A/N: Did you know that during gameplay in the Mass Effect Series, the Krogan are depicted much smaller than they are actually supposed to be according to canon? This is due to the limitations of the engine used to make the games, something BioWare will hopefully fix in the next Mass Effect game. In some cutscenes, the krogan appear to be the right size when compared to other characters, but this is most likely just a matter of "forced perspective through depth perception," not because the size of the character models actually changed to the canonically correct scale.

Sorry for updating so slowly. I'm a college student, 'nuff said. Also, this is possibly one of the most important chapters in the whole story. This is the first meeting between Alexandria and Shepard's squad. It's practically a first contact scenario, and first contact doesn't go well. It's not believable for Alexandria to just hop on board the Normandy and everyone be like 'it's all good.' No. In first contact, there is confusion, misunderstandings, and something that goes wrong. To quote Helmuth von Moltke the Elder, "No plan survives contact with the enemy." The same is true for any uncertain situation. Ideal first contact would be peaceful, but unless it is first contact between two peaceful races (like the asari and salarians) things will go wrong. I had to make sure this first meeting scenario between warrior-individuals mirrored a first contact scenario between warrior-races.

Time to Get Up

LOCATION: MILKY WAY / HADES NEXUS / HOPLOS SYSTEM / MAKHAIRA / KOPIS

DATE: circa 162915 AR

2185 CE

Shepard touched the mysterious floating sphere that showed the reflection of everything in the room, except for him and his team. So strange, Shepard found himself drawn to it. He had to touch it, regardless of what might happen. Something about it transfixed his mind and pulled him forward. The moment he lay his hand on its smooth, slippery surface, was when things got really weird, causing everyone to jump back.

"Mordin, what's going on?"

"Unknown at this time."

"Are we gonna die?"

"Possibly."

"That's comforting."

The sphere began lifting higher into the air, vibrating violently, and making a rising humming noise. Shepard could feel the bass from the sphere thumping in his chest. After about two seconds, everything stopped, and the sphere almost instantaneously shrunk to the size of a basketball. Whatever force was causing it to levitate ceased, and the sphere dropped with tremendous force, cracking the floor. This new, significantly smaller sphere then began bubbling like boiling water, until it collapsed into a puddle. What happened next was something out of a horror story.

A deformed arm of the same silvery substance shot up from the puddle in desperation, as if someone was reaching out to escape some kind of hell. The arm slapped down and pushed up, bringing a massive blob with two protruding bumps out of the puddle. The bump near the top became more defined, with a distinctive neck and three monstrous holes forming what looked like the eyes and mouth of unnatural beast. The bump on the side contracted into a bare, skeletal arm, and extended nearly twice as far as the first limb, scratching the floor as it decreased in length and increased in width. The top was clearly a head now, and fell forward onto the ground with both arms now in the position for a proper push-up. Whatever it was, it lifted itself higher as it pushed off the floor. A leg began forming from another bump on the blob, but it was shaped like the leg of a frog from Earth, with the knee bending upward rather than outward. Another leg formed beneath the creature as it pushed itself higher. Both legs began twisting around until the knees were facing outward. Now standing 9 feet and 4 inches tall with 543 pounds of force behind it, the monstrous, horribly disfigured being began shedding much of the silvery substance, pulling it off like it was a tangled web. The shape of the being became more and more evident as it ripped the substance from its body, leaving the puddle at its feet.

After escaping from the hellish binds, a enormous humanoid being emerged and claimed its freedom with a undeniably feminine roar, revealing its true form to the trio below. It looked like a female human or asari wearing full-body powered armor, or a battlesuit for short. She was as big as Grunt, and Shepard, Garrus, and Mordin all had the feeling she was just as devastating, if not more so. Her battlesuit's base color was plain sliver, having never been changed from the original color of the alloy used to make it. There were various purple LED lights, most notably on the helmet, which looked like a more advanced version of Shepard's death mask. With the exception of her helmet, it looked as if her flesh had disappeared and the armor plating molded around her muscles, similar to the advanced prototype Phantom Armor Shepard had seen in Cerberus's requisitions catalog aboard the Normandy.

Alexandria gazed down upon the three beings who had released her. There was someone shaped like a human male in front. Scans revealed he was indeed human, with an undeniably turian male standing closely behind his right shoulder. They both put forth a non-threatening vibe, but Alexandria could see they were both ready to spring into action if need be. The salarian standing off to the side however, seemed to be studying Alexandria. She knew salarian facial expressions, and could see that he was gazing upon her with fascination since he was only wearing a breather, not a helmet like his two compatriots. An orange holographic gauntlet appeared around the salarian's forearm, and Alexandria was alerted by a flashing red message in her HUD that he was attempting to scan her. Much to the salarian's dismay, her shields were active, and they prevented the scan from revealing any information. A undeniably disappointed look came over his face.

Alexandria was becoming very tense. Last time she checked, both the Turians and Salarians served the Forerunners. The Forerunners would often use turians on the battlefield. The Humans had also undoubtedly been defeated and reprogrammed by now, and this rather small human could be another one of their slaves. Alexandria had allowed herself to be captured by the Forerunners once before, in order to provide a distraction for others to escape, and she had no intention of being their prisoner once more, especially since her old squad wasn't around to launch another suicidal rescue mission. Not taking any chances, Alexandria made the first move.

Just as Shepard was about to introduce himself, the mysterious woman extended her arms towards his team. Arcs of electricity extended from her hands, striking Garrus and Mordin, knocking them out, and sending them flying backwards. The woman dropped her left arm and appeared to grab the air with her right hand that was now aimed at Shepard. He attempted to draw his rifle, but instead involuntarily moved his hands to his throat in a vain attempt to fight off an invisible force wrapped around his neck, compressing his airway and arteries in pulses. The continuous appliance and release of pressure was enough to keep him unfocused without putting him to sleep. The invisible force lifted Shepard off the ground and pulled him towards the woman, stopping him just a few inches before her extended hand, his body suspended a foot off the ground to meet the woman eye to eye.

Suddenly, Shepard felt as if dozens of power drills and were burrowing deep inside his skull. He tried to scream, but could barely breath. What came next was hard to explain. He could see memories flashing before his eyes, his memories. Shepard struggled to free himself even more, not wanting the woman to gain any of the sensitive information he possessed from his time in N7 Operations, but his struggles only made the pain worse, the invisible drills continue to spin around in his head. He ceased his resistance when he realized that she wasn't looking for any sensitive or personal information, she was looking for what he knew about history, language, culture, society. As soon as he stopped resisting, the pain immediately stopped as well. The power drills disappeared from his skull, and the vice around his throat released. He was feeling the woman's thoughts just as much as she was feeling his, and he could sense she thought he had made a wise decision by submitting.

After the woman had learned all Shepard knew about his civilization, he could sense confusion, disbelief, and a hint of sadness from her. She was disappointed that she had not found what she was looking for. Shepard just wished he actually knew what it was she wanted to know.

After she had finished learning about Shepard's civilization, she then turned her attention to him. Specifically, if he could be trusted or not. She went over his personality, his past moral decisions, and his knowledge about the morals of his squadmates. She still did not fully trust him at a personal level, but she trusted that he would not try anything stupid.

Shepard was lowered back to his feet by the invisible force. The woman then gently placed her hand on the side of Shepard's helmet, and began transferring thoughts to him. She was a human named Alpha-055, but preferred to be called Alexandria or Alexa for short. She held the rank of corporal in the Titan Corps, a special forces division attached to the navy of the faction known as the Human Imperium. She determined Shepard was no threat to her, and thus, she would be no threat to him. She also apologized for subduing his squadmates, but the Turians and Salarians were unconditional enemies of Humanity in her time 111,297 years ago. She then showed Shepard some of her last memories from before being confined in the sphere.

Shepard saw Alexandria on a burning planet that was once full of beauty, fighting aliens he now knew as forerunners. They were very similar to humans, but were much bigger, stronger, and faster from birth, and even more so if they underwent the mutations of the Warrior-Servant rate. The Human Imperium – the faction Alexandria was affiliated with – had developed extremely advanced weapons which had allowed them to hold the line against the Forerunners for a long time, but something else they had fought recently broke the back of Humanity – something that was highly classified – allowing the Forerunners to launch their second full-scale invasion of Human Space. The memories flashed through Shepard's mind quickly, like a video fast-forwarding. The battle was lost; the evacuation had failed; and Alexandria raced across a ruined city to make sure some civilians didn't have their memories stolen by the aliens. Everything went fuzzy after taking a bad hit from a monstrous war machine she fought along side the last remaining member of her old squad. She awoke inside the sphere some time later. It was called a prison capsule, a form of stasis technology meant for prisoners that kept the contained individual fully aware while in suspended animation. She spent the next 111,297 years in the prison capsule running training programs and reliving old memories. In addition to keeping a prisoner fully aware while in suspended animation, a prison capsule also broke the individual down on an atomic lever, sacrificing the comfort of keeping an individual fully intact like a conventional stasis capsule and allowing easier storage. Upon her release, since there were no Imperium personnel to properly initiate the awakening procedure, Alexandria had to reconstruct her own body all by herself. Luckily, she knew just how to do that. Had she not, Alexandria would have remained a puddle of that silvery goo.

She was very grateful to Shepard for releasing her and offered her assistance to him. Her only wish was that Shepard help her find out what happened to her people. She knew her faction had undoubtedly been defeated, but she was also certain they would've had a contingency plan to ensure their continued survival. She was also certain that anyone who was not part of such a plan would not know about it, which meant she was now completely lost and in need of help. Shepard had the feeling he couldn't actually refuse to help, but she assured him she would not exert control over his mind, or the minds of any of his squadmates. Alexandria lowered her hand from Shepard's helmet and ended their meld.

"Deal?" Alexandria asked.

Shepard wasn't sure about this woman. Sure, she was powerful and could certainly help him with his mission, that much was certain, but she had just probed his mind, broke his will with ease, and took information from him without his consent. She said she wasn't controlling him, but he had no proof of that. He also had no proof that the information she showed him was historically accurate. She could be crazy for all he knew. Shepard had no reason to trust Alexandria, but then again, he had no reason to trust Jack or Grunt either. In fact, he had reason not to trust them. Jack threatened to kill Shepard upon their first meeting, and Grunt actually almost did kill him. Why did Shepard put his trust in them? Why did he put his trust in any of the people he worked with? Shepard didn't have any logical answer to that question. He just had a feeling he could trust them; a feeling he had about this woman; a feeling that had thus far always turned out to be right.

"Deal," Shepard replied.

Alexandria extended her hand. Shepard was a little startled at first, thinking she was about to shock him. When she did not, he realized she was trust trying to shake hands, a gesture which he returned.

Shepard turned to Garrus and Mordin, who were both still unconscious.

"We're going to need to take them with us. Would you help me carry them back to the Hammerhead, our ground vehicle."

"No need."

Alexandria waved her hand and both of the two aliens woke up, looking around all confused. Shepard was surprised. At first, he thought they were dead. After he learned they were just unconscious, he still thought they would need serious recovery time. He did not expect Alexandria to wake them up as easily as she had knocked them out.

When Garrus fully came to, he drew his M-92 Mantis and took aim at Alexandria. Shepard was going to step between the two to try and defuse the situation., but Alexandria swiped the weapon from Garrus's hands with her kinetics before it was even ready to fire. She either had an insanely fast reaction time, or she knew what Garrus was going to do before he even did it. Shepard doubted he would be surprised by the former or the latter, and was insanely curious about Alexandria's extraordinary abilities, but right now he still needed to stop this standoff before it escalated any further.

"Garrus, stop! She's with us!"

Garrus was already going for his M-8 Avenger, but froze when Shepard told him to stop. He turned to his Commander with confusion.

"What!? She attacked us!"

Now that Shepard had Garrus's attention, he wouldn't have to yell. Lowering his voice would also help ease Garrus's tension.

"I know. Her name's Alexandria, and she had her reasons."

Garrus kept his hand on his unfolded M-8, still magnetically slung to his back.

"And what exactly were those reasons."

Even thought the question was directed at Shepard, Alexandria was the one to answer it.

"In my civilization, your kind and mine were enemies..."

Mordin – who had regained his composure rather quickly, and was already up and observing the situation – addressed Alexandria as Garrus reluctantly let go of his rifle, letting it fold up on his back.

"Excuse me? Have to ask. Are you prothean?"

Alexandria was rather confused by that question. She did not see how anyone could mistake a human to be a prothean. Protheans were arthropods, and humans were chordates. There was absolutely no way to confuse those two with their physical appearances alone. The two species looked nothing alike. It would take some serious physical modifications, or one really big battlesuit that hid physical features to confuse a human with a prothean.

"Do I look a prothean to you?" Alexandria questioned in the most polite tone possible.

"Why, no one has ever seen a living prothean. Found you in prothean facility. Impressive tech only Protheans would possess. Likely conclusion, you are prothean."

Alexandria waved her hand around in a way that was making Garrus jumpy, especially when his M-92 came floating into his view. He quickly connected the dots and cautiously grabbed his levitating rifle. Garrus became more and more agitated every second he spent in the presence of this woman who had knocked him out with a fucking bolt of lightning, seemingly unprovoked.

"Well, I'm no prothean. I'm human. This is a prothean."

A small white orb appeared in Alexandria's hand that she tossed to Mordin's feet. The orb expanded into a holographic image of a prothean. Shepard stated what him, Garrus, and Mordin were all thinking.

"It looks like a collector."

Now it was Alexandria's turn to be confused. She had encountered countless species among the galactic community during her time, and had even made first contact with a few new races, but never had she met anyone who referred to their species as the Collectors. It was a strange name for a species. Perhaps it was similar to what the Forerunners did; abolished their original name, and took on a new name: Forerunners, meaning those that came before, to symbolize their dominancy over all other species.

"What's a collector?"

Mordin was the one to answer that question.

"Enigmatic insectoid race. Live somewhere beyond Omega 4 Relay. Very secretive. Rarely seen. Sometimes regarded as a myth; not the case however. Doesn't matter. They are enemies. Specifically, enemies of Humanity."

Shepard threw in more insight.

"Yes. The Collectors have already abducted tens of thousands of humans."

Alexandria was both raised, and programmed, from the day she was artificially created for the Titan Program to have a strong inclination to protect humans... and repel aliens. Even though she knew next to nothing about the Collectors; why they were considered enemies of Humanity; or what they were doing with tens of thousands of humans she also knew nothing about; but Alexandria still clenched her fists at such notions.

"Why?" Alexandria inquired with a slightly menacing voice.

"We don't know, but we're going to stop them. I also believe we had a deal."

"Right. I help you. You help me."

Garrus had no idea what was going on here.

"Whoa, whoa, whoa. What's this deal you're talking about?"

Shepard tried to explain to Garrus what he had missed after – as a human would say – he was knocked the fuck out.

"While you were unconscious, I agreed to help Alexandria get off world and search for her people, and, in return, she'll help us destroy the Collectors. We need all the help we can get Garrus, and this woman can help, more so than anyone we've already recruited. Trust me, I know."

Garrus had the feeling Shepard was being manipulated.

"What did she do to you?"

Shepard knew there wasn't any possible way to explain to Garrus what happened while he was unconscious without freaking him out, not in his already jumpy state, so he didn't try. He would talk to Garrus later, when he wasn't holding a rifle.

"Just trust me. You do trust me don't you?"

"Yes. But sometimes, the people you bring along. I don't know."

"Like I said, just trust me. How about you Mordin? Do you have any objections to Alexandria coming along."

"No. In fact, I would prefer she did. What species are you?"

Alexandria's wasn't liking this blind situation, but her sixth sense gave her the feeling the salarian meant her no harm, and to this day, she had never questioned her sixth sense, simply because, to this day, it had never failed her.

"I'm human."

"Really?"

"Yes."

"Interesting. A little big for a human. I'm-"

"Salarian. I know. Your kind and mine were also enemies. And I thought Shepard was actually a little small for a human, at least in my time. In fact, Garrus is a little small for a turian as well."

"I see."

An awkward silence fell upon the group, and Shepard tried to move things along.

"All right then. Is everyone ready to go?"

All present confirmed their readiness to leave, and with that, they were off. The now three-man, one-woman team headed back down the same path that lead the original three to their new companion. Blue Suns mercenaries lay dead along the way, their bodies still fresh. It seemed as though the team had just barely missed the skirmish, for which they were all silently grateful. Dr. Cayce hired the Blue Suns to provide him with security after his original detail had been wiped out. They put up a good fight, but ultimately, the Geth prevailed. According to one of the datapads Shepard found, the Collectors may have also taken part in the fight. If that was the case, the Blue Suns would have been absolutely slaughtered.

"Did you kill all these people?" Alexandria asked.

"No. They were dead when we got here," Shepard answered.

Alexandria had been quietly analyzing the wounds of all the fallen mercs with her scanners and decided to voice her thoughts.

"It seems they were killed with pulsed energy weapons, which are normally non-lethal, subduing their targets with immense pain, but I guess you could kill someone if you used a high enough power output. Though killing someone through rapid and intense pain is pretty brutal."

"Yeah. That's the Geth for you."

Alexandria was smirking under her helmet. If she ever had to face any geth, and they used pulsed energy weapons, she would have absolutely no worries since she didn't even feel pain. The group quickly made it to the exit to find the Hammerhead right where they left it. Alexandria took one look at the infantry fighting vehicle and was immediately having second thoughts.

"So... you guys ride around in that thing?"

"Yeah," Shepard replied.

"Is it bigger than it looks, or am I going to have to ride on top?"

A hilarious image popped into Shepard's head of Alexandria riding the Hammerhead like a skateboard at 120 kilometers per hour.

"I'm sure you'll fit. It has room for four people. You're bigger than most, but Mordin's kind of small, so it should be just fine."

It was a tight fit, with Mordin nearly being crushed by the krogan-sized human, but it was a fit. As with Grunt, the Hammerhead shook and groaned when Alexandria tried to situate herself. They called the Normandy for pickup and performed the hop-dock maneuver. The Hammerhead "hopped" into the air, and the Normandy swooped in from behind, catching it in the cargo hold.

A/N: Pulsed energy weapons are real-world weapons under development by the U.S. military. They are non-lethal weapons that subdue targets through intense pain and temporary paralysis (look up Pulsed Energy Projectile). The weapons the Heretics used during the Eden Prime War to fight the Alliance are handheld pulsed energy weapons (look up the Mass Effect 1 description of the Pulse Rifle), but they kill. It is possible to kill a human with rapid and intense pain (provided said human can actually feel pain, look up congenital insesitivity to pain), which is how I assume the heretic weapons operate (the U.S. pulsed energy weapons were originally intended to kill, but that idea was abandoned due to lack of an efficient mobile power source capable of producing lethal damage outputs). The weapons later used by the Heretics on Haestrom and other locations are weapons designed to kill geth, obviously because of the schism. It would seem as if geth factions always tailor their weapons to the specific enemy which they are facing at the time.

I think these two example sentences will explain when and when not to capatalize a species name:

The humans standing over there are all very different from one another.

The Humans are the only remaining species of hominids from the planet Earth.

Next chapter, we see (or rather visualize) who's been hiding behind the mask.