"That's everything you two got?"

"Yup," I replied as I placed the last rifle down on the bench.

Nepheron had gone pret-ty well. And more importantly, I learned that looting in Mass Effect was apparently the same deal as in the game, with the minor plot points of it brought to light. We found random items in every other container and locker left scattered across Cerberus' compound. And comparing the place to the one on Luna, it was starting to seem like every base we came across were going to look the same, as they did in the game. Probably some standard industrial design present throughout the galaxy. Or something.

Anyway, I learned that instead of just being put in a giant loot sack, the weapons, armor, omni-tools, and whatever else we found in that base were just straight up carried by Garrus, Emerson and I back to the Mako. We clipped as many guns as we could to our mag-belts and back, as many omni-gel canisters as we could carry in our arms, and slung the hardsuits we found over our shoulders. If any more reinforcements had shown up, we'd basically be lumbering Elcor-sized targets. We were definitely carrying way too many things to have put up a fight against anyone, and no one else even offered to help us carry them back to the vehicle. Lazy bastards. Thankfully though, it'd had been an uneventful walk balk to the Mako and Joker quickly picked us all up after we had gotten in.

Ashley had already started sorting through the various weaponry set down on the weapons bench before her. Two assault rifles, one pistol, one shotgun, and seven canisters of omni-gel, all looted from Cerberus' lockers. The two armor sets we found lay at her feet on the garage's floor. I unconsciously fondled the pistol on my hip staring at them. With all this extra booty, I was kind of hoping Shepard might finally throw a bone my way, give me something that wouldn't run out of ammo the moment we stopped fighting Geth in the Traverse. But I stopped my staring when Ashley suddenly spoke to my right.

"Hey Shield, if that's it, think can you give me some space? I'm going to need some room to get all this sorted out."

"Hm? Oh, yeah. Sure," I said already backing away from the mess.

"Thanks."

Turning away from her, the first thing I spotted was Garrus who was typing away at a console next to the Mako. I was about to walk over and chat but I realized I didn't really have anything to say. We hadn't really talked about anything recently that I could really follow up on.

Actually, come to think of it...we haven't really talked since Shepard finished that UNC mission, Geth Incursions.

I must have done something to weird him out during 'shore leave' or at least some other time fairly recent too because after playing twenty questions with me in the med bay, we never seemed to run into each other anymore. The only other time we did was when I followed up on asking about Saleon. And he hadn't exactly seemed pleased to talk with me about it then either.

Wait a second...yeah...what the hell? Is he mad at me?

I had already taken several steps toward the Turian before I heard Wrex's voice boom from the crates he was leaning on.

"Shield."

I looked back in his direction.

"Wrex?"

And as I did, I simply found him passively staring at me. Curious, I put my inquisition with Garrus on hold and started walking toward the Krogan instead. I silently stood in front of him for what seemed like several hours before I couldn't wait any longer and asked him what he wanted.

"I have some questions for you princess."

Questions for ME? That's new.

"Alright," I replied. "Shoot."

"What?"

"What do you mean what? You just said you had questions."

"Yeah, I do."

"Then why did you just ask me what?!"

"Because you just told me to shoot something. What the hell do you want me to shoot? You?"

He thrust one of his three fingers in my direction.

"What? No! It's a euphemism. It just means...you know what, never mind, it doesn't matter," I ended up sighing. "What did you want to ask me?"

He eyed me down for a while before finally asking. "You still have access to the Broker's network?"

"Network? Uh, no...no I don't," I said rubbing my neck.

He snorted. "No point in me asking then."

"Woah," I replied. "I don't have access to all my sources but I might still be able to tell you what you want to know."

"I don't think so."

"Come on, it couldn't hurt to ask could it?" I now said pleading. I was begging for anyone to view me as my useful at this point.

He suddenly pushed off the crates he was leaning against and stood at full height. I found once again, that he was terrifyingly giant.

"Tonn Actus. Ever heard the name?"

"Turian collector right?" I said remembering the mission.

"He's a Turian thief," Wrex growled.

"Right. He steals relics from the Krogan Rebellions doesn't he?"

"So you are familiar with him."

"I guess?"

"He's a Turian pirate that made the rookie mistake of pissing me off. I need to know the name of system he's based in so I can settle our score."

Oh so they have that idiom but not shoot?

"Know what it is?"

Do I? ...nope. I know the game Wrex, but I'm no Encyclopedia Brown. What I wouldn't give for access to the ME wiki right about now.

"Uh sorry man, I don't."

He sighed. "I knew you wouldn't be any help. Don't know why I thought I'd ask."

The Krogan took several steps back to lean against his crates again.

I glared at him. "I'm guessing he stole something that belongs to you," I decided to ask regardless, attempting to get a story out of him. He rarely told them...in my company anyway.

"Doesn't matter if he did."

"Oh come on Wrex."

He turned his nose up at me. "I'm done talking with you."

"What'd he take? A gun? Knife?...armor?"

His face seemed to 'tighten', if that was the word for what it was currently doing. "You already know what he took don't you."

"What are you talking about?" I replied innocently.

"Stop playing dumb...what else does the Broker have on me?"

"Dude I-" With the glare he was giving me I decided not to go down that route. "Alright...Urdnot Wrex. Here we go. You're a well-known Krogan freelancer. But everyone already knows that. What the others might not know is that you were the last Krogan to kill a Thresher Maw for his rite of passage-

Which must have been several hundreds years ago...holy shit how old is Wrex?

"-And sometime after becoming a mercenary, you took a job for Saren once. And you're occasionally hired by the Broker to fix his problems." The last 'fact' was an assumption. But I figured that entrusting him with killing Fist wasn't the first time they did business.

"Huh," the Krogan replied. He seemed unimpressed. So stupidly, I decided to add one more little tidbit to the list.

"You also had a band of followers back before you left Tuchanka. But that ended when you were betrayed at a 'crush'...arranged by you and your father."

That immediately caused him to close the small gap and get into my face. "Enough."

I immediately backpedalled several feet in response. "Woah, sorry man! Didn't mean to-"

"Doesn't matter," the Krogan cut me off, the rage in his eyes suddenly vanishing. "None of that matters now."

I now stood my ground, albeit cautiously. "Wrex..."

"Go off and do whatever the hell you do when you're not here annoying me."

"...Fine," I curtly replied before turning my back to him. If he didn't want to talk about his problems, then what did I care? I started walking toward the garage's elevator.

Oh my god. Garrus is apparently avoiding me now, Wrex doesn't like me, and hell, even Ashley didn't seem to want me around either...

And oh, don't forget how awkward it is every time you see Liara.

I was pretty sure she still thought I was a dick for not introducing myself when we first met. I can imagine that even alien women didn't like to be ignored.

What have I been doing that-

I found my face only several inches away from Shepard's as the elevator doors slid open. The next thing I knew, Tanaka and Felawa had exited out of it and one of each had pinned my arms. I felt a click as cuffs were put on my hands and Tanaka ripped my Predator from its holster.

"What the hell?" I was barely managed to spurt. "What's going on?!"

"Marauder Shield," the Commander said coldly, an icy stare accompanying her words. "You are currently charged with the following offenses: Conspiracy against the Alliance. The act of Treason against the Alliance and Misprision of Treason. Operating under False Pretenses. Committing deliberate Fraud. The obstruction of justice and Perjury. Any statements made will be accounted for in a military court." She nodded to the two marines restraining me. "Bring him to the airlock."

I stood there in shock, unable to find the words. I noticed Kaidan and Dan looking on from behind Shepard, their faces impassive with what was transpiring. As they dragged me into the elevator, I managed to look over my shoulder. The inhabitants of the garage were leering back, stunned at what was happening as well. Then the doors of the elevator slid shut.

The elevator ride seemed to last an eternity. Shepard stood behind me, reciting the Alliance's form of the Miranda rights, recanting word after word that I was to be brought before one of their courts of justice. To my left, Tanaka was gripping my arm in his hands fairly tightly, face emotionless as we rode up. To my right was Felawa, who clearly felt perturbed by what was occurring. I don't know why but I just couldn't find the words to speak. I felt choked, like someone was strangling me, a sensation of failure rippling through my body. I don't know what happened but I had failed. Shepard was going to put me in that Alliance prison she had wanted me in the first place, back from that conflict we had after Eden Prime. Which had totally slipped my mind. How violent she had been back then, so ready to throw me to the wolves. She hated me; god did she hate me then. And I guess still did. And here I was just thinking I had finally started to win her over. That things were looking up.

My brain folded in on itself again, struggling to comprehend what was happening as I was shoved out of the elevator and marched up towards the CIC.

I had just been on the team for Nepheron. She assigned me to the fire team for the mission.

If she had all this on me...there was no way she would have let me go with them. I would already be in cuffs. Something happened...something had to have happened right after the mission for this to be happening...What the hell happened?!

Then it hit me. Hard. Like one of Shepard's famed biotic fields. An agent of the Shadow Broker called you right after you finished UNC: Cerberus. For the data you found. And here I was playing pretend, saying that I worked for him. I put two and two together. They were now marching me across the bridge. Fear suddenly gripped me as I realized that the Commander had just told them to bring me to the airlock. I finally found the ability to speak as the door to the chamber opened.

"WHAT THE HELL IS GOING ON!?" I shouted before being thrust in. I fell flat on my face with my arms bound behind me.

"You lied to us. You lied about who you are and who you're working for," she said back emotionless. "I gave you the chance to tell us the truth. And yet you still lied."

Something lodged itself in my throat again. I felt like I was about to throw up.

"Shepard I-"

"Save it for the committee," she growled.

He looked down at the floor defeated, realizing the situation for him was utterly hopeless. It was a look she had seen too many times before.

She hated it.

"Shield...why didn't you just tell the truth? What were you trying to accomplish?" Felawa spoke out from behind her. She held up a hand to him, motioning to stop but Shield had already given him a response.

"I...I just wanted to help," he whispered, the last word barely audible. She had never seen him so pathetic. It was almost hard to believe.

"Help with what?" the private asked. She decided to let him continue his conversation. It didn't matter what was said in the end. Shield doesn't, and never did, belong on the Normandy. And now she was finally able to rectify the problem.

"Saren," he whispered again, now staring into her eyes. "I just...I thought I could help you stop him."

Her face contorted at the mention of him.

Saren.

They had gone for more than a week without a single peep from him. Their mission progress so far had been a joke, with the only two leads they had being to scour two entire clusters for him. They had made no progress since they had first set out.

"If you don't work for the Broker," Kaiden suddenly spoke for the first time since hearing the news, "...how do you have all the intel you do? How did you know about the Normandy's shakedown run? ...Yeah, Joker told me about that. And how you know about my time at BAaT. I sure as hell didn't tell you about that beforehand. And then how the hell did you know Saren was going to attack Eden Prime too?!" he said getting angrier. "Are you telling us we have another mole here besides you?"

Dan glanced in her direction while Felawa exchanged a shocked look with Kaidan.

Shield had returned to simply staring at the ground absently, decidedly pursing his lips.

"Tell Me!" Kaidan now uncharacteristically shouted.

The man on the ground before them just quietly replied, "...I can't."

"Shield! You're going to be put in court! They're going to lock you away with what you know about the Alliance and its operations now! If you tell us then-"

"We're not going get anything else from him," Shepard said cutting off the lieutenant.

Just look at him.

She had seen this look before. So many times before. The kind of look a man had before he was sentenced to die. Before he knew he was about to be fed to the wolves.

The man lying on the ground possessed the same look her men had back on Torfan. Back when she had just ordered them to take Darek's hill. The bunker atop it was well fortified, being the Batarian's main base of operations in the cluster. Its ground to air cannons had shot down dozens of their drop ships, and kept any real air support the Alliance had at bay. It was the last bastion they Batarians held in the system, and the only way to take it from them was on foot. But it was impenetrable. Half a kilometer high walls. Turrets trained on the valley they sat in, guns that would mow them down as soon as they left their trenches. It was estimated several hundred Batarians were inside as well, and in close combat situations, Batarians were known to be extremely lethal.

In light of all this, she had still ordered her unit to take that hill. There was no question that many would die in doing so. A third of the unit her Major predicted. Half she corrected him. Her company that night looked like dead men walking, each well-aware of the fact that none of them may well return.

That was the look Shield currently had. One of a man sentenced to die. One who knew they had no way out.

"Shepard..."

Hearing her name caused her to turn back to the wretch sprawled before her.

"You're going to be left in here until we reach the next fuel depot. Then you'll be transferred to another Alliance vessel for transport back to Arcturus sta-"

"Does it matter who I work for? Who I am?"

His words replayed themselves over and over in her head.

Does it matter?

"Yeah!" she replied angrily. "It does!"

"I never lied to you about wanting to help."

She turned away from the pathetic sight. "Leave him. We should be at the next depot in an hour." Felawa and Tanaka exited the chamber. She was halfway out herself before he finished.

"I never lied about wanting to help you take down Saren."

"Why." She asked, facing him again. "Why the hell would Saren matter to you?"

"...Because he'll kill us all," Shield plainly stated. "Not just you or me, or colonists in the Traverse. Not just Humans. Everyone."

"What?" Alenko whispered behind her.

"He wants to bring back the Reapers Shepard. If you've see that vision like I have, you know that." She unconsciously flinched as pieces of it flitted through her memory. "They'll kill everyone Shepard. Every sentient being in the Galaxy. Every man, women, and child. That's why I want to stop him. That's why we have stop him."

"We'll stop him," she said, giving a nod to the marines behind her. "You're not going to be a part of this anymore."

"Shepard, I only-"

"Lied! You only lied. Over and over and over. I don't know why I even let you stay on this ship after Eden Prime!" She wanted to at the time with every fiber of her being...but she didn't. It wasn't just because of Anderson's word like she had told him. Or what he told her after Therum. Curiosity might have played into why she let him stay aboard but...in the end it didn't matter. "But I did. I gave you the chance to prove yourself. Even after all your bull. And in the end, you just proved me right. We can't trust you. This mission's too important to let you compromise it!"

"I HAVEN'T," he shouted at her with fervor. "I saved your fucking life back on Therum!"

"YOU DIDN'T-"

"I'm not talking about the garage!" he shouted over her. "Back in the mines! I put myself in harm's way to push you out from under that boulder!" The biting remark she was forming suddenly dissipated as the memory replayed in her memory again. "I would've gladly gave my life to save you there Shepard! And back before that, when that Krogan Ranok attacked us back in the ruins! He threw you clear across the room and knocked you unconscious. He was about to kill you when I stopped him!" Everyone was silent, the rest of the crew on the bridge no doubt listening to the entire the affair too. "Shepard...I would gladly give my life for this mission. To stop Saren at any cost. That's why I'm asking...why does it matter who I work for? Where I get my information? All that matters is that I care and share the same goal. I want to stop Saren."

Shepard stood there silently, trying to find the words for a response. It left her mouth before she realized what she was saying. "Trust. That's what's needed for a mission to succeed. And with you, there is none."

He replied just as she finished. "And how much do you trust your crew Shepard? Kaidan? Ashley? Joker? Yeah sure. But what about Wrex? Liara? ...Garrus?"

She found herself snapping back as she was accustomed to. "This isn't about them!"

He finally got up off the floor. "Isn't it?! Why are they here? Why did you bring them onto the Normandy?"

She was beginning to grow irate with his retorts. "Because!" she shouted back. The answer was empty. It carried no meaning. Because it had none.

...why did I bring them along?

"Because they share the same goal as both of us. To stop Saren. Him and his allies."

They both stood there silently, for what seemed like an eternity. She didn't think anything of the man before her...until now. The sudden resolve he was showing now surprised her. But he was still a liability to the mission. Always had been. It didn't matter what his goals were.

"But you're right," he said breaking the silence before she could. "We need trust to finish this mission. Without it, we probably won't get anywhere." She waited for him to follow up on what he had just spoken. His eyes flitted to the floor before returning to meet her gaze. He straightened himself up and slacked the arms behind his back before continuing. "And I wasn't lying...entirely. I did work for the Broker."

You're still trying to claim that. Why the hell are you still trying to claim that? You obviously know that's what the hell we're talking about. You aren't that stupid. You're aware that we know that you don't work for the Broker. So why are you still gripping onto that lie? You have to work with Cerberus. The reluctance to shoot back at them on Nepheron. How you knew what was going on at Binthu. What you already knew about the organization. How you have former Alliance intel. But you're still trying to claim that you work for the damn Shadow Broker?!...are you really that stupid? Do you really think we're that stupid?!-

"Telling you what I'm about to say would endanger you all," he said now speaking to the marines behind her, cutting her off right as she was about to burst. "I know you all don't trust me, but if I tell anyone besides Shepard...it'd involve you in some serious shit."

"If you think we're leaving you alone with her, you're insane," specialist Fantum replied coldly.

"If you have something to say, you can say it to us too," Kaidan added.

Shield shifted his eyes back to her, looking for her opinion on the matter. She had none. He seemed to pick up on this. "Fine then...You want the real truth?" he asked almost manic now. He took a deep breath to calm himself before continuing. "You can't handle the truth."

"What?" Tanaka muttered.

"I was an orphan when I was introduced to the Shadow Broker's organization. Not that I knew what they were at the time. I was just a young kid when they picked me off the streets. Heh, I must have been taken into their cult before I was even ten. Just some kid begging in the streets, having to dig through trash and shit for food. That's how bad it was. And when they first grabbed me...I thought I was about to be killed. End up some test subject for a psychopath. Was actually pretty common for orphaned kids back then. But...in the beginning...it was actually nice."

He said he worked for the Broker. That would explain his whereabouts and the intelligence he's had. But the Broker told me he didn't. Unless they were trying to lie about the fact that he did...but that's unrealistic. That could only mean Shield works for Cerberus. They still have contacts in the Alliance, which would explain his intel on them...and the fact that he hadn't reported Shepard was coming for them on Binthu and Nepheron meant that he disagreed with what they were doing...or that he was just trying to maintain his cover. Why he couldn't just come clean and admit that though...and his actions on Therum...his words about Saren...he obviously believed in their mission. Those things would have all made up for this facade. If he hadn't just lied to us about that too! Why-

Shepard grimaced. She loathed those who pretended to be something they weren't. She hated them. Despised them. Fucking liars were the scum of-

"They gave me free room and board, food, games...and all I had to do was stay in their facility. The only thing they actually asked in return was for me to just take these...tests." He briefly closed his eyes and exhaled again before continuing.

What game are you even trying to play?!

"This went on for what must have been a year. Test after test after test. And then after one day...they just suddenly stopped. I remember the last one being a simple questionnaire. One on morality and ethics...that kind of shit. What-if scenarios I think. But in any case, I remember that being the last one. They grabbed me from my bed later that night, blindfolded me, plugged my ears, and threw me onto a space ship. I only knew that last bit because the shuttle had shitty dampeners. I got sick from the take off."

Shepard briefly glanced back to the four men behind her. They all seemed engrossed in the story. Specialist Fantum seemed to be buying it in particular.

"I thought I was going to die. But when everything was actually removed, I found myself in a dark room...no lights...a wide open chamber...and a bunch of screens. Across from me were dozens of these blue screens, hundreds of words and letters and all other kinds of crazy symbols strewn across them. It was surreal. And below all those monitors was...a desk. And at it...was the first time I saw him. I had never seen one before but I could tell he was a Salarian when I saw him."

"You think you actually met the Broker?" Fantum scoffed.

"Met him? I was raised by him," Shield replied vindicated. "He was like a father to me. That very day, he gave me one more test. Told me if I wanted to leave, all I had to do was ask."

"And you said-"

"I said hell no," Shield cut him off. "I was singled out of dozens, maybe hundreds, thousands of others. I was taken off the streets, and given warm food and a nice bed. Why the hell would I go back to being an urchin? He told me if I chose to stay, I could achieve more than I ever imagined in my wildest dreams...as cliched as that sounds. That I could could have money. Fame. Girls."

"I would've taken that," Felawa whispered to Tanaka behind her.

"But because I was so special, I told him I didn't care for any of that. Just like he wanted to hear."

"What?" Felawa replied aloud this time. "Why not?"

"What I told him...to be honest, I told him that I wanted respect. Yeah, I was a weird kid. Ever since I was little. I wanted people to look up to me. To have responsibility. To have the ability to make a difference in people's lives." He paused. "And you know what that frog said when he heard that? ...fucking congratulations." Shield cracked his neck. "He fucking congratulated me like I was a idiotic contestant that had just won a game show. And from that point on...he taught me everything I know. Gave me access to his files. The organization's assets. The entire network. Taught me what it meant to be an agent of the Shadow Broker. He'd set up tests, to see how I was progressing. To help mold me into what he wanted me to become."

"The next Broker," Alenko stated.

"He never told me...but I that's what I came to realize. Or hoped anyway. Why he invested so much of his time in me. Some fuckin' kid from the street. No identity, no money, no attachment to anyone. A nobody. And he was able to control practically every facet of my life. What I ate, who I talked to, what I watched at night. The only freedom I really got was in regards to his network. What I was able to request, how agents could get information for him and how I suggested it be done. And I liked it. I really did."

"So are you really telling us...you're the current Shadow Broker?!" Felawa suddenly said in alarm.

"What? No!" Shield countered, looking at him like he was daft. "Why the hell would I be here right now if I was?"

"...oh...right."

"Keep going," Fantum told him.

Shield met his gaze head-on again, not betraying a single hint that it was all just another lie. That it was just another game. "But one day...when I entered his room...as I usually did, as I spent most of my days in it, standing at one of the consoles, pouring over all the information it would have available..." He seemed to wax nostalgic for a moment. Then he returned to the present. "Instead of the man I had come to know at the desk however...instead of the Salarian...that day...it was something else. Something I had never seen before."

"...What do you mean?" Fantum asked.

"It was an alien...but no associate race of the Citadel. It was gigantic...at first I thought it was a Krogan, but even Krogan..." He trailed off.

The group now stood where they were in silence, some with bated breath.

"It killed the Salarian. And took his place," Shield replied. "Several days before...an operative named Kechlu went rogue. He was ordered to be taken down...apparently knew too much. Ruthless. He had become reckless with the lives of other agents. So he was marked for liquidation. But apparently that wasn't enough. I'm sure the monstrosity in that room was Kechlu."

"What was it?" Fantum continued to drill him eagerly when she failed to say anything herself.

"I don't know what it was. But I barely escaped with my life when I found it sitting in his chair. I ran as fast as I could to the hanger and got a shuttle out before that thing could signal someone to stop me. I left...and I've never looked back since."

"But when did this all happen? How did you know about the Normandy's shakedown run? It happened a week before Eden Prime. It couldn't have been that recent. And then Saren's activity around Eden Prime. How did you know about that?" Kaidan asked again.

"Because before I left, I grabbed an access pass." He then slowly brought his hand up and tapped his noggin. "Right in here. It allows me to still access the Broker network. It's iffy on a lot of things. I actually don't get most channels. But the files I'm able to...I like to think I put them to good use."

"Convenient," Shepard remarked aloud for the first time since he started speaking.

"Yeah I guess," he admitted. "And I'll tell you that yeah, I have a lot of secrets. A lot of things I probably shouldn't know or share. But in regards to Saren...I'll tell you whatever's needed to take him down Shepard."

"Really."

"Yeah, which is why I'm telling you this. One of the places we were supposed to search was the Attican Beta. Udina mentioned Geth ships in the area right?"

"Were you-"

"Hiding this from you? No, I just got this update recently." Another lie. She could clearly see it this time on his face. "The planet's name is Feros. It's a Prothean ruin that was colonized by a company called...it was called..." He suddenly seemed as if he had just remembered, "Exogeni!"

Feros...

"Apparently Geth are closing in on that sector."

To her surprise however, she actually found her actually believing him this time around. His face had no indication that this was another lie. And there was no point in lying about this. Unless it was a trap. But even if it was...she would rather get this entire ordeal said and done as soon as possible.

"Joker." Shepard barked.

"Yes Commander?" he replied from the cockpit.

"...set a course to the Attican Beta. For a planet called Feros."

"Yes sir!"

Without a word, she walked out of the air lock, pushing the other marines out of her way.

"Shepard, wait."

She turned back around to Shield one last time. "What?"

"Now I'm not asking for you to take these cuffs off...but what I am asking is if you truly believe we need trust. Between the entire squad." He made a wide circular motion with his head.

"What are you talking about?"

"Garrus. I know you don't trust him, but he would be in debt to you, and hopefully that would erase any suspicions you have of him, if we just take a brief detour to help him with a problem nearby."

She begrudgingly asked next, "...what is it?"

Codex Entry:

Agent Gellix

/19:47/ Secure Comm Buoy #102563 / Encrypted / #3246 - AF - 666

Sender: Agent Gellix

Sir. There's been a...development in regards to my assignment. I did inform the Commander about our situation concerning Cerberus and their agenda. But she was stubborn. I didn't get the data. As you requested though, I did tell her about that man named Shield. And Agent Revenant recently got a transmission through to update me on what occurred when she confronted him. Even on an encrypted channel...I don't think it would be wise to send it. And...what Shield's claiming in it...you'll want to hear it.

/19:59/ Secure Comm Buoy #Unlisted / Encrypted / #EX5*- X& - *0D

You will be at the coordinates attached to this file at 15:00:00.

Author's Notes:

Happy 3rd Month Anniversary gang. Been pretty busy and I was afraid I wouldn't have been able to even publish a chapter this week. But things seemed to work out alright. Next week might be a similar situation however, so I'm sorry in advance if I can't get you guys your fix next week. I know how much you all love this story. Always glad to hear some people find it compelling. Anyways, thanks for reading guys.

In the Next Chapter: Experiments. And the Experimented...on. Your classic sci-fi short story...

Tune in next time on Mass Effective: A Hero Made!