Chapter 36

"So your family armor's probably inside this building, eh Wrex?" Shepard asked as he, Wrex, and Kaidan all exited the Mako after driving all over Tuntau looking for Tonn Actus's hidden base.

"Yes."

"Righty-ho." Shepard thought for a minute. "Any chance that nobody's home, and we can make this a heist rather than an assault?" Kaidan and Wrex both turned to look incredulously at him. "Oh come on, don't be like that! A guy can hope, can't he?" Seeing their heads shake in the negative, he sighed. "Fine. Shotguns out then, until we know what the inside of this place looks like." God I hate going in blind. One of these days, it's gonna come back to bite me in the ass, I just know it.

The team stacked up outside the only visible access door to the base. As soon as Shepard hacked through the locking mechanism, they piled through the doorway and found themselves in an antechamber of sorts. The whole room was empty, with the only break from the monotonous walls being the door that they just came through, and another door ahead that would take them further into the base. "Ok. We're gonna open up this next door, but not go through. Hopefully they won't be expecting an attack, and we'll have a second to take the lay of the land." Wrex and Kaidan nodded their heads in confirmation of the order, and then proceeded to get in position alongside the doorway. With a few deft strokes of his hand, Shepard hacked through the controls on the door and it popped open.

The team tensed as they waited for a hail of gunfire to welcome their intrusion. After a few seconds that felt like hours, the three crewmembers of the Normandy relaxed their shoulders and let their grip on their weapons loosen infinitesimally. Shepard took advantage of the apparent peace of the situation and stuck his head out, taking in the room with a quick glance. That done, he turned to his team. "Alright, so this is probably gonna be messy. The whole place is full of crates, drive core parts, boxes, shelves, crates, canisters, wheels, weapons, electronic equipment, crates, and other random shit. Oh, and did I mention the sheer number of fucking crates? There're probably about two useful sightlines in this whole goddamn place. So it'll be CQB for the most part. If they've got anybody with ranged capabilities, they'll probably pop up at those two spots as soon as we start shooting. One spot is all the way at the back corner of the building, and has a direct view of the door. The other one is up high, and looks like it covers the chokepoint between this quarter of the building and the rest of it. So keep an eye out for possible snipers in both of those locations. Wrex, describe Tonn Actus to me, in as much detail as possible."

"He's a turian. White colony markings, green eyes, brown skin. Just under two meters tall, ninety-five to one-hundred kilos."

"Sweet. I caught a glimpse of him, then. I can probably get him from here, but it'll be a tough shot and I'll be a bit exposed. I can take him out, but you'll need to be ready to put the hammer down on anybody who decides to avenge their fallen leader. Can you do that?"

Wrex grinned, a terrifyingly evil look on his ancient face. Kaidan nodded, looking away from the krogan's expression with more than a bit of fear in his body language. Shepard just chuckled, quietly.

"Ok then. I'm going out." As he said this, Shepard pulled out his sniper rifle and crouched down, practically sitting on the ground. Then he began his slow creep forward, looking for just the right place from which to take his shot. Hmm. There's gonna be a tiny ass window, so I probably want something I can use as a shooting bench. I could take the shot freehand, but I really wanna blow this guy's head clean off. For Wrex, of course; not because it's a challenge and good for my ego. A more stable shooting position guarantees that. Ooh, that looks like it'll work. A hell of a spot, though, isn't it?

Shepard crawled over next to a red canister stamped all over with the galactic standard symbol for "explosive." The top of the canister was a flat ledge just wide enough for the barrel of his rifle. However, the canister was also only half a meter off the ground, which meant Shepard had some work to do in order to be able to use his newfound shooting bench. After a good thirty seconds of lying down, wiggling, scooching; while bending knees and elbows and feet along the way, Shepard had found a workable position to shoot from. Ignoring the pain in his legs, which were bent sideways and hooked into a bit of open space on a shelf, he centered himself inwards and prepared to fire.

After some unknown length of time, movement occurred in his field of view. Staring down his scope, Shepard saw the brown fringe of a turian begin to come into his field of view. As time seemed to slow down, more and more of the turian became visible. Brown skin? Check. White face paint? Check. Height and build seem right. Green eyes? Bye bye motherfucker. Looking into the pale green eyes of Tonn Actus, Shepard pulled the trigger.

The HMWSR with HE rounds was capable of blowing a 6-inch diameter hole through an inch-thick plate of wolfsteel. Wolfsteel was originally created by the turians for use in the main guns of their dreadnought, although it was not called "wolfsteel" at the time. Human scientists working on making a version of the durable metal for the Alliance started calling their results the "werewolf" alloy, since the atomic symbols of three of the main elements present in the alloy were tungsten (W), element zero (eezo, or E), and rhenium (Re). The "wolf" part of the name was added because asking "Where's the were metal?" led to a great many confusing conversations. As the project progressed, it was decided that listing four of the six elements (the other two being osmium and carbon) used in making the new material right in the name was incredibly stupid. As a result, the new alloy went into production as "wolfsteel."

Unfortunately for Tonn Actus, he was not hiding behind more than an inch of wolfsteel. The turian didn't even have his helmet on, so confident was he in the inviolate nature of his base. That would be his last mistake. The bullet Shepard fired impacted the turian between his mouth and his nose. In milliseconds, Tonn Actus's head was vaporized into a fine blue mist. For another second, the turian's body remained standing as though it intended to carry on with its business without anything above its shoulders. Then, like a marionette whose strings had been cut, it collapsed. A heartbeat later, all hell broke loose.

Shepard scrambled to free himself from his awkward shooting position, as he heard the thumping of boots and the yelling of men all converging on his position. With a grunt, he managed to get back to his feet and run towards the door where Kaidan and Wrex still stood, weapons at the ready. "Guys? Actus is down, but I don't think his employees are very happy with me. I'm bringing the party to you!" As he said this, he turned the corner and crossed the door's threshold. With an economy of movement, he collapsed his sniper rifle and replaced it on his back, and then pulled out his pistol. At the same time, Kaidan and Wrex opened up with their assault rifle and shotgun, respectively, forcing the enemy to abandon their pursuit of Shepard and dive for cover.

"Right then, let's finish them off." Shepard said with a grin.

"Oh for fuck's sake!" Shepard yelled out. "Kaidan! Stop using throws and lifts! You're helping them get to cover, which is kinda what we want to avoid."

It had been fifteen minutes since Shepard had atomized Tonn Actus's skull, and the trio had only managed to kill two of the dead turian's peons. Neither side could get a lock on their enemy for long enough to do much damage.

"Sorry, Commander." Kaidan replied. "I'm just used to those two attacks working."

"Well, you're a marine. Start acting like one!" Shepard yelled back. "Improvise, adapt, overcome. Isn't that supposed to be beaten into you during basic? Use your damn head!"

"Right. Maybe neural shock will work." Kaidan activated the attack on his omni-tool and watched as one of the pirates collapsed to the ground, writhing in pain. Jumping at the chance, Shepard and Kaidan both poured fire into the downed pirate, killing him.

"Good job, Kaidan." Shepard said, giving a thumbs up to his teammate. "Motion sensors indicate that there're five more baddies running around. Everybody switch to shotguns, we're gonna hunt them down one by one."

Wrex, who already had his shotgun out, nodded as he agreed with this course of action. Kaidan put away his AR and pulled out his shotgun, while Shepard reduced his pistol and opened up his own boomstick. "We're gonna run an inverted triangle. Wrex, you're to the right and the most forward. I'll be just behind you and to your left. Kaidan, you're between both of us and farthest back. Be ready with your barriers, and don't let your shields drop. Ready? Let's go."

The three moved out at a light jog, making for the closest red dot on their sensors. Within seconds they had reached the enemy, ran around the crate he was using for cover, and each member of the squad had fired twice. The pirate slumped to the ground, his left arm ripped off by a shotgun blast, and a large hole through his chest. "That looked painful." Shepard remarked with a cross between a grimace and a grin, and then the men of the Normandy headed off for their next target.

It had only taken another two minutes for Shepard and Co. to hunt down the remaining pirates and kill them. The last enemy had taken refuge at the top of the stairs, and attempted to take advantage of having the high ground. Much to the pirate's misfortune, he had failed to take into account the fact that Shepard had grenades. One quick toss later, and the downed turian was screaming in pain as his armor burned away and melted into his skin. As they walked by, Wrex lifted one massive foot and brought it down through the pirate's skull, giving the man a quick death.

At the top of the stairs, the group turned left towards what passed for Tonn Actus's vault. Halfway between the stairs and their goal, they encountered the ringleader's body. Shepard and Wrex both admired the kill from a professional perspective, and Shepard with more than a little pride. God damn I love my rifle. She needs a name. I've only had her for two and a half weeks, but we've already racked up close to a hundred kills. She's earned a name. But what could be good enough? It needs to be something powerful and deadly, yet full of grace and pride. Hmmm. Drusilla? Nah, doesn't sound strong enough. Darla? No, sounds too much like "darling," and I'm not creepy enough to give my gun a pet name. Artemis? That's not gender-specific enough; I know she was a goddess but I've heard of guys with the same name. Maybe Diana, the Roman version of Artemis? Closer, but still not quite there. Inara? Ooh, I like that. It sounds similar to Diana, but slightly more, I don't know, feminine? But it's still a strong name, has consonants in all the right places. Alright, Inara it is. I'll have to track down some paint when I get back onboard the Normandy and write it on my rifle. I know just where to put it, too. On the right side of the receiver, so that it isn't hidden by my body when I'm shooting. Alright, now that that pressing issue is solved, I should get back to helping out my man Wrex. Damn, I'm practically giddy at Inara's new name and the damage she did. That and I'm getting my usual post-battle dose of endorphins, leading to me being slightly giddy. And more than a little horny. Gods what I wouldn't give for a good fuck!

Collecting himself, Shepard stepped over the dead turian and made for the vault. Twenty-three seconds of hacking later, the door slid open revealing shelves full of valuable upgrades and equipment, and a safe that was very nearly top-of-the-line.

"Kaidan, you start raiding the shelves. Everything that could be worth anything, I want it. When you're finished with that, go ahead and start working your way through the rest of the base. We'll join you when we're done. Wrex, let's see if we can't crack this bitch." When Shepard had finished speaking, Kaidan made for the nearest case of goodies and Shepard and Wrex walked together towards the safe.

"Wrex. I have a feeling your armor's in here, since it's the only place in the room that's big enough for it. I should be able to get this open, but it may take me a couple of minutes. Safecracking's not really something they teach in the Alliance. What I need you to do though is activate your omni-tool and watch the back of the safe, right where it joins the wall. If the safe starts drawing more electricity, let me know. That means that the onboard systems are trying to fight off an electronic intrusion, and it means I'm doing it right. Okay?"

The krogan nodded, and then the two men activated their omni-tools and set to work. The next three minutes passed in relative silence, which was only broken when Wrex would simply state, "Surge." Just after the 185th second, Shepard let out a triumphant yell.

"Got it! Ha ha, motherfucker! Take that bitches!" When Wrex looked at him askance, Shepard shrugged his shoulders. "Hey, it's not my fault. That was one of the harder things I've done lately. Maybe after I retire from the Alliance I'll start up a new career as a thief."

Wrex didn't respond, as he was too busy opening the safe. There, piled onto one of the lower shelves, was his family's armor. Shepard left the krogan to removing the armor at his own pace. Instead, the commander focused on cleaning out the rest of the safe. After a period of companionable silence, Wrex looked up at Shepard and spoke.

"This armor is so old, it's completely useless in battle."

And converted from Wrex-speak into normal conversation, I'm pretty sure he meant to say "It's strange how such an ancient piece of technology can mean so much to us, even now." Shepard chortled at his translation of Wrex's statement, and then responded to the krogan. "Probably. But not all battles are won in the field."

At this, Wrex looked back down at the armor, which he had opened up and let hand towards the floor. "True. We both should make certain to remember that in the coming days."

And if I'm not mistaken, that's pretty close to a "You're a good friend, Shepard. Thank you." Talking to Wrex is so much fun. Ha ha ha ha. "We will, Wrex." I'm pretty sure that's krogan for "You're welcome."

Wrex looked up at Shepard, and an understanding passed between them. Each man knew what the other was really saying, and they respected each other for it. At length Shepard spoke again, and steered the conversation to less sentimental waters. "Let's go see what Kaidan found. Think we can sell Tonn Actus's armor as 'slightly used?'"

Wrex just laughed.