XxX-XxX-XxX

Official Supporters:

Obsessive Readers, Laurel

Compulsive Reader, The Impossible Muffin

Intrigued Reader, Archer

Commissioner, Gib, Death Daddy, Le Spork, Polemoduke

If you want to be on the Supporter list, PM me for details or join our private server for details. Hope you enjoy reading my stories, please leave me a comment to let me know if you did, or where I can improve. Link here, where able to be seen : /2UZncAm

Second link here, remove ( and ) and it SHOULD work : D(i) (slash)kfhkfUb

Beta(s) :

XxX-XxX-XxX

Requested by : Laurel

XxX-XxX-XxX

Over the course of the next several days, John worked himself to the bone alongside the crew the Normandy could spare, the Krogan themselves, and the workers slowly, painfully slowly, but steadily streaming in from Alliance supply freighters. Those were few and far between, of course, with as many hands, ships, and precious resources as possible being pumped into dockyards, ships, and weapons manufacturers. It was hard work, exhausting in a way he hadn't experienced in years…

But, after just those few short days, the main area of the Urdnot camp had been mostly cleared out.

The path that had once been more worn into the center of camp than anything was revealed to be a road, made of broad, paved slabs of broken pseudo-asphalt. To either side were raised landings that the buildings beyond had been built out of, with stairs that were more hills, by now, which lead up to them intermittently. The rubble had been repurposed wherever possible into walls, riveted together by steel plates, reinforcements. Additional outer layers had been added to cover up wiring run throughout the buildings, with a sort of rubber epoxy sprayed into the gaps to seal the edges of the plates around metal reinforcements, rivets and struts.

The wall of buildings that enclosed the complex were ugly, covered in layers of metal with stone backing it and metal riveting left exposed. But…

They'd hold, he was sure. The Krogan had been building to weather war for centuries. All the Alliance had really done was ferry in materials and excavation equipment to let them do it to their peak. Rather than whatever a couple dozen Krogan could do with their hands and whatever they could scrap together.

"It's a wonder what something as simple as a proper welder can do…" He murmured, leaning against one of those 'new' walls and watching Krogan work in the 'pit' - the wide stretch of circular dirt enclosed on all sides by buildings, where new food silos were being erected to replace the old.

"What's that?" Wrex asked, turning away from the report he'd been reading, sitting on a slab of stone at the base of the wall, to look at him.

"Nothing." He shook his head, turning to meet the alien's eye. Only the one, thanks to the shape of his head. And John didn't even have to look down to meet it - the alien was tall enough that, even sitting on a simple slab of stone, he came up to his nose. "Thinking out loud. Nothing important."

"Uh huh…" The alien rumbled, shaking his head a bit and grunting as he stood and turned, leaning a hand on the doorframe of the building and grunting. "C'mon. Work to do."

"I'm on break…"

"Five minutes are up."

"You said fifteen." He sighed, following the alien into the wide, open-floored bottom level of what was shaping up to be Urdnot's communications hub.

Terminals lined the outside of the walls, with low, curved seats built for the Krogan sitting in them. Most wore heavy, somewhat cobbled together, headsets while Alliance officers moved back and forth, training them on modern communications techniques. Codes, information handling, the like. Shepard was working with them, liaising as the superior most person on behalf of the Citadel information being taught to the Krogan as well as the Alliance info-programming.

He paid her a nod as Wrex lead him up a walled in stairwell, up through a few floors and onto another open-floor room.

This one was under works, still, with Krogan and Alliance technicians setting up power in the corners, and another installing a light that blinked on as they came over to a holo-display table. Wrex keyed it on and leaned on it as a display of a long, rectangular sort of ship came up on the screen.

"Kowloon freighter, loaded as much as its frame can take." Wrex explained, gesturing at the center of the ship, where its thin access port spine ran from its four engine block modules. "Surprised the damn thing has a power core that can handle those engines, though."

"Yeah?"

"Those engines are for heavy freight." Wrex grunted, shrugging lightly, "Long haul, hard burn kind of craft. Kowloons can't normally handle 'em because Kowloons are built off modules."

"Meaning they aren't as fitted together…"

"Exactly." Wrex nodded, tapping the edge of the holodisplay and frowning. "Hackett wants us to mod 'em into deployment platforms."

"For…?"

"Well, I'm not supposed to have this intel, but…" Wrex smiled widely, toothily, and rumbled a laugh that Shepard's memories told him, echoing faintly out to him from the bottoms of his mind, was meant to be intimidating. Albeit in a more playful way. Still, the hairs on the back of his neck stood on end, old instinct making him purse his lips and earning another smile and a snort, "Didn't think you'd be so easy to scare…"

"I'm not scared." He countered dryly, "It's just… Instincts."

"Sure, sure…" Wrex smiled just a bit more widely and cocked his head, "And what do those instincts make you feel?"

"Chieftain…" He rumbled, turning towards him and shaking his head, visor polarising as, unconsciously, his hand drifted to his Carnifex.

"Wrex, would you kindly not harass my friend?" He turned as Shepard sighed sufferingly and joined them, standing between them and pushing Doe back a step. Ignoring them both, she smiled and asked, "You're both pretty, so… What classified data have you managed to steal this time, Wrex?"

"I mean, do you really want to know?"

"If it's useful," she flicked him a wry smile, "yes."

"Hah. Ruthless, aren't you…" Wrex rumbled, stepping forward and raising his arm, inputting a few commands onto an Omni-Tool he couldn't even see. Although, there was just the faintest sort of… Haze, around his arm. Smiling, the Warlord said, "Krogan can see a single type of light that Humans, Asari and Salarians can't. Turians can, but… It's fuzzy, so I'm told. Expensive as hell to get a 'Tool run with, but…"

"Secure." Shepard grunted understandingly, "You're…"

"Brilliant? Wise? A modern thinker extraordinaire?"

"Conniving and paranoid." Shepard filled in with a weary sigh, smiling as the holodisplay shifted and showed off a new blueprint, broken down in fine detail for them. Quietly, she added, sounding thoroughly impressed, "But… Hellishly resourceful, and just the faintest bit brilliant."

"I'll take it." The Krogan rumbled, waving a hand at the display and grunting. "And these are what the Kowloons are supposed to be tests for."

The blueprint was for a long, vaguely teardrop shaped craft designated a 'Longarm Pod', with two beds inside like a pair of bobsleighs laid back to back. It had a wider rear, with a designated 'Eezo core' for mass dispersion as it came down and a kinetic barrier generator. Between the two, just behind the hardened weapons cabinet behind each headrest, was a computer core for a VI that could supplement controls for a dozen micro-thrusters scattered along the hull, angling towards safer landings, warning of incoming hazards, and the like, according to the blurb attached to the segment.

"Insertion pods…" He murmured, leaning closer to look at the details. It was just under half as big again as the SOIEVs had always been, to make space for the added man, but that was obviously what it was.

"A first draft for blueprints, yeah." Shepard chuckled, shaking her head and giving Wrex a look. "And up to date, too. Hackett handed me the same in a data-packet this morning. Wrex, I have to ask…"

"Spies." Wrex shrugged, smiling toothily, "Dunno her name. Just that she likes to get her fingers on just about anything she can sell."

"Ah." Shepard sighed, flicking John a look and rolling her eyes. "Kasumi…"

A heartbeat passed, while Shepard seemed to wait, before a quiet voice chuckled, "That's not fair at all, Commander…"

He turned toward the voice as a painfully familiar woman appeared, leaning in a corner with blue-light eyes and a hood drawn low over her nose. She shot him a faux salute, crossed her arms and turned back to the woman with a frown he could barely sit lit up by her augments. A brow rose and Shepard chuckled dryly, awkwardly waving the woman off and turning back to the display.

"No?" Shepard hummed, talking to the thief while he looked over the schematics. The display was interactive, luckily, after Wrex input a few commands, and let him twist and turn it as he liked to see it from different angles. "It's not?"

"I was waiting to make my debut!" The woman bemoaned, "You ruined it…"

"Ah, well…" Shepard chuckled, "I'm so very sorry about that. You can always cloak again and…"

"No, the moment's gone." She sighed, meeting his eyes when he hummed thoughtfully and turned back to them, tapping a finger on the display gently. "Work time, I guess. Fun killer…"

"Are you talking to me or him…?"

"My intel says that line is a bit more grey than normal…" Shepard turned to her as John's shoulders stiffened and, whatever Kasumi saw in the woman's face, the humor vanished from her face and her words. Nodding stiffly she waved a hand in front of her like she was fanning herself and chuckled weakly, "R-Right, uh… dropping that, now."

"After you tell me how you know…"

"I, uh…" She shrugged, "I have a source that gives me files. On you…"

"Why?"

"Shepard, can we please not-"

"This affects more than just me, Goto, and you know it." Shepard cut her off, shaking her head tensely. "So whatever little game you're playing-"

"I have it set up that way because I want to know if you're in trouble, damn it!" Kasumi finally shouted, breaking her normal relaxed, put on playfulness. Shepard flinched at the words and even Wrex rumbled unhappily. Ignoring them, she said, "I… Don't have a lot of people, anymore. So… I'm sorry, I just-"

"No." Shepard cut her off with a sharp wave of her hand. "I'm sorry. I shouldn't have pushed. Or at least, not like that."

"Thanks…"

"But," Shepard sighed, "you need to give me your contacts. We're at war, and Hackett needs to know who he has on payroll willing to sell secrets. Even to you. Even for a good reason."

"I don't betray my contacts, Shepard." Kasumi muttered after a few long, quiet moments. Her face was hard, now, and her brows furrowed when Shepard crossed her arms. Quietly, she said, "I need them, Shepard. They're only working with me because I worked with you anyways. I can keep an eye on my own network."

"Kasumi…"

"If she says she can handle them, we should trust her." John said, surprising himself as much as the other two. Flicking the Krogan a look, he sighed and said. "I… Know you do, Commander. I know you're loyal to Hackett, but… Ah, it's hard to-" He cut himself off with a shake of his head and a sigh and chuckled, "I'm not great at this."

"No." Shepard sighed, smiling thinly. "You're not. But… Fine. But, Kasumi?"

"Yes…?"

"Keep an eye on them." She said, voice firm. "And send me copies of whatever they give you. If Hackett finds out, I can just say you were acting on my behalf. Checking for security weaknesses, and reinforcing our network from the outside wherever you can."

"Oh, I'm a white hat now, am I?" She snorted, wagging a finger at the woman. "What's that pay?"

"A waiver on treason charges?"

"Booo!" The thief bemoaned, rolling her eyes, "Fine, fine. We can negotiate pricing later."

"Kasumi…"

"Anyways!" The thief clapped her hands, "How about this new thingamawhatsit?"

"...Longarm landing pod." Shepard sighed, shaking her head and turning to face the holodisplay. "Seats two, with kinetic barriers for protection and microthrusters based on your original pod, Doe."

"Why two?"

"Partners can look after each other." Shepard answered with a shrug, "And we assumed the reason your original variant didn't have it was to keep them as small as possible, due to a lack of defenses. So, with a barrier on board…"

"It's more feasible." He nodded. Honestly, the length wasn't that bad, even if he didn't like the way it had them laying down. More pressingly, he pointed at the orientation of the second seat and said, "Why position it like this? If it lands with one seat-side down…"

"The edges are rounded, so the maneuvering thrusters can reorient it." Shepard answered, smiling widely when John turned to her. Tapping her head, she said, "I can tap into our memories more safely than you can. Javik, too. That with what you've told Liara let us iron out some kinks at the drafting stage."

"Impressive." There were still the flaws of the original SOIEV, of course, and he could see them. But outside of 'try not to land on granite' there was little that could be done to prevent a pod wide. And, with two people, even a bad landing might still leave a survivor to attempt mission completion. Not to mention the lower number of needed pods in a drop… "Very impressive. Launching mechanism?"

At a gesture, Wrex flicked over to another display. This one of something that looked a lot like a tuning fork, resting horizontally with an Eezo generator at one end. An outline of the pod rested in its center, held up by simple mag-lock docking clamps. And, at the end of the Kowloon class module, a door opened that let the projection of the pod slide out slowly in that strange, almost alienly smooth way holodisplays often had.

"A simple, cheap assembly of mag-locks in an aluminium frame, concealed inside a normal, from the outside, Kowloon class access module." Shepard explained, "The ship transits to location with its fleet, acting either in disguise as a support craft or, depending on loadout otherwise, actually supporting the fleet. It can launch the pods from there."

"Efficient." He nodded, turning to them and asking. "We're testing it on Tuchanka?"

"The Kowloon retrofits are aimed at militarizing them, until the pods are vetted in combat conditions." Shepard nodded, "You're to oversee training for myself, Wrex, and a handful of Krogan handpicked by him."

"You?" He blinked, "You have my training…"

"Really weird, hearing that…"

"Kasumi." Shepard chided her, earning a weary sigh and a 'yeah, yeah' from the woman. Turning back to John, she explained, "I have the information, sure. But actually running through the pods, the drops, the procedures- I'm not saying you're putting us through basic, here. Only that we need to know what we need to know to run these operations."

"I see…" He flicked Wrex a look and hummed, understanding. "Your Krogan will teach other Krogan after, then."

"Mhm." Wrex nodded, "That's the plan."

"Well…" He sighed, "Do you have a site we can test drops on? Recovery crews for the pods?"

"All ready." Wrex nodded, tapping out commands and gesturing at the screen with a rumbling laugh. It swapped to a map of Tuchanka and highlighted a region far, far to the East. Tapping it, he said, "I have rivals there. We'll go in and give 'em a show. Finally get my grip on every last scratch of Tuchanka."

"Wrex…" Shepard sighed, "Assassinating your rivals isn't training."

"Eh, is to us." Wrex rumbled, "Now c'mon, let's get the plans ironed out."

John flicked Shepard a look, one brow raised behind his visor, and she just sighed and shrugged. Leaning against the console, she asked, "What were you thinking?"

XxX-XxX-XxX

Lea :

I mean, yeah, as long as the Krogan didn't try any funny business, the UNSC would probably vibe well enough with 'em. ONI aside, of course, because ONI is incapable of vibing.