The Warlord:

As the Normandy entered hyperspace in order to reach their next destination, Shepard decided to ask their new companion Jack some questions. Jack did have some knowledge on the First Order but she may not be willing to share it so Shepard needed to gain her trust. Jack had made her home in the engineering deck on the ship in the crawlspace below where engineers Gabby and Ken worked.

Jack was reading through the files that Shepard had given her access to when she approached her. "Thanks for letting me look at these files. If you're here to make friends then don't bother, I'm not looking for friends." She then waved the files with a smirk "Your Cerberus friends are into some nasty shit, still not as bad as the First Order though."

Shepard did have a major question "What is your history with Cerberus and the First Order?" she asked

Jack scoffed "Cerberus raised me in one of their secret facilities. Subject Zero they called me and they wanted the strongest force user they could make." She replied "I escaped when I was just a kid only to be caught by the First Order." She stated "They made me into one of their inquisitors until I ran away. I've been on the run ever since."

Shepard had read about inquisitors in the dossier but she didn't know much about them "What are the inquisitors?" she asked

"To the First Order, we're their Jedi order." She scoffed "But that's far from the truth, the Jedi focus on the light side, the Inquisitors are trained in the dark side, they use us as their elite enforcers to destroy pockets of resistance. The training is brutal, they take any force sensitive they find and train them or in better words, torture and break them then rebuild their minds. I was strong enough to resist their methods but they made Cerberus look good. I don't want to talk about it more."

"I won't ask you then." Shepard said "But any information you can provide for us will be valuable."

Jack snorted "I don't know much, I fled the inquisitors at the first chance I got. Only thing I know is that we answer to Lord Vader, the First Order's chief enforcer and some call him the second in command even though he's just a lackey of the Supreme Leader, no idea who he is though, I've never actually met him."

Shepard looked around as Jack got up from where she was sitting and went into a dark place that made it hard to see her except for her silhouette. The place she was staying looked filthy, her bed was nothing but the hard floor and she had throw the wrappers from her food around, it didn't look hygienic "You know you don't have to stay in this pit you know." Shepard stated "We have proper quarters for the crew."

Jack scoffed "I like it here." She replied "It's dark, quiet and hard to find, that spells safety to me. Besides, I like the peace and quiet, gives me more time to think about everything." She then turned around and jumped onto a nearby create "You probably think I'm crazy, mad or just plain sadistic, but trust me, there is a reason I'm like this and why I don't trust easily. All my life I have been experimented on, taken advantage of, betrayed and scammed. It's made me what I am today; I'm a survivor who lived one fucked up life since birth. You may have had someone in your Republic but I had no one, I had to look after myself, just me."

Shepard wondered if there was more to her past but didn't want to push her luck, she had seen just how powerful Jack's force abilities where and if she unleashed them she could rip the ship apart. "I should go."

"Don't let me keep you." Jack just snorted.

...

The planet that Warlord Okeer was located on was called Korlus and was located Imir System of the Eagle Nebula. The system held 4 planets, none of which were great. One was a gas giant called Osalri that was named by the Salarians meaning 'Fire Maiden.' The planet was too hot for mining and only had small solar satellites that had been destroyed by pirates long ago. The second Gas Giant Quodis was used by travellers as a discharge point and refuelling port but piracy was strong in the region so it was advised to use security escorts when coming here. Gregas was the only other rock planet in the system other than Korlus but this planet was just an empty ice planet with no valuable resources. Korlus did have a breathable atmosphere and did have a colony almost 500 years old having been founded in 1781 with an estimated population of 3,800,000,000. However the colony was not a paradise, this world had one of the highest murder rates in the Terminus systems and was not a safe place to live. The world was also used as a dumping ground for ships which provided the sole source of income for residents. Korlus was also home to many pirate and mercenary havens to used the waste ground outside of the settlements as testing grounds for troops and weapons. Korlus could be seen as a lawless world.

It was for that reason why Shepard needed to bring her strongest with her. Jack's powerful force abilities made her like a tank. Garrus' sniper skills would help with taking out enemies from afar and Kasumi's tech skills may be required at some point, plus her stealth suit would allow her to spy on the enemy. Okeer's location was in the remains of a old cargo ship long stripped of its major parts and now just an empty shell. The Blue Suns were using this place as a training ground.

Cortez dropped them in the shuttle as close as he could to the old ship before flying away to avoid being spotted while the team took cover behind some of the wreckage.

"Be careful everyone." Shepard ordered "The dossier doesn't say if Okeer is on this planet willingly or not. Plus after all the encounters we've had with the Blue Suns, we have to assume they're hostile. Keep your head down and try to avoid being seen if we can."

As soon as Shepard finished saying that, there was a call over a loudspeaker by a female voice, possible the commander of the group here "There is only one measure of success, kill or be killed! Perfection is your goal!"

Kasumi looked up "Broadcasting orders over a loudspeaker." She stated "Charming."

"Stay focused." Shepard ordered "We're looking for a Krogan Warlord. The Blue Suns may be mercs but they are some of the best trained."

The team made their way forward through the wreckage, they heard the same voice again "Being hired is merely the beginning. You must earn your place in the mighty army we are building, the First Order only accepts the best of us for their special program."

That caught the group off by surprise "Wait, the First Order are involved here?" Garrus questioned

"I'm guessing they cut a deal with the local leader here." Jack said "Get others to do their dirty work for them, gives them deniability if something goes wrong."

As they turned a corner, they could see a Blue Suns patrol and took cover. "Lookout position." Garrus warned "We've have to take them out before they radio for help."

Shepard looked at him "Garrus take out the right, I've got the left."

Garrus nodded and got his sniper out while Shepard got hers, then at the same time, they shot the two soldiers and with the area cleared, the moved ahead only to see a wounded Merc lying against some wreckage.

"Shit!" he groaned trying to crawl "Shit, it won't stop bleeding, I'm gonna." He then looked up and saw Shepard "Son of a bitch!"

"It doesn't look so bad actually." Garrus muttered

"He doesn't need to know that." Shepard muttered back "He might have some information."

The man glared "I knew it wasn't berserkers, not at range, your mercs, or Resistance members, I'm not telling you a thing!" he hissed groaning in pain.

Shepard smirked "I have a nice application of medi-gel ready to go, but if you would rather bleed out them I'll just keep walking."

"Son of a..." the merc grumbled "Look, I don't know anything, I just shoot the overflow from the labs. The old Krogan up there, he's really been cleaning house lately. Commander Jedore hired him to create an army but these Krogan he creates are insane so we just use them for target training. It's all crap, I don't get paid enough for this."

Jack began to glow "And what about the First Order?" she hissed "What do they have to do with this?"

The merc groaned again "Look I don't know but Commander Jedore has ambitions. She wants to be more than just another merc, she wants to join the ranks of the First Order and creating a powerful army might endear her to the higher ups there."

Then a voice came over the merc's radio "Outpost 4, Jedore wants us to move, we need coordinators on that Krogan pack."

Shepard saw this as an opportunity to divert the Blue Suns attention away from them "I want your friends gone, understand?"

The merc sighed and answered the radio call "Uh patrol, the last group... dispersed, lost sight of them 5 minutes ago."

The merc on the other side of the radio sounded surprised "Dispersed? Jedore will be pissed, she wanted a show. Anyway returning to the labs."

With the Blue Suns attention diverted, Shepard decided to ask about Okeer but the merc didn't know anything as they weren't allowed in the labs. This sounded just like Saren's Krogan cloning lab on Virmire 5 years ago only it seemed they hadn't perfected it like Saren had. Shepard gave the merc the medi gel and told him to hide as soon they carried on.

As the team began to move out again, they heard Jedore over the loudspeaker again "Training is part of your contract, failure to perform means liquidation, legal and otherwise."

...

They slowly made their way through the outer hull wreckage having to fight several Blue Suns patrols until they entered the wrecked ship via a hole where they saw a lone Krogan fighting against more Blue Suns. When all the Blue Suns were down, the Krogan approached, Garrus and Kasumi raised their guns but Shepard held a hand ordering them to stand down.

"You." The Krogan growled "Are different, new, you don't smell like this world. Seven night cycles and I have only felt the need to kill, but you, something makes me speak."

"Seven night cycles, just seven days." Garrus gasped "He's only a week old."

"Okeer must breed them full size, just like how Saren did on Virmire." Shepard commented "Makes them ready to kill for them. It's not much improvement over regular mercs if they need training."

"Virmire." Garrus stated having been there with Shepard "Saren had developed a cure for the Genophage but we destroyed his lab and research. He had First Order backing there as well, they must be trying to recreate the cloning here. But without their chief scientist, it's harder to perfect."

The chief scientist was the Kaminoan Nala se who had gone to the Council after Virmire. Shepard made a mental note to figure out what happened to her after the mission.

Bred to kill?" The Krogan questioned then answered "No. I kill because my blood and bone tell me to. But it's also why I was flushed from glass mother, survival is what I hear in my head against any that threaten my kind. But I failed before even leaving glass mother, that's what the voice in the water said, that's why I wait here."

Shepard looked at the Krogan "Can you show me the lab, I need to speak with Okeer?" she asked

The Krogan nodded "The glass mother, she is up, past the broken parts, behind many of you fleshy things, I will show you." He then walked over to the side of the wreckage and with brute strength, pulled a large metal plate from the side and threw it "Fleshy things slow when big things block path. I wait here, not perfected but have purpose, I must wait until called."

Shepard kind of realised what the Krogan was saying combined with what the Merc had said before. It seemed Okeer was trying to create a Krogan army via cloning and getting them to resist or forget the genophage. This particular Krogan was a failure but not as bad as other failures so he wasn't as insane as other failed clones but Shepard knew that meant the other Krogan clones they encountered wouldn't be as friendly. With that the team went through the panel leaving the Krogan to his fate as he desired.

...

Shepard's theory had been correct about the Krogan. As soon as they entered the wrecked ship which led to the remains of a Cargo hold, they came across a swarm of Krogan attacking a Blue Suns patrol. These Krogan were completely insane and were tough to beat with their armour. The easier way was to switch from standard blasts to incendiary blasts which burnt the armour. After clearing out the Cargo Hold, voices over the loudspeaker said that the Krogan had taken out the main power grid, it would seem that all of these failed Krogan clones had become too much for the Blue Suns. They began fighting their way through the wrecked ship one room at a time overhearing that the Blue Suns were beginning to take heavy losses against the Krogan. They also recovered several pieces of tech upgrades and credits from rooms that seemed to be used as a storage facility and the medical bay. It was a lot of fighting until they came to a large room near the top of the ship which seemed to used as a lab and inside was an Asari, a familiar Asari.

"Wait." The Asari "Shepard don't shoot please." This Asari did know Shepard "I'm not sure if you remember me. I'm Rana Thanoptis, the neurospecialist back on Virmire. I shut down the security cameras when I saw it was you. Never thought I would say this but I'm glad it's you shooting up the place."

Now Shepard remembered this Asari, she didn't think she would see her again "I assume you have a good reason to be in this lab."

Rana sighed "Not really much of a choice I'm afraid. Jedore wants a private army to try and gain the attention of the First Order but Okeer mostly just ignores her. He has his own agenders. Okeer is trying to do some good, even if his methods are a little... extreme." She eyed the dead Krogan on the table "Everyone deserved a second chance. As for why I'm here, after I managed to escape the explosion on Virmire, I was on the run. That explosion destroyed all of the cloning tech and research there. The First Order had to start anew and with the loss of the chief scientist, there wasn't much. I tried to flee but their inquisitors caught me, it was either work or be executed. I had to save my life, I was scared."

Shepard could understand Rana's fears and realised that she might have some more information "What do you know about the First Order?" she demanded "And what are they planning?"

"I don't know!" Rana begged "Jedore isn't a member of the First Order but she feels like she could get into their ranks by helping them get some research. Okeer was doing research for something called Project Necromancer but I don't know for sure what it is. Okeer doesn't really care about it, he just wants to create the perfect Krogan specimen."

"So he's pretty much scamming the First Order." Jack smirked "Seems like my kind of guy."

"The Order is taking notice though." Rana added "One of their Inquisitors was here and was not happy about the lack of progress. Jedore managed to get an extension but that's running out. They might be liquidating this site which means they're going to kill everyone."

With no more information left, Shepard stood aside "You should go but try not to get caught in anymore issues otherwise I may begin to think that you just faking this all and are a good actor."

"You don't have to tell me." Rana stated "I'm getting on a speeder bike and then to the city where I'm catching the first transport I can to Ilium." She began to leave the room but turned back "Oh and Shepard, be careful, Jedore recently acquired some kind of advanced assassin droid, I've seen it in action, it pulled the arm of a man Jedore didn't like as if it was just a twig." With that Rana left the room to make her escape while Shepard and the team made their way to try and find Okeer.

...

It didn't take long to find the warlord, he was in the next room over checking data on a nearby terminal "Here you are. I've watched your progress" He stated before turning to them "It's about time, the batteries on these tanks will not wait while you play with these idiotic mercs."

"I take it that your Okeer?" Shepard asked "You don't seemed to be caged."

Okeer shrugged "You may claim to be here to help but the formerly deceased Shepard is not a sign of gentle change." At Shepard look, he added "Surprised, all Krogan know your name, I'm sure Rana revisited your actions on Virmire. Such as tale, Saren the traitor threatens the return of the Krogan by curing the genophage, undoing the actions of the Turians and Salarians. Don't think that I hate you for that, in fact I approve, Saren's pale horde were not true Krogan, he may claim to have cured the genophage but there is no real evidence that those cloned Krogan were any more fertile than we are. Numbers are nothing to me, Jedore can have my rejects for her army but she grows impatient and so does the First Order. No doubt they will come to take everything soon. Time for me to leave here."

Shepard did have a question "What were you doing for the First Order?" she asked

Okeer snorted "When you destroyed the lab on Virmire, you did more than just take out Saren's cloning lab. You destroyed years of First Order research. All this tech came from the Kaminoans, First Order wanted it for themselves so they destroyed their cities and took the scientists into custody. They wanted to perfect the cloning in their own way on Virmire. They even began discarding the clone soldiers in favour of a proper trained recruited army. When you detonated the nuke, many of their top scientists were killed including Dr Hemlock, the chief scientist. Now they wanted me to carry on but I had my own agenda." He walked over to a large cloning tank with a single Krogan inside "My work is almost complete, with the tech from the First Order, I have acquired the knowledge to create one pure soldier, the ultimate insult to the genophage, to be ignored. The failures and rejects where what Jedore wanted, she just lacked the ability to command, they are still strong and healthy, just not the perfection I wanted. I will come with you but my prototype is non-negotaiable, it comes too, it is my legacy."

Before Shepard could reply, Jedore's voice came over the loudspeaker again "Attention, I have traced the Krogan release, Okeer of course."

Okeer and Shepard went over to the large window which overlooked the main cloning lab o see the Blue Suns commander Jedore talking on the radio standing in the cloning room "I'm calling blank state on this project, Okeer is clearly working against us. Gas these commandos and start over from Okeer's data. Flush the tanks and we better hope the First Order is kind enough to us for this failure."

Then suddenly, gas began to leak into the lab "She's that weak willed, she'll kill my legacy with a single valve." Okeer growled and ran back to his terminal and looked at Shepard "You want information on the First Order, stop her, she'll try to access contaminants in the storage bay. I must save my legacy, it is too valuable to lose."

Shepard nodded she and the team rushed down the nearby set of stairs into the main cloning room where Jedore and some blue suns engineers were forcing the cloned Krogan out of the tanks and as usual, they were insane and began attacking anything in sight which quickly took care of the Blue Suns except for Jedore whose shields gave her an advantage. She also had a powerful droid that Hana had warned her about. Despite being about the same size as a B1 series battle droid, it was clearly powerful was it slammed it's hand right through a Krogan. Shepard also noticed it looked very similar to the droid that Bao-Dur had back on the Normandy only this one was a dark grey colour rather than an brown-orange. That droid for its size was very powerful, it took a lot of fire to take it out, it even managed to shrug off a direct hit from a rocket launcher. Eventually the incendiary bullets managed to damage it's legs so badly that they broke and even then the droid carried on trying to fight. Jack used her force powers to rip the head off which finally destroyed it.

Eventually, Jedore and all the insane Krogan clones were killed. "We did it." Garrus stated

"Indeed." Kasumi smiled and looked over the destroyed droid "Man that thing was a beast, no wonder Hock wanted one so bad." There had been a similar droid in Hock's vault only that one wasn't working, this one was. It was clearly a powerful droid and if Bao-Dur could get the one he had working again, it would be a great help. Even with this one destroyed, Shepard found that the Control Cluster was still functional and even with the head ripped off, the vocabulator was salvageable so Shepard had 3 of the parts required to fix the droid in Bao-Dur's lab, only the droid processor was still missing and the one of this droid had damaged beyond repair.

"Now that we're done here, let's get back to Okeer and get off this planet." Shepard said as she packaged up the salvaged parts.

Then there was an alarm coming from the lab "That's coming from Okeer's lab, what's going on up there?" Garrus questioned

Then EDI's voice came over the com "Shepard, the lab alarms coincided with systems failure. The remaining lab systems are unprotected and I have gained limited access. According to the scans, the lab is filled with toxins and Okeer's lifesigns are dropping fast. I recommend haste"

Shepard quickly returned to Okeer's lab as EDI managed to drain the toxins from the lab and it was not a good sight, Warlord Okeer lay unmoving on the ground next to his terminal with his voice playing on a recording which was on a loop "Shepard, you gave me time to save my legacy." The recording stated "I have put all of the First Order knowledge on a holodisk for you, use it how you wish, now I leave my prototype, my pure soldier, my grunt, to you." The final part of the recording was Okeer gasping for breath and the sound of a thud which was him falling to the ground.

They all gathered around the large tank that held the clone "He gave his life for this one single Krogan clone." Shepard stated

"This thing is strong." Jack said "Might be useful to us."

Shepard agreed and radioed the Normandy "Normandy, Okeer is a no go. He's dead but we have a package that needs picking up, we may have lost Okeer but we may have something of us to us and it's a big one."

...

Soon, Cortex returned with the shuttle and the team moved the large cloning tank onto the Shuttle and eventually took off back to the Normandy. However, none of them were aware that they were being watched, a lone figure was standing on top wrecked ship, he had been spying on Shepard and the team when she had first arrived. The figure was a blue skinned humanoid known as a Duros. He wore a large brown trenchcoat and large cowboy like hat along with two pipes that went into the sides of his mouth. The man had a creepy sneer on his face. He watched the shuttle take off before taking out his com link to contact someone.

"I have tracked the target but she remains elusive." He said into the com who replied back "Don't worry, no one escapes me for long, she has no idea that I've been tracking her every move since Omega, the tracker on her ship proves helpful. I'm not like those other Bounty Hunters, I am patient and wait for the right chance. Soon it will come and I will come to collect the reward." The man finished before leaving his spot to carry on his plan.

...

Once the Shuttle returned to the Normandy, Miranda and Jacob were waiting for her "Bringing that Krogan clone in for study makes sense but I have concerns about waking it." She said to Shepard as they looked at the tank.

Jacob agreed "Yeah, these Krogan clones seemed dangerous from what was seen." He said "If that thing goes beserk then it could tear this ship apart and kill the crew. We may not be able to contain it. A normal Krogan itself is dangerous but this one was educated by a madman."

"Well thankfully for us he is not getting out until we release him." Shepard stated

"Unless Okeer placed a failsafe on that tank." Miranda suggested "Or a malfunction causes the tank to shut down."

Shepard sighed "Look I'm not turning down a potential ally or resource right now but if you're so concerned then we'll keep him secured in the cargo hold for now until I can decide what to do with it."

"Fine but be careful." Miranda warned "We cannot afford to lose you. That's all of the dossiers for now done, I'll contact the Illusive Man to see if he's finished getting the information on a special mission for the team. We've gathered a team, now we do what we gathered for, to gather information on the First Order."

...

Meanwhile, far away from the Normandy and away from Shepard's mission, someone was plotting, plotting to get something back that had been stolen from him, his most prized treasure.

On Nar Shaddaa, the smugglers moon where Cerberus had recovered Shepard's body with help from Han Solo, the crime lord who had kept the body seemed board in his private room. Vogga the Hutt was not as powerful as some hutts like Jabba but he was still a force to be reconed with and a man who did not like to be crossed or stolen from. His entertainment was the usual with scantily clad humanoid females dancing around in erotic poses while musicians played music. It was just the same old for Vogga who had been in a bad mood ever since his most prized treasure had been stolen from him. He had fed the workers to his pet Kath Hounds as punishment and had put a reward out for those who caught the thief and returned his treasure but he had no idea who had done the deed. As he began to doze off as usual, he was interrupted by his domo, a blue skinned Twi'lek called Gi Ger interrupted him in Huttese.

"My apologizes my lord, but I've had a report in from one of our top Bounty Hunters, Cad Bane. He says he is on the trail of your lost treasure." He said

That woke Vogga up from his slumber "Has he found the thief?" he demanded

Gi shook his head "Interesting thing, he says that the Cerberus organization has finished the process they were on your prize." He said "It would seem that Commander Jane Alice Shepard is alive again, they managed to finish reviving her. It confirms what Hock and Kuril told us before their untimely deaths."

Vogga seemed to be surprised but pleased "Having her alive would be even better than having her body." He smirked "Having the great Commander Shepard serving me would make me more respected among the Hutts. Tell Bane to carry on with what he's doing, and order a load of sedative h4b, after all is she is as powerful as they say she is then I will needed something to keep her controlled."

Gi nodded "As you command my lord." He said and he walked away leaving Vogga fantasizing about what he would do when his prize returns to him.

Chapter End:

Notes: Well here is a new chapter of Mass Wars which also ends Arc 1 and finishes the first wave of recruitment missions. The next chapter will be the Horizon mission which will be very different from the games since the Collectors are not the focus here. We also have seen the first appearance of Vogga who has been mentioned a few times. I also recently replayed both KOTOR games which has given me an idea for the Vogga mini arc which will seem a companion from KOTOR 2 appear but I won't say who yet and I also gave the domo for Vogga a name since he didn't actually have one, he was just called the Twi'lek Domo. I don't know which story I will update next but it will either be the Wold Awakens or the Dragon of Sothoryos next.