A/N: Aaand ... Time jump! Welcome to Sigma training, peeps. Enjoy your stay. And if anyone asks, yes I am lifting shamelessly from the boot camp scenes in 'Old Man's War' by John Scalzi. If you haven't read that book, stop whatever you are doing and go buy it.

TALI'ZORAH NAR RAYYA, SIGMA TRAINING FACILITY, SEPTEMBER 1 2187

Benning really was quite a beautiful planet. The purplish sky met the lush turquoise forest at the horizon, forming an unbroken vista of colour as the greenish star rose majestically up, bathing her in its balmy warmth. A perfectly clear river ran over silvery rocks somewhere off to her right, tiny blue and green fish darting around in the lazy flow.

If there hadn't have been a large, angry lieutenant screaming in her face it would have been paradise.

Regrettably, there was.

"Stand at attention! Now listen up! I am Lieutenant Karr'Sem vas Numenia and for the next seven years I. Am. God, you get me?"

As one the recruits all screamed out.

"We get you sir!"

"Sir! I am a lieutenant! I work for a living! You will refer to me as Lieutenant, you get me?"

"We get you Lieutenant!"

"That's more like it." Her eyes tracked the Lieutenant as he paced in front of their group.

"You're not in Kansas anymore, kiddies. This is the Sigma training academy. I am going to spend the next seven years beating you into some sort of shape so you can call yourself Sigma! I know you got the mods and the stupid sense of invincibility that cones with them! Keep the mods, drop the sense! I got rules for you. Rule one: I am not invincible! Recruits, what is Rule One?"

Tali joined in screaming it with the other recruits.

"I am not invincible Lieutenant!"

"And don't you forget it. Rule Two: Being the same is for the army! What is Rule Two!"

"Being the same is for the army, Lieutenant!"

"Are you the army?"

"No Lieutenant!"

"Who are you?"

There was a distinct pause as the recruits stumbled over the question. Eventually Tali decided to put her foot in her mouth.

"We're Sigmas Lieutenant!"

The Lieutenant's eyes immediately fixed on her.

"Recruit, step forward!"

Oh, Keelah! Tali gulped and stepped forward before turning to the others.

"Name?"

"Recruit Zorah, Lieutenant."

The Lieutenant turned back to the other Sigma recruits.

"Recruit Zorah gets it! Who are you?"

This time the response is instant.

"We're Sigmas Lieutenant!"

"That's more like it. Back in line, Zorah."

Tali let out a breath she hadn't even realised she was holding and stepped back into the line. Two other base staff brought out a large crate and set it on the ground in front of the Lieutenant, who opened up the crate and lifted out what looked like a collapsed weapon of some sort. Tali could recognise elements of Geth technology as well as the design influences of Human weaponry.

"Recruits! This is the Heckler&Koch G-440 Vendetta! This is your rifle! Recruits Massani, Shepard, Rentola and Victus! Distribute the rifles!"

Tali watched as James and Kari, as well as a Salarian and a Turian she didn't recognise, started handing out weapons. She accepted hers from James with a nod before running one hand over the collapsed weapon.

"Recruits! All those with any form of firearm experience, step forward!"

The entire platoon took one sharp step forwards.

"All those who have ever handled a Vendetta step forwards!"

Nobody moved.

"Recruits! Rule Three: Where I go, my rifle goes! Recruits! Recite Rules One through Three!"

"I am not invincible! Being the same is for the army! Where I go, my rifle goes!"

There was some confusion at that, with half the recruits putting 'Lieutenant' on the end of each rule and the other half putting it only on the end of the third rule.

"Good! Now I am going to find a reason to dislike each and every one of you! And when I do, you are going to run that way," he points, "until you reach the river! Then you are going to run in the centre of the river until you reach the edge of the training ground! Then you are going to turn right back around the other way and run through the river until you reach the other edge of the training ground! Then you are going to turn around and run along the river until you get back here! And you are going to do it while holding your rifle fully extended! And you are going to do it naked! And if anybody is not back within one hour, they can go again! DO YOU GET ME!"

"WE GET YOU LIEUTENANT!"

Naked! Oh, Keelah! The lieutenant glances around the group, already selecting his first victims.

"Any Krogan, step forward."

The four Krogan in the group stepped forwards, forming a line in front of the lieutenant.

"Once upon a time my CO, Major Kryik, took a Banshee warp to the chest without shields up because his Krogan squaddie was in the middle of a Blood Rage instead of covering him like he should have been. Strip and run."

After a moment's hesitation the Krogan wriggled out of their jumpsuits and started running.

"Any Drell, step forward."

The two Drell recruits lined up in front of the lieutenant.

"We cured Keprel's four years ago. Quit bitching whenever you get soggy. Strip and run. Anyone acquainted with Major Zaeed Massani, step forwards."

Tali swallowed as she stepped forwards along with the rest of her friends.

"Damn that bosh'tet Zaeed for making the rest of us Sigmas look like kids with light up laser toys in comparison. Strip and run."

Oh Keelah, no! Desperately trying not to blush, Tali quickly unzipped her jumpsuit and shrugged it off before picking up her rifle. Public nudity in front of her best friends, including the boy she had a crush on since she was old enough to have a crush was probably a fifteen year old girl's worst nightmare. Don't look at Kaz, don't look at Kaz, don't ... Oh wow. No! Just run!

The six of them started running, reaching the water in no time at all. Tali gasped as she plunged into the chest high, ice cold and crystal clear water, the temperature a shock on her sensitive skin.

"Keelah! The rifles will get soaked!"

James shook his head.

"Dad said the Vendetta is fully waterproof. How the hell are we supposed to run through this?"

Ash chuckled and shook her head.

"Why do you think Uncle Wrex insisted we all learn to swim? Come on!"

And without further ado she plunged into the water, rifle clamped between her knees as she started swimming butterfly upstream. The others quickly followed suit, forming a sort of convoy as they forged along the river. Tali watched a school of fish dart away as they approached at prodigious speed. The course was a grand total of forty kilometres and for a Sigma, swimming at 40 kilometres an hour was child's play, even with a machine gun between her legs. An hour? She'd do it in forty-five minutes.

SAREN ARTERIUS, UNCHARTED PLANET, SEPTEMBER 1 2187

Saren looked out over the wreck of the Destiny Ascension and sighed. From his spot on top of the spire he could easily see all the activity around the crash site with his raptor vision, the swarming survivors of the crew dressed in a mixture of fragments of uniform and improvised cloth coverings. Being trapped on this miserable planet with a wrecked ship, three Councillors in denial and only three other Spectres to keep the peace was really beginning to grate at his nerves. The small dextro vegetable garden he had managed to get growing was supporting the handful of Turians on the crew but it had been four years since he had eaten a decent steak and he was feeling highly grumpy about it. Damn those Reapers! Ten of his Spectre comrades had died protecting the Council as they ran to the Destiny Ascension, hundreds of cruisers sacrificing themselves on the alien guns to protect the gutted ship as it limped toward the Mass Relay. And then their Element Zero core had imploded mid-jump, leaving them stranded on this accursed planet for the last four years and probably a lot longer than that too in the future.

He heard quiet footsteps behind him and glanced around, seeing the Asari walking up to him holding two steaming mugs.

"I brought you some apha."

"Thanks Tela." He accepted the mug from her and took a sip of the steaming liquid. "Mm, that's good."

Spectre Tela Vasir sat down beside him and inclined her head against his shoulder, sighing. She had taken to weaving small white flowers in the gaps between her crests and Saren closed his eyes, letting the heady aroma wash over him. A lot of bad things had happened to him over the past four years. Tela was one of the good things.

"Saren, something's bothering you."

"I'm sorry, amatra. Just thinking about the galaxy again."

She shifted behind him and started rubbing his tense shoulders, eliciting a growl of pleasure as her expert fingers worked out the tension.

"I'd cut off my right hand just for a status update from Palaven or the Citadel. For all we know we could be the last Turians, Salarians and Asari in the galaxy, or the fleets crushed this Reaper threat and the disappearance of the Destiny Ascension is the subject of conspiracy theories and the odd extranet documentary. Not knowing is killing me, amatra."

Tela was silent for a moment before replying.

"I know what you mean. I almost feel like anything would be better than not knowing."

She kissed his mandible briefly before sitting down next to him again and sipping from her own mug.

"Good thing we didn't have any Volus on board."

They both chuckled briefly and then resumed their vigil. Saren noticed it first, the figure of a Turian waving at him, far below. Probably Desolas.

"Agh, what does my little brother want now?"

Tela rolled her eyes.

"Let's go find out."

And with that she settled herself in Saren's lap and he pushed off the edge.

Tela surrounded them in a biotic field, cushioning the pair as they slid down the spire like the world's largest vertical slide, skimming along as the curve shallowed to fly into the air, Tela using her biotics to cushion their landing so they drifted gently to their feet in front of Desolas, who scratched his mandible.

"One of these days you're going to kill yourselves doing that."

Saren clapped his brother on the shoulder.

"So what is it?"

"I have no idea. Come see for yourself."

Desolas led them to a small crater about five hundred metres from the outer edge of the camp that definitely wasn't there this morning. Saren nodded to the Salarian crouching by the crater.

"Jondam."

"Saren, Tela."

"So, what have we got?"

Jondam Bau gestured around the crater. The whole thing was about three metres across.

"Whatever made this, gone by the time I got here two minutes after it landed. Shape seems too regular for meteorite, no debris, precise angle of descent. Most likely scenario, probe of some sort."

Almost as soon as the words were out of his mouth there was a roar as a shuttle passed overhead.

"What the ... Back to the wreck!"

The four Spectres took off at a sprint, skidding to a halt as they took in the scene before them.

A shuttle was hovering above the ground, a number of white armoured figures clustered beneath it, large rifles held at port arms and preparing to move out. Saren recognised some figures that could be Asari under their heavy armour, or possibly Drell, along with two Turians and three enormous Krogan. One of the Krogan approached Saren and removed his helmet, revealing a blood red crest and eyes.

"Well paint my quad and call me a Vorcha, if it isn't Spectre Saren Arterius. Colonel Urdnot Wrex, TEC Marines, Ascension corps. You in charge here?"

RAEL'ZORAH VAS KARAMAZOV, TON KARAMAZOV, SEPTEMBER 1 2187

"My, my, I would have put on something nicer if I had realised I would be entertaining."

The assembled crew sniggered as the Councillors gaped speechlessly at him. He had instructed Wrex to bring the three of them to the bridge as soon as he'd figured out who he was bringing aboard his ship.

"I think you'll find, esteemed Councillors, that the galaxy is a very different place to the one you were used to. XO, ready the phase engines. As soon as we've taken aboard the rest of our guests make for the Sol system, best possible speed."

"Acknowledged, Captain Zorah."

He turned back around to face the Councillors.

"Hmm, let's see. I think my ship's quite representative of what you'll have to get used to. A Quarian captain, a Geth XO, the commander of our Marine contingent is a Krogan supersoldier, his second in command is a Human and, oh yes! We have a Rachni chief engineer. Major Massani, kindly escort the esteemed Councillors to their temporary quarters and familiarise them with the operation of the showers. Wrex, please show the Spectres in."

Rael knew his sarcastic tone was a little on the rude side but after three hundred years of institutional speciesism against Quarians on behalf of the Council he felt morally justified to be a little snippy. He straightened up and took on a slightly more military demeanour as the four Spectres filed in.

"I should imagine you have a lot of questions right now."

Saren was the first to bite.

"What's the Reaper situation?"

Rael looked a little sad as he replied.

"Running roughshod over the galaxy, I'm afraid. Palaven is holding, but barely. Sur'Kesh, too, but the Reapers seem happy to bomb from orbit there instead of landing ground forces. Thessia ... I wish the news were better. Thessia is fully under Reaper control and being depopulated rapidly. The only reason the Reapers haven't made the TEC their bosh'tet is because we dismantled all relays leading into our territory."

The Salarian, Jondam, was the next to pipe up.

"What exactly is this TEC you speak of?"

Rael nodded briefly.

"Ah yes. The Trader Emergency Coalition. Excuse me a second."

"All refugees aboard, Captain. Phase engines fully charged and ready."

"Set course for Sol, XO."

"Acknowledged."

The Karamazov leaped into phase space as Rael turned his attention back to the Spectres.

"The TEC is the only, and I mean the only organised force capable of resisting the Reapers at anything more than a planetary scope. The TEC was founded in 2135 during the Advent Wars, the founding races being the Humans and the Rachni." At the mention of the Rachni the Spectres stiffen but remain silent. "Our ships use phase engines, not eezo cores, for faster than light travel. The system is far slower than relay based travel but the Reapers do not possess the ability to use phase engines, meaning that with all Relays in TEC territory dismantled the Reapers are physically incapable of penetrating our space. The Krogan, Quarians and Geth are also members of the TEC and we possess large numbers of Turian, Salarian and Drell citizens. We're currently undertaking guerilla style operations against the Reapers to extract as many refugees as possible but we estimate we have at least seven years of fleet production to go before we are capable of challenging the Reapers for control of a cluster."

Desolas clears his throat.

"I'm having a hard time believing much of this. Geth? Rachni?"

Rael turns to the arm of his command chair, touching a button and bringing up a haptic interface.

"Excuse me Spectres. I have business to attend to. Colonel Wrex can answer any further questions you may have."

KARINA SHEPARD, SIGMA TRAINING FACILITY, SEPTEMBER 2 2187

"Recruits! What is Rule Two?"

"Being the same is for the army, Lieutenant!"

"Got it in one. Alright, I see I don't need to bust anyone's ass for breaking Rule Three. Everybody has a Vendetta, but the Vendetta is so damn versatile nobody uses it in the same way! You have in front of you a firing range. So fire. Experiment. Find out exactly what you do and do not like about the Vendetta. But remember Rule One."

"I am not invincible, Lieutenant!"

"Remember that! Any bosh'tet who shoots another bosh'tet is going to wish they never fell out of Mummy, do you get me?"

"We get you, Lieutenant!"

"Recruits! This is one order you will never be given outside of this facility, so pay attention. Play with your weapons!"

A polite smattering of laughter rose up from the assembled recruits and then they turned their attention to the rifles in their hands. Karina swept her gaze over the fire selector for the upper barrel. At the moment it was set to 'Safe'. She togged it ninety degrees clockwise, to the 'Auto' setting. To her surprise a set of iron sights popped out of the top of the gun. Glancing downrange, she sighted the rifle on one of the mannequin targets of a Husk and squeezed the trigger.

A veritable blizzard of plasma bolts spewed forth from the barrel of the gun, the recoil surprisingly manageable as the Husk target was shredded by the blitz unleashed upon its person. The zombified Asari disintegrated under the furious assault, eventually collapsing under the sheer weight of fire pouring into it. She let go of the trigger to see Garrus and James, the other two in her squad, staring at her with an expression of dumb surprise.

"What? He said play with the gun."

Ignoring the assorted gun noises ringing across the range, she tried the next position for the upper barrel. The position was marked 'Burst'. As she selected it the iron sights were replaced by a short assault scope that popped out the top of the gun. Interesting. She sighted down the scope at one of the mid-range targets, a Cannibal, and squeezed the trigger. The rifle let out a stuttering cough and five neat holes appeared in the Cannibal's face.

"Boom! Headshot!"

She pulled the trigger a couple more times, scoring neat kills on a couple more target dummies, before trying the last position. This one was marked 'Sniper'. As she flipped the switch over the rifle chirped cheerfully and extended the scope to something that looked like an old hunting rifle scope. Karina slowly held the gun up and examined it with a critical eye. No killing implement had the right to sound that happy. Damn thing even looked smug. Stupid, she knew. How can a gun look smug? But nevertheless she couldn't shake the feeling.

Rubbing her forehead, she took aim and a blue-white beam lanced out of the gun, spearing through the misshapen head of another Cannibal. Then she turned her attention to the bottom barrel. There was a little switch on the side of the trigger guard, easily accessible by the thumb of her right hand. She flicked it and the bottom barrel perked up eagerly, firing selector glowing. She turned the toggle to the first position. This time the fire selector had five positions instead of four. The first one was labelled 'Flame'. Should be fun.

She certainly wasn't prepared for the enormous gout of white fire that came spewing from the gun. Quickly letting go of the trigger, she watched the fires she had just started flicker for a moment before quickly toggling the next one. 'Cryo'. The Cryo mode at first appeared very similar to the flamethrower but it turned out to be the exact opposite. The flames were extinguished, replaced with a crystalline frosting that shimmered over everything, the rapid transition from hot to cold causing a strong breeze for a moment as air rushed in to fill the gap left as the air passed over by the cryospray contracted. The next toggle was 'Plasma'. She tapped the trigger and sent a gobbet of plasma arcing out over the range that promptly exploded, shattering several of the flash-frozen dummies. The final mode was 'Shot'. When she fired, a cluster of metallic flechettes leaped out of the barrel, embedding themselves in the range's backstop and slicing through several targets on the way.

"Take a look at your section of the range."

She almost jumped out of her skin as the Lieutenant spoke up from by her shoulder.

"That's the devastation that a single Sigma can cause. Never underestimate exactly how lethal you are. When you hug your Turian besty over there you hug him with enough force to crush the ribcage of a non-Sigma. Every time you pick up your rifle you have enough firepower in your hands to wipe out an entire squad of regular Army by accident. Your Vendetta is not a toy, Recruit Shepard. Remember that."

And with that he was gone.

HAN'GERREL VAS TITUNEV, EARTH STARBASE, SEPTEMBER 6 2187

Han sat in the lounge, nursing a very strong drink and looking out at his ship.

His ship. TON Titunev. The first ship in the fleet to have a Quarian captain, and she had been a Kol II. No, she had been the Kol II. The prototype. She had been waiting for him in Sol when his battered dreadnought had arrived and he had been frozen in the stasis net for seven hours, just looking at her hanging there. It wasn't as if he had much of a choice. But the more he stared at her, the more he had fallen in love. She had just hung there in space, with the beautiful blue Earth as a backdrop, her nose clean and unadorned apart from her name, emblazoned proudly along her bow.

The Trade Order Navy Titunev.

She wasn't pretty by any stretch, but she had what counted. And she was his ship, his baby.

It hurt so much to look at her right now.

He had gone out in a spacesuit himself to help the crew paint on that first kill flash after she had taken down that Reaper in Tikkun's asteroids, the Homeworld watching with pride as the invader was sundered and cast aside like so much scrap. He remembered the entire crew cheering, how their feet had pounded and the deck had shook and she had come alive with the joy of victory as he had gripped the arms of the command throne with white knuckles, whispering his heartfelt thanks to his ship. And now she hung there, that proud line of kill flashes seared through by a vindictive Thanix beam strike. She had scored her seventh Rumba Charlie. But seeing her wounded out there, lying dead as the repair crews swarmed over her and debated whether or not she should be scrapped, if this time the damage was too bad -

It felt hollow.

In the booth opposite him, Captain Kirrahe, that jammy bosh'tet captain of the TON Lazarus, was curled around something very, very alcoholic. So many times, he had sat at this very booth with Han, furthering their friendly rivalry as their ships hung out there, proud and whole. Lazarus was a Marza Dreadnought, the only ship in the fleet with a legend that could match the Titunev, just as broken as her sister. Kirrahe didn't romanticise it quite as much as him but in his own special way the former STG commando loved his ship. He never described how she felt alive, how it felt as if the ship herself was singing as she smashed aside Reapers, but Han could see the love in his eyes when he talked about the effective range and refire time of her Abbadon missile batteries, or the power draw of her enormous spinal siege cannon in his typical clipped tones. The green-skinned Salarian looked up and out again at his baby, his face a picture of pain, before bending back down to his datapad and then changing his mind, downing the rest of his drink and motioning for another.

Han looked down at his own datapad, eyes focusing on the cursor bar that sat there, blinking, mocking him, drilling it into him that he had failed his ship and his crew.

To the next of kin of Hannah and Artyom Shepard:

It is my deepest regret to inform you that|

GARRUS VAKARIAN, SIGMA TRAINING FACILITY, SEPTEMBER 7 2187

Garrus eagerly grabbed the proffered datapad. Sunday was mail day. He skimmed through his messages. One from his dad, wishing him well and chatting about various shipboard happenings, ending with an anecdote about a particularly incompetent plasma cannon technician that had him in stitches for a solid minute. Two from his mother, mostly consisting of a mix of motherly worry and medbay gossip, one incredibly poorly spelt yet endearing note from Solana, the latest issue of FilmTEC and one from Uncle Wrex that talked enthusiastically about the G-440 Vendetta for a good three pages.

Still chuckling to himself, he put down his datapad and glanced over to Kari. She was staring at her datapad, eyes wide and trembling, her knuckles white as her fists clenched tightly.

It was the crisp cracking sound of her datapad screen fracturing that broke him out of his stupor. He got up and padded over, talons clicking against the stone floor.

"Kari?"

She didn't respond. He bent over her and looked at the letter.

To the next of kin of Hannah and Artyom Shepard:

It is my deepest regret to inform you that

He didn't need to look any further.

"Oh no. Kari, I'm so sorry ..."

Her scream of grief nearly sent him scrambling backwards.

"NO!"

She hurled her datapad and collapsed in on herself, starting to sob even as the datapad shattered on the wall of the barracks. He blinked in surprise before wrapping his arms around her shaking form.

"Ssh, ssh, I'm so sorry, Kari ..."

She threw back her head and screamed in pure grief before turning and pummelling Garrus's chest with her fists, screaming in his face.

"I hate you! I hate you! I hate you!"

If he hadn't have been a Sigma, the blows would have shattered his ribcage and pulped his chest cavity. As it was he stood there, taking the hits until her energy disappeared and she collapsed, arms latching onto him as her tears soaked into his jumpsuit. He sat down on her bed, holding her, rocking her back and forth as she cried and making small comforting noises.

Twenty minutes later when the Lieutenant came in to yell at them for missing breakfast, the look in Garrus's eyes told him all he needed to know.

TALI'ZORAH NAR RAYYA, SIGMA TRAINING FACILITY, SEPTEMBER 9 2187

She found Kaz lying out by the river, his jumpsuit in a pile at the side of the path, his rifle lying beside him, bright green eyes closed. One of those tiny flying lizard things that filled the same ecological niche as butterflies on Benning had settled on his torso, curled up there as it held out its brightly patterned wings to air in the warm evening heat. She slithered out of her own jumpsuit and walked into the river, feeling cool water creeping up bare skin and inquisitive fish brushing against her shins as she stood in the river, watching the green sun descend majestically towards the horizon. She didn't mind being naked so much anymore. Sigma trainees got one jumpsuit a day. After three days of refusing to remove it in company, she had finally got so sick of the feeling of wet fabric clinging to her skin that she no longer cared about, as the trainees referred to it, 'skinning it' anymore. So she stood naked in the knee deep water and watched the sun slowly descending. As soon as it had dipped below the horizon the forest started to light up with bioluminescence, first the leaves lighting up in a soft turquoise, then the fish in the water in their vivid blues and greens and finally the usually transparent film of algae on the smooth rocks of the riverbed in their soft mauve glow, the occasional flash of orange and red flickering through the forest as some of the more brightly coloured butterfly lizards winged between the trees on fluttering gossamer wings. Not for the first time, Tali wished she could glow like the beautiful Benning forest at night.

She waded deeper into the pool, then plunged in and swam breaststroke through the perfectly transparent water before hauling herself out on the opposite bank and idly running her hand through a sea of glowing silvery flowers.

"They match your eyes, you know."

She didn't turn, her advanced Sigma hearing having heard the faint sounds of his approach.

"I think I might want to come and live here when I retire. Just spend all night out here in this meadow. Fall asleep in the grass."

Kazimir picked a handful of silver flowers and started twisting them together into a chain, sitting down on the glowing turquoise grass. After a moment she sat down beside him, watching as he worked two chains, one shorter than the other. She watched his hands working, admiring his dexterity as he looped the glowing flowers together.

Once he was done he turned back to her and lifted the longer chain, gently putting it around her neck, allowing it to settle round her shoulders before placing the other chain on her head like a crown. He then stood and looked at her, smiling at his handiwork.

"If only you could see how beautiful you are right now."

She stood beside him, stretching her seven foot frame before taking him by the hand and leading him to the edge of the pool, the purple glow of the rock algae illuminating them as they stepped out into the water until it was waist deep.

"Kaz, I ... I ... Oh, Keelah ..."

Then somehow, his lips found hers and in that moment nothing in the universe mattered except them.

URDNOT BAKARA, TEC COMMAND (MOSCOW), SEPTEMBER 12 2187

Urdnot Bakara, formerly the Shaman of the Urdnot female clan and now Admiral of the Fourth Fleet, prided herself on being the most progressive of the new breed of progressive Krogan, as demonstrated by the fact that she had over six hundred ships at her command and was widely regarded as one of the most tactically savvy Admirals on the TEC roster. So when even she felt the stirring of Blood Rage in her belly, something must be very, very aggravating.

At the moment, that something was Former Councillor Sparatus.

She muttered under her breath to her second in command.

"If that man air quotes something one more time I might just crush his hands, diplomacy be damned."

Being a Geth, he didn't chuckle, but on her other side Admiral Singh nearly choked on his coffee.

The recovery of the Council had quickly proved to be a massive headache for the TEC. The Councillors, especially Sparatus, had just waltzed into TEC command expecting to be put in charge and they held just enough sway with the Turian and Salarian populations that they couldn't be ignored.

At the front of the room it seemed like Representative Koris had finally had enough.

"Silence."

He didn't raise his voice, yet somehow his sheer presence quietened the entire room within seconds.

"The Council has proved, time and time again, that they operate an elitist policy. Their races are at the top of the pile. Do what we say or get out. That isn't how the TEC works. In the Coalition there are no distinctions of species. In the Coalition all get fair and equal opportunity regardless of what DNA they happen to have. And in the Coalition those who you would call the 'dregs of the galaxy' are respected and honoured. Look around you, Former Councillor Sparatus. Krogan Admirals. Quarian Generals. Drell Lawmakers. Even if you hadn't been stranded on an uncharted planet for four years, the history books tell that the Former Citadel Council is helplessly, hopelessly, hilariously out of touch with everything the Coalition stands for. Have a pleasant day, Former Councillor."

Somehow the wild cheering from that speech broke into a spontaneous chorus of the TEC's anthem, then a chant of TEC! TEC! Bakara was on her feet, cheering, singing and chanting with the rest of them.

She was the most progressive of a progressive Krogan race. But there was just something so savagely enjoyable about seeing the Former Council put down hard.

ASHLEY WILLIAMS, SIGMA TRAINING FACILITY, SEPTEMBER 14 2187

The Shepard twins were certainly dealing with grief a lot better than she did when she lost her father at the age of eleven. She supposed it helped that the two generations of the family were very estranged, and so they didn't have that close a connection, but still it had to hurt. And now it seemed that both of them were dealing with it by interspecies sex.

Kaz and Tali were pretty much an item now. She could practically smell the pheromones rolling off them whenever they were close to one another and the cute-but-shy glances and surreptitious hand holding was a dead giveaway. Kari and Garrus hadn't actually hooked up yet - anatomical issues notwithstanding, the two of them were far more recalcitrant about the whole thing but it was obvious to Ash that they had it bad for each other. Eh well.

At Sigma School the days were already starting to settle into a pattern. Up at six, breakfast at six thirty, physical and combat training seven to twelve thirty, lunch twelve thirty to one thirty, lessons one twenty to six, dinner and free time six to midnight, back in rooms at midnight, lights out at one. As well as teaching recruits to kill, maim and seriously handicap in ever-increasingly creative ways, the Sigma programme gave all recruits a strong mathematical, scientific and engineering based education with a number of optional modules as well. At the moment she was taking Human Psychology and Human History, as well as her ultimate favourite, Historical Poetry. She was even starting to spend her free time with her nose buried in Whitman and Tennyson, which drew much teasing from her fellow recruits. In all there were thirty recruits her age on the training facility, and two hundred and ten more scattered around other training facilities on the planet. A throughput of two hundred and forty Sigma graduates a year. Given the mandatory thirty year service term and assuming no battlefield losses, that meant at any one time in the TEC there were seven thousand two hundred active Sigma operatives. Given that the Krogan gene boosters stove off senescence for a ridiculously long time, a typical Sigma could look forward to a natural lifespan of something approaching eight hundred years, even the Salarian Sigma recruits. At the end of their thirty year service term Sigmas could re-enlist for another thirty years of service or move on to another line of work, although it was very rare for a former Sigma to become a civilian.

Ash looked up from her poetry book at the view of the base. She was curled up with her book in a tree, the bioluminescent leaves and the odd butterfly lizard providing ample illumination for her sharp Sigma vision to read the page with ease. Her rifle was cradled against her chest as the tropical evening breeze blew through the forest, gently cooling her and rustling the branches.

She glanced out over the river and saw Tali slipping through the water. The Quarian girl had come down to the river to swim pretty much every night she had spent here, icy liquid flowing over smoky grey skin illuminated from beneath by the glowing purple of the rock algae. On the bank Kaz was lying down in the bioluminescent grass, jumpsuit discarded beside Tali's and eyes closed. Kari was leaning against a rock, a patch of darkness in the soft light of Benning's forest, gently strumming her guitar as Garrus perched on a low branch nearby with his head buried in one of his magazine subscriptions. James was lying in the shallow water at the edge of the river, letting the cold flow wash away the accumulated sweat of the morning's exercises. This little glade on the edge of the training zone was their spot, where they went as soon as they finished dinner to relax and unwind, sometimes with quiet, murmured conversation, sometimes just by doing what they liked doing best, be it swimming, reading, playing guitar or simply relaxing.

Ash was distracted from her poems by the pounding of feet on the ground and moments later a Turian recruit came skidding around the corner, panting. Garrus recognised him immediately.

"Tarquin? What are you doing here?"

The other recruit - Victus, she remembered - managed to force some words out.

"Just heard ... Karamazov found ... Destiny Ascension!"

SAREN ARTERIUS, EARTH STARBASE, SEPTEMBER 18 2187

A blue hand trailed across his chest as Tela made a contented sound, the bedsheets tangled around their legs. This TEC certainly did things differently to what he was used to - Asari usually slept on tapering, triangular beds that restricted leg movement but the TEC supplied square, flat beds that allowed for a far greater amount of movement during sleep and ... other activities. Instead of compressed air chambers for personal hygiene they supplied something called a 'shower'- a spacious cubicle that sprayed warm water from the ceiling. He had to admit, he quite enjoyed experimenting with the use of the shower, especially after Tela joined him. The rooms they were sharing in the enormous orbital fortress known as a 'Star Base' had a floor to ceiling window that allowed him to watch the comings and goings of TEC ships as they moved around the station, including an impressive view of three enormous warships bristling with weapons. Turian and Asari warships were elegant, beautiful and symmetrical, as much works of art as weapons of war. Those TEC ships out there were designed for one purpose and one purpose only - destruction.

He felt Tela curl into his side and moments later her heavy breathing indicated she was asleep. He tilted his head to look out of the window again. There was a new ship out there, one he didn't recognise. The three he had grown used to seeing, he had tentatively identified as members of the old Kol Mk. I class, awaiting refit or decommissioning. The new one was of similar shape but significantly larger, the thick slabs of armour having a slight lustre to them the other three lacked and the spindly forward weapons replaced by four thickly tapering barrels that held an intangible aura of menace. He looked at the name painted on the nose. TON Numenia. She didn't have the elegance of an Asari dreadnought or a Turian cruiser, but she exuded a sense of cool confidence that somehow compelled him.

He turned his head away from the window and looked up at the ceiling, already feeling his head nodding as he began to drift to sleep.

RAEL'ZORAH VAS KARAMAZOV, MERCURY STARBASE, SEPTEMBER 21 2187

"Retired! What are you talking about?"

The Admiral shook her head.

"I'm sorry Captain Zorah, this comes from way above me. The decision has been made to retire the Akkan class in favour of more warfare-oriented designs. The Karamazov will be retired and her crew transferred in toto to a new vessel bearing the name TON Karamazov."

Rael sat down heavily.

"Give me a moment, Admiral."

Admiral Bakara quietly waited for the distraught captain to collect himself.

"I've been through a lot with the old girl, you know? My little girl practically grew up on that ship."

"I understand. If it's any consolation the new Karamazov will be forged entirely from the material of the old Karamazov, apart from certain components such as the Thanix cannon, the gauss railgun and the relay alloy armour, of course."

"Thanix cannon? Gauss railgun? Wait a second ... A Kol II?"

Bakara shook her head.

"No, Captain Zorah. The Karamazov 2 will be the first of the new class of Kol Mk. IIIs. We have made several improvements over the Kol II class, including a prototype flak burst weapon, an antimatter warhead railgun to complement the forward Thanix battery and a dual eezo core system that facilitates the use of Raan-pattern adaptive deflector fields that we hope can deflect Thanix blasts."

"I ... I don't know what to say ..."

"Han'Gerrel's TON Titunev is also being refitted to Kol Mk. III following the damage she sustained. If you wish you can discuss it with him."

The Admiral left, leaving him slumped on the seat in her office.

LEGION, MERCURY STARBASE, SEPTEMBER 23 2187

Analysing pigment -

Analysis complete. Increase saturation by 0.003%. Applying -

Application complete. Scanning reference material -

Projecting angle of light -

Projection complete. Increasing brightness on sunward side by 0.0006% -

Operation complete. Scanning background reference. Scan complete. All constellations in correct position -

Applying name to bow. Retrieving data -

Data retrieved -

Applying name. TON Titunev. Application complete. Scanning battle damage -

Battle damage applied correctly. Alert! Paint hue 'Sunrise Yellow' fully depleted -

Retrieving resupply of 'Sunrise Yellow' from supply cupboard -

Resupply complete. Scanning image -

Modify cloud formation on Rannoch, grid 18879/25293 by 0.03 degrees -

Modification complete -

Darken nebula hue 'Eldritch Purple' by 0.007% -

Operation complete. Painting complete. Signing painting -

Signing complete. Title for painting? -

TON Titunev at Rannoch - REJECTED

Victory for TON Titunev - REJECTED

Titunev Victorious - REJECTED

TON Titunev, Tikkun system - REJECTED

TON Titunev - CONSENSUS ACHIEVED

Painting titled 'TON Titunev' -

Placing painting on drying rack. Obtaining blank canvas -

Searching subject material -

Subject selected. Commencing painting -

JEFF MOREAU, SOL ASTEROID BELT, OCTOBER 4 2187

"Jeff."

"I know."

"Jeff."

"I know."

"Jeff!"

At the last possible moment Joker hauled on the control column, bringing his corvette skimming up and over the asteroid. His three pursues weren't quite as quick, slamming into the chunk of rock in a spectacular triple explosion as he looped around, opening up with his forward plasma cannon and knocking out two more Oculi before breezing straight through the group of unsuspecting fighters, Edi briefly opening up on them with the dorsal and ventral autocannon turrets as they flashed by and finally firing a single Dienekes missile from the underwing launchers, the warhead splitting into a tightly packed cluster of small explosives that finished off any of the swarm that had escaped his charge.

"All target drones destroyed. Good job, Joker. Return to base."

"Copy that, Normandy Actual. Edi, charge the phase engines. We're done here."

MIRANDA LAWSON, ASCENSION TRAINING FACILITY, OCTOBER 12 2187

"Come on Princess. Afraid of a little mud?"

Miranda resisted the urge to groan as she belly crawled through the muck beneath the tangle of barbed wire. Just her luck to get stuck in a squad with Jack Massani and Kaidan Alenko. Kaidan she could handle. He was at least civil, if distant. Jack, on the other hand ...

She swore under her breath as the bitch herself 'accidentally' kicked up a spray of muck in her face.

"Sorry Princess."

"No you're not."

"Fair enough."

And with that Jack cackled gleefully and crawled off, leaving Miranda to spit a droplet of dirt out and keep pushing ahead, trying not to think about how disgusting her jumpsuit was getting.

SAREN ARTERIUS, NAIROBI SPACE ELEVATOR, OCTOBER 14 2187

Saren and Tela had made the decision to move out of Earth Starbase. After four years on a planet Saren found he was craving the feel of earth beneath his feet again and Tela even more so. He knew that eventually they would have to pull their weight in the TEC but he hoped that they could have at least another couple of months before they were thrust back into the meat grinder. Just two more months with no responsibility, nobody looking up to them, depending on them.

There was a slight rattling thump and the space elevator started to descend, slowly hauling itself down and into the atmosphere. They sat in their seats in the glass toroidal platform, watching as the surface of the Earth crept closer.

Saren was distracted from his musings by the sound of somebody sitting down beside him. He glanced over to see a Human male with steel grey hair, wearing a hooded sweatshirt that was a dark grey in colour with a red stripe down one side.

"Saren Arterius?"

Saren turned to the man, who looked at him with a pair of blue glowing bionic eyes.

"Yes, that's me."

Those eyes un-nerved him. He irrationally felt like they saw right through him. The Human held out a hand for him to shake.

"Colonel Jack Harper, N7. Pleasure to make your acquaintance, Spectre."

CODEX- SIGMA CORPS

The first successful TEC supersoldier programme, the Sigma programme trains graduates to be lethally efficient on the battlefield, able to perform missions in small squads that entire battalions of regular forces could not accomplish, as shown by the official motto of the Sigma corps, Tolle Omnem Munitionem (Take Any Fortress). The Sigmas excel in offensive operations of any caliber, equipped with the most advanced heavy armour and weaponry available to the TEC. The Sigma programme relies on genetic modification of subjects during their teenage years, resulting in operatives that regardless of species top out at around seven foot in height, can easily lift up to half a ton of weight unassisted, sprint in excess of sixty kilometres per hour and maintain a steady jogging pace of thirty kilometres per hour, leap up to fifteen metres vertically and read twelve point font from three hundred metres away. Their vision also extends slightly into the ultraviolet spectrum, allowing them to see ultraviolet targeting lasers invisible to most unaugmented species. Around half of all currently active Sigmas are human, with the next highest number being Quarian, with Krogan not far behind. Drell, Turian and Salarian Sigmas are also commonplace. Since the beginning of refugee recovery operations in 2183, individuals that have demonstrated consistent skill on the battlefield can be put on a crash course of Sigma gene mods and then attend a six-month accelerated Sigma boot camp, allowing them to join the Sigma corps without going through the usual channels.

Sigmas are equipped with Kestrel K-11 powered armour - heavy armoured plating designed to protect the wearer from incoming fire and hostile environments in equal measure. The plating is structured with layers of hyperdiamond and titanium-tungsten ultra dense alloy, laced with carbon nanotube mesh layers. The K-11 also comes with the most advanced personal energy barrier projectors in the TEC and an advanced mass effect deflector core that can at peak draw deflect up to 70% of rounds incident on the Sigma, making them very difficult to bring down. Unlike the K-5 armour regularly used by the standard Army or Marines the K-11 helmet is fully enclosed in a full face augmented reality HUD. The armour's base colour is white with black details and a black opaque visor as well as the Sigma logo in black on the shoulders. The K-11 comes in six models - H, Q, K, D, T and S models, each one corresponding to a different species.

The main armament of the Sigma corps is the Heckler&Koch G-440 Vendetta multi-role weapon system, a versatile rifle designed using a fusion of Geth, Human and Krogan designs. The top barrel of the weapon can be used as a heavy machine gun, a burst firing battle rifle or a high velocity sniper rifle; the bottom barrel can be used as a flamethrower, a cryospray, a plasma grenade launcher or a heavy flechette cluster cannon. Sigmas also come armed with a Sig-Sauer MP35A - a smaller, twin barrelled weapon that comes with a UV targeting laser and can fire both as a submachine gun, albeit with longer range than most traditional submachine guns, and as a hand cannon firing high caliber, precise shots.

The K-11 armour comes with a wide variety of tech incorporated into it. The armour can project an energy shield on the left arm that, as well as being capable of taking an impressive pounding, can overlap with adjacent shields to create a single solid barrier. The Sigmas can also create long energy blades on one or both arms, allowing them to cause heavy amounts of damage in melee, and the armour's internal systems can project a large number of tech attacks as well - Overload, Incinerate and Cryo Blast being firm favourites. The armour also carries a large number of grenades that can be fired from an energy catapult on the gauntlet, with frag, sticky, incendiary and cluster grenades commonly used.

Sigmas operate in units of twelve, with a typical capital ship carrying around six Sigma units. Each unit is led by a Commander, and splits into three four-man squads, each one led by either the Commander or by a Lieutenant. Each capital ship carries one Major who is in overall command of the Sigma detachment as well as leading his own squad, and certain ships carry Colonels who are in overall command if more than one ship contributes to a Sigma operation. Because of the considerable investment a Sigma represents they are not assigned to anything smaller than a capital ship, since smaller ships are expendable and Sigmas are not.

A/N: Please review. Really, hearing feedback, positive or negative, really encourages me.