Miranda tried to open her eyes to find them glued shut. She screamed in agony as waves of pain worked their way from her abdomen and then throughout her entire body. Hands were pressing Miranda onto her back but she instinctively resisted, trying to claw her way to safety in the darkness, painfully aware of a dull ache behind her seemingly unresponsive eyes.

Voices seemed to talk to her on the edge of her hearing, but they were dull and muffled as she arched her back in pain. Firm hands held down her shoulders while she felt another pair brace against her thighs. The fire in her stomach doubled and seemed to agonizingly crawl higher up her torso.

"…Hold her!" Miranda heard the words as if through a sheet of bulletproof glass, isolated and alone in her world of pain. The hands restraining her grew tighter as she felt a weight press down on her stomach and something forced into her mouth.

"…It's in the Rover!"

"Bite down!" Came the barking command. Miranda only whimpered in response but did as instructed, feeling the rough surface on the tip of her tongue. A single sliver of light had penetrated the darkness, but she couldn't see anything beyond it.

"Got it!"

"Okay, on the count of five. One…two…three…four!"

With a strange sliding sound, the pain in her abdomen abruptly doubled and Miranda unconsciously kicked out against the restraining hands as the fire washed over her. Shouting incomprehensibly, she squirmed and heaved before finding the pain slowly leaving her, soon leaving nothing more than a throbbing ache.

"Give her another, just to be safe." Came a soft voice and Miranda felt a tiny pinprick in her thigh.

Something damp was hastily wiped against her forehead and then again over her eyelids, the harsh orange sunlight of the desert momentarily confounding her senses. Dark rough shapes formed at the edge of her vision as Miranda blinked furiously, trying to focus her vision.

Eventually, Miranda could see the face of Cody, Delia and the bloody one of Nathan looming over her. The Captain's face was set in a scowl, while the asari had a small triumphant smile gracing her lips, and Cody's ever-present grin had returned but a deep cut marred his left cheekbone. She spat out what she now saw was a strip of rough bark used to stop her from biting her own tongue and looked down at her stomach to see a pool of blood had gathered on the floor and a jagged piece of bloody shrapnel lay beside it.

"We've patched you up with what medigel we had," explained Delia, following Miranda's line of sight. "A piece of shrapnel punctured your armour. Luckily for you, that armour took the most of the blow, I would think if the shrapnel had been any deeper, there would be much more serious consequences."

Miranda realized she was shaking as the first result of shock affected her body. She nonetheless reached out her hand and patted the asari weakly on the forearm and whispered, "Thanks."

Delia just nodded once in response and helped Miranda sit up. Over the asari's shoulder, she could see the smoking wreckage of the three rovers, or what little was left; to Miranda's eyes the three had formed some sort of conglomeration of jagged and twisted metal.

"Well," said Nathan, standing up and placing his hands on his hips as he looked around. "We're in the middle of nowhere and no feasible way to get back…and it'll be dark soon."

"True," answered Cody, who sat back on his haunches and gingerly felt the cut on his cheek. "But we can radio the Gallipoli to come pick us up."

"It's not very conspicuous but I guess it's our only chance." He grumbled in reply, not liking to put his ship in unnecessary danger. "The only thing I'm worried about is if there are more hostiles out here; we don't want the Gallipoli to land in a hot zone."

"I don't think there's anyone around us for miles," answered Delia, turning to face the Captain. "But I still have a job to do; the Alliance has secured what little there is of the research base left, we can radio them to come and find us. You three can go back to the city but I'm going on ahead."

Miranda lay back on her elbows and stated matter-of-factly, "I'm going with you."

Both Cody and Nathan spun to face her, "You just had a piece of metal ripped out of your stomach. You're not going anywhere, Lieutenant." He ordered with a disapproving growl.

She eyed the Captain calmly and responded with a cool, "No offence, Captain, but I am not under your command."

"That base isn't going anywhere, Miranda." Cody chimed in, a serious but almost patronizing look in his eyes. "We can return when you're fit to return to duty."

Disliking being undercut, Miranda replied harshly, "And how long do you think it'll take Cerberus to know we've totaled two of their rovers? They'll send reinforcements as soon as they would have learnt someone else was approaching. They may not be able to get passed the base's lockdown this time, but they can definitely stop us from getting there."

Delia stood and let out an irritated sigh. "Miranda's right, and we're wasting time. You two radio the Gallipoli but if she wants to come with me, she's welcome. I get a feeling Miranda's a lot tougher than she looks."

The Captain scowled in return but nodded to Cody to call the docked Gallipoli to come and collect the two. "I don't like it, but I guess I have no choice, do I?"

Delia turned to Miranda and held out her hands for support. As the lieutenant grasped Delia's forearms in a grip that was firmer than the asari expected and let herself be pulled up, the asari explained, "We'll have to get you out of that body armour; with that gaping hole in it, it's not much use anymore."

Miranda just nodded as she came to her feet with a grimace, a bent piece of her armour sharply tearing through the mesh underneath. She turned to Nathan and Cody, the latter had just rang the Ella from the Gallipoli, and sheepishly said, "Turn around."

"What?" Nathan asked, frowning as Miranda unfastened the straps of her chest armour. Cody only grabbed his elbow and guided his vision elsewhere as Miranda took off her body armour and let it fall to the ground with a dull clang. Despite wearing the thin clinging mesh beneath her armour, she still felt next to naked in it, not to mention the large tear in the fabric that had exposed part of her left breast.

Delia politely averted her eyes as she handed Miranda her backpack, which they had discarded while carrying her away from the wreckage of the rovers. She unhooked the uncomfortable thigh and shoulder protection of the armour and stowed it away inside her pack. She rummaged through and pulled out her fatigues and slipped them on over her remaining armour, slapping her pistol into a thigh holster and folding down her assault rifle into her backpack.

"Coast clear, boys." Miranda said calmly, tying her shoulder length hair back into a short ponytail despite her still shaking hands.

Cody turned and said, "The Gallipoli's going to be here soon, you sure you'd rather keep going, Miranda?"

The lieutenant gingerly touched her stomach where the Medi-gel was binding the cut skin together, as well as helping to fight infection and as a local anesthetic she could hardly feel the pain, but she only nodded in her reply.

"That cut on your forehead doesn't look too good, Miranda. You may have a mild concussion," stated Nathan, apparently unwilling to back down.

"I'll live," Miranda said with a genuine smile for the man's caring. "Thanks, anyway. I'll see you back at the Gallipoli tomorrow, if all goes according to plan."

The Captain only gave a wry smile and nodded. Cody picked up his own pack and gave a mock salute and his usual toothy grin to Miranda and Delia before ushering the Captain along to the arranged landing zone a few clicks away.

"Well, I'll radio ahead and get someone to pick us up," Delia paused before casting a glance at the human standing beside her. "You know, Miranda, you didn't have to act tough back there to come along: I can do this job by myself."

Miranda nodded and remained silent for a time, staring at the retreating backs of Nathan and Cody before finally answering, "I know you could; you're a Spectre. But I can't help but feel I'm partly responsible for all of this since I let Dan Waters get away."

"You think he's the reason Cerberus are out here, destroying research labs?" asked Delia, genuinely interested. It had occurred to the asari before, but prior to this mission, she'd never gave it a second thought.

"Definitely." Stated Miranda, "I'm utterly convinced Dan Waters is the whole reason Cerberus is still running. He's the key to their entire operations, their whole plans…I just hope that's important enough that they won't kill him, or worse."

Delia frowned slightly, "Why do you care if he's dead or alive?"

Miranda shrugged, "Honestly, I don't know why." She answered truthfully, "I just have a gut feeling he's important. Things are moving fast, too fast for to be good. We need people like him, people that make changes. People that can change the galaxy."