[Garrus]

After the last few days that we've had, I think standing around calibrating the MAKO is a holiday. The last 4 days have been highly intensive and draining. We were sent on different errands thanks to Anderson, all of them were in within 2 days' travel of each other so he wanted to knock them all out in one go. What he didn't account for was just how much of an undertaking it would be. Every single excursion left us exhausted and some of us unable to fight for a week. Alenko and Tali won't be cleared for a week after retrieving Wrex's armour.

I think that Nate is starting to show more trust in me and he allows me to speak my mind, whereas in C-Sec we aren't given that kind of freedom. He unofficially made me his fourth in Command, behind Rylee and Kaidan. That decision rubbed a lot of Alliance personnel the wrong way. The thought of a turian leading any Alliance squad was a disconcerting thought, truth be told I would feel the same were the roles reversed. Relations between humans and turians are sour at best, it's going to take years to make them amicable.

As for Nate himself, he has fostered a strong relationship with every single member of his crew. He knows their names, their rank, their history and their personal motivations. They all feel connected to him and he managed to achieve that in only 2 months. Even though detours such as dealing with Nassana Dantius, Blake, Darius and others have wasted time, it has given the crew faith that their Commander will get things done; and that's important, because that gives them the confidence to perform to their very best.

I honestly never thought I would ever find myself following a human's example, my uncles would want to beat me to death if they ever found out. Nate is an interesting character, at first he treated me with distrust, which given his history is understandable. However, as I got to know him I realised that he's actually a fairly likeable person. He can make jokes, poor ones by my standards, but he's trying. He will always put crew ahead of everyone else and he's a damn good skyllian 5 poker player.

Anderson so far, has shown me exactly what the perks of having less red tape can do. He gets the job done no matter what, fair enough some of his decisions have been questionable like acquiring a gang, but he's used it to good effect.

One of the Alliance Admirals had informed Nate about someone called Major Kyle killing two of their officials. After some negotiation between both sides, Nate managed to convince the Admiral release Toombs in exchange for dealing with the Major and rescuing an Alliance chairman from a group of biotics. They were in the same system so he left in a shuttle with Kaidan and Liara for the chairman.

Nate opted to leave this one to Rylee, given the fact that Major Kyle has gone on record to voice how much he despises Anderson, I think that was the smart choice. Rylee again chose to take Wrex in spite of the fact he disregards orders continuously without a second thought. She also took me and Ashley.

I got along well with Chief Williams and she had a good battle instinct, in addition she deserves better than the rank she's been given. Even amongst the turians, old military grudges are hard to shake off.

We arrived on the planet, we were already picking up the heat signal of the base and headed straight there. Upon nearing the door, we were already greeted by a soldier.

"This is a private sanctuary. Outsiders are not welcome here."

"I need to speak to Major Kyle," Rylee said.

"Father Kyle wants nothing to do with the Alliance," the follower replied, putting extra emphasis on his title.

"I am trying to make sure that no one else has to die."

"You will not take Father Kyle from us, we need him."

"Please let me talk to him, I want to minimise the bloodshed so everyone can get out of this alive."

There was a slight pause before we were invited to meet the Major in person.

Walking through the compound made me sick. This Major Kyle had managed to get these people to worship him and hate the Alliance simply because of his own agenda. This man is suffering from PTSD but that doesn't excuse his actions. He's playing king and he's let the power go to his head and needs to be stopped.

We entered the compound and we were guided to the Major. Every one of his followers were armed and potentially dangerous, spouting the rhetoric that Major Kyle has been spewing. They constantly shouted that the Alliance wants to wipe them out or how he was their saviour.

The Major was in a secluded room and he was alone. "I am Major Kyle; I know why you have come. We have no quarrel with you. Why can't you just leave us alone?"

"You killed 2 Alliance investigators, did you really think that we would just let that slide?" Ashley asked, with the disgust evident in her tone.

"They wanted to take me away from here! They wanted me to abandon this place. Turn my back on my family. They spoke blasphemy!"

I saw the Chief tighten the grip on her firearm and I did the same. "Blasphemy! You are not God and you certainly aren't holy. Just who the hell do you think you are!?" Ashley seethed. Her religion is very important to her so this guy had better be careful before she does something he'll regret.

"I did what I could to make their end quick and painless. I had no other choice. It was necessary to protect my children. Only I can keep them safe."

Oh crap… he actually cares about the people in this compound… they aren't meat shields, they're his 'children'. He's further gone than I initially thought.

"Can't you see that you're the one bringing the Alliance here. We're here to apprehend you," Ashley stated.

"I will never abandon my children, they need a father and I will gladly fill that role," the Major said defiantly.

"I can see that this is going nowhere so let's try another approach. My Commanding officer is called Nathan Anderson, ring a bell," Rylee spoke.

"The butcher!" he spat.

"Yeah him. I'm going to present you with two options. Option A you come with me peacefully and I take you into Alliance custody," she said causing the Major to scoff.

"Or option B, I can call Nate down from our ship and with his help we will slaughter every last one of your followers, before taking you in. Either way you're coming with us," Rylee threatened.

That's was a surprise. I had to be very careful not to show my surprise or else the Major might have thought she's bluffing. She wouldn't actually slaughter these people… would she?

The Major appeared horrified at her threat and legitimately angry. "By the way if you have your followers kill us, Nate will still come down and slaughter everyone including you," Ashley added.

The Major begrudgingly chose Option A and asked for an hour to say goodbye to his followers which we granted.

"Good job Shepard, you dealt with that like a pro." I praised.

"See, talking and negotiation can be just as effective as using your guns," she replied sternly.

"Good thing Nate didn't come here."

"Yeah it is, if Nate had shown up the entire compound would have turned hostile in a heartbeat. Every Alliance poster in the compound had Nate's face on it, and they were all vandalised. If they'd seen Nate they would have tried to kill him."

"It's good you talked him down,"

"Really?"

"The Major was sick, he needed help not a bullet like some people," I replied. I could see the corners of her lips bend upwards, they're like asari with their facial expressions.

Shepard and Anderson were polar opposites, almost like Turians and Krogan. One favours law and order above all else, the other will do whatever it takes. I admire Shepard's leadership in spite of her age, it still boggles my mind that someone her age possesses that much ability, give her a few years and she'll be better than Nate and that's a guarantee.

"That's good to hear Garrus."

-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-xx-x-x-

[Liara]

Doctor Chakwas had just declared me fit for combat after some exams at Nathan's request. We both suffered injuries because we shielded Wrex's grandfather's amour from a grenade blast. I felt fine but Nathan still insisted that I undergo testing. He has a weird way of being sweet and caring, in particular his overprotectiveness of me.

It's good to finally have some reprieve after the past few days, 2 missions in 4 days is incredibly hard on the body. The first mission seems like a holiday in comparison to what we've just gone through. Fair enough the biotics almost succeeded in killing us, but it still required more diplomacy.

To be perfectly honest I'm surprised that Nate chose himself for the diplomatic mission and Rylee for the combat mission. Then again most of this mission has required some unorthodox thinking and methods so maybe there is some merit to Nathan's decision. At least he chose me to go with him this time, along with Kaidan for added measure in case things got dicey.

It seems so trivial for a group of biotics to be upset with their government because their biotics are bothering them. However, that is most likely because as long as I've been alive the asari have had a good grip on biotics. Humanity has only just begun to tap into the potential that dark energy possesses and the leaps they've made are remarkable. They already have biotics as powerful as Nathan and Kaidan at their disposal, the amount of progress they could make with a few centuries of experience is frightening.

Upon entering the ship, we were immediately attacked by the biotic terrorists. The blast sent the group of us flying backwards towards the door. Nathan instinctively reached for his flashbangs and threw them at the door to prevent them rushing through.

This bought us enough time to get up and draw our weapons. "Shit I should have taken Garrus or Ash," he cursed.

I would have asked him what he had meant by that but the parade of gunfire interrupted me. This passage is narrow and there only way out is either towards death or our shuttle, so we chose the obvious option.

We retreated into the docking bay, in order to give us more manoeuvrability, before we found cover Kaidan planted an explosive charge on the door. As soon as one of the hostiles entered the shuttle bay they were blasted to bits.

Nathan ran into the shuttle and returned carrying an assault rifle. It was the first time I've ever seen him handle anything other than a shotgun or a pistol, but as an Alliance soldier, he would have been trained to use a large variety of weapons.

He didn't possess the skill or accuracy the Garrus, Wrex and Ashley possessed and he was prone to overheating the weapon fairly often but Nathan did an admirable job in helping neutralise the hostiles remaining.

"Note to self, when dealing with biotics, don't take a squad full of close quarter combatants," Nate sighed.

We continued through the ship and we didn't encounter any resistance, which probably means they are all holed up in one room.

My hunch proved correct, for the room we entered had a hostage and 7 armed individuals.

"See how it is, you write letters, and everyone ignores you. Force is the only thing people appreciate. So how about if I kill Chairman Burns and finish this charade?"

"Please! I was trying to help you people!"

"Are you an idiot? Killing him gets you nothing, so put the gun down," Nate sneered in disgust.

"Why not? What have we got to lose? Since the chairman here decided that we didn't get reparations, we've got nothing left to live for!"

"But I've changed my mind! Seeing y-you all, it's c-clear that you all d-deserve…"

"You had your chance! Some L2s are nearly crippled from the side effects of the implants, but you voted against reparations!"

"Having nothing to lose makes people do stupid, self-destructive actions that bite them in the ass. If you kill him now you will show the whole world that all L2's are dangerous terrorists and the Alliance will double down on their decision. Keeping him hostage could do you more harm than good," Nate argued, and judging from the vein in his head he really wants to shoot the leader.

"But people need to hear about what the government has done, and what it's failed to do!" he argued impassionedly.

"Listen to me, I'm an L2 as well," Kaidan declared.

"If you are then why are you not standing beside us!?"

"I understand how you're feeling, the fact that the Alliance denied us reparations is bullshit, but going to these lengths is inexcusable. You've done all you can for now, you've drawn attention to it, you don't need to die for it," Kaidan assured.

The biotic leader looked to Kaidan and appeared deep in thought. "You're right, I don't want to die. Maybe something will happen this time. We surrender."

"Thank you, Commander. I thought I was dead when they took me," Chairman Burns said.

"You can thank us by making sure they get their reparations," Kaidan responded.

"I'll see to it that the reparations discussion is reopened. I didn't know they were so desperate."

"Then you weren't doing your job. We're headed to the Citadel so we'll drop you off there," Nate said.

"What of them?"

"That's my concern. Kaidan can you lead the Chairman to our shuttle, I need to speak to these people."

"Aye, aye," he responded before escorting Chairman out of the room.

Nathan then declared he was impressed that the biotics had managed to pull this off. The Chairman's activities aren't public knowledge and his security is top of the line but they still managed to get to the chairman with no signs of a struggle. He knew that they would never work for the Alliance again after this so he offered each of them a position in his Syndicate. Every biotic in the room had gladly accepted and Nate had called Blake to send people to pick them up.

"Always recruiting aren't you?"

"I'm serious about providing opportunity. Which reminds me, I have recently purchased a company aboard the Citadel."

"Which one?"

"It's the security firm Aldis owned. RED Security, they mainly recruit humans who want to leave the gang life and do something better, I figure these biotics are sort of in the same boat. The Alliance isn't the only way out. I want to buy other small businesses and build them up to give people as many options as possible."

Goddess, this man never ceases to amaze me. He sees a group of men holding a politician hostage and the first thing he does as soon as the situation is diffused is offer them a job. What I initially saw as a desire to shoot the biotics was actually frustration. He saw them as misguided and he was annoyed by the way they expressed their outrage.

I cautiously put my hand on his shoulder, something which would normally cause him to flinch but this time he merely turned around. At first there was a slight twinge of a biotic aura coming from his arms but they quickly subsided.

I found myself completely immersed by the intensity in his eyes. He stared at me with such intensity and passion that I found myself unwilling and unable to break away from him. There was only one thing in his eyes at that moment in time. Hunger. The next move must be his, I can't be the one to initiate. He's had enough asari force themselves upon him as it is.

He was gradually closing the distance between us. Inch by inch. Millimetre by millimetre. His lips grew closer to mine, but I couldn't help but notice his furrowing brow and the pained look in his eyes, now syphoned of all passion.

"I can't… I'm sorry."

"B-but…"

"I want this," he said whilst taking hold of my hands "But I just… these images…" he tried to continue but couldn't, he couldn't even look at me anymore.

I could feel a hole in my chest getting larger and larger. It wasn't a rejection of sorts but, it hurts just the same. I hurt for him as well as myself. He must feel like he's hurting the both of us, but I cannot let him believe that. It's not his fault.

"It's alright Nathan," I tried to reassure him by touching his cheek, a sentiment that was not lessened by the armoured gloves I was wearing. "I'm going to be fine," I whispered.

"Thank you," he replied.

Curse those who did this to him. Curse those who deny him happiness even today. Curse the asari who have damaged this beautiful soul.

Curse those who have hurt the man I love.

-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-xx-x-x-

[Rylee]

Dear Mom

I'm sorry that I haven't been able to talk much over the last month but we've been really busy. I've been doing really good so far. I think my age is starting to affect the crew less and the older generation is starting to respect me as opposed to my rank. You were right, just get the job done and people will fall in line.

Nate's been doing a lot better lately. I think he's finally been able to get Wrex into the fold. Him and Liara nearly died saving both Wrex and the armour, which I think managed to convince Wrex that he's a part of this crew. It doesn't mean Wrex is now completely under his command but it's a definite improvement.

Captain Anderson said that you're going on shore leave aboard the Citadel in a few days. Me and Nate are going to be meeting the Council and Alliance reps on the Citadel too, we should all meet up. Please reply soon if you can come.

Love Rylee.

Thank you to all those who've gotten this far and who've favourited, followed or reviewed this story particularly reviewer7456.

I probably won't be updating as frequently since university is taking up most of my time, but there should only be 1-2 more chapters of side missions before returning to the main story.

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