CHAPTER 8: Renegade

2185 CE

I set myself up in the docking bay. Nowhere else really made sense. Between Tali, Zaeed, Jack and Grunt, the engineering deck was going to basically be full. I couldn't sleep with the Human crewmates in the bunks; they were definitely not designed for my size. Garrus, Miranda, Kasumi, Thane, and Samara would take up all the rooms in the Crew Quarter deck... Except for the AI Core, which was locked. And Mordin and Jacob had the CIC deck. So unless I wanted to sleep in the comm room, where I could be drunk dialed by the Illusive man... A fate I'd prefer to avoid; that left the docking bay.

Shepard confronted me as I was setting up. She asked me who Archangel was. I told her that our Turian friend had taken the stick up his ass and started to beat people with it.

Of course, that lit a fire under Shepard's ass to go save Garrus, and as the only people here who actually knew Garrus personally, Kaidan and I were grabbed for this squad over the strident objection of Miranda that we were both clearly spies from the Alliance.

I corrected her of course. I'm not a spy for the Alliance. If anything I'm a spy for the Citadel Council.

Miranda didn't take being wrong well. She started telling me that who I was spying for wasn't the point. But obviously it was very much the point. You let very different information get to your allies and your enemies. Is she were any good at spycraft she'd know that.

Anyway. Kaidan and I were tapped to pull Garrus' ass out of the fire. I made sure to bring an extra stash of Dextro first aid supplies and trauma kits. And of course I'm going to steal every dextro first aid kit these three gangs have too.

Unfortunately, Shepard's armory didn't have any NK-47s. Only human-made guns. So I had to grab an avenger instead of something with some kind of durability.

The mission honestly wasn't all that hard. We got ourselves recruited and went over to the assault planing camp in an air-taxi. I made sure to keep my Helmet off and repeatedly gave Archangel wings and thumbs ups while sabotaging the Merc supplies. I even made sure to set some Frag grenades here and there around the camp tied to things like doors, and cockpits.

The trip across the bridge was nerve racking, but actually pretty peaceful. And it really wasn't all that hard to shoot the remaining aspiring mercs who'd made it across with us once we reached Garrus' stronghold at the far end.

'Garrus, you Turian son of a bitch! You're a full grown Turian Batman.' I congratulated.

'Krell? Alenko? Shepard's the last person I expected, being dead and all; but you two are definitely up there on my list. What brings you to my humble little corner of Omega.' Garrus asked.

'I was kidnapped.' Alenko replied.

'Don't be so dramatic. You're here under orders to spy on Commander Shepard for Alliance command.' I refuted.

'Ah, one of those famously blatant and open spies I keep hearing about from Salarians. I'm sure you'll do great, Kaidan.' Garrus praised, well I'm pretty sure he thought he was praising Kaidan, anyway.

'And you Krell?' Garrus asked with a tilt of his head.

'I'm here to make sure Kaidan pays me back for wrecking my shuttle.' I declared.

'And why are you really here?' Garrus asked.

'I knew you'd be in trouble so I decided to find Shepard and help you out. Also, we're going to stop the collectors from turning Human colonists into puree to build a new Reaper.' I added.

'We're what.' Shepard asked, blinking.

'Human Reaper. It's a thing. Each one is made from the puree'd genetic material of an entire sentient race. The Collectors are working for the Reapers. There's a Reaper named Harbringer. Like I said it's a thing.' I reply.

'Wait. What's going on. How do you know this Krell?' Kaidan asks.

'Alenko wasn't with us after Virmire, if he doesn't know... you didn't tell him?' Garrus realized.

'It was kind of awkward to explain, and honestly it's funnier this way.' I replied.

'Funnier, what's funnier?' Kaidan asked.

'We don't have a lot of time so let's deal with these mercs before we eat a missile to the face or something.' I decide.

Garrus agreed with my proposition and after a few extremely stirring rounds of tower defense, the airship appeared on the playing field with an opening move of rocket to the face.

Damn it. I was sure the frag grenades would have taken out that asshole.

While Shepard played hide and go seek with the airship, I rushed in and grabbed Garrus and the medkit and booked them both out of the room before setting up triage.

'Well kid. You're gonna be a hit with the Krogan dating scene from now on.' I reassured Garrus as I looked at his wounds and treated them with my Turian Medkit. Honestly, I'm pretty sure Tali was into scars too. She only ever goes for Shepard and Garrus, both of whom have facial scars, and she only seems to gain any sort of Romantic interest in them after those two gain them. Zaeed's personality probably turned her off, I guess. Or maybe he's too old for her?

'Kaidan! I need some Biotic support here!' Shepard called out.

I reached out and used overload on the airship's shields before turning back to my patient and binding up his mandibles.

'You're damn lucky Tali loves watching Fleet and Flotilla.' I muttered under my breath as Shepard fought.

It only took a few minutes, but a few minutes of combat is a fucking eternity when you're under siege and trying to treat a patient.

'Krell! Any help you can give would be great!' Shepard quipped at me.

'Alenko, keep an eye on Garrus. I'll burn through the armor.' I called out as soon as I finished stabilizing him. As Kaidan rushed over I switched on my fortification system and my incendiary ammo mod.

I roared as I entered the room, rolling and ducking behind one of the strangely sturdy and bullet proof couches.

'It's almost done for. I just need you to get the last bit of armor for me.' Shepard explained.

I nodded and popped my head out, unleashing a spray of rounds at the Airship and driving it back. With a swirl of Biotic power, Shepard threw herself toward the airship and shot it with a shotgun. Hovering for a moment outside the building before the airship detonated sending Shepard back through the window, into a controlled flip.

Shepard extended her feet and landed in a perfect T pose.

'Well now you're just showing off.' I complained.

From there it was a frantic rush back to the Normandy taking advantage of the respite gained by killing all three merc company leaders to blast our way back to the taxi stand and fly our way back to the Normandy's medbay.

Good thing we recruited the doctor first.

2185 CE

Joker was the one asking the questions the next time I came up. 'Hey Krell, everyone on the Normandy was acting like you knew the future last time. We're friends right? Better friends than you and Garrus, anyway. You'd warn me if I was about to take on a lone last stand against impossible odds, right?'

I tilted my head. That was a good question. Maybe it would be a good idea to let Joker know about the Collectors and EDI ahead of time? On the other hand since it worked out fine before, maybe it would be better to leave him in the dark. It wasn't like I was going to let that happen this time; if I could help it, anyway.

I patted my chin. 'No.'

'No what? You're not gonna warn me?'

'Relax. You'd be fine without my warning.'

'Despite the existence of telepathic and telekinetic abilities in the form of biotics, Mr. Moreau, there have been no verified incidences of precognition.'

I turn toward EDI's glowing hologram.

'Not real fond of the AI either. You were joking last time, right? You'd tell me if some moron decides to unshackle the Cerberus AI and lets her take over the Normandy?' Jeff admitted.

'If that happens, Jeff? I'm sure you'll be the first to know.' I reply trying desperately to hide my grin.

'That's a weirdly ominous tone of voice you got there, big guy. Not sure I like it.' Joker confessed.

I erupted in a big long menacing belly laugh as I walked away.

'That evil laughter doesn't make that tone of voice better. You know that, right?'

Another round of laughter echoed down the corridor to the cockpit. Joker really was hilarious.

2185 CE

'You, the doctor, me. This boat is just full of old soldiers, isn't it?' Zaeed Masani remarked as I walked into the Starboard cargo hold.

'It turns out that when you are really good at your job, you tend to grow old doing it.' I replied.

Massani laughed.

'I haven't been a soldier in years though. Last time I fought in an actual war war, the Tang Dynasty was still a thing.' I added.

'What the hell do you call yourself if you aren't an old soldier then?' Massani asked, incredulously.

'I'm a professional diplomat.' I insisted, pointing to the NK-47 that I picked up on Omega while waiting for Garrus to get out of the med bay. I broke the human gun they gave me pistol whipping a Batarian while shopping. Broke the Batarian too, and his friend when I stabbed him with the broken remains of the shit the Alliance calls an assault rifle.

'Carry a big gun for a diplomat.' Massani observed.

'I'm a Krogan diplomat.' I insisted.

Massani raised an eyebrow.

'Haven't you heard Theodore Roosevelt's advice to diplomats? Speak softly and carry a big gun. Really inspired me to try my hand at Diplomacy. It's worked out really well so far!' I grinned.

Massani laughed. I'm not sure if he understands that my joke was that Human diplomats are the same as Krogan ones, but at least he has some kind of a sense of humor. That's a start.

'What do you really consider yourself, though?' Zaeed pressed.

'A man shouldn't just consider himself one thing. Poet, philosopher, musician, professor, engineer... I've been all of them. I still am.' I replied.

'And then occasionally you kill people?' Zaeed quipped.

'Sure. You can put it that way. Occasionally, I kill people.' I agreed.

We spent a little while talking about guns, and what it's like to design one. Zaeed seemed real invested when I told him why I designed the NK-47.

'It came down to reliability. We didn't have Mass Effect weapons before the Salarians came and uplifted us. But all their damn weapons were made for Salarians. Even the stuff the made for Krogan was just scaled up Salarian bullshit. Fancy nonsense weapons with too many parts and no reliability. You heard those Lizards are working on a gun that shoots sticky mines? Here's how that works out. You use it. You shoot someone, and the mine sticks to them, giving them three or four seconds to shoot you in the quad before they blow up! What kind of stupid nonsense weapon is that? And they're all flimsy pieces of shit too. We were landing on poisonous worlds where you couldn't see a meter in front of your eyes. You'd pull the trigger on this Salarian shit and it would jam up on you! That's why I made the NK. Reliability. You can shit down the barrel of this gun, pour a barrel of Ryncol over it, bury it in toxic mud, dig it up a day later and shoot the head off a Rachni with it with no problems. That's the kind of durability a Krogan weapon needs.'

Zaeed nodded. 'Never really tried Krogan stuff myself. Seemed all big and flashy.'

'Some stuff is. You wouldn't catch me within a hundred meters of a Graal Spike Thrower. But even the big pointless flashy shit is robust. It has to be. The abuse a Krogan puts their weapons through demands it.'

The conversation basically ended there, but I think I managed to lay a good foundation for future cooperation.

2185 CE

'I'm on to you, Nakmor Krell.'

That was the first thing Miranda Lawson said to me when she saw me.

'I should hope so! I openly brought a self-proclaimed spy on board and am working as his back channel to report back to the Alliance.'

'He's got you there Miranda!' Jacob laughed.

'I'll be monitoring your communications, Nakmor.' Miranda insisted.

'You and half the galaxy, Catsuit. What else is new?'

Miranda seemed to struggle to respond. I took the opportunity to steal the meal that Mess Sergeant Gardner placed in front of her; also, the meal he placed in front of Jacob, a man who actually realized what I was doing and protested.

'Hey!'

'Sorry. I'm a growing Krogan. I have needs.' I apologized without one scintilla of regret in my voice.

I think me and Miss Lawson are going to become the best of friends!

2185 CE

'Garrus is out of danger, but he still needs rest.' Karin Chakwas explained as I tried to get through her to visit my friend.

Normally, as a half ton of Krogan, I wouldn't have any issue barging my way past a single older human woman.

Normally that human woman isn't a Doctor defending her med wing.

There's not a lot of respect for medical professionals among the Krogan. A Krogan combat medic is just the Krogan that's been carrying the medigel. The closest thing we have to dedicated medical professionals are shamans who basically act as the Krogan equivalent of Human gynecologists.

It's backlash against the Salarians after the Rebellions. We used to have doctors, but leading up to the Genophage most doctors that Krogan ended up actually seeing were Salarian. Combine that with a concerted effort by the Asari to murder any Krogan with advanced enough medical knowledge that they might figure out what had been done to us and how to undo it, and after the Genophage we Krogan got real suspicious of doctors.

I can't say that I blame my fellow Krogan for it either.

Still, Human doctors are very different. They're one of only two species in Citadel space that I know of that swears an oath upon becoming part of the medical profession. And they're the only species whose oath is to the welfare of their patients rather than the benefit of the Turian hierarchy.

Reminds me of my sister, before the damn Asari blew her up, anyway. Had to remove that genetic knowledge some way, after all.

Fucking assholes.

'I'm not here to see Garrus. I'm here to see you.' I lied.

Chakwas narrowed her eyes. Smart woman.

'Really? You spent the entire trip on the Normandy SR1 avoiding my office, and now you're here to see me? You expect me to believe that?'

'Of course I am! You're my doctor aren't you? I'm here for my annual check up!' I lied.

'You were due for your annual checkup last year.' Chakwas observed.

'Yeah, you kind of didn't leave a forwarding address to the Cerberus base you were staying at. I was going to come visit!' I snarked.

'I've already spoken to Kaidan about how he managed to find himself on this ship. I think we can all agree that is for the best that you did not get that chance for mischief.'

'So that's a no on my annual check up then?' I confirmed.

'Goodness no, of course not!' Chakwas declared in what I'm pretty sure was feigned over-exaggeration before continuing.

'As you rightly observed, your annual checkup is a vital part of keeping a Krogan of your advanced age healthy and hale! I couldn't possibly deny you that! But I can schedule your appointment for after Garrus gets out of the medical wing. After all, we will need the extra space just for all of the blood draws that I'll need to do! It's been a whole 2 years since you got your last checkup! I'll have to run all the tests I can think of!'

I narrowed my own eyes.

You win this round, Chakwas.

This round.

Author's Note: So we're finally into the meat of ME2 itself. I'm at 103k words so far having just added in most if not all of the additional Grunt scenes I wanted. His arc's a little bigger than ME2, I think, but that's a good thing. The more important thing is that I feel like it's going in fun directions.