Tides of War: Rogue Spectre

by LeonidasBlackhawkPress

A rouge spectre and an ancient sentient spaceship threaten all life in the galaxy with extinction. The only ones who can stop them are a misfit crew of soldiers, a mercenary, a disgraced cop, a scientist, and a quarian engineer. This is an AU retelling of Mass Effect; it will cover all four games and more. As always Mass Effect is a property of BioWare.

4. Chapter 4

Chapter Four

Joker's voice came over the speakers in the hangar bay, "Cutting it a bit close, Colonel. Another minute and we'd been swimming in molten sulfur. That stuff isn't too friendly on the Normandy, tends to melt our hull." Joker said sarcastically. I swear that smartass.

"We barely got out of there alive, and your pilot is making jokes." exclaimed Liara, still leaning against Shepard.

"Well, he did save our asses, so I think he's earned it" Shepard said in response.

"More like he's just a fucking dickhead, smartass bastard." I said.

"You have a very liberal use of profanity, Colonel." said Liara, I assume half-jokingly.

"I'm Australian, we come out of the womb cussing." I responded with a shrug of my shoulders.

"Oh, I see." Liara's legs started to wobble, "I think I need to sit dow..." That was all she got out before she collapsed into Shepards arm.

"Jo, why don't you take her up to the med bay and let Karin look at her. I don't think the poor thing has had any sleep or food in the last couple days." I said to Shepard. She just nodded and picked up Liara and took her to the elevator. Most of us were heading up there too so we followed.

Exiting the elevator, Shepard took Liara to the med bay. I made a bee line straight to my room; I need a shower. I didn't make it to my room though, Peebee came out of her room and saw me. She ran towards me and wrapped her arms around me, "Welcome back!" she said in a high excited voice.

She let go and backed way, "Did everything go ok?" she asked.

"Yeah, for the most part. Though, Tali had a close call." I answered. Peebee's face turned into a worried frown. "What happened?" she asked.

"It was just a close call, why don't you go talk to her. Just don't try to bring it up. Maybe your bubbly personality will help." I said. She gave a crooked smile and nodded her head, "Ok dad, I'll see you at dinner." Peebee walked off towards the lift. With her gone, I quickly entered my room. I sighed after the door closed behind me, thank fuck.

I began the process of stripping off all my armor until I was down into my boxer briefs. I walked into the bathroom, stripping the last of my clothes and turned the shower on. I waited until the water heated up before stepping in. The combination of the hot water and the pressure of the water hitting my body was fucking magical. I turned my back to the shower head and leaned against the back wall, letting the water hit my back.

"Oh, Christ that feels good." I said to myself. The jet of hot water on my back was like the hands of an experienced massage therapist digging their fingers into my back. This was one of the few times I got decent relief from the soreness in my body; all caused by the decades of abuse I put it through.

The human body was never designed to handle the abuse those of us in the black rangers put ourselves through. If it wasn't for those cybernetic enhancements our bodies would probably give out on us; I can't recall the number of times I should have broken my back. Finishing my shower, I got out dried myself off. I looked at myself in the mirror real quick.

It was getting time for a haircut; my hair was about to the base of my neck. It was combed straight back, but at the base it was starting to get slightly curly. It was mostly black but had a few strands of blonde, some had made the inevitable transition to grey. My beard was going to have to be trimmed soon as well, it was starting to get a little thick. My beard was the same color as my hair, black with some blonde strands, but over half of the blonde strands had turned grey. It was a trait of my family, we all started greying early. I'm 110, if I'm lucky I'll live another 300 years, my beard will probably be all grey by 150.

Looking at my body was a little depressing, all the scars from the years of brutal missions. From scars caused by bullet wounds to blades, as well as burns and shrapnel. The biggest scar was the one that ran from my sternum to about six inches above my navel, but that scar has a lot of memories; specifically, how I met Karin Chakwas.

I wrapped a towel around my waist and exited the bathroom. I was about halfway across my room to the wardrobe when my door opened. Tali walked in completely oblivious to my state, "Hey, Rick can I talk to you... Shit! I am so sorry!" She yelled out, covering her mask. I too was a bit startled, jumping back when she entered, grabbing my towel to keep it from falling. "Oh, fucking hell, going to give me a heart attack. I must've forgotten to lock the door."

"I am so sorry, Rick. I should have knocked or something." apologized Tali.

"No, you're ok, just glad I had enough since to wear a towel this time. We'd both be scarred for life." I said.

"Well..." Tali started to say. I quickly held up my hand, "Hey, Hey, Hey. Swear there's something wrong with this ship. Let me get changed and then you can ask what you needed." I said, I started walking to the wardrobe, but I noticed Tali was still just standing there. "Uh, excuse me. You mind."

"Oh, sorry." Tali said as she turned around. Finally, I dropped the towel and opened my wardrobe to get a fresh pair of boxer briefs. I heard Tali mumble something, and unless my mind is fucked, I could have sworn it was, "Nice ass."

"What was that?" I asked.

"Hmm, I didn't say anything." responded Tali. I quickly put on my boxers and a pair of gym shorts. "Ok, you're good now." I said. Tali turned around and looked at me. "Ok, now what was you going to ask?" I asked her.

"Well, it really wasn't a question, I just wanted to come thank you again for saving my life and also..." I cut her off. "Let me guess, Peebee was talking your ears off?" I asked a smirk on my face.

"Yes!" Tali said. "Your daughter is a very sweet girl, but she can talk." she said sighing and relaxing her shoulders. I chuckled under my breath, "Yeah, her mother told me that she was a chatterbox. What did she talk about?"

"Mostly, she talked about you. Mostly, stuff that her mom told her about you. Besides that, she talked about how she wanted to start training."

I rubbed the back of my neck, letting out a pained groan. "Yeah, I did promise her that."

I caught Tali taking glances at my scars, "What happened to you?" she asked quietly.

I lowered my head slightly, "This life is not easy on your body. Each scar has a story, together they tell the full story of my career."

"Do you ever talk about them?" Tali asked, wringing her fingers. I shrugged my shoulders, "Sure, ask about any of them."

She pointed at my chest, "What about that one on your chest." I glanced down at the scar, "Heh, that one has quite the story. It's actually how I met Karin Chakwas." I gestured to the sofa across the room, Tali followed me, and we sat down on it.

"About twenty years ago, I was on a collation mission with a N7 team, we were tracking down a group of biotic terrorists that had linked up with an asari merc group. They had been raiding civilian ships, stealing cargo, taking hostages. The Alliance knew I had a successful rap sheet when it came to hostage negotiations and rescue. So, they contacted Colonial high command and asked if I would help on a mission, I agreed. We set up a trap for the terrorist group, after waiting a few days, they fell for it and went in. At first it went well, we got most of the terrorists, but then everything went south. Alliance intel didn't mention that they were traveling with a group of ex asari huntress that had gone pirate. From there everything went tits up, over half of the N7 squad was killed. Me and the senior N7 operative were able to take out two of the asari, but the third got the drop on us. She sunk an asari dagger right into my chest, I had armor on, but those asari blades will cut through damn near anything. I don't know much after that, I read the after-mission reports and they were not good."

"What happened?" asked Tali.

"I had received a four-inch gash in the upper part of my left ventricle, as well as damage to my Mitral valve and the lower pulmonary vein. The injury caused blood to spill out into my chest cavity and my left lung to fill with blood. Also, the injury caused me to go into full cardiac arrest. When I got to the ship, I was right on deaths door, if Karin had done what she did."

"What did she do?" asked Tali.

"She performed open heart surgery on me right there in the medical bay." Tali's eyes widened when I said that. "Yeah, first she had to drain my chest cavity and reinflate my lung. Then she split me open, she said it came spray out like a burst pipe. She and four nurses had to use about every clamp and emergency suture they had to keep me from dying right then and there. They ended up having to give me a dozen units of blood plasma, almost a whole gallon. In the end they managed to patch me up good enough that'd I make it to the nearest military hospital, that's where I woke up a week later. I was out of commission for 9 months after that."

"Keelah, it is a miracle that you survived." Tali said.

"Yeah, that's not all. The big scars on each of my knees, I shattered both my knees and fractured my right hip about fifteen years ago. I fell out of a shuttle that got hit by an enemy missile. I had to have both knees replaced and a partial hip replacement." I said. Tali's face showed she was shocked and amazed by what she heard.

"Keelah how are you still serving after going through all that. Not to be rude but you would think a sane person would have considered retirement at this point." she said.

"Hah!" I laughed out loud. "Don't worry Tali, you're not the first person who has said that. But to be fair, retirement has crossed my mind. If the reapers are just something made up, we take out Saren. I might just retire, this is the biggest mission of my career, seems like a good one to end it on."

"Oh, what will you do after, if you decide to retire?" asked Tali.

I shrugged and cocked my head slightly, "Honestly the thought hasn't crossed my mind much. I guess I will go home, build me a house on some land beside a lake and settle down." Tali looked up at me with sad eyes at me mentioning building a house. Maybe should not have said that being that she still lives on the fleet.

"Oh, that would be nice. Build a home for Peebee and you and her mother can settle down finally." she said, now slowly twiddling her fingers. I raised my eyebrow in confusion at the mention of Peebee's mom.

"Well maybe build the home for Peebee to grow up in. But anything future tense between me and her mother is a ship that has sailed a long-time ago." Tali looked up at that and her face kinda perked up a bit.

"Oh, I 'm sorry. I didn't know. Would there be a possibility of someone else in the future, to settle down with." she asked, her voice cracked a little bit, she was avoiding eye contact with me.

I lowered my head and smiled slightly and gave a short chuckle, "I've been asked that before, most of the time I just blow it off. Say I don't think there's any room for love, or I'm not the kind of person someone could love."

"That's not true." Tali blurted out. I looked up at her and she looked back nervously like she had been caught. "Uh, what I mean is there is always room for love." she corrected. I paused for a second and looked at Tali, maybe she's right. Maybe Peebee was right too.

"Maybe, honestly it would be nice to have someone to come back to, someone to look forward to after this is all over, someone to grow old with. I just don't know if there is anyone out there that would be like that. Someone smart, caring, maybe a little dorky. And one hell of a firecracker personality and attitude. I mean there is one person I know who is kind of like that." I said, oh fuck Rick. Don't go tumbling over the edge here

"Hmm, the sound like a really cool person." Tali said, looking at the floor.

"They are, I just don't know how to approach them. I've never been one to rush into things headfirst. I don't want to screw it up, again." I said. Tali looked up at me, "You never know unless you try, how about trying to be their friend first, ask them to do something together. If you both like each other, it'll start clicking once you two hang out." she said.

I nodded my head, "You are wise, Tali 'Zorah." I said with a small smile. Tali smiled back, "Thank you, Rick." Tali leaned over and hugged me, "Thank you again for saving my life again. I better get down to engineering." she said before she got up and left.

Once Tali had gotten up and left the room, I slapped myself upside the head. "You total fuckwit."

…...

We were back on our way to the citadel, we had no prominent leads, so it seemed the best stop. I was down in the hangar bay, I had on blue jeans, a grey athletic shirt, boots and a ball cap. Peebee was standing in front of me, "So, dad what did you need me to come down here for?" she asked.

I crossed my arms, "Well, I said I would train you, so let's fucking train. You bring your gun?" Peebee nodded. "Let me see it." Peebee took her sidewinder off her hip and handed it out to me, barrel first. "Well, that's strike one. You always hand your pistol over grip first with the barrel pointed to the ground and the safety on." Peebee sighed and made sure the safety was on, then handed it back to me the correct way. "Thank you." I said as I took the pistol.

I examined the pistol, "Sidewinder, revolver variant. Uses four mini thermal clips loaded into a changeable square cylinder. Holds four shots, packs a decent punch, but the accuracy is shit and you can't hit fuck all past a hundred feet. But it is decent in close quarters shoot outs. What made you choose this gun?" I asked Peebee.

Because it looked cool." she responded bluntly.

"Of course, that's why. This isn't exactly a pistol for military use, you mostly find these in civilian gun stores. A basic model runs you about six hundred credits. Let's see how you do with it. Garrus set up a couple targets at twenty-five, fifty, and seventy-five feet. Do one at a hundred too, for shits and giggles." I spoke. Garrus set up the targets like I asked him, holographic squares. Each 25 feet apart, the furthest at the main other end of the hangar. Me and Peebee walked over to the center of the hangar, looking down at the center. I handed Peebee her gun. "Ok, I want you to shoot these targets like you always would. It's loaded with blanks, but be careful, they still hurt like hell." Peebee took the gun.

I stepped back as Peebee took her stance to fire, I put my ear plugs in. "Try and put a few rounds on the twenty-five and fifty." Peebee raised the pistol with one hand taking aim. Oh fuck. Peebee began firing, the first shot hitting the floor, the second bouncing off the bay door. All of us in the hangar bay started diving for cover. Another round bounced off the bay door, I heard Drack yell, "Ahh, my ass!" as he dove behind some crates.

Tali walked out of the lift, completely oblivious to what was happening. "Tali, get down!" I yelled too her. She looked over at me, but it was too late. A round bounced off from somewhere and ricocheted off her mask. She fell back onto the ground. "Oh shit." I got up and ran over to her, while also yelling, "Peebee for fuck's sake stop firing!" Thankfully, she heard me and stopped. I got over to Tali who was already sitting up, "Are you ok?!" I asked her frantically as I grabbed the sides of her head and looked her over.

"Yes, yes. Our masks are bulletproof, it just scoffed it." she assured me. I sighed, closing my eyes and unintentionally put my forehead against Her's, "Thank Christ." I leaned back and opened my eyes. Tali was staring at me wide-eyed, her cheeks blushing deep purple. "Eh, sorry." I said, I stood up and offered her a hand, which she took.

I turned back around, and everyone was coming out from behind cover. Peebee was just standing there confused, "What happened?" she asked. I marched up to her and took the gun out of her hand, "Well first, you held the revolver with one hand, that's a big fuck no. Second, you sent bullets ricocheting all over the hangar bay, you shot Drack in the ass and almost hit Tali in the face."

Drack stood up rubbing his ass, "Yeah, that bitch hurt." I looked over at him with a scowl, "They weren't even real bullets, jackass. You're fine." I looked back at Peebee, "When you shoot, use both hands to stabilize your aim and use your sights. Hold on a second." I walked over to the bench and grabbed a little device and brought it back over. "Here put this on." Peebee took the device and put it on. It was a small device that stuck to the side of her head with mass effect fields, attached to it was a single lens that folded over her eye. "This smart lens will synchronize with your omni-tool and the electronic sights on your gun. It'll show you how to adjust your aim to get the best shot. Try it, and this time please for fuck's sakes us both hands, look down the sights and lean into it a bit."

I reloaded Peebee's revolver and gave it back to her. She started to take aim, using the stance I showed her. I looked over and everyone was starting to take cover again. Peebee fired four shots, she was able to land two rounds on the twenty-five and two on the fifty. They were both fairly close to the center. Peebee straightened herself and lowered her gun, I walked up beside her. "I'll be damned. You ain't too bad of a shot. We get something that isn't too much of a hand cannon and don't kick like a mule."

"Does this mean I can come on a mission soon?" she asked me.

"Well, let's get you acquainted with an assault rifle and shotgun. Also, I want Ashley to bring you up to speed on hand to hand. You show me you're competent on those things, we'll talk about going on a couple of smaller missions." Peebee jumped excitedly, waving her gun around. Everyone dove back into cover; I grabbed her pistol from her hand. She stopped and smiled apologetically. "Sorry."

"God, get us to the citadel before we all die." I said looking up.

...

I walked into the medical bay, Liara was sitting up in the bed, iv fluids hooked up to her. Shepard was sitting next to her talking to her. I walked up beside them, "So what's the gossip?"

Shepard looked up at me, "Liara and I were just talking about her mother, from what she's told me, she has had no interaction with her mother in at least five years." answered Shepard.

"Yes, my mother and I have been estranged for the past couple of decades. She was not too happy when I decided to devote my professional life to studying the Protheans." said Liara.

I rubbed my chin and nodded my head, "Hm, so you have no reason of why she would have joined up with Saren?" I asked her. Liara's posture got slightly defensive at my question, "No, I do not. I have no reason of why my mother would ally herself with that monster."

I held up my hands defensively, "I'm sorry, I didn't mean to upset you. I'm just trying to get every bit of information I can. Right now, our trail on Saren has gone cold, you were our only lead."

Liara exhaled and calmed herself, "I am sorry Colonel. This situation with my mother and Saren has got me flustered."

"It's totally understandable, it must be upsetting learning your mother has allied herself with the most dangerous terrorist in the galaxy. But I assure you that you are safe on board the Normandy, and I promise if there is any possibility of taking your mother alive, I will." I said. Liara looked at me with a smile.

"Thank you, Colonel. I guess the rumors they say about you are not true, that you are a heartless and ruthless killer." she said to me.

"Well, people's opinions about you tend to be bias, especially when you're trying to kill them." Liara laughed at that.

"You are quick witted, Colonel. You sure know how to brighten a girl's day. You also have soft calming eyes." she said. I smiled back at her. "Why thank you, Dr. T'Soni."

"Rick, can I talk to you a minute?" I turned around to the source of the voice, it was Tali.

"Uh, yeah sure. Shepard why don't you talk to Liara about that vision of yours." I said, patting Jo on the shoulder before walking over to Tali. I caught a glimpse of Tali's eyes; they were squinting at Liara. Hmm.

"What did you need, Tali?" I asked her.

"It's a bit of a personal matter, could we talk in private?" she asked, a hint of nervousness in her voice.

"Yeah, sure. Let's talk in my quarters." Me and her walked out of the medical bay and towards my cabin. Once we entered and the door closed behind us, Tali began to speak.

"Ok, so you remember I told you I'm the daughter of one of the admirals on the fleet. And being an admiral's daughter, I must go on a pilgrimage to prove my ability to lead the fleet one day?" I nodded my head. "Ok, well part of the pilgrimage is to bring back something that could be valuable to the plans for taking back Rannoch. On this mission we're going to be combating a lot of geth, and geth outside of the veil require command protocols. What I'm asking is if we come across a geth outpost with a broadcast terminal, can I get a copy of the data to send back to the fleet. It would complete my pilgrimage and mean a lot to my people." Tali finished.

I took my hat off and ran my fingers through my hair letting out a sigh. I walked over to the sofa and took a seat. "I don't know Tali, that puts me in a tough position. I would love nothing more than to help you out. But what do I do if I give you that data and you forwarded it the admirals, they take it and launch an attack on geth space."

Tali walked over and sat on the sofa next to me and looked me in the eyes. "I know what you mean, and it's an understandable concern. I'll make sure the data is encrypted and that it is sent only to my father." she said, pleading with me.

I sat back in the sofa and draped my arm over the back, "Well, how do I know you just won't take off after you get the data?" I asked her.

Tali leaned back and looked at me aghast, "Rick, what kind of person you think I am. I wouldn't run out on the mission like that."

"Most people would. In fact, I'd probably expect it. After all, once you get that data you have no obligation to stay here. You've already proven yourself valuable to the team, hell I'd even send a letter of affirmation to your father." I said.

"Well, that is nice of you, but I do have other interests keeping me here, Rick." said Tali.

"Oh really?" I asked, giving a crooked grin and cocking my eyebrow. Tali just froze and averted her eyes from mine. I chuckled in my throat and sat up, "I'll tell you what, I'll give you the data." Tali looked up at me in slight surprise. "But I have some conditions. One, me and you give the data to your father in person. Secondly, you let me buy you a new omni-tool, cause to be honest yours is shit. Lastly, you come to a movie night with some of the other crew. Those are my terms, take em or leave em."

Tali looked at me for a few seconds before sighing. "Alright, but nothing fancy on the omni-tool."

"Alright, we'll be at the citadel in a couple of hours, meet me at the airlock."

...

We had just docked at the Citadel. I was standing on the captain's rise; I activated the ship wide intercom. "Alright everyone, I'm giving the ship a mini shore leave. We'll be staying overnight before heading back out in the morning. The first watch will go first, once first watch returns, second watch will go. You will have eight hours to return once you leave the ship. Have fun, that's an order." I finished and the crew on the cic broke out into cheer. I stepped down from the captain's rise and walked to the air lock, Tali was waiting there for me.

"Ready, Ms. Zorah?" I asked. She nodded and I opened the airlock. We stepped out and started walking to the citadel transit hub. "Ok, so I was researching some good places to get some decent omni-tools at a discounted price..." I cut Tali off.

"Hold up Tali, we're not going to some discount tech shop. There's a place I know that sells some good ones, it's off the beaten path though." I said. We stepped into the taxi and the voice assistant asked where we wanted to go. "Lower Zakera Wards, seven thousand blocks, level fifty."

The taxi took off and brought deep into the Zakera Wards, down here the light from the artificial sun couldn't reach. In the upper interior levels, they would use ultraviolet lights. But in the lower levels, near the outer walls of the station, all they had was utility lighting.

The cab came to a stop at a rundown transit hub. Before we stepped out, I looked at Tali. "Take my hand." I told her, outreaching my hand. Tali looked at me for a second, "Don't worry this ain't no date or anything, it's for your safety." Tali reached out and grabbed my right hand. "Unless we are inside a store you do not let go of my hand, also keep your hand close to your pistol." I told her.

We stepped out of the cab. The streets were covered with small piles of trash, the walls were covered with stains and grease marks. The ceiling of the street was low, and all the lighting was a dim yellow and red that flickered. Cables run along the ceiling, walls and across the floor. "Rick, what is this place?" asked Tali.

"This is the lower slum districts of the Citadel. This is where all of societies outcasts end up. This place is infested with drugs, slave prostitution, and black-market trade. Murder, rape, and kidnapping happen on around the clock basis down here. So, don't look at nobody, don't talk to nobody unless I do first. Just keep your focus on me." I explained to her.

We continued walking the streets, we saw a couple of people lying on the street. It was two salarians and a turian, all covered in tattered blankets. "Keelah, homeless people sleeping in the street." muttered Tali.

"They're not asleep." I said quietly. Tali looked at me with shock. "This place is ruthless, if the gangs don't get you, the drugs and starvation will. If you want to survive."

We continued walking, Tali let out a small sneeze and shivered, "The air is stuffy and cold." she said.

"The air filtration and climate control systems barely work half the time down here. The air is always stale and it hardly gets above twelve degrees centigrade. There are times it drops to just a few degrees above freezing. Disease runs rampant down here, hundreds die every day." I said.

"What happens to all the dead bodies?" asked Tali.

"Well, they'll either end up as fertilizer for the few gardens around here meat for the Varren pens, or tomorrow's lunch." I said, pointing at a restaurant across the street. Tali gasped slightly. "Most restaurants serve primarily Varren meat, but there are a few that are not afraid to serve 'specialty meat' as they call it."

"How did you find out about this place?" Tali asked me.

"I've been down here a few times on a mission, I stumbled across this tech shop while hunting a mass murderer that had fled here from the colonies. Speaking of which, we're here." I pointed towards a rundown shop front. We walked inside, the shelves and counters were lined with various kinds of tech, armor, and weapons. All black market, all highly illegal.

An older turian popped his out from a door in the back, when he saw me a turian smile appeared on his face. "Rick!" he said as he walked out from behind the counter. I briefly let go of Tali's hand to give him a side hug. "Titus, how the hell are you doing?" I asked him.

"I'm making it, you know how things are down here. Is this your lady friend?" he asked.

"Yes sir, me and her were just doing a bit of shopping." I responded. Titus walked back to behind his counter. Tali looked at me, "Lady friend?" she asked.

"Just roll with it." I whispered with a wink. We walked up to the counter. "So, what can I help you with today?" asked Titus.

"We're looking for my Shelia here an omni-tool." I said while gesturing to Tali.

"Oh well you're in luck, I just got in a shipment of highjacked tier twelve spectre grade omni-tools." he said. Tali looked up at me confused. "It means they've been heavily modified and stolen." I told her.

"Yeah, it's the best the spectres can get, and it's completely untraceable. The encryption is almost impossible to break." said Titus.

"How much are they?" asked Tali.

"Five hundred thousand credits a piece." Titus answered. Tali's eyes went wide, and she took a step back.

"Say, you got any of those new diablo mark eights. I've been wanting to replace my mark seven." I asked Titus.

"Of course, I do." he said. He went to the back and brought up a case. "The diablo mark eight. Completely untraceable, it has the firewall protection of a military supercomputer, it can hack into any computer system in the galaxy in under three seconds. And, very illegal. Costs one point five million credits."

"How much for two of the diablos and twelve of the spectre grades?" I asked.

"Normally, nine million. But for you, seven and a half." he said.

"I'll take it." I opened my omni-tool and sent him a list. "Also, through in all these new weapons along with the armor order I made. I'll go ahead and pay for everything." I told him.

Titus went to ring everything up, "Ok, the omni-tools, armor, and weapons all together comes to a total of twenty-two million credits." Tali almost tripped backwards when she heard the total. I swiped my omni-tool and transferred the funds, "Go ahead and give me the two diablo omni-tools, send everything else to docking bay D-24." I told him.

"I'll have it there in a couple hours." said Titus.

"Good, cause if it's not. I'll find ya and kill ya." I said. Titus gave a nervous laugh before walking to the back to get the omni-tools.

"Rick, that was way too much money." said Tali.

"Don't worry about, I got it." I assured her. Titus came back with two omni-tool cases and handed them to me. I thanked him and we walked out of the store. I handed the one in my right hand over to Tali so I could take hold of her left hand again. We began walking back to the transit hub.

"Rick, I know one of these omni-tools is yours, but who's is the other?" Tali asked.

"It's yours." I answered. Tali looked at me wide-eyed. "Rick, I can't take this. It's too much." she said.

"Tali you are the main tech person on the team, I need you to have the best. I just wanted to do something nice. Which reminds me, there is a clothing store in the upper wards that caters to just quarians, we're heading there next." I said. Tali groaned as we reached the transit hub and got in.

We took the skycar over to the twenty thousand blocks of the Zekera Wards to the seventh level. It was many times better than where we had just come from. It was no presidium, but it was a nice mix of middle-class residential areas and shopping centers.

We got out of the skycar into the open streets of the wards. The shop we were heading to was just across the street from us. Walking up to it, Tali read the sign. "Shiara's Specialty Outfitters. Bringing premium tailored clothing to all species since 2365."

Walking into the store, thankfully there was no one in there. I checked the website on my omni-tool, they were forty minutes before closing and according to the store traffic graph we caught it on a pretty slow day.

An asari woman walked up to us. "Hello, my name is Shiara, I am the owner. How may I help you today?" she asked us.

"Yes, we are here to buy some clothes for my friend here." I said gesturing to Tali.

"Lovely, if you will follow me I will take you to where we keep all of our selections for quarians." Shiara said as she turned. We followed her to a corner of the store. There were over a dozen clothing racks filled with dresses, various length bottoms and tops. The wall was lined with underwear, lingerie, sleepwear, and even shoes. Tali was a little amazed.

"When you said there was a clothing store that catered to quarians, I was thinking you meant a rundown thrift store with a couple of shelves of clothes." she said.

"There are places like that, but I wouldn't take you to a shithole like that. Shiara sells some of the best reasonably priced clothes on the citadel." I told her.

"I have always strived to sell quality clothing at an economical price, it has kept me in business for the past three hundred years." Shiara said. She then gestured to Tali, "Now miss let's get you started, what are you needing?"

Tali looked on in a little bit of confusion, "Uh, I don't really know. Besides my suit and a few pairs of undergarments, I've just been making do with what is available on the ship." She turned to me. "What all can I get?" she asked me.

"You need clothes, so you get whatever you want. Don't be worried about price tags." I looked to Shiara, "Set her up an entire wardrobe."

POV Tali Zorah

We were walking through the streets of the upper wards. Rick had paid for and had all my clothes delivered to the Normandy.

"Rick, seriously you did not have to that. Three thousand credits, there is no way I'll ever wear all that." I said to him.

"Well look at it this way, once the mission is over and we all part ways, and you go home. You'll have plenty of clothes to last you." he retorted to me. I looked down a bit. I don't really want to part ways, it's only been a few days, but already this man has been the sweetest and most caring person I have met in my entire life. Sure, he has a foul mouth and can be a bit crude. But he always shows that he cares that he'll always be there. Someone worth spending your life with.

I shook the thoughts from my head and looked back up at him, "Well, I am only thirty-five. If I'm lucky I have got another three centuries ahead of me, so they'll come in handy." I responded to him. We continued walking for a while, passing the store fronts and looking at all the things they had to offer.

"I'm getting kind of hungry; you want something to eat?" Rick asked, looking down at me.

"A little, but I would just a rather eat on the ship." I answered.

"Fuck that, I know a place near here. It's a Greek restaurant, has some of the best gyros. And their moussaka is so good, your tongue will knock your teeth out trying to get to it." he spoke. I couldn't help myself but laugh, he does have a quick witted since of humor.

We continued walking for several more minutes until we turned down this short alleyway. At the end was this door, we walked through it. On the inside was beautiful, a huge open space with dozens of tables. The walls were painted in beautiful colors and red and yellow drapes hung from the ceiling and down the walls. We walked up to a podium that had a tan-skinned man in a black tuxedo behind it.

"Welcome to Panagiotis, how may I help you today?" asked the waiter

"Table for two please." said Rick holding up to tables.

"Currently sir all our regular dining seats are reserved, but some of our private tables are open. If you'll follow me, I'll how you to your table." he said, grabbing two menus. He led us to the back of the restaurant, where there were small curtained off areas. The host pulled back the curtain and led us in. It was a two-person table against the wall. The table was separated from the rest of the restaurant by thick red and yellow curtains. The wall had a beautiful stained-glass window. The table was covered in a white cloth and a chair sat on either side. The chair was a wide and sturdy dark wood with carved arm rest, the seat and back were padded with velvet red cloth. A lighted chandelier hung over the table.

The host sat us at our seats and gave us our menus, "I'll be back in a moment with your bread and wine." he said as he left, closing the curtain behind him.

"Are you sure this isn't a date?" I asked Rick.

"It wasn't my intention." He responded. I laughed slightly and turned my head. I pulled back my hood, reaching behind to the back of my neck I undid the clasps on my helmet. Slowly I pulled it off my head and laid it on the table. I reached back and undid my bun, letting my hair fall. When I looked back Rick was looking at me with a smile on his face.

"What?" I asked.

"Nothing, you're just beautiful. It's why I bought you clothes, I didn't want you hiding your beautiful face behind that mask all the time." he said.

I blushed and smiled. Oh, fuck it, I want him. "Thank you, it's nice to hear that. I've always been a little subconscious about my face."

Rick raised his eyes in some sort of bewildered expression, "Tali, I can be the first one to tell you, there is nothing about you that you need to be subconscious about. Your eyes alone, you could drown in. Those emerald-green diamonds." he said, complimenting me. I couldn't stop the deep blush from forming on my face. I looked him in the eyes, they were quite beautiful as well. Hazel with gold flecks near the iris. His face, even though it was dotted with scars, still had a warm glow to it. It had a complexion that of an almost perfect natural tan. His hair, which was just loosely combed back, with a few waves, all ending in a slight curl at the base of his neck. His beard, while short, was thick and full. I noticed the small lines of dark blonde in his hair, almost like oasis in a black desert. His hair was as wild as the man who wore it.

Looking downward, you could tell he had a well-toned body, hidden under that grey T-shirt. Looking down at his hands, they were rough and callous. Years of hard work were ingrained into them. Overall, he was a rough and rowdy, hardworking man. A hard fighting soldier. But there was a heart of gold down in there.

Just then our waiter came back. He laid a basket on our table that had several pieces of small flaky disks of bread. Along with it was a glass cup of this white spread. He also placed a bottle of chilled red wine on the table.

"Are you ready to order?" he asked us. I looked at Rick, and just shrugged my shoulders. I didn't know what was good here. But thankfully, Rick took the lead.

"We will have the lamb gyros and moussaka, please." Rick said to the waiter.

"Excellent choice sir. You do get a house salad and a choice of two sides." The waiter said as he was writing down our order. Rick hummed as he looked at the menu.

"Uh, how about the roasted lemon garlic potatoes and the rice pilaf." he decided on, closing his menu. The waiter wrote the rest of our order down and took our menus

"Ok, will there be anything else?" the waiter asked. I slightly raised my hand and the waiter looked at me. "Yes, can I get some water?" I asked. The waiter nodded his head and stepped out of the curtain. I heard a snap of a finger, and something said in a language I couldn't understand. Less than thirty seconds later another waiter came in with a large glass pitcher of iced water and filled my glass up with some before setting it on the table and leaving.

"Trust me, you're going to love this food." Rick said with a small smile on his face.

"I hope so, that was a lot of food you ordered." I said back. I don't know how we'll eat all that.

Rick chuckled slightly, "Heh. Not if your Greek, it's always customary to have a lot of food at meals. My mother, her mom was Greek, and her dad was from south Texas. So, growing up, mom would fix these huge meals for dinner. And Sunday, oh gentle Jesus, every Sunday mom would fix the most God-awful mess of food ever was."

I tilted my head and looked at Rick, "Uh, 'God-awful mess' that doesn't sound good." I said, slightly confused.

Rick laughed and waved his hands in front of him. "No, it's not a bad thing. It means a hell of a lot of food. Sorry, sometimes the southerner in me from my mom comes out."

I nodded my head, understanding now. "So, what about your dad's side of the family? Where are they all from?" I asked him.

"Well, it's about the same melting pot story as my mom's side of the family. My dad was born in the Colonies, but my granddad was born in Australia. He married a lady from Spain, my grandma on my dad's side. But my granddad is actually half Irish. My great granddad, he was visiting Ireland for three months, and he knocked up a barmaid at a pub in Dublin in a one-night stand." I looked at Rick with wide eyes, listening to his story.

"I know, it's the most romantic story. But there is a funny part to it. This Shelia, that my great granddad got pregnant. Her dad found out and he was fucking livid, he wanted to kill my granddad. So, the girly and my papaw fled Dublin to Wales, it's small country next to Ireland. On the first flight out, they both went back to Australia. The girl, she claimed asylum rights and eventually got citizenship and got married just a few weeks before my granddad was born." Rick said, finishing his story.

I sat in silence for a few seconds, stunned after listening to Rick's story. "So, is there a story behind your family?" I broke from my stunned silence and looked at Rick.

"Oh, it's nothing really special. Definitely nothing like yours." I responded. Rick leaned forward, resting his elbows on table, he folded his fingers and rested his chin in his knuckles. "Try me, I wanna hear about it." he asked.

"Oh, well my mother and father knew each other growing up, their parents knew each other. When they became adults, mom was always more of a people person and drifted towards politics. Dad was more into science, so he joined the science and research fleet. Eventually mom ended up being elected as the conclave representative for the lead live ship, the Rayya. Dad was the vice admiral of the science fleet under Daro 'Xen. My grandparents wanted dad to agree to an arranged marriage between him and Xen. Dad was very adamant against it, granted Xen does have a few bolts lose, I think. He ended up running into mom after a conclave assembly, and it was love at first sight. One probably couldn't tell; it took them fifteen years to finally get married. A while after they got married, the Vice admiral of the flotilla was retiring, and mom put dad's name forward for it and he ended up getting it." I said.

"When did they have you?" asked Rick.

"That's the thing, at first, they didn't want kids. Mom and Dad were sixty-five when they got married, and Dad was seventy-five when he became Vice admiral of the flotilla. Mom had become the chief representative of the conclave, so they were both pretty focused on their careers. Then when they were ninety, mom said she wanted a baby and Dad agreed to it. It took them seven years, but they had me." I said, answering Rick's question. He sat there and just listened the entire time.

"Seven years, that's a long time to be trying for a child. They were both pretty young." Rick said.

"Yeah, her doctors were confused too. But after I was born, they found out why. Mom had an autoimmune disease that the doctors didn't catch, it was causing fertility problems. It was hard, she fought for so long but when I was ten, she lost her fight. After that, Dad became withdrawn, more serious and harder on me to be better. He practically stopped being a father, stopped showing any love."

Rick must have noticed my face get sad when I was talking about mom's death. He reached his hand across the table and took mine into his. "I am so sorry Tali, no one should lose a parent that soon. Your father, I'm sorry, being loved is so important, and not being shown that the most important person in your life loves you is hard. I'm here for you in any way I can be" he said giving my hand a squeeze.

He started to let go and pulled his hand back, but I held onto to it. He looked me in the eyes, I laid his hand on the table and proceeded to take my gloves off. Once they were off, I took his hand into mine. "Thank you show much, Rick. I see why Peebee's mom fell in love with you." I said softly.

He grinned softly, "Heh, I don't. I was just a young, dumb, bumbling jackass." he said.

"But you're also a great listener, you show great care and compassion. You protect those who are close to you, and you have an almost terrifying determination. That's what she fell in love with, and maybe another to fall in love with." I said to him, still holding his hand.

"Still not a date?" he asked with a smile on his face.

"You tell me." I said back with a smile as well.

"Moving kind of fast, huh?" he asked, I knew he was joking.

"I honestly do not care; I'm not letting this go." I spoke.

"You ain't got to worry about that." he said back, stroking my hand.

Our food came shortly after that, and honestly it was amazing. Not as amazing as what just happened. I don't know where this will go, or if we're going too fast. I don't care, something in my heart tells me to go after this and do not intend not to listen to it.

We returned to the Normandy after we finished our dinner, the night cycle was starting so I headed to my cabin. Walking into my room, sitting on my bed, were the ten bags of clothes that rick had bought me. I went to open all the bags and pull the clothes out. First was all the under garments, 28 pairs of underwear and bras. They were all solid colors and four sets in each color: purple, blue, red, green, black, grey, and pink. I also had 28 pairs of socks in black, white, purple, and blue. I put them all away in the drawers of my wardrobe.

Next were the pants and bottoms. There were ten skirts, five were at my knee length, five were at ankle length. They were in black, red, blue, green, and purple. Then there were the jeans, I was surprised that they made jeans that fit the leg contours of quarians. Three were more traditional tight jeans, two were these ones that flared at the bottom. Rick called them bell bottoms. The rest were shorts ranging from ones that could be worn in public to ones for lounging around in.

The tops were mostly just T-shirts, and some blouses. There were a few silk ones that had V-necks and flared sleeves, they had eccentric patterns of multiple colors. Then came the dresses, I had no Idea about dresses, but Rick came to my rescue. He picked out several of these lose fitting and free flowing dresses called Kaftans, or as he called them, moomoos. They were these stunning dresses with almost silk like fabric, they had amazing patterns and colors, he even got me these headdresses called a hijab I could wear in case I wanted to cover my head. He even got me some that were more night gown ones. I also picked out a pair of wedge sandals to go with the dresses as well as some other shoes.

After putting all the clothes away my wardrobe was almost stuffed. I stripped out of my suit and hopped into the shower, after getting out I got a message from Rick, "You still up for movie night?" I went to my wardrobe to look for something to wear, I could just wear something simple, but honestly, I was feeling myself and kind of sassy and wanted to firmly rope rick in. I grabbed one of the Kaftan dresses that was black and purple and slipped it on, I brushed my hair out till it was straight but a little wavy.

I stepped out of my cabin and turned to head to his cabin but then I heard someone speak, "Someone is looking nice tonight." I turned my head and Peebee was standing in her doorway with a bottle of brandy in her hand.

"Thank you, I just got it today. I was just heading, uh... to..." I began to stamper.

"I know you're going to my dad's quarters." said Peebee. I froze, oh no, what if she doesn't approve. "I followed you all to the clothing store and Greek restaurant. He really likes you Tali, and I can tell you like him too. Just please, make him happy." she said. I smiled slightly, "I will, he makes me happy too. I want this, more than anything." I said.

Peebee smiled, "Then don't stand around, go get your man." I smiled brightly and nodded my head, taking off for Rick's cabin. I pressed the request button, and the door opened less than two seconds later.

I entered and the door closed behind me, Rick was standing over by his kitchenette pouring drinks, he had on grey sweatpants and a black T-shirt. I peered down and got a look at his ass; I bit my bottom lip when I did. Sweet ancestors, that man the finest ass I've ever seen, those sweatpants are just making it worse. If I had no self-control, I'd be all over that man. I've ever been with someone in that way, but something deep down wants me to do explicit things with that man.

Rick turned around to look at me, his relaxed expression turned to that of stunned as his mouth fell open.

"Is something wrong?" I asked, rubbing my forearm. He took his right index finger and pushed his mouth back closed; I couldn't help but snicker at that.

"Sorry, I had to pick my jaw up off the floor. My sweet heavens, you are stunningly beautiful." He spoke. I blushed hard and smiled, "Thank you." I responded. He walked up to me taking my left hand into his right. Then taking his left hand, he caressed his fingers up my cheek, then pushed my hair behind my ear, running his fingers through my hair. A shiver ran down my back and a warm tingle formed in my stomach.

I exhaled deeply and looked up at Rick, "Don't do that, I'm barely retraining myself as it is." I said. Rick flared his eyebrows.

"Someone is antsy apparently." he said, an amused smile on his face.

"Heh, you have no idea." I said with a chuckle. "But not tonight, I want it to be special. So, what movie are we watching?"

Rick smiled, "It's a classic, I think you'll like it. It's called the Big Lebowski."

"That doesn't sound like a romance movie." I said, then again, I know Rick doesn't like romance movies.

"Fuck no, being with me, I'll watch a romance movie with you, but I'll cringe. They're always so fake. This movie is a crime comedy. It's funny as hell, has some violence, and is pretty crude. But it is one of the best movies of the late 20th century on earth." Rick explained.

"Oh, it sounds kind of like you." Rick aggressively rolled his eyes at that, and I couldn't help but burst out laughing.

"You fucker." Rick said through his laughter. "I'll give that to you; it was a low blow though." I started laughing harder and a small snort came out, I immediately stopped and covered my mouth.

Now it was Rick's turn to die laughing, "Oh my lord, we got a snort." he said. I just slapped him on the chest, "Lets watch the movie, hope you got beer."

Rick went and grabbed a six pack of beer, while I crawled into the bed. Rick set the beer on the nightstand and crawled in beside me. I crawled up and snuggled myself into him as he started the movie. A large holographic screen appeared in front of the bed as the movie began. The next two hours were filled with laughter and sipping beers.

POV Rick Warren

The last three weeks have felt like a merry-go-round. There have been no relevant leads on Saren's location. So, we've been clearing out geth outposts throughout the traverse. I've taken Peebee on a handful of these missions, she's proven herself effective in combat, but she is still green as hell. The good news is that Nihlus is almost back to one hundred percent, he came on our last mission as support.

Now with the geth outposts, it was getting hairy. Every time we'd take out one, two more pop up. Each one we hit; resistance was getting stiffer. It was to the point that I put in a request for the colonies to send in a few rapid assault flotillas to help with the geth problem.

As for me and Tali, I would like to say we're taking it slow. She's spent practically every night with me in my quarters for the last three weeks. We haven't done anything physical but have come pretty damn close to it. We haven't officially added a label to what we are, but she's been hinting at it for the last couple of days.

I look up from my desk when I hear a quiet snore. Tali is dead asleep in the bed in my room. Moses is lying on his back at the foot of the bed asleep too. I wish I could sleep but it's one of those nights, the nightmares came back. I haven't had one in two weeks, so I was starting to think they might have stopped but I guess not.

I look at my omni-tool, it's 0417 right now. The day shift for the ship should be waking up in about 45 minutes, about 0430 is the time Tali would wake up to sneak back to her cabin before anyone woke up. I've been trying to tell her that she doesn't have to do that.

My eyes drift back to my extranet monitor, I'm trying my fucking hardest to find some leads on Saren, but it's almost like the guy is a ghost. I sigh and lay my head on the desk; I swear I just wish something would fucking come through. A faint beep goes off and I look up to see an encrypted message has come in. I use my new omni-tool to break the cypher. When the firewall breaks it reveals the message came from one of my informants; Kasumi Gato.

I opened the message, and it was a file on Exo-gene. A private bioresearch company, I started combing through the file and it reveals the list of the company's most prominent stockholders. At the top of the list was Saren. There was another file, it was an encrypted distress signal. I opened the file and lowered the audio to where I could only hear it.

"Distress sig... blocked... colony... Zhu's Hope... geth attack worse... thought. Alliance reinforcements... out... Need help." The signal ends there. I jump over to the miniature galaxy map and look up the planet the colony of Zhu's hope is on, Feros. Then I see it, the colony of Zhu's Hope is under contract with Exo-gene. Things are starting to fall into place, a colony run by a company Saren is chief stockholder in comes under attack from geth.

I hop on my message terminal and send a message to navigation. "Set course for Feros at, ASAP. Send eta to arrival." I sent the message and withing 45 seconds I got a reply. "ETA to Feros, 1245 hours." A small smile crosses my face. I turn off my monitor and open my omni-tool.

"Freya, does Tali have an alarm set?" I asked her.

"Yes, she has one for 0430, in seven minutes." Freya replied.

"Cancel it, change both mine and her to 1030 hours. I think she deserves to sleep in. Also send a reminder to the ground team to meet in the conference room at 1130." I told her.

Will do, Colonel. Sleep well." replies Freya. I get up from the desk and walk to bed. I crawl under the covers and rest my head on the pillow. Tali rolls over and places her head on my shoulder and her arm over my chest. I wrap my left arm around her and put my right hand on hers that's on my chest. I lean my head forward and give her a kiss on the top of her head. She lets out as small moan, a smile breaks across my face as I close my eyes.

My eyes fluttered open as a beeping sound filled my ears. I took my right hand and turned the alarm off on my nightstand. I looked down and Tali was still in the same position she was when I fell asleep. I took my hand and brushed the hair out of her face, pushing it behind her ear. He pointed ear twitched slightly when she did, a small moan came from her as she moved her head slightly burying her face deeper into my shoulder. She reached her hand out and took mine into hers, holding it. I couldn't help but smile, these small things she did were adorable.

I just laid there for a few minutes, watching her sleep, rubbing the palm of her hand with my thumb. After several minutes, she exhaled deeply and slowly opened her eyes, looking up at me.

"Good morning beautiful." I said with a smile. Tali yawned, raising her head and looked around the room, then looked back at me.

"You turned my alarm off, didn't you." Tali said in her sleepy voice.

"I thought you deserved to sleep in." I said, running my fingers through her hair.

She laid her head back down on my chest, "Ok, now be quiet and let me sleep." she said.

I let out a small laugh, "I wish I could, but we got to get up." Tali let out an annoyed grunt and shook her head.

"Come on, I promise we will sleep in as long as we want tomorrow." I told her.

"You promise?" she said into my chest.

"I promise." Tali slowly sat up in the bed, Moses decided to finally stir to life. He crawled up into Tali's lap. Tali gave him head scratches and Moses absolutely loved it. I pulled the cover off me and swung my legs off the bed, pushing myself up into a standing position. I proceeded to do some stretches and a couple of big yawns. I let out a few groans of relief as my bones popped and muscles relaxed.

Tali walked around the bed to me, she was wearing one of her blue moomoo nightgowns, her hair was a mess, but she still looked absolutely beautiful. I put my arms around her waist, and she put her hands on my chest. Lifting herself up on her tiptoes and placed her lips on mine, I placed my hands behind her thighs and hoisted her up to wear her legs could wrap around my waist. Tali let out a small yelp when I did that, I silenced it by pressing my lips against hers. She wrapped her hands around the back of my head, pulling me in. I felt her hit the back of my knee with her foot causing me to fall back on the bed. Now on top of me, Tali attacked my lips with deep and ravenous kisses, her hands feeling my chest.

I grabbed her waist and rolled us over to where I was on top, I pinned her hands to the bed. Looking at Tali, she was looking back at me panting and with a seductive look in her eyes.

"I wish we could just stay here." I said, brushing hair out of her face.

"Why can't we?" she asked with a playful smile.

"I wish, but we got to get to work." I said, pushing myself off the bed. Tali laid there and let out an, "Ughh!" of annoyance. Pushing herself up off the bed, "Fine, but tonight we're staying in. I'll see you in the conference room." she said as she walked out of the room.

I heard Vetra yell out from the mess hall, "Did you have a good time, Tali?"

"Fuck off, Vetra!" Tali yelled at Vetra as my cabin door closed. I couldn't help but laugh; I swear that woman is Amazing. I went and took a shower and threw on a shirt, some jeans and boots.

…...

Right at 1130, I walked into the conference room. Everyone was seated and waiting, I walked up to my chair and sat down. Shepard was to my left; Tali was to my right, back in her suit.

"I think we might have something on Saren." Everyone sat up and gave their attention. "A private bioresearch company called Exo-gene has a colony outpost on Feros. Saren is one of their major stockholders, well several days ago the colony came under attack, by the geth."

"Well, that sure doesn't send up a fuck ton of red flags." commented Ashley.

"What do we know about the colony?" asked Shepard.

"There's not much known, what I was able to find was the planet was once home to a major Prothean settlement." I explained to Shepard.

"I believe I may be able to shed some light on the planet, Colonel." Liara said holding up her hand. I gestured with my hand to let Liara know she could have the floor.

"The planet is home to an ancient world city. Much of the planet's surface is covered by towers that stretch several dozen kilometers into the sky, through the planet's dense cloud cover. Each tower was believed to be a self-contained city, each tower is connected by a series of skyways. Though some of the towers have begun to collapse, some are still stable enough, and have existing infrastructure to house a colony." Liara finished explaining and sat back in her seat.

"Thank you, Liara. Now the colony of Zhu's Hope is in one of the major courtyards that wrap around the tower just above the cloud cover. Now according to the distress signal, the colony is under heavy assault. The Alliance sent some reinforcements several days ago, but we've had no contact with them and can assume they have sustained heavy casualties. This is going to be a big fight, so it's everyone on deck this time around. Get suited up and lock 'n' load, be ready in an hour" I finished, everyone started to get up.

"There's one more thing, Scott... Sarah." Scott and Sarah turned to face me. "There was an N7 in charge of the Alliance reinforcements, his name is Alec Ryder, your father." Scott and Sarah wore a look of fear and worry when I mentioned their father's name.

"I do not know about his status, but I know his record, I'm confident he's still alive, if he is we'll get him out." Scott and Sarah both nodded with confident looks on their faces, then they both left.

I walked up and grabbed Peebee by the shoulder before she could leave the room, she turned and looked at me. "Peebee, I'm going to let you come on this mission. But you have to promise me that you will stay in cover and stay close to the others. Don't try anything brave or risky, just support the others best you can. I don't want to worry about you more than I already am."

Peebee smiled and nodded her head, "Sure thing dad, stay in cover and support the others where I can, nothing risky. I'll be ok, so don't worry." she said. I smiled and pulled her into a hug.

"I know you'll be ok, but you're my daughter, I'm going to worry about you till the day I die. I love you." I gave her a squeeze before letting go.

"I love you too, dad." she said before turning and leaving. I stood there for a moment and sighed, rubbing my face.

"You ready?" I turned to look at who just spoke to me and saw Tali.

"Yeah, are you?" I asked her. She nodded her head. "Well then babe, let's go fry these synthetic bastards." Tali walked ahead in front of me, and I took the opportunity to give her a slap on the bum. Tali yelped and jumped a little bit, she turned to look at me.

"Keep it up mister and we're going to be very late for the mission." she said before walking away with a sway in her hips. I exhaled deeply once she was out of the room. Control yourself, son.

...

"Now Nihlus, are you sure you're ready for a mission like this?" I asked Nihlus as him, I and Shepard walked to the front airlock of the Normandy.

"I'm positive Rick, I can't just sit on the sidelines for the whole mission. Besides I'm pretty sure I was about to go crazy in that med bay." Nihlus said. Shepard let out a laugh at Nihlus's comment.

"I know what you mean, anytime I'm in one I feel like crawling the walls." she said. We reached the airlock and waited for it to do its depressurization cycle before it opened. We walked out of the ship onto the dock, walking to the end of the dock were four colonists. They were in cheap Light Onyx armor with M8 Avengers. One of them stepped forward.

"We saw your ship come in, Fia Dan wants to speak with you." he said in monotone voice, that was to be honest kind of creepy.

"Who's Fia Dan?" asked Shepard.

"He's our leader, take the stairs to your right, they'll lead you up to the courtyard where the colony is." he spoke. I peered my eyes to the left and saw a half dozen geth come out from behind some heavy crates, one of them had a rocket launcher and pointing it at us.

"Get to cover!" I yelled, grabbing Shepard and Nihlus by the shoulder and pulled them behind some heavy crates. The rocket hit the ground behind the colonists; two of the colonist's bodies were thrown into the air, their legs blown off. One of the colonists was thrown forward, the back of their body a charred and bloody mess. One of the colonists was able to dive into cover with us.

"The geth have started another attack!" he yelled out.

"No shit!" I responded, unholstering my new Pheaston rifle. It had an extended barrel, holographic sights, and a modified thermal clip to give it more rounds and bigger punch. I peered my head around the crates, three of the geth were at the end of the dock shooting at us. A round hit the edge of the crate; I jerked my head back. "Shit!"

I grabbed a grenade off my assault vest and tossed at the end of the dock. When it went off, I heard a synthetic screech. I leaned out from behind the crate, two of the geth were dead and the third dazed. I aimed my rifle at it and fired. Its body jerked as bullets hit it, the light on its head exploded in electric sparks as its body fell dead.

The three other geth came around the corner to shoot at us. But they didn't make it far before they were lit up with gunfire. I turned my head, and the rest of the ground team was coming out of the Normandy. Everyone was in their new Heavy Colossus Armor. Behind them were the ships twelve-man marine detachment. Tali crouched down beside me.

"We figured you could use some help." she said to me. I smiled behind my mask.

"Much appreciated, Love." I responded back. I stood and looked at the rest of the group. "Everyone let's move. Up the stairs to the colony!" We took a right at the end of the dock, running toward the stairs. A squad of geth appeared at the bottom of the stairs. One of the geth had a rocket launcher and fired it at us. "Everyone down!" I yelled. We all dove to either side of the path, behind some crates. The rocket flew past us and hit a crate further behind us, exploding.

Me and Shepard popped out from behind cover and lit up the geth. After putting the geth down we charged up the stairs, reaching the top of the stairs there were a group of geth firing down a hallway. Me, Shepard and Tali stacked up on the wall. I turned to Tali, "Tali on my signal hit the back of the group with an overload." I turned to Shepard have a grenade ready, throw it on my signal." Both nodded at my orders. I peered around the corner once more, the geth were still firing down the hallway.

I turned back and looked at Tali, "Now." Tali leaped out from behind the corner and launched an overload. The two geth in the rear were hit and went down. "Shepard now!" Me and Shepard jumped out from behind the corner tossing our grenades. The grenades exploded taking out four of the geth. There were still 3 left and turned, their sights trained on Tali. I jumped out in front of her, raised my rifle and fired just at the same time as the geth fired. They sent a hail of bullets my way and I sent a hail their way. I unloaded the entirety of my 90 round thermal clip into the geth. I managed to take out two of the geth, but just before the third fell, my shields broke, and a round hit my shoulder. At the same time the third geth fell, I jerked back with a loud groan. It was all over in less than three seconds.

Tali whirled around in front of me, just as I was straightening myself. "Keelah, Rick are you ok?!" in yelled out in a frantic voice, looking me over. I placed my hands on her shoulders, looking her in the eyes.

"Tali, I'm fine. My armor caught the bullet." I said to her. She shaked my hands off her shoulders and slapped me on the chest.

"You bosh'tet! Don't ever scare me like that again!" she yelled. I stood there still.

"I'm sorry, I acted on instinct. I didn't want to see you get hurt." I spoke. Shepard came up and tapped me on the shoulder.

"I'm sorry to have to break up this moment, but we need to get to the colony." she said to us, gesturing down the hall. I nodded my head in agreement. We ran down the hallway coming to an entrance way that led into the colony.

The courtyard was a large rectangular shape, I guess about a half dozen acres in size. The courtyard was surrounded by high concrete walls, most of the courtyard was just rubble from ruins. The actual colony was up against the main tower, a group of about a dozen prefabricated buildings.

Running into the colony, geth were up on the high walls of the courtyard firing down on the colony. Some were among the ruins, trying to push into the heart of the colony. About a dozen colonists and several alliance marines were taking cover behind a large water pipe and some steel barriers.

"Set up a perimeter around the colony!" I ordered as everyone began funneling in. The Normandy's marine detachment came running, I walked up to the sergeant in command of them. "Set up the revenant machine gun team on that water pipe. Try to lay some fire on those geth on the high wall!"

He gave a stern, "Yes sir!" He waved the two marines, each wielding extended barrel revenant machine guns tripods, over to the water pipe. They set up and began firing on the get on top of the high walls.

"Where the hell are the grenade launchers?!" I yelled. Two marines, each holding a revolving drum grenade launcher, ran up to me. "Set up behind the barriers, lay some hurt on those synthetic fuckers!" They both yelled out a "Yes sir!" and ran to their position. Everyone was now in their positions, laying down fire on the geth, trying to push them back. I looked around and spotted an older marine in N7 armor. Must be Alec.

I marched over to him, bullets whizzing by me. I got to him and crouched down beside him. "Captain Ryder?!" I asked. He simply nodded his head between burst from his rifle. "Care to explain how we got into this fucked up situation?!"

He turned to me, "I don't know! The geth must have got in through the tunnels leading to the waste and Water management building on the lower levels. We sealed those tunnels a couple days ago after the geth took the lower levels, they must have dug through!" Alec explained. Well, that's just nice.

"Where's Fia Dan?!" I asked him. Alec turned and pointed at a dark shin man over by the main colony building. I patted Alec on the shoulder and stood up. Walking over to Fia Dan I crouched down beside him, "You Fia Dan?" He nodded. "Colonel Rick Warren, Joint Special Ops and Recon, Colonial Armed forces." I told him who I was.

"I'm glad they finally sent someone, Colonel. We're barely holding on, the geth have gave us a pounding." said Fia Dan.

"For geth presence to be this stiff, there must be a transmitter nearby!" I said.

"You may be right, Colonel. Some of our scouts reported what looked like a geth transmitter in the water and waste management building on the lower levels. It was the first place to fall, also knocked out our water supply." Fia Dan said. Just then we heard an explosion from inside the tower. I looked up and saw a small geth drop ship fly overhead.

"The geth have breached the tower, they'll overrun the colony if we don't clear them out!" exclaimed Fia Dan.

"You leave that to me!" I said. I activated my short band radio. "Shepard, Tali, Drack, Garrus. On me, we got geth in the tower. Everyone else, focus on clearing the courtyard!" I stood up and made my way to the rear of the colony, my team hot on my heels.

We came to an entry way, leading into the tower. A single geth trooper was coming out of it. I drew my Scholfield and put three rounds in its head, putting it down. I went to the base of the stairs, a geth trooper came down the stairs at me. I unsheathed my tomahawk and embedded it into its flashlight on its head. The geth went limp, but another trooper was coming down the stairs. Raising my Scholfield, I put four rounds into it. Its body jerked and went limp, tumbling down the stairs.

I pulled my tomahawk out of the geth and sheathed it. I started running up the stairs, my squad behind me, I broke open my Scholfield and changed the spent cylinder for a new one. Reaching the top of the stairs we came to an open area that the roof had collapsed in. The geth dropship was above, dropping troopers in. One of the geth troopers went running right at Shepard, but she ducked, planting her shoulder into the waist of the geth, throwing it over her. The geth hit the ground behind her and she turned around and riddled it with bullets. Damn girl.

Drack ran forward, firing his Ruzad shotgun. The practical hand cannon tore holes right through the torso of two geth troopers. Drack used the curved bayonet to stab one of the geth in the neck, firing his shotgun, it blew the head off the geth.

Garrus was in the back up on a pile of rubble, popping geth heads with his mantis sniper. Me and Tali were in cover behind some knocked down half wall. Shepard behind a similar one a few feet away. I took out a grenade and threw it into a group of four geth. The explosion killed two, the other two I mowed down with my Pheaston. I crouched back into cover.

"Well, this is fun!" I said to Tali.

"Destroying a bunch of synthetics on a backwater world. I couldn't think of a better second date." she said back. I cackled at that. We both rose out of cover, me firing my rifle, Tali firing her Mark X M-27 Scimitar. Pretty soon all the geth were cleared and the dropship pulled away. We went back down to the colony, we found that the others had successfully repelled the geth assault.

Fia Dan and Alec Ryder walked up to me and Shepard and Nihlus walked up beside us too.

"Thank you for the assistance, there was no way we would have survived that attack if you hadn't showed up." said Alec.

I nodded my head, "Well I'm glad we did, it's good you made it Captain. Speaking of which I think there is some people who would like to talk to you." I said pointing off behind Alec. He turned and saw Scott and Sarah, he immediately left and walked over to talk to them. I turned my attention back to Fia Dan.

"Now that the geth have been repelled I need to ask you some questions. First off, where can I find the Exo-gene research station?" I asked him.

"It's located in the next tower over, but the skyway is crawling with geth walkers. It'll be a tough fight getting to them. Why do you need to get to them?" he asked.

"I think they might know why the geth are attacking the planet. But second question, is there anything we can do to help the colony before we leave?"

"Yes, there is." We turned to see a group of two women and a man walk up to us.

"Names Macha Doyle, I'm in charge of the colonies water filtration system. Since the geth hit, the colony has been dry." said Doyle.

"What can we do to help that situation?" asked Shepard.

"You'll have to go to the old maintenance building and turn the valve back on." she said.

"Anything else?" I asked.

"Yes. I'm Davin Reynolds." A man stepped forward. "The colony is running low on food, there is Varen in the tunnels but the Alpha male attacks and kills anyone that goes down there."

I nodded my head. "What else?"

"May O'Connell. The colony is without power right now. Our main generator needs new power cells." I nodded my head.

"All of these things require going down into the tunnels and lower levels, which is where the geth are." said Fia Dan.

I held up my hand. "It's ok Fia Dan, we'll take care of it." With that the four colonists walked away. I turned to look at Nihlus and Shepard.

"Ok, I'm going to take Tali and Peebee back to the ship and get the mako ready. Also see if any of the mako's spare power cells match the generator. Nihlus, I want you to stay here with Scott, Sarah, Alec and the other marines. You're in charge of things up here. Shepard, you take everyone else and clear out the tunnels, take out that transmitter, turn the water back on and kill that Alpha Varen." I told them. Both Shepard and Nihlus nodded.

Back on the Normandy, Tali and Peebee took the lift down to the cargo hold with me. Exiting the lift, I turned to Peebee. "Peebee, got to Engineering and see if Adams can jerry rig some of the Mako power cells for the colony." I told her, she nodded her head and walked off to engineering. Me and Tali walked over to the Mako, getting into the front through the side hatches. We got to work on beginning the startup checklist on the mako.

"You got to start being less careless." Tali said while typing away on the co-pilot console. I stopped what I was doing, pulled back my hood and lifted my mask.

"Are we really going to continue this." I said looking at her. She stopped what she was doing and looked at me.

"Yes, we are, out there in the colony you were just walking around like nothing was wrong, bullets whizzing inches from you. Are you trying to get shot?" she asked angerly.

"I was doing my job Tali, if this is about the hallway earlier, I said..." Tali cut me off.

"I don't care if you're sorry, you just can't be throwing yourself in harm's way all the time. If we're going to do this, then you need to be above ground." she snapped at me.

"What is this, Tali?!" I snapped back. She looked at me wide-eyed. "I don't know what we are, far as I'm concerned, we've just been fooling around. You've refused to put any sort of label or commitment on it. Why? Why is that, Tali?!"

"Because I'm afraid you're going to die!" she yelled back at me. I sat there completely stunned. "I've seen everything you've went through. All the deadly missions, all the near fatal injuries. I'm afraid the next time might be the one, I can't deal with that." she said, her voice choking up at the end, a few small tears forming at the corner of her eyes.

I scooted myself over and wrapped my arm around her, pulling her in to where her head was on my shoulder. I leaned my head over to where it rested on hers. "Tali, death is something that you can't control. It's going to come for you whether you like it or not."

She sniffled, "I know that, but not now. I want you around for as long as possible."

"Tali, death has been dogging me for many years now, it ain't got me yet. And I sure as hell ain't going to let it get me any time soon." I said, holding her a little tighter.

Tali shifted herself to where she was looking at my face. "You promise?" she asked.

I gave a small smile, "I promise. With everything I have in me, I promise."

"Good, because I want you with me for as long as I can have you." she said, returning the smile.

"So, you want this for the long haul. You know that means commitment, no more trying to sneak out of my cabin, holding hands and being affectionate in front of the others." I said to her.

Tali giggled slightly, "Yes, I want all of that." I kissed her on top of her mask. We both sat back up and resumed our startup checklists.

"Boyfriend." I looked over at Tali. "I have a boyfriend." she said, I guess trying the world out. I couldn't help but smile and laugh under my breath.

Just then the driver side hatch opened, I jumped a little bit. "Sweet baby Jesus!" Peebee popped her head into view.

"Sorry. So, Adams was able to jerry rig some old Mako power cells, he said they should work for the colony generator." Peebee said.

"Alright, put them up near the main airlock. Tell joker to call a couple of the marines to come get them. Then get back here." I told her. Peebee nodded and closed the hatch.

The radio in the Mako started to chime. "Rick, are you there?" I heard Shepards voice.

"Yeah, what's up?" I asked.

"We encountered a colonist in the tunnels, he seemed insane. He was going on about something being in his head, and saying he was obeying the master's whip. It sounded like something was playing real Havick with his mind." Shepard responded. Hm, I don't like the sound of that.

"That's not all, some of the other colonists were acting strange after the attack." Said Tali.

"It sounds like something is affecting the colonists' mental states. Ok Shepard, return to the colony when you're done. Ask Fia Dan if he's noticed anything about the colonist's behavior. Then bring Nihlus, Drack and Vetra with you down to the skyway entrance. We'll be there in the Mako." I told her. She replied with a "Got ya." before hanging up.

The side hatch opened and Peebee crawled into the crew compartment. "Ok, the power cells have been picked up." She said.

"Ok, just sit tight on the ship till we get back." I told her.

"Bullshit, I'm coming with you all." she exclaimed. I turned around and looked at her.

"Like hell you are. It's going to be very dangerous where we're going." I told her sternly.

"So, I handled myself fairly well in the courtyard." she spat back. I was about to rebuke her when Tali laid a hand on my shoulder. "Rick."

I sighed and looked back at Peebee. "Ok, but you stay in the truck and follow my orders." I told. Peebee just smiled, she closed the hatch and sat down. I turned back around and shook my head. "I swear that girl is going to be the death of me." I mumbled.

"The joys of parenthood." Tali said to me. I looked at her and laughed.

"Heh. Hey if this works out in the end, that's your future daughter-in-law." I told her. Tali froze slightly and looked at me. "We're breaking up." she said.

I cackled at that, knowing that she was joking. "You know you want me." I said.

"You have no idea." she said softly. I turned and looked at her, raising my eyebrow.

"Chill darling. You need a toy or something." I said to her.

"Why do I need one? There's one between your legs, use it." she retorted.

"I thought we were waiting?" I asked.

"You're teasing is making me impatient... and horny" she replied. The fuck is going on.

"Can we go before I get sick." said Peebee from the back.

"Joker we're ready. Get us out of here before one of us gets killed." I said over the radio. The hangar bay doors opened, revealing an entrance to the roadways under the colony. We drove out of the ship into the roadways and made our way over to the main garage that led out onto the skyway. A few minutes after we parked, Shepard and the others came out of a doorway into the garage. They ran over to the Mako, opening the side hatch, they crawled in. Vetra crawled up into the turret command, Nihlus was the last one in, closing the hatch behind her.

After everyone strapped in, Shepard started talking. "I talked to Fia Dan about the behavior of the colonists. He practically blew me off and told me to mind my own business." She said to me.

"Something is definitely not right here; we need to get to that Exo-Geni building." I said, looking over at Tali. "Care to open the door for us, babe?" I asked her. Tali hit a few buttons on her console and the massive garage door opened.

"Did he just say 'babe'?" asked Vetra from the turret command.

"Shut up, Vetra." I told her as I put the Mako in gear. We drove out on the skyway. Looking at the display screen that showed the outside, the skyway was an absolute mess. Above us a geth dropship flew in and dropped two geth armatures several hundred meters ahead of us.

"We sure as shit aren't in Kansas anymore." I mumbled. "Same gameplan, Vetra shoot those walkers, Tali keep our shields up." I opened my omni-tool and hit a few buttons to turn on my radio and connect it with the mako. Take It Easy, a song by an old earth group called the Eagles started playing.

I started driving forward, the geth armatures started firing at us, I weaved the mako out of the way of the shots. While doing so I was singing along to the song. Vetra was shooting the geth down with the mako cannon.

"Well, I'm standing on a corner in Winslow Arizona such a fine sight to see. It's a girl, my Lord, in a flatbed Ford slowing down to take a look at me." I sang along with the lyrics.

"You can just kill me now please." Drack said.

"Hey, it's not as bad as having to listen through the walls, Tali vigorously pleasure herself at five in the morning." said Vetra. Drack and Peebee started bursting out laughing.

"I think you're the one to blame for that, Rick." said Vetra.

"Vetra, I have a shotgun." threatened Tali. Me, Nihlus and Shepard were the ones who laughed now. "That's my girl." I said to her.

We continued driving, taking out geth forces as we went. "You know, I wonder what's here that Saren wants so bad that he would launch an entire geth invasion force on the planet?" asked Nihlus.

"I don't know, but I guarantee it has something to do with the Reapers." said Shepard.

"Saren is Exo-Geni's chief stockholder, he would have access to the company files. They probably discovered something that Saren wants badly. But judging by the behavior of the colonists, I'd say the company is up to something sinister." I added to the conversation.

Coming up to the next tower, there were two geth walkers and over a dozen geth troopers outside. The door to the garage of the tower was broken and not nearly big enough to fit the Mako through. I swerved the mako, avoiding the plasma rounds from the walkers. The mako 20mm cannon taking care of the troopers. Vetra shot the last walker, I hit it with corner of the mako, shoving its dead form out of the way.

Up ahead in front of the garage bay door was a third walker that none of us had noticed. There was no time to react to shoot it. So, instinct kicked in and I floored it right at the geth walker. "Everybody hold on!" I yelled.

I slammed into the geth walker. Its front legs must've got stuck under the mako because its body didn't fly over the tank. We dragged it with us as we drove, I had my foot on the gas the entire time. We slammed into the walls of the garage bay door, crushing the walker between us and it. Its body went limp when we did that. I let off the gas and put the mako in neutral and applied the brake.

Tali turned to look at me while panting, still holding onto the dash. "Do not... Ever... Do that... Again." she said.

"Hey, it worked didn't it. Let's go." I said, unlatching the side hatch and kicking it open with my foot.

We all crawled out of the Mako and made our way into the garage. "Peebee you stay on Drack's ass the entire time." I told her, scanning the area with my rifle.

"Shouldn't be a problem." she said sarcastically.

"Watch it girl." Drack said.

"This place is a fucking mess." I said while looking around the ruined building. We made our way down a stairwell that led into a service tunnel. While walking we came up on a dead carcass of a varen. Just then a shot went off and barely missed my head by a couple inches. We all raised our guns in the direction of the shot.

A young woman in a Exo-Geni uniform came out from the darkness. "I'm so sorry, I thought you were the geth or more of those varen." she said to use.

"We all lowered our guns. "What's your name?" Shepard asked.

My name is Lizabeth, I got separated from the others while we were evacuating when the geth attacked." she explained to us.

"Lizabeth!" a voice cried out from behind us. We all whirled around to be greeted by a man and a woman in lab uniforms, and two guards.

"Mom!" the girl yelled out as she ran to her mother.

"Who are you people, this is private property you're trespassing on." the man yelled at us. Oh, so he's the asshole in charge.

I stepped forward, letting the little light in the tunnel show my mask. The man froze in fear when he saw it. "We're here to take care of your geth problem, dick." I spat at him.

"John, relax, they're clearly here to help." the woman said to the man.

"Now, could any of you tell us why the geth are attacking?" I asked. They all stared at me in silence.

"They're probably here for the Thorian." said Lizabeth.

"Lizabeth. Shut up!" the man yelled at Lizabeth in a hushed voice.

"I'm about two seconds from crushing your motherfucking windpipe if you don't shut your ass up." I snapped at the man. "Now please continue, what the fuck is this, Thorian?" I asked.

Lizabeth's mom began to explain, "The Thorian is an indigenous plant lifeform, it exhibits signs of sentience. Exo-Geni was researching it because of its potential mind control capabilities, the plant is able to influence the behavior of other lifeforms if they breathe in the spores it releases." she explained.

"Rick, the colonists. They were showing signs of strange behavior." Nihlus said as he stepped forward.

"The colonists, John you said they were all dead." Lizabeth's mom said angerly.

"I said they were probably dead." he responded, beginning to fidget.

"Not quite, but the geth hit them hard. A few of the members of the colony were showing signs of bizarre behavior, like they were not in control of their own judgement. Would you happen to know about this?" asked Shepard, crossing her arms.

"I'm sorry, I can't tell you, it's company policy." the man said.

"Company poli... I don't have time for this shit." I said as I drew my Scholfield and pointed it right between the man's eyes. Lizabeth and her mom stepped back. The two Exo-Geni guards raised their rifles, but the team had them outnumbered.

"If you know what is going on, you need to tell us right the fuck now! Or I will splatter your brains all over the walls of this fucking tunnel!" I yelled at the man.

"Ok! I'll tell, just please don't shoot!" The man yelled, his voice and body trembling.

"Go on!" I said angerly not lowering my gun.

"The Thorian is located under the Zhu's Hope colony. When we discovered its mind control abilities, corporate ordered us to use the colonists as test subjects." he said.

"And?!"

"The tests worked, as of just before the geth attack, eighty-five percent of the colonists were infected." I finally decided to lower my gun, feeling that was all the information I was going to get. The man released a giant exhale of air as his whole body relaxed.

I holstered my gun and decided to punch him square in the face. His head jerked as he fell backwards, the two guards caught him as he fell into their arms unconscious, blood coming from his mouth and nose. "That was for being an asshole." I said.

I turned to the team, "We got to get a message out to the Normandy and tell them what's going on."

"You can't." said Lizabeth, I turned to look at her. "That geth ship that's anchored to the tower, it's blocking comms."

"Dammit!" I turned back to the team. "Peebee and Vetra, there's a bag in the Mako filled with C4 and det cord. Get it and hurry back." The two of them ran off towards the Mako. I turned back to the group of civilians. "You all better find somewhere safe, once we get everything clear, we'll radio alliance reinforcements." They nodded before leaving. "Freya, see if you can't do a scan of the building and locate the anchor points of the geth ship." I said to her over our channel."

A short two minutes later, Peebee and Vetra came back with a large black duffel bag, which they handed to me.

"Alright, Freya marked three anchor points. We'll break off into three teams, each team takes a satchel of C4 and a hundred-foot roll of det cord." I told the team.

"This stuff won't do much but scratch the paint on that ship, you know." commented Drack.

"I know, but if we can damage the surrounding structure of the building, it might be enough to cause the ship to slip out of its anchor points." I replied.

"When did you become a demolition expert?" asked Tali as I started handing out C4 and det cord.

"It's part of the training for the Black Rangers. Kill shit, Hack shit, and blow shit up." I replied to her.

"I think I joined the wrong armed forces." commented Shepard. I looked up at her and laughed.

"Hey, it's not too late." I said to her.

Once we all got our C4 and det cord, we broke off into our teams. It was me and Tali, Shepard and Nihlus, and Drack, Peebee and Vetra.

It was a dark and creepy trek to the geth ship anchor point. "It would sure be easy to get lost in here." said Tali.

"Heh, well at least we'd get that alone time you wanted." I replied to her.

"Not exactly the kind of alone time I was wanting. I was thinking more of a lake side house near some woods." she said.

"I got a river side house on a private lot of my parents' land." I said.

"You going to introduce me to your parents?" she asked.

"Sure, why not." I answered.

I'd like that."

We continued until we reached an open area, we crouched behind a fallen pillar. I peeked over it, there were four geth working on one of the geth ship anchors. I crouched back down beside Tali. "Four geth troopers. Why don't we sneak up on them." I said while pulling out my kukri. Tali responded by pulling out her eight-inch blade boot knife.

We both sneaked out from behind the pillar, slowly creeping up on the geth. Tali snuck up behind one, I another. When I was about six feet from the geth, I rushed forward and jammed my kukri into its back. Some electrical sparks came out of its body before it fell forward, lifeless. I looked over and Tali had done the same, but into the back of its head.

This must have been enough to alert the other two geth, they turned around on us. I acted quickly, drawing my revolver and putting three bullets into the geth, dropping it. Tali down the same to the other geth with her M-27 Scimitar.

With all the geth dead, I pulled out the C4 and Det cord. Me and Tali went about placing it on the walls around the geth anchor hook, we wrapped the det cord around the actual anchor and connected it to the C4. I hooked up the wireless detonator.

"We're all set here. How is everyone else?" I asked over the radio.

"We're ready." Shepard replied.

"Ready to blow this bitch." replied Vetra.

"Ok, set a timer for thirty seconds then blow it, make sure you take cover." I told them.

"Aww, I was going to stare at it." Vetra joked over the radio. I swear she's a smartass. Tali was giggling beside me. I set my timer for thirty seconds, me and Tali retreated back behind the downed pillar. We crouched down, I used my body to shield her.

Once the thirty seconds were up, I pushed the detonator. A loud explosion followed by the area shaking and dust filling the air. We peeked above the pillar and the walls were badly damaged. The anchors for the geth ship started slipping as the building started to shake.

"Time to go." I said as I grabbed Tali's hand and pulled her along with me. We ran out of the area just as the geth ship started to fall.

We returned to the Mako with the rest of the team not far behind. My comms started to cackle as a voice came through. "Rick, are you there?" I heard Garrus's voice.

"Yeah, we finally got comms back up. What's the situation?" I asked.

"Something is wrong with the colonists. They're acting almost feral, started attacking the marines and the rest of the squad. We had to retreat back to the Normandy." he answered.

"We found out what's causing it. There's a plant lifeform under the colony, it has some kind of mind controlling spores it lets off, it's what's affecting the colonists." I told him.

"Well, what do we do? We got to subdue these colonists without hurting them." asked Garrus.

"Those grenade launchers. There should be some canisters for them, releases tear gas mixed with chloroform. Should be enough to subdue the colonists long enough to restrain them. Once we get back, we're taking care of that Thorian." I said before cutting the radio.

"Everyone into the Mako, we gotta haul ass back to Zhu's Hope." We all climbed into the Mako and sped off back to the colony. The drive back to the colony was uneventful, could have been a simple Sunday drive.

Pulling into the garage, we all piled out and rushed back up to the colony. Entering the colony, all the colonists were laying on the ground, unconscious and their hands and feet tied. The marines and the rest of the team were standing around. Garrus saw us and walked up to us. "That trick worked; all the colonists were safely restrained." he said.

"Good, round everyone up. We're going to deal with that Thorian. Bring one of those grenade launchers with explosive and incendiary rounds." I told Garrus, he nodded and walked away.

Venturing down into the bowls of the colony was a little unsettling, a system of tunnels and stairwells to easily get lost on. All of us except for Ashley, Kaiden, Peebee, Scott and Sarah were making our way to the Thorian. After what seemed like an eternity of walking, we reached the bottom of some stairs that opened into a massive chamber. The chamber extended down for God knows how long, and a pathway spiraled around the chamber as it went down.

The freakiest thing was the Thorian. A massive plant, that resembled a massive hunk of green snot was suspended in the middle of the chamber. This thing was at least a few hundred feet tall; its body was connected to the wall by massive tendrils stuck to the walls.

"Well, that's not something you see every day." I said as me and everyone else stared at the creature. Just then a slimy human-plant hybrid zombie jumped out from behind the corner. It launched itself at me, I was able to block it by shoving my forearm in its neck. It was trying to bite at me, I put my left hand on the side of its head and slammed it against the wall. Its head crushed into a mess of goo, some green blood got on my left hand and forearm and started burning through my armor and to my skin.

I jerked my arm away, hissing in pain. "Its blood is some kind of powerful acid." I said, taking some medi-gel and applying it to my hand and arm. Then over two dozen of those green creepers came out of nowhere, towards us.

We all pulled out our guns and started shooting the creepers down, trying to not get any of its blood on us. It wasn't a long fight; these creepers weren't much to deal with. After putting down the last creeper, we started down the spiral path, until we reached the first tendril.

"Wrex give me that grenade launcher." Wrex handed the grenade launcher to me. I aimed it at the tendril and fired. The round hit and exploded in a ball of fire, the tendril broke loose, and the Thorian screeched. Out of a slimy slot in the side of the Thorian a green asari slipped out onto the path in front of us.

"Invaders! Your every step is a transgression! A thousand feelers appraise you as meat, but only to dig or decompose. I speak for the old growth as I did for Saren. You within and among the Thorian, it commands that you be in awe." the asari said.

Shepard stepped forward, "You gave something to Saren, something I need." she demanded of the asari.

"Saren seeked knowledge of those who are gone. The old growth listened to flesh for the first time in a long cycle. Deals were struck then the cold ones started killing those who will tend the next cycle. The old growth sees the air you push as lies; it will listen no more." the asari responded.

To hell with this bitch, I drew my revolver. "Listen you slimy bitch, tell the Thorian to let the colonists go and give us our information, or we gonna send him for a nice long fall." I told her.

"If you will not bow before the will of the old growth, then you will die." the asari said.

"You first, cunt." I pulled the trigger and put a bullet right through her forehead. The Thorian screeched and we heard the moans of more creepers.

"You just had to piss it off didn't you." said Garrus.

The fight down the path was filthy, fighting through hordes of those creepers and several more of those asari, we took out four more of the tendrils. Finally, we reached the last one. I fired off the last grenade and the tendril broke. The Thorian screamed as its weaker supports broke loose and it fell to the bottom of the tower.

Off to the side, a sack burst and a blue skinned asari fell out. She stood up and looked at us. "I'm free! I suppose I should be thanking you for releasing me." she said to us.

"Are you alright?" asked Shepard.

"I am, or I will be in time. My name is Sheala, I serve... served Matriarch Benzeia, when she allied herself with Saren, so did I. Benzeia foresaw the influence Saren would have, she joined hm to guide him down a gentler path. But Saren is compelling, Benzeia lost her way." she explained to us.

"So you're saying Saren has some way of controlling minds?" I asked.

"Benzeia underestimated Saren, she as did I became to believe in his cause." she responded.

"Benzeia sought to turn the river and was swept away." said Liara.

"Matriarchs are among the most powerful and intelligent beings in the galaxy, how could she fall under Saren's control?" asked Shepard.

"Saren has a vessel, a massive warship unlike anything I've ever seen. He calls it Sovereign. It can dominate the minds of his followers. It indoctrinates you to Sarens will, it is a subtle process, it can take days, even weeks. But it is absolute. I was a willing slave when Saren brought me to this world, he needed my biotics to communicate with the Thorian, to learn its secrets. Saren offered me in trade. To secure an alliance with the Thorian, one he betrayed. He attacked the Thorian so it would not comminate with you. Saren knows you're searching for the conduit; he attacked the Thorian so you could not gain the cypher." she explained.

"What's the cypher?" asked Shepard.

"When you interacted with the beacon on Eden prime, it gave visions, but they were confused. They were designed for a Phrothean mind. To understand it you must think like a Prothean. The Thorian was here before the protheans, it studied them, when they died, it consumed them. It can translate the message. I now hold the cypher so I can now give it to you commander." she said.

"You can handle that Shepard. I ain't staying around for a mind fuck." I said before turning and leaving.

...

Back on Normandy, we had just left Feros and had our post mission brief with the council. They were pissed about the Thorian but fuck them. I left the med bay after getting my arm treated for burn wounds and getting wrapped up. I was back in a shirt and shorts, I headed for my cabin. Walking in, Tali was lying on my bed with a pair of my shorts and one of my shirts on.

"So, we're stealing my clothes now." I said as I plopped down on the bed beside her.

"Isn't that what girlfriends do. Steal their boyfriends' clothes, besides its comfy." she said rolling over and placing her head on my chest and draping her arm across my midsection, taking one of her fingers and tracing circles. I started running my fingers through her hair.

"This is where I want to be." she said softly.

"Why don't you just move in. I mean we're on the same ship, and your cabin is only twenty feet from mine." I said to her.

She looked up at my face, "Ok, starting tomorrow, I'll be here." I smiled and leaned down to give her a kiss on the forehead. She slowly moved herself and straddled me, her face right above mine.

"Is the door locked?" she asked me.

"Yeah." I said back.

She smiled, "Good." Then leaned down and kissed me.

Authors Note: This is the end of Chapter Four, finishing up the Feros Arc. I'll be covering most of the side missions between now and Noveria. Plus, I'm planning a shore leave chapter on Rick's home planet. I hope you all like it, the ball is rolling now. I look forward to all your reviews and suggestions. Till next time.