AN: Hopefully we'll get back to some action next chapter...

ooooooo

Jack stepped out onto the world of Illium… He realized something as he stepped out, two things really. One was that this was probably the first world he had stepped on where there wasn't an actual enemy to fight in something like ten years. The second thing he realized was that almost every single alien he saw walking around was both blue, and a woman. Just like on the frigate, and just like on the frigate they were staring at his squad like a group of construction workers watch passing women.

Jones was the first to say something, "Alright! More horny blue women."

Jack shook his head, Jones had supposedly seduced one of the frigate's crew, and in his defense he was unaccounted for about five minutes. After that most of the frigate's crew would point and giggle at him when he wasn't looking. Jack decided not to question it.

He turned to Nidara, "Uh, question?"

The asari looked at him expectantly.

"Yeah… uh, what's with all the women?" He asked the specter. The only answer he got was laughter, "Right…"

Nidara eventually recovered from her fit of laughter, "You should really have read the information the alliance gave you."

Jack crossed his arms and looked at the asari, "So, you aren't going to answer the question then?"

Nidara simply gave him a look that thoroughly suggested a no.

Jack sighed, "Fine," He remembered their cover story, find enough bunks in a hotel, or hotels, somewhere so that the Spirit could rotate crew on leave down to the surface. That alone could be interesting; thousands of crew and marines would be a strain on any cleaning staff. Then make some obvious inquiries into Saren's whereabouts, making sure he knew Nidara was asking around on behalf of the spirit. Jack was looking forward to the other parts of the mission, mainly the 'leave time'.

"Well, I guess we should get to work then."

Nidara smiled at him, "If your squad can tear themselves away from the view."

Jack smiled in turn, "I don't know, that's a pretty big if." He reached out and smacked each of them on the back of the head, "Come on now kids, you can ogle later." He started walking after Nidara. "So, where are we going?"

"Place called Eternity, I know the bartender there pretty well. She's a pretty reliable source of information, and before she got that job, she was pretty handy in a fight."

Jack barked out a short laugh at that, "I'm sure, most bartenders I know could handle a shotgun pretty well when it came down to idiots in their bar."

"Yeah, she's more likely to throw you out, or I've even seen her beat a man to death with his own spine."

"That doesn't seem physically possible." Jack noticed Nidara's smirk, "Let me guess, that's what he kept saying?"

Nidara laughed and kept walking.

ooooooo

One of the asari watching the group of humans was not looking out of curiosity, or that general hate reserved for tourists. She watched them with an eye honed by years of training in the commandos. The asari noticed the specter traveling with the group, and took steps to hide her face from view lest she be recognized.

The asari committed each human's face to memory, and stood up after they passed to follow them through the crowd. Her employers would pay handsomely for any information relating to the 'long lost' colony of humans. They would pay even better for the death of the specter assigned to watch them.

For now, the agent knew better than to attack, and forced herself to be content with merely following them and seeing what they were doing on Illium of all places.

ooooooo

Jerome had to admit, alien or no, Tali was damn good with repairs. Mjolner armor was one of the most advanced powered armors in use by the UNSC. Parts of it were more advanced than what the elites used. She had figured out most of its internal workings within two hours. He doubted she could build a suit, but she had figured out enough to repair it.

The alien handed him his damaged gauntlet, now repaired, for inspection. He looked it over, not even finding the smallest imperfection. "Good work." He began to reattach the gauntlet, oblivious to the alien's change in body language.

"Good work! I just spent two hours figuring out how your armor works, and all you have to say is good work?"

Jerome was surprised at the alien's outburst; he had said good work hadn't he?

Serina cut in before he could reply, "I think that's more than most Spartans would say. They don't have the best table manners if you know what I mean."

Jerome, glad for the interruption turned back to work, now trying to fix his damaged assault rifle. A simpler task he could perform on his own. The conversation continued without him.

"Yeah, I can see that. Hell I'd give anything to be able to take this suit off and feel something with my own hands, and he is in a hurry to put it back on." The tone of the alien's voice told the spartan she was now talking to the AI and not him, so he felt no need to reply.

Serina answered quickly enough, "I think I've seen a psych report about that, due to their training, Spartans only feel comfortable inside their armor. It's their safe zone."

"It probably doesn't help that you're talking about him like he isn't there." A third voice joined the conversation.

Jerome turned his head to take in the newcomer; he already recognized her voice, Liara, another alien. The one who seemed to be actively sabotaging the mission on Noveria.

He scowled, for a spartan it was a subtle motion. The aliens likely didn't pick up on it. Or at least he thought so.

Liara turned to him, "What is your problem with me anyway?"

"You endangered the mission for your emotions. Members of the team could have been killed." He stated simply and turned back to his work.

"And you killed my mother!" The alien shouted back.

"She was the enemy. I was made to destroy the enemy." Jerome didn't even turn around.

"Uh, I should go…" The other alien, Tali, excused herself quickly.

Completely ignoring Tali, Liara continued on, "What if someone had killed your mother in front of you? Are you saying you wouldn't feel a thing?"

Jerome was uncomfortably reminded of Dr. Halsey, the closest thing to a mother the Spartans ever had. Even if she was more of a scientist seeing how her experiments were advancing. He still remembered the jealousy he had felt whenever she showed special attention to John…

Something must have showed on his face, Liara's expression softened, "Sorry, I was out of line, I'll be leaving now." The scientist turned towards the elevator, leaving him alone with his thoughts.

"You know, if you spent less time chit chatting, and more time working you could have repaired your armor by now."

Alone with his thoughts and an AI…

ooooooo

Shepard sat at his desk going through the mounds of paperwork running a ship like the Normandy required. He was interrupted by Joker over the intercom. For a brief moment he wondered why they didn't have a crewman to do that.

"Go ahead Joker."

"The council's calling again, and they keep pressing five to talk to a real person."

Shepard glared at the speaker, "I'll be up in a few minutes."

Setting aside the stacks of papers Shepard made his way back and around the stairs to the comm room. As soon as he got there he triggered the FTL comm device and the three councilors appeared, or at least their holograms did.

"Commander Shepard, we just got your report from Noveria, are we to believe that binary helix was experimenting with rachni?" The asari councilor seemed extremely worried.

Shepard smiled internally, he had left the rachni queen out of his report, the council would likely throw a fit if they got wind of an actual queen existing. "Yes, they found some sort of ancient rachni vessel, and hatched the eggs inside. Luckily we were able to destroy their overrun hot labs, and destroy the Geth that Benezia had guarding the place."

The salarian councilor spoke next, "Yes, did you have to kill her Shepard? She could have made a valuable prisoner."

Shepard decided to argue his case rather than simply ignore the salarian's concerns, "First of all we didn't have any restraints capable of holding such a powerful biotic, and second there was no way she would have come willingly. She behaved like a crazed cultist except for the few minutes she took to hand me the Mu relay location."

"The fact that Saren possessed the means to brainwash a powerful matriarch like Benezia, and all her followers at once is troubling. Have you found what method he used?" The asari sounded genuinely worried, rather than speaking in her usual bored tone.

"No real evidence yet, only that Benezia seemed to think it was Sovereign that helped him do it. Only those aboard Saren's flagship seemed to fall under his sway."

The turian, silent up till this point, finally spoke up, "Then I suppose we will have to deploy infiltration teams to investigate any of Saren's holdings. One of our specters is already searching on Illium. If you hear information from her we would ask that you act on it."

The asari quickly held up her hand, "We aren't ordering you, you are free to pursue Saren however you wish, we are merely passing on information. Until next time commander."

The connection closed. Shepard felt much better about that council meeting than previous ones. Maybe he should have falsified his other reports?

Shepard shook his head at the thought and walked out of the briefing room to find Liara and Jerome.

He decided to visit the vehicle bay to talk to Jerome first. As he arrived he actually found Jerome and Liara standing together talking to each other. A few heated words were exchanged, and then suddenly Liara seemed to apologize and walked back to the elevator. Shepard smiled, hopefully that was the beginnings of them patching things up on their own without his interference. That would save him a lot of headaches later on.

Instead of talking to Jerome like he had planned, he walked down to the engine room. After all, it would look kind of strange for the CO to come down to the engineering deck, then just suddenly turn around and leave. A talk with Adams and Tali was always interesting.

ooooooo

AN: It's a bit shorter than I had originally planned, oh well... hopefully I'll have the next one up later tonight, or maybe tomorrow. I need to go work on the seventh chapter for The Reclaimers, I want to add a few things I hadn't planned on originally... Probably have to shift the plot by a whole chapter...