The squad had been crammed into the mako shooting down geth for nearly two hours since they'd landed on Virmire. Garrus had promised it was a tropical planet, with cool waters and sandy beaches not unlike his home of Palaven. Virmire had all of those things, in fact, but it also had geth, more geth than they had seen on Therum and Feros combined, storming them from every angle. It was all Garrus, Shepard, and Tali could do to keep up with all of them; the mako's shields were taking hard hits everywhere they turned.

The Normandy couldn't land until they took out the AA guns the geth seemed to have control over, so after hours of shooting geth in the mako, they'd had a brief reprieve at a series of gatehouses shooting geth on foot, bringing down the AA towers, and then they were back in the mako shooting more geth in the cramped, uncomfortable space. Joker had already radioed in that he was waiting for them at the Salarian base camp, but it seemed it would be some time before they met him there.

Shepard hadn't spoken to Garrus at all about their brief encounter on the observation deck, nor had he brought it up. They were both steadfastly ignoring that anything had happened at all, though it was ever-present in Shepard's mind as she was crammed against the turian in the front seat of the mako. It seemed irrelevant though, considering the heavy geth bombardment they were facing, and whatever awaited them beyond the Salarian base camp.

They had seen a massive structure surrounded by defense towers as they made their way to the mako's drop point, but as to what it was, that was unclear. Shepard was sure Saren had something to do with it.

"Up ahead!" Garrus said. "I see the Normandy."

"Thank God!" Ash cried. "When can we blow this thing up, commander? I'll die happy if I never have to ride in it again."

"One day, Ash, I promise."

Shepard brought the mako to a halt and the squad piled out, trudging through knee deep water toward the Salarian base camp on the shore. It was no more than a series of tents, heavy-duty tents to be sure, but still just tents. Behind the base camp in the distance stood the structure they'd seen when they'd flown in, surrounded by defense towers.

There was nothing like water and sand to make even the most graceful soldier feel like an elcor, Shepard decided, wading through the water with a slow, unbalanced gait. Garrus was the only one who didn't seem to be hindered by it, but he had the unfair advantage of having grown up on a planet similar to this one.

The Salarian captain was waiting for them when they reached the shore, arms folded over his chest, arguing with Joker.

"What's the situation here?" Shepard asked when she reached them.

"He's grounded us, commander. I've been trying to make him see we're here to answer their distress call and get them out of this geth-ridden hellhole, but he doesn't want to hear it."

"Captain Kirrahe, Third Infiltration Regiment STG," the salarian ignored Joker, extending a hand to Shepard. "I'm afraid your ship's landed in a hot zone. Every AA gun within ten miles knows you're here now. I understand you took out some of the guns on the southern coast, but Saren's research laboratory is well equipped as well. You'll have to wait here until the Council sends reinforcements."

"We are the reinforcements," Garrus said from Shepard's side.

"What!?" Kirrahe was furious. "I told the Council to send a fleet."

"They couldn't interpret your transmission, so they sent me to investigate. The geth were probably jamming the comm lines," Shepard said. "We're all you've got."

"Investigate? Why do you think we're here? I lost half of my troops investigating this place," Kirrahe complained.

"You said this is Saren's facility?" Shepard asked.

"Yes, a research facility. But it's crawling with geth…and heavily fortified as you can see. We haven't been able to infiltrate it, though we have intercepted some comms about Saren."

"Is Saren here?" Garrus asked, bristling.

"I don't know," Kirrahe shrugged. "It's possible."

"What could Saren need a research facility for?" Shepard pondered aloud.

"He's breeding an army of krogan," Kirrahe replied, as if this were a perfectly natural response and not something that should be physically impossible.

Before Shepard could speak again, Wrex moved forward. "How is that possible?" he demanded.

"Apparently Saren has discovered a cure for the genophage," the salarian sounded more exasperated than anything else, perfectly blasé about a cure for a disease that had nearly wiped out the entire krogan population.

The entire squad turned their attention to Wrex. Shepard was rightfully concerned about what might happen next, tensing up before the krogan even spoke. He didn't get a chance to say anything before Ash butted in, however.

"An army of geth and now an army of krogan?" She said. "The galaxy won't stand a chance against Saren if he pulls that off."

"That was the Council's concern on my last report," Kirrahe said. "And a concern of mine as well. Our plan turned from investigation to sabotage. We need to ensure that this facility and its secrets are destroyed. No one can afford to let Saren leave this place with an army of krogan."

Wrex had had enough. "Destroyed? You talk about the krogan like we're some sub-sapient species. My people are dying. You think I'm going to let you just destroy a chance to save them?"

"If the cure leaves the planet, the krogan will become unstoppable," Kirrahe addressed Shepard rather than Wrex. "We can't make that mistake again."

Wrex grabbed the captain by the collar of his shirt. "Call me a mistake again, captain. You'll wish you hadn't."

"Wrex…" Shepard put a hand on his shoulder.

He swatted her hand away. "Don't act like you understand, human."

He dropped the salarian in the sand and stormed off down the shore to brood; Shepard was just thankful the situation hadn't escalated further. Garrus helped captain Kirrahe to his feet.

"Is he going to be a problem?" the salarian asked. "We have enough krogan to deal with."

"I'll talk to him," Shepard assured him. "Surely you can understand why he might be upset."

"I have more important concerns than the feelings of a krogan. My men and I have to form a new plan of attack for infiltrating Saren's base. You can go and talk to the krogan in the meantime. Hopefully he'll see reason."

The salarian captain dismissed himself and withdrew into one of the nearby tents to speak with his men. Shepard turned her attention to the squad.

"Wrex is going to blow a gasket," Ash said. "We've got to diffuse this situation before someone gets hurt."

"We can't reasonably leave this planet without destroying the cure," Garrus told them. "Wrex won't understand, but if the krogan were allowed to reproduce unchecked again…there's no way to control their numbers. They reproduce very quickly. And if these krogan are being indoctrinated by Saren and his ship…that's a much bigger issue."

"I'm aware of the problem," Shepard said, more of an edge to her voice than she intended. Garrus looked momentarily hurt by her tone, but he quickly wiped any sign of surprise from his face.

"What will you do, Shepard?" Kaidan asked.

Shepard stared down the shore to where Wrex was firing his gun at a rock jutting out of the water. If she didn't diffuse the situation, she could absolutely see Wrex hurting someone to justify his ends. He'd attacked her in the comm room over the rachni queen after all, and that hadn't affected the salvation of his people. Nevertheless, she had reasoned with him later. Wrex was a valuable, if not volatile, ally. She didn't want things to come to blows over this, but she agreed that there was no way they could let the cure leave this planet. There were too many unknowns.

"I'll talk to him," Shepard shrugged.

"Just…be careful," Garrus said, placing a hand gently on her arm.

"I'll be fine," she assured him.

Even though she knew that Garrus trusted both her combat and reasoning skills, she could see him out of the corner of her eye as she headed toward Wrex, pretending to examine his gun, really preparing to fire from a distance if necessary. She hoped he wouldn't have to.

"Shepard," Wrex grunted as she approached. He continued firing off his gun, not moving to meet her gaze. "You had better have a damn good reason for wanting to destroy a cure for something that's been plaguing my people for hundreds of years."

"Wrex, you know this isn't a black and white issue," Shepard spoke firmly.

"No. What I do know is that I have a chance to save my people."

"At what cost? Allying with Saren?"

"Saren's the one who has a cure for the genophage. You want to destroy it. The way I see it, the line between friend and foe is getting pretty blurry on both sides." The krogan finally faced her, still clutching his gun tightly in one hand, fire burning in his large red eyes.

"But we don't even know how Saren is building this army of krogan. It's possible that it's not a cure as much as a…creation. We don't know anything about it. What we do know is that Saren is going to use those krogan as tools until they're no longer useful to him. And if he does that, you might not even be around to reap the benefits of his cure."

Wrex got in her face then, too close for comfort, certainly close enough to take her down in hand-to-hand combat.

"That's a risk I'm willing to take. You're going to need a better reason than that to justify throwing away the future of my entire species."

"Do you think this is an easy choice for me, Wrex? It's not." Shepard shoved him forcefully. "I never in my life thought I would call a krogan my friend. But you are my friend, Wrex. If the circumstances were different…if this didn't all fall into Saren's hands, I swear on my life I would help you find a way to cure the genophage. But this isn't a cure. It's a weapon." She thought she saw a hint of understanding gleaming behind the anger in his eyes. "I can't pretend to even come close to comprehending what it's been like for you and the other krogan. Hundreds of years watching your numbers dwindle while the races around you continue to grow and spread. I know it must be one of the hardest things any person has had to endure. But don't let that emotion blind you, Wrex. Don't leave this in Saren's hands."

Wrex stared at her, eyebrows furrowed in uncertainty. Slowly, she could see the rage draining from his face. He stepped back and holstered his gun.

"I won't allow my people to be tools for anyone ever again. When we find a cure for the genophage, it will be on our own terms. I still don't know about this plan, but I trust you enough to follow your lead."

"Thank you, Wrex," Shepard breathed a sigh of relief.

"One more thing, Shepard," Wrex said as she moved to return to the camp.

"What's that?"

"Tell Garrus if he points his gun at my head again I'm going to snap it in two."

"I'll relay the message."

She returned to the squad, all of them pretending they hadn't been watching the entire conversation she'd had with Wrex. All except Garrus, who greeted her with a subtle nod.

"I knew you'd be able to talk him down," he said.

"Wrex said if you ever point your gun at him again he's going to turn it into a pretzel," Shepard warned him.

"I wasn't pointing it at him…" Garrus was a bad liar. "I was, uh, checking the scope." His shoulders dropped and he sighed. "I'm sorry, but he was really close to you and I thought we were going to have a replay of your altercation in the comm room."

"It's fine, Garrus. It's good to know you have my back."

"Always, Shepard."

Captain Kirrahe approached them a moment later. Shepard had a hard time reading salarian facial expressions, but she thought even the captain looked relieved.

"Commander Shepard, thank you for talking to the krogan. We have enough on our plate without worrying about him."

"Have you come up with a plan?" Shepard asked.

"Yes, and we'll need your help to carry it through," Kirrahe said gravely.

"Anything we can do to help. We have a common goal here, captain."

"We've worked out that we can convert our ship's drive system into a twenty-kiloton ordinance. Crude, but effective. Detonating it will take out everything within a three-hundred-mile radius."

"So we drop it from the sky and nuke Saren to oblivion. Nice," Ash nodded.

Kirrahe shook his head. "The facility is too well fortified for a drop from above. We'll have to infiltrate the base and place it at a precise location. Once we do so, we'll have a limited amount of time to get aboard the Normandy and off of this planet before we're caught in the blast."

"We don't have enough men to take that base," Kaidan complained. "It's a suicide mission."

"We have limited options," Kirrahe shrugged. "I'm going to divide my men into three teams to take the front of the facility. This should open an opportunity for you to sneak in through the back. You can assist us by taking out the geth satellite uplinks and communications towers."

Shepard recognized that this was the best option. This plan would ensure that someone got into the facility to allow access to plant the bomb. There was no way that all of them would make it out alive though, not with the sheer number of geth that awaited them.

"Captain, it's a good plan, but your people are going to get slaughtered," she said honestly.

Kirrahe shook his head. "We're tougher than we look, commander. But I acknowledge that most of us won't make it out alive. Which is what makes what I'm about to ask even harder. I need one of your squad to join us: to help coordinate the teams."

"What?" Shepard felt like she'd had the wind knocked out of her. It made sense, she knew, but to have to ask that of one of her squad…

She didn't have to think about it long. Both Kaidan and Ash stepped forward to volunteer.

"The captain has a good plan," Kaidan said. "We need all the teams at their best. I can go with him and help out."

"Wait a minute, I want a say in this too," Ash complained. "Shepard will need you with her squad to arm the nuke. I've got ample ground combat experience. I think I'd be well suited for this role, commander."

"With all due respect, Ash, it isn't your decision," Kaidan said bitingly.

"Why is it that when someone says 'with all due respect', what they really mean is 'kiss my ass'?" She growled.

"Enough. I'll make a choice," Shepard sighed.

They waited expectantly. How was Shepard supposed to choose? She couldn't send Kaidan. He'd been with her crew longer than anyone else and she cared about him too much. But she liked Ash too, and time and time again the gunnery chief had proven her worth as a soldier. These were two skilled soldiers in the prime of their careers. How could she relegate one to a potential death sentence?

She had to follow her gut instinct.

"Ash, you can go with Kirrahe," She said before she could change her mind. When Kaidan started to protest, she cut him off. "Ash is right. We need you to arm the bomb. You stay with us."

Ash saluted, "I'll make you proud, commander."

Shepard put both hands on Ash's shoulders. "You can make me proud by getting through this alive and meeting us back at the ship. Understood?"

"Yes ma'am!"

Kirrahe assembled his men to give a final speech before they began their assault on Saren's research facility. Shepard hung back, feeling uneasy about the decision she'd had to make. Garrus stood by her side.

"Ash will be okay," he told her. "She's the best choice for this job. We'll see her on the other side."

"I hope you're right," Shepard said. "It's a decision I've rarely had to make on the field. Don't get me wrong, I always feel accountable for what happens to my squad, but this…if something happens to her, it will be my fault."

"War is hell, Shepard. You can't change that. If something happens to her, it will be Saren's fault," he placed a hand gently against her shoulder. There was something intensely comforting about the act. A part of her wanted to embrace him then, but she held off, remaining stoic in the face of the impending battle.

"Our influence will stop Saren!" Kirrahe shouted, his troops rallying. "In battle today, we will hold the line!"

The back route into Saren's facility was through an ocean inlet that divided two sides of the high cliff face around them. Salt water filled the pass, as high as Garrus' knees, but higher still on his companions. Shepard was a full foot shorter than him, almost waist-deep in the water as she struggled through it.

The air was heavy with the sound of gunfire and the sight of smoke. It felt like being back in training on Palaven, but this war was real. They were closer than ever to Saren, he might even be in the facility as they were approaching; it was thrilling, but also terrifying. Ash's absence was also well noted by the squad. No one said anything about it, but they were all worried about her. As placating as Garrus had tried to be with Shepard, he wasn't positive Ash would make it through the assault. The salarian teams were risking their lives to get the bomb into the facility.

"Commander Shepard, this is Captain Kirrahe," the salarian's voice sounded over her comm link. "Establishing comm connection."

"Roger," Shepard replied quickly.

"We're beginning our assault. We'll try to take down the AA guns, but some of it may be up to you. Disconnecting the geth systems should help us considerably."

"We're on it."

"Shepard," Liara spoke softly. "Do you think the salarians will make it through?"

"We have to hope so," Shepard said, betraying no hint of emotion as she spoke.

"You should have sent me," Kaidan said.

"We aren't having this conversation. Focus on the mission. If you want to make sure Ash gets through this, then we have to help the salarians. We can have a fight about it when we're all safely back on the Normandy."

Kaidan didn't reply, but his face was set in a stony grimace. Garrus understood Shepard's decision; he knew it couldn't have been an easy choice.

Progress was slow going, gunfire breaking through on the comm link occasionally. Eventually the water became shallower and gave way to sandy banks. The squad rounded a corner to find the satellite uplink tower jutting from the cliff-face. Almost as quickly as they noticed it, the geth noticed them.

Cover was thankfully abundant in the area; stones poked up out of the sand all around the uplink tower, allowing the squad to fan out and fire back on the geth making their way down out of the concrete base of the terminal.

Tali sat with her back against the rock where Garrus was also taking cover, clicking away at her omni-tool as she always did in battle. Garrus kept the fire off of her while she worked.

"Do you think we're going to die here, Garrus?" she asked, a strange calmness to her voice.

"Not as long as Shepard's still breathing," he answered honestly. "She'll get us out of this."

"I trust Shepard, but this is a dangerous task we're talking about. Something even she's never faced before."

Garrus fired off a shot at a geth drone and ducked out of the way of a series of shots from two geth shock troopers.

"We just have to do what we can and hope for the best. Follow Shepard's lead and we're less likely to die, I figure."

"I guess that's all we can do," Tali nodded.

They moved to closer cover as the geth began to fall back into the tower. Wrex led a charge up the ramp leading into the tower, taking out two geth troopers with nothing more than his brute strength. Garrus followed their path, up the stairs around the side of the tower. There were two geth at the top, so he lined up a shot and fired from a safe distance. The first geth went flying off the ledge and landed in the sand, sparks flying from its body. The second one managed to clip his shields, and was rewarded with a well-aimed headshot.

The path cleared. Shepard and Wrex went about destroying the uplink terminal at the top of the tower while Tali, Kaidan, Garrus, and Liara kept the entrance clear, scanning the path for any more geth.

A small explosion signaled Shepard's success above. She and Wrex hurried down and they moved on, winding through the narrow pass, closer and closer to Saren's facility.

Occasionally, Kirrahe's voice would break through on the comm link, though he wasn't addressing them. He was yelling at his team to fall back or break through, gunfire drowning out some of his words. Garrus' stomach tensed into a knot. He trusted that Shepard would see them through this, but the more times he heard the confused shouts of the salarians breaking over the line, the more nervous he became.

Around another bend, they were greeted with more geth, coming from seemingly every direction. Directly ahead of them, a set of stairs led up to a skywalk, and the geth comm lines could be seen running to a terminal at the front of it.

Kaidan and Liara worked together to lift an incoming geth juggernaut, though even with their combined power, they struggled to hold it in their mass effect field. Shepard and Wrex shot frantically at the juggernaut while it was suspended, leaving Garrus and Tali to focus on the geth swarming in from the skywalk.

It was always satisfying to see a geth trooper storming their way only to freeze in place and explode on the spot when Tali hacked its systems. Not being overwhelmed with geth in his immediate vicinity certainly made it easier for Garrus to take down the ones that were further away.

Kaidan and Liara dropped the juggernaut when it was sufficiently riddled with bullets and split up to take on smaller targets. Shepard was firing at an approaching trooper, and didn't see the geth prime behind her. Garrus moved quickly and fired on it, distracting it long enough to reload his thermal clip and fire again. The prime fell to the ground just as Shepard turned and noticed its presence.

"Good looking out, Garrus," she called before she hurried up the stairs onto the skywalk.

The rest of them pressed forward, surrounding Shepard as she made her way to the comm line terminal. Geth were still incoming from further ahead on the skywalk, and Garrus could make out a krogan preparing to charge.

Wrex stepped up to the plate, knocking two geth into the cliff-face and charging on the approaching krogan. Their bodies collided at the halfway point with a crash, armor cracking. Wrex grabbed the enemy krogan's head and they spun around, struggling to knock each other off balance.

"Almost done, Shepard?" Garrus asked. He couldn't get a clean shot in to help Wrex, so he watched the fight with concern and impatience.

"Almost…" She chewed her bottom lip anxiously.

Wrex rammed his head against the enemy krogan, dazing his opponent momentarily. This gave Wrex the chance he needed. With the full impact of his body weight, he plowed into the krogan, knocking him into the jagged rocks of the cliff-face. The krogan groaned and struggled to get to his feet, which gave Wrex enough time to draw his gun and blast the enemy krogan in the face. The krogan's blood sprayed forward onto Wrex's armor.

"The path is clear, Shepard," he yelled back to them when the deed was done.

"Comm lines are down, captain," Shepard said into her comm link, rushing forward to meet Wrex.

"Thank you. And hurry!" Kirrahe replied.

The skywalk wrapped around the cliffs jutting up from the sand, ramping up until it reached the back entrance to Saren's research facility. All that stood between them and the facility now were a handful of geth troopers.

"Let's go," Shepard said. "Time's ticking."

A/N: Getting closer to the big Virmire Plot Point! :( Anyway, thanks for reading and commenting! Enjoy!