The galaxy's most dangerous duo picked their way silently and professionally through the forest, their cliff fading into the background as they came ever-closer to the pirate campsite. "Galaxy's Most Dangerous Duo" had a nice ring to it, he'd have to remember to ask Cora how she liked it later.

Scott picked his footing carefully, each step made to ensure total silence and to keep the element of surprise squarely in their corner. SAM had spotted an additional two pirates from their ship up in orbit, still not anything that should give him and Cora any reason to pause but Scott was all about surprises. Slowly, the voices of the pirates grew and, eventually, their shuttle came into view.

Scott and Cora hunkered down behind a fallen tree and began to survey the field. Several of the pirates were hauling crates from the shuttle and setting them aside; two others were rummaging through them, marking their contents. One sat on top of the shuttle, appearing to shout at the others.

"Well, there's the leader," whispered Scott. He magnified each of the pirates, taking stock of what kind of ordinance the ragtag group was using. Mostly M-8 Avengers, one had a Katana, and the Angaran had an Isharay but, overall, they weren't sporting top-of-the-line gear.

"I don't know," said Cora, giving the obvious leader a glance. "He could just be the loudmouth that everyone else has to put up with."

Cora crept forward as Scott reevaluated the man sitting atop the shuttle shouting instructions, "Why does that seem like a thinly veiled joke at my expense?"

"What joke?" asked Cora, with all the innocence she could muster as Scott crept up behind her.

"Oh. Oh Cora, that cuts deep," whispered Scott.

His second-in-command stifled a laugh and grabbed him at the base of his neck before pressing her helmet's visor against his in their developed shorthand for a kiss. He always appreciated these armored kisses, but they weren't quite the same as the real thing, the two usually kept a tally and made up for them in-the-flesh later on.

"Alright, how do we want to go at this?" asked Cora. "SAM, do you see any biotics in the crew?"

"None are readily apparent, Ms. Harper," said SAM. "One would assume if they had biotics, they wouldn't bother with manually offloading their cargo."

"Any intel on our uninvited guests?" asked Scott. "Why they're here? Where they came from? What might be in those big ol' crates of theirs?"

"They call themselves 'The Black Holes', Pathfinder, and no fewer than eight hijackings have been attributed to them in the past month," said SAM. "It is not readily apparent why they are here, nor what they might have in their crates. There have been no pirate actions reported in the area recently."

"'The Black Holes'? We should take them down just for having such a lame name," declared Scott.

"With nothing reported, they probably robbed another gang," said Cora. "Which probably means they're going to be jumpy, waiting for the other gang to strike."

"Makes sense," agreed Ryder, giving the group a final look over.

"So how do you want to go at this?" asked Cora, turning to give her partner her full attention. Even with all of his gear on, she could tell the wheels in his head were turning, which usually meant that he was going to do something foolish.

"Just… wait for my signal," said Scott as he hopped from behind cover and started slowly walking towards the pirates completely unarmed.

"Signal?!" hissed Cora as the Pathfinder walked casually towards danger. "That's not a plan, Scott!"

She shook her head in frustration but prepared herself; she had been with Scott long enough to know he didn't just walk into danger without a plan, regardless of how much it looked like he did. Whatever his signal was, she'd catch it, and she'd be ready.

Scott held his hands out in front of him as he picked his path toward the clearing carefully, his mind racing to formulate something akin to a plan. One of these days he'd learn to actually think of something before jumping headfirst into the next deadly encounter, but it obviously wasn't going to be today. The leader was still shouting from on top of the shuttle, and the others continued to bumble around on the ground. As he got closer, the pirates appeared less and less competent.

"You said these guys are responsible for eight hijackings in the last month, SAM?" asked Scott.

"That is correct, Scott," said SAM.

"How on earth did they manage that?" asked Scott, mostly to himself. Then, to SAM, "What are the casualty figures with their raids?"

"Nearly two dozen colonists, several outlaws, and nine Angarans," replied SAM.

"Well, that makes this business a lot easier," said Scott, a cloud falling over his features for a brief moment.

The pirates hadn't noticed him by the time he made it to the clearing, so he took a few more tenuous steps out in front of them. After they still hadn't noticed him, he cleared his throat loudly. The talk around the shuttle died down as the group turned to face him. For a split second time stopped before the pirates began shouting and grabbing their weapons, every muzzle pointed at the Pathfinder.

"Now now, everybody, no need to get aggressive just yet!'' exclaimed Scott, entirely in his element. "I just want to talk! Anyone here I can talk to?"

The obvious leader of the group hopped off the shuttle and made his way toward the Pathfinder, no longer pointing his shotgun at Scott but not putting it away entirely either. He wasn't tall, only coming up to Scott's chin, but he was solidly built, he had apparently earned his way to the top of this particular heap through force and intimidation.

"That'd be me, asshole," said the leader, his gruff voice matching the idea of the oafish thug that Scott had already assigned to him in his head. "Whadaya want an' why shouldn't I blast you off the face of this planet right now?"

This guy really wasn't helping his case for not being the ball in a game of biotic catch between him and Cora, thought Scott. He tried his hardest to suppress the grin that was spreading around the corners of his mouth, "Nice to meet you, Mr. Pirate. My name's Scott, human Pathfinder, defeated the Kett Archon, established several colonies, you might have heard of me."

The pirates began to murmur, looking at each other hesitantly, their weapons wavering a fraction more.

"I just thought I'd let you know that this planet's been claimed, so if you don't mind climbing in your ship and taking off, I'd be greatly appreciative," only the slightest hint of a threat finding its way into Scott's voice, his confidence oozing through his words. "Oh, and go ahead and leave the cargo, the Initiative will appreciate your contribution."

With that, the murmurs grew louder, the leader's eyes darted between his men before coming back at Scott, anger burning in his eyes.

"We supposed to be afraid of the big bad Pathfinder, huh?" challenged the short man. "Last I checked, eight was better'n one and bullets put you down just as good as any other person."

Scott's laugh had a chilling effect on the pirates around him, "You think you're supposed to be afraid of me? No no no, you shouldn't be afraid of me, right now you should be afraid of her. You can be afraid of me in a second."

"Her?" was all the pirate leader managed to utter, the confusion on his face turning to utter horror as Scott's biotics grabbed ahold of him and lifted him helplessly off the ground.

The sonic boom crackled through the air as Cora charged in, sending the pirate's lifeless body flying into the forest, cracking against branches before landing out of sight. Chaos quickly gripped the rest of the pirates as the Pathfinder disappeared into thin air. The rest of the fight was quick, the pirates incapable of mounting any concerted effort, several falling to their comrades own fire.

Within minutes, Scott and Cora met in the middle of the clearing, their slight huffing the only evidence that either of them had done anything more stringent than a brief jog. Both took off their helmets and smiled, enjoying the silence after the thunder of battle, seeing in each other's eyes how happy they were to see the other safe and sound.

"Nice work, Lieutenant Harper," said Scott. "Glad to see you caught my signal."

"Not so bad yourself, Pathfinder. And was that what that was?" Cora asked, rolling her eyes as her smile grew just a touch more radiant. "I could've sworn that was just a flying man that needed hitting."

"It was a rather obvious signal, Pathfinder," chimed SAM.

"We're going to work on sarcasm later, SAM," said Scott as the two operatives shared a laugh. "Now, what do we have in these boxes?"

Scott clapped his hands together and rubbed them as he and Cora approached the nearest crate. He hit the latch, and the two of them raised the lid, peaking in to get a better look. Inside, packages of freeze dried steak lined the crate, actual earth-cow steak. The box would be worth a small fortune. Cora opened another container to find it stacked with bottles of Asari and human wine, their labels a testament to their vintage.

"I've heard of this place before," said Cora, inspecting one of the bottles. "One of the best vineyards in Asari space. It would've fetched thousands on the Citadel back in the milky way. There's no telling how much you could get for it on Kadara, not to mention the Nexus."

"Kadara appears to be this cargo's original destination, Lieutenant Harper," said SAM. "Upon further investigation of the labels on the crates, these foodstuffs were purchased by Sloane Kelly from a black market vendor and meant for a private party. She paid a hefty price."

"Well, she'll be ecstatic to hear that her good friend Scott found them," said Scott, chuckling while looking over the spoils of their fight. "SAM, let Sloane know that we found her fancy food and that we'll be dropping it off the next time we're at Kadara Port. Also, tell her that I'm more than a little hurt that I didn't get an invite to her party."

"Will do, Pathfinder," said SAM.

The sun was beginning to descend before Scott realized that they had blown past the afternoon. He found his stomach grumbling as he realized that dinner was supposed to be an hour ago. Scott looked down at the steaks and plucked two of the best looking cuts from the crate before closing it up and securing it.

"And what do you think you're doing?" asked Cora, a playful smirk curling on her lips. "You don't think Sloane'll be counting all of those when she gets them back?"

"Finder's fee," said Scott, smiling as he shrugged his shoulders. "And payment for not getting an invite."

Cora laughed before leaning over the wines and plucking a couple of expensive looking bottles if their fancy labels were any indication. She walked over to Scott and motioned back towards the cliff and the campsite on top.

"What say we head back and have ourselves a nice dinner?" asked Cora.

"Took the words right out of my mouth," said Scott, leaning over to give her a quick kiss.

The sun was down by the time they made it back to their tent and Scott immediately got to work stoking a new fire. It wasn't long before their steaks crackled over the flames, the explorers clinking the glasses that Cora had managed to find in the shuttle. Well, not actually 'clinking' as they were metal tumblers and not real glass, but close enough.

The two enjoyed their extravagant meal in companionable silence, enjoying the flickering shadows playing across each other's faces from the fire.

"That was incredible," said Cora as she took a sip from her wine.

"You could say that again," agreed Scott. "It was almost as good as sex."

"Almost?" said Cora, a devilish smile overcoming her wine-red lips. She got up and walked over to Scott, her hips swaying as she caressed the scruff on his jawline. "Don't you think it's about time for dessert?"

"I do believe it is," said Scott with a toothy grin, his body on autopilot as he followed his second-in-command toward their tent.

This expedition was easily the best idea he'd had since he'd been thawed out. Well, maybe second best after deciding he wanted to get to know one Cora Harper better. The work would be waiting for them when they woke up, but right now, under these alien stars, he was perfectly content to enjoy the company of the most important person in the galaxy to him.


Well, there's Chapter 2! I hope y'all liked it and thanks so much for reading! I'm loving this pairing the more I write for them, such a great power couple. If you have any requests, feel free to ask!