. Jannie still remembered the Privates' condition; critical, barely stable. "We got an idea that might work!"

"Wing it, whatever you got!" Jannie called out, knowing that it would only be a matter of time before they lost. They couldn't move forward, they were outnumbered, and the Geth just kept adapting to tactics. The first update had been to remove the Geth Alpha Prime Unit away from the worst of the fighting when the N7 ordered Williams, Wrex, and Vakarian to take out the large mobility platform at the get-go to disrupt Geth intelligence. The damn things had caught on, and quickly. Now it sat behind cover at an elevated position, too steep an angle and protected by bedrock for them to even touch. It was like trying to kill an expert military commander whose ass was parked in space, giving effective orders every time while reinforcements continued to show up and pour in.

"Shit! I just shoved in my last ammo block!" Williams called out, her tone dismayed. That had Jannie's blood go cold as she did a quick touch-check of her own block pouches and found she only had two Universal Weapons Supply Munitions, Cubes herself, generally known as 'ammo blocks'.

"Staff Sergeant! Here's one of mine!" Private First Class Holland 'Lapdance' Hoss called out, obviously tossing out an ammo block to the Colonial Soldier. Hell, Sara's group had been damn near out of ammo themselves from their protracted fight, having stripped parts from around the Dig Site and converted it into MetalGel only to minifacture ammo blocks on the fly. It made for shit ammo, but it made ammo. "Doc? Blowjob's bag is empty." Blowjob had an IV popped into him to combat the blood loss, Ryder giving him a liter of PlasmaStend blood volumizer. Jannie knew without being told that Blowjob needed a MEDEVAC ten minutes ago. Kid was living on borrowed time.

"Grab one out of my MedPak and replace it, Lapdance. Just… need… another… minute." Doc's tone was full of frustration and concentration.

"Captain! Spike!" Tali'Zorah nar Reyya called out. Shit.

Adaptation.

Jannie looked up over her cover as she rocked her heat dispersal bolt forward to see about forty or so assault drones flash-forged by the Geth to add to their problems. Jannie ducked as OmniGel rounds began saturating the defensive position from the additional manufactured units, yet another problem to deal with. Fuck. Ungood.

"Jane, runtimes are being compromised." Ghost announced.

Double fuck ungood.

"Sara! Work your magic faster!" Shepard called out, knowing that there were on a deadline now; once that clock ran out, they were fucked, and fucked horribly. Compromised runtimes meant the Geth had hacked their way through the various levels of firewalls installed in armors, weapons, VI software management suites, OmniTools… the works. Now malicious code was infiltrating their systems… and things were going to fail. Jannie leaned out of cover to fire her M-99 Saber, pulling the trigger… and nothing happened. Her eyes went wide as she jerked back into cover as her shields damn near overloaded from the assault drones and Geth platforms, cursing a storm as she slapped her Saber on her chest and pulled out her N7 Hurricane Submachine Gun. "My Saber's down!" The Commander called out, not bothering to hide the venom in her voice. She looked to her ARO display at her shield icon, waiting for the charge feeder to regenerate the capacitors of her shields back to full strength after a few seconds of cover… but they stayed at ten percent for well over five seconds. "Fuck! I think my shields are gone, too!"

"You've been identified, Captain." Niki'Raan nar Tombay replied from inside the tunnel, the Pilgrim having used up all her Universal Power Cells fighting off the Geth a few minutes prior. They were literally down to scraps at the bottom of the barrel. "They know compromising you will affect unit integrity and effectiveness." The Marine-hopeful's tone was sad, and Jannie knew why. The Geth were trying to assassinate her, knowing that the rest of the Ground Team would falter and fail without her. They were going to shut everything down around her, and then everyone would try to protect the Commander as Jannie sat there like sitting duck with non-functional weapons, shields, and munitions. Hell of a fucking plan, Goddamn it. It was exactly whet she had done to the Alpha Prime earlier when rescuing Sara and her Marines.

"Almost… there!" Sara promised, the Corpsman having been working on something with Agent Zevin Raeka (single-handedly, har har), Professor Irissa T'vara, Doctor Liara T'soni, and Tali'Zorah nar Reyya. "Tali! Tell me the script is ready! I've already assembled the necessary parts." Lord only knew what Ryder was working on, but when the five smartest members of the ground team came together to out-science the fuck out of the Geth (Sara's exact words), Jannie had decided to buy them the time. Not that there were any other real options. Jannie was engaging the Geth with her Hurricane when the weapon stopped firing on its own. The overheat alarm wasn't going off, it just plain stopped. Fuck, Shepard thought as she realized her Hurricane's software suite was likely infected or purged. She holstered the submachine gun and drew her M-5 Phalanx Combat Pistol, but the weapon failed to extend and activate.

Oh shit, I'm out of weapons, the N7 thought to herself as her Augmented Reality Overlay sputtered and died, her Predator's armor and all of its enhancements deactivated.

"T-total sys-systemsssszzzz f-failuuuu..." Ghost sputtered as the drone's contragravity thruster sputtered and died, the polygon-shaped assistant dropped to the ground while her weapons fell to the ground, her magnetic hardpoints no longer powered.

Jannie was dead in the water.

"SARA!" The N7 shouted from inside her helmet, not even knowing if anyone could actually hear her. She was dead in the water, and within the next ten to fifteen seconds, she was just going to be dead.

"Got it!" Sara called out, her voice a muted one as if talking through a closed door as Jannie kept low behind cover as she watched the Corpsman move forward from the tunnel and next to Ash's position, pulling the Soldiers' Heckler and Koch M320 Variable Munitions Launcher from her hip and loading some sort of grenade into the side-loading weapon before snapping it into firing configuration. The Corpsman looked over to Ash and gave her a nod, and the Colonial Soldier brazenly stood up from cover and sprayed the lower level with a fast, wide arc of M-76 Reverent fire, sweeping back and forth to coax the Geth into cover as Sara stood up and aimed the M320 high towards where the Alpha Prime unit was located behind a thick stalagmite.

"Fucking get some!" Ryder shouted as she pulled the trigger, and the stubby weapon rocked in her two-handed grip as the grenade was launched. Much to Jannie's surprise, the grenade split into four pieces somewhere in the middle of its arc of travel, turning into four orb-like objects as the orbs continued towards their destination. Then, to her amazement, they veered downward rapidly, guided towards something… magnetically? "Geth? Meet Faraday!"

Enemy gunfire dropped to null.

Jannie chanced a look over her cover to see the Geth just… standing there, transfixed but otherwise doing nothing else. Shepard realized what Sara had 'scienced'. A tracking Faraday Cage! She had cocooned the Alpha Prime unit in a signal-cancellation field, using magnetics to lock onto the target and four electromagnetically-conductive modules to link together and null any kind of input/output signal. No updates, no adaptation, either to or from the Alpha Prime. She had essentially severed the brain from the rest of the synthetic body.

"Fish in a barrel time!" Ash shouted as she stood up and started firing her Reverent at singular targets, taking down the nearby Geth hardware platforms as Urdnot Wrex added his own Cipritine Armory Phaeston Heavy Automatic Rifle to the Soldiers, chewing through the immobile Geth. Detective Garrus Vakarian and Agent Zevin Raeka moved forward with their own battle rifles, the M-15 Vindicator and M-55 Argus firing staccato as four Marines jumped in, their Hahne-Keder M7 Lancers engaging the flash-forged drones and Trooper units while the three Turian Reservists inserted themselves in as well, coordinating their fire for maximum efficiency. Lieutenant Kaidan Alenko minifactured a grenade in which he gave to Sara, and the Corpsman fired it overhead, and Jannie smiled at the sight of a DPICM Round; Duel-Purpose Improved Conventional Munitions. The grenade detonated twenty meters overhead and dropped dozens of bomblets over the area in front of them, saturating Geth platforms with mini-explosives. Professor Irissa T'vara came out of the tunnel and began firing with her Asari-oriented submachine gun with Doctor Liara T'soni at her side, the younger Asari firing at a slower rate, obviously having never been trained. Niki'Raan had a pistol out that fired ionizing paths much like her Adas did but without the tags, zapping Geth platforms at a slower and less powerful rate while Tali'Zorah raised up her Armali Council Nexus OmniTool and fired a tech mine at one platform, causing its holstered grenades to detonate.

"Hook a sister up, Sara!" Shepard called out as she re-appropriated the Corpsman's Hahne-Keder M9 Kessler Pistol from her left thigh and began adding more rounds, Geth platforms being taken down quickly and viciously. She wasn't about to risked having that Faraday Cage coming down and having too many Geth still around. They had the advantage, and everyone was seizing it. "Fuck this thing is so underpowered!" The N7 laughed as she cocked back the heat dispensing slide on the top of the pistol, having gone through all twelve rounds and taking down just a single Shock Trooper platform. "I haven't used a Kessler in years!" Jannie racked the slide forward and proceeded to engage another Geth unit.

"Does the poor N7 need a hug?" Ryder called out, her tone mirthful as she stitched up a Geth armed with a munitions launcher, overtaxing its shields before its chassis was perforated with Stinger rounds. Jannie just laughed as she put another hardware platform down. Fighting along Sara's side? Seeing the woman she had become? The Lion and the Angel together?

This was destiny in the making.

---

Seaman Murphy's Law is as follows; anything that can go wrong, will go wrong… disastrously. Commander Jane Shepard was well-acquainted with Seaman Murphy, who liked to rear his ugly hand and volunteer to fuck some shit up to complicate things. Substandard-crafted ammo blocks, buggy VI patches, combat software updates that shutdown mid-download, bad grenade primers… all of these had happened to Jannie at one point of time or another in her eleven-year career in the Navy, undetectable and completely vile. An earlier version of Bastila had once patched a glitch that had its targeting system aiming three degrees to the left thanks to some malicious software update in the auto-targeting system, and Jannie had to spend the entire mission during the Blitz dealing with a malfunctioning assault turret that wasn't shooting at the enemy. Yes, she knew Seaman Murphy well.

This time, that motherfucker went and fucked with the only route to the surface.

Shepard stood at the tunnel that lead towards a series of grate catwalks that wrapped around the cavern wall that lead towards the path that would take them to the exterior extraction point on Therum's surface, seeing about half-a-kilometers' worth of Human-oriented industrial catwalks bolted to the wall spanning a fucking lava pool several hundred meters down. It was hotter than hell in the cavern, and Jannie's dead-in-the-water armor wasn't providing any kind of environmental comfort as she sweated in the forty-two degree Celsius/one hundred-and-seven degree Fahrenheit temperature. But she wasn't sweating the temperature.

A part of the catwalk was missing.

"Is there no other way around?" Jannie looked to Professor Irissa T'vara, who was standing by the Commander with a resigned look upon her face. Evidently, the Protheantologist Professor knew a thing or two about Seaman Murphy as well.

"Yes, but it does involve coming back the way in which we came, using the elevator to go to a lower level, and then through another series of tunnels and catwalks." The Asari Matriarch looked at the missing section in question, and then to her. "In all respect, I would rather make the leap than chance encountering more Geth and finding that they have altered more of the fabricated structure somewhere else."

"Yeah, you and me both, Professor." Jannie replied with a smirk, looking back at her ground team. If they were to take the catwalk, there would be a leap, and it wasn't necessarily a short one. Turians were noted for their leaping abilities, so she was sure that Detective Garrus Vakarian and their three Reservists would have no issues. She had no idea about the Quarians, though they were digitigrades like the Turians, and likely would leap farther than a Human. Salarians were noted jumpers, so Agent Zevin Raeka shouldn't have a problem. Jannie had no idea about the Asari or Krogan's ability to make the jump, though if she had to bet Credits she'd guess that Wrex wouldn't be too worried. It was a bit of a long jump for a Human Being, one that would need a running start, to boot.

The distance was just shy of three meters. And she was wearing unpowered armor.

Not to mention Private Mikael 'Blowjob' Holodansk, who was being carried by Centurion Abadexus Linaseus, with a needle decompression in his chest to ease his tension pneumothorax, a piece of his chipped armor having pieced his chest and punctured his lung along with the round that caused it. Blowjob had a deadline he didn't want to meet.

"We're taking it." Shepard called out, her mind made as she faced the Normandy Ground Team and those they had rescued. "Doc? Patient goes first, but we need something that will get him over in the next minute." Petty Officer Sara Ryder looked to the gap and frowned.

"I can manage that." Doctor Liara T'soni spoke up, the Asari Protheantologist stepping up, her teal face grimy from the prolonged fighting against the Geth, her University of Serrice Expeditionary Uniform dirty and even torn at one cuff. "If we have one Biotic on one side, and then another upon the other side, we can do what is known as a 'Biotic Pass'."

"I have done it before, more than a few times." Professor T'vara nodded her head, looking to the redhead. "I will be on the far side, as that is the more difficult task, something I have more experience with."

"Anyone going to have issues making that jump?" Jannie looked to her crew, and no one spoke up, either because they didn't have issues, or no one wanted to chance going the long way around. "Speak up now, seriously. It's damn near ten Imperial feet across, about two and three-quarters meters."

"Throw a beer on the other side, and I bet we'll double it, Commander!" That was Private Nathanial 'Ballsack' Balsach.

"Make mine a whiskey." Staff Sergeant Ashley Williams added to it with a smile, hoisting her Devlon Industries' M-92 Mantis Sniper Platform in her right hand, the buttstock resting on her hip. That had one of the Turian Reservists, Hasti Raminion, chuckling.

"Fuck it, we get back to the Normandy, and I'm telling the Q to crack open the Class Six. I think we've earned a couple of drinks." Lapdance and Ballsack both whooped at that, high-fiving each other while Sara just shook her head, snorting and smiling at the same time. "Centurion? Get ready to transfer Blowjob to the good Doctor. Professor? Please don't fall short."

"No worries, Commander." The Matriarch smiled at her as the Asari's blue eyes flickered over to Sara briefly, the only real indication that there was something going on between them, before the Thessian turned upon her heel and began to sprint a good deal faster than a Human Being towards the gap and leapt over it easily, clearing the distance and them some with ease.

"Damn, I didn't know Asari could run that fast or jump that well." Ash pointed out from their position, sounding impressed.

"We're… pretty down the scale physically amongst the unsuited and plantigrades, actually." Ryder admitted wryly, shrugging her shoulders as Williams gaped at her. "Seriously. We're just about weaker than everyone else save the Volus and the Hanar. Not a hundred percent on the Quarians," she looked over to the two Pilgrims, "but likely anything involving legs will blow us out of the airlock since they're digitigrades."

"Serious?" Private Louis 'Brasserie' Broussard asked, his tone disbelieving. "Like, you're not shitting us, Doc?"

" 'Fraid not." The Corpsman looked sheepish with her answer as her Marines just looked at her as if she had grown a third eyeball. Jannie didn't argue it considering she actually had a decent idea that what Sara said was the actual case, though she didn't actually know the specifics. She certainly wasn't aware that an Asari could leap about like she was in The Matrix. "Believe me, I heard it my whole life, and not in a pleasant manner."

"Ouch." Lieutenant Kaidan Alenko winced as Doctor Liara T'soni and Centurion Abadexus Linaseus moved towards the gap, the Turian Reservist handing over Private Holodansk to the Asari Protheantologist. Jannie watched with mild fascination as the Protheantologist grew a bluish corona around her body as she cast her hands towards Blowjob, the Private beginning to hover in the air as Doctor T'soni then guided her hands, and the Private, over the chasm. The N7 held her breath watching as Professor T'vara 'caught' the Private in the same manner, reeling him over towards the other side, gently catching the unconscious Private in her arms with ease.

"They made it look so easy." Ash said, witnessing the act, her tone holding a little bit of resentment in it.

"Trust me, it isn't." Sara replied, Kaidan nodding his head, surprising the Corpsman. "Wait, you're Biotic, too?"

"Yes." The LT replied, nodding his head. "An L2."

"Soooo bringing the B-Game." Sara smirked, and Jannie chuckled. Poor Kaidan was going to get his ass handed to him. "You play, right?"

"We can flirt later." Urdnot Wrex shoved his way to the front, charging ahead and making the leap over the chasm, T'soni and Linaseus both moving out of the way quickly as Wrex soared over the gap with ease, landing with a resounding thud upon the catwalk. It unfortunately came with an additional sound; that of snapping metal.

"Shit." Seaman Murphy struck again. Wrex was just too heavy, and he had added velocity to his mass upon his landing, going over the catwalk's tolerance. No doubt the snapping noise was one of the support struts giving way. "Go, go, go!" Jannie shouted as Professor T'vara threw one of Blowjob's arms over her shoulders and dragged him away as Doctor T'soni and Centurion Linaseus took a couple of steps back and made to vault over the gap, clearing it easily as the other two Turian Reservists, Raminion and Contenus, shot forward and jumped next a few seconds later. The catwalk groaned with those landings. "Pilgrims, go!" Jannie ordered as both Quarian girls darted like gazelles and made the leap next, jumping as far as T'vara had. Well, Shepard guessed that answered the question about Quarian leaping abilities. "Detective, Zevin." Vakarian 'hmm'ed' at that as he went right along with the Salarian Reconnaissance Agent, the Turian landing further than the Not-Dalatrass, but Raeka certainly having at least a meter of room past the gap, no issues there.

"Ash, Kai, go!" They were nearly through the ground team as the Colonial Soldier and Navy Lieutenant went next, making the jump at full speed ahead. Kaidan almost didn't make it, landing with one foot on the catwalk but leaning backwards, arms pinwheeling as Williams, who landed just past the edge, reached back and grabbed his armor gorget and pulled him forward. Shit, Kaidan had heavier armor and gear due to his EOD equipment and almost didn't make it. "Marines! Go!" Bra and Lapdance were first, both sprinting and leaping over the gap, Private First Class Holland Hoss giving off a wild yell in mid-air as both Private and PFC landed on the platform with ease. Next went Lance Corporal Hong Jeong and Private First Class Oblong Ubantu, K-Pop and the Kenyan dashing forward and making the jump. K-Pop struggled for a second as Broussard grabbed one of his hands and yanked him forward. Just three left as everyone cleared the platform as Jannie nodded to Sara and Ballsack as both Petty Officer and Private ran forward and leapt, the shorter woman landing slightly further ahead than the male Marine as the catwalk creaked again. My turn for the Matrix leap, the N7 snorted as she wished for her jump jet, knowing that it wouldn't work anyhow like the rest of her armor thanks to the fucking Geth. Shepard took a few steps back, sprinting the ten meter distance hard as she bounded as hard and as far as she could over the gap that contained hot liquid death below.

The redhead landed onto the platform with an Imperial foot to spare.

Jannie stood up from her landing crouch to see Sara's smiling face ahead of her as the Commander gave one in return, the obstacle defeated and one step closer to home when the sound of another snap had their attention downward as the catwalk groaned in protest.

And the catwalk snapped off of the rock wall, falling away from its connecting brother, taking the Commander with it.

---

Author's Note: I know what you're saying right now; you motherFUCKER. See final author's note at the end.

In Mass Effect 1, the Codex mentions that there are, in fact, dozens of races in existence, observed by the Council. I think I even have Sara mentioning it once (but since I've written about seven concepts for this story, I can't remember if it was this particular story!) that the Citadel hosts something like thirty-nine species, though most only are just Space Flight, traveling only from their planet (like ourselves now-a-days) and several being pre-FTL, only ruling a system or perhaps the Local Neighborhood. I am including the fact that there is a list of Observed Races who haven't broached the 'barrier' for inclusion or were deemed not ready, like the Yahg and likely the Raloi.

The Thexder Pistol - I mention that Liara is armed with a Thexder, which I stole from Dara's Asari Wiki (yet another source I use for ME-related intel). Thexder is in fact an old-school run-and-shoot game that was a precursor to games like Contra. It was created by Game Arts, and sold to Square/Square Enix.

The TST Duel-Staged Linear Motor Rifle 'ChemRail' - Completely and utterly stolen from the movie Elysium. It is a weapon in which rounds are propelled with chemical accelerants (gunpowder) and then accelerated with electromagnetic rails (weeeeeee!) to create a hypervelocity rifle that can and will break through shields and armor in a Mass Effect setting. Deemed 'BlackTech' by the Council of Law.

The Genophage - The thing about the wailing cries was me to insert some sympathy for the Krogan. The Genophage didn't sterilize them; it punished them horribly. It wasn't like they went from breeding like rabbits to only having one or two; there was a pile of dead babies. That's pretty fucking cold blooded.

Red Wings - Yes, it does involve orally pleasuring a woman during her period, getting 'red wings' on either side of your mouth. We can thank the Hells' Angels Motorcycle Club for this graphic designation, along with a dozen others sporting other feats of sexuality, ranging from ethnic to just plain disgusting.

Shiagur - Nakmor Shiagur was one of the last fertile females during the Krogan Rebellions, a warlord that continued the fight after the other Clans had given up, broken and depopulated. I don't remember what planet her last stand was on, but according to Codex, the Turians responsible for her defeat and death were hunted down and killed by remaining Krogan, and anyone said to be a part of her bloodline are venerated, 'the Blood of Shiagur'. The Genophage, btw, didn't end the Rebellion, but it was the death bell. Having it last another eighty years makes sense since… well… the Krogan aren't the brightest crayons in the box.

Total Party Kill - I'm old school Pen-and-Paper Dungeon and Dragons, AD+D 2nd Ed. A Total Party Kill is when you go string up the Game Master for being a dick.

The Turian Talon - A Canon weapon that only appears once in the Codex (somewhere in the Turian entry), it is said to be a thirty centimeter weapon. That… is ten inches. Now, for those that aren't knife Gurus, a blade is normally shorter than its handle, thus a Talon would likely be 4-5 inches long. Turians are taller than Humans, so I can't see them carrying a melee weapon that would be so… small. So I doubled the size, and made it curved like a talon or a claw, much like their fingers. The honor portion is equate to the Samurai katana or the Dothraki's braid.

Sepikku - The act of honorable suicide, once practiced by Samurai who had been defeated in battle or shamed so greatly that death was the more honorable path. As far as I'm aware, the Japanese are the only culture that sees suicide in a positive light (mind you, I'm not talking explosive martyrdom).

Turian Special Forces - The term 'Special Forces' is just a general term to denote 'specialized' forces over 'regular' forces (grunts like I was). The Blackwatch will be the equivalent of the US Army Rangers; Elite Infantry Commandos amongst a highly-militant race. Fill in those blanks.

LightSpeed - A futuristic energy drink that I stole from Dead Space 2 (seen as an advertisement on the Sprawl). In my version of Mass Effect, caffeine and caffeinated drinks (such as sodas, coffees, caffeinated teas, and energy drinks) are uniquely Human, are one of Earth's contributions to the greater galaxy, and wildly popular. Like in A Fox Amongst The Wolves, there will be Starbucks on the Cit. They're fucking everywhere! #FivebucksCoffee

SKULLS FOR THE SKULL THRONE! - Orkish Battle Cry, circa 40,000 A.D. Don't forget to order blood for the Blood God, too.

Ammo Block - Anyone that's been in the military knows that the military names things… stupidly, and usually backwards. I kid you not, there's a radio with the item description of Receiver/Transmitter, Signal, Device, Military. Like… there's some poor Lieutenant sitting in the basement of the Pentagon whose job it is to name shit with pronouns, and he's having his revenge by coming up with the dumbest descriptions ever. Someone has to write all those TM's, FM's, PAM's, and AR's/NR's. Probably some Air Force Officer that can't fly a plane. So I came up with my own stupid name for the Ammo Block.

Electronic Assassination - We've done it so many times to the enemy; overload their shields, sabotage their guns, left them sitting ducks. I made it to where Shepard suffered the same tactic, mostly VI Invasion, Hacking, and Sabotage. Had you worried, right?

For some of my long-term fans and readers of my previous works, you might recall that I have a propensity in 'killing' off my main characters. I did it to 1st Lieutenant Janey Shepard in Mass Effect vs. Aliens 2: Valkyrie Rising in Chapter 10: Every Breath You Take, having her choke to death in space, Major Jennifer Hale in The Hale/Meer Chronicles: The Vanguard Effect in Chapter 28: Meer, Overload, having her suffer an epileptic seizure and Acute Kidney Distress from the Prothean Beacon and being shot, and with Deputy Samantha Collins in Where The Law Stands Tall in Chapter 9: Revan, IX when Sam took a Batarian shotgun to the gut during a hostage situation and ended the chapter mid-sentence. I had one reader beg me not to kill Sam, like, literally beg.

I am not that much of a bastard. Just keep reading, true believer.