Chapter 13 - Errands and Team Building

A/N - A few in between missions, showing Arlas building up rapport and understanding with the ground team and ship's crew, learning and appreciating the technology of the Mass Effect universe, and making allies and friends. Or, more likely, not.

Also, due to a bug in the coding Elanos Haliat was a human, rather than a turian. Corrected that for the story.

"I'm too sexy for my armor, to sexy for my armor; I demand all your ardor!" - Slaanesh chaos marine player, who was subsequently banned for that battle song. Or, more accurately, the dance that went with it. *shudders* Can't unsee even after twelve years… the horror… though the modified lyrics were sort of catchy...

Arlas was glad to be away from the Citadel, though he wished it was so easy to get away from Icivia. They had left the Citadel several days back, the ship constantly lurching and thrashing about as they used their beastly method of travel between star systems. He just wished she would stop trying to get him to agree to the tournament. Her latest method was particularly ingenious and insidious, if inelegant and disgraceful. She had informed the whole crew about the asari councilor's offer to sponsor him into the tournament, and now everyone was trying to get him to compete. And when they weren't doing that, they were antagonizing him about 'his asari bondage fetish,' and kept trying to get the asari they had rescued, Liara T'soni, to spend time with him. She was avoiding him like the humans back home avoided chaos, rather sensibly in his opinion

When Yol'Pvera informed him of another mission, he was quite grateful to get off the ship, so he could kill something. He was therefore quite displeased when he heard that he wasn't invited, and the group instead would be the Twins, Gemling, Garrus, Kaidan, and Ashley, which would fill the ground transport. He still invited himself, if only to get away from the rest of the humans before he murdered one of them. He walked into the briefing room, and leaned against the wall as the Twins continued talking. "-probe got over here, as it was supposed to be aimed at Turian space, but we are to get in and recover it if practical and… Arlas, you aren't required here, and there isn't room for you in the mako anyway."

Arlas gave them a glare. "Twins, either I come on this mission, get to kill something and get away from the ship for a while, or you are going to start losing overly inquisitive crew members. Or possibly Ghost, either is good, both would be better."

The Twins shared a look before Joannis sighed. "You can't fit, and your lander is too threatening. This might not require combat"

He just shrugged. "I have a smaller vehicle I can use. It is built for this kind of situation anyway."

"And what situation is this then?"

He gave them a deadpanned stare. "The kind where I need to be alone and deploy to a planet."

The Twins shared another glance, before nodding. "Fine, you can come in it, I am guessing it is the smaller one in your lander. The mission is to find an old recon and espionage probe, one of dozens launched during the turian first contact war, somehow ended up over here. No one in the Systems Alliance, nor any of the surviving engineers or programmers the Alliance contacted, is entirely sure how it malfunctioned badly enough to explain how the probe got over here, as it was supposed to end up finding turian planets. Mission is to get in and recover it if practical, and destroy it if not."

Arlas leaned against the wall, already activating and preparing the Vyper assault hovercraft. As the briefing went on, the only real question he had was answered after Garrus posed the same one he was thinking. "So why the rush to go after it? It's just an old probe, not like it can cause any problems now."

This time the look the Twins exchanged had an uncomfortable edge to it, before Joannis took a second to compose her reply. "The probes were equipped with demolition charges. The last thing the alliance needs is to be blowing holes in planets from old recon and espionage probes."

Tali looked up from her omnitool, her eyes narrowed. "How big of a hole?"

Jaclyn gave the female quarian a lazy shrug that only increased Arlas' unease. "Fairly standard demolition charges. We didn't want someone tampering with it."

Arlas rolled his eyes, and headed back to the hangar. He knew enough to pick out his weapons, and needed to get the Vyper out of Raider and then give it a pre-mission check.

Arlas watched the human's land vehicle lurch up one side of a hill and then slam down on the other side, once again thanking his foresight in using the Vyper. He felt like he was barely moving, but he had no doubt it was better than sitting in the wheeled vehicle. He glanced back down and winced as he watched the vehicle tumble down the side of a steep hill, though he was surprised it landed right side up and with no damage he could see.

He glanced back at the scanner built into the Vyper as it chimed at him, before doing another circle around the human land vehicle, but frowned as he noted the vehicle had stopped at a structure set into the side of a hill. The Vyper in swooped down to hover near the primitive tank, where everyone else had gathered. He tapped his omnitool a couple times, before finally getting the damn thing to link with the rest of the team. "Why are we stopping?"

He watched the Twins look up before they replied. "Readings indicate the probe is in this mine."

Arlas stared over at them, before turning to look at the entrance to the hillside mine, and then back at the humans. "I seem to have underestimated human's yet again. I doubt an Eldar probe could get into a mine on its own, and yet here you have an old, basic probe doing it easily."

The Twins didn't seem amused by his sarcasm, and Jaclyn fired back. "Clearly it had help, the probe wasn't marked and whoever recovered it might be salvaging it for parts. Or it's a trap, and they plan to use the demolition charge against us. Either way, we have to head into the mine."

He glared at his sensor screen as it chimed at him again. "I have multiple contacts at a two kilometer range, holding distance. No clear numbers, but at least two groups, maybe more. Unless someone is capable of building something that registers as a mobile low building capable of moving over rough terrain."

The two contacts were quite large, so it was either several vehicles in close proximity to each other or a small mobile building as he had mentioned. Joannis didn't even hesitate. "Ashley, Jaclyn needs a gunner for the mako. Arlas reported contacts out at two klicks. Jaclyn, keep the mako intact. Arlas, assist them as you can."

Arlas acknowledged the order, activated the holofield to hide the Vyper's exact position, before trying to figure out how to get a communication to only one person. A minute later, Jaclyn called him. "Too important to give the human a call?"

Arlas fumed aloud at the mon-keigh omnitool. "Stupid, unintuitive, backwards, primitive, retarded, inbred, ugly, malfunctioning piece of rusty scrap metal! Going to scout the contacts. Will relay what I find."

"You are still on the squad channel, Arlas. But good idea, get going."

The Vyper jumped into the sky, heading for the contacts slowly crawling towards the hillside structure. Less than a minute later, he was over the first contact, and talking to the angry twin. "I see two sets of three ground vehicles, like yours but bigger in all aspects. Slower though. Second group is about a kilometer off, parallel the first group, appear to be trying to flank and pin you against the structure."

"Good copy, but still on squad channel. Circle and observe only for now."

Arlas rolled his eyes at the omnitool, tempted to destroy it but he didn't want to deal with the Twins getting angry about it again. Especially since he wouldn't have the excuse of it being an accident this time. Instead, he put the Vyper into a lazy loop, and circled both sets of vehicles and observe, reporting what he saw to Jaclyn.

There were six vehicles in two groups of three in a normal wedge formation. Heavy armor for the locals, but fairly thin if compared to armor back home. They had six massive tires, and a turret and antenna array, but other than being nearly half again the length of the Twin's mako they were remarkably similar. Done observing, he could do nothing but circle the slowly moving vehicles for a couple of moments, before Jaclyn suddenly contacted him. "Arlas, it's a trap. Pirate ambush, and those grizzly tanks are with them. Take out what you can, we will deal with the rest."

The Eldar rolled his eyes, put the Vyper into a dive. He cut back the throttle, lined up the starcannon turret and the underslung shuriken cannon at the rear most vehicle under him, and opened fire at the optimal range as he approached.

The first thing to hit were the monomolecular shurikens, tearing into the shields. Just before the first burst of fire from the cannon ended, the tank's shields just barely intact, the plasma bolts from the starcannons hit, the first pair ripping apart the shields, dispersing the physical component of the bolt, but the heat still warped the metal as it continued onward. Then the second and third pairs of plasma bolts arrived, effortlessly ripping through the thin, warped metal of the vehicle. The wheeled vehicle failed to explode but did slew to a halt as one side deformed and dragged on the ground, the tires exploding from the heat.

Arlas fired again at the same vehicle even before the shields collapsed, ensuring its demise. He then shifted aim and repeated the actions even as the other two vehicles suddenly slowed as they realized something had happened to the other vehicle. Arlas' shots drifted forward toward the front of the second vehicle as it stopped unexpectedly, but its fate quickly mirrored the first as he hit something important. The third vehicle's turret whirled about as the gunner tried to find whatever was killing the other vehicles. The Vyper was high enough that Arlas was outside its ability to spot him, let alone do something about it, so Arlas leisurely destroyed the third vehicle with another burst of fire.

Arlas had focused too much on the first group of vehicles, but the second group quickly reminded him that they were around with several rounds from their main and sub turrets. The main cannon rounds missed him badly thanks to his holofield, but the machine guns mounted on sub turrets had enough spread that they might hit him at a kilometer. Arlas smirked at the thought of being hit at such a range with such an inaccurate weapon.

The Eldar gods of Chance and Fate, however, were quick to remind him that they were still present when a round punched straight through the side of the Vyper, and slammed into his shoulder. He grunted with the impact against him even though it didn't penetrate his armor. Arlas quickly focused on getting out of the tanks' firing arcs, but not before another round punch through the canopy and was stopped by his psychic shields right in front of his throat before dropping into his tabard. He swore and put the Vyper through more energetic twists, dives, climbs and turns, but these gunners were alert and competent enough to at least keep one sub turret in his general direction.

Arlas was lucky and skilled enough to dodge further hits while moving above the main cannon's ability to elevate until a sudden explosion blossomed on one of the tanks distracted them. Arlas grumbled about being 'rescued' by mon-keigh as the Twin's tank sped by the armored column, its weapons tearing at the shields of one of the tanks. Two streaks of blue light suddenly slammed into the other two tanks, both resolving into figures, one in red armor, another in black.

The black one immediately lept into the air after slamming into the leading hostile tank hard enough to actually rock it back on its tires, before slamming a fist down into the prow of the tank. A blast of what looked like lightning erupted from the figure's fist, shattering the shields and continuing downward. Then their fist hit the tank, and Arlas couldn't help but stare as the tank actually kicked forward enough to bury its dented nose into the ground. The red armored figure had pulled something off its back and slapped it on the side of the third tank, before sprinting around the side of the vehicle. A couple seconds later, the explosive went off, tearing a hole in the side of the tank, and the figure came back around to enter the tank through the hole.

Rolling his eyes and making a note to find out just how his 'allies' had done what he had seen, but before he could realign the Vyper, the mako fired for a third time, the shot hitting the unshielded enemy tank and punching completely through the vehicle. He hissed his displeasure before bringing the Vyper down to hover near the ground. The displays were showing minor damage to one of the two main engines, and he wanted to check it before returning to the ship.

He did a quick check while the mako was picking up the krogan and human, and found only a small dent in the outer casing of the engine. A glancing hit with no real damage to the engine, though he would need to fix it after plugging the two holes in the cockpit. Arlas leaned against the Vyper, settling down to wait for the ship to land and pick up the mako. The Eldar sighed after hearing on the omnitool that the pilot would be down in fifteen minutes, before opening a communication with the group. "Interesting fight. Good, brisk exercise. What happened?"

Joannis answer first. "After entering the mine, we followed the signal straight to the probe. A pirate contacted us, made some threats, then activated the demolition charge."

Tali cut in, slightly hysterical. "A nuclear demolition charge! What is wrong with you humans?"

Arlas frowned. "What is her problem?"

The quarian snapped back at the Eldar. "It is a nuclear warhead, with fallout, put on a probe to find planets. Contamination of the ground and air, a few thousand years before the area is usable again? Or do the Eldar not care about taking care of their planets?"

Arlas turned and drew himself to his full height, towering over Gemling. "First, this world is useless for naught but mining. Second, this is a human problem, not Eldar, therefore I fail to see why I should offer my opinion on it. Third, Eldar live for thousands of years, so what do we care if we have to step away from a biosphere for a couple of millennia to let a minor issue clear up?"

He turned back to Joannis. "And after the charge was activated, I assume you disarmed it?"

"Yes, and then came back out to help against the tanks and capture the leader. Though you made that part of the plan irrelevant."

Garrus was digging through the bodies in the lead tank, and pulled one out. He removed the helmet from the corpse, and examined the face of the turian he had removed before nodding. "Shepards, found the leader we spoke to."

Jaclyn sauntered over to the corpse and stared down at it, before taking a picture of the turian with her omnitool. "Elanos Haliat, how did that revenge attempt go for you?"

Arlas watched her finish with her trophy picture or whatever she was doing, and turn back to the group. "Alright, everyone back into the mako, Arlas into your hover vehicle and… were you shot? You have a hole in your outfit."

He glanced at the hole the round to his shoulder had caused, before shrugging. "I am not injured, armor stopped the bullet. Can we discuss something more important, specifically how you and Wrex did your charge, and how you managed to refine your psy-craft enough to get a perfectly spherical discharge of energy?"

Everyone stopped to stare at him, before the Twins exchanged a look. He sighed in his helmet as he felt that flicker of warp energy between the two, but didn't bother trying to trace it. He couldn't sense their power when he was in his lander in a meditation circle trancing, so he definitely wouldn't be able to sense it here; it was clearly only there to torment him, as he lacked the skill to trace it to find if they had minimal active talent, or massive latent talent. Joannis spoke, tearing him from his thoughts. "You keep saying psicraft. Is that what your people call biotics?"

"No, biotics are weak techniques that rarely accomplish anything according to my research. What your twin and Wrex was doing was anything but. And it is psycraft, not psicraft."

The Twins exchanged another look while the krogan and Kaidan both glared at the Eldar. Arlas just waited, and eventually Jaclyn answered. "Biotics are caused by element zero exposure in utero, though later exposures can have lesser effects, mostly cancerous. All of our techniques are caused by that exposure. The techniques we used today were charge by both of us, and I used a nova to destroy the leading Grizzly tank. What can you do with this psycraft?"

He gave them a smirk, despite the fact they couldn't see it, before crossing his arms. "What is a monkey?"

Both of the Twins made a simplistic hand gesture in his direction that even he recognized as the Normandy swooped down out of the sky. He glanced up at ship, before getting into his Vyper; he could finish the repairs and cleaning the atmosphere and grit out of the heavy hoverbike in the hangar.

Arlas looked up and frowned. He had been testing his long rifle on the ship's shooting range two days after the probe incident, and lamenting the fact that he only had fifty meters to work with. That distance was enough for pistols, but made it difficult for the larger weapons to used for anything other than the most basic of tests. He glanced at Ashley or Anvil, the nickname earned after she had remained standing in a hand to hand match with him far longer than he had expected, and Garrus, whom he now called Tweaks since he was constantly taking his long rifle apart to modify it. "Can either of you hear that? Not the engines, something… under it."

Both the turian and human paused, and listened, before shaking their heads, though Anvil spoke. "Nope, sorry, can't hear it."

Garrus simply shrugged, and went back to modifying his rifle. After a moment of trying to bring the 'sound' he was hearing into focus, Arlas rose from his prone position and collapsed his rifle's barrel before stowing it on his back. He paused to sense where the Twins were as he left the firing range, before heading for the elevator. He ignored most of the people he passed, the only four that concerned him were the Twins, Ghost, and Wrex. Wrex for earning a sliver of respect, Ghost for being relentlessly annoying and typically mon-keigh, and the Twins because they were the ship mistresses, and he wasn't going to piss them off lest they try to toss him out an airlock.

The elevator took its usual eternity to get to the top, during which he checked with Yol'Pvera about the 'noise' and learned that she heard it as well but only rarely, and had no idea what it was. He quickly made his way up to the CiC after the elevator stopped. A quick glance showed the briefing room closed and guarded, which meant the Twins were likely talking to someone important. The Eldar glanced about the CiC after a moment of contemplating the door, but didn't see the older man that had been pointed out to him as being the secondary shipmaster after the Twins. So he strode down the hall toward the pilot's station, figuring the ship's helmsman might be able to answer his query.

As Arlas entered the helmsman's station, he noted two extra seats on either side of the pilot's chair, though only the one immediately to the pilot's right had an occupant, the human Kaidan from the ground team. He stepped forward after a moment of observing the two, and hearing only meaningless banter, stopping behind the pilot's chair. "Pilot."

The human pilot had been too absorbed in his verbal spar with Kaidan, and yelped in surprise before twisting around to see who had spoken. "Son of a bitch! Don't just appear like that or put a bell on, you are going to give someone a heart attack doing that. Uh, please. Sir."

Arlas just stared at the pilot for a moment wondering why the Twins spoke so highly of their pilot, before turning his gaze to Kaidan as the other human spoke up. "Is there something you need, Pathfinder?"

"Yes, permission to launch my lander to do some scans without this hunk of metal blocking them, and to see what your local scans of this stellar region reveal."

His request caused both humans to stare blankly at him, before Joker turned to Kaidan. "Your call sir, you are in charge with XO Pressly resting and the commanders in their call."

Kaidan frowned, before shaking his head. "No, you can't launch, but you can see what scans we have taken of the system. I will set up the station behind me for you to use."

Kaidan tapped at his console for a moment, before nodding to the Eldar. "Do you need me to assist you, sir?"

Arlas frowned at the human, thinking very carefully before he answered. "I suspect I will, as I doubt your people use the same symbols and scans I am familiar with."

The Eldar took the seat behind Kaidan, and frowned at the screen, as the pilot began quietly, for a human, grousing about his ship being called a hunk of metal. "Considering I can not interact with this, I assume you are going to direct this?"

"Correct. Starting from the top left and going right along the top, we have…"

Arlas suffered through a half hour of having the display explained in exhaustive detail, but at least he could read what the blind mon-keigh ship sensors were detecting. Sadly, the sensors weren't meant to pick up what he was looking for, but looking over the data did reveal what the ship could detect. The ship had three sensors nets as the Eldar would classify them, or four if someone counted the crew's eyes.

None, however, were what he needed as Arlas had figured out that what he was 'hearing' was likely psyker in nature, so none of the psy-deaf crew would be able to hear it, and it was exceedingly unlikely that they could detect the signals that would indicate a psyker emenation. He stood after a few minutes of staring at the readings with only vague comprehension and strode off, ignoring the looks from the two humans in the cockpit, and stopped to lean against the wall at the back of the CiC. He typed out a quick message to the Twins before waiting.

A few minutes later, Jaclyn came out, her posture stiff and her anger apparent even to him. "What?"

He simply raised an eyebrow at her curt tone, but didn't comment on it. "I would like to launch my lander and-"

She cut him off, her hand slashing like a blade to emphasize her decision. "Denied. Joker? Get us to Trebin, should be in system. Joannis wants to be a rescue more civilians."

She stepped back into the briefing room, not bothering to give him time to argue. He stood still for a moment, anger consuming him, before he took a deep breath and left the CiC. As he took the elevator down, he heard the ship communicator come on. "Arlas, Icivia, Ashley, and Wrex, to the briefing room. Arlas, Icivia, Ashley, and Wrex, to the briefing room."

He stepped out of the elevator, and ignored Anvil and Wrex both waiting for it, striding for his ship. Anvil called out as he walked past. "Hey, the commanders requested you report to the briefing room."

Arlas' only response was to give her an immolating death glare that should have blown her out the front of the starship, before sealing the ramp behind him. He then headed for the armory, intent on practicing his psycraft, pausing only long enough to get into his armor and inform Yol'Pvera of his anger toward the angry Twin. Once in the armory, he took a seat in his psycraft circle, and began attempting to divine his path. He only got to try for twenty minutes, with no success, before Yol'Pvera contacted him. *The leader twin is outside the lander. She wishes to speak with you.*

Arlas sighed, before reaching down and touching the floor, opening the lander bay door and the door into the armory. After a moment, Joannis stepped into the room, radiating curiosity as she looked around the inner room, requiring a moment before she remembered why she was here. Arlas didn't rise, staying in the middle of the meditation circle, though he wasn't radiating psy-energies and his helmet was on a nearby table. "We requested your presence in the briefing room."

Arlas simply projected his anger, and growing impatience, hoping she got to the point before he lost control on his temper. "I am curious as to what happened. All I know is you talked to my sister, and then a few minutes later you gave Ashley a glare that was almost a physical attack."

He stood up, and turned to face the human. He simply stared at her, looking down at the tiny human for a moment. "How many times have your people insulted me enough to demand a retaliation?"

His question made her blink, confusion suddenly consuming her mind. "I… what?"

"How many times have your people insulted me enough to demand a retaliation?"

She blinked, before shrugging. "I would say none, but I suspect you don't agree."

He gave her a grim smile. "In the five weeks on this vessel, the mon-keigh here have insulted me severely enough to justify a physical response seventy three times. Your sister's gesture while interrupting me was enough for me to kill everyone on board to balance such an insult, before then leaving to find and hunt down their families."

Joannis' head snapped back as she took a step back, her eyes wide with shock at such a calm proclamation. He gave a grim smile, and repeated her sister's gesture, his hand slashing across. "This gesture among Eldar is that of a respected superior chastising a foolish subordinate. Her tone altered that to disgusted rebuke rather than a neutral correction. Since your sister is not my superior, is not qualified to pass judgement on my wisdom, nor in a position to rebuke me for asking to launch my lander without even having the courtesy to listen to the full request, yes, I am extremely angry at her."

He gave her a grim smile, before tilting his head slightly. "Eldar don't just speak with our voices, we speak with our minds, and our bodies. Back home, humans call us fickle and capricious, because they refuse to understand that simple fact. The closest race I have encountered here with a similar level of sophistication is the asari, followed quite closely by the quarians. I am not sure the latter is intentional, but the former most certainly is."

Joannis visibly rallied herself, before nodding. "Then would my apology on her behalf help?"

"No, but avoiding her will. My request was to launch my lander, so I could use its sensor to scan the system for something, as yours don't detect it. There is something here, and I can somewhat 'sense' it, as can Yol'Pvera, though she thinks it is just noise. It sounds like-"

Joannis had stiffened when he mentioned something their sensors couldn't detect but he could sense, and she softly spoke at the same time he did. "Singing."

Arlas paused, giving her a suspicious look, and Joannis took control of the conversation. "My sister and I have been hearing it since we arrived in system. Reason she is so angry. But that isn't important.

"We are heading toward a nearby planet to check on a survey team monitoring a terraforming process. They lost their last communication satellite, and haven't reported in a couple weeks. We will be checking to see what happened, and you can do your checks then. Would you be willing to take two people with you, so they can inform us if something happens or you find something? I was thinking Tali and Liara. Both are good at data parsing and quiet."

Arlas stared at the tiny human female. He recognized she was trying to be diplomatic, but that insult had been enough. He took a deep breath, and then released it. "Your twin does not talk to me for a week, and spends minimal time in my presence during that time. Since I mostly remain down here, that shouldn't be an issue. If so, I will… dismiss... her latest insult."

Arlas hadn't expected the last part to be physically difficult to say, but it was the best he was willing to offer, and was more than most mon-keigh got which was usually a blade to the throat or a faceful of monomolecular shuriken. He was thankful as Joannis seemed to sense he was being exceptionally generous, even if she probably didn't know just how much so, and nodded. "I will let Jaclyn know. Though we need to sit down with you and discuss your people's culture, if only to avoid further such unintentional insults. And please remember that you are among other races, so don't judge us by your people's standards and we won't judge you by ours."

He simply nodded, realizing that his avoidance of discussing his own people had partially led to the problem, and she was making a reasonable request. He was being a bit overly snappish today. Joannis continued. "We should be arriving at Trebin soon, you can launch while we are in orbit. See if you can find a location, and we can divert to it."

She left before he could ask how she knew about what the psychic emanation 'sounded' like, but the answer was obvious after a second of contemplation. The twins were either low potential psykers, or powerful but latent ones. He would need to meditate on which was more likely.

Arlas swore as the ship jerked to a stop, nearly flinging him out of his meditation circle. He wasn't any wiser to his situation, either the twins psyker potential or what to expect, having switched to trying to divine the future. As he stood up, his helpful copilot contacted him. *We have arrived at Trebin, the two xenos are outside, waiting to board. And I still think this is a waste of time.*

He sent a request to Yol'Pvera to be nice, instead of continuing their debate. She could hear whatever he and the Twins could but thought it was just noise, so thought this was a waste of time. He was done arguing though, and simply had her start the power plant and engines, before opening the bay door. He glanced at the door leading to the bridge, before sighing. *Yol'Pvera, can you reconfigure the co-pilot's seat for another? Tali can check the sensors-*

He flinched as his pilot sent her fury and contempt at the thought of letting a mon-keigh into her cockpit. He sent back a feeling of acceptance, which mollified her a bit, before he headed for the cockpit, but quickly discovered that Yol'Pvera was still angry with him, and didn't open the door for him. *Yol'Pvera, open the door please.*

*You desire to spend time with the mon-keigh so much, go sit in the troop bay.*

He knew better than to argue with the pilot of his lander, else she might decide to vent the troop bay with him inside one day. While normally not a problem, he might have his helmet off. So he did the sensible thing when facing the wrath of the opposite gender, and headed for the bay. *Might need your help when we get planetside. Depends on what we find.*

He smirked at the feeling of pure derision his pilot sent, making her feelings on the outing completely clear, but he quickly departed the armory. The quarian and asari were both seated already, and both looked up as he entered and took a seat. They exchanged a look, before Tali spoke up. "I thought we were going somewhere."

He nodded, before gesturing languidly to the troop bay's door, which showed the Normandy quickly receding. He didn't speak aloud immediately, instead psychically directing Yol'Pvera toward where he thought the psychic 'singing' was loudest. As they approached the planet, he glanced at his two companions, and decided to be sociable, if not verbally. *We are checking out something I sensed as we entered the system. The soft twin insisted that someone accompany me, and suggested you two. I doubt this will be anything more than a sensor sweep.*

He smirked in his helmet slightly as the asari's head recoiled in shock, before she cast about to see what she had 'heard.' He didn't reply further, as Tali and Liara started talking and he focused on guiding Yol'Pvera. As they approached the planet, the 'singing' got louder, and as they entered the atmosphere, Yol'Pvera admitted to not needing his guidance anymore, as she could hear it clearly now as singing. A few seconds after his copilot admitted to hearing it, Liara looked up from her conversation with Tali. "What is that noise?"

He twisted his head to look at her, surprised she was already hearing it, before replying. "What we are here to check."

Fifteen minutes later, the lander slowly halted just above the ground, and the bay door opened, revealing the planet. It was fairly typical in his experience, dark brown and green rocks with a sky full of thick pale clouds. No life, as the locals were experimenting with ice comets to expedite terraforming, but from the looks of it they were doing well. He could hear reports from the Twins from his omnitool, now a slightly better one since he had stopped shocking himself whenever he tried to do more than research with it, on another part of the planet looking into why the terraforming team was no longer responding to outside contact.

But the most important, the singing was now nearly a physical sensation, deafening in his mind, even with the ghosthelm. Liara was wincing whenever the 'song' hit a high range, and Tali was just listening, enraptured by the sensation, even as she tapped away at her omnitool. "My tool and suit sensors aren't picking up any of this. I have never even heard of anything like this before. How are we hearing this?"

Arlas was pacing slowly around the lander, trying to figure out where the 'song' was loudest. He had to reply vocal since he wouldn't be heard over the loud psy-song. "It is a psychic phenomena. Now you understand why I wanted to investigate. My people usually communicate with our psychic abilities, body language and words are less important unless we talk with another race. However, this is something I have never encountered before. Might be an artifact, might be a race. Considering the location and the fact the planet until recently barely had an atmosphere, I suspect a lost artifact of a dead race, trying to contact them."

He finished his walk around, before heading back into the lander, having to psychically shout to be heard over the 'singing.' *Yol'Pvera, we are too close, I need your help. Specifically, you in your wraithguard, pinpointing the location.*

He felt her disgust at the thought of leaving her lander, but she quickly agreed. Arlas carefully removed her spirit stone from the main console of the lander, and headed into the armory. Inside, in one corner was a three and a half meter column, and the wraithguard stood at the ready inside it, its chest open and ready for the gem. The craftworld had originally mounted the gems externally for ease of adding and removing the gems, but some mon-keigh made a game of sniping the gems, releasing the spirit and immediately rendering the walker inert. Now the chest plate would swing open to accept the gem, before sealing shut.

Arlas left the lander while Yol'Pvera's mind expanded to fill its new home, perform some basic checks of the body and pick what weapon she would bring. He stepped out, to find Liara a short distance from the lander, examining a dirt dune. From where he was, he could look around, and see a small ridge at about a kilometer from his location, according to his rangefinder, maybe five or ten meters tall. Several small dunes similar to the one Liara was examining were randomly scattered about the plain. Tali was near one of the engines, waving her omnitool at the lander. "Tali, if you try one more time to steal Eldar propulsion technology, my copilot will tear that arm off."

Tali jumped at his voice, before turning and narrowing her silver eyes at him. "I am not trying to steal your engine technology, I am trying to identify whatever your ship is made out of. Half the time my omnitool doesn't even register it, while the other half it keeps giving me conflicting information. Besides, you have been on the ship for nearly a month and a half now, and no one has seen this mysterious copilot of yours. Either they don't exist, or you… you… Keelah."

Arlas didn't bother turning, the wraithguard's shadow falling over him was proof enough that Yol'Pvera was done checking the body, even without her question. *Where first?*

Arlas sent a mental shrug, ignoring the way Tali stared at his copilot's walker. *Wherever the singing is loudest. It is so loud I can not tell the difference, and the other two aren't sensitive enough to be able to discern where it is loudest without walking around for a couple hours.*

He turned back to the wraithguard, and took a moment to admire the wraithbone construct, all three meters of it. Dark grey body and limbs, long and graceful while still being heavy enough to absorb considerable damage and keep functioning, while the head, shoulder pads, and tabard were the color of deep, burnished gold. The heavy distortion cannon in the constructs hands was a deep red with golden highlights, the color of dried blood, and a bright white rune was engraved on the head, the sigil of warding. The wraithguard was also as silent as death itself, unlike the similar constructs of the mon-keigh which squeaked, squealed, clanked, and bashed their way through reality.

Yol'Pvera sent back understanding, her own curiosity getting the better of her, and after a moment walked toward one of the dunes. After a moment, Tali and Liara both followed, though Liara kept looking around at their surroundings. "I wonder what caused this crater? It's so flat, except for those small dunes."

Tali abruptly froze, and Arlas turned as fear began running off her in waves. "What is it, Gemling?"

The Arlas' surprise, his nickname for the quarian didn't get a rise out of her for once. "We need to leave. Now."

Both the asari and Eldar turned to the quarian, though Liara was the first to speak. "Why?"

Tali couldn't answer before suddenly the ground rocked slightly, a minor earthquake. "I think this might be a thresher maw nest."

Arlas was intrigued by the fear coming off the quarian, and now asari. "And what exactly is a thresher maw?"

Yol'Pvera had kept marching forward, as he tried to get more information, as another earthquake occurred, stronger than the previous. Before they could reply, something a hundred meters from the group breached the ground, rearing up toward the sky and screaming loud enough to block out the psychic singing for a moment, before it turned toward the group. Arlas took one look at the massive serpentine body, the four fangs surrounding a circular mouth full of teeth, two huge claws arched up over its head, and the massive plating covering it, before he yelled a warning out of experience and habit even as he sprinted away from the lander. "VIRAGON! Ware the brood in the tunnels behind it!"

He watched the creature rear back, and dove to the side, tackling both his companions out of the way as the creature spat something coated in acid at them. It missed the group, and splattered like a grenade against the ground beyond them, covering a five meter spread in hissing green goo. He glared at the hissing ground as he rolled free of his two squad members, and yanked his long rifle off his back. *Bad day to not bring the fusion gun. You two, get up and fight, panic later. Yol'Pvera, wake up, tyranid bioform on the attack!*

He got a feeling of scorn from Yol'Pvera, who had finally noticed they were under attack, and leveled her distortion cannon at the distant enemy. After a second, a black hole appeared on the thresher maw's side, the meter wide hole ripping right through its armor plating and making the creature wail in pain. Arlas fired his long rifle as fast as he could, trying to take out its eyes, but the small stalks they were mounted on waved erratically, making it difficult even for him to hit them. Tali finally got to her feet, and began firing her pistol at the thing in a show of pointless defiance, while Liara had already rolled to her feet and was throwing blue ball after ball at the creature. The balls hit the thresher maw, and didn't see to do much that he could see, but he had to trust she was actually doing something. There wasn't time to do more than shout warnings and fire.

The creature was massive, towering at least thirty meters in the air, but unlike the Viragons he was familiar with, it didn't pull itself out of the tunnel it had dug to close to melee with them. Another black bubble from the distortion cannon blurred into existence in the beast, ripping a section of it clear and into the immaterium, causing another screech of pain and rage, but by now the group had spread enough to avoid having multiple people hit by a single attack. Arlas rolled to one side to avoid an acid spike, this time clearly seeing the bony spike in the center of the attack that shattered on impact with the ground, spraying acid everywhere.

Another acid spike lanced out, this time at the asari, and a glob of acid hit her as the spike shattered in spite of her attempt to dodge, making her cry out in pain as it quickly started burning through her thigh armor. Tali launched an attack from her omnitool, this one glowing red that caused flames to ignite when it hit the distant target while still firing her pistol one handed. Liara had stopped throwing the blue balls at the creature, and was carefully firing her pistol at it, wincing slightly at each discharge from the gun.

Then Yol'Pvera discharged her distortion cannon again, and this time Arlas thought she had missed, because he saw no black ball form. So he was as surprised as the others when the thresher maw violently seized once and then fell over, hitting the ground hard enough to cause Liara to fall over. After a second, he realized that Yol'Pvera must have somehow threaded a shot into the creature's mouth, hitting the top of it, and ripping the brain out of its head and into the immaterium. He glanced at his copilot, and gave her a small nod. *Good shot.*

Yol'Pvera's only reaction was to turn away and start back toward the dune she had been walking toward, Arlas jogging and quickly caught up. Yol'Pvera walked right over the dune, but a few seconds later she turned around and came back. He could just barely make her out over the 'singing.' *Loudest here.*

Arlas looked around, before kneeling down and running a hand over the dune, causing the loose dirt to tumble free. He looked up at the two squad mates, both staring at the dead thresher maw, and reminding him that maybe he should report in. He tapped his omnitool, opening a link to the ship and the Twins. "Arlas here, we just killed a viragon, correction, thresher maw. Everyone is fine."

Wrex replied first. "Really? Awesome, stay near it, I want to get some cuts from it. Thresher maws are damned good eating."

Joannis got on the comm as soon as Wrex finished. "Good job Arlas, find what you were looking for?"

He looked down at the dirt, before shrugging. "Need to do some digging first, will call later."

He glanced over to the quarian, and whistled into the comm to get his squad's attention. "Tali, need a scan here."

Joannis cut back into the conversation. "Arlas, command line is still open."

The Normandy pilot also spoke. "Ship line as well. Also, oww, that whistle was piercing."

Arlas swore and tapped the button again, killing the link as several people were heard laughing in the background. Done closing the extra lines, and cursing the unintuitive nature of mon-keigh technologies, he turned his attention back to the shocked quarian staring at the massive corpse, Yol'Pvera already on her way back to the lander. "Tali, scan please."

Tali finally shook herself out of her daze, and turned from the dead space worm, Liara already on her way over. Once they arrived and started scanning, he started walking back to the lander, intent on putting Yol'Pvera back in it and move the lander closer. He got all of five steps after the quarian arrived, when suddenly the 'singing' stopped, replaced by a silence that was almost deafening. He glanced at the quarian, before asking the obvious question. "What did you find?"

Tali looked up, and shrugged. "Something solid and heavy, about four meters down, roughly spherical and two meters across, I think. I can tell you more if I can get a scan without the dirt in the way."

Arlas glanced at the dune, before nodding. "Call the twins, see if they want us to dig… whatever it is up."

He glanced down at the dirt covering whatever it was, before shrugging and heading back to the lander to get Yol'Pvera back in. Just because it used psyker abilities didn't mean it was Eldar, so he would worry about it when they had dug it up. A half hour later, the Normandy came screaming in for a landing, and the first person to jump out, almost before the ship landed, was the red armored krogan. The krogan looked over at the massive thresher maw, and then stalked toward it, carrying a massive slab of metal. Arlas wouldn't have called it a blade if his life depended on it, as it was simply too thick on both edges to be sharp. But Wrex got next to the massive corpse, and then wrapped the metal slab in a blue aura, before swinging it and tearing a massive rend into its side.

As the krogan began harvesting meat from the thresher maw, the Twins came over. "So this is where that 'singing' coming from? Well, lets dig it up."

Later, after digging up the unusual, ovaloid artifact and returning to the ship, most of the crew was in the mess hall while the ship headed for their next destination, Arlas included for a change. Wrex and two of the humans were cooking the harvested meat, and the food storage had been nearly filled with thresher maw meat. Arlas usually avoided eating meat, but tonight he was making an exception, since everyone insisted on honoring him for leading the expedition that had provided such a bounty, despite his denials of fact and insisting he preferred to be alone.

So now he was sitting in the corner of the mess hall, letting the crew swarm around Tali and Liara, questioning them about the fight with the thresher maw, and whatever else caught their fancy. Most of the crew were avoiding Arlas, though several appeared to marshalling their courage. Arlas simply ate his small meal of bread, nuts, honey, and salad leaves. He had wanted to try some of the thresher maw, he was a pathfinder and addicted to new sensations after all, but the krogan had waved his cleaver in an exaggerated and threatening manner that was clearly not serious, so he had decided to wait.

He tried twice more, and was warned off twice more, before he finally glared at the krogan. "And what is required to get the portion you mentioned?"

Wrex peered at him with one eye, before giving him a crooked grin. "It is later. Now talk. Orcs."

Arlas groaned as Wrex mentioned the orks, even if he didn't pronounce it correctly, and again as the rest of the room started clamoring for more information as well. After a second of glaring at the krogan, who was as immune to his ire as always, he relented. "Fine."

The Eldar turned away, and took the elevator down, ignoring Wrex's roar of protest, and several humans laughing as the door closed. He grabbed his pouch of runes, and a memory crystal from his room, before heading back to the elevator. Once he arrived, he paused in confusion as one of the human crewmen swore loudly, as others laughed again. He dismissed the action as another human oddity, before clearing a space off one table, and put the memory crystal on it. Normally only Eldar could observe the memories from a crystal, but he knew a ritual that would allow others to share his thoughts, though it usually was only used among Eldar to allow a warlock to lead a squad.

He pulled the runes he needed from the bag, ignoring the curious stares, and after a moment had pulled the dozen he required from it. He arranged them in a circle around the crystal and focused his energies. As the smell of ozone began to suffuse into the area, and unlight surrounded his head and hands, the runes began to rise, slowly circling the crystal, which also began to glow. "You asked to know about the orks, Wrex? I think you will find them rather similar to your kind. And completely different as well."

Arlas gave his power another pulse, trying to get the energies to align as he needed, when he felt the power snap into what he required. Another deep breath, and then he forced the energies outward, ensnaring all the mon-keigh in the room, and drawing them into his memories.

A/N - Evil cliffhangers ahoy! But I am sure my readers can figure out what was in the ground if they really think about it. Not in the game, but the singing was, and in fact very near where the thresher maw on that planet was found. As usual, Favorite, Review, and Follow, but most importantly, enjoy.