The Undisputed

by Geralt

AU. Hidden security cams on Eden Prime's spaceport caught Saren's actions. Quick thinking saved the Beacon. Quick wit forced the Council to listen. Even the Thorian played ball. In the end, the small divergences were enough to prove the big truth: the Reapers were coming. And the evidence was Undisputed.

28. Chapter 28 - Hot Trail

DISCLAIMER – I do not own Mass Effect franchise, the story, or any of its characters. All rights go to Bioware.

AUTHOR'S NOTE:

Hello everyone, I'm back after a two-month pause. I'm sorry for it; it wasn't planned. It was a major case of writer's block, the first big case I had in over a year.

I do not know how it is for other writers, but for me, it was like the sentences themselves were fighting me. There were days that I'd spend writing one single sentence over and over again, and no matter what I wrote, how I wrote it, how I wrapped it, the sentence just refused to look and feel good. The scenes that I imagined would refuse to be transferred onto paper. It looked clunky, haphazard, and whenever I'd read it, the flow of the story felt like driving a flat-tired car over potholes.

So, I went to watch some sports comedy anime and got cured.

I'd like to think that what I've posted is much better than what it would have been if I had just rushed it. You be the judge.

Also, thank you all for your amazing reviews! There were so many that I'm pretty certain that I've missed some of you in the rush to reply to everyone! I apologize for that, I really do. I like talking to you guys and your praise felt amazing, especially since many of you have a lot of smart things to say and interesting questions to ask! And crossing the threshold of 700 follows? Wow! And this story has now climbed to the third-from-the-top page when browsing Mass Effect category by favs/follows. Top 75 stories. Wow… feels like a bronze medal!

So, here we go…

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Chapter posted on 13.10.2017.

Main Tags: Action, Sci-fi, Adventure, Friendship building, Love.

Additional Tags: Slowly turning AU, Technology-heavy, Geopolitical themes, Economic themes, Intrigue, Militaristic…

Rated M – for mature and adult content.

Enjoy…

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Chapter 28 – Hot Trail

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Planet: Tuntau – Phoenix System, Argos Rho Cluster

The two older models of a turian and batarian frigate slowly approached the white-and-blue surface of the planet. The dust clouds and mist of water droplets rose as they hovered several meters above ground at the edge of the vast, desolate, marshy flatland, right where the plain abruptly began to give way to rolling terrain.

The glowing markers were already set up for them, waiting, and the two ships touched down to their designated location, their cargo bay doors promptly began to lower, armed squads of pirates readily descending down the ramp to secure the immediate area.

The captain of the turian frigate marched out of the vessel, looking around the white and blue desolate landscape before his eyes homed in on the sight of the busy and well-organized pirate base sprawled in front of them.

Small temporary habitats and warehouses were encircled with entrenched positions, sensor arrays, and turrets that were guarding the LZ. Two freighters and another frigate were already there in addition to the two that had just landed, and in the center of the field complex was a large main structure that served as a command center.

The turian captain nodded in satisfaction and descended the ramp all the way, joining up with his batarian counterpart from the other frigate. They both walked toward the base headquarters, escorted by several of their men until they came up to a single turian that waited for them, his hands folded across his chest.

"Hurlark. Haliat," the waiting turian greeted the two captains coolly.

"Actus," the turian frigate's captain greeted him back, his voice bearing a sickly sweet tone.

"What's the situation up top?" Actus asked, nodding up toward the skies.

Haliat chuckled.

"As clear as lacris," he replied. "There was not a single Alliance ship in the entire sector. The apes are obviously still reeling from the geth attack, fortifying the systems they have. It is obvious they cannot spare any more patrols."

"I will not bank my chips on that," Actus retorted sharply. "You've left monitoring probes, right?"

"Of course we did," the batarian captain replied with his imperious deep bass. "Haliat may feel comfortable with the Alliance's apparent absence, but something like that just makes me paranoid."

Haliat sighed, almost theatrically. "Yes, we've set up the probes, all over the system. There is no way even a courier shuttle will slip by."

"Courier ships are not what worries me," Actus replied curtly. "I, for one, am not nearly as comfortable as you are, Haliat. I don't know how much of the reports from this past couple of months have reached you in the Terminus, but both the Attican Traverse and the Skillian Verge are in chaos."

"Why, isn't that the whole point?" Haliat asked.

"Chaos amongst our ranks, Haliat," Actus clarified irritably.

Haliat was brought up short. Hurlark not so much.

"So it is true," the batarian said. "There were some tremors all over the Attican Traverse too. Several other pirate bases near the border with the Skillian Verge had been struck, and it was without any warning whatsoever."

"And they've had their probes up and running?" Actus asked. "The entire personnel was found dead? No survivors? All crates and vaults picked clean – is that it?"

Hurlark nodded slowly. "Yes… It shouldn't have been possible. All free entrepreneurs' lives depend on top-notch early warning systems. To think they've been completely bypassed…"

"Well they have, and it's even worse in the Verge," Actus growled as he turned on his heel and began walking back toward the command center, the other two captains closely at his sides. "Over 90% of our friendly assets had been taken out over the past two months. Dantius, Anural, Selin – all dead. Saleon, too; we've found what was left of him on his ship. Whoever did him in, wanted to leave a particularly grizzly message; his body was destroyed from within by his own mutagens."

"So, they've taken out a major chunk of our weapons, drugs, slaving, and organ harvesting operations?" Hurlark hissed. "Are you sure it's not our rivals that are responsible?"

"Damn right I'm sure. It hasn't been any different with any of them, either. Even Darius's organization has been completely obliterated! Wiped off the map! All of his ships are destroyed, and the Alliance has moved in to establish a presence. The only one who's had half a brains to disappear was that Blake woman, and frankly, I'm thinking that she's had the right idea."

Haliat hissed. "So you're just running away?" he demanded disdainfully. "Giving ground to humans after all the blood we've spilled to keep them away? To those pathetic pyjacks?!"

"I'm not in this for petty zealotry, Haliat, I'm in it for the profits! You want to get yourself killed? Be my guest! Just keep me out of it. If rumors are true, the one who's responsible for all this is your precious Lion of Elysium flying in that rumored frigate prototype anyway, so you might just get the chance to meet him again."

Haliat's visage darkened behind his helm's mask.

"So it is true," he growled. "You're right. I do want him. But not just him; I want his woman even more. She was there, at Elysium, and a little birdy tells me she is flying that ship with him. She did worse damage to me back then. Worse humiliation by far. I'd wish nothing more than to be killing them for weeks while making the other one watch."

The batarian was watching the exchange impassively from the side, then glanced at Actus, nodding sideways at Haliat.

"What's he talking about?"

Actus snorted.

"Our friend Haliat has one serious bone to pick against one Commander Jaina Shepard. You see, the official story is that Marcus Shepard organized the civilians into a defensive force, earning himself the fame, but in what universe do you think a bunch of pampered tourists on a vacation could ever be truly able to fight off a horde of hardened pirates, even with an N7 leading them? It was a paltry thing, only good enough to slow us down a bit. No. The real truth is that there was another N7 commando there, Shepard's newly-wedded wife; turns out we interrupted them on their honey moon. He might have organized the civilians so they don't get captured, but they wouldn't have been able to do shit if she hadn't infiltrated behind us and wreaked havoc on our lines. She's the one who actually caused total chaos and saved the entire planet. To think: one woman! Our side couldn't mount an organized assault with our ranks getting harassed like that, allowing the civilians to withstand our attempts. And, at one point, she even came face to face with Haliat here." Actus snorted mirthlessly. "He had no choice but to… retreat."

Haliat's helmet might as well have been glowing red-hot from all the anger the turian radiated.

"How come only he is lauded as the Lion of Elysium, then?" the batarian wondered. "Why hadn't we heard of her? Perhaps we could have organized a hit…"

"No, we couldn't. The pyjacs were smart," Actus replied. "They knew they needed to keep their top spec ops soldiers' identities hidden for covert ops, so they covered it up. As you can see, our friend here has quite a bone to pick with the two, and I'm guessing that that's why he has asked me to procure this particular package that the two of you are here for."

"You're right. That's exactly why I came here," Haliat replied, his voice dripping oily acid. "I came to destroy those two pyjacks, and I'm going to do it so it leaves a message. I'm going to have one of them blown up sky-high, and I'm gonna have the other one watch helplessly while I laugh in their face. I'm going to exact a revenge for everything!"

Actus snorted.

"Well, fortunately for you, the probe you've wanted has been found by some prospectors at the fringe of the Hierarchy space, and they've sold it to some sympathetic elements in the Hierarchy that have graciously sold it, in turn, to me. It's confirmed to be Alliance make from the period of the 314 Incident, booby-trapped with a nuke. A crude device, but safely disarmed at the moment. If anything, it will be a poetic justice to human encroachment."

"Good," Haliat crooned. "And I have the merchandize that you were looking for," he nodded toward the ships, where the hover-carts were unloading the crates from the cargo bays. "I'm sure that the compensation will be most satisfactory."

"I have no doubt," Actus replied. "Let's get inside. We should finish this as quickly as possible. I intend to abandon this rock within eight hours tops, and to leave it as barren as a krogan female, lest I risk someone sniffing us out. Rillik, take over from here!"

"Yes sir," his turian right-hand man replied, immediately moving off in the opposite direction and beginning to issue commands.

The work picked up the pace as the three men walked into the command center, leaving their numerous henchmen to the outside work.

The number of illegal or illegally obtained goods on the piece of rock that was the Tuntau kept rising by the second as the frigate, freighters, and the warehouses were being unloaded in preparation for the tradeoffs. The turian overseer was managing the whole affair of the goods transfer with professional precision while also handling the disposition of the troops at the same time. Tanks were rolling down and hunkering at the defensible positions, temporary automated turrets were being erected, and the four gunships were going through the technical checkup before they would begin to provide areal sweeps.

Having issued the few final instructions, the turian overseer moved to the edge of the base perimeter, taking a moment of respite as he let his eyes wander across the flat valley. For a few moments, he let his mind go pleasurably blank.

There was a blink of light in the distance, followed by a whizz to his left.

What followed was a thunderous explosion that rocked the air, sending shrapnel all over the place and dropping bodies to the ground. The shockwave struck the turian's back and he rolled with it, coming up into a crouch with his rifle already in his hands.

When he turned, he saw the tank behind him was burning.

The people near it were dead lumps on the ground, and the ones further out were reeling from the blast. In the split second that it all took place, another whizz-boom combo exploded through the air, and another one of their tanks met the same fate.

Everyone was scrambling for cover now, their weapons drawing as they sought the enemy out.

They were greeted by a dense hailstorm of heavy machinegun bullets that began raining at them from the direction of the vast plains where the first blink of light had come from, forcing their heads back down into whatever cover they could find. The turian overseer risked a glance over the edge of the hillock he took cover behind, zooming in with his helm's built-in electronic binoculars. His eyes widened.

A pair of armored hovercraft was charging low across the plain toward their position, the huge billows of dust trailing behind them, indicating speeds that surpassed those of city skycars.

"Incoming hovercraft!" the turian roared into the comms. "Get those gunships into the air, NOW! What the hell are our turrets doing?!"

His eyes shot toward the nearby turret, only to see it bursting as a high-velocity round tore straight through it, blasting up a huge exit hole like a flower blossom. The turret next to it went up a split-second later as the second round sliced straight through its neck joint, popping it off like it was a head of a bug.

"Gunships to air! Gunships to air!" he screamed into the comms as throngs of pirates and mercenaries surged from the other sides of the base toward the besieged positions.

The batarian-made gunships finally began to rise up from their pads, gaining speed as they advanced toward the encroaching enemy. Before any of them even managed to gain the proper strafing altitude, the first gunship's wing was sliced off by the enemy round that went straight through its shields as they weren't even there.

Its port thruster gone, the gunship spun wildly around its long axis, crashing straight down into the defense lines and killing dozens in the blast.

A second enemy round pierced the second gunship straight through its center, the vessel dying in the air and falling under inertia some distance beyond the perimeter.

A swarm of small missiles surged from the oncoming enemy vehicles after the two surviving gunships going evasive, the flurry of explosions catching up to one, with only one managing to survive unscathed.

As the damaged gunship managed to land with black smoke billowing from its every pore, the final one managed to acquire targets and engage into assault strafe. Only to have a pair of guided missiles slam into its rear, taking out its shields.

"They came from behind!" The pilot managed, before a hailstorm of heavy rounds from the rear tore his defense-stripped vessel to shreds, bringing its down in a ball of fire.

The turian lieutenant's heat shot back toward the source of the second barrage, only for his eyes to widen in shock as he witnessed a pair of Alliance heavy mech platforms cresting the hill on the far side of the base.

As soon as the mechs' hand-mounted guns crested the top, the two began raining heavy suppressive fire down into the defender's backs, a whole squad of Alliance troops rising over the hill's top with them to provide precise marksman support.

Before the defenders even managed to turn against the rear assault, the two assaulting hovercraft were on top of them, sending a thundering boom from their afterburners as they swooped over the base.

The assault vehicles banked in a high arc above them before angling back down and launching a decimating strafing run with their machineguns and missiles. As the destructive ordnance blanketed the ground, the Alliance troops and walkers advanced quickly down the slope of the hill, using cover to maximum effect to the frustration of anyone who managed to poke their head long enough to target them.

"Dammit!" the overseer cursed as his target ducked back behind its cover and the hovercraft machineguns sprayed across his own cover, sending him back down. The numbers were far on their side, but they've lost too many already. It would be a pyrrhic victory at best.

It was then that he heard the distinct sound of the massive engines spinning up, bringing his hopes back up.

Risking a quick glance over the edge of his cover, he witnessed both Haliat's and Hurlrk's frigates slowly begin to rise from the ground surrounded in a swirl of white dust as their GARDIAN turrets cycled through their activation.

He sank back down, grinning viciously as he tapped his comms to issue new orders:

"This is Rillik! Our ships are engaging, so as soon as the frigates take out those hovercraft, begin the counter –"

A thunderous explosion interrupted him as a starship-grade round struck down high from the skies, gouging straight through Haliat's frigate and impacting the ground underneath, inverting the earth and sending a blanketing shockwave through the base.

The second round followed not one second later, slicing straight through Hurlark's frigate and setting off a massive explosion as its fuel tanks ruptured.

Everyone who wasn't in the cover got knocked off their feet as the combined shockwave swept the base. The two dying hulks themselves seemed to hover for a moment more before they fell back down to the ground, a fiery inferno consuming the twisted metal into oblivion.

The turian raised his ringing head after what seemed like an eternity, and looked up and around.

A single ship, its profile sleek like an aircraft and unlike any other ship he had seen, glided slowly through the air, human letters on its side marking a human name: Normandy SR-1.

How did they know we were here? He wondered in complete shock. We were here for less than sixteen hours! Stealth ship or not, there's no way they could have followed our tracks! We've covered them! They couldn't have known we were here! They COULDN'T HAVE!

That was the last thing he thought before a round burst through his head.

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"I still cannot believe my network had managed to catch the intel about this this quickly!" Liara said almost incredulously as she looked around the base's interior, but nobody could be blind to the sheer pride in her stance and tone.

The pirate base headquarters' interior stood cleared before them. The bodies of pirates and mercenaries were strewn around the floors and draped over the crates and railings like limp carpets, and charred walls and blown debris decorated the drab interior.

"You're surprised you've caught it?" Jaina smiled, her arms crossed over her chest. "I'm not. Half the things we managed to do in the past couple of months was thanks to you."

"I'm just glad we've managed to catch it on time," Liara amended. "Imagine if Haliat actually managed to plant that bomb."

"Just goes to show how valuable your work is." She smirked. "Looks like your information network has spread its little wings quite a bit now. I'm thinking it'll raise one hell of a storm before you know it."

Liara's smile faltered a bit.

"Yeah," she said. "Still now word on Benezia, though."

Jaina realized it must've been something she said that triggered that line of thought with the young asari. So did Marcus, who stood next to her.

"You're still feeling responsible," he said to the young asari.

"Actually, the more accurate term for what I feel would be 'awkward'," she provided with a lecturing tone. "I've severed ties with Benezia a long time ago, so there's no responsibility, just…" she shrugged. "Awkward."

Marcus chuckled. "Yes, I see what you mean… I bet that a kiss or two will make it go away, though."

He moved off, leaving a stunned Liara behind with Jaina.

"He always knew what to say to a girl," Jaina mused wistfully.

Liara looked incredulously at her. "You can't possibly let this slide!" she said, not really knowing what she was complaining about.

Jaina scrunched up her face in a cute smile that she shared with Liara.

"You're right. Him promising kisses to our girlfriend at a time and place where it'd be inappropriate to deliver? Unacceptable!"

"I… I'm not your girlfriend yet!" Liara protested futilely as she fought off a blush. "I still haven't said yes or no."

Jaina made a mock-baffled face. "But who ever said you had any choice in the matter?"

An elated grin exploded on Liara's face as she delivered a swift light punch to Jaina's shoulder, making them both laugh.

For the past month, the two women had gotten much closer. All three of them had gotten much closer. Yet still, all three of them danced around the elephant in the room. But it was not any kind of teen-like awkwardness that was to blame, but the mission itself and the place they were on. Oh, the Normandy had grown to be their home, but it was a small home. Things got noticed. It wouldn't be right to the crew to see their two commanders wooing a third girl around. A familial rapport and trust needed to be built up first and that took time. So the three of them danced, and danced, and danced. And bantered. And teased. And ever more mercilessly at that…

And the arousing tension grew. And grew. And then grew some more.

It was what all three of them were aware of. And they were aware that it would either burst or spill over, whichever came first. It was only a matter of when.

Jaina sighed contently at that thought, knowing that Liara was thinking just the same.

"But you're right, you know," Jaina said, breaking the silence. "We can't let him get away with it. He is too confident for his own good." She narrowed her eyes conspiratorially. "I think he needs to be put down a peg."

"I hope you have a proper method for punishing him for it?" Liara demanded, folding her arms under her chest and raising a shapely eyebrow.

Jaina raised her eyebrow right back at her. "Oh? Don't tell me you've forgotten all those things about teasing a guy I've been telling you about?" she asked innocently.

Liara's lips were parted in a small smile. "No…," she said after a moment. "You think I should…?"

Jaina squinted conspiratorially. "Oh, I think he deserves to stew in his own juices for a change, don't you?"

An evil little glint appeared in Liara's eyes.

"You're right," she said huskily. "He does indeed."

They turned their heads to where Marcus had observed the proceedings of the rest of their team at the center of the vast warehouse hall, sending their conniving little smirks his way. Marcus perked up, tilting his head as if he was listening to something far off, then turned around to look suspiciously back at the two women.

"Ah, shit," Jaina muttered as she and Liara quickly turned to each other to avoid his gaze. "That Prothean sense of his is really annoying!"

"People's intent carries through the air if it's fresh and potent," Liara agreed.

"We're good; he hadn't picked up the full intent, just that we were plotting something. Don't worry; he's doomed. It's just, we better get our heads back into gear for now," Jaina said, the two of them forcefully turning serious again.

Marcus huffed through his nose at the two of them, letting things slide, then returned his attention back to the business at hand.

The few surviving enemies were being dragged there by the few of the ground team personnel and made to sit on the floor and their hands tied behind their backs. Seven turians, four batarians, two salarians, and one asari – those were all who had somehow managed to avoid the lethal wrath of their captors. Amongst them, Jaina could recognize both Haliat and Actus with their backs turned toward her.

Marcus looked back at her and nodded grimly.

"Show time," Jaina said to Liara, a cold visage falling on her face as the two of them walked out with Marcus to where the captives were being held.

Jaina stood, stone-faced, scrutinizing the captives with a cold gaze as Marcus began to pace slowly in front of them, absorbing the sensations the pirates were radiating with his Prothean senses. In the months since he gained it, his power had only grown; it was almost as if their thoughts were being beamed directly to him. Defeat. Fear. Nervousness. Nothing could be hidden. Not even the calculated cunning of Actus, nor the mouth-foaming fury of Haliat that he directed at Jaina.

"If it isn't the illustrious Commander Jaina Shepard," Haliat sneered, his voice still bearing the oily quality. "The true hero of Elysium. And Commander Marcus Shepard with her – showing yet again that he just can't handle pirates unless a woman does it for him. My, what competence!"

"Would you fucking shut up, Haliat!" Actus snapped lividly. "You want to piss 'em off so they kill you faster? You're the one to talk about incompetence! First Elysium, and now this. How do you think they found us here? The only way was if there was an information leak on your side!"

"Do not switch this back on me, you pompous hazata!" Haliat growled, getting into Actus's face before Garrus grabbed and yanked him back by his armor collar. Still, Haliat kept on, "All you care about are your precious collections! Someone like you does not deserve to be called a free entrepreneur!"

"Free entrepreneur?" Garrus chuckled as he looked at Marcus. "Now I've heard all the names they call themselves with."

"That's right, you traitor – free!" Haliat growled looking around at Garrus. "Not at a human's feet, following around like a dog, just like you –"

A human hand lashed out and grabbed him by the mandible, yanking it back forward and interrupting him mid-sentence. He yelped in surprise, then started howling in utter agony when Jaina grabbed the second mandible and twisted them the wrong way.

Actus and other turians could only clench their jaws tight as they watched the woman manhandle the hapless turian.

Not releasing the mandibles, Jaina crouched down, slowly, bringing her cold, cybernetic eyes to Haliat's level.

"Do we have your undivided attention?" she asked, her voice low.

Haliat just glared right back at her, chocking back all sounds in his throat. She released him, then straightened back up and spoke to the rest of the captives:

"Don't be a smartass. Not to a Spectre."

She was silent for a couple of moments, letting them think on it a bit before she turned her gaze down to Actus.

"Now. You know why we're here," she spoke. "We're looking for Saren. And you can help us find him."

Actus frowned in confusion.

"Saren?" he parroted. "I have no dealings with Saren!"

"A riffle that killed Primarch Kandus and the sword of Queen Vaniya speak differently," Liara said dryly as she stepped up to Jaina's side.

Actus's eyes widened.

"That was almost a decade ago!" he protested. "I've –"

"Continued to supply him with rare active Prothean artifacts?" Liara continued, narrowing her eyes dangerously. "We know. Proceeded to do so until a year ago? We know. I advise that it would be in your best interest to be very candid."

Actus was slack-mandibled for a moment before he huffed, nodding.

"I see the apple doesn't fall far from the tree," he said incredulously. "Nice job channeling Benezia, kid, I give you that."

At that, Marcus moved from where he stood, the menacing, black-armored figure making a beeline toward Actus. The turian gulped.

"You're right," he said hurriedly, leaning away as Marcus approached then stepped around him to his back. "I admit, I had had dealings with Saren, alright? Plenty of them. With Benezia, too, ever since she joined him! But if you know all that, then what do you want from me? Like you said, I hadn't had contact with him for a year, and it's the truth!"

"Maybe, but you can point us in the right direction nonetheless," Jaina said.

"If the Citadel's spy assets cannot find him, what the hell makes you think that I can?" Actus countered. "And why would I even chase after him in the first place, for Spirit's sake?!"

"Because you're a big shark in the criminal world Actus, and you don't do business unless you know everything that can be known about his business associates," Jaina stated. "Anything less can be terminally bad for health in your line of work. And if one of your regular associates happens to be a suddenly-gone-rogue-and-likely-crazy Spectre, you're damn right you're gonna use every shred of info you can find against him as a safety chip."

She paused to let that sink in, then continued:

"You're right in believing that Citadel can't find him, I'll give you that… Saren was smart; he'd planned this for years, and as a Spectre, he had known exactly how to cover all the venues that the Citadel might have used to find him. But he couldn't have covered any possible investigations that came by alternative channels, such as the ones employed by the various factions in the Terminus. He had no power over those. And those would have been the channels that you would have used to investigate him. And that is why I know you've managed to find him."

There was a ring of slowly drawn steel from behind him, and a black blade of an N7 tactical KA-bar knife was shown in Marcus's hand, hanging just a few inches off from Actus's right cheek.

"It is, therefore, like Liara said, in your best interest to stop bullshitting us," she finished coldly. "Your absolute assistance is not negotiable."

He felt Marcus's hand grab him by the throat and press him tightly against him, the blackness of the knife inches from his eyes.

"Look, I've told you the truth, alright?" he spoke quickly, realizing these were not cops or lawyers he was dealing with. "You're right, I had made a series of investigations, I have placed a few dozen eyes and ears throughout the galaxy, but I hadn't been able to find anything! The bastard has been working with the geth, and next to all the mercs that he's been employing had ended up dead in the couple of months or so. Saren's been cleaning house, ensuring that nothing comes out about any possible location he might be at!"

"You're telling the truth," Marcus spoke up for the first time. Then, just as Actus thought he was in the clear, Marcus's blade spun, and its tip slid underneath his brow plate, then pulled like an action-lever, making Actus grunt and struggle against the pain. "But you're also not telling everything. You have doubts about one planet in particular, don't you?"

Actus grunted. "Gah! H-how in the hell do you know…? Ngh… Fine, yes! There is a planet, but that's a very recent trail! I have nothing to confirm it!"

"You let us worry about that," Marcus replied.

"A-alright. Th… there's this planet. Achan. It's in a remote system, Galan Pillars."

Jaina raised her omni-tool and browsed the star charts until she found the planet.

She spoke, "It's a barren wor –"

Marcus flicked his wrist, and Actus's brow plate went flying, a few droplets of blue blood flying through the air as the turian hollered. Marcus squeezed his throat hard, silencing him.

"Think long and hard before you lie to me again," he said. "The world you were thinking about just now wasn't barren."

Actus felt horror as his pain-addled mind began instantly thinking up scenarios: mind reading device of some kind. Had to be. But how?

"You need to realize that you cannot hide anything from us," Jaina said. "Now. The world."

Actus swallowed. He was backed into a corner, and the only other way was blocked by a black 10-inch blade.

"Virmire," he said at last.

Marcus, Jaina, and Liara shared a look of recognition.

"Virmire is a contested planet," Liara said threateningly. "It is located at a key chokepoint, and half a dozen factions in the Terminus are fighting over it. They have that planet under close watch. If anyone attempted to set a foothold there, all the other factions would drop down on them like a swarm!"

"Not if they're preoccupied elsewhere," Actus replied in a clipped tone.

"Explain," Jaina ordered.

Actus huffed a few times, regaining breath, before he spoke:

"About a year ago, those factions you're talking about started to get hit hard from the other sides. Always hit-and-run. Always through the seldom-used relay paths. And it was always some strange, unidentified ships of similar design. The strikes are executed with such precision and speed that nobody's managed to get a good image capture, but after what happened on Eden Prime, we realized that the silhouettes and color scheme match those of geth ships!"

"And this pertains to Virmire how?"

"Because nobody's bothered to so much as look its way ever since," he replied through his clenched teeth. "They're all worried about covering their own severely-whooped asses! If you thought like Saren, that's exactly what you'd have done: you'd have sent your geth to draw the potential problems away, but not to outright destroy. If those pirate factions were destroyed, there'd just be others to quickly take their place, but with them still around but not daring set foot out, you'd have actually covered your ass real well. And if you thought like Saren, Virmire would be perfect for you: out of the way of the Council, no permanent settlements, nobody is looking at it, yet as a garden world, it requires minimum resources to operate a base. If you are a Spectre, and if you and your people know how to keep quiet, not even the local pirates would ever notice you."

For a few moments, Marcus still held him firmly, before he released him and stepped around him, sliding the knife back into its sheath and thinking on things.

Haliat suddenly spoke up:

"You disgust me, Actus," he sneered. "Saren had always been the one to fight against humans, and you were so quick to sell his secrets for your safety! I never should have agreed to all this. Once I'm free, I'll make sure you –"

Marcus spun, quick-drew his gun, and two loud bursts echoed through the warehouse. Actus's and Haliat's lifeless bodies slumped down onto the floor, blood seeping out of the bullet holes in their heads. Marcus turned to the rest of the captured criminals, who knelt there in fearful silence.

"The rest of them will be picked up by the Alliance patrol that'll come this way sooner or later," he said to no one in particular as he holstered his pistol. "They won't be going anywhere without their ships."

There were murmurs of confirmation through his team.

"Sir," one of Miller's marines then called from the warehouse's upper level terrace. "We've found it!"

Marcus looked at Wrex, then jerked his head to the side. "Come on," he said.

Wrex followed him silently upstairs and into what was Actus's office, being joined by Jaina and the rest of their specialist crew, while Miller's men went on to secure the prisoners.

Many pieces of rare, unique, or downright ancient-looking artifacts were spread around the room, many of them in various states of being packed up and ready to be shipped in an effort to evacuate the base.

Wrex immediately stepped around Marcus and made a beeline to a bullet-proof glass case that stood at the side where several old and unique armor models were showcased. He stopped in front of an old, battered and bulky gray armor that was obviously meant to be worn by a krogan.

"This is it," he said ponderously. "There's Urdnot insignia, right there, and it has all the markings of power." He shook his head then. "I can't believe my ancestors wore this thing. What a piece of crap."

Jaina chuckled, and spoke up:

"Don't tell me you're considering leaving it here?"

"What?" he turned to look at her in confusion. "No. I swore an oath to return it. It's mine!"

"Good," Marcus spoke, then stepped up to the vault case lock, slapped on some omni-gel onto it and sent a pulse with his omni-tool.

A sparkling wave of light passed through the omni-gel, making it form a bunch of electronic circuitry lines all throughout itself. The gel happily mulched on the lock, its circuitry flashing, and in a few seconds, there was a click, and the doors slid open.

Wrex reached out and took the armor off of its pedestal. He held it in his hands, looking down at it, his expression pensive. He nodded, then turned to Marcus.

"I'm done here," he said. "Ready to leave this rock whenever you are."

"In a minute," Jaina said. "Marcus and I need to consider the things this mission yielded."

Marcus nodded, then called to the rest of their team:

"Alright, people, you know the drill: pilfer the crates, as usual; see if there's anything of value for us to be found. Weapons, mods, armor, even machinery – all of it would be useful. I'll go through things here with Jaina."

"Liara, you stay," Jaina said. "We'll need to consult you on whatever you have on Virmire."

Marcus nodded approvingly and said, "The rest of you – dismissed."

There was a hum of eager murmurs.

"Come on, Lt," Ash chirped eagerly, her grin as bright as the sun as hopped and dragged the chuckling Kaidan by his arm. "Have you seen all those different rifles and mods they had down there? It's like Christmas all over again!"

"Don't you touch that flamethrower!" Wrex called as he followed. "That one's mine!"

"Come on," Tali muttered as she dragged Garrus by his collar. "You will help me with that tech down there. Consider it a repayment for being a bosh'tet about my species losing our home to the geth."

"I already said I'm sorry," Garrus countered as he followed. "I said I was wrong about that and about you. Can we put some distance between that and now?"

"No way, Vakarian," Tali chided. "With that sniper, you like to keep things at a distance way too much already. I'm keeping you close and personal until you've served your penance."

"I… have no idea what you're talking about, but if it'll make you feel better…"

Tali sighed, shaking her head in resignation.

Marcus watched them all go, chuckling to himself and feeling an odd fuzzy feeling in his chest. It was a rare thing. Very rare. It had become quite frequent in the last couple of months.

Jaina looked at him from where she leaned against the doorway with her shoulder, her arms crossed and a small smile dancing on her lips. She could swear she could practically feel the fuzziness within him. And just the same, she could swear she could practically feel him shifting gears back to business. There were still things to discuss concerning what Actus had divulged.

He moved away from the door, letting them close, and moved to sit back against the office desk, with Jaina and Liara stepping up to him, forming a triangle.

"So… Virmire?" Jaina asked him as she sank into a hip and crossed her arms.

Marcus nodded. "He didn't lie when he dropped that name," he said. "When he shared his thoughts on the planet, Actus really believed that what he was saying was true. I sensed it."

"But no solid proof?" Liara prodded.

"None," he shook his head, then looked up at them both significantly. "But this is the third time the name Virmire popped up in connection to Saren."

Jaina frowned. "You mean that thing when we found its name in geth databanks in one of the bases we raided?"

"And what we managed to piece together from Wrex's account of when he first met Saren," he agreed.

Jaina was silent for a little while, thinking back on it. Virmire.

The first instance they encountered its mention was from a geth databank in the Voyager cluster. It was nothing more than a single name on a list of 149 planets and planetoids that geth ships have visited at one point in time. And that was it. Nothing to show it was any different than the other 148.

Until Wrex shared the account of his one encounter with Saren.

Even now, Wrex's deep, gravelly voice was clear as day in the back of her head, relaying what had happened back then:

"This was a while ago. A bunch of mercs were bragging about a job out near the edges of the Terminus systems. They said it paid well, and the boss was never around to ride them, so I checked it out. Turns out they were right, because we've been raiding ships in the area for months, and Saren only showed his face once. It happened right after we took out this massive cargo freighter – our biggest haul yet. That was when he came on board. I have no idea why he wanted that particular ship. All I saw on it was food and medical supplies. There were some weapons, but nothing big. If there was anything of value on it, I didn't see it. Yet, Saren took a special interest in it. He was the one who had requested this specific ship to be targeted. Hell if I know why. When he came aboard, he was just moving through it, watching us. A couple of mercs called him by name – that's how I found out who he was – but he never spoke to them. Never spoke to anyone. I got a really bad feeling about him, so I got the hell out. Didn't even wait to get paid. Didn't even know who he was. Still wouldn't if I hadn't joined up with you. But my instincts were right. Every other merc on that mission turned up dead within a week. Every damned one."

How was that connected to Virmire?

On the first glance, there was not a single word of it. Hell, the entire story was a big-ass mystery unto itself when they first heard it! It took Liara using her small network to dig through the background surrounding it to find why.

Digging around a bit, she pinpointed the name of the ship, then its cargo, and finally its intended route. What she found at first seemed lackluster. Like Wrex said, the ship really did carry nothing more than food and medical supplies. The only thing that stood out was its goal: an independent prospecting outpost on a gods-end-of-nowhere planet called Virmire – a mining outpost that went dark right about that time. Nothing else.

And if they hadn't already encountered the planet on the list of geth-visited planets when they raided those geth bases, they never even would have looked at it again.

"Two events with one single link," Jaina said, coming back from her reflection. "Geth landing on Virmire at one point, and Saren's people happening to raid ship that was heading to Virmire that Wrex participated in. But it was one ship out of many they raided over the span of months. That is why we shelved that idea in the first place. The link was way too circumstantial."

"You're right, it was too circumstantial," Liara agreed. "There was nothing but a possibility that there might be something on Virmire. But now, if you add the third, independent source pointing it to Saren…"

Jaina nodded pensively. "You're right. It does have merit when you look at it that way." She sighed. "Still, I wish we had another piece of info – anything – that could show us what we might be dealing with here. A base? A fleet? We just don't have enough data."

"Ah, but you see, my dear Commander, we actually do," Liara spoke proudly with a sagely smile, drawing more than just their professional attention. "You see, what you need to ask yourself is why would Saren, who had, according to Wrex's account, up until that point recused himself from overseeing merc raiding activities, suddenly decide to show his face on that freighter where Wrex had seen him? What could have been so important for him to personally come to ensure the job was done?"

There was a moment of silence as both of the commanders finally had their suspicions confirmed.

"Because, if he had a hidden base on Virmire he didn't want anyone to know about, he'd have destroyed both the ship and the prospecting outpost it was heading to!" Jaina supplied. "He got onto that ship to make sure that there would be nothing else to point anyone else toward Virmire."

Marcus nodded at Liara, speaking gravely, "You're right. If I was in his shoes, I'd have definitely wanted to check that out personally."

Jaina licked her lips as she shared a look of anticipation with Marcus.

"We could go with this to the Council but it still sounds a bit contrived…" she said slowly, though an excitement was breaking through her tone.

"It. Does. Not," Liara spoke up firmly, planting her knuckles on her hips. "What you two need to realize is that this is not a judiciary trial. This is information mining. And in information mining, it is always the small, seemingly completely unrelated things that suddenly link to form the striking truth, because it is these small things that the shadow players cannot control. On its own, the geth nav location on Virmire would have been nothing – only one planet of hundreds. Even adding the info that we managed to mine out thanks to Wrex's account of encountering Saren would have been insufficient to make it a certain thing."

She paused.

"But what you need to realize is that Actus wasn't a half-assed nobody. He was a major player with his own networks and channels, and he managed to piece this same conclusion completely independently from us, and using completely independent intel." She looked at Marcus pointedly. "Did he hide the truth? Could you sense in him that he might not have known what he was talking about?"

Marcus slowly shook his head.

"No," he rumbled. "He knew exactly what he was talking about."

"Then, I rest my case," Liara declared smugly, her chin raised high, a smirk on her lips, and her arms akimbo.

Marcus didn't know what came over him, then, when he saw her before him like that. Was it the victorious smile, the I-know-something-that-you-don't look, or the proud but excited body posture that made her glow? Or was it simply the brilliant smarts? Yes, definitely the brilliant smarts. She had disassembled and pieced together the entire chain of events completely on her own. She was amazing! That, and the bubbling tension that seemed to simmer within them, that sweet agony of need that coursed through their bodies… It was finally spilling over.

Before he knew what he was doing, he was up and right in her suddenly-confused face and delivering a solid kiss right on her lips.

The sound of the quick, full-lip kiss smacked loudly through the air, and Liara gasped in disbelieving shock, her eyes widening like saucers and her brows furrowing as if in distress as a blush exploded on her cheeks.

And then, pouty indignation crossed her face, scrunching it up cutely.

Her fist came up and slammed down against Marcus's chest.

"No!" she declared pointedly. "No! No! NO! NO!" she went on, punctuating each word with a solid slam of her fist against his armored chest plate.

Marcus chuckled, catching her wrist and holding it gently as he lowered it.

"You stole it!" she declared accusingly glaring up at him.

"Guilty. I'll give it right back," he teased, leaning in.

"Nooo!" she pushed against him, even though her heart wasn't in it. "It wasn't supposed to be like this!"

"I just couldn't help it," he stated unapologetically as his arms slid around her waist, drawing her in close. "You were simply that amazing."

Liara pursed her lips, making her cheeks seem rounder, then looked to the side at Jaina.

"And you condone this?" she demanded.

"Absolutely not," Jaina declared solemnly with her arms crossed. "A first kiss should come with roses, dinner, and candlelight." She approached Liara supportively, hugging her from behind around her stomach, and adding with a smirk, "It's something that this jerk in front of us happens to owe me, as well, by the way."

"Well I beg to differ, Mrs. Shepard," he countered, grinning as he pulled Liara (and with her Jaina) close against him. "The first kiss should be just like this: sudden and fleeting – like a tease, an exploratory taste to leave the other person's lips tingling and wanting more. Like a little sneak preview of what the real deal could be like."

That seemed to mollify Liara. She was still cross with him, though, even as a smile fought through her angry visage, making a cute grimace.

"Be that as it may, you still owe me," she declared crossly.

He grinned lopsidedly. "Coming right up, Doctor T'Soni," he said, leaning in again, only to have his lips meet her soft cheek.

"I think that you've stolen quite enough for the moment, than you!" she said, smirking haughtily at him from the corner of her eye.

"Especially considering that he's doing it at a time and place where giving all of those promised kisses can neither be done properly nor is it advisable," Jaina joined in, speaking right over Liara's shoulder.

"And he won't be getting any, either," Liara agreed coyly.

Marcus narrowed his eyes, smirking. "Are you giving me the cheek, Doctor T'Soni?"

"Are you complaining?" Jaina countered, plastering against Liara's back, and hugging her deeply from behind as Liara leaned back into her. "I reckon it is a very nice cheek," she continued and planted a slow, sensuous kiss on it. "A very soft, a very tasty cheek," she crooned with her deep, husky voice, continuing to kiss.

She tasted Liara's readily-offered cheek once more, slowly, sensuously, with both Liara and her making sure to maintain an eye contact with him.

"Mmm… I think I'll keep it all for myself, thank you very much," Jaina said, licking her lips.

"And I think my cheek would be in much better hands that way," Liara added, smirking. "Who knows what kind of lecherous thoughts our commander might have; wooing no less than two girls at once…"

"We can't have that, now, can we," Jaina crooned from next to Liara's ear, looking straight at Marcus with an evil little glint in her eye.

"No, we can not," Liara agreed, her own voice sinking just as deep and husky as Jaina's. "He needs to have his head straight if he is to prepare his team and his ship for future missions."

"And frolicking around with no less than two girls would cause some other head to be straight, wouldn't it?" Jaina said, her hands trailing across Liara's front. "Just think about it: two girls in his bed, their naked bodies entwined, kissing, gasping, licking…"

"He'd never get any work done," Liara said breathily.

"We can't have that, either."

"Most certainly not."

At that moment, Marcus was sure he must've done something right in his previous life to deserve this. To deserve them. Can't imagine what that could've been, though, he thought.

His breath was deep and labored, a deep growl at the back of it bubbling through. His heart was pounding hard – not fast, but hard – and something else was trying just as hard to break through his armor's codpiece. His teeth were gently grinding, and his tongue was licking across the sharp tips of his fangs as he fought of the urge to pounce right then and there.

A long, hot breath slowly left his chest.

He stepped back and crossed his hands casually over his chest to stop them from shaking, and his mouth curled into a ghost of a predatory grin as his eyes pierced the two women.

When he spoke, his voice was an octave deeper, with a dangerous, animalistic edge to it he couldn't control:

"Are you two girls sure you want to play this game?"

An excitement flashed briefly in both of the women's eyes at the tone of his voice, their pupils dilating.

"But, whatever do you mean, Commander Shepard?" Jaina asked huskily from across Liara's shoulder as she dug her fingers into the asari's hips. Despite armor, she could feel Liara's body trembling uncontrollably.

"I think our commander thinks we have ulterior motives," Liara spoke deeply, turning her head and nuzzling against Jaina's cheek for a moment. "He thinks we have sinister plans for him."

"And we may just do," Jaina agreed.

"The trouble is, he can't do anything about it right now, can he?" Liara finished, both of them sending him a pair of piercing, smoldering glares.

"No, he cannot," Jaina agreed as she shifted, taking Liara by the hand and slowly beginning to lead them backwards out of the office. "He'll just have to stew a bit and think on his actions."

As they walked back through the door, a dangerous and determined predatory glare was following them out. Watching. Waiting. Promising. He practically radiated the bestial determination. She could swear she could sense it like a palpable thing, washing over her, penetrating into her pores… She could barely breathe!

Just then, the sliding doors closed, and just like that, a blazing inferno seemed to have been cut. She took a deep breath.

Hook, line, and sinker, she realized. She just wasn't sure who was the one hooked.

For a moment, there was a fleeting thought that they might not have finished all that was and could be said about Virmire, but she didn't care. Looking sideways at the very much hot and bothered Liara, she knew that she too didn't care… and there was no chance in hell that Marcus had had enough blood left in his brain to care.

"Go," Jaina ordered breathily to Liara. "Shoo, before I lose my calm and devour you instead! Find some work to cool off."

Liara bit her lip and trotted away, grinning, with Jaina going away to find the stairs on the opposite side.

Back in the office, with the women gone, Marcus took a few deep breaths, gathering his wits, before he slowly turned and delivered a vicious sideways punch into the desk's edge with his ungloved hand.

He grunted in pain and looked down to see a gash across his knuckles. It sobered him up a bit. He was thankful for it.

Those two girls had had no idea what that had been like for him.

His Prothean senses were giving him a whole new spectrum of sensations, and the emotions and arousal that both of them were exuding were almost overwhelming. He could feel every single spec. Every single nuance of what they felt. They were sending it all his way. It was like a palpable thing that radiated from them, coating him and calling to him. He barely had the facilities to keep the beast away.

He used the adjacent bathroom of Actus's office to wash his face, neck, and hands, washing away the residual trails of Jaina and Liara, breathing a sigh of relief. The office air was still thick with them, though.

He left the office and descended from the upper floor, ignoring the trail the two women had left behind them. Reaching the main warehouse section, he cast his gaze around.

Ashley and Kaidan were off to one side. Kaidan was sitting on a crate, his head bowed, with Ash standing behind him and gently, with feather-light touches, installing a new biotic amp they'd found among Actus's stashes to the back of his neck where the implant socket was.

"Ash, it's okay, I'm not made of glass," he could hear Kaidan speak through a chuckle.

"Shush!" Ashley admonished as she inserted the amp with dotting care.

From the other side, Tali's voice drifted in, "No, you idiot, you'll ruin it!"

"I know what I'm doing!" Garrus argued back in exasperation as he manipulated the newly-discovered tech while simultaneously trying to shrug off Tali that was trying to bat his hands away from the device.

"No, you're doing it all wrong!" she fought back. "Do it like this!"

Marcus snorted, finally turning his eyes to find Wrex next to a large weapon cache, handling a small, compact flamethrower like it was a puppy he had just found.

Marcus took a deep breath and nodded. All was right with the world.

It was then that his comm link buzzed, and Joker's voice came through:

"Uh, Joker to mo- uhh… to Commanders Marcus and Jaina Shepard… it looks like we have an Alliance cruiser and two frigates in a transference trajectory toward Tuntau's lower orbit!"

From the other side of the warehouse, Jaina joined in on the comms, walking back to join up with Marcus:

"How come we hadn't detected them sooner? We left our own probes in orbit," she demanded.

"Well, you're not gonna believe this, but it looks like both of the frigates are Normandy-class!" Joker replied animatedly. "The IFF pings them as SR-1001 and 1002, the SSVs Red Cliff and Kursk. And I've never seen a cruiser like that, but I'll be damned if it doesn't have an IES too! All their radiator hatches just opened and they're venting heat like a volcano! Uh… standby, we've got an incoming transmission…"

They waited a few moments before Joker's excited voice came back through:

"Commanders, you're not gonna believe who I have on the line! Patching you through…"

There was a click of the channel being switched, and a familiar voice came through:

"Commanders," Anderson spoke, mirth evident in his voice, "Surprise!"

Jaina's face split into a gaping grin and she beamed at Marcus, and a rich, reverberating laughter of happiness exploded out from Marcus's throat. All the more things were turning up to be right with the world.

.

---

.

Marcus and Jaina stood on the CIC of the SSV Perseus, admiring the unconventional layout.

Unlike the frontline combatants such as frigates, cruisers, and dreadnoughts, the carriers that Humanity had introduced showed a markedly different approach. All walls of the CIC were, in fact, massive video projectors, transmitting a live feed of the carrier's outside as seen from its communications spire in a 360-degree. Despite there being plenty of sensors to report with higher accuracy, the visual cues of strike craft's takeoff and landing were still considered important by the Alliance.

Unlike the Normandy's CIC, the Perseus's was showing a much greater hubbub, typical of a true mobile base responsible for handling the numerous craft. It was more than just a ship's bridge; it was a full flight control and task force operations center.

A light shudder went through the ship's superstructure, and the two commanders watched as a pair of fighters were catapulted out of the large side hangar bays.

"Alert-3 launched and assumed trajectory," an operator reported.

"Alert-1 on approach…" another one called, and Marcus and Jaina looked back where the feed of the rear of the ship was shown and saw a pair of specs that were the strike craft approaching at extreme velocity before the ship's mass effect fields engulfed them, arrested their speed and guided them into the rear landing bays.

The Perseus was built upon the same base operating principle that all Alliance carriers were. It had two pairs of main flight decks: upper and lower, both pairs running on either side of the ship's central body. The upper pair of flight decks were the main landing decks, arrayed lengthwise on either side of the upper body of the ship. A fighter would approach the carrier from its rear where a huge mass effect field would capture it, align it with one of the two landing bay entrances at the rear of the ship, and then arrest its velocity when it got close and guide it into the ship. If the capture field failed at that point for whatever reason, the fighter would just pass unopposed through the entire length of the landing deck and exit at the corresponding frontal exit, which was designed to act as a secondary launch pad if needed.

If the fighter was successfully arrested, it would come to a complete stop at one-third of the landing deck's length where an elevator platform would lower it to the service bay for an automated service or resupply. From there, the fighter would be moved forward into one of the corresponding main launch decks that ran the front two-thirds of the ship on port and starboard sides. The fighters were launched perpendicularly to the ship's axis through the huge hangar doors, enabling an entire carrier strike wing to be launched in under 30 seconds. And it was a damn impressive display. No matter the species, the sight of dozens of strike craft exploding like a starburst on their sensors would give everyone a pause.

"Alert-1 docked," came the response from the operator.

"Status of or surface team?" Anderson demanded from his command post.

"Surface team reports a touchdown at the enemy base, sir," an operator reported.

"Good. Have them pick up the prisoners and secure the pirate equipment." He smirked at the two commanders, adding, "If there's anything left, that is."

Marcus and Jaina smirked at him from the side, both shrugging innocently.

He stepped down from his command post and motioned for the two of them to follow him into his 'sea-cabin' that was adjacent to the CIC.

"Sam, take over," he said to his XO.

"Aye, sir," the woman replied, replacing him on the command post.

"You know, this is one damn impressive ship," Marcus said as they stepped into his office. "Almost makes me jealous."

"Turn captain and you might get one as well," Anderson retorted as he sat down at his office desk.

"Nah," Jaina said as she sat down opposite him. "The Normandy handles much better."

"Careful; you're slowly turning into another Joker," Anderson cautioned. "The Universe has one too many already."

"Well, I certainly wouldn't want that, though I'd have to agree on her point," Marcus said as he approached the big screen where Perseus's wireframe with its life-feed status was being displayed. "The Perseus is a mobile base. Small, but a mobile base still. It's perfect for fleet actions. For a Spectre, though, the Normandy is a much better bet. Faster, and a lower profile."

Anderson chuckled. "You got that right. With what its eezo core is like, the Perseus might compete with your run-o-the-mill frigate, but as my two escorts had shown, its speed and maneuverability are nothing compared to the Normandy class."

"Still can't believe they managed to install an IES system into a ship this huge," Jaina said. She then narrowed her eyes. "Which kinda begs the question of how come a ship like this, escorted by no less than additional two, brand-new Normandy-class frigates is here?"

"What? I couldn't have been in the neighborhood and just decided to drop by?" Anderson joked.

Jaina gave him a doubting smirk, narrowing her eyes and scrunching up her face as she shook her head at him.

"I don't buy it," she said good-naturedly. "This planet is in the god's end of nowhere. The base on it? We barely had a hunch about its location. Nope. You were purposefully tracking us down. But what's even scarier is that ever since we got to this system, we were under IES the whole time."

"Which means," Marcus picked up, wagging his finger at Anderson, "that the Alliance has a system specifically designed to detect stealth ships."

Anderson threw his hands out in defeat, rolling his eyes as he sank back into his chair.

"I cannot believe this," he muttered incredulously. "You two really don't waste time dissecting the situation and laying it out in the open, do you?"

"What can we say, sir, we're that amazing," Jaina shrugged. "So – what's this new system all about?"

Anderson harrumphed. "I cannot confirm nor deny the existence of anything in the likes of what you say."

"Oh, come now, sir, we know that's exactly what you wanted us to know about," Jaina retorted, grinning.

Anderson smirked, tapping the side of his nose in a conspiratorial gesture.

"The Alliance would be grateful if the Spectre's right hand would drop the subject," he said pointedly. "Though, honestly, even if I did have such a system, I had still had to use some deductive methods to track you down… you two move so quickly all over the place that no one could track you."

"Well, wouldn't that be the point?" Marcus said. "You already have two stealth frigates in your group that you can use to test this, so it's not a problem to see if it works. The true test would be managing to find a stealth ship that you truly have no idea where it is."

Anderson snorted. "Yes, I suppose that's what I would have done if I had that kind of system."

"I'm sure you would," Jaina commented dryly, then leaned forward in her chair. "So what's next for you? This 'accidental' encounter couldn't have been the only thing your task group was tasked to do. Seeking us out just to say 'hi' would be a grand waste on par with 'Let's send our brandest, newest stealth ship to recover some Prothean artifact from some backward agrarian paradise world'."

Anderson laughed out loud, his rich voice filling the room.

"It's true, I do have a different mission," he admitted in a tone that clearly stated it had nothing to do with the Normandy. "It's classified, though. I can't and I won't speak of any details; you know the drill. As for why I tracked down the Normandy, there is more than just trying to see whether we could. The Alliance is slowly beginning to consolidate its comm systems, and we're switching from military comm buoys to QECs one ship at a time. Deep space operations warships – the ones that get deployed deep behind enemy lines or far away from the main fleets – get the priority for such systems, and the Normandy is one such ship."

"The Alliance wants to know where we are at all times," Marcus concluded.

"Can you blame them?" Anderson retorted. "With the Normandy being a part of a Spectre outfit, nobody in the Alliance knows anymore where their ship is most of the time nor how to contact it in case shit, and I was the only one who could track you down! Talk about being relegated to an errand-boy duty."

Marcus and Jaina laughed in turn.

"Well, the comm room was designed with that in mind," Jaina said. "The Council had provided us a direct-link QEC module when Marcus took command of the ship."

"And now, Hackett has given me the order to provide the Normandy with the additional two, Alliance-built modules," Anderson said. "One links to Arcturus. The other links to the Perseus. Both are limited in bandwidth, merely 128 kBps, but are more than sufficient for what is needed. Here are the official documents…" He passed the datapad to Jaina. "With this, the Alliance is officially notifying Marcus, a Spectre to whom the ship was loaned, as well as the Council, that it will be installing those two modules on its ship – finally!"

"No argument from me," Marcus commented as he glanced at the documents over Jaina's shoulder, then looked up at Anderson. "Though, I assume there is an ulterior motive to this than just being able to contact Normandy whenever?"

Anderson sighed, lacing his fingers.

"Off the record," he spoke, "the Perseus and its escorts are about to pull some nasty shit in the upcoming future. Hopefully, the trouble we're about to stir will remain on the recipient's end. If, however, the whole thing goes fubar, it'd be good to have a few good men we can trust on a speed dial. And," he added pointedly, "that very same arrangement would work both ways."

He paused and nodded significantly. "The Perseus has got your back, Shepards. Never doubt that."

Marcus and Jaina shared a solemn look with him, nodding back.

"Never will," Marcus replied.

"Alright," Anderson said, his face splitting into a giant grin. "Now tell me what those former shipmates of mine have been up to since!"

.

---

.

An hour and a half later, the Normandy sped on its way out of Tuntau's star system, leaving the Perseus task group to head its own way.

"Damn, it was so good to see Captain's got his wings back!" Jaina spoke as she and Marcus walked into the comm room.

He nodded. "You have no idea how good it makes me feel now that I know that he'll be watching our backs as well."

"And that we're not the only ones out here, either," she added.

He hummed, nodding. "Perhaps he'll be able to provide some assistance with Virmire," he said.

She tilted her head, thinking on it.

"Perhaps, but I don't wanna drag him away from his mission. It sounds important enough if he's keeping quiet about it." She sighed deeply. "And let's not jump to conclusions, kay? At this point, we don't know anything about the situation on that planet other than being pretty damn sure Saren's base is there. We don't know how big it is, how well entrenched, what manpower he has…"

Marcus chewed the inside of his cheek in thought, then activated the comm room's display with his omni-tool and brought up Virmire's 3D projection into the comm room's center.

"Whatever the case, we can't go in there blindly," she said as she scrutinized the projection together at his side. "If it is Saren's base of operations, then it's reasonable to assume that Sovereign would be there or near, and then there's the contingent of geth warships. Getting in there and remaining undetected in stealth mode is a given considering the improvements we've made, but…"

"But?"

"But what if he's not there?" she pointed out. "Saren is not the kind of guy to sit around, that much is clear, and his recent track shows that he's been very mobile. Eden Prime, Feros… His goal is to find the entrance to the Conduit, and you can't search for something by sitting in one place. My bet is that he's mobile even as we speak. If we go to Virmire now, we'd have to wait for him to show up. Meanwhile, he gets to roam unchecked all over the Traverse and the Terminus in his quest."

"And merely destroying the base while he's not around…"

"Will only slow him down until he sets up somewhere else, and we get thrown back to square one," she agreed. "This way we know where he is. We can corner him there when he appears."

He nodded. "But in order to do that, we'd need another set of eyes and ears on that planet," he said. "Because we cannot afford to be the ones to sit in a stakeout for what could be weeks."

"Ideas?" she asked.

"The Council," he said. "We send the intel and convince them to scout out and monitor the Hoc system – at the very least the relay transit to and from."

"Why stop there?" Jaina said, then squinted her eyes, a small smile tugging at the corner of her lips. "Let's pressure them a bit; make them send an STG team planetside, check out exactly what is there. We get an early grounds layout for a possible infiltration and a surgical strike."

"I like how you think," he smirked. "I'll go to the CIC and set us up on a course for the Citadel. We'll need to restock our ordnance anyway, so we might as well do this in person."

"Alright," she nodded, then continued seriously. "Meanwhile, I'll go talk to Liara. We'll see if her network can be set up to sift through and pick up any real-time updates about Virmire that comes from the other side of the Galaxy – the Terminus parties and whoever else could provide the data."

Marcus barked a laugh.

"Lie to someone else!" he exclaimed, grinning. "Your meeting with Liara will be extremely effective in achieving its goals, but we both know it'll have nothing to do with Virmire."

Jaina was already walking, shooting him a teasing smirk over her shoulder as she skipped away towards the door, her chin-length hair bobbing along the way.

"I don't know what you're talking about, husband!"

"Uh-huh," he said doubtfully, smirking. "You better make sure she gets a kiss from me, ya hear! Or else…" he warned.

.

---

.

As soon as she left the comm room, Jaina descended down to the crew deck and went straight for Liara's quarters.

Reaching the doors, she tapped the amber hologram to ring the bell and wait it out. Instead, the doors immediately pinged and opened up for her. Huh, she thought. Liara had set up her lock to grant full access to her. Only a privacy hologram that spanned the doorway now masked what's on the other side. Interesting.

She grinned and stepped through.

The moment she did, her eyes were filled with blue as a sinuous body slammed into her, pressing firmly against her, with a pair of soft, wet lips sealing against hers in a scalding, passionate kiss.

A sudden, shocking, and a very welcomed kiss.

Jaina hummed appreciatively, her hands slithering around Liara's waist to press against the small of her back and between the shoulder blades, drawing the girl deeper in and deliberately preventing any escape while she drank from the hot spring of those young lips.

She spun them both around and pushed the other female toward the wall, Liara's leg lashing out and hooking tightly around the back of Jaina's thigh, keeping herself firmly in her prey's possession as she was pressed against the wall.

The kiss ended with a resounding smack.

The two women were left staring deeply into each other's eyes, millimeters apart, panting, their breaths mixing, exchanging.

"My, my," Jaina murmured contently, "Looks like someone's a very happy kitten today."

Liara blushed harder, suddenly looking the innocent bashful girl.

"I couldn't help it," she murmured with a pouty face. "You and Marcus… back on the planet, you made me so… so…"

"Hot and bothered?" Jaina supplied.

Liara squeezed her leg tighter around Jaina's thigh, making her chuckle.

"Well now, isn't that nice," Jaina murmured, then rubbed her forefinger against the side of Liara's cheek. It was feverish and pillow-soft. "I think I'm beginning to like this customary asari greeting you taught me more and more by the minute," she added, gazing into Liara's eyes.

A small, coy smile graced Liara's lips as she looked down.

"That… wasn't exactly the traditional greeting I taught you," she said slowly, haltingly, her voice a shade of dusky bedroom silk.

"Oh? You're saying there are others?"

"Mhm," Liara nodded, taking advantage. "What I taught you before was letenyos. A greeting kiss for close friends that's shared regularly."

She reached forward, planting a quick kiss on Jaina's lips. Quick, and lips only, but resounding. A kiss you give to someone you like. A kiss that spouses shared when leaving for work that made you all tingly and ready to tackle the day.

As they separated and licked their lips, savoring the taste, Liara continued:

"Then, there's letanya," she said, leaning in for a slow, deep, and lingering kiss. No tongue, but it bore all the weight and passion of caring. It spread warmth and content and comfort, and made them both breathless when they separated. Liara said, "That one is for when close friends reunite after a long, long time apart."

Jaina hummed again as she licked her lips.

"More?" she begged, scrunching her eyebrows pleadingly.

Liara smirked.

"Uh-uh," she denied firmly, shaking her head. "Marcus isn't here. It wouldn't be right."

"Huh? Why?" Jaina whined in protest. "He did instruct me to give you a kiss from him, you know!"

"Ahah," Liara chuckled. "I believe that. But don't you think it would be fair for him to get some of the kisses too? After all," she took Jaina's hand and placed it on the swell of her hip, "I'm your girlfriend now. Yours and his. And I ain't letting either of you go."

Jaina's eyes twinkled brightly, her lips like that of a cat that ate a canary.

"Now that is a very good news," she said empathically. "What brought the change of mind?"

"I've… been thinking about what you said down on the surface," Liara said, her voice breathy. "I think you're right. After everything the three of us have shared… it's obvious I've been your girlfriend all this time already, haven't I? There's no point in dancing around it or proclaiming it as public. It just is. So – there it is, I'm saying it! I'm your girlfriend, and Marcus is our boyfrie… no, wait, he's your husband… oh, shoot! This is so confusing!"

Jaina snorted out a laugh. Liara giggled with her.

"In any case," Liara continued, "I think that this girlfriend setup gets you some privileges when we're in private. Such as cuddles and stuff."

"Ooh! And foot rubs and back scratches!" Jaina added enthusiastically. "Marcus loves his back and belly scratches."

"What else?" Liara demanded eagerly, hopping in place against Jaina.

"Mm-mm!" Jaina refused, lifting her nose high and shaking her head sagely. "Nope. I demand kisses as payment."

"Jaina!" Liara whined, slapping her fist against Jaina's chest. "I told you, it's not fair to Marcus! He should be there when we kiss and when we…" she blushed furiously. "When we do whatever else we happen to be doing in the future. I know this. I did extensive research on the extranet. Human males love seeing two girls kissing, and I want to make him happy with it!"

Jaina narrowed her eyes at her, smirking. "My my… what a bunch of diwty little thoughts you have, Doctor T'Soni. 'Exploring' on the extranet, hmm? What you should have said is 'when the three of us have sex'."

Liara slapped her fist against Jaina's chest once more.

"Stop teasing!" she protested, her pretty face turning indigo as she looked away.

Jaina chuckled warmly, bringing Liara's chin back toward her, then tapped the tip of Liara's nose and wiggled her finger against it.

"Well, aren't you a caring one," she said. "I'm happy to know that you think of him like that. But you are also very wrong thinking that Marcus would be left out. Have you forgotten that he has Prothean abilities now?"

Liara's big eyes became like saucers as she looked up at the other woman.

"You see," Jaina spoke more huskily as she pressed closer against her, rubbing their bodies gently side-to-side, "the moment I get within an arm's reach of him, he is going to pick up the traces of you all over me. Once he touches me, he'll get to see and experience everything that both of us felt at this moment. And, once his lips touch mine, he'll get to taste every single peck you gave me today. And there's nothing you can do about it."

With their breasts pressed tightly together, Jaina felt the beat of Liara's heart rising by the second to a thundering staccato. Such a beautiful and soulful rhythm beating against her own.

Liara closed her eyes, exhaling laboriously and taking a deep breath. When her blue eyes opened and rose to meet the other woman's, Jaina knew instantly that Liara wasn't looking at her.

"Then," Liara spoke, "this kiss is for you, Marcus."

Hugging Jaina's neck, she leaned in and dove in for a true, deep kiss. And, for the first time, their tongues snaked out between their lips, touching gently in their first ever greeting that grew into a long, sensuous dance. It was lasting, titillating and bearing all the need and greed that had sat in frustration all this time.

They separated after what seemed like an eternity, their foreheads touching and their noses rubbing, and the two of them just basking in the afterglow of that first true kiss. Jaina knew that, even though the kiss was ultimately meant for Marcus to sense through her, she was meant to be the recipient just as much as he.

"I'll make sure he gets it," she managed as they slowly regained their breath. She then grinned. "Boy, but you asari sure love kissing all the time, don't you?"

"Why wouldn't we?" Liara shrugged. "Kissing feels good and makes you feel good for a long while. It mends. It keeps the pain away. It lifts your spirits. It makes both minds happy and their mind melds pleasurable. Kissing is a big part of our asari culture. It's an integral part of our everyday lives." She then shrugged sheepishly. "That is why all other species make all those stereotypes about our promiscuity."

"Says a girl in a threeway relationship with her commanding officer and his wife," Jaina teased.

"Says a girl that made that threeway happening her sacred mission," Liara mock-protested. "And is still teasing!"

"You're complaining? After how both of us teased Marcus earlier?"

A big smirk fought its way onto Liara's lips as she spent a moment in silent reflection, sharing a conspiring look with Jaina from the corner of her eye as she silently conceded the point.

"Felt good, didn't it?" Jaina prodded conspiringly.

"Good?!" Liara exclaimed. "Did you see that look in his eyes when we were walking away from him?! It was… it was like…"

"Like a predator about to break his chain?"

"Yes!" Liara exclaimed even more vehemently. "It looked like he was about to pounce on us right then and there, but at the same time he was looking at us as if saying he was letting us off the hook just this once. But there was this promise in his gaze that he wouldn't let us get away with it."

Jaina leaned in closer, inches away from Liara's face, and spoke huskily:

"Are you're telling me you don't like it, hmm?"

Liara held her breath for a split second.

"I loved every second of it," she groaned out, her voice deep, grave, and just as husky as Jaina's. "When he looked at me like that, it was like an electric bolt struck me deep in my chest. It was as if all the heat left my limbs and surged down into my stomach and all the way down there. I wanted him to pounce at me. I wanted him to ravage me whole."

"And he would have, too, if we had been in the privacy of our quarters," Jaina replied, then added sinisterly, "And there'd be nothing you could do about it."

"What happened to us girls sticking together and making sinister plans against him?" Liara protested jokingly. "Wouldn't you have protected me?"

"Protected you? I'd have held you down for him!" Jaina exclaimed, pinning Liara's wrists on the wall to the sides of her head. "And then, he would kiss you like this –" A big, wet kiss smacked into Liara's neck, and Liara squealed. "And like this –" Another on the collar bone and another squeal, "And like this –" on her cheek.

Liara was squealing, and giggling, and squirming halfheartedly in Jaina's grasp as kisses rained down relentlessly on her sensitive and ticklish spots. Jaina could practically feel the girl's giddiness and excitement resonating from her, craving and fearing more of the sweet torment. Her body was singing to her, begging. And she was more than willing to cater out to Liara's needs.

After torturing the sweet girl with a few more precious kisses, she relented after a final, strongest kiss to the notch at the bottom of her neck, leaving Liara panting and grinning excitedly inch away from Jaina's smiling face.

"So, that's what will happen once he catches you, see," Jaina said sagely. "Exactly the thing that is our ultimate goal. But until that happens, we tease mercilessly and keep our man on his toes. Girls can't let boys know what we truly want from them – it'd go straight to their heads!"

Liara narrowed her eyes suspiciously, struggling to speak properly from the lost breath. "Didn't you say that Marcus can use his Prothean senses to see what we talked about just now, which would mean that it kinda invalidates our efforts?"

Jaina snorted. "Please. I know a mental trick or two, and I've got a good handle on his Prothean abilities. He's only going to get to see the kisses; not the details to our evil, sinister plans on how to keep him on the edge."

Liara shuddered excitedly.

"Ohhh, this is so much different than what it is among asari," she said. "Or compared to how it is with you. With other girls it's sensuous, but with males, it's so raw, and rough, and bestial… and it feels so right!"

"Of course it does! It's only natural for any girl to be attracted to men like Marcus. But like I said, we can't let them know it. Come then, my young padawan," Jaina guided her. "Let the big sister continue teaching you the secrets of manipulating men."

Liara snorted a laugh. "Big sister? One who's almost 80 years my junior?"

"Shush!" Jaina chided good-naturedly.

Whatever she was about to say next was interrupted when Liara's terminal began to buzz in a rhythmic warning tune.

Liara's head shot toward the display screens. She just looked at the terminal for a second, her features in alert concentration, before giving Jaina a grave look and gently dragging her by the hand to her work desk. Jaina couldn't miss the change in her demeanor, the blush of excitement and arousal immediately retreating to leave a serious, consternated visage.

"This is a specialized warning I've made to ring if any message were to come carrying certain keywords," Liara said somberly.

"Let me guess," Jaina said knowingly. "Saren and Benezia?"

Liara just nodded gravely. She seemed to hesitate for just one moment before she reached out and tapped a blinking button. The message was brought up on screen, and Liara read through it in short order. When she finished, she exhaled slowly, composing herself.

"This message is from one of my Illium contacts, Enyota," Liara conveyed. "She's using code phrases we developed."

"Do you know what she conveyed?"

Liara nodded. "She has found information on Benezia, but she cannot share through a comm link, and she cannot convey her finds via phrases. Jaina, she has fled Ilium. Whatever she has found… it must be the real deal if she felt worried for her safety."

"Where will she be then?"

"The Citadel. She's already there. I'd have to contact her once we get there for her to send us the location of the meeting."

"Then it's a good thing we're returning there right as we speak," Jaina said, then nodded. "I'll notify Marcus. And you!" She delivered a sharp, stinging slap on Liara's tush, making her yelp in shock. "You better stay hot and bothered, because Marcus is about to be getting those kisses!"

As she walked backwards toward the doors, pointing a warning finger at Liara, she watched the young asari's initial shock morph into smolders of a seductress as her sexuality took over, her body losing tension and melting into a pose that screamed sexy confidence.

Good, Jaina thought. Liara needed that confidence. A confrontation with her mother was fast approaching, and whatever the outcome, there's no way it could be fluffy bunnies and rainbows. She wanted Liara to strut into that battle like she owned the place, and once over, she wanted there to be no hesitation in Liara's mind to return and seek comfort in hers and Marcus's embrace.

After all, she was their girlfriend now.

..