A/N: Told you I wasn't giving up. Anyway, thanks for all of the support! Enjoy!

Chapter 8: Making the Difference

Klaxons blared throughout the Idenna, and all the quarians shifted into motion.

The aliens, not knowing exactly what the alarms meant, were forced to stop the captain before he could run off. "Intruders!" Mal explained. "The ship's been deliberately attacked. I'm going to need your help! Most of the crew won't even have weapons, let alone shields! They'll be slaughtered if we don't act quickly!"

Shepard nodded without hesitation. To John, a ship was a home with a large family. An attack like this was the ultimate insult to a spacer.

Fourteen Years Earlier, SSV Einstein

Most of the time, his home was a safe, relatively uneventful place. Well, he amended, as uneventful as a kilometer-long warship could be.

Even on a ship this size, there weren't many children aboard. Still, there were plenty of people to talk to…so long as they actually wanted to talk to a kid.

That was the frustrating part. Only the adults who saw past his youth and were willing to engage in real conversation made him feel welcome, and even then, those that did acted differently when in groups.

Which left him a lot of time to kill on the extranet. Movies, games, and vids (new and old), random articles, Wikipedia, the Galactic Exopedia—all were at his fingertips. It all fascinated him; he couldn't imagine being cut off from it all.

He liked information, and there was an endless supply out there.

That made it easy to find out what had happened that the whole crew discussed in whispers, and, of course, never around him.

A small colony named Mindoir had been attacked by batarian slavers. He knew about them, but the reality of it didn't hit home until now. The people on the planet below were gone…taken in the most horrific and unimaginable ways possible, left to suffer a fate worse than death.

It made his blood boil. Here they were, crewing a massive warship capable of engaging a fleet singlehandedly, and they were powerless to stop it. He'd picked up enough scuttlebutt via eavesdropping to know details that didn't make it into the news reports. It filled him with a rage, an indignity that could not be quelled, leaving him to search for answers.

There had to be a way to prevent another Mindoir from ever happening again. He would do whatever it took to at least be there in time to do something.

He would make a difference or die trying.

John instantly readied his Falcon stormrifle. The weapon was a favorite of his—rather than firing tiny grains of metal at extremely high velocities, it fired mini-grenades set to detonate based on a myriad of data from his suit's sensors.

He didn't even have to adjust any settings to hit enemies behind cover. Like shotguns, the shrapnel and widespread, instantaneous force would very quickly overload kinetic barriers. But like anything, it had drawbacks—namely ammo and range. It meant that it was utility tool for him to carry around instead of a main weapon, but its small size made that arrangement work quite well.

His other weapon was an M5 Carnifex Hand Cannon equipped with disruptor ammo. All told, he was equipped to destroy Legion if it ever became a problem, not fight an army.

He'd been in far worse situations before. "Show us the way," John tersely replied.

Liara followed right behind, along with Lemm and Hendel. She held out an arm to stop the latter. "Stay here and protect Gillian. We will handle this." Something in his expression clicked, and he relented.

In hindsight, she realized that Shepard's presence probably made the difference.

She turned back around to see the geth looking at Shepard.

To her shock, he removed the shackles. "What are you doing?" Mal demanded.

"It says that it means us no harm and wants to help us," John explained. "Time to see if it's going to back that up with action." He handed his pistol to Legion, now speaking to the synthetic. "I'm putting my trust in you, right now. If you betray that trust, it will be the worst mistake you ever make."

Without waiting for a reply, he hurried into the corridor. "Come on!"

"You better be right about this Shepard!" Mal yelled after him. If it weren't redundant, Tali and Liara would have said the same thing.

They followed Captain Mal, trusting him to know where the attackers were likely to go. Along the way, they ran into Seeto, one of the other guards. "Ugho went to go greet the Cyniad! He isn't responding over the radio!"

"They boarded via the Cyniad," Shepard stated.

"Impossible!" refuted Mal. "They gave the correct code signal!"

John didn't have time to explain why his conclusion was not only possible, but extremely likely. The timing was too perfect, Ugho's death too coincidental, and there was nowhere in the ship to hide an infiltrator.

They arrived at the main room of the ship, where the crew usually gathered to trade and browse items for personal use. As it led to all other areas of the ship, the attackers would have to pass though this room before reaching their target.

Tali nearly smacked her head in realization as they took positions. "It has to be Cerberus! They're here for Gillian!" The other quarians stared at Legion in shock, but followed the lead of their captain. That action alone humbled Shepard.

John cursed. Cerberus was one of the few groups he knew of that would actually attack the Migrant Fleet to abduct a child. If Tali was right, they would be well equipped.

They weren't kept waiting, as several pings showed up on John's sensor suite. "I read six—ten—twelve contacts." Seeto poked his head out for a look, but was forced to quickly retract it when a hail of accurate fire nearly killed him. That's how they're going to advance.

"Liara!" John called out. "Screened bulldozer!" It was a code phrase he'd worked out with her months ago, and she responded instantly. Activating a strong biotic barrier around herself, she moved forward. He followed behind, using her as cover as he fired his stormrifle at the commando team.

They concentrated fire on Liara, but her barriers held out long enough for him to land several direct hits, killing three of the commandos and taking down the shields of a few others. The explosives airbursted in the cramped spaces, dealing unusually high amounts of damage. Taking advantage of the situation, the rest of the quarians added their own fire to the mix, taking down another commando and draining the shields of the rest. "Break!" Liara called out—their signal for ending the tactic and taking cover.

Now taking cover along the edge of the doorway, John reloaded his rifle as Liara caught her breath. Receiving a reprieve from the commandos' concentrated fire, the quarians fired into the corridor. "One down!" Mal shouted.

Seven left. John brought his Falcon back to bear, barely poking his head out as he opened fire. Even behind cover, they weren't safe, and he could tell they were getting desperate from the massive amounts of blind fire.

Two more commandos went down, but a grenade flung at him dominated his attention. He would be able to run to safety fast enough, but Liara was still panting from exertion and wouldn't see the grenade until it was too late. If it was designed to detonate on impact, there wouldn't be any time to communicate a warning to her.

But before the explosive could claim her life, it seemed to emanate a few small arcs of electricity before exploding in midair, still far enough in the corridor to allow his shields to protect him from the blast. He ducked back into cover, seeing Legion, arm extended, omni-tool glowing.

He realized that it had quickly overloaded the grenade—while doing so wouldn't diffuse the device (by design), it would set it off before it could do any real harm.

The geth used the distraction to fire four very rapid shots in quick succession. Another commando—likely the one who threw the grenade—disappeared from his sensors.

Liara, bathed in a bright purple aura, stepped out of cover. Going through a well practiced motion, she created singularity in the corridor, ripping loose fixtures and cargo from the walls—along with two more of the Cerberus troopers.

Legion and the quarians gunned them down unceremoniously. Eying his HUD, John noticed that the remaining two had fallen back completely. "Liara, Legion, Tali, Mal, Seeto, on me!"

He charged forward, keeping an eye on his HUD to make sure the remaining hostiles weren't setting an ambush. "They're heading for the Cyniad!" Seeto shouted.

The Idenna wasn't a particularly large vessel; most of the ship was made up of corridors and small rooms. They reached the airlock where the Cyniad was docked, only to find it closed. "Damnit!" John knew they were going to try to run.

But Legion had other plans. "One moment," it stated. Moving over to the door's console, it used both hands and two omnitools to interface with the obstruction. A few moments later, Legion spoke up. "Door is unlocked."

He only waited a moment. "Open it."

Both the airlock and ship doors opened simultaneously. Entering a foreign environment like this was extremely risky, but John had no time to waste and no other options available.

Only one of the commandos was visible. He was facing a console of some sort, but not one connected to the ship. Near him as a disheveled looking man that was definitely less armed and armored.

Shepard opened fire on them both before they could ready their weapons. They were forced to the ground by explosive force, their bodies mangled with wounds.

Tali was already inside, covering his rear. The main room was cleared, but Mal indicated several doors. "There are other rooms. We will have to clear them."

John had his attention on the large device that spanned the room. In a moment, realization dawned. It was a massive bomb—he couldn't tell if the Cerberus team was trying to activate the bomb or disarm it, but it needed to be dealt with now.

"Tali!" he yelled, gesturing to the device. "It's a bomb!"

"Keelah!" she shouted. Stowing her shotgun and bringing up her omnitool, she scanned it for answers.

Legion did the same, sparking Shepard's curiosity. A very tense minute went by before Legion spoke up. "This device requires manual intervention at two different sites simultaneously to disarm. One is located at the console in front of us. The other is in that corner," it said, pointing at its target.

"I've got this one," Tali said, running to the nearest console. "Ready!"

Legion moved to its console. "We are also ready."

"Go!"

John held his breath in the few seconds following. It wasn't the first time he had been in a bomb diffusal scenario, but it was the first time it was completely out of his control. "Will someone please tell me if we're about to die or not?"

Tali stepped back from her console and breathed a sigh of relief. "We're good."

John sighed himself. "Good work. Now let's finish this."

Golo was furious. The plan had worked so well up until now, but somehow the Cerberus team had been slaughtered unbelievably quickly.

None of it made sense. His rampage was denied and his payment void.

But he had one thing left in his favor. As a quarian, he could feign duress, so long as none of the other quarians identified him as an exile. That would buy him enough time to think of something to get him out of this mess.

Sure enough, they gunned down the last remaining Cerberus trooper, but lowered their weapons when they saw him, hands in the air. "Wait! Don't shoot! I'm a prisoner!"

One of the humans stepped towards him. "What's your name?"

He couldn't very well give his real name, lest he be killed by the quarians without preamble. "Saleen. Saleen'Halit nar Rayya." The Rayya, being a universally recognized and very large ship, would be inconspicuous enough to avoid suspicion. For now, at least.

"How old are you?" This question came from one of the female quarians.

"19," he said.

"Who are your parents?"

Inventing names under duress without any preparation was difficult, so he opted for the easier option. "They're dead," he said, trying to add a tone of bitterness.

"Which leg does the Rayya's captain always limp on?"

Shit. He tried to feign uncertainty, which was a lot better than guessing wrong with conviction. "The…left, wasn't it? I can't remember."

She quickly slammed the butt of her shotgun into his face. Dazed, he fell back into a crate. "The captain has never had a limp! And you should have seen him personally at least once a week!"

Captain Mal moved to examine Golo closely. "You are Golo," he stated solemnly, "Golo vas nedas nar tasi."

Shepard keyed his translator, working its magic: Golo, crew of nowhere, child of no one. And soon, he suspected, holder of no life.

A/N: I used the designation "stormrifle" as a new (English) designation for a specific class of weapon. In a sense, it's a small arms weapon that is designed for utility through smart munitions. In this case, airbursting grenades coupled with sensors, a range-finding laser, and more.

Paul Grayson was the other guy in the ship. That was gunned down unceremoneously. It's AT (alternate timeline), folks. That, and he's a LOT better off for it (just go read Retribution if you really want to know). Unfortunately, we don't see Gillian in action, but it makes a lot of sense this way.

As for the reason Cerberus didn't just undock and get the heck out of dodge: the bomb was designed to go off if the ships' controls were tampered with. They had to disarm it first before leaving (they originally planned to evac on Gillian's shuttle).

Please review! Let me know what you think of the action writing. I found it pretty difficult, so I'm open to suggestions and feedback.