Who Saves the Hero (New-AU Version)

by Kudara

Rewrite of my work: Who Saves the Hero? Humanity is very much a minor newcomer to the Galactic scene, comprising only 15 B out of 3.5 T sentients. The Citadel Council has been in existence for 10,000 years, and the Asari Republics space faring for 18000 years prior to its founding. In such a Galaxy, the recently revived Shepard must determine who are her allies and who her foes.

10. Part 1: Chapter 10

Disclaimer: The Mass Effect universe is the property of Bioware/Electronic Arts. No infringement of these copyrights is intended as this is a not for profit fan fiction work.

Rewrite Notes: Still inspired by the Beyonce song "Save the Hero," from the album I am…Sasha Fierce.

Author's Notes: How Jack wound up on Purgatory is related in the comic Mass Effect: Foundation #7. Also from here on out, assume that every combat team is properly wearing full enclosed helmets. None of that weird breathing masks, lets ignore the extremely unpleasant effects of a full vacuum in space on someone's unprotected skin and body. Pear shaped, for those of you without British friends, is when plans go horribly wrong rather suddenly.

Revision History: 12/17/2017; 12/20/2017 (Jacob's a biotic opps)

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Part 1: Chapter 10::7-8 Days Post-Awakening: MSV Menrva

7 Days Post-Awakening: MSV Menrva, Deck 5, Hanger Bay

Barriers, as she waited for the elevator to take her down to Deck 5, the Hanger Deck, Shepard considered how exactly to start training the two women. Lindariel's memories gave her a good place to start with the exercises she had taught Service Recruit Ethian to help him with controlling his órë. Then the specifics she had learned from the musician and then even more just now from Thalion's memories.

Jack and Miranda were waiting for her in the hanger bay, hanging around the refitted sleek-looking asari shuttle that had been painted in non-descript boring grey paint. The two women stood several feet apart from one another and Shepard stopped as far away from them as they were from each other. Jacob was not immediately anywhere to be seen, but then appeared from around the other side of the shuttle to stand beside Miranda.

"So, beginning Prothean barrier training. Jacob if you would go stand over there please," she indicated a spot to her left as she moved right so that now the four of them formed a squarish circle. "Jack I want you to close your eyes and then tell me when you feel Miranda, Jacob and I enter your biotic field, then we will return to these positions and repeat the process for each one of us."

"What?" Jack snarled at her, and from the look on Miranda's face the tattooed woman was simply the first to speak rather than the only one questioning her. Jacob looked puzzled, but at least willing to go along.

"You three wanted to learn prothean style barriers. This is where we are starting," Shepard commented. Then she simply waited, meeting Jack's angry brown-eyed gaze with studied patience.

"Fine," the convict ground out when it became clear the Commander wasn't about to change her mind and closed her eyes. Shepard began walking forward; this was something every biotic could do, feel when another biotic entered their aura. Even with no training in controlling your aura it…itched or tingled when you got too close to them. She deliberately did not approach as quickly as Miranda or Jacob, wanting to see if Jack could discern between the different biotics coming within her personal range. "Yes," snapped out Jack as Miranda closed to a little over a meter from her, turning her head in the dark-haired woman's direction and then whipping her head around a moment later as she felt Jacob, "There." Then finally, "There," the convict opened her eyes and looked triumphantly at Shepard.

"Very good," Amanda acknowledged and then glanced over at Miranda and Jacob, "lets return to our staring positions and it will be Miranda's turn then mine." They repeated the process, with Miranda sensing them at approximately the same distance as Jack at two meters, and then Jacob at a slightly closer distance of one and a half meters. Then it was Shepard's turn, and she planned on cheating. Closing her eyes Amanda focused on her aura and consciously expanded it seeking out the other two women she knew were approaching her. "Miranda," she snapped her head in the biotics direction as she sensed the Cerberus operative's characteristic field. She ignored the dark-haired woman's quiet gasp of surprise in favor of maintaining her focus…there, "Jack" she snapped her head around as the felt the convict. She waited for two seconds more, then, "Jacob." She opened her pale eyes and met his dark ones; they were standing about four meters away from her, double the distance from where they had detected someone entering their own biotic fields.

"How did you do that," both Miranda and Jack almost comically echoed each other and then followed it up with a mutual glare at one another. Jacob lifted one hand to his mouth over to the side, smothering an amused smile. No one accused her of cheating; for the fact was if she could feel them, then they could feel her as well.

Shepard just managed to not grin, though it wasn't easy. "I extended my biotic aura," she responded to the question.

Both women frowned as they stared closer at her while Jacob looked at her quizzically. "But I don't sense you using your biotics?" Miranda finally questioned as Jacob nodded in agreement with her.

"That's because I didn't," Shepard responded, "I only extended my aura which isn't quite the same as forming a dark energy field."

"I didn't know there was a difference," Jacob commented, crossing his arms across his chest.

Miranda added after a moment's thought, "Everyone has a slight electric field around them, the electrical fields of biotics are just stronger because of the element zero in their bodies."

"But what use is that?" Jack cut to the chase after glancing back and forth between them.

"There is a difference and it is very useful," Shepard paused, then went ahead and added, "you saw its usefulness on Purgatory. Without being able to consciously control and sense though my aura, I could not have manifested the barrier fields I created or manipulated the different types of fields that I did within seconds of one another." She paused for a second to order her thoughts, and decide what she was going to explain first. "We can sense our own dark energy fields when we form them and hold them. When I was trained, my trainers used a device to monitor our dark energy fields to help with forming them correctly and then to strengthen them." All three biotics nodded, Miranda and Jacob looking thoughtful while Jack scowled as if whatever memory she was recalling was not a pleasant one. "Gaining the ability sense the dark energy fields your creating though your aura is like being given your own personal and portable dark energy monitor."

"That…sounds intriguing," Miranda said, her tone thoughtful, "but how did the Protheans teach such a skill?"

"The Protheans were similar to the Asari in that they could touch and share memories and experiences," Shepard explained, "so initially they would teach their children that way, but then they taught them exercises to hone their abilities."

"So, you're telling us that these are children's lessons?" Jack snarked with crossed arms.

Shepard grinned, "Essentially, yes, though these have been modified for non-Protheans." She suspected it was time to reinforce her lie about how she knew such things she added, "Which I suspect, is why they ended up as one of the messages stored in the beacon. From what I can tell these are lessons for non-Protheans intending on finding employment in the Prothean government, and such skills were required in order to manipulate Prothean data devices and communications equipment."

"It was theorized that was the case," Miranda commented, "but every Prothean device found so far was either activated and apparently set to react to anyone coming within a certain range, such as the beacon on Eden Prime, or deactivated and its security protocols had to be defeated in order to manually activate it."

Shepard nodded, "Well I'd say these lessons definitely indicate that you needed to be a biotic in order to interact with them." Thanks to Lindariel's memories she knew exactly how to activate the devices, but wasn't about to share anything more than the hint that it might have something to do with biotic auras with the Cerberus operative.

"Yea, yea boring," Jack interrupted them, "what are these children's lessons anyway? Gotta be rather simple and easy to learn huh Cheerleader?"

And just like that the competition between the two of them was on again, with Miranda glaring at Jack and the convict looking smug and satisfied. Jacob, who had been listening to the conversation in thoughtful silence, just shook his head at the two of them. Well if it spurred them on to learning quickly, Shepard shrugged, "Alright then, the first lesson then is designed to increase your sensitivity to your own aura…"

7 Days Post-Awakening: MSV Menrva, Deck 3, Medical Bay

Two hours later Shepard made her way to the ship's third deck for her appointment with Dr. Chakwas. Noting before she entered that the large windows were already shuttered so anyone in the galley could not just look into the medical bay. "Shepard," the grey-haired, green-eyed older woman greeted her with a welcoming smile as she entered the medical bay, "how have you been feeling?"

Stressed, Shepard wanted to tell her, but instead commented with a shrug, "Alright I guess."

That earned her one raised eyebrow from the doctor, "Indeed." Chakwas's gaze narrowed on the still visible scarring along her cheek and she frowned, "That isn't healing like it should, after our discussion I'd like to take a look at it."

Shepard reached up automatically toward her face, then stopped herself and lowered her hand back to her side. She knew exactly what the doctor saw, the still raw scars and odd orange-hued bio-synthetic material underneath in place of the muscle that used to be there before her death. She honestly tried very hard not to look too much at herself in a mirror these days because of it. She hadn't thought of herself as being particularly vain before, but the reflected image that greeted her every day with it's obvious damage and still slight orange glowing pupils was a bit unsettling to look at and think of as her face and her body. From the doctor's statement though it sounded like she should be healing faster than she was, so perhaps there was something the doctor could do to help, "Alright," Shepard agreed.

Chakwas looked at her appraisingly for a moment longer, telling Amanda that her aborted movement had been seen and noted, before the older woman nodded. She motioned to where she had arranged two chairs within the u-shaped space of her desk and research bench, "Please sit." She waited until they had both settled before speaking again, "So I am curious, given the changes the drell neurochemicals they used to preserve your memories, if you feel the issues you are having are exacerbated by those changes?"

Amanda leaned back in the chair as she considered the question, "I'd have to say yes, part of the issue is to not get caught up in the memory when I put on a helmet and hear the air exchange mechanism in my ear."

The doctor nodded, "Have you thought about seeing if the sound the mechanism makes can be changed so it's less of a trigger for you?"

Shepard looked at her startled, "That's…a rather good idea," she admitted thinking about it, "and I don't think it would be that difficult at all to alter the sound without affecting the functioning of the helmet." In fact, she already had a few ideas she wanted to run by Jacob to see how he thought they would work.

Chakwas nodded, "I also understand you received new Terminus manufactured armor. I've noticed before that their armor tends to have a larger face plate than most of the Alliance armors. Do you think that will help as well?"

The Commander smiled, "I do, plus its completely reflective, which gives the glass of the faceplate a slightly different look."

"And the entire re-breather apparatus is enclosed within an armored shell," Chakwas noted, "which means there is much less chance of any stray object damaging a breathing hose." The older woman's green eyes flashed with anger, but she only asked, "Do you think that will help you feel as if there is less chance of what happened before happening again?"

"Yes," Shepard replied instantly, "even though I didn't really consider it when I first broached the subject of obtaining them, the fact that the re-breather is enclosed does make me feel more comfortable with using them."

"So, we have two environmental changes that should reduce the chance of your memories triggering and one cognitive one. Where do you want to be at the end of these sessions?"

More than familiar with cognitive behavioral therapy, Amanda considered her response for a few seconds before replying, "I want to put on my armor without having to push down thoughts of my death."

"That's all?" questioned the doctor, and at Shepard's decisive answering nod she continued, "Well then let's see what we can do to get there."

Approximately an hour later they finished up the therapy session and Dr. Chakwas moved rather immediately onto discussing her physical health. "Now about the unhealed areas on your face and I assume the rest of your body?"

Amanda grimaced at the reminder, "Yes, they're about the same everywhere."

"Hmm, I suspect I know what this is," the grey-haired woman moved closer as she examined the unhealed areas on Amanda's face. "It's usually stress related, a reaction between your skin and your cybernetic systems," she explained. "It will eventually heal on its own, but the process would go quicker if you can reduce your stress and thus the amount of stress related hormones in your bloodstream affecting your body."

Shepard huffed out a wry laugh, surrounded by inexperienced personnel and monitored constantly by a AI, "Yea, I'll get right on that."

"Commander," the doctor frowned, "that response does not fill me with confidence."

"I'm sure you've noticed that the crew is a bit short of combat experience," Shepard scowled, "and the thought of being constantly monitored everywhere on this ship is not exactly conducive toward stress reduction."

"I see," Karin looked troubled, "I assume you mean that includes even the medical bay and my medical records?"

Shepard shot her a hard look, of course she meant exactly that.

8 Days Post-Awakening: Korlus

It was one thing to read about Korlus being a starship junkyard and another thing entirely to actually witness it from the planet's surface. Miles and miles of stripped and purposefully crashed starships, some of them piled on top of one another. Looking up from where the team had landed though the hazy murk of the atmosphere you could see the systems G class star shining fitfully though the haze and clouds. Far above them a massive starship passed over, doubtless in the process of being stripped of everything that would bring a profit, and then fated to join the rest of its brethren on the planet's surface.

A last-minute addition to her mission planning had netted them a supply of reconnaissance probes. Once on planet, EDI would control them remotely via her link with the shuttle which would drop them off at their mission landing zone and then remain nearby concealed by the bulk of a rusting freighter. Shepard had briefed the team assignments earlier on the Normandy, hopefully ensuring that everyone understood their combat role in the upcoming mission. With the addition of EDI controlling the reconnaissance probe, they now at least had aerial reconnaissance of the area. Which meant that she and Jack could focus more on being the forward team whose role was to make initial contact with the enemy to fix them in place, while Jacob and Miranda formed the trail team to either reinforce them or flank the enemy depending on how any combat situation developed. Shepard was fully aware that there would be times that EDI would not be able to scout for them, especially when they had to make their way through the interiors of the junked ships. In that case, she and Jack would have to take back on the role of scouting their route as well as being the forward team.

They had tentatively located Dr. Okeer's lab well within the area controlled by the Ragar Kolo mercenary group. Shepard's mission plan called for them to infiltrate the area as quietly and quickly as possible and only initiating combat if absolutely necessary. Once they reached Dr. Okeer's lab they would make contact with the krogan, ascertain whether or not he was willing to work with them and then call for an extraction from that location. Shepard's plan was to rely on stealth whenever possible, and speed when not in order to keep the mercenaries from determining their exact location. Then be in and out of the lab and off planet before they could manage a coordinated response to stop them.

Shepard glanced up, her gaze searching for the reconnaissance probe, then spotted it over head. "EDI, do you detect anyone near our current location?" She queried over the team's communication's channel thought the microphone embedded in her helmet.

"Yes, Shepard, there is a nearby checkpoint manned by three batarians and two krogan. Due to the flight path taken by the shuttle, they do not appear to be aware of your presence. I detect no other personnel in the immediate area other than those at the checkpoint. I must caution you however, that this probe's scans cannot penetrate the materials of the starship hulls around you. Thus it is quite possible that there may be personnel within them that I cannot detect, either visually or by heat signatures," the AI informed them.

"Understood," Shepard acknowledged with a grimace. It wasn't an ideal situation, but it was definitely better than not having any overhead reconnaissance. "Give us an updated tactical map of the area, lets mark out a concealed route past them."

Five minutes later they had a tentative route marked out that should get them past the checkpoint to a location where they could scale up the side of the massive freighter to an opening. That route into the mercenary's territory seemed to be unguarded, unlike the ground level entrance. Jack scowled at the idea of sneaking around them instead of attacking, but didn't do anything other than making a few scathing comments.

"There's only five of them, you and I could take them out easily," Jack protested as the extent to which they would have to swing wide of the checkpoint became obvious.

"And alert the entire compound of approximately a hundred or so mercenaries, at least a quarter of which are krogan, to our presence," quickly noted Shepard before Miranda could utter the scathing response that was so obviously forming given her expression. "We're good, but I don't like those types of odds and I really don't want to be captured." Jack scowled and rubbed her arm at that reminder and then shut up about avoiding the checkpoint.

Shepard had noticed that Jack seemed rather subdued after the teams' mandatory pre-mission meeting with Dr. Chakwas to discuss the Final Choice injections, colloquially known as the Final Finger. About seven or so years after Mindoir and the start of the practice of batarian slavers using a chemical cocktail to lobotomize human slaves to make them permanently docile; an enterprising drug company, Manzo Pharmaceuticals, designed a slow release drug that was normally inert in the body, but when combined with the chemicals the batarians used turned into a deadly toxin. The drug was injected as micro pellets into the thick muscles of the legs and arms in several different locations to make it difficult to find and remove and lasted for almost a month before dissolving completely and being processed out of the body. During that time however, if you were captured and processed as a batarian slave, you were assured that at least you would not remain one for very long. She and Jacob were both used to getting the shots, but both Miranda and Jack had seemed a bit disconcerted during the mandatory briefing about the drug. After Shepard brought up the fact that slavery was entirely legal on Korlus so if they were captured they would be immediately processed and then put up for sale however, they hadn't opted out of getting the shots.

"Alright, let's move out," she turned to her team. "Miranda, Jacob, let Jack and I get past the checkpoint first, then you two follow us. Past that lets keep at least 30 meters in between the two teams while we're moving."

Miranda and Jacob, her in her new black and dark blue armor and him in his dark grey and maroon armor, both nodded. "Understood commander," Miranda replied.

It took them about thirty minutes of crouching, running, and in one place low crawling alongside some rusting scrap metal to skirt their way around the mercenaries' checkpoint without being seen. While they were waiting for Miranda and Jacob to do the same, Shepard planned out the next phase of their path. There was a rectangular opening in the side of the freighter, probably where cargo had been loaded onto the ship. Fortunately, the freighter had crashed with the topside of the ship upright, so she didn't have to figure out how they would move though the ship with everything upside down, including the stairwells. "EDI the opening into the ship," she knew the reconnaissance drone had line of sight on the opening as well as observing Miranda and Jacob's progress, "can you detect anyone on watch up there? And what exactly are we going into when we get there?"

"No, Commander I cannot detect anyone immediately inside the opening or within what appears to be a cargo bay. The bay is 35.8 meters wide by 15.8 meters deep. There are four bay doors leading from the area, two on either side and two at the rear of the bay."

"Thank you, EDI," she acknowledged then pulled the grappling gun from her back and began running a sync check to make sure it was properly synced with her armor's VI interface. With it synced, the grappling gun could make use of the armor's more sophisticated targeting system.

"We're though Commander," Miranda announced fifteen minutes later.

"Good," Shepard acknowledged as she aimed for just above the opening and then waited for the weapon's targeting system to determine how much thrust would be needed to reach it. A moment later, a targeting reticule was projected onto the inside of her helmet indicating that she needed to adjust her aiming of the weapon for it to reach the targeted location. She adjusted it and then braced herself as the reticule went red and the weapon fired. The magnetic grappling disk shot upward, arched and then fell toward the side of the freighter with its thin monofilament line towing behind it. A fraction of a second later its magnetic field snapped it against the freighter's metallic hull with a muted clank exactly where Shepard had been aiming.

Shepard made a grunt of satisfaction, "Alright Jack let me hook us both up to the line. Then I'll ascend first and keep watch while you come up, and then it will be Jacob and Miranda's turn."

When Jack approached her Shepard immediately noticed that the tattooed woman was not maintaining her barrier by the feel of the other woman within her aura. "Jack, you might want to try keeping your barrier up at all times, the shields in that armor are pretty good but they won't stop a sniper's bullet." Though Shepard couldn't see though the other woman's polarized faceplate she could almost sense the sneer on Jack's face just from her stance. "Also, keeping your barrier up has the side effect of extending your aura and you can use it help you sense your immediate environment. I'm keeping mine extended at the moment just for that reason, granted it only extends out around two meters, but at least I can sense anything within that radius, even someone coming up from behind me."

"That might have even kept you from being captured Jack," Miranda chose that moment to join the conversation, her tone superficially helpful, "from what Agent Rasa said you were so focused on killing them that you didn't even hear a krogan coming up behind you."

"Fuck you, Cheerleader!" Jack snarled in reply.

"Enough, you two," Shepard snapped at both of them before they could escalate the argument further, "let's keep our attention on the mission, because we really don't want to reenact that scene here."

"Give me that damn line then," Jack snapped at her, "let's find this krogan your looking for, and get out of this slaver pit."

Shepard stared at the convict and snapped her órë in a single ripple of power rebukingly, eliciting a startled noise from the woman, before doing as Jack asked and handing over the line. She made it to the opening in the side of the freighter without incident, pulling herself up to the edge and then cautiously looking inside. It was definitely a cargo bay, she decided seeing the industrial wide doors and empty racks spaced around the edges of the area. As EDI had indicated, there was no sign of anyone within the area. Lifting her arm, she activated her omni-tool and ran a quick scan for any signs of monitoring or electronic signaling beyond what they had already detected. There were none, and so she indicated to Jack that the way was clear for her to make her own ascent.

Once both teams were up, Shepard and Jack made their way father inside the gutted ship. Fortunately, freighters unusually had cargo bays on either side to facilitate loading and unloading. Thus, the two of them went through the wide gaping entrance at the far end of the bay, and simply followed the wide corridor though the center of the ship out to the other side. Shepard halted well back from the opening, well aware that they would be visible to anyone keeping watch from the ground or from within one of the other crashed ships that walled in the Ragar Kolo mercenary's territory. "EDI did you find a good position?" she and the AI had discussed tactics on keeping the reconnaissance probe out of sight while EDI was scouting for them while onboard the Menrva. The last thing Shepard wanted was for their infiltration to be discovered due to someone looking up and noticing the probe in the sky obviously spying on them.

"Yes Shepard," the AI responded, "I am concealed within the superstructure of the ship thirty degrees from your current location within an opening left by the removal of the ships LADAR system."

"Good," the Commander responded, "give me a report please."

"Establishing a link updating your tactical map now," EDI announced just before the tactical omni-tool embedded into her armor's vambrace scrolled the same message across its display. Shepard activated it, pulling up a topographical display of the updated map. "You are now entering the outskirts area of the Ragar Kolo's camp. Currently I have discovered five patrols and three lookouts guarding the area you are about to enter." Each patrol and lookout highlighted on the topographical map, along with their current real-time location and projected patrol route. "Might I suggest the following route to avoid detection," EDI helpfully added as the aforementioned route displayed on the map.

Shepard began moving the display around, looking at it from various angles and elevations, seeing exactly why the AI had chosen this exact route. It offered concealment from the lookouts as well as avoiding most of the patrols. With careful timing and attention, they should be able to make it through the area without being detected. "Well done, EDI," she praised, "keeps us out of sight and with a bit of timing we'll easily avoid the patrols."

"Thank you, Commander," the AI responded. "I will remain at this location until both teams have successfully descended without detection and then shift position to this location," another spot lit on the map about half way between their current location and where they hoped Okeer's lab was located, "from there I will be able to monitor any alterations in the enemy's patrol routes as well as beginning my reconnaissance of the area you will be moving into next."

"Acknowledged," Shepard responded as she lowered herself onto the floor and began crawling forward to the opening. EDI was good but there was no reason at all for her not to do her own reconnaissance of the area before descending from the ship. Reaching back for the binoculars magnetized to the right rear of her utility belt she pulled them loose and then extended them before looking through them. Using her memory of the tactical map as a guide it didn't take her long to locate the five patrols of five or six batarians with the occasional krogan and the three batarian lookouts. She then focused her attention on looking over their proposed route. Only when she was satisfied did she put the binoculars away and then pull out the grappling gun. It was still synced, only this time she was firing it at the cargo bay ceiling. Shepard was painfully aware of how exposed she potentially was to approximately forty eyes as she descended from the cargo bay opening, yet the entire team made it to the ground without any evidence that the mercenaries had noticed the four of them.

As she crawled through yet another muddy spot of ground, Shepard distractedly thought of how much work it was going to be to clean their armor once they were back on the Menrva, she must have polluted sludge ground into every crevice of the armor plating. "Hold here," she ordered Jack behind her as she crawled to the edge of the broken piece of hull they were using as cover and queried EDI for another update. The last thing she wanted to do was to stick her head out exactly when the expected patrol was going past. Especially when it was unnecessary due to the aerial reconnaissance probe EDI was controlling.

"In thirty seconds the patrol in your immediate area will be past your current position," the AI informed them.

"Roger that," Shepard commented and then marked the time. When thirty seconds were up, she and Jack continued on their way. They were already an hour into the ops and still had almost an hour to go before they reached the suspected site of Okeer's lab. That was, of course, provided there were no issues getting there and that they were correct in their identification of his location.

It was almost as if she had summoned Murphy with her last thought Shepard mused as EDI unexpectedly announced, "Shepard, forty minutes ago five Blood Pack ships exited the relay and headed toward Korlus. I did not mention this at the time as records indicate it is not unusual for the Blood Pack to do business on Korlus. However, ten minutes ago five troop transports lifted off from those ships. Given their current heading this area is within the range of their possible destinations."

Shepard frowned as she continued her crouched movement alongside one of the smaller stripped ships, a merchant vessel possibly, "If this is their destination how long until they arrive?"

"Twenty-two minutes," EDI responded, "I will continue analyzing their flight path and will inform you if they continue toward the Ragar Kolo camp."

"Give me five-minute updates EDI," Shepard replied as she continued forward, "let's assume the worse until we know for certain they aren't headed in this direction."

"Commander," Miranda entered the conversation, "the Blood Pack might be interested in Okeer due to his activities with the Collectors, the same as we are. The dossier did mention that he might be working on a cure for the genophage."

"Yea," Amanda grimly replied, "that had occurred to me as well." Shepard grimaced as she paused toward the stern of the wrecked transport, this mission suddenly had the possibility of going pear-shaped rather rapidly if the Blood Pack was as interested as they were in reaching Okeer. "Carefully and deliberately everyone," she commented, "but let's try and pick up the pace since we might now be on a deadline to reach Okeer." Suiting her words to her actions, Shepard spared a glance at her topographical display which EDI was continuously updating in real time as she spotted additional hostiles. It was clear and the lookouts had obstructed lines of sight to this area. Still though she took care to stay in a crouched run as she made her way to the next piece of cover, a pile of shuttles that were more stripped shells than anything else.

"Does that mean we can stop all this sneaking around?" Jack groused as she got read to make the same run across the open space, "and start killing these slavers? Don't tell me you don't want to."

Shepard shook her head in exasperation from where she kept watch on the other side, "If we had more people you'd have a chance of persuading me, but honestly I want us to complete this mission with the least risk of capture by these slavers more than I want to kill them." Jack only snorted in reply, but Shepard noticed that the convict kept as low a profile as possible as she made her way over to where Shepard waited beside the junked shuttles. The possibility of being a lobotomized dimwitted and docile pleasure slave for batarians to enjoy raping was a definite dampener on Jack's idea of fun, only alleviated by the thought they would at least experience only a short while of such a fate before the Final Finger ended it.

The Blood Pack transports were still possibly headed toward the Ragar Kalo camp at the five, ten and fifteen-minute updates from EDI. Shepard knew that Joker had already selected the most favorable orbit around Korlus possible just in case they needed backup beyond the shuttle, and the shuttle was currently at the closest concealed site to the suspected location of Okeer's laboratory. There was really nothing else she could do to prepare for the possibility that the Blood Pack was headed here than she had already done during their mission planning. The only way she could raise their odds was to be as close to Okeer's lab as possible when the other mercenary group arrived and Shepard was already moving as quickly as she felt they could without alerting the Ragar Kalo of their presence in the camp.

"Shepard," EDI broadcast a minute later, "the Ragar Kalo have just sent out an alert about the approaching Blood Pack transports." Well that seemed to nix the idea that it might be a friendly visit, thought Shepard, which might or might not work to their favor. She wasn't sure being in the middle of a brawl between two mercenary groups when both had krogan and one was likely adding vorcha to the mix was a good idea, but if the battle drew the Ragar Kalo to one area they might be able to get around quicker…provided that area was not the Blood Pack's destination. Approximately five minutes later, just as they were about to enter what looked as if it had once been a large merchant ship to make their way through what remained of its interior, EDI announced that the Blood Pack transports were definitely headed toward the camp and in addition appeared to specifically be heading to the same area of the camp as the team. Shepard was now almost certain they were correct and Warlord Okeer's laboratory was indeed located within the relatively intact freighter.

"This is going to be problem," Miranda commented.

To which Jack responded sarcastically, "You think?"

Jacob ignored both of them, "Since both groups will be converging there should we just let them fight it out some? Hope it thins their numbers?"

"That's exactly what I was considering," Shepard replied to him, "it's not ideal, but since the Blood Pack seems to be headed to the same location we are that's probably our best choice. We just need to hope they don't either kill or take Okeer with them before we have a chance to talk to him. Miranda, how important is Okeer to the team? Is he worth us engaging with both or either mercenary group on the chance that he might be willing to join us or at least share useful information about the Collectors?"

"The Illusive Man thought he was important enough to include him in the first two dossiers," she responded somewhat unhelpfully, "but he's not worth us risking the entire team to recruit."

The last reminder was actually helpful, "Alright, slight change of plan then, we should be able to observe the Blood Pack landing from the upper decks of this freighter. Let's head upward and look for the port side cargo bay, once the Ragar Kalo are engaged with the Blood Pack we will just rappel down the side. The freighter had a similar layout to the first one they encountered, so Shepard headed first for the midships stairwell and then went up two decks where she estimated the cargo bays should be located.

"Shepard," EDI announced as they left the stairwell, "I have just identified a batarian sniper team setting up in the cargo bay which is your intended destination. I would advise eliminating the five of them before proceeding further as they would be easily able to observe the team moving toward the target location from their position."

"Finally, some action," Jack noted with delight, "how do you want to take them out?"

"We can't let them communicate our presence, so we're going to wait until the fighting begins and we have some covering noise then lead with a grenade set to detonate on impact. Sorry Jack," Shepard apologized to the other biotic. "If it's any consolation, I'm sure we will end up having to battle our way through whatever remains of both the Ragar Kalo and Blood Pack to get to Okeer." That was of course provided she thought they could do so without too much risk of getting captured, thought Shepard, but no reason to point that out at this time.

Jack's helmeted head swing her way, "You really like your grenades don't you," the biotic observed.

"They make a statement," Shepard observed dryly, "a messy one mind you, but definitely a statement."

"Sound of the grenade's going to echo like crazy in that bay," observed Jacob, "unless they're making a lot of noise outside they might notice it."

"Or notice that their sniper team's dead," commented Miranda.

Shepard nodded, "I suspect with the Blood Pack we won't have to worry about them being too quiet, and yes I'm sure they will notice their sniper team being taken out. The trick is to make sure they don't know who did it. Which is why after they're dead we're now not going to rappel from that location, but go back down to the ground level and out. If they're monitoring their vitals, they would start looking in this direction very quickly and notice us hanging from the side of the ship."

The Ragar Kalo sniper team setup in the freighter's cargo bay was comprised of three batarian mercs with sniper rifles and two spotters for them that knelt on either side with binoculars glued to their eyes. None of them paid any attention to what might be going on behind them, a fatal error, thought Shepard who was carefully observing them from the shadowed entryway. A few minutes later, the Blood Pack arrived and they didn't disappoint her estimation of what they would do when they did, opening the battle with a deafening barrage of missiles fired from their five troop transports just before their landing to drop off a sizable attack force. Shepard, who had been waiting by the cargo bay entrance lost no time flash stepping into the bay to a spot about ten meters behind them with two grenades ready in her hand. She tossed them one after the other and both set to detonate upon impact at the tightly clustered sniper team then dropped to the deck. Rising after they both detonated she verified that none of the batarians were still alive. Surveying the bloody carnage left after both detonations, Shepard doubted they had even had any time to notice the grenades before they died from the resulting explosion.

Moving up to the opening in the ship both she and Jack observed the battle taking place below between the two mercenary groups. It was fierce, with the noise of rifles punctuated with the occasional louder retort of a shotgun among the bright splashes of flamethrower flame from the Blood Pack's vorcha units. Shepard was quite happy not to be down there in the melee, for it seemed like both sides were doing an excellent job of trying to kill each other off in the quickest time possible. Just then Miranda and Jacob joined them and Shepard inquired of the AI, "EDI what do you have for me?"

"The Blood Pack transports deposited twenty-five krogan and fifty vorcha," EDI commented.

"They must have been packed," Jacob observed, interrupting the AI.

"Indeed," EDI responded, "krogan transports are approximately twice the size of most shuttles, and normally carry up to ten krogan in each transport. In this case, they held five krogan and ten vorcha per transport. Also, I have made a tentative identification of the lead krogan. Shepard, I believe Warlord Garm, Overlord Ganar Wrang's third in command is leading this attack upon the Ragar Kalo."

"That will make things more difficult," observed Miranda.

Shepard snorted, indeed it would, "Let's get moving before anyone notices the four of us watching from up here and while they're all occupied with each other."

"Shepard," EDI said, "I have calculated an alternate path now that the Ragar Kalo are fully engaged with the Blood Pack. While it is longer you should be able to move more openly along it, decreasing the amount of time it will take to reach the probable location of Warlord Okeer's laboratory by fifteen minutes."

That meant a travel time of only fifteen more minutes instead of thirty realized Shepard. "Sounds good to me," she responded as she moved back in the direction from which they had come, "forward it to us."