"C'mon guys, lets get to the dock."

We just got out of whatever the hell that was, as I was trying my best to nurse a throbbing headache. That hit I took from that Krogan bouncer was finally being felt as the stim I took earlier started to wear off.

Need to go see the doc when I get back

We were walking towards our docking elevator. Dock 422. It was nice that the alliance got private docking bays. Hell, sometimes we'd use em to throw private parties when the crew got shore leave during the academy days.

Good times.

I was thinking this just as a large red Krogan, no, a massive red Krogan approached us from our right side, his long stride thudding against the steel of the floor.

"You're Shepard, right?" The Krogan said with a voice that meant business. Not gonna lie, I was a bit frozen up. That fucker looked like carnage was his day job, with those scars carving up his face plate.

Shepard turned to him with some trepidation. "Who wants to know?"

"Names's Wrex. I hear you took care of Fist. He was my target." Wrex, charming.

Wrex's expression didn't change at all, his piercing red eyes staring daggers at us.

"We turned him in. Sorry if that's an inconvenience." Shepard sneered at the Krogan, prompting the lumbering alien to step closer, leaving little space between him and Shepard.

"You can make it up to me, Shepard. Let me join you. I know you're gunning for saren."

"What's Saren to a bounty hunter?"

"A score that needs settling"

We stood firm across from the Krogan. I know I couldn't fight him, but if there's one thing you don't do around a Krogan, its show weakness. To be pitied is the highest insult to the race of warriors.

"Alright Wrex, you're in"

I gave a sigh of relief, and exacerbation. Did Shepard officially just hire a Krogan bounty hunter that looks like it eats humans for fun?

Yes, yes he did.

With that, we all walked to the elevator and got sent up to the docking bay, as Wrex shot me a look that said 'what are you gonna do about it?'.

Well, as long as he stays on our side.


"Wow. This place is amazing!"

Tali finally perked up as we escorted her through the presidium. I guess a good view is all you need to recover from nearly being assassinated. Or that she's seen some shit by now and that was light work. You'd think she was drunk with how much she was spinning around trying to imbibe the views of the citadel.

And, Lord have mercy, I had a view too.

Look, I am an adult human male, and I find beauty in every race. Well, maybe except the hanar, or the salarians, or the elcor, or the volus…okay nevermind. Let me put it this way.

Whoever in the flotilla decided that skintight envirosuits were the move deserves a medal. Tali was a bombshell in all the places that matter to a 20-something dude in the Navy. That is all I will say, because I was thinking much worse before Shepard pulled me out of my trance.

"When we get to the Ambassador's office, just tell us everything you know. Sorry to put you through this, but it's a matter of galactic security." Shepard was turning back to Tali explaining the situation as we ascended the stairs to the office.

"O-okay, let me make sure I got everything selected…" She was frantically checking her omni-tool for what was gotta be the 20th time now, nervously tapping buttons like a hamster on speed. I mean, shit, I can't blame her, I'd also be nervous if I was called to present evidence of treason to a head of state if I didn't already hate politicians with a burning passion.

We made our way to the door, which opened to present us with one Ambassador Udina. He looked charming as ever, with that shit eating face of his, and his dumb-ass attitude. He did not look happy.

"You're not making my life easy Shepard, firefights in the fucking wards topped off with shooting up a strip club, do you know how—" Udina turned around and peeked through his hands over his face, letting them down in bemusement and starting directly at Tali.

"A quarian? What's all this Shepard?" Udina's tone morphed from anger to befuddlement as he awaited an explanation.

"I'm making your day ambassador. This is Tali'Zorah, and she has something for you."

Tali, who was just standing like she had seen a ghost, then quickly pulled up her omni-tool. Saren's voice was clear to Udina, who then lightened up from his scrowl as he heard more. But I swear, as Shepard heard "reapers", he looked like he had a mini-seizure or something, because he was givin' the thousand yard stare.

"That's it! He's a traitor and the council can't deny this!" Anderson slammed the table in his certainty. We got him, and it was time to rub it in those snobs faces.

"Well, I guess you got a meeting to arrange then?" Shepard crossed his arms in anticipation, glacing over at Anderson.

"I suppose so. I don't expect this to take more than a few hours to arrange, so meet me in the tower when im done." Udina was saying all of this while striding to his desk, frantically typing away on his holodeck as he plopped his ass down to work.

The whole gang filed out of the office, Shepard giving a mock salute to Anderson as the sliding door hissed shut.

"Alright y'all, you're free to do whatever for a bit. Just stay around the presidium if you can. Shouldn't be long" Sheperd said this and departed.

We finally got em. I was getting tired of this wild goose chase on the Citadel. I prefer to be at 10,000 feet when I'm dealing with any problem that requires shooting things.


Well, I definitely never expected to be in the council chambers on the citadel, with cameras pointed at me as soon as we exited.

Yeah, no one told us that this whole shitshow was primetime television, well at least the part where the verdict was revealed just outside the presidium. Civvies weren't allowed in the tower, of course. Shepard was hounded by reporters the second we got off the elevator.

The council's golden boy charged with treason and stripped of his authority, that sent the media machine into a feeding frenzy on anyone remotely connected to the whole affair.

After we muscled our way through the horde of 20-something reporters, we made it onto the elevator up to the Normandy. And there I was now, leaning against a railing overlooking the beauty of a ship, catching some breaths after the reporter ambush.

Shep became a spectre too, which apparently means he can bring whatever cool friends he wants onto the Normandy to help in his crusade against Saren. So all the fun people we met, Wrex, Garrus, and Tali, would join us on the mission. Also apparently he doesn't' need to follow the law anymore, so he really can space me if I make one-too-many jokes at his expense (which there will be many). Fun!

I heard a loud sigh next to me. Tali decided to join me a few feet away. She looked enthralled with the sight of the Normandy.

I leaned over, arms crossed on the thin metal railing. "She's a beauty isn't she?" I was checking her out myself, I mean the Normandy, of course. 4 massive thrusters flanked a sleek, dart shaped fuselage that looked mean as hell. Eezo missiles, twin 100mm mass drivers on the nose and countermeasures to boot. Of course, its what's on the inside that counts, but damn if she wasn't a looker with some 'assets'.

Tali, totally transfixed on the engines, replied with some delay. "I can't wait to see what she looks like from the inside! How much power do those monsters need?" She gestured towards the engines in bemusement at the Normandy's rear-heavy design.

"For being that rear-heavy, you know she's packing some serious juice under the hood. You'll see soon enough." I looked over towards her to see her face, well, mask anyway. I could only make out a little bit of her facial features; two slivery glowing eyes and a small nose (I think) was all I could make out. I wonder what she looked like under that mask… I knew only a bit about quarians, but all I knew was that handing your ship to a quarian engineer was a godsend. Of course, no self-respecting alliance pilot would ever admit to utilizing the services of a "suit-rat", but I didn't really care about all that bullshit anyway. All I knew was your ship was in good hands with a quarian wrench jockey.

"Soooo, uhm…" Tali was stumbling over her words a bit as she fumbled with her hands over the railing. "ahhh, what's your job on the Normandy?"

"Close air-support. There's a Trident fighter in the cargo bay. When y'all are down there fighting geth, I run recon and gun runs whenever they're needed."

Tali quickly turned her head over to me with some surprise. "A fighter pilot then?" Her tone shifted to a curiosity I enjoyed. There probably weren't a lot of fighter pilots on the flotilla, I thought.

"Yes ma'am." She lightly chuckled at that. I'm not gonna lie, she had a cute laugh. Almost disarming enough to make a man forget how she blew chunks off a thug 4 hours ago. "Best there is, if I do say so myself." I turned over to face her with my whole body, leaning on one arm over the railing.

"Big talk, ummmm, sorry what's your name?" That got a laugh out of me.

"Bruce MacKinnon, but just call me 'ace'" Shot her a wink after that. She didn't budge at all.

"'ace' is a little

Shepard walked over to us as the others were filling into the ship. He was done talking with Udina and Anderson and it seems that was our queue to go.

"Alright, its go time y'all." Shepard waved us over to the docking arm.

We gave each other a quick look, then walked over to the tunnel, me following behind Tali.

And was I ever glad to be behind her, wha- No, no, no pull yourself together

Jackass…


So, we had just boarded and gotten settled down. Looks like I'm gonna have to share the cargo hold as the new members decided to take up residence there. Gotta say, I never expected to be serving with aliens, but I guess this is as much a council operation as it is an Alliance operation, so it makes sense. A good alliance grunt would be suspicious of aliens on a ship like this. God know how much intel they could gather on us!

But I didn't give a shit. It's a little too late for opsec concerns. We've been on the ship for a few hours after we took off from the citadel, so if they planned on scanning or downloading some shit off the ship, they'd probably already done it. At least, that's what I was thinking.

Not that I really gave a shit. Let the intelligence guys earn their paycheck. I just fly the damn fighter.

Besides, I had a chance to shoot the shit with Garrus, and he's probably the first turian that I met that doesn't have a stick up his ass. Well, maybe a little bit, but as we were talking while fixing shit on our mako and Trident respectively, I think I made a new friend.

"So, Garrus right?" I wanted to get his attention while still intently focused on the ammunition rack, loading in 30mm to the ground cannon.

"Yeah, I don't think I ever got your name" Garrus was underneath the mako, fucking with something in the suspension. I didn't really know.

"My government name is Bruce MacKinnon, but just call me ace."

"Wasn't aware your government assigned you names, sounds like something the hierarchy would do." I could tell Garrus was joking. No way he would think we actually got assigned names by our government, but to be honest I would be surprised if he got confused.

"Yeah I got stuck with a weird one." That got a scoff out of Garrus. "So, you were with c-sec? How was that?" I lifted a new belt on my shoulder from the ammo crate ive been loading from. I just finished getting the first one in and was working on hooking up the second one.

"pff, to be honest, hated it. So much damn red tape." There was some venom in those words. "They'd quicker let an obvious criminal loose than risk locking up someone without 100% conclusive evidence."

"Well, don't wanna lock up some innocent guy, right?" I was just trying to banter with him. I know his opinion was probably worth more than mine on the matter, but I figured I'd throw my two cents in.

"Well, yeah, but…" He paused a bit as his wrench clicked away under the belly of the mako, Garrus audibly exterting himself trying to screw in what I assumed was a difficult bolt. "Damn!" He said just as I heard a metal clank on the ground.

"All good?" I started the ammo spool to siphon up the new shells into the Judgement, finishing with a satisfying clink. I closed up the hatch and peered down under the mako.

"Yeah, damned thing isn't really built to be taken apart. Anyway, maybe I'll tell ya the full story later. It's long and actually pretty fucked up." To be honest, with a big and diverse as the Citadel is, he could have seen some real fucked up shit. I decided to not press.

Garrus came up from the bottom and stood tall as he scuffed himself off of all the grease with his forearm, trying unsuccessfully to clean his blue armor.

"Well, in that case, Happy to have you aboard brother." I extended my hand. I assume he knew what a handshake was, and was relieved when he returned the favor.

"Looking forward to whatever Shepard has in store for us."

"You and me both, brother." Garrus

"You keep saying brother, is that a human thing I haven't heard yet or are you my long-lost sibling?"

That got a laugh out of me. Again, I was surprised with Garrus' demeanor. He is not like any turian ive met. Given, the turians I've met were usually C-sec officers telling me to get bent whenever I inevitably did something drunk and stupid.

"Texas thing. Place on Earth where I'm from. Land of outlaws and vigilantes If the old vids are anything to go off of."

"I like the sound of that." A turian who might like Westerns. Gotta show 'em some of the classics sometime.

"Then you'll be an honorary Texan in my books soon enough, partner." With that, I went back to my footlocker to get my nutrient bars, deciding to treat myself with an apple pie flavor. I waltzed back to the trident periodically taking big bites out of my bat when Ashley piped up.

"What flavor?" I was a bit surprised to hear her talk to me so soon. Our initial introduction wasn't exactly smooth, but I welcomed it.

"Apple pie in honor of setting sail."

"ooooo, breaking out the premium stuff already." Ashley was sat down on a crate of supplies, cleaning out the heat sink of her Lancer.

"Gotta start off on a high note right? Chasing down a rogue spectre." I took a large chunk out of the bar as I started getting my tool box.

"You got an extra? I'll pay you back, I promise."

Now a true grunt knows that an apple pie nutrient bar is worth its weight in gold, so this was a tall order. She'd have to make me an offer I couldn't refuse.

I scoffed and gave her a look of bemusement. "Make me an offer. That's a big ask, Williams."

She momentarily paused clearing her rifle, thinking over my last statement. "Hmmmm…how about I comp you a drink next shore leave?"

"That's fair, although you assume I want to drink with you." I made sure to have that statement dripping with sarcasm.

"And its assuming we get shore leave anytime soon." Yeah, she's right. This mission probably doesn't include a lot of room for R&R.

"Go to my locker, its unlocked. Top shelf's where I keep 'em" I went ahead and acquiesced to her offer. But I hope she's ready for my drinking habits. I'm taking full advantage of that promise.

If we even come back alive.

I began doing a hull inspection, making sure I was all ready to go for next time. After a fire mission there was always the occasional stray dent or burr, but as long as there wasn't any holes, it's safe to fly.

"What gun were you using back there on the citadel by the way? This thing looks ancient." Ashley was just closing my locker, nutrient bar in hand, and walking back to her makeshift bench.

"It's an older model of accelerator. Rhino Model. Doesn't use mass effect fields, but still flings huge pieces of metal at high speeds. Gauss technology from the 2070s. My father gave it to me as a parting gift before flight school." Felt a pang of sadness saying that. The only thing I got left of his memory other than photos and my mother. Can't bring my mom on fire missions, so a pistol and some pictures have to do.

Ashley perked up a bit, fascinated that I chose a seemingly obsolete sidearm as my go-to weapon on the ground. "Man, that thing is a blast from the past. They let you carry that as your backup? I'm surprised it isn't regulated to all hell."

"Technically it is. But good COs know better than to micromanage my side arm."

Ashley laughed a bit at that. "Bet you were a favorite with your quartermaster." I do admit, my quartermasters were more than pissed when I have to special order custom ammunition. Luckily, most fabricators can make 90% of it, while the disruptor mods are a bit more of a pain in the ass to make.

But I don't really care. If I'm shot down, and I'm likely gonna die, the least the service can do is let me make a last stand on my own terms.

I was making my way around the side of my trident, inspecting the intakes for atmospheric flight, when me and, I think Wrex was his name, briefly locked eyes. I think he was watching me this whole time. That thought sent a little chill down my spine.

I'm still petrified of that guy.

"Lookin' for something, human?" Wrex's low rumble broke the silence. Ashley was looking at Wrex now, wary suspicion in her eyes. I continued my walk to the back of the exhausts.

I made sure to keep it cool though. Can't show weakness. "Oh what's up Wrex, I thought you were a statue how you've been standing perfectly still in silence for the good part of 2 hours."

"Think you're funny?"

"I am funny, Wrex"

"Ha!" Krogan humor is so weird. It reminded me of the sardonic wit of a lot of marines, but with an obsession with violence and brutality.

"It's Flight Lieutenant Bruce MacKinnon of the Lone Star gunfighters, by the way, 'ace' for short if you wanna save breath." I plopped of the exhaust cover of the right engine to get into the afterburners for routine maintenance. I think I may have overworked it on Eden Prime.

"I think I might just like you, human. You got a quad." Hearing Wrex say that gave me some relief.

"We only got two down under, for your information."

"pfff, Jesus christ…" Ashley was beside herself with my terrible banter.

After that I was silent as I completed my routine checkups and repairs to the trident. I made sure to tell the requisition officer about all the upgrades I've been thinking about putting on the fighter. We shot the shit for a bit about tech and such before I went to my cot, covered my eyes with a spare uniform, and went to sleep.

What a day.


Yes, Ace is kind of a pig.

But he's a fighter pilot, what did y'all expect?

Well, I'm a massive liar by saying there'd be regular updates to this series. Truth be told, I lost interest in this story. But I've regained some interest recently. Some fluff for y'all before we set off for Therum.

Again, I'd appreciate constructive criticism in reviews. This is my first fic and I want to improve my fiction writing.