From the rooftops above, a human clad in matte black armor peered through his helmet down to the alley below. Fastening what he called an "Omni-line" to the ledge from one of his two custom-built omni-tools. The line used the underused omni-blade technology to create a durable yet disposable grappling line to fasten to surfaces using nano-hooks.

Looking down into the alley below, he scanned the scene with mechanical precision and efficiency. three hostiles; Two salarians hiding behind a crate, and a turian acting as the face, interacting with the human commando's quarry, the young quarian female. Her enviro-suit was purple. A small part of the organic portion of his mind noted how the color seemed to suit her well. He dismissed this thought subconsciously, having been trained not to give a damn about fashion or cosmetics.

Pinching the line between his left calf and right shin, the young man leapt down off of the roof, lowering quickly and silently to the space behind the two salarian "assassins." He allowed a small, nigh-silent "heh" to himself; Compared to him, these men were just common thugs on someone's payroll. Here, he was the assassin.

As he raced through the door with his sister and team in tow, John Shepard stopped to survey the alleyway. He spotted the quarian quickly, talking to a mean-looking turian. The taller alien made a suggestive motion, running his hand down her side with a lustful look in his eyes. She batted his hand away, angrily demanding the location of Fist. John grimaced slightly to himself; Fist had been severely injured in their encounter mere minutes prior, and was in no shape to show up. His N7-trained senses drew his vision to the turian thug, who was now drawing a rifle on the girl.

Before John could even take a step forward, however, he spotted the figures of two salarians emerging over a crate. Suddenly, a man dropped down on a glowing orange line behind them, hanging upside-down with a pistol in his hand, unlike any John had ever seen. In an instant, the human was moving, the one hand firing a single round into the back of the left salarian while he simultaneously flipped down from his grappling line.

The black-clothed commando moved with mechanical precision, yet flowed like fire. Without missing a beat, he produced a knife from a sheath on his shoulder and rammed the blade into the throat of the second assassin, pulling it out as if it were nothing. Next to John, Jane pointed out to him that the man wore a jacket emblazoned with the symbol of the VEINS, the yellow and blue markings very clear against the black leather.

He vaulted over the crate, sheathing the knife and holstering his gun while approaching the quarian girl at a brisk pace, either not noticing the turian or simply ignoring him. The alien thug tried to take the opportunity to attack, but the human turned on his heel, lunged forward, and hit the man hard with a helmeted headbutt that made Urdnot Wrex, the krogan bounty hunter that had agreed to work with them, give a grunt of surprise.

With his opponent off-balance, the human assassin reached behind his hip and produced a small grip with a pick at the end. This then extended into a combat axe, with a two-foot grip and tomahawk blade, which John noted had been the "pick" rotated 90 degrees and with the axe head broadened. It must collapse to fit in the grip, John reasoned.

Without a word, the helmeted human raised the axe, and brought the blade down into the skull of the turian, unflinching as his victim gave a dying gurgle, and his eyes rolled back into his head as he fell stiffly to his knees.

Prying the blade from the skull of the now-dead turian thug, the human commando wiped the blood off of it on his victim's shoulder, then kicked him over, doing so almost casually. He then collapsed the blade and returned it to its place by his rear hip. He then proceeded to approach the quarian girl by her hiding place behind another crate, where she cowered at his approach.

Extending a gloved hand, he simply stood in front of the cornered girl and waited to help her up. At this time, the twins and their group finally recovered from the shock of this display of combat prowess, and advanced down the stairs.

When the got about halfway down, the man noticed them. In a flash, he drew a revolver from his jacket and snapped his head to the right, pointing the weapon at the team without ever moving his left hand, still extended toward the quarian girl.

In an almost mechanical tone, he finally spoke, "Identify yourselves or I will assume hostility and you will be terminated." He spoke quickly and clearly, voice low and smooth, with a slight monotony that almost made him sound like a VI. The helmet he wore had a full-face visor that was colored matte black, blocking the view of his face even more thoroughly than the quarian's mask.

John gave the signal to lower weapons, and the commando proceeded to mirror the action, stowing the revolver. He then listed off each of the six team members, identifying them and verifying their purpose. He offered to escort Ashley Williams, a marine they rescued on Eden Prime, back to her squad. After she used some choice words to describe the current status of her old team, the man simply nodded, saying indifferently, "Understood. I was not yet made aware of this new development. I apologize for your loss."

Next to him, Jane facepalmed. John shared a glance with Garrus, who mouthed, "What is up with this guy?" A question John shared. Leaping from the shadows, executing thugs, rescuing a quarian, acting so mechanically; This VEINS commando was not your average human.

At last, the quarian girl pulled herself together enough to take the man's yet-outstretched hand. He reacted instantly, pulling her to her feet none-too-aggressively. He then stood aside as they underwent their own meeting with her and her data on Saren.

A/N: Howdy, VV here. This is my first story ever to be published on the internet, so please be gentle if you leave a review. These first two chapters are kind of short, as I wrote them both in a day. I am planning on making this into a series, even after BtB, so if you like it, please tell me as much and I will continue to update regularly, and begin work on the next ones! In relative contrast, I am writing this for fun. This means that even with a small group of readers will I continue to write. However, it also means that if I do not receive any support, then I will drop Alpha Logs until I do.

I am creating, writing, editing, and proofreading this on my own. So if there are any errors, it means that I didn't catch them so please point them out!

Hope you enjoy,

-Vindicator Vagabond