Mass Effect: A Few Good Soldiers

by Teutonic Knight 92

When Commander Kathryn "Kara" Shepard an N7 Commando is thrown into the middle of a conflict against a ruthless Turian Spectre it will challenge her to her breaking point and threaten everything everyone thought they knew about the galaxy.

5. Chapter 4: The Colony

Author's note: Apart from gameplay the area you go through on Feros doesn't make a whole lot of sense. For those of your that are STAR WARS fans I think Feros is supposed to be a little like Coruscant, a city planet type thing, so that kinda how I structured it.

Warning: Sexual situations. Nothing more than a Hollywood scene.

Sorry for the wait. I had tons of school and Mass Effect is a hard story to write because so much of the game is running or driving around and shooting.

Mass Effect: A Few Good Soldiers

Chapter 4: The Colony

Shepard struck with an open palmed strike catching her opponent across the face before darting back out of his range. Garrus shook off the blow and launched a punch, but she was already off of range. The two combatants circled one another carefully watching each other's movements. Shepard was quite aware that the turian had the reach on her. She was still sporting a bruise from underestimating him.

Garrus struck at her again with a spinning kick, but she ducked down underneath as his boot flew through the space her head was just in. Before he recovered she threw herself at him; her shoulder connecting with his midsection and hurling them both to the ground.

Despite what was commonly seen on the extranet and in the movies hand-to-hand combat wasn't a long drawn out affair with swirling kicking, punches, flips and all the pseudo spiritual martial arts shit. More often than not it brief, brutal and came down to two people grappling on the floor for leverage. It was what Shepard and Garrus were struggling for right now.

The pair was a mass of struggling limbs on the mat as they fought to gain an advantage over the other. With a quick move Garrus managed to pin her right arm behind her back with his right arm and had his left hand placed firmly on the back of her head pressing her face into the training mat.

"Yield Shepard," Garrus whispered his head merely inches from her right ear.

Shepard felt an involuntary shiver run down her spin as she felt his hot breath on her neck, "Not likely Garrus," and pulled her left leg in and pushed off lifting them both off the floor and slamming him on his back. Yes he had reach, but she had flexibility.

Bringing her right arm forward then slamming it back into Garrus's face caused him shutter and he let her go. Shepard twisted straddling him and pressing her right forearm hard against his throat. Stroking out with her left hand she grabbed and pinned his right wrist. "Yield," she whispered feeling his hard plate like metallic skin biting into her own as he tried to free himself.

Garrus twisted and squirmed for several seconds before he finally relaxed, "Fine," he grumbled letting his head flop back against the mat, "you win Shepard."

With a triumphant smile of victory she released him and rolled off so she was lying with her back flat on the mat next to him. She glanced over at him noticing the he was dripping blue blood form one of his nasal cavities, "You alright Garrus," she asked concerned. When the sparred they went at it full steam to best simulate a life and death struggle.

He nodded his mandibles flaring in a turian grin, "Fine how 'bout you. I remember getting some pretty good shots in myself."

Shepard nodding acknowledging his point as a valid one. Her forearms were badly bruised and there were a few spots where is claws done some damage to her skin, "Nothing ol' doc Chakwas can't fix," she groaned rising to her feet and headed towards the little table they had set up She grabbed two water bottles off it and tossed one to him.

Garrus took a few sips of his own before leaning against the wall and asking, "So how'd your meeting with the Council go," she gave him a look and the turian laughed, "that bad?"

"First your Councilor blamed me for the destruction of the prothean ruins," she ticked off getting angrier with every word, "then the salarian questioned the wisdom in allowing Doctor T'Soni onboard the Normandy," Shepard brought her hand up to pinch the bridge of her nose, "as if I was what just going to give her free run of the Normandy?"

While Shepard had allowed the asari to the mind meld, only after considerable convincing, she still didn't even come close to trusting the doctor even if she believed that the 'young' woman and her mother were on the outs. After all just because you were family didn't mean you liked each other. She and her own mother hadn't spoken in years.

Dr. T'Soni had been situated with an office in the back of the med-bay and Shepard made sure there was always a marine either in or around the med-bay just in case something went screwy, "I don't think they like me very much," she admitted with a slight grin.

"First assignment and you're already blowing things up," Garrus said smartly, "generally I don't think they like you blowing up planets until at least your third."

Shepard arched her eyebrow, "I didn't blow up the planet…," she hesitated for a second, "We," she said empathizing the word, "may have set off a seismic explosion that set off a series of super volcanoes which drowned half the planet in lava."

The both were silent for a few moments before Joker's voice cut through the comm, "Commander we have Admiral Hackett on the line. He wants to speak to you pronto!"

Shepard glanced down at herself in the Navy's physical training outfit. This wasn't the way she wanted to meet the commander of the Fifth Fleet, "Do I have time to change?"

"Ahhh the Admiral said it was urgent."

"Roger that," she said and turned to Garrus, "have a good one," and she left heading out the door and towards the comm room. She got a few stares from the crew members at they weren't used to seeing their commander in a tank top and shorts.

She punched her access code into the reader and the doors to the comm room slid open with a hiss. Shepard entered and manipulated the control panel and the communication system connected.

"Shepard," the gravelly voice of Fleet Admiral Steven Hackett rumbled throughout the room. The Admiral's eyebrow arched, "nice outfit."

"Short notice Admiral," Shepard replied deadpan, "you called?"

The admiral didn't waste any time, "Have you ever heard of Feros?"

Taking a few seconds to rake through her memory for a reference, "Doesn't ring a bell. What of it?"

"It's a colony in the Theseus System of the Attican Beta Cluster," he started to explain, "it was founded by the ExoGeni Cooperation to explore the ruined prothean city there. A week ago we lost contact with the colony."

"What happened," she asked.

"We don't know," the Admiral admitted, "We requested permission from the Council to send in a fleet unit."

Shepard nodded following where he was going. The Council had ordered a lockdown of the Traverse after the Geth attack. No non-citadel task force was allowed in without their express permission, "They turned you down," he nodded so she went a bit farther, "but you sent someone in anyway."

"You're quick Shepard. Yes went sent in a team… your old one as a matter of fact," he said dropping the bombshell, "under the command of a newly minted Lieutenant Commander Donald."

She smiled. Jack Donald her old XO. The man was a capable officer and a fine tactician… if a little dry and unimaginative. Suddenly her smile fell as she realized that if Hackett was coming to her than something went wrong, "what happened," she quickly asked.

"I don't know, but the last transmission we heard from Commander Donald mentioned the Geth before it cut out," he said his eyes hardening, "after that we've had no further communication."

"Geth," she repeated, "do we know why the geth are on Feros," she asked. So far the Geth had been only concerned on two planets Eden Prime and Therum. Both times the Geth had been after something in specific. Somehow she doubted they would attack a planet just for kicks and giggles.

"No," Hackett said with a shake of his head, "according to all the reports the Alliance received from ExoGeni they haven't found anything Earth shattering," he gave her a skeptical look, "or at least that's what they say," he paused, "Shepard I know now that you're a Spectre I can't order you…"

"I'll investigate," she interrupted, "we haven't got any other leads."

Hackett looked grateful but that look quickly disappeared, "Thank you Commander, Fifth Fleet out," and with that the hologram vanished.

Shepard took a deep breath and when for the intercom button on the wall, "Lieutenant Moreau," she called, "set course for the planet Feros in the Theseus System of the Attican Beta cluster. Make best possible speed. I want to get there as soon as possible. "

"Aye, aye commander," he voiced, "calculating now…," there was a pause, "seven hours to the nearest relay then nine more to Feros commander."

"Good adjust course and heading and let my team known what's going on," she ordered as she made her way out of the comm room to get changed.

XXX

Seaman Samuel Marshal the newest edition to the System's Alliance N7 Team Three, 1st platoon sat on a makeshift stool made of some kind of box starring through a spotting scope down at the only skyway leading to the colony. He glanced over at burley Russian Petty Officer Second Class Alex Krechenko the platoon's sniper who was perched with his sniper's barrel jutting out from the window.

He glanced up at the mid-level NCO. Krechenko was a man in his late thirties, heavy tattooed on the arms and around the neck and with a distinguishing facial scar that started at his right ear and went down to the corner of his left lip. He never said how he got it and none of the other squad members had been inclined to talk.

Marshal glanced over at the sniper once before looking back through his scope. They were waiting for any sign of a geth push; the twelve man Special Ops team had fought off a previous haphazardly organized assault with the loss of three men, two wounded and one KIA. They wanted to be ready for the next one.

They were supposed to have been a recon mission to find out what happened to the colony and report back to FLEETCOM but that went FUBAR when the Geth ambushed them and destroyed their prowler, a small FLT capable recon ship, stranding them with the colonists until the fleet arrived… if the Fleet ever got permission that was.

Still Marshal glanced over again, "So what was it like," he asked.

The sniper didn't even move, "What?"

"Working with Commander Shepard," the seaman reiterated, "the woman who became the first human Spectre?"

"She's a fucking Ice-Queen," the sniper said deadpan, "though," he added after a second, "she was willing to get her hands dirty. She'd do everything she asked of those she commanded."

"What was she like," he asked again. In the N7s training course Shepard's name was at the top of the list of most of the event scores; from marksman ship to tactical exercises and hand-to hand.

"I don't know kid," Krechenko hissed the first hint of emotion touching his tone, "I never dated her," he stated sarcastically, "besides she's an officer," as if that said it all.

"Didn't you work with her for like three years or something," the spotter question suspiciously.

"Four," the Petty Officer corrected, "and she didn't fraternize much off duty. There was only one or two times Commander Donald convinced her to come out for drinks with everyone else."

"Hmmm," Marshal intoned before looking back out onto the massive expanse of cityscape, "I wonder what they're so interested in the ExoGeni headquarters building for?"

Krechenko swore in what the seaman thought was Russian before saying, "Maybe you should go ask them kid."

Marshal was about to ask another question when Krechenko shushed him and glanced through his scope, "November seven to November Lead, over," he hissed into his helmet mike.

"Lead here Seven, report… over," Marshal could hear the voice of Lieutenant Commander Jack Donald whispering over the comm.

"Twenty plus enemy foot mobiles heading on your position," the Russian said as Marshal focused the spotter's scope on the target, "I'd advise use of claymores lead, over."

"Twenty plus hostiles confirmed Novembers Seven," the CO said, "Lead out," and the comm fell silent.

Preparing for engagement Krechenko cycled the bolt and eased into a more comfortable firing position. Marshal waited tensely for the explosion and gunfire that would signal the start of the skirmish. Suddenly the bridge lit up as two claymore charges exploded wiping out a good ten to fifteen geth and blowing a few more off their feet.

Marshal heard the muffled thump of Krechenko's suppressed Mantis rifle and down range a geth's chest exploded in a shower of sharps and shrapnel. Even though the mantis had a far slower rate of fire than a sniper like the viper or the incisor it made up for it with range.

Through the spotter's scope he could see the rest of the squad engage the geth. It was a brutal ambush as the commandos assaulted from multiple directions and with small arms and heavy weaponry. Briefly and irrationally he thought about grabbing his rifle from its spot on the wall and lending a hand, but he realized that at this distance he likely do more harm than good.

Suddenly he heard a sound from behind him. It was a strange almost gurgling sound, not one in his fairly limited experience that he associated with the geth. Grabbing his rifle from its resting place he shouldered the avenger and headed out of the small room they had made their sniper's perch about twenty floors above the skylane,

He quickly scanned the hallway and when he didn't see anyone he moved slowly towards the staircase. Poking his head over the railing he didn't see the platoon of geth troopers he expected to see storming up the staircase or something to that extent. He heard the sound again and spun his rifle shouldered scanning the hallway. Suddenly something caught his eye and he looked up along the ceiling. There was a geth but this didn't look like any other geth. Instead of silver armor it looked almost organic with clusters of sinewy muscle exposed.

"Sonofa…," he cursed and raised his rifle. As he did the geth pulled its legs underneath it and lunged at him. Marshal dove to the right and the geth land right on the spot he had been. The geth's head swiveled to face him and its optical sensor lit up like a Christmas tree.

Suddenly the geth's head exploded and Krechenko stood at the other end of the hall with his side-arm drawn and smoking, "Kid you alright."

Standing Marshal nodded, "Yeah I'm fine… what was that," he question as he stood up.

"We better call it in."

XXX

"The commanding officer is ashore," the Normandy's VI stated monotone over the comm as the airlock door slid open, "XO Presley has the deck."

Shepard and her six man squad stepped off the Normandy and onto the concrete floor of the landing deck. She gave a quick hand signal and the two fire teams, the teams were slightly different than the one's she took to Therum, spread out.

This time she took Alenko and Wrex while leaving Garrus to command the second team made up of Williams and Tali. A part of her left bad about taking Alenko's command away; he had performed well on Therum, but he lacked the qualification to be a special operations team leader.

"We're clear Lieutenant," she said, "take off and keep her quiet. The last thing I need is my ride blown up."

"Aye commander," he said and Shepard could hear the Normandy's engines roar to life, "take care."

That finished her team lined up in a staggered formation along the right side of the hallway while Garrus's took the left side. They were heading down a long hallway which split 90 degrees to the right about twenty meters ahead. She signaled Garrus's team to halt while she slid along the wall. Keeping her right hand on the handle of her rifle she pulled her knife free of its sheath.

Using the reflective surface she scanned the area in the open corridor and when she was satisfied that there wasn't any enemies she sheathed the knife and shouldered her weapon and advanced down the corridor. As they moved down the hallway and neared another bend Garrus called the group to a halt with a raised hand.

Shepard froze and raised her rifle. After a few seconds she heard the sounding of someone running. With a flip of her thump she disengaged the weapon's safety and waited for a few moments until a man with a pistol ran into view, "Halt… drop your weapon," bellowed and the man adopted a 'dear in the headlights' look, "drop'em."

The man quickly threw his weapon on the floor and shouted in relief, "Thank God you're human," he stammered, "We saw your ship land. Fai Dan wants to speak with you immediately."

"And you are," Shepard said raising an eyebrow beneath her helmet still focusing her weapon on the man, "and he is?

"My name's David I'm one of the colonists, "he said quickly, "Fai Dan is our leader and the Geth are getting ready to make another push."

Somewhat recently Shepard lowered her rifle, "What about Commander Donald and his men… are they still alive?"

David nodded quickly, "Most of the commandos are still alive, but Donald and about three-fourths of them are out trying to make their way to the ExoGeni building. The commander guy thinks it's important."

"Garrus take point," she said gesturing to the turian and he lead his team to the forefront while hers fell back, "Did Donald say what he was interested in," she questioned. It wasn't like him to take risks like that that. His first priority would have been to secure the colony… unless she paused… unless he was here for another reason… possibly whatever the Geth were after.

"No," he said quickly as they started climbing stairs, "No he just took most of his men and left."

Shepard nodded and the team made their way up the many flights of stairs, far too many stairs in her own opinion. They finally reached the top and the colonist informed them they'd made it to the colony, "Fai Dan's at the far side of the colony," he said excitedly, "I'll show you."

The man lead them to the through colony and Shepard felt something gnawing at the bit of her stomach as she saw several men, women and children huddling together looking absolutely terrified, not that she blamed them. She'd seen the looks before on a few mission's when she was helping pro-alliance insurgents on formerly independent colonies. Their formerly peaceful world had been shattered by events from beyond their control.

They came up on the natural choke point and several armed colonists and three familiar men wearing familiar, albeit stained and bloodied, black armor with a red strip running down the right arm and across the top of the helmet… her former N7 compatriots.

"Roake, Lindsey, Quincy sound off," she barked and to her great amusement the N7s jumped and spun around.

"Commander," Chief Petty Officer Roake growled once he settle back down, "what brings a Spectre to our neck of the woods?"

"Chief nice to see you again," she said before glancing over at the other two, "Petty Officers."

"Commander," the both said nodding as saluting in a battlefield environment was against every regulation in the book.

Next to them there was an older man and woman in an ExoGeni security uniform, "You must be Fai Dan," she said to the man, "I'm Shepard, All-," she started to introduce herself as an Alliance Commando before switching mid gear, "an operative with Special Tactics and Recon."

"Agent Shepard a pleasure," the man said with a smile that Shepard thought was genuine. He glanced at her team and his smile faded just a bit, "is this all you brought?"

"Donald's message wasn't exactly clear," Shepard clarified, "plus the Alliance isn't officially allowed into the Traverse without the Council's permission… your lucky you got what you have…," she finished glaring at the man before turning to Alenko, "Lieutenant set a perimeter while Mr. Dan, Garrus, Chief Roake and I have a chat."

"Aye Commander," Alenko responded as the four headed over to one of the buildings so she could be brought up on their tactical situation.

XXX

"Are you almost finished," Marshal heard his commander growl from behind him.

"Do you have any idea how complicated this is sir," the young seaman said annoyed as protocol would allow. Commander Donald had ordered him to hack into the local ExoGeni mainframe and receive a heavily encrypted file for the Alliance Brass.

The only problem was that Captain Rogers hadn't mentioned anything about recovering any data during the briefing. It was possible that commander had received orders in private but why wouldn't he have shared them with the team. Still it wasn't something he was willing to ask, certainly not with Commander Donald's fiery temper.

"Marshal," the commander nearly snarled, "how long?"

Pinching the bridge of his noise, "Ten… fifteen minutes," he hazarded a guess. Suddenly a rumbling and then a horrible screech filled the building.

"Squad this is Seven," Krechenko's Russian accented voice crackled over the comm, "we've got a geth dropship attaching itself to the building and a platoon full of the little shits are busting down the front door."

"Roger Seven lead out," the N7 commando officer said before turning back to glare at him, "you have three minutes seaman," he growled cycling the bolt on his rifle, "Russell," he said turning to another N7, "your with me."

Finally alone Marshal focused all his attention into breaking the encryption. I didn't make any sense, he mused, if this was an Alliance contract that it would make sense it would use an Alliance or Alliance based encryption code, but this wasn't. It was something else that only added to the feeling of unease growing in the pit of his stomach.

Flinching as he heard weapons' fire he pulled his side-arm from its holster and laid it next to him for ease of access. His fingers danced over the holographic keyboard as he virtually attacked one of the toughest encryptions he had ever faced. It was damn good… but he was better.

With a broad smile of triumph watched as the data was unencrypted. Holding his omi-tool up to the console he wirelessly downloaded a copy. As he went to erase the original he paused his curiosity rearing. His finger hovered over a single key, hesitating weather or not her should open it. However her curiosity prevailed and he clicked the key and the file opened.

His eyes quickly moved from side to side as he read the file, "Oh my god…," he said his eyes going wide in disbelief. He was so focused on the data file that he never felt the bullet tear through his skull and never saw his brains splatter over the wall.

The data file started,

To: Ethan Jeong, ExoGeni Research Division. Feros

From: The Illusive Man

XXX

"You let me know if you need backup," Garrus said as Shepard and her team entered the lift that would take them to the skylane. When she had asked him to lead the second team he had been honored that she had so much faith in him and a little bit worried that he couldn't be there to watch her six personally.

"I'll give you a call," she said her eyes twinkling beneath her helmet, "and you come running," the look in her eyes hardened, "I have done this before Garrus," the commander reminded patting her rifle, "Complete your objectives and will rendezvous back at the colony."

"Roger that Shepard…take care," he said and she nodded and slapped the button. When she disappeared from site he turned to his team mates, Tali'Zorah nar Rayya and Gunnery Sergeant Williams, "Let's move."

"Aye aye," William said shouldering while Tali said and the same time, "alright."

As the team started heading through the streets of what once was a major prothean city Garrus reflected on the assignment Shepard had given him. Of the two, hunting after an N7 commando team in a geth hotspot and repelling a geth incursion, it sounded like Shepard had given him the easier assignment.

Briefly he checked the map, the N7s had done a good job of scouting the area out with their remote probes and on foot before heading off to do whatever they were doing. After checking the map he threw a look at his team members. Williams he knew could take care of herself, he'd seen her in action before, but Tali he been a little more worried about. The quarian had sparse military training, as he learned all quarians in the Flotilla did, but only had minimal field experience. As for the N7's… he'd have to trust Shepard when she said they were, in her words, 'Grade-A-Sonvabitches,' whatever that meant.

With a hand gesture he waved the team forward and they spread out the road in a staggered formation with Garrus on the forward right, Williams in the middle of the opposite side of the street and Tali in the back of Garrus's side, etc. and so forth. The whole formation was meant to minimize damages from ambushes and IEDs.

As the moved Garrus's head swiveled constantly checking for ambushes while searching for a spot to plant one of his own. This was the main avenue of advance for any major thrust towards the colony and he had to plug it up against platoon sized geth element with unknown support. Maybe Shepard had got the easier job.

"Alright halt here," he muttered glancing around at the terrain thinking that he had found the best spot they were likely to find. They were on a long road that nearly a hundred meters back the way the split right at a hard ninety degrees turn. Once the geth entered this street the team could ambush them with claymores, automatic weapons fire and sniper fire and if they managed to keep them from escaping out of the killing field they could cut them to pieces.

"Chief can you ring up a line of claymores along the sides of the road in an overlapping field," Garrus requested of the N7 noncom as he studied the area looking for stops to position the rest of his squad. One by one he managed to find the best position to situate them before the Chief came back with detonator in hand.

"They're all set turian," the Chief grumbled, "try not to blow us all to hell," as the NCO headed off to his position.

Garrus glared at the human before moving to his little perch at the far back of the road so he could use his Viper rifle to full effect. He set his rifle down, propping it up against some rubble and held the detonator in his hand. Now all he had to do was wait for the geth to come.

XXX

Shepard moved slowly through the nearly pitch black tunnel thankful for the night vision goggles integrated into her helmet. They had been carefully and cautiously moving through the ten by sixteen access tunnels that ran along the underside of the skyway. She didn't know for sure what their original use was for but she would have bet that they were for maintenance use as there was a ladder every fifty meters or so.

Despite the unnerving feeling of being hemmed in and knowing that you were the proverbial fish in a barrel this route had allowed her team to slip in unnoticed and avoid enemy patrols. Again she would have bet that this was the route Donald took.

She felt two quick taps on her shoulder and halted in her tracks. While still looking ahead searching for problems she whispered, "What?"

"We've got radio chatter up ahead," Alenko whispered back but before she could ask if it was the other N7s he added, "It's not an Alliance Military channel and they're broadcasting in the clear."

"Survivors of the geth attack," Shepard ventured already considering the pros and cons of exposing themselves.

"We don't have time to babysit colonists," Wrex grumbled speaking for what was only the third time since this mission started. Strong silent type she guessed.

"We can't just leave them," Alenko argued imploringly.

"Wrex's right," she finally stated having come to a decision, "but we need all the Intel we can get our hands on and they might know something, but we're not going to be able to do much for them."

She could tell Alenko didn't like it. He was still at that stage where he believed he could save everyone; it was trait someone was going to have to break him of before he winded up getting his team killed, '"What direction are we heading?"

Alenko rattled off the directions and Shepard plugged them in to her suits internal compass and positioning system, if she really needed to she could pull out a map and do it by hand, but she didn't have the time at the moment.

The location Alenko had supplied was ad what seemed to be some kind of intersection or hub for this section of skyway. When she thought of it, it seemed rather stupid to hide in the middle of a transportation hub. Then again maybe they found some kind of emergency shelter and were held up there.

Eventually they came to a ladder and a dead-end, "So we go up," she said to herself, "great," she hissed as she latched her rifle to her chest and started climbing the ladder. Upon reaching the top she didn't just push it up, but slid a small probe with a live feed camera on the end. When she was satisfied that there wasn't anything waiting for them she rolled up the probe and popped the cover.

Carefully sliding the cover over she fully emerged from the 'manhole' and unlatched her rifle, "Clear," she said back down into the hole, "come on up." When they were with her again they advanced into the hub, "Which way?"

Alenko took point as he had the specialized communication gear. The moved stealthily through the hub until Alenko called them to a halt, "Here we are commander," he said tapping the back of his hand on the blast door.

Shepard studied the emergency shelter door and whistled softly. It would take far more explosives than she was packing to get through that door, but thankfully they wouldn't have to force their way in. Turning to Alenko she ordered, "Patch me into their comms."

Alenko nodded and brought up his omi-tool. After a few moments of manipulating the omi-tool it beeped and he flashed her a thumbs up.

"This is Agent Shepard with Special Tactics and Recon," she said into the comm, "I need you to open this door," she paused waiting for a response and when she didn't get one she added in a harsher tone, "if you don't I blow the door down and come in the hard way… trust me you don't want that."

A few seconds later the door hissed and ground open. Shepard and her team hefted their rifles; after all it paid to be cautious. As the door slid open she could see a woman standing behind it, "Don't shoot," she shouted holding her hands up, "My names Dr. Baynham I'm one of the ExoGeni researchers everyone else is in the shelter," she paused warily regarding Shepard and her team, "follow me."

Shifting her rifle to the 'low guard' position Shepard nodded and they headed down into the shelter following after the ExoGeni doctor, "What happened here," Shepard questioned.

The doctor ran her hand through her hair, "I was in the lab when the alarms went off. The next thing I know security's rounding everyone to evacuate them to the designated rally points when the geth hit. After that everything just went to hell. The geth were just shooting anything that moved and constantly strafing the columns," she sighed and bowed her head as they continued walking, "a lot of people didn't make it."

Shepard nodded she had lost people under her command before, had seen a lot of people… innocent people get killed and had killed a lot of people in her career. She still remembered the first man she ever killed and it had shaken her the first time she fired her weapon in anger. Over time she managed to suppress the feeling so killing just became a mechanical process; she wasn't sure if that was a good or a bad thing. As Garrus had joked back on Therum it was probably a bad thing that he was used to the smell of burning bodies.

"We're here," Dr. Baynham said.

Shepard looked on and saw close to a hundred people all huddled together, some crying and sobbing while others just sat with a dazed look on their faces. She glanced around and saw a handful of ExoGeni Security Personal, some in their regular uniforms while still others managed to get into their combat armor. Still these were rent-a-cops not real soldiers.

"Agent Shepard," a little greasy man in a dirt covered business suit with his ties undone and hanging out the front said rubbing his hands together, "what are you doing here?"

"I'm here to deal with your geth problem," she said bluntly, "I'm also looking for a group of other soldiers, N7s to be specific."

"Oh yes they stopped here," Dr. Daynham said turning to the suit, "Ethan the commander and you talked in private."

"What about," Shepard asked focusing in of the little weasel of a man.

"Oh ahh Commander Donald just wanted to know the layout of the headquarters building," 'Ethan' stammered rubbing his hands together nervously.

"He's lying Shepard," Wrex rumbled taking a threating step forward, "let me rip off his legs and see if he still lies."

"No that wouldn't work," Shepard said deadpan not breaking eye contact, "he'd bleed to death before he'd answer any questions."

The krogan huffed in laughter but didn't say anything else, "What did Commander Donald want," Shepard asked again with steel lacing her tone.

"I told you-," he started to say but Shepard crossed the distance between them in a blink of an eyes and slammed her fist into his stomach. With a swift moment she grabbed his tie and skirted around to the back crossing her arms to tighten the tie choking off the man's air supply.

"Now listen to me Ethan," Shepard growled into his ear. Her swift brutal act had drawn the attention of every person in the room, "I'm a Spectre and if I want to disembowel you right here and now there's nothing anyone can do to stop me," she pulled the tie taught as the suit usually struggled against her grip. When his struggles began to lessen she relaxed her so the man could breathe, "What is Donald after?"

"They'll kill me," the suit whined.

"I'll kill you first," Shepard said smugly adding more teeth to her bluff.

"He's after the data about the Thorian," the suit finally gave in squealing and Shepard released her hold and he fell un-ceremonially to the ground coughing and wheezing.

She quickly glanced around aware that every eye was on her. Thankfully however the security personal made no moves for their weapons or even looked like they gave a shit. A few even had smiles on their faces. Turning her gaze back to the suit, "What's a Thorian… I've never heard of it before."

"It's a plant based lifeform," Ethan started, "completely alien from everything we know. Are tests have confirmed that the creature is at least fifty-thousand years old."

"What's so fascinating about it," she questioned. There was no way Donald would risk his team over information about a plant.

"The spores it emits have mind control properties," he admitted, "we were looking into weaponizing them for…," he trailed.

Putting the toe of her boot on his neck and applying pressure, "For who the Alliance," she asked. That would make a little bit more sense if Donald was after some black project that Alliance Command didn't want to become public.

The suit uselessly tried to push her boot of his neck, "Cer… Cerb… Cerberus," he finally managed to cough out, "they're the ones who founded this project and they had use the colonist at Zhu's Hope for test subjects. Donald and his men are working for them."

Shepard felt a chill descend over her, "Fuck," she swore, Cerberus… human experimentation…. great that was all they needed. First geth now a human extremist/terrorist group and her former team was working for them. Suddenly realization hit her and she swore again. Garrus and his team, Chief Roake could turn on them at any time.

Taking her boot off the throat of the suit she raised her hand to her where her ear would be under her helmet and opened a comm, "Garrus come in," she shouted, "Garrus, Garrus," she repeated but got nothing but static back on the comm, "Damn!"

"Should we head back to meet Garrus," Alenko asked concerned.

Shepard shook her head angrily, "No we need to catch up to Donald and secure that data. Cerberus wants it and that's bad enough. We have to keep trying to reach him," she growled. Turning back to the suit she fixed him with a glare, "Last question… where's the Thorian."

"Beneath the colony," he uttered.

"Thanks," she said nodding and shot him.

XXX

Garrus shifted his aim and put another geth in the crosshairs before blowing it away. The geth exploded in a shower of sparks and steel and Garrus shifted to fire again. The firefight had been raging on for a good fifteen minutes and progressed fairly well for Garrus and his team. They had drawn the geth into the street and detonated the mines taking out over half of them.

So far the only causality had been an N7 who took one in the leg. He was alive and still fighting but immobile. Shifting again in the rubble that was his cover he fired again and again dropping a geth with each shot. A whirring sound filled the air and Garrus swore and cover his head pushing himself flat as he could get against the ground. The RPG round flew over his head and hit the old building behind him showering him with bits of masonry.

There was a burst of fire and the geth fell. Garrus looked up and too the right where Williams flashed him a thumbs up. He was about to shoulder his rifle again when he heard a hissing sound over his comm.

"Gar… it's…ap… don't tru… Roake," he heard Shepard's static filled voice stay over the comm, "ther… rk… f… Cerber…"

He frowned he recognized the Chief's name but the rest of the message was garbled, "Shepard this is Garrus say again!"

"…rus do… st… Roake," he heard her say again, "they're working for Cerberus."

The N7's were working for Cerberus, Garrus realized that was she was trying to get across and the thought made his blood run cold. Though he'd never met any Cerberus operatives in personal he knew the organization's reputation was a bad one. There were half a dozen terrorist attacks in Citadel Space that Cerberus had carried out and twice as many that they were under suspect.

Garrus froze wondering what to do. He'd given the squad comm frequency to Roake and the other N7s so he couldn't get the intel out without the N7s knowing.

The last geth fell and he heard Chief Roake call, "All clear," Garrus didn't move but laid perfectly still waiting for the first of the N7s emerge. After several seconds he saw Chief Roake, Quincy who was helping carry Lindsey, Tali and Williams emerge from their cover out onto the road.

Placing the crosshairs of his rifle over Roake's head he paused, what if Shepard was wrong? What if the whole team wasn't working for Cerberus? Sighing Garrus shifted his aim to the man's leg. He squeezed the trigger firing a single shot and Chief Roake when down with a scream. Shifting again he shot Quincy in the shoulder and he went down as well.

At the first shot Williams and Tali had thrown themselves to the ground, "Cover them," Garrus shouted as he scrambled from his cover.

"What the fuck, you just shot our own men," Williams said standing up and swinging her rifle to point at him. Tali, by her mannerisms, also looked shocked with her weapon not quite pointing at him.

"I got word from Shepard. They're working for Cerberus," he shouted pointing his rifle at the writhing N7s, "police their weapons," he ordered again.

Williams spun around again and kicked the chief in his helmeted head, "Bastard… is that true," she asked as she kicked him again.

Roake glared up at her, "Fuck you bitch," he snarled and went for his side-arm, but before he could get halfway Williams shot him in the face.

Swinging his rifle over his shoulder Garrus reached down and grabbed Lindsey by his collar and hoisted him to his feet regardless of his wounded leg, "Why betray the Alliance, why betray Shepard," he growled digging his talons into the man's open wound.

From even behind the mask Garrus could see the man cry, "Fuck," he gritted out, "Money alright it was for the money. The Illusive Man paid us each a fortune to secure some data … though," he groaned, "I think Commander Donald's been working for him longer."

With a huff Garrus dropped him, "We need to get back to the colony."

XXX

"Freeze… don't move a muscle," Shepard hissed with her weapon trained on the female figure in a lab coat. They had humped the way out on foot from the shelter to the 'underground' entrance to the ExoGeni building.

"Please don't shoot," the woman begged dropping her pistol.

"Elizabeth Baynham," Alenko ventured coming up on Shepard's left with his own weapon not quite raised, "Is that you?"

The woman slowly turned around with her hands raised, "Ye-Yes that's me… ho-how did you know," she questioned hesitantly.

Shepard lowered her rifle and the others did the same, "Your mother asked me to look for you. What do you know about the Thorian?"

For the second time in as many minutes the young woman looked shocked, "How do you know about that?"

"Ethan Jeong told me moments before I put a bullet in his head," Shepard said deadpan carefully watching the young woman's facial expression.

Good," Elizabeth said forcefully, "that… man," she snarled sounding like she didn't even want to admikt they shared a common species, "deserves to die for what he did…" she hesitated before, "what he made the rest of us do to those poor colonists," she shook her head, "that's why I'm still here I tried to upload the lab reports to Colonial Affairs back on Earth but the communication relay was knock out in the first attack… 'I've been hiding out here ever since."

Have you seen another soldiers," Shepard questioned, "they'd look like me," she added helpfully gesturing at her armor.

The young doctor shook her head, "I haven't seen anything but the few times I've gone back in I've heard gun fire."

Shepard considered her options for a second. She didn't want to take the doctor with them but didn't want to leave her alone either. Throwing a glance over her shoulder at Alenko the commander ordered, "Stay with Dr. Baynham."

"Commander," he started but Shepard cut him off.

"No argument Lieutenant you stay here," she shifted her gaze to Wrex, "You're with me big guy," and the massive krogan warlord grumbled and fell in next to her.

"The data should be on the thirty first floor far right corner office," the doctor added quickly.

Shepard popped the heat sink on her rifle just to make sure it was still good before slapping it back in with the hilt of her palm, "Wrex lets move out."

And move out they did. For all the krogan's mass Shepard was learning to appreciate just how quiet he could be. All the krogan she had ever met emphasized raw brute force over everything else. Wrex made her uneasy… she was going to have to watch him carefully.

Slowly the unlikely pair made their up the stairs with weapons shouldered on the lookout for the geth. About halfway they ran into the geth rear guard and wiped them out after a briefy but brutal firefight. They ran into a handful more geth but they were swiftly neutralized as well.

"Hear that Shepard," Wrex asked titling his head.

"Gunfire," she hissed, yes she heard it. Craning her neck she leaned out over the rail. They still had a long way to go.

"So what's the plan Shepard," the battlemaster grumbled, "do we want to save these guys or let'em burn."

It was a question she'd been asking herself. Donald and his men had gone rouge… did she really want to pull their asses out of the fire. She paused considering for a second and decided they had to rescue Donald if only so she could beat whatever information she wanted out of him, "We're going after him," she finally said.

Wrex nodded and they made their ascension up the multiple flights of stairs until they finally reached the thirty first level. Shepard let Wrex take point with his massive shotgun as they crouched near the top of the stairs.

She glanced at him and he nodded signaling he was ready. Shepard shouldered her weapon and rose up following Wrex as he stormed the room shotgun firing and biotics flying. Following him and hugging the right side, why he took the left, they advanced cutting down any Geth they ran into.

The comm buzzed to life, "This is Commander Donald, Alliance Navy whoever's shooting up the geth come in."

Shepard dove down beneath a large broken off piece of masonry as rounds flew overhead. Shimming along the floor she leaned back up against the wall. Smirking she opened a comm channel, "Howdy Jacky having a fun time?"

"Shepard," she heard the man's voice say almost disbelievingly, "what the hell are you doing here?"

"What else," Shepard said trying to sound as calm or as normal as possible, "to pull your ass out of the fire."

The commander chuckled, "So same old, same old, huh commander?"

"Tell me about it," Shepard muttered as she popped from behind her cover and squeezed off several shots at the geth sending them spiraling to the ground. As they returned fire she ducked back down into cover, "just hang on old buddy I'm on my way, Shepard out," the former N7 turned Spectre finished shutting down the link.

She felt a flash of anger blow through her as she thought of Donald and her former teammates' betrayal. She had trusted all of them and now she found out they were working for Cerberus. A cold thought ran down her spine as she thought of it; how long had they been working for Cerberus. Also the fact that her former team members were working for a terrorist organization would certainly reflect badly on her.

"Fuck," she hissed and kept firing blasting a few more jagged holes in a coupled of geth troopers. To her left Sheppard heard a fearsome roar that even made her flinch and the krogan bolted forward launching himself into the crowd of geth.

The firefight lasted all of about thirty seconds. While Shepard had good cover coming in from the rear the geth lacked cover and were mortally exposed. Standing over a wounded geth she fired a few bursts into the machine to finish it off.

Moving through the piles of Geth they headed towards the holdout where the N7s had dug in, "Donald you there," she called out training her rifle on the doorway.

Slowly the N7 Commando emerged from his defensive position with his helmet tucked under his right arm and the barrel of his rifle resting on his shoulder. He was lipping slightly, Shepard noticed and his armor was breached on the left side of his lower abdomen, "Thanks Shepard… want to lower your weapon."

She hesitated briefly. Jack had been her closest friend for a long time, hell longer than her marriage had lasted… he'd been there for her when no one else was. She hesitated, "Why are you working for Cerberus… how long," she asked in the harshest tone she could muster, "Was if for the money?"

Donald opened his mouth to not doubt argue but snapped it back shut as the other two surviving Commandos emerged with weapons trained on her, "It was the right thing to do and for your second question I've been working for them straight out of the academy… right after you turned them down in fact Kathryn" he said with a satisfied look.

"That's Agent Shepard you bastard," she bit back reminding him she was a Spectre. She remembered the meeting with Cerberus. Two guys had jumped her and drug her into a back alley and 'relayed' their bosses offer to join his organization. She told them she'd think about it then promptly killed them both with a nearby piece of rebar. It wasn't until weeks after she told her superiors that she was allowed to leave base for her own safety .

The rouge commander took a step forward thrusting his finger towards her, "Cerberus is doing what it has to defend humanity Shepard. With this data humanity can dominate the Council… the galaxy," he said excitedly, "imagine it. With the Thorian spores we can control the minds of anyone we want."

"You're crazy," she hissed her finger tightening on the tripper of her rifle, "Krechenko, Mike," she said glancing at the other two rouge commando's with their weapons trained on her, "why are you doing this?"

"Money," Mike said simply his rifle not wavering an inch, "Fifty million… a piece. It's more than enough for me to retire to some nice tropical planet and live the rest of my life surrounded by naked women."

"Not a believer then," Shepard deducted drily.

"In Cerberus," Krechenko scoffed, "Net, those bastards can go fuck themselves for all I care. I just want the money."

"What the hell happened to you all," she gritted out through clenched teeth, "you're goddamn Alliance sailors doesn't that mean anything to you anymore! What about your duty, honor and loyalty! What about the fucking oaths you all took!"

Donald turned back from glaring at the others clearly not likely their comments about Cerberus, "Gonna shoot me Shepard or just keep preaching," his bloodied lips twitched in a cruel smile, "for all your determination you're not suicidal Shepard. Its three on one Spectre," he held out his hand, "join me Kathryn. Cerberus would be tickled pink to have a Spectre on their side."

"You're fucking crazy," she hissed tightening her finger on the trigger of her rifle, "and it's not three one one… it's two," and before he could respond she shouted, "Wrex now," as she squeezed the trigger diving to the side.

Donald shouted in rage as several bullets pinged off his armor but didn't have long to yell as a biotic push threw him from his feet and into the wall. Shepard ducked back into cover and fired catching Mike in the throat sending him to his knees clutching his throat.

Shepard watched as Wrex fired a shotgun blast into Alan from near point blank badly mangling his insides and knocking him off his feet. She winced as the man's screams of agony filled the room and saw him trying to pile his guts back in. A second shot from Wrex finished the poor devil off, but moments later the massive krogan reared back as bullets pinged off his helmet.

Taking aim Shepard put Donald in her sights and squeezed off half a dozen rounds putting him down for the count. Wrex shoot his head like a dog before moving over to stop on the ex-commander's leg causing it to shatter beneath his foot. Donald let loose a scream of pure agony, "We need to check their omi-tools and destroy the data before we head back."

Wrex grunted and promptly tore Krechenko's right arm off to access the omi-tool. Shepard watched him wide eyed before kneeling down next to Donald's whimpering figure, "You fucking little bitch. If you want to whore around for the Council then that's your problem," he hissed gurgling up blood. His eyes hardened, "You spread your legs for your turian yet," he snarled.

Shepard blinked thrown off by his claim, "What," she wasn't sleeping with Garrus. She hadn't even thought about it before… she concealed a grimaced, alright she'd thought about it more than once, but Garrus was her friend and at the moment the only one she had, "shut the fuck up."

The former N7 laughed; a wet gurgling sound as blood spewed from his mouth, "Fuck Shepard he's using you. He'll charm you and get into your pants then throw you away when he's done. He doesn't give a damn about… alien's they're all the same," he coughed spewing blood all over the place. It was a sight that burned itself into her brain.

XXX

"Fuck it bird brain," Petty Officer Quincy cursed, "I got a fuck'in hole in my leg I need to take a fuck'in break."

Garrus glared at Quincy with his badly bandaged who was being supported by Lindsey on his non-wounded shoulder. It was getting dark and he was struggling with the urge to shoot them both right here and now and be down with it. However he was sure Shepard and the Alliance would want to interrogate them.

"We don't have time before the comm cut out. Shepard said she was headed back towards the colony," Garrus ground out inches from the man's face, "she could be walking into a trap. We need to get there first," the turian let a low menacing growl issuing out from chest, "if I have to kill you then so be it."

The rouge commando grimaced before looking over at his teammate, "Fine," he grumbled angrily.

Garrus was about to say something else, something very impolite, when he heard Tali say worriedly, "You hear that?"

"What," Williams responded shouldering her rifle and scanning the buildings.

There was a wet gurgling, slushy should and Garrus tilted his head to hear it better. There it was again Garrus mused. It didn't sound like the geth or anything else he heard of before. Slowly he moved his thumb to switch off the safety as he scanned the dilapidated buildings for any signs of movement, "Anyone see anything," he asked throwing a glance to Williams then to Tali.

"Negative," Williams said and Tali followed with a quick 'no,'

Garrus continued to scanning the buildings with his keen avian eyes. He was about to lower his rifle and chalk it up to nerves when he definitely saw some movement, "Contact three o'clock," he shouted and Williams and Tali rushed up next to him with rifles held ready. From the shadows emerged a sickly puke green, vaguely humanoid with sulfurous sunken yellow eyes, rotted skin and long twelve inch claws sprouting from where its finger nails would be . The thing seemed hesitant to come out into the light and Garrus hoped it would last.

"What is it," Tali hissed.

"I have no idea," Garrus responded, "Quincy, Lindsey," he growled at the two former Alliance commandos about ready to kill them. This was the kind of sickening shit that Cerberus involved itself in and if this thing was once a colonist he was going to kill those two regardless of what Shepard wanted.

"Don't look at us we have no fuck'in idea," Lindsey cursed slowly backing away from the creature.

Garrus raised his rifle and fire a single shot blowing the creature in two, "You know I hope," Williams started but was cut off as a unholy wail issued from the buildings all around them, "I hope that was the only one," she finished weakly.

"Let's move," the turian said eagerly as the formerly empty buildings now seemed to be crawling with 'life', "I don't want to be around here when the sun goes down," he said eagerly.

The squad plus two prisoners made their way as quick as they could through the streets of the ancient Prothean city. As the team moved Garrus kept glancing at the buildings around them with concern and every so often he'd see a pair of sulfur yellow eyes staring back at him. What concerned him even more was the rapidly retreating sun line.

"We're almost there," Tali said excitedly and they were. They were less than two hundred meters from enormous staircase that would take them back up to the plateau upon which the colony rested. Once up there they would have a far easier time defending from those creatures.

As they got closer they saw the defensive fortification and bunkers the security personal had deployed to help protect the colony from the geth. Garrus was about to shout at them that they needed help when the colonial security personal opened up on them. While Garrus, Tali and William's managed to dive out of the way and take cover behind some rubble the ex- N7s weren't as lucky and took the full bursts. They were so badly mangled that Garrus didn't even need to check to know they were dead.

"Cease-fire," he called out at the top of his lungs, "Cease-fire," but the ExoGeni guards just kept shooting. Not seeing any other option. Daylight was slowly passing by and then those creatures could run amok. He paused not wanting to but not seeing any other choice, "Take'm out!"

XXX

Shepard and her team ran at almost a dead pace firing at some kind of horrible zombie like creatures as they did. That had dropped the doctor off at the shelter with a promise that they'd send help as soon as they could.

As she ran and gunned her mind replayed Donald's conversation over and over again in her head. Was he right? She didn't think so but at the moment she was more frightened of the thought that Garrus was using her than of the creatures they were fighting.

Her rifle whined as it over-heated, bring her back to reality, and after ejecting the spent heat sink Shepard slammed her last one into the rifle and chambered the next round, "Move, move, move," she shouted the unnecessary commanded.

Both Wrex and Alenko were both lit up in a blue haze as they relied on their biotic to deal devastating carnage. With one last burst of energy Shepard leapt out of the dark dank building they had been fighting through and out onto the barely lit street. Rolling on her back she fired several long burst down the corridor they had just came.

To her amazement the creatures paused at the door seemingly unwilling to risk the sunlight's wrath, "I'll be," Alenko said in a long exhale, "they don't like sun."

Wrek said nothing but instead emptied his shotgun into the breach until the creatures in the doorway fled back into the darkness. Rising to her feet she glanced up to the heavens. The sun was fading fast and she didn't want to be caught out after nightfall.

It took the team about twenty minutes and a brief elevator ride to get back to the base of the plateau and when they did the first site Shepard was the bodies of two dead N7's, Quincy and Lindsey, and as they moved towards the stairs the found more dead colonists and guards. With every step she took she felt her heart beat a little fast in fear and concern. Concern for what happened to the colonists, her team and Garrus and fear of what was going to happen.

Carefully they ascended the stairs finding more bodies, all shot, along the way. When they reached the top they were only greeted with more bodies. Shepard heard both Alenko and Wrex curse under their breath and felt the urge to do the same.

"Shepard," he heard a familiar voice breathe.

"Garrus," she said smiling beneath her helmet, "What happened," she added the smile fading and her eyes widened, gesturing around to all the bodies of the colonists, "what'd you do?"

"It wasn't his fault commander," Williams argued coming to the forefront, "the colonists attacked us. They didn't give us any choice it was like they were possessed or something," she explained pointing the barrel of her rifle at the corpses.

"It must have been the Thorian," Alenko said softly looking mournfully at the bodies. At the questioning looks he explained, "it's a plant like creature that emits these spores that it uses to force compliance in its minions or that's at least what Doctor Baynham said. Cerberus used the colonists as test subjects for their little experiment."

"Damn," Garrus hissed, "those bastards!"

As they talked Shepard's mind whirled through what they needed to do. First off they needed to seal the colony off from the rest of the city, "Tali," she said quickly, "there was a crane back there. Go grab one of the prefab buildings and wedge it up against the entrance. Williams go with her."

Tali nodded and Williams shouted out an, "Aye Commander," before taking off.

"Can we get the Normandy on the comm," she asked Garrus. He'd got there before her and she would have bet he'd have tried to contact the Normandy.

The turian shook his head, "They trashed the comms before we…," he trailed off looking guilty, "I had Tali look at it but it's not just disabled its broken into hundreds of pieces.

Shepard grimaced and checked the mission clock in her helmet. The mission parameters they set up had the ground team contacting the Normandy every hour with mission updates by patching into the colony's transceiver. Without the beacon they couldn't reach the Normandy unless it was almost directly overhead. Unfortunately for them their last contact with the Normandy had been about twenty minutes ago so Lieutenant Moreua wouldn't be expecting them for at least another forty.

Shepard laid her hand gently on his shoulder, "We need to get out of this before we deal with anything else. The ExoGeni researchers said the Thorian was located somewhere underneath the colony."

Garrus looked at her curiously, "After we got here I had the area searched for any other ways those… things… could get in. Other way the main entrance we didn't find any," he paused before adding, "do you think they lied?"

Tilting her head she thought about it. Somehow she didn't think the rest of the researcher would dare cross her after what she did to the suit. She was about to say as much when Williams shouted, "Commander we found something over here."

"Williams, Tali what's taking so long," she shouted back as she and Garrus headed back towards them, "we need to get that entrance sealed up before… whoa," she amended as she saw what Williams was talking about.

The prefab Tali had lifted up had revealed a concealed stairway, "Well they said it was under the colony," Garrus quipped as he glanced at her.

Standing at the edge of the stairs with her rifle aimed down into the blackness she flipped on her night-vision and peered in. She didn't see anything except a winding staircase, "You with me Garrus," she asked raising her eyebrow.

He nodded, "Always," and slung his rifle over his shoulder before drawing his pistol.

"Alenko," she called to her nominal third-in-command, "get the entrance to the colony sealed up. We don't have much time before the sun sets. The rest of you hold the fort until we get back."

"Aye, aye Commander."

XXX

Tap. Tap. Tap.

"Enter," Admiral Steven Hackett the Commanding Officer of the Alliance Fifth Fleet said from his chair at his desk. He was currently reading over the latest intelligence reports from Alliance Intel and Naval Intelligence. Sliding to the next page of the report he continued to read even as he heard the clicking of heels on the metal floor.

"Lieutenant Junior Grade Kiara Tai- Chin reporting sir," the lithe Asian woman in an Alliance Navy Uniform with an Intelligence badge on the collar said standing attention.

Hackett glanced up at the woman, "At ease Miss Chin you have something to report?"

The intelligence officer handed him a datapad, "The Council's finally given us permission to move into secure Feros," she slipped into an at-ease stance, "the authorization is all there."

The Admiral briefly scanned the datapad, "Very good Miss Chin. Have the fleet make ready to depart and forward a tight-beam communiqué to the Normandy requesting a situation report," he waited for several seconds before looking up from the pad, "that will be all."

"Aye Admiral," the woman said saluting smartly before executing an about face and exiting his office.

When she was gone and the doors sealed behind her the admiral removed an ancient pocket watch from his vest and started the timer. After putting it and the pad down he leaned back in his chair rubbing his chin. He knew that Shepard would do everything with her power to succeed at her mission.

She certainly resourceful; he smiled slightly as he thought of it. In that way she reminded him of her father. William Shepard had been a good friend of his throughout their academy. They'd been the best man at each other's weddings and had served three tours of duty together.

He remembered when the First Contact War broke out and the ill-destined defensive of Shanxi. Before the mission Will had shown him the sonogram of what would be little Kathryn and he had slapped the Will on the back and said the next round of drinks would be on him. Will never made it back and never saw Kathryn born or got to watch her grow up.

Hackett had made it his responsibility to look in on Kathryn from time to time. Shepard had never known and he had made sure she would never know he looked out for her. He smirked again; it would only piss her off. Still he felt a bit of worry whenever he had to order her into action.

Leaning forward so his elbows were resting on the table he picked up his coffee mug and took a large sip of the extra strong coffee that the navy seemed to run on. He grimaced as the liquid burned its way down throat. He glanced down at the watch to see how much time had elapsed. With his free hand he reached out and opened the comm channel, "Captain, report fleet readiness status."

"All ships green sir," the captain reported, "requesting permission to engage FTL drives."

"Permission granted captain."

Once permission was given the Admiral waited for telltale surge that would signal the ships acceleration to FTL speeds. It was an hour trip to the Relay and then almost three hours from the relay in system to Feros.

The Fifth was the most powerful offensive fleet the Alliance had and in terms of tonnage could match any fleet the turians could field. Hackett was both eager to put the fleet to use and uneasy about engaging a relatively unknown enemy for the very first time.

XXX

The helmets night vision gave everything a strange greenish hue. Slowly Shepard and Garrus moved their rifles shouldered as they progressed deeper into the underground structure, "See anything," she whispered.

"Negative Shepard," he whispered back.

Shepard came to a halt and ran her hand over a vine like growth growing along the ceiling. The moment she touched it, it pulsed and she jerked her hand away, "You see that," she hissed glancing back at Garrus.

The turian nodded, "What the hell is this?"

"The researchers said the Thorian was a plant like creature," Shepard responded and poked the vine again with her rifle causing it to wiggle and writhe, "let's follow these and see where they lead."

As they continued on deeper and deeper into the structure Shepard noticed that the growths were becoming thicker and thicker. With every step she and Garrus took Shepard felt a sense of dread growing in her stomach.

She felt Garrus nudge her and he pointed his pistol down the hall, "See that," he whispered, "there's a doorway up there."

"I see it," the Spectre said chambering a round in her rifle, "lock and load," she ordered before setting the butt of the rifle snuggly against her shoulder. Sliding along the inside wall she and Garrus eventually came up to the archway, "Ready," she asked.

"Ready," he confirmed pulling the slide back on his pistol before letting it slide forward with a resounding 'crack.'

Shepard spun hugging the inside of the wall while Garrus went wide hugging the opposite side. They stormed the cavernous room their weapons waving back and forth as they scanned for hostiles. Suddenly she heard a squishy sound and looked up… and nearly lost her lunch in the process.

"Holy Spirits," Garrus intoned and though Shepard couldn't see his face underneath the black visor of his helmet but she was sure that his face was a mask of surprise and disgust, "this could be… problematic."

Shepard took in the disgusting sight before her. The 'Thorian' as she assumed that's what this was putrefying mass of a fleshy looking substance that hung supported by tendrils that were thicker than she was tall. She was staring at something that looked like a face and a tentacle like beard that descended from its 'face.'

"Things can never be simple can they," Shepard said though gritted teeth as she trained her rifle on the Thorian. Suddenly the Thorian's 'mouth,' 'beard' or whatever spasm in a way that reminded Shepard of a human gagging. The creature gagged several times its tentacles spreading further apart with each gag and spittle poured from its mouth.

"Oh my God," Shepard whispered as something started to emerge and with a sickening popping sound a figure emerged dropping down to its knees.

The figure, a sickly green skinned and completely naked asari, glanced up with dead eyes. Both Shepard and Garrus immediately trained their weapons on the figure as it stood and spoke, "Invaders your every step is a transgression," the asari said monotone, "a thousand feelers appraise you as meat only good for digging or to decompose. I speak for the Old Growth as I did for Saren. You stand before the Thorian…it commands you be in awe," it finished haughtily

"You gave something to Saren," Shepard barked harshly her finger tensing on the trigger, "something I need."

"Saren sought knowledge of those who came before," the asari said, "the Old Growth listened to flesh for the first time in a long cycle. Deals were made," she added, "then cold ones began killing the ones who would tend the next cycle. Fresh freely given," it said with a touch of anger in its tone, "the Old Growth sees the air you push as lies. It will listen no more."

"You'll give me what I need or I'll kill you," Shepard growled having decided she heard enough from the naked alien, "then I'll torch you."

"No more will the Thorian listen to those that," the asari started to say, but was cut off as Shepard put a round through her head. The asari's head violently snapped back and the body crumpled to the ground.

"Sorry that's the wrong answer," the Spectre said deadpan. She took several steps forward, "You've got one last chance to give me what you gave Saren before I kill you," she said calmly with steel lacing her tone.

The Thorian said nothing, not that Shepard thought it could speak on its own, but instead it let out a ear splitting earthy groan and moments later that grow was answer and a familiar mournful wail.

Garrus cursed while at the same time Shepard let out a breathy, "Fuck," as she and Garrus went back to back slowly spinning as the mournful wail filled the stale air again. Despite the fact that they were no doubt surrounding by plant zombie things Shepard felt comforted that Garrus was with her.

She caught movement out of the corner of her eye and shifted and squeezed the trigger sending a hail of metal slivers hurdling into the Thorian's… creepers. Shepard was careful to fire only in shorts bursts. She only had two heat sinks left including the one currently inserted in the rifle. They couldn't do this all day, "Garrus take my rifle!"

"What," the turian shouted back, "I'm a little busy here."

"Just do it,' she said unlatching the suspender from her vest while still shooting, "On three… one… two… three," and with that she let go of the trigger and slammed the handle into Garrus's outstretched hand. The turian closed his hand around the handle and like some old west gunslinger stood with a pistol in one hand and a rifle in the other blasting way at the creepers.

Not wasting anytime Shepard knelt down and pulled two blocks of C-12, a detonator and a rolled of tape from her vest pockets. Swiftly she wrapped the plastic explosives together with the tape then pushed the three prong detonator into the block of explosive. Judging the distance she heaved back and hurled the explosives at the 'face' of the Thorian, "Down," she shouted pulling him down with her. When the explosive hit its apogee Shepard activated the detonator.

The explosive detonated sending out a shock wave that knocked everything in the room off its feet. Removing her hands from her head she glanced up and saw all the creepers lying on the floor unmoving. Lifting her head she smiled as she saw the charges had blown a gaping hole in the Thorian. About half the creature was missing and several of the tendrils were cut deeply. There was a rending sound as one tendril after another gave way and the Thorian tumbled down into the abyss.

Rolling over to the edge Shepard glanced down into the darkness but even with her helmet set to night vision she couldn't see the bottom of the underground canyon. Rolling back over she was Garrus was still lying still and a brief burst of fear shot through her irrational though it was because a brief glance at her HUD told her his vitals were strong.

"Next time warn me when you're going to do something like that Shepard," Garrus groaned as he pulled off his helmet, rolled onto his stomach, pulled his legs underneath him and pushed himself up.

"Will do Garrus," she said smiling a she pushed herself to her feet and accepted her rifle back from him and re-clipped it to her vest.

"What about the info it gave to Saren," the turian question turning a black masked gaze to her.

Shepard was about to answer when a female voice filled the air, "Hello is anyone there."

XXX

Garrus watched warily as the Asari Commando Shiala told her tale. He listened patiently as the commando explained Matriarch Benezia decision to join Saren and attempt to 'guide him down a gentler path' and her failure and corruption.

She told them of Saren's massive flagship called Sovereign and it's supposed ability to control or influence the minds of Saren's followers. Personally he found it easier to believe in a corrupt asari Matriarch than an evil ghostship which controls minds.

Finally she got down to the reason they were here. Apparently Saren had traded the commando to the Thorian in exchange for something call the Cipher. As the asari explained it the beacon on Eden Prime was meant for a prothean mind and the Cipher was the essence of what it meant to be a prothean and would allow her to understand the beacon.

When she offered to mind meld with Shepard to transfer the Cipher to her mind he decided to interrupt, "Shepard you can't be serious," he growled inserting himself between her and the asari, "she's already admitted she's worked for Saren. You can't allow her to screw around with your mind," he pleaded.

Slowly Shepard reached up and undid the latches of her helmet before removing said helmet, "I don't like it either Garrus," she said softly.

Garrus grimaced at the thought of losing her and bowed his head so she wouldn't see the tears at the corners of his that threatened to fall. Without warning he suddenly found her arms around his waist and her chest against his. Slowly he moved his own arms so they were around her waist. She was slightly shorter than him so she had to tilt her head at a slight angle as he tilted his own head down so they could gaze to each other's eyes. Blue met blue and he whispered with a voice full of anguish, "I can't lose you Shepard."

The Spectre gave him a smile, genuine happy smile and whispered, "Don't worry Garrus. I'll be fine."

Garrus wanted to argue to say something to dissuade her but he couldn't find any words that he thought would change her mind so instead he brought his free hand up to gently rake his talons through her hair, "Okay."

He took a step out of the way and let Shepard step forward, "I'm ready," she said sounding like this was the last thing she wanted to do, "let's get it over with."

The asari glanced at Shepard then over to Garrus, "Have no fear no permanent harm will come to your beloved."

Beloved… that thought rattled around in Garrus's head. He cared for Shepard a great deal, but love… did he love her… he considered the question carefully. To be honest he wasn't sure if he did but he knew that he could. He glanced at Shepard and she had a pensive look on her face and Garrus wasn't sure what that meant.

The asari stepped up to Shepard and took her ahead in her hands, "Relax Commander…," and when the commander calmed down the asari intoned as her eyes went black, "Embrace eternity!"

Garrus watched anxiously as he heard Kara's breathing slow and as she went completely still. For several longs seconds they remained like that. A second stretched into half a minute, half a minute into a minute, a minute into two minutes before the asari broke contact and Shepard gasped and stumbled back.

He was on it in half a second as he rushed behind Kara and caught her before she fell, "Shepard you all right," he questioned franticly for her wellbeing.

"Fuck," she swore groggily, "we need to get out of here I'm not…," she shuddered and emptied the contents of her stomach all over the floor.

Slipping her arm around his neck he looked at the asari, "Let's get out of here."

XXX

Hackett started the swirling pinks, reds and blues of space through the distortion of FTL. Of course this image was from camera and not through an actual viewport. The CIC of an Alliance Dreadnaught was located deep in the heart of the ship where it was most protected from enemy fire.

Briefly he glanced at the mission clock which counted down the time until the Fleet would exit from superluminal speeds. The clock it 00:00:00 and the Orizaba shuttered briefly as it emerge from FTL.

"Sensors," Captain Strasbourg called out.

"Aye Captain," the combat sensor officer said typing furiously at his console, "detecting thirty plus geth ships … three cruiser analogs and numerous other supports ships."

Hackett nodded that was what the Normandy had reported, "Action stations set condition one throughout the fleet," he ordered to the captain who then proceeded to bellow out the order across the entire bridge

The fifth had the geth significantly outgunned. He had the Orizaba, a dreadnaught, three carriers, twelve cruisers, almost thirty frigates organized into three ten ship 'wolf pack' flotillas and over a thousand fighters.

"Captain," the sensor officer spoke up, "the geth fleet is breaking formation and heading at extreme sublight speed out system."

"Comm signal the fleet to move in formation and take up a defensive position over the colony," Captain ordered, "and deploy fighters in a screening formation around the fleet," he glanced at the Admiral, "anything else admiral?"

"Send out a wide spectrum broadcast," the Admiral ordered, "I want the Normandy on the comm."

The captain relayed the order and the comm officer went to work. The seconds ticked by after the message when out waiting for the stealth ship to respond. "Captain the Normandy just appeared on LADAR," the sensor officer reported.

"Orizaba this is Lieutenant Jeff Moreau of the Normandy," a male voice said over the static filled comm, "requesting permission to join the fleet."

The captain nodded and the comm officer said, "Permission granted Normandy proceed on vector 216 by 745 maintain steady speed inbound."

"Give me the comm son," the Admiral said and the young officer immediately did so. When the officer nodded Hackett said, "Lieutenant Moreau put Commander Shepard on the comm."

"Uhhh negative Admiral," the pilot said nervously, "Commander Shepard's in the med bay getting patched up after the ground mission. Though we have a prisoner we need to turn over and Shepard would like meet with you in private… something about what happened on the planet."

"Very well we'll proceed to airlock three forward port-side docking, Hackett out," he replied before turning to the Captain, "Set condition two until the geth vacate the system."

XXX

Having finished drying off Shepard wrapped the towel around herself and stepped from the shower. After a brief trip to medical she had decided to clean up. She had a meeting with the Admiral in an hour and after that a conference with the Council about the situation on Feros.

Setting out from her bathroom she walked into her bedroom/living room while using a separate towel to dry her hair. For moment she was worried that Hackett would reprimand her for what happened to the colonists but quickly remembered that one, she was a Council Spectre and two he'd have to realizethat there was nothing else that could have been done.

Her thoughts were interrupted by the sound of someone clearing their throat. Her eyes going wide she pulled the towel away from her hair and pulled her other hand in to hold up the towel, "Garrus," she breathed, "What are you doing here?"

Garrus was staring at her wide eyed and mandibles flared as he was unable to tear his gaze from her form. At the moment Shepard wasn't sure if she should be offended he was here or flattered that he apparently found her attractive.

"Shep-Shepard," Garrus stuttered and Shepard watched as he glanced up and down her scantily clad form, "I wanted… uhhh I wanted to talk."

"About what," she whispered feeling a lump catch in her throat. She should have told him to get the hell out or something to that extent, but the haze, the passion in those icy blue predatory eyes. Instead of fury or anger she only felt heat pool in her lower regions.

"Us," was his one word answer. He paused before taking several steps towards her until he was only inches from her, "Shepard I need an answer… is there an us… can there ever be an us?"

All of Donald's accusations swam up before her eyes and she grit her teeth. Donald had been lying. Garrus was her friend and would never use her in such a way, but was there a future for them? Hell she'd never been a by the book type of officer or person. She wasn't Alliance Navy anymore so she didn't have regulations to worry about and the only rules for Spectres were don't embarrass the Council.

"We do Garrus," she whispered resting her head on his chest and he proceeded to wrap his arms around her waist, "we can… have a future. I want a future with you."

She felt Garrus reach up and with the fore-talon of his right hand brought it up under her chin and titled her head back. She could tell by his movement he was nervous and to be honest so was she. Steeling herself she pressed her lips against his own.

Opening her mouth she ran her tongue against the plates of his mouth. Hesitantly he opened his mouth and they soon found both their tongues dueling for dominance. Finally because of lack of air she broke the kiss, "Wow Shep-" Garrus started but she cut him off by placing her finger over his mouth.

"Kara," she whispered sliding her hands up his sides until she cradled his face, "you can call me Kara… only you."

Within seconds of that declaration she felt Garrus's taloned hands on her bare ass and his muzzle buried in her neck. He pushed against her and she backpedaled until she felt her shoulder blades knock against the wall of her quarters, "Spirits you smell so good," he said huskily and Kara felt his tongue dart out and lick her at the base her neck met her shoulder.

"God Garrus," she moaned breathlessly as she felt him lick a particularly sensitive spot and she felt her hips buck up against him in an involuntarily response. Her hands went from his face down to his buckled where she fumbled to undo the clasps.

"Kara," she heard her name tumble from his 'lips' as he bucked into her hands and her towel fell from around her chest leaving her completely bare. She heard him grunt and felt as he dug her talons into her bottom as he lifted her into the air. Instinctively she wrapped her long pale legs around his waist.

"Fuck Garrus," she hissed throwing back her ahead as her turian nipped once at her neck before shifting his attention from her neck to her painfully aching breasts, "ohhh soooo good." They teetered around the room bumping into things and sending them crashing to the floor until Shepard felt herself falling back into her own bed with Garrus right on top of her.

The grappled with one another as she helped rip off his shirt and pull his pants down to his spurs. In one swift movement Shepard flipped them both so Garrus was on his back and she was straddling him. Once again ice blue eyes met ice blue eyes and Shepard felt him lift her up and position her over him. Kara closed her eyes…

There was a swishing sound, "Commander, Commander," a familiar and excited voice shouted, "I…"

Shepard felt her eyes snap open upon in horror and she glanced over to the open hatch and the woman standing, mouth gapping, in the hatch. Shepard felt her whole body flush red as she glanced down at Garrus and back at Liara. Letting herself fall into her bed she was thankful that Garrus almost immediately covered her with a blanket.

She appreciated his protection of her modesty, what little of it was left. She felt Garrus protectively snake his arms around her waist and possessively pull her back right up against his plates, "Uhh Liara shut the door please," she said amazed at how calm her voice sounded.

Wordlessly the asari nodded and closed the door gently. She turned back, "Uhmmmm high," she said with a slight wave, "sooooo you and Garrus…," she trailed off ending with the obvious question.

"Yep," she said watching the asari very carefully, "we're… together."

"That's good," Liara said conversationally look really uncomfortable, "that's… wonderful."

"Did you want something," Shepard heard Garrus grunt from behind her and felt as he buried his face in her hair.

"I got a call from one of my mother's friends," she started suddenly finding a portion of the floor extremely interesting, "I put out a couple of feelers when I first came on board that I was looking for my mother. I just heard back from one."

"And," Kara questioned propping herself on her elbow, careful to keep herself covered.

"She's on Noveria," Liara said firmly before tilting her head. She paused before venturing hesitantly, "Weren't you supposed to meet the Admiral?"