Punishment.

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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 - Orbit over Edolus

Shepard

Twenty minutes.

That's just how long it took for his crewmates to disrupt him once again.

Shepard had just gotten to his bed when he was alerted by Joker and Pressley separately that an alarm was activated in the cargo hold and once he got confirmation that it had been due to a fight he immediately went into the elevator with his pistol in order to investigate what had happened.

He did not even have the chance to ask who it had been that was fighting but the commander could take a wild guess as to who it was.

He just hoped that they had not damaged his ship as Wrex and Xiltar would most certainly be the ones responsible for a fight.

Once he reached the bottom level of the ship and had mentally prepared himself for a confrontation with these two individuals he was surprised by what he saw.

Three rather than two individuals welcomed him as he was confronted by a sheepish quarian that was flanked by the two people he had come down to confront.

Looking around the empty cargo bay, he was welcomed by some signs of a struggle as he saw scratchings on the ground until they reached a dented bulkhead.

Pissed could not begin to describe how mad Shepard was at the sight of that.

He only glared at the trio as he requested that Pressley send him the recording of the fight directly into his omni-tool.

The commander watched in ominous silence this recording and was even more surprised to know that not only was Wrex the main perpetrator but that he had also managed to rope in the cooperation of Tali into confronting the protoss.

And he had to admit, the fact that this alien had somehow managed to throw a full grown krogan with so little effort and with so much force that a Wrex shaped dent was now plastered on his wall was a feat he could have never considered.

Shepard shuddered at the thought of what the protoss could be capable of should he decide that the commander's form would be more suitable as that of filling on the wall.

The human glanced upwards quickly in order to measure the reaction of the protoss but it would seem that he had truly decided to keep his mind reading powers to himself.

After he saw what had transpired and also listened to the resolution by Xiltar's gambit he was both pleased that it wouldn't seem to escalate any further but was also disappointed that the event had taken place in the first place.

He turned to them and ordered for Wrex and Tali to come with him to the middle section of the ship and leave the protoss alone for the time being.

He told them that they would have a chat the next day as the Normandy approached their next destination on the cluster.

It is safe to say that he did not rest that night.

But the commander made good on his words and summoned these three individuals as soon as he had woken up.

Shepard knew that the exchange with them would be a tense one but he had no room for patience with the trio after what happened with the council…

Not only did his report to the councilors prove to be a fool's errand as they somehow ended up berating him for the geth collapsing the cavern the prothean ruin laid in despite it not being his fault, but they had the gall to doubt Benezia's willingness to kill her own daughter even though they had already branded her a traitor.

Even as the alliance recovered the mission log of the destroyed cruiser that remained in orbit they doubted that the geth were a threat to the people of the traverse still.

This pissed him off.

"So…" Shepard began as he glared at the three individuals in front of him. They were all seated at the table in the mess hall, Tali sitting between Wrex and Xiltar "Do you have anything to say for yourself?".

Tali shifted in her seat, as she wasn't comfortable with all the attention being drawn her way. Wrex was just checking his claws since he was truly bored by this inconvenience and Xiltar was just rubbing his forehead.

To his surprise it was the protoss who spoke first (This is stupid…) Wrex chuckled at his response. Tali just turned towards him with a horrified look in her eyes that made it seem as if the protoss had spat a curse at the migrant fleet itself.

"I will deal with you later" Shepard was now absolutely pissed with him even if he was partially innocent for what occurred. And Shepard had already thought of what his punishment would be. "Wrex, Tali. What the hell were you thinking?" Wrex smiled at the challenge. Tali just shrank in her seat, having achieved a new level of shyness that light could not escape from its surface.

"Nothing you should worry yourself with, Shepard" Wrex said with a trace of arrogance in his words.

Shepard just got even more mad at the utmost disrespect that the krogan showed him at that moment.

Fortunately for the krogan, it was his accomplice who tattled on what had happened.

"W-We were mad…" Tali began to explain with shame in her words "We had our personal issues and tried to take our frustration out on him" this was not what he expected them to say.

"What issues?" Shepard inquired. Personally invested in what had caused the fight.

"That's personal Shepa-" Wrex began before being interrupted by Shepard

"You forfeited that right the moment you decided to dent my ship. Explain. Now" Shepard interrupted harshly before he looked at Tali with a glare that could peel the paint job of most void crafts.

She squeaked as he looked angry at her "We… We tried to blame him for the state of our kind" Ah. Shepard now felt like an asshole, but he wouldn't admit to it.

"So you decided to assault one of your teammates solely on the state of your people? Why?" Shepard tried to deflect.

It wasn't successful.

"You would have done the same if you were in our position" Wrex countered "You don't get to live with your kind walking towards extinction" Tali dropped her head at this.

Shepard sighed. They were right, he had to admit this "It's true. I have not been considering that as I have placed you at unnecessary risk without even getting to know your standing in all this" he said as he intended on remeding this, but not now "However, I will be issuing a punishment for all of you" he pointed to Xiltar and Wrex "You will accompany me in our next assignment"

Both creatures were not faced by his command and it seemed that the only person to have a measurable reaction was the only one that wasn't included in that punishment.

"What about her?" Wrex asked as he motioned for said person.

Tali seemed to curse him because of this.

And Shepard knew exactly how to use this opportunity.

The commander got up from his seat and placed his hands on the table as he looked straight at the quarian "You will go down to engineering" He began ominously "They found another short circuit that may or may not be related to another spider nest…" Tali froze with a look of terror "And you are going to investigate it" Shepard finished with a grin as he took a step back and looked at the group "I want you kids to meet me in the cargo bay in ten" they agreed and departed while he made his way to his own loker in order to gear up.

His day would be a long one.

Garrus Vakarian

He had been called by the commander beforehand and had been ordered to be prepared and have the mako ready for what he called 'an excursion'.

Garrus rationalized that he would be the commander's copilot as he had approached Kaidan and had been told by him that he was not coming along.

The turian thought that this had to be a single assignment as Garrus was certain that he would be the only person to join him.

He was wrong.

When he saw Tali, Wrex and Xiltar trickle out of the elevator and had two of them make their way towards their equipment he knew in that instant that this assignment would be anything but a simple one.

He watched curiously as only the krogan and the protoss seemed to be getting ready to join him on this mission.

Garrus watched even more curiously as the quarian seemed to be making her way towards engineering while slumped as if she was resigning herself to her fate.

"Garrus" Shepard called to him "You will be my copilot for this mission" he turned to the others and briefed them of their mission "Thanks to rear admiral Kahoku we know that some alliance soldiers under his command have gone missing in this world. Our mission will be to discover what happened to this platoon. Now, everybody in the Mako".

The group then boarded the vehicle and made their drop moments later

But this time, as they descended onto the planet, no cheering was heard this time.

"Commander. We have located the two spots where the alliance lost contact with parts of the platoon" reported Joker through the intercom "One lies dead center of a clearing. The other one rests within an abandoned compound. We have been unable to identify who it belonged to".

Shepard nodded "Presle. How far is the compound from where we are?" Shepard asked.

"About five kilometers west of your current position. The clearing is seven to the north" the navigator responded in turn as he charted the local region for the team.

"Perfect" the commander got up from his seat and then motioned for Garrus to follow him onto the back of the tank with his helmet on "Wrex, Xiltar" the commander spoke and the others stood at attention "You will go to the compound and discover what happened there" the human then placed his helmet on and then punched the button that would open the hatch to the side of the vehicle "Better start running".

The krogan and the protoss did not even look phased at the horrifying climate that was welcoming them outside as the sky seemed to be that of a polluted world while a meteor shower was threatening to not come outside should they be squashed by one of these falling rocks.

Wrex and Xiltar exchanged glances and begrudgingly did as they were told "This is stupid" Garrus heard as the krogan muttered this words while putting his helmet on and he looked as the protoss just passed in front of him while giving nothing but a slight nod.

The commander then closed the hatch behind them as he knew that they had no other option but to head west.

"Are you sure that's a good idea, commander? This planet has nothing but a carbon dioxide atmosphere" Garrus said through his speakers as he was ready to leave the Mako at a moment's notice in order to go grab his companions.

"Wrex's kind made their way just fine along the rachni's homeworld. Xiltar told me that his kind could survive the vacuum of space without a suit" Shepard began to explain his reason for having them go out in the hostile environment.

"If you say so…" Garrus made his way to the turret as the commander ordered him to do so and after a few moments they began to make towards the valley they meant to investigate "So… commander" Garrus began to say "Quite the family you managed to gather" he smiled as the commander just groaned over the intercom.

"Don't get me started…" Shepard continued to groan "One would think that enrolling to serve in a military vessel would make it so a moniker of respect would be shown to your superior officer…" the commander sighed as he paused for a moment "At least you haven't devolved into acting like a child" this last comment got a chuckle from the turian before "Please not you too Garrus… I don't think I can survive this mission with more children on board…".

"Whatever you say… dad" Garrus made the joke at Shepard's expense "Are we there yet?"

The commander groaned "God damn you, Vakarian…" said Shepard in a serious thone before he chuckled slightly at the exchange.

The trip would be a calm one.

Wrex

This was their punishment… walking.

HA!

This just showed Wrex how weak the human could be.

The krogan knew that the people of the vessel would have tried to kill him the moment he had been done with the protoss but it seemed that it would have never come to that.

The alien had bested him and had done more than earn this victory as he did not do so through only brute strength but he had done something better… and far from possible.

He had managed to take the fight out of the krogan.

The protoss had managed to wound his spirit and break his resolve in blaming him and his now gone gods.

The krogan scoffed before a smile formed under his helmet.

Wrex was now at the mercy of this individual but he did not feel in danger even once.

Unlike the time in which the protoss had managed to sneak upon the old warrior without making a sound and exuding such bloodlust he was now in a position in which he better understood the creature.

Much like his own race in their old days, his species seemed to be an honorable race or at least one that placed a high degree of respect upon honor and the values of a warrior on equal measure.

But many details still remained unclear to him…

If his species had been as warbound as his own earlier in their evolution then how was it that they had existed so long without killing one another.

Wrex wished to know.

And now he had the chance to speak with said alien.

Maybe something he knew could help him in his cause.

The krogan turned around and saw as the protoss matched his pace and walked a few steps behind him without looking solely at the krogan.

He seemed to be more focused on the world around him.

But Wrex could not see what was so interesting about a gray and dead world with an atmosphere so toxic that it could have killed any other races.

Then Wrex followed his gaze and realized that he had been looking up… up towards a meteor shower.

This event would have been seen as beautiful by the more philosophical and puny races hadn't it been due to the close proximity and the size of the meteors that were falling around them.

The ground would even shake slightly as some of these rocks impacted close enough to them that should they walk in the direction of the impact they would have surely found a crater with its center still hot from the strike.

But Wrex wasn't interested in the what but why was the protoss so fascinated by it.

"What is so interesting about falling rocks anyway?" Wrex asked this question out loud without expecting to receive an answer.

But it would seem that this was the que the protoss had been waiting for.

(It just reminds me of the outcome from a battle I once witnessed) Xiltar replied in turn.

War.

Something the krogan could understand.

He nodded and continued to walk towards their destination while the meteor shower continued.

But he had no intention of continuing their journey in silence.

"Was it a great battle?" Wrex asked with some curiosity.

(It was… bloody…) Xiltar spoke with some degree of abhorrence to what he was saying (But yes… it was a great battle if anything else).

This was something that the krogan did not understand either.

His shame.

The creature had shown that he understood war and all its horrors but still seemed apprehensive about it taking place for starters, but he also spoke as if his own actions were those of a dishonorable person.

Of the latter he could rationalize it in part because of the doomsday story he had spoken about.

But of the former…

Only two kinds of people spoke like that about war: Old veterans who were sick and tired of war all together…

Or youngsters who had not bleed that much in the first place.

"Who were you fighting that day?" Wrex asked another question as he wished to prove the protoss for some answers.

(...) Xiltar made the sound of sigh (Those heretics I spoke once of… the Tal'darim) the protoss paused for a moment as the pair reached the edge of a crater and glanced at each other before they descended into into it, to continue in a straight line rather than take the long way around (I was reminded of that engagement by these falling rocks due to how the battle was resolved).

This got the krogan even more curious.

"Because a meteor shower happened at the end of the battle?" Wrex guessed that this battle must have been a boring one if the first that came to the mind of the protoss was how the sky looked.

But the krogan was wrong.

Xiltar shook his head just as Wrex turned around as he expected an answer.

(It was because we made their ships fall as a meteor shower… directly into their main encampment) Xiltar seemed somewhat pleased by his words before a terrible look of pain crossed his eyes.

Wrex was impressed, but it would seem that even if the battle had been won that day it had not been achieved as the protoss would have liked it to be

(It was my first time in command of a fleet and I was instructed by my leaders to track and follow a band of Tal'darim who had splintered from their main fleet some months prior to their discovery in our borders… we did not know what their intentions were but we could not allow their defilement of our space to be unpunished) Xiltar began to explain (We tracked them to a remote world in our space called Sojix. We managed to track these transgressors and found their main encampment… we also discovered why they had come to one of our worlds in the first place).

Wrex and Xiltar reached the other end of the crater and began to climb the steep face of the cliff.

The protoss managed to get to the top first mainly due to him cheating as he used his teleportation to reach the summit first.

The krogan snarled at this, but as he continued to climb he almost slipped as a rock under his feet came loose right as he was reaching for the summit.

But the protoss reacted quickly and grabbed the krogan's wrist before he could fall and with some effort helped the krogan reach the summit.

The krogan looked at the protoss and the smug look in his eyes made him snarl once more.

(I thought it was customary for people in this realm to thank someone for providing aid…) the protoss said with a smug thone in his voice (Or is it that the pride of age prohibits you from doing so?).

Wrex was old but he would not consider himself senile enough to become a cranky fellow.

Or maybe he was.

"Did your people not teach you to respect your elders? Or is it just that you do but prefer to annoy me to no end?" Wrex said in turn.

(Mhm. My mentor said a similar thing once) he replied in turn as they looked around in order to see where they were.

The pair looked at the horizon and managed to see some objects that broke the dull horizon with a metallic shine.

The krogan turned to his companion and punched him in the shoulder as a manner of thanks "Comes with the wisdom of age, Pyjak" Wrex laughed as they proceeded to walk towards what they assumed to be the abandoned complex.

(I don't see how comparing me to an animal of your world is fitting) he replied.

"Is a manner of speech, young blood" Wrex replied with some satisfaction in his voice as he had deduced that he wasn't a coward but inexperience.

(Young blood… He did call me that too) The protoss spoke plainly (So you knew… My immaturity still lingers as it would seem).

Wrex scoffed and nodded in agreement "Pretty easy to spot if you ask me. You talk a big game but rely to much on others" he turned to the Protoss, he looked at Wrex with a puzzled expression "You bluff too much and are too trusting" he turned and resumed his trek up a hill that stood between them at the complex they had spotted in the distance.

The climb up that hill was a long task as there was still some distance between them and the place they were meant to investigate.

They continued to walk in silence. Not because they wished to stop talking, but rather because they sensed that something was off.

Shepard's men had informed them that the compound was abandoned so they shouldn't expect any company but even this little detail fell… off

A remote world with nothing to offer anybody save for some secrecy…

A band of soldiers that came to investigate something in this world but never made it out of here…

And a compound that had no traps or security measures on the main approach…

There was certainly something wrong with this place.

They continued at a careful but steady pace and reached the top shortly there after.

"This… wasn't what I expected" Wrex said as they overlooked the site from their vantage point…

The partially melted compound.

Inside a massive crater they found their objective as this compound was in full view for them to take in every detail of what it was… and what had transpired there.

The site was a small complex surrounded by a partially built metallic wall that was tall enough to resist even a siege from several pirate gangs.

Wrex could see several military vehicles were scattered along the site, all of them seemed to have been destroyed in horrific ways as their chassis were twisted and deformed in ungodly ways.

The pair also could see that a massive domed building governed the compound as the whole place was built around this place in focus.

They descended into the crater with care and found that even the main entrance had not survived whatever it was that had destroyed this place.

"What the hell happened here?" Wrex asked as they approached the main entrance and managed to make out a symbol that was plastered in the now wrecked door.

It was an orange insignia that Wrex did not recognize.

Wrex quickly turned to his companion to see if he recognized it but the protoss just shucked his head in denial.

The krogan figured as much and then took a picture of it with his omnitool in order to ask Shepard later.

Speaking of the human.

"Shepard, we found the site you told us to check…" Wrex tried to communicate trough his radio but static was his only response "Shepard?" No response again.

He then tried to contact the Normandy but there was no response either.

"Any ideas?" Wrex asked his companion as they entered the complex and began to look around.

The signs of battle were even more apparent as they entered the inner yard of the compound and saw more closely the damage that was made to the shuttles and tanks in the region.

But there weren't any bodies…

Only the helmets remained behind for some reason.

(There might be some sort of jammer in the complex. That would explain why the humans could not contact anybody in here) Xiltar replied with a look of confusion as he approached one of the helmets in the ground (What I don't understand is why no ships ever reported an engagement in the site).

Wrex approached the protoss and analyzed the helmet he was now holding "This doesn't match any alliance equipment. Wherever they deploy in places like this they usually come escorted by a patrol fleet and have different gear" Wrex replied, but found himself ever more disturbed "This place doesn't feel right".

(Agreed) the protoss said in turn as he placed the helmet back on the ground with care (I cannot fathom what could have destroyed a place like this. Can you?) The protoss asked as he now made his way to one of the vehicles.

Wrex continued to analyze the site as they approached this vehicle that was near the main entrance "Something about this feels familiar…" he analyzed a tear pattern in the destroyed tank once they got close enough.

He had seen it somewhere before…

Wrex continued to look at the marks before he heard a snap to his left and saw as Xiltar was grabbing a piece of metal that must have been an antenna or a gun barrel (It's brittle) he observed as he snapped the piece of metal with little effort (This… this could only be because of acid from a living creature).

Wrex guessed that this might have been the case but he still couldn't tell why this felt so familiar "Any experience on your side?" The krogan asked.

The protoss took a moment to think before he visibly shuddered (The zerg… they had bioforms that used bile as a kind of weapon) the protoss then took a moment as he looked over more brittle metal (This looks eerily similar to it) Xiltar explained.

Acid… bile.

…

Realization struck him.

He had indeed seen claw marks like this before. Just much, much bigger.

"This doesn't make sense. They never venture to the surface when they are this small. Xiltar we have to…" Wrex was interrupted in his explanation as a small tremor began to shake the ground around them.

The protoss had most likely read his mind as he prepared against an onslaught from below.

As the ground burst open they were surrounded by the offspring of one of Tuachanka's most fearsome predators.

Thresher maws.

Afterword.

Gummy worm cometh

Zacker1590 - Zeratul said that the Terrans had been consumed. Since the hybrid were complete I don't see why Amon would allow his enslaved Terran to live.

Edit - expanded the chapter