On the way to Knossos

Disclaimer

Starcraft is the property of Blizzard entertainment.

Mass effect is the property of Bioware.

Any elements used in this story are used only in order to create a story for no monetary gain nor do I claim any ownership over them, beyond the names and characters unique to this story.

SSV Normandy - Arriving at the Artemis Tau cluster

Wrex

The krogan would have appreciated the solitude.

And he would have preferred the company of any other individual compared to the one he was forced to tolerate now.

Wrex knew that the fate of his people was something they had brought upon themselves but this did not mean he had forgiven the rest of the galaxy for imposing their sentence upon the krogan race.

That is why he detested the salarians… and the turians.

Wrex had been somewhat happy that they were instructed to hunt one of the galaxies most deranged spectres as he felt something cathartic about him receiving not only the permission but the blessing to hunt a mistake of the council as he could later rub this on their faces if they tried to get on his business for something else.

But now? He was forced to share a table with a turian of all people.

And Wrex felt more conflicted that he couldn't figure this pyjak's angle.

As the krogan ate his meal he picked once every so often at the creature on the opposite side of the table and judged every action he took as the krogan weighed if he was a threat or not.

He completely ignored the other two occupants of the table as Wrex was more focused on the turian than a few annoying humans.

Of them, Wrex cared even less.

"So…" the male human said "This is awkward".

The other three people turned to look at him as they expected for him to continue with his dumb observation.

But the human decided to shrink at the stares to the disappointment of Wrex.

Things were awkward, but it didn't mean he was interested in making small talk with these aliens.

Wrex focused once more on his meal and lost interest in the rest of them as they continued to eat their meals.

Eventually, the two humans began to make small talk while every now and then asking either Wrex or Garrus for some information they didn't know. Stuff like the Rachni, the citadel and the other species.

It was due to his disinterest that Wrex was a little more aware of their surroundings unlike his strange companions.

And because of this, something got his attention…

The door of the slow elevator opened behind a division that obscured his sight of that place but Wrex could swear that he did not hear footsteps leave the elevator as the presence of a person would indicate. And he dared to take a guess that it wouldn't be a malfunction either.

Wrex ignored the conversation between the other people and focused on the lack of any other sound.

This was… unnatural.

…

A sudden chill ran through his spine as every instinct in his body told him he was in danger and he needed to place careful attention to his surroundings.

"..." a voice called to him but Wrex ignored it as he focused on his surroundings.

"..ex" the krogan inched his way for his knife and placed his fingers on the hilt as he intended to use it.

"WREX!" the voice finally came trough and he turned to see that the other three were looking at him funny.

"What is it?" Wrex asked.

Garrus bent forwards and reclined on the table as he examined the krogan "We were asking you if you had seen anything like the geth in your travels… But it seems that even a century old krogan couldn't have come across something like them".

Wrex clutched the knife in his hand for a second and then relaxed as his instinct told him that the threat had passed.

"Not that you would know, turian" Wrex began with a small amount of contempt "I have fought, killed or eaten most races in the galaxy and I can tell you that there are somethings that are far better from a distance than when they come barreling down upon you".

"Wait… eaten?" the human female asked in both disgust and morbid curiosity.

"I was trying to give you a fair opportunity to show us that a krogan may have something of value to add" the turian said with his race's characteristic superiority.

Wrex frowned at the turian as he was on edge and the idiot was playing with fire.

"Garrus I don't think that…" the other human was interrupted by Wrex.

"And would the turian even listen to us if they did not have their toys on hand? What, Garrus. Are your people thinking of offering my diseased race another visit" Wrex now openly opposed the turian as he clearly was trying to rile him up "Or do you intend to ask your terrorist friend for help?".

Wrex could see that both of the humans were pale at the sight of this tense exchange. But to his disappointment the krogan's insult against Garrus and his people had not even seemed to merit a response on the part of the turian.

But Wrex also noticed that he had been briefly glancing to the side.

"It wouldn't matter if your people had an answer to anything, Wrex" Garrus began as he focused on Wrex once again.

"Garrus, I think that's enough" the one called Kaidan tried to intervene but by then it was too late.

Wrex grabbed his knife and threw it at the turian as he had done countless times before in order to harm and not kill.

The flying object only managed to travel halfway through its journey before it suddenly came to a halt midair.

Wrex was confused as to how this was possible as he wanted to attribute this to sorcery and witchcraft.

But it would seem that more observant amongst them had realized what was going on.

"Are you there?" Garrus asked this as his gaze lingered on the empty space in the middle of the table to the confusion of the others.

But it would seem that someone was indeed there.

"Pretty observant" the voice of the other alien spoke as Xiltar had been discovered.

Like before, black smoke appeared for a moment around the place where he was and it parted to reveal the figure of the protoss as he held the knife in-between two armored fingers in place.

"Wh… how?" Kaidan asked in confusion as he looked at the protoss while he analyzed the knife.

"Sorry for making you the bait, Wrex" the turian apologized with a smug grin while the krogan remained somewhat confused.

But he had begun to put the pieces into place.

"How long have you been there… Xiltar?" Williams asked this time with a certain amount of restraint in her words as she most likely wanted to call him a creep or something along those lines.

What… had the fire been extinguished out of this human?

"Mere moments…" the alien answered as he continued to look at the knife "I came here with the intent of learning of this ship and its residents…" he dropped the knife on the table as he turned towards the krogan "I wished to know the people who I'll be battling along".

The group exchanged glances as they expected for somebody else to speak but all remained silent as the protoss placed his hand behind his back and inspected each of them.

Seeing as none of them wished to speak he made an audible sigh with his armor and spoke "I know of the te… humans' capabilities. Both of you are staunch defenders and resilient warriors as I have seen first hand" he pointed two fingers at the humans on his opposite side of the table as he nodded at them"But the others… I cannot understand your motivation".

He turned to Garrus first "The type of marshall dogma your species follows is a characteristic that usually disappears from most civilizations after their atomic age… or it changes into a codified sense of honor. What compels you to follow this path even beyond the reach of their realm?".

The turian remained silent and did not give an answer.

Xiltar then turned to krogan "And what pushes you onwards? Your people? Yourself?".

…

Not even Wrex knew what compelled him to move onwards.

But the krogan knew that he didn't owe this alien an answer and neither did the rest.

"Well…" a voice spoke on the other side of the table as Garrus spoke "My people have a saying for what you want: 'If you have a question, take a walk. You will find your answer in each leg of your journey'. Does that help?".

Wrex was confused by what the turian tried to explain and it seemed that he wasn't alone on this.

"Elaborate…" Xiltar said as he began to stroke his chin.

It was Kaidan who spoke next "Try and look at it from our perspective. We know nothing of you or your race and we are supposed to give you answers immediately? That doesn't seem fair".

The protoss froze in place and Wrex could see that he was visibly shaken by this comment.

"..." a grunt was heard from him "I suppose it isn't… fair".

The massive figure moved the chair in front of him to the side and bent his legs so he was at the same height as them while also sitting in a position that must have been comfortable to his species.

"As I wish to understand your cause and reason for being I will share mine in exchange" the protoss said as he placed a hand on his chest "Ask a question and I will try to answer it. I expect that you will answer one of mine in turn".

The krogan turned to the rest of the group and saw that they were glancing at each other in both curiosity and excitement.

Wrex thought that this could be interesting.

"Ahem" Garrus coughed to get the group's attention "Since you are willing to answer a question of each of us then this is mine… Where are you from?".

The alien seemed to ponder this question for a moment before he raised his head "I was born on a long lost world called Arakyr. It was a paradise of both azure seas and infinite white shores in which a person could lose himself for a lifetime" unlike Wrex, this alien could speak fondly of his home "Twilight was the most beautiful sight on that world" he paused for a moment "For my question I ask the same. Where are you from?".

Wrex could see that this question was directed at Garrus but he somehow was compelled to listen. He had a lot of experience in identifying from which world did a turian come as that race had adopted a tradition of tattooing their faces in a certain pattern to indicate their world of origin after a convoluted war that Wrex did not care in the least.

Garrus also paused for a moment before he spoke "Well… I come from the world of Palaven. But I can't say that I have anything extraordinary to tell of my home. As a kid I played soldier, practiced military drills after school and joined my youth league like any other…".

"Wait, wait, wait. Military drills as a kid?" Ashley interrupted the turian in his speech "Is that normal amongst turians?".

"Yes. Your people don't do the same?" Garrus asked in confusion.

Both humans looked at him in confusion and only shook their heads to say no.

The turian shook his head and continued "Anyway. My home isn't much to talk about. I considered it normal since I was raised in the capital and largest city".

The protoss seemed satisfied and moved onto the next person who was Ashley "Do you have a question?" Xiltar asked.

The woman seemed to be deep in thought as she furrowed her brow, or maybe she was angry at the protoss.

Wrex didn't know.

She snapped her fingers as something came to mind "Do your people know poetry?".

This… Wrex did not expect this question.

But it seemed that the protoss did expect it as he nodded and recited one from the top of his head "Bright laugh of the early star. Dawn breaks and the ocean wakes. To the call of heaven our hearts are always there".

…

Wrex did not know if there was any meaning to what the protoss had said but he guessed that such things came with being a krogan.

"That was… interesting" Ashley said in both intrigue and confusion "What is your question?".

"..." a hum was heard from the protoss "Why did you ask for a poem?".

Ashley chuckled and answered "I never asked for a poem. I asked if your people knew poetry".

Xiltar nodded in acceptance of her answer as he had played himself. He then moved on to the next one.

It was Kaidan.

"My question is… How can you speak into our minds? Are you some sort of biotic?" that was the question of the human.

But to the surprise of the group, Xiltar answered by shaking his head in denial "No. The means that my people use to communicate is currently beyond the understanding of your people. It may manifest amongst your species in a few more years but I can tell you that the concept is so strange and bizarre that it may be preferable to finish your study of quantum entanglement before you learn of it".

He was right. That was beyond Wrex's understanding.

"..." the protoss made a humming once again before he asked his question "What is a biotic?".

Kaidan looked surprised for a moment before he nodded and used his biotics to levitate an empty cup of water that was near the protoss "It is people like me that can use mass effect fields in order to manipulate matter around us" he landed the cup perfectly over another one in the far side of the table "One must be exposed to eezo before birth in order to develop this abilities or be born an asari. But that isn't the case most of the times" he said with a small amount of sorrow in his voice.

And Wrex knew why.

The genophage left little to no hope of a single individual being born, let alone the fact that exposure to element zero pre birth tended to result in mutated hatchlings.

The fact that Wrex was a biotic was almost as rare to see as a salarian with a sense of morality.

Not that Wrex even cared to look for one.

"Are you going to ask your question?" Xiltar asked the krogan as every eye in the room turned to him.

Wrex had lost all interest in the conversation at that point. So he decided to instead focus on his meal once more and hope that the others did the same.

…

Wait.

How did Xiltar eat?

Wrex looked at the protoss for a moment and when he saw that he was just staring at him he decided to use his question.

"How do you eat?" The krogan asked without a care for how personal this question may be.

But it seemed that every other person in the room was interested by his question as they all looked at the protoss.

Xiltar on his part just glared at Wrex and then turned to the others.

"Do you have a container where my hand will fit?" He asked.

What was his intention?

John Shepard

How could so many bugs get past the decontamination filters?

Shepard had gone down the vent shaft in order to investigate what had scared his crewmate as Adams affirmed to him that there wasn't anything dangerous in that particular vent and that the Normandy did not report any anomaly save for a glitch in an atmospheric lecture.

This was the reason as to why they had sent Tali into the vent in order to discover what had happened.

Shepard descended into the vent as the engineers made excuses to not descend in the first place and Shepard was a fool who tended to sacrifice for others all the same.

It was dark for the most part, but the commander could see a shining light that emanated from a place further down.

He found a half opened hatch on his right side as he reached the bottom of the short descent.

As he opened it, a scream almost escaped his lips as he understood why it was that Tali escaped in abject fear.

The panel opened to a circuit board with a blinking light on its top right corner that marked an anomaly within the circuit.

Something had been causing a short fuze in the system.

What was it you may ask?

Well, a spider of course.

A big one.

Like the size of your hand big.

This wasn't a species Shepard recognized, but he theorized that the "little ones" were most likely her babies.

She was now dead, luckily for him. The rest were left alone.

"Adams, there's the biggest nest of spiders I have ever seen down there" Shepard said as he ascended from the small crevice "See that you get one of your boys to get rid of that, and have the atmospheric filters changed. I don't want a repeat of this".

"Yes, commander" he answered as his engineers began to discuss amongst themselves who would go down there to clean it.

Not Tali, of course.

Speaking of which…

Shepard exited the core room and found Tali in an unfortunate state.

She was sitting over the table where Xiltar had been fixing his armor, the protoss long gone.

She was holding her legs close to her chest and was frantically glancing around as she looked for more of them.

"Hello, Tali" Shepard began "So… I take it that you've been having a wonderful morning?" She looked back at him, he could sense the embarrassment that was coursing through her now.

"I…" she tried to answer "I-I'm sorry Shepard" she said in a shy voice while she got off the table "I have always been scared of them. Sorry".

Oh sweet summer child.

"It's okay, Tali" Shepard answered "you shouldn't apologize for something like that" he turned to the now empty cargo bay "Where is everybody?".

"They went to the mess hall…" Tali answered as she saw that Shepard was looking for the rest of the team, he shrugged at this and called for the elevator.

"Might as well join them. Wanna grab something to eat, Tali?" He asked as he waited another minute for the elevator to finally arrive.

She hesitated for a moment before joining him in the elevator.

They then began to make their way up.

Slowly.

Very slowly.

Shepard sighed and made a mental note to have a chat with engineering to get this fixed.

He then decided to do some work for once and called for his second in command through his omni-tool "Presley?" The commander asked for his executive officer.

"Yes, commander?" The gruffled voice of the middle aged man answered from the other side of the line.

Shepard had little to not interaction with the officer prior to his impromptu promotion to specter but Shepard found that as long as he did not step on the playing field of the veteran then the navigator wouldn't give him much trouble.

"Has the crew picked any anomalous readings within the cluster?" He asked in turn.

"Hmm… Excluding pirate chatter and what little alliance traffic passes through the region there is nothing…" Presley explained. Well, this was disappointing. "Wait, there's been a sudden loss of communications from the Knossos System and there seems to be a distress beacon on that system… It-It's alliance, sir" Presley explained while sounding panicked.

"We better check it out" began Shepard "Presley. Have Joker set a course for that system. Let's see what we can find there".

"Yes commander…" He took a moment before continuing "Course charted, ETA 3 hours commander" the commander nodded and deactivated his omni-tool.

Then the doors opened and Shepard was greeted by… silence?

Shepard glanced at his companion and he could see the same stare of worry that he was probably giving her.

The pair then walked around the wall that separated their view from the table at the center of the room and what they saw…

Left them confused.

He saw every member of the ground team sitting in the table as they seemed to be sharing a meal.

It looked to him as if they had been originally eating together, but something had compelled them to stop midway through their meal as their plates were half empty.

His gaze then followed theirs and rested on members of their team in particular.

Xiltar for some reason had his hand on a bowl of water.

"..." Shepard remained silent for a moment "What the hell is going on?" All turned Eyes then turned to the pair but none answered as they seemed even more confused than him.

"Sustenance" Xiltar answered as he continued to sit there. Shepard noticed that the water on the bowl was slowly but steadily disappearing.

"But why?" Asked Tali next as she was dumbfounded by the situation.

"Each of our crewmates got to ask me a question and I would answer…" he began to explain "Wrex asked how I ate and I was demonstrating how" Xiltar then turned to Wrex " Since my kind absorbs light and trace minerals within the environment I also require water for it to act as a catalyst for the process that creates energy for me".

Everyone exchanged glances and a collective thought was shared across them.

And Xiltar seemed to have picked on this as he just glared at Shepard in particular. As if daring him to not speak his mind.

But Shepard would never chicken out of a challenge.

"No mouth…" began Shepard, rubbing his chin in fake contemplation.

"No food…" continued Wrex, looking at his empty platter. He looked disappointed.

"Light…" continued Kaidan while faking honest contemplation.

"Minerals…" Ashley continued as a chuckle almost escaped her lips.

"Water…" Garrus continued as he was following along with the joke.

Then all eyes turned to the sole remaining crewmember who hadn't spoken…

They all saw as she was feeding from one of her sterile containers and drinking from it through a straw…

She then realized what they were doing and asked her question "Are you a plant?".

Everyone broke into laughter as Xiltar just glared at them…

After a moment, the laughter broke down and they all settled down as he just continued to glare.

They also saw that the bowl was now empty and he just stared down "No…" he answered in a timid voice.

"All right everyone, settle down" said Shepard as a small laugh came from everyone "I came to give you all the mission briefing, but I guess that can wait until everyone is finished" he said while in reality only him had not eaten anything "I'll see you in the comms room in 30".

Everyone agreed and began to leave as did Shepard eventually.

But before he went to the comms room, there was one final report he needed to read through.

While on the citadel he had accepted a mission from rear admiral Kahoku who had been investigating the disappearance of some of his men.

They had gone missing somewhere within the same cluster they weren now in.

He would look for them later.

Garrus Vakarian.

Garrus felt satisfied by the few interactions he had with their resident ghost.

He had seen a weird shift in Wrex's demeanor as he must have felt a presence much like Garrus.

He felt the shifting of the wind and sensed that somebody was in the place in between the two of them and his gaze covertly fell in that place.

The turian was lucky to find that his conjecture was correct and he wouldn't be losing an eye that day…

It would seem that leaving C-sec did not have a detrimental effect on his deductive abilities… unlike what his father thought.

Remembering the brief conversation he had with his family wasn't something that Garrus liked to remind himself in the least.

But he didn't care.

He wished to keep this galaxy safe for them and if this meant leaving his old and comfy life behind to follow one of the people in the galaxy that was above the law then so be it.

Garrus returned to the present and found himself in front of the door that led to the comm room since he had finished the calibration and maintenance of the mako earlier that day.

He had missed his opportunity to speak with the commander mainly due to bad timing but Garrus also wished to have some time with his own thoughts.

By the time he had met with the other humans and Wrex in the mess, he was a hundred percent sure of his decision to follow Shepard.

He entered the room and was surprised to find nobody…

He then shrugged and began to look around the empty room and saw several chairs along the edge of the place.

That one.

At the exact same moment he sat on the chair of his choosing, the door opened once more. He wasn't surprised to find both Williams and Alenko coming into the room.

"Garrus…" spoke Kaidan as he and Ashley made their way to the chairs at the other end of the room. Ashley just stared at him.

"Sooo…" Garrus tried to break the silence. Kaidan picked up on what Ashley was doing so he intervened.

"Hey Garrus, what's your opinion on the Mako?" Kaidan asked in full honesty and Garrus was delighted by such a question. Ashley just gave him a quick glare and began to check her fingernails in disinterest.

Garrus smiled, he would have a little fun at the human's expense "Pretty good for a human design, lieutenant Alenko. Just a shame we can't carry its gun wherever we want" he turned to Ashley "Any ideas how to correct that Williams?" this surprised Ashley for a moment but she decided to play along.

"We could always have the Mako's gun be carried by Wrex and Xiltar. Make them an artillery team" Garrus chuckled at the mental image of the two aliens carrying the gun around their backs. The image of a krogan with a cannon was something that would surely make any other turian begin to sweat profusely.

But before they could continue, the door opened again and the rest of the team save for Shepard began to enter the room while also picking seats, with both Wrex and Tali seating next to him. Curiously Xiltar was on the other side.

Dammit he is looking at me.

At that moment Shepard arrived. Being the last to join them.

"Great, everyone is here." Shepard began "Our mission is to retrieve Doctor Liara T'soni, daughter of Matriarch Benezia" he paused for a moment and began to pace in front of the team "We know Benezia is an active collaborator to Saren's cause so we must know if doctor T'soni has any leads as to where her mother may be or if she is a collaborator herself" he made his way to the holoscreen and began to input some information for the screen to display it "This cluster of space is filled with ancient Prothean ruins. In order for us to narrow it down our crew in the CIC began to comb through any message or communication request that came into the sector the moment we arrived" he continued to explain as a map of the four major star systems in the sector came into view "We picked an encrypted message being sent to all star systems in this region. At the same time there was a major gap of information coming from the Knossos system. This will be our first stop in our investigation" he turned off the screen and faced the team.

"So if this doctor T'soni is involved with Saren…" began Garrus "We might be forced into a confrontation in order to look for her and extract her. And if there are any more of Saren's cronies in the system we might not be able to make our way to the doctor in time" he pointed out the fact that they knew little of the people who had thrown their lot with Saren.

"And there is also the possibility that if more geth follow they may bring a fleet into the system" began Tali "There's no way we can fight them all at the same time…" This made Shepard ponder for a moment as Garrus and the team could see.

Shepard moved a finger to his chin and began to ponder a way to circumvent this problem "We have our stealth field but that may not be enough should the Normandy be discovered. Any suggestions?".

The team felt silent and began to ponder by themselves how to over this problem.

Garrus didn't have a good suggestion as he had no exèrinece in ship warfare and only had some expertise in ground assaults.

But it seemed that one amongst their group had a suggestion.

"I know of a path. But it may be a dangerous one…" Xiltar spoke as he raised his hand for the group to look at him "Our vessel is small and not that heavily armed. So we cannot hope to face a vessel of higher caliber than our own in an even fight, but we may not need to do so…" he got up from his seat as he began to explain his suggestion "This vessel is fast and we can use that to our advantage. If we strike some of the bigger vessels in their perimeter from afar then we can bait any present fleet and have their smaller and faster ships send to investigate our location then they will most likely brake any blockade they have…" he places his hand on his chin for a moment "We can minimize the risk to this ship and its crew if we split their fleet in two distinct points, so your pilot will have to be fast enough to do this task".

He snapped his fingers in understanding "Joker, did you get any of that?" the commander asked.

"Do what the creepy alien suggested?" responded Joker "Sure, commander. If you need it then I will be as fast as the wind".

"Rude" Xiltar replied plainly.

Garrus thought this as well.

"We have to be ready if the doctor is in the system" began Shepard again "Everyone, make sure that you are ready within the hour. Be ready in the cargo bay for a drop in a hot zone. Dismissed" everyone began to leave. But as Garrus began to make his way to the door Shepard spoke again "Garrus, a moment"

Garrus made his way to him "What's the matter Shepard?" he didn't know why he had called for him

"Nothing really. I just wanted to catch up with you" he said with a smile "Didn't get the chance after speaking with Ash" he sighed "I wanted to apologize in advance for anything she may say… Just know that she doesn't mix well with turians".

Garrus nodded "No problem Shepard. At least you managed to get the stare off for a time. Good thing I decided to leave when I did…" Garrus answered. But he saw Shepard a little disappointed "Is there something I can help you with?"

"Not really. It's just… me remembering some stuff" Shepard patted the turian on the shoulder and moved to leave the room.

Garrus was intrigued by this exchange and decided to do some investigation on the past of both the humans.

Williams and Shepard… That would be a good place to start.

Afterword.

There is no afterword (c: until NOW!

Edit - My work continues and my story improves because of it, f u bill.