[Author's Note: I made an edit to Chapter 15, which will please any readers who were as bothered as I was that Davisson could spontaneously 'port to places he can't necessarily see a few chapters later. Now the limitations of his device are a little more clear. It's only an addition of two sentences, but now it won't disturb me so much.

And, as always, a big shout-out to my readers. You, reading this, right now. Yes, you. Thank you. Overcoming the quintuple-digit view number is wonderful.]

"It takes a lot out of you to lose a friend. But, somehow, it can be even worse to lose someone you barely knew."

Earlier that day...

While the Normandy was still docked, Shepard had some time to dig deep into her thoughts and simply lie back in the calm. Even thought she wasn't actually on the team's rotation (Chakwas still adamantly refused to allow her off the ship and into a combat situation), she still wouldn't allow anything to happen without being on board personally to oversee it. Thus, in a time of relative calm like this, she felt less assured and more...ill at ease.

While she was far from wishing they were under attack by pirates (mostly because she was not an idiot), she was still restless. Not only was she effectively detained, but she couldn't even look forward to an adrenaline-inducing encounter on the ground to keep her thoughts out of her head.

Harbinger was her main concern in those moments of silence. What Cerberus and the Reaper were doing bothered her to no end. She constantly felt like she should be watching over her shoulder. Even the Normandy didn't feel safe anymore. No place in the galaxy was safe if the Reapers returned. And all she could do about it was just...sit there.

Granted, she thought as she adjusted her arms to a more comfortable condition around the turian next to her, there were benefits to just sitting there. Garrus shifted in his sleep, this being the only time short of death his posture was relaxed. Shepard wistfully thought that she should be gladdened to fall asleep. But then, she'd slept for five years. She'd had quite enough of it.

This thought having implanted itself firmly in her mind, she carefully rose from their bed, stretching her arms and back once in a slow, relieving motion. Her feet touched the bare floor, sending brief twinges of cold up and down her legs. She frowned. It might have been less of a fire hazard than, for example, felt, but it could be annoying without very specific temperature regulators.

She slipped into her casual attire, tugged her hair back into its customary ponytail, and stepped into the elevator. Before the doors closed, she took another look at the bed and, despite herself and the stress she'd placed herself under, she smiled.

The ride down to the CIC was not a very long one. In point of fact, it was barely more than five seconds, much to her relief. The crewmen on duty paused in between pacing to salute, a gesture Shepard gladly returned. Setting her omni-tool to access the galaxy map's communications, she decided she'd take up a new ally on his offer.

"Commander Shepard." Admiral Norran sounded as though she was trying to contain excitement, and in general exuded more youth than her predecessor had. If perhaps not as much capability, that Shepard had seen. "I'm glad Councilor Ramirez was able to talk to you about my offer."

"I'm surprised the two of you even had time to coordinate, Admiral." Shepard said. "I don't think I'd been awake for more than a few hours."

"It's been nearly impossible to keep this off the press, nevermind the Council or Alliance Command." Norran said. "Major Alenko told us right away."

It struck Shepard that she hadn't even considered what an uproar her return would make. If the first time had been disconcerting... "What are my standing orders regarding secrecy?"

Norran sighed. "This is a complicated situation, Commander. While we can't keep you a secret forever, it's been too long to simply explain this away. I would advise that you use your best judgment until this is sorted out."

Shepard nodded. "Understood."

"In the meantime, we have a few situations going on in the galaxy that we could use your expertise with." Norran went on. "Interested."

"I'll hear what you've got, but my crew and I can't make any promises." Shepard informed her.

"Understood, Commander." Norran replied. "Your investigation into the Reapers is a top priority. But we have a silent colony that we'd like you to look into."

Shepard frowned. "Details?"

"This particular colony houses a few of our more advanced scientific assets. It's a fairly out-of-the-way garden world, rarely paid any mind by aggressors or even our own people." Norran explained. "But we lost contact yesterday, and that's very unusual. What's worse, the small fleet we sent disappeared. A stealth vessel like the Normandy would be invaluable for reconnaissance.

Further, New Damascus is of perhaps even more interest to you, personally. One of your former crewmates, Jacob Taylor, is there in a civilian capacity."

"Jacob's down there?" Shepard asked. "I'll get a team on it immediately, send me the coordinates."

"Important as your mission is, Shepard, it's good to have you on the job again. Your coordinates will arrive momentarily. Admiral Norran out." True to her word, Shepard's omni-tool lit up mere seconds later.

"EDI." She said aloud. "Get everyone to the briefing room."

The ground team was ready within minutes. Shepard sent a message to the helm for Joker to start on those coordinates effective immediately. They might make good time, but it would still take them a few hours to reach the Artemis Tau cluster.

"And keep the stealth systems on when we leave a relay." She reminded him.

"I know the drill, Commander." He replied cockily.

The CO herself was the last to arrive, so she found Liara, Vaya, Kaidan, Garrus and Lokkan already waiting, weapons holstered and armor donned. It occurred to her that this would be the first time she had seen that they would be going on a mission without her. This thought did not make her feel any better.

"As per our status quo," She began. "We have a problem. The New Damascus colony went silent recently, and we now have an official request to investigate. Until such time as we have a breakthrough regarding the Reaper threat, we will do what we can to ensure the safety of the civilians in the Traverse.

That being said, this isn't an ordinary colony. It houses various scientists valuable to the Alliance, and is considered an asset. Why it's dark is now a mystery we very much want solved."

"Why send us?" Vaya asked. "And not an investigation unit?"

"Stealth systems." Shepard elaborated. "They tried sending a traditional small fleet, but they didn't report back, either. We have no idea what we're dealing with, so I hope I don't have to tell you that we need to proceed with caution."

Everyone looked at Lokkan, some perhaps more out of instinct than anything else. He scoffed. "Ach, fine! Nae shootin' hinges offa doors'n whatnae. I'll be bloody quiet."

"Since Dr. Chakwas has...insisted..." Shepard emphasized through slightly gritted teeth. "That I stay aboard, I'll have to stay within radio contact only. Since we're dealing with a blackout, keep close at all times in case our comms go dead. If that does happen, command descends from Garrus, Kaidan, and Liara."

"Anything else, Commander?" Kaidan asked.

Shepard nodded. "Intel is one of our top priorities. Find out what's going on down there whenever you can. Our number one is evac, assuming this is a false alarm. We need to establish a rendezvous point for civilians to fall back to. EDI, Liara, you two are on guard duty. Stand by on the pickup point or points. Everyone else, stick together. Further planning as events warrant."

She glanced around. "...Why are you all smiling?"

"No reason, Commander." Kaidan told her. "It's just...good to have you back."

The hardest part, as always, was the waiting.

Shepard had set up a link to the rest of the squad with which to communicate - a virtual map in the briefing room would keep her up to date on the battlefield, and a display nearby told her the statuses of the team. She even had a headset and a cup of coffee. Even so, it was tense. She found herself counting down the minutes until the Normandy entered their destination system. And so, of course, it took much longer than it really should have.

The ground unit, having essentially nothing better to do, kept her company. This, if anything, made it worse. All of the others wore armor, weapons, and grim expressions. Standing alongside them in what amounted to civvies by comparison made her feel stark naked. She'd have like absolutely nothing better than to feel the hard grip of her pistol, the enclosing protective layers of her armor, and the comfort that came with knowing that no matter how bad it got, she'd at least be with them through it all.

Now? No such luck.

Vaya and Lokkan were busy comparing rifles when the call came in from the cockpit. "Hitting the last relay now."

A three-dimensional hologram of the Alexandria system fleshed to the forefront of their map. It zoomed in on the planet Eros. Several specks appeared to be in orbit around both the close and far sides of the planet.

"Is that a fleet?" Liara asked.

"Looks Batarian..." Garrus pointed out. "What are they doing out here?"

"We can take a wild guess." Shepard said grimly. "Joker, EDI, bring us into orbit as carefully as possible, then run a scan on the colony."

"They do not appear to be actively bombarding the planet, Shepard." EDI notified her. "However, I have detected a type of signal jamming device that I am not familiar with emanating from somewhere on the planet's surface."

"How disruptive is it?" Liara inquired. "Does it only affect long-ranged communications?"

There was a pause. "All types of communication appear to be affected."

"That's going to make this difficult." Shepard pinched the bridge of her nose.

"We've been in worse spots, Commander." Kaidan said. "We'll manage."

"EDI, will we lose the maps, too?" Garrus asked.

Another pause. "Negative. The systems used to map ground level in real time do not rely on the same types of transmissions. However, my physical body will not be able to accompany you."

"So I can keep an eye on the action, but I can't warn any of you if I receive useful intel, not to mention being short one teammate." Shepard grumbled. "This is going to turn into torture very quickly."

"We'll be fine." Lokkan assured her. "I'll bring ya back a nice set of 'eads."

"Orbiting in five!" Joker warned them. "I'm not sure about the ground situation, so clear up that jammer before I come in for pickups."

"Shuttle's going to be cramped." Kaidan noted.

"We'll manage." Garrus nodded. He began to turn away with the rest of them, but stopped. His head turned to lock eyes with his Commander. "Shepard..." He said. "We'll be back."

"You'd better." Shepard told him, trying to keep humor in her tone. "Chakwas'll never let me hear the end of it if I have to go down there and save your ass."

"You stay safe." He warned. "No matter what happens to us."

Shepard saluted with a touch of sardonicism. "Aye aye, Admiral."

"Done yet?" Lokkan armed his shotgun for emphasis. "Let's get a move on, before all th' good kills're gone."

Garrus donned his helmet and followed the engineer out. His HUD flashed with the images of all its associated systems. Everything working perfectly. It had been far too long since he'd broken out his good gear, which he had realized to his chagrin during the Citadel mission. As he filed into the shuttle, though, he still thought there was something missing. Something...

The silence helped him think, and also helped him realize exactly what that was. While Liara filled in Cortez with the relevant need-to-know information, he accessed him omni-tool.

"Visor set, firefight." He murmured. "Track three."

Immediately, the thrum of the music surged into his headset. Deep bass and quick rhythms. Perfect for the job ahead. It wasn't until the song had halfway passed that he realized with dawning horror Kaidan and Lokkan's feet were tapping to the exact beats he was hearing. He checked his comm settings and, sure enough, he was playing battle tunes across the entire ground team's channel.

He slowly moved to turn it off, but Lokkan picked that moment to speak up. "Well turn it up, then, le's hear it while we can!"

He thought about it. Then he shrugged and obliged. After only one replay, his teammates began to tap the sides of their helmets in confusion. His HUD sent him a message warning that inter-party contact had suddenly cut out. Well, he thought grimly. Here we go again.

The shuttle touched down in a jungle clearing near to the colony, but outside of LADAR range. It would be a hike, but they might be able to catch any batarians by surprise. All five of them formed a semicircle perimeter until the shuttle rose again, and made certain no ambushes lay in wait. Garrus set his speakers to external broadcast. "Liara, do you think you can hold this point on your own?"

She nodded. "Certainly. If I need assistance, should I sent out a biotic flare?"

"It's not like that could make it worse if you're already struggling." Garrus said. "Do it. Everyone else, form up. We go east. Vaya, keep down and take point. Hustle - we'll keep it slow so you have time to warn us if there's anything ahead."

"Understood."

"Lokkan, take point. Pass out the weaponry enhancements and obliterate any chargers."

"Aye."

"Kaidan, stick to the Phaeston and provide suppressive fire. I'll keep an eye out for frozen targets."

"Yes sir."

The thick foliage ahead of them camouflaged the movements of both the forward and rear combatants with startling efficacy, to the extent that even Garrus lost track of his allies at regular intervals. He recognized that an inherent problem with their first strategy was the potential for friendly fire. If they weren't careful, crossfires could easily be lethal for all of them. Over the sounds of cracking leaves and their own footsteps, he vaguely heard some kind of disturbance ahead of them, but couldn't make it out, even as they were making progress.

Eventually, though he didn't see her, he heard Vaya's voice come from his right side, tone urgent. "I found the colony...if you can call it that. It's more of a village. It looks as though a small militia is under assault from a large batarian force. Nothing particularly dire, but I recommend we don't draw attention to ourselves."

"Noted." Garrus told her. "Any guards?"

"Not anymore." Her amusement was audible, but whether it was in regards to his question or the killings themselves...either was equally disturbing to him, frankly.

He felt Lokkan moving next to him, and grabbed the engineer's shoulder to get his attention. He motioned to where he assumed Kaidan was and pointed two fingers in front of him. Lokkan nodded and moved around. Within moments, all three of their movements were synched and moving towards the steadily increasing sounds of gunfire.

When they arrived, it became immediately clear that a firefight was indeed in full swing - several defenders had hastily erected a barrier made out of small vehicles and crumbling walls, while heavy troopers clad in dark armor used the civilian's own buildings as cover. So far, it was a stalemate, but the defenders were losing defensive options rapidly.

Their counterattack came slowly. First, it was a surreptitious drone launched into their rear flank by an unseen Vaya. This allowed them to find prime positions while the batarians were distracted. Garrus himself located a suitable rooftop and waited for his opportunity. Then the attacker's weapons began to fail. Once every few minutes, nothing that could not be construed as anything other than an unfortunate malfunction. However, the discharges that Lokkan's 'modification' on their weapons left allowed Garrus to add each one to his LADAR system. Within a fairly short time period, he knew with certainty where each one was.

Then, assailants began to disappear. One at a time. With the battle being so heated, almost none of them noticed. The first to realize something was wrong disappeared too, before he could raise his suspicions with any of his companions. Eventually, there were eight left out of an original two and a half dozen. That was when the tide truly began to turn.

Garrus counted the seconds, keeping a bead on one specific target. Five passed, and one of his talons tapped the trigger. In the same instant, an explosion ripped the enemy barricade to shreds. Four died instantly in the conflagration, and another two suffered a tragic and immediate loss of all their brain matter. Garrus would never admit it to anyone, but he'd been paying attention during Davisson's little ricochet trick, and on a whim decided to try it himself. The rock was just strong enough to support a bouncing of the special round against the surface of the floor and then into the back of a batarian's skull.

At last, the final two members of that brigade noticed something was going wrong. One of them turned only to have his neck snapped by a previously-invisible turian scout, and the other was turned into even less than mulch by Lokkan, who'd had a clustered explosive shotgun round ready during most of the activity. Apparently they became more deadly with age.

Garrus rolled off the top of the building when everything went quiet. Vaya sprinted for a choice spot near the perimeter to hide in once again while Kaidan and Lokkan kept watch. One of the defenders pushed a crate a few inches to the side. It was a human boy, no more than seventeen years. He held a pistol like a lifeline, and his face spoke fear beyond terror.

"It's all right." Garrus assured him. "We're here to help."

"Y-you can't come in." The boy sounded firm, but uncertain. His words sounded forced, like he'd repeated them often. "We..."

"Hang on, Chico." A more confident, deeper tone came from further beyond the barricade. A familiar one. "I think I recognize that flange. We're good."

To Garrus' surprise, no less than three heavily muscled marines began pushing the cover out of the way. The building they set up was strewn with holes and filled with wounded. Only six of them looked even remotely up to fighting. The rest either groaned in pain or didn't stir at all. In the center stood a man even fitter than all of the others, an N7 insignia emblazoned on his armor. His Mohawk was especially distinctive.

"Weird seeing you down here, amigo." Vega couldn't quite hide his smile and, beneath the helm obscuring his features, neither could Garrus. "But I'll take what I can get."

"James." Garrus shook his head. "What are you doing here?"

"I was about to ask you the same thing." Vega replied. "At least I had orders to investigate. What are you doing, going around space, looking for stranded marines?"

"Something like that." Garrus conceded. "But I missed the stranded part."

"Yeah, our ship kind of..." Vega scratched the back of his head. "Exploded. This colony is something like priority number one, but no one said anything about fleets."

"Believe me, we missed the same memo." Garrus made sure to infuse his tone with a few touched of sardonicism for flavor. "How long have you been down here?"

"Couple of days." Vega nodded deeper inside the building, at the wounded. "We were pretty screwed until you showed up. They just kept pounding us."

"This can't be the entire colony, can it?" Kaidan asked.

Vega shook his head. "That's a negative. I guess this is sort of a decoy cluster. Real place is further in, but for all I know they hit that too. Get this; they have some sort of advanced security system, but they can't get it online unless someone knows about it."

"And they can't know with communications knocked out." Garrus finished. "They might have noticed something was wrong, though. Any indications?"

"I was a little busy trying not to die." Vega grimaced. "You'd think if they knew about this they'd have turned on whatever they've got by now."

"Is anyone else having flashbacks to Horizon?" Kaidan asked wearily. "Because if these turrets are anything like..."

"Doubt it's that complex." Garrus reassured him. "James, now that we've got you out of the fire, what was your plan?"

Vega exhaled slowly. His eyelids were already beginning to droop shut, and Garrus realized he must have been awake for days, running on stims. He was reminded uncomfortably of Noveria, and really hoped that Alexandria wasn't a planet housing a nest of rachni. "Honestly, most of my plans were about exactly how we were going to die." Vega looked around. "Now, I'm not really trusting myself to lead these guys out."

"We have a pickup point nearby." Garrus said. "Are they mobile?"

"The ones that are still alive?" Vega asked. He glanced behind him, and his voice became softer, infused with guilt. "Yeah."

"Hey..." Garrus moved forward and put a hand on his shoulder. "This wasn't you, Vega. Understand? Their lives are on those batarian bastards, not your unit. Same with your ship, your crew. Now, I need you at one hundred and ten percent, not overthinking the past."

Vega kept his gaze away, but Garrus saw his resolve hardening. He gripped the Revenant he was holding like a lifeline. Finally, he nodded. Slowly at first, but the tempo increased with the speed of his thoughts. "Will do. We're with you."

"Good." Garrus motioned to the other Alliance troopers. "Handpick your best men, and send the rest to our secure pickup point with Lokkan."

Vega furrowed his brow. "Well, sure, but...How'd you know him?"

Sudden confusion hit Garrus like a hammer. "What? He's on my squad, he used to work aboard my ship."

They were locked together, mentally, in a whirling torrent of 'what the hell'. Vega managed to sum in it up as few words as possible: "Huh?"

Lokkan, naturally, took that moment to enter the conversation. "Perimeter's clear so far, but maybe we shouldn't be standin' aroun' wagglin' our jaws after tha' ruckus, aye?"

Vega pointed at him weakly and began to ask "Why does he have a sc-" when another turian came from within the building, He was holding a datapad, and at first garrus thought he was weeping, even though that was anatomically impossible. Then he noticed that his 'tears' were purple tracings, like clan paint. Exactly like Lokkan's.

"Sir," He began, glancing up only briefly. "I think I have a plan for our entry, now that we have reinforcements."

"Shite..." Lokkan muttered, stepping back. "Mavarr?"

"Raeko?" Mavarr stared at him in disbelief. "What...what are you doing here?"

"Err." Lokkan had to take several moments to register the question. "Savin' tha colony, I suppose."

"You...'suppose'?" Mavarr sounded as though he was desperately trying to keep calm. "This visit is an accident, then?"

"Better question:" Garrus interrupted them. "What's going on?"

"Ah, Admiral..." Lokkan began nervously. "This...eh..."

"Professor Mavarr Lokkan, Sir." Mavarr nodded in greeting to Garrus tersely. "Scientific liaison to the Alliance operation here. I didn't have time to send word to Hierarchy, but I'm grateful you are here."

"This is incidental." Garrus said. "Which isn't to say the colony isn't our first priority. What was your entry strategy?"

"A pincer insertion." Mavarr had his concentration on the plan now, he still sent uncertain looks Lokkan's way, as though he couldn't quite decide what emotions to put forth yet. "I can activate the defense array and perhaps even disable the communications block. The main base has a central hub that I can access while multiple teams distract whatever hostiles might be there."

"And on the off chance there aren't any?" Kaidan asked.

Mavarr gave him an odd look. "Then our job becomes much easier."

"You have specs on the colony, Doc?" Vega asked.

Mavarr nodded and adjusted a setting on his omni-tool. A three-dimensional map of a large series of complexes that Garrus assumed was the main encampment. Frankly, it was very impressive, though he marveled at the possibility that it hadn't been discovered. "How can it possibly not have been found?"

"They have several defensive measures." The image scrolled outward, and the view of the environs switched to dense tree cover. "From the air, you can't see anything, it's too deep in the forest. And we scramble LADAR, so you need line-of-sight."

Vega glanced at Garrus. "Orders?"

"We can use both plans." Garrus indicated the wounded civilians within the building. "Vega's marines will take them to the extraction point. They'll wait with Liara until we can resume communications. James, you and the rest of your men wait for our signal. I'll send Vaya ahead to scout out the area. With any luck, we won't need to worry about plan B."

It didn't take long for Vaya to return, and she informed the rest of the multiple squads that their nearby area was clear. Mavarr reluctantly gave her directions to the main encampment so that she could scout it out for enemies. As unlikely as it was that the batarians had found it, they needed to be completely certain before making any further plans. While she understood the necessity, it still would have been nice to have more intel on the place. All she had now were wits and a general location. Nothing new.

She'd disappeared into the brush during a lull in the conversation. She took note of Lokkan's hushed conversation with the other turian in the corner before she went, and couldn't help but wonder what was going on there. That could wait, however; the mission lay ahead. Her mind pushed all thoughts except what she had been trained to do far away. Now, she was alone with her breathing, the bushes, the trees. Her only companions were her weapons, he only safety her skill, and her enemies potentially everything around her. Without question, she loved this part.

Her LADAR picked up trace movements occasionally, too small to be even combat drones. She suspected they were indigenous life forms, sensing something was amiss. Hopefully they would be the only ones.

The journey there was as tense as it was long, particularly at her speed of a crouched walk. However, just around the time she began to wonder whether that turian scientist was setting her up to walk directly into an ambush, she saw the edge of a building sticking conspicuously into the foliage. When she approached, she realized that it wasn't a building, but a wall. The corner of one, to be specific. It didn't appear to be a hasty construction, necessarily, but it wasn't the best she'd seen, either. Given time, she had no doubt that she would be able to scale it. But infiltration could wait for a another time; right then, she only needed to know one thing, and then report back.

That was when she heard the screaming. Most definitely civilian, as specialists didn't make those kinds of noises, even during periods of extreme duress. That is, that she knew of. She supposed humans might have simply been more generally fragile when not enlisted. Not enlisted. As though being part of a military wasn't mandatory or the best option? Not for the first time, it struck her as a, well, alien concept.

She drew her pistol and slid along the wall. Her breathing slowed to the point where even she could barely hear it, even inside her helmet. She set the auditory input settings of her helmet to maximum and focused. Every sound became more acute. Every step was an earthquake, every breath a tornado, and the voices just over the wall like so many dreams beating against her senses.

"No! Please! Don't hurt me!" Human. Female. Young.

"Shut up and get back here." Batarian. Male. Incensed. "If I have to go over there and get you, you'll be back in the labs missing limbs."

"Hah!" Another batarian. Also male. "The docs didn't say the needed 'em whole, did they?"

"Nah. Hell, they prefer pieces."

The volume of the girl's sobbing increased, pounding is way into the center of Vaya's brain. She could not let the mission be compromised in any way. She tuned it out. "Please! PLEASE, NO!"

She found a low-hanging branch and clambered on, managing to lift her head above the wall for a better look inside the compound. Only her willpower kept a gasp from moving past her mouth. There were dozens of buildings, white structures reaching up towards the jungle's overcovering. But the main attraction was the sheer number of people milling around within. Vaya's stomach lurched when she realized that there were hundreds of them, and that each one was a batarian soldier.

She dropped off of the wall and hit the ground lightly. She made to sprint off, but she paused. Perhaps it was a spirit guiding her to hesitate, or perhaps it was merely her instincts again. But a fourth voice erupted from behind the wall, a familiar one.

"What is the meaning of this? Why is this human not with the others? Their ascension must be finished quickly."

Vaya ran. And she didn't look back.