Chapter 7: Tuchanka – The Battle for the Future

Shepard felt that they Normandy was a little heavier, ever since Aralakh company came on board. A bunch of highly trained krogan, who could eat non-stop definitely weighed down the Normandy, but Shepard didn't mention it to anyone. Shepard had met Wrex earlier as well. It seemed that he was avoiding Mordin.

Being a curious Shepard, the commander went to ask. "How's the tests been going, Wrex?"

"Grrr," he grumbled. "I hate tests. The salarian has been taking tissue samples from me recently, and let's just say… he's cut places that were never meant to be cut."

"Ookay…" Shepard answered, not needing to know that. "I'll be going then."

As he went around, he had bumped into James, who was actually looking for him.

"Commander," the muscled man said. "You haven't brought me on a mission in a while. I need to go on one. Being in the ship for so long, has made me lazy."

"Like you weren't already lazy before, Vega?"

"No, man," James replied defiantly. "I'm not lazy. I train all day. See my muscles?"

"Yeah. Sure."

"Anyways, commander… Please bring me on the next mission!"

Tired of James, Shepard relented. "Fine. Just, go wash the dishes for now, or something."

"Right away, loco!" the lieutenant said, as he dashed off towards the kitchen.

Shepard smiled to himself. The automated dishwasher could wash the dishes by itself, but James didn't need to know that.

"Commander, we've got a few missions happening at the same time. I don't know if you'll make it all at once, but I think you'll know which ones are more important," Hackett said, his voice coming off the terminal in the planning room. Shepard really hated to talk to the admiral, but he had no choice. The admiral was the 'quest-giver'. He had to choices here. He only had time to go for one, so he had to decide which one to leave, and which one to accept. The first mission was at Grissom Academy. The school for the specially gifted. Shepard remembered sending someone there before, but his mind couldn't pinpoint the correct memory. Cerberus was attacking the facility, and the students have to be saved. The second mission was on the krogan homeworld of Tuchanka. Apparently, Victus's own son, was leading an attack against Cerberus. They had managed to uncover a turian bomb from the time of the Krogan Wars, and Cerberus most likely wanted to activate it. He now had to choose. Save biotic and tech specialists, gifted with the abilities to use them, or to save the krogans, the sturdy warrior species, who could really take a beating. He had to decide. Here was a crucial point in their war effort. Which one? The commander was having a tough time deciding.

Without warning, Garrus appeared, his mantis sniper rifle in hand. "Shepard. Leave the bomb to us."

Mason and Aralakh company gathered behind him.

"We'll take on Cerberus and disable to bomb."

"You can do that?" Shepard asked, totally baffled. "I thought you guys could only go on missions with me around?"

"Hah," the turian laughed. "I think you've been watching James play too many video games. We don't need to follow the main character around. We can go about ourselves."

"Oh," the commander said, trying to hide his embarrassment. That was actually quite an obvious statement, but Shepard was beginning to think like James. It scared him. "Ok, then! I'll take the Grissom Academy quest, I mean, mission!"

Just then, the scientist salarian came in. He had a wide smile on his face. Shepard anticipated good news from the doctor.

"Ah, everyone. Good timing to be here. Good news to tell. Very good news. Have developed a cure for genophage."

Shepard stood stunned. This day just kept getting better and better.

"Only one problem," Mordin said. "How to disperse?"

Without giving even one person time to contemplate, Mordin answered his own question. "Got it! The Shroud."

"Oh," Wrex said, knowing what that was. "That thing."

Shepard listened to Mordin. Apparently, the Shroud was a giant tower, built by the salarians long ago. It was to filter the atmosphere for the krogan after the Rachni Wars, and it could actually be used to spread the cure all over the planet. Things just got better and better. But Shepard was pondering all this. There had to be a catch. Nothing was ever that easy for him. Every mission involved at least one gunfight.

One problem about the Shroud," Victus said, breaking Shepard's thoughts. "I've checked out the map of the area. We've got trouble."

"Cerberus?" Garrus asked.

Mordin paused for dramatic effect before speaking. "Reapers."

Victus had identified what the crew now called a destroyer class reaper, or destroyer for short. Business just got more real with this information. With an actual reaper in play, getting to the Shroud was not going to be easy at all. Shepard smirked. He knew there was a catch. There always was. He once again had two missions before him. He had to get to the Shroud before the reaper decides to destroy it, and then there was also Grissom Academy. Which one now? The fate of the krogan race, or gifted humans? Shepard didn't need to choose. Now that he knew he can send his crew on missions, he turned to the Master Chief.

"Chief. I need you to help out with Grissom Academy."

"Ok," The Chief replied. "Why not. Haven't been going solo in a while."

It was settled. Shepard was going for the game changer. The mission that would determine the fate of an entire species. He was going to Tuchanka. His success or failure would determine the fate of the universe, and with his super ego, he was very sure he could do this.

The Kodiak was rather full while flying down to the planet's surface. Usually, it was just his two companions and himself, but this time, he also had Wrex, the female krogan, and Mordin. It was a little more cramped, but manageable. Shepard had brought along two weapons this time. He was taking his new Phaeston assault rifle, and a predator pistol. James and Liara sat next to him. James had brought his LS13 shotgun, and an M82 asssault rifle. Liara had brought her predator pistol and shuriken SMG. The plan to take care of the reaper was to send in the krogan forces by ground, and the turian forces by the air. With luck, the combined attack might just work. Garrus, Mason, and Aralakh company had left earlier then they had. They ran out of Kodiaks, so they had to borrow an ISA Intruder from James. Shepard hoped that at least one of them would be able to pilot it. Chief went alone in the second Kodiak shuttle, and had already arrived at the academy. He had radioed over to Shepard's team that he's managed to gain entrance, and has already took out a few Cerberus troops.

"That was fast," Liara said, astounded at the power of a single human being.

Shepard, not wanting to lose out, stood up and spoke. "Well, he's genetically enhanced. And he's wearing all that armor. So if I was like him, I could do cool things too. I mean, cooler things."

Liara just rolled her eyes at him. James didn't say anything, because he wasn't sure what was going on. He just sat there and stared at his shotgun.

"Could enhance you if you want, Shepard," Mordin told the commander. "Salarians good at genetics."

All eyes were on Shepard. "Uhhh… no thanks, Mordin. If I wanted to, I'd do it myself."

"Heheheh. Good one, Shepard," Wrex said. Getting more restless, he stood. The genophage was going to be cured. Any krogan would be excited, so he couldn't wait to get down to the surface.

"Coming in for the landing!" Cortez shouted from the front.

"About time," the krogan chief said, pulling out his shotgun instinctively.

"Woah!" Shepard shouted. "Careful, Wrex! We're quite crammed as it is!"

Garrus's group still had the element of surprise. Earlier, Mason had managed to pilot the Intruder quite well, landing them in the nearby ruins 'quietly'. The Cerberus troopers didn't know they were here. Readying his mantis sniper, Garrus spotted out the soldiers in the area. Three Cerberus troopers, two centurions, and five Helghast soldiers. Seemed easy enough for a turian, a human, and an angry group of krogans. Mason signalled that he was in position with the krogan. With the rest ready, Garrus took his aim, and fired. One of the trooper's head burst into fragments before anyone knew what was happening. Garrus got a second one before the rest took cover behind the nearby chest high walls. Moving out, Mason used his magnet gun to fling Grunt towards the nearest Cerberus centurion. As the centurion turned, Grunt landed on him. He was crushed before he could fire even one bullet. The rest of the krogan stood and charged towards the remaining soldiers. One Helghast soldier stood to shoot, but he was taken out by Garrus, who had the higher ground. Grunt charged at the rest and fired his claymore, blasting one so hard, that he flew back, and ramming a second, crushing his bones in that instant as he hit the wall. Mason whipped out his assault rifle and took care of the last Cerberus trooper. A few of the krogan had teamed up to take down the second centurion as Garrus picked off the remaining Higs.

Garrus stood, dusting off his leg armor. "Well. That was easy."

Master Chief had gained access to the security cameras. He made it into the station with ease, taking out the Cerberus soldiers easily. He had found Lieutenant Kahlee Sanders in the camera room. After a brief description of the mission, she unlocked a nearby door for the Chief. He continued down the hallway, assault rifle ready. Two Cerberus troopers came out from a door to the side. Chief stopped. The soldiers kept walking, but one of them caught sight of the Chief standing there with his peripheral vision.

"What the?" the soldier said for no reason.

Chief sprinted at him and fired his rifle. The bullets pelted the soldier, killing him there, and the second one started firing, but Chief's energy shielding held for him until he reached the second guy, kicking him in the abdomen, sending him flying into the nearby fountain. To make sure, Chief took out his magnum and fired once. That would have taken care of that soldier. As he continued walking, gunfire was heard from beyond the door on the far side.

Sanders's voice sounded up in his radio. "The students are just beyond that door Chief. Cerberus has them pinned down. You've got to save them."

"No problem, Sanders. It's what I do."

Shepard followed Wrex, who lead the way down to the middle platform. Krogan stood all over the place. Shepard had never seen so many krogan in one place before. All of them stared as Wrex led Shepard's group to the middle of the area. Shepard thought that they were in awe because of his great aura of awesomeness, but it wasn't him they were looking at. As the team arrived in the middle, there were three krogan waiting. The two on the side whipped out their eviscerator shotguns, and aimed them straight for Mordin.

The middle one spoke. "What's a salarian doing here, Wrex?"

He pointed a finger, challenging Wrex.

"You've always wanted a cure, Wreav," Wrex countered. "No matter the cost, you've said. Now we've got a cure, but you don't want the salarian who will spread it?"

Wrex smashed his head against Wreav, knocking him back a few steps. Wreav grunted as he regained his footing. These two krogan clearly had a long past together.

"What's up with him?" Shepard asked.

Wrex responded. "This is Wreav. We were born of the same mother, but we're nothing alike."

"Got that right, Wrex!" Wreav shouted out.

Wrex butted his head against his brother again, knocking him back once more. He grunted one more time before walking past his brother, towards the elevated platform in the middle of the arena.

"Krogan!" Wrex shouted, startling the commander a bit. "We are gathered here today, because this salarian, Mordin, has developed a cure to the genophage! The legendary Commander Shepard is here to help us accomplish this goal today! Our goal is the Shroud! With it, we can spread the genophage planet wide, ending our curse once and for all! Today… at the beginning of our end… at the start of this mission… we will stand united as one krogan. We will face the reapers on our homeworld! Today, we will cancel the genophage!"

Wrex raised his claymore shotgun, and let out a really loud war cry, startling Shepard again. He didn't like that, but at least it gained the support of the krogan here. And Wrex had said 'legendary Commander Shepard', so it wasn't all bad. Even Wreav seemed energized, and ready to face a reaper. The krogan began forming up in their armies, and proceeded towards their parked Tomkahs.

"This is gonna be good," James said, clearly impressed by the krogan armies.

Garrus got the message. The krogan forces were moving out, which means he had less time now, to disable the bomb that Cerberus uncovered. The Shroud was in the general blast radius of the bomb, so Shepard would most likely want that bomb dead before any of them got there.

"Great," Garrus thought. "Just great."

They had encountered more resistance as they got nearer to the bomb. The troops were easy to dispatch, which made Garrus worry. Cerberus never made anything easy. There had to be a catch to all this. After progressing some distance, the team stopped once again to survey the upcoming area. Garrus pulled out his mantis and took a look through its scope. The next area held an assortment of enemies. There were Cerberus and Helghast soldiers, as usual, but only one Cerberus guardian. It seemed a little easier this time. Too easy.

"Grunt," Garrus contacted. "Are your troops in position for this attack?"

"Yep. Awaiting your -"

"Woah, hold up!" Mason shouted suddenly over the radio. "Thought I saw something else. It stood in the corner, turned, and jumped away."

"You sure you saw something, Mason?" Garrus questioned.

His sniper was aimed over a Helghast's head, ready to take the shot. Grunt gave the signal, and Garrus fired. As the krogan team got up for the attack, a strange creature jumped down from nowhere, landing on one of the krogan's face, tearing away at it with huge claws.

"AGH!" the krogan shouted as he got downed by the weight of the creature. He tried to push it off, but it held tight with its claws, either digging them into his skin, or slicing away at his face. Another krogan eventually shot it away, but it was too late for the krogan. Garrus continued taking shots at the Cerberus forces, but he had seen what had happened. He had never seen anything like that before, but Cerberus was pulling lots of surprises recently that that didn't surprise him. Mason had taken out the Cerberus guardian and a few Cerberus troops. The rest of the krogan had cleared the rest of the Helghast, but in the left corner, more of the creatures emerged from a crevice in the ground. They had sleek, slimy bodies, a big and long head, huge claws on their hands and feet, and the most disturbing part about them… their tongues. They could stretch out to a great length, and grab things even as heavy as krogan. One lifted a krogan and tossed him down towards the rest of the pack. Four of them jumped on the krogan and begin their assault, while the rest advanced towards Grunt's position.

"Keep firing, krogans!" Grunt ordered, taking out a creature with a point blank blast with his claymore shotgun.

These creatures were fast, avoiding things like rifle fire. Only a close-up shot from a shotgun was good enough to kill them. Garrus tried sniping at them, but they moved too fast for his scope to track them. With a sigh, he gave up and switched over to his Phaeston assault rifle, running down to join Mason behind his chest-high wall.

"This, is a little different," Garrus said, readying his rifle.

"Yep," Mason replied. "You gotta aim properly. These things can dodge rifle fire.

"Who do you think you're talking to, Mason?" Garrus said.

Garrus was one of the best shots in the galaxy. He was most likely better than Shepard and accuracy, but the commander would never admit that out loud. He took his aim and fired, taking down two of those creatures almost immediately. One tried to jump out of the way, but Garrus trained his scope on it, and managed to get it. Mason just continued shooting, getting some now and then, but he wasn't as good a shot as Garrus was. Grunt and his team, up close, only shot their foes when they got close enough for maximum damage and accuracy. Some of the krogan were killed when the creatures pulled them away, but the rest continued firing. One got Grunt with its tongue, but Grunt grabbed it, and with his krogan strength, swung it up, around, and back down on one of its kind, killing both of the creatures. One was left, and it stood within Garrus's sight. Turning to face him, Garrus shot, ending the battle.

"Alright," Garrus told his team. "That was a little set back, but now we know what we're up against. Continue forward towards the turian team! We cannot let Cerberus activate that bomb!"

"C'mon, Rodriguez! Stop fooling around and get moving!"

Jack stood at the door as she waited for Rodriguez to move past her. Chief watched from his side, as the last of the students cleared the door. Jack signalled that they were ready to continue. Chief acknowledged with a nod, before continuing on, rifle ready. Earlier, he had saved the students from a Metal Gear Atlas, which wasn't much trouble for him. Jack wasn't sure of whom he was, but once Sanders radioed her status over, Chief was cleared of all suspicion. Jack had served with Shepard during his suicide mission. Shepard had described her as a pure biotic terror, but if he had been genetically engineered as a child, like her, he would be the one with the superior skills. Being enhanced himself, Chief knew what it felt like to be tested on. It wasn't good, but it's the only reason why he is where he is today. He would never have made it this far without his enhancements.

"Ready Chief?" Jack asked. She waited at the next door, ready to breach it. The students stood behind here, biotics ready for any enemies they might encounter.

"Ready," Chief replied, stepping forward. He aimed his rifle as Jack opened the door. The room here was rather small. It seemed to be a dining hall. Food was spilt all over the floor, most likely from the students getting up in a panic when Cerberus attacked. The room was just about empty, except for two Helghast soldiers, taunting a tech student, who had set up a bubble shield. Chief remembered those. He had used those during the Covenant war, and they had saved his life more times than he can imagine. Chief picked off one of the soldiers with a headshot, while Jack used a Pull to bring the soldier up, sending him flying to the other side of the room with a Push, breaking his skull against the wall. The student looked up, realizing that he's been saved. Turning off his shield, he ran to join up with the biotic students.

"Thanks for the help," he told Jack and Master Chief. "I thought they were going to get me if I waited in there too long."

"No worries," Chief said. "Stick with us. We're going to get you to safety. We also need to find the rest of your tech students."

"I might know where a few of them are." The tech student proceeded forward towards the next door, waiting for the rest to follow.

Just then, the door exploded, startling the students, as another Metal Gear Atlas came into view. Chief didn't waste any time, running straight for the Atlas. He fired off rounds of ammo as he ran towards it. As it raised a leg to stomp on Master Chief, he activated his armor lock ability that set him down like a stone, right as the Atlas brought its foot down on him. The Cerberus pilot was surprised when its foot bounced right back up, sending the whole Metal Gear toppling backwards. Chief deactivated his armor lock, and with one quick leap, smashed down on the cockpit glass, crushing the pilot's abdomen as he landed with both legs. That was another Atlas down. This time though, the Atlas wasn't damaged too badly.

"I think I could use this," Chief told Jack. He turned and with a quick melee attack, got the Atlas right back on its feet.

He proceeded to get into the pilot's seat. "Cerberus is not going to know what hit them." He activated the Atlas and its weapons systems and got ready for a fight.

Shepard sat in the Tomkah, along with Wrex, Mordin, and the female krogan, who Mordin called, Eve. James and Liara got onto different Tomkahs, so Shepard didn't know if James was boring any of the other krogan to death. Shepard pondered on the plan. Usually, nothing ever ran this smoothly. As he's said before, every mission had shooting involved. There was always a catch. The drive to the Shroud was probably going to have a few changes here and there, but he was hoping there wouldn't be too much change involved. Wrex started chatting about what he was going to do after the genophage was cured, but Shepard wasn't interested. He just wanted to get the mission done, because he had skipped out on lunch. As the Tomkahs travelled, Shepard's stomach was making as much noise as the vehicle they were in.

"Hey, I don't remember the Tomkahs being this noisy," Wrex commented, sensing the different sound.

Shepard didn't speak up, clearly embarrassed, but he tried his best not to show it. Mordin saved him from focusing on his stomach, suddenly receiving a radio chat.

"What?" He asked the unseen speaker. "Oh. Yes. Right away."

He sent his communications link over to Shepard's omni-tool. "Dalatrass. She wants to speak with you."

"Great. Something else I have to put up with." He activated his omni-tool and took the call.

"Shepard, we have learnt of your plan to cure the genophage with the Shroud."

Shepard made a really bored face, listening to the dalatrass. "Really now?"

"Yes. And we have a deal for you. We don't want you to cure the genophage."

On hearing the words of 'don't want', Shepard switched off his comms link before the dalatrass could receive an answer. "Mordin. Lose that channel. I don't want to know what she wants me to do."

Mordin stared at him, confused. "Uhhmm… Yes. Right away, Shepard."

"Phew, that was a close one." Shepard really hated talking to the higher-ups. They always blabbed on about how their plans were the better ones for the good of the galaxy and all that. Shepard hated it. He got a headache when he tought too much, so he decided he would deal with thinking about all this later. Before long, the Tomkahs stopped.

Shepard smiled to himself. "Good. We've finally arrived."

Opening the doors to the Tomkah, Wrex took a quick look outside.

"Bad news, Shepard." He waved the commander forward.

And there it was. Bad news was always just as bad as long talks from ambassadors and such. The road ahead, or at least what was left of it, was in ruins. It would be a quick fall to anyone's death if they tried jumping from here. The hole in the ground was about twenty feet down. The Tomkahs might be able to travel down, but the krogans weren't taking the chance. Yet. Shepard took a look at the horizon. In the far distance, a gigantic metallic structure stood. It dispersed the air as it filtered in, releasing better atmosphere for the planet's inhabitants. The Shroud. And there in front of it, the destroyer class reaper, ready to obliterate any attack forces that would come its way.

"This day just cannot get any worse." Shepard stood and looked, as he had nothing better to do at this point in time.

And just as Shepard spoke those words, the turian starfighters came swooping in over his head. Towards the reaper.

"Hold your attack!" Shepard communicated to them, quickly. "The ground forces aren't ready!"

He ran forward, unable to do anything else. They had to stop their attack. Without the combined effort from the krogans, the turians wouldn't stand a chance at destroying the reaper.

"Negative, commander!" the pilot communicated back. "The reaper's seen us! There's no turning back!"

The reaper turned to face the air attack. The turian forces tried their best to evade the giant red laser beam, but one of them wasn't so lucky, losing his back half to the blast. The others fired their rockets at the reaper, but nothing seemed to work well. As Shepard watched, he almost missed the damaged turian spacecraft flying towards him, and the krogan forces.

"Get down!" Shepard managed to dodge out of the way, but the fighter still managed to plow headfirst into a Tomkah, exploding into a cloud of fire and shrapnel. The Tomkah that got hit flipped, and damaged a few of the other ones behind it, jamming the krogan attack force.

Shepard, realizing their mistake for stopping, headed to the front of the Tomkahs. "Go, go, go!"

He waved his hand for the krogans to move forward. Agreeing with Shepard, the krogans drove forward. They flew down the cliff that they had stopped for earlier, spearheading forward at top speed. They all made it down, meaning that they had stopped there for no reason previously.

"Great," Shepard said. "What more can go wrong?"

"Many things, Shepard," Liara replied.

Shepard put his hand to his radio to activate it. "Wrex, we'll take a different path. We'll meet you on the other side. Of this structure."

With that, Shepard, James, and Liara headed down a dark tunnel to a gigantic structure. There's no telling where this might lead, but it was the only way forward now, so Shepard decided to take it.

"Let's go, team," Shepard ran forward, taking point. "And watch for enemies."

Garrus had talked it over with Lieutenant Victus, the leader of the turian team. The bomb wasn't Cerberus. It was turian. Garrus was shocked at the lengths his people would have gone to stop the krogans. Now because of that, Cerberus has dug up the bomb, and was about to use it. They couldn't let that happen. If they lose the krogans, they would most likely lose the war. The krogan team and the turian team charged to the front, ready to fight to the bomb. Garrus and Mason flanked both sides, ready to take out stragglers that survive the krogan-turian assault. Cerberus sent their 'lickers' forward to battle it out while they stayed back behind cover. Grunt led the charge, barrelling straight into a licker as it jumped at him, smashing it to pieces. His claymore shotgun took care of another. Victus and his men took down a few with their phaestons, while the krogan squad emptied their shotguns at the rest of the creatures. Now knowing the licker attack patterns, they didn't seem to be that hard anymore. One Cerberus soldier stood up to shoot, but got blown away by Garrus, who sniped him from the left side. As the soldiers turned to face Garrus, Mason came up on the other side with his magnet gun ready. As they were ready to open fire, a huge piece of metal flew in behind them, smashing them to the ground. One lived, but Grunt came in and stomped him into the ground.

"That's how we do it!" He smashed his fists together in triumph.

Together, Garrus, Mason, and the krogan and turian forces had arrived at the bomb.

"Ok," Victus said. "This part should be easy. They can't activate the bomb without using that console there."

He pointed towards the console on the platform, in front of them. "And that's how we'll deactivate it."

"Sounds easy enou-" Garrus did have time to finish his sentence, as a familiar brute barrelled towards them from the shadows.

It was of the same kind as the one they fought on Menae. The big humanoid looking creature, with the huge trench coat. They couldn't beat the other one the last time. Would they be able to defeat this one? There wasn't time to think as the creature swung it's arms towards him.

Chief plowed through a Cerberus centurion formation as he drove the Metal Gear Atlas forward. He stomped on two of them, while Jack and her students took care of the remaining centurions with their biotics. The few tech students supported them by taking out the shields of the centurions for easier killing. Master Chief had found them on one of the previous floors, trapped by Helghast soldiers. There were three in total with them. Two boys, and a girl. One of the boys was special, able to mimic geth speech. That was really something. Chief continued forward, weapons ready for any resistance they might find on the way to the hangar. Sanders said she would meet them there, as she knew a faster way up. Jack flanked Chief's left side as he ran along the Atlas.

"Hangar's this way, Chief," Jack led the way forward.

Once through the door, bullets came flying towards them. Luckily for them, they had pillars to hide behind. In front, guarding the hangar doors, were groups of Cerberus and Helghast engineers, and each had a turret primed and ready to mow down the students. Even if Chief went out there with the Atlas, it would be taken down in seconds with the amount of fire power they had out there. Exiting the Atlas, Chief regrouped with Jack.

"I'll take out the turrets," he said. "You take the Atlas, and get ready to finish this fight."

"Got it, Chief," Jack replied. She ran up and started getting into the Atlas.

Chief didn't wait. He pulled out his magnum and dashed out from cover. The tech students launched a salvo of overloads, disabling some of the engineers' shields. With a quick motion, Chief took out four of the engineers who lost their shields. One bullet each. He arrived at the next cover of a chest-high wall before their bodies hit the ground. Getting out his assault rifle, Chief ran towards the left side of the turret group, firing his weapon at the turrets now. As he got nearer to a Helghast engineer, he had already taken out two turrets. The engineer turned to fire on him, but with one swift motion, his rifle butt found the chin of the engineer, sending him flying over to the second floor. The Cerberus engineer next to him, whipped out a M-96 Mattock rifle. An unexpected weapon for an engineer. Chief didn't mind. He sideswiped the engineer, and ripping the weapon out of his hands, sent him flying back with a bullet to the head. With the newly acquired mattock, Chief took down three more turrets while backtracking to his previous cover. With only four turrets left, Chief gave the signal. Jack acknowledged it, activating the Atlas and moving it towards the remaining enemy units. With one rocket, she took down two Helghast engineers, while Chief got another with a headshot. The biotic and tech students moved in, throwing everything they had at the engineers. Jack swiped a turret away with the railgun arm before activating the side guns to fire on the last Helghast engineer. The last two Cerberus engineers tried to flee, but Chief took them down with his new rifle. Chief turned to review the outcome. The students had taken care of the rest of the turrets, while Jack had taken down her share of engineers. That was that for the final line of defense for Cerberus.

"Nice work, Jack," Chief congratulated her as she stepped out of the Atlas. "Where'd you learn to pilot that?"

"Here." She brushed off dust from her jacket.

As the students begun moving towards a shuttle, more Cerberus and Helghast troopers showed up from the door they entered from.

"Move!" Chief unloaded a clip at the troopers, downing a bunch of them.

Jack covered the students as they entered a shuttle. Sanders began priming them for launch.

"Go," Chief told Jack. "I'll cover the rear."

Jack nodded, and sped off towards the shuttle. Chief fired off a few more rounds before moving backwards to the shuttle door. He pulled out his magnum and continued shooting as he got in. With their final member in, Jack closed the shuttle doors as Sanders hightailed it out of the bay doors. The Cerberus forces continued shooting, but they couldn't shoot down the shuttle as it flew off into the open space of the Petra Nebula.

Chief got on the radio with the Normandy. "Joker, we're on a shuttle. Headed towards the Normandy right now."

"Roger that, Master Chief," Joker answered. "Tracking you on the radar now. We're having a bit of the problem with the Normandy again, though, so we might not be receiving too well. EDI also went offline, so it'll be a while before we can begin our long range communication with the commander and Garrus."

"Got it," Chief said. "Heading your way now."

Chief stood in the shuttle. His mission here was done. But what about Shepard and Garrus's missions? How where they doing?

Shepard wasn't doing too well. It was dark, and he was sure he took a few same turns in the last forty minutes.

"Are you sure this is the way, Shepard?" Liara asked.

They had passed a ravager body three times now. It had to be the same one. James just kept following Shepard. He couldn't remember if they had gone this way before. Shepard didn't ask. He couldn't admit that he didn't know the way. As they walked, the ground continued to rumble. It was either the reaper, or an earthquake.

"I don't think it's an earthquake or a reaper," Liara observed.

"Great," Shepard thought. "What else would it be then?"

Finally taking the path opposite the ravager body, they stumbled across an ancient picture.

"This is an ancient krogan structure!" Liara exclaimed. "This could be thousands of years old!"

A huge image was pictured on the wall in front of them. It looked like a thresher maw. Shepard had fought one of those things before, when he was last on Tuchanka.

"Pfffft. Those aren't hard. I could kill one myself."

Without warning, Eve's voice buzzed in Shepard's ear. "Shepard. This area is the sacred land of Kalros. The mother of all thresher maws. Be very careful."

"Great," Shepard said, showing his irritation. "More bad news."

As they proceeded forward, light appeared at the end of the tunnel.

"Yes!" James shouted suddenly. "We're out!"

Not bothering to say anything, the team just made their way out, glad to finally be back to the surface. They were to regroup with the krogan army somewhere on this side of the place. Suddenly, a few Tomkahs drove by. Shepard waited for a pickup, but they didn't stop.

"Uhh, guys?" He questioned. "Weren't you supposed to pick us up first?"

"Can't stop, Shepard," Mordin buzzed. "Watch out, Wrex! Thresher maw getting closer!"

"Tell me something I don't know!" Wrex replied, agitated. "Iron in vehicle, good supplement for thresher maw diet!"

Wrex radioed in that he would pick Shepard up later, at a further point. That meant more walking for Shepard and his team. Well, at least he didn't have to deal with Kalros. Shepard decided to follow the path of the ruins. That would most likely lead him somewhere. And it was definitely better than jumping down to the sandy area, where Kalros would be able to get them. As they approached the nearby ruined courtyard, lasers flew by Shepard's left side. He quickly ducked down behind a broken fountain, ready to fight anything that stood in his way. In front, cannibals appeared out from the holes in the ground, giving their signature roars a go. One opened its mouth wide, ready for a roar, but it only received a few bullets from Liara, straight down its throat. It collapsed before it could give off its roar. Four more cannibals remained. To Shepard, that seemed easy enough. He whipped out his phaeston over his head, and blind fired into the crowd of cannibals. One more went down, but the others began picking at its body. Shepard couldn't hit them, as they were behind cover. As the final three devoured the bodies of their fallen comrades, armor plating grew over their shoulders, arms, heads, and chests. To Shepard, that seemed a little harder now.

Remembering that James brought a shotgun, he turned to his muscular companion. "James, get out there and blast their armor out with your shotty!"

"What?" the ISA soldier replied. "But there's no cover on the way there."

"Just go," Shepard ordered.

With a shrug, James got up and ran towards the cannibals. One tried to shoot him, but Liara got its attention with the rapid fire from her shuriken SMG. Right in front of the enemy, James shot away with his shotgun. He tore the face armor off the first cannibal, which Shepard was able to hit with a concussive shot, crushing its skull. James got the armor of the next two, and with a carnage shot, he took one out with an explosive bang. Shepard was going to shoot the last one, but Liara got it with a warp before he could fire off even one bullet. At least the battle was over. For now.

"Alright," Shepard said. "Time to move up! We've gotta regroup with Wrex."

"So, commander," James asked. "I do a good job?"

Shepard ignored him and pushed forward. Liara followed behind him, leaving James standing there, waiting for something to happen. After a while, he gave up and followed them.

Garrus really hated that creature. Nothing seemed to work on it. He tried sniping it in the head a few times. It blocked a few with its arm, but two struck its face. The bullets only made him flinch a little bit, but a lot more angry. A krogan tried to charge at it, but the big creature rammed into the krogan and smashed his body against the nearby pillar. Victus's squad fired at it with their phaestons, but it didn't even phase the creature.

Garrus had patched in to the Normandy to see if they could provide any support. "Joker! We need support out near the bomb! We've got one of those creatures we encountered on Menae!"

Joker radioed back after a few minutes. "I read you, Garrus. Sorry for the wait. The Normandy was giving us problems earlier. Chief is back, by the way. Mission accomplished there. Oh and Jack's here too. Anyways, back to your mission. The Alliance database has a log for those. They've taken to calling them 'tyrants'. Small calibre guns don't work on it. You've got to use things like 50. Cal and missiles if you want to kill it. We can send in a Kodiak with some explosives attached."

"Got it," Garrus responded. "We'll see what we can do till then."

A cry of a turian drew his attention back to the fight. The tyrant had grabbed the turian. He was struggling in its grip, firing away with his phaeston. It didn't do any good, and with one squish of its hand, the tyrant ended the turian's cries. The krogans and turians formed a defensive line and fired some concussive shots at the tyrant. It did a little better than their normal bullets, but otherwise, still not enough to stop it.

Garrus turned to Mason. "Mason! We've got to keep it busy till help arrives! Keep it busy!"

Mason nodded and swapped in his magnet gun. Magnetizing the roof of a nearby ruined building, he selected the target as the tyrant as it ran to the krogan and turians. Before it reached them, most of the roof hit it, burying it under a pile of rusty metal. The krogan and turians managed to change their location before the tyrant burst out of the pile. It grunted in anger, and focused its attention on Mason.

"Uh oh," the engineer said.

The tyrant charged, barrelling straight for Mason's position.

Joker had radioed in earlier. Master Chief had completed his mission at Grissom Academy. He got most of the students out, but unfortunately, some were taken by Cerberus before he got there. Jack and Kahlee Sanders were with him too. It really was a small universe. Shepard always bumped into his friends in all the weirdest places. Garrus, Mason, and Grunt weren't doing too well though. Joker had told Shepard of the tyrant, and the plan of using the Kodiak. Shepard remembered the tyrant. He couldn't beat it back on Menae, but maybe missiles could destroy it. He couldn't worry about that now. The cure for the genophage rested in his hands right now. Garrus would just have to deal with the tyrant. He trusted Garrus at least, unlike James. If it were James out there right now, he'd probably already be dead. But now wasn't the time for thinking. Shepard had to get to the Shroud before the whole turian attack force gets wiped out. He had got the update from Wrex earlier. They had lost Kalros, so Shepard had his window of opportunity to get picked up. Wrex had sent him the coordinates for the rendezvous point, so that was where the team was headed now. Two husks came at Shepard as he sprinted to the edge of a ruined platform. He knocked one off with a concussive shot, and he got the other with his omni-blade. Running past their bodies, he jumped down to the platforms below. James and Liara followed behind, but Shepard knew they'd appear behind him when he turned around, so he kept going. He could see it now. Wrex's truck was parked up front, waiting for him and his team to get in. As Shepard got nearer, the doors opened, revealing Mordin, who waved for him to get in. Apparently, it was urgent that Shepard get in. Now. Picking up more speed, Shepard sprinted and did a huge forward lunge, flying right into the Tomkah. He hit his head on the opposite door, but he'd made it. He turned around, and there his teammates were. Right behind him, in the Tomkah, just as he had thought.

"Shepard and team in!" Mordin shouted to Wrex. "Drive! Go!"

Wrex sped off as the ground began to rumble. Shepard realized their urgency to get out. Kalros was back, and she was either angry, or hungry. Either one was bad for all of them. One Tomkah behind wasn't so lucky, getting pulled underground as Kalros emerged. Although it sounded bad, the Tomkah did buy Wrex sometime to get forward without pursuit from the mother of all thresher maws.

"That was Wreav's," Eve said.

"Meh," Wrex stepped on the pedals, making the Tomkah go faster. "Never liked him anyway. He'd probably survive too."

They travelled a distance before finally arriving at their destination. As they stopped, Shepard took a look a good look around. In front of him, the Shroud glowed, releasing good air for Tuchanka as it worked. It would have been an easy run, but the destroyer class reaper in front of it would prove a big challenge.

"Alright," Shepard said, out of proper ideas. "Looks like we've got to do a speed run here."

James stepped forward. "What? No, commander! That'd be suicide!"

"I've lived suicide, James." Shepard took a step forward, and cracked his knuckles.

Wrex was about to follow, but ravagers came up from behind their Tomkah. He turned, a claymore shotgun appearing in his hands.

"Go, Shepard! I've got this!" Wrex charged at the ravagers, shotgun blazing. "Whatever happens next, Shepard, I want you to know that you've been a champion for the krogans and Clan Urdnot, and a good friend to me. And that means something! To every krogan born after this day, the name 'Shepard', will mean 'ego', I mean… 'hero'!"

Shepard thought he heard the last bit wrong, but Wrex had already charged into the fight.

"I am Urdnot Wrex!" the krogan chief shouted as he blasted through the ravager swarm. "And this, is MY planet!"

Shepard turned to face the reaper. It was now or never. Ready to move, he sprinted as fast as he could towards the reaper.

Things for Garrus couldn't get any worse. He had pulled the attention of the tyrant away from Mason, but now the tyrant came for him. He dodged out of the way as the tyrant swung its arm at him. He cleared it just in time, as the wall next to him crumbled into pieces. Many turians and krogan have given their lives to stop the monster, but it didn't do much good. All they could do was survive until the big guns came. As he thought that, he heard the jets of a shuttle above him. Looking up, he saw the Kodiak zoom in, missiles ready to fire. Running as far as he could from the tyrant, Garrus took a jumping roll forward as the missiles came down. He managed to crawl behind a chest-high wall before the missiles hit. One got the tyrant straight in the chest, while the other hit the ground around it.

"That was a little too close!" Garrus shouted in the smoke, unsure of where the others were. "You guys alright?"

Mason sounded off. "I'm fine. Just… dirty."

"As am I!" Victus shouted.

"Same goes for me!" Grunt bellowed.

Perfect. All the main characters were alive and accounted for. The same couldn't be said for most of their troops, though. Many lay around Garrus's feet, dead. He felt sorry for them, but they had no time to mourn for the dead now. They had to disarm that bomb. Garrus signalled to Victus as soon as he could see him. Victus nodded and moved forward, ready to disarm that bomb. Garrus took a look into the blast zone as the smoke cleared. They'd managed to get the tyrant this time. All that was left was its bottom half, with one leg left.

Victus's voice brought him to attention. "All done, Vakarian, sir! The bomb is down!"

"Good work, lieutenant! I'll call the shuttle in for a pickup!"

Now that the bomb was dealt with, only Shepard's mission remained. The cure for the genophage, rested in Shepard's hands, and the commander was the one person Garrus trusted in, the most. He can do it. He will do it.

Shepard made a mad dash through two brutes that dropped in from space. A bunch of reaper forces were flying down in mini meteors and landing around Shepard as he ran. He had told James and Liara to head back to the Tomkah. It was easier if he was the only one running this crazy gauntlet. The reaper in front didn't make it any easier for him. It occasionally shot its lasers at him, and tried to stomp its appendages on him. So far so good, but how long would his luck hold out? There didn't seem to be any way he could make it to the Shroud entrance.

Eve's voice came up on the comm link. "Shepard, I have a plan. There are two hammers in your vicinity. They were once used to call out to Kalros. To bring her here to this place."

Shepard was dumb founded at that. "Now, why would I want to do tha-"

Then two things hit him. The idea from Eve, and the claw of a brute. Shepard was flung back by the shear force of the blow. While flying, he managed to do a backflip, softening his land as he smashed against the ground. He would have most likely broken his spine or something, but his energy shielding saved him. He lay there, dazed, but after a while, his vision righted itself, and he began to get up. He got up just in time, as another brute charged at him. He did a combat roll out of the way, and continued his run. His new destination was the maw hammer to the left. He had taken a look of the surrounding area. There was one hammer to the left up ahead, and there was the second one to the right, a little further off. As he ran, more brutes air-dropped in.

"Great," Shepard said, running as hard as he could. "This couldn't get any harder."

Just then, the reaper's leg came down, missing the commander by a few meters. Frustrated, Shepard activated his adrenaline rush. Everything around him seemed to slow down as he continued on at his normal pace. A brute jumped towards him, but it moved so slowly, that Shepard ran past it and further while it was still falling to the ground. Panting, he arrived at the first hammer and activated it. He didn't have time to watch it raise, ready to hammer down on the anvil. He took off in a sprint again, running past brutes, and newly dropped marauders. His adrenaline rush ran out just as he ran past a marauder, who managed to get a few shots at him. Shepard lost his shields, so he did a quick turn and fired away at the marauder who shot him. The marauder went down as Shepard turned to continue the suicidal run. He dodged as many brutes and bullets as he could, launching out a concussive shot whenever one got too close. Not too long later, the commander arrived at the second maw hammer, barely surviving the reaper gauntlet. Rushing to it, he activated it quickly, this time, staying to take a look. The hammer raised high, and came back down, releasing a deafening sound, and a huge shockwave, knocking Shepard down. Nothing happened for a while. The reaper continued targeting the turian fighters, taking another one down. Shepard decided to head towards the Shroud, but after taking not more than three steps, the ground began to shake.

"Haha," he laughed out loud. "Here it comes, reapers!"

Sensing the newcomer, the reaper turned. Out from its blindside, Kalros emerged, jetting out of the ground like a spring, straight for the head of the reaper. The reaper tried to fire its beam, but Kalros grabbed it first, knocking the beam downwards, shearing a good amount of reaper forces out of the area. That gave Shepard the chance to push forward, but he decided to stay where he was and watch the fight. Kalros tried to tangle the reaper in its body coil, but the reaper moved and smashed Kalros against the Shroud, making her lose her grip, but also damaging the Shroud in the process.

"That could be bad," the commander observed.

Taking the blow, Kalros retreated back underground. The reaper tried to finish it with its lasers, but couldn't hit the thresher maw in time. Forgetting about the threat, the reaper turned back to face the Shroud. Without warning, the thresher maw burst from the ground again, but this time, catching the reaper fully by surprise. Unable to brace against the sudden attack, the reaper was pushed down to the ground by Kalros. Twirling around the reaper, Kalros grappled it with its huge body again, but this time, the reaper couldn't move, because of its downed position. Squeezing it, Kalros dragged it underground to meet its fate. Standing there in the dust clouds Kalros brought up, Shepard watched the battle. It was over. The reaper was gone. He felt like giving out a cheer, but now wasn't the time. The Shroud was breaking apart. He had to get the cure out. Contacting the Salarian doctor to meet him in the Shroud, Shepard followed the path to the beginning of the krogan's pain, and the end of their suffering.

Shepard ran into the main room. Falling debris slammed into the ground around him. He stood there for a while, until Mordin ran in.

"Shepard!" he shouted. "Have to finish synthesizing cure. Defend me while I finish it!"

"Ok, but defend you from what? There's no one else around. It's not like I have to defend you against enemies with a time limit right?"

Just then, a reaper tech drop pod fell down with some debris, crashing into the exact center of the room.

"Great," Shepard thought. "I just had to go on about defending and time limits."

The drop pod remained unopened for a few minutes. Shepard and Mordin stood motionless, staring at what the pod might behold. Releasing gas, the pod's door slowly opened downwards. The gas obscured the vision in near the doorway, but a figure could be seen emerging from the pod. When the gas finally cleared enough for Shepard to see, he recognized the figure partially. It was a marauder, but it was more purplish than the usual ones. And this one stood taller than a normal marauder by at least a foot. It also carried a special phaeston assault rifle. It had a scope, an extended barrel, and it glowed blue. It looked way cooler than Shepard's did, which made Shepard angry. It turned to view its enemies, staring longer at Shepard than at Mordin.

After a while, it finally spoke, which was strange. "You. You are Shepard."

Shepard was amazed. His enemies knew of him. They were probably afraid of his awesome radiance.

"You are the one Harbinger spoke of. The one who might be able to end us. I must stop you. I am Marauder Shields! You don't want to see how this ends. Your choices mean nothing in the end, Shepard."

"What?" Shepard asked. He didn't know anything Marauder Shields was talking about. "What ending?"

"You know too much, Shepard! Prepare to die!" With that, he lunged at Shepard, ready to take him out.

"Shepard!" Mordin shouted. "Need time to create cure! Defend! About four minutes!"

Shepard really hated this, but for a future for the krogan, he had to do it. He dived under Shields as he neared him, rolling just a little under his toes as he slid to the opposite side. Shepard did a quick turn to blast the back of Marauder Shields, but Shields countered with a faster quick turn and fired on Shepard first. The commander took a few hits to his shields before he could get to cover, but it wasn't too badly damaged. Thankfully, Shields was only focusing on Shepard, not even putting any bullets towards Mordin.

"One minute forty, Shepard!" The doctor shouted over to Shepard.

That was good news for Shepard. It means he didn't have to protect Mordin and himself while the cure was being made. Shepard leaned out from cover and took a few triple shots against Shields. Shields deflected most of them with his shields, but Shepard managed to break through them, damaging him a little. Shields roared in anger as he hid behind the nearby console as cover.

"Thirty seconds, Shepard!" Mordin exclaimed.

It was almost ready. He just needed to last a little longer. Shepard did a combat roll to the next chest-high rubble, launching a concussive shot and a frag grenade while rolling. It almost hit Shields, but the marauder managed to take it out in mid-flight with his special phaeston. Shepard smiled, as the marauder hadn't seen the grenade, as the concussive shot explosion hid it from his sight. Realizing the threat a little late, Shields grunted as the explosion flung him out the nearby window, shattering it as he flew out. Shepard leaned out the window to take a good look at the fall of Marauder Shields.

He shouted out to Shepard, shaking a fist. "This is not over, Shepard! I will return! I will not let you see how everything ends! Never!"

Shepard was excited, ready to see the marauder finally go splat, but as it neared the ground, a reaper harvester swooped in and picked him up.

"Never forget my face, Shepard!" Shields shouted as the harvester took off in the distance.

Shepard shrugged. He'll probably forget it in the next hour or so. As he turned, a screech pierced the air, and his ears. He kept his hands on his ears to block out the sound as the harvester came back and broke through the glass to the command room at the top of the Shroud. Shepard could catch a glimpse of a figure jumping down and heading inside. It had to be Marauder Shields.

"Uh oh," Shepard said, sensing trouble.

"Shepard!" the salarian shouted to him. "Cure is created. Must get it up to the top."

"I saw Marauder Shields head in. He must be planning to stop us."

"Yes, highly likely… wait!" Mordin pulled up his omni-tool. "Someone is sabotaging console!"

"Great, I'll see what I can…" Shepard didn't finish the sentence, as another screech cancelled out his voice.

Shepard took a look out the window, just in time to see the harvester flying off with Shields on its back.

He turned back to Mordin. "He's off. Now let's get up there and fix the console!"

"No. Too dangerous. Shroud unstable. You stay. I will go. Someone else might get it wrong." The doctor took a step forward, ready to go.

"No, Mordin!" the commander shouted. He moved to intercept the scientist salarian. "You'll blow up with the Shroud!"

Mordin stepped past him. "Like I said, Shepard. Someone else might get it wrong. Take Padok Wiks, for instance. If he was here, he might not know of sabotage at all. Maybe. Many possibilities. He might not want to cure krogan at all."

Shepard was about to protest, but his brain suddenly developed a tingly sensation to it. The tingling turned into crippling pain, making him fall to the floor. He mustered enough strength to look up. Mordin stood there, omni-tool raised towards Shepard. He had hit him with a neural shock. Shepard had seen him use it on countless enemies before. It had always looked painful, but only now, did Shepard experience it first-hand.

"Don't stop me, Shepard! It's the heroic thing to do!"

He walked towards the elevator, while Shepard lay on the ground, unable to get up beyond a crouch.

"Don't do it, Mordin!" Shepard tried to get further towards his friend, but his brain was on fire. He couldn't send the response to his muscles to get himself moving forward.

Shepard could only watch as the scientist stepped into the elevator, closing the doors behind him.

Mordin took a deep breath. "Remember, Shepard. Only I can do this. Someone else would have gotten it wrong."

The neural shock dissipated as soon as the elevator started its ascend. Shepard ran towards the elevator, unable to do anything at this point to stop Mordin.

With one final effort, Shepard shouted up, defeated. "Mordin!"

Suddenly, his now relieved brain received an idea. "I've got it!"

He turned on his omni-tool and contacted Cortez. "Cortez! Bring in the Kodiak!"

Mordin took another deep breath as the elevator ascended. This was it. He had prevented Shepard from stopping him earlier with a neural shock. He had hated to do it, but he had to do it. No one else could save the krogan race at this point. No one but him. He stared out the glass window as the elevator kept going. It was a good view, but of a desolate world. Perhaps one day, it would become beautiful again. The elevator continued for five more minutes before finally reaching the top floor. The doors slid open, revealing a ruined room, with explosions and fire all around. Mordin walked forward, careful not to walk over an explosion waiting to happen. It was a dangerous walk forward, but he had to do this. He almost stepped over an explosion, but side-stepped out of the way just in time, as the explosion blew where he previously stood. He arrived at the console, wasting no time in getting to work. His fingers flew over the keys on the console. The fire and explosions spread beyond the sides, coming close to filling up the middle, where Mordin had walked from. There was no turning back now. With the Shroud coming down in minutes, he had to finish this fast. He encouraged himself, humming his favourite tune of "Scientist Salarian". At last, after meticulous typing, the Shroud was ready to release the cure. With the push of the final button, the cure was released into the atmosphere, ensuring complete global saturation. Explosions rang out more frequently around him, as the cure could be seen spreading from the window in front of him. Mordin smiled as explosions got nearer, ready to engulf him and the rest of the room in a fiery explosion. Mordin however, never got the chance to die like a hero. A Kodiak came crashing through the window, flying past him, as it kept going. The doors opened, revealing Shepard and Liara. Liara used a pull and whipped Mordin closer to the shuttle for Shepard to grab him.

"Was about to go out like a hero, Shepard," the doctor said. "No need for the save."

Shepard pulled in his friend. "Not today, Mordin. Only I can go out like a hero, cause I'm Shepard."

Mordin gave up trying to convince the soldier, letting himself be pulled in by Shepard. Liara closed the doors as the shuttle began its escape from the exploding Shroud. It was a close call, with an explosion erupting in front of them as they flew, but they made it out, flying through the explosion like pros.

Mason stood at the edge of the ruins, witnessing the cure dispersion over all of Tuchanka. The Normandy had landed earlier because of more malfunctions that had to be checked out, and also to witness a great moment in history. Krogan stood among Mason, amazed at the flakes of the genophage cure falling from the sky. Some put out their palms to feel the flakes. Others, more curious, swallowed the flakes as they fell in their mouths. This was a great victory for the universe. With the krogan to help, the reapers would be pushed back further. Chief stepped to Mason.

"This is new," the spartan said. "With these krogan on our side, the reapers will definitely have something to fear."

"Yup," Mason replied. "I've seen these guys fight. They're tough."

The two watched as the Shroud collapsed down on itself. The top half broke apart, falling and exploding in different places, making the rest of the structure break as well. A Kodiak shuttle could be seen flying out from the Shroud towards the Normandy. As Mason and Chief watched, Garrus materialized next to them.

"Here comes the hero, I'm sure," the turian said.

The shuttle flew till it was next to the Normandy, before deciding to land. Stopping, the door slid open. Shepard was the first to step out, jumping down to the sand with a huge smile on his face.

He took a good look at his crew. "Good job on your missions, team! But mine was, of course, the most important. With this, the krogan will be willing to help the rest of us now!"

James, Liara, and Mordin stepped out to join him, hearing his speech from inside the shuttle.

"I did quite well myself, commander," James said, crossing his arms across his chest.

"No, James," Shepard said with a lower voice. "I did most of the good stuff. You just shot a few enemies."

James just rolled his eyes, and walked to the Normandy to join Mason, Chief, and Garrus. Grunt and Victus had gone off with the rest of the krogan to talk turian politics. Shepard didn't want to do that, so he just stayed with is crew.

A new voice sounded off from the left. "Shepard! You did it! You've saved the krogan race!"

Wrex came in, and patted Shepard so hard on the back, that his teeth almost flew out of his mouth.

"Uh, yeah, Wrex," Shepard said, trying to hide his pain. "I'm Shepard, remember? I released the rachni on the galaxy. I defeated Saren, and Sovereign. And I saved everyone from the collectors. Of course I would have done it!"

"And saved my life too," Mordin added in. "Without Shepard, would have sacrificed life to ensure cure for the genophage!"

"Exactly," Shepard said.

With the genophage cured, the krogan could repopulate. Gather more soldiers for the war against the reapers. Shepard stood there with his team, extremely happy for his accomplishments. With the krogan, the universe might just stand a chance against the reapers. This could be the ultimate turning point. It was time to turn the tide in this war.

Project Eel - Tuchanka