A/N

Hi everyone! I hope you are all having a good start to the new year.

Not much to talk about this time. Life has been very busy. But I am always happy to see how many people are interested in this story.

Short status check: this story so far has had more than 1 million total views recorded. There was a long time when FFN didn't track how many views so the number is likely closer to 1.3-1.5 million. 1600 reviews, nearly 4000 followers and is found in 14 communities. I never thought it would get this much attention, but clearly you are all far more charitable than I expected. Thank you all for giving the story a chance.

The next nine chapters are up on my pat-re-on. Look up Bored Peasant's Written Works.

Extra special thanks to Amorac07, Arrimar26, Ben wanless, Blaine Hughes, carl hoffman, Cesar Montemayor, Chris, D19x0, David C, Eligah Moreno, Endervslender, Ezoz, FallenMetalGod, FoolishlyReading, Freeman, internetadik, Jason Bourne, Jason Moreno, Jebusno2, Lasted, liquidpotato, Lord BlackDragon, MathTheOriginal, My Name is Klondike, Nathan Block, Orangerazor120, Paul Fischer, Proxy, R J, r4p16, Robert Tipton, Sand_Worm, Sith_Paladin, SolomonGreen16, sonic, SupremeRuler17, The Senn Master, Thezombiegamer707, UtopiaKnight39, Voidwolf 1994, and Will Turnerfor their support on pat-re-on. You are all amazing and I am so very grateful.

Anyway, on with the story!

…

Chapter 53 – Virmire part 3

(Shepard POV)

Jane felt a genuine sense of urgency as she sprinted towards the AA tower where Williams and the salarians were fighting against the geth. They blew through the geth that were trying to stop them in the water pump room, hiding among the heavy-duty piping. Wrex and Liara were keeping up their trick, of multiple biotic attacks to create an explosion and Garrus was pulling trick shots that only Jane was pretty sure that only she would be able to match him on her best day.

The made it into an elevator that took them to the roof. Jane took a moment to feel extremely grateful that the elevators in Saren's base moved a lot faster than ones in typical Alliance bases and facilities.

The elevator opened to a pathway across the roof, one that was guarded by geth already in place. Large glass panels provided some cover against the elements but Jane wasn't going to assume that they would do anything to stop any level of firepower.

Alpha team charged out of the elevator, firing a burst as a group at each of the geth they came across. In the face of such concentrated fire, each geth was overwhelmed almost instantly and either destroyed before they could retaliate, or blown off the roof to the ground below.

A humming noise came from overhead that sounded suspiciously like a landing craft and Jane looked up to see a geth drop ship moving overhead… back in the direction of Bravo team and Alenko at the bomb site.

"Reinforcements!" Garrus called out, rather unnecessarily. "We'd better hurry."

"Lieutenant," Williams' voice came over the comm. "We just spotted a troop ship inbound to your position."

"It's already here and dropping troops," Alenko responded, sounding remarkably calm considering the fact that geth were being dropped right on his head in large numbers. "Bravo team is keeping them off me for now, but I am speeding up the process."

"As long as you make sure to disable to controls in such a way that we can get out of here without worrying that the geth can turn them back on and deactivate it," Brock shouted over the sound of heavy gunfire. "Tali, throw a grenade at that group to your ten o'clock!"

Jane grit her teeth. "Hold on," she called over the comm, turning around and making her way back to the elevator. "I'm coming back to get you."

"Negative," Alenko called back. "Bravo are holding them off for now but they are still coming in large numbers. I'm activating the bomb now!"

"The hell, Alenko?" Brock demanded. "You're not even under pressure! Why are you doing that now?"

"Because if this keeps going we're going to be overwhelmed," Alenko bit back. "Shepard needs to press forward."

"The geth are already half gone, you nitwit!" Brock roared over the sound of sustained gunfire coming over the comm. "We have plenty of ammo and full shields. We could have held out long enough to get them all down."

"It doesn't matter now!" Alenko shouted. "Just keeping holding them off and make sure they don't get me while I deactivate the controls."

"You're a bloody moron," Brock replied. "You should see if you can get a refund on your commission when this is done."

"Enough!" Jane shouted in frustration. She agreed with Brock in that moment but without being there she couldn't exactly say that the lieutenant was in the wrong. Having them argue over the comms in the middle of a firefight was only likely to get them all killed. "Brock, can you hold?"

"Yes!" Brock hissed furiously back. "We're already doing it. Go and save Ash and the salarians. Don't let Kirrahe's inspirational message be for nothing."

"Negative," Williams replied. "We can hold here, go back and get Bravo squad and the lieutenant and get the hell out of here."

"Jane," Brock said suddenly. "I have another way out for us. Get the salarians out. You'll need them. Don't worry about us."

"What other way?" Jane demanded. She didn't know of any other plans to get them out. If Brock was doing something behind her back, she was going to be very unhappy with him.

"It was a contingency from my people," he replied. "I have a shuttle on call. I can get us out of here. You focus on the group in the AA tower."

"Fine," she finally responded, moving across the rooftop towards the AA tower where Williams and the salarians were holed up. "But we are going to be talking about this later."

"Sure," Brock grunted as an explosion sounded very close to him went off in the background. "Looking forward to it. Hurry it up, Lieutenant."

The comm cut off and Jane ignored it, glad that she hadn't had to make a very crucial choice that she would have had to make without Brock's backup plan. She just wished she'd known about the backup plan in advance. She might have made use of it earlier.

Maybe that's why he didn't mention it.

"Williams," she said over the comm, keeping her voice steady as she marched. "Radio Joker and have him meet us on the AA tower."

Williams could be heard sighing over the comm. "Yes, Spectre," she said, sounding reluctant. "I…"

"You know that even without Nielson's backup shuttle it would be the right call," Alenko said, speaking directly to Williams. "But we at least have a way out. You need the Normandy."

"Roger," Williams replied. "Incoming!" she shouted, clearly speaking to the salarians again.

Jane clenched her teeth and sprinted through a doorway. There was another geth squad, a larger one this time, blocking their way in a large area with a curved glass dome. She could see a dozen troopers at least, a few stalkers and a pair of destroyers. Fighting them all conventionally would take too long as they were too spread out to be able to take easily and she hadn't bothered keeping an eye on when Saren's spaceship was going to make an appearance but knew it wouldn't be long.

"Screw it," she growled, putting her Scalpel on her back and drawing her Thumper grenade launcher. "Wrex, Thor rounds."

"Ha!" Wrex shouted in glee. He pulled his own Thumper off his back and loaded the blue ringed shell. "I'll go for the group on the right. You take left."

Jane loaded her own Thor round, aimed at the closest destroyer and fired.

The electrical discharge caught the destroyer, two shock troopers, and a stalker off guard, charring them all and instantly overloading their systems. The sound of electrical currents being discharged drowned out all other noise in the immediate vicinity for a moment, including the dying electronic screeches of the geth.

Jane loaded another Thor round and fired at another shock trooper, catching another three of them in the blast radius. Wrex had already fired his second round, bringing the geth to a third of their original numbers.

Garrus and Liara chipped in with their support. The turian was firing as fast as his sniper rifle could cycle without overheating and the asari maiden was throwing warps at all of the rest of the geth that managed to be out of range of the Thor rounds. It only took a matter of seconds before the whole group was taken out, even the quick-jumping stalkers.

"Shepard, you need to move fast!" Williams called down the comm, her urgency almost sounding like full blown panic at this stage. Jane knew they must be being pushed hard. "We can't hold these things off much longer! Watch the corners! Suppressive fire!"

"Jaeto, cover Aegohr!" Kirrahe cut in with a sharp bark. "Aegohr, pull him back in position, then stick to your cover!"

Alpha team ran forward, ignoring the dropped weapons where they lay. Jane would normally pick them up, but scavenging wasn't important when the lives of her team was on the line. They had only made it halfway through the large clearing when a strange whining sound that Jane couldn't see the source of. She hung the Thumper back in its spot and drew her Scalpel again, scanning for the noise. Her instincts blared and she jumped forward, avoided a blue explosion at her back.

She looked up and saw Saren, glowing blue from biotic power, standing on a strange anti-gravity sled and aiming his artificial arm at her and launching another glowing attack. She leapt behind the cover of several large crates and fired a burst up at him, missing as he quickly moved sideways to avoid it, throwing another biotic attack at her.

She ducked back behind her cover as Saren jumped from his sled to land in the open in front of her. She could admire the balls on him for giving up his main advantage if he wasn't fighting against her.

She could hear him walking towards her position, his boots clattering on the concrete as he approached. She steeled her nerve and stepped out from cover, firing a burst from her Scalpel that collided with his biotic Barriers, but made him stop from the power behind it. He took a few steps to the left to half-stand behind cover of his own in the form of a stack of heavy crates, as his anti-gravity sled drifted slowly down behind him, moving within easy reach in case he wanted to jump back onto it.

"This has been an impressive diversion, Shepard," Saren called out to her, his tone remarkably conversational under the circumstances. "My geth were utterly convinced that the salarians were the real threat. Of course, it was all for nothing. I can't let you disrupt what I have accomplished here. You can't possibly understand what is really at stake."

"Sovereign and its kind destroyed the protheans, and who knows how many other civilisations before them," Jane shouted back. "What else is there to understand?"

"You've seen the vision form the beacons, Shepard," he replied insistently. "You, of all people, should understand what the reapers are capable of. They cannot be stopped."

"Not with that attitude!" she snarked back. She blinked, surprised at her own reply. She really had spent too much time around Brock Nielson if that was coming out of her mouth right now."

Saren growled at her response. "Do not mire yourself in pointless revolt," he bit out angrily. "Do not sacrifice everything for the sake of petty freedoms. The protheans tried to fight and they were utterly destroyed."

Saren started to pace as he began to grandstand before her. She let him. She could have stopped him talking by firing at him or letting the others fire at him, but she let him talk. She needed to know what his plans were, and if he was going to start telling them freely, she might be able to glean more information from him about what the reapers were really planning. She just had to check the corner of her HUD and… yep, the mission recorder was on. She could use this for when she had to report on the reapers to the Council. His blathering gave her legitimacy.

"Trillions dead," Saren continued. "But what if they had bowed to the invaders? Would the protheans still exist? Is submission not preferable to extinction?"

"Is he monologuing?" Brock's voice came softly across the comm. Jane blinked as she looked at her display, to see that Brock was using a private comm for her only, not the squad comm. "Is he really monologuing? Ask him about the collectors, if he wants to monologue. We can hold out here. We've cleared most of our geth. Only have stragglers left now and we will be long gone in my shuttle before that bomb goes off."

She felt relieved at that, knowing that having Bravo squad had let Alenko finish his work and escape before the nuke went off. She would still have to talk to him about not informing her that they were being followed by his people, but right now it wasn't the top priority.

"Do you really believe the reapers will let us live?" she asked derisively. She had spoken to that reaper, Sovereign. There was nothing about it that told her that living was going to happen. And if they did let humans live, well, she had seen the husks that had been made out of humans whenever they attacked her. If that was what 'living' under reaper command went, then there was no way she was going to go through that.

"Now you see why I never came forward with this to the Council," Saren growled back. "We organics are driven by emotion instead of logic. We will fight even when we know we cannot win. But if we work for the reapers, if we make ourselves useful, think how many lives could be spared!

"Once I understood this, I joined Sovereign, though I was aware of the… dangers. I had hoped that this facility could protect me."

"Yes," she called back. "I saw the salarians in your indoctrination research centre, and I've seen the husks that humans have been turned into by the reapers. Is that your idea of living under the reapers? For all of us humans to be turned into those mindless creatures? Is that your idea of being useful to them? How long until they start doing the same to the turians, or the asari or the salarians? How much life or control do you think they will have?"

She gave a dismissive grunt. "No," she continued. "You're like every other poor bastard in this place. A tool that Sovereign can use, then cast aside."

"I've studied the effects of indoctrination," Saren rebutted. "The more control Sovereign exerts, the less capable the subject becomes. That is my saving grace. Sovereign needs me to find the Conduit. My mind is still my own… for now. But the transformation from ally to servant can be subtle. I won't let it happen to me."

"Like Benezia didn't think it would happen to her either," she retorted. "I saw her on Noveria. She was a mess of a person. She had moments of lucidity but her mind had been completely taken over. Are you claiming that your mind is more powerful than hers?"

"Benezia was an unfortunate case," Saren replied, sounding legitimately regretful. "I needed her to be on my side. Her resources and connections too useful to be able to let her deny me them. I had to ask Sovereign to put slightly more pressure on her to make her give in. I am under no such force of mind."

"Wrong," Shepard but him off. "Sovereign's manipulating you and you don't even know it! You're already under its power!"

"No!" Saren raised his voice, his tone becoming more insistent. "Sovereign needs me! If I find the Conduit, I've been promised a reprieve from the inevitable. This is my only hope."

"And what is the only hope for the rest of us, even if we submit?" she demanded. "None. Together, we can stop Sovereign. We don't have to submit to the reapers. We can beat them!"

Saren huffed. "I no longer believe that, Shepard," he confessed. "The visions cannot be denied. The reapers are too powerful. The only hope for survival is to join the winning side. Sovereign is a machine. It thinks like a machine. If I can prove my value, I can become a resource worth maintaining. There is no other logical conclusion!"

Jane couldn't believe what she was hearing. It was no longer just about trying to find out his plan. Saren was supposed to be the best agent of the Council. To hear that he had given up… is this really what he was worth?

"You were a Spectre!" she shouted. "You were sworn to defend the galaxy. Then you broke that vow to save yourself!"

"I'm not doing this for myself!" Saren bit out. "Don't you see? Sovereign will succeed. It is inevitable. My way is the only way any of us will survive! I'm forging an alliance between us and the reapers. Between organics and machines. And in doing so, I will save more lives than have ever existed.

"But you would undo my work. You would doom our entire civilisation to complete annihilation. And for that, you must die."

He raised a pistol and started firing, even as he stepped back onto his sled and activated his biotics.

Jane ducked back behind cover. Well, if Saren wanted to play with biotics, she had two others here that had more experience than the turian did.

"Liara, Wrex!" she yelled out. "Launch your biotic attacks on him!"

She got two confirmations and looked to see both of her biotic aliens throwing their own blue spheres at the turian traitor.

Saren ducked away from the orbs making their way to him, leaving himself open for the powerful sniper shot that Garrus hit him with. Saren audibly grunted as he was pushed back, but while his biotic Barrier flashed a light blue, it held. Another sniper shot came, but Saren flew behind the cover of the wall.

Jane unloaded a continuous stream from her Scalpel, whittling away at his barrier and shields as the glow became brighter by the second. She walked forward, making sure that he would have a chance to fly away once his shields went down.

With a roar, the barrier broke with a large pulse that blew Jane off her feet and made stars flash in her vision. She shook her head to clear it and looked up to see Saren striding towards her only to jump back out of the way as fire from Wrex blocked her off from him. A quick look showed that Garrus and Liara had also been knocked down, but her trusty krogan friend was clearly too heavy to go down from that pulse.

Jane picked up her Scalpel, only to drop it as a burst from Saren's assault rifle smashed into it, breaking it with precise shots. He flew down on his sled, slamming into her and throwing her back behind the cover of some heavy crates. Wrex wouldn't be able to provide cover fire from there.

Jane felt a hand grab her by the front of her armour and hauled her up, dragging her to the edge of the roof.

He was distracted as the Normandy flew by, its wash blasting over them and making him flinch back as he watched it go past, probably to make sure it was going to start firing.

Jane took her chance and threw out the strongest punch she could manage, catching Saren in his left eye. He dropped her as he fell back and an alarm came over the whole facility.

"Jane, we're clear!" Brock called out. "On route to low orbit where we can meet up with the Normandy. The geth won't be able to disconnect the nuke so get out of there as quick as you can."

"Roger," she grunted as she stood up. She pulled her pistol off her hip to aim at Saren but he was already on his sled, flying off, glaring at her as he did so. She cursed to herself.

"Spectre," Kirrahe's voice came over the comms, "the geth are disengaging. The alarm seems to have given them the warning to flee. We can see a troop ship picking them up now. We are in the clear. We would appreciate a pickup."

"Roger that, Captain," Jane replied, feeling the adrenaline of the last few minutes wearing away as the Normandy swooped in for a landing. She gestured over to the rest of Alpha team to join her as the garage ramp opened, allowing them to board.

Joker didn't need any reminder on how urgent it was that they leave; the Normandy took off as soon as her team was on board, not waiting for the ramp to close as they shuffled over to the AA tower to pick up Williams and the salarians. She checked the timer that was on her HUD. They had cut it close, but they would make it. For now, that would have to be enough.

…

(Brock POV)

There was something special about being able to witness a nuclear explosion. Most of the time, looking straight at one would mean cataracts, if not instant blindness. The initial flash was like staring straight into the sun at midday, so it was not something that anyone would do under normal circumstances, even if they were one of the rare people that would ever be close enough to a nuclear blast to see it happen.

Thankfully, the tinting on my helmet was good enough to make sure that I didn't suffer from any adverse effects from watching the blast. It made for a hell of a view. In fact, if I didn't know any better, I would have said that the blast was much larger than the twenty kilotons that it was supposed to be. The salarians had probably found a way to make sure that the blast would be bigger than it was supposed to be.

Thankfully, I received a quick message from the three members of the infiltration team that were still on the planet guarding the beacon from any random geth that might stumble upon them. They were safe and had brought a hover-sled of their own to move the beacon further away so that they could find cover to hole up in until they could be picked up. That was a relief. I knew I was asking for my people to take a big risk by securing the beacon, but I did care for them and would have taken it personally if they had died on the mission.

And they had also managed to get a single cloning device, which was nice. They couldn't move that at the same time as they only had one sled, but they had left it under cover and it should also be out of range from the fallout of the nuke. I don't know how much radiation it would have, seeing as it wasn't a traditional nuclear weapon, but radiation usually had a much shorter radius than the burning effects of the blast so it should be fine.

We met up with the Normandy in low orbit as planned, and were dropped off in the garage, which had been vented so that we could enter. They repressurised the garage so we could leave the shuttle, then depressurised it again so that the garage door could open and the shuttle could leave and rendezvous with their ship that was hanging about somewhere nearby with stealth systems activated.

I don't know exactly where they would be, but with Sovereign still in system, though making its way to the relay with a number of geth ships trailing it, keeping the stealth systems active for as long as possible was the smartest thing to do right now. I know that the Normandy would be doing the same.

I did notice that the salarians that were still on board the Normandy were looking at my shuttle with great interest the entire time it was on board, through the windows from the engineering room. But with the need to pressurise and depressurise the garage, they didn't come out so didn't get a close look at it, which was a relief.

I really didn't need STG getting too close to my special toys.

The debrief didn't start right away. As it was a particularly involved mission along the line of Jane's primary purpose of being appointed as a Spectre, she needed to make sure that she got her written report to the Council in before she sat down with the rest of us to talk about our parts. Just like we had done so for every other part of the mission that had been involved with the primary directive, such as the trips to Noveria and Feros. Only, this time, if felt bigger than that.

The obvious reason why was because of we had engaged Saren directly. We had gone to his house, kicked in his door, rubbed dirt in his eye and suffered his retaliation. Or rather, half the team did. My squad did our jobs defending the bomb, and Williams was busy with the salarians. None of us faced Saren directly, so I couldn't really say I would have done better.

No, my biggest concern from this wasn't Saren. It was the fact that I had the team followed by my own people and had a shuttle that was capable of providing an extraction in range during our operation.

A normal person might have looked at that and thought I was just being prepared; that I was just making sure that I could plan for redundancies, or that my own people were watching out for me to make sure that I could get back. A normal person might look at that and think that it was smart of me to have done so and that it didn't really matter that I hadn't told anyone because they weren't involved until they were involved.

A normal person didn't work alongside the military leadership.

In many ways, Jane was still Commander Shepard mentally. She had grown a lot into her role as a Spectre, but I had the feeling that in times of trial and challenge, or when she felt someone was hiding intel and resources from her, she might revert to the Commander.

Not only that, but there were two other members of the ground team that were also from the Alliance military. And while I had managed to have a decent working relationship with Williams, who seemed to be carrying around some guilt from how she had treated me before the Terra Nova mission and might give me the benefit of the doubt, Lieutenant Kaiden 'Hair-Gel' Alenko would never give me that chance.

Even now he was throwing suspicious looks my way whenever he thought I wasn't looking. The guy really had no idea on how to be properly subtle. Suffice to say, infiltration missions or working undercover was likely never going to be Alenko's forte.

The door to Shepard's quarters hissed open and Jane stepped out, her face almost carved from stone. She looked around before her eyes settled on me. I guess we were doing this now.

"Brock, I need to speak to you. Please come with me," she said stiffly, before turning to march back into her quarters.

I exchanged a quick look with Garrus, who gave me a nod, and Liara, who gave me a tight smile, before I stood and followed our resident Spectre.

The door hissed closed behind me and the access icon flashed from green to red. Ah, so a talk that wasn't really a talk. Good to know.

"I think we have all had a hell of a day," Jane began stiffly as she stood beside her desk. "So, I might be a little more abrupt than usual. But why the hell did you have a shuttle nearby the place where our mission was and why the hell didn't you tell me about it?"

I leaned casually against the wall before I responded. I wasn't military, so no need for me to stay at parade rest or whatever they called it. "Because they were following me," I replied. "It was the price I paid to keep my people a little less concerned about me staying on the Normandy to finish the mission with you."

She seemed to consider that for a moment. She wasn't an idiot by any stretch, so she could easily tell what I meant by the price I was paying. "That still doesn't explain why I wasn't informed," she said with a frown.

I shrugged. "Because they are not part of the missions," I replied. "Unless something went wrong, they weren't even supposed to let you know they were there. If it wasn't for the fact that you were about to choose between a billionaire funding your enterprise, and the potential future cooperation of the salarians' premiere spy, intelligence and assassination association, they wouldn't have stepped in at all. They would have stayed out of range, under the stealth tech that they had been given to make sure that they didn't accidentally interfere with the mission unless I got hurt and the Normandy couldn't get there in time."

"Not good enough," Jane said with a firm shake of her head. "That is a potential mission resource and you cannot let unknowns be in my field of operation. It also undermines me in my role as the leader of this operation, if I have members of my team that have other plans or resources that they are hiding from me for purposes that I don't know!

"Sure, today it worked out, but if other people start doing it, it will affect how effective we can be, and it will affect the amount of trust the team has in each other. If everyone thinks they can't trust everyone else to watch their back, they all start planning their own alternatives and in critical moments, they act on them. That cannot, and will not happen on any mission I lead. Is that understood?"

I looked at her, seeing the seriousness in which she was bringing to this conversation. And she was certainly right, from her point of view. I could see how she thinks that would be a true issue. Especially in a mixed-species crew. While this little ground team would be fine, in general it could cause issues, or if someone new was added to the team, then that could also be a problem.

I gave a conceding nod. "Very well," I replied. "I should have informed you that there was a stealth shuttle that my people were sending along as a price for their comfort to allow me to continue being part of the ground team. However," I raised a finger to emphasise my point, "them being there would not have been of use to you at all. Their entire purpose was my safety in case a mission went south. They are not part of the Normandy supply and command chain, they are not part of Spectre Shepard's ground team, nor are they an Alliance tool that you can use at will. Their entire purpose was to follow and watch from afar to provide extraction for me in case I got injured or overwhelmed. You will not be able to order them, nor will I order them on your behalf, because they are not here for you."

She wasn't happy with that, not by a long shot. "If they could be a resource on a mission, they should be used," she argued.

"And they will," I refuted. "But not for other members of your team if I am not there. That is not their mission. I am. But it gives you leeway in that you can focus efforts on people that are not me if you have to split your attention."

She frowned at me, her teeth clenching as she considered me for a long moment.

"I don't like it," she declared. She let out a huff. "But, I can understand it. If you have other assets in play, I want to know about them before the mission commences. You don't have to tell everyone, but I am the leader here. I will be informed from here on out."

I nodded and she wilted slightly.

"That said," she continued in a muted voice, "thank you for having them nearby. It meant I didn't need to make a decision that every commander fears making. I've done that too many times and didn't want to make it today."

I nodded again. "You're welcome," I said. Then I let a small smile tug at my lips. "Out of curiosity, who would you have gone for?"

She looked up at me with a frown, which disappeared when she saw that I was smiling. I was glad she could tell that it was a joke.

"The salarians and Williams," she said with a smile of her own. "I figure someone as full of hot air as you could have just floated away on your own power. You could have carried the others like an obnoxious hot air balloon."

I could help laughing at that. "I don't know, Jane," I said, smiling wider. "It feels like you are trying to hide your real reasons. Are you sure that it isn't just so you could have Kirrahe ask you to," I altered my voice to make it sound sultry, "hold his line?"

She shuddered and we both laughed. "Get out of here," she chuckled. "We have mission debrief in ten minutes. Go tell the others."

I left her quarters with a smile on my face, with nearly the whole team on the crew deck, able to see that whatever happened, hadn't been a full dressing down. Kirrahe was standing there too, waiting to see Jane is my guess. I saw a few smiles of relief, mainly from Liara and Garrus, while I got nods from Torrin, Tali, Williams and Wrex.

Alenko, unsurprisingly at this point, merely looked irked. I had the feeling that he was hoping that I would look angry or disappointed instead of laughing, but at this point I no longer cared about his annoyance of me. I had clearly gotten in the way of his desires for Jane, at least in his head. Either that or he compared himself to me and came up lacking, despite his ability to use biotics. Or maybe it was outing him as a murderer.

I don't know and I no longer cared.

"Hey everyone," I greeted as I stepped towards them. "Jane says debrief is in ten minutes. She is just finishing something first." I looked around, but none of the other salarians were there. "Your people in the garage?" I asked, looking at Kirrahe.

He nodded. "Yes," he replied. "I am just waiting for Spectre Shepard. I will be recommending her and Sergeant Williams be commended by the Union for their actions on Virmire. And, thank you too, Mister Nielson. You saved the Spectre being forced to choose between my people and hers. I don't know how she would have gone if you hadn't had a plan in reserve."

I shook my head. "Don't thank me," I replied. "That plan just got me a talking to by Jane because I hadn't told her about it."

"Ah, I see," he said, rubbing his chin with a hand. "I can see how that may not have been so well received." He looked at me sharply. "Though, I would give a great deal to know how it was that you managed to shield its presence from both the AA towers, and my own people."

I merely smiled. "I'm sure," I said easily. "However, that information will remain classified as secrets of my corporation for now."

"Yes," he agreed, a glint in his eye that would be hard to spot if I hadn't known Chop for the last couple of years. "For now."

I gave him a flat look. "You said the quiet part out loud," I deadpanned, then shook my head. "Anyway, corporate espionage aside, let's get this debrief done. I'm sure that Council will be thrilled to know that Saren and his massive ship got away."

With that, I turned and headed to the stairs to make my way to the comms room. No else seemed to have noticed that there were too many people for the number of chairs in there yet. First in gets dibs, after all.

…

1 film, 4 reviews

Idiocracy

Thessian Suns Publication

By Helia Mis'audis

This vid scared me. It was not a horror or suspense driven vid, but there was something about this vid that terrified me. The idea that a mediocre person could be considered the most intelligent being on the planet purely out of cultural intent of improving themselves. It made me realise the limitations of human reproduction, at least how it was back then, among other things. I never thought I would say this but I am now truly grateful that the Alliance is the human civilisation that we ended up with, and not this… this parody of human civilisation.

What I must say is that the vid was well made in its disturbing plot and was genuinely riveting. I understand that it is a comedy, though I must admit that many of the times I laughed it wasn't so much because of humour as it was that I was trying not to cry at what I was seeing. It is worth a watch, but I am glad that it is not real life.

Sur'kesh Leaf Script

By Silarn Moduk

I… I don't know how to respond to this vid. The pure unadulterated stupidity… I felt actual pain from this. It left bruises on my heart, or what humans and asari would call the soul. I have to put this down in the same field as a shuttle crash. You are horrified watching it as you know that it is a tragedy that you can't stop, but you are unable to turn away from it.

It was captivating, horrifyingly captivating. I must put this on a list of Most Macabre Vids of All Time. For any salarians that choose to watch this: brace yourself, and remember that it is just fiction!

Palaven Daily Call

By Marticus Lossus

This was hilarious! I almost wish that this was real for the chance to see how it would play out in real life. I am glad that it was a comedy, but the idea that a civilisation outthinks itself into stupidity was genuinely comical.

One surprising thing that is remarkably true about this vid. The costume designers wanted a shoe that looked futuristic but stupid and found a small company called Crocs. This shoe went on to be concerningly popular for decades more than a century ago. It makes me think that it was almost a possibility for this to have been a true to life vid.

Side note, I looked the extranet and saw that Crocs were still around! I decided to order a pair tailored to turians. They look ugly as anything, but they are weirdly very comfortable. I… I don't hate them. I don't know how to respond from here…

The Krogan Word

By Ognut Grax

This movie made so much sense! Don't make life all about the smarts, just make it simple and enjoy the small things!

I want one of those 'monster trucks'. I found out they don't make them anymore. I sent the vid back to my clan head, asking if we could make them and put a rocket launcher on it. Guess which clan is getting sporty versions of the Tomkah? I already booked my test drive!

…

A/N Please Review and Follow/Favourite as you please.

All done with Virmire. Managed to save everyone for the future. And got a bit of tech. I wonder how that will change things? Or if it will at all?

Fun fact, that addition in the turian review about the costume designers finding Crocs is a true story. I thought it was a good inclusion.

Until next time!