Chapter Ten

History

With the six of them, Fist's turrets went down easily. Fist himself, with some prodding from Wrex and Tyler, sang like a canary. He told them about the Quarian's request and more about the Shadow Broker. He also told them where they could find her.

"Let's move!" Shepard shouted after Wrex painted the back wall with Fist's brain matter. The random act of violence was met with indifference from everyone but Alenko, who showed surprise. With a sense of extreme urgency, the team sprinted from Fist's office to go save the Quarian.

When they got to the bar area, they were met by a wall of gunfire they lit up their shields.

"Hostiles!" Garrus shouted as the group dived into cover. Tyler bit back a smartass comment as he peeked over cover and opened fire with his Mattock. The power behind the rifle became evident as Tyler picked off thug after thug. With the incoming fire, soon his shields failed and the unbearable beeping sounded in his helmet. Ducking back into cover, Tyler waited for his shields to recharge.

"All hostiles down!" shouted Ashley, much to Tyler's surprise and dismay.

"Than move!" Shepard shouted, louder and more forceful than before. Again, the six of them went flying forward. When they exited the bar, however, Tyler remembered about his bag.

Shit. Not wanting his stuff stolen, Tyler stopped and quickly put on the pack. Sprinting again, Tyler stayed at a good pace but was still behind the main group. Finally though, he caught up with them when they were taking cover at the end of the alley. He ignored the incredulous looks he got from Ashley and Alenko and just peeked around the corner to see the Turian talking to the Quarian, who Tyler knew was Tali.

They had gotten there early and, therefore, watched the whole thing go down. That was until the weapons were drawn and the two Salarians began to move towards Tali. Shepard and Tyler were the first to fire, her rapid fire Avenger taking down the Turian as Tyler's Mattock tore through the first Salarian's shield and painted the wall green with it's blood. The second Salarian was taken down by combined fire with the finishing shot being Tali's shotgun.

As one, the team moved closer. Tyler walked over to one of the Salarian assassins and prodded the corpse with his foot while Tali began to talk.

"Fist set me up, I knew I couldn't trust him."

"Were you hurt in the fight?" came the soft reply from Shepard, though her voice was lightly synthesized by the breather helmet she wore.

"I know how to look after myself," Tali stated in an almost matter-of-fact tone, "Not that I don't appreciate the help. Who are you?"

Tyler shook his head as he moved onto the Turian assassin and crouched down next to his corpse. Arrogant, arrogant Tali. Also very naive, he thought with a hidden smirk as he examined the Turian's face paintings out of boredom.

"My name's Shepard. I'm here to find evidence against Saren."

"Well, than I have a chance to repay you. But not here, we need to go somewhere safe."

Tyler heard one of the other squadmembers suggest the Ambassador's office and the ex-merc couldn't help from rolling his eyes. He hated Udina in game and he knew he'd hate him now. Soon, the whole entourage found themselves moving towards the office.

When they entered, Udina was already bitching about Shepard's activities. When he turned around, the look of surprise was almost enough for Tyler to burst out laughing. Almost, because Udina ruined it by speaking again.

"What is this Shepard? A Krogan? A Turian? A Quarian?" his eyes than set on Tyler, "And who's this?"

Tyler zoned it all out as Shepard explained that everyone was working against Saren as well and how she ran into them. He smiled when he heard her tell how she ran into him. Of course, Tyler than went back to 'zone the world out' mode, turned on some Hardstyle techno in his helmet and closed his eyes to enjoy the music.

His techno trance was cut short as he heard a vaguely familiar, evil voice through his music.

"Eden prime was a major victory. We are one step closer to finding the Conduit."

"That's Saren's voice." began Anderson immediately, "This proves he was involved in the attack!"

"Saren won't get out of this one," Shepard claimed.

Tali than mentioned there was more to the recording and again they listened to Saren's voice. However, this time, they heard a female voice speaking in the background about the Reapers. Matriarch Benezia Tyler thought to himself. As they went on with their speculations, Tyler again found himself lost in his music.

Opening his eyes, Tyler found everyone looking at him expectantly. Quickly turning off the music, he assumed a confident pose,

"What?"

Shepard just shook her head as Anderson asked his question again, "What about you? You seem like the wild card in this situation. What have you got against Saren?"

"Well," Tyler began as he put his hand to his helmeted chin, having holstered his rifle on the way to the embassy, "it sounds like this Saren guy is going after all humans. I believe that's reason enough to hate him. And if he's working with the Geth. Well... that just gives me more reason to hate him."

Anderson just nodded. "Sounds reasonable. Alright, but we can't just have you walking about like that, you'll be stopped at every checkpoint. I'm field-enlisting you into the Alliance Military. We'll skip basic, since you seem to know how to use a gun and use it well, and you'll be the rank of Corporal. How does that sound to you?"

Tyler just shrugged. Honestly, this was going better than planned. It was going a little too better, actually. Your just overly paranoid, advised Tyler's rational side, don't get like this. Not here. Not now.

"Sounds great Captain," Tyler responded with a textbook salute.

"Welcome aboard... Corporal," Shepard said with a nod as Tyler stepped into their little grouping.

"Alright. Anderson, come with me to present this evidence to the council. Shepard, you and your... crew, recollect yourselves before coming up to the tower."

With that, Udina left with Anderson in tow.

"It's people like him that made me call myself an Anarchist," Tyler muttered quietly.

"What's that?" asked Tali, who was a lot closer than Tyler expected. He just shook his head,

"Nothing."

"Hey Tyler, is it, what exactly did you do before you got yourself caught in a firefight at the bar?" This question came from Ashley, who stood with arms crossed and her weight put onto one leg. This question, of course, brought the attention of the others in the group. Tyler sighed as he took off his pack and set it down near the wall. After transferring his rifle to his back, and working out the kinks in his muscles, he faced the group.

Crossing his own arms, Tyler spoke clearly, "I was Blue Suns in the Terminus. Worked as a soldier for a bit before being thrown into policing duties on Omega."

Tyler paused and Garrus took this as his time to get into the conversation, "The Blue Suns have police?"

Tyler laughed lightly, with some pain ebbing into it on accident. "Yeah. We, my squad and me, were tasked with searching any and all vessels entering and leaving that district's docks for anything that may cause harm to Blue Sun's property or bank accounts. My squad leader, a Turian named Garin, was a good man. He kept us alert and ready for anything. However, nothing could have prepared us for what happened."

Tyler took a deep breath and put a hand to his visor before looking back up at them, "We were called in to check a ship. This happened a lot when it got busy, we'd be called during our time off to help the current squad on duty. This ship, however, docked unexpectedly. Flag number one was raised and, as such, we went in with weapons ready. Once inside, we found three bodies. The pilots was our conclusion. Looked like they committed suicide with the same weapon. One after another. Bang. Bang. Bang. Found another in the crew quarters while we moved to the cargo bay. One there, we began to examine the boxes for anything suspicious.

"I hang back. To examine the room a bit as there were only four aisles to be checked. I saw something on the wall and went to examine it. When it hit me on what it was, one of the crates exploded, tearing apart my team. The cargo doors than opened, spacing me and the corpses of my squad. To make things worse. Once I was spaced the damn ship blew up, sending me flying through a window and straight into the hands of some Eclipse soldiers."

Tyler stopped there while rubbing his neck. He than shrugged but remained silent.

"Who was it?" Kaiden asked.

"Hmm?"

"Whose symbol was it?"

"Cerberus," Tyler replied without hesitation. Silence filled the room before Ashley muttered a "Shit."

Finally, the silence was interrupted by Shepard, "I'm sorry for your loss but we should get moving. Come on."

"Yes ma'am," Tyler said as he began to follow her out of the room. He left his stuff in the office as he knew it'd be safe until he could transfer it onto the Normandy. Than he'd claim himself a spot in the cargo bay.

Before he could do that though, he had to deal with the Council. He seriously hoped they didn't piss him off as, now, he had a fully loaded gun and was not afraid to use it against annoying politicians if he got the chance.

A/N: Well, this went off nicely. Had to replay some of Mass Effect one though. Got some nice reminders on why I never wanted to go back. Cover system sucks. Guns suck. Conversations are long and pointless. Udina sounds like an ass and pisses me off with just his voice alone.

Anyways, I hope you enjoyed this. Let me know if you think anything needs to be re-done. I'd appreciate it.