Disclaimer: I do not own the Mass Effect games. This story is written with no profit in mind. I make no money from it. It isn't for sale or rent.

Chapter 5

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Part 3

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24.04.2183GS

Nova Yekaterinburg

Therum

The shield reset a moment after T'soni flew out of her prison to land right on top of Alenko. The two of them fell down in a tangle of limbs with their target straddling the surprised lieutenant.

"Doctor, you might want to buy Kaidan over there a dinner, and a drink first before you have your wicked way with him." Shepard smirked. The Asari blushed and hurried to scramble away from the Lieutenant, which offered the Spectre an excellent opportunity to tag her with a sedative. A brief look of surprise flashed over T'soni's face before she collapsed in a heap on the ground.

"You caught her, you carry her, LT." Shepard said and called his fellow Spectre. "Vasir, Shepard. I've got the package, put her to sleep too and intent to keep her that way until we can get her to a secure location so we can figure out her status. Any complications on your end?"

"What did you do to my daughter, human?" The Matriarch demanded before Vasir could get a word out.

"Tranquilizers, ma'am. Its safer that way in case your daughter is compromised." Shepard explained with a deceptively calm voice. The last thing any of them needed was a confrontation with a Matriarch, not to mention the Asari frigate in orbit and its crew. The political situation was messed up enough already and it didn't need any further complications.

"Good thinking. We'll escort Dr T'soni to the Citadel, you can follow us with your frigate, Matriarch." Vasir growled. "I will not tolerate any further interference from your end, especially before we can confirm you aren't compromised as well."

"Ladies and gentlemen, let's escort our little princes to the shuttle." Shepard addressed the Turians. "Be ready for anit-biotic combat in case the Matriarch proves hostile." He added and checked his weapons to make sure they all had disruptor ammo on the ready.

"This could have gone better," Kaidan grumbled after picking up the Asari and slinging her over his shoulder with a grunt. She was obviously a bit heavier than she looked.

"Much worse too." Shepard shrugged. "We're within a damned volcano. I'm just glad we didn't have to cut our way in with that laser."

Soon enough they made their way through the new exit dug into the mine. The Turians fanned out in front of them moving in a loose staggered formation, weapons at the ready. They found the Asari where they left them, still arguing, complete with Councilor Tevos' image coming from Vasir's omni-tool, trying to calm them both down.

"Alenko, get the package on a shuttle and up to the Normandy ASAP. I'll run interference and try to defuse the situation." Shepard ordered and walked towards the arguing women. He had his weapons secured on their magnetic pads, however his omni-tool was on and a gesture away from launching attack programs.

The Matriarch froze for a moment when she saw Alenko carting T'soni away and Shepard could have sworn she was a heartbeat away from bioticaly charging or doing something equally unfortunate for everyone involved. He swallowed a lump in his throat, which wasn't there a moment ago, put on his best reassuring smile and began speaking. If the Asari wasn't compromised, there was still time to talk her down. Otherwise, things were about to get very ugly, which would be particularly unfortunately for him considering that he stood in the way of a biotic juggernaut.

"Ma'am, Ms T'soni is safe and sound, sedated for her own safety." He spoke in an as calm and soothing tone as he could. "We don't know if she had been compromised or not, this way she can't hurt herself."

"Shepard speaks sense, Aethyta!" Tevos chimed in. "We have no intention of hurting your daughter, no matter if she has been compromised like Benezia! We want to help her! She is either a victim or a target…"

"And a perfect lab rat to experiment on so you can figure out how Benezia had been mind-fucked."

"All we would attempt would be to reverse such a brainwashing if your daughter has been subjected to it!" Tevos shot back.

"Ladies, may I suggest that we take this conversation up to the Normandy, in case the Geth prove to be sore losers and decide to KKV this area? We don't have enough assets in orbit to properly protect against something like that." Shepard cut in. "My ship is state of the art stealth frigate, the best way to get Dr T'soni away from here and somewhere safe without risking being intercepted by hostile forces." He pointed out.

"I'm not leaving my daughter out of my sight!" The Matriarch glared at him.

"I do sympathize However, we have no way of knowing right now if you've been compromised as well! Hell, you can't necessary know it, Ma'am!" Shepard countered. "Otherwise I would have no issue with you accompanying us back to the Citadel. However, as things stand, I can't risk Dr T'sonis' safety by letting you get any closer to her than you're now."

The Matriarch glared murderously at Shepard and he was sure if the looks could kill, he would be a puddle of steaming goo on the ground, if he was lucky anyway. Aethyta visibly reigned herself in, closed her eyes and lowered her head taking deep breaths and exhaling.

"Shepard, you're heading straight for the Citadel, I'll follow." The Matriarch hissed. "Tevos, mark my words, if anything happens to Liara, there will be hell to pay." The Matriarch pointed at the Councilor's image, gave one long look to her daughter and turned around to march towards the sleek Asari shuttle, which brought her down.

"Well, that was a close one." Vasir grumbled, a hint of regret evident in her voice.

"None of that, young lady!" Tevos glared at the Asari Spectre. "The last thing we need right now is open combat between Spectres and a Matriarch! Shepard, well done. Bring T'soni back to the Citadel ASAP. I'll have security and medical personnel waiting for you."

"Enough of them to subdue the Matriarch without tearing the dock apart around us?" Shepard inquired.

"Yes." Tevos deadpanned. "Have you been able to secure any actionable intelligence from the Geth beyond raw combat data and experience?"

"Our engineers had orders to attempt retrieval of Geth data cores and know how provided by Ms Zorah. At this time I haven't been apprised on the amount of recovered data if any."

"I see. Carry on then." Tevos' image vanished.

"Not a fan of the Matriarch?" Shepard raised an eyebrow at Vasir.

"She's one ancient condescending bitch." The Asari ground out. "Let's get away from this hellhole."

Shepard looked up at the smoke chocked skies. It was more than an apt comparison. "Joker, be ready to break orbit as soon as we're back on board with precious cargo. We're going back to the Citadel." He called the Normandy.

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Part 4

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24.04.2183GS

SSV Normandy

en route to the Citadel

By the time the Normandy broke orbit and headed out of system, she had gained two CDF frigates as escorts in case the Geth ships that fled decided to be sneaky and laid down an ambush at the relay. On the way there, one of the Turian vessels would modify its IFF and pose as the stealth frigate and an escort, while the Human ship would sneak in, ready to ambush any ambushers. That was the plan anyway.

The short delay to gather the escorts had a second benefit – it allowed the CDF marines on the ground to sent up some of the recovered salvage – primary more or less intact Geth weapons and copies of recovered data so it could be dissected back on the Citadel. While Vasir arranged those developments from the CIC, Shepard went to check on their new guests.

There were a dozen wounded recovered from the town on Therum along with their sedated guest who now rested at the Med Bay under heavy guard. Shepard had to wait for Dr Chakwas to finish stitching up a wounded Corporal, because she was still elbow deep in his guts trying to put him back together when he boarded and still working on the poor sod after coming back from the CIC. That gave him a bit of time to check up on the rest of the wounded and call whatever data he could access about them. All of them were survivors from hard contact with the Geth and thus might have something useful to add during their debriefing. It soon became clear that with the obvious exception of the retired Sergeant, most of the others were a smattering of local boys and girls, with a couple of known mercenaries, though none of them had anything to distinguish them in their files.

Massani was a different kettle of fish. Shepard's Spectre credentials allowed him to quickly drag out that man's full file. He had fought in the First Contact War, discharged soon after its conclusion, when his contract expired and he declined multiple offers to renew it. Instead, Massani went out, gathered a few buddies and became one of the founders of the Blue Suns, which was curious. Shepard knew of Vido Santiago – the outfit's current leader, though he hadn't heard of Massani before. It soon became clear why, apparently there had been a conflict between those two when Santiago got the bright idea to hire Batarians. The gist of it was that Santiago pulled off a successful coup, which ended with Massani getting shot in the head and until now had been presumed dead. Unsurprisingly, the moment the Blue Suns began hiring up Batarians, their professionalism had taken a hit and they had become more and more brutal in executing their contracts. That was a double edged sword – it did offered them more job opportunities in Terminus Space, however that came with a relative drought of contracts in Citadel Space. Organizations like Eclipse wasted no time on capitalizing with a PR campaign painting the Suns as little better than the Blood Pack, which didn't help.

What Shepard could drag from Massani's file both during the War and later, as mercenary, was in fact impressive enough he was tempted to try recruit him, mirroring Vasir's strategy of getting people with the appropriate skills on board. However, he wasn't sure if Massani was still the same man after getting shot in the face, not to mention he was likely eager to get payback, which would be one complication they didn't need.

Still, the idea was something to think about. Perhaps he should speak with Vasir and see what she knew about the Blue Suns that hadn't made it into the official record. He was going to dig a bit himself as well, time permitting. However, first he had a doctor to see.

Chakwas appeared from the Med Bay wearing blood-splattered surgical coveralls and waved him to follow. "All closed up and secured, Shepard. I see you've brought me a new patient?" She asked.

"I need you to keep Ms T'soni sedated until we get to the Citadel, just to be on the safe side. A scan for any implants, especially in her brain, won't go amiss."

"You fear she might be brainwashed?" Chakwas inquired. She activated her omni-tool and used it to switch on the medical scanners attached to the bed Dr T'soni slept on.

"That's our best guess about both Saren and her mother. They had both either went insane and decided that working with the Geth is the best idea since discovering the Mass Effect or the two of them are compromised." Shepard confirmed. "If that's the case, who knows who else those tin-cans had managed to mind-fuck."

"That the technical term?" Chakwas snorted.

"It has been the one for longer than any of us has been alive, I recon."

"Preliminary scans show no unexpected foreign objects. The only implant our guest has is her biotic-amp. It could be compromised, I'll grant you that, though they're supposed to be build so that's impossible. I'll scan deeper and give her a full medical check-up while I'm at it. I'll call you if I find anything of note." Chakwas looked at him with a critical eye. "You look like you can use some rest."

"Its the bloody dreams – ever since the Beacon hit me, I've been having nightmares even when stuck into those coffins." Shepard nodded in the general direction of the sleeping pods.

"Well, your brain was pretty active while you were out after that thing blew up in your face." Chakwas looked carefully at him. "I'll give you another check-up once I'm done with the more critical cases. There should be more that enough time for that before we reach the Citadel. I'll want to give you a scan both before and after you go to sleep next time so come see me before that." The doctor ordered.

"Yes, ma'am."

"Good marine." Chakwas smirked.

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An hour later, the Spectres gathered at the hangar, where Tali and many of the engineers without anything more important to do were busy going over captured equipment. There were a few gigabytes of recovered data as well, though much of it was fragmented and corrupted, needing significant amount of work to be of any use. Much of the rest would be useful only to the various military analysts, though there were some gems in there.

"Now we know why the Geth didn't deploy more units on the ground." Tali explained. She sat at a makeshift table made of crates stacked up together and was busy going over the captured data. "At least the Geth Cruiser lacked full compliment of mobile platforms to deploy, though here it doesn't say why. The same might be true for the frigates as well and if they really wanted to retrieve the Asari in one piece, that explains why they didn't bomb the place from orbit. Why they wanted her on the other hand..." The small Quarian shrugged.

That was an excellent question, however an answer would have to wait for Dr T'soni to be cleared and interrogated on the Citadel.

"We've got fragmented data about Geth deployment citing two different clusters in or near Human space," Tali continued and Shepard made note to send that information to command as a priority. "I'm seeing an 'Old Machine' being mentioned multiple times, perhaps it's those Reapers Benezia spoke in the data I captured. It's all fragmented and without context." Tali added sounding apologetic.

"Do we have any solid leads?" Vasir demanded.

"Nothing I've seen so far. Just mention of those clusters and allusions to deployment orders."

"Something to check if we have nothing solid after we hit the Citadel." Shepard said. "If the data isn't immediately useful for tracking down Saren and Benezia, let's get to the Geth equipment. Anything of note there?"

"Now we know how they keep their ridiculous fire-rate, sir." One of the younger engineers, Regina Mayers, raised a small silver cylinder. "They use disposable heat-sinks. The moment their weapons overhead, they pop out the heat-sink, replace it and continue to shoot. No need to wait for the weapon to cool-down."

"And if they run out of heat-sinks?" Vasir inquired. "The primary reason everyone uses the current type of weapons is because when combined with omni-tools they had zero logistics footprint – no need to ship spare parts or ammo."

"The Geth guns do have integrated ammo-blocs just like ours, as well as dedicated cooling system as well. However, from what we've seen, having both the heat-sink system and the regular cooling is the reason why they're so bulky and heavy – most people would have issue carrying them around and shooting. Those are more like squad support weapons than regular rifles. Their SAW equivalents are much larger and heavier as well."

"Then it's a no go until people figure out how to add both in a dedicated package, at least as far as mass deployment goes." Vasir concluded.