Mass Effect: A Few Good Soldiers

Chapter 3: The Doctor

The SSV Normandy - the most advanced ship in the Alliance Navy, commanded by the Citadel Council's newest Spectre Operative Lieutenant Commander Kathryn Shepard - sailed through the blackness of interstellar space. They had set sail from the Citadel over a week ago, with orders to enter the Traverse and bring the disbarred Spectre Saren back to the Council for trial. Or, if that couldn't be accomplished, she was to put him down.

While Shepard was excited to get back into the field, she did feel bad that Captain Anderson had had his chair pulled out from under him. Getting your command taken away because of political factors sucked - getting your command taken away period sucked - but being done in by back room deals sucked worse. While she had command of the Normandy, she mostly let Pressly, her XO, run the ship. She did this for two reasons. The first was that she was an N7, and had never before in her Naval career commanded an actual ship. The second reason was that Pressly was a fine officer and had served on ships longer than she had been alive. He knew how to run a ship and she would let him do it.

The first planet the newly minted Spectre had chosen to investigate was the planet of Therum where, according to the anthropology department of the Academy of Thessia, Doctor Liara T'Soni - a leading expert on the Protheans - was researching newly discovered Prothean ruins.

While Shepard loved fossils as much as the next girl, that wasn't the sole reason she was going. Dr. T'Soni was the daughter of Matriarch Benezia, who the Salarian Intelligence Services had confirmed as working for Saren. Shepard was hoping T'Soni could lead them to her mother, who in turn could lead them to Saren. She also hoped to deny Saren whatever expertise the doctor possessed. It was a long shot, but it was the only lead they had.

However, this mission had already hit a snag before it even started. The dig site on Therum had gone dark shortly after Saren had been disbarred from the Spectres, which she doubted was a coincidence. Now she had to extract a target, which may or may not be friendly, from a situation she knew nothing about. She just hoped the stealth systems were as good as Joker and the eggheads bragged.

"Commander." Joker's voice came over the comm and Shepard looked up from her desk, which was covered with the disassembled parts of her M-8 assault rifle.

Setting the weapon's charging handle and an oil stained rag down, she stood from her chair and walked over to the intercom, and pressed the button with her elbow so not to touch the device with her gun oil covered hands. "Shepard here," she said. "What's up lieutenant?"

"We've just entered the Knossos System and are forty minutes out from Therum," Joker reported.

"Very good," Shepard replied. They had made excellent time from the Artemis Tau relay. "Make sure the stealth system is engaged, and set the best possible speed for the planet. Once we're there, settle us into a geosynchronous orbit over the dig site and fire up the cameras." The Normandy was after all an infiltration and spy craft. Therefore the ship was equipped with the most sophisticated surveillance available. "I want detailed maps of the dig site and surrounding terrain. If there is even a single geth I want to know about it."

"Aye, commander," he said. "Anything else?"

"Yes," she said, pausing for a second before adding, "once the intelligence gathering activities are completed have Lieutenant Alenko, Gunnery Sergeant Williams, and our guests meet up in the situation room." On this ship the situation room also doubled as the comm room for receiving and sending high level communiqués. "That will be all, Lieutenant. Shepard out."

With that, she closed the comm and headed back over to her desk and back to work. Reaching down, she grabbed the bolt and the firing pin and reinserted the pin back into the bolt. She grabbed the handle and held the stock beneath her arm for leverage.

The M-8, for easily repair and maintenance, only had a few parts that needed to be taken out and cleaned. Most of those were accessible when the gun was broke down in two main pieces. There was a button on the right side of the gun that, when pressed, allowed the front half of the gun to swivel down on a hinge.

With practiced ease she grabbed the charging handle and slid it back into place before replacing the bolt in the weapon. Reaching down, she grabbed the bottom of the rifle and snapped it up so it clicked secure. Pulling on it, she made sure it was latched before pulling back on the charging handle to cycle the weapon. Shouldering it, she switched the weapon off safe and dry-fired. Hearing a satisfying click, which meant it was working fine, she flicked the safety back on and laid it down on the table.

She glanced quickly at the clock and decided she had enough time to strip down for a nice hot shower before giving the mission briefing. She smiled as she thought of a shower. As the ship's 'captain' she got her own private shower and, while it was still comparatively small, it was a luxury that someone who had spent their life in the military appreciated.

Divesting herself of her fatigues and under garments, she slipped into the shower and cranked up the heat. She let the steaming water cascade over her, soothing her aching muscles. Shepard braced her hands against opposite walls of the shower so she could take some pressure off her left leg. She and Garrus had had a rather heated sparring match and even though she came out on top, he had left a rather nasty looking bruise on her left thigh.

Garrus. His name brought a small smirk to her lips. She hadn't had so much fun and allowed herself to relax with someone for a long time - ever since her divorce, in fact. The smirk disappeared with the thought of her divorce and her late husband. She had meet the bastard in her second year in the academy and had a whirlwind romance, before they were married a semester before she graduated.

Upon graduating he'd received a position with the 1st Fleet, also known as the "Home-Guard," and she had gone to train for a position as a N7. The separation had been rough, but she been eagerly waiting their reunion. On her winter furlough she had wanted to surprise him and visit him on Earth, but when she walked into his on-base apartment she found him screwing some Marine bitch.

She'd been devastated; she had really loved him, but his betrayal was something she couldn't forgive. She had served him with the divorce papers not a week later, and had been a free woman within two. In the years since then she must have had only one or two dates, and never anything serious. Hell, she mused, she couldn't even remember the last time she'd had sex more meaningful than a lay in a hotel room to relive an itch.

She wasn't sure what it was about Garrus, but she just had the innate feeling that she could trust him.

XXX

The roar of a rifle firing and the pinging sounds of hits being scored filled the firing range of the Normandy. Garrus frowned as he flicked the safety on his rifle and ordered, "Recover."

A hologram appeared showing him his shot groupings. It had been a while since his military and Special Response Team days, and he hadn't necessarily kept up with his sniper practice as much as he would have liked. The grouping was closer than last time, but a few of the shots had been wide of the preferred fist sized grouping.

Slowly Garrus adjusted the sights on the M-97 Viper he had appropriated from the Normandy's armory. When he was satisfied with the sights, he braced his elbow on the counter and shouldered the rifle. "Reset the target to nine hundred meters," he called out, and the VI reset the target and shrunk it to the appropriate size to simulate a target at 900 meters.

900 meters was about half the effective maximum of the M-29, but for the moment it was unlikely that he'd have to engage anything at greater distances than 900 meters. Garrus breathed deeply and slowly as he centered his scope's cross hairs over the center of his target. He took a deep breath and squeezed the trigger. The gun jolted slightly as the weapon discharged and the round flew down range. He exhaled and when he was out of breath he fired again. He alternated firing at the top and bottom of each breath until he had fired ten rounds in fairly quick succession.

"Recover," he said again, laying his weapon on the table in front of him and pulling off his ear protection. The hologram appeared before him, and he evaluated the holes. These shots had been much closer. Each shot had landed within less than an inch from his intended target, and in a pattern smaller than a human fist.

Flicking the safety back on, he removed the thermal clip and the ammunition block from the rifle before replacing it back in its case. After he made sure the rifle was secure in its case, he stood and left the range behind him and started heading back to his quarters. He was settling into life on the Normandy quite well. At first the architecture of the ship had been surprisingly familiar, until he had been told that the ships had been jointly designed with the Turian Navy.

Shepard had made him feel right at home on the Normandy and he appreciated it. He enjoyed spending time with the human female, Shepard. She was a fascinating individual and they were a lot alike. The other crew members made him uneasy. The other humans seemed to always be watching him for any signs of treachery. After the investigation he'd barely said three words to the Quarian, who had spent most of her time down in the engine room. The Krogan their Commander had picked up, on the other hand, he avoided. The relationship between the Turians and Krogans was even more strained than the relationship between Turians and humans.

The Krogan blamed the Turians for unleashing the genophage, despite the fact that the Krogan had been ruthlessly attacking other species in what had been known as the Krogan Rebellions. With all conventional options failing against the unending hordes, the Turians had unleashed the Salarian-designed plague on their enemy. The effect of the genophage made only one in a thousand pregnancies viable, and was intended to combat the Krogans' fast reproductive rates. Unable to maintain the numbers they needed to fight the Citadel races, the Krogan surrendered. Even though the war had been over for nearly two thousand years, the Krogan were still deeply bitter about the result.

"Watch it, Turian," a deep voice rumbled from in front of him; the voice belonged to Wrex, the Krogan Battlemaster Shepard had picked up after she'd been made a Spectre. Apparently the ancient Krogan had been hired by the Shadow Broker to kill Fist for his betrayal. He wasn't sure what the Krogan said to Shepard, but the Spectre had agreed to allow him to assist in her hunt for Saren

Garrus grit his teeth, his muscles tensing as testosterone filled the air. "Maybe you should watch where you're going Krogan," he hissed back, not backing down one bit. The Turian and the Krogan were about equal in height, but Wrex had far more mass than he did and was physically stronger.

"You got a quad, bird boy," the Krogan growled as he advanced on him in a primal showdown between alpha males.

Dropping his hand to the knife on his waist, the brief thought passed through his head that Shepard wouldn't be happy if they killed each other. However, he didn't have to worry about that as both his and Wrex's omni-tools came to life. "Vakarian, Wrex," the voice of the pilot Joker said over the comm, "the Commander wants you two in the situation room for a briefing."

"Roger that, Joker," Garrus responded, his gaze never leaving the Krogan's. "We'll be there on the double. Vakarian out."

"Don't think this is over, Turian," the scarred Krogan spat as he turned and stomped off.

"I'd be disappointed if it was," he grumbled back, clenching his claws tight.

XXX

Commander Shepard stood at the front of the comm room as the chairs filled completely up. A brief glance around the room confirmed that her team was all here: Lieutenant Alenko, Gunnery Sergeant Williams, Officer Vakarian, Urdnot Wrek, and Tali' Zorah nar Rayya.

"Alright everyone, turn your ears on," she called out, silencing the buzz of chatter around the room. With a click of her little remote the lights dimmed, and the holographic representation of a dull brown world appeared. "This is Therum," she clicked again, and the picture of a young Asari appeared. "This is doctor Liara T'Soni. She's Matriarch Benezia's daughter, and so far our only lead."

"Are we here to pick up the doctor?" Shepard heard Garrus ask.

"Originally that was the plan, but we've lost contact with the dig site," she sighed and clicked again, bringing up a detailed map of three square kilometers around the dig site. "High altitude recon photos have detected geth placements here, here and here," she informed, clicking the remote three times to zoom in on each individual position.

The holographic photos showed dozens of geth troopers, as well as heavy turrets and mounted weapon placements, "The geth have clustered most of their defenses around the three passes into the valley that holds the dig site. We're not sure of the exact numbers of geth present, but we've estimated somewhere around company strength levels."

"We're gonna split into two teams," Shepard said, stepping forward and circling the area in front of the entrance to the underground dig site with her finger. "The first team will be the extraction team and will consist of myself, Williams, and Vakarian. We're going to conduct a HALO jump from low orbit, and clear and LZ for the rest of you in the M-35. Once the rest of you land, the extraction team and I will enter the facility and find the doctor while the rest of you hold the fort."

"What's an M-35?" Wrex grumbled from his seat.

Instead of answering herself, Shepard caught the eye of a man in the back of the room wearing the standard tan camouflaged fatigues of the Alliance Army. "Sergeant Ryan," she called out, and waved the Army man forward. "Ryan's the M-35 commander right out of the 23rd Mechanized Infantry Division."

"Thank ya kindly for the introduction, ma'am," the Army man said in a slow southern draw. "Alright," he continued, and the imaged changed from the dig-site terrain to an image off a six wheeled armored vehicle. "This is the M-35 all-terrain infantry fighting vehicle, equipped with a one hundred-fifty-five millimeter cannon and co-axially mounted machine gun. She's the toughest, meanest little bitch on the battlefield," he paused, smiling. "We like to call her… the Mako."

"Why Mako?" Alenko asked.

"Huh?" the sergeant asked, looking confused at the young LT. "What was that?"

Alenko had the good grace to look embarrassed for a second, before leaning forward gesturing at the IFV. "It just doesn't look like a shark."

The sergeant clicked his teeth together. "When dropped from a frigate or other ships, three stabilizing wings deploy from the Mako to keep it right-side up" He manipulated the remote and three fins extended from the sides and top of the IFV. "These wings," he explained, "look like fins, and what kind of animal has fins?"

"A walrus?"Alenko responded, and Shepard felt like slapping her head.

"Regardless," Shepard interrupted, "the Mako will provide a serious firepower advantage to the holding team. Let me repeat, the rest of you are to hold the area while the extraction team finds the doctor." She looked over every single one of them: Alenko, Tali, Wrex and the Mako commander and his driver. "I want no heroics," she paused, flipping the hologram back to the map. "Any more questions?"

XXX

Saren Arterius paced restlessly through his chambers on his massive flagship. He was still waiting for confirmation from the Therum Task Force, growing restless with his geth and Krogan minions. He had dispatched a force of nearly five hundred geth troopers to Therum to secure Doctor Liara T'Soni. He had received a report nearly sixteen hours ago that they had landed and were rounding up the dig site personnel, but hadn't yet secured T'Soni. Didn't those machines understand they had to move quickly, before the Council and Sheaprd figured out what he was doing?

Without the Conduit, he was vulnerable. His forces were great, but not enough to overwhelm the full might of the Citadel Fleet and the combined forces of the Asari Republics, Turian Hierarchy, Salarian Union and the Human System Alliance. Even if the project on Virmire succeeded in curing the genophage, he would still lack the ships to create a Krogan Armada. Everything depended on him finding the Conduit, and that would be much easier with one of the foremost experts on the Protheans working for him. If Shepard found her first…

Saren roared and smashed his fist into the wall plating when he thought of that stuck up human female. His nostrils flared as he thought of a filthy human joining the Spectres. The organization that had so long protected galactic peace had allowed itself to be tainted by allowing one of those uncivilized creatures in. Humans were a threat to the established order of Citadel Space; they were too impulsive, undisciplined, and power hungry.

Those traits made them powerful and extraordinarily dangerous.

XXX

Shepard tasted blood in her mouth as she pushed herself off the ground from where she landed. Shrugging her mass effect pack off her back, she glanced around looking for Garrus and Williams. She saw them not forty meters away; Garrus was pulling his sniper rifle from its shockproof dropcase, while Williams unhooked her rifle and took up a defensive position.

Scanning the area, Shepard quickly found the heavy weapons crate the Normandy had dropped with them. Racing to it, she was acutely aware of the mission clock counting down until the Normandy circled back and dropped the second team in the Mako. Undoing the latches on the crate, she opened the the lid and retrieved a Mark II Jackhammer Twin Tube Portable Rocket System Launcher and shouldered it.

They had dropped in on the mountain which the dig site was built into - and also happened to be behind the geth lines. Their objective, as previously stated, was to clear the LZ for the Mako. "Sound off," Shepard said. She used her helmet's voice amplifier instead of the helmet comm systems, in case the geth could pick up the fact that something was transmitting.

"Good to go, Shepard," Garrus said, cradling his rifle.

"Five by Five, skipper," Williams added, flashing the Commander a thumbs up.

"Follow me," she said, just loud enough to be heard. Shepard had done a lot of ballsy things in her career, but this was up there. Carefully, the Commander led her team the click and a half towards the dig site. She wished she could have landed closer to the site, but she had been worried about the geth picking up her energy trail.

When they arrived at a ridge she gave a quick hand signal, and Williams and Garrus flattened themselves along the ridge right next to her. Glancing down into the area around the dig site she saw about a dozen geth infantry on patrol, and two larger four legged geth walkers that the Normandy's intel officer had classified as a light tank.

Steadying her breath, Shepard unslung the Jackhammer and aimed through the electronic sight. Due to the sophistication of radar jamming and ECM, shoulder fired guided rockets had become impractical. The computing power to fight past the ECM was simply too expensive to easily mass produce. Instead, Alliance weapon designers had switched focus from guiding the rocket in flight, to making sure it was fired on the right path from the moment it left the tube. The problem was that launchers now required a clear line of slight to fire, but the advantage it gained was that the rocket couldn't be jammed.

An alarm chimed in her head as the targeting computer confirmed Shepard was aiming the weapon correctly to ensure a hit. With her right thumb, she depressed the firing stud and with a 'whoosh' the rocket left the tube toward its target. As Shepard shifted her aim she heard the bark of Garrus's rifle, and the tat, tat, tat of Williams's assault rifle open up. The alarm in her helmet chimed again and again she depressed the firing stud.

The two rockets sailed through the air, the first detonating mere moments before the second rocket. The two four-legged geth exploded - as they were struck by several pounds of high yield explosives a piece - in a hail of shrapnel which brutally cut down several geth that were standing too close, turning them into scrap metal.

Shepard smiled as she watched the fireball, and placed the targeting computer portion of the launcher in one of her pouch pockets; the computer, unlike the tube, was reusable. Bringing her hand to the side of her head, she opened a comm channel to the Mako team still on the Normandy. "Normandy, this is Shepard. You're clear to drop!"

"Roger that Commander," Joker's static filled voice replied. "Approaching LZ!"

She could tell that from the roar of the Normandy's engines as it dove in, and Shepard saw the Mako burst free from the ship's cargo hold. "Move, move, move!" Shepard shouted as she stood, unclipping her rifle and shouldering it, firing as she and her team rushed down the hill towards the Mako.

Blue thrusters flared as the Mako fired its retro rockets to slow itself down for a landing. Moments later the IFV landed, and Shepard winced as it looked like the Mako had hit the ground really hard. Though far from squeamish, Shepard felt her stomach do a little flip and decided she wasn't looking forward to her first drop in that thing.

The machine gun roared as it cut down the few geth that remained in a devastatingly merciless hail of bullets, which tore through the synthetics like a hot knife through butter. When the last geth fell, the smoking gun fell silent. "All clear, Commander," the Mako commander said.

The back of the Mako popped open and a ramp lowered from which Alenko, Wrek and Tali emerged, weapons held at the ready. Once they were out the Mako's ramp snapped closed and the wheels began to spin and the Mako took off to find a good defensive position.

"Alenko," Shepard barked, "hold the fort." She looked around at the terrain. "I'm counting on you to hold our exit." Sergeant Ryan had taken the Mako behind some rubble so that only the turret was visible. There were ample positions for Alenko's team to take cover and hold up a significant force for a long time. "If we're not back in twenty…"

"We'll wait twenty more," he said, a hard look in his eyes and a determined tone in his voice.

"Negative," Shepard ordered, and when the Lt looked like he would argue she said, putting the weight of command behind her voice, "if we're not back in twenty, get the Normandy on the horn and call for evac. That's an order, Lieutenant."

Slowly Alenko grumbled, "Yes ma'am."

Satisfied ,Shepard nodded and motioned her team to follow her. As every second counted she led her team quickly up the ramp to the entrance of the underground dig site. She pressed a button to open the door, but instead of the doors sliding open, they merely groaned instead. Taking a closer look at the door, she found to her dismay that they were welded shut. "Dammit," she growled, as she handed her gun off to Williams.

Pulling a small block of C-12 plastic explosive from one of the pouches on her belt, she stuck it on the center of the door and plugged a detonator into it. "Take cover," she ordered, and she moved to a safe distance before activating her remote detonator built into her omni-tool.

The explosion rattled her teeth and blew the steel door to little bits. Shepard had her team rush up to the entrance and advance. "Watch your flanks," she whispered as they made their way down a long tunnel, scanning the area with her rifle.

The team entered a large underground cavern filled with metal scaffolding. They moved carefully and silently, their weapons in constant motion looking for threats from above or below. Shepard wasn't sure whether the geth had breached the facility or not. The doors had been welded shut after all, but she wasn't about to take a risk with her team members lives.

They came to a railing overlooking the whole operation, and Shepard briefly considered rappelling down it to the bottom of the cave. There was a freight elevator a hundred meters down the side, but she knew that if something went south and the geth were here then killing her team would be easier than shooting fish in a barrel. They would rappel. "Hook up," she ordered, and she attached her anchoring line to the railing. "Cover me while I go."

Williams and Garrus raised their rifles, while she gave one last tug on her line before swinging her legs over the rail and jumping. The drop was about 150 meters, but Shepard used her left hand to control the rate of her descent while she tucked the butt of her rifle underneath her right arm.

After a few seconds her boots hit the ground, and she quickly undid the line connected to her belt. Kneeling behind a large crate, she raised her rifle to cover her squad mates as they came down after her. She still didn't see anything, and she wasn't sure if that should be making her feel relieved or nervous. Their recon reports had shown the geth crawling all over the surface.

Williams came down after her, and Garrus after Williams. When she heard Garrus's boots hit the floor, she signaled them forward and they advanced.

"What do think that is, Shepard?" Garrus whispered as he gestured to the large object in the middle of the cavern.

She had seen it as well; you'd have to be blind to miss it. It was an enormous cylinder on some sort of base, with a large control panel. "It's a drill," she said, with sudden realization. She'd seen the Army Corp of Engineers use smaller ones before, but she had never seen one this big. What they hell were they doing?

"Damn," Williams hissed. "What the hell were they digging for…? Godzilla?"

"Shhh," Shepard said, raising her hand. She closed her eyes and tilted her head. Even though the helmet would provide equal 360 degree sound coverage and she didn't actually need to tilt her head, it was an instinctual movement. She thought she heard a voice. "Do you hear that?"

Both Williams and Garrus stopped and listened as well. After a few seconds, Garrus turned to her. "I hear someone yelling," he paused, before gesturing down the cavern. "That way."

As Turians had more sensitive hearing than humans, she trusted him. They carefully moved across the cavern floor. "Hello, is anyone there?" Shepard heard a voice call out, "Hello?" Quickly determining the direction the sound was coming from, she turned to Garrus and Williams. She jabbed her right index finger up into the air twice, signaling they had to go up.

Shepard took point and found a staircase to the next level, all the while watching carefully for traps and ambushes. She cleared the rise of the floor and as she did, she frowned. She saw an Asari in a lab coat suspended in some kind of kinetic barrier. Shepard smirked. "Well, what do we have here?" she said as she stepped up onto the floor.

"Um, hello," the suspended Asari stuttered.

"Dr. T'Soni, I presume," Garrus rumbled in his reverberating voice.

As Garrus and Williams chatted up the doctor, Shepard moved off slightly and opened up a comm channel to Alenko. "Lieutenant," she called, "give me a sitrep."

"It's getting pretty dicey up here, Commander," she heard Alenko's voice shout back, the sounds of weapon discharges echoing in the background. "I'm not sure how much longer we can hold out!"

"Damn it," Shepard cursed angrily. "Alright Lieutenant, call the Normandy for extraction." She knew that the Normandy could come in and use her point defense laser cannons to rip the geth a new one, but it was a one trick pony. She doubted they could do it twice before the geth rolled up some triple A and shot them out of the sky like a clay pigeon.

"What about you?" she heard Alenko shout back.

"Hold," she told him before turning back to the doc. "T'Soni, is there any other way out of here other than through the front door?" she barked.

The doctor nodded rapidly. "Behind me, there's a tram that will take us to an exit about three kilometers due north. There's a small outpost there, but we don't use it much. It should still be set up."

Shepard nodded in thanks and consulted her omni-tol, "Alright Lieuteniant, evac out and have the Normandy meet us at a small outpost in grid four-two-five-niner by six-three-eight one," she said rattling off the outpost's approximate coordinates. "Roger that?"

"Roger four-two-five-niner by six-three-eight one," Alenko repeated. "We'll see you soon, Commander."

"Just get your team out in one piece," she said. "Shepard out." The Commander then turned to look at the doctor. "Now we just need to get you out, doctor." She paused, looking at each of them in turn. "…Well?"

"We have to get to the control panel," Garrus said, though there was something off about his tone

"Where is it?" she asked, looking around for said panel.

"On the other side of the field," Williams answered, looking down at her boots while shifting on her feet.

"How do we get there?" she asked, somewhat annoyed at them for dancing around the real question.

Garrus and Williams looked at one another before Garrus eventually said, "I have an idea." Shepard nodded, and he continued, "This structure is multi-stories high. The doctor thinks there is at least one more level below this one so…"

"We can use this mining laser to bore a hole to the lower level," Shepard supplied. Well, that was just crazy enough to work. "Fine, let's do it."

XXX

Weyrloc Kalusk, the Krogan Battlemaster assigned by the rogue Spectre, waited impatiently at the end of the passage that led to the dig site. He'd been trying for the last fifteen hours to get into the damned structure, but a powerful impenetrable kinetic barrier had stood in his way.

At first he had been furious when the Alliance showed up, and fearful of a large scale counter attack on his forces. Instead of an infantry or armor battalion raining hellfire on his ass, he found that a commando unit had slipped behind his lines to snatch the doctor out from under his nose.

In a moment of tactical brilliance he decided to throw the full weight of his geth forces at the commandos holding the front entrance, while taking a small element of shock troopers and waiting at the small outpost at the backdoor to the facility. Now all he had to do was wait for the commandos to bring the doctor to him.

Grinning eagerly, he pumped his oversized shotgun. It'd been too long since he had had a real fight. Work for the Blood Pack just wasn't satisfying. Breaking knees and muscling in on the Blue Suns and Eclipse territory on Omega, while certainly dangerous, held little appeal for the seven hundred year old Krogan warrior.

Though too young to have fought in the Rachni Wars, he had fought right near the end of the Rebellions - just in time to see the Turians snatch victory from the jaws of defeat by using the genophage bioweapon. At night he still dreamed of the glory of his youth. Saren offered him that, and more. He thirsted for combat, and the Spectre would provide it. The fact that Saren offered to cure the genophage only increased his appetite for blood and battle. He was curious why the Spectre would hand what amounted to a loaded gun to a species that would most likely turn on him as soon as this was through.

The Battlemaster stomped up the stairs to the backdoor entrance to the underground dig site, shotgun held ready in his hands. The door swished open and he strode through, his head on a swivel as he looked for targets. A sound came to his ears - a screeching, whirling sound and somehow he just knew that battle was near.

"Set the charges."

XXX

The ancient tram groaned and moaned as it slid along its route. Shepard gritted her teeth; she was half afraid it would fail from the seismic disturbances the mining laser had set off, or simply from old age. The structure shook again as a tremor hit, and Shepard braced herself against the wall.

Finally, the lift came to a screeching halt and the door ground open. Shepard took one side of the door while Garrus took the other side. Shepard caught his eyes and mouthed, on three. Garrus nodded, cycling the bolt on his rifle. Shepard held up one finger, two, then three. When she reached the third she dropped her hand back to the grip on her rifle and shouldered it, pivoting into the room beyond.

"Clear," she heard Garrus say calmly, and he dropped the barrel to aim at the ground.

"Clear," she repeated as she entered, letting the barrel drop. They entered a large chamber a hundred square meters wide, supported by four massive stone pillars fifteen meters apart. She saw a steel blast door, put in by the archaeologists to protect the ruins from the elements.

As the team made their way towards the door, Shepard fell back and raised her hand to her helmet, "Joker, what's your ETA?" she questioned.

"Less than a minute, Commander," he responded.

"Good," she said. "Keep your eyes peeled-" she started to say. The last few minutes of any mission were often among the most dangerous. When you were tired, spent and ready for it to be over you let down your guard, and that was when the likelihood of mistakes and death increased.

But her sentence was cut off when the door exploded inward in a shower of shrapnel and heat. Shepard felt the pressure wave strike her and threw her on her back. Shepard groaned, but quickly shook the haze from her eyes and scrambled for her rifle which had landed a few feet from her. She managed to grab her weapon just in time to see a pair of geth climb through the rubble. Shepard turned her avenger on the geth, pressing down on the trigger and sending a hail of metal streaming into the first geth. It tumbled to the floor twitching and sparking. She shifted to aim at the second when it was cut down from three shots from Garrus's rifle.

Managing to get to her feet and behind one of the pillars despite the pain it caused, she shouldered her rifle. She quickly glanced and saw that the gunny had rounded up the doctor, and was making a B-line back to the elevator to protect the assets they'd come all this way to achieve. Garrus had slung his rifle and drawn his side-arm. Shepard noticed he had removed his helmet and cast it to the floor. She also observed that there was a small trickle of blue blood from his mouth, and he was favoring his right leg.

She took a glance around the pillar and saw a heavily armored Krogan and two more white-plated geth storm the room. Shepard felt her stomach drop as she saw the lizard creature. Alliance tactics for dealing with Krogan was to engage with superior numbers from multiple angles, and overwhelm them with superior firepower. Briefly she wished she had brought a loud-out of incendiary or explosive rounds, but wishing wasn't going to do anything about her current situation.

She heard a crackle of fire from Williams' position just before the Krogan lit up in an aura of blue biotic energy and threw a pulsating blue ball towards the gunny. Shepard ground her teeth; a Battlemaster, that was the last thing she needed. The ball hit the gunny and threw her through the air back to where she came from.

Taking a deep breath, she spun from cover and put the Krogan in her sights. Instead of firing short burst like she did when she targeted other hostiles, she fired the avenger on full auto. The rounds tore through the Krogan's kinetic barriers and pinged off his armor. Shepard cursed but kept firing, and this time several slugs made it through the armor. Still, it would take more than that to bring down a Krogan.

The Krogan turned to her and roared angrily as blood oozed from several wounds. He raised the barrel of his oversized shotgun and fired. Shepard ducked back behind the masonry as the round shattered a good portion of the pillar she was hiding behind. "Fuck," she swore, as another round tore into the masonry. She glanced at Garrus, but quickly saw he had his own problems dealing with the geth.

Shepard realized that she couldn't stay here as a shot echoed throughout the chamber. Reaching down to her belt with her left hand, she grabbed a flash grenade from her belt and lobbed it around the corner. She waited until the flash bang detonated then spun, rifle raised.

"Fuck," she whispered again as she saw the barrel of the heavy shotgun less than three meters away, aimed straight at her. The Krogan grinned savagely and pulled the trigger. Shepard would have sworn that a train had just hit her in the stomach. Her kinetic barriers flared, absorbing most of the force of the shot, but it still hurt like a mother. She was thrown back from the blast, gasping as the wind was knocked from her lungs, and she was sure some of her ribs were broken.

She lifted her head and saw the big Krogan pump his weapon again and his face twisted in an odd perversion of a human smile. Shepard went for her side-arm. She had no idea where her rifle had landed, but doubted she would make it. The only reason she was able to draw the hand cannon was that Garrus had dealt with the geth, and begun peppering the Krogan with his pistol.

Shepard fired two shots at the underside of its jaw. The Krogan's head snapped back, before he lunged forward with a raised leg to stomp her into the ground. Shepard rolled to her right just in time to see the enormous boot smash into the ground where she had been, shattering the stone below. Lashing out with her right leg she connected with the back of the Krogan's hind leg, sweeping it out from under him and causing the Krogan to crash to the floor.

In a smooth motion Shepard straddled the Krogan and shoved the hand cannon in his roaring mouth. For a moment their eyes meet; the Krogan's were filled with hate and rage, while her own were filled with cold professionalism. Krogan had multiple organs and other biological redundancies, but one thing they didn't have was a secondary brain. She pulled the trigger.

Click.

She froze for a second, praying to a God she wasn't sure she believed it that that wasn't what she just heard. She pulled the trigger again.

Click… click… click click click.

Though Shepard had no way of knowing, a sliver of metal from the shotgun blast had embedded itself inside the right hand side of the weapon. While not enough to immediately disable the pistol, the sliver had been jolted by the first couple shots enough to cause the automatic safeties in the weapon to disable it.

An evil glow entered the Krogan's eyes. His massive jaws and dagger-like teeth clamped down around the pistol, crunching it like a potato chip. Shepard barely managed to extract her hand, but before she could leap away the Battlemaster gripped her by the throat and hurled her overhead.

Shepard sailed a few meters through the air, and threw her arms up in front of her to brace herself as she hit the floor. Propping herself up and ignoring the pain she felt, she tried to crawl away. She only made it a few feet before she felt a large hand close around her ankle, and she was lifted off the ground and swung like a baseball bat into the closest pillar.

XXX

"Shepard," Garrus shouted, terrified, when he saw the Krogan slam Shepard into one of the pillars. Pressing up against another pillar, he holstered his weapon. Unslinging his viper rifle, the Turian clicked off the safety.

Emerging from his cover, Garrus sighted the Krogan. The beast was oozing copious amounts of blood from the wound Shepard had inflicted on him and would probably bleed out eventually, but not before going into a blood rage and killing the rest of them.

Leveling the viper, he took aim when the Krogan lit up and threw a biotic push at him. Garrus hurled himself out of the way, tucking his head as he rolled back to his feet. He winced as it put pressure on his bad leg. Not having the time to aim properly, he swung his rifle and fired at nearly point blank range at the charging Krogan.

The first high power armor-piercing round tore through the air and the Krogan's arm in a shower of blood and armor. The Krogan howled, a howl that reminded Garrus of the karass beast that used to hunt the primitive Turians on their homeworld, and charged at him. He made to fire again, but the Krogan reached out with his intact arm and batted the rifle away so it discharged uselessly.

The Krogan brought his head down viciously colliding with Garrus's, causing the Turian to see stars. Garrus brought his free hand up, the one not holding the rifle, and slashed his claws across the Krogan's face. They caught one of his eyes and ripped it from its socket. The Krogan roared in pain and slammed him into one of the pillars, but Garrus hung on despite the crushing weight being pressed up against him and dug his thumb talon deeper into the Krogan's skull.

Garrus realized that if this kept up he wouldn't make it much longer, so he took a gamble. Dropping the rifle, which was useless because he couldn't bring it to bear, he swiftly drew his slightly sickle-shaped Turian combat knife and with all his might plunged it into the Battlemaster's brain. He savagely twisted and pulled at it untill the Krogan's grip grew slack and it died.

Coughing as his lungs were able to fill once more to full capacity, he slumped to the ground breathing heavily. He took a few moments to catch his breath before crawling over to where Shepard was lying very still. Removing her helmet, he found that her blond hair was matted and plastered to her face. She was still breathing, which was good, and her eyes were open, which was also good. However, deep crimson blood was seeping from the sides of her mouth and was running freely from her nose. That was not at all good.

"You all right?" he asked, a slight tremor in his tone, holding her head up in his hands.

Her azure blue eyes focused in on him. "Stupid question," she grumbled, before her pained features softened. "Thanks for asking though." She paused for a second, and her pink tongue darted out from her mouth to wet her lips. "Help me up," she said wearily.

Garrus hesitated. He didn't know much about human physiology, but he was sure that moving her wasn't a good idea. He opened his mouth to say so when the facility shook again and he snapped his mouth closed. "Williams, doctor, we have to get out of here," he said as he threw her right arm over his shoulder and pulled her off the floor, careful not to move her head more than was necessary.

"Coming," the gunnery sergeant said, holding her head with her right hand as the doctor supported her. She wobbled, still unsteady from the hit she had taken. Garrus could see her eyes go wide as she saw him carrying Shepard. "Is the Skipper...?" she started nervously.

"She's pretty banged up," he said. "We need to get her back to the Normandy."

"It's gonna take more than a Battlemaster to kill me, gunny," Shepard chuckled, before wheezing in pain and clutching her rips.

"Easy Shepard," he said, glaring down at her. "No talking, Commander," he added, mock serious.

As he stared to move his wounded Commander, he heard a crackle over his comm. "Dammit Shepard, Williams, Garru,s somebody come in!" he heard the voice of the pilot roar worriedly in his ear.

"Garrus," he responded. "Are you in position?" he asked, knowing if they weren't they were all dead.

"Of course," the pilot shot back, sounding offended that Garrus would question his skill. "We've been here for the last ten and the geth know it, too. We've got a whole bunch on an intercept course and I don't want to be sittin' here when they show up." He paused, and added, "Where's the Commander? I can't raise her on the comm, or Sergeant Williams either."

Of course, he realized. He had removed Shepard's helmet and she wasn't in any position to respond. He glanced at Williams, and saw her helmet was damaged. "Shepard's been wounded, and Williams's helmet is damaged. Have Chakwas have a medical team standing by for the Commander."

Joker paused. "Roger that… and hurry up."

They staggered towards the ruined blast doors that would take them out of the site and out to the open. Garrus struggled to hold Shepard upright as his own wounded leg buckled. To make matters worse she could hardly support herself, even though he could tears of pain stream down her face as she tried.

They emerged from the ruined blast door and not a hundred meters away was the Normandy. Iin that moment, Garrus decided he had never seen a more beautiful ship in all his life. Garrus turned to the doctor and Williams and ordered, "Go, we'll be right behind you!"

The doctor looked scared to death, but eagerly took off; Willaims hesitated a second before Shepard weakly said, "Move gunny!"

"Aye, aye," the Marine responded, and took off.

The Alliance Frigate stood hovering slightly off the ground with its cargo bay opened wide. Lieutenant Alenko's team stood, weapons held ready for the geth that were likely soon to becoming over the hill. He reached the ramp, and several of the Normandy's medical personal gingerly took the commander from him and laid her on a stretcher before whisking her off to the medbay.

Alenko slapped a large button and the cargo door began to close. He then raised his omi-tool and shouted, "Joker, the Commander and her team are aboard. Get us the hell out of here!" A river of lava burst forth from the entrance to cavern they had just been in.

"Roger that," and the Normandy shuttered as it rose up into the air.

One of the corpsmen came over. "Sir, I'd like to check your injuries," he shouted over the roar of the engines, but Garrus waved him off. He was fine; it was Shepard he was worried about. She was… well, he wasn't quite sure what she was to him, but at the very least she was a friend.

XXX

The shrill pitch of a whistle filled the air. "TEN SHUN," a tall, clean shaven, and powerfully built man with the insignia of a Master Chief Petty Officer on his shoulder bellowed. His voice echoed throughout the cargo bay of the SSV Orizaba, the one thousand meter long dreadnaught that served as flagship of the Alliance's Fifth Fleet and the pride of humanity's Navy.

The sound of one thousand, eight hundred and fifty two boots snapping together created an impressive sound as Fleet Admiral Steven Hackett, Commanding Officer of the prestigious Fifth Fleet and the most senior officer in the service, stepped down from his shuttle onto the deck. The grey haired officer swept his dark brown eyes over the assembled crew in their splendid white uniforms, before turning to the Captain.

His Captain Otto Strasbourg - who was flanked by his Executive Officer and the Senior ship NCO - straightened and saluted crisply. "Admiral," the man reported, "ship's company assembled and ready to depart."

Solemnly, the old Admiral returned the salute. "Very good. With your permission, I would like to address the men," the admiral requested. Even though Hackett was the senior Officer, this was still Strasbourg's ship and crew. Courtesy and tradition still demanded he asked.

"Of course sir," and the Captain stepped aside.

Hackett took a step forward. "At ease," he called out, and the ship's company relaxed from the position of attention. "Ladies and gentlemen, sailors and Marines, once more you and your comrades will set forth to sail amongst the stars in the name of our Alliance, and for the protection of mankind," that, he noticed, caused the crew to look briefly amongst one another. They had known for a while that something was up, as the entire Fifth Fleet had been recalled to Arcturus Station. What they might not know was that at the same moment, the First and Second Fleets were assembling at their own headquarters bases.

It was the greatest mobilization of Alliance military assets since the First Contact War. "You are the best and brightest the Navy has, and I expect all of you to be at the top of your game." He paused, turning to the Captain. "I'd like to get underway as soon as possible."

"Aye, Admiral," he said, snapping a salute before turning to his XO. "Commander, get the men moving back to the ship and make ready to get underway."

"Aye, Captain," the XO said, and he and the Chief turned and left.

Once the crew had marched off to their stations and the Commander and Master Chief were gone, Captain Strasbourg turned back to him. "So Steven, what's going on?" his old friend asked gently. "Does it have something to do with Eden Prime?"

Hackett said nothing as they walked towards the elevator that would take them to the command deck. Once he was inside, he looked at his old friend and comrade. "Yes, it does," he explained to the patiently waiting fellow Officer. Officially, the geth attack was being blamed on Batarian terrorists. However, it was a cover that most career military easily saw through. "The attack on Eden Prime was led by a rogue Council Spectre named Saren Arterius."

"Mein Gott," the Austrian Captain swore, his eyes wide.

"I know how you feel, Otto," the Admiral said. "We need the fleet ready to go in case Saren makes another run at us." His gaze hardened. "I won't have another Shanxi, not under my watch," he growled.

XXX

Fear… fear coursed through her veins as she ran. She wasn't sure what she was running from, but she had never felt such terror before in her life. She tried to stop and calm herself and turn to face whatever she was running from, but she found her limbs wouldn't obey her and she just kept running. Then she screamed as a massive shadow fell in front of her, and the scene jumped.

She found herself staring down on a world that she didn't recognize. Suddenly, small pinpricks of light began to appear all over the surface before they exploded in balls of nuclear fire. She shielded her eyes and the scene drew back, and she could see the explosions - there were many of them - covering the planet. The scene once more steadily pulled back, revealing that all the planets in this system were receiving similar treatment. They glowed blood red as they burned… the whole galaxy was burning.

Shepard woke with a start, glancing around the room. It took her a few seconds to recognize that she was in the medical bay of the Normandy. Gingerly she moved the parts of her body where she knew she had sustained an injury. She thanked God for the advances in modern medicine, or she would have been bed-ridden for weeks to recover from her injuries.

She became aware for the first time since she woke up. Garrus was sitting in a chair at the left hand side near the foot of her bed, fast asleep. Almost unbeknownst to her, she felt a small smile cross her face as she watched the Turian sleep. The realization that he looked cute briefly crossed her thoughts.

"Nice to see you up, Commander," a voice Shepard quickly recognized as belonging to Doctor Chakwas rang out. "How are you feeling?" she asked politely.

To be honest, her ribs still were very tender and most of her body ached - courtesy of being tossed around by a Krogan like a dog's chew toy - but she wasn't going to admit that to the doctor. She still had her pride to worry about, after all. That said, she would have brought up anything that she considered 'threatening to the success of the mission.' However, Shepard wasn't about to complain about a few aches.

"I'm good, doc," she answered, starrng the doctor in the eye and almost daring her to challenge her. The doctor nodded, and Shepard then nodded in Garrus's direction. "How long has he been here?"

The doctor smiled. "Since you got here. He hasn't left your side."

Shepard glanced at the clock on the wall, and realized that it had been almost six hours since the mission had ended and the Normandy left Therum. While a part of her - a small part - was annoyed that he decided to babysit her, the rest of her realized that not only had he saved her life, but cared enough to be there to make sure she was alright. She had had few 'true' friends in her life. There were those she trusted professionally, like the former members of her N7 unit, but she would rarely allow them to get close.

She glanced back up and saw Chakwas gazing pensively down at her. The doctor had a look etched on her face, and Shepard had the feeling that she was about to ask a question that Shepard wouldn't or couldn't answer. The elder woman briefly glanced at the Turian. "I can't help but notice that you two have been spending a lot of time together. More so than with any other member of the crew."

"He's my friend," she admitted to her own amazement, and before Chakwas could say anything else Shepard added sternly, "you're dismissed, doctor." When the doctor started to question Shepard, she repeated, "You're dismissed, doctor," she said, stressing the last word.

The doctor hesitated, before nodding and heading out. Once she was gone, Shepard turned her head to look at Garrus. He was still sleeping, his arms folded across his chest and his 'chin' resting on his chest. Shepard pulled out the few IVs from her arms and shoulder, and threw off the thermal blanket. Slipping her legs over the side off the bed, she made her way over to the changing area where she quickly slipped a uniform on.

Coming back, she said, "Garrus." When he didn't stir, she said louder, "Garrus." She didn't want to go over and just slap him on the shoulder or something like that. When she was in N7 training, she had the bad fortune to try that on one of her instructors. The man had broken her nose and nearly snapped her neck before coming fully awake. It was a mistake she vowed to never repeat.

It was quite comical to watch the Turian's head snap up and rise from the chair, knocking it over, as he tried to figure out where he was. He turned to face the sound of her voice. "Shepard," he said, his mandibles twitching in what she believed to be the equivalent of a smile. "You look great. How are you feeling?"

She gave Garrus a small smile. "I'm fine… just a little tender," she admitted, gently patting her bruised ribs. She paused before adding, "I want to thank you. You saved my life." She hesitated.

"It was my honor, Shepard," Garrus responded, gazing intently at her.

Taking a step forward, she held out her hand for him to take. "I want you to know I consider you my friend Garrus."

He took it and repeated, "Friends…. I like that, Shepard."

"So... you hungry?"

Author's Note:

I have no idea how to actually clean a Mass Effect rifle so what wrote was simplistic version what you'd do for an M-16 A4.

Also people will notice that I don't follow the game exactly because it was designed for gameplay not storytelling.

Beta done by Thorn of Dead Gods