HOLOCAUST

CHAPTER THIRTEEN:

HOPE IN THE DARKNESS

June 8, 2186

1506 hours.

Troop Bay, UT-47A Kodiak Combat Shuttle, Unypz Continent, Sur'Kesh. Fast Approaching Special Tasks Group, Alpha Site.

The Reaper War.

Captain Marcus Lee Shepard, Military Advisor Garrus Vakarian, Master Thief Kasumi Goto, Soldier Javik, Second Lieutenant James Vega, Second Lieutenant Imogen Keeling, Shadow Broker Liara T'Soni, EDI, Chieftain Urdnot Wrex, Flight Lieutenant Steve Cortez.

The shuttle shook violently as the high-speed winds of Sur'Kesh beat against it, shaking the occupants inside it. Marcus gripped the ceiling grip harder than ever, shifting slightly while Cortez, used to this kind of turbulance already, barely moved, just continuing to casually issuing commands to the console infront of him, "We've just passed the atmosphere, and now we should be entering salarian airspace now. Salarian FleetCom has given us the go ahead, so I've set coordinates for Alpha Site. We should be there in just a few minutes."

"Excellent job Cortez," Marcus complimenting, slapping the man's shoulder appreciatively before turning around and heading into the troop bay of the shuttle, where the rest of the squad...and Wrex...were waiting to deploy.

The krogan himself was standing at the end of the bay, silently examining his claymore. Garrus stood next to him, holding one of the ceiling grapples, mattock rifle in his other grip, and James standing similiarly on the other side. Everyone else was seated except EDI, who stood almost rigidly, and Javik, who stood on the other side, near the hatch, watching her with suspicious eyes.

It didn't take long for Marcus to notice Wrex's mischevious look after putting his helmet on, and he quickly took hold of a ceiling grapple as the shuttle shook once more from the turbulance, his voice carrying with it, "This is the salarian homeworld we're on, and a salarian base we'll be landing at," the spectre declared openly, "They aren't used to seeing krogan here, so let's keep it simple," he began to pace along the shuttle, Wrex listening as he slipped a thermal clip into the chamber of his shotgun, "We land, retrieve the females, and leave before anyone changes their mind. You read me, Wrex?"

Wrex, ever suspicious, locked eyes with Marcus, shaking his head as he slammed the chamber shut, and the clip was slipped into firing position with a loud clang, "I still don't trust a word they say."

Marcus nodded, quitting his pacing as he leaned against the outer cockpit bulkhead, "Let diplomacy play its part, Wrex," he smiled at the krogan, "Hopefully, you'll get what you want without violence."

Wrex sighed, nodding, "These females are the first, and probably last, hope for my people," he growled, "I won't allow these pyjaks to keep them away from me. If it comes to needing me to fight them, I will. I'll kill every last one of them to save those females."

"We'll bring them back Wrex," Liara assured, smiling assuredly, "Don't worry."

"Krogan are powerful when they are angry," Javik piped up, "We completely ignored what you call Tuchanka because of this. They would slaughter our teams by the dozen; they were powerful, even then. During that cycle, your kind thrived in the heat; you were the kings of your world, the top carnivores; and Kalros was your protector. Primitive worship, but understandable."

Wrex glared at the prothean, "I still haven't ask just what the hell that thing is, and whether I should blast his little body apart for calling me a 'primitive.'"

"He's a Prothean, Wrex," Marcus explained, "The last of his people."

"Then he'd better keep quiet and stop this primitive nonsense," Wrex snapped, shaking his head as he looked away from the ancient warrior, "I'd hate to kill the pyjak," suddenly remembering what Liara said, he turned to the asari, nodding, "And...thanks Liara; I appreciate that. I wouldn't want anyone else along for the ride."

A loud, fake cough could be heard, and all eyes landed on Garrus, who was currently moving his hand away from his mouth, having successfully drawn their attention.

Wrex chuckled lightly, grinning, "I suppose I can make room for you to, Garrus," his chuckle rised in crescendo, before stopping, the krogan still not letting his little grin drop; if it had been anyone else, they'd have shat themselves seeing such a murderous grin, but to the crew who had worked alongside them; they found it strangely endearing.

Garrus snorted, "Figured you'd gone soft, sitting on that throne," the turian smirked in kind, shaking his head, "Forgotten how to hold a gun."

"Don't tempt me to show you otherwise, dino," Wrex smugly retorted, glancing at his claymore to emphasize his point, "I'm just as deadly as my little quarian niece; and I taught her everything she knows."

Any further response was cut off by Cortez as he called out from the cockpit, "Captain! I have Alpha Site on sensors," he turned back to his console, listening as the sound of Marcus' boots echoing through the cabin signalled his arrival in the cockpit, now standing behind the pilot's seat.

"Set her down," Marcus ordered, turning back to his group, "Remember, keep it simple. Don't draw your-"

Cortez spoke once more, interrupting Marcus, "Captain, STG Ground Control says we don't have clearance to land. They're ordering us to leave their airspace or risk being shot down if we don't comply."

He growled, gripping Cortez's seat, "Tell them Dalatrass Linron authorized this herself, and they are threatening a Council Spectre." By this point, he could see that the shuttle had come to hover over a landing pad on Alpha Site, and that the base was built into the mountain side, surrounded by vegetation and jungle; trees stretching along the landscape, the Pranas Sun beating down on them through the blue sky. Down below, salarian STG members ran about, some looking up at the Alliance shuttle currently hovering over them. Marcus was too busy examining the place to notice Cortez relaying his words.

Or the hatch opening.

"I knew they wouldn't keep their word," Wrex snapped, the sound of a claymore being unholstered being heard, "Let's see them stop a krogan airdrop."

Marcus spun around, running into the troop bay to see the hatch open, Wrex standing at the edge, everyone just looking at him. "Wrex!" he managed to get out just before the hulking krogan leaped out, the sound of concrete cracking below as the 500 pound krogan slammed into the ground, a loud grunt heard. He ran over to the edge, looking down as he saw the krogan battlemaster crouched among a cracked surface. As he came to stand, four STG operatives wearing light white armor came to stand infront of him, drawing their omni-tools. They didn't last long before a biotic blast from the krogan's body sent them flying into the wall, the krogan coming to stand as he drew his claymore. The krogan glared at the numerous salarian reinforcements approaching, daring them to attack as he roared in fury, "And who authorized you to hold my race hostage!"

Suddenly, the battle-hardened warrior froze, a red dot appearing on his crest, followed by five more, and then ten. Marcus recognized them as laser dot sights. Snipers. Great one, Wrex. Just fucking great. Better get down before he does something stupid. Sighing, he leapt from the craft, followed by the rest of his squad, who all came to land next to their krogan friend, surrounding him quickly so as to protect him, Marcus at the front, all of them keeping their weapons holstered so as to not show aggression. Cortez remained hovering over the pad, ignoring the three Union Mantis gunships now aiming their guns at them, coming to hover around them, and 15 STG soldiers, all having drawn their shotguns, pistols and SMGs. Quite the welcome wagon.

"Stand down! Dammit, all of you! Hold your fire!" came a hurried voice, and all eyes, including the salarians', turned to watch another STG operative, this one wearing the same armor except jet black, jogging towards them, his own pistol at his hip and not drawn. He came to stand infront of his men, shaking his head. The salarians lowered their weapons, and the other soldier, obviously their leader, spoke, holding a hand up to cover his face from all the dirt flying up in the air from the kodiak's hovering, "Captain Shepard, restrain your colleague. We only heard about this transfer a minute ago."

Goddamn it, Dalatrass. You're just yanking us around even more. I swear, if the females were moved before we got here, I'm going to find her and fucking kill the bitch. I've had enough of her already. Marcus nodded, stepping forward as he held his hands up in meek surrender, "We'd like to avoid a diplomatic incident."

"As would we," was the commander's simple reply, glad they had reached a compromise, "It would not look good if STG soldiers fired on a Council Spectre."

He nodded, jabbing a finger at the krogan behind him, red dots blinking out as the snipers lowered their rifles or holstered them, "You have something valuable to Wrex."

The krogan quickly added his own two cents worth, "Something worth dying for."

The salarian quickly nodded, "This matter can be resolved," he eyed the krogan with only a tinge of fear, "But I must insist he remain under guard. We can't just have a krogan running around a secure STG facility."

Wrex snarled, moving to push past Marcus to give the salarian a piece of his mind, but the spectre held out his arm, halting the krogan's approach. He looked at him incredulously, but the N7 quickly spun back around to face him, eyes steely, "We can handle this Wrex."

"I need to be there. These are my people," the krogan growled, spitting at the feet of the salarians before them, "And I don't trust any of them. That Dalatrass-"

"Do you trust me, Wrex?"

"I..." the krogan blinked, shaking his head as he frowned at the human, "You're my battle-brother, Shepard. You're my krantt. I trust you with my life."

"Then trust me when I say we will bring these females back," he turned around, gripping the krogan's shoulders tightly, looking up at him, "You promised me the krogan, and now I'm going to promise your people a cure. We'll retrieve them; either diplomatically, or violently."

Wrex eyed the salarians one final time before nodding, posture slouching as he released his grip on the claymore's grip, holding it one-handed, "Okay, Shepard. But if anything goes wrong, all bets are off."

"You bet," he reassured, slapping the krogan on the back as Wrex holstered his claymore and he turned around, motioning his squad to follow him. Before he could however, he found himself at the end of a barrel, the salarian commander shaking his head.

"I must ask the krogan to relinquish his weapon," the salarian stated, "Safety concerns."

"I'll relinquish one shell," the krogan snarled, "Where you do you want-"

"Just do it Wrex," Marcus snapped, "Got enough shit to deal with already."

Muttering under his breath, he unclipped his shotgun from the back of his waist and handed it over to the nearest salarian, who took it and hurriedly backed off in fear of the immense warrior. Marcus nodded his temporary goodbye to the krogan as he motioned for his squad to follow him, the salarians dispersing as only a small squad remained to escort Wrex to a guarded area. The salarian came to stand next to him, walking alongside the human as they walked down a pair of stairs onto the lower platform of the Alpha Site roof.

Alpha Site's exterior was quite large; to their left was a large, glass-paned elevator that moved diagionally up, and hooked up to a bi-rail that would slide it over to a docking area where it would land over to the far right; a control console lay next to it, where three STG were working. The rest of the area was filled with seats, consoles and plants; a waiting area, and numerous salarian operatives mulled about, waiting for their next mission or task. Stairs led to the fair right where doubtless more consoles were located, salarians working on them as well. And directly ahead was a door, a large blast door by the looks of it, that likely lead to an elevator. He could also see what looked like another part of the base on the other side of the canyon, a flock of native Sur'Keshian four-winged birds flying by it. This planet is beautiful; so much like Earth before we covered it in cities. The salarians seemed to have preserved it perfectly.

"I'm Padok Wiks, Director of the Special Tasks Group Intelligence Division of the Salarian Union," the salarian named Padok declared, "And I appreciate your understanding, Captain. With war on everyone's minds, my people are on edge."

They continued past the glass elevator, which was currently lifting a-

Marcus stood dead as he looked at the beast bashing against the electric glass guarded by force fields, roaring its discontent as it was lifted up in its cage to the bi-rail. Its massive form was bigger than a krogan, more menacing, had natural armor, and had a triangle-shaped head. Normally, he shouldn't have been able to recognize it. But he had fought one before. He knew what it was, and it shook him to the bone.

A yahg.

"...I know your every secret, while you fumble in the dark..."

Memories of the battle he had with the Ex-Shadow Broker a year ago flashed to the forefront of his mind, but he drove them down, turning to Liara jokingly, "Recognize our old friend?"

Liara scowled, trying very hard not to look at the beast as it was attached to the bi-rail, the elevator's operators watching its progress carefully, "Yes, and I'd hoped to never see it again."

Padok, noticing where their looks had landed, stopped beside them, "As you can see, this base holds sensitive information. You were let in as a courtesy to the Council; we don't normally permit non-STG access to anyone without a security clearance of Epsilon or higher. Not even Spectres. But if one of the Dalatrasi authorized it herself, then it must be very important."

Marcus turned to the salarian, eyebrow raised, "What kind of work do you do here exactly?" he motioned to the yahg.

Padok responded quickly, almost eagerly, and at a pace that reminded him of Mordin, "Evolutionary trials. Morphological simulations. Exogenetic assessments."

James sighed, rubbing his temples, "Nothing's ever simple with salarians, is it?"

Padok smirked smugly, "Science has always been the Union's best defense, and our greatest offense. The research we do at Alpha Site has kept Sur'Kesh safe for millenia."

Marcus rounded on him, crossing his arms as he noticed the salarian's smirk drop at the action, "Does it include studying lost krogan? Say, female krogan, to be exact?"

Padok knitted his eyebrows, or lack of, and sort've creased the skin where they should be, and quickly explained himself, "The females were in poor health when we found them on Tuchanka; they were brought here to stabilize their condition."

Just as they prepared to continue, they watched one salarian walk by and to a secluded area, and quickly turned as Wrex, unarmed, moved to lean against a wall, another salarian wielding a vindicator aiming at his back as the krogan mumbled, "This whole planet smells wrong."

"Well, as you can see, my friend is a bit restless," the spectre deadpanned, whirling to face the director, "So its best that we see them before we take them. And before you argue, the Dalatrass has already authorized that too, if she's following her word." Which I very much don't trust. At all.

"Of course," Padok agreed, raising his omni-tool, "I'll need to clear you for the lower levels. I might be director, but the lower levels are where our scientists rule; I'll inform our project director and inform him of your coming and see what he says. I see no reason why he wouldn't allow it; he's been quite...protective of them."

"We'll just wait here," Marcus stated.

"Will you Lieutenant Commander?" a voice stated from behind him, "Didn't think of you as a man of idle waiting."

Incredulous, he turned to behold the form of a familiar salarian approaching them, wearing medium salarian-based armor of similiar raven black quality as Padok's, but a hardened, chiseled face on his features. One horn was charred, and as he approached, a smile creased his face.

Seeing he was dismissed, Padok took his leave, heading for the elevator at the end of the area. The salarian STG soldier continued his approach before stopping, holding out his hand in greeting. Marcus eagerly took it.

"Captain Kirrahe!" Marcus greeted in earnest, "How's the years been treating you?"

"Actually, it's Major Kirrahe now," the salarian corrected, "And pretty well, considering the events of Virmire. I'm no longer in command of the Third Infiltration Regiment, but I do command the First Infiltration Division now. How about you Captain? You must be quite busy, given this war with the Reapers."

"More than I'd like, but its helping," Marcus shrugged, "So you've been promoted?"

Kirrahe smiled, nodding as he did, motioning for them to follow him over to the waiting area while Padok submitted the request for access, "Due in no small part to our mission on Virmire three years ago," he laughed lightly, waxing some nostalgia, "'Hold the line.' You saved my men that day, and I've been forever grateful for that. Mordin, Maelon, Rentola and I got off almost unscratched, and with Saren's base a nuclear crater, no less."

Garrus and Liara approached both smiling as the turian spoke, shaking hands with the salarian, "Good to see a friendly face, Major."

Kirrahe smiled back, shaking the turian's hand eagerly, before doing the same with Liara as they stopped near a console, the major leaning against it, "Garrus Vakarian, Liara T'Soni. And I see our occupant over there is Urdnot Wrex," he sniffed, amused, "Yes, definitely Wrex. It seems the Reapers have way of bringing us together in these dark times."

Marcus smiled grimly, nodding, "Yeah, it sure does," he shook his head, removing his helmet as he placed it under his armpit, meeting the STG veteran's eyes, "So...you heard much of these female krogan? What do you think of having them here?"

Kirrahe's smile disappeared, replaced with a frown, "Our scientists say its important to preserve the females. 'Evolutionary paradigms,'" he air quoted the last two words, seeming to disagree with them, "I say...when people know you're hiding something valuable, they'll want to steal it," he gave a non-chalant shrug, "Either way, I have my orders. They'll be your problem soon enough."

"Us old soldiers just following orders. It's all we're good at, eh?" Marcus commented, smiling, "Still, these female krogan will really help with curing the genophage, which in turn will give us the krogan military and strengthen the UGC."

"UGC?" Kirrahe questioned, "I don't believe I've heard that term before."

"The United Galactic Confederacy," he explained, "Its a unification of the entire galaxy to stop the Reapers; at least, that's the plan. We've got the Systems Alliance, Batarian Hegemony, Drell and Hanar Illuminated Primacy and the Elcor in the game, but it seems the asari and your people are remaining sidelined, and the turians and volus will only join if the krogan help the fighting on Palaven, and the krogan will only help if they get a cure. Its quite the conundrum."

"The asari and my own people?" Kirrahe scoffed, "You'd think we'd be better than that; apparently we still think we can beat them on our own. Well," he leaned in close, placing a hand on the captain's shoulder as he squeezed it, "Regardless of what the politicians say, you can count on the salarian First Infiltration Division STG joining your UGC. And with some work, I can get you the entire STG. Padok Wiks is the director, and he's a reasonable man; he will join, regardless of what the Dalatrasi think."

Marcus blinked, surprised by this turn of events, "I...thank you, Major. You've done the right thing. The UGC will benefit by having you involved. However, any orders given by the UGC higher ups will supercede those of the Union, you know that right?"

"What, and you think the Union authorized this pledge of allegiance?" Kirrahe asked jokingly, "Their meddling in bueracracy and blindless to an obvious threat is what's put us in this precarious decision; ignoring their orders will be a blessing. No, the STG will join the UGC and, with luck, the rest of the Union's military will follow."

Before he could speak again, Padok yelled at him from across the yard, "Captain! Permission has been granted by project director. You best enter as quickly as possible. Labs top secret. Maximum security. Priority clearance. Seemed to only let you once he recognized your name."

Marcus nodded, turning to Kirrahe as he held his hand out for the man to shake, but the salarian wasn't looking at him, simply staring at Javik, "Commander, may I ask, just what is that?"

"He's a friend," Marcus stated, somewhat grudgingly.

"A Prothean," Javik added.

Kirrahe wasn't convinced, turning back to Marcus, "Prothean? Of course," he replied sarcastically, "Amazing what they can do with genetic modification these days. Some new...psychological tactic, Captain? Give the Reapers a good scare?" he turned back to Javik, "What are you really? Drell? Turian?"

Javik sounded annoyed by his response, "Prothean."

Realization seemed to cross his face as he looked between the two, seeing their serious faces. His eyes widened temporarily before he coughed, looking back at Marcus, "Ah...I see."

Chuckling, he held out his hand, the salarian taking it as he was still trying to come to grips with the fact that he was in the presence of a person supposed to be long dead, "I hope we meet again Kirrahe. Remember, hold the line."

Kirrahe smiled, snapping a salute, "That's our motto in STG; always be ready for trouble. And if not, then cause trouble for someone else."

And with that, he was gone, rushing up the stairs, barely giving him enough time to ask the salarian what the pistol was he had at his hip; it wasn't of any known type he had seen. Instead, he made his way towards the door, but before he could continue, Kirrahe shouted to him again, and he turned around, watching the salarian snap one final salute.

"For Gunnery Chief Williams," he declared, "STG has not forgotten her sacrifice, and neither have I. She held the line, Captain. You must do the same." And with that, he was finally gone, rounding the corner and disappearing. Marcus simply saluted the empty air, a grim smile on his face before he turned around, and finally met with Padok, who was waiting by the door with two salarian guards wielding vindicator battle rifles.

Padok, seeing him and his squad approach, held a hand up, stopping them before the director then turned around, showing his eye to the retinal scanner on the wall. A blue beam of light scanned his iris and within seconds recognized who he was, the door glowing green before opening. Behind it was a dull grey box, with barely any lighting, but sterile walls that were in line with salarian architecture; not smooth, but completely clean. Meticulous.

They entered the elevator, everyone packing in as Marcus moved in last, taking the front of the group before turning around, facing Padok, who was outside the door, turned towards them, nodding with a solemn expression, the two guards remaining at their posts.

"Take this elevator down. Its been programmed to hit the only level relevant to you, so don't worry about imputting commands," he explained, "The Project Director will meet you below. He will-"

The salarian's words were cut off as a loud klaxon began to blare, followed by a siren howling in the distance, echoing throughout the base as everyone, including Wrex, Marcus and the squad, looked about in confusion. What the hell? Who could be attacking?

Padok's omni-tool beeped, and the confused salarian opened it, yelling over the sirens ringing throughout Alpha Site, "This is Director Wiks, what is going on? Is this a drill? Have Reaper forces made it in system?"

"Negative sir. No Reapers in the system, but the Third and Fourth Fleets were just pulled out of orbit to deal with an enemy presence at the relay; we got a tip from FleetCom," the salarian responded just as loudly, "Something's tripped the perimeter defenses, and AirControl says they've detected a frigate-size vessel heading this way at a slow pace. Should we scramble to counter?"

"Track its progress. If it approaches with hostile intent, shoot it down or disable it," Wiks ordered, "Have the entire base placed on Priority One," turning off his omni-tool, Padok eyed him, giving him a quick nod, "Go, Captain. We'll deal with this."

Just before the door shut, Marcus managed to see and hear Kirrahe ordering his troops to assemble, and watch Wrex argue with his guards for the return of his claymore so he can defend himself. Then all went dark, and the elevator began its descent, leaving its occupants wondering.

Just who would be crazy enough to attack STG Headquarters, on the salarian homeworld?

{Loading...}

June 8, 2186

1518 hours.

Experimentation and Control Wing, STG Alpha Site, Unypz Continent, Sur'Kesh.

The Reaper War.

Captain Marcus Lee Shepard, Military Advisor Garrus Vakarian, Master Thief Kasumi Goto, Soldier Javik, Second Lieutenant James Vega, Second Lieutenant Imogen Keeling, Shadow Broker Liara T'Soni, EDI.

The elevator continued in silence, the object itself seeming to give no noise at all as it proceeded into the belly of the base. Eventually, they felt it stop, and the doors shot open, revealing a brighty lit room walled by, you guessed it, more sterile walls. The tiles on the floor were familiar, and he recognized them as the ones seen in the still images Wrex had gotten from his inside source. They were on the upper level; two pairs of stairs, one on each side of the room, lead to a second level where numerous container pods lined the walls, again, like the ones from the images. Salarian scientists mulled about doing their work, working at numerous consoles and terminals lining the room, some pondering, others lecturing.

Marcus seemed to find the project director instantly; a pair of salarians obscured him from sight however, obviously speaking with him. Finally, the salarian moved out of the way, "All specimens accounted for sir, as per protocol."

The project director, wearing an armoured, white labcoat, a metal ring surrounding his neck, and one horn missing, was uncanningly recognizable in an instant. Liara and Garrus stared agape at him, Kasumi grinned, James and Keeling looked unimpressed, as did Javik, and Marcus simply chuckled.

A grin broke across Mordin Solus' face as he approached them, "Shepard. Excellent timing. Good to have you here." He said all of this in his usual rapidfire tone; something that those who worked with him immediately recognized and found stangely endearing.

"Mordin!" Marcus greeted, holding out his hand as the salarian professor willingly took it, shaking it eagerly as his smile turned into a professional grin.

"Eyesight still sharp," the salarian stated dryly, and Marcus had to roll his eyes at the comment as their hands dropped to their respective sides, "Surprise understandable. Hadn't expected to return to work."

"You're back with STG?" Garrus asked, still shocked from the surprise reunion.

"Special consultant," Mordin replied, smiling, "Had to be me, someone else might have gotten it wrong." Marcus smiled at the salarian's iconic line, seeing it had become something of a motto for him; words to live by. But he was still slightly confused.

"Wait, Mordin, last we spoke, you said you were going to try and cure the genophage with the data Maelon gave you."

Mordin nodded, turning to make sure noone was looking before leaning in, whispering, "Helped female krogan. Fed information to Clan Urdnot. Encouraged political pressure to release females," he smiled, "Never stopped looking for cure, have been looking for time to synthesize. Still have data on me. No time to do so. Will get around to it. Reaper invasion has made time short however." The salarian took a moment to take a long breath, something he did inbetween long-winded outbursts.

Marcus sighed happily as the salarian leaned back, crossing his arms, "You're Wrex's inside source. Why am I not surprised?"

"Shouldn't be. No me too well. Did not expect surprise," he replied, shaking his head as he turned around, motioning for them to follow him as he made his way over to the other side of the room, "Cannot talk about it here. Security levels not normal. Must get offworld for sake of krogan."

Marcus nodded, following the crazy salarian as the rest of his squad followed, coming into step next to him as he continued to speak, this time in a more solemn, sorrowful tone, "Females had weakened immune systems, much like quarians. Side effect of Maleon's cure."

They came to stop behind the containment pods in the images, and Marcus' heart stopped as Mordin leaned against the console, voice apologetic, "Couldn't save them."

Liara gasped, and the squad saw what lay before them; long lines of pods that once held krogan female prisoners, now held their dead bodies, covered in white sheets out of respect for their corpses. Marcus inwardly cursed, not liking the implications of this; he was glad Wrex wasn't here. He'd have chucked a fit. Probably killed Mordin too. Fuck! Now how the hell do we find a cure! Those females were our only chance! Why can't anything go right for once!?

"But Maleon's data should have been enough to save them!" Marcus objected, dropping his helmet.

"Yes, but data not complete. Missing crucial details to reconstruct cure. But still useful to synthesize from living tissue. Still couldn't save them however. Immune systems and exposure killed them. Suits could not be procured. However, not all hope lost. Still one living female. Immune system weakened, but not severely enough for major infection to open exposure. Still lives. Can synthesize cure from her tissue. Must ensure her safety."

Marcus turned to him hopefully, quickly snatching his helmet as he pulled it back on, "Show me."

Mordin nodded, quickly rushing down the stairs, not giving them much time to follow or not; so they did so anyway. They quickly found themselves on the lower level, approaching a very particular console where one container pod lay, attached to the glass-paned elevator he saw before; likely recently loaded onto it. And inside the pod, was the last hope for the krogan people. Their hope in the darkness.

"Last hope for krogan," Mordin stated, "Cannot die. If she does, genophage cure...problematic."

Marcus examined her, having never seen a female krogan before. She wasn't much different from her male counterpart, and unlike most females in the galaxy, she did not sport any noticable breasts of any kind. Her head was covered in a purple draping, as was the rest of her body, all of it covered in unique patterns and symbols, Marcus finding it oddly alluring. Her legs were thinner than a male's, but still strong, and her eyes were just piercing; just as intimidating. Hell, she was the same size as Wrex practically. Are all females as big as Wrex, or just her?

Slowly, he began to approach, his squad staying and Mordin's warning going unnoticed, "Careful. Krogan slow to trust."

He came to a stop, realizing the female was awake and watching his every move. Clearing his throat and gulping, he spoke, his voice professional and unwavering, "I'm Captain Marcus Shepard, Special Tactics and Reconissance, and Systems Alliance Navy and Marine Corps."

The female's voice was surprisingly deep for a woman, not very feminine, but it did have a certain...womanly quality to it as well, "Are you here to kill me?" Her voice was cautious, blunt and very secure. She didn't seem to fear the prospect of it. Yet again, this was a krogan they were talking about.

EDI spoke from off to the side, "According to the readings Director Solus has just uploaded to my software, it would seem that the female krogan has suffered numerous stress fractures, precision cuts along her spleen, and an attempted entry below her crest. She has also suffered numerous internal hemorrphages."

"Goddess..." Liara silently exclaimed, "What she's been through..."

Marcus shut their voices out, concentrating only on the krogan before him, "Urdnot Wrex, a friend of mine, and I are here to take you home. I've given my name, but I don't know you, Miss...?" The krogan did not answer, so he turned to Mordin, eyebrow raised.

"Call her Eve," he replied, "Was unwilling to provide real name. Did not trust me. Understandable, if misguided."

"'Eve?'" he questioned, confused, "Care to tell me what she has to with that particular human folktale?"

"Considering religious beliefs, surprised at this labelling," Mordin exclaimed, shaking his head, "Human folktale of Eve being the mother of humanity. This female mother of krogan; will give them new life. Provide them a cure. Seemed fitting."

"Right," he turned back to the krogan nicknamed Eve, sighing as he spoke, "Eve, we're going to take you home."

"Why?" Eve replied, again, very bluntly, "What am I to you?"

"The last hope for an entire people. Your people," he spoke poetically, "You could be their last chance for a cure to your thousand year nightmare. Eve, Wrex and I will return you home so you can cure the genophage."

"And do you believe this a worthy cause?" Eve asked.

"I do," Marcus narrowed his eyes, "I would even die to make sure your plight is vanquished."

"We shall see," Eve cautiously replied. But before anything further could be said, the base gave a shake, dust falling from the ceiling. Another shake, and this time the sound of an explosion was heard and if anything, his veteran hearing immediately recognized the thump, thump, thump of gunfire up above. Alpha Site's under attack. Damn it. Klaxons blared throughout the silence lab as the guards rushed to their posts, ready to defend the scientists from enemy assault.

"This is Director Wiks!" came the salarian's voice over the PA, "A Cerberus frigate has breached the perimeter! We are under bombardment! All readiness teams, we are now on Combat Readiness 2. Get to positions and repel the enemy attack!"

Cerberus? For fuck sake. What the hell could they possibly want here? His eyes then landed on the krogan. No, they couldn't want her, right? What would they do with a female kro-no, the Reapers want her dead so that the genophage cure doesn't happen...that's why they're attacking.

The room turned into chaos as numerous STG operatives, scientists and soldiers alike, moved about, prepared to deal with the sudden Cerberus surprise assault. Suddenly, all power shut off, before coming back on, a salarian in the background shouting, "All outbound communication has been cut off!"

They must have lured the salarian fleet away with a false warning of Reaper attack and then cut off communications to stop Alpha Site calling for help. Then they attacked; they must be desperate to get this krogan before we do, or snatch her from us now that we have her.

His omni-tool began to beep, and he opened to see a view of Wrex, Cortez behind him as the hulking krogan now sat in the pilot's seat, Cortez looking petrified and annoyed all at the same time. He heard the shuttle's engines roaring, and watched it tilt as the krogan spoke, flying away, "Shepard! Cerberus troops are attacking the base. They're all over the place, and the salarians are getting overrun. They've got gunship support, but it won't last forever. You need get the females out of there now!"

Marcus sighed as he rubbed his temples, cursing silently once more, "Only one of them survived, Wrex. It might be safer down here. Secure the area, then we'll bring her up when-"

"We will not wait! Especially if there is only one left!" Wrex growled, pointing an accusing finger, "You want your coalition? You want the krogan? Then get her out of there alive! I'm in the shuttle, I'll wait up here to pick you up."

"It'll get done Wrex," he replied through gritted teeth, "I promised," he then shut off the display, putting his helmet back on after having absentmindedly taking it off, turning to the salarian at the control console, "Release Eve. We need to extract her."

The salarian shook his head, not even turning towards him, "I can't. Protocol dictates, that during lockdown, containment of all specimens is a-"

"Yes yes, duly noted. Protocol irrelevant. Sorry, must do this. Hope you understand. Galactic survival at stake. Absolutely necessary. STG initiative."

The salarian suddenly spasmed as he fell onto the console, body jerking and shaking violently as he flew off and onto the ground, continuing to spasm from the electricity shooting through him. Shocked, Marcus looked up to see Mordin now typing into the console.

"Is he going to be okay?" Marcus asked, "He's not dead, is he?"

"Of course not. Minor overload. Lowered the clocking slightly. Meant to paralyze, not harm. Will wake up. Acts as a tazer. Very useful," he heaved in a large breath, smiling as he typed a final command into the terminal, door to the control console sliding open, stepping inside, "Gives us time to escape. Eve's survival crucial. Loss of her will doom krogan race. Cannot allow that to happen. Swore personal oath."

As the door shut, he turned around, typing into the elevator's controls. Marcus frowned at him, misunderstanding, "And what personal oath was that, Mordin?"

"The same one I made to you," the scientist stated, "Cure the genophage. Correct mistake. Thousand years of suffering; was ignorant. Ignored reality, focused on simulations. Believed Union propaganda. Indoctrinated by salarian government. Not anymore. Will change. Must change," he sighed, eying Marcus fully, "Will end what I modified. Not a search for redemption; search for truth. For correction."

"You've changed alot Mordin," Marcus grinned.

"Had to be me," he replied, focused as he turned to Eve, smiling slightly in warmth, "Someone else might have gotten it wrong."

"What are you planning to do, Mordin?" he asked, now pulling his rifle out as his squad followed his example, priming their weapons as another explosion rocked the base, "She's a sitting duck down here, and she'll be open season up there."

He knocked a three-fingered hand on the glass next to him, "Glass deceptive. Powered by mass effect forcefields. Very powerful. Strong as cruiser's shielding. Impenetrable," he went back to his console, "However, suspect Cerberus have other methods. Will know this. Attempt a less direct approach. Will need combat support," he met Marcus' eyes, smiling, "The very best needed."

He nodded, understanding what he meant, "Get it to the top, and we'll be waiting there for you. We'll hold off Cerberus for as long as we can."

"Woo-hoo! Finally!" James cheered, the sound of a Revenant being loaded being heard, "Time to kick some more pro-human ass!"

"Don't get ahead of yourself, Vega," Keeling warned, "Protection of Eve is our only priority."

"Killjoy," James mumbled.

"Cut the chatter," Marcus snapped, turning back to Mordin as he saw the elevator begin to rise, "We'll see you up top, Mordin. Stay safe," before he turned, he gave his parting words, "And it's good to see you again."

"Yes yes, time for sentimenality later. Eve in danger," the salarian waved a dismissive hand, "Nostalgia dangerous in battle. Can kill. Well aware of this. Worked in STG. Well accustomed to it." And then, the salarian was gone, disappearing as the elevator rose beyond sight.

He turned to his squad, quickly dishing out orders, "Everybody, hit the elevator! We need to get topside, pronto!"

With him in front, EDI and Garrus at his flanks and the rest on his rear, they rushed towards the elevator, finding a few salarian technicians around it, trying open it with their omni-tools as the elevator's red symbol refused to give. A few salarian soldiers were huddled around it, ready to enter the elevator with his squad after the hack was complete.

One salarian cried out victory as the symbol finally turned green, and the door shot open...

...only to find its interior covered in C7 explosives, all beeping to climax.

His squad was far enough away that the blast merely sent them flying into the wall, but the salarians were not so lucky. They were completely consumed by the tidal wave of fire that washed over them, the elevator ripped to shreds as it was completely shorn apart from the colossal explosion. Debris rained everywhere and ontop of the survivors, having shaken the supports. Groaning, Marcus managed to work his way to his feet, moving over and helping James up as the rest of his squad got up, dusting themselves off. Turning, he was welcomed by a gruesome sight.

The elevator was non-existent, completely awash with flames, and some of the walls around it had been scorched and blown apart as well. Debris lay everywhere, as did tiny individual fires, but the most gruesome were the charred corpses laying around, with some still alive and screaming as their armor either fused with their skin, or the flames licked across their skin, comrades rushing to put the flames out. Others were reduced to pieces of cauterized legs, arms and sometimes even heads, all of them roasted by the blast. Green blood painted the walls almost completely, ruining their sterile quality. And the smoke wafting from the lift was choking them; it was horrible.

"Captain Shepard!" one salarian called out, and they turned around to meet him as he pointed to a door at the other side of the room, "There's stairs outside! You'll have to reach the topside landing area manually, but it's better than being stuck down here. And hurry, Cerberus forces are converging on this location!"

Marcus nodded, patting the man's shoulder before rushing past him to the otherside, his squad in tow.

As they moved through the door, Wrex's voice came through the comms, "Shepard! I've got the shuttle and I'm airborne; got a few Cerberus gunships on my tail and I'm going to try and lose them. Do whatever it takes to get the female to the landing pad! I'll do what I can to make life miserable for Cerberus!"

"Copy that Wrex!" he cried out in reply, and he quickly rushed up to the ladder at the end, holstering his weapon as he began to climb each rung to the top, everyone else following in single file.

Reaching the top, he moved to step through the open doorway ahead, where the otherside of the base was framed perfectly, but stopped when a stray gunshot pinged off the wall, the sounds of both Cerberus and salarian soldiers alike crying out orders or screaming as they were shot. Peeking around the corner, he watched as the forms of five Cerberus assault troopers, all of them screening a centurion, moved forward, their avenger assault rifles ripping into a trio of STG soldiers attempting to hold position. They didn't stand a chance, as the salarians were quickly overwhelmed, green blood running through the upturned tiles.

He motioned to James and EDI, and together they popped out, weapons raised. Marcus fired the first shot, drawing the attention of the centurion as his shot hit dead center in the leader's shields, the man surprised by the sudden attack. James followed up with a long wave of bullers from his LMG, completely tearing apart the coverless assault troopers as all five just fell to the ground in a heap. Unable to do anything, the centurion fired at EDI, only for his shots to ping harmlessly off her armor and to get three SMG bursts in the shields in response, downing them. Completely vulnerable, Marcus shot him through the head, ending him.

After a quick reload, he surveyed the area, sighing. The sounds of gunfire, explosions, shouting and sirens could be heard throughout the canyon, both sides coming under massive assault as Cerberus kodiak shuttles swept through the area, deploying troops all over while the Cerberus frigate, the CAW Majestic, hung over them, occassionally firing at the base with its pulse lasers, and deploying the odd gunship or shuttle. Many parts of the base were littered with craters, caved in walls and destroyed subsections, flames and smoke rising from all of them. Salarians lay where their defense wasn't being held, having fallen to enemy assault. Marcus shook his head, silently fuming. Sur'Kesh is safe from the Reaper War...but they aren't safe from Cerberus. Those bastards will do anything to stop me.

The centurion's radio could be heard sparking, and he turned in time to watch Javik pry it from the man's helmet, holding it for everyone to hear, "All teams, converge on Level 4. Target has moved, repeat, target has moved! Shepard's here, damn it! All teams available, deploy to Level 4 and intercept the salarian! We've got it pinned!"

'It?' Oh fuck you. Suddenly, as if sensing what they were listening, Mordin's voice popped up in his comm as Javik tossed the radio away, "Shepard! Need assistance! Cerberus forces have locked down elevator on-"

"-Level 4. Yeah, we know. They've got all their forces converging on your location," he declared, "We're on Level 5. We're coming to you. Stay put. We'll be right there."

"Yes. Will keep Eve safe," Mordin simply replied before disconnecting. Without further mucking around, Marcus motioned them forward, and they moved through the devastated installation.

They were nearing the end, where a door lay waiting, numerous dead salarians laying around. I wonder if Kirrahe is still alive among all of this?

Just as they reached the door, they heard the distinctive roar of a kodiak get louder until it appeared right over them, hatch shooting open as a squad of Cerberus soldiers waited inside to deploy. "There's Shepard!"

Marcus shouted at his team to enter cover as the first three assault troopers hit the ground, immediately emptying their clips into their cover to keep his team pinned. The centurion quickly followed, along with two guardians, five more assault troopers and one phantom. The phantom in particular turned to the centurion, "Keep them pinned!" it said, feminine voice distorted by cybernetics, much like the men around her. And then, she was gone, activating her cloak. He heard Kasumi mumble something like 'no longer having the monopoly' and he would have smiled, if it hadn't been for the cybernetically-enhanced ninja with a katana and a cloak running about.

Without hesitation, he motioned to Garrus to take care of the centurion while he ordered Keeling and James to get behind him and cut into the assault troopers. He ordered Javik to cover Kasumi while the thief moved in behind the guardians, and for Liara to keep an eye on their flank for the phantom.

The firefight was short and to the point. The centurion's head quickly disappeared in red and black mist as Garrus' shot hit dead on the mark, the sniper never failing to impress. James' Revenant roared a constantly stream of bullets while Marcus' and Keeling's rifles gave a steady staccato beat, tearing apart two troopers as the others slipped into cover, but that didn't stop James as he simply ripped a frag grenade from his bandolier and chucked it behind the enemy line, hearing it detonate and tear apart two more troopers, leaving only the three, who quickly raised from cover to return fire. One's head erupted into gore as Garrus locked onto him, and the last two suffered similiar, less spectacular deaths from Marcus' mattock and Keeling's valkyrie.

Kasumi managed to cloak and sneak up behind the guardians with no issues, cleverly sticking a frag grenade onto the inside of one guardian's shield, kicking him away and then emptying her SMG into the side of the head of the second, his shield protecting her as the first guardian exploded, the blast shredding his body to pieces and sending her flying across the ground to bump into a pillar. Garrus seemed to twitch in alarm, but seeing her groan and get up, mumbling at how much she hated being thrown around, he saw she was okay, and calmed down, focusing again.

Seeing the enemy neatralized, and the shuttle retreating, Marcus prepared to move forward, his mouth opening to issue orders when he heard the sound of a cloak dissipating behind him. Acting quickly, he rolled forward as he heard the sound of a blade whoosing forward, hearing it scrape against the back of his armor as it missed gutting him by the breadth of a hair. Standing up from his roll, he snapped around to take aim with his rifle, only for the phantom to enter cloak again and disappear. He cursed his luck, sweeping the area with his rifle, as did the rest of them.

The phantom reappeared once more, this time behind Javik as it fired its palm cannon, destroying the prothean's shields instantly before he could turn around. He moved to raise his particle rifle, but stopped when the phantom was suddenly wrapped in a blue aura and then flung violently into a wall, where she fell back down to the ground, sword clanging next to her. Javik turned to Liara, who gave him a smug smile; one the prothean promptly ignored.

This gave James no end of amusement, "Saved my a primitive," he bit his lower lip as he suppressed a laugh, "Ouch..."

The phantom grunted, moving to get up as it reached for its sword. Picking it up, he stood at full height, reading its palm cannon, everyone raising their rifles as it took aim at Kasum-

A loud thrung, like the sound of metal bending back and forth rapidly, could be heard as a constant stream of whitish-green light pulsed and impacted the phantom in the chest, vaporizing its mediocre kinetic barriers in seconds and slamming into its belly. The Cerberus assassin screamed as the weapon melted through her armor, skin, muscle and bone; boiling her insides as her red life source splattered the wall behind her, now so boiling hot it was acting as acid, scorching the wall as it landed. The weapon arched upwards, burning her like white phosphorous, and finally ended at her end, which was melted into a pulp of white-hot jagged bone, torn muscle and dripping blood before her body finally collapsed, having stopped screaming after the rifle carved through her heart. As the body slumped to the ground, melted, they heard the sound of hissing, and turned to see Javik, rifle in hand, as it ejected the spent energy in a boiling hot fog; arching out of the barrel like smoke before the weapon closed shut, and the weapon resumed normal operation.

"Holy shit, amigo!" James shouted in shock and awe, "Holy fucking shit! I need myself one of those babies."

"It is a particle rifle. Standard issue among all warriors of the Empire in my cycle," the prothean rolled his eyes, "It is disappointing that your cycle has not grasped the concept of particle weaponry yet. Primitives."

Everyone simply rolled their eyes as they suddenly remembered that their friend needed help. But as they were moving towards the door, they could hear shudders, the sound of pipelines shattering, and numerous cascading explosions as something large approached. By the sounds of it, it was huge.

"Spirits, I don't like the sound of that..." Garrus exclaimed as they palmed the door interface and moved through.

The small corridor was occupied by two Cerberus assault troopers, a guardian, two centurions and a combat engineer, who had seemed to be setting up a choke point with a turret when his squad arrived, and all turned to them, baring their weapons. But time seemed to freeze as the sound of the large presence approaching seemed to halt, intensifying until it was right infront of them.

The wall on the right seemed to explode outwards, showering the terrorist soldiers in debris and twisted steel. A mighty roar rocked them as the perpretrator showed himself, a large, unarmoured and unclothed yahg bursting through as he swiped his arm done, one trooper disappearing as he was crushed. His other arm swiped outwards, sending the two centurions flying away, and he quickly grabbed the shield from the guardian, tossed it away and slammed the soldier into a wall, killing him. The combat engineer attempted to raise his pistol to fire, but the yahg opened its mouth and clamped down shut over his head, ripping it off in a fountain of red ichor. Spitting what was left of the man's head out, the yahg, simply turned to Marcus' squad, growling. His team had its weapons raised, ready to fire, but the yahg simply snarled at them before turning the other way and bursting through the wall at the end, continuing its murderous rampage. The squad lowered their weapons, examining the carnage before them, the turret now all alone; mangled and reduced to twisted metal.

"There goes the next Shadow Broker," Marcus quipped, shaking his head as he moved forward, eying the stairs on the end right, his squad quickly following behind them.

Garrus joined in. "I swear he was muttering 'T'Soni' as he snarled at us."

"Not funny," was Liara's deadpan response as they moved up the stairs to Level 4.

{Loading...}

June 8, 2186

1531 hours.

Checkpoint 4, STG Alpha Site, Unypz Continent, Sur'Kesh.

The Reaper War, Cerberus Raid on Sur'Kesh.

Captain Marcus Lee Shepard, Military Advisor Garrus Vakarian, Master Thief Kasumi Goto, Soldier Javik, Second Lieutenant James Vega, Second Lieutenant Imogen Keeling, Shadow Broker Liara T'Soni, EDI.

"Shepard, Cerberus has elevator surrounded! Require assistance!"

"We're with you Mordin," Marcus stated simply, rounding the corner with his shotgun bared, locking onto the nearest enemy; which just happened to be a Nemesis in cover, "We'll provide you some support. EDI, get over there and override Cerberus' hack."

His claymore shotgun barked, the recoil backing into his arm but not dislocating it like it would others, and he watched the mutilated form of the Cerberus sniper fly back into a wall, torn apart by the shell and he quickly reloaded, rolling into cover as his squad dealt equal amounts of death across the devastated room, covering EDI as she made her way over to the console next to Mordin's and Eve's elevator.

It took Cerberus a second to realize the turn of events, and in that time, his squad had managed to push them back and outside the checkpoint room. Three guardians managed to hold for a while before Garrus pulled out his sniper rifle and sighted through the slit holes, taking them down, one by one.

"Reinforcements are here!" Liara shouted, and he turned to watch a Union gunship reverse in an alcove behind them, a squad of salarian STG soldiers in medium armor and carrying rifles deploying, immediately firing on the Cerberus positions as they approached to bolster Shepard's squad.

Javik's rifle barked once more, a constant stream working itself into a centurion's face this time, reducing his head to molten slag before he fell to the ground, dead. The rifle's energy not yet spent, he stopped and then fired again as he swept the beam across the bellies of two relocating assault troopers, killing them instantly as their molten intestines collapsed from their open chests, spilling onto the floor as they did. This caused Cerberus to try and fall back, but all this dead was leave them open for the salarians to pour fire into their backs, vanquishing them.

Cerberus reinforcements quickly arrived in the form of three kodiaks, rapidly deploying their squads before heading off back to their mothership. These squads learnt quickly, and utilized their cover much more efficiently, preparing to open fire on EDI when the sound of whirring could be heard, and then Mordin's smiling voice came through his comm.

"EDI did excellent job. Elevator up and running again. Will meet you on landing pad."

"Wait Mordin," he turned to the salarian, suddenly very curious, "Just how the hell did Cerberus find out about this transfer? They couldn't have known there was a female krogan here or what our objective was, and no salarian would willingly sell information to a pro-human terrorist organization."

"Possible mole in STG. Could be indoctrinated," the salarian surmized as the elevator was almost out of sight, switching to comms to finish his deduction, "Will not know now. No longer important. Eve must be extracted."

"Copy," he switched off his comms, turning to the salarian team, "You here to help us?"

"Negative," one salarian declared, motioning his squad to take positions and for his techs to head for the terminals, "We have our orders from Director Wiks. Purge this area of information and move on. We cannot allow Cerberus to gain sensitive information from this base."

They're not here for the information. They're here for Eve. "Very well, soldier. Let's deal with these troopers so we can continue."

Cerberus was much more well fortified at this point, with two turrets deployed on each side of the entrance to the next corridor. He could hear one of the squad's centurions shouting out orders, "Sir, they're heading up to the next level! Should we engage?"

The centurion never got an answer a grenade landed next to him, tossed by Marcus, and it detonated, colouring the walls with his remains. The attack tore off limps from several other troopers around him, and the remainder watched in horror as their turret was hacked by EDI, their combat engineer unable to retake it, and it turned on them, tearing them to shreds as they attempted to fall back or disable it.

With the turret now friendly, Marcus moved forward, motioning for Javik and Liara to follow behind him, James, Keeling, Garrus, Kasumi and EDI keeping the other side occuped in the mean time. Holstering his rifle and bringing his SMG to bear, he brought out his omni-blade in the other one and swung around the corner, Javik's particle rifle keeping him covered while his blade sunk deep into the chest of an unsuspecting dragoon that had been trying to sneak up on him. What a lucky hit.

Tearing the blade out, he proceeded to turn around, only to find himself wrapped in another dragoon's biotic aura, and tossed away like a rag doll to land at the feet of a guardian. The shock trooper lifted his shield with the intention of crushing him with it, but quickly found himself losing balance as a biotic warp knocked him aside, followed by a burst of SMG fire biting into his back, killing him. He rolled onto his side to see Liara holding a hand out to help him up, and he gratefully took it.

As he turned, he saw Javik finish the rest of the enemy squad with his rifle, cutting through them like cheese. And as he turned, he saw that his squad was having no trouble picking off the second squad, having almost dealt with them when the third squad abruptly broke off, centurion leading the way, as they disengaged from the battlefield and began to head for the stairs at the end. Marcus instantly realized where they were headed.

"Oh no you don't!" Came Wrex's voice over the comms, and before he knew what the krogan meant by that, the centurion became a thick red fog, the Wrex-controlled Normandy shuttle coming to cover before the Cerberus squad, who seemed suddenly confused. Not giving them time to collect themselves, Wrex fired up the shuttle's cannons once more, red hot shells popping the soldiers like balloons, sending jets of red up into the air, or splashing onto the ground. Either way, it was a bloodbath, and by the time Wrex finished, the entire Cerberus squad was just...gone.

"You're welcome Shepard," Wrex dryly stated, "I need to get going; got a pyjak on my tail." As if to punctuate his point, a rocket streamed past the shuttle, slamming into a wall and causing it to explode outward, and the shuttle quickly turned and shot off, a Cerberus A-67 Mantis in close pursuit.

"Let's keep going," Marcus ordered, catching his breath as the others finished up and caught up, "We need to get off this planet as fast as possible."

They quickly approached the end, meeting no further resistance from Cerberus forces, but they did encounter more dead STG troops. But luckily, this time, there was a few Cerberus dead to make up for it, and some of them were even centurions and guardians, even including a single dragoon, slumped against a console and his entire back torn open, as if hit by a high-powered explosive.

They continued through the door, Marcus turning left and seeing a pair of stairs leading up to the next level. He motioned for them to follow, and he heard Garrus' low growl, as if angered by all he had seen, "Cerberus is pretty serious about this. I mean...they lured an entire fleet away and risked an attack on the salarian homeworld. The Illusive Man must be desperate to stop us."

"They're capable of anything," Marcus agreed as they climbed the stairwell.

As they climbed, they could hear a grunt, followed by a few brief bouts of gunfire. An explosion soon followed, initiated by what seemed to be a loud, instant beep. The sound of melee combat could be heard, along with the grunts of Cerberus soldiers as they exerted effort in taking out their target. Must be a tough bastard.

Reaching the top, they turned left, and their eyes immediately found four dead assault troopers, along with a single centurion slumped against a wall, helmet ripped off and face caved in. Looking up, they saw another dead trooper, and just in time, they watched a familiar salarian grab the shoulders of the last assault trooper, who was winded, and drive a knee into his face, knocking the man unconscious as he fell backwards, hitting the ground with a thump as EDI finished him off with a clip to the face.

Seeing and hearing the gunshot connect, the salarian turned around, odd white pistol in hand but stopped when he saw Marcus, smiling, "Captain, glad you're here. Seems like Virmire all over again; except we're the ones under attack."

"Seems like it," Marcus replied, "I was wondering if you were still alive, Major. Good to see you are."

Kirrahe nodded, a grim smile on his face, "My squad is dead, but I managed to get one of those biotic ones down below."

"Wait, those dead soldiers down there...that was your squad and your kills?"

Kirrahe's smile only widened, "We salarians are harder than we look, Captain. But these Cerberus bastards are a tough nut to crack, as you humans would say," he peeked around the corner, shooting back at what he saw, "We've got a Cerberus squad at the end of the hall; one combat engineer deploying a turret, with one centurion, three guardians, a nemesis and six assault troopers; all of them taking up defensive positions. They'll have a good choke point if we stay here. We need to retreat."

He placed a hand on Kirrahe's chest to halt the salarian's fall back, his eyes meeting the major's, "We need to continue this way, Major. We're currently extracting the last hope for the krogan people and we need to be on that landing pad when Mordin and the subject arrives."

"Wait, Solus is here? Sneaky man, Solus is. Managed to be present without me knowing," he shook his head, "Very well, Captain."

"Now we just need to figure out how to get past-"

"That problem has already solved itself, Captain," Kirrahe stated, and as the spectre watched, he walked right out into the open, taking aim at the squad with his pristine white weapon, still curious at what it was.

"I don't-" he began, but what was cut off as the pistol gave four, simple thumps, like that of a grenade launcher, and he turned the corner to watch the projectiles, which were small, white-bluish brightly glowing balls of light, come to land. One stuck onto the head of the combat engineer, another stuck bypassed the slit of a guardian and stuck to his head, another stuck to the Nemesis' foot, and the final one impacted the barrel of the centurion's mattock. The rest was worthy of inducing epileptic seizures.

Detonating in cascading balls of blue fire, the projectiles reduced their recipients to chunks of meat as the entire upper torso of the combat engineer and guardian was torn apart, the Nemesis was totally shredded from the neck down, and the centurion's front body was torn asunder, metal twisted and ripped. Shouts of shock went through them, and Garrus whistled as Marcus moved out, squad following, and quickly dispatching the surprised soldiers. They were eliminated in seconds, the turret already dealt with by the first explosion.

"I need one of those," Garrus stated, continuing to admire the weapon.

Kirrahe, seemingly smug, holstered his unique weapon, and James couldn't help but ask, his obsession with weapons bettering him, "What in the world was that? That was some sick shit."

"Scorpion heavy pistol, salarian design," Kirrahe quickly explained, "Special forces weapon for Special Tasks Group. Although I've heard it's going to be entering all militaries now, with this war going on," he turned to Marcus, motioning for him to continue, "Come on, follow me. I'll show you a shortcut to the landing pad."

He nodded, motioning for the squad to follow Kirrahe. The salarian in question made his way over to a door on the right, bringing up his omni-tool and uploading his special security codes to the door. Shooting open, they marched through, running up the corridor and up the stairs to Level 2, where they found more Cerberus soldiers.

Dealing with them was easy, and they soon found it to be a game of finding the right way up. After moving through numerous corridors, they finally found themselves following Kirrahe up a ladder and onto the upper platform of the landing pad they had been on before, Marcus immediately recognizing the reception area from before.

As they revived, they saw Mordin preparing to open the pod, only to stop as gunfire poured into the shielded glass, the salarian quickly finding that the entire area was swarming in Cerberus, having been taken from the STG ages ago. But that didn't mean it would stay that way.

Suddenly, Marcus stopped as he watched a black armoured form uncloak, katana like weapon in hand and eyes covered with black apparations, mouth creased in a sneer. He had black hair tied in a pony tail, with asian features and tanned skin. He moved with grace and precision, and Marcus couldn't help but recognize his profile from the Cerberus database back on Eden Prime.

"That's Kai Leng," Marcus hissed, turning to his squad and Kirrahe, brandishing his weapon, "The man who murdered Shala's husband. He's mine."

The group nodded, along with Kirrahe, who may not have understood who Shala was, but knew a personal vendetta when he saw one. Turning to James, he took the man's Revenant, handing him his mattock temporarily as his squad took up position around the unsuspecting Cerberus troops.

As he took his own position, Marcus could hear Leng snarling at Mordin, "Open the damn door frog, and maybe both your deaths will be quick and painless."

"Believes insults will move me. Idiotic. Blinded by racism. Typical of Cerberus ignorance," Mordin replied, clearly not feeling very threatened.

"Very well," Leng hissed, shaking his head, "You want to do it the hard way, then we'll oblige. The hard way it is. Men, kill them. Both. I'm going to find and deal with-"

"-looking for me, scumbag?"

Leng whirled on the spot in time to see a Revenant aimed straight at him and pouring bullets into him. His kinetic barriers were annihilated, but he was able to escape the storm of bullets, rushing off into cover as Marcus continued to fire, face contorted in rage. The rest of the squad plus Kirrahe raised and began to fire in unison, taking the Cerberus forces completely by surprise.

The centurion's head was reduced to a pile of gore, and five assault troopers gunned down haplessly as they all tried to seek cover, but unable to find any, as all of it was useless against an elevated enemy. All the guardians fell very quickly, and the two Nemesis' fell almost instantly, their sniper rifles useless in CQB. One by one, they fell, and Marcus could see Leng getting angrier and angrier at the sight. Finally, when the last trooper fell, Marcus stopped firing, glaring at the cover the assassin was using.

"Give it up Leng," Marcus snarled, reloading his weapon as he approached the man's cover, "It's over. You've got nowhere to go, and I'm going to kill you regardless, so why don't you come out and fight me. Or do you like fighting men who can't fight back?"

"You dribble about nonsense, Shepard," Leng growled, sounding like a rabid dog, "And you're just an old man who's out of his time."

"This old man has you by the balls," he snapped back, "And don't play coy with me. You murdered Shala'Raan's husband when you raided the Flotilla. My aunt. You think you can do something like that and get away with it? Noone. Fucks. With. My. Family."

"Ah...you mean the suit-rat," Leng hissed, something of a smug grin in his smile, "Admiral Raan cried like a little rat when I killed him. Killing quarians just gives me this...satisfaction that I need to keep up. Satisfaction is pleasure, is it not? So when I kill aliens, I feel pleasure. When I kill suit-rats, I feel like I've done the galaxy a favor. Killing him was a pleasure I cannot begin to explain with words."

Finally having enough, Marcus rounded the corner, LMG bared, only to suddenly found a sword slicing through it, cutting it in half before he was roughly side-kicked in the chest, sending him flying onto his back. The force of the kick was too powerful for a normal man. This guy has cybernetics like me. Shit. Looking up, he got a single glimpse of Leng's smug smile before he began to run for the edge. Snarling in fury, Marcus ordered his team to gun the man down, but he had already jumped over the edge...

...right into the troop bay of an awaiting kodiak shuttle. And unlike Mars with Eva, Leng did escape, the last Marcus saw being a wide grin as the hatch closed and the shuttle shot off towards the frigate hovering above. Marcus merely watched, pure hate in his eyes. You can run all you like Leng. But one day, you'll face me, and then I'll fucking kill you.

Getting to his feet, he ordered his squad to secure the area, holding his chest as he steadied his breathing, severely winded by the assassin's kick. He had underestimated him, but wouldn't do so again; this man was not your average Cerberus soldier. Still, his racism and cockiness will surely get him killed at some point. That'll be his end.

"Captain," Kirrahe suddenly exclaimed, "We need to get to-"

Marcus was knocked from his feet again as something akin to the force of an atom bomb slammed into the landing pad behind them, causing him to flip forward and slam his head into the ground, wincing as his nose smashed against the face of his helmet. Gritting his teeth, he rolled over to find what the hell could have made such a tremor, but the whirring of gears, grinding of metal and the sheer size of the colossus immediately told him everything.

Standing on the landing pad, bearing down on all of them, was an Atlas mech.

He heard the clunk of a missile being loaded into its right arm, and then watched as it aimed upwards and forward, the roar of a gunship suddenly being cut off by a tremendous explosion. Shortly after, they watched the gunship, now a ball of flames, fly past them and crash into the jungle scenery below, the quake of it easily felt.

Wrex's voice shot through his comms, and he saw the shuttle lazily hovering nearby, staying well out of the Atlas' range, "Shepard! We can't land until you deal with that thing! Its too dangerous!"

Marcus watched the enormous, hulking mech begin to move slowly towards them, its HMG working up a maelstrom of bullets as they raided their position, his team falling into cover, with Marcus trapped behind one of the consoles. Mordin shrunk back, trying not to be spotted, but suddenly sprang up when they saw the Atlas turn to face Eve. Oh shit!

Seemingly out of nowhere, a familiar ball of light appeared and stuck to the back of the Atlas, exploding as it made a tiny dent in the mech's heavy armor and scorched it, causing the pilot to turn to assess the threat. Marcus did so as well, watching Kirrahe retreated back into cover, but not before firing two more shots that made the same result.

"Kasumi, anything you can do?" Marcus asked, realizing it was a dumb question before even asking it.

"What can I do? I'm a thief! I don't have any heavy weapons!" the thief retorted, unable to comprehend why he was even asking her to begin with.

"James?"

"I still got those unused cobra missiles from Eden Prime," James stated, "Been waiting to get my chance to use 'em."

"Then by all means, Lieutenant, fire away. Take down that Atlas," he commed Keeling, "Lieutenant, you're with him. Head for the landing pad and get its attention long enough for James to hit it in the back. Keep it away from Eve at all costs. We lose her, and we lose everything! Move!"

"Shepard," Mordin addressed, Marcus turning to the salarian, who was currently typing into his console, "Nearest salarian reinforcements distracted. Cannot help us. Situation problematic."

"We'll deal with this, Mordin. Just hold tight," he replied, peeking over cover to see Keeling's valkyrie shots pinging uselessly off its armor, but being enough to garner the pilot's attention, bringing the mech around to face the landing pad, putting its back to the rest of Marcus' squad. Without further hesitation, he turned to James, signalling him, "Now! Everything you got until its dead!"

He watched James round the corner, brandishing his cobra missile launcher. He brought the weapon to bear on the enemy mech, but before he could press the trigger, a familiar roar was heard, along with more thumping.

Then, like a raging demon, the wall on the left split open, showering more dirt, rock and steel upon the people below as the yahg from before, or maybe it was another one, emerged, looking for a target. Finding it in the form of an unaware Atlas, which was now turning to see what the commotion was about, the yahg leapt forward, snarling in fury.

James didn't even bother firing his missile payload as the yahg came to land ontop of the mech, the pilot panicking as he tried to rip it off. The yahg continued to bang its fist against the metal carapace, bellowing all its anger as it found a grip and began ripping pieces of armor from the large machine. The large death machine was reduced to uselessness, its weaponry unable to rid itself of the naked alien that was currently ripping it apart.

Finally, the yahg slid down its back, beginning to rip off tubing. Hisses were heard as the oxygen tank was disconnected, followed by the cooling system and heat defusor. Away they came, piece by piece, hissing heard as their piping hung limp at the Atlas' back. Finally however, the pilot was regaining his wits and suddenly launched itself back, slamming the yahg against a support strut, causing it to let go as it fell to the ground, but true to yahg culture, it did not scream in agony; yahg were bred from birth to be warriors. And with that breeding, came the ability to be ignorant to fear, and most of all, invulnerable to pain.

The Atlas turned around, bringing its HMG to aim, but the yahg grabbed the barrel and threw it off course, the hail of bullets instead tearing into the Atlas' own leg, shredding it until the leg split off all together, causing it to topple. It fell onto its back with a large bang, its weapon shooting up in a arc, sending bullets with it, pinging off the shield protecting Eve. The yahg leapt ontop of the mech, and the pilot could only watch in horror as its fists slammed down, smashing the cockpit, glass showering the pilot. To his credit, he did not show any fear, continuing to wield the controls like nothing happened, and then, in one final act of spite towards the creature, he brought his cannon up to aim at the yahg's side.

The yahg slammed his fist into the man's ribcage just as he discharged the mech's weapon. The yahg's side was caved in, its ribcage blown open in a flash of bright gore, its insides swirled, mutilated, superheated and blown apart. The yahg was blown back from the force, slamming into the floor as its guts spilled onto the floor, a massive hole in its side as the life left its eyes.

The rest of the squad merely watched in shock at what they had seen, and James eventually cried out, ending the silence with a 'fuck yeah!' before lowering and holstering his missile launcher. Keeling slowly emerged, keeping her weapon trained on the collapsed mech while Marcus simply got up, holstering his weapon as he rapidly approached it, passing the dead yahg as Javik nudged it with his rifle, making sure it was dead.

The spectre climbed ontop of the large vehicle, and what he saw inside the cockpit was truly sickening. The man's belly had popped from the force of the yahg's fist hitting him, his helmet mangled and armor dented inwards. Marcus shook his head as the crimson blood poured from the man's chest. He winced at the coppery smell, leaning and crouching next to the man, who seemed to twist his head slightly, Marcus widening his eyes in horror. This fucker is still alive...

Seeing his chance for an interrogation, he reached down and ripped the man's helmet off, and looked down, meeting the man's huskified eyes, glowing blue, red blood dribbling from his lips, the rest of his face soaked in red and black. Sighing, he tossed the helmet away, wondering if the man's vocal cords even still worked. Unholstering his SMG, he spoke, ignoring the sound of an elevator lifting up and a shuttle landing nearby, "You're going to tell me exactly why Cerberus is here," he growled, "If you do, I'll end your misery. If not, I'll leave you here to choke on your own blood. Make your choice quickly."

"Screw...yo..." he coughed, "Go...to-" he gave a final wheeze before his glowing cybernetics suddenly turned to nothing, winking out of existence as they lost their glow. The pilot was dead.

Sighing in irritation, he got up from the Atlas and leapt down from it, watching his squad forming upstairs. Seeing that Mordin had loaded the elevator onto the bi-rail and onto the upper platform by now, he rushed up in time to see the glass recede, Mordin offering a hand to Eve to help her down.

The salarian quickly found himself roughly shoved aside by Wrex, the krogan glaring at the professor before turning, offering his own hand instead, "Let's get you out of here."

Promptly ignoring the hand offered, Eve stepped down of her own accord with grace in her step, coming to stand beside Wrex and giving him a look that said she didn't need help. Wrex dropped his hand dejectedly, before suddenly piping up as he heard the sound of jet thrusters. Everyone turned to the source to watch a lone centurion land nearby, mattock raising as he aimed at Eve, "We've got the kroga-"

Eve, taking advantage of Wrex's daze, tore the claymore from his grip and took aim, pulling the trigger. The shell tore through shield, armor and flesh, completely gutting the centurion as he was thrown backwards from the blast, slamming into a wall and toppling over the edge, chest shredded completely by the shot.

Everyone turned to Marcus, Kasumi giggling at Wrex's shocked expression as Eve shoved the heavy shotgun back into his chest, giving him a very dry look, "I can look after myself Wrex," with that, she left with the same grace she had exiting the elevator, heading towards the elevator. Wrex simply watched her go, before shaking his head, snorting as he eyed Marcus, "Women."

"Don't act too surprised Wrex," Liara quipped, sporting her own grin as she followed Kasumi to the shuttle, the rest of the squad quickly following. Wrex moved over and gripped Marcus' shoulder, smiling a large grin.

"You did it Shepard," he stated, "Now we only need to get this cure done."

"Will help," Mordin piped up, both of them turning to the professor who stood at attention, "Made it personal goal to cure genophage. Helped modify. Will see it done. Look forward to returning to work on it. Modfied Maelon's data. Will help in synthezation," he took in a large breath, smiling, "Request permission to rejoin Normandy."

"Well...welcome back, Mordin," Marcus grinned, shaking the salarian's hand before he entered the shuttle. Turning to Kirrahe, the major holstered his pistol before shaking Marcus' hand.

"Unfortunately, I will not be joining you, Captain," the salarian stated sadly, "Alpha Site's taken quite a bad hit, and I need to assess whether Director Wiks is dead or not so we can establish command again. Once that's done, we'll begin an accounting of casualties and take care of that-"

A thunderous boom shook through the base; it could only have been the sound of an FTL drive engaging in atmosphere. They all looked up, and with no roof, were able to witness a blink of light as the Cerberus frigate disappeared into FTL, escaping intact and with Kai Leng. I'll find you again, Leng. You can't run forever. We'll meet again.

Kirrahe, watching the sky for a few seconds, turned back to Marcus, shrugging, "We'll deal with what's left of the Cerberus forces, and we'll send the all clear to the fleets to let them know it was a fluke. There's alot of rebuilding to be done."

"Its a pity you can't come Major, but we understand," he nodded, hands clasped behind his back, "I'd better get going. Don't want the Dalatrass to have a change of heart now, right?"

"Very true," Kirrahe smiled, nodding, "Remember, no matter what happens, you can count on the First Infiltration Division to fight by your side. We fight for the UGC now, and we fight the Reapers, and Cerberus. And please, call me Kirrahe. I think we're past formalities."

"Very well...Kirrahe," with a final nod, he turned and left for the shuttle, Wrex behind him as they listened to the crackle of flames, the continuous blare of sirens, and the sounds of gunfire dying down as Cerberus forces were pushed back.

The salarians had been shaken by the attack, but he had a feeling that would only make making them join the UGC all the more easier. And with Eve now on the Normandy and Mordin synthesizing the cure, all things were looking hopeful.

He hoped it stayed that way.

{Loading...}

June 8, 2186

1631 hours.

War Room, Normandy-Class Stealth Frigate SSV Normandy SR-2, In FTL Inbound for the Citadel.

The Reaper War.

Captain Marcus Lee Shepard, Primarch Adrien Victus.

Marcus stood there, overlooking the holographic table as it presented to him a holographic representation of the superweapon they were building; it was immense, and one of the greatest projects in human history; and even he did not know the location of its construction site; the site itself was where the weapon was built, as well as serving as the headquarters of the hastily drawn up UGC.

Hackett had contacted him not too long ago to inform that the project was well under way, and to wish him good luck in securing the krogan-turian alliance: he was going to need it. He also told him that he recently reserved word from Kirrahe of his new change in allegiance, and Hackett thanked him for the support.

The Fleet Admiral also told him that they had uncovered a name from the prothean data for the superweapon; they had called it the Crucible. So, in following prothean example, the UGC had jointly named the project 'Crucible,' giving the Reaper-killer a name to call it by instead of 'prothean superweapon.' And now Marcus stood before the table, looking down into its depths, willing it to give him some answers.

None were given; yes, the Crucible was being built, but it wasn't being built fast enough; they needed more people on the project. They needed the best engineers in the galaxy. Unfortunately for him, the quarians were nowhere to be found, noone was willing to contact the geth and the Salarian Union remained firmly on the sidelines. He had told Hackett about the salarian and asari stance on it, and his response had been a nod, followed by sigh, 'They'll regret that.'

So now he simply stood here, waiting; for what? He didn't know. They were heading to the Citadel to catch their breath, restock and then they would head out again. They also needed to shell out some credits in buying the stock Mordin needed for the cure, which he was currently well at work creating in the Tech Lab on the same deck he was on, the salarian confused at why they bothered switching the lab when all it did was get moved to the other side. In response, he shrugged and said he didn't understand it either. Eve was also in the Tech Lab, along with Wrex, who had been requested to stay so Mordin could take a blood sample. The krogan had reluctantly agreed, although it was clear to Marcus now that the battlemaster had a fear of needles. Apparently that phobia transcended all species.

It was a waiting game now; wait for the genophage cure to be created, and then find a way to disperse it so all krogan got it. Wrex had already sent out a message to all krogan over the news network on the extranet, calling all krogan to Tuchanka in preparation for release of the genophage cure. Wouldn't be much help if the cure was released and alot of krogan didn't get it, would it?

"To think...soon, we'll make history. A thousand years in the making," Victus pondered, garnering Marcus' full attention, "And I'll have encouraged its occurence. I, a turian."

Marcus gave a weak smile, nodding, "This war seems to be filled with ironies and idiosyncrasies, doesn't it? Everytime we do something, we're either editing the history books or killing some important figure. And yet we still can't win."

"You'll have cured the genophage. And the krogan will join the UGC. We'll be stronger for it," Victus countered.

"And it'll all mean nothing if the Crucible isn't completed. It's our only hope," he sighed, bracing against the table as he switched off the holo interface, turning to face the turian primarch fully, "The Reapers will win, and Cerberus will become the next Collectors for cycles to come. I'll do my best, we'll all do our best to beat them, but if that superweapon isn't built, it'll all be for nothing."

"Then let it be built," the primarch responded, "With volus and turian engineers. Get us the krogan, Shepard, and you will have your workers."

"I intend to do so," Marcus replied, nodding, "Even if it means I have to kill a Dalatrass to do it, I will. Nothing will get in my way of getting the entire galaxy united. Nothing."

"You're a man of your word. Anyone who heard that would believe it, I assure you," Victus declared, "If only the Council could be so swayed. Or the asari, or salarians."

"They'll join us if they know what's right," he stated, coming to stand straighter from the table, "And if they don't? Then the Reapers will destroy them, as they did those of the last cycle. Keep up the good work Primarch. I will be in my cabin if you need me; you only need contact EDI to let me know," he turned and prepared to leave, only to be interrupted when the Primarch shouted out, and he turned around, meeting the man's eyes.

"If this cure works, then the war is already won."

Marcus gave a meek smile, turning to leave as he did.

"The war is won when the Crucible fires. Not before."

"So I guess this was the interim period between the construction of the cure and its deployment? From what I heard, it was a long interim, but a very busy interim. Care to explain?"

- Reia'Inas pav Earth.

"First off, we headed for the Citadel to restock. But while that was going on, the war was still raging. And Liara was at work on something very important. Very...futurisque."

- Marcus Shepard.

"Like what?"

- Tali'Shepard pav Rannoch.

"Like a key to the past."

- Marcus Shepard.

A/N:

Yes, we have alot to cover during the interim. And yes, Mordin gets his lab back. Its not like you can form a life changing cure for a massive virus in just an ordinary medical bay on a warship; so yes, he gets actual stuff to do that with. And during that period, we get busy. Which means side missions; and by side missions, I'm talking the ones that involved character cameos. Which, yes, means Priority: Tuchanka won't be for a while. Oh well...lots of cool stuff inbetween!

I'll leave you to wonder which ones. ;)

We'll see Tali again soon, I promise! The story genre is 'Romance and Adventure,' after all!

Keelah Se'lai, troopers!