Jacob overlooked the palace while Garrus adjusted his rifle. It was taking a little longer than expected for the infiltration team to get out of the palace. But it wasn't outside of their planning. A lot of plans never went to plan as there was always things that happened to spoil those plans. Bad timing, something they didn't anticipate, some lucky sad who just stumbled into the operation… it was hard to predict which one would come to pass.

Given this, it was always the best idea to make a plan with contingencies rather than just waving one's hand and trying to figure it out as you went along. Having plans meant that you had a framework to fall back on allowing one to figure out what to do next. Which was why the two waited for now, waiting for the signal to move. That didn't stop the boredom the two were currently facing.

"Any idea what they are doing in there?" Jacob asked.

"Knowing Shepard, she's probably playing with her food," Garrus smiled. "She has this tendency to savour her fights and victories,"

Jacob nodded. "Yeah, I've seen that. Not sure what to make of it though,"

"Well, you know her past, right? How she lost her family?" Garrus asked with Jacob answering with a nod. "Well, that part of the reason why. I don't know the details, but I did ask Liara about it once. She said that when Shepard saw the flames of her world it did this imprint on her. Made her seek out fighting, seek out combat as an outlet for her rage," he fell silent and shook his head. "That's all that she was willing to tell me,"

Jacob said nothing but nodded as well before looking though his binoculars. "Her psych profile said as much. Trauma from childhood. Not much of a concern but she has managed it well,"

"Well, she did spend…" Garrus tried to say but an explosion from the palace made them turn to look. "Armory," he muttered.

"That's a signal if ever I saw one," Jacob said as he turned to head down to street level while Garrus set up is rifle.

Loading a round into the chamber, he took aim at one of the guard posts and fired.

OOOOO

Sonja slammed the head of a soldier guarding Arkid's personal room into a wall. There was a loud crack and he was most likely dead, or severely brain damaged. Either way, She and the others moved into the main chamber and began to look around for the sword. Within seconds they tore the room apart but found nothing. But it seemed that the former harem girls were doing it less for looking for something and more out of anger.

The commander didn't mind it, she would have done the same if the same was done with her. So, she ignored it and largely did the same but found nothing. It was then that one of the girls slammed something into a wall and was pushed back. But it got the attention of the others.

"Griga," one said as she came over to help the asari while Sonja moved up next to them.

She frowned at the dent before setting her hand on it and rubbed the plaster which began to crumble under her touch.

"False wall," she muttered as she began to claw at it and rip the plaster off to reveal a door behind the wall.

Reaching out for the handle, she pushed it down and it opened up with ease. Inside was a small armoury with their goal in the middle of the room. She smiled, but that was when the building decided to shake along with an explosion. The group just looked at each other before plundering the armoury, grabbing guns swords and ammo before exiting both rooms.

OOOOO

Jack, Samara and Zaeed moved up quickly to the outside of the palace as fast as they could, grenades in hand. Their faces covered by googles around their eye and a wrap around their face. Hiding their identities to allow to do what they needed to do. With Garrus providing the cover they need; they threw grenades towards any soldiers they saw. The explosions scattered the Iron Sting troopers allowing the team to get in close. Zaeed got in close to throw a satchel charge at the wall before he pulled away.

As they moved a gunshot managed to hit Jack in the harm and leg causing her to fall. Zaeed didn't stop as he grabbed her and helped her back up to her feet. He helped her as the two limped along to the back up point and take cover. As they did the satchel charge detonated blowing part of the wall. Bodies and rubble were flung in all directions forcing people to take cover. Wrex, Grunt, Mordin and Jacob then moved to engage the soldiers to keep them busy. They were soon joined by Samara assisting them with occupying the enemies while Kasumi moved around the soldiers to take them out from behind.

Using a mix of explosives and bullets, she managed to take out some of the reinforcements before they could do much. While it did ease up the heat on the squad, it didn't stop the Iron Sting forces from keeping up the pressure on the attackers. Kasumi was about to throw another grenade cluster when she was tackled by a soldier. The two rolled before getting up and facing each other.

The Iron sting soldier drew his machete like sword and charged at her. In response the thief drew a pair of tonfa's, the weapon she was most used to, and began to counter the soldier's attack. He moved with experience, speed and confidence as he bounced on the balls of his feet. She watched him, carefully taking his movements in and trying to figure out a plan of attack. When she was younger, she took some martial art lessons. Some of those lessons involved the tonfa she now held.

She had done some drills in recent days, but wasn't that confident in her abilities. Not letting it show, she moved as the soldier moved and deflected the attack before slamming her other tonfa into his gut. It didn't do much outside of make him stumble thanks to his armour. He recovered quickly and moved in for another strike only for her to deflect again and again and again. Being pushed onto the defensive, not something she was happy with.

She stepped back and continued to until she tripped. As she fell, the soldier moved into step to bring his sword down. Kasumi watched as the sword came down only for the head to explode and the soldier to fall back, dead. She looked to where Garrus was and smiled. It was good to have someone behind you. As she got up, Shepard along with Miranda, Liara and some women in various silks and armour came running. She was going to question who these women where, but decided against it. Now was not the time for questions.

"RUN FOR IT!" she yelled as she moved into step with the retreating groups.

As they moved, gunfire began to pepper the group. Most of them missed but three of the women were hit with forth falling down dead. Ignoring the dead, the others grabbed the wounded and helped them along as smoke was popped, covering their retreat. The group moved into the backstreets with Wrex, Grunt, Zaeed and Jacob close behind. Thanks to the explosions and gunfire, almost everyone was taking cover inside allow the crew to move somewhat freely in the streets.

As they moved through the streets, they continued to pop smoke to cover where they were going. Sometimes throwing smoke over buildings to make the Iron Sting soldiers think that they were going somewhere else. After moving three streets down they made it to a warehouse. A raptor pulled cart was waiting for them. Kelly, Chackwas and Ashley were going their best to keep them clam, but that was hard given that they were predators and the two didn't have enough experience with them.

Despite a few snaps form the dinosaurs, the crew climbed onto the back of the waggon. As they did so Chackwas moved to attended to the wounded.

"Guests?" she asked.

"Prisoners," Sonja said as she pulled the scraps of amour off and fitted into her own armour. "Ashley, remember the plan?"

The gunnery chief nodded. "The Oasis right?" she asked and the commander nodded as she pointed to the sword in Liara's had.

"Keep that close," she ordered. "It's our only lead,"

The crew nodded as they readied their weapons and Sonja finished getting ready. "See you there," she said as she climbed onto the raptor and burst out of the warehouse firing her assault rifle.

The crew waited five minutes before Ashely moved the rains and pulled out heading for the outside of the city.

OOOOO Several hours later.

The fire roared and cracked as the crew waited for the food to cook. As it did, they walked and joked with one another about what happened. Letting off some of that adrenaline that had built up over the past few hours. The only one who didn't was Miranda who just sat looking into the fire. While the plan didn't go off without a hitch, it did go off very well. I forced her to reflect on her own decision making and planning.

While she wasn't there, Miranda's mind turned to Tali and how she had gotten the young Quarrian exiled from the fleet. That mission was a mess at best. Nothing about Tali's father's experiments could be hidden. One way or the other it was going to be exposed. She had thought that it coming to light would be better and explained as much to Tali. The Quarrian somewhat agreed, but that didn't stop her from sulking about how she could never go back.

A part of her told her that what she did was the right thing but another, more emotional part, said she didn't. Sonja's plan didn't go completely to plan, most of the crew made it back unharmed. So why was the commander's plan different. As she thought, Jack sat next to her.

"Cheerleader what's with the face?" she said with a drunken smile.

Miranda winced as the smell of alcohol on the woman's breath. "Nothing," she muttered turning away.

Jack didn't by that as she set her drink down and forced Miranda to look at her. "Nothing my ass," she spat. "Tell me now,"

The two got a few glances but went largely ignored as people talked and look to the food.

"No, and leave me alone," Miranda said as she stood and walked over to a tree.

Jack just looked at the princess confused but shrugged before turning to one of the harem girls and began to chat. If Miranda didn't want to talk, she wasn't going to talk. That didn't make Jack sit right, but for now she ignored it and decided to ask her later.

"Hey all," a voice called and people looked to see Sonja walk up with the raptor.

"How are you not dead?" one of the harem girls asked.

"Hell spat me out," Sonja smiled as she tied up her raptor before looking to Mordin. "Find anything?"

"Bone is very strong, unsure if I can find something now," he said.

"Well get some rest then, tomorrow is a long walk," she said.