Guilty Sparks

by General Rage

Fleeing from the glassing of Reach in the belly of the Pillar of the Autumn, the crew of the SR-2 Normandy find themselves stranded with their UNSC allies on a strange Forerunner constructed ring world called Halo with the Covenant hunting them. But Halo holds a secret, one deadlier than both the Covenant and Reapers combined... and it's hungry.

14. A Couple of Misfits

Chapter 13: A Couple of Misfits

August 1st, 2185

The sound of overly patriotic music and gunfire filled the air. What had once been the ship's Recreation Room had been completely taken over by the newest addition to the crew. Nelanax spent most of her time inside her new living space. She was either constantly glued to her high definition holoscreen or listening to classic Turian rock from generations gone by. At the moment, the turian merc was situated on a couch she had repurposed as her bed. The floor around her was littered with crushed cans of Dextro-Soda and beer.

That all paled in comparison to what she was watching. On screen was a turian with a cybernetic eye-patch, armed with a heavy machine gun. He was shooting wildly from a shuttle's huge turret down upon what appeared to be a mass of human soldiers holed up in what appeared to be some kind of fortress. The shuttle suddenly took a hit to its left booster. The turian turned to his partner, who had a lot of black facial markings covering his face.

"Looks like them apes just messed up our ride," said the lead turian in a gruff voice. "Guess we're gonna have to go down there and... exchange insurance."

"Damn straight, brother," The other turian said raising his fist up proudly. "Let's take this fort, Havoc-Style mutherfucka!"

The two turians grasped at the other's hand and flexed their arms in a rather overly masculine way. The turian with the cybernetic eye-patch then dropped from the shuttle, still high in the air, landed without a scratch and tossed a throwing knife into the throat of a nearby human sentry.

"Knife to see you," he said in his extremely gruff tone, before pulling out a pistol, twirling it around in his talons and using it to shoot three more humans in sequence up above on the fortress walls.

The camera then switched to two humans who pointed their guns at a nearby gate, which was then destroyed by an explosion, probably from a demolition charge. The turian commando then waltzed in, dual wielding two Phaeston rifles in each hand as the humans looked on in shock.

"I was in the neighbourhood and thought I'd drop in," the turian told them. "You dipshits don't mind do you?"

The humans opened fire, comically missing the big turian standing out in the open right in front of them.

"I knew you'd say that," said both the turian in the movie and Nelanax at the same time.

The turian then began opening up furiously on the human defenders, screaming like a mad man. Liara shook her head at it all. It wasn't so much because it seemed like such outdated propaganda, but the movie in general just seemed so stupid. Who wrote this crappy dialogue?

"You do realise the Alliance and Hierarchy have been allies for a long time," Liara spoke up, Nel still engrossed in her movie.

Nelanax finally snapped to attention, at last noticing Liara's presence in the room.

"Oh hey, Doc," she greeted. "Didn't hear you come in."

"May I ask why you're watching an old propaganda film about the Relay 314 incident?" Liara asked again.

Nelanax just snorted at the comment and waved her hand dismissively.

"Oh, like the humans don't still watch the billion or so 'First Contact War' films religiously," she replied, emphasizing the words 'First Contact War' with slight sarcastic movements of both her index talons. "Besides, it's fucking badass. Wanna watch it with me? I still got plenty of snacks."

Liara looked at Nel's assortment of snacks, which were pretty much all over the couch.

"I couldn't eat them anyway," she reminded her. "Different amino-acids, remember?"

Nel sighed sadly as she remembered the cold hard facts of genetics. She then stuffed her face with another talon-full of candy-coated turian chocolate. Liara looked back at the holoscreen again to see the Turian character blowing away humans like they were nothing and not even bothering to aim. He was still wielding two Phaeston assault rifles, which was still impossible.

"Dare I ask exactly what this is?" She questioned reluctantly.

"Slyvestrix Stalaxian in 'Cyber-Legionnaire: Blood over Shanxi', first in the series," Nel said proudly. "And the most fucking awesome I may add. Although the sequels have their moments, I guess, better soundtracks too."

Now Liara remembered, she thought she had recognized that gruff delivery. 'Cyber-Legionnaire' was a popular film series in 2160s. The turians were still bitter from the war with the Alliance on Shanxi, which had thankfully been resolved by Liara's people before more blood was shed. The turians were still getting criticised for overreacting to an alien species tampering with a Mass Relay, an act the humans at the time didn't know was illegal in Galactic society.

In response to the many turians who felt targeted, Palaven's film industry quickly seized on the moment to start making super patriotic films about how, despite their loss, the turian military had at least fought a good fight. As most films about politically charged events in history did, they downplayed and left out the more complex aspects of the fighting, including the bombing of civilians. They mainly focused on grizzled turian warriors who saved fellow soldiers taken hostage or stopped nukes that were set to be fired at Palaven, just to name a few of the outlandish plots.

'Cyber-Legionnaire' followed the exploits of a Turian Havoc Soldier named Tugustex Valkas, a soldier who did not exist in real life. There were three films in the series, which were huge successes on Turian colonies... and nowhere else. Regardless, they catapulted its lead actor, Slyvestrix Stalaxian, into action movie stardom. When relations towards humans cooled, he managed to stay in the game by "fighting" the new or, in some cases, renewed enemies in Turian cinema. These included separatists, krogans, biotic extremists and occasionally some geth and batarians for good measure.

"Oh wait," Nel said suddenly, looking at the screen in giddy anticipation. "This is the part where Tugustex shoves both his omni-blades into the eye sockets of a machine gunner!"

There was a sickening sound of gushing blood from the holoscreen and a horrified scream.

"AH! MY EYESOCKETS!"

Liara was somewhat disgusted by the scene, but Nel just seemed to laugh uproariously at it all.

"Oh Spirits, that is brutal!" She chuckled. "I still can't believe this thing got a Parentally Acceptable rating from the Palaven Film Board. Did you know they stuck pressurised blood packs into the helmet of the dude? They could've just used computers and shit, but they wanted to maintain realism. That's dedication to your craft."

Liara remembered seeing one film starring Slyvestrix in the 2170s. She remembered the same corny lines and catchphrases vaguely. She did recall the plot had something to do with Biotic Extremists taking over a Clawball stadium around a Major turian holiday, but that was about it. She imagined Nel could probably recite the entire script in her head from that meagre description alone.

"You're pretty into this stuff, aren't you?" She asked.

"Nothing beats good old fashioned turian cinema," Nel claimed. "We make the most kickass vids. You wanna take a seat and watch the rest of it with me? I can fill you in on the parts of the plot you missed."

Liara doubted there was much to fill her in on. Besides, she wasn't here to discuss action vids with her.

"I actually came here to talk about you," Liara explained. "I gave you some time to gravitate to the ship, but now I have some questions. My background check on you wasn't as in-depth as I wanted it to be. I know you've recently gone freelance after leaving the military. You belong to no major PMC, you are clearly not a biotic and your contract policy does indeed state flat out you won't work jobs involving the capture of slaves, attacking civilians or killing prisoners. Other than that, most of your files have been sealed for some reason."

Nel looked up at Liara, seemingly impressed that she knew that much.

"Spirits, you did your homework," She grinned at her. "I knew you asari were smart, but you're scary smart. It's kinda hot."

Liara ignored the comment and continued on.

"I like to know who I'm working with," she informed her in a slightly derisive tone, calling back to Nel's failure to do the same on her end. "Now then, I'd like to know what you did in the military and why you left."

Nel sighed deeply. She paused the holoscreen with a voice command and turned around in her seat to face Liara directly.

"Alright, my military background is pretty simple," she began. "You ever heard of the 25th Amiger Legion?"

"I have, a Turian Special Forces group specialising in frontline assault missions," Liara answered. "Those who join, and specialise themselves into a combat role, are usually referred to as Havoc Soldiers. However, if you're telling me you're one of them, I find it a bit hard to believe. I don't see their trademark jet-propulsion armour on your person."

"They don't let you keep it when you leave," Nel replied, giving her a look that seemed to say 'well, duh.' Liara frowned a bit at it. "They especially don't let you keep it when you get discharged."

Discharged? That was a bit of a concern to Liara, but it was weird for Nel to be so open about it.

"What exactly were you discharged for?" She asked.

"I was too much of a 'loose cannon' they said," she explained with a cocky grin. "They didn't like the way I did things. Truth be told though, they were just too much of a fucking boys club. They didn't like seeing something without a dick showing them up on the battlefield. First chance they got, they tossed me."

"As I understand it, the turian military is rather gender neutral," Liara argued, unconvinced by what she said. "I doubt that was the only reason."

Nel rolled her eyes and went to grab one of her drinks from the side table.

"Look, a mission went bad, they blamed me for it when the top brass screwed up on intel and shit," she shot back. "I got kicked out, my armour taken away and they sealed my files out of embarrassment. It's their fucking fault, not mine. I was the scapegoat, plain and simple."

Nothing was ever that simple. Liara gave her a suspicious look as Nel guzzled down the drink in her talons. She then crushed the metal container against her forehead and tossed it aside.

"I can understand if you don't want to talk about what happened," the asari informed her. "But I will need access to your personnel files in order to verify any of this."

"Fine," Nel groaned. "I learned quickly enough that I need to have the proper credentials to convince people to hire me."

Nel dug deep into one of her pockets before tossing over and OSD packet to Liara. The asari caught it awkwardly before it fell.

"That thing has a copy of my personal record before I got booted," she explained. "Give it a look over, you can verify it yourself. It's got the official seal and everything."

Regardless, Nel was still hiding the reason for her dismissal from the service. Still, if it checked out it would be good enough for the moment.

"Onto the next bit of business then," Liara told her as she pocketed the OSD. "You said you could lead us to a training camp, the one you were in charge of before being transferred to that lab. Where is it and how much can you tell us about it?"

"I know that place like the back of my delicate little talons," Nel said cheekily. "It's on a remote little sand blasted shithole in the Terminus, planet called Daratar I believe. Very remote, not too many settlements and the old mining structures there gave us a good place to set up shop beneath the rocks."

"It didn't seem suspicious to you that they valued that much secrecy?" Liara asked.

"Well, with people like you around, maybe they have good reason," Nel argued. "Just like any Special Forces group would be. I bet they don't tell you asari where the Huntresses train."

Liara supposed she had point, but that didn't detract from the fact that she had still been unable to figure out who she was really working for. She was either lying to her about how much she really knew or she was just dangerously oblivious. Neither of those two possibilities boded well. As she gave the turian a disconcerting look, Nel spoke up in her defence once more.

"Look, I already told you," Nelanax continued, almost as if she sensed Liara's concerns. "I didn't know what they were. I thought maybe the Blood Pack were just expanding their roster to include more aliens or that they had entered a partnership with the Blue Suns or whatever, it could've been anything. How was I supposed to know they were terrorists and slavers? They kept me in the dark."

Liara decided to just drop it. Nel was insistent enough on the subject already and she was cooperating. That didn't mean she was immediately going to trust everything she said, especially since she was obviously hiding things about her past. She'd see how this mission went first though.

"I trust you can help us clear out the camp?" Liara asked.

"They'll still have a heavy garrison there, even if they think it's compromised," Nel explained. "They were very insistent about its value. Although, I imagine they'll expect an attack by now. Trox has probably told them about my departure."

"Then we'll need to know what we're up against," Liara reasoned. "Who can we expect to find and how many troops do you think we'll encounter?"

Nel thought it over, racking her mind to answer the question. After several taps against her temple with her talon she finally replied.

"We rotated squads of Blood Pack mercs regularly," she began. "There were never more than three squads of them stationed there at any time. When I was hired by the last guy, Kreave, he wanted me to teach them enough to be able to follow his orders and tactical strategies to the letter. I don't think he wanted them to get smarter than him. Not sure what Trox will want from his people."

"What about the batarians?" Liara asked.

"They were all over the place before too long," Nel admitted. "Platoon strength, but I only handled them through Kreave. In fact, the last time I saw him was when he brought them in on things. Said they were new recruits for the Pack. If Trox didn't change anything after he transferred me to Charlan, they should all still be there. They'd be at least at minimum platoon strength."

"Did he bring in the Covenant around that time too?" Liara asked.

Nel nodded slowly in response.

"Mostly those little gas suckers and the ugly bird things," she elaborated. "But there were at least four of those sangheili asshats with them. Out of everyone I helped train, they were the worst. They never wanted to listen, said Turian Military Tactics were nothing compared to theirs. Even the krogan were better students and my people mass-emasculated them! They even refused to pick up any gun that wasn't one of theirs, said it was heresy or some shit."

Interesting belief system, Liara wondered what drove it. Why would using a foreign weapon be heresy? If that was the case, then they weren't getting guns from the batarians in exchange for theirs. So what was the Covenant getting out of it? Balak had suggested that they were assisting him in exchange for manpower to fight their war in their home dimension. Were the genetic advancements making up for the exchange of weapons or was there another angle they weren't seeing?

"There were also some of these big guys, like the ones we saw back inside Charlan," she continued. "They didn't listen to me much either, I think it was because those sangheili guys had a tight grip on their balls, so to speak. I don't think they even have balls. There were only two of them I ever saw, but they came with me to Charlan, so they probably aren't back there. I called them the 'Bash and Blast Bros.' I don't think they liked it."

Liara imagined they didn't like much of anything. The Mgalekgolo, as Kayap had called them, were devastatingly powerful and seemingly driven by rage. They had yet to kill one at all and she doubted that would change any time soon. With the bio-tech Thresher Maw armour added into them now, they had lost the only potential weakness they could exploit before they even knew about it. They'd need to find another way to kill them before they encountered those things again.

"Anyway, the sangheili are still pretty damn tough, regardless of how thick-headed they are," Nel warned. "So even if there are only a few, I'd still be careful."

After seeing Vorsa in action, Liara thought those were wise words of caution. These sangheili had proven to be tough opponents, more willing to die than any other enemy they had encountered previously. They were most certainly skilled enough already and, if they had picked up any tips from Nel's training, they'd be even more dangerous now. They were not going to be easy to defeat.

"But hey, it's nothing you guys can't handle, I'm sure," Nel assured her confidently.

"Why do you say that?" Liara asked, brow raised slightly.

"Well, you're Doctor Liara T'Soni with Urdnot Wrex tagging along for the ride," she replied succinctly. "You guys fought beside Commander 'Motherfucking' Shepard. You helped him take on a Citadel overflowing with synthies while a giant metal squid latched onto the Council Chambers Tower. A tower, I might add, you apparently decided to ascend on foot, on the outside, with said giant metal squid looking at you all the way. I mean, come on, what could beat you?"

If only Nelanax knew the whole truth of that day. That they had come so close to galactic extinction, that the "giant squid" she mentioned was only the first of many, that what seemed like a quick decisive win was only the first real battle of a war that no one knew they were already fighting. Liara could only assume the turian had bought into the vids that depicted the battle, that she was engrossed more in the legend than fact. Not that she was the only one that was, of course.

"I appreciate the praise, Nel," she said gratefully. "But really, as amazing as our exploits sound, we're not invincible. We won because we worked as a team."

"I hear ya," Nel assured her. "Still, it's pretty damn amazing that I'm actually serving alongside legends. If the assholes back in my old unit knew about this they'd be jealous as fuck. Especially so if they knew I'm going into a fight with Urdnot Wrex. That krogan is one major badass from what I've heard. How big is he exactly?"

Liara looked taken aback by the candid comment. She wondered if Nel meant what she was thinking she had meant.

"Excuse me?" She asked in kind.

"You know, how big is it?" Nel asked again, pointing down to between her legs. "What? You haven't seen it?"

"No," Liara answered flatly. "What makes you think I have?"

Nel looked a bit disappointed and confused at the same time.

"Oh," she said perplexed. "I guess I just figured you two had like, you know, done it."

Liara's eyes widened at the notion.

"That's ridiculous," she said rather flustered as she looked away from the turian. "Wrex and I have a very business oriented relationship. He's a good friend, that's all. Where would you get that idea?"

"Well, you are kinda smoking," Nel admitted plainly. "I'd probably go down on you myself to be honest. Factor in personal history, you two seem to enjoy each other's company, possibility of open relationships, that sort of stuff, it just seemed to make sense you two had done it. Of course, now that you got me wondering about it..."

Liara dreaded the next words to come out of Nel's mouth.

"He's single right?" Nel asked. "If I went after him you wouldn't hold me down and bash my head in or anything? Course, if you wanna hold me down in another way, I could dig that too."

Liara rolled her eyes at it all. She exhaled greatly as her previous dread appeared well founded.

"I would appreciate it if you kept your sexual appetite in check while aboard the Lucen and when you're with this crew in general," she explained. "I don't have any problem with your preferred orientation, but-"

"Hey, I'm not exclusive ma'am," Nel tried to assure her rather quickly. "It's more about the act, the rush is all. I go for that more than anything. Sex is supposed to be fun, right? Limitations of any kind put a damper on that. And really, just because I don't care what gender you are doesn't mean I'm not still a lady."

After Nel said this, she took another huge swig of yet another beer, belched loudly, and then crushed the container against her head. She did it with such a peculiar looking grin on her face that Liara wondered if she was trying to intentionally mock her previous statement.

"There are many ways to be a girl," Liara admitted.

"Damn right, sister," Nel said proudly. "And there are just as many positions for a girl to be in too."

Nel laughed loudly at her joke, but Liara wasn't. She was fine with crude humour, but Nel still didn't seem to get the message.

"My point is," she began again. "Keep whatever sexual urges you have in check. I'm not saying you can't indulge, I'm just telling you that if it interferes with the mission we will have a problem."

"Yeah, yeah, same old song," Nel sighed. "I was in the military, I get it. Sorry if I freaked you out and shit, I guess I'm just a bit pent up and all. Haven't had any of the stimulation in awhile, it's a bit nerve wracking. You know how it gets."

Actually, she didn't know how it got. Liara had nothing against Nel's sexual openness, but she was still waiting for the right moment and the right person.

"Just find your..." Liara searched for the appropriate word. "Rush, I suppose, in some other activity."

"No worries, Doc," Nel promised with a salute. "This old girl can cope. Besides, putting a few rounds in some bad guys is just as satisfying. It's still a kind of penetration after all. And if that fails, I still got my vids and my closest companion."

Nel wiggled her talons slightly before she had her vid continue to play. As it did, Liara turned to back away, but her head snapped around when she heard a particularly brutal sound from the holoscreen. Slyvestrix's character had apparently stabbed a human in the skull. The blade had gone through one side and was now sticking out of the other.

"Mind if I pick your brain?" Slyvestrix's character asked.

Liara's brow rose at that one-liner, remembering those words. Vik had raised some concerns when they brought Nelanax aboard. He mentioned that she said that very line during the fight at Charlan.

"Didn't you use that quote back when Vorsa's men attacked?" She asked her.

"Oh yeah," Nel said nonchalantly. "You think I properly homaged it? I wanted to add my own spin to it a bit. I think I said it in a lighter tone, a little bit more flighty and flirty perhaps."

Liara didn't answer her. She just left Nel to watch the rest of her vid. She couldn't say she was surprised by the revelation of where Nel got some of her "battle banter", but it certainly unnerved her. She decided her next course of action would be to check over the files she had been given.

---

Nelanax was more than likely withholding the truth from her or lying outright about a few things, but she wasn't lying about where she had served. She had been a Havoc soldier, the personnel file contained within the OSD proved it. The official seal of the Legionnaires was authentic. Several scans showed that the images and the file itself had never been altered. She had also indeed been on several missions if her cross-checking with the Hierarchy Military database was anything to go by.

As Nel said, however, the file contained nothing on her discharge. Liara imagined that was more her doing than anything. She was either hiding something or trying to avoid it. It was a huge gap in her background, one that made her a bit uneasy about trusting the turian outright.

If anything though, the files confirmed most of her suspicions about Nelanax. The record suggested she was "insubordinate", "reckless" and "lacked any respect for standard military doctrine." It even described several incidents where she solicited several soldiers on duty, both male and female. Liara wasn't surprised to hear that, nor was she surprised with some of the details about her missions.

One incident claimed she advanced ahead of her squad, breaking formation to chase after a secondary target, a well known Turian Separatist Leader, on her own. She succeeded in taking him down, but her actions nearly cost her squad their main objective, a group of hostages that the Separatists had taken. She clearly wished to mirror the Turian action heroes of her favourite vids. The file was loaded with rather reckless, stupid exploits that seemed to be right out of a vid. Most of them involved Nelanax either destroying private property in her pursuit of her target or disregarding orders to go off on her own.

Despite her behaviour, she routinely got assignment after assignment from her Company Commander. The file claimed she was proficient in all firearms, excelled in assault tactics and was "deadly efficient with bladed weapons." She was definitely someone she'd like on her side, but that didn't completely remove Liara's concerns from her mind.

Regardless, whatever luck Nel had possessed that kept her from getting her kicked out of her unit had inevitably ran out. That had lead to her seeking a new life as a mercenary. Liara imagined she preferred the lack of rules and responsibility. In many ways, she somewhat reminded her of Garrus before Shepard straightened him out. But even with Garrus, he did what he did out of a desire for justice. Nel seemed to do these things because she thought it was fun. Working with someone who thought of the mission as a game didn't sit well with Liara. It would've been easy to blame the overexposure of violent vids for the problem, but she knew better. There was something deeper to all of this.

"If it helps any," Wrex told her as he leaned against the wall in her room. "I can keep an eye on her. If she tries anything stupid I can rein her in."

Liara kept working on her terminal as she spoke to him. She still had to go over some potential intelligence before they attacked this base camp. She also wanted to review some of the footage from her personal camera she had embedded in her suit. She was studying Vorsa's fighting skills, trying to figure out how to better combat him and his warriors next they faced.

"I appreciate the offer, Wrex," Liara replied gratefully. "But I'm the person who will be leading her out there. I need her to listen to me. Otherwise this won't work. Besides, she'd probably enjoy whatever attention you give her anyway. She'd most likely think you were interested in her."

Wrex chuckled a little.

"Ha! The day I accept an advance from a turian is the day I cut off my quad," Wrex assured her, a slight grin appearing on his face.

"Well, good to hear then," Liara commended him rather hastily, her vision peering out of the corner of her eye for a brief second. "None of us can afford distractions right now... no matter how tempting. We can't encourage that kind of behaviour."

Wrex's brow rose a bit at the way Liara answered back. She probably sounded a lot more flustered than she had anticipated. The comment had briefly reminded her of some of the things Nelanax had said to her.

"What's the matter T'Soni?" Wrex suddenly asked, his grin growing wider. "You seem a bit put off by all this."

"I'm not, I just wish she was a bit more reserved is all," Liara told him. "Stopping Balak is too important right now to be thinking about, well, that."

Wrex laughed a little under his breath.

"As I recall, you didn't think that back on the first Normandy," Wrex reminded her.

"Yes, well, if you can recall that then you must remember how that didn't turn out the way I hoped," Liara reminded him, sounding rather uncomfortable with the way this conversation had turned. "I was just a bit overtaken with the excitement, nothing more."

"You were taken with someone," Wrex laughed.

Liara stopped typing for a moment and looked back at Wrex with an incredulous glare.

"Can we change topics, please?" She asked rather forcefully.

Wrex didn't say anything, but his smile vanished. Liara went back to her work. Another minute passed before Wrex spoke up again.

"Look," he said in a much more concerned and serious tone. "It didn't turn out the way you wanted. Getting put in the friend box by the first guy you were ever really interested in can't be easy. But you got a long life ahead of you... hundreds of years in fact."

"You don't need to give me the 'plenty of fish' speech, Wrex," Liara reminded him. "I was being stupid back then, I've accepted that."

"You sure about that?" He asked.

Liara turned to glare at him again and saw a concerned look on his face.

"Shepard filled me in on it. You did go out of your way to bring him back," Wrex reminded her. "Garrus didn't do that. Tali didn't do that. Williams didn't do that. I didn't do it and I didn't think he was dead."

"What are you trying to say, Wrex?" She asked, somewhat exasperated.

"I'm saying we tried to move on," Wrex informed her. "As close as we all were to Shepard, as sad as everyone was, as much as I denied it, you were the only one that couldn't get past it. You couldn't let go."

Liara looked away for a brief moment, contemplating Wrex's words. He was right, she couldn't let go. That was the problem in the end. Maybe she hadn't faced up to her motivations, but it didn't matter. He was alive again and she'd keep it that way, whatever it took.

"I never asked anything of him," Liara said aloud, although didn't sound like she was speaking to Wrex. "What's important is that we got him back. Now he needs our help again. That's all that matters now."

"If you say so," Wrex replied, sounding unconvinced.

Thankfully there was a knock on the door that stopped the conversation before it started up again. Liara didn't care who it was, barring Nelanax herself of course. If it got her mind as far away from her stupid mistakes aboard the first Normandy then it was a Goddess sent blessing.

She turned off the door lock and it slid open to reveal Vik'Sajee standing there rather meekly.

"Hey Doc," he greeted cheerfully. "I thought you might want an update on that project we discussed before."

Wrex pushed himself off the wall, his interested peaked at the word 'project' no doubt.

"What's this about?" He asked.

"Just upgrading the suit of our original defector," Vik replied. "I was able to grab some parts during the fighting back in Charlan before we had to bolt. There's still room for improvement, but at least the main problems in the original design have been fixed."

Vik turned around and motioned his hand towards someone. Waddling into Liara's room, Kayap was soon revealed in his new combat harness. Now coloured in blue, the bulky methane tank had been replaced with a more compact one that fit along his back in a streamline fashion. In addition to no longer being as big a target, the harness also covered Kayap's body more effectively. New forearm pads and armoured gauntlets covered what were recently exposed limbs. What were once bare feet were now covered up in military-grade boots, far more comfortable than walking around with naked toes on whatever terrain you happened to be stuck with. Besides more durability, they also offered better grip.

As for Kayap's mask, it had been altered. It now covered his head more effectively, a proper helmet that sported a set of orange-tinted portholes that covered his eyes. Liara looked more closely and noticed that one of the lenses had a targeting system of some kind covering the eye.

Vik tapped one of the eyeholes with his finger.

"Standard quarian biosuit visor glass," he said. "It's built for durability and protection. Nothing less than a rifle round is gonna pierce this. Even then, it will have to get by the shield I installed into the harness. Even if they take that down, he now has a ceramic reinforced torso plate. Had to take a few extra suits apart and shape them down to his size, but I managed."

Vik walked over to Kayap's pack and patted it.

"Reinforced the tank here too," he added. "It will take several direct hits before anyone manages to puncture the shell. The material is designed to reclose around the impact sight. The tanks themselves are individually separate from the protective layer. It should give him more time in the field before he needs a re-fill and should he ever require one..."

Vik pulled out what looked to be gas container and plugged into a port on the bottom of the methane pack. There was the sound of gas escaping into its new home as Vik held down it slightly.

"Instant re-fill," he declared, standing upright again. "We just need to keep these containers handy. I'm working on a possible methane rebreather for him to increase his pack capacity, but for now this should be good enough."

"So why blue?" Wrex asked.

Liara gave him a bit of a look when he said that so bluntly. Wrex quickly corrected himself.

"Blue is fine! Wonderful even, you make it work," he stated quickly. "I'm just wondering why blue."

"Well, I figured since she's the boss and everything," Vik began sheepishly. "His suit should reflect that. Plus it's the only colour he says the other unggoy don't wear on their armour. It should help him stand out in a fight enough that we don't accidentally shoot him."

Kayap jumped a little at that thought, Vik quickly calmed him down.

"It's okay, buddy," he said. "That won't happen now, not when you blend in with us more."

Liara bent down a little to get a better look at Kayap.

"How does the new harness feel?" She asked him.

"Suited One smart," Kayap answered. "Armour feel more tough. Bit harder to move with more stuff on, but me get used to it."

Liara smiled at that and stood back up to look at Vik with a generous smile.

"You did a good job, Sajee," she told him. "Thanks, and do keep me posted on how we're doing on making his room more methane-breathing friendly."

Vik was a bit bashful at the praise and rubbed the back of his neck a little.

"Aww, it was nothing," he assured her, sounding rather coy. "I was just trying to help a fellow downtrodden species, that's all. I mean, after seeing how his former fascist boss treated his people, I felt it was the least I could do."

While Liara's pride at Vik's success continued to beam, Wrex stepped in quickly by coughing aloud, bringing their attention to him.

"Well we're gonna get to try out your improvements soon, quarian." He told Vik. "Remember, we're headed to that training camp our new friend has pointed out for us."

Vik looked a little less happy about that reminder. He looked to Liara rather concerned.

"You really think we should trust the 'Walking Vid Trailer' on this?" He asked. "I mean, she seems a little unstable."

Wrex laughed when Vik said that.

"Says the quarian on medication," he mumbled.

The quarian stared at Wrex, looking rather irritated by the comment. Liara elbowed the krogan slightly for the insult and quickly answered Vik's statement. Wrex may have had a point about Vik calling the kettle black, but it wouldn't do any good to bring it up.

"She is our best lead for the moment, Vik," Liara explained. "We need to keep after the Covenant and the batarians. If we let up, they're going to regain the momentum we've cost them so far."

"Fair enough," Vik admitted. "I just don't trust that turian, you know."

"Oh yeah, that's a shock," Wrex muttered.

This time Vik was able to say something in response before Liara could divert his attention.

"What do you mean by that?" He asked.

"Just that you don't exactly trust a lot of people in general," Wrex clarified. "For the record, I'm a bit hesitant to do the same with the turian. It's just you telling me you don't trust someone is like me telling you a thresher maw smells as bad on the inside as the out. It's not really that surprising."

Vik seemed to lessen his glare a bit after that, but Wrex had still touched a nerve.

"Well, I guess we'll find out if we can trust the mercenary soon enough, huh?" He presumed. "I better get back down to the Truth then. I have some things to board and a bit of personal research to do. I've recently acquired a video depicting an as of yet unseen ritual performed by the Highest Universal Order of One Fraternity. It was taken undercover from inside one of their underwater lodges based on Kahje. And you know Hanar secret religious orders. They have a lot of crazy handshakes, what with all the tentacles and everything. I need to catalogue it all and post it up quick."

Liara let him go and Kayap just bid a simple farewell as he waddled back to his own room. Wrex just stared on in bemusement at it all. Liara gave him a bit of look.

"You could stand to be a bit more sensitive," she told him. "He's got a condition."

"Yeah, and the prescription is a swift kick to his skull to get it sorted out," Wrex argued in kind. "We need to be careful around that guy, Liara. As much as that turian is holding back, we know even less about him."

Wrex may have had a point, but he was still valuable to them. For now, she could look over Vik's reluctance to share his past so long as he pulled his weight. And he most certainly was pulling his weight so far.

"All you knew about me when we first met was that I was the daughter of one of Saren's allies," she reminded him. "You still vouched for me joining the Normandy because you saw that my biotics could be useful. I appreciated your confidence in me then and I think Vik would appreciate you trying to show some confidence in him now. If you try to be more welcoming to Vik, maybe he'll let you find out more about him."

Wrex sighed greatly at last.

"I only endure this crazy crap because we're friends, you know that right?" He asked her.

Liara only smiled knowingly. Wrex was a good man, and an even greater friend, even though they both tended to get on each other's nerves. She just hoped somehow she'd be able to instil the same kind of camaraderie among her new crew.

---

August 2nd, 2185

Liara had assembled everyone in the briefing room. They were standing around a rectangular holographic display table. It was currently showing them a layout of the training camp Nelanax had been assisting at. It was hidden in the central shaft of an old abandoned mining facility. It was out of the range of the Lucen's scanners, hidden deep underground and well-fortified.

From what Nel described, the camp had two distinct areas. One section had been set aside for administrative purposes and sleeping quarters. It was also where the main armoury was located. The second section was the main training area itself, complete with a shooting range, obstacle course and mock-ups for full-fledged training scenarios. To get to either section, however, one would have to traverse the various mining tunnels that stretched out like tendrils through the mountainside.

"Once we get to the camp, we'll have a lot more fighting room," Nel explained as she pointed at the holographic map. "Until then, the tunnels are the biggest problem. It's like a maze down there."

The hologram itself was derived from old mining company survey data and Nel's own account of the changes the Swords had made to it. She unfortunately did not have a complete picture of the area outside the main shaft. The tunnels branched off and twisted so much that there didn't appear to be a straight shot towards the camp itself.

"There has to be a faster way," Liara reasoned, looking over the diagram carefully. "This old mine shaft has to have a main access lift. It would be inefficient to get the materials out through those side entrances dotting the mountain."

"Actually, there is an access lift," Nel admitted, she then pointed up to the top of the mountain with her talon. "It's in this depression near the peak. It drops straight down into the main shaft where the main training area is. I never used it though. They made me walk through the tunnels, did the same with the trainees. The lift was only used to bring in higher ranked officers, like Trox, or equipment they needed to store. I never saw what they were carting in, but I assumed it was mostly guns."

"Then that's our entrance," Liara decided, eyeing it unflinchingly. "We take the lift, we head down pretending to be a shipment and then we take the camp."

Nel grinned at the plan.

"Ah, cut out the previews and get onto the main event, I like it," she stated excitedly.

Vik rolled his eyes at her words.

"You would," Liara thought she heard him mutter.

Nelanax didn't hear him, she kept talking instead.

"They may have some guards keeping an eye on the lift though," she warned. "But I guess with this ship we can just bombard them to shit. Or we can take one of those shuttles down there and rake them with turret fire. Either way should work."

"Saya can probably handle the access lift's guards," Liara informed her, less than thrilled with her suggestions. "A dive bomb attack or direct assault will only run the risk warning the Swords inside that something is up."

Nel's shoulders sank a little at the news, seemingly disappointed at the lack of action in the opening stage of the fight.

"Well, at least we'll get to shoot things after that boring part is over with," she reasoned.

Vik had more pressing concerns.

"We're going to be exposed on that lift all the way down," he informed them as he looked at the lift on the hologram. "How are we going to avoid getting shredded before we reach ground level?"

"We'll have to land the shuttles on the pad and ride them down," Liara presumed. "They'll be our only method of practical cover. Once we're on the ground floor, we can jump out and attack them. They may be suspicious seeing the shuttles headed down into the base, but they won't assume we're the enemy until the doors open and we pour out."

"We'll need to expect a welcoming party then," Wrex told her. "They'll be waiting by the lift's door for us. I trust all of us are going to be prepared to shoot them first."

Wrex's question sounded like it was being spoken to everyone in general, but he was staring at one person in particular. Kayap was soon caught in the spotlight of everyone's gaze as they all turned to him. Liara looked at Wrex, slightly upset by the way he had singled the unggoy out.

"Wrex," she started.

But Wrex was prepared to defend himself on this one.

"The people in there are going to consist of a number of unggoys, his people. Last time we almost got gutted because he tried to talk them down," he reminded them all. "We know how that turned out. So I gotta ask here, is he ready to kill them if it comes down to it? Cause if not, then we should just leave him up here."

Liara looked to Kayap. She could see he was bothered by the idea, but he slowly nodded his head and looked up at her.

"Me can do it," he assured her. "Me can fight. Don't want to, but will for new leader and crew."

"You don't have to do anything you don't want to," Liara informed him kindly.

Nelanax quickly interjected herself into the conversation.

"Hey, if he can't do the job maybe he should stay up here," she said with a growl. "There are bad guys down there after all. He should be ready to pull the trigger or stay home."

"Well that's easy for you to say," Vik retorted. "None of those bad guys are turians. Would you be so willing to head in there if we were killing your kind?"

"I've killed Sepies, quarian," Nel argued. "Don't lecture me about killing other turians. If anyone should be asked that question it's you. Would you have my back if the guy shooting me was a quarian?"

"That would depend on why he was shooting you," Vik snapped back at her.

Nel glared at the quarian across from her before turning to Saya Empa.

"What do you think Ninja Frog?" She asked. "You think we should let a scared little gas sucker watch our backs?"

Saya responded with a rather aloof turn of his head, he didn't seem to care one way or the other about the subject.

"Well, whatever, point is I know whose side I'm on," Nel continued to argue.

"Says the gung-ho mercenary who is now telling us how to kill her former pupils," Vik responded irritably.

"Cute, quarian," Nel snapped back. "I told you all, I'm doing this because they lied to me and voided my contract restraints."

"No, you're doing this because you think it's going to fun shooting up your former employers," Vik corrected her. "At least Kayap has some moral quandaries about killing his possible former friends. You just can't wait to start spilling their blood in some bullet frenzied fantasy."

Nelanax just laughed back at him.

"Well excuse me for taking pride in my work and showing a little enthusiasm," she told him bitterly. "I suppose you're gonna be like your little friend there and try and talk out your feelings with them?"

"I'm going to do what I can for this crew, that's how I was raised," Vik replied. "I wasn't raised to take joy in killing other things is all. So don't you question my commitment to this ship."

"Why not?" Nel asked him. "You're questioning mine. So I worked with the bad guys. They lied to me and I'm with you now, isn't that enough?

"You helped make them more dangerous," Vik shot back. "You only defected because you got bored with them. Why shouldn't I be concerned about that?"

Saya shook his head at the whole scene, but did nothing to try and stop it. He just looked at both Vik and Nel, seemingly with contempt, and went back to trying to block them out. That may have been an option for him, but not for Liara. She quickly slammed her open palm onto the display table and silenced both of them.

"We are a team now," she reminded them. "Bickering about loyalties is not conducive to that. Vik, Nel is now working with us, end of story. You may not like her motivations for it, but that's how it is. Nel, Kayap is coming with us, there is no debate on that. He's already put his life on the line for us before, I doubt that has changed. I expect every single one of you to do the same for each other."

That stopped their arguing, but the cracks were still there. The little glares the two gave each other were more than evident. Saya had completely tuned out both of them himself, not caring for either side's position as he closed himself off from the group. Nel mumbled something under her breath towards Vik.

"Wet bucket," she said grumbling.

Liara saw Vik head turn towards her violently, but she stopped him before he said anything else.

"Enough," she told them both firmly. "Back to the plan, we get in through the lift and we start clearing the training section out before moving on to the personnel area. Once there, we need to cut them off from the armoury and finish them off. My ShadowNet squads and Wrex's krogan will help us clear out the section quickly. We need to work fast and as a team, understand?"

Everyone nodded, but Liara was still unsure. She told them all go off to prepare for the mission. She and Wrex stayed in the briefing room.

"I'm not exactly sure which one is more screwed up in the head," he said. "The turian who thinks she's in an action vid or the quarian who probably thinks his lunch is plotting against him. And then there's the Loner Salarian. We sure know how to pick up a team, huh?"

"It takes time to forge a squad's cohesiveness," Liara informed him. "We just need to help them learn it."

It wouldn't be easy. Nelanax was violent and reckless. Vik was paranoid, highly medicated and delusional. Kayap wasn't particularly adept in combat and was arguably the weakest of them. Saya's professionalism was contrasted by his disdain for the other members of the team. Liara just wasn't sure if she could handle all of them together. She wasn't Shepard, but she was the next best thing right now.

---

Saya was ultimately fine with being sent alone on this. There would be a lot less dead weight for one. Also, he wouldn't have to suffer the krogan nor listen to mercenary and the conspiracy nut bicker. Of course, that would end as soon as the lift was clear of enemies. He'd make the most of the silence while he still had it.

They had inserted him about a mile away from the lift proper. The shuttle didn't land on the incredibly rocky terrain of the mountain top. He just leapt down while it hovered above. He then made progress towards his intended target while Doctor T'Soni kept the shuttles in a holding pattern above the clouds and out of range of any potential electronic detection. Once he gave the all clear, they'd come back down for a landing on the access lift.

Saya reached his target not long after. The lift was rather sparse in terms of guards. There was one small hut along the eastern side of the lift, facing towards him. It appeared to be a standard excavation company living quarters. It had obviously been built on site from pre-assembled parts shipped to the top of the mountain, welded together and then abandoned along with the mine. Now it had been repurposed for the guards to get out of the sun for awhile.

Taking a look around the lift from his perch in the rocks, he could spy one krogan walking the perimeter with a vorcha. Two more batarians were doing the same. As he watched the patrols, one of the batarians headed into the hut. Unable to see inside, Saya couldn't assume he was the only one now in there. He'd need to be careful when he cleared it.

The first target he'd go for would be the krogan. He was the biggest threat after all. Then again, when weren't they? The vorcha beside him would probably be next, as they didn't stray far from each other. He'd clear the hut last, after dealing with the batarian still outside. With any luck, this would go relatively smoothly.

There wasn't much cover besides the rocks surrounding the access lift, so he'd have to rely on his cloak more. Once activated, he careful crept up to his first kill. Invisible to all, he watched and waited for the krogan and vorcha to separate. He'd need them to be out of eyesight from each other, as well as the batarian.

It didn't take long, the vorcha soon left him to go behind a couple of containers on the west side of the lift. The krogan remained out in the open though, in full view of the batarian near the hut. So again, Saya waited. The krogan moved to the north of the lift, slightly covered by a rusting piece of mining equipment. It probably used to be some kind of cargo hauler, but that was of little concern. Now that he was separated, he could be taken out.

Saya climbed up the decaying wreck to get above the kogan. The easiest way to kill their kind was to aim for the back of the neck. The reason for this was rather practical. You risked giving the enemy the chance to warn their friends if you didn't kill them quickly. However, with the krogan's notorious durability, that was a lot harder to do.

Because their hides were so thick in the first place, cutting through there was hard. You had to hope you hit a critical organ or artery if you wanted them to die quickly. Otherwise, they'd belch out a final call to arms before they passed. Your best chance was to go for the least protected part of their body, their neck. The intention was to get them to bleed out as fast as possible, as there were plenty of critical arteries there. Also, you kept them from sounding the alarm by removing their ability to speak.

Needless to say, Saya enjoyed the poetic sense of justice.

The best way to get a shot at the neck was from above and behind. So whenever he got that opportunity, Saya took it. He brought out his sword and then leapt onto his prey. The krogan probably felt the salarian land on his hump, but by then it was too late. Saya's blade was already deep into the krogan's neck and was poking out his jugular. The salarian held on by the cusp of the krogan's armour surrounding his hump.

The dumb giant lizard dropped his gun and tried to push the tip of Saya's sword out from whence it came. Seeing that this particular krogan wasn't dying nearly as fast, Saya activated the Shiakala's electrical current and let the shock course through his target's body.

The tactic did its job, and was quiet enough not to alert attention. The krogan dropped to his knees. As he did though, his body turned slightly the left. Saya now saw the Vorcha's shadow approaching from behind the containers just a few meters away. In a few minutes, he'd be exposed to the ugly little alien.

Quickly, the salarian pulled out his suppressed pistol and pointed it at the incoming Vorcha. He still held onto the krogan, grasping at the hilt of his sword as the stupid sack of meat lurched around. The vorcha came around the corner, just in time for Saya to fire a silent round right into his eye. For good measure, Saya followed it up with a second shot, just make sure the vorcha went down, their regenerative healing factor was as bad as the krogan's after all. The vorcha fell to the ground and the krogan stopped moving. Saya pulled his sword out and reactivated his cloak. He then moved into position for his third kill.

The only one outside now was a lone batarian. They were certainly a lot easier to deal with as opposed to vorcha or krogans. They didn't have that annoying as hell healing factor for one. He carefully snuck up behind the batarian as he looked out onto the desolate landscape of the planet before him. A shame he'd die looking at such a dirtball.

Saya got close to the batarian. Then, with one quick thrust, he punched his sword through the batarian's stomach. The four-eyed alien lurched forward in pain. Saya pulled the sword out and quickly slashed towards the batarian's neck. The blade cut clean through, separating the batarian's body from his head. Saya flicked the blood off of his sword and then moved to the door of the hut itself.

The door remained unlocked. He expected, more what with the camp supposedly on high alert. Perhaps they didn't think anyone would be fool enough to attempt to enter the base through here. Once inside he saw a number of sleeping cots, some open lockers, a terminal on a small desk and another door. He could hear voices behind it.

"If they're so sure we're gonna get hit, why aren't we evacuating?" Spoke one voice.

"We don't exactly have a big enough ship to get us all off this rock for one," answered another. "They're sending someone, but all our ships are pretty far out securing other stations and projects. They don't know how much they got away with exactly. They can't check with law enforcement turning over the entire lab after all. For all we know, we're last on their list of things that need to die. Besides, this is the biggest training camp we have outside of Hegemony space. We can't afford to just leave it, especially with what we got inside."

"And what if we are on this asari's list?" The person from before enquired.

Saya was more than happy to provide the answer. He spread the explosive gel along the sides of the door and stepped back. He then pressed down on the hilt and the door blew in on itself. Saya rushed in after the breach. He found one batarian dead from the explosion and another trying get the remains of the door off of him. Saya kicked the scrap of metal off him and then stabbed him through the head with his blade, the batarian holding up his arms in a futile attempt to stop him. Saya pulled his blade out and then activated a command on his omni-tool, signalling the all clear for T'Soni.

So much for his solitude, but at least he got to silence a krogan mercenary in the process. With any luck, there would be more down inside the mountain he could do the same to.

---

The access lift was big enough to support two shuttles. A good thing considering how much space krogan took up. Wrex was in the second shuttle with his men, while Liara stayed in the first with her Shadow Operatives, Vik, Kayap and Nelanax.

When they saw Saya activate the signal, Liara had the pilot land. When they touched down on the lift, the doors open wide and Saya walked into Liara's shuttle. He pushed himself in between Liara and Vik. The salarian had activated the lift prior to his entry, so they were already on the way down. The doors to the shuttle shut tight once more and Liara activated external cameras to keep an eye on their progress to the ground floor.

"This is so cool," said Nel rather excitedly. "It's just like that scene in 'Talon Strike Force 2' when they're about to make that drop in the middle of a Separatist stronghold. Course, the main characters' shuttle gets shot down and they have to do a crash landing, but when the doors open up it will be pretty much the same camera angle, with the bullets whizzing in and everything."

"You do realise that the bullets will be real, right?" Vik asked her. "I wouldn't be that excited over the prospect of getting shot."

Nel stuck out her tongue at the quarian.

"Yeah, yeah, Wet Bucket, I get it, you have a shitty immune system and everything," she said lightly mocking him. "Don't worry, your position as the scared little techie guarantees you'll be shot in the head the moment the doors open. So you'll die quickly instead of coughing and wheezing from infection."

"That is not how it works," Vik barked back at her. "Besides, getting shot period is not something to look forward to. I don't understand how you're so blissfully unaware of the danger."

"Well it helps that I'm not a wimpy little quarian," Nel told him with a smirk. "And I've been shot before, plenty of times. It doesn't hurt as much as you think. Kinda tickles actually."

Liara caught their attention with a simple cough.

"This is serious," Liara reminded them. "Remember, if we're going to make it out of this alive we need to work as a unit and together. When the doors open, I'm going to toss out a wide biotic attack that will knock anyway outside off their feet. When that happens, we move in and secure the lift area. Your enthusiasm is appreciated Nel, but this is real, not a vid."

"Which makes it better," Nel stated jubilantly, Liara's point going right over her head. "How many vids let you actually control the action? Just experimental ones and those things are all artsy and crap. Never enough explosions either."

Liara would've clarified her statements, but there was no time. The rocky walls that appeared on the exterior cameras were soon replaced with an open shaft. Liara could see a shooting range below, and several mock-ups of buildings and structures nearby.

"Are those the scenario courses you mentioned?" She asked Nel as she pointed to one of the mock-ups.

"Sure are," the turian answered with something of a proud grin on her face. "I had the trainees run drills on them. None of them managed to beat my best time though, forty-seven seconds or less on the first shoot house we built. Wasn't my best though, could've done it way faster. For example, we used to have a cruiser bridge mock-up that I completed in thirty."

"You're such a humble war hound, Nelanax," Vik stated with a sardonic sneer.

The turian ignored him and kept giving an eye towards Liara.

"I still got my helmet cam-footage from my runs," she said with a sultry tone. "I look damn badass all the way. Maybe if you have some time later I can show'em to ya, Doc. You just name the place."

Liara cringed again at the awkward advance on her person. Vik, however, looked at the turian rather surprised, Nel's demeanour not lost on him.

"Is this seriously the time for that?" Vik asked her. "I mean, really?"

"Don't be jealous just because I didn't hit on you, Wet Bucket," Nel told him harshly, but suddenly her tone returned to a flirtatious one. "Although I'm not averse to making it a threesome, I guess."

"Yeah, no," Vik was quick to reply. "I make it a habit not to date homicidal maniacs."

"Damn, you guys are tough nuts to crack," Nel observed, looking despondent at them all. "What's a girl gotta do to get some action on this cruise?"

The lift suddenly stopped dead. Everyone jumped up and pointed their guns towards the shuttle door. Liara raised her fist, letting the energy flow around her hand. As a blue aurora formed around her finger tips, the shuttle door began to open.

The door was half-way up before she spotted their first enemies, two kig-yar, three batarians and three vorcha. She released her biotic energy and let it strike the assorted soldiers standing nearby. The biotic attack sent them all flying backwards and everyone rushed out of the shuttle and into the fight.

"You wanted action, Nelanax," Liara told the turian.

"Still would've preferred sex," she shrugged. "This will do for now though."

With a hearty battle cry, Nelanax raced off into the fight with her assault rifle blazing. The Shadow Operatives were already in the field and Liara was right behind them with Vik, Kayap and Saya by her side. Wrex's men were moving past them as well, firing their weapons at the assorted Covenant and batarians around the lift that were now seeking shelter where they could find it.

Nelanax set one batarian ablaze with her incendiary ammo mod. Vik laid down suppression fire with the use of his little sentry turret that nipped at the heels of retreating kig-yar. Kayap fired quick little shots from his needle gun, catching one vorcha in the back enough times to cause him to erupt in a blast of pink mist. Saya had joined in with the other Shadow Operatives to scatter the enemy forces with his pistol. In the meantime, Wrex's krogans began to spread out, chasing after the various defenders as they pulled back.

They had achieved the element of surprise and had created a small perimeter around the lift. They were still under fire from various positions, however. In addition, besides a few scattered rock outcroppings, there wasn't much in the way of cover around the lift. They would need to press the attack quickly, before the residents of the camp regrouped for a counter-attack.

"We need to keep up this momentum," Liara informed the others. "Wrex, pair your krogan off into teams with my people. You take Kayap towards the shooting range."

"Fine, but he better pull his weight," Wrex told her. "I'm no babysitter."

"He'll be fine, just take him!" Liara demanded.

Wrex looked to the unggoy with a bit of a scowl.

"Those pink needles better not end up in my ass," he warned.

Kayap just nodded his head up and down rapidly and the two took off together. As more fire poured onto their position, Liara turned to Vik and Saya.

"I want you two to pair off and hit one of those scenario courses," she ordered them. "Try that one to the left."

Liara pointed to what looked like a large two story building with a balcony overlooking the area. They couldn't let the enemy establish some kind of high ground up there. As Vik gave it a once over, he thought it looked suspiciously familiar. It had what appeared to be a set of tables with an umbrella over them on the balcony. It also had fake painted on sign along the side of the building. The sign itself had been painted to make it look like the letters on it were neon lights.

"Doesn't it look a little like the top half of a high rise hotel to you?" He asked over the blazing gun fire.

"Not now," Liara told him. "Just take it."

Vik and Saya finally nodded and made a move for the mock-up. Liara then looked over to Nelanax.

"We got the second mock up course," she told her. "Let's move!"

"Right behind your sweet little blue ass, Doc," Nel said with a wink.

"And Vik is right," Liara quickly added. "Stop that!"

Liara ran off first, barely able to hear the slight scoff from the turian. She followed the asari regardless, what else was she going to do?

---

Wrex and Kayap made their way over to the shooting range, where two Shadow Operatives and one Urdnot krogan were already holding their own. They were taking cover along the side of the end closest to the lift, the metal walls shielding them from bullets. Wrex slid in beside them while Kayap dove for cover.

"Two of those shield-carrying guys, three batarians and one big ass krogan with a bad ass weapon," the human Shadow Operative told Wrex. "I think it's a Striker."

As the human finished the sentence there was an explosion along the range just a few feet away from their position of cover.

"Yeah that's a Striker Assault Rifle alright," he concurred. "I'd bet my tail it's straight from Tuchanka, courtesy of Kercheka."

"Do you think they moved the whole shipment here, Clan Leader?" The Urdnot warrior asked as he reloaded his gun.

"Don't be stupid," Wrex lightly scolded him. "Balak wouldn't have sent all of Strikers here, just enough for his people to train with. I'm betting the bulk of the shipment went to his other units. But at least we can remove one of them from the equation."

Another explosion rocked the range, this time dead center on their cover. The Blood Pack was getting better aim by the second.

"He's the biggest problem," he told them. "We need to take him down fast if we have any hope of taking this range."

"Going out there is suicide," warned the turian Shadow Operative. "One of us tried to advance along the range before you got here. That black spot out there on the second firing line is him."

"Then you'll move up behind me," Wrex told him. "My barriers can take that kind of punishment. I'll knock him on his ass and give you all time to push up. Let me draw his fire, focus on his friends."

Everyone agreed by nodding and waiting for Wrex's go. When Wrex turned to Kayap, the methane breather was uncharacteristically calm as he looked up at him. His needle gun was in hand and, from all appearances, fully loaded.

"Just stay behind me okay," Wrex told him earnestly. "I don't want Liara blaming me for you getting killed."

He didn't like that he had been stuck with the unggoy. He knew why he had though. Liara wasn't sure about pairing off Nelanax with him for some reason and she wanted to keep an eye on her. Out of all the crew members on the ship, Kayap was probably the one he had the least problems with. He didn't enjoy being the babysitter, but he wasn't about to let the poor thing die.

"We take them together," Kayap stated, although it was hard to tell if the sudden bravado was genuine or just a show for Wrex. Either way, he seemed ready.

Wrex activated his barrier, covering his body in a protective biotic shield. He then vaulted over the cover and fired a stream of rounds from his assault rifle. As expected, he managed to get the defenders to put their heads down.

The Blood Pack krogan refused to do so, however. He fired off another three shots from his Striker. The blasts fell around Wrex, one hitting him square in the center. It hurt, but the barrier had absorbed the shot. While the smoke cleared, Wrex pulled out his shotgun and readied a carnage shot. He fired one blast that rocketed across the shooting range and slammed into the enemy krogan. It was unlikely that he had died from that, but at least he was down.

Wrex vaulted over the wall to the second firing line. He tossed a few biotic throws into the fray, sending one batarian into the side wall of the firing range he was in. As he tried to climb over it to the safety of the next firing line's cover, he was taken down by fire from one of the Shadow Operatives.

Wrex kept moving, the others following him as he did. He had to duck down as the kig-yar set their sights on him, their plasma bolts coming close to hitting him. Lucky for Wrex, he had other methods of dealing with the little pyjaks. He stood up and threw out a pull attack. It circled around to their sides and lifted them into the air. They were easy prey for his fellow krogan to shoot down.

With the plasma guns out of the picture, Wrex was free to move forward. He wasn't entirely sure if his barriers could stand up against an actual energy weapon for long. He managed to get close enough to the enemy lines that the next time he vaulted he landed on top of one of the batarians. It took a single hit from his powerful biotically charged fist to end him. H watched as one of the Shadow Operatives caught the last batarian with a clean three hits from his assault rifle.

It was then the Blood Pack krogan finally grew bold enough to rise once more and fight. Wrex managed to get to cover before the rifle's blast could catch him. With his barriers low, a direct hit at this range would cripple him for a good while. He was close enough now that he felt he could take the mercenary though. So he jumped up again, shotgun in hand, to end it.

But the Blood Pack merc fired first, and while he didn't land a direct hit, the blast was close enough that it knocked Wrex off his aim. His shot went wide and Wrex hurried to train his sights on his target again. As he did, several needles flew across the field and struck the Blood Pack krogan in the face. The mercenary went to dig the little spikes out of his head, only for them to explode. The blast that followed ripped through the krogan's armour, blowing his helmet off. Wrex turned to see Kayap beside him, his needle gun trained on their shared target.

"Take together?" He asked again.

Wrex just smiled back.

"Yeah, why not," he said shrugging back.

As the krogan stood back up to fire once more, his smoking face now visible, Kayap fired again. Wrex assisted him, shooting a hole through the enemy krogan's shoulder. Kayap's shots stuck into the merc's freshly exposed skin and detonated shortly after in a huge mist of pink. This time, the krogan stayed down for good.

"Nice shooting," Wrex congratulated.

Kayap just happily nodded at Wrex in response.

---

Saya entered first, sword in one hand, pistol in the other. Vik followed close behind, shotgun prepared and omni-tool primed. He knew he probably looked feeble next to the black armoured STG super-agent with the awesome sword. He thought that maybe Doctor T'Soni put them together because their close quarter preferences complemented each other. Although she could've easily just thought the salarian was better at this than he was and he'd have less of a chance getting killed. Either way, he just didn't want to get snuffed out in here this mine shaft, so he'd follow the sword wielding amphibian's lead.

Vik looked around where they had entered and noticed the place looked a little like a hotel lobby. It had little couches, a front desk and down the hall were series of doors on either side. Yeah, this definitely looked like a hotel mock-up to him. Why would the Swords need this? To plan an attack on some big shot target who was living in a penthouse? Maybe a head of state they wanted removed on orders from their slave-driving asshole leaders?

"This is definitely a hotel," he voiced aloud. "I mean, shit, it looks like one."

Saya didn't answer, but Vik sensed he was listening.

"You think they're preparing them for some kind of raid?" He asked. "You know, to take a bunch of hostages and stuff."

Saya looked back and nodded once, showing he at least agreed.

"Some of those other scenario courses looked pretty complex, like a ton of mock up buildings," Vik continued. "They must be trying to cover as many bases as they can. Nelanax said they used to have one for the bridge of a ship. They can probably just build new courses out of pieces of old ones whenever they want. It's an impressive set-up, for a bunch of evil slaving Hegemony dipshits."

Saya stared at Vik. He recognized the glare, even without a face to see. Being a quarian, he had gotten used to body language. Perhaps Saya knew that and figured Vik would pick up on his desire for him to be quiet now. So Vik shut up and let Saya scan the area a little.

Saya looked to each of the doors individually and then back to Vik. He motioned to the first door on the right and moved up. Vik followed, shotgun pointed forward. Saya got on one side of the door and spread his explosive gel across the lock. Vik obliged with a nod and activated a sentry to watch their backs.

Saya then detonated the lock and, once the blast had dissipated, forced the door open. He pushed it aside, pointing his gun into the room. There was a single bed facing them, popping up from behind it was a batarian. Next to him was an unggoy. Saya fired a shot that took out the unggoy while Vik fired off a burst from his shotgun that took out the batarian.

It was then the door behind them and across the hall suddenly burst open. Behind it was another batarian. The sentry gun locked onto him and pumped him full of lead before he could move. Saya turned and fired one clean shot into the batarian, taking him down quickly.

The paper thin walls of the small room suddenly burst open. Two unggoy in the room over had thrown their plasma grenades into it. The hole now gave them a perfect view of both Saya and Vik, forcing them to dive for cover under a coffee table they needed to topple over. The plasma blasts burned away at the poor cover. If this kept up they would both be exposed again soon. They had to think of something quickly.

"I could send my drone over there," Vik suggested.

Saya said nothing, as usual. Then he just vanished underneath his cloak before Vik's eyes.

"Hey! Don't leave me here!" Vik shouted, panicking slightly. "Doc says we need to be a team, remember?"

Saya hadn't left Vik, however. The salarian had just decided to get closer to the unggoy. The next time Vik saw him, the salarian was using his sword to slice into the head one of the little gas suckers before cutting into the neck of the other. He moved so fast, the unggoys didn't even know he was there.

Vik stood up from his cover and marched over to the STG Agent.

"You know, you could've told me the plan," Vik chastised hm.

Saya just gave him another thousand yard stare. The salarian then pointed to his neck and shook his head.

"Well, you can talk in other ways, right?" Vik asked. "Sign language and all that. Communication, it's kinda important."

Saya seemed to brush off the quarian's statement without much thought. He went off towards the stairs at the back of the hall. When Vik caught up to him, Saya was pointing towards the door of the last room they had yet to clear. Vik decided to activate a drone this time to help them out. He pressed up against the frame as Saya set the explosive gel along the door's edge. He detonated the door, blasting it inward. Then, charging out of the smoke, appeared a sangheili.

He took a swing at Vik, forcing him to duck. Saya slashed downward with his sword, but the eight-foot alien caught it in his grip. It must've hurt like hell, but Vik didn't see the alien flinch. Saya activated the sword's electrical current, shocking the sangheili. The Covie just fought through the painful shock, however, and kicked the Salarian back. The attack had a consequence though, as it caused Saya's sword to slice the big alien's hand open.

The sangheili clamped together his talon, pain readily apparent on his face. It distracted him long enough for Vik to pump a few shotgun rounds into his body. The alien's shields must've short circuited from Saya's attack, because nothing seemed to get in the way of Vik rounds. The quarian's drone let out a charge of energy to finish off the alien, and his desiccated corpse fell to the floor.

Vik rushed over to Saya to help him up, but the salarian rejected his helping hand. He instead pushed himself up, his sword acting like a prop.

"Uh, good teamwork," Vik said, trying to be friendly.

Vik saw Saya nod at that, and he felt it was genuine. They still had another floor to clear though, so they both moved up the steps to the next floor. Again, Vik let Saya take point. As they went up the stairs, a batarian fired down on them from above. The ambush didn't faze Saya, as he just charged up the steps, avoiding the shots from the batarian's rifle, before stabbing him clean through the heart. Vik kept behind him as best he could, but Saya was already pushing ahead without him.

In front of the salarian were two kig-yar fighters, their shields blocking the way forward. Saya, using the body impaled on his sword as a shield, fired on them with his pistol as he advanced forward. The batarian's body took the plasma bolts meant for him. When he got close enough, he kicked the body off. It bounced off the kig-yar's shields, but the distraction gave him enough time to cut them both down with his sword. He stabbed one through the eye before slashing the throat of the next.

Vik was stunned by the display, but didn't have much time to be impressed by the victory. A krogan moved out into the hall from behind a door. He carried a Revenant machine gun in his arms. He fired down the hall at the two, forcing both of them to burst through another door to safety. Vik set down a sentry behind them in the hall, but he knew that it would only last so long against a krogan.

"Okay," Vik gulped as he backed away from the door. "We just gotta kill this guy, no problem. Got any ideas, Saya?"

But when Vik looked around the fake hotel room he saw that the salarian was gone, again.

"Oh come on!" Vik shouted in disbelief. "We just had this discussion!"

Vik heard his turret in the hallways explode. Soon afterwards, the massive krogan appeared in the doorway. The crimson coloured mercenary moved into the room, his gun chattering away. Vik ducked to ground behind the bed. The gun began chewing up the piece of cheap furniture.

"And this is what I get for trusting a damn STG Agent," he growled. "Everyone knows those guys are monitoring every single extranet vid mail in the galaxy and performing covert species uplifts!"

Vik was able to cast aside his rage long enough to activate a drone.

"Okay little guy," he told it. "Kill the big stupid humpbacked saurian with the machine gun for me, please."

The little drone rolled out into the fray, sending out quick burst of electrical energy. The krogan turned to the drone and fired a full clip into it, destroying the offending ball of energy. All it had managed to do was take the krogan's eyes off the quarian for the moment.

It was long enough, however, for the quarian to stand up and fire a blast from his shotgun at the merc. The shot grievously wounded the krogan, hitting him square in the chest. Vik fired the shotgun twice more, ripping through the krogan's tough hide. The krogan got his bearings back however, and quickly fired a spray in Vik's direction. He was quick to duck down once more. He had at least hurt the krogan, too bad he hadn't killed him.

Vik tried to peer out of his cover to get a look at his attacker, only to see Saya appear out of thin air once more and rush over to slash the krogan in the throat. The Blood Pack merc reached up to grab his bleeding neck and Vik saw his chance. He jumped up again and fired two more shots at the krogan, this time aiming for his head. The giant reptile collapsed against the wall, orange blood staining the ground.

Vik walked out, determined to give the salarian a piece of his mind for so causally using him as a distraction while he waited for the krogan to get into position. But he held off on it when he saw Saya loom over the body. The salarian put his pistol up to the krogan's head and fired off two shots. The merc was already dead, but Vik could tell Saya wasn't doing it to be sure.

The salarian looked at Vik rather coldly and then walked out of the room. Vik followed reluctantly.

"And I thought I had issues," he said to himself quietly.

They got out onto the balcony carefully to see how the fight was going. Across the way, they saw a second scenario course, one that looked like a small city street from what Vik could tell. That was probably where Liara and Nel were.

"We should get some people up here to keep this place locked down and then go help them," Vik told Saya.

He wasn't sure if the salarian agreed with the assessment at first, but he did see him signal over a few Shadow Operatives nearby to move up to the mock-up. Vik in the meantime hoped Doctor T'Soni and the crazy turian were having an easier time working together.

---

Liara moved through the mock-up of a small diner. The scenario in general seemed to represent a city street, or perhaps even a Citadel Ward street. Either way, the implications were disturbing. Liara finally caught up to Nelanax as she fired out into the street at an upper window across from them.

"You weren't concerned about the appearance of some of these scenarios?" Liara asked her.

"They had us train on similar ones when I was still in the Hierarchy Military," Nel argued as she reloaded quickly and popped back up to fire again. "Urban street combat is typical training for any military outfit. What reason did I have to question them?"

Liara decided to drop it. The discussion wasn't really important for the moment anyway. They just needed to clear these courses and get to the second section. She'd argue with Nel about this some other time. Right now, they had to get rid of a machine gun nest of some sort. As plasma bolts flew into their little mock-up diner, she knew what kind of machine gun nest.

"We need to take that thing out quickly," she said. "My people can't move with that gunner on over watch."

"We just need to get his head down and move across the scenario's street," Nel suggested. "It should be easy enough to do, if we can get someone to draw his fire for us."

As Nel said that, two Shadow Operatives rushed in behind Liara and took cover next to the other 'window', for lack of a better word.

"The turian's training paid off for these guys," said one. "Bastards got us completely zeroed."

Liara recognized the voice as the young rookie she had met before. When he looked over to her, he noticed Nel was nearby. He was a bit taken aback.

"Uh, Doc," he stuttered. "And... turian merc lady, yeah, um, what I meant to say..."

"We need your help to get across the street," Liara told him bluntly. "Can you draw that machine gunner's fire?"

Liara pointed to the nest itself and the two operatives gave it a look.

"Okay, that's doable, I think," said the rookie somewhat hesitantly.

Liara scanned the street for a good firing position and spotted a fake car parked near their little fake diner. It gave them a good view of the machine gun, but was on the very edge of the gunner's view. They'd be harder to hit from there.

"Get to that car, rookie," Liara told him. "Me and Nelanax will cover you."

"Yeah, Doc, no problem," the rookie replied. "Oh, and it's Ben by the way."

"I'll be sure to make note of that," Liara informed him. "Now move."

Ben and his fellow operative vaulted out of the window while Nel and Liara fired on the gunner's nest. When they got to the car, they began laying down suppressing fire on the nest themselves. The gunner shifted his view and that was their cue. Liara threw herself out the front door of the fake diner and made a dash across the street. Nelanax was right behind her.

As they made their way across to the building, they took fire from the right side. Unggoy, guarded by a few kig-yar, were firing on them in the open street. Nelanax shifted fire to them, firing a concussive shot at one kig-yar before raking the unggoy behind him with fire. The kig-yar quickly recovered from the strike, but by then Liara was already throwing herself through an open window in a building across the street.

Liara picked herself up and looked around the area. The mock up's interior suggested it was some kind of store. There were shelves, a terminal on a desk and a few display cases at the front. As Liara surveyed her surroundings, Nelanax burst in through the door with her gun pointed back to the street. She fired a careful burst and then backed away.

"Just popped me another melon," she grinned. "You know what they say; a mind is a terrible thing to-"

"Please do not finish that sentence," Liara ordered her sternly.

"I suppose it's not as clever as it used to be," Nelanax admitted, once again missing the point.

Liara looked to the wall on their right.

"Behind there is the gunner's building," she told Nelanax. "Is there a back door we can use to go around and get in? I don't want to go out into the exposed street again."

"No, but I got a better idea," Nel informed her.

The turian put away her rifle, something that perplexed Liara. Then, when she saw the turian taking a running stance, the action alarmed her.

"Wait, that's not-"

But once again, Nel wasn't listening.

"Here comes the pain train! WOO-WOO!"

Nelanax charged the wall, and the flimsy shell of facade gave away. She rushed straight into a kig-yar and tackled him to the ground. Without even missing a beat, she dug her talons deep into his eye sockets and pushed. The gruesome screams of the poor alien filled the room as Nel straddled his body.

"Now that's what I call an eye-full," Nel laughed sinisterly.

Liara finally stepped into the room through the hole Nel had so graciously made for her. She found herself now in a tower with a spiral staircase leading up to the top floor. The entire mock up building seemed to be supported by a single support pillar that stretched upwards to the top and spread out horizontal beams like branches towards the four walls around them. It was simplistic in design, but also an unexpected architectural choice for a simple training mock-up.

Eventually, the turian managed to pull herself away from her latest victim long enough to remember she was there.

"I got to pick at his brain a bit," Nel said holding up her bloody talons. "Wanna know what was on his mind?"

Liara had lost track of all the one-liners she had heard from Nel in the past minute or so. She hadn't enjoyed one of them. Now that they were getting increasingly disturbing she liked them even less.

"Is this fun for you?" Liara asked while wearing a deadly serious tone in her voice.

The turian's grin was replaced with a look of abject confusion.

"Is that a trick question?" Nel asked, seemingly confused.

A lesser person would've punched the turian for that, but Liara knew better. Besides, Nel would probably like it and try and flirt with her again. She'd probably say "I like it rough' or something else equally as corny and stupid.

"Focus," Liara ordered her. "And before you even say anything, I do not mean on my chest."

Nel's eyes quickly sprung up to Liara's face.

"I wasn't," she denied fervently. "It was your legs, I swear."

Liara took one deep breath and calmed herself.

"We need to get up to the top floor of this place and take out the gunner," she reminded her. "I need you to stop thinking about stupid one-liners for a moment and keep your mind on the task at hand. Can you do that?"

"Calm your sexy blue ass down," Nel assured her. "I came up with a plan of action before we even got here. We don't need to go all the way upstairs."

Nel pulled out a frag grenade from her belt and lobbed it up and down in her palm.

"We just set a few high explosives on the central beam and make the whole place come tumbling down," she informed her rather nonchalantly. "No need to over exert ourselves and we get an explosion out of it, it's a win-win."

"That is such a pointless and needlessly excessive plan," Liara replied back, now at the edge of her boiling point. "You're going to bring down a building to kill just one enemy soldier?"

"Is this another trick question?" Nelanax asked once again.

Liara didn't even get a chance to show her exasperation with a long drawn out sigh. Instead, the wall opposite to the one they entered through burst open. A sangheili had apparently opted to make the same entrance as Nelanax had. The Covie carried two small plasma daggers in each hand. Liara pointed her gun at the eight-foot creature, but Nelanax stood in her field of fire, her grin back once more.

"You call those knives?" She asked, on the verge of laughing.

Nel then pulled out her own blade, a turian military-issue combat knife, from her boot and held it in her hands.

"So where do you want me to stick it in you, sweetie?" She asked the sangheili in a faux flirty tone. "I promise to be gentle."

The sangheili charged at the turian, as did she. Nel dodged the first first and second swings rather easily and got around to the alien's back. She slashed her knife across his shoulder, before getting elbowed in the face and pushed back.

"Gonna have to hit me harder if you wanna make me bleed!" She informed the alien with a tinge of rage in her voice.

When the sangheili thrust forward again, Nelanax rolled to the side and slashed across his thigh. She then came up behind the alien and stabbed her knife into his back. The sangheili jumped forward and threw the turian off him. He rushed over to stab the downed turian, but Liara quickly threw a biotic attack that sent the sangheili into the support pillar with enough force to lightly crack it. She then went over to help Nelanax up.

"You alright?" She asked her.

"Fine," she assured her grinning. "Trust me, he's gonna be in worse shape than me in about two seconds."

Nel then activated three of her grenades and tossed them at the sangheili, who was still lying against the support beam. Liara's eyes went wide when she realised what Nel had just done. When the grenades landed at the feet of the sangheili, Nel jumped up and grabbed Liara by the hand. They ran out of the mock-up tower as the explosives detonated and the support beam was split in two at the base. The tower began to topple over onto the street, forcing Liara and Nel to run up the street so as not to get crushed by the collapsing mock-up.

The scenario structure collapsed into a huge pile of debris. As she brushed herself off, Liara was just happy to see the collapse hadn't killed any of her people. Nel was just happy to have gotten her explosion.

"Boom, baby!" She cried aloud. "That is how it's done!"

"No it isn't!" Liara shouted at her in anger. "You could've killed someone!"

"I thought that was the point," Nel answered back.

"You could've killed one of my people!" Liara clarified, her fists balled. "I told you before, this is not a vid! You used to be in the premier frontline unit of the Hierarchy Military. They're supposed to be disciplined, ordered, real soldiers. Not gun crazy buffoons acting out a murder-spree fantasy!"

Nel continued to look at Liara rather calmly. She seemed more at ease than before, less manic in her expressions. For a moment, Liara thought she had gotten through to her. That she finally understood that this was supposed to be serious.

Then Nel opened her mouth.

"You're really hot when you're angry," she said rather plainly.

Liara was about to just say 'screw it' and punch the clearly insane woman out for her continued refusal to listen. Damn whatever the consequences, it would make her feel better. Thankfully, someone's timely arrival brought her back to the situation at hand.

Vik and Saya approached the duo through the wrecked scenario's courses streets. The Shadow Operatives were already clearing up the stragglers within the area now. Only a few unggoy and batarians left, nothing as dangerous as a krogan or sangheili. It was relatively safe for them to march down the open street now. They spotted the collapsed tower on their way over.

"The hell happened?" Vik asked.

Liara only eyed Nelanax in response. Vik didn't seem too surprised by the news.

"We need to push to the personnel quarters," Liara told them all, trying to keep everyone focused. "The remaining Swords and Covenant are going to regroup there for a final stand."

"So we go up the main passage to them then?" Vik asked somewhat concerned. "They'll be expecting that by now."

"It's the only way to get there," Liara reminded him.

"Actually," Nel interjected. "There is another passage."

---

Behind a solid steel door lay one last scenario course, one that would lead them to the direct flank of the second section. While Wrex and his krogan assaulted the main passage, Liara would take everyone else through this passage and hopefully catch the enemy off guard. She didn't expect to the passage deserted, but she was banking on Wrex's attack to draw most of the enemy their way.

Now if Vik could just figure out how to unlock the doors, they'd be set. However, the quarian seemed to be struggling with the locking mechanism. After attempting to and failing to unlock it through hacking, Vik went back to the old standard of getting into the guts of the door.

"This thing looks like it's been welded together with scrap metal," Vik asked as his omni-tool burned away at the internal mechanism. "Does the lock even function?"

"When I was working here we simply blew the door," Nel explained. "It's part of the exercise."

"Well would it have hurt to put someone in charge of fixing it afterwards who wasn't an idiot?" Vik asked again. "If I slapped this shit together back on the fleet, I'd probably be exiled just for incompetence."

After cutting another locking clamp, Vik tried to push the door open again. It remained stuck. Frustrated now, Vik slammed his fist onto the door's holographic display, now flashing from green to red to signify an internal error.

"Fuck it," he stated fuming, flicking on his omni-tool. "I'm overloading the pressure valve."

It took a few seconds before Vik's tampering kicked in. He increased the door's pressure output to the point it began to smoke and vent steam. The door suddenly slid open violently. Nel was the first one inside the course, her gun pointed forward. Everyone followed after her.

As they made their way inside, Liara looked around the darkened passage. There were only a few lights strung along the walls, but she could tell what this scenario represented. The small tables among the rows of seats, the large outcroppings on the sides that represented windows, the spacious walkway that stretched forward, there was little doubt as to what this was.

"Is this supposed to be a passenger liner?" Vik asked in a whisper to Nelanax. "How did this seem at all on the up and up to you?"

"Terrorists take over liners and the military retakes them," Nel replied back. "I wasn't about to jump to conclusions."

"Why does that still sound like denial?" Vik asked again.

Liara hushed at them both. She motioned everyone to go into cover, just as a small squad of batarians rounded the corner with weapons drawn. In the distance, Liara could hear Wrex's attack. They would need to get by these guys fast.

The first to strike was Saya, lurching up from one of the seats to slice into the neck of one batarian. The attack garnered enough attention from his fellows that they began opening fire on the rows of seats. Saya jumped back into cover, while Kayap fired a stream of needles at one of the batarians. The resulting explosion scattered a few of his comrades and elicited a cheerful cry from the unggoy defector.

As that batarian exploded in a pink mist, Vik moved up the row. He kept his head low and a drone by his side. Kayap moved up with him. As a batarian came around the corner, the quarian fired a full blast from his shotgun that knocked him back on the floor. The quarian rushed over to the downed batarian and fired the gun point blank in his face.

"Slaver scum," he growled before quickly moving on, Kayap behind him.

Nelanax kept spraying rounds from her Phaeston as she walked up the rows of seats. The batarians could move, only slink back seat by seat and hope they wouldn't get picked off. When she reached a small alcove that separated the rows of seats, she grabbed a bayonet attachment from off her belt. She slapped it onto her Phaeston and barrelled out of cover. One batarian stood up to fire at her from the seats, only for a blade cut deep into his stomach.

"School's out for summer," she quipped.

Nelanax saw another batarian pop-up from the seats across from her. She didn't bother to remove his impaled compatriot before turning to face him and then firing through the impaled body several times. The bullets exited out of the dead batarian's back and shot down his friend where he stood.

"School's out forever," she decreed.

Nel looked beside her to see Vik giving her a glare.

"Well, they're my former students," she began to explain. "This is practically a school where they train bad guys and we're shutting it down. Get it now?"

Vik's glare remained and Nel just stuck her tongue out at him.

"This stuff is wasted on you," she proclaimed.

"Where did you get it?" Vik asked in a deadpan manner.

"From 'Deadly Times at Vallum High'," she answered in disbelief. "You know, it's the one where the krogan mercenaries infiltrate and take over an entire school the Primarch is visiting on Taetrus."

Vik just shook his head and kept moving up. Nelanax groaned at him as he left.

"Like I said, wasted!" She called out.

Liara and Saya had moved up ahead, chasing after the batarians as they retreated out of the fake passenger liner. A singularity stopped two of them before they could get very far, pulling them back towards the scenario course. Saya then quickly shot them both in the head with his pistol as they twirled around in the air.

With the passage secured, Liara's forces poured out of the scenario course. Ahead of them they saw the living quarters for the entire base. They were already fighting Wrex's forces as they pushed forward through the main passage. Now, with them on the left side, their flank was completely exposed.

"We take that living space and this place is shut down for good," Liara informed everyone. "Move in teams, stay together, clear the structures one by one."

With those simple instructions, the assembled Shadow Operatives moved forward. Liara, Vik, Kayap, Saya and Nelanax were right behind them. They caught the batarians on the frontal barricades completely by surprise and forced them to fall back into the assorted makeshift structures that dotted the open space.

What had once been their resting place only hours before, had become the last line of defence for the remaining Swords, Covenant and Blood Pack mercs. Shadow Operatives, backed by Urdnot warriors, kicked in door after door. They slowly, but surely, rooted out the desperate defenders within. They used whatever they had for cover, but it was a futile endeavour.

Nelanax tossed a grenade into one building. After it exploded, she rushed in firing like mad at the assembled vorcha and kig-yar within. The incendiary rounds from her Phaeston scorched the flesh of the vorcha, removing any chance they had at healing quickly.

The kig-yar fired back with their plasma pistols and Nel had to go to ground behind an overturned bed, but she was not deterred. She tossed another grenade into their ranks and the resulting explosion killed two of them. The remaining kig-yar were disoriented from the shock just enough for Nelanax to finish them off with quick shots to their heads.

"A for effort, class," she wisecracked at the assorted corpses.

Kayap and Vik were a little less bombastic in their approach of clearing a structure. Inside were some of the remaining Swords recruits. Taking a quick peak in, Vik noticed one of them was armed with a striker assault rifle. He had an idea of how to use that to their advantage.

"I'm going to engage first," he told Kayap. "When I pull back, toss one of those sticky grenades you carry around."

Kayap nodded at Vik in compliance. With that, the quarian made his move. He opened the door wide and used his omni-tool to activate a sabotage program that hacked into the Striker Assault Rifle. He opened fire with his pistol on the batarian, not really intending to hit anyone with it. He just wanted to goad the batarian into trying to fire his krogan-made grenade rifle.

The batarian did indeed try to fire the gun, but the weapon backfired tremendously. The blast radius enveloped the batarian and two others nearby, knocking them to the ground and gravely injuring them. Kayap then appeared in the doorway with a glowing blue plasma grenade.

"Tossing one!" He shouted out.

The grenade flew across the room and landed on the back of one of the downed batarians. The resulting explosion finished off the other downed Sword recruits and scattered the two that were still alive. Vik dropped a sentry into the room as he entered and let it chew up one of the batarians as he walked over to another that was still downed. He placed his shotgun up to his face.

"Fascist," Vik said in a grim tone, a vengeful look in his eyes.

He then pulled the trigger. The resulting shot plastered the batarian's head across the floor.

Kayap moved in to kick one of the dead bodies a little, more to make sure he was dead than anything.

"We win!" He said happily. "We win fight!"

Vik's manner quickly shifted. His callous demeanour towards the batarian from seconds before faded. It was replaced with a more pleasant and sociable nature as he spoke to Kayap.

"Yeah, we sure showed these bosh'tets, didn't we?" He responded, sounding rather upbeat. "Let's find Liara, she's probably finishing things up on her end."

Indeed Liara was finishing up things. She, Wrex and Saya had regrouped near the armoury, where one last sangheili was making his stand. He was inside some kind of three legged turret that shot out purple plasma at them. It kept all three of them pinned behind one the living quarters.

"Think a carnage shot can knock him over?" Wrex asked the asari.

"Try it," she told him. "But I want Saya to get into position behind him just in case."

The salarian obliged her request, turning on his cloak and vanishing from sight. Wrex then leaned out to fire a carnage shot at the turret. He scored a direct hit and the explosion flipped the turret over. The sangheili scrambled out of the wreck and took up his plasma weapon. This one appeared to be a two-handed version of the much smaller one Liara had seen other sangheili using. It was fully automatic as well, allowing him to keep both Wrex and Liara stuck behind their cover.

"He can't possibly keep that fire up forever," Wrex noted.

Sure enough the plasma fire stopped. Liara looked out to see the weapon had overheated, blue steam pouring out of the vents on the side. Apparently, being a bigger rifle meant the weapon overheated even quicker. Taking the chance, Liara rushed out to send a powerful throw that knocked the sangheili backwards. She fired her pistol a few times at him as he tried to get up, but it was more to keep his focus on her.

Liara could see the shift in light behind the sangheili. Suddenly, Saya's sword cut deep into the sangheili's back. However, while the alien screamed in pain, he didn't fall. With the sword still stuck in him, he turned and smacked the Saya across the face, putting him down. The sangheili's survival was only temporary though, as Wrex used the moment to close in and bulldoze the Covie to the ground. The sangheili tried to stand up again, but Wrex slammed his foot onto the alien's head, crushing it.

Saya got up from the ground and went over the downed sangheili. He pulled the sword out of the corpse and placed back into its sheath. The gunfire had died down and from all appearances the camp seemed to have been taken.

"Well, another day, another pit of pyjaks taken down," Wrex observed.

"I still want inside that armoury," Liara told Wrex.

Liara's men soon gathered around the armoury and she pinpointed Ben among the crowd.

"Find Vik'Sajee and get him here," she ordered him.

Ben nodded and went off to locate the quarian. Meanwhile, Liara looked around for another of their squad mates, but she could not see her.

"Where's Nelanax?" She asked.

---

Nel dug deep into the locker, moving the assorted junk scattered about at a hectic pace. She growled to herself in frustration as she kept pulling the garbage out. She hadn't been gone for a few days and they had already turned the locker into a damn dumpster. She knew she should've locked it up better.

"They better not have touched it," she mumbled aloud to herself. "If they touched it I'll find a way to bring them back so I can fuck them over again."

She threw away an old pack, some cans of Tupari drink, and a few data pads before finally reaching the bottom of the locker. She sifted her talons over it, checking to see if it had been tampered with. It looked like it hadn't been touched, but there was only one way to be sure. She pried the loose panel away to reveal a metal box beneath it.

"Please still be all there," she whispered desperately. "Please be all there."

She opened the box carefully, her hands trembling as she did. Once opened though, her talons calmed and she smiled wide. It was all there, untouched, no one had found them.

"Hi there babies, mama's come back for you," she said in an almost airy voice.

But as soon as she heard one of the hut's doors open, she slammed the box shut and stuck it in one of her armour's ammo compartments. She turned to see Vik's visor-hidden face looking at her.

"What are you doing?" He asked.

Nel's eyes scanned the room, noticing the mess she had left in her wake.

"Sorry, just cleaning out my old locker," she explained hastily. "Not gonna be using it now that I'm running with you guys."

Vik looked at her a bit suspiciously, but he quickly backed off.

"The Doc needs to see you," he explained. "I've opened the armoury and she wants you to take a look at something."

---

Vik returned with Nelanax in tow and Liara had her men bring out the box they had found inside.

"We recovered a lot of high-tech military grade gear," she began. "Rifles, grenades, heavy weapons, but this is the most intriguing."

Liara opened the box for Nelanax to see. Inside, surrounded by memory foam, were several cybernetic implant components. Nelanax bent down to give them a look, trying to discern what they were for. It didn't take long.

"These look like motor-sensory components," she observed. "The Hierarchy implants these in soldiers, similar to biotic implants. Only these are supposed to increase depth perception and targeting capability, not super-powers."

"So Cyber-Legionnaire isn't complete science fiction then?" Liara asked.

"We use them to make our people better snipers, faster runners or stronger soldiers in general," Nelanax continued. "Except I've never seen these models before, they could be new."

"My only concern is how they got them," Liara explained. "Cybernetics don't come cheap, especially Hierarchy Military grade ones."

Nel looked around the box, particularly along either side. Eventually she spotted something and pointed to it. It was a serial code.

"That's your best bet at figuring that out," she explained. "The serial should tell us where it's from, but all Turian Military components, guns or otherwise, would likely be encrypted as a security precaution. We can't have Sepies snag one of these things and then figure out where they could find a supply depot to get more."

"Would the rest of these weapons be as traceable?" Liara asked.

"More than likely," Nelanax answered. "But again, they'll be encrypted."

Liara turned to Vik.

"I want you to work on cracking the serial code," she told him. "We'll bring everything in here aboard regardless. We can't risk the batarians or the Covenant coming back to reclaim it. After that's done, we'll set this place to blow. We can't have them setting up shop here again."

Vik nodded and everything began to load up the items in the armoury. Meanwhile, Liara took Nelanax aside.

"Why would they bring cybernetics here?" She asked. "Do they have the proper facilities to surgically attach the implants?"

"We have an infirmary," Nelanax admitted. "It's possible that could've been good enough for their needs. The procedure isn't that complicated, although it is expensive to develop the implants."

"Meaning we're looking for someone with a lot of capital," Liara concurred.

Liara looked over to Kayap, who was assisting in bringing the weapons out from the armoury.

"I recall that you were able to translate Kayap's language back at Charlan," she said to Nel rather plainly, still looking at Kayap. "Is it possible you can give him a translator programmed so we could better understand him in kind?"

"Sure," Nel nodded. "There's probably a few in the armoury itself actually. We'd just have to get it to fit inside that mask of his so it will work."

"Good, get us one and we'll see about having Vik install it," Liara told her. "I think it would be a lot easier for us to work together if we're able to understand one another."

Nel nodded and tried to leave, but Liara stopped her by placing her open palm on her chest.

"Do we understand each other?" She asked her sternly.

"About what?" Nel asked in return.

"If this is going to work, you are going to listen to me," she explained. "And by that, I mean you will stop hearing and seeing what you want to hear and see. You're not freelance anymore. You're working for me and the ShadowNet. If you want excitement, you've gotten it. Congratulations on that. But we're already in a pretty hectic situation as is. I don't need you adding to it with your stunts."

Nel's eyes glared at the asari.

"I got the job done, didn't I?" Nel enquired, sounding a little irritated.

"I knew a turian once like yourself who had to learn the difference between getting the job done fast and getting it done right," Liara told her. "Before this is over, I promise you, you will learn the difference between doing it your way and doing it right."

Nel seemed to smile.

"I do like a woman who takes charge," she said through her toothy grin.

"I ask again," Liara said once more, her tone even more firm than before. "Do we understand each other?"

"Yeah," Nel replied. "I get it."

Liara let the turian go, but she wasn't entirely convinced that Nel did understand. It took more than one talk for Shepard to get through to Garrus after all. Wrex soon approached Liara as she watched Nel walk off to the armoury.

"Rough day, huh?" He asked.

"I'm getting used to it," Liara replied.

"Cheer up, T'Soni," Wrex said, trying to sound encouraging. "You sounded like a leader there and we took the camp. This is a win, enjoy it."

Liara looked up at Wrex with a slightly renewed smile.

"Is this how Wreav is for you back on Tuchanka?" She asked him.

"Nah," Wrex replied. "She's crazy, he's just stupid. Those are mutually exclusive issues."

Liara finally laughed at something for first time today.

"Maybe you can give her lessons on not stealing her lines from crappy action vids," she suggested to Wrex with a chuckle.

"Sorry, I'm not sharing my material, T'Soni," Wrex told her half-jokingly. "You're just going to have to grin and bear it."

---

AN: Another chapter down in the space of a month. I'm really flying now. We may be at Silent Cartographer by August at this rate.

So, this chapter showed a few cracks in Liara's team dynamics. I think it's pretty obvious that she picked a pretty mismatched crew at this point. As the theme song to Disney's "Dave the Barbarian" went, "They ain't the greatest heroes, but they're the only ones we got." More on this on the profile page.

Again, I'm still asking for those who haven't yet to see about supporting "World War Kaiju." The link is still up on my profile page for those interested and I'm going to be doing a little contest of sorts in the hopes of getting your interest up. Details for this are also up on the profile page. If I get a good response for it, we'll go ahead with it.

The next chapter awaits us. Where were those Cyborg parts from? Can this group of misfits actually pull together? What does Kayap sound like when he doesn't have to speak in a broken language that Liara's translator can only half understand? Say goodbye to Gollum-speech guys, Kayap's about to get another upgrade.