A/N

Hi everyone! Time for the next update.

I guess people were mostly happy with the last scene. Sorry if it wasn't to your taste, but thank you for sticking with me anyway. I hope that you get more joy out of the chapters going forward.

If you want to vote in the monthly side story poll or simply read ahead, Bored Peasant's Written Works on pat-re-on is where to find eight advanced chapters to this story. Another new update should be up soon.

Extra special thanks to Amorac07, Arrimar26, Ben wanless, Blackwall, Blaine Hughes, carl hoffman, Chris, David C, Drake Serr, Eligah Moreno, Endervslender, Ezoz, FallenMetalGod, Freeman, Helorion94, internetadik, Jason Bourne, Jebusno2, Lasted, liquidpotato, My Name is Klondike, Nathan Block, Nathan Duncan, Orangerazor120, Paul Fischer, Proxy, Pyrforos, r4p16, Rabbit of Caerbannog, Robert Tipton, Sand_Worm, Sith_Paladin, sonic, Terror, The Senn Master, Thezombiegamer707, Tristan d'conceicao, UtopiaKnight39, Voidwolf 1994 and ZeroTheSoldier for their patronage and support. It means so much and I am so grateful.

Anyway, on with the story!

…

CHAPTER 51 – VIRMIRE PART 1

(Jane POV)

The landing on Virmire's surface in the Mako was heavy, but not as heavy as she expected. Probably due to the waist deep water that they landed in. thankfully, it also meant that there was no complaining coming from the back cabin.

"Everyone all okay back there?" she called out as she checked her equipment.

"Fine here, Jane," Brock called out. She received two more calls of all clear. Well, one call and a grunt.

She had been a little hesitant at having the Australian on the ground team after his near death on the asteroid. Still, he was confident in himself and he had been cleared by all of Doctor Chakwas' tests. Jane had been a soldier long enough and seen enough injuries to know that holding someone back when they were healthy out of a fear of injury was doing no one any favours.

It also helped that she had both Wrex and Torrin as part of the ground team. She had also considered adding Garrus but seemed unnecessary for the first part of the mission. As a sniper, it would almost be counterproductive to include him when the majority of the first part was going to take place in the Mako until they could get past the anti-air cannons.

The drive through the ravines was smooth, far smoother than her usual driving for sure. The mako was revving higher than usual, though that was probably because of the water. The tank had enough torque to make it a minor issue and she pushed through without a problem.

Though, if she happened to deliberately drive over any smallish boulders or sandbars that she saw to give her a little bit of a bump, then it was clearly just a problem of the terrain. No further questions.

After a few minutes, they arrived at an outpost. The tank's machine gun hummed to life and fired a short burst at a geth trooper that was standing in the open. The thing dropped like a tin can at target practice.

"Everyone out!" she called, unbuckling her own restraints. "I want this placed cleared of any and all resistance. No need for us to let them hit us in the back."

They all grabbed their weapons and disembarked. Thankfully, the water around the outpost was much shallower, barely enough to wet their boots.

"Contact!" Brock called out, firing at a geth red rocket trooper.

"Incoming!" Torrin shouted, throwing up a biotic Barrier to block the rocket from a second trooper. Wrex finished it off a moment later.

Jane targeted a white trooper that was firing down at them from the second floor. "Heading up the ramp," she called. "Squad, on me!"

She took point, sprinting up the ramp on the left-hand side, ducking behind the side bollards that provided some cover. The masonry chipped off as the geth troopers fired, but only a couple of their shots struck a clanking blow on her shields.

She looked around the last of the cover and leaped out, firing her Scalpel at the troopers. The powerful Master-series Spectre Assault Rifle cut through their shields in moments and ripped them apart, to her satisfaction. Her Scalpel might not have been as powerful as Brock's Butcher, but it wasn't too far behind.

The squad proceeded to clear the outpost, none of the geth providing a challenge. Jane couldn't help feeling satisfied.

"Good work team," she called out once the post was clear. "Look for anything useful then double-time back to the Mako."

It only took them a few minutes before they were all back in the tank. Nothing in particular was useful, with the sole exception of the geth assault rifle that Torrin had picked up.

Once back in the driver's seat, Jane took off, passing through the open passageways underneath the outpost.

They hadn't gone far, only a hundred metres, when she had to jerk the wheel to avoid a ball of plasma. A geth rocket trooper fired right after it, only to be blasted by the VI controlled machine gun. The rocket sailed past without causing any damage.

"Colossus!" she barked, throwing the Mako to the side to avoid another plasma blast.

"Shepard!" Wrex yelled out from his spot. "I want to take it out!"

"What?" she called back incredulously.

"I want to get out and take that thing on with my grenade launcher!" Wrex explained. "I need to break it in!"

"That's crazy, even for you Wrex!" Jane shouted back in exasperation. That would be exactly something that the krogan would ask for. What Jane wanted to do too, even if she wouldn't voice her desire out loud. "Between the drones and the troopers, you'll not even have time to try taking on the Colossus."

"I'll go with him, Jane," Brock called out. "I'll keep the drones and troopers off his back. Torrin can help me."

"I'm good with that!" Torrin called out.

Jane couldn't help but shake her head. Her ground team was certifiable. But that was what made them so effect, she supposed. Still, they had the skills and it probably wouldn't slow them down too much.

"Fine," she conceded. "But I will be sticking around to present a target so that you don't get hit by its main gun. And when you finish it off, Brock, you are topping up the omnigel in the self-repair tank."

"Sure thing Jane," Brock replied easily. "Just drop us behind a boulder within a hundred meters of the geth and we can manage from there."

Jane nodded and saw a large outcropping about eighty meters out from the Colossus that would provide enough shelter from the geth for her to stop and let the three disembark. She nimbly (wildly) made her way through the plasma fire from the geth machine and pull to a smooth, sudden stop just shy of ramming into the wall.

"Wait until I start drawing fire again," she called as they undid their restraints and made for the door, collecting their weapons on the way. She couldn't help feeling a little jealous at the big krogan being able to take on the large geth machine before she had a chance to, but she was happy to let it go. For now.

Once they were out, she threw the Mako back out into open pathway, not really caring that she was probably splashing the others with backwash from the tyres. She wasn't bitter about not having the chance to use her own grenade launcher. Not in the slightest…

The flash of a plasma shot shooting past her brought her back into the fight against the geth. She had the VI shoot in short bursts to whittle down the shields, but not to try and take away Wrex's first big kill with his new toy.

An explosion knocked the next plasma shot off course, followed shortly by another. The geth Colossus started to turn towards the offender, but Jane made sure to increase the firepower from her own turret, distracting the geth by reminding it that she was there.

The moment of indecision was enough to allow two more explosions land on the large geth machine. The Colossus decided that the krogan on foot was the bigger danger and turned to face the outcropping where she had dropped the ground team. It spat a plasma shot in their direction. Jane couldn't see the result, but the subsequent explosion that knocked out the geth's shields with a dull flash told her that the ground team were fine.

Almost instantly, a massive shot exactly like the carnage shot that Brock had fired at the geth on Therum flew at the geth, smashing into the base of its neck. The explosion easily dwarfed all the previous shots that had hit the geth machine from where Jane could see. A large crater at the base of the neck was glowing a bright cherry red.

The Colossus froze, before the light on its face blinked and faded, going completely dull. The legs folded into each other and the head tilted, before comping away completely from the chassis and smashing onto the ground a few metres away from the body.

She could swear she could hear the victory roar that Wrex undoubtedly gave from inside the Mako and let out a grin. She was looking forward to her turn. Maybe if she was lucky, there would be another one on the road to the salarians and she could get out and have her turn.

"Enjoy that?" she asked to Wrex as he came back into the Mako.

"Damn straight," he replied enthusiastically. "My new little princess is going to be doing that sort of thing with me over and over again."

"Yeah, well, next one is mine!" she rebutted as she put the Mako in gear and took off down the path.

She drove on through the ravine, letting the targeting VI take care of any of the drones and troopers that they came across. She doesn't really need to bother too much. Between the calibrations that Garrus was so pedantic about and Tali updating the software between missions, the Mako is probably running better than any other in the entire Alliance military.

After a few more minutes, they came to another Colossus.

"Mine!" she barked, unbuckling her restraints and running to her helmet and weapons. "Wrex, come cover me. Brock, you drive."

"Uh, never driven a Mako before," Brock objected, even as he climbed into the driver's seat. "But I'm sure I'll figure it out."

The cannon boomed above them, firing a shot into the ravine wall and making Jane stop to give him a deadpan look. He gave a sheepish grin. "Sorry."

Jane couldn't help giving an amused shake of her head. "Just don't do that in my direction," she said.

She leaped out the door before he could reply and landed in the water with a splash, making her way to the shelter a large boulder provided. She could hear Wrex following her, being much louder than she was as he moved through the water.

"Glad these suits are water tight," he grunted as he joined her.

"Don't cry about it," Jane said, looking back to see the Mako jerkily make its way back into the line of sight of the Colossus. "It's not like you haven't fought in the rain before."

He just grunted, before he aimed his heavy shotgun at a gun drone that flew too close and blasted it apart with a booming shot.

Jane took the opportunity to aim her grenade launcher at the geth walking tank and fired. The grenade launcher didn't have nearly as much recoil as she thought it would, only jumping lightly in her hands. She quickly cycled another round and fired before the first shot hit.

The Colossus was well within range of the Thumper and the first round exploded on its back, making the shields flash blue. The second round landed on the head, knocking it off course just as it fired a plasma shot, making the glowing round smash into the ravine wall.

Behind Jane the Mako's machine gun fired, blasting away at some geth troopers that came as reinforcements. The vehicle was still moving awkwardly, like a teen on their first driving lesson, but it was managing to dodge most of the shots and rockets sent its way, so Jane couldn't really make too much fun of him. Though, she could make some jokes at his expense.

"You have a few too many drinks before you hopped in the driver's seat there, Brock?" she catcalled, as she fired another Hi-Ex round at the Colossus.

"Still better than your driving," he rebutted. The jump boosters on the left-hand side activated, lifting the tank to stand awkwardly on three wheels, but somehow making the plasma shot that the Colossus fired fly underneath the left side wheels, missing the tank. "Completely planned that."

She snorted as she quickly reloaded two HIVE rounds and fired both in quick succession.

"Carnage ready."

Hell yes.

She quickly aimed the Thumper at the Colossus and fired. The recoil on the Carnage shot was much greater, almost throwing itself out of her hands as the angry red basketball-sized explosive launched itself at the geth machine. It was a perfect shot, hitting it right in the chest at the base of the neck. The explosion dwarfed all of the other rounds by a large margin, overloading the shields and blowing out a massive chunk of the Colossus' chassis.

The geth machine faltered and collapsed, the lights dying as it lay defeated. The Mako fired its cannon, hitting the downed machine for good measure. The geth machine didn't even flinch, showing that it was truly down.

Jane looked at the Thumper in her hands appreciatively as a thrill passed through her body. Oh yeah, mamma liked this gun.

"Area's clear," Brock said over the comm. "Come on back."

They made their way back into the Mako and Jane kicked Brock out of the driver's seat, taking her place there. People might complain, but it was her mission and if she wanted to drive, then she was going to drive!

They drove on for a while, only encountering some drones. It gave Jane a little time to notice that the planet was actually quite beautiful. It made her wonder why there wasn't a colony set up here yet. There must be something that she wasn't aware of, otherwise it didn't make sense for one of the governments to have made a full claim on the place.

After a few more minutes of mostly quiet driving, they came across another outpost, this one with the gate closed. Not to mention the Colossus right in front of it.

As much as she wanted to take on another one with her own grenade launcher, Jane had to bite back her enthusiasm for large explosions and used the guns and cannon on the Mako to take it down quickly. She jerked, jumped and boosted the tank to make sure that it didn't get hit badly. All in all, she was impressed at how fast the geth tank was destroyed.

She would have to thank Garrus for the calibrated guns.

"Alright team," she called out. "I need you to go in the base and open the gate so we can move on. I'll come and provide sniper support in lieu of Garrus, but I will leave the majority of it to you three."

She saw Brock tilt his head at her in the mirror looking back into the crew area, as if he was surprised that she wasn't going to come ashore. Well, she was, but not as anything other than support. In fact…

"Brock, you take the lead," she said. "It's your team for this base."

He paused for a second before he nodded and headed out the door. "On me you two," he called. Torrin and Wrex marched out after him.

Jane walked to the doorway and watched, picking up her trusty Harpoon X. she didn't get to use it often in the field. The thing weighed about sixteen kilograms, almost as much as that new Widow they were coming out with. It just made it too cumbersome to use in the field if you weren't a dedicated sniper. But if she was playing a support role like she was right now, it would work. It was one of the reasons that she always had it in the Mako, just in case.

Using her smarts, she lay down on the floor to steady it without using her muscles. She took a look through the scope, peering at how fast the guys were going.

She could admit to being impressed. Brock and Torrin were a smooth team, clearly familiar with each other's moves and able to work with each other almost telepathically. It was like they could read each other's thoughts. If she wasn't plugged into the squad comm, she would have believed that they were talking constantly to each other. But other than the occasional instruction, there was radio silence.

They were good enough to also be able to use Wrex too, implementing him into their teamwork as they shot at the geth facing them.

Jane tensed for a moment, seeing a rocket trooper that had somehow snuck up behind Wrex. She aimed at the geth trooper, taking a breath and letting it out slow, steadying her nerves.

Just before she pulled the trigger, a Barrier was formed a foot in front of the weapon! The rocket fired, exploding right in front of the geth and destroying it completely.

Jane blinked. That was a neat trick. She turned the rifle to look at the others through her scope, and caught Wrex punching Torrin on the shoulder softly, before he covered himself in a blue biotic field and charged at two geth troopers, smashing into them with the momentum of a runaway train.

They disappeared from view, leaving Jane to wait as she could hear continuous gunfire and explosions. She couldn't help feeling a little anxious that someone else was leading the ground team. This was her mission, after all. Still, she knew that leading ground teams in combat zones was something that Brock had experience in and he was more than capable in a fight. As were Wrex and Torrin. She was balancing her need for control, with her trust in her ground team.

Plus, if they needed the help, she still had a cannon to use. So there was that.

Finally, the sounds of combat faded. A few minutes after that and the three appeared, looking no worse for wear. They were even carrying a lockbox with them.

"What's that?" she asked.

"Just a few goodies that you can sell later," Brock said as they put it down in the crew area and strapped it so a cargo pod so that it wouldn't fly around. "Guns and a couple of tech bits for omnitools."

Jane nodded and headed back to the driver's seat. The team was clearly still in the scavenger mindset that she needed them to have. That was good. She needed them for the day that she was no longer being financially supported by someone else.

The trip to the salarian camp took another hour, clearing out geth troopers, a gated outpost, another couple of Colossuses and a few mini-Colossuses. No one else got out for a firefight on foot against the big geth machines, but Wrex did grumble a little that he could 'double check to make sure it wasn't a fluke'.

Finally, she saw the salarian base with the Normandy parked right next to it. A short distance beyond, she could see a large facility that she suspected would contain either a lot of salarians, or a lot of geth. On the beach ahead, she could see Alenko and Williams talking with a salarian in armour. Off to the side, Garrus, Liara and Tali were all standing together in full armour, just talking and looking around. She pulled the Mako to a stop nearby and her and her current ground team disembarked.

She marched over to Alenko and arrived to hear the salarian finishing up whatever he was saying. "Stay put until we can come up with a plan."

"I'm Spectre Shepard," she introduced herself as she approached. "Are you in charge here?"

"I'm Captain Kirrahe," the salarian replied. "STG. You and your crew have just landed in a hot zone. Every AA gun for miles has been alerted to your presence."

That was annoying. Jane's mouth twisted in displeasure. Getting back out or having Joker scout the area or provide air cover with the Normandy was out until they could sort that little issue out. The frigate's stealth systems were A-class but she wasn't sure that she wanted to test them against concentrated anti-air fire. And while the stealth systems worked against heat emission sensors, if there was any visual targeting, it would be too complicated to try unless it was life or death.

"Alright, so we are stuck here for now," she accepted. "What are your plans in the meantime?"

"Stay put here until the Council sends the reinforcements that we requested," Kirrahe said simply.

Ouch. That was problematic. Jane knew they weren't going to like the news.

"We are the reinforcements," Alenko said, breaking the news in typically blunt fashion.

Just like she thought, Kirrahe wasn't a fan. "What? You're all they sent? I told them to send a fleet!"

"Your transmission was mangled, the message wasn't clear," Jane explained, justifying the Council's decision, though she wasn't really sure why. "I was sent to investigate."

"That is merely a repetition of our task," Kirrahe said bitterly. "I've lost half my men investigating this place."

"What have you found?" Alenko cut in. she really needed to talk to him sometime about not speaking out of turn. It would undermine her authority.

"Saren's base of operations," Kirrahe said. "He set up a research facility, but it's crawling with geth and very well fortified."

Jane blinked that was a big find. She might be able to finish her primary mission. "Is he here?" she asked eagerly. "Have you seen him?"

"No, but his geth are everywhere," Kirrahe responded. "We've also intercepted transmissions referring to Saren. This is his facility; I have no doubts."

A facility that Saren had set up for research. Something about that unnerved Jane. The last time he had something like this it was on Noveria and he was trying to get the rachni to serve him. If he had access to indoctrination like he did against Benezia, it might have worked.

"What's he researching?" she asked, feeling trepidatious.

"He's breeding an army of krogan," Kirrahe revealed.

"How is that possible?" Wrex said suddenly.

Jane jerked her head to look over at the krogan. She hadn't even noticed he had followed her. For a big alien, he could be silent when he wanted to be. She looked around and saw that Torrin and Brock had walked on and were talking with Garrus, Tali and Liara.

"Apparently, Saren has discovered a cure for the genophage." Kirrahe stated. "Without it, the krogan will quickly overrun the galaxy. And these krogan follow Saren."

Jane remembered Wrex talking about the genophage a little during their talks. She wasn't an idiot and had researched it a bit to see why it was such a hot issue with her resident krogan mercenary. She could understand why Wrex would be so bitter about it. Having only one in every thousand pregnancies surviving would bring most civilisations to ruin. That is, if they didn't live as long as the krogan or asari.

Still, despite their birthrate issue, the fact remained that the krogan tended more towards violent occupations. The vast majority of the krogan that left Tuchanka became mercenaries; an occupation with a lower life expectancy than most people would want. It led to the krogan population being on a slow but definite decline.

Wrex had spoken about how the genophage had turned his people into little better than animals. They had lost their culture from it all, surviving on whatever scraps they could, after having been uplifted to fight a war that wasn't theirs. It had made Jane feel like the asari and salarians should have done a much better job in the aftermath of the genophage to culturally uplift the krogan, not just technologically, so that they could function in the galaxy alongside the other races. From what she could tell though, no such effort had been made. Not on a government level, at least.

Despite her sympathy towards the krogan situation though, the idea of Saren having a full army of war-loving aliens that could take and give a lot of damage was not good. It was the stuff of nightmares actually, at least for the salarians and asari. They still remembered the Krogan Rebellions as though it was yesterday and not centuries ago. It made them far less forgiving of the large aliens.

"The geth are bad enough," Jane thought out loud. "But an army of krogan… he'd be almost unstoppable."

"Our thoughts exactly," Kirrahe affirmed. "We need to make sure that this entire facility and its secrets are destroyed."

Jane winced internally, know how that would be received by a certain someone. Sure enough, Wrex instantly bristled.

"Destroyed?" he repeated incredulously. "I don't think so. My people are dying. This could save them."

"If that cure leaves this planet, the krogan will become unstoppable," Kirrahe insisted calmly. "We will not make that mistake again."

Wrex stepped forward to stand over the salarian captain who, to his credit, stood calmly and remained unintimidated by the angry scared alien in front of him. "We are not a mistake!" Wrex ground out at him.

Wrex stormed off angrily, stomping through the sand as he marched away.

"Is he going to be a problem?" Kirrahe asked. "We already have enough without an angry krogan to deal with."

"I'll talk to him," Jane assured him. "Calm him down."

"I hope so," Kirrahe said sceptically. "Now, my men and I need to rethink our plan of attack. Can you give us some time?"

"Go ahead, Captain," Jane said. "I'll come back soon."

"Appreciated Spectre," Kirrahe nodded. With that, he walked off to speak to his officers.

Jane watched him go, feeling conflicted. Things were getting more complicated. At least they had some salarians to help with the fight, though that might be actually causing more problems with her own ground team.

"Looks like things are a bit of a mess," Alenko said.

"Yeah," Ash agreed. "I wouldn't be so worried if it wasn't for Wrex. He looked like he was about to blow a gasket."

"I'll go talk to him," Jane assured her, though inside, she wasn't sure how that would go. Wrex was a krogan and this was clearly a very sensitive issue. If she couldn't get him to calm down, things could get messy.

She headed off towards the big alien, leaving the two Alliance soldiers to talk behind her. As she neared the big mercenary, he pulled out his heavy shotgun and started firing angrily into the ocean. She took a quick look back and saw that several of the salarians had stopped what they were doing and watching the krogan, clearly ready in case he chose not to listen to her.

She mentally sent a sarcastic thanks to them for their faith in her.

Wrex continued firing as she drew near until the overheating alert sounded and the gun vented the heat from the sink. Apparently, that was the signal for him to turn around to face her.

"This isn't right, Shepard," Wrex said, sounding surprisingly earnest and insistent. "If there's a cure for the genophage, we can't destroy it."

"I understand you're upset," Jane said soothingly to Wrex. Or at least she tried to. After all, softness didn't work on krogan and understanding had to be mixed with firmness. It made her feel like she was sounding a little condescending. "But we both know that Saren's the real enemy here. He's who you should be angry with."

"Really?" Wrex said moving closer to her. "Saren created a cure for my people. You want to destroy it. Help me out here Shepard. The line between friend and foe is getting a little blurry from where I'm standing."

"This isn't a cure Wrex!" she exclaimed. "Not a real cure. It's a weapon that Saren is using to make the krogan subservient to him. Do you know how many strings are attached to this? And if Saren is allowed to use it, none of us will be around to reap the benefits!"

"That's a chance we should be willing to take," Wrex growled. "This is the fate of my entire people we are talking about!"

Wrex moved closer into Jane's personal space, making her lean back to stop his lips and teeth making contact with her nose.

"I've been loyal to you so far," Wrex continued, his tone lower but no less intense. "Hell, you did more for me than my own family ever did. But, if I'm going to keep following you, I need to know that I am doing it for the right reasons."

At that, Wrex aimed his shotgun straight at Jane, in full combat stance. Jane responded instantly, pulling her own Scalpel off her back and aiming it square and steady in Wrex's face.

The tense standoff lasted for a long moment as Wrex and Jane pointed their weapons at each other. Jane didn't want to do it; that was all that was keeping her from pulling the trigger too quickly. Wrex was a member of her ground team, someone she had eaten with, shared stories with and fought against her enemies with. Shooting him now would be something that would stay with her for the rest of her life as a regret.

But if Wrex decided to act, she was confident that her new armour and shields would hold up for long enough to take the krogan down if needed, but he had new armour as well. Alenko and Williams would join her, stacking the odds in her favour. Williams was even now moving up behind him, Jane could see that over his shoulder from the corner of her eye. The salarians would probably help as well, going by how Kirrahe had been wary of the krogan's presence. It might be better if Ash fires first…

"WREX!" an angry voice boomed out, cutting into Jane's thoughts instantly.

The krogan jerked around to aim at where the voice had come from. Once the gun was not pointed directly at her, Jane took the risk of looking towards where the shout had come from.

To her surprise, Brock was marching purposefully towards the angry krogan, no weapons in his hands, but fully dressed in his armour, helmet and all. Jane's weapon lowered as Brock strode up to the larger alien.

Then, to her utter shock, Brock slapped the shotgun straight out of the krogan's hands, to thump softly in the sand, then reared back, and threw his head forward to smash against Wrex's armoured face, making the big scarred mercenary flinch back a few steps.

There was only one thing that passed through Jane's dazed mind. What?

…

(Brock POV)

I have instant regret. Mistakes were made.

I knew that it was going to hurt to headbutt Wrex. It was a calculated gamble to knock him out of his standoff with Jane. I needed Wrex alive and I wasn't going to take a risk that Jane had reached his heart enough with her sincerity. There had been a lot of things that made me feel like it wasn't going to end well if I let it play out. That was why I was still in my full armour, helmet and all.

That said, his head was still like throwing my face directly into a wall.

When Jane did it in ME2, it must have been purely because of the enhancements that Cerberus had given her that she was able to do it without cracking her skull. As it was, I am certain that the only reason that I didn't have a full concussion was because of my helmet.

Still, the headbutt achieved its purpose. Wrex reared back and looked at me in shock. His surprise was the only thing that allowed me to get the first word in.

I grabbed the neck of his amour and used nearly my full gene modded strength to drag him off balance. "Come here you idiot," I growled at him. "We need to talk." I walked off, pulling him behind me, even though I had the feeling that once he came to his senses he would resist and I wouldn't be able to beat him in pure strength.

Sure enough, we hadn't gone more than fifteen metres further up the sandy beach before he was standing up and stopping so that I couldn't forcefully drag him anymore. I might have been able to keep it up with a younger krogan, or a smaller one, but a battlemaster like Wrex? Not a chance.

"What are you doing?" he demanded, wisps of blue biotic power starting to come off him. "You dare…?

"Shut up!" I hissed, getting right in his face and taking off my helmet so that I could look him in the eye. "What do you think was going to happen there Wrex? I know that you are good enough to not get lost in a blood rage from a mere love tap like that. Stop the showboating and stop talking loud enough for the salarians to hear you, so that we can talk!"

The glare he gave me was venomous, but the biotic energy faded away, letting me feel less under threat. Not completely out of danger, but a good start.

"Then what the hell was that about?" he growled back, his voice noticeably softer and he glared down at me.

"I just saved your life, Battletoad," I bit back quietly. "You couldn't see it, but Williams was standing behind you with a weapon pointed right at you. If I hadn't pulled you away from there, you would be lying on the ground, breathing through a hole in the back of your head."

A wordless growl escaped his throat as his eyes flickered over to where Ash was now standing with Jane, looking over at us with concerned expressions.

"Stop that!" I ordered harshly. "It's not the time and it was smart to back up Shepard in case she had to fight a krogan. You of all people should know that's not something us smaller races should take on lightly."

He ground his teeth together and grunted.

"Now, tell me," I said more calmly. "What got you worked up? And say it quietly. I don't need those paranoid STG agents to start shooting while I'm with you, and I paid damned good money to get that armour back and I don't want it to go to waste because you got too agitated here."

A low growl came out of his mouth as he cast a quick glare to the salarians off to the side where they were waiting with hands on weapons, before he turned and spat into the sand.

"Saren is trying to cure the krogan through clones," he muttered, his deep voice dropped low enough that it wouldn't carry. "The salarians want to bomb the whole facility without saving the data. My people need that data to get us out of the genophage. We can't rebuild our culture while our population growth is in the negative!"

He started to get louder at the end of that sentence. I gave him a stare and he huffed and slumped down a little. I took a moment and tapped at my omnitool for a moment, activating a program that was common enough in military circles that Chop was able to give it to me without issue. It was an electronic white noise machine that would interfere with any microphones pointed in my direction, keeping me safe from, oh I don't know, a salarian STG team that might be trying to hear what I am about to say.

I glanced over at the STG team myself as I activated the program and noticed a pair of them twitch before looking away. I love forward planning.

"That should keep us from being heard by any stray electronic devices," I told him softly, earning a grunt in response. "Now listen up, dumbass. We don't have time before someone comes here to hear what we are saying. Do you think, after all that we found out about Saren and using indoctrination, that any of those supposedly cured krogan that he has would be loyal to anyone other than him? Or do you even think for a second that whatever cure he has wouldn't be tainted in some way that would make the entire krogan people puppets to fight for him?"

Wrex thought for a long moment, before he growled. "No," he bit out, his tone bitter. "I doubt any cure he has doesn't come without strings attached."

"My thoughts exactly," I nodded. "Don't worry, if I can I will get whatever research I find and copy it before we blow this place sky high, alright?"

He grunted. "And then what?" he demanded.

I gave him a lopsided smile. "Let's just say that it might go a long way in helping my scientists in some of their current projects and leave it at that. Right?"

He glared at me before realisation sunk in and his eyes went wide. "Wha..?

"Right?" I emphasised.

His face quickly settled and he sent a glare towards the salarians for good measure. "Right."

I nodded.

"Good," I said. "Now get back to Jane and apologise, or at least say there won't be any problems. She's done right by you and even this is something that she doesn't want to just jump in to because she doesn't have all the facts and she knows that whatever she does is going to be reported by those STG jerks so she is playing extra careful here. I have a few other things to do."

Wrex grunted and walked back to Jane. I watched him go, noting how Jane's weapon was still in her hand, but not quite pointed at Wrex. I felt Torrin walk up beside me.

"That was a tense moment," the young turian said softly.

I nodded. "Luckily, we are dealing with one of the few krogan capable of calming themselves down. I could trust Jurt to do it, but not many others."

Torrin nodded. "Lucky us."

I snorted in amusement. "Sure," I said blandly. "Now we just need to take on a Spectre, his clone krogan army and the geth he has playing with him. Oh, and watch yourself," I continued softly. "I wouldn't be surprised if Saren was studying indoctrination here. There might be a few nasty surprises."

Torrin nodded and headed off to get some food before we began. I looked around and saw that no one was looking at me. I activated my omnitool and tapped a few options, sending a message that I had prepared before this began.

Somewhere out of atmosphere was the contingency plan that Persei had insisted on. I knew that with the reaper, any comms out of the system would be almost completely intercepted. Good thing we planned for that too. Time to activate the contingency.

…

(Tevos POV)

The Council Room had never felt more stifling than it did right now. While she had been here many times, waiting for news on some emergency or other, this was the first time in her memory that a Spectre was going head-to-head with another Spectre.

In combat, they were both exceptional. Saren had more experience, but Shepard seemed to have a particular knack for getting out of danger that might let her get the upper hand. She had also allied herself with plenty of extremely talented and capable citizens for her ground team. The quarian admiral's daughter, the krogan mercenary, the former CSEC officer. Brock Nielson…

When she had heard that Brock was injured and nearly died, Tevos had felt a blow to her heart. When she had heard the circumstances that had led to Brock being injured, she had felt that it was noble, though it had not lessened her concern. A dead noble person was still a dead person.

What had confused her was Valern's actions. Her salarian counterpart had a knack for not breaking character. So when the news came in that Brock was on the Normandy's operating table, it had been a shock to see how distraught the salarian had been. According to her sources, they had only met together twice now. Once before the incident and once since. It didn't make sense for Valern to be so affected on basis of friendship or other close relation.

Which meant that it was likely some information that Valern wanted that Brock had, or some information that Brock was suppressing that Valern was afraid would get out. Neither was good for him, judging by Valern's reaction.

Now they waited together in the Council Room to hear from either Shepard or the STG team that had gone missing on Virmire.

She looked over at Valern where he was standing, tapping away at his terminal. Like her, he was waiting for news from the STG team. And Shepard of course. But he was never one to let waiting get in the way of his time management.

The door hissed open, drawing their attention as Sparatus walked into the room.

"Tevos, Valern," he greeted, walking around to his spot but not activating his terminal.

"Sparatus," she greeted as Valern nodded. "We are still waiting. Whatever has disturbed the STG transmissions hasn't yet been cleared up."

"Good," Sparatus said, making her blink. "Then we still have some time to talk."

Tevos couldn't help raising her brows at him. Valern also stopped tapping away for a moment to look at the turian. He tapped a few more things and the terminal went dead.

"What is it you wish to talk about?" Valern asked, clasping his hands in his sleeves.

"It has come to my attention that you have both had meetings in recent times with someone on Commander Shepard's ground team," Sparatus stated.

A blatant act of disrespect in addressing her by her former title, but Tevos ignored it. "I have indeed had some meetings with Mister Nielson," she replied. She hadn't done anything incriminating, or at least none that could be traced back to her. She had nothing to worry about.

"As have I," Valern confirmed. "What of it?"

"I wish to know why you have spoken to the human," Sparatus said.

"Why?" Tevos couldn't help asking. "Is this you returning to your ways of decrying everything a human has ever done? If so please spare me the lecture."

"No," Sparatus grunted. "I just noticed from my findings that shortly after your meetings, Tevos, Nielson got a large amount of money. Enough so to let him buy a fleet of ships, and now he is selling eezo on the open market privately, under a subsidiary company. He is also selling severely overpowered orbital weapons through his main company. They are more than four times as powerful as those created by any other group or government.

"Then, after your meetings with him, Valern, you vote to modify the Treaty of Farixen, which allowed the Alliance to double the size of their Navy." He crossed his arms over his chest. "I don't hate that I haven't had a meeting with him, nor that I was not informed of them after the fact, but I must admit that I feel concerned. I wonder if whatever you talked about has led you to being compromised."

Tevos clenched her jaw to refrain from snapping at the turian. "I can assure you that nothing of the sort is true," she said mildly. She tapped at a few icons on her terminal and sent the file to the display in the centre of the room. "While searching for mineral deposits, Mister Nielson came across this system that hosts two separate planets with seeming sentient and sapient life. He asked for a meeting to give me the information and what the protocol is for such cases. As for the selling on the private market, I would assume it is because he found some element zero somewhere."

"As for myself, Mister Nielson's people were performing anti-slavery operations in the Terminus against one of the smaller groups out there, The Black Fangs, and came across some information that mentioned individual parties seeking to attack Union officials. He wished to inform me quickly as he had planned on joining with Shepard's team after the attack on Eden Prime." He tilted his head. "Though, I can admit that the timing of this meeting would lead to some suspicion, given the vote that came after it, I can assure you that Mister Nielson did not ask for any favours, money or anything else. He came in, gave me the information and left. Nothing more."

Sparatus spent a long time looking at them both before giving a whistling sigh. "Very well," he said. "I trust you both and apologise for my accusations. I was just concerned that someone may have created a security issue."

Tevos nodded, accepting the apology. "Of course," she said soothingly. "I appreciate your concerns. And the reason that I didn't inform either of you personally was that the races on those particular planets are both still in industrial states. Only one of them has barely reached the space age, only having two separate satellites orbiting their world. The other planet had nothing. I would have informed you or your people once there was something relevant to report. As it is, that system is not in typical range of the Relay network."

Valern and Sparatus nodded.

"Very well," Sparatus conceded. "I just didn't like feeling like I was being left in the dark."

"Understandable," Valern said. "It was never my intention to leave either of you out, but this was a Union specific issue. Not something I would normally share with other governments, as you know."

"I see," Sparatus said, unfolding his arms and leaning on his terminal. "Very well, I will drop the issue. For now, we shall focus on Shepard's mission. Hopefully there is some news soon."

They all agreed and turned to their own terminals. Still, even though nothing Brock had done would have compromised her in any way, she couldn't help feeling a little guilty for some reason. Like she had been compromised somehow. She knew it wasn't true, but the guilty feeling wouldn't leave.

Still, she had a duty to the Citadel community to represent its best interests. She wouldn't allow herself to be compromised in her duty. Not even for a person of personal interest.

Hey look at that; her heart was telling her she was lying again.

…

A/N Before anyone goes after me, I looked it up; the plural for Colossus is both Colossuses and Colossi. So me using Colossuses works.

Also, writing krogans is a lot of fun. I don't know why more people don't do it.