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.

16. Bash and Blast

Chapter 15: Bash and Blast

August 5th, 2185

They had gotten more from VykurCorp then they had bargained for. Besides a number of specs concerning their advanced projects, they had locations for several off-site manufacturing plants and subsidiary laboratories and shipping routes for their personal freighters. They could definitely do some damage with that. She couldn't tell which ones were involved in Orukuri's plot and which weren't, however, and she didn't know how far in bed the company was with Balak.

There were of course no precise plans as to what Vykur's goals were, but Liara hadn't expected to find any. Spadivus Orukuri didn't seem like the man who would leave his evil plans just lying around. He was a turian after all. She had hoped doing a more in depth background check would turn something up, but it didn't make sense.

Her contacts turned up his service record. He served with distinction in the military and was discharged with full honours. He had gotten his position on the board of directors through his relations with the Company President, Alkatinian Vykurias, descendant of the company founder, Ceasevarius Vykurias. They were good friends and seemed highly loyal to the Hierarchy. They donated thousands upon thousands of their company's income back into veteran's funds for the Hierarchy itself. None of Orukuri's actions seemed to gel with his background.

Given what Nel had said she overheard and what Dav had kept yapping about, it stood to reason that Orukuri had some kind of problem concerning how the Hierarchy was currently being run. To what end he intended to correct this perceived problem, she could only speculate. Liara wondered how much Alkatinian knew about his friend's dealings, which was why she was hesitant to inform him. For all she knew, this whole thing was his idea in the first place.

One thing was certain, however. The Covenant and Balak had a way of talking to their friends on the other side of the wormhole. Finding out where this "Inter-Dimensional Communications Relay" was had become their top priority. Taking that technology for themselves and disrupting the communications network would severely hamper their ability to coordinate with their forces in that other universe.

More importantly, it would allow them to talk to Shepard and share information with him. It was the first real clear cut long-term goal they had been able to settle on. The problem now was finding the relay. She had ordered Vik to start looking over the information they had stolen in greater detail and informed her Shadow Operatives throughout the Network to start digging into the facilities they had uncovered. One of them had to have a possible clue as to the whereabouts of the relay.

Until they had an idea of where to head to next, they would just have to wait. Ultimately, Liara was fine with that. They had been running on pure adrenaline for so long now. She felt everyone deserved a break. With any luck, she could use the downtime to start fixing relations among the various crewmembers. That was easier said than done.

Saya was still emotionally distant. He didn't eat with the crew, opting instead to have all his meals in his own room. Liara imagined he didn't want anyone to see his face, hence the reason he always wore that helmet whenever he left. She couldn't pinpoint the reason for his emotional detachment.

At least he wasn't butting heads with Wrex as much anymore. So far, his sense of professionalism was winning out on that front. That didn't mean Liara couldn't see the tension, however. Whenever he was near Wrex or one of his men, he always gave this long look at them, turning away whenever they looked over to him. He still held a grudge. That much was clear to her. It was just that he wasn't acting on it.

Nel had retreated to her room after the Vykur Operation. As soon as the doors closed, the sounds of her action packed vids soon resonated through the halls. Unlike Saya, she didn't stay locked up for long. She liked hanging out with the crew, especially the krogan. She enjoyed sharing war stories with them and, strangely enough, they looked like they had taken to her a bit. Even though she was a turian, she acted more like one of them. She was also probably the first female turian any of them had ever seen, so there was that exotic nature that intrigued them.

That didn't fix her many problems though. Liara could understand Nel's desire for fun, but the fact was that desire seemed to permeate everything she did. Her actions at Vykur had proven how dangerous her penchant towards chaos was. That ridiculous Talon Raider gun was a rather unwanted souvenir in Liara's mind. She had stored it in the armoury, but told Nel she wasn't going to lug that thing around on every mission. The turian took it better than expected and then she tried to flirt with her again.

Liara wasn't the only victim of Nel's overactive libido. She was simply the most open about it with her. She knew she hadn't given up on Wrex. The cameras aboard her ship had picked up her asking some of the krogan how "big" they tended to get, for one. And then there were all the passing glances she gave the Urdnot Chieftain when he passed by. Her eyes were particularly focused on his tail for one.

'She could at least decide which one of us she wants more,' she thought to herself.

She didn't like Nel's flirtatious looks in general, but with Wrex it was different. She knew he would never go for it or take her up on any offer, but it still bothered her. It was a distraction, for one. The second reason was the superficial nature of it all. She only cared about the possibility of having sex with Wrex because of her self-proclaimed adrenaline seeking libido. That and the fact he was a famous mercenary. Nel didn't care about who Wrex was as a person, or who Liara was for that matter. It was all about the sex itself and, according to her, what she could get out of it.

Nel didn't care who Wrex was as a person. He was just a potential source of pleasure to her. That annoyed her. She was in love with the legend and her fantasy, not the man. She wanted one of them because of the desire for a 'rush' of some kind. That wasn't what she wanted and it wasn't what Wrex deserved either.

As soon as she thought that, she shook her head vigorously.

'Goddess, stop sounding so jealous, it's nothing,' she said to herself. 'He'd never go for a turian anyway. What do you care?'

She put the thought out of her head and tried to focus on someone else.

While she hadn't seen much of Vik since they got back from the Spire, she could at least tolerate his issues a bit more than Nel's. He too had remained isolated, but his manic nature had certainly decreased from when they had first met. He was more focused now. Perhaps those pills of his were starting to work again. He was devoted to the mission at least, so she tolerated his little paranoid outbursts now and then.

She still wanted them to stop though. Vik's beliefs and theories were rather off-putting and kept him at odds with pretty much everyone on board, save for Kayap. At best, people just nodded politely at his lectures and moved on. At worst, they threatened to punch him in the face for what he said.

Vik had learned rather quick not to share his conspiracies about the Rachni Wars, for example. When he had suggested the Rachni had tried to surrender several times to the krogan, only to be killed and the incidents covered up, one of Wrex's warriors overheard him. Wrex himself had to intervene to keep it from becoming a full blown brawl, but the damage was already done. The krogan looked on the quarian with contempt and as a result he had retreated further into his work, both personal and mission related.

As for their original defector, that was another story. Two days after their raid on Vykur, and the fact that Kayap seemed to be adjusting better to the team dynamic than the others showed how bad things were. The unggoy was still a bit nervous and awkward, but at least he was trying to be an active and productive member of the crew. He tried to work on some of the communication systems and help out the engineers where he could. He even told Liara of Vik's current progress, briefing her on what the quarian had uncovered.

But despite his progress, Liara couldn't deny that Kayap still felt a bit alone and scared on the ship. He kept jumping to attention whenever Wrex or Nelanax passed him by. He liked to stay near her whenever he could and kept calling her 'Leader' now and then. The night before, she had found him sleeping outside her door. When she asked him why, all he could say was "It was safer." She let him stay the rest of the night on her bed. She was pulling an all-nighter anyway, going over some files, she wouldn't need it.

She wondered how Shepard had ever handled the disparate personalities that surrounded him all the time. She had hoped it would've been as easy as talking to them all and figuring out their problems, but it wasn't. Shepard had that special inspiring quality about him that she didn't possess. At least, not in the same capacity as he did.

The issue was kept in the forefront of her mind as she worked at her terminal. Just because she was trying to do Shepard's job didn't mean her job no longer mattered. The Shadow Broker had responsibilities and, while she was waiting for her agents to report back about VykurCorp, she needed to catch up on some of them. It was the usual things, corrupt politicians and their dirty secrets, squabbling mercenary groups and pirate gangs, the occasional illegal weapons shipment, the usual underworld dealings.

A weapons shipment was, in fact, one of her current concerns. Some Eclipse Mercenaries were trying to obtain some high end weapons from a Terminus Smuggling ring. She felt her people could put those to better use. Considering some of the information suggested that a few of the weapons had been stolen from Armax Arsenal, she felt it would be best if she did VykurCorp's rival a favour. They probably had a substantial reward out for the guns. All her people needed to do was bust up the buy and make off with the spoils.

As she sent the orders to her agents, there came a knock on her door.

"Come in," she said, her eyes still glued to the screen.

The plodding giant footsteps that came through the doorway could only be Wrex's, she didn't even have to turn around or hear him speak to know that.

"Just thought you should know about how the aftermath is going," he began. "VykurCorp finally made a statement. They claim that the assembly line explosion was an accident. They probably don't want Noveria's Internal Affairs investigating them too deeply. I don't suppose we can just call them up a Ms. Parasini and tell her the real story, huh?"

"I doubt Internal Affairs would be sympathetic to us," Liara admitted. "So long as they're not stealing the Board's money they can get away with doing whatever they want. Besides, Orukuri has probably deleted and transferred all the evidence from his servers. Anonymous sources of information also don't hold up well in court. I'm afraid we'll need to work a little harder to topple Balak's little business partnership."

"Never is as easy as it should be," Wrex grumbled half-heartedly. "You save the galaxy from the apocalypse and people still need proof ancient killer machines from Dark Space exist. You become the ultimate Information Broker and you gotta remain anonymous about your work. It's so much easier to solve problems on Tuchanka, usually you just shoot them and they die. It's the simplest solution in the book in my experience."

Liara tried to hold back a slight chuckle at that, but it wasn't easy. She supposed she needed a laugh with all the stress she had been under.

"We'll figure out how to deal with VykurCorp eventually," she assured Wrex. "But right now, Balak is our primary concern. We need a new target to hit, something that can give us a lead on things."

"You'll find something," Wrex told her. "We got that list of labs for one. I'm sure your people have narrowed things down a bit."

"It's harder to do when they don't exactly know what they're looking for," Liara admitted. "I wish I could give them more details. I'm just hoping their background checks turn up something interesting."

Wrex leaned up against a wall beside Liara's computer as she continued her work. For the moment, Liara turned away from the screen to engage in a proper face to face conversation. She didn't want to be rude to one of her friends. Besides, she needed to give her eyes a little break.

"Must be tiring running this whole network of spies and mercenaries," he reasoned.

"Can't be anything compared to being a Krogan Clan Leader," Liara responded. "Most of them are scared of disappointing me and none of them knowing who I am gives me a bit of security. You're right out in the open."

"I'm just amazed you can keep up with it all at times," Wrex clarified. "I just have to worry about one planet's problems. You got a whole galaxy to occupy yourself with. Don't you ever get information overload?"

Liara could only shrug. She couldn't exactly deny that it was a problem, but she had already perceived the possibility when she took over the job.

"That's mostly what Glyph is for," she explained. "It's easier to have a VI assistant that never gets tired. It's the only way I can step away for a little bit and clear my head."

"Maybe you should do that more often," Wrex informed her, sounding a bit concerned. "The Network may be important, but you need to take a little time for yourself. You think I'm sitting on that throne all day and night? Even I need to get away from it now and then."

Liara looked at the Krogan, cocking her head to the side as she crossed her arms.

"What are you getting at?" She asked.

"Well, for one thing, you could stand to mingle with the crew a bit more," he informed her. "And when I say that, I specifically mean our four tag-alongs."

Liara sighed in exasperation, but she nodded regardless.

"They're certainly not bonding as quickly as I hoped," she admitted. "I think Vik and Kayap are the only two that get along with each other."

"Well they have a bit of common ground," Wrex concluded. "Kayap's a scared little midget who's been abused pretty badly and Vik fancies himself a bit of a voice for his fellow downtrodden. It makes sense they'd like each other."

Whereas Nel and Saya were on the opposite ends of that spectrum, so of course Vik didn't trust them so readily. Combined with Nel's unapologetic demeanour and Saya's loner mentality, it would be hard to find common ground between the four.

"Any ideas?" Liara asked Wrex.

"They all respect you in some way," he began. "They work with you either through reputation or simple gratitude. I'd start cashing in on that. The more you emphasize that respect for you, the more it might transfer to the others. Well, maybe, I'm just throwing Thresher droppings at a wall and hoping they stick."

It was worth a shot. So far, she was the only person they all had in common with one another, the one fixed point between their clashing personalities. She was already acting as a mediator during briefings and on missions, perhaps it was time to be more active in that role when they weren't on the clock.

But the crew wasn't the only thing on Wrex's mind.

"Next thing is a bit more about you," he said suddenly. "After our little Spire adventure, after seeing Shepard, you've been looking a bit more restless than usual."

"We began all this to help Shepard," Liara reminded him. "Now we know how we can do that. The sooner we get that done, the better."

"Agreed, but remember, that's a long term goal," Wrex informed her. "We're working towards that and we'll get there, but at least we know Shepard is alive for now. There's no need to rush into this."

He was right, Liara knew that, but what had happened at Vykur Spire still gnawed at her.

"Balak was trying to use me as leverage, Wrex," said Liara scowling. "I won't allow myself to be used as a weapon against him."

"You won't be," Wrex reassured her. "Don't let it get to you so much."

Liara sighed again and turned back to her work for a moment. She hoped he would go no further, but she knew better than to think he wouldn't.

"What exactly is eating you?" He asked calmly. "Whenever I bring up Shepard, you just look uncomfortable. When we talk about where he is, your mood completely shifts."

Liara recalled their earlier conversation about Shepard, before they picked up Vik. She had hoped he had forgotten, but krogan had long memories. Shaking her head, she finally turned back to him.

"I never did get over him," she admitted.

Wrex perched an eyebrow in confusion.

"I'll admit, I've always been fascinated by him, since day one," she continued. "I suppose it's cliché to grow an attachment towards your rescuer. But finding out about the man behind the face made me more intrigued. And then there was the fact he let me... well... touch his mind, so to speak."

Wrex nodded knowingly.

"Yeah, that whole Thorian Cipher and Prothean message thing that led us to Illos and helped us save the galaxy," he quickly reminded himself. "That always did look bit weird, you two doing that in the middle of the briefing room. You just stared into each other while we just watched. It was a bit unnerving."

"It was more than just me reading the message in his mind and interpreting it," Liara explained. "I touched him, although I never admitted it to him. I knew more of him, mentally, not just historically. It wasn't the same as melding, it wasn't mating, I was just reading fragments of something embedded in him, but even so, I was drawn in. So, whatever attachment I felt already, grew from that. And while I accepted Shepard did not feel the same, I couldn't let go."

She lowered her head and turned back to the terminal screen.

"You can tell yourself it's better to move on, that you just want them to be happy," she said regretfully. "But in the end, it doesn't change how you feel. And when the first Normandy came under attack and we lost him, I couldn't help but blame myself. I knew I couldn't have done anything that day to save him, but I still felt that I should have done something because of how I felt about him."

She pushed herself away from the terminal and looked back towards Wrex.

"It was as if I had betrayed a part of myself, that my feelings weren't strong enough," she explained. "That what I felt had been all lie, a fantasy I foolishly held onto because I was stupid. So that's why, when Cerberus came to me and asked me to help get his body back for them, to save him, I couldn't say no. I needed to convince myself it wasn't all a lie I told myself."

"Is that what this is all about then?" Wrex asked with a firm voice. "He's in trouble again and you don't want to let him down like you think you did last time?"

"Not just any trouble, trouble I led him and everyone else on the Normandy into," Liara elaborated. "And now that I finally have a clear goal in my sights of how I'm going to help him, I won't rest soundly until I've accomplished it."

Wrex looked at her understandingly, as she knew he'd be. However, Wrex was also horribly realistic and he was quick to bring up a point that she already knew.

"You realise this is not going to make him love you," he said, sounding a bit concerned.

Liara nodded in response, taking a deep breath before she responded.

"It's not about that," Liara assured him. "I can live with that. I can't live, however, knowing that I failed someone I care about that deeply. I will not have what I feel become a lie."

Wrex looked like he accepted the answer, but he offered one last bit of advice.

"Being true to yourself is important," he conceded. "Just don't let those emotions of yours cloud your judgement. And don't let an old pursuit define you. You're bigger than that."

Perhaps Wrex was right, but as she said, the heart didn't change just because it wanted something it couldn't have. She would probably never have Shepard, but as long as he needed her help she would be there for him. Even a universe apart, she would never allow herself to fail him again.

And may the Goddess help the ones who stood in the way of that goal.

---

"...So the grenade took about half his face off," Nel relayed aloud. "It was like, bam, and then nothing. Course, the explosion set the whole apartment on fire too, so that was a bonus. No one got out of there alive. And that, in a nutshell, is why I prefer cluster grenades."

"How lovely," Vik replied sarcastically as he put his tube of nutri-paste away. "Hearing about gruesome mutilations is exactly what I wanted to hear while I was eating."

"How does that stuff taste anyway?" Nel asked. "I've always wondered."

Vik held up the tube for Nel to look at herself.

"It tastes like whatever food it was processed from," Vik clarified. "This one is Zoleskum fruit. It was native to the home world before the Exodus. Now it's one of the mainstays of our daily diet."

"Anything meat flavoured?" Nel continued to enquire.

"Fruit and vegetables are a lot easier to grow and maintain aboard our ships," Vik explained astutely. "We get most of our protein from other supplements. We're vegan more out of practicality than any moral reasoning. The meat pastes are made outside the Flotilla and have chemicals in them that have adverse medical side-effects. I stick with organic paste, although neither are really all that tasteful in any case."

"Oh I see now, yet another one of your conspiracies at work. Why am I not surprised?" Nel grumbled derisively. "You know, one of these days, you got realise not everyone is out to get you."

Vik only looked at her rather annoyed as he put his tube of paste away again.

"The Hegemony's lapdogs were and still are," Vik shot back. "How can you still deny that the galaxy is on puppet strings after Vykur?"

"Because one evil company doesn't make you right about some super powerful mass collection of conspiracies controlling everything," Nel argued. "It just means you got lucky."

Vik turned to Liara, who was sitting with them at the mess table as well.

"Can you please just get her to admit that VykurCorp was dirty and she was wrong?" He asked her.

Vik was right to be frustrated. Nel seemed to be ignoring the larger scale of what the Vykur Spire Operation had revealed to them. Liara did not want them to focus on that, however. She wanted them all to eat lunch together to work out their problems, not to argue more.

She of course had to trick most of them into eating here, by not informing them that the others would be joining them. Kayap was the easiest to convince to come, followed by Nel who thought she had finally worn down the asari. Saya took a little more coaxing to get him out of communications. Vik was the hardest, saying he preferred eating alone in his shuttle, believing it was safer and saying it helped him work. Liara suggested she could work in the mess with the implant problem and they could share insight.

She just didn't tell them that she wouldn't be the only one sharing insight. It was inevitable really. With little common between them anyway besides their work, there wasn't much to do but talk about their work. If nothing else, she hoped focusing on the implant itself would get them all working together on a singular goal. Doing it in a more social setting, like the mess hall, would be even better.

"Let's just leave that be," Liara convinced Vik. "We need to get back to the implant itself."

"Fine," Vik relented. "As I was saying, before Nelanax went off on that little story of hers, the implant doesn't protect against everything. If there is no mass effect field, the electrical barrier is useless. The field isn't going to stop an explosion. Plasma weaponry won't be affected either. The implant only concerns our small arms. So, guns like Kay's... what's it called again? The one with needles?"

"Needler," Kayap corrected. "Its full name is the 'Type-33 Guided Munitions Launcher', but it's a lot quicker just to call it a Needler."

Vik nodded and kept going.

"The Needler won't be affected and neither will those plasma rifles they carry around either," he continued. "I suggest we keep some of those handy, just in case."

"We've picked up a number of their rifles from our incursions," Liara assured. "I just wish we had a way to charge them mid-battle. Their energy supplies run out fairly quickly."

Saya wrote something down quickly on his omni-tool and let Liara look at it.

"What about shutting the implants off?" She read aloud. She looked back to Vik. "Any progress there?"

"Now that I know what it does, there is a possibility," Vik admitted, but seemed unsure as he spoke. "I could isolate the implant's power signature, allowing us to lock onto it. That would give us access, but all implants function with several built-in safeties to make sure they can't just be turned off by someone. I've located the safeties, but I'm still working on finding a way to override them."

As Vik explained the issue, Liara turned to Nelanax. She didn't seem to be engaging all that much in the conversation. She was just staring at her omni-tool. It didn't take long for Liara to figure out what she was doing, she hadn't bothered to turn down her volume that much.

"This is it for me, Coltrax," spoke a rather husky, but weak, voice. "Sorry I can't figure out how this all ends."

"Don't talk crazy, Saulvius," insisted a gruff voice in response. "You're gonna make it, even if I have to carry your sorry ass."

"Forget it man, you're gonna have to cancel my retirement party," replied the first voice. "And tell my wife and my new baby boy, you tell them I died for Palaven."

"You can tell them yourself," The second voice declared. "Don't you dare give up on me!"

"No man, just do one thing for me," The first voice pleaded. "Get. Mendothaz."

There was a brief silence before a bellowing cry was heard.

"MENDOTHAZ!"

Liara just shook her head and cleared her throat, loudly. Nel brought her head up from the screen.

"Do you have anything to add?" She asked. "Or do you just want to watch your vid?"

"Look, just get me more cluster grenades," Nel responded. "If the quarian here is right, then we should be good on that alone. What do I have to add about tech-specs and shit?"

"They're made by a turian company," Vik told her. "You sure you don't have any knowledge about possible ways to circumvent implant safeties?"

"Why would I want to?" Nel asked, laughing slightly. "The only people who used implants were on my side back in the day. You don't think up strategies on how to take down your allies, who does that?"

Vik only briefly looked at Saya for a second or two when Nel asked her question.

"Everyone," he responded. "Even with relationships cooled, you don't think some people in the Alliance aren't preparing themselves for a possible attack by turians? Do you think the Hierarchy isn't? You don't think every major government is worried about another Krogan Rebellion?"

"Well, maybe Saya's," Nel admitted. "But the point is I didn't spend my time thinking up ways to intentionally hurt my squad mates."

Vik laughed a single hearty laugh.

"Yeah, you're too busy running off on your own to even think about anyone else, period," he argued.

Nel glared at the quarian, but Liara was quick to intervene.

"That's uncalled for, Vik," she told him. "We can't keep focusing on the past here. The obstacles ahead are greater."

"I'm just saying, I wanted someone to watch my back and I didn't get that," Vik explained. "I got Ms. Action Star here."

"Hey, I cleared out the hallways, I had your back, you were secure," Nel insisted.

"You left me. That's the whole point," he shot back, sounding a bit angrier than before. "That's the only point. How can I trust someone who's just gonna abandon me like that? How can you just leave-"

Vik suddenly stopped himself mid-sentence and turned away. He began nervously twitching in his seat, but eventually stopped.

"You know what, never mind, just don't do it again," he told her suddenly.

"Well, that spiel ended abruptly," Nel noted aloud. "Not that I'm complaining here, of course."

"Forget it, I said forget it," Vik repeated, growling slightly as he clutched nervously at his left arm. "It doesn't matter. It doesn't matter now. None of it matters."

Liara admitted she was a bit put off by Vik's sudden change in attitude. She suspected he had yet to take his pills today and was probably slipping back into his more fragmented state. She carefully placed a hand on his shoulder as he rocked in his chair. Vik jumped slightly at her touch, but he stopped rocking in place.

"Vik," she said in a soothing voice to him. "It's alright. Calm yourself."

Vik nodded rather quickly before taking several deep breaths. He eventually released his hold on himself and put his hands back on the table. Liara would have to make sure he took his pills soon to keep the risk of a possible panic attack down. For now, she decided to switch topics, as the implant discussion had run its course

"We've had a number of encounters with the Covenant so far," she began. "It's fair to say that, given what we know of their experiments and what happened at Vykur, they could be attempting to augment themselves in other ways. Do we know of possible Vykur cybernetic enhancements that the Covenant may be interested in?"

"I know, Neural Optical Targeting," Nel suggested. "It feeds information right into the subject's eyes. It allows them to adjust their shots considerably and even gauge penetration. Never had it done on me myself, but I've seen the results, deadly accurate snipers."

"Sangheili have always said they prefer up close combat," Kayap informed. "They don't mind attacking from afar, but the best warriors, like Vorsa, they like being in the middle."

Given that Vorsa's people seemed to prefer swords, Kayap made a lot of sense. Optical Targeting would still be an option then, but they'd want other enhancements to complement their preferred style.

"Do any implants increase close-quarters combat?" Liara asked.

"Muscle enhancement to increase their already superior strength," Nel thought aloud. "That's one idea I guess. The Hierarchy has been looking into enhancing our natural agility. You know, reach, flexibility, essentially how high can you jump and how well can you grip onto something."

Saya started writing something on his omni-tool and then motioned two fingers up to his eyes before pointing them forward. Liara quickly read the message he wrote. It simply said, 'Vision Enhancements?' Liara understood what he was getting at.

"Has the Hierarchy considered Thermal or Night-Vision implants?" She asked Nel.

"They always keep mentioning it every year or so, but we never see anything of the rumours," Nel explained. "X-Ray vision, electromagnetic vision, see in the dark, see body heat, when you already have visors that can do some of those jobs just as well, why pull out most of your eye just to plug that kind of crap in?"

"Less bulky equipment for one," Vik suggested. "It's easier to hide it among sleeper agents or undercover operatives. Besides, they're already making cameras that can be slipped inside your eyes through routine surgery. Now they can watch you no matter where you go. It's the next step in the constant control and surveillance of everyone."

Liara could only shake her head a little at Vik. He meant well, but sometimes she wondered where he got half this stuff? Nel wondered too, from what Liara could tell, but she never kept her opposite opinions to herself. This time was no different.

"Do you know how expensive eye surgery is?" Nel asked. "Not exactly the best way of implanting surveillance. Next thing you'll tell me is that my omni-tool can let people track me wherever I go on the Citadel or Palaven, just because it has a GPS function."

"Well it can, but that's beside the point," Vik insisted. "They don't even really need to do any invasive procedures. Gene therapy to supposedly 'correct' poor eyesight is enough to give anyone a dose of nanoprobes that act as thousands of tiny cameras just swimming in your optical veins, transmitting everything you see back to them. Nothing is private anymore."

"Or you're just growing more crazy by the second," Nel replied. "Watch out, your little paste tube may have nanobots in it that install microphones into your teeth so they can hear everything you say!"

Nel waved her arms around and started making spooky noises. Vik looked angered, but then he started checking his nutri-paste tube, eyeing down into the opening before attempting to scan it with his omni-tool. Liara, deciding to stop this, knocked on the table to get their attention again.

"Don't antagonize each other," she told them both and tried to get their minds back on the topic. "Vik, are there any implants in the files we recovered that could point to possible upgrades that are experimental, and thus Nel would probably not known about them."

"Theoretical ones and some actual prototypes," Vik said, still eyeing his nutri-paste a bit. "Quite a few involve better offensive capabilities, but some are geared towards defence. They have a few ideas for sub-dermal armour for one. However, given that they're working with this new Covenant technology though, there could be other implants they're working on that we have yet to find that just weren't on the server."

"Vorsa sounds willing enough to try anything at this point," Kayap suggested. "Sangheili may not look it, being all war-like and stuff, but they can be pretty creative given the opportunity. That bio-armour he coated the mgalekgolo's body in is proof enough of that. He'll probably be looking for more ways to improve them without risking mobility."

Cybernetic enhancements could definitely help in that regard. Artificial kinetic barriers, that sub-dermal armour Vik mentioned, perhaps even using mass effect fields to amplify the firepower of those plasma cannons they carried around. And that was just one species, what plans did Vorsa and Balak have for the others?

"Alright, so Vorsa wants to give his Badass Brigade even bigger cocks," Nel noted aloud, leaning back and putting her feet on the table itself. "Here's what I don't get though, what does Orukuri get out of it? What the hell is his end game?"

"We're still trying to figure that out," Liara told her. "But, I can only assume for now he's not exactly happy with how the current Hierarchy government is handling things."

"Not enough goose-stepping for him I guess," Vik snidely remarked.

Nel gave Vik another look, but Liara shook her head at her, anticipating another argument. To her surprise, Nel's look faded, and she started to smile. Liara did find this any more encouraging.

"You know," Nel began. "All that talk about surveillance equipment and secret monitoring of citizens, you got me thinking."

"About what?" Vik asked, seemingly dreading the answer.

Nel got off her seat and walked around the table towards Vik, leaning against it. The quarian backed away from her as she leaned into him.

"Well if you're right, then during a recent eye check-up, I could've gotten a camera installed too," she explained. "So if that's the case..."

Nel suddenly dropped herself on top of Vik, straddling him and then putting her arms on his shoulders.

"Why don't we give them a show?" She asked.

Vik backed up from her, but found he couldn't slip out from under her. But Nel held him in place, practically restraining him.

"What are you doing?" He asked nervously, as Nel ground her crotch against his.

"Come on, Sajee," Nel said slyly, ignoring the asari. "We both know what all this arguing is really about, unresolved sexual tension. You're just dying to get a taste of sweet candy, aren't you?"

Vik could only respond with hyperventilating and frantic mumbling. He squirmed in his seat, trying to get her off him, but she was simply too heavy. When Nel started tip-toeing her fingers up his arms, Vik shook in fear. Liara quickly stood up from her seat and moved towards the two.

"Nel, that's enough." She said, sounding as serious as possible.

"Come on," Nel insisted, playfully running her fingers along Vik's faceplate. "You can even give the assholes watching through my head a piece of your mind, let them know how you really feel. Then, if you're not coughing and wheezing from contamination, we'll go for round two, where it really gets crazy. That's when we use my knife."

Vik eyes widened at the thought of what that sentence meant. He began violently trying to pull himself away. He attempted to force the turian off of him, but she remained steadfast upon his lap, still offering the unwanted advances. He kept looking around, trying to push himself away, desperate for an escape. Liara tried to help, pulling at Nel's shoulder.

"You are freaking him out, Nel," Liara told her sternly. "Stop!"

"Want a taste?" Nel asked seductively.

Nel leaned in and then licked Vik's visor with her tongue. Vik pulled back as far as he could, trying to avoid the advances of the turian. Eventually, Nel let go of his shoulders and let him plop to the floor, flailing his arms as he did. Nel stood up to make sure he fell completely off his bench and the quarian lay on his back in a heap.

Then, as expected, Nel just laughed.

"Oh man, did you see his face?" She asked Liara manically. "Sorry about that, Wet Bucket, just yanking your chain. Hate to break your heart like that. Wouldn't mind trying quarian food one of these days, but you're not my type. Would prefer one of those Marines, or the girls, they got those killer hips after all."

But Liara was not laughing.

"Nel, that was not appropriate," Liara told her sternly "You playing into his fears and adding to them is not helping him."

Nel still didn't seem to care, simply shrugging at it all.

"I was just trying to have some fun with the dipstick," She replied.

"Well there's a price for your amusement this time," Liara told her. "Go down to the armoury and start cleaning the rifles."

For a moment, Liara thought Nel would get pissed off, but she once again simply shrugged at the whole thing.

"Whatever," she said aloofly. "It was still worth the look on his face through his visor. See ya around, Conspiracy Nut."

She looked down at Vik momentarily and nudged him with her toe before leaving. When she was gone, Kayap helped Vik up into a sitting position. He looked okay, although he was still breathing heavily and his hands were still shaking.

"I think you need to go back down to the shuttle bay and take your medication," Liara told him calmly. "Kayap will help you."

Vik looked up, still shaking. He was still breathing a bit heavily. He attempted to explain himself.

"I just figured it would be easier to work on the implant..."

"You're not good to anyone teetering on the edge like this," Liara informed him. "Take your medicine, that's an order."

Vik sadly nodded and Kayap helped lead him away. Saya was now the only left at the table, but he didn't seem to care that much about the situation. The salarian quickly typed something on his omni-tool for Liara to read.

'Is it too late to drop them both off at an asylum?' The message read.

---

It was later that day that Liara got something back from her agents concerning a possible target. It was on Canalus, a volcanic little planet in the Dirada System. From what her sources could gather of the layout plans for the facility, it wasn't a very big lab. However, the fact it was positioned on such a volatile planet was interesting enough to look into.

ShadowNet managed to smuggle a camera into the lab through a crate they shipped to it through Vykur's courier system. Sure enough, what little they got from the feed confirmed the value of the lab. There were mostly scientists in the place, wearing full containment suits. They were working with a lot of medical equipment in small little work areas cordoned behind containment glass.

Liara could only assume, given the hazard suits and the general fear of contamination, that this was a bio-weapons lab. Definitely something to concern themselves with, after the cybernetics and illegal genetics programs, the last thing they needed was germ warfare. It wasn't enough on that alone to force Liara to take the mission herself though. There were only a few guards, save for the garrison outside that protected the front door leading down into the lab. She easily could've sent a squad of ShadowNet mercenaries to deal with the situation.

That was until the camera feed picked up something that intrigued her. Someone walked up to the crate, blocking the view of the camera and began having a conversation with another lab worker. What little audio they could decipher was interesting and Liara wanted everyone to hear it for themselves. That was why she had gathered everyone in the briefing room to listen to it.

"New orders direct from Command over the terminal," the technician said through the garbled, slightly scrambled audio. "Apparently, our friends want an update on the polonium project."

"Did you tell them they we need more of those needles then?" One of the scientists asked him in response.

"Yes, and they're sending a shipment over now," The technician explained. "But they want us to set-up testing soon, before the summit, so we can show them our progress live."

"We're not even ready for testing," the scientist told him, looking incensed. "How the hell are we going to set-up something like that if we're not even sure we can properly maintain the small mass effect field that's keeping the coating in place upon firing? We need more time before we can do a proper test."

"I tried to tell them that, but they're insisting." The technician informed him.

The camera suddenly showed the room again because, from what Liara could see, the scientist had pushed the techie out of the way.

"Fine then, I'll contact Command through the terminal myself and send them the data we have already," the scientist declared. "That should convince them that we're not ready. If they really want to see this project done before the summit, they'll send us more people and give us more funding. These demands are getting more ridiculous by the second! It makes me wish we had more privacy up here and they didn't keep pestering us."

That was the only stuff they could hear before both the scientist and techie walked too far away for the camera to pick-up. It didn't matter though. They had heard all they needed to.

"They have a direct connection to the Swords' Network," Wrex observed. "That's interesting."

"Beyond their attempts to modify the needler guns, that Network connected terminal is big enough to call for our attention," Liara informed them all. "If it and the lab's data servers both have a direct line to their Command Headquarters, it may be our back door in."

"We could find out everything," Vik realised, sounding happier than he had ever been since Liara met him. "What they're planning, where their training camps are, who else they're in league with. All we'd need to do is use that terminal to hack straight into their network."

Vik was right to be optimistic. If they could get inside the network, they'd be in the perfect position to find out everything they needed to know about the Swords and their connection to the Covenant. Those two things were only secondary on Liara's list for the moment though, as Wrex was keen to figure out for himself.

"You're hoping it can lead us to the location of the Trans-Dimensional Communications Relay," he presumed.

"That's what I'm counting on, yes," Liara admitted. "If it has a direct line to their Communications Hub, it stands to reason we can trace their lines of communication back to the relay with enough time. We can't be sure if every one of the facilities we located has a similar network connection. This is the only lab we can be sure has one on site currently. It's lightly guarded as well, so getting in won't be too much of a problem."

"So a simple smash and grab then?" Nel concluded. "We get in, the quarian here breaks into their digital back door and we figure out where their call centre to another universe is located."

Liara nodded in response and began to lay out her attack plan on the briefing room's holo-map. It showed the initial layout of the entrance to the facility, including all its fortifications and defences. There were two towers, four barricades each on both the left and right and two automated turrets on either side of the ramp leading down into the labs themselves.

"Nelanax, your job is to take out the guards in the towers," Liara began. "We deny them their high vantage points and we level the playing field. Saya, you will get behind their lines, take out threats at will. Wrex and I will lead our combined forces in a frontal attack to draw their attention. Nel will then escort Vik close enough to use his hacking skills to deal with those turrets. Saya will provide assistance as they move forward."

Arrows moved across the holo-map, detailing the plan as Liara explained it. When she explained how they'd deal with the turrets, two Xs appeared over the automated guns. The arrows then all converged on the door.

"Wrex will stay outside with his krogan and maintain a perimeter, just in case the facility calls for back-up of some kind," Liara continued. "We will then move in, secure the labs and the terminal, and hold until we have what we need."

"What about the white coats inside?" Nel asked her. "What do we do about them?"

"We'll detain them if we can," Liara assured the turian. "But if they do resist they may leave us no choice."

Nel nodded, understanding the plan. Liara then turned to Vik.

"How long do you need to crack the terminal and get into the network?" She asked him.

"I'll have a better estimate when we get inside," Vik shrugged slightly. "Right now, maybe ten minutes to break the encryption. I won't be sure until I find out what kind of security that thing has."

"Fair enough," Liara replied. "We hit the facility at dawn. I suggest we all get some rest before then."

Liara dismissed everyone after that. They knew how much was riding on tomorrow now, which was good enough for her. The door to the Sword's Network, and all its secrets, was right in front of them. They just needed to bust it down.

---

August 6th, 2185

Draped in full gear to combat the harsh volcanic environment, the two teams from the Lucen made their way to the staging point. On a small barren hillside overlooking the entrance to the labs below, Liara scanned the defences through her binoculars.

There were a number of turians among the group. They were VykurCorp employed Private Security Forces, no doubt. Liara could also see a few batarians, obviously here to help protect their investment. From all appearances there were no Covenant around, but that didn't mean they weren't around. They had as big a stake in this operation as any of the groups involved.

"Do you have eyes on the towers, Nelanax?" Liara asked in a whisper.

"Yeah, clear view of both," she assured the asari as she looked down her scope. "Say the word and I'll pop their melons for ya."

"Wait till we're in position," Liara informed her. "The second they lose tower coverage, they'll know something is up. Saya, you best move in now."

The salarian nodded before disappearing behind his cloak. Liara then turned to her Shadow Operatives, who were all grouped behind her. As Wrex went over the finer details with his krogan, she decided to do the same with her people.

"Remember, we just need to keep them distracted," she reminded them. "Don't try and take the fortifications by yourself. Move up slowly, stay in cover and keep their eyes off Nel and Vik until they get to those turrets."

"You got it, Boss," Ben happily spoke up among the crowd. "That facility is as good as ours. Well, the Broker's, I mean."

It was good to see Ben so assured now. He had learned pretty fast since Tuchanka, it was probably unfair to call him the Rookie among the Shadow Mercs at this point.

"I'll be sure to inform the Broker of your enthusiasm," Liara replied. "But first, we need to secure that facility and the terminal inside. Let's get into position."

Liara led her team down one side of the hill while Wrex made his way down the other. Kayap followed her closely. He didn't really have that big a role to play in the plan otherwise, so he was free to back-up whoever he wanted. Liara supposed she should be touched by him choosing to help her, but part of her thought he was only in this team because staying with her posed the least risk.

She had little time to ask the unggoy, they were already in position for the attack. The rocks at the bottom of the hill offered some protection, but if they were going to take the entrance they'd need to get inside the enemy perimeter. With little cover, save for the odd boulder or two, between them and guards' fortifications that would be a difficult task. Removing the tower guards would make it easier.

After a few seconds of observing the terrain, she decided to go forward with the plan.

"We're in position. Fire when ready, Nel," she finally ordered.

---

Back atop the hill, Nelanax laid prone against the ground, her crosshairs over one of the tower guards. The quarian was too busy with his omni-tool to concern himself with much. He needed to be ready to hack those turrets after all. He kept in cover behind a large slab of rock near the edge of the hillside, his view of Nelanax mostly obscured.

'Time for my pick-me up,' she thought to herself.

She reached into her concealed compartment with one hand and brought out another vial. She placed it on the ground before bringing out her injector. After the vial was placed into position, she quickly placed the injector up against her neck and pulled the trigger. As she began to feel the effects, she put everything back inside the compartment hastily and looked back through the scope.

"Are you firing or not?" Vik asked in a hushed yell from over in his cover.

The quarian had only stuck his head out slightly, but Nel could tell he was giving her the eye. He was always so damn judgmental with her, just like the military had been.

"Relax, I got it," she tried to assure him.

Her breathing remained even and vision became clear. She could perfectly gauge the movements of the enemy combatants below her, practically predict how much she needed to lead them, but she was only interested in two. She put her crosshairs on the head of the first tower guard and fired. The shot blew apart the guard's skull, splattering it all over the tower.

"That's one way to get ahead in life," she chuckled.

She quickly switched targets to the next guard. He had heard the shot, but wasn't sure where it had come from, who had fired it, or what it had hit. That much was evident by the fact the poor bastard was prancing around in his tower, trying to survey the surrounding landscape. Nel fired another shot right between his eyes, putting an end to his search.

"You're clear, Doc," Nel informed the asari. "Towers have been neutralized."

"Good, we'll move up and keep them focused on us," Liara responded. "Wait for an opening and get Vik to those turrets."

Nelanax just nodded and turned to the quarian.

"Time to get moving," she told him. "You ready?"

"Just get me close enough," Vik replied. "I'll handle the rest."

"Then let's get into the shit already," Nel declared, her senses buzzing and her eyes giving off a piercing stare.

Liara had said this would be a quick mission. She intended to wring as much out of it as possible.

---

Liara had some of her own riflemen begin laying down fire on the enemy fortifications. The Vykur Forces and the batarian comrades went to ground quickly, trying to avoid the incoming shots. They returned fire of course, but the suppression allowed the Shadow Operatives to edge closer to their intended target.

Liara made it to one of the boulders with a group of her men. She opened fire on one of the large metal barriers the enemy was hiding behind. She unleashed a singularity over the barrier and watched as it pulled two soldiers up into the air, making them easy targets.

Next to Liara, Kayap kept firing his needler at the enemy lines. He wasn't hitting anything though, as they were still too far away for that. It was a bit disconcerting for him.

"I'm starting to miss our tanks," he mused. "That always made things so much easier."

Kayap suddenly backed away as a few bullets grazed the edge of the boulder. You could practically see his little heart try to leap out of his chest.

"Don't worry, Kayap," Liara assured him, placing a hand on his shoulder. "Remember, we have our own kind of tanks."

At that moment, Wrex's team barrelled out cover on their end, heading towards the enemy lines. When the enemy shifted their fire to the horde of screaming lumbering reptiles, their bullets just seemed to bounce off their thick scaly hides. Krogan were great for frontal assaults like that.

Wrex was, of course, at the head of the pack. When one Vykur guard stood his ground against him, the krogan Chieftain easily batted him away with a powerful smack of his head. Wrex then fired a carnage shot into the enemy fortifications, completely obliterating one of the batarians as he stuck his head out to fire.

"Move up, everyone!" Liara ordered. "We'll use their own barricades as cover when we get close!"

---

Saya watched as Liara's people charged forward to the frontal barricades. They took some hits, but nothing medi-gel couldn't fix. Despite working for a mostly criminal institution, Saya was amazed to see the supposedly self-serving mercs helping the injured up, dragging them if need be, to get them to safety. This included that rookie, Ben as everyone called him. The young merc helped one of the turian veterans get to a barricade in one piece after a stray shot had torn into his leg.

Liara had apparently employed some "Soldiers of Fortune" with a sense of honour, admirable.

With the enemy now pulling back to the safety of the turrets, now was the time to thin their ranks. The batarians and Vykur guards felt themselves safe behind their metal barricades, but they were wrong, like so many others before them.

Saya quickly rushed up to one such grouping of soldiers and slashed a Vykur guard across his back. His batarian looked on in shock, before a slice of his blade across his sternum cut him down as well. Saya bolted over the cover and made his way to another barricade, charging straight into a Vykur guard. The blade cut deep into the turian's back and forced him to the ground. His fellow Vykur guard aimed at the salarian, only for Saya's quicker reflexes to pull out a pistol that fired two shots into his head.

Four enemies down in the span of fifteen seconds, not bad, but that still left plenty more. He activated his cloak again and moved out into the field once more. He had to keep his head down as he moved forward. He didn't want a bullet from his side taking him out. That was the only problem with being invisible, you needed to be mindful of the fact your people couldn't see you any better than the enemy.

As he got close to another barricade, he saw two more batarians moving back to take cover behind it.

He used his sword to wipe some explosive gel onto it and rushed away. As they tried to vault over it to presumed safety, he triggered the gel and the explosion took them out. As their bodies fell into the volcanic sands beneath them, Saya searched for his next batch of targets. As he surveyed the battlefield, he spotted Nelanax, moving up through the krogan lines, covering Vik.

Well, at least even they were being useful for once. Perhaps, like the mercs, they deserved more credit than he was willing to give them at times.

---

Nelanax kept firing from her Phaeston as she and Vik kept moving from cover to cover. Vik made himself useful by dropping down a turret to assist the krogan and their push forward. He also had his drone running further interference for them. She was doing the fun work though, killing batarians and Vykur guards in their way.

She was already feeling the peak of the effects of the drugs. She could practically feel every movement made by her enemies, every subtle noise they made behind their barricades. She could tell when they were changing thermal clips or when they were about to stand up. Each time they performed the latter action she was already pointing the gun in their direction.

She felt the pinprick of a shot hitting her, but that was all she felt. There was no real pain, not when the juice was working its magic. She pushed Vik into cover behind one of the barricades though. He didn't have the same benefits as her after all. She dove into cover as well and then activated a cluster grenade. She had her heightened senses hone in on where she had heard the shot that hit her and tossed the explosive in that direction. She didn't even need to look up past the cover. She just knew where to throw it.

The pained cries of two batarians were proof enough that she had aimed in the right spot.

She looked over to Vik now, to see if he was okay, and finally saw he was yelling at her about something. She had apparently blocked him out. As her senses readjusted towards his voice, she was able to pick up what he was saying.

"The turrets are already firing!" He shouted again. "We need to get up there now!"

Nel looked above her to see the chattering automated defences starting to rattle both ends of the attack. When krogan started ducking for cover, you knew you were in a bad spot. No matter, she had other tools in her arsenal.

"Keep your drone up and run for the guns," she ordered him. "I'll get their attention."

Nel pulled her grenade launcher off her back. Even if Liara said this would be a quick assault, she did not want to go unprepared. She stood up and began running out into the field. Her eyes picked up every nuance, smell and sound as she rushed forward.

She fired at the barricades around her, forcing the enemies behind them to tuck their heads into the volcanic ash. Bullets struck her, but she felt no pain. All she saw was her enemy being torn asunder as glorious explosions filled her view. A thousand fiery colours danced in front of her with each blast.

When her grenade launcher needed to be reloaded, she switched back to her Phaseton and raked it across the devastated enemy lines. The turrets began to focus on her though. She heard their metallic groans edging to target her long before they actually zeroed in on her. She rushed across the open terrain before the guns started firing. The bullets licked at her heels, but she was faster than them now, faster than any normal turian.

'The juice never fails,' she thought to herself.

She slid into cover behind the quarian as he crouched behind the barricade. Bullets bounced off the side of their protection before the guns turned back to the krogan threat. Nel reloaded her gun and exhaled deeply.

"Man what a rush," she said rather pleased. "Good exercise though. How's that virus doing, Wet Bucket?"

Vik looked at Nel momentarily, ready to make another angry comment about being called names, but instead his eyes grew wide with concern.

"Nel, you're bleeding!" He shouted in shock.

She finally looked down to see her shoulder and her side were dripping bright blue. But while she saw them, she didn't feel them. She wondered if that made the quarian suspicious, given his nature.

"I don't got time to bleed," she declared boisterously. "And we don't have time to lollygag. Is the virus ready?"

Vik took a moment out of his preparations to wave his omni-tool over Nel. Medi-Gel was administered across the turian and her wounds closed back up momentarily.

"I always keep stocked on the stuff," he explained. "You should be more careful out there."

As if he really cared, Nel thought to herself, her eyes rolling at the quarian's comments. He was probably more concerned about being left alone to fend for himself. This was why Liara had sent her along with him. He never would've gotten here alive without her.

"Relax, Wet Bucket," she told him. "I'm cool. Now hack the turrets already!"

"Well, sorry for worrying about you," Vik replied, sounding dejected.

Vik quickly turned back to his omni-tool and aimed it at one of the turrets. With the activation of a command the turret suddenly surged and arc of energy blasted to its brother across from it. The guns switched allegiances permanently and began targeting what used to be their friends. The batarians and Vykur Guards were no match for the barrage of bullets that ripped into their backsides. Nel couldn't help but smile at the carnage around them, as the enemy was torn apart by their own defences.

"I love this kind of irony," she chuckled.

---

The initial attack had been a success. They now owned the facility's front porch. With the turrets under their control and the krogan now taking up defensive positions, they were free to enter the labs within the mountainside. They had taken some casualties in the fighting, but the plan had otherwise gone off without a hitch.

Now came the second phase, which would hopefully go just as smooth.

"You sure you're fine with me staying out here?" Wrex asked Liara. "It could go faster if I went in with ya."

"No," Liara told him. "You best stay with your men. I'll leave some of my people out here with you, but I'll have more than enough with me to take the facility. There's only going to be a few guards inside. Vik should have the terminal down in no time and we'll be out of here before you know it."

"I just hope that quarian's skills hold up in there," Wrex informed her. "If there is any trouble, call us in, alright?"

Liara just nodded and turned to her assembled squad. It consisted of Saya, Nel, Vik, Kayap, and a five man Shadow Ops team, which included Ben, more than enough to secure the labs below. She motioned them all to follow her to the door before them that sat atop a ramp. It didn't take long for Vik to break the lockdown encryption on the door itself.

"This keeps up and we'll back on the ship before breakfast," Ben thought aloud hopefully.

"We'll see, Ben," Liara told him. "Let's handle the bad guys inside first."

The doors opened wide and the team moved in. They slowly descended another ramp into the facility proper. The rocky walls of the cavern were covered in steel plating. Their vision was filled with the tint of red warning lights as they made their way to a decontamination door. Nel hit the switch on the side of the frame that forced the doors open.

"Keep your helmets and breathers on people," Liara warned. "Remember, this is a bio-lab. There could be dangerous contaminants inside."

"Like that stuff they spray over colonies when starships take off," Vik was quick to pipe up.

"Yes," Liara replied hesitantly, while the rest of the group subtlety shook their heads and groaned. "Yes exactly those kinds of things."

The decon-doors finally opened and everyone stepped inside. The decontamination spray spewed out from the vents around them before the doors opened again. Everyone filed in carefully, keeping their guns at the ready. They weren't entirely sure what forces they would be up against in here.

As Liara's people fanned out, she scanned the room. Everything from the video was here. The work stations, the lab equipment, the containment chambers, but there were no scientists to be seen. Had they retreated to the back of the facility? Had they not yet arrived? Did they know they were coming and didn't show up?

No, they couldn't have known, they were thorough in covering their tracks when they scoped this place out. The camera hadn't been detected and the guards didn't look ready for an attack. They couldn't have been tipped off. Maybe when the alarm had sounded, as the flashing lights suggested it had, they had made a run for it. Perhaps there was a secondary exit, one they had missed.

As Liara pondered the question, Nelanax suddenly shouted out.

"Vykur Forces," she shouted. "Behind the crates!"

She fired her Phaeston at the perceived threat. Sure enough there were two Vykur guards behind the crates along with two more that popped up around the corner in the back corridor. Vik dropped the turret onto the field and let it push them back into cover, but the Vykur Guards fired back.

Liara dashed behind a large piece of lab equipment with Ben and Kayap.

"Circle around," she told Ben. "Kayap and I will hold their attention."

Ben obeyed, and Liara fired out onto the field along with her unggoy companion. The Vykur Guards were dug in well though, they had apparently been preparing for a potential last stand. Nelanax kept their heads low with sustained fire, as did the other Shadow Operatives.

Eventually, Ben managed to get on the flank of the Vykur Guards behind the crates. He fired a stream of rounds from his assault rifle. The blasts raked across his target's body, but didn't take him down. Ben then fired a concussive shot that sent both turians tumbling out of their cover. He then followed up the attack by firing at their downed forms. He rushed into the cover of the crates next, as the two remaining guards tried to take him out kind.

"Sending in a drone!" Vik called out.

Vik's drone sped across the floor and towards the Vykur Guards. They laid down fire on it, but it distracted them long enough for Liara to send out a pull attack. The attack separated into two separate orbs that pulled both of the guards out into the open, where Saya used his pistol to plug both in the face from afar.

"Clear!" One of the Shadow Operatives called out as the gunfire died down.

"I think we got them all, Boss!" Ben spoke up.

"Let's not assume anything," Liara cautioned once more. "Search the area and find that terminal. We need to crack it and get out of here fast."

Before Liara could move out of the room to join the search, however, the room's intercom system started to crackle. Moments later, a voice started to speak through them, a very familiar voice.

"The asari, as I expected."

Kayap quickly backed up nervously, his weapon out as his legs twitched. He had good reason to. He was hearing Vorsa's voice all around him. Liara stood still in a commanding stance, her pistol up and ready.

"Speak up," Vorsa demanded. "I'm monitoring you on the facility's cameras and the communication is two-way."

Liara looked up to one of the cameras alongside Vik. It was in the corner of the room, staring back at them all. Vik did his best to back away from its view.

"Care to show yourself, Vorsa?" Liara asked. "Or is it in your warrior nature to hide?"

"I have no desire to sully my hands," the sangheili replied. "I care not for proving my prowess to those so undeserving."

"Why does that sound more like an excuse than anything?" Nel asked derisively.

Liara put up her hand to silence Nel. She needed to keep Vorsa focused on her, not her team.

"You keep sounding like you were waiting for us," she noted. "Care to explain how?"

"Your spies were not difficult to pinpoint," Vorsa explained. "We assumed after Noveria that you would seek to hit another VykurCorp facility again. In response, I alerted several outposts stationed near potential targets. I knew this one was a factor given its biological testing program. We were surveying the area for any unauthorized transmissions. While we were not able to pinpoint its exact location, we were able to decipher one transmission from inside the facility that was not on the network."

Liara couldn't help but feel stupid. The camera feed, they hadn't found the camera, but they had picked up its transmission. Damn, they should've double encrypted it. They didn't think there was a danger of it being picked up. She didn't think there was a danger of it being picked up. How could they? Why would they suspect something like that? She simply hadn't considered it.

"I realised there was a chance you would arrive yourself, given the sensitive nature of this facility," Vorsa continued. "So, I did not inform the garrison. However, I did tap into the lab's security and ordered an evacuation of all research staff prior to the attack. A Spirit dropship was waiting for them behind the secondary exit. Their work will continue uninterrupted at a later date."

"So what?" Nel asked. "We still own this shithole and everything in it."

"Wrong, Traitor," Vorsa informed her. "Tapping into the security has given me full access to the facility's systems. All relevant data is being purged and transferred to a secure location. The process began the second I ordered the evacuation. In less than twenty minutes, everything relevant will be purged and the connection to this compromised laboratory will be severed."

Liara's eyes widened in fear and she rushed forward before anyone could stop her. They needed to find the terminal, now. She moved into a hallway at the back and looked towards a door on the far right. She moved towards it, but suddenly, it began to open on its own.

"I don't think so, asari," Vorsa spoke up again. "I won't have you interfering with the purge. That is why I left people behind to keep you preoccupied."

The doors soon opened wide to reveal two lumbering Covenant giants, mgalekgolo. They kept their shields up and pointed their massive assault cannons forward. Liara quickly backed away from the hallway and motioned the others to the same. Green blasts ignited the corridor as Liara rushed back to cover. The mgalekgolo soon revealed themselves to everyone, standing at the back of the room, the spines on their back bristling as they stared down Liara's team.

"Hey, Bash and Blast!" Nel suddenly spoke up as she moved into cover herself.

"Who?" Liara asked, confused at her sudden statement.

"Those two, Bash and Blast!" Nel said, pointing at the monsters. "Remember? I told you about them. They were at Charlan with me, they tried to kill us when we were there. They had gotten that gene therapy that gave them Thresher Maw hides on their orange bits, those guys. I never could get their names right when I was training them, way too many vowels and shit. So I made up names. Fancy seeing them here."

"How in the name of the Ancestors do you even know it's them?" Vik asked while shouting at her.

Nel quickly looked out into the open for a second as another blast rocked the room. The Operatives were already returning fire, but their rounds just bounced off the heavy armour of the monsters.

"It's those spines on their backs," Nel explained when she looked back at Vik. "It's their biggest distinguishing feature. Bash has four on either side of his shoulders and Blast has three around the back of his neck. Oh, and Bash's shield is a lot more worn then Blast's shield is. He really likes using that thing."

The two towering aliens moved into position, blocking the entrance to the corridor at the back. Vorsa continued to speak as the two lobbed more plasma shots at Liara's team.

"You know your orders," he told the two. "Hold them back. No one is to enter the terminal room. Kill them if necessary, but they are of no real concern."

They had certainly walked into a bigger problem than they expected. Liara got on her own comm-link to call Wrex. If there was ever a time she needed a pack of angry krogan, it was now.

"Wrex, I'm gonna need some help," she said as plasma blasts rocked the room. "Mgalekgolo, the big aliens with plasma cannons for arms, they're inside the facility!"

But Wrex's response was not comforting.

"Funny, I was about to call you about my own problems," Wrex began to explain. "Bunch of sangheili popped up out of nowhere. They got us ducking our heads down out here. The turrets are holding them back, but if we fall back... well... you might just have a whole bunch of Covenant following us."

She couldn't abandon the facility either. Vorsa had said as much himself, the mgalekgolo were only there to keep them out, not to hunt them down. If they left now, there was no guarantee the monsters would follow them. In short, they didn't have time for a tactical retreat. They needed to get to the terminal before they lost their window.

"Hold them back, Wrex," Liara told him, a pit of concern growing in her stomach. "We'll do what we can in here."

"No problem, Liara," Wrex told her. "We'll keep these pyjaks out as long as we can."

Liara rushed moved out of cover and strafed Bash and Blast as she ran across the floor. The two giants fired on her as she did, but Liara managed to get into cover. The force of the blast still hit her hard though and she landed like a ton of bricks near Nelanax and Vik.

"Ugh, that was too close," she said as Vik helped her up to a sitting position. "My barriers barely held up against that attack's shockwave."

"We're running out of time here," Vik reminded her. "You got a plan?"

"Distract them long enough for someone to get behind them and into that terminal room," Liara replied with a resolute tone and determined glared. "We are not losing that Network connection."

Saya was first to answer the call, turning invisible before their eyes.

"Help him out," Liara ordered. "Keep both of them focused on us."

"Don't worry, T'Soni," Nel assured her. "I'll be your equalizer."

Nel moved out of cover towards the left flank of Bash and Blast's positions. She fired her Phaeston at them, trying to draw their attention away. The bullets did nothing and the one called blast moved up to return fire on Nel. The turian ducked behind the cover of a containment chamber, although the cannon blasts destroyed the top portion of the little chamber with ease. Nel looked up to see Blast charging up for another shot and brought her head down again.

But Blast's preoccupation gave Saya the opening he needed to move in. He quickly rushed past the one Nel called Bash and motioned around to his back. He could see the doorway to the terminal. He wasn't skilled with tech as much as Vik was, but maybe they could help talk him through if he got there in time. But as he moved towards the door, it suddenly shut tight. A red holographic circle over the door signified it was locked and Saya was confused.

"I still have control over the facility's systems, Salarian," Vorsa called out. "You will not be getting in so easily. And the motion trackers we installed in case of cloaked enemies such as yourself will keep you from hiding."

As if the door would keep him out for long. He rushed towards it to spread gel on it. He barely got two inches before he felt the terrible footsteps behind him. Saya looked to see the one known as Bash charging him. He quickly bent his legs and threw himself into the air. He flipped himself over and onto the monster's back. He stuck his blade into the beast and tried to shock him, but the electrical current only seemed to mildly irritate him. He didn't have enough power to fry all of him.

Bash then forced his body forward and his momentum sent Saya flying towards the door. The salarian was able to land his feet on the door, however. He then pushed off the door and threw himself back into the fight. He aimed for the monster's head. Sure the beast had some kind of central brain he could fry or skewer. Instead, Bash tucked his head inside his armour and let Saya soar over him. Saya slashed at the creature's back once as he flew by, but it was of little consequence. He landed on the ground and tried to make his escape, only for Bash to turn quickly towards him.

One solid kick from the monster's massive leg sent Saya careening into one of the containment chamber's glass wall. The force of the hit cracked the glass and the Salarian winced in pain. He brought himself to his feet and vanished. He would need to move slowly to avoid being spotted again. He'd also need a lot of medi-gel before he attempted to take on one of those behemoths once more.

Liara grimaced at the whole spectacle. Saya hadn't stood a chance. Her people were doing what they could to try and draw the monsters' attention away, but the mgalekgolo barely even considered the incoming bullets an issue. With their new genetically enhanced hides, they were as hard to bring down with small arms as any Thresher Maw.

They'd need bigger guns.

"Vik," Liara ordered. "Send out another drone and have it run more interference!"

Vik nodded and ran over to the back of some lab equipment for cover before he let loose the drone. Liara then contacted Nel over the radio.

"Nelanax," she began. "Pour whatever explosives you have left onto those two!"

"You read my mind, babe," Nel laughed. "Luckily, the grenade launcher still has some bite to it."

Nel got out from cover as Vik's drone tried to distract Blast a little. It lasted about two seconds before the towering armoured giant fired a single shot that obliterated the roving ball of energy. It still gave Nel enough time to get a fix on Blast and begin firing shot after shot with the launcher at him.

"How does your own medicine taste, bud?" Nel asked as she laughed, strafing across the room to another containment chamber.

The explosions caused Blast to stagger back, but he quickly put up his shield to protect himself from the incoming assault. As the grenades detonated against the shield, he powered up his cannon, which soon began to glow bright green. He then fired a devastating beam attack that cut across the wall, following Nel. The turian was again forced to go to ground behind the containment chamber. The plasma beam easily destroyed the top half of the little lab.

"Shit, I wish my arm was a gun," she thought aloud to herself.

Still, she had hurt Blast. Despite all that armour those two overgrown walking tanks had, they weren't impregnable. If she could just keep up the fire, maybe she wound the asshole enough to force him to retreat. There was no way these two would die defending this shithole that was going to be abandoned in a few minutes anyway. That would just be crazy.

She was about one thing concerned though, the fact her juice was starting to wear off a little. She could still feel the effects a bit, but not as potent as before. She probably only had a few minutes left to get the most out of this dosage. For a moment, she contemplated taking more, but paused.

"Nah, this is gonna be over in a minute anyway," she told herself. "Fuckers know they're flanked and those bullets that the mercs keep shooting have to be taking their toll at this point. No sense in wasting a vial on this."

Nel stepped out again, firing off another barrage of grenades at Blast. The mgalekgolo kept huddled up behind his shield. As the explosions pounded away, it didn't look good for him, not even his kind could stand up to the concussive blasts that rippled through his body. But he could still fight and as long as he could he would hold his ground, so Nel couldn't let up.

Suddenly, Blast fired another shot, but this one wasn't aimed towards Nel. It was at the Chamber he had partially destroyed. Nel's tunnel vision concerning Blast had caused her to miss what was inside the containment room, a small case of active needler rounds.

Blast's shot detonated the batch and the explosion ripped into Nel's side. With the effects of her drug wearing off, she could now feel the little pink spikes digging into her back. She screamed out in agony, firing one last grenade that struck Blast in the head, causing him to fall to the ground in a daze.

Nel threw herself into cover behind some more laboratory equipment. There, she began to claw at her injuries, digging the needles embedded in her body out one by one. They hurt, they hurt so much, why did it hurt so much, she thought. She groaned as she pulled one of the spikes out of her, only for it to explode into tiny fragments in her palm. She clutched her hand in pain and screamed out a curse against the Spirits.

Liara could hear Nel's cries over the mess of gunfire and plasma. Bash had moved over to his brother, to assist him as he tried to return to his feet. At the moment, all Liara knew was that a crewmate was in trouble and needed medical attention fast. Medi-gel would help stabilize her, keep her from losing more blood, but she needed to get to her first.

"I'm going in after Nel," she told the others. "Cover me!"

Vik set up a turret and let loose another drone to help her. Ben, along with the rest of the mercs, kept firing at the mgalekgolo twins, hoping to keep them focused on them and not their boss. Kayap in the meantime almost followed Liara to help, but didn't get further than the edge the lab terminal they were using as shelter before hunkering down. The little unggoy whimpered as he watched his new leader rush out into danger, but his usual sense of self-preservation kept him from joining her.

He supposed it was for the best, he would probably just get in her way. But maybe he could help her in other ways. His needler gun was useless against mgalekgolo, but a plasma grenade would certainly catch their attention. He activated one and lobbed it over cover. The grenade arced through the air and landed on Bash's foot.

The resulting explosion forced the giant monster back. A piece of his armour had fallen off, but he remained standing. He then zeroed in on Kayap's cover and fired a three plasma bolts at him. Kayap's eyes widened in fear and he ran back from the edge. The explosion from the plasma ripped apart the lab terminal's edge. He ducked low to the ground as a whole chunk of the terminal was blown to bits. The mercenaries nearby had done the same as well, Kayap supposed it was comforting that he wasn't the only one scared.

"Shit, they're just gonna keep shooting until this whole place comes down around us," Ben reasoned.

With that, the young mercenary took off around the corner edge towards a large piece of lab equipment to the left of the room. Kayap decided to remain behind and not follow him either. He didn't want to make things even worse. They had lost part of their cover and he had only succeeded in angering the mgalekgolo further.

Liara made her way to Nel's position, rushing past the dazed, but still very dangerous, Blast. When the monster stirred and looked towards her, Liara let loose a powerful throw attack to push the giant back. It didn't seem to do much. It took a lot of concentrated power to warp the mass of an object that big. The attack still managed to throw off the creature's aim enough that he shot the wall instead of her.

Liara slid in beside Nelanax and began to administer medi-gel directly onto her wounds. Nel's armour was full of holes from the exploded needles. Turian blood was everywhere, but it looked like Liara had gotten to her in time. That and she gotten enough needles out of her to avoid sustaining further damage to her body. She was out of this fight, but she'd recover.

"This is not like my fantasy, you're not in a nurse's outfit," Nel tried to joke as she winced. "That would look really good on you by the by."

"Try not to talk too much, Nel," Liara told her as she finished administering medi-gel. "Save your strength until we get out of this."

"Fair enough," Nel replied, gritting her teeth. "You know you can kiss it to make it better."

At least she was keeping calm, or at least pretending to be. It was hard to tell what was genuine about Nel and what was her bravado act playing out her hero fantasies.

"You've led your fellows to folly, asari," Vorsa chimed in. "Even if you do survive, you have still lost. The purge is almost complete."

Liara looked up to see a nearby camera attached to the ceiling staring at them both. She brought up her pistol and fired at it. As the remains fell to the floor she called up Vik.

"Find every camera in this room, Vik," Liara began. "I want them all destroyed. I'm not having that bastard view us as entertainment."

"You need only have asked, Doc," Vik replied happily.

The next few seconds were punctuated with gunshots. The broken remains of surveillance equipment soon littered the lab floor. Vorsa was undeterred by the action, however.

"I still control the systems," he told her. "This accomplishes nothing."

"Maybe we should've just killed the intercoms," Nel suggested. "Fucker loves hearing his own voice it seems."

Liara decided it was easier to just ignore the sangheili instead. They had more pressing concerns after all, such as the thundering footsteps getting closer to them. She picked up Nel, draped her arm over her shoulder, and ran with her away from the mass of lab equipment they were hiding behind.

Seconds later, Bash busted through bio-scan machine with his giant shield like it was nothing, pieces of twisted metal and wires flying everywhere. Liara threw back a biotic attack to force the monster back, but it again barely fazed him. Bash began to follow them, but didn't get far before an explosion rocked his backside.

"Over here ugly!"

Liara turned to the voice as she kept running and saw Ben behind a large centrifuge chamber chucking another grenade at Bash. This time, the mgalekgolo was ready for it. He batted the grenade away like it was a rubber ball and let it exploded against the ceiling. As pieces fell to the ground, Blast stood up and took aim at Ben.

"Oh crap," the rookie merc gulped aloud.

Blast fired, a terrible ball of green plasma roared towards the mercenary. He rushed out of his cover, but the concussive shock of the landing still sent him flying to the ground. His armour was singed from burning residue from the attack.

Seeing Ben in trouble, along with Liara, the other mercs fired on Blast with renewed vigour. Two even got out of cover in an attempt to rush over and drag him to safety. Instead, Bash rushed over to bat them away like ants. One, a turian, broke his arm and collarbone for the effort, the other, a human, busted his skull open on impact with the wall.

"Stay back!" Liara ordered as she placed Nel back into cover "Stay back!"

There was no sense in risking more lives. Up until now, the mgalekgolo had simply been holding them back. Giving the both of them opportunities to thin their numbers would only be a bonus to them. But she wouldn't abandon Ben, she couldn't abandon him. Liara tossed another throw attack out in an attempt to divert the monster's attention. She tossed another, but other than simply pushing the beast forward, it did nothing. It didn't care, almost as if it knew how little the attack against it would matter beforehand.

Vik also tried to save the human, pulling out of cover to fire off his shotgun into the monster's back. It seemed to injure him a bit, drawing a bit of blood, but the new thick hide limited the damage. Bash resolved the problem by turning and slamming his shield down towards the quarian. Vik was forced to flee back into cover, although he did drop a turret on his way. It fired for two seconds before Bash just slammed it into the ground.

Ben tried his best to shoot at the monster lumbering over him, but nothing from his tiny pistol could penetrate Bash's armour. The mgalekgolo simply looked at him, moved his shield into positioned and slapped the rookie right across the floor.

Liara could only look on as the body of Ben bounced across the tiled floor. She could hear every crack of bone and broken rib as he went. When he landed, Ben tried to sit up, despite his battered body refusing to. He was now a perfect target for Blast, who aimed and then fired one last shot from his cannon. The shot hit just in front of him and Ben was sent rolling across the floor again.

And again, all Liara could do in the face of it all, was watch.

Bash walked back to join his brother, his shield pointed toward Liara's people. The asari stuck her head out of cover and began firing on the monster. Her biotics couldn't do anything, she knew bullets did nothing. But the rage inside her compelled her to shoot. As the others stood on in shock at the unfeeling monsters as they continued their assigned task, Liara kept shooting. She had to keep shooting.

It was then that Vorsa called over the intercom one last time.

"The purge is nearing completion," he announced. "Your task is done."

With those words, the two Mgalekgolo fell back further, moving to the back of the facility towards another wall. They kept their shields up as a secret door opened revealing an elevator. Liara shook her head in defiance.

"No, no they are not leaving!" She declared.

She grabbed Nel's grenade launcher and aimed at them. She began firing whatever was left in the chamber at them, but it did little to stop the retreat of the mgalekgolo. They moved into the elevator as the explosions rocked them. When Liara ran out, she switched back to her pistol and threw out more biotic attacks, even after the doors closed she kept shooting, but nothing worked.

She stopped when she saw the light of the elevator begin to rise up through the cracks. They were gone, they got away. Just like before. And just like before, all she could do now was pick up the pieces.

"Vik, the data terminal," she told him quickly. "Get to it!"

Vik took off running for the corridor. When he arrived he found a locked door. He didn't know how much time he had to hack through it though. The blasted purge could be complete by the time he did it. Then, seemingly by some stroke of luck, the door's lock blew open and the door itself opened wide.

The quarian stood in shock for a moment, before he saw something materialise near the door's frame. Sitting against it was Saya, still badly injured, but his fingers on his sword's hilt. Despite the efforts of the mgalekgolo, he had done his job. He then slumped over against the corner of the wall. Vik ran over to check on him. According to his omni-tool, a quick scanned showed he was still okay, just badly hurt. He'd still need a doctor though.

"Medic over here!" He called out. "Saya's hurt!"

Vik quickly administered some medi-gel to the unconscious salarian. He was an STG lackey, but he had willed himself up here in an attempt to salvage this mess. He couldn't let him or Liara down now. There was still a terminal to work on.

Liara in the meantime was with another wounded man, Ben. The mercenary rookie was lying against a containment chamber. Half his body was scorched by third degree burns, it didn't look good. Liara kept him as comfortable as she could.

"Ben," she said trying to reach him. "Can you hear me, Ben?"

The rookie opened his eyes weakly and looked at the asari.

"Screwed up, didn't I?" He asked.

"No," Liara insisted. "You did what you could. You helped save Nel and me."

Ben nodded faintly at her in response.

"Did... did we get to the terminal in time?" He asked.

Liara wasn't sure what to say at that point. She didn't know the answer. She didn't know what to tell him. She thought of what Shepard would do... and then she knew.

"Yes, we got it," she told him. "They took some hits and had to pull out. We're inside now. We got it."

"Oh, well that's good," he said. "We... beat'em then."

"Yes," Liara nodded.

Ben smiled, although it looked like it hurt a lot.

"Thanks for... taking me along to Tuchanka... at the start," he told her feebly. "Wish I... I could go the rest of the way."

Liara shook her head, trying to look firm.

"You're going to be okay, Ben," she tried to tell him, another false assurance of some kind she felt he needed. "We're gonna get you back and... it will all... you'll be fine and..."

She couldn't finish, that was a line she couldn't finish.

Ben just looked at her for a moment. He had to be in great pain, but he wasn't showing it. The other Shadow Operatives had gathered around her. Liara clutched Ben's hand in hers, but she couldn't really feel any grip. She stopped squeezing too hard when the rookie started to wince a little.

"I'll... make sure the Broker knows of your actions," she finally managed to squeak out.

It was all she could say. Ben just nodded and then his head slumped into his chest. There was nothing more she could do.

Liara stood up and walked away from Ben's body as his squad mates gathered around. As she walked away, the decontamination doors at the entrance began to open wide. Everyone looked back to point their guns at it and take defensive position. For all they knew, it was Vorsa's people coming to finish them off after busting through Wrex's lines.

Thankfully, when the doors opened, it only revealed krogan, not sangheili. Wrex was the front of them. His armour was singed and bloody, he was holding his arm and wincing while his leg limped along, but he was alive. At that moment, she couldn't have been happier to see that he was okay. Liara quickly rushed over to him.

"What happened?" She asked frantically.

"We got them good," Wrex replied, not sounding too happy. "But it was touch and go. We lost five warriors to them and... two Shadow Operatives. We managed to finish them off though and secure the front, but the turrets are gone. I don't think we'll be able to hold here for much longer if they send reinforcements."

Then that brought the count of dead Shadow Operatives to four, two from Bash and Blast and two from Vorsa's men. It was about now that Liara felt a sting on shoulder. She looked to see a scratch against her, probably caused by the flying bits of debris in the battle. She looked to her arm, and saw a bullet graze, no doubt from even earlier in the fighting outside. No one had come out of this unscarred it seemed.

Nel was still badly injured and, as she later found out, according to their squad medic, Saya would need some work done himself. They were all in a bad way at the moment and she wasn't even sure if the price they had paid today in blood had even been worth it.

She made her way back to the terminal to find Vik frantically pressing at the controls.

"What's going on?" She asked him.

"I've managed to cut Vorsa out of the network to speed things along, but this terminal is about to die," Vik explained quickly, working at lightning speed. "The purge of data is almost complete and once that's done they're going to sever the connection to the Network."

"Can you stop it?" Liara asked him anxiously.

"It's too late to stop it," Vik explained. "I have no time to stop it. No one can stop it. We're gonna lose it!"

Liara shook her head in defiance. No, this was not for nothing. It would not be for nothing. She wouldn't let it. She couldn't let it.

"Give me something, Vik," she demanded. "Give me anything!"

"That's what I'm trying to do," he explained, still speaking at a rapid pace. "I'm attaching a trace worm to one of the files that hasn't been transferred yet. The purge program will think it is part of the file and it will be transferred to the storage site they're sending everything in here to. It will then send a signal back to me. I may not be able to connect to the Sword's Network or find out anything about what they're planning, but if they're sending this back to their Command HQ or wherever, we'll know where it is. That way, we'll know where to look for another back door into their Network."

Vik clicked on a few more commands and then stood back from the terminal.

"There, done," he said. "The trace is away. We'll know where they're sending all this stuff now."

Moments later, the terminal sparked with a thousand electrical volts. The system was fried, every single data fragment within gone. Liara hoped that Vik was right about that trace program. They just needed another chance, just one more chance.

---

It was late mid-day by the time the results got back. Everyone looked pretty grim, none more so than Liara. She stood hunched over the briefing table, a dead look in her eyes as she stared into the holo. Her thoughts swam with the failure of today. All they had managed to do was get a trace. They couldn't even stop the research. Everything relevant had been moved before they got there. The scientists, their data, their prototypes, they got nothing but a trace.

Liara waited for the others to pile into the room. None of them looked any happier than she did. They were all still battered, bruised and chewing on the terrible taste of defeat. Nel still had bandages over her cuts and Saya's arm was still recovering in a sling. There was no denying it, today had been a loss and in more ways than one. Vik looked particularly disappointed. For a moment, Liara feared the worst, but Vik's news wasn't what she feared.

"The trace worked," he said. "I slapped it together pretty haphazard like, so at this range I can only tell you what planet the data and the Network connection itself is on. But I got a location."

"So what's the problem?" Liara asked glumly, reading his face easily.

Vik sighed slightly and put an OSD into the holo-map. Moments later, a nebula appeared, Kite's Nest, Batarian Space. It then zeroed in one singular system and one particular planet. And it was the worst possible planet it could be on.

"Khar'Shan?" Wrex spoke up in disbelief. "You mean to tell me everything on that data terminal was sent to the friggin batarian home planet? Right in the middle of Hegemony space!"

"Don't shoot the messenger," Vik replied simply. "I said we'd find where they had transferred all the data and the next link in their Network. I can't control which storage dump they sent it too."

"What's the big deal then?" Nel asked. "Just crack into it! You got the trace, you know where it is."

Vik shook his head and let out and exasperated sigh.

"I cannot just break into a Hegemony Military Data Dump Store on a whim," he explained. "The trace is only sending me an address and the signal itself is weak. It doesn't receive information, it only sends. I can't tell it to do anything. The only thing we're going to get from the trace worm is its location and it's not even a precise one. I need to get closer to get exact coordinates."

"So what would you ultimately need to do?" Liara asked him.

"I'd need to go manual on this," Vik informed her. "Hegemony security like this isn't gonna crack unless I have time. Even if I could somehow wirelessly tap into the computer using the trace, I'd still need to work through walls of encryption. There's no way I'd be able to hide that I'm digging around their network from afar. They'd be able to figure out that I'm transmitting from a ship, they'd lock onto us and then we'd be at the other end of the spear."

"So what?" Nel asked angrily. "You're saying we're back to square one? We need to find another damn network terminal on our own?"

Vik was silent for a moment but then reluctantly nodded his head. Wrex moved over to comfort Liara with a hand on her shoulder and even Saya shook his head in disappointment at it all.

But Nel wasn't having it.

"Hey, knock off the pity party," she spoke up suddenly. "Look, there's a simple solution here. We go to Khar'Shan, we find the Data Dump and we swipe it there."

Everyone looked at Nel, all of them wondering if is she was being serious. The look on her face suggested she was. Vik, laughed in derision at that moment.

"Oh, brilliant," he said mockingly. "And then what? We all die, right? Do you even realise what you're talking about here?"

Vik pointed towards the holographic planet in front of them, his silvery eyes piecing through his helmet in anger. If he didn't have a visor, he'd probably be spitting everywhere as he talked.

"That... place... that whole fucking planet is the belly of the proverbial beast!" He declared. "Hegemony space is one thing. This is the planet where the Hegemony government is based. So far, we've been fighting a bunch of Black Ops soldiers posing as terrorists, corporate stooges with axes to grind and a disparate amount of zealous bosh'tets from beyond our universe. That planet is full of a bunch of fascist slaving murderous monsters that have been successfully crushing their people beneath their boots for centuries. And while they may exaggerate their military strength, they still have tons of tanks, bombs, gunships, missiles, and fanatical Warrior Caste soldiers armed to the teeth with state of the art weaponry. Khar'Shan isn't just the backyard for the Swords and Balak. It's inside their damn house!"

Vik looked back at Nel with an angered look.

"And you want to just waltz in and fight every last one of them?" Vik asked her in kind. "Are you sure I'm the crazy one here? What you're suggesting is suicide!"

"I've done harder Ops back in the military," Nel replied. "Dropping into hostile territory is common when you're facing Sepies."

"These aren't Sepies," Vik told her, his eyes growing even more furious. "Aren't you even listening? Going into Hegemony space to retrieve Military Intelligence from them is the equivalent of one of my people going straight to our Home World, alone, surrounded by billions of Geth, all of them ready to gun him down. We wouldn't last a day in the open. I'm not going to be part of some damned action vid fantasy just so you can get some sort of glory fix."

"Don't tell me you wouldn't love to cause some mayhem on that shitpile," Nel replied derisively. "I mean, you obviously hate them enough."

"Not enough to risk my life when there are other options available," Vik explained. "We can just find another Network terminal and try again there. May take time, but at least there's a feasible chance of pulling that off. Going to Khar'Shan is just gonna end up with all of us dead."

Vik was right to be so cautious. Trying to go into Hegemony space was a dangerous idea. Going to Khar'Shan was an even riskier idea. Ignoring the fact they'd be completely outnumbered, they'd also be in unfamiliar territory. While she had a few contacts on the planet, the ShadowNet had never been able to infiltrate any of the higher levels of the Hegemony government. Khar'Shan was a mystery to her and she could not rely on her Network there.

And there was still the question of the team. No one was to really blame for what happened today, but it was clear they weren't working as well as a unit as she hoped. They had mostly remained on their own, and while they were getting used to working together, there was still conflict among them. With all their problems, all their faults, could they handle something as dangerous as this?

But, in the end, all she could really think about was Ben. She had lost people before, friends and family, and he wasn't the only one of her operatives to die today. But he died in an effort to save her, to give them a chance. She had told him, as he died, that he had essentially accomplished the mission. She had lied to him. What kind of a person would she be if she let that stand as it was now? If she admitted that the sacrifice had been in vain and that everyone today who had died had given their lives for nothing?

She'd be the same person who let Shepard die. And that was not an option for her.

"So far, Balak and the Covenant have been two moves ahead us." She spoke up at last, turning her gaze to the holographic Khar'Shan. "The best we've been able to manage is following in their footsteps and hoping it turns up something we can use. We haven't really accomplished anything, we've just been hitting them constantly, but they're not backing down. What we're doing now is not enough."

Wrex looked at her with concern in his eyes.

"What are you saying?" He asked her.

"I'm saying, I'm done running around grasping at loose threads in hopes of a lead," she explained. "I'm done letting them think they're ahead of us. We need to get inside their network. We need to find out where they're operating out of, what they're planning and where this dimensional Communication Relay is. That data dump is the key to all of that. Right now, they think they've plugged a potential leak before it started. We're going to prove them wrong."

"Wait, are you suggesting what I think you are?" Vik asked, sounding very worried.

"We're going to hit them on their home turf for once," Liara declared. "We're going to Khar'Shan."

The room fell silent and everyone just stared at Liara over the course of a minute. Wrex was the first to speak up.

"How would we even get there?" He asked. "I know this ship has a stealth drive, but there's a pretty good chance we're gonna cause some kind of a scene trying to land there."

"We won't have to land the ship there," Liara assured him. "We can pay off someone to smuggle us in. I have contacts that can get us in on a routine freighter bound for the planet in no time. There, we can meet up with one of my operatives on the ground and they can get us a safehouse for the duration of our stay. We can have the Lucen waiting to pick us up when we need it just beyond the relay."

Liara was confident in the plan, but could tell there were still concerns about it among the group. She looked back at them, her voice even and her posture firm and upright.

"I can't ask any of you to come with me," Liara admitted. "Not knowing how dangerous this is. But today, we lost a lot of good people just to be given a second shot at this. We didn't get out unscathed ourselves either. So I'll understand if you want to stay behind, but I'd prefer it if you did come. We may all have our own issues and our problems with each other, but that doesn't matter now. We need to come together, or everything we've accomplished so far will have been for nothing."

There was another moment of silence as the group all looked at each other, trying to gauge how they all felt about the situation. Nel was the first to speak up this time.

"Well, I'm in," she stated. "Fuck, I suggested the idea in the first place after all."

Liara turned to Kayap who simply nodded at her.

"I go where you go, Leader T'Soni," he proclaimed.

Liara looked to Saya. For awhile he looked back rather plainly, before making a standard Salarian military salute. That was all she needed to know, he was in too.

She then looked to Vik. He peered around at the room through his visor. Everyone was looking at him now. He didn't answer for awhile, the gears in his head turning no doubt. He fumbled with his hands and Liara thought he heard him mumbling something to himself under his breath.

"I suppose I was the one who sent the trace," he admitted. "My dad always said you should complete what you start. I guess I'm coming too... but this is still crazy."

Liara couldn't exactly argue with him, because he was right in a sense. The only person who hadn't answered was Wrex. She turned to him, only for the krogan to give her a hard look.

"Are you sure about this?" He asked, a sense of worry in his voice.

Liara just stared back at him in kind. The steadfast look in her eyes was all he needed to see.

"Alright, Liara," he relented. "But I really hope you know what you're doing."

Liara just smiled back at Wrex, she knew she could count on him. Now that she knew the team was with her, she liked their odds a lot more. Going to the heart of the enemy would not be an easy mission, she knew that. Even with everyone behind her, there was still a chance some of them wouldn't get out alive. But she had to do it. She needed to find Shepard, she needed to find that trans-dimensional communications relay. She needed Ben's sacrifice to mean something, her men's deaths to mean something.

She would not make herself a liar, never again.

---

AN: So, I killed Ben. I bet you thought since I named him he was saved. That he'd be our Kowalski for the Liara storyline. Shows what you know. XD

Anyway, now you know what's next for our beloved Shadow Broker. Khar'Shan, the oft referenced den of evil that houses the Batarian Hegemony, it should be a wonderful vacation. Speaking of fun in the sun, we have to get back to Halo and see how Shepard and Chief are doing. Next chapter is the lead up to the beloved Silent Cartographer level. Till then, read and review, check out the TV Tropes page if you're able and stay awesome you wonderful people you. Check out my profile for more of my thoughts on this chapter and I'll see you again soon.