Virmire. The name swam in front of her vision as she read the extremely thorough, and at the same time somewhat limited, STG report for a sixth time. Studiously attempting to absorb every last detail the salarians had been able to provide about the planet.
So far she could quote the atmospheric pressure (0.9 atm), surface gravity (0.86 g), average surface temperature (32 degrees centigrade, she'd had to convert that figure from the salarian unit of measurement 'degrees Tann') and even the orbital period (8.363 Galactic standard years or (again, she'd had to use a calculator) approximately 9.2 Earth years)
She had also learnt that if she saw a four metre long, six legged scaly creature down there then it was best to just walk away. Walk NOT run.
Apparently the beast that the salarians had tentatively dubbed [error: translation not found] was actually a herbivore and wouldn't attack unless it felt threatened, but any fast movements such as running would make it panic and shooting at it made it angry. If angered it switched categories from docile to lethal pretty damn quick and it was relatively immune to standard weapons fire.
The weird running-around-on-land jellyfish type things however were completely harmless. There was also apparently several interesting examples of flora that STG were interested in studying further with the intention of creating new and unusual medicines or poisons.
Aside from that, the planet was a tropical paradise. It would have made a great holiday resort if not so close to the Terminus systems and the assorted pirate scum neighbours who would happily pillage anybody attempting to settle the region.
There was no denying the STG report was certainly very thorough with regards to the planet. In regards to Saren's base however it seemed to be lacking a certain something… As in, well... anything. No photos, no blueprints. Not even a location.
Shepard had worked with STG in joint operations for the Villa before and usually their reports were so detailed you knew how many computer terminals were in each room, how many beds in the sleeping quarters and how many taps in the bathrooms. There was even a joke among N7s that the STG could tell you the expiration dates of the food in the enemy's fridge.
This time however there was nothing.
It was clear that the original report on Virmire had been written before Saren set up his base and the more recent STG team sent in to update the report hadn't been heard from since. Well, except for the scrambled and unreadable comms burst on a secured emergency channel anyway.
It was that discrepancy in salarian efficiency that had resulted in a spectre being sent in and Shepard was currently too happy about finding out the Council was actually taking the situation seriously enough to have other people working on it, to be pissed off about being kept in the dark about their existence.
Then again, there was a question mark over whether or not the STG unit were actually there at the bequest of the Council or just the Salarian Union? Either way, it was the first actionable intel she'd acquired in weeks and she wasn't about to waste it.
...
It was a testament to her pilot's skill (and, if she wasn't so humble, her own too) that they were able to perform a mako drop into a ravine. Sure it was a relatively big one, about three and a half mako widths, but considering how much rock there was to avoid it was still an impressive feat.
Her squad were silent as she concentrated on setting them down safely. There was a splash as they landed in the river and their conversations sparked back up almost immediately.
"Wow, it's beautiful."
Shepard certainly had to agree with that assessment. It wasn't often that her missions took her anywhere she'd be willing to take Trish to visit, but damn this place was almost worthy of a honeymoon location. Of course she'd have to get rid of those pesky AA guns before she let Trish near the place.
She shook her head as she realised she'd let her brain get sidetracked again and started driving.
"Sand, sea, sun, surf." Kaidan was still listing the planet's good points and Nikki briefly wondered if he just liked the letter S or if he'd been working his way through the whole alphabet while she had been fantasizing. "It'd make for one hell of a vacation spot."
"What are you talking about? All I see is rocks." Grumbled Wrex.
"You know I always wanted to fight in a tropical paradise." Was Ashley's contribution.
"Meh, they're overrated... and the sand gets everywhere." The krogan informed her. "Now a museum, that's somewhere I'd like to fight."
"Oh, that sounds like fun. It would be like a much bigger version of an antique shop, I love fighting in antique shops." Garrus joined in and Shepard would have stared at him incredulously if she wasn't focusing on the road.
Well... the ravine... river. Route. Driving.
"You enjoy fighting in antique shops?"
"Only if they're classy."
Shepard shook her head with a sigh.
"Um, guys..."
The commander quickly glanced to the side at Tali's hesitant call. The quarian had been monitoring the electronics and it didn't take a genius to realise what was the cause of her concern. The radar was being jammed.
"Well, I've got good news for all those wanting to fight in a tropical paradise."
...
Multiple drones, several armatures, a handful of snipers, juggernauts and rocket troops plus three gatehouses, a colossus and a healthy amount of banter later, they finally reached the salarian camp. A camp composed of several tents containing equipment and the remnants of a less than happy 3rd Infiltration regiment.
"We wait for Council reinforcements." The salarian CO informed the newly arrived 'Alliance plus assorted others' forces when pressed for a course of action.
"We ARE the reinforcements."
"You? but we requested a fleet."
"Sorry, the message was unclear. No fleet, but we have got a krogan."
"Saren has multiple krogan." Captain Kirrahe dismissed, seemingly unimpressed by the spectre's attempt at levity.
Which was fair enough. Everybody was entitled to their own sense of humour, or lack there of.
What was less ok however, was the way he continued talking about the need to destroy Saren's krogan breeding facility before describing the entire species as 'a mistake'... in front of Wrex.
Shepard fought the urge to face palm as her friend became understandably upset and threatened the captain before storming off to vent his anger on some nearby rocks.
"Is he going to be a problem?" Kirrahe inquired.
Well he wouldn't have been if you kept your mouth shut. Shepard thought as she agreed to talk to the deadly and enraged battlemaster in their midst.
...
"Come on Wrex, whatever happened to 'anyone fighting us is either stupid or on Saren's payroll and that's just business or a favour to the universe'?" Shepard wheedled, using the bounty hunter's own words against him as she sat unthreateningly on a handy boulder beside him.
"This isn't about a few idiot mercs Shepard. If there's a cure for my people-" His shotgun beeped a warning about over heating and as far as Nikki was concerned that was far more worrying than any amount of shouting or posturing.
The Urdnot warrior had centuries of combat experience, he knew how to ride that fine line between a constant barrage and leaving enough time between each shot for your weapon to cool down so you weren't left defenseless at a critical moment. If he wasn't capable of even that most basic of thought processes...
"Wrex..." Her soft interruption obviously wasn't appreciated as he turned on her angrily and she was thankful she'd stopped by her marines on the way over and given them all a direct order not to interfere, no matter what happened.
"You of all people should understand Shepard! You know the pain of losing a child. Now multiply that by a thousand. Imagine living with the knowledge that no matter how hard you try that will always be the result. Most give up after the tenth or twelfth attempt. My own sister killed herself rather than live without hope and she certainly wasn't the only one. We have suffered enough. I won't sit back and let you destroy the cure!"
His shotgun was suddenly pointing right at her but Shepard didn't flinch, even though it had cooled down enough to fire again. Instead she merely crossed her arms as she raised an eyebrow at him and stared unwaveringly into his furious eyes.
"Finished?" She enquired tartly. "I didn't say anything about destroying the cure, just the facility."
Wrex looked at her quizzically, not quite daring to hope as the commander explained her plan.
"The krogan here are puppets for Saren, they're not the great hope for your people Wrex, but I promise you, if there's details of a genophage cure on any of the computer terminals Tali will find it and we'll take it with us."
The anger drained from his eyes but he was still cautious, centuries of survival teaching him to pay close attention to words both said and unsaid.
"Take with us... But will you actually give it to me?"
The commander shrugged.
"Didn't know you were a scientist Wrex." She quipped before catching the look in his eyes. Yeah, right, ok, so now... so not the time for humour.
"Look, I don't like making promises I can't keep Wrex. If there is a cure I doubt it's sat waiting for us in handy tablet or injection form, we're probably going to need a sympathetic scientist to make use of it and to get that your people are going to have to prove they can be trusted with-"
"We deserve-" The krogan's heated interruption was curtailed by the commander raising a hand.
"I know you do Wrex. The genophage was unforgivable, but that's just it. What if after getting the cure your people seek retribution? I mean, I wouldn't blame you for wanting revenge, but do you really think the salarians and turians are just going to sit back and take it? No, they're going to come up with something even worse than the genophage in response. 'An eye for an eye leaves the whole world blind'. There's going to need to be some work on changing the galaxy's view of the krogan and quite possibly your society somewhere along the line. I don't know the answer as to how and what, but it needs to be dragged away from the self-destructive influences left over from your father's reign."
Wrex was silent as he thought about the words of the comparatively little human sat fearlessly in front of him. Finally he extended an arm down in invitation.
"Let's start with ending Saren."
"Ooh-rah." Came the ever ready reply of the marine corps as she accepted his hand.
...
It was all boots on the ground for this one.
Not only was the target a veritable fortress defended by an army of geth and krogan forces that they would need every advantage they could get against, but also Shepard was fairly certain that if she had tried to leave any of her squad behind on the ship they wouldn't be content to sit and sulk and would have damn well mutinied.
Her rather ironically named 'Shadow team' was composed of the Normandy's heavy hitters, namely herself, Wrex and Williams. Their call sign hadn't been changed even after the spectre explained to Captain Kirrahe that, while his strategy was sound, fighting the geth was different to fighting organics and thanks to their network intelligence as soon as her team took out their first enemy platform every synthetic on the base would be aware of their presence.
A few tactical tweaks meant that instead of trying to hide Shadow team's existence, they would try and convince the enemy that Shepard's crew were the diversion and the larger salarian force were the real threat they should concentrate on defending against. Kaidan would go with the salarians to act as liaison officer, while Garrus was put in charge of the Normandy's second team.
While initially acting as a support unit, the second squad's primary objective would only come into play once they made it inside the base. To follow in the wake of shadow team and secure as much data or intel about Saren's plans as possible.
Sure the main mission was still to blow this place sky high, but since they still hadn't received confirmation that the rogue turian was even present… the commander didn't much feel like destroying potential leads and going back to floating aimlessly round the galaxy waiting for another tip off.
Plus there was her promise to Wrex.
Not that the salarians were aware of that part of the plan.
Surprisingly it all went off without a hitch. That wasn't to say it was easy. There were plenty of instances where a quick application of medi gel had to be made while hiding behind a wall or a crate or an Urdnot, and by the sounds of things the salarians were taking a hammering.
Still, they made it inside without any fatalities and having conducted multiple instances of sabotage to help out their allies along the way.
Inside however was another story.
The missing members of the 3rd Infiltration regiment attacked them in a daze. It was like the mind controlled colonists on Feros all over again, except this time pesticide grenades didn't work and they had no choice but to kill them.
More salarians of varying sanity were found in cells and only one, Lieutenant Ganto Imness, allegedly a control subject, was able to talk to them about the horrific experiments carried out by Saren.
On Shepard's order Tali set to work on the terminals, Garrus and Liara covering her while Shadow team kept pressing forward.
'Always forward, forward always' was the moto of the day as they pushed themselves through cloned krogan and previously in stasis husks. Fighting geth at this point had become a rather mundane part of everyday life barely worth mentioning.
What WAS worth mentioning however was the surprising discovery of another prothean beacon in Saren's office, just after a delightful discussion with Rana Thanoptis, an asari neuro-specialist who revealed Saren didn't have a clue what he was messing with. At least, that's how Shepard translated the conversation.
"Oh joy, here we go again. Watch the exits for me." She instructed her squad as she approached the beacon. The vision was just as horrifying as always but at least she didn't black out like on Eden Prime this time.
Actually, in hindsight, interfacing with a beacon in the middle of an enemy base when they hadn't finished clearing it out probably wasn't her smartest decision ever, but at least it didn't come back to haunt her, and she was fairly certain some of those images were new.
She'd have to get Liara to take a look and see if she recognised any of it from her studies, but that could wait until they were back on the ship.
...
Speaking of ships, the Normandy was truly a sight for sore eyes as she swept in twenty minutes later to deliver the salarian drive core turned nuke.
Shepard was determined to stay focused on the job at hand, despite the rather horrifying recent revelation that Saren's vessel Sovereign was not just reaper technology but an actual reaper. Keeping her eyes peeled for trouble as the Normandy's onboard marine detachment carried the bomb down the cargo hold's ramp in order to plant it in the geothermal taps that constituted the base's sole weak spot.
In the end it wasn't the sight of krogan breaking through either of the side gates, but rather the sound of Lieutenant Alenko on comms that alerted her to her next fight.
The remains of the three STG units were pinned down and wouldn't be able to make it to their extraction point. The salarians may have been willing to lay down their lives for the sake of the mission but Shepard wasn't ready to let them unless there was no other choice. Especially when one of her own was with them.
"Garrus, Wrex with me. The rest of you take care of things here. Williams, you're in charge."
Geth and krogan alike fell to the commander's cool, collected combat style as they carved an unstoppable path towards the AA gun, only brought to a halt when they spied a geth dropship heading for the breeding facility.
The sleek shape of the Alliance's prototype stealth frigate rose up from where it had been waiting for the marines to exfiltrate, deciding against remaining a sitting target on the ground. It moved in on an intercept course, but wasn't quick enough to prevent geth reinforcements landing.
"Williams, tell me you're all done prepping the bomb and are waiting patiently on the Normandy for me?" Shepard asked.
"Sorry ma'am, still working on it." Ashley's voice was nearly drowned out by the sound of weapon's fire and Tali of all people giving instructions to those shipside marines who rarely got to experience anything more exciting than door duty. "It's too hot for an exfil, might have to forego the final sequence and trigger it manually."
"Negative, don't you dare Chief!"
Captain Kirrahe had been adamant during the planning stage that once the nuke was ready nothing, not even the geth, would be able to deactivate it and they'd be able to safely leave it behind while extracting to a safe distance. While it was well known that no plan survived contact with the enemy, Shepard wasn't willing to deviate from that particular detail just yet.
"Wrex get back there and help clear the LZ. Joker finish your dogfight and be prepared for a couple of hot pick ups. Garrus, double time, let's go."
...
It was clear from the moment they arrived at the AA gun that the salarians wouldn't be able to hold out for much longer. The geth were performing flanking maneuvers and there was nowhere left for the STG to retreat.
Not unless they felt like jumping to their deaths off the side of the roof anyway.
The somewhat insane and dangerous split-second decision to blow up a fuel tank succeeded in it's aim of distracting the enemy, the synthetics turning to focus their attention on Shepard. While providing a brief respite for her allies, it resulted in her having to run and gun between the limited (and ever decreasing) amount of cover.
Still, it was nothing she hadn't handled at some point in her career before, although admittedly normally against organic opponents, and slowly she began to turn the tide in their favour.
Too slowly.
She saw the rocket flying towards Kaidan but was powerless to stop it. Even though he dodged and strengthened his barrier there was no way he'd be able to simply get up and walk that off.
Somehow Shepard kept her focus, finishing off the last of the machines before running to her lieutenant's side.
One of the salarians was already hard at work with a first aid kit but before she could run her own diagnostics, a blast of biotic energy exploded on the ground beside her.
In any other circumstances the sight of Saren on a hovering platform would probably have drawn from her a petulant whine of: 'I want one'. Instead she hissed at Garrus to get everyone to the extraction point and ran towards the former turian spectre, firing her sidearm in the desperate hope of distracting him from everybody else.
The shots bounced harmlessly off his shields and as she ducked back into cover Saren did something she wasn't expecting. He started talking.
For a moment she was dumbstruck, this isn't a vid! In real life the bad guys didn't normally start monologuing to her in the middle of combat.
Then she remembered her plan had been to serve as a distraction anyway and, since Saren was playing right into her hands, she might as well join in the conversation to buy her allies some more time.
Of course that begged the question: 'what was Saren's plan?'
She quickly glanced round in paranoia, making sure she hadn't screwed up and wasn't standing next to a fuel tank that the turian could blow up just as he uttered some witty one liner, before doing what any self respecting blockbuster hero would and asking him.
And the fucking idiot told her!
Not everything of course, but enough.
Enough for her to realise he was bloody insane. Or possibly (in fact, quite probably) indoctrinated. She briefly wondered which came first.
It soon became apparent that their differences of opinion wouldn't be sorted by a simple chat. Not least because Shepard could never support even small scale slavery let alone widespread subjugation, and the brief magical interlude came to an end with Saren jumping on his hover board to resume the fight. Not fair, I want one!
Double not fair! She thought a few minutes later as, yet again, he flew over her cover and started shooting at her while she was hunkered down waiting for her pistol to cool slightly.
Some of Saren's attacks hit her, but between her shields and armour the impact was reduced from 'potentially lethal' to 'ow that's gonna bruise'. With a curse she ran out of the way.
Fine, if you want to play dirty.
Rebooting her tech armour to give her a precious few extra seconds, she turned, switching guns and standing out in the open, playing chicken with the approaching vehicle.
Overload, shotgun blast, shotgun blast and switch targets... BOOM goes the fuel tank!
She allowed herself a twisted smile as the explosion knocked him off his perch and the now flightless turian was brought to the ground, putting them on an even playing field.
The smile didn't last long as an enraged Saren threw away his assault rifle and charged straight at her, shrugging off the incoming weapon's fire like the damn terminator.
That metaphor was far too close to the truth for comfort she realised as he neared, noticing how husk like parts of him looked.
She rolled out the way but unfortunately Saren was inhumanly, (scratch that, inturianly) strong and fast.
Replaying the last few seconds in her head, she wasn't even sure how she found herself dangling over the edge of the roof, talons scraping along her throat as the turian held her up with one hand and squeezed.
Instinctively her hands jumped to his, trying to pry loose his grip enough to be able to breathe, while prepared to tighten at a moment's notice and hold on for dear life if he should attempt to drop her.
Her vision started to fade, blackness sneaking its way in from the borders, and it was 50/50 what would happen first; running out of oxygen or Saren forcefully breaking her neck.
She let fly with a right hook, surprised herself when it connected with enough strength to stagger her opponent and cause him to drop her.
Pain flared briefly as she landed at an awkward angle. Throat burning as she gulped down deep lungfuls of air.
Saren didn't intend to give her time to recover though, rushing her once more while she scrabbled for a weapon.
Her hand closed over the grip of her pistol at the same time his closed tight against her trachea once more.
Despite the point blank range, the only sign Saren gave that he felt the shots was to knock the gun out of her grasp before bringing his second hand in to join with the throttling as she struggled with all her might.
Shepard was dimly aware of her comms crackling in the distance. Someone informing her that the Normandy had picked up the crew from the bomb site and was en route to the salarian's location.
It took a few precious extra seconds for her brain to fully process what the message meant.
The nuke was set. Her people were safe. The mission would succeed.
Internally her objectives shifted. She didn't need to beat Saren, she just had to keep him here long enough for the bomb to take care of them both.
She kept fighting but now the focus was less about getting free and more about making sure he couldn't escape.
I'm sorry Trish.
The blackness was sweeping into her vision once more and she wished the damn bomb would hurry up.
"Commander!" The flanged voice sounded so far away.
"Shepard!" She vaguely noted it was right in her ear.
"Damn it Shepard, hold still a moment would you, you're ruining my shot!"
It wasn't quite an order, more of a desperate plea, but something about the voice made her trust in it and so, meeting the gaze of her enemy with a venomous glare, she stilled.
The sharp retort of a sniper rifle cracked out and Saren pitched forward slightly, his shields taking the brunt of the blow and his grip loosening.
It took every ounce of mental strength for Shepard to override her instincts and not kick out or attempt to throw him off, remaining motionless so the voice could make a second shot.
That one got through Saren's defenses. A dash of blue blood splattering onto the commander's armour, but he had moved enough for it to sadly not be fatal.
With a snarl Saren leapt off her and ran. Vakarian's rifle didn't have the heat capacity for another shot so soon and Shepard was too busy wriggling like a fish out of water, desperately gasping for air, to be capable of accurately aiming and firing a weapon at the retreating bastard. Even assuming she was able to find any of her scattered weaponry in time.
The Normandy soaring majestically down for pickup had to be the most glorious sight she'd ever seen.
The image lingered in her brain after she closed her eyes, focusing on sucking in the sweet, sweet nectar that was oxygen. Even with the tinge of burning fuel and the metallic tang of several species' blood in the air, it tasted like blessed ambrosia right now.
A noise had her opening her eyes to see Garrus walking towards her, pausing only to pick up her shotgun.
He swept an analytical gaze over her, no doubt being fed extra information by his visor, before reaching an arm down to help her up.
"Thanks." Shepard's voice was hoarse and scratchy as she forced the word through her tender windpipe.
A simple nod was the turian's reply and she noted his clan markings were no longer the only source of blue on his face. At least he looked in better condition than her.
"Don't you dare." She managed to croak out as he attempted to lift her into a fireman's carry and he settled for draping her arm across his shoulders, holding her waist and supporting her weight as they limped towards the Normandy's open cargo ramp.
...
Nikki stared at her hands as the youngest and least experienced member of the med bay staff sutured the various cuts and gashes she'd acquired.
The assistant's presence had been something of a compromise.
Shepard had insisted Chakwas and her team focus their attention on the more serious cases; Lieutenant Alenko, Chief Williams, Private Fredricks and two salarians she didn't know the names of, all of whom were in critical condition.
Meanwhile the doctor had insisted that: no, even with her Villa training, the commander couldn't help with triage or give first aid to the rest of the less serious casualties in the cargo hold until AFTER her own wounds had been seen to.
So she sat there with the adrenaline fading and exhaustion slowly creeping in. Her body was close to crashing but her mind was stubbornly refusing. Not until she knew if her marines would live or die.
Doubt plagued her as she cross examined the decisions she'd made throughout the day. If she hadn't sent Wrex away could they have prevented Kaidan's injuries?
Sure, she didn't expect the krogan to jump in the way of a missile for Alenko, but the extra fire power might have been enough to terminate the geth before it was able to get the shot off.
Then again, Ash was led in the bed next to the lieutenant with just as big a question mark hanging over her life.
If she hadn't sent the krogan back to help then Williams may well have fallen back on Virmire. She still might die. Doctor Chakwas said it was too early to know for sure which way either of the marines' conditions would turn.
Ashley had been more than prepared to face her fate, offering to stay behind and trigger the bomb manually, many officers would have let her.
Would the chief's sacrifice have allowed the rest of them to evacuate unscathed? Would that have been better or worse? Lower casualties in exchange for a single fatality.
She wasn't sure, but she expected she'd have hated herself for it either way.
Of course there was still a chance she'd have a much higher fatality count than that by the time they docked anyway.
Private Fredricks would need his leg amputated and that was best case scenario right now. He too was banged up badly enough to be hovering half way between life and death and there was sod all Shepard could do to help.
Only Chakwas and her team could influence things now. Other than that it was in the hands of the gods.
She'd never been one for prayer or belief but what the hell, her hands were already clenched together, what harm could it do?
God, I don't know if you're there or even exist. If you are then you've probably noticed I'm not much of a believer. Ash is though, she's one of yours and she needs you now, so you better bloody help her.
Because I swear, if I find out you're real and you let her die I'm going to rip your fucking head off.
Do you even have a head? You must do, you supposedly made us in your image right? So you-
"Ok Commander, you're good to go."
Her thoughts were interrupted by the medical orderly tapping her on the shoulder. It was probably a good thing too. Nikki wasn't much of a theologian but she doubted many deities appreciated being threatened by mere mortals.
With one last guilt ridden look at her trio of marines, she snagged a couple extra crates of medi gel and headed back down to the cargo hold. Its normally vast empty spaces filled by rows of hastily constructed field cots.
She handed her booty over to the salarian field medic before firing up her omni-tool and getting to work, running the diagnostic program over the next patient in the triage line.
Time must have passed but she had no idea how much or little as she worked her way through the far too high number of casualties. Leapfrogging past the people who'd been treated by her fellow first aiders but otherwise dealing with anybody in her path regardless of species.
She nodded her thanks to the three fingered appendage that handed her fresh bandages, not even noticing it was her fellow commander, Rentola, until he spoke:
"You have my gratitude Commander, most people would have left my men behind."
"Yeah, well... I guess I'm not most people." She wasn't sure how to respond but felt like she had to say something, even if her voice was still scratchy from her run in from Saren, dark bruises clearly visible across her throat.
"No, no you're really not." The salarian murmured in muted admiration as they moved on to the next bed where Shepard recognised one of her marines.
With a quick diagnostic scan, and an even briefer warning to the marine that it was about to hurt, she grabbed Corporal Verstraete's arm to pop his dislocated shoulder back into place. Rentola waiting until the delicate part was over before commiserating: "I'm sorry about Lieutenant Alenko, he was a good man."
"He's not dead yet." Her tone was harsh and likely would have been even without her injury.
"Of course, I'm sorry." Rentola dropped his head in apology. "Still, if there's anything me or my men can do for you, you need only to ask. I'm sure the captain will say the same."
Shepard was momentarily surprised by the offer, before her eyes hardened in a grim countenance.
"Actually there is something." She indicated the stacks of datapads containing the information Tali and Liara had managed to acquire from Saren's base. "Find me a target."
...
Author's note: Sorry for the delay getting this one out, the chapter was a struggle to write. I know I went a bit off script from canon and bordering on AU territory, but I just find it really awkward in game how there's a whole host of skilled team mates just hanging around the Normandy when they could be helping on Virmire. That's one thing I really liked about the Suicide mission in ME2, even if you're not using them everybody on your squad is doing something.
As for why I've put Virmire before Noveria in the story? a) it's an option in game as soon as you've done two main story missions and b) if Saren already has the information about the location of Ilos that is acquired on Noveria then why would he waste time hanging around on Virmire so Shepard can catch back up?
It's still up in the air at this point whether I allow both team mates survive or if one will succumb to their wounds, however I do know who will be there at Horizon and have a rough plan of what the other would be doing offscreen in ME2 if they do survive. Should you have a preference for lone or double Virmire survivor then let me know, but don't blame me if you ask for lone and then I kill off the one you wanted to survive.
Finally, in answer to guest reviewer Ryan: that would be telling, I'm afraid you're just going to have to wait and see.