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.

15. Synergy

Chapter 14: Synergy

August 2nd, 2185:

2 hours after the Assault on the Training Camp

Vik began the final calibrations as Kayap adjusted his newly upgraded mask. Nel was nearby to offer what little assistance she could. She wasn't a tech head, but Vik used her translator to properly program Kayap's. Liara was just happy that he would be able to speak properly, not just for the sake of the team but for him as well. He wasn't stupid or anything, it was just that he could barely speak a single language that their translators were able to decipher. Removing that obstacle would remove the slight sense of prejudice that seemed to have grown among the crew.

"You sure you know what you're doing?" Nel asked Vik.

"I may not be a walking demolition derby like you, but I know tech," the quarian assured her adamantly. "Programming translators just takes time and precision. We're talking about a device that removes the language barrier from all species. This isn't like putting up a bulkhead or repairing a filtration system. It requires programming skills."

"There's no need to get defensive, Vik," Liara tried to calm him. "I'm sure you're working as fast you can."

"Thank you, Doc," Vik replied, sounding rather charmed. "If only patience was contagious."

Nel huffed at the quarian, crossing her arms as she did. A few moments later, Vik closed his omni-tool and backed away.

"Alright, Kay," he told the little gas breather. "Try it out, in your native tongue."

It took a moment for Kayap to think up a thing to say. Eventually something came out.

"I'm kinda hungry," he said randomly. "What's the kitchen serving?"

It was Kayap's voice alright, high-pitched as ever, but the broken sentences were gone. Liara stared down at Kayap and smiled.

"Our human mess chef is serving pizza, although it has krogan toppings from what I understand," Liara informed him.

"I don't know what this pizza is, but it has to be better than the orangey brown gruel the sangheili serve us," said Kayap. "I was hoping there were more of those noodles though, what do you call them? Ramen?"

Liara nodded and held out her hand. Kayap took it and shook it lightly.

"It works perfectly, Kayap," she told him. "You're a hundred percent understandable now. No more grammatically incorrect sentences for you."

Kayap seemed happy with that and Liara turned to the quarian responsible for it all.

"Good job, Vik," she told him. "I think our conversations with Kayap will be a lot more fulfilling, now that we can better understand each other."

Vik seemed beam at the praise, but Nel couldn't care less over the development.

"Well yay, the little methane sucker won't talk a like baby anymore," she grumbled. "I don't see how this helps us blow more shit up."

Vik gave Nel a rather disgruntled look, but Liara kept things on track.

"Kayap," she started. "Is there anything more you can tell us about the Covenant? About the Sangheili, Vorsa, how they met up with Balak and the Hegemony, the wormhole?"

"Well, now that my vocabulary isn't limited by the couple of words they taught me, yeah, I can explain a little more," Kayap acknowledged. "I'm not sure how long ago, or how, we met the four-eyed ones, as we always called them. All I can tell you is that they came through the wormhole aboard one of our scout flotillas. The High Council said they had formed an alliance with them, but they had not joined the Covenant. Which, admittedly, was kinda weird to me."

"Why?" Vik asked out of curiosity.

"Well, usually someone is forced to join the Covenant, you can't just ally with them," Kayap explained. "My people, the Unggoy, we were forced into joining. And once you join, you have to adopt the religion, the government, everything they tell you to in exchange for their protection and technology. Otherwise, you're dead."

Vik growled a little under his breath at the news.

"Theocratic Fascist Domination," he said scowling, slamming a fist into an open palm. "It's the oldest form of iron fisted dictatorial bullshit out there. Tell the citizens to fall in line with your religion, use weapons you say 'God' gave you and destroy all opposition by labelling dissenters as heretics before you brutally murder them. Yeah, they're a perfect fit with the Hegemony."

"Nice political history lesson, Professor," Nel mocked the quarian. "Is there gonna be a test later?"

Liara did agree with the quarian's assessment, but Vik's hatred of the Hegemony had somewhat coloured his stance. It did seem odd that a governmental system like that would be so willing to accept help from non-believers. She could tell there was more to this, so she kept probing Kayap for answers.

"What were the terms of this alliance?" She asked.

"They'd give us technology and resources to help us fight our war," Kayap explained. "In return, we'd offer them our weapons, ships, manpower, whatever they needed for their own goals back home. The Leaders may have been a bit uncertain about helping non-believers, but they said it was acceptable in the end because most of the technology they had was derived from our Gods' tech anyway."

"Their Gods made our tech?" Nel interjected, sounding a bit confused. "You lost me there. Our gadgets come from Mass Relay technology. They like the hanar? They worship the Protheans over there or something?"

Kayap looked up at the turian confused.

"Pro-Fee-Anns?" He sounded out in a perplexed tone of voice. "I think I heard the Leaders say that once or twice, but they always spat at the ground after they did. Something about them being a 'filthy lie', I think."

"They aren't, they existed," Liara informed him. "I think your former leaders meant that they don't believe the Protheans were responsible for them. Who are your Gods exactly?"

Liara dreaded the answer, knowing the real truth behind the Mass Relays herself.

"The Sangheili and Prophets call them Forerunners," Kayap explained. "They say they gave us life long ago and all our technology. They say if we follow their path, we'll eventually become like they did when they left this world."

"Do you think they were Gods?" Vik asked.

Kayap took a moment to think about that, he had obviously never been asked what he thought. Who would even consider it, given how his people were treated.

"I think they were real, we come across their old structures plenty of times," he said as he racked his mind. "I'm not sure if they were Gods though. I don't like thinking God likes watching us getting shot to pieces on the battlefield."

Everyone, even Nelanax, was quiet for a minute after that. Kayap's head remained drooped a little, his own words swimming around his head. But his comment had raised the question concerning the War the Covenant were fighting beyond the wormhole, one that Nel wanted answered.

"So who are you guys fighting?" She asked. "No one ever really told me."

"The humans," Kayap replied. "For some reason they've been branded as... abominations I think they're called. They say they all need to die, they won't even give them the choice to join the Covenant."

It was an interesting bit of news, up until now Kayap hadn't mentioned who his people were fighting. He probably thought just mentioning that the Covenant hated them was enough before. It made sense to Liara though, being the one thing both the Hegemony and Covenant had in common.

"So you don't even know why they hate humans?" Vik asked him.

"The Leaders just told us they had to be killed, we could never question why," Kayap explained to the quarian. "Like I told Doctor Liara, we could never question anything. Not why we fight, who we fight or even where we fight. We just had to follow.

"Let's talk about the person you followed then, Vorsa 'Judamai," Liara said, refocusing the conversation. "You mentioned him before, that he was mean to you, what else can you tell me?"

It took a moment for Kayap to think, his mind wasn't as fast or analytical as the rest of them. Regardless, he was able to answer the question.

"Vorsa likes to talk about his line," he began. "He's some really important nobleman. His family has been fighting alongside the Covenant long before we discovered humans. I think he said his family's loyalty runs as far back as the inception of the Covenant. He may be exaggerating though, like I said before, sangheili lie, a lot."

"People in power tend to do that, Kay," Vik informed him. "That's how they get to the top of the pyramid in the first place. Honest authority figures are hard to come by."

Nelanax scoffed at the quarian's words.

"Please, must you make it sound so overdramatic?" She asked him.

"Come on, how many C-Sec District Captains are assholes or just plain corrupt in any number of your action vids?" Vik asked her in kind. "Even the film industry, which is loaded with propaganda, can't hide the fact that there are loads of bosh'tets in power."

"Yeah, leaders who don't have the balls for their job or they put their politically correct agendas ahead of kicking bad guy ass," Nel retorted. "That's why things are bad. Not enough people willing to do whatever it takes."

"That's the propaganda part," Vik argued. "They push a fascist jackboot agenda by portraying progressive ideas as the wrong ideas."

Liara looked back at both of them before they could continue their little argument and hushed them both by clearing her throat. She then turned back to Kayap.

"Do you have any idea what Vorsa wants in this universe?" She asked the unggoy. "How many ships he has guarding the wormhole? Things like that?"

"Vorsa never mentions his plans to anyone who isn't in his inner circle," Kayap said sadly. "All I know is that he said we were coming here to face heretics and blasphemers, he called it a crusade, I think."

Well that sounded bad. Even with the lack of details, it wasn't hard to figure out what his plan was. However, Kayap had more particulars on the other question Liara had asked.

"I know they have a lot of ships though," he continued. "At least a whole taskforce guarding the wormhole, one big capital ship surrounded by at least several dozen battlecrusiers and hundreds of smaller support ships as well."

"That's a pretty substantial force," Nelanax recognized. "They could definitely do a lot of damage with that little fleet. Why not just start burning up human colonies with that? Or at least bring in more through that wormhole they have."

"Obviously we don't have the whole picture," Liara told her. "Something is keeping them from sending more ships and they don't think they're ready to take on a whole galaxy of non-believers. Not when you have the Council Races uniting four of the most powerful species in the galaxy. Any kind of major assault would force them to take notice."

Vik nodded at that.

"Yeah," he concurred, "and the Council may not like quarians, but if the Migrant Fleet got hit by something like that, they would at least mobilize everything they had in defence of themselves. The same would go for anyone really."

"So they're waiting until they get big enough numbers to launch an all-out assault," Nelanax reasoned. "And in the meantime they're using the Swords and the Blood Pack to obfuscate their presence and gain allies for their eventual attack on the galaxy at large."

There could've been any number of reasons for the delay. They could've been waiting until their war with the humans was done, they could be having problems in transporting ships through the wormhole, maybe there were conditions set up by the batarians or perhaps Shepard was just being too much of a nuisance on the other side for them to consider going ahead with their plans. Liara admittedly liked the last one the best. She then remembered another important question.

"Kayap," she began. "Do you remember anything about a Commander Shepard when you were with the Covenant?"

"I know of someone they keep calling the 'False Shepherd'," he answered back. "They say he's been spreading lies about the Forerunners and turning people away from the path. He's kinda become something of a priority target."

Nothing new there, but it explained the trouble that Shepard was in. If the Covenant thought he was some sort of devil figure, they'd stop at nothing to kill him and all associated with him. With the situation apparently even direr now, Liara decided to push up their time table.

"Vik, continue working on that serial code," she told the quarian. "We can't allow the batarians time to lick their wounds. We need to hit them again and hard this time, find out where they got those weapons and cybernetics."

"I've had a program running a basic trace while I've been working here," Vik assured her. "I'll head back down to my shuttle and boost the runtimes up a bit. We should get results within a few hours."

That was good to hear. Despite the problems down in the camp, they had momentum now. They needed to keep hitting the Swords and Covenant. Maybe, with more pressure put on Balak, she'd be able to rattle this alliance a little and, in some way, help Shepard in the process.

---

Vik's modifications to Kayap's mask allowed the unggoy the chance to eat in the open. There was a flap he could open, kind of like an airlock, which he could put food into and then eat when it closed again. It was based on the same design that allowed Vik to take his pills without taking off his visor. It seemed the quarian had managed to get it to work, as Kayap was apparently enjoying his kroganized pizza. Liara decided to pass on it. She'd just stick with a nice asari noodle recipe.

"I imagine the Covenant don't feed you too well," Liara spoke up when Kayap was chewing on his latest bite.

"It depends on the day," he replied. "They need to keep our morale up sometimes so we do what they want. Sometimes we got a good meal if we won a fight."

It sounded like a reward system for good behaviour and prowess on the battlefield no doubt. Similar in nature to how a master treats his pet, rewards and punishment based on what you did. Except she imagined people who owned varren took better care of tem then the sangheili did the unggoy.

"Did Vorsa ever do that for you?" She asked.

Kayap shook his head sadly.

"Not once since we moved into his unit," he began solemnly. "He hates the unggoy, thinks we're cowards and weak. Lots of sangheili treat us like that. Depending on who you're with they have different ways of motivating you to fight. Some try to boost you up with words and food and recreation. Most just intimidate you or beat you down."

"I'm surprised you haven't all just turned on them if that's the case," Liara informed him, scowling at the thought of such a wretched existence.

"It's not so simple," Kayap explained, still looking rather sad. "As hard as it is to understand, a lot of my people are grateful to the Covenant."

Liara could only look back at Kayap in utter bewilderment at the statement.

"Why would anyone be grateful for the way they treat you?" She asked in disbelief. "At best, you're practically second-class citizens."

Kayap nodded in agreement.

"It used to be a lot worse," he explained. "When we were brought into the Covenant, my people were still suffering from a massive catastrophe."

"Vorsa suggested as much," Liara recalled. "It was some kind of ecological calamity, correct?"

"Yes, sometime long ago there was some kind of environmental collapse on Balaho that sent us back into the dark ages," he explained. "We believe it was from over-industrialization, the planet is still recovering from it. Most of it's a ball of ice and the part that isn't are tidal flats with pillars of fire. It's not pretty, but its home."

Liara could only imagine what it was like to live on such a world. The fact the unggoy were able to survive at all was impressive. Even the krogan would have difficulty thriving in such a place. Perhaps the unggoy were tougher than they looked.

"I assume it was easy for the Covenant to take control of you in that environment," she reasoned.

"We didn't even put up a fight then," Kayap replied. "But joining did save us from extinction. Since we joined the Covenant, our birth rates have increased, deaths during our two winters on Balaho have decreased as has infant mortality, we don't have to put our elders to death anymore and if you're not in the military your average life-expectancy has doubled."

"And the only price you've paid for it all is your freedom," Liara added sombrely.

Again, Kayap nodded.

"We tried to rebel a few times," he admitted sadly. "The best we managed the first time was to earn the forgiveness of the sangheili for the transgression. We were finally allowed to use guns, but that's about it."

Kayap stuffed another piece of his food into the flap, closed it and then began to chew once more. Liara could see the conversation was troubling, but she wanted to understand what it was like in the Covenant for him. Why it was the way it was. Perhaps it was the archaeologist in her wanting to know more about such an alien culture.

"I assume the sangheili weren't so forgiving the next few times you tried," she presumed.

"Not really, the sangheili feel it's an insult to their previous 'mercy' if you will. There's always some kind of 'disobedience' every now and again," he clarified. "A small little secessionist plot that gets put down, brutally. I guess, in a way, I'm the seventeenth attempt. I'm doing better than them, I'm still alive."

"So why aren't there more like you?" Liara asked, careful in her choice of words "Why did you leave?"

It was a question that Liara had never stopped asking herself. Did he have no family left to concern himself with? Was Vorsa's cruelty the last straw? Did he simply see her as an opportunity? An out? Kayap grew quiet and stopped eating. He kept looking at his food with a sorrowful look for a full minute, but he did provide an answer in the end.

"I couldn't live like that anymore," he admitted. "Every day got worse and worse. All they told us is just keep fighting and you'll get to paradise. I used to believe that."

He looked dead straight into Liara's eyes.

"But if we're all equal in the afterlife, how come we're treated like dirt before we get there?" He asked back rhetorically. "It was another lie, it was all lies. I was fooling myself, fighting a war I didn't understand or want for an empty promise. I wanted to die for so long just to get there... and it would've been a waste. Now all I want to do is try to live, actually live."

Liara remained silent. It wasn't what she was expecting. No real defining moment, no exact pinpoint, just a vague explanation of an epiphany he had. The 'why' of it was answered, but not the 'how' of it. Regardless of the fact, it wasn't a complete answer. However, it was good enough for now.

"Is that why your friends back in Charlan..." she stopped suddenly, unable to finish. She shook her head, coming up with another question. "They wanted it to be over?"

Kayap nodded.

"It was really the only freedom they felt they had left," he stated sadly. He suddenly looked up with a brighter look in his eyes. "I thank you for showing me another option."

"If it helps any," Liara told him with a bright smile. "I wish they had seen things the way you do now as well. I would've loved to have them aboard."

Kayap nodded knowingly. Their conversation was interrupted by an argument just a few feet away. It was little surprise who it was between.

"I'm telling you, I asked that rookie merc, Ben I think," Vik said as he walked after Nelanax. "He says that line of yours was from an old human song."

"Bullshit, I don't even listen to human music," Nelanax assured him ardently. "Let alone something from as far back as the twentieth century! He's yanking your chain or respiratory tube or whatever it is you guys use."

"If you don't believe me check the extranet," Vik dared her. "Type in that ridiculous one-liner of yours searching for human music and you will find it."

Nelanax sighed and flipped out her omni-tool quickly. A few seconds later her eyes went wide.

"Well, Spirits be damned," she said. "There it is. Shit, that human looks freaky. You know what this means?"

"That your precious film industry ripped-off something that was human in origin and tried to pass it off as their own?" Vik asked in return.

"No, it means humans have good taste in catchphrases," Nel replied unwaveringly. "It's just a lucky coincidence otherwise, nothing more."

Vik stared at her in disbelief as she swaggered off. Finally, he raised his arms up in frustration.

"Keelah, you are incorrigible!" He shouted at her.

"Don't care, not listening now!" She called back.

"Oh ain't that a new development!" Vik cried out.

Vik stomped away to the elevator, no doubt intending to return to his shuttle and stick his head deep into whatever conspiracy theory he was working on currently. Liara could only shake her head.

"I can only imagine other unggoy wouldn't be so confrontational," Liara wondered aloud to Kayap.

"Not as many fights with each other, no," Kayap admitted.

Liara liked to think she was doing her best given the circumstances, but the evidence was clear enough for all to see. The crew she had picked up did not get along, at least not as much as she had hoped. Even Wrex had his own list of problems with every single member. They weren't unfounded, but it didn't help. She didn't know how long this team would function unless she found a way to smooth over these various problems.

At least with Kayap he was getting a bit braver in his actions. Wrex had mentioned to her how he had helped take down a Blood Pack merc down in the camp. With any luck, he'd soon have enough courage to openly fight his old masters. But they were a long way from being able to stand up to people like Vorsa in a straight up fight. That much she knew was true.

---

"Your program must be faulty," Nelanax argued. "There's no way in hell that's true."

"The trace doesn't lie," Vik insisted. "I triple-checked the program, then I quadruple checked it. Don't bite my head off just because you don't like where it leads."

"Where it leads doesn't make any sense," Nel spat back. "Maybe you should check your hate-boner for anything corporate before you come to a conclusion on the issue."

"And maybe you should wake-up already," Vik barked back.

Vik's trace of the serial code had finally turned up the origin of the implants they recovered. Unfortunately, the results suggested something particularly ominous and Nelanax was unwilling to accept it out of hand. Liara didn't like it either, more for what it suggested before anything else, but denying the facts did not help anyone.

"We have to go on the information we have right now, Nel," Liara told her. "That means that VykurCorp is quite possibly supplying Balak's people."

The revelation was very disconcerting because VykurCorp was no ordinary company. Next to Armax Arsenal, it was one of the biggest military contractors for the Turian Hierarchy, responsible for a lot of their specialised technology. Targeting systems, infantry fighting vehicles, tanks, military grade implants, gunships, heavy weapons, they supplied a lot of gear to the Hierarchy. Over their many years though, they had graduated from their original industrial model and moved into other business arenas.

"Aren't they the guys who made that dumb commercial for that frozen meat on a stick thing?" Wrex asked. "What are they called? Pungi Poppers?"

"Assorted meats on a stick, covered in pastry and deep-fried," Nelanax stated, licking her mandibles. "They're fucking delicious, almost as good as their soft drink line. General Fizzy, you can't beat a classic."

"And when they're not making addictive unhealthy junk food," Vik was quick to add. "They're selling their line aircars, appliances, VI programs, gene-therapies, recreational substances or their latest fashion trends. Forcing their iron fisted Corpie bullshit down everyone's throats."

Nelanax's look returned to one of irritation as Vik derided the company.

"No one forces you to buy their products," she argued.

"Subliminal advertising means they don't have to," the quarian diligently replied. "Catchy slogans, ear-worm songs and product placement in movies are all they need to get a foothold in your life. And now, they're helping a secret Hegemony Black-Ops group, posing as terrorists, allied with inter-dimensional alien invaders."

"Again, we don't know that for sure," Nel repeated in a mocking tone.

Vik sighed greatly and brought up the holographic screen once more. A red line, signifying the implant crate's trail, appeared and zig-zagged across the galaxy before stopping at a single planet. The exact coordinates the trace led them to were a storage facility under the direct ownership of VykurCorp.

"The implants were stored there and then shipped out in a Vykur freighter, which stopped at several ports. The crate remained inside the freighter on every stop. It's supposed to be back in storage where it originated, not in the training camp where we found it. Does that sound suspicious to you?"

"Maybe they lost or misplaced it, maybe it got stolen and they just don't want it leaking out for fear of public embarrassment," Nelanax suggested sheepishly. "It just doesn't make sense for VykurCorp to be giving implants to batarians. They're a turian company. They sell most of their stuff to turian colonies. All those stops are turian colonies. Why would a turian military contractor deal with batarians?"

"This from the ex-Hierarchy soldier who used to work for Balak's little band," Wrex piped up, sounding rather peeved by Nel's statement.

Nel was quick to shift her angry gaze from Vik to Wrex.

"That's different," Nel explained. "VykurCorp hasn't gotten discharged or anything. The Company and the Hierarchy Military are on great terms and have an exclusive contract with each other. Why risk that by giving away top-of-the-line stuff to another militia force?"

"Because Corporations couldn't care less about keeping promises to their customers," Vik suggested derisively. "At the end of the day, their top priority is to make the big credits and buy expensive houses and luxury star cruisers. It maximises their profits if they don't hold to a single customer, even if that customer is the oh-so-glorious warmongering Hierarchy."

Nelanax's face scrunched up at Vik's dig towards her government. Liara could see her balling her fists in anger from across the briefing table. Fearing further confrontation, she decided to ease the tensions.

"Vik, your personal opinions on galactic politics are noted, but try to keep your comments focused on relevant issues only," she cautioned him.

Nelanax seemed to calm after Liara's words, her arms drooping to her sides. Vik's confrontational posture vanished as well, allowing Liara to take over the conversation from then on.

"As for the evidence, it is compelling enough to suggest that VykurCorp does have dealings with Balak," she said, earning a bit of a look from Nelanax. "But we cannot jump to conclusions as to their possible motives either, not unless we have more information."

Vik reluctantly nodded in agreement and Nel grew a rather smug smirk on her face. Liara decided to keep them all on track and focused on her, rather than each other.

"We're going to need find out more about these implants to find conclusive proof," Liara informed everyone. "I managed to acquire VykurCorp's product manifest through ShadowNet, but none of the products they have listed seem to match the implants we currently possess. If they were truly trying to maximize their profits, they'd be selling it to all sides. There must be something bigger going on."

"Can't we just take these things apart and find out what they do?" Wrex asked.

"Possibly," Liara reasoned. "But we have a better chance of gaining the whole picture if we head to where these implants originated in the first place."

"Way ahead of you Doc," Vik told her. "My trace goes as far back as to where the implants were first manufactured and packed. That leads us right here."

The red line now moved over the Horse Head Nebula, and one very cold, very familiar, planet.

"Crap, Noveria," Wrex groaned.

"The Corpie stronghold itself," Vik declared in mock praise. "A whole planet that's home to the biggest liars, backstabbers and greediest bosh'tets you'd ever be unfortunate enough to meet. It's also where VykurCorp has one of their biggest corporate offices outside of turian space."

Then that was their target, but that also meant they had a bit of a problem.

"We can't just raid it like we did the camp," Liara reasoned. "We'll need a more subtle approach."

Liara looked to Saya, who seemed to agree with the idea. He stood up rather proudly and gave a single confident nod. Nelanax, however, did not share his apparent enthusiasm.

"Ugh, sneaking, stealth is so damn tedious," she growled, "as if this wasn't a big mistake already."

"This is how it has to be, Nel," Liara informed her. "We need to find out their connection to all of this and how that crate ended up in Balak's little underground school. More importantly, we need to figure out what those implants do in the first place."

"I assume you got a plan?" Wrex asked.

Liara simply smiled slyly.

"I always do, Wrex. I always do," she assured him.

---

August 3rd, 2185

Of all the places in the galaxy, Liara never thought she'd ever come back to Noveria. It was a cold, inhospitable planet, controlled by corporations who possessed few morals and greedy minds. The last time she was here, they encountered a research station overrun with an alien species long thought extinct. Before that, they had to get involved in corporate politics. Before they even left the planet, she had watched her indoctrinated mother die before her eyes.

To say she hated this planet would've been an understatement. The only persons among the group that possibly hated as much or more than her were Wrex and Vik. The former because of his shared experience he had had with her and the latter because of his obvious distaste for cutthroat capitalism. At least this time they wouldn't have to go out into the cold or be forced to run through hoops just to gain the right to freeze.

This time, they had a day in advance to inform the proper authorities of their arrival. They also were able to cover their true identities through the use of the ShadowNet and the many forgers that were a part of it. Liara was now an important businesswoman for a Nevos-based Amp Manufacturer, Practical Amplification Solutions. It was a cover she felt would be decent enough to gain an audience with VykurCorp, especially in regards to implants. Wrex was her bodyguard, everyone else were her associates.

They arrived at Port Hanshan in a shuttle, not in the Lucen. She couldn't risk the possibility of the ship being traced back to her. If Balak had people on Noveria, she would need to cover her tracks best she could. It also would allow them a quicker getaway. She told the pilot to head back up to the Lucen and wait for her signal. They were going to need it before this day was over.

Getting past security was easier than it was last time. Wrex could go through with weapons considering he was Liara's bodyguard, so he wasn't checked. Nel and Vik didn't have anything on them either, but Liara had already gotten that sorted. Saya didn't even need to be checked with security, he had his own way in. Kayap still stood-out, but as long as he appeared unarmed, no one asked questions. Before long, they were past security and in the elevator.

"I feel naked without my guns," Nel grumbled. She paused for a brief moment, before inevitably asked the obvious question. "Does that thought turn anyone on?"

"Keelah, shut up," Vik growled.

"I have to amuse myself somehow," she argued back at him. "I'm not allowed to kill anything for who knows how long."

"You'll get your chance," Wrex promised her. "Focus on the mission. Besides, remember the plan? You won't be parted from your beloved guns for too long."

They exited onto the promenade, different from the one they had spent so much time in during their first visit. There were a number of smaller shops representing individual larger companies along the back wall. To the front of the promenade, near the large window that looked out into the desolation, was a small dining area. The biggest difference, however, was the skylight above their heads. It gave them a perfect view of a large imposing Spire that stretched up to the sky, the VykurCorp brand logo strewn across its front.

"Well, at least we know where to go," Vik noted. "We can always count on the Corpies' desire to overcompensate."

"First things first," Liara told him. "We need to meet my contact, follow me."

They walked over to one of the shops. The sign over the front doorway read "Oltan Armoury" and was headed by an elcor clerk. He looked towards the group with a pleasant look on his face, although it was hard to tell with an elcor.

"With slightly forced glee: Welcome to our humble franchise shop. Jubilant Expectation: Can I interest you in one of our fine wares?"

"That depends," Liara started. "How are the winters on Telluune?"

The elcor looked around and nodded.

"With reserved sincerity: The same as the summer, boiling year round," he said. "I was informed to expect you."

"Do you have our package then?" She asked.

The elcor pointed his head over to a box in the back. Liara went over it to reveal some Carnifex pistols and Kassa Fabrication Locusts within.

"With prideful accomplishment: They are concealable as requested," he informed her. "Slight disappointment: I could not find a suitable way to hide the larger weapons without taking them apart. With assurances: I have instructed one of our runners to place them in a dead drop near your point of entry. You will find them storage container marked with a red and blue X."

"Excellent, these will do," Liara told him. "I'll make sure that your services to the Network are recognized."

The elcor nodded and Liara handed out the weapons to the others.

"Keep these concealed," Liara told them all. "Wrex and I will head to our meeting with the Vykur representative. Wait for our signal to move on the entry point. We need to give time for Saya to get into the spire and for us to figure out what we're dealing with in there."

"And until then we're stuck watching the little gas sucker?" Nel asked, incredulously looking at the unggoy.

"He says he can help in your task, I trust him," Liara informed her adamantly. "If Vykur has a connection to Balak he'll stick out like a sore thumb if I bring him in with me. At the moment, to everyone else outside, he's just an odd looking creature who probably had genetic modification done on him."

"Nothing new for Noveria," Vik added suddenly. "You know all those livestock deaths on the salarian colony worlds? All done by bloodsucking varren, genetically modified so their fangs hold venom and they can turn invisible. Big military weapon that went haywire and accidentally got set loose."

Nel scoffed at the story, but Liara wasn't about to have the two fight again.

"You're both working together on this one," she reminded them. "I need you to remember that. Save whatever animosity you have for one another and act as a team. No innuendo and no conspiracies, just get your jobs done. I'm counting on all of you, remember that. I'll see you all inside."

Liara left with Wrex while Kayap, Nel and Vik headed towards the dining area. She supposed sticking them altogether was potentially dangerous, but the only way they'd learn to work together is if they actually worked together.

She had hoped that reminding them how important they were to the mission would help. Kayap no doubt didn't want the good thing he now had going spoiled by failure. Vik being reminded he was part of a crew would surely keep him focused. As for Nel, perhaps the turian's attraction to her would be enough to make her at least try to follow her orders in a shallow attempt to get Liara in bed with her.

"What do you think is going to be harder?" Wrex asked. "Dealing with Vykur or those three?"

"Let's hope neither," Liara informed him. "I want this to go as smooth as possible."

"Good luck with that," Wrex warned her. "We're on Noveria, remember? Nothing is ever easy here."

A short ride up an escalator and they were now on in the courtyard for the VykurCorp Spire. It was a long straight forward path towards the foot of the building itself. The path was surrounded by fountains, artificial waterfalls that emptied into the fountains and exotic plants imported from Palaven.

There was even a statue directly in front of the main doors. It depicted the company's founder, Ceasevarius Vykurias. A prominent Commander in the Turian Navy, he had successfully defended the colony of Taetrus during the Krogan Rebellions. The krogan had launched a number of asteroids at the planet, intending to render it uninhabitable like they had done to three other turian worlds. Instead, Vykurias' blockade managed to destroy many of the asteroids, sometimes even using their own ships to stop them. In the end, the colony only sustained minor damage and civilian evacuations of the major cities resulted in only a few deaths.

After the rebellions, Vykurias retired from military service but opened up VykurCorp to continue assisting the Hierarchy's armed forces in whatever way he could. They had never managed to usurp Armax Arsenal as the main supplier for the military, but Vykurias said all that mattered was that he could still help keep Palaven, and by extension the rest of the turian people, "safe and strong."

Despite the history, Wrex wasn't very impressed by the long dead Turian war hero's stoic and simple sculpture. He huffed at the stone Vykurias' chiselled features and commanding glare as he looked up to the sky on bended knee.

"Our statue on the Citadel is bigger," he argued with a snort.

Moments later, a turian in a fine suit approached the pair as they got closer to the statue. His face was marked with blue markings that surrounded his eyes and stretched down to his nostrils. He graciously stretched out his hand to Liara.

"Ms. Valna T'Marda," he greeted as Liara took his hand. "Welcome to Noveria, I hope your trip was a pleasant one."

The turian shook her hand a little too much, but Liara let him, trying to pretend she was a humble guest.

"There was no trouble, I assure you," she replied. "You have me at a disadvantage, however, Mr...?"

"Davlihadriex Ranagardustus," he answered jovially as he let go of Liara's hand. "However, you may call me Dav, everyone does, even other turians. It's somewhat of a mouthful after all."

Wrex just seemed lightly chuckle under his breath at the understatement.

"I'm the general manager of the Vykur Spire here on Noveria," Dav explained happily. "I meet with many illustrious potential business partners like yourself when our Chief Executive Officer cannot do so himself. I hope that is not too disappointing for you Ms. T'Marda, but Mr. Spadvius Orukuri is very busy and this meeting was somewhat last minute. He sends his apologies."

"That is unnecessary, but welcome," Liara replied, sounding as refined as possible. "To be honest, I wasn't sure if you would even see me. Your company is known for many things, but not amps."

"True," Dav admitted. "The turian military has a very segregationist policy towards our biotic brothers and sisters, but VykurCorp believes that if they defend our interests they should indeed get the best equipment. It's also a largely untapped potential market for turians. Armax's Gemini line of amps is woefully inadequate. We believe we can improve on their failings and with help from the asari we stand an even better chance at achieving that goal."

Liara nodded her head, feigning fascination. In reality, she had already heard through the ShadowNet that Vykur had been requesting potential meetings with several Biotic Amp Manufacturers for a while now. Her current cover seemed like the best identity to take under those circumstances. Would they really pass up the chance to talk with an asari about a potential partnership?

Dav finally looked to Wrex, his happy smile dimming slightly into a worried frown.

"I assume this is your bodyguard?" He asked.

"You can never be too careful on Noveria," she told him. "I assume that's alright by you."

"Well, of course it's alright," he assured her. "I don't think he'll find much to concern himself with here though, we're very safe. But if you believe he is necessary, whatever makes our guest feel comfortable I suppose. Let us move inside, I'll give you the tour of our facilities."

Dav began to lead Liara and Wrex to the spire.

"Once knew a volus like him," Wrex whispered to her. "Almost managed to sell me a crappy aircar at twice it's worth. We should be careful around him."

"We're not here to make deals, Wrex," Liara assured him. "We just need to stick to the plan. Once Saya contacts us, we'll move to the next phase."

---

The Corporations that ran Noveria thought they were secure, but the fact of the matter was they were more overconfident than anything. They were more concerned with their rivals infiltrating their businesses, not a trained military operative. STG had considered several hundred entry strategies into Port Hanshan itself. Saya had memorized all of them. You never knew where they'd send you next, after all.

How many genetics companies had promised the krogan a cure for the genophage? How many of their own people tried to use their vast intellects for personal gain through illegal means? How many under the table deals over reproduction contracts as payment for government secrets were done in Noverian board rooms?

As much as he hated to admit it, the quarian was right to criticise Noveria for what it was. It was outside Council jurisdiction, colonized to service self-interest. It bred liars and thieves of the worst kind. STG would not be living up to its purpose if it didn't consider the danger it posed to the Salarian Union.

Saya opted for one of the quickest ways inside, the central heating ducts. They ran throughout Hanshan, keeping the tycoons in their posh offices nice and toasty. Thankfully, Saya's armour would keep his temperature regulated to room temperature though, so long as he was careful. He needed to be quick crawling through the system. If he stayed too long in one area and the steam venting would fry him. Luckily, T'Soni's electronic map of the heating ducts was able to track his position and keep him on course for the VykurCorp Spire.

After twenty five minutes since he had entered the ducts, he located his entry point. He could see the VykurCorp logo through the vent. He carefully grasped at the holes and slowly pulled it off the wall. Silently, he pushed himself into the corridor and then replaced the vent as if nothing had happened. He then activated his cloak and scanned the area.

His helmet's visor helped him pinpoint the locations of nearby cameras with its electronic scanner function. He could already see the wires crisscrossing through the floor. The cameras were small and well-hidden, but his cloak pretty much made them useless.

His priority wasn't them in any case, it was the security hub for this level he was after. He couldn't take down the whole building's defences from there, but it would help in making the quarian and turian's jobs a lot easier. He just hoped they didn't screw up somehow. He began to follow the wires back to their source.

---

Nel smiled at her omni-tool with a sense of anticipation. There was a terrible blast, from what sounded like a shotgun, that resonated from the orange glowing device.

"Damn, that's gonna leave a stain on the new carpet," said a gruff voice of some kind.

Nel chuckled a little, causing Vik to raise his head from a datapad he was holding. She had been listening to that thing for a good while now, watching one of her movies he could only assume. He didn't want to ask what she was doing, but his natural curiosity was getting the better of him. Perhaps he was just too nosy for his own good.

"What exactly are you watching?" Vik asked her, not entirely sure he would like the answer.

"It's 'High Rise Stakes,' one of Slyvestrix Stalaxian's best pictures," she replied. "He's a C-Sec cop who gets trapped in a high rise when a bunch of crooks pretending to be terrorists take over an electronics company's new head office skyscraper on the Citadel during a huge party. They're trying to steal corporate secrets to make a killing on the black market, he's trying to save his girlfriend who he's had cold feet committing a real relationship to."

Vik knew he'd hate the answer. He stared at Nelanax with disgruntled eyes, glowing through his visor, tapping all three of his left hand fingers on the table. Nel didn't seem to understand why.

"Is there a problem?" She asked.

"That movie stars a quarian on pilgrimage, he's one of the bad guys," he explained with a slight growl. "The character says he's involved so he can take the company's tech back to the Flotilla as a gift. He also blows the head off of a security guard and laughs about it."

"It's just a movie," Nel replied with a shrug.

Vik scoffed in light amusement at the remark.

"That's rich coming from you," he said with a venomous snap. "It doesn't matter. It perpetuates the stereotype that my people are opportunistic thieves. No Captain in the Fleet would ever accept a gift that was stolen or gained through illegal means. The only reason the actor playing him took the job was because he needed money to actually get back home with his real gift."

"That doesn't mean quarians don't commit crime," Nel argued.

"Yes, but the majority of films in the galactic mainstream overwhelmingly portray quarians as the people who do most of it," he informed her, his rage bubbling over. "Whenever there's a pickpocket, chit snatcher, lowly crook or mugger in a vid, the majority of them are portrayed by quarians who deserve to get pummelled by the great C-Sec officer who defends the rich and powerful."

Nel grimaced at the quarian, she then pressed down on the screen in her omni-tool to pause the film.

"You know, Stalaxian has repeatedly said he has no problem with the quarian people," She declared adamantly. "He's an entertainer; he's just putting on a show. He doesn't cast the films. Besides, those quarians who act in them are doing it of their own free will."

"Because they can't get any other acting jobs," Vik reiterated. "You don't get it. The film is playing into preconceived notions of how the galaxy views us. Every film where the quarian character isn't some low level techie thug, he's some annoying comic relief character that gets killed off halfway into the middle of the second act."

"That's a generalisation," Nel growled back defensively. "What about 'Fleet and Flotilla', 'Zeldov's Brigade', 'Beyond the Veil'? There are plenty of heroic quarians in vids today!"

"And how many of those on average are produced by mainstream cinema?" He asked her.

Nel struggled to come up with an appropriate answer.

"Well, it's not like quarian actors are easy to find in the first place," she stated. "You're all closed off on your little Fleet away from the rest of us after all. Plus, it's expensive to hire you from the Flotilla since your people always ask for some kind of material compensation to make up for the decrease in manpower."

"That's no excuse for filling the bad guy role, that could be played by anyone, with a quarian the majority of the time," Vik argued back. "They do it because it's cheap and because they know how easy it is to play into people's hatred of quarians. How much do you think that actor in 'High Rise Stakes' got for his time? Not nearly as much as the first crook who gets killed off. The quarian survives till near the end of the third act. He had more scenes and more lines than him. But because he was a quarian and the other guy was a turian, his salary was only half that of the latter's. Is that fair?"

The turian responded with another hostile glare and a groan

"Well, that's so sad to hear," she snarled at him derisively. "Maybe if your people didn't cash their chits and leave we'd be inclined to pay you more. Take some solace in the fact he at least got to be immortalized in film. Apologies to your hurt little feelings just because you guys get stereotyped in mean ways sometimes."

"Sixty-four percent to be exact," Vik clarified as he crossed his arms. "That's how often we show up negatively in the vids turians produce."

To Nel's credit, she didn't continue pressing or resort to fists. She just went back to watching her vid, raising the volume a bit in defiance of Vik's annoyance with the film. The quarian did his best to block it out. They were more than happy to not talk to each other anymore, but they did not sit in silence for long.

"You two don't like each other much, do you?"

The question came from Kayap who was sitting in the third chair of the table they were at. He had been quiet for a good while. Apparently he had been waiting to find something to talk about. Neither Nel nor Vik could understand, however, why he had chosen such a seemingly stupid question to start things off with?

"What gave it away?" Nel asked derisively at the unggoy.

"Well, you do fight a lot," he responded meekly. "It kinda reminds me of how my kind and the kig-yar bicker. Did your people do something to each other a long time ago? The kig-yar got angry at us for something they think we did. I think it was something about us pushing them out of their habitats and breaking a lot of their eggs."

Vik shut off his omni-tool with a sigh and looked to Kayap with affable demeanour.

"It's nothing like that, Kay," he promised. "I just don't like that she constantly pretends that the people she puts her misplaced faith in can do no wrong."

"And I don't like your constant paranoid bullshit trying to ruin my vid with your annoying political correctness," Nel was quick to add. "Maybe if you wasn't such a Wet Bucket I could tolerate it, but that's unlikely to change.

Vik didn't get the chance to add his own comeback, as Kayap had another question.

"Why do you call him that?" The unggoy asked confused.

"Call him what?" Nel asked in return. "Paranoid? Annoying? Delusional? Did I say delusional just then?"

"I mean Wet Bucket," Kayap clarified over the sound of Vik's grinding teeth. "What does that mean?"

"Well, he wears a helmet all the time and he's little pissant whiner when it comes to dishing out the pain," Nel explained. "Basically, he's a wet blanket and he wears a bucket on his head. So, I call him Wet Bucket. It's just a clever play on words, doesn't mean anything. A nickname, you know?"

Kayap seemed to understand, but Vik just stared at Nel with a renewed sense of quiet fury. For once, the turian seemed to catch on to what he was taking offence to this time.

"Oh don't give me that," she grumbled. "It's not racist, it's just a word. It doesn't mean anything. Everyone calls people names! That's how we cope with our differences. It's all in good fun."

"Spoken like a woman who's part of the system," Vik retorted with a disapproving tone.

"Hey, humans call us plate-faces or bird-brains," she responded haughtily. "It doesn't bother me, they're just stupid words. Grow a thicker skin, that's all I'm saying."

Vik slapped his palm against his visor.

"Your people are on the Council," he started. "They have the strongest military in the galaxy, barely rivalled by humanity, everyone sees you as heroes for your actions during the Krogan Rebellions, and you yourself were a member of a very prestigious Special Forces unit before you got kicked out for being you."

Nel crossed her arms and grimaced at Vik as he continued.

"You're privileged," he declared "The only real obstacle you have to face is your own psychopathic behaviour and even then, as a mercenary, that's sometimes what the person is looking for. On my pilgrimage, I couldn't even find a job flipping meat at a Fish Dog Food Shack because I was a 'Suit Rat' or a 'Clanless' or a 'Thieving Little Nomad.' So don't tell me those are just words."

"Don't talk like you know me, quarian," Nel warned him rather gravely.

"I don't want to know you," Vik answered back with slightly suppressed vitriol. "But we're stuck together and the Doc wants us to cooperate. So I'm resisting the urge to just up and leave right about now."

Nel just smirked rather widely at him.

"Well, you're certainly doing a great job so far," she chided.

Kayap was constantly looking back and forth between the two all this time. Seeing a moment to finally speak himself, he took it.

"You think Liara is doing okay?" He asked, hoping he'd get the conversation pulled back to the situation at hand.

Vik looked over to where Liara had left the promenade, as did Nelanax.

"I'm sure she's fine," Nel told him. "It's not like this is a mission involving explosions and gunplay... not yet anyway."

"And she can handle a bunch of Corpies," Vik added. "She's an Information Broker, it's what they do."

There was a brief silence between them all as they thought over the plan once more and their part in it. Their renewed quiet soon died as they remembered what they were waiting for.

"I hope she contacts us soon," Vik said. "Every minute you're on Noveria they're transmitting subliminal messages through the lobby music to make you buy or invest in stuff."

"And I just want to get started on that Spire already," Nel concurred.

Kayap smiled a bit under his mask. It wasn't much, but they weren't arguing, so that was good.

"You think she's having trouble getting intel out of them?" Nel asked Vik.

"Nah," Vik replied sincerely. "Corpies are all the same. If you wave enough money in their face, they spill everything, even stuff they shouldn't."

---

"And this is our on-site implant production line," Dav informed them as they walked along the catwalk. "Not as large as some of our main manufacturing plants, but Noveria's many legal advantages are just too vital to pass up. For example, it's easier for us to get patents and decrease shipping costs so long as the point of origin isn't a part of Council space, which Noveria technically qualifies as."

'And you can get away with any potential illegal activities involving your products, no doubt,' Liara thought to herself as she surveyed the production line.

There were only a few workers on the floor, relegated to the final inspection station. The implants themselves were constructed through VI-driven assembly machines. Liara barely got a glimpse of one of them, but she could tell it matched the ones they found in the training camp.

"What exactly do these implants do?" She asked.

"I'm afraid I can't talk about that," Dav replied. "The item is currently not on the market and I can't just inform anyone of its function, even if they are as lovely as you."

Liara pretended to be flattered while Wrex rolled his eyes at the turian who was trying too hard to be smooth. Liara wished she had been able to figure out what the implants did before hand, but her scans came up with nothing. She supposed her attempt had been worth try, but now it would be up to the others to crack their files. That didn't mean she was out of tricks.

"How many of these assembly lines do you have in this Spire?" She asked.

"A dozen on several floors," Dav replied as they continued to walk down the catwalk. "Because our offices here specialise in military hardware, most are devoted to weapons and implants. We also have a small research and development level in the lower levels. We've tried to make this place as functional as possible to take advantage of Noveria's unique planetary status."

That was the second time he brought that up in this room and the tenth time he had mentioned it since they started this little tour. She decided to play along with his obvious sales pitch.

"I sense you are trying to convince me of something," she told him.

"I'm simply informing you of an opportunity that has been beyond your company's reach," Dav explained. "It's hard to set yourself up on Noveria. Many never succeed, not without help anyway. You can't just request to set up a stand here. You need permission from the Board. However, if you allow us access to some of your amp designs and give us exclusive rights to assist in developing them, we can potentially speed the process up."

"Interesting offer, but I'm not sure," Liara informed him. "It sounds almost like the first step of a merger and my employers aren't interested in becoming absorbed into a mega-corporation."

Dav shook his head with a smile.

"I propose nothing of the sort, this would be more of a partnership," he explained. "Our facilities are already up and operational. We could help you build and market many of your Amps to the wider public. Specifically, the Turian Military, as previously mentioned. We'd share the profits and open the door for you to set up permanent shop here on Noveria with enough of a nest egg to set up some of your own production facilities. In return, we'd get a head start with amp production and hands-on experience from you."

'And then you'd probably stab me in the back and steal all my designs for yourselves,' Liara thought as she kept up her act, smiling and nodding at his offer. 'I'm glad I'm not actually in the amp business in the first place.'

Dav obviously thought that she was a naive little asari easily swept up by his charm, but Liara was only interested in what that silver tongue of his would let slip.

"While it does sound like a decent enough offer, your facilities here don't appear entirely suited for our needs," she told him. "Offering you some of our amp designs is one thing, but I'm not sure you'd be able to ensure their quality in the long term."

"Quality is the VykurCorp motto, Ms. T'Marda," Dav assured her, keeping up that snake-like smile of his. "Your amps will maintain their excellent consumer rating under our roof and your reputation will remain intact."

"I'd prefer if I was sure about that," Liara told him. "Not knowing what these implants do, I can't be sure you'd be able to turn these assembly lines around and make them able to produce my products. They don't seem that terribly advanced to be honest."

Dav looked a bit insulted for a moment, but quickly composed himself. Liara was just happy to see the turian get ruffled a bit.

"Our manufacturing stations can more than handle any advanced technological designs," he assured her. "We strive to be at the forefront of technological progress here, Ms. T'Marda. These implants are but one of the many exciting new pieces of military equipment that will soon be in the hands of the most powerful military force in the galaxy. Surely, you can appreciate fine craftsmanship?"

Liara moved up close to Dav. As the turian tried to remain composed, she leaned in and looked at him rather playfully.

"I do appreciate it," she assured him in a sultry tone, before moving over to the side of his head and whispering "But I still need a chance to look at it up close and... personal."

Dav cleared his throat and backed away.

"I'm not entirely sure that will be allowed," he said, trying to sound as candid as he did before.

"My bosses won't exactly like the idea of someone taking a few of their amp designs under their wings," she continued as she stared closely at him. "However, if there was some sort of trade in advanced technology, something we could use to expand our own interests, I suppose they'd be willing to take the risk."

Liara could practically see the little wheels turning in the turian's head.

"Well, I can't bring you down to the floor," he told her. "But I believe I can get you access to our research and development labs to assure you of our priorities. As well as prove to you our facilities are more than capable of meeting your standards. You'll need to sign some legal waivers, of course."

"I'll show you mine if you show me yours," Liara said, keeping that seductive performance front and center. "Sounds like a plan. Lead on then, Dav."

Turians couldn't sweat, but Liara could tell Dav was a bit off put by having some of his own slight advances come back to bite him. She had shown that she was not so naive or easily led. If he wanted this deal to work, he would need to do more than just try his usual sly sales pitch. The truth of the matter was though, that as the turian led her and Wrex off the catwalk, he was playing right into her hands.

Wrex walked up close to Liara and whispered in her ear.

"Getting a bit personal aren't we?" He asked with a low grumble.

"I'll be sure to wash myself of the stench," she assured him. "But we need to see what else they're doing here. This R&D lab should help in that."

Her omni-tool buzzed silently on her arm. She carefully activated and saw a message from Saya. He was in the sub-basement's security room and was already uploading one of Vik's video loop viruses. The guards were unaware of his presence. They were good to go. Liara slowly pressed a command on her omni-tool. It was up to Vik, Kayap and Nel now.

---

Vik jumped down into the dark corridor first, shotgun out and ready. Kayap tumbled into the hall after him. Nelanax followed, landing next to Kayap with ease. The unggoy looked over and up at her as he pushed himself up off the floor.

"You didn't need to push me," he told her. "I was judging the distance."

"First, yes I did," Nel barked at him. "Second, it was a five foot drop, get over yourself. Three, we just walked through a fucking power conduit pipe for five minutes while crouching. I was not staying in there for another five just so you could get your bearings to make a jump."

"Leave him alone," Vik told her. "We're in aren't we? Let's find that data terminal already."

The three hurried along the darkened sub-basement corridor. If Liara's blueprints of the Spire were accurate, then they were three doors or so down from a major data storage room. If they could just hack into it, they could gain total access to most of the building's files and critical systems.

At least in theory, Vik had never tried anything like that before. This was mostly because he had never infiltrated a building and taken manual control of the system like this. He supposed he would never know if he could unless he actually tried. At least he would have help from a rather unlikely partner, Kayap.

According to the little methane breather, unggoy were delegated to technical stations on Covenant ships. They were taught to monitor enemy communication signals and frequencies so the Covenant Captains, or "Shipmasters" as Kayap called them, could intercept the human ships and destroy them. Strangely enough, the unggoy were really good at it, being such fast learners when it came to technical equipment. Because of this, Kayap had suggested he could assist Vik in his hacking mission.

They needed to find the data store terminal first, however, if they wanted to test Kayap's capabilities. Luckily, they didn't have to worry too much about security. Saya had taken care of the cameras for one. Also, from what Vik was seeing from his hijacked feed currently on his omni-tool, there weren't many security guards on this level. It was a bit peculiar, but they didn't have the time to complain about good fortune.

After locating their door and bypassing the lock, the team entered the data store room. Among the mass of servers was a large terminal station. Vik quickly got set up near it, interfacing his omni-tool with the system. Kayap stood by, waiting for him to ask for assistance when he needed it, and Nelanax kept an eye on the door from behind the cover of one of the servers.

"I still say we're probably not gonna find out anything," she told him. "At worst, VykurCorp is just covering up that they got their merch stole."

"Doubtful," Vik replied, sounding rather tired of her repeated denials. "We're going to find out what those implants do first and foremost and why the Hegemony's tools would be interested in it. It won't be long before we start airing out the rest of Vykur's dirty laundry from there."

"Your knees ever get sore from jumping to conclusions?" Nel asked mockingly. "So what if they keep some secrets. Just because they're a corporation doesn't make them evil, you know."

"It makes them powerful, something people tend to abuse more than anything," Vik replied adamantly while vigorously typing commands on his omni-tool. "All companies and governments, by virtue of their nature, keep secrets of some kind. They keep quiet about them, not to protect the people they serve, but to cover their own asses. VykurCorp is no different."

Nel just shook her head, but kept her eye on the door.

"I doubt you'd be willing to share all your private information with others," she pointed out. "People have a right to some privacy."

"People, yes, giant corporations and the military-industrial complex, no," Vik quickly retorted as he continued to work. "My privacy is not a threat to anyone, a corporation or government within the public eye should be open about what it does. They shouldn't hide behind secrets and lies, claiming it is all for our protection, while simultaneously trying to infiltrate my reserved anonymity."

Nel seemed to laugh at Vik's argument a bit.

"If you have nothing to hide you have nothing to fear," she told him bluntly. "Besides, you aren't exactly in a position to talk about the right for privacy. Remember, you're working for Liara. By extension, that means you're working for the ShadowNet. You know that right? You know the person that sexy ass of hers answers to is, don't you?"

Vik stopped his work for moment and looked back at Nel. He knew what she was implying, but he just shrugged it off.

"Please," he chuckled. "There is no Shadow Broker."

Nel perched an eyebrow at the quarian's response.

"You're shitting me?" She asked in disbelief. "The Shadow Broker doesn't exist? You're working for his fucking organization! You talked to his mercs yesterday. They're sitting outside in the shuttle waiting for our go. How can you say there's no Shadow Broker?"

"The ShadowNet exists, obviously," Vik admitted as he returned to his hacking. "But as for a central figure running the whole thing, that's just a lie. It's a public scapegoat the various governments and Corpies use to remove suspicion from them and their own espionage programs. Everyone worries about the mysterious Shadow Broker stealing their info and not some marketing exec looking for a new untapped consumer to brainwash. Everyone is afraid of a fairy tale instead of the dozens of spies the Salarian Union has monitoring every vidcall line in the galaxy."

"What about all the people who say they're associates of the Broker? Or the people who get in contact with him? Or the mercs who say they've worked for him?" Nel continued to asked, still not believing Vik was honestly dismissing the biggest information dealer in the galaxy as a hoax.

"The Information Brokers and ShadowNet just let the myth persist because it makes them look incredibly powerful and awe inspiring." He explained earnestly. "No one is going to mess with you if they think the Shadow Broker will kick your ass for it. Every now and then, some Information Broker says he's the Shadow Broker or that he works with him and people are just inclined to believe them.

Vik briefly turned away from his work to look at Nel directly.

"Think about it," he continued in his lecturing manner. "The Shadow Broker never shows his face and never contacts anyone directly. The few that claim they've been directly contacted are either crooks, mercs, or people you can't trust anyway. If you do try to contact him directly, you only get some garbled voice-masked message back. It's just some random Information Broker, different every time depending on whom you get the contact number from, who's putting on an act. It's all just another big lie."

Vik continued his work, diligently scanning several lines of code as they flashed across his screen. He was carefully sorting through the security firewall and making decent progress. Even while preoccupied with talking about conspiracies, he was still capable of concentrating on his job. Going back on his meds, per Liara's orders, had certainly helped in that regard. However, they hadn't completely dulled his propensity to debate with people and his latest theory had seemingly struck a chord with Nel.

"So, what you're essentially saying is that the number one accepted criminal conspiracy in the galaxy, is a hoax made up by another conspiracy," She summed up rather simply, her doubt readily apparent to the quarian. "You don't take anything at face value, do you? Everything is one big evil plot, isn't it?"

"You can't trust politicians or Corpies to tell you the truth," Vik informed her. "You need to think for yourself and read between the lines. Otherwise you're as good as dead or worse. Trust no one else's truth but your own. That's been my motto for years now and it's kept me safe."

Kayap coughed slightly in his throat, catching the attention of both of them.

"Could we talk about this when we're not in the middle of trespassing?" He asked them both.

"Don't worry, Kay," Vik assured him. "I've already cut through most of their security checks. We should have access to the mainframe soon. From there, we should be able to work our way through their personal files together in a matter of minutes."

Vik tried to continue his work, but it was then he heard something that made him stop once more. Nel tensed up and Kayap ducked into cover, as they could all head mumbled speech and patter of steps from outside the door. Nel took aim at the entryway, but no one came inside. The sound soon vanished from the air and Vik began his work anew.

"Looks like the guards are starting to move into this section," Vik noted. "We must've got inside during a shift change. That would explain why the place looked so empty."

"How long do you think we have before they start looking inside rooms?" Nel asked.

"We'll be out before then," Vik tried to assure her, the terminal making a small chime as he did. "I already have access to the data store. It won't take me long to find what we need and download everything relevant to an OSD."

Kayap popped out of cover and Vik activated a separate holo-screen for him.

"Start transferring everything referring to implants, military contracts and secret projects to the OSD, Kay," Vik told the unggoy. "Ignore everything else, like how they put addictives like ground up Hallex into their soft drinks. That's pretty common knowledge anyway."

Kayap nodded, but Nel just shook her head at him.

"First of all, they stopped doing that a century ago," She informed him. "Second, we can't risk those guys coming in here and setting off an alarm. What if they overhear us?"

"Well, that's what you're here for, isn't it?" Vik asked in kind.

"Yeah, it is," Nel replied simply. "So I better get to it."

Nel got out from behind the server and made her way over to the door. Vik looked back at her, confused as to why she was leaving, but not entirely surprised.

"What are you doing?" He asked her. "This is no time to go off on a shooting spree."

"I'm not," Nel tried to reassure him. "I'm going to go out there and remove some of the bad guys quietly. If I spot some of them coming towards you, I'll be able to intercept them. Just keep doing your work, trust me on this."

"Trust you?" Vik asked, still clearly disgruntled.

Nel said nothing more and moved out of the room, the door swooshing shut behind her. Vik could only groan and continue his work. Maybe she would be able to keep the guards from getting too close. He doubted it though. Stealth wasn't something he imagined was in Nelanax's vocabulary.

---

Liara would be lying if she said she wasn't impressed by the Research and Development labs. There were several testing rooms, numerous teams of researchers and a lot of high-end technical equipment. There were centrifuges for brewing and testing new medical supplements for use in the field, dummy shooting ranges for specialised military weapon prototypes, a wind-tunnel at the back for trying out new gunship and fighter craft designs. VykurCorp strived to be the Jack-Of-All-Trades in the corporate world, but it seemed their heart and soul was still in the military business.

She hid her emotions best she could from Dav as he led her through the lab. As interesting as all this was, it wasn't what she wanted from him. She needed to maintain her hardnosed businesswoman persona if she was going to get the turian to show her everything.

She looked over to the shooting range for a moment to see one lab assistant trying out an electrical arc thrower on a dummy. The weapon shook in his hands as he tried to keep the beam steady.

"We're trying to improve on the standard arc thrower design," Dav explained. "We hope to increase accuracy, range and general effectiveness against armoured vehicles. Our ultimate goal is to implement an electro-magnetic pulse into the weapon. That would make it instantly deadly for anything that requires power to run, be they tanks, drones or geth."

"How?" Wrex asked him suddenly.

Dav simply grinned cockily and used both of his hands to pull at the neck of his suit.

"That is unfortunately classified, and not covered in the waiver you signed," he explained.

"What about implants, Dav?" She asked as she continued to stare at the electrical arc hitting the dummy. "I thought you were going to convince me of your company's capabilities in that field?"

"Of course," he replied quickly. "Just over here."

Dav led both Liara and Wrex over to a large cylindrical tank near the center of the room. It was filled with water, but inside it was a single varren. There was a turian diver next to the varren, leading it by a leash around the tank as the varren walked along the bottom and swam upwards now and again. That wasn't the astonishing thing about the scene, however. It was the fact the varren had no helmet, no external air apparatus, or was being fed oxygen from anything. And yet, it looked as if it had no problem being underwater.

"This is our initial testing on our latest development," Dav began to explain. "We've surgically installed an implant that regulates the oxygen of the person it's installed into. It effectively feeds a special liquid, which the micro fabricators inside create, into the subject's lungs. The liquid recycles air internally. The person doesn't have to breathe for an extended period of time. This varren has been submerged for at least sixteen hours, far longer than most standard rebreathers."

"Remarkable," was all Liara was able to say, fiving Dav the chance to gush more about it as he placed his hand on her shoulder.

"Special Forces will be able to stay submerged for hours without detection, sharpshooters won't need to worry about their breathing throwing off their aim," he explained. "Chemical and biological warfare's effectiveness will be severely reduced. And those are only the military applications."

If this told Liara anything, it was that VykurCorp was certainly capable of creating some impressive tech. That made finding out what Balak had gotten his hands on even more essential.

"Isn't this against Council regulations?" Liara asked. "How would you sell it to the Turian military?"

"The Council forbids us from growing gills on people who don't have them," Dav clarified. "This isn't gene therapy, its technology. Even if they did have a problem with it, the Council can't touch us as long as we're developing it on Noveria."

Loopholes, of course that was how they had gotten past the potential legality of something like this. If they were willing to stretch the law like that, chances were this wasn't the only thing they had on their books that was dangerously close to crossing the line. Dav, however, couldn't help but gloat.

"Think about what designs you could get away with here that you can't on Nevos," he told her. "Amps wouldn't be as regulated in terms of their power. More importantly, you can open yourself up to greater markets, not just the Asari Republics."

"It is tempting," Liara pretended to admit. "And I can see you're capable of handling such advanced technology. I honestly wonder though, how did you manage to develop some of these ideas into a reality?"

"That's a trade secret, sadly," Dav replied. "I'm afraid the only way you can benefit from it is by joining in a partnership as we discussed. I can tell you many of this advances are due in part to the great leadership of Mr. Orukuri."

Brown-nosing even when his boss wasn't around, no wonder he was so high up in the ranks. At least he had opened up an avenue for questioning.

"Where is Mr. Orukuri, anyway?" She asked him curiously.

"He's entertaining some other customers in his office on the top floor of the Spire," he explained to her. "Like I said, he's a very busy man."

Regardless, Liara wanted eyes on him. Perhaps there was a chance to gain more information from him directly. She could send Saya up there, but she wanted to be nearby herself.

"Alright, I am seriously considering your proposition," she admitted. "Should we go up to your office to see about going over terms and conditions?"

Dav's sudden confidence seemed to slightly dimmed, an unexpected reaction to say the least.

"Well, I'm sure we don't need to go all the way up there just to do that," he said slightly nervously. "There are plenty of places we could do just that down on this level."

"You can't expect a woman of my stature to discuss lengthy contracts just about anywhere," she argued, putting on her sultry voice once more. "Besides, I'd love to see your personal quarters. Don't tell me a great executive, like yourself, has a less than stellar workspace. Surely, Mr. Orukuri isn't the only one that can entertain guests in this Spire."

The appeal to his ego seemed to calm Dav, but only slightly.

"We'll need to take a private elevator, for speed purposes," he answered. "I suppose there's no harm in showing you the potential fruits of a partnership with VykurCorp could give you."

Liara agreed, but that private elevator talk seemed suspicious to her. What was the problem with using the regular elevators? Were they hiding something on the executive levels? If so, yet another reason for Saya to check out Orukuri's office, something just didn't feel right to her about all of this. She'd inform everyone of her position, she had a bad feeling about this and she'd probably need backup pretty quickly if things went south.

---

Nel slinked around the corner, keeping her eyes on the hallways ahead. It was about here where she wondered about her capability in carrying this plan of hers out. She wasn't much for stealth, even she knew that. If she was being really honest with herself, she was doing this only to have an excuse to actually do something proactive. Taking out a few guards would be a lot more interesting then standing around and protecting the quarian. Besides, he could protect himself well enough. He had those drones of his and it wasn't like anyone was going to get past her anyway.

Without a fancy cloak like the salarian, Nel was forced to fall back on old fashioned techniques. Luckily, she remembered some of her infiltration training from the military. All she had to do was keep quiet, stick to the shadows and stay out of the open. Using those lessons, she kept herself in cover and a few feet behind a pair of guards making their rounds.

"Sucks we ain't on the executive level," said one of the guards. "It's a lot less tedious than walking around in this mess of boilers and generators."

"Don't complain," the other guard told him. "It's an easy detail either way. A lot better than the other companies that stick half their security personnel on those damn peaks. Be grateful you're at least warm."

"We have whatever happened at Peak 15 two years ago to thank for that more than the execs," the first guard responded. "Vykur's localization plan, remember? We keep everything in house and under one roof rather than risk a breach half way across the planet we can't call ERC to help out with. The only reason we're not freezing our butts off is because the big guy upstairs is paranoid about keeping secrets."

Spirits, she couldn't even get away from this when the quarian wasn't around. Nel shook the thought from her mind and watched the guards enter into a room. She rushed up along the corridor and pressed herself against the doorway. Inside, the two guards were checking out some lab equipment in what appeared to be a storage room.

"Anyway, we both know the real reason we're stuck down here," the first guard continued as he looked around. "We're not welcome up there now, not with those guests of the big man's."

"Yeah, but it's for a good reason," the other guard assured. "We keep them happy and we'll all be living on easy street soon. Armax's choke hold on snatching up military contracts is gonna go spiralling down and we can start getting things back to how they should be."

"They better," the first guard grumbled. "My son deserves better than the current status quo. Did they say anything about how exactly this little deal is gonna help us in the long run?"

"Just trust in Orukuri and keep your mouth shut," the second guard informed him. "That's what the Captain said. The boss man has to first get the other shareholders on board. When the time comes, Spirits willing, they'll tell us what we need to know."

Nel was only half-heartedly listening to it all, but she had to admit that is sounded weird. Were they talking about some kind of internal corporate take over? Who were these guests? As much as she hated to admit it, maybe the quarian's suspicions were right.

Eventually, one of the guards pulled out a box from the bottom shelf-storage.

"I think this is what they want upstairs," he said as he examined it. "Yep, serial number is 4167AJ2. What do you think they want with these old prototypes?"

"I stopped trying to figure those freaks out months ago," his compatriot replied. "Let's just be happy they're asking for it at all. You wanted to get up to the executive level, remember?"

"I wanted to stay there," the guard clarified. "I suppose I'll settle for a few minutes out of this stink hole before we have to go back to patrolling."

The guards were making their way back to the doorway, but Nel was ready for them. As the first guard approached the doorway, carrying one end of the box in his arms, she lurched out and grabbed him by the side of his head. With one swift movement, she slammed his head into the side of the doorframe. His friend, still caught off his guard by the attack, could only watch as his comrade fell to the floor unconscious, dropping his end of the box. Nel then quickly drove her fist into the second guard, sending him hurtling back into the room. He slammed against the back wall and fell to the floor in a heap.

"Two knocked out and I didn't kill them," she noted aloud to herself. "That should show T'Soni I'm not a total blunt instrument."

She dragged the two knocked out guards into the room and placed them side by side. For added amusement, she decided to position their talons over their crotches. After doing so, she looked upon her handiwork and snickered.

"I love doing that," she grinned. "I hope they're not gay though, it's not as funny when they are. Except when only one of them is, then it's even funnier."

She got her head back on track and unlatched the locks on the box, wondering what was so important that it needed to be brought upstairs. When she got a look inside she could only click her mandibles in anticipation.

"Oh shit, I remember when they said they cancelled this contract back in the day," she chuckled warmly. "Short-sighted military brass, they always nix the most awesome stuff."

Suddenly, there was a chirp from one of the unconscious guards. His omni-tool flashed up and began speaking.

"Alvicus," said a voice. "This is Fardiex. We're doubling back on route towards data storage. You on your way up to the executive level yet?"

Crap, Nel had forgotten about Vik. Thinking quickly, she grabbed the omni-tool on the guard's arm and spoke into it in the manliest voice she could muster.

"Yeah, yeah, we're fine here," she said. "How close are you to data store anyhow?"

"Five clicks or so, we're just passing generator eleven in the south wing," Fardiex replied, sounding a bit confused. "You sure you're okay? You sound weird."

"Uh, just a problem with the omni-tool's sending and receiving function, you kinda sound scratchy to me," Nel lied as best she could. "I gotta go, man. Uh, you're breaking up and whatever."

Nel shut the omni-tool off before the guard could respond. She needed to get to generator eleven, find those guards and stop them from reaching the Wet Bucket. Then she'd come back and see about her new toy. At least she now felt more justified in taking this little side trip.

"That quarian better be grateful for this," she thought.

---

Dav's office was pretty well-furnished for a manager position. Stepping out of the private elevator, Liara found herself in a medium sized room that wouldn't be out of place in an upscale hotel. The walls were adorned with fine art and the floor tiles were mahogany coloured. Near the back of the room was a large window that looked out onto the barren snowy landscape of Noveria. A modest sized desk was in front of it. Between the desk and Liara, there was a small sitting space that included very posh chairs circling a fancy coffee table on a cotton rug.

"It's not nearly as big as our esteemed Chief Executive," Dav admitted. "But I take pride in its humble decor."

There was nothing humble about the appearance of the office in Liara's mind. Not when there were enlarged photographs of Dav shaking the hands of a number of Turian politicians, military officials and celebrities dotted about the room. The pictures that didn't feature Dav prominently all seemed to focus on one theme in general, Hierarchy Military victories.

Dav ushered Liara over to one particular painting on the wall. It showed an expansive battlefield, occupied by turians wielding long outdated weapons fighting with one another. A lone turian officer stood out from the group, standing atop a rock, the flag of the Hierarchy clutched in his talons.

"My favourite one," he stated. "The final battle of the Unification Wars, the birth of the Hierarchy and the day our people became as one. So much blood spilled, but in the end, the result was a stronger union forged from a coalition of disparate people. Were it not for that day, we never would've been able to face the challenges to come."

"Turian history is as colourful as any species," Liara commented. "Although, I will admit we lack the desire for your style of patriotism."

Dav just politely shrugged.

"We do tend to lay it on thick," he acknowledged. "But we have our reasons. We owe everything to a strong and powerful Hierarchy, one that is willing to stand on its own and ready to take on whatever threats may stand in our wake."

Dav's phrasing suddenly made Liara look back to Wrex. He was staring at another painting, this one depicting the death of the female Krogan warlord, Shiagur, on planet Cranum. The female krogan was depicted as a snarling, drooling creature, while the turians as shining beacons of light standing over her dying form with weapons drawn. Even from all the way across the room, she could feel her friend's anger boiling. At least he was keeping it under control, as far as she could tell from here.

"The Hierarchy is known for more than just their battles, they've served the galaxy in other ways," she reminded Dav. "Your contributions to art, literature, diplomatic efforts among the race, your numerous officers serving in C-Sec, there is more to your people than the wars they fought."

"True enough," Dav agreed. "But all those achievements are routed in Unification. It is why it is so important to us. To forget how we began, is to lose sight of where we are headed. That's why you're here, Ms. T'Marda, to forge a stronger union with us for the greater good of the future."

She should've known the history lesson was another one of his attempts at selling something to her. When Wrex overheard, he made his way back over to her. Good, maybe he'd be able to ease Dav off her back a bit.

"I still have concerns about us becoming a pawn of sorts," she tried to explain to Dav.

"I wouldn't dream of it," Dav promised her. "All I ask is that we mutually benefit one another through our combined service. It is how turian society works, citizens, working together towards a common and greater goal. No individual can last long in any endeavour alone. VykurCorp believes in the strength of unity, of a strong turian people. That is something that is constantly under threat, from within and without."

"I'm not sure if I follow," Liara told him, slightly confused by the way this conversation was leaning.

Dav led her over to the sitting area by her hand, earning a set of rolling eyes from Wrex. Dav sat down beside her as he continued to explain things.

"We're getting into Amps because we want to make our Biotic Cabals stronger," he explained. "Turians need to stand together, but so many problems within the government are driving people away. They can smell weakness and that's dangerous for my people. If we are to survive, we need to adapt to the changing environment of this galaxy. That means we have to strive to be the very best in all fields, even if those fields involve the rare occurrences of biotic turians."

"Are you attempting to give the biotics more accepted within the Hierarchy?" Liara asked sounding astonished.

"Not exactly," Dav admitted. "We've simply recognized we have an untapped resource, one that needs to be reined in more, if you will. Better amps would go a long way towards reminding the biotics of their duty to the common good of the turian people."

That didn't sound nearly as progressive as she had first thought. Before she could contemplate more of the conversation, however, Dav brought out a datapad.

"Now then, let's start going over some possible terms," he began.

Even though she still had to placate Dav, at least now she was on the executive level. Now all she had to do was figure out why she wasn't allowed outside this office. She had a very good feeling it had something to do with why they were here.

---

Nelanax had to circle around to get behind her targets. Three guards, all packing assault rifles and dressed in medium armour. Taking them down wouldn't be easy. Well, it wouldn't be easy to do it quietly and non-lethally at the very least. But they were getting dangerously close to Vik and she doubted that quarian was done with his work just yet. She had to act now or risk having the alarm raised.

It would be simple to just kill them all, but she didn't want to. She still didn't completely buy that VykurCorp was up to something nefarious. Yeah, that conversation was suspicious, but they could've been talking about anything. Besides, who was to say these three guys knew anything about what was happening?

Of course, the real reason for her new found discretion was that she was hoping to prove to T'Soni she wasn't kill crazy. That seemed to be what she was looking for in a crew, and quite possibly a "bunk buddy." The only way she was going to do that, was if she held off on the murder for a bit, as much as she was annoyed with that fact. If she could just separate the guards a little, she could take them all down without killing them.

"That oughta at least earn me the right to look at Liara's ass a bit," she thought.

Looking around the area for something to use, Nel eventually spotted a toolbox near an electrical fuse box in the hall. It had been left on a small cart on wheels, all neatly packed up and put away. That would soon change. Nel opened the box and picked up an electro tool. She then forced the fuse-box open and shoved the tool into its mess of wires and transistors. A mess of sparks shot out, slightly blinding Nel for a minute. Moments later, the lights in the corridor went dead.

"The hell just happened?" Asked one of the guards aloud through the darkness.

"Maybe the generator overheated or something," suggested another. "They really need to fix up some of this machinery already, it's faulty. Go back and check it out, see if you can divert secondary power to the lights."

Nel could see the flashlights of the guards scanning the darkness. One of the beams was soon headed back down the hall towards her. She carefully took up a spot behind the corner of the corridor wall. She listened to the guard's footsteps as they entered and slowly followed in after him. Peering through the darkness, she kept her eye on the silhouette caused by the back light of the guard's flashlight.

As he looked over the generator, trying to see if anything was wrong with it, Nel made her move. She grabbed the guard around his mandibles and slammed his head into the generator itself. The blow was enough to knock him out quickly and Nel dragged his unconscious body over to a dark corner.

With two more guards still in the corridor, Nel exited out again. She kept her eyes on the light from their flashlights to guide her.

'Should've brought night-vision,' she thought to herself as she crept up behind the two.

She got up behind one of the guards and then held her gun in her hands like a club. She pulled back and then thwacked the unsuspecting guard across the side of his head. He fell to the ground in a heap, his light vanishing. The attack earned the attention of the final guard, so Nel had to hurry to knock him out as well. She rushed over as he began to turn and then slammed both her fists into the side of his head. The guard was disoriented for a moment more, allowing Nel to kick him in the head with a roundhouse strike. He fell to the floor like his comrades.

With all three guards knocked out, she dragged the two remaining unconscious guards into a room before locking the door from the outside. That would keep them from getting discovered for awhile. With the potential threat to the mission resolved, she contacted Vik over her radio.

"Hey, Wet Bucket," she told him. "Guards have been incapacitated. We won't have to worry about the bastards anymore. Are you done with the computer yet?"

"Almost," Vik replied. "I'm trying to unlock a few secured files and Kayap has downloaded eighty-five percent of the stored intel on these servers. If the info on those implants is here, I'll have it soon."

"Good to hear," Nel told him happily. "I'm headed up. Hold down the fort until T'Soni calls you up."

"Wait, what?" Vik asked frantically. "You can't just leave me down here, I-"

Nel hung up on the quarian and proceeded back to the box she had left near the store room.

"Time to have me some fun," she said to herself while grinning broadly.

---

Vik couldn't contain his exasperated snarl as he slammed his fist against the terminal.

"Stupid fucking turian," he growled. "I knew we shouldn't have trusted her. Now I bet she's going off on another of her stupid kill sprees."

"Think we should go and stop her?" Kayap asked him.

"Nah, we're almost done here anyway," Vik told him. "I've almost cracked the code for this sealed file. Once that's done, I'll transfer it over to you for storage and we can get out of here. Let her have her blood-soaked fantasy if she wants it so bad."

He still couldn't believe she decided to just leave them down here. He wasn't sure if he felt they were safer with her gone or not, but he still didn't like how quick she had bolted. And why was she headed up to the executive level anyway? He wondered if he should contact Liara about this, but that would potentially risk blowing her cover. Still, she would probably want to know and Nel was probably gonna blow the good Doctor's disguise anyway in a few minutes.

As he racked his brain to come up with an answer to the conundrum, however, his program unlocked the sealed file.

"Alright, let's see what they got in here," he said to himself, peering at the screen.

The file was labelled "Special Projects." Vik could only assume that quite possibly concerned the implants they had uncovered. He began scanning the file intently. Looking over the blueprints of several projects in development, including gunships, stealth-detection technology, a new flavour of soft drink that was sold to the shareholders as "twice as addicting," but it took him awhile to find the implants. When he did, he didn't see anything that matched the appearance of the one they found.

"I was hoping to find less crap clogging these servers," he sighed. "It shouldn't be this hard to find one stupid little implant on a data storage terminal."

"Well, if the corporations are as good at lying as you say, maybe it IS that hard," Kayap suggested simply. "If it's something that would make them look bad, or connected to the four-eyed aliens, they'd want to keep it covered-up as much as possible so no one would find out about it. I hollowed out the bottom of a box once just to hide some extra food rations. Getting caught with that would've earned me a terrible punishment."

"How did you manage to not get caught?" Vik asked.

"I put something less troublesome in the box itself to throw off suspicion," Kayap explained. "You aren't reprimanded as much for hoarding extra methane and battery packs. At least you get to keep the food."

A stroke of inspiration suddenly hit Vik. If this implant was bad enough to strike from the books and pretend a shipment of it was still in storage, then what lengths would a person go to in order to keep it a secret? He thought of how he hid things around his shuttle and how he could apply it to this situation. He scrolled back up to the soda document.

"Let's see..." he said to himself in a hushed whisper.

A quick technical specs scan of the document revealed an error in its data. It seemed that two documents currently inhabited the same file space on the server. One document, however, was overriding the other, namely the "Soda" document.

"Clever money grubbing bosh'tets," he said astonished, "it's a false front in digital space."

Carefully, Vik separated the code of the two documents and was able to view the one that had been hidden in the "Soda" document's code. There before him, revealed to both Vik and Kayap were the design plans for the implants they recovered.

"You're a genius, Kay," Vik told the unggoy.

Kayap just shrugged humbly while Vik read the file. What he read didn't sit well with him. Ignoring the previous concerns about Nelanax and Liara's cover altogether, Vik decided to contact the asari. She needed to know what they were dealing with.

---

Liara was only half listening to Dav at this point, focused more on how she was going to get out of this office. Every idea she had essentially boiled down to either her or Wrex knocking him out and just leaving. Any other plan just wasn't going to be feasible. She couldn't ask to go to the bathroom. Chances were he had one in here anyway. If he didn't, then he'd probably just say she would need to hold it for one reason or another. He didn't want them going outside his office. His reaction to her requesting to come up here was evidence enough of that fact.

One thing was for sure though, that her ruse had worn out its usefulness. Dav wasn't going to tell her anything more, he was completely focused on making his little business deal. All she could do was nod her head, give small questions related to the terms and try to keep her composure as he tried to flirt with her every couple of seconds. If she was going to get out of here, she'd need to act now.

Before she could signal Wrex though, her omni-tool started beeping.

"What's that?" Dav asked looking up at her.

"Oh that's just my text message alarm," she explained quickly. "Excuse me for one second, please."

She opened the message, hiding it from Dav as she did. She saw it was from Vik and the message contained a document attachment, the design and specs for the implant they uncovered. According to the blueprints, it was no normal strength or accuracy enhancer like Nel had suggested. It was something else entirely.

The implant generated its own electrical field and, using the body's own nervous system, was somehow able to transfer that field throughout the subject it had been installed in without harming the subject himself. The power of this electrical field was so great, that it could potentially increase the subject's protection against weapons fire twice the normal amount. This was because the field it generated counteracted electrical current used in element zero, disrupting the mass effect field most guns used to fire bullets.

All guns by decreased the mass off their grain-sized projectiles to allow them to be fired at supersonic velocity. They accomplished using a negative to decrease the roun'ds mass. However, upon hitting the electrical current produced by the implant, the mass effect field surrounding the round would encounter an opposite positive charge. This would return the round back to it's original density. The electrical field also acted as a form of resistance, striking at the offending projectile as it approached and deforming its shape.

The sudden additional weight, along with the resistance from the electrical field, would slow the velocity of the projectile considerably. This would essentially turn the deadly shot into a near non-fatal one. The grain-sized bullet would either hit the target at a decreased, less lethal speed in it's now malformed state or it would be vaporized as the electricity broke it apart.

The implant was effectively like a second shield, only this one didn't run out of power. Bullets could still hit you with your barriers gone, but they'd feel more like they were made out of rubber at best. Not nearly as lethal at their normal, undisrupted, speed.

However, the implant also had potential offensive capabilities. So far, the implant's field was able to shock enemies who attempted to punch the seemingly bulletproof target. If the Yagh Shadow Broker had had this on him, Shepard's "old fashioned" strategy wouldn't have been nearly as effective. Worse still, VykurCorp was trying to figure out how they could get the subject to direct electrical attacks using the field.

'Not needing to breathe is one thing, but this is a whole other level,' Liara thought to herself.

It made sense that VykurCorp didn't want this leaking out. This skirted the boundaries of the law enough that it could raise public ire in the Council. Even on Noveria, this was a bit much, and this was the planet that allowed Synthetic Insights to experiment with AIs.

It was clear to her now why Balak wanted these things. The document of course said nothing about whether Vykur had sold these implants to the batarians, but she doubted that Balak had found out about it without some kind of insider source. She quickly wrote back to Vik.

'Who has access to these files in VykurCorp?' Her message read.

Vik wrote back two seconds later, it read:

'Executive Officers have access, but only through approval by the Chief Executive of the board, Spadivus Orukuri.'

Orukuri, the CEO in charge of the Spire itself, just as she suspected. Now she knew for sure they needed to get into that office.

---

It felt like he had been traversing these ducts for hours. Climbing up them to the executive level, per T'Soni's instructions, was no easy task. Saya's attempts to use the elevator shaft had only gotten him so far before he was blocked off by the motion sensitive security system. He found a way to get past it through one of the vents, but, unlike the heating ducts, the ventilation system was not nearly as roomy as he had hoped. He had never been happier that Salarian biology had made them all so skinny and small in his life.

Finally, he had reached the executive level. At least, that's what his omni-tool tracker said. He just needed to find an exit now. That didn't take long, as he soon discovered a grate. He carefully pried it off the side of the duct with his sword and dragged it inside. Activating his cloak, he climbed out of the vent. He found himself inside a wide open space, covered in wires and surrounded by support beams. He was inside a ceiling space. That was pretty obvious. The real question was, in fact, what was below him?

Saya quietly tapped on each of the panels beneath his feet, looking for a loose one he could pry off. Normally, he'd just breach it, but that would make too much noise. Thankfully, that wouldn't be necessary, as he found a maintenance hatch. This was used by mechanics to get up into this space and fix lights or electrical wiring. He'd used it to get down into the room below. He popped the hatch slowly and looked down into a very large opulent office room. There was a large meeting desk in the center and a smaller, but still pretty big, working desk near a magnificent broad window.

None of those things caught his eye, however. It was the people in the room that earned his interest. One was a turian in a very fine suit with yellow and blue streaks running down his face. The other person was someone more familiar to him.

"It's harder to construct this technology than you realise," the turian stated. "It's even harder to repurpose for other projects. There are even fewer places where I can safely produce this stuff in mass quantities. The Terminus Systems aren't exactly ideal with their lack security. If you let us simply set up production in Batarian space-"

"We can't risk anything coming back to the Hegemony," declared a rather belligerent Balak, standing beside two other batarians. "We agreed to that, remember? In exchange for this new technology, you use it to benefit us anonymously and we assist you with your agenda."

Saya quickly turned on his helmet's camera and began transmitting the video to Liara's omni-tool. She would need to see this. As he did, the conversation continued below.

"You still have yet to deliver on that part of the bargain," the turian told him. "My contacts have yet to get their hands on these new weapons of yours. I'm holding off on giving them the implants because of our deal and they are getting restless."

"Then, Mr. Orukuri, I suggest you tell your contact that if they want a new Hierarchy they best learn to be patient," Balak warned. "We're not ready for anything that big yet. We are still organizing, preparing and you're not the only one with obligations within this little alliance. Our mutual friends have their own designs and they won't give us greater access to their technology unless we help them first."

Saya didn't have to think much about who Balak was referring to.

---

When Liara got Saya's video feed, its audio was off. However, upon seeing Balak talking to a person she could only presume was Orukuri, she decided she needed to listen. Of course, that meant she had to get rid of Dav.

She closed the omni-tool for a moment. She didn't want to risk Dav suspecting anything just yet. Liara then motioned over to Wrex and the krogan got behind the turian as he kept waxing about his contract. Dav didn't notice Wrex getting behind them though, he was too focused on Liara.

"You know, after we settle this contract," he began as he leaned over to her and placed his hand on one of hers. "We could always head down to one of Port Hanshan's little restaurants. You know, get to know one another better for the future of our business relationship."

Liara smiled the fakest smile she had ever made.

"That sounds lovely," she said, "but unfortunately I have other plans."

Wrex then grabbed Dav by his fringe and slammed him into his own coffee table with enough force to leave a permanent dent. The turian then collapsed unconscious onto the floor.

"Ugh, I've been waiting to do that forever," he said aloud in a release of his earlier frustrations. "He just never shut up."

"I only wish I could've done it myself for all the terrible pickup lines I endured," she added as she stood up and activated her omni-tool. "Restrain him, I need to watch this."

Liara turned up the volume on her video feed and started listening to Balak.

"We need every one of the electrical field implants you can spare in our possession," the batarian told Orukuri. "We need to start delivering on our promises and I will not be held back by you."

"We've managed to finish a quarter of your original battalion strength order," Orukuri answered. "Hopefully, I can increase our off-site production lines to finish the rest, but we'll need more raw materials to speed up the process."

"Fine, you'll get them," Balak assured. "But there's a price for that. I'll need you to unfortunately 'misplace' more of your heavy weapons in your storage caches for my own people."

"Go ahead and take them," Orukuri replied. "Just remember, I want those plasma weapons in the hands of my friends. We need to start putting pressure on the Hierarchy, not just the Alliance, if we're going to get anywhere in this scheme."

Liara wasn't sure what they were talking about other than the obvious. VykurCorp, or at least Orukuri, was helping the Swords and the Covenant in order to advance some kind of agenda concerning his own interests. She looked up to Dav's painting of Unification Day again.

"Adapt to the changing galactic climate," she thought aloud, repeating Dav's words. "So this is what you meant."

Liara looked back to the video, just in time to see him place a finger up to his ear.

"He has?" He said. "Good, I'll take it now."

Orukuri tried to say something, but Balak raised his palm up to silence him. He began walking out of frame. Saya's camera did it's best to track him over to a corner where a wall opened up, revealing what looked like a quantum entanglement communications device.

"Are the coordinates of the signal locked?" Balak asked over his radio. "Good, tell him to start."

Less than a minute later, someone appeared on the QEC's pad, a holographic representation of a small group of people. Liara could only recognize a few, one of them in particular.

"Balak," sneered an angered Commander Shepard.

Liara's eyes went wide with the revelation. He was alive, thank the Goddess he was alive! And somehow, Balak was talking to him, but how? If she was right, how was he able to communicate beyond this dimension?

"Nice to see you again, Shepard," Balak said grinning proudly. "I wish I could be there in person, but I'm dealing with some important matters. I didn't want you to feel ignored though, so I made sure my associates would be here to greet you."

Balak and Shepard went on from there, insulting one another and going over the usual dialogue. Liara was just happy to see Wade was at least alive. Probably not in a good position from the sound of it, but alive.

"Wrex, get over here!" She called out to her krogan companion.

Wrex plodded up to Liara and began watching the scene himself. He too was astonished to see the Commander.

"Ha, knew he was still out there," he said with a laugh. "What did I tell ya?"

As Shepard finished deriding Balak for allying with the Covenant, the Batarian dismissed him and then brought up his own point.

"I was hoping to contact you in order to inform of you how things are going over here." He stated with a smug bit of arrogance "Mainly, your good friend, Doctor T'Soni has been making a few waves in your absence."

"What are you talking about?" Shepard demanded to know.

The comment also seemed to rile up another of Liara's old friends, Tali. The quarian stepped to the front of the hologram and pointed accusingly at Balak with a furious look in her silver eyes.

"What have you done with Liara?!" She shouted in a rage.

For Liara, it was good to hear her voice again. Although she hoped Balak's news didn't worry them too much. The batarian eased their concerns, but only in an attempt to get something he wanted out of them.

"Your Asari is no match for me," He informed them. "You're already dead, but that won't stop her. So instead, I want you to record a message and call her off the chase for her own good. In exchange for your cooperation, I'll allow your crew to live."

"Don't go for it, Shepard," Wrex growled at the screen, a slight hint of concern in his voice.

Liara tried to quiet him, she needed to hear. A part of her hoped, however, that Shepard had somehow heard Wrex. Thankfully, his response seemed to indicate he had.

"Please, what makes you think Liara will even listen?" Shepard asked the Batarian.

"Because if she doesn't, I'll of course kill every single one of your beloved crew one after the other until she does," Balak replied. "Take some responsibility here Shepard. You've left her alone in this universe to fend for herself. I will kill her and it will be your fault unless you call her off now. And knowing you, you won't want any deaths on that precious conscience of yours."

Liara gritted her teeth and narrowed her eyes at the screen.

"Bastard," she grunted before turning to Wrex. "We need to get in there. This might be our only chance at contacting Shepard."

---

The elevator ride was longer than expected, but at least it was nearing its end. She held up her new weapon in her arms. The thing was so huge it needed its own harness just so you wouldn't drop it. The quadruple barrels barely fit inside the elevator and the large shield on the end made it hard to move. But the cramped quarters were all worth it just for the chance to fire the infamous Talon Raider XP60 Machine Gun. Discontinued for being too expensive and gaudy for a practical military weapon, this monster of a weapon had always seemed, to Nelanax at least, created just for her.

"I am so gonna love watching the faces of those guards when they see this pointed at them," she said. "I'll probably only have to shoot out a few lights before they give up. But, just in case it gets messy up there..."

Nelanax reached into a compartment on her leg and pulled out a red tube and injector device.

"Gotta make this fast," she said to herself.

She inserted the tube into the injector and then placed it against her neck. She tensed up in preparation for the pain and then pressed the button. A painful shot was soon followed by a liberating intoxicating experience. It felt just like before. Her senses heightened, her muscles tighten, her brain danced wildly.

"Oh yeah, Mama's gonna get a candy bar tonight!" She shouted to herself. "Bring it on, bitches!"

She pounded her fist against the wall as she felt the adrenaline coarse through her. The world seemed to even out before her as she placed both hands on her Talon Raider again. She aimed it down at the door and waited for the elevator to open. As it reached the executive level she grinned widely.

"Time to rock this fucking joint," she declared.

The doors opened wide, but she found no turian guards. Just a mess of sangheili standing in the foyer of the level, certainly not was she was expecting. In the back of her mind, she heard Vik saying 'I told you so', but that was suppressed by her own thoughts.

'This is way better!' Her psyche decreed.

Before any of them could open fire on her, Nel beat them to the punch and let loose a torrent of bullets on the sangheili.

"30th floor," she shouted over the gunfire. "Men's wares, appliances and mass fucking slaughter!"

---

Liara and Wrex both looked to the hallway at the sound of gunfire. Something was happening, and they weren't the only ones who noticed.

"I don't think I'm the one who has to worry about Liara," Shepard told Balak with a smirk.

Balak looked a bit enraged as he stared over at the hall. He then pressed a few commands on the console and the picture turned to another Batarian in armour.

"Varvok," he ordered. "I have business to attend to. Finish your job and put Shepard's head on a pike for me would you?"

The other Batarian said he'd do as told and the transmission terminated. Balak left the QEC device behind and walked away. There was nothing Liara could do for Shepard now, but at least her suspicions about him being in another universe had turned out to be well founded. She just needed to get in there and figure out how Balak had managed to talk to him from a universe away.

She sent messages to Saya and Vik. The former was to track Balak, make sure he didn't get away. She quickly told Vik to handle the other problem, the implants. They could not let VykurCorp keep making them here. So she told the quarian to sabotage the assembly line she had seen earlier. It was the only way to be sure they got most of their supply.

"Let's get out there and help Nelanax," she told Wrex as she closed her omni-tool and held up her gun.

"How do you know it's her?" Wrex asked, somewhat sarcastically.

Liara didn't need to answer the rhetorical question, as a certain voice from beyond the office doors did it for her.

"I'm taking you bitches to war!"

Liara rolled her eyes and readied her barriers. She could only hope Vik would be okay completing his task with only Kayap to help him.

---

Vik had hoped he'd be joining the others up top, if only to give Nel a piece of his mind. But the Doc had other plans, and he couldn't say he didn't agree with them. If Balak was working with Vykur, like she said in her message, then taking out their means of producing the implants was a must. Not only did he get to stick it to the Corpies, but he also got to blow up part of this monument to capitalist greed. Kayap, however, didn't seem as thrilled with the idea when he explained it to him.

"Does she really want us to go attack that assembly line without Nelanax helping us?" He asked.

"If Nelanax is already up on the top level, I imagine every guard in the building is already heading up to take her down," he assured the unggoy. "Besides, we should be more than a match against those jackbooted fascist thugs."

Vik brought up the map on his omni-tool and went over it with Kayap.

"Alright, elevators are probably gonna be locked by now or occupied, so we'll take these emergency stairs up a few levels and make our way into the assembly. I can probably hack the door," he surmised. "Then we just have to blow the room up."

"We got a plan for how we're going to do that, right?" Kayap asked nervously.

"Sorta, I'm kinda making this up as we go," he admitted. "Don't worry, we'll just keep out sight best we can and figure it out when we get there. Trust me on this. I'm good at making things explode. I'll find a way."

Kayap just shrugged.

"Alright, let's just not be too close to that assembly line when it goes up," Kayap warned. "That's gonna attract a lot of people."

"Don't worry, I got my drones to back us up," Vik promised. "Now let's get moving."

Vik was the first to rush off with Kayap waddling behind him. With any luck, they'd finish this mission without having to get into any prolonged firefight. Not that he would mind much if they did. These bosh'tets were working with the Swords, they didn't deserve much sympathy. If he had to kill one to stop their implants from hurting innocent people, then so be it. No one would miss them.

---

Thanks to the targeting visor that the Talon Raider's harness sported, it was almost impossible to miss the sangheili soldiers. Nelanax kept up the fire, forcing the Covenant to run to ground behind whatever cover they could find. The planters in the corridor were their best bet. It didn't take very long before they got fed up of cowering beneath the turian's fire. They decided to chuck every plasma grenade they had into her path.

"Well, should've seen this coming," she reasoned as she watched the blue balls of death flying towards her.

She quickly ran along the flank of the sangheili positions, letting the grenades blow up harmlessly on the floor. She began firing on them again as she strafed the area. The sangheili reacted by repositioning, but before long, bodies were starting to pile up. One sangheili took several bullets in the back before collapsing into the soil of the planter.

The sangheili fell back as the turian pressed her attack, firing back at her with their plasma weapons as they turned over office desks and ran into executive offices for better cover. Nelanax just kept shooting at them, ripping apart their cover bit by bit, her rounds turning it into mulch. She only stopped when the weapon needed to cool down, which took a bit longer than she liked. It forced her to take cover instead, which allowed the sangheili to open fire once more.

As Nelanax sat there, waiting for the gun in her arms to cool she started to grumble to herself.

"No wonder we have thermal clips now," she grimaced. "This takes for fucking ever, let me kill shit already."

Luckily, Nel soon had backup. Bursting out of the big doors of some corner office on the sangheili's flank, Wrex and Liara caught the sangheili off guard. Wrex fired a carnage round that sent one of the aliens tumbling to the floor in pieces. Liara sent a throw that knocked another into the glass surrounding one of the offices.

With the pressure taken off her, Nel was able to regain her advantage. She stood up again and fired into the sangheili positions, screaming at the top of her lungs. But despite her outward appearance, she viewed everything with almost perfect clarity. The recoil felt like nothing as she easily cut through one sangheili trying to roll for better cover. She spotted the miniscule twitching of a sangheili behind a pillar, ready to make a move. It felt almost like slow motion as the Covenant warrior jumped out to fire on her. Instead, Nelanax pumped him full of rounds until he, and the pillar he was hiding behind, had more than dozen more fresh holes in both of them.

'Yeah, blood is pumping now,' she thought to herself. 'Love this shit.'

However, with Liara here now, she had to be careful how she came across. The adrenaline boost of the drugs affected you in more ways than one. Then again, she had been on a low dosage with what had been left of her supply back in the camp and got away with it then. Maybe she wouldn't be able to tell the difference.

Either way, it felt good to be back in the game. With her recovered full stash of juice, it was gonna be a lot easier to rip these assholes, as well as future assholes, a new one. Well, at least as long as no one found out.

Nelanax ran forward with the giant gun strapped to her, although the weapon felt practically like a regular rifle with the juice and the harness combined. She opened fire on another sangheili as he tried to take her from the side. Her reflexes were quicker than his now though, so it was easy to catch him before he pulled the trigger. The alien's head was turned to mulch, his shield no match for the four simultaneously firing barrels of the weapon.

"Now this is what I call a hostile takeover," she quipped as she stood over the dead sangheili.

"Enough with the quips," Liara told her as she moved up through the carnage. "We need to get the main office door open."

"Thanks for killing most of the bad guys, Nel," she replied grumbling. "You're so hot and sexy and I just want to kiss you for being so fucking awesome, Nel."

Liara could only give her a rather deadpan and annoyed look.

"Door. Open. Now." She ordered once more.

"I feel real underappreciated at the moment," Nel growled. "But fine."

There were still sangheili firing on them, taking up positions near the door. While Liara offered covering fire and Wrex tried tossing some shockwaves their way, Nel walked close enough and tossed a grenade at them. The explosion ripped open the door as the two sangheili warriors ducked for cover. They quickly got back up and began firing on the incoming group again.

"Spirits, can't you jerks take a hint and die already?" Nel asked as she ducked into cover.

Another carnage shot sent one sangheili hurtling into a pillar from the blast. Wrex followed it up by slamming himself into the alien, crushing him between his bulk and the pillar. Liara used a throw attack in the meantime to knock the other sangheili to the ground. Nel quickly turned her gun to him and raked him with fire to keep him on the ground.

"We're labelling all our reports with blood now," she told the corpse. "So if you could just do that, that would be great."

Nel approached the doors with the others, expecting to get inside easily this time. However, that would not be the case. Stepping out from behind the door was one last sangheili, armed with a plasma sword. Nel just smirked at the foolish fanatic.

"You just brought a sword to a badass gun fight, dipshit," she warned him.

She fired her weapon on the alien, but it wasn't like the other ones. The shield didn't last long, but the Covie didn't seem to hurt by the incoming fire. He was able to jump away from the attacks, even as Nel swore she hit him dead center. He began bounding across the floor, rushing towards her, intent on skewering her with his weapon. On his last leap, he came within inches of stabbing down on her, only for Liara to launch, what Nel at first thought was, a throw attack that knocked the alien clear into an opposing wall.

"Just as suspected," Liara suddenly stated. "It messes with biotic attacks as well. Pull becomes throw."

"What are you talking about?" Nel asked the asari, looking rather confused.

The sangheili got up from the attack and turned back to Nel, but Wrex was close by. He punched the sangheili across his face, but while the hit connected, the Krogan Chieftain stepped back in pain, his face wincing and shaking is hand about. Nel could've sword she saw sparks from the sangheili and, once she did, she could finally see it. Her juiced up senses finally honed in on the electric current zipping about the Covie's body.

"Well shit, someone has got lighting powers now," she observed.

The sangheili charged at her again, ignoring the bullets she fired at him. Even the powerful Talon Raider's rounds just seemed to bounce off against this electric barrier that surrounded him. She could tell it was hurting him, but not wounding him. If her experience with sangheili had taught her anything, they could take the pain. Hurting them wasn't enough.

But electricity couldn't stop a good old-fashioned blade. She reached for the knife in her scabbard against her chest and then threw it at the Covie. It missed her intended target, his head, but it caught him in the shoulder. That certainly hurt him enough. It forced him to pause, long enough for Wrex to make a comeback. He tackled the elite to the ground. Even with electricity arcing up at him, Wrex stayed with his target. He pulled Nel's knife out of the sangheili's shoulder, while keeping the plasma sword at bay with his other hand. Then he violently shoved the blade into the sangheili's forehead, killing him instantly.

With the body dead, the electrical field died and Wrex stood up from his kill, winded but alive.

"Never gonna do that again," he noted as he walked over to hand Nel back her knife.

"The hell was that?" Nel asked as she took back her weapon.

"The implant we're after," Liara informed her. "And there are going to be a lot more if Vik doesn't destroy the assembly line downstairs."

Shit, thought Nel, she put the quarian in charge of that? They'd be here forever waiting for him to nut the fuck up and blow it to shit. She contemplated going down there herself to finish the job, but she wouldn't be able to. The elevator sounded seconds later and out from each of them poured more guards, these ones were at least turians though.

"Crap, looks like we woke up the watch dogs," Nel observed as she went for cover behind a nearby pillar.

The Vykur guards began firing on the group, forcing them all to take cover.

"Time to call out our cavalry," Liara declared as she pressed a few buttons on her omni-tool.

Nel stood out to fire into the crowd. It was now kill or be killed, and these guys were apparently working with the enemy, so her conscience didn't feel as bad mowing them down now. Whatever sympathy she had that remained was taken care of by the juice. It felt so good to be taking care of business, so good to lose that stupid infiltration shtick.

Moments later, the skylight for the executive level crashed open. Lowering down from the cold outside appeared a shuttle craft. The door swung open and dropping down from above came several of Liara's operatives. They fired into the mass of guards, taking two down before they landed. One of the operatives tossed a frag grenade into the mix, scattering the guards a bit before shooting off his assault rifle. He nailed one of the guards through the eyepiece and then turned to Liara.

"Go boss," he yelled out. "There's a landing pad outside that the shuttle can land on. We'll hold them off and meet you there."

"Thanks Ben," Liara told him. "Keep them occupied long enough for me to do something first."

Liara took off towards the big office at the back of the room and Nel saw no reason not to follow her. Wrex did so too. The operatives seemed to have everything in hand anyway. She wanted to find out what Liara needed to do so badly.

In the back of her mind, she hoped Vik hadn't screwed up too royally just yet. She'd hate to go all the way back down just to save his ass at this point.

---

Finding the assembly had been easier than Vik thought it would. Most of the guards had apparently gone up to the executive level and were too preoccupied with that crisis to worry about what was happening down here. All they had to do now was cause this whole room to explode and they'd stop the production of these implants.

"Hey, won't they just make more eventually?" Kayap asked. "I don't think they're gonna stop making these things just because we blow up their stuff."

"Yeah, but this is a major production line," Vik explained. "We'll put them back by months. Or at least long enough for us to come up with a countermeasure for these things."

As he stood on the catwalk, Vik scanned the room. The workers had all been evacuated when the general alarm sounded. No worries about collateral damage or killing the common oppressed worker. So that was good. He noticed that one of the machines was a pressurized mechanical welder. If that exploded the assembly line would be halted. To completely demolish it though, they would need to burst open that gas valve he spotted on the back wall. Any flames that interacted with that would destroy mostly everything in this room. They couldn't be here when it exploded, but Vik had an idea.

"Kayap, I'll need one of your plasma grenades," he told his friend.

Kayap handed the grenade over, but seemed a bit confused. Vik raised his pistol and fired two shots at the gas valve. The shots were normal bullets, so they didn't ignite the gasses right away. But now, they were circling about room, saturating it in a deadly explosive concoction. He then tossed the grenade with the needles near the pressure valves of the mechanical welder and activated a drone. The drone then floated down to the assembly floor.

"I've programmed him to attack the grenade in thirty seconds," Vik explained. "It will detonate causing his suicide function to activate."

"And the resulting double explosion will ignite the gas and blow up the whole place!" Kayap reasoned. "You are good at blowing stuff up."

"Congratulate me later," Vik told him. "Right now, let's just get the hell out of here."

They started walking off the catwalk. But before they could reach the door, it opened up and three guards walked inside.

"Hey! You ain't supposed to be here!" One shouted with his weapon drawn.

"Oh Keelah," Vik groaned. "I should've known something wrong was bound to happen."

The guards started firing, but Vik dropped a turret with his omni-tool. As the little sentry fired on the guards, both he and Kayap made their escape to the opposite door which took them back into the lobby. Not ten seconds after they bolted, they heard a terrible explosion that erupted out of the door and sent a wall of fire towards them. They both ducked to the ground as the flames rushed over their heads. When the fire was gone, Vik looked back to see the door had been blown clean off its hinges.

"Woo!" Vik shouted happily. "Jam the fucking system!"

"Can we go home now?" Kayap asked nervously.

As they heard more gunfire, Vik turned to see three more guards moving to intercept them. He picked up his pistol and began firing back as they both got to their feet.

"Yeah, we've overstayed our welcome a bit," he observed. "Run for it!"

They both leapt to their feet and ran to the nearest exit. They needed to get upstairs, now. Hopefully the Doc wouldn't leave without them.

---

Saya kept behind Balak best he could, even when he and Orukuri were making their way to a shuttle pad outside. They already had a ride waiting for them. The first people to jump ship were always the biggest vermin. The risk of letting Balak escape this time was too great, not with everything he could be potentially planning. Liara probably wanted to talk to him, find out what he knew, but Saya wasn't about to let a terrorist slip through his fingers.

He brought out his sword and prepared to strike, moving quickly towards the bastard. Balak suddenly stopped en route to the shuttle. He turned back swiftly and suddenly raised his omni-tool towards Saya. The tool suddenly had four blades appear on it. A second later, they were launched straight at the Salarian. Without even thinking, Saya ducked down and rolled away from the attack.

How had he'd seen him?

"Your cloak isn't completely infallible, salarian," the batarian stated smugly. "Motion trackers still pick up movement, even if nothing is there. Just a little gift from the Covenant, here's two more just for you."

Two sangheili emerged from the shuttle, both armed with plasma swords. Saya hadn't exactly planned on that. Balak and Orukuri made it to the shuttle, which soon took off and left him with the hostile aliens on the platform. This was certainly not an ideal situation.

Saya ducked under the first slash. With sword still in hand, he pulled out his pistol. He couldn't use his sword against those plasma-based blades, but he could at least hold them back with his firearm. He shot five rounds at the two aliens, forcing them to block his shots. He then activated his helmet cam again to alert Liara. As much as he hated to admit it, he needed backup, even if it was the krogan.

---

Vik rushed through the opening door with Kayap. When the shut once more, he let it lock behind him. He then quickly used his omni-tool to fry the lock's controls. Hopefully the guards would need more time to bypass it. They rushed into the level's foyer proper to find an ongoing gun battle between the ShadowNet Operatives and the Vykur Guards. He could see casualties on both sides. However, it looked as if the Operatives were holding their position.

"We got to run through this crossfire to get to them," he told Kayap. "Keep your head low."

"I'm a master at that," he assured the quarian.

They ducked down into the cover of some planters, just as someone fired a rifle at them. Kayap activated a plasma grenade and chucked it into the mass of Vykur Guards.

"Heads up!" He shouted.

The grenade exploded soon after, sending one of the guards flying into the air.

"On three, we run for the Operatives," Vik told Kayap. "One, two, three!"

Vik rushed up first, Kayap waddling behind. The quarian turned back, his omni-tool activated, to launch a sabotage attack. He connected to one of the Vykur Guard's guns. When the weapon froze up, the subsequent backfire from the next shot took him down along with two other guards near him. Vik then slid into position beside one of the Operatives along with Kayap. He thought he recognized the Operative, he remembered talking to him earlier.

"Ben, where's the Doc?" He asked frantically.

"Back there," he pointed to the large office doors. "She said she needed to do something before we left."

---

Liara tried to get the QEC to lock on to the last address it had contact, but it was refusing to do so. She at first thought it was because the device used was in the possession of one of Balak's lackeys, but she couldn't even get a signal. It wasn't accepting her command, saying the address was "unknown."

"Damn it," she said slamming her fists on the console. "Balak probably disabled the communicator's advanced functions."

"Didn't look like it," Wrex told her. "Maybe there's more to contacting another dimension than just a communicator. He probably has some kind of advanced relay device helping him out."

"Something that would amplify a QEC's broadcast system," Liara reasoned. "He mentioned that the coordinates need to be locked in or something. Perhaps it requires some kind of operator to connect the caller and receiver in order to get a message through the universal barrier."

The question was, where was this relay and how did it work? More importantly, could they use it to contact Shepard?

That question would have to wait as Liara soon got a call in from Saya. Her omni-tool's video feed came back on and she saw the salarian engaged with two sangheili with swords.

"Crap," she said as she contacted the shuttle. "Move in on the pad and provide fire support for Saya, he's in trouble."

"Sure thing, boss," The pilot answered.

"Everyone else, we're leaving," she said commandingly. "Get to the pad, now! Through the main office!"

---

Saya did his best to keep up with his opponents' moves, but the sangheili were no pushovers. They kept him on his toes, forcing him back several times. All he could do to counter them was to dodge and weave. He leaned backwards as a plasma sword came dangerous close to cutting him in half. He tried to slash with his weapon in retaliation, but he only scratched the sangheili's armour. The alien then kicked him backwards. Saya recovered and fired his gun at the Covie, forcing him to block with his weapon.

He wasn't sure how much longer he could last, and then he saw his saviour. Flying down from above appeared the Lucen's Shuttle. The door opened up and two ShadowNet Operatives inside began firing their rifles down at the sangheili. That forced them off their game a bit, as they now had to deal with the fire from on high.

Saya used the opportunity to his advantage and charged forward. He slashed his sword deep into the sangheili's side and stabbed him through the heart. The alien tumbled over bleeding from everywhere. Saya then stabbed down into him once to deliver a painful shock, hoping it would finish him off. But that gave his friend enough time to strike back. He knocked the salarian off his fallen comrade with one swat, sending him tumbling to the ground. As he laid there, the sangheili charged forward, ready to slash down on him.

That was when Wrex rushed in, catching the alien off guard himself. It forced the Covie to tumble backwards, before Wrex fired a carnage shot into him. The attack ripped through the sangheili's shields and gravely injured him. Wrex followed the attack up with a biotic throw and sent the alien flying off the edge of the landing pad and into the icy tundra below.

Saya got to his feet as their shuttle landed. For what it was worth, he gave a nod of gratitude to the krogan.

"Don't mention it," Wrex told him, before adding with a chuckle, "not that you can."

He should've guessed the stupid reptile would do something like that.

He next saw Liara and the others running out onto the pad. The Operatives were dragging or carrying their dead and wounded back to the shuttle, they couldn't leave any trace of their presence. Vik was there, putting down a sentry near the door to slow their pursuers. Nelanax was firing like mad into the room they were exiting, screaming bloody murder at the top of her lungs.

They all began piling into the shuttle, one after the other. Kayap looked back once to fire the Kassa Locust he was using at one of the guards as he rushed out. The Vykur lackey's shields were cut through with ease and he took three rounds straight to his face. The guard tumbled to the ground dead. The unggoy then rushed onto the shuttle with everyone else and they slowly took off into the air. The guards fired on them as they left, but they were well in the clear.

"I hate Noveria," Wrex grumbled.

"At least we learned a lot," Liara told him. She then turned to Vik. "Did you get everything on their servers?"

"Pretty much," he assured her. "I think it might be able to point us in the direction of a few more of their production sites."

Liara nodded, showing she concurred, but she quickly paused.

"We're going to need more than that," she told him.

"What do you mean?" Vik asked.

"Balak talked to Shepard somehow," she replied, her voice cold and detached. "Our top priority now, is finding out how. We need to be on the lookout for any kind of opportunity. Now that we know VykurCorp is working with Balak, we have to start working that angle. I need to contact some more people when we get the ship."

Saya sighed inwardly. He had feeling that they'd be back in the field very soon. Fine by him, it would give him an opportunity to pay back the krogan. He didn't want to owe him anything. Beyond that, he knew how grave this situation was laying on Liara. Balak's little conspiracy reached even further than they had initially realised. Now he had the backing of a mega-corporation at his beck and call. That was a lot of capital he could swing whichever way he pleased.

One thing was for sure, they would need to step up their game if they wanted to beat him. The krogan had proved as much to him today. They either worked as a team, or they died alone. And Saya was not ready to die just yet.

---

AN: Wow, this became way longer than it should've been. I guess my desire to have Kayap share more about his history and what not filled up the chapter more than expected. Well, at least I didn't get to fifty pages this time.

So, recap on what we've learned. Nel is using performance enhancing drugs. Balak is working with a turian megacorp that has its own nefarious designs and the Covenant are now getting some cybernetic upgrades. But by the end of the next chapter, something way bigger is going to happen that will push our beloved Blue Broker to do something very dangerous. I guess it's a bit weird to tease a potential cliff-hanger, but trust me, it's a doozy. See you all then and thanks again for reading.

As for everything else, check my profile to see the results of the Hunter Husk design contest. We didn't get as many people to join as we hoped, but we got enough that I feel comfortable holding a vote. I'll have more details on the candidates and how you can vote for your favourite on my profile page.