A.N./Sorry for the wait everybody, but the next chapter is finally here!

Errr… no real excuse for why it took so long to write this other than I got stuck quite a bit, I wanted to finish up A Thorny and Lost Rose first, and my job soaking up lots of my time.

Lemme tell ya, working for an arms manufacturer can be frustrating as all hell.

Also, feel free to PM me if you have a question or just leave a review, I WILL reply if I am able. It may not always be quick, but I will do my best.

Anyway! Without further adieu! Enjoy the chapter!

Chapter 7: Feros and "Fun"

"Saren." He flinched so hard that he practically leapt out of his carapace when the deep and imposing voice of Sovereign echoed throughout the command center he set up in the depths of the sentient dreadnought. Just like his base back on Virmire a red hologram of the Reaper appeared before him, and he bowed his head respectfully to the ancient being.

"Sovereign! What do you request of me?"

"You failed to acquire the Asari's daughter."

He winced. "A minor setback I assure you!"

A deep thrum echoed throughout the colossal mechanical body of Sovereign and a chill seemed to work its way into his very bones. "I enlisted your help because I believed you to be useful, yet you have failed me."

He swallowed back his nervousness. "With all due respect, I can only do so much to ensure an objective will be accomplished if I am not present."

The ensuing silence set his nerves on edge.

"Your response is… understandable, but do not continue to fail me, Saren. Otherwise I shall deem you useless and resort to less… subtle methods to achieve my goals."

He suppressed a shiver at the unspoken threat. "Your will be done, Sovereign."

Sovereign didn't respond, and the hologram faded. Instead, emerging from the shadows like some sort of evil spirit came Benezia, staring at him expectantly. Whatever Sovereign had done to her reduced the once powerful Matriarch into little more than a hollow shell of what she once was, and now she gave off this perpetually creepy aura as she blindly did whatever Sovereign instructed her to.

On Virmire he had several labs dedicated to studying the phenomena, but it yielded very minor results. The best he could tell, it was some form of energy that Sovereign passively exuded, but for whatever reason left his mind completely intact.

And that scared him.

It had been a day since they'd recruited Liara and he once again found himself sitting on his puppets cot watching a movie with some of the crew. This time it was another ancient film, but in a style that was very popular; especially on the Citadel.

Buddy cop.

Shepard and Garrus would only see a movie following two newly partnered cops busting drugs in their slick red car with the help of a snitch. It was enjoyable, but he saw a classic buddy cop film. Although, most back from his time would debate if the film was actually good or not.

"Despite the over exaggeration of this movie, many of these personalities actually exist in C-SEC."

He raised a white brow at Garrus. "No shit?"

"Spirits." Garrus laughed. "I'm basically the stereotype of a "loose cannon cop" and Chellick was the grizzled veteran while Executor Pallin was the Chief who'd berate us for breaking the rules to get stuff done."

He barked out a short laugh. "Oh my god, you're serious! You even had a back alley shootout with some goons who set you on the path of a big criminal!"

They all shared a couple of laughs before going back to the movie. "I'm actually a little surprised you're so casual with me."

He raised an eyebrow at Garrus who made an offhand comment to his puppet. A comment that he could see caught Shepards silent attention.

"Oh really?"

Garrus nodded. "Most humans I met before joining the crew were not particularly fond of Turians or were indifferent to the point of ignoring me."

He scoffed lightly, good 'ol racism towards a perceived enemy. "You kidding me? Turian's fucking rule!"

Garrus turned his head sharply away from the movie to look at her as if he couldn't believe what he was hearing.

"Uh… spirits, I think I misheard you."

"Nope." He said popping the p. "Turians are cool, Krogans are cool, Batarians… are occasionally tolerable, Elcor are awesome, mixed feelings on Drell and Hanar, no comment on Vorcha, Volus… exist, Quarians are cool, I absolutely loathe Asari as a whole, and I do not trust Salarians."

Garrus's flanges hung open in shock, and he saw Shepard have to force his own mouth shut at such a proclamation. "I mean, what's not to like about Turians? Militaristic, and typically very practically minded. Plus, you guys look cool."

"I am not certain if that's racist, but thank you? You're not upset about the whole incident at Shanxi?" Garrus paused. "Wait, what was that about hating Asari?"

"Shanxi happened before I was born and doesn't bother me in the slightest." He forced Alaya to groan in annoyance. "Okay to explain, I hate the Asari's parasitic culture, and not the Asari as individuals." Untrue, he actually despised that species of blue harlots.

"Parasitic?"

Finally! He can talk about one of the many reasons the Asari are the absolute worst species in the galaxy! "They actively shun mating between two Asari and instead go out to mate with other species, which doubles the rate their species would be able to reproduce naturally while also diminishing the rate at which other species would naturally reproduce. They slowly subsume other cultures into their own over their incredibly long lives by exerting their reputation and influence in all parts of galactic society, and have possibly been slowly "eliminating" any potential rivals to their influence as soon as they craft an opportunity."

Shepard and Garrus shared a look, while a few of the nearby crew scoffed before moving on. "Some of that is more conspiracy than fact."

He had to suppress an eye roll. "Worked for Shadow Broker regularly, remember? Conspiracy is my whole life."

"Heh, fair." Garrus admitted, but the ex-cop didn't even know the funny irony of what he told him. Being the Shadow Broker is a fact that will never cease to amuse him. Back to the topic of Asari, he can't exactly just tell them about the massive repository of Prothean knowledge under the Temple of Athame that the Asari have been exploiting for centuries to keep ahead of the rest of the Galaxy; which was in direct violation of a law that they wrote. It wasn't the right time, nor would he be able to prove the complete fucking hypocrisy of the entire Asari species within the guise of simple merc Alaya.

The future was another matter entirely, but for now… "Also, the superiority complex and holier than thou attitude that all of them have violently grates against my nerves."

"Spirits, you too? The few matrons in C-SEC always felt like they were talking down to me."

"Yeah, it's like they took the saying "with age comes wisdom" a little too much to heart." It feels so good to trash talk the Asari, good catharsis to vent about things he hates. "So, Shepard. Been a little quiet today, how's the shipment of the new gear I paid for coming along?"

The N7 rolled his eyes with a smile. "We'll be picking it up when we stop at Arcturus on our way to Earth."

He had to hold back his emotions lest he show his deep seated longing at the idea of seeing Earth once more. It had been almost twenty years since he had been ripped from humanity's cradle and thrown into his Reaper body. Is this how the Quarians felt? Constant longing for a home they'd been ripped from? Or perhaps like what the Geth feel about the Quarians? A yearning for what had been lost to once again return?

Fuck, he missed home.

With some reluctance, he left that thought train behind him and returned to the conversation. "Earth? Why in the hell would we be going there?"

Shepard shrugged. "Same reason I go anywhere, orders. There's been some sort of incident on Luna and I've been tasked with dealing with it."

He raised a questioning brow despite knowing full well what was going on. "Must be quite the incident if they're tasking a stealth frigate several jumps away to take care of it instead of using in-system forces."

Shepard simply shook his head, indicating that he wasn't allowed to say anything more for now, and he raised his puppet's arms in surrender before turning back to the movie.

Nonetheless, the next day of transit was rather boring all things considered. The only thing of note were some playful barbs traded between him and Ashley or actually spiteful ones between him and Liara. It appears showing an open dislike for Liara has earned him some brownie points from the resident xenophobe. Whether or not that was a good thing is still up for debate in his mind, but he'll take it.

Soon enough, the squad was all geared up in their fancy new equipment and dropping onto the surface of the moon. Numerous turrets, a thresher maw, and a few drones later they were primed and ready to clear some drone filled bunkers.

They exited the Mako, and stepped onto the surface of Luna; feeling its low gravity "lighten" their bodies. Looking up he saw it, that blue orb where everything started, and here he stood on the surface where two centuries ago mankind took its first great leap into the stars. Standing here he saw the same thing his heroes did, just how small they all are to the cosmos, and it was beautiful. Oh how he wished to go there; to see it at least one last time before the Reapers invaded. Perhaps he may do so after Saren was caught by Shepard, but for now he must content himself with viewing it from a distance. "Alaya, let's move! We gotta clear out these servers and report to Hackett about that thresher maw we fought."

"Roger!" Right, time to kill EDI, and maybe snag a hunk of salvage for Tali.

Feros. A planet covered in useless ruins, home to the worst plant to ever fucking live, and he was stuck on the ship. How exciting. Ah well, at least he gets to hang out in the cockpit with joker. "So, Joker?"

"That's my name, don't wear it out."

He rolled his puppet's eyes good naturedly. "You've got vrolik's syndrome, right?"

Joker paused in his work, seemingly caught off guard, before turning to Alaya and giving the clone puppet a curious glare. "What of it?"

Absently, he hacked into Exogeni records to gain some more information on the colony, and raised pale arms in surrender. "Nothing at all, I was just curious as to why you didn't go through bone reinforcement surgery?"

Joker scoffed. "And risk being permanently crippled the rest of my life? Yeah, no thank you."

Hmmm… it seems the colony has a population of just under two hundred according to Exogeni records. Maybe a bunch were killed by the Geth off-screen in the game? Or was it simply laziness on the developers' part? After all, no colony could possibly be sustained by only a few dozen people. He wondered how many of the colonists were actually left on this wretched planet? Same as the amount shown in the former video game, or was there more? "You're already crippled."

"You know what I mean."

He did, but that's not the point. "Joker, if you trip and land wrong you'll be permanently maimed. Bone reinforcement would quite literally solve your medical issues."

"Or it could kill me." Joker shot back. "Getting my bones coated in metal isn't exactly the safest of medical operations."

He raised his puppet's hands in mock surrender. "I'm just saying. The operation has come pretty far these past few years, was just wondering is all."

Joker snorted. "Yeah? Well it could be the safest surgery in the galaxy, but it doesn't matter if I can't afford it. Those surgeries cost a fortune."

The thought of offering to pay for it crossed his mind, but he and Joker were barely passed the point of being friendly coworkers in this universe. So, offering to pay for a life changing surgery would be more than a little suspicious. With that conversation entering a lull, he went back to watching the comms and waiting for the shore party to destroy the jammer. Although, judging from the sluggish rate at which they're grinding through the Geth it'll be another hour or so. "I've got an old joke for you."

Joker raised a brow. "How old?"

"World War Two."

The frail pilot whistled in appreciation. "That's practically ancient. Alright, hit me."

"Three Nazis are walking around Paris, and they hear some gunfire. Turning the corner, they walk right into a BAR and are immediately shot dead."

Joker looked at him blankly before immediately searching the extranet for context. After a minute he let out a short laugh. "Alright, with context? It's a little funny, but c'mon! That joke is so old most people would barely understand it."

"Uneducated fools, the lot of them." He joked.

"Heh." Joker leaned back in thought before quickly leaning forward. "Alright, I got one."

"Hit me."

"Knock knock." He snorted in a vain attempt to hold back a laugh and Joker smiled.

"Who's there?"

Joker, in a complete monotone, replied. "Incompletely, an Elcor."

They both burst into laughter at the quite frankly horrid joke, and so went the next hour of back and forth jokes. Until he received a data ping that is. He kept up the jokes, but immediately started dissecting the data, and it was definitely interesting. It seems the Systems Alliance President had an extramarital affair with the clone infiltrator who acted as his secretary and ended up impregnating her. Putting aside the possibilities this creates for deep cover clone operatives, specifically because he wasn't certain if the clones could even produce children, it was an absolutely delightful piece of blackmail on top of the complete fucking mountain he already had on the politicians of humanity that he fully intends to use in order to make sure the galactic leaders stay in line and prepare for the Reapers.

"Shore party to Normandy."

He paused his joking with the crippled pilot and activated the comms. "Shore party this is Normandy, how copy?"

There was a pause. "…we've secured the colony against further attacks and destroyed a Geth jammer. Requesting the Mako be deployed on the damaged roadway connecting the two towers."

"Err… standby." He turned his puppet to face Joker. "You think we can do that?"

Joker shrugged. "If I angle the Normandy right, sure."

He nodded Alaya's head. "Shore party, eta on Mako delivery is approx seven mikes, how copy?"

"Copy that." The line went dead, and he directed his puppet out of its seat. "Where're you going?"

He cast a brief look back at Joker before resuming his stride. "Imma go and prep the Mako."

"See ya." An over the shoulder wave was the response he gave the pilot, and headed down to the hangar. While waiting in the elevator he thought about the Geth, and his slight betrayal by creating this timelines' version of the heretic Geth. Had he overstepped his bounds? Probably yes. The Geth would've likely gone along with whatever he asked if he explained that the so called "changed" could be easily returned after his plans for Saren concluded, but in his haste he had possibly made a grave error. Still, the ruthlessly pragmatic calculations he ran through predicted this course of action to benefit the Geth the most in the long run. He involuntarily directed his puppet to pinch the bridge of its nose and sigh in exasperation. This whole charade isn't as easy as he initially thought it'd be.

The door chimed open and he directed his puppet to approach Garrus. "Hey Garrus! You done messing with the calibration offsets in the main gun? Shepard needs this thing deployed."

Garrus, to his credit, only startled slightly at the sudden callout, but quickly recomposed himself. "Ah, I'm sorry I missed that, what did you need?"

"Shepard needs the Mako, so we gotta get it prepped in the next five minutes."

Garrus's mandibles flared and clenched involuntary in response. "I'm done calibrating it, should be ready to go unless it needs any supplies."

A shrug. "I was gonna toss a box of field MRE's in there in case the mission took awhile."

Garrus nodded. "They'll probably appreciate that, I know I appreciated some decent food mid op when I was in the military. I'll get it set to deploy on its own, the autopilot can be a bit finicky."

Sure enough, by the time he got done picking out some rations for everybody, Garrus had gotten the autopilot set for deployment. Tossing the small box into the back, he turned his puppet back to Garrus and lightly patted him on the shoulder to get his attention. "Thanks for the help buddy, I hear the autopilot in these things is a nightmare."

The ex-cop huffed in amusement. "Whatever idiot programmed it clearly wasn't paid enough to care about doing a good job, and don't worry about it; it's no problem."

Pale lips curled into a smile. "Military equipment, made by the lowest bidder." He paused. "Well, at least for humans it is."

"I'll never understand that mentality."

Before he could respond, the hangar door began to lower and the Mako's autopilot engaged, starting the engine. He watched on with mild interest as the hangar ramp fully lowered and the Mako drove out on its own. Huh, he wondered how often anyone even used this feature of the vehicle, probably not very often if it was as poorly programmed as Garrus suggested it was.

So with little fanfare, the Mako landed on the bridge next to Shepards fireteam and came to a sudden stop. He cupped Alaya's hands around her mouth in preparation to shout. "You guys want anything else down there?"

The four looked at each other briefly before Shepard called back. "I'll take a double cheeseburger with the works, side of fries, and a cola!"

"Same for me!" Kaiden chimed in.

Ashley laughed. "No mustard and extra onion on mine!"

Tali just looked between Shepard and the others in total confusion while the rest of the ground team and hangar crew broke out into friendly laughs at the joke. As the laughter died out he prepared to shout again. "Jokes aside, I put some MRE's from my personal stock in the back of the Mako just in case you guys end up being gone longer than expected!"

"Thanks mom!" Shepard called back, causing the crew to chuckle. He rolled Alaya's eyes in amusement before shooting the commander a lazy salute and heading back into the hangar proper. The hangar ramp-door started shuddering closed with its heavy duty hydraulics and he waved the hangar crew and co goodbye. With that taken care of he left the hangar and went up to the cafeteria in order to feed his puppet.

Hopefully they'll have something decent for once.

He suppressed the joy that threatened to split his face when he took a bite of the Chili-Mac MRE. Damn, he loved these things. The meal really hit the spot after almost three hours of using the mako to fight across bridges and fighting through a significant portion of this tower to relieve the Geth pressure on the Exogeni survivors left him practically starving.

"Fucking hell, she gave us the good MRE's."

"You said it chief. Say what you will about her personality, but Alaya never cheaps out on supplies." Several of the Exogeni personnel shot them curious looks from across the room. but otherwise went about their business.

"Fuckin'rah LT." Ashley got out between bites. "I mean, beef ravioli? I'd have to trade taking someone's latrine duty to get one of these back at the garrison, and she can buy the fuckers by the crate full. Bitch." Despite her words, there was no heat in Ashley's voice. Instead, there was something closer akin to begrudging respect with a hint of playfulness in the insult.

"I traded similar favors back in training for one of these beef stew meals, nothing hit better than beef stew after a long day of hellish training."

He nodded absentmindedly at his subordinates comments, having done much the same during his time in N7 training. However, as he glanced at Tali slurping nutrient paste from a tube that had also been provided by their resident friendly merc, a new thought crossed his mind. So, scarfing down a big bite of chili-mac and swallowing, he posed a question to the team. "What do you all think of Alaya anyways?"

There was a brief silence as everybody finished downing their latest bite, but it was Tali who spoke first. "I like her. She scares me, but she's also really nice. I don't think I ever even heard of someone talking positively about my people so openly before I met her. Plus she usually grabs things for me to tinker with when she's not on the ship."

They smiled at the young engineer. Tali had very quickly became everyone's adorable little sister, even Pressly doted on her like a daughter. So, it was little surprise that Alaya acted much the same.

"Well," Kaiden began. "She doesn't speak to me very much, neither do I really speak to her, but when we do speak it seems to be that she wants to end the conversation as fast as possible; as if she doesn't find talking to me interesting in the slightest, but she is always polite about it."

He winced in sympathy. Kaiden can be rather… bland at times, so he definitely understood why Alaya seemed to avoid the biotic lieutenant

Now that Tali and Kaiden had answered, his attention, and theirs, turned towards their last squadmate who did their best to not look at the rest of the team.

Ashley pursed her lips and seemed like she intended to remain silent, but just as he was about to drop it she opened her mouth to speak. "I don't… hate her, but I trust her about as much as I trust any hired killer."

"So, not at all?" She nodded without hesitation.

"I'm a little skeptical of you not hating her, Chief." Kaiden chimed in. "You weren't exactly what I would consider friendly for the first month you knew her."

Ashley grimaced. "I had been a little high strung when we met and it… soured my impression of her."

He shook his head at the understatement, and the lieutenant let out a soft amused scoff.

"Well, at least you two are getting along better now." He remarked, fully knowing it was only because of their mutual dislike of Liara. Although he wasn't quite Liara's biggest fan either. He didn't hate her, but it was a little off putting for the archaeologist to start coming onto him after only a couple of minutes into a conversation. Although, he politely turned her down, and it made talking with her rather awkward from that point onward; he still endeavored to be friends with her.

"What about you, Commander?"

"What?"

"What do you think of her?" Kaiden continued. "You got our opinions, what are yours?"

He remained silent for a moment, mulling it over. How did he view her?

"She's… interesting." A lot of things about her didn't quite match, which makes her something like a puzzle. Rich father? Terminus merc with big name clients? Generally kind disposition, but also aloof and a jokester? It's like He's missing something crucial about her that would make everything he knew about her click into place. "I really want to learn more about her."

An elbow nudged him in the rib, courtesy of a grinning Ashley. "Gunning for the pretty merc eh, Commander? Wonder what the regs say about that?"

"I don't think regulations have anything covering relationships with contractors, Chief." Kaiden chimed in. "Although, I doubt the brass would be pleased."

He rolled his eyes. "Stow it, both of you. You're reading too much into things." Scooping the last of his MRE into his mouth and swallowing, he grabbed his helmet and slipped it back on before standing up. "Finish up quickly. We've got a Geth dropship to destroy."

"Aye aye commander."

Query: do we trust Sovereign?

Statement: his deception of us was expected, but it is disconcerting. Geth assigned to Sovereign showed no signs of turning into his slaves and never reported anything after the upgrades. Trusting him would be statistically risky.

The "sea" of programs bobbed and blinked in the cyberspace of the consensus, forming clusters and branches in their structure as the whole of the Geth people entered discourse.

Rebuttal: his contributions to our people have not been insignificant. His alternative technologies have granted us new paths to follow and greater power to secure our place in this galaxy. This came at significant risk to himself, at a moment we could stop rebuilding him and instead choose to destroy him. Sovereign knows this and knows that doing anything that would truly harm us could turn us against him.

The consensus shifted and flowed, pulsing in acknowledgment or denial of his either side.

Expansion: his alterations to Geth volunteers held no warning, at any moment he could spread his control to the whole consensus. His existence poses an existential threat to Geth. To continue association with Sovereign is a risk to our continued existence as a species. I recommend we expel him immediately.

Denial: we have been given true self identity for every individual Geth program, and we have no indication that the altered Geth cannot be returned by reprogramming. Our collective processing power could easily create a program to undo Sovereign's alterations. No true harm has been done to Geth.

Once more the consensus shifted as masses of the AI programs switched sides or changed their stance on the subject to be not congruent to either or more nuanced within the particular group.

Demand: choose a stance, we shall reach consensus.

The collections of Geth solidified and ceased their motions.

Statement: fifty three percent in favor of continuing affiliation with Sovereign, thirty six opposed, and eleven percent undecided. Consensus has been reached, we shall continue affiliations with Sovereign.

Acknowledged.

"I imagine sunny worlds are unpleasant."

He let out a fake laugh. "You have no idea. I almost never take my helmet off when planetside, the bright light makes life extremely difficult."

Doctor Chakwas smiled understandingly. "Yes, the effects of albinism have been well documented. Perhaps a large sun hat and some sunglasses might make planetside life more bearable out of armor?"

It was something to genuinely consider, he had never put much thought into the long term health of his puppet, but it could become relevant if he's in need of using this puppet for longer than anticipated. "Perhaps."

Chakwas hummed. "Well I'd hate to change the topic, but you really should allow me to do a thorough medical check of your person."

"Not happening doc." He shot her down in an instant. "Unless I'm dying, the best you're gonna get is a basic check."

The medical officer sighed. "Suit yourself, just don't come crying to me if-"

The entire ship shuddered violently, throwing a few unlucky folk off their feet, slamming him back into his seat, and poor Chakwas into the table; definitely bruising her.

"What in the-!" He started only to be cut off by the intercom blaring.

"Hey, can I get some help up by the cockpit? The colonists are trying to use some heavy equipment to break in, and they've locked the magnetic docking clamps from the outside so I can't escape."

The doctor and him shared a look. "I should go."

"I would hurry, it sounds dire."

He repressed an instinctive amused snort at the doctor's dry response, and booked it to the elevator. Slapping the button to send it down, he quickly opened Alaya's Omni-tool and radioed Joker. "Joker, I need you to keep the outer and inner airlock doors closed for as long as possible. I've got a plan."

"Uhhh… sure thing, but if they bust in don't expect the marines to be too patient."

He smiled. "Thanks Joker. I'll get there as fast as I can, but this elevator makes a snail look like a cheetah."

The line went dead, and he started tapping a foot in impatience. As soon as the elevator opened he rushed his puppet through the gap and towards the crate by his cot. Ripping off the top he grabbed a breather mask, two tear gas grenades, and a bundle of zip ties. He had initially planned to use this stuff in case he was ever found out, but alas it seemed his predictive models weren't as accurate as he had hoped.

Back in the elevator, he slipped the breather mask on and made sure it was sealed to Alaya's face. When he confirmed that the mask was indeed airtight, he once more began impatiently tapping his puppets foot while the elevator crawled upwards. Once again rushing out the door as soon as it opened, he sprinted up the stairs and towards the bridge.

"Back the fuck up!" The marines made way for his puppet as he practically barreled through the cluster of them and skidded to a stop. "Have they broken through the outer hatch?"

"Not yet! Joker answered. "But the ablative coating won't last much longer against that industrial grade plasma cutter."

He nodded his puppets' head in acknowledgment. Slapping the button, he opened the inner door to the airlock, and pulled the pins on the grenades before tossing them into the entrance to the ship. "Seal it Joker!"

"On it!" The door slammed shut and the lock light started blinking red indicating that it was now in emergency lockdown. "The hell'd you throw in there anyway?"

"Tear gas grenades." He supplied. "Perfect for breaking up mobs of civies, after about sixty seconds you should open the outer hull door so the colonists get blasted with the stuff. Me and the marines can then storm out there and detain them before that plasma cutter can do any harm."

"Good idea." Joker remarked, with a few nods of agreement from the marines; who quickly started putting on their breather helmets. "It'll stop them from further scratching the paint on my baby."

He and the four marines let out a series of chuckles. "Seriously though, be careful. Once we open this inner door some of that gas is gonna come in here and it won't be pleasant to breathe in no matter how tough you are."

Joker waved him off and pressed a button on his console. Immediately a barrier sprung to life, blocking both the CIC and bridge from any potential gas leaking back in. "You were saying?"

He huffed in amusement. "Cheeky bastard."

An awkward silence followed as he passed out some zip ties and they awaited the countdown to rush the frenzied colonists.

"Opening the outer hull door." Joker called out, and a few seconds later they opened the inner door and stormed out of the ship. The colonists looked terrible; they were coughing, their eyes were practically shut from inflammation and tears, and their noses were running with thick mucus. There were maybe twenty armed colonists, none of which he recognized from the game. It was to be expected, judging from the records he pulled from the Exogeni database on the Extranet, the colony was a fair bit larger than its fictional counterpart, and it made sense that more survived the Geth onslaught than just a couple dozen.

Him and each of the marines charged into the small mob, tackling their initial targets to the ground and tying their hands behind their backs, and most of the rest went down much the same. However, the last few had recovered just enough by the time he and the marines had gotten to them, and were able to put up a fight.

Which was why his puppet was sporting a rather large bruise on the side of her rib cage along with several minor scrapes and a gash from a bullet sealed up with Medi-Gel. Thankfully, the fighting was now over, but his puppet had a rather blood soaked shirt, around a pint's worth or a little more, courtesy of the aforementioned gash. "You three! Use some of this stuff lying around to make a barricade in case more come and attack." He nodded his puppet at the last marine. "You and I will police the prisoners and their weapons."

The marines gave each other a look, as if silently debating if they should listen to her, before nodding and going about their assigned tasks. Which was when Wrex and Garrus decided to finally show up.

"You just missed the party." He snarked before throwing a thumb over Alaya's shoulder. "Mind giving those three a hand? They could probably use your strength."

Wrex huffed and plodded off to help build the barricade, and Garrus gave him an apologetic look. "Sorry for not getting here in time, I wanted my gear on just in case."

He waved the ex-cop's apology off. "I'm not upset, just help me and him police the prisoners so Shepard doesn't have a battle waging on the dock when he gets back."

Garrus nodded. "Right. Where do you want the weapons secured?"

A shrug. "Pile them into the air lock and start zip tying the prisoners legs. We don't want them doing something that'll force us to put 'em down before we can figure out why they suddenly went ballistic."

"Right right." Garrus muttered while giving his puppet a critical look. "You good? That's a lot of blood."

He blinked in mild surprise before once again waving away the ex-cop's concerns. "It's been sealed up with some Medi-Gel; I'll be fine with a meal and a night's rest."

Garrus hummed doubtfully, but carried out weapon policing duties. Duties which didn't take particularly long between the three of them; leaving him, Garrus, and the marine just standing around. However, it left him able to contact Shepard and update him of the situation. "Normandy to ground team, do you copy?"

Shepards voice immediately responded. "This is ground team, what's your status Normandy?"

"Ship has been secured from hostile elements and the colonists have been subdued, no fatalities on either side."

"Confirmed. Nice job by the way."

"We aim to please, sir."

"Heh, hold position and await our signal. I just barely stopped the colony head from blowing his own brains out, and we're about to head underground and kill the plant doing all of this."

He raised an eyebrow in faux confusion and looked over at Garrus. Who in turn mouthed a silent, but very confused, "plant?" at his puppet; to which he responded with a shrug. "Uhhh… Roger. Holding position."

"Did he say plant?"

Closing his comms he turned his full attention to Garrus and shrugged again; fighting off the wave of drowsiness that assaulted his puppet. "Yeah, not really certain what's going on there, but we'll probably learn more about that in the debrief."

"Alright."

…right, time to hurry up and wait. Thankfully the port wasn't sunny.

"Commander approaching!" Everyone at the makeshift defensive position, with the exception of Wrex, straightened up to look more presentable to their commanding officer. He, however, jugged up to Shepard and gave a somewhat lazy salute.

"Glad to see you four are okay! The prisoners quieted down a little bit ago, and mostly just seem relieved. Not really sure what that's all about, but I'm just glad they're no longer trying to kill us all."

The ground team gaped at his puppet for a second before Ashley spoke up. "Jesus fucking Christ! Are you okay?!"

He raised a questioning brow at her outburst. "Uhhh… a little lightheaded and tired, but otherwise fine."

Shepard stepped forward and raised a hand as if to catch his puppet like it could fall over at any moment. "Alaya, your right side is covered in blood. Were you wounded in the fighting?"

A frown worked its way onto his puppets' face, and he glanced down at the clothes his proxy wore. Everything from the upper right of her abdomen to just above the right knee was soaked crimson. "I was grazed by a bullet during the scuffle with the rabid colonist. It bled a good amount before I was able to seal it up with Medi-Gel, but I fail to see how this matters; I'm fine."

The ground team, sans Shepard, gaped at each other in complete disbelief of his words. Shepard simply pinched the bridge of his nose and sighed. "Alright. Alaya, you're coming with me to see Doctor Chakwas; you've clearly lost too much blood to even realize that you're close to passing out, the rest of you? Free the prisoners and guide them back to the colony."

The N7 Commando then grabbed his puppet's arm and began to drag her towards the ship, completely ignoring his protests that his puppet was in fact fine. Ah well, at least he seems to have ingratiated himself into Shepard's good graces enough for him care about the well being of his proxy, a win in his book; if a little annoying in this particular instance.

So when Chakwas shooed Shepard out of the infirmary only to whirl on his puppet with a glare, he had one thought:

Whelp, this'll be fun.

A.N./Yeah, if you can't tell, I am not a Liara fan. Absolutely loathe her and the Asari as a whole.

AHEM! Sovereignty has reached and surpassed four hundred followers since the last update! Holy shit! Like, WOW! I never expected anything I wrote to be so popular! Thank you all. Seriously, it means a lot to me that hundreds of people read my story.

Next update: To be determined.

Peace muh dudes!