Chapter 3: You're a Krogan

Dammit... Krogan... Primarch... Crap...

Jane had gathered some of her crew, and was trying to debrief them.

"Yes. We're going to pick-up a female krogan that's immune to the genophage, so we can broker support from the krogan and the turian militaries."

Crap.

A bit later, after Wrex nearly caused a, well, incident, they were on the Salarian homeworld.

"Anna, I want you to stay behind with Cortez and Wrex."

"What? Why?"

"Well, you're technically not supposed to be on field duty." She shifted her weight.

"I have a damn visor, Jane. I can see. And it's just a simple pick-up, no combat likely. And if you're worried about my combat skills, I can assure you – I personally ripped the throats out of several Cerberus assholes, not too long ago."

Jane looked at her, not as her sister, but as the Commander.

"Fine. Take Eve, I don't care." She returned to the shuttle.

Jane had Eve, Liara, and Garrus with her for the pick-up. She had finally taken her sisters with her, since, well they get pretty antsy when they're couped up.

A little later, Jane was standing before her sister, Eve, talking to Mordin. They were discussing, well she didn't know. Something about vectors, genetic somethings. Jane had decided that her sister was shockingly way, way too similar to Mordin. It scared her a little, to be honest.

Off to the elevator.

Garrus exclaimed, "Oh, Crap!" right before Jane and he nearly jumped away from the explosion of a bomb in said elevator.

Yeah,simple pick-up,no combat likely... Just mere minutes later they were thick in it.

Jane instructed, "I'll snipe them from the top. You three stay down here. Garrus swap out your rifles. Use armor-piercing clips."

They did as they were instructed, wiping out several troops before Garrus took cover to re-load just as Eve was. He eyed her hands, that pistol looks very familiar. She spied him looking questioningly at her hand-cannon. It was N7.

"Yeah. I borrowed it from Jane. I couldn't get my hands on anything bigger. But I modified it for distance. It works pretty good actually. My poor baby was too damaged from Cerberus, I couldn't save her."

"Seems like you 'borrowed' all of your equipment today." Now he was eying her armor. It was Liara's silver armor with the large shoulders that she kept for a spare – she preferred her white though.

"Naw. I got permission for this one. I couldn't fit into any of Jane's armor. It's not my fault I'm bustier than her." Liara softly chuckled as she too took cover, and Garrus got up to take a few shots.

Eve continued her banter, this time directing it at Liara. "Did you see what she put Anna in? I mean sure, the blood dragon armor is pretty and all, but is it really functional? I think Jane only kept it as a souvenir from her time with Cerberus, honestly."

And then they were face-to-face with a giant Atlas mech. They were having a hell of a time trying to take down the thing. Jane tried overloading it's shields, and had just sent out a combat drone as Eve threw a smoke grenade. It didn't do shit.

"Take cover!" Anna yelled from the hovering shuttle. She was standing in its doorway with a missile launcher in her arms.

The Atlas turned just in time for the missile to collide with the glass of its cockpit. That did it. Soon enough everyone was on-board, heading to the Normandy.

Wrex said in his bellowing voice, "Damn Shepard. I thought you acted like a krogan, but you have nothing on your sister there. She's pushy as hell, and has one mean streak." Anna actually impressed Wrex, well that's something.

Soon enough they boarded.

Vega was awaiting their return in the cargo-hold, "Damn Anita! You look hot."

She chuckled, still holding the missile launcher. "Yeah, I've claimed this. It's totally mine now." She patted the launcher.

"No, I mean the armor. Damn, damn." he looked up and down her, "You fill it out nice."

Jane coughed, loudly, as she walked over, "Keep it in your pants, Lieutenant. That's an order."

Mordin interrupted, "We're heading to the med-bay, Commander. Must evaluate Eve's condition."

"What?"

"Eve, that is the krogan female's name. Real name unknown. Human mythology seemed appropriate. This is a human vessel."

"My sister's name is Eve."

"Aware of that. I will refer to her as Shepard for distinction."

Jane turned back to Anna, "Keep the launcher and the armor. You can also take my N7 assault rifle. You'll need something better than that piece of crap pistol you have there, since you'll be on the field now."

"What!"

"I've approved you for combat duty. Heavy munitions. But you still primarily advise on combat strategy in the war room."

Anna dragged Jane into a hug. She was simply too excited. She was bred for combat, lived and breathed death and war, like Jane. But unlike Jane, she hadn't seen any action in a long, long time.

"Now, that's hot."

"Pants, Lieutenant. Pants."

…...

Jane decided to give Eve a present too, her N7 shotgun. She arrived at the med-bay, "Eve, a word?" Both the krogan female and her sister looked towards her. "Ah, I mean human Eve. Sister. A word outside?"

Eve got up and followed Jane over, "What's going on?"

"I know you've stolen my pistol, but here..." She handed her the shotgun.

"What?" She thought that it may have been some weird form of punishment, maybe cleaning the shotgun?

"Well, you are a field doctor. You've certainly proven yourself as a soldier. Even though I've never fought beside you before, I want to now. So you need something other than my pistol."

She raised a brow questioningly, "But, don't you use it?"

"Naw. I can certainly manage with a sniper and a submachine gun. I haven't exactly had formal sniper training through the Alliance – just the basics – but before I was grounded, Garrus taught me."

"Oh, well you're obviously feeling generous today." She smiled, "thanks."

"No problem. Let Mordin know I'll stop by later with Wrex, you know, after he's done tending to the krogan Eve."

Eve walked back into the med-bay. Mordin asked as she entered, "Gift, Doctor Shepard?"

"Uh yeah," she looked down at the shotgun she was holding "but, I've never really used a shotgun before. I favor SMGs myself."

The female krogan laughed, "It's easy. It does most of the work for you."

Eve's speech sped up, "Yeah, well now target practice is going to strip me away from my work. Not to mention I have to modify the damn thing, and my 'new' armor. I don't even have an active tactical cloak yet, and I'm gonna have to build it from scratch..." she looked over to Mordin, "Not to mention that I'd like to get my paws into that Genophage cure you're working on, Doctor Solus."

"Would appreciate the assistance, Shepard. And what else are you working on?"

"Improved heavy bone weave for Joker, and L2 implant upgrades – I'm trying to increase cool-down speed and overall efficiency without removing them. The patient that I'm consulting with has the L2s and for safety, they can't be removed – would be easier if they could."

"Sounds like you have a lot to do."

"Pfft. All of that can go on the back burner. Genophage cure is priority." She rolled her eyes. Working with Mordin is going to be fun.

…...

Later, Jane returned to the med-bay and had quite an interesting talk with the female krogan, Eve. And her sister, Eve, nearly embarrassed the hell out of her once they finished.

"That's right, girl power!"

"Eve Shepard, leave please."

"Fine... What's going on Mordin?"

"Vector analysis."

"Let me have a look."

Jane turned back to the krogan Eve to apologize once her sister was out of earshot, "I'm sorry, she's... she's a little outspoken."

She chuckled, "No, she's just young Commander. No harm done."

"Yeah, but sometimes she acts like a child."

"She seems to be professional enough. I think she's helping Mordin, actually."

…...

Later that night, Jane awoke to the sound of knocking at her door. She didn't even bother to open her eyes – Garrus was awake, and went to answer it. But she promptly sat up once she heard Eve's voice.

Eve's eyes widened, Garrus' chest was bare, "Uh, sorry. I didn't mean to interrupt anything."

"No, it's alright. Jane's asleep."

"Oh... Oh, okay. I'll just go then." She seemed a little disappointed, or sad. Garrus couldn't tell.

He raised a turian brow at her, "Anything wrong?"

She shifted her weight, "No, not really... I was just hoping to borrow some of Jane's, uh, engineering skills. I've kinda run into a snag." Great. Now Jane was awake, and interested.

She yelled over to them, "Just give me a sec. Let me get some pants on."

…...

A little later, and she found herself elbow deep into Eve's armor, literally.

Eve had been talking all night practically, she really was a bottomless pit of energy.

"So... You know when you think someone likes you, but then you don't feel that way about them. But you don't say anything, cause, you know, you're not sure if your suspicions are right?"

Jane was getting a headache, "What? Who are we talking about, Eve?"

"Ugh. You're just gonna make me spell it out to you, aren't you? Liara... I think Liara might like-like me. But, I don't know. Cause lately she's been spending so much time with that prothean, and, you know, being the shadow broker and stuff."

Jane's voice dropped, "You don't 'like-like' her?"

Eve started playing with her fingers, "No. I mean, she's nice and all. But I only see her in the friend-zone. I could totally see her and I as literal best friends forever."

"Well, I don't what to tell you. I mean, I know what I would tell you if we were talking about another human. But, she's asari. So, I don't know what would be considered offensive. You should ask Mordin."

Eve's voice went up a few octaves, "What? You're serious?"

"Yeah." Jane raised a brow, "Mordin actually gave me some good advice when it came to Garrus. For some reason, he seems to know a lot about interspecies relationships."

"That kinda scares me."

…...

"Hmm. That's something to ponder. Rare for asari to be rejected by potential mate." Eve had intended to ask Mordin first thing in the morning, but due to circumstance, it was now mid-day and Eve was going to have a nervous breakdown.

The female krogan decided to add, "If she were krogan, you could just kill her."

Eve Shepard was horrified, "But I'm not krogan. This Eve's not krogan."

EDI helped ease the stress, for once actually, "I believe that was a joke. But, I can look up the information for you via externet if you wish, Doctor Shepard."

Eve let out a slow breath, "Thank you EDI. Just please make sure it's as accurate as possible. And please just forward it to my omni-tool. I don't want anyone else knowing about this."

"Actually, forward it to me first EDI. Would like a look myself." Mordin seemed to be amused. Just earlier, Joker had asked him for something similar, and the Commander had overheard too.

…...