" I don't like the this, Tanion," The woman remarked as she scanned the otherwise temperate desert. Ordered to Eos by Burrus, the couple needed to wait for orders concerning the placement of camoflaged tripods in the most unlikely spots. Oddly enough for a small group everyone and everything was compartmentalized. The scientists treated the muscle with disdain and then gladly sent the muscle out to do the dirty field work. The muscle treated the scientists with skepticism, as if the science did not explain the public goal. Everyone treated the leader with caution, a universal sign that none of them trusted the man.

Working with Sloane proved necessary. Abandoning Sloane proved easier than expected. Her unexpected behavior uprooted more than just outlaws who wanted their own pedestal in the vacuum of power. The settlers on Kadara needed security, the sense of it and actual security, so that the people would grow and raise families. Society needed to establish itself as a marker of the people who inhabited the area, making the future less bleak for people who were already exposed to the worst of the worst and expected the bottom to keep dropping out from under them. Even the anti-human crowd wanted a temporary alliance to secure their own future.

" I understand," Tanion answered her.

Seating himself on a boulder, he smiled in her direction fondly remembering the day they first met. She'd been recruited into the Initiative by his partner, a salarian biochemist who didn't survive the Kett. Alcia's specialty was languages and behavior science with a touch of therapeutic application. Basically she was supposed to make cooperate. Sloane definitely benefitted from it and Kaetus often had her work with the more stubborn recruits.

The silence eclipsed them until a particularly loud beep from Alcia's omni-tool started them both.

Do NOT set the Tripods. Galerius Sisenna

Tanion arched a bony brow at this message, now leaning over Alcia as she read her email from the holographic screen extended from the omni-tool.

Why? Alcia

Those Tripods are a part of a weapon for mass destruction. Chemical warfare. Milonius wants to set it off in the atmosphere. Galerius Sisenna

Now Tanion leaned over and motioned for her to reply immediately. " Maybe we can sabotage the tripods somehow?" She suggested to her lover.

Tanion nodded toward her right arm. " Tell Galerius that we'll set up the tripods and have the Nexus and Advent authorities warned," He went back to his rock and made himself comfortable again. As Alcia typed the message, she had so many questions that demanded answers.

Why kill the humans? Why risk making a chemical poison that could spread to the other races and harm them? More than that, these humans had necessary fields of k,nowledge that was keeping everyone in the future and not setting them back in the past where FTL travel was impossible and medicine was leaps and bounds poorer. Kaetus had warned them to be extra careful and Amuus and Maius especially insisted that they report anything odd or out of place so that they did not fall victim to someone else's poor plotting. This most certainly fell under poor plotting!

Not all humans were bad people. She met plenty of people on the Nexus that she could have easily been friends with if the turian hatred for humans ( and vice versa ) did not prevail. Even Tanion had more alien friends and companions than he did turian. Sloane Kelly, for all of her odd behavior, actually fought for the people. She was a woman OF the people. Reyes Vidal was a man of the people with a different method of manipulation and control. For all the havoc wreaked on Kadara, it came from well meaning hearts that cared about something more than themselves - though in Sloane's case it could be debated she desired the power more than the people's goodwill.

A rock bounced off her dusty armor. She glanced over her shoulder at Tanion holding up another small rock in his taloned fingers. " You are such a child,"

" Alci, we are in the middle of the desert alone with orders to help set up tripods for a chemical weapon of mass destruction that we were mislead about," He restated for her in case the email wasn't clear enough. " And since when have you known me to not have some juvenile sense of enjoyment out of something this serious?"

" Shut it," She held up a hand in his direction.

He answered with the toss of another rock.

They waited another two hours before a small transport vehicle packed with common items scavenged from the Kett machinery abandoned along the roads and encampments rambled toward their cozy plateau. Flavius Burrus hopped out of the driver seat and strutted toward them. " Ten tripods as ordered,"

Alcia stayed sprawled out on the ground, gazing up at the sky through her visor. Tanion approached the man. " You ready to do this or what?"

" I was ready the moment you were given orders to come out here. Ready to make the turian people great again? These tripods for comm beacons are important to improving the communication speed," Flavius Burrus lied easily, and since Tanion already learned of the lie, nodded along like he believed.

The men removed several large tripods from the back of the transport with the help of Caewan Raelorn, the salarian sniper that evaded enough kett and Roekaar to earn their respect. Alcia watched them work, appreciating the view of the handsome fringe of her lover and the sensual roundness of his carapace. The dreamy look on her face gave away her thoughts long before the salarian remarked on her uselessness. She shouldered the shotgun that she nicknamed Palaven and cocked a brow in challenge. " I wouldn't be getting too cocky there. You need us, remember?" She flashed her pointed fingers back and forth between herself and him.

The combined muscles of the four manuevered the tripods into the nooks and crannies so that they wouldnt dislodge or be easily visible, often slipping and sliding and coming perilously close to the edge of the cliff. Flavius Burrus made light conversation about Alcia and Tanion's plan for the Rite of Bonding while Caewan mentioned that salarians had no such traditions. The ensueing argument helped take away the sense of danger as everything was bolted into place with a transportable punching drill. If the noise didn't draw the enemy, nothing else would.

Stepping back from their work, everyone was proud as the no longer gleaming metal now reflected back at them as a dull tannish red color. Tanion put his arm around Alcia and suggested they start walking toward the nearest settlement. There were a few exiles that were living at Promise that both of them owed a visit to.

Flavius offered them a ride, Tanion refusing it off hand saying that walking wasn't that difficult. Caewan shook his head. " They have a transport," The accusation harbored more suspicion than interest.

Alcia turned in Tanion's arms and nodded. " We have a few friends at Promise that we want to reunite with. They promised a transport only a half hour from here. I'm sure you'll be fine," The pair started down the steep hill carefully, taking their time and laughing as each commented on how Eos could be a prettier planet if the radiation hadn't destroyed so much of it's plant life.

Meridia restored much of the planet's plant life and the expanse of desert still felt too big and wide for the likes of someone accustomed to a more lush environment. Jungles were Alcia's preferred environment and when the day came that she could visit Havarl she'd be the first to offer herself as a transport escort.

Caewan stood next to Burrus, already suspecting that the location of these tripods was not safe. " We need an alternate plan,"

" When did you become our leader?" Burrus demanded as they trekked back to the transport and covered it up again. Mission accomplished they started back to the space port in Eos.