Akuze. 2100 Hours Earth Pacific Standard Time. October 22nd 2177.
Three men stood around the base of the colony. The latest shipment of supplies was just about to arrive, and they needed it desperately. Their crops were taking longer to grow than anticipated, and there were not very many native animals that were safe for human consumption.
They continued standing near where the ship was supposed to land. As time passed, they started looking concerned. The ship was running late. Fifteen minutes later, they opened up their omni-tools to try and contact the captain of the vessel.
Just as they did so, three massive objects fell from the sky, and burrowed into the ground with such speed that the force of their tunneling sent ripples through the ground, that knocked the three men flat on their asses.
Then, just as they were about to get back on their feet, three thresher maws burst from the ground, each spearing a man with their glowing blue 'tongues.' The few dozen other colonists saw the thresher maws rise from the ground, and started running away in terror. One tripped as he ran past the beacon which had been set up in the case of an emergency.
As he stumbled to get back on his feet, he accidentally slightly dislodged the cable connecting it to the colony's universal generator. As he finished standing back up, he hit the button to activate it, and started running again.
As they ran, the maws quickly lost interest, and disappeared underground once more. The colonists let out a sigh of relief, before an old man who had been the head of the colony, asked, "Did anyone manage to activate the beacon?"
"I did, sir." the young man who had tripped said.
"Good work, boy. With luck the Alliance will get here soon, and kill those things." the old man said, "We should get further from the colony. We don't know how large an area those things will consider their territory."
"Understood." the colonists said, as they walked further from their homes. Never to be seen again.
-=0=-
Sarah stepped into the N7 Operations Center on Arcturus Station. Inside she was greeted by Admiral Hackett who said, "Shepard, I'm sorry to call you in on New Year's Eve, but we've got a situation that the Alliance wants you to handle."
"What is it, Sir?" Sarah asked.
"You are to lead a unit to the colony of Akuze. The last transmission we received was in October, and recently the colony's distress beacon has come online. We think the odds are in favor of batarian raiders being the culprits."
"I'll investigate it right away, Sir. When is the debrief?"
"Fifty minutes, Shepard. Debriefing room seven."
"I'll be there, sir." she replied, as she walked away.
When the debriefing started, Hackett said, "You are a hand picked platoon of the Alliance's best soldiers. Your mission is simple. Go to the Akuze colony, and find out what happened there. If there are any surviving colonists, insure that they are brought back to Alliance space without further harm."
"And if there are no survivors?" Jennifer asked.
"Kill whatever destroyed the colony, and return to base alive. Lieutenant Commander Shepard will have command of this operation. Are we clear?"
"Yes, sir!" The unit replied.
"Sir," Sarah said, "if I am going to be in command of this unit, I would like to bring in some non-Alliance specialists for this mission."
"Depending on the price and how long it will take for them to join, we'll consider it."
"They should come cheap." Sarah said, as she walked up to the projector. She hit a button on her omni-tool, and said, "First off is Miranda Lawson. She's an excellent shot and has very potent biotic abilities. Considering the fact that she is a very close personal friend of mine, I believe she will come along for free." an image of Shepard and Miranda fighting a few Blue Suns popping up on the screen.
"Next, is Subject Zero, AKA Jack. She's an incredibly powerful biotic, But don't let her number of tattoos fool you, they aren't because she's trying to look tougher than she actually is. She is one of the craziest, deadliest bitches you'll ever have the displeasure of meeting. If she hadn't helped me out with a very sensitive situation, I would not trust her." Sarah said, as a picture of Jack slamming two Eclipse into each other with such force that their bodies were liquified.
"Third is Jacob Taylor. He's a Corsair and also has biotic abilities. As well as a wealth of experience that should prove useful." she said, no image of Jacob showing up. "Fourth, and last, is Urdnot Wrex. A krogan warrior of unprecedented skill. He's been said to kill a massive creature native to Tuchanka known as a thresher maw. While on foot. If this is true, then he'll definitely by useful against anything that Akuze can throw at us."
"The other three we can get," Hackett said, "But, that krogan sounds like he will cost way too much."
"Drop my name." Sarah replied, "He'll come for free."
"Why would that work?" Hackett asked.
"It's a bit of a long story. It involves that pic of Miri and I fighting some Blue Suns, and a copious amount of bullets. Let's just say that in the heat of battle I earned his respect, and he earned mine."
"Alright, we'll try it." Hackett said, "If he agrees to come, he'll be there. You are to investigate the colony in three day's time. We'll have those others here in time for that. You are dismissed."
"Good." Sarah said. "I'll be in my quarters if you need to contact me, Sir."
Hackett nodded, as the group of soldiers left the room. Once the others had gone on their own separate ways, Jennifer said, "This is it, isn't it? Where shit hit the fan before?"
"What makes you ask that?" Sarah replied.
"The fact that you're bringing in so many people who aren't standard Alliance. We've been working with you for three and a half years now, Shepard. You have never before called for help outside the Alliance."
"So what if it is where things went bad before? I have a plan for handling whatever is on Akuze."
"And I'm guessing those people you're bringing in are part of that plan."
"My plans are my own." Sarah said. "But what about the guy I've been telling you to keep an eye out for? Have you seen him or anything that may indicate he's tampering with events to make things go his way?"
"No." Jason said. "You're too paranoid about this Halthas guy. It has been nearly three years since you have seen or heard him."
"I'm not being paranoid, Jason." Sarah replied, "He's still out there, working on his plans. Trying to find a way to force me to initiate synthesis. But this time he knows that he can't go after Miri. There are too many things in his way."
"So, you think that he's just laying low before doing something to make everything go to shit."
"Yeah. You've got to know your enemy if you want to have any chance of beating him."
"Right. So, from what you've been able to glean of him, you know that he isn't going to just give up and let us beat the Reapers. That's fantastic. Do you have a plan to stop the whole Saren incident?"
"Not all of it. I'll try to give Nihlus a bit of a warning."
"How so?"
"I'll tell him not to trust any of his own kind. That if he does, it'll lead to his own demise."
"Are you sure he'll listen to you?" Jennifer asked.
"No, but I know that if I keep my mouth shut, that he'll definitely die."
"Fair enough."
"But, that's enough questions. You two need to do your prep. Miri will be showing up tomorrow, as will Jack, Jacob, and Wrex."
"Alright." Jennifer said, "I guess you want us to leave a good impression on Ms. Lawson?"
"No. What I want is for you to be in your best possible condition. We have work to do,a fter all."
"You're always so serious. You need to learn to relax."
"Lives are on the line, Jennifer. If I wasn't serious, it would be doing a disservice to the task in front of us."
"Alright, alright." she said.
-=0=-
The next morning, Sarah opened her eyes, to see Miranda sitting beside her chair. "Hey, babe." the Commander said. "How've you been?"
"Busy, like you." The Operative said, with a small smile. "It's good to see you again."
"Yeah. How'd that thing you needed to do go?"
"It went well. No problems. It would have gone worse if Kasumi wasn't around."
"Oh, how is she doing?"
"Pretty good. She's the one who managed to keep Cerberus off of Jack's trail so that she can be on this mission."
"I'll have to send her a thank you note." Sarah said. "Have the others shown up yet?"
"Not yet. I was sure to be here early, so we'd have some time to catch up before leaving. Are you sure you're ready to do this mission again? After what happened the first time?"
Sarah nodded, and said, "Yeah. I'll be fine. No thresher maw is going to hurt even one cell on you."
"You'd better not do anything that gets yourself killed. I'm not ready to have to spend two years putting you back together. I've already done it twice."
"Don't worry, you should only have to do it once more." Sarah said, resting her head on Miranda's shoulder. "Then the Reapers will be gone, we'll have found a way to kill Halthas and the last Leviathans, and we can just live happily ever after, like the world's most cliched yet unique fairy tale."
Miranda laughed and asked, "Will we retire into a large house in the countryside, and have a few kids? Then one of us dies, the other remarries, and we start another cliched fairy tale?"
"Nah. I prefer the one where we keep on living. We have a couple centuries together on this earth, then all eternity as Lucis Entia. And if any of them have an issue with you becoming one, they'll have to answer to me."
"If things go how you're wanting them to, I don't think any of them would dare to challenge that. And are you sure that you'd want to spend all eternity with me?"
"Why wouldn't I? Are you saying you'd not want to spend eternity with me?"
"No!" Miranda quickly said, "It's just, no one's ever..."
Sarah pulled the Operative into her arms, and said- her voice soft, "Miranda, I love you more than anything in this galaxy. There is nothing I wouldn't do to make you safe and happy. You are more important to me than anything else in my life."
Miranda smiled, as a tear formed on the corner of her eye, and she said, "Thank you, Sarah. I-I" she started choking on her words, but managed to regain her composure, and said, "I feel the same."
Sarah smiled, and whispered in Miranda's ear, "I know, Miri. If I thought you didn't, I wouldn't have said it. Because if there's one thing that I'd never be able to forgive myself for doing it would be scaring you away. I know this may be shocking to you, but I've felt like this since we were at the Councilor's estate that first time. But, I also knew you were scared to feel what I was. With how many people had hurt you... I knew that I had to be careful. Otherwise... I would have lost the only thing that made me certain that I was still an actual human being, and not just some sophisticated VI that thought it was Commander Shepard."
"I had been given orders to bring you back, not to put a computer in what had once been your body. And, even if I had been told that was an option, I would never have done it. Anyone can animate a corpse and have it controlled by a VI, not anyone could resurrect a corpse, as who and what it was before death."
Sarah laughed, and said, "That's my girl. Never taking the easy way out."
"Of course not. People taking the easy way out always leads to trouble." Miranda said, as she sat down on the bed beside Sarah, "And you need some more rest. It's barely four in the morning."
"Says the woman who was watching me sleep."
"With my modifications, I only need an hour or two of sleep. And, with how I figured you'd be waking up at this time, I decided to take it here." Miranda said.
"Sounds good to me, I guess." Sarah said.
-=0=-
A/N: Thanks for reading the latest chapter. I really hope you enjoyed it. And if you did, please leave a review. And if you didn't, please leave one explaining why you didn't enjoy it.