And here we are, on another chapter of Maelstrom Siblings. Before we get going though, I just want to say I hope everyone is safe and staying home (if you can) and that you and your families haven't been affected too badly by the craziness that has engulfed our world. We'll get through this, so just have faith and know that, at least in a spiritual sense, you do not stand alone.

Now, with that out of the way-*is interrupted by shouting*

Wrex: C'mon, that's bullshit! *throws down a video game controller*

Alicia: Nope, that's just how you play the game. *smirks at him*

LeafRanger: *Comes over* What's going on here?

Diehard ShepardTali LeafRanger: Wrex is being a sore loser.

Wrex: I am not! The game cheated me!

Diehard FemShepLiara LeafRanger: Sure it did.

LR: Well…glad to see you all are getting along fine being cooped up inside the Lair.

Alicia: Better than going outside to get sick. Or making other people sick.

Wrex: Peh, there's nothing to do out there anyways.

LR: Yeah. *sighs* Anyways, before we get going here, got an anonymous review to reply to. I don't know if you're reading this, but to anonymous guest Silver, thank you for your review on The Fox Knight! Glad you seemed to enjoy it! And now, on to the chapter!

Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto or Mass Effect. They are the respective properties of Masashi Kishimoto and BioWare. This is a non-profit work of fan made fiction. Please support the official releases.

Chapter 20
Operation Hidden Blade

Ashley was laying prone on a platform, her Mantis sniper rifle pressed up against her shoulder as she sighted through the scope, watching a group of four individuals moving through what appeared to be a dockyard below her. She continued to quietly track them, the onboard computer of both her armor and the weapon synched to help her scope adjust her aim for distance and movement. Her trigger finger rested against the body of the weapon, though she was ready in an instance to slide it down to the trigger to fire. Seeing the leader of the four figures pause she grinned as she gently moved her finger into position. One slight adjustment later she was on target, letting out a breath before squeezing the trigger.

The round tore through the air with a resounding crack echoing behind it, as the round ripped through the head of the lead individual. Yet instead of a spurt of blood and a falling corpse, her target burst into light, revealing it was a hologram. Ashley quickly readjusted her aim, taking out the second and third holographic representations of pirates, while the fourth quickly moved into cover. Aiming at the target's last position, she smirked as she activated her comm unit. "That's three more for me Vakarian. Hope I'm not getting too far ahead for you," she teased.

She was answered by the sharp report of another sniper rifle, and the sight of exploding light where the fourth target had been. "Congratulations Williams, you've almost caught up to me," Garrus shot back.

Ashley just let out a soft curse, glancing at the HUD of her helmet. Unlike the normal display set for her combat armor this one was a lot simpler, showing an ammo counter, shield and armor integrity, and a compass. It also had a scoreboard, which showed that Garrus was ahead of her by two points now. She quickly went back to scanning for any other targets.

Currently Ashley and Garrus were in the Armax Arsenal Arena on the Citadel, enjoying their shore leave. After Saleon was turned over to the authorities, Alicia had brought the Normandy to the Citadel in order to give the crew and ground team some R&R. Ashley had challenged Garrus and Naruto to a 'friendly competition' at the Arena, to see who was the best sniper on the team. Naruto had declined, stating he had other things he needed to do, but Garrus had accepted and the two now were in their second round of the competition. One which Ashley was losing.

As she continued to scan for the next set of holographic targets, she couldn't help but mutter. "How in the hell are you so good at this?"

Garrus, who was moving to a new position, couldn't help but chuckle as he heard her. "I guess I'm just blessed with keen eyes and steady hands, Sergeant." He grinned as he found the next targets, propping his Mantis on a box and preparing to aim.

"I'm betting that visor you wear helps out plenty too," he heard the female human shoot back at him, causing him to chuckle a bit. It was true that his visor did give him a lot of advantages, as he had tweaked and modified it over the years to give him additional combat and aiming data normal combat armor's didn't provide. But all the data and assistance in the world didn't help you if you didn't know how to shoot.

As he adjusted his sight, his mind drifted back to what had happened shortly after their return to the Citadel. News had reached C-Sec about Saleon's arrest, as his case was still an open one for them. Executor Pallin had personally come to the ship to congratulate Shepard and her team for the successful arrest, though it was clear he was not entirely happy that Garrus had dragged them into what had been a Citadel Security matter, especially since he was suspended. He couldn't, however, argue with the results, as the new evidence found about Saleon's activities proved he was a dangerous threat that had needed to be dealt with. He offered to lift Garrus' suspension and allow him to return to work, but Garrus had refused, stating he felt he owed it to Shepard to help her complete her mission.

Garrus couldn't help but smile, feeling like a weight had been taken off his shoulders with the arrest of Saleon and that chapter of his life finally closed. His smile faded when he saw the scoreboard suddenly change, and Ashley now ahead of him by three points. Letting out a curse he focused on the match, hoping to make up for his distraction before the time ran out.

Elsewhere on the Citadel, Tali was currently looking over some tech components that she thought might be useful for enhancing her or the squad's equipment. She could feel the stare of the employee at the counter, a stare that was definitely making her feel unwelcome. Quarians, in the three hundred years following the loss of their home world, had gained a rather unfair reputation for being thieves and undesirables, due to how they often scavenged any materials they could and lived in a nomadic lifestyle. It also didn't help that those going on Pilgrimages often had to find work somewhere in order to pay for necessities, thus taking jobs away from other citizens. At least, that's how the citizens of the colonies or space stations they ended up on saw it.

Thankfully she wasn't alone in the store, as Naruto moved between her and the retail worker, matching the unwelcoming glare with an unwavering stare back and causing the salarian to look away. Naruto kept staring back for a few more moments to make sure they got the message before turning to Tali. "So found anything interesting yet?" He asked her.

Tali studied some of the components. "There are so many choices," she murmured softly, her mind working overtime. "In the Migrant Fleet, we'd consider it an extremely lucky day if we had a part on hand to fix something. Mostly we had to try and jury-rig things to work. Here…it's almost unbelievable that I can get new components," she said softly.

Naruto frowned slightly at that, a thought occurring to him. "Tali…why haven't your people tried settling somewhere else? It can't be easy, living onboard your fleet like that," he said.

"To be honest…it's something that has been debated for many years in the fleet," Tali told him. "My father told me that after we lost Rannoch, our ancestors attempted to get the Council's help to regain our home world, or at least help us find a suitable planet to resettle on. Instead the Council punished our ancestors by stripping them of their affiliate status, and forbidding us from settling on any world within Council space. The Traverse was still technically unclaimed back then, but with the batarian Hegemony so close by, we knew we likely would be targeted by them in an instant. And while a lot of the Terminus Systems was unexplored, we also knew we couldn't defend ourselves adequately against the pirates and slavers who inhabit that region of space. So…at the time, our only choice was to live on our ships."

She stopped for a moment, eyeing one component before examining the holographic panel that displayed information about it, only to let out a snort of disgust. "Cheap garbage," she muttered under her breath, before continuing her story. "By the time we actually had what we needed to try and colonize a world outside Council space our immune systems were basically destroyed by living on our ships. It was decided we'd be better off simply remaining in our fleet until we were left with no other choice. There's been plenty of debate since then though. The majority of quarians want to retake Rannoch, but the Council made it clear that if we provoke the geth, they'll ban us completely from Council space. Which means if we fail to retake our home planet, the survivors would be cut off from the only safe space we have left. Others have said we should try to colonize a new world, but the amount of resources required, as well as the time it would take to adapt to the new environment and start to rebuild our immune systems, would be far too much. And most people aren't willing to wait that long, especially on a planet that isn't even truly ours. So for now, we continue to live in the Fleet, till fortunes change one way or another."

"I'm sorry to hear that," he said to her, causing her to look at him.

"It's not all bad," she told him, moving on to another component to examine it. "Even if we're not blood related, each ship crew feels like a giant family. Some days it felt like I had more uncles and aunts and cousins then I knew what to do with," she said with a soft chuckle, though it sounded a bit sad towards the end. "It helps when…," she started, trailing off.

Naruto looked at her with concern, moving to her side. "Tali?" he asked her softly, causing her to shake her head.

"It's nothing," she assured him, her eyes narrowing a bit in the way he had come to associate with her smiling. "What about you? Life amongst humans couldn't have been easy growing up," she asked, before looking a bit uncomfortable. "I-I mean…if you don't mind sharing. I didn't mean to pry and-."

"Its fine," Naruto said, giving her a reassuring grin. It was adorable when she started to get shy and nervous again. "And you're right, it wasn't entirely easy. Probably even more so because I was living with a military family. It was hard enough making friends when everyone is wary of you, or making fun of you because you're different. But imagine then having to move every few years because your parents have been posted on a new base or ship. So I really grew close to my mom, dad, Alicia, and…well my sort of godparents, since they're really Alicia's godparents," he said.

Tali blinked at that. "You never stayed in one place for very long?" She asked, having a hard time imagining that. In the Migrant Fleet, most young quarians would remain on their birth ship until they were old enough to take their Pilgrimage, after which they would return and move to a new ship, which they would call their home.

Naruto nodded at that. "It's part of living in a military family. And it's been largely the same ever since I joined the military. I don't really have a place I'd call…well, home. My mom has a place she bought for when she retires, but me and Alicia…home is wherever our current posting is. Which would be the Normandy right now," he said.

"I see," the young quarian said, not sure if she could comprehend living like that. It was ironic considering that despite her race living in a nomadic existence, each quarian knew they had a place that was their home at the end of the day.

Naruto nodded at that. "But while there were difficulties growing up, it wasn't all bad. I had my family and…that was, and still is enough," he said with a sad smile, his thoughts going back to his father Malcolm.

Tali saw the look on his face, and decided not to pry. Instead, she looked back to the component, before nodding quietly. "This will do," she said, noting the component's identification number. The store had display models for their goods, to give customers a better idea of what they were buying, but everything had to be ordered from a virtual catalogue at the counter, to help prevent shoplifting.

Naruto nodded as he saw that. "You can keep browsing. We've got a fair amount of funds from the Council," he said with a grin, while Tali tapped her chin in thought. Part of her, born from working on ships in the Migrant Fleet, always making every last tool and component last, was saying she didn't need more, that the couple of components she had noted so far would be fine. Yet another part of her, now born from having access to plentiful parts and supplies, was encouraging her to get more, if for no other reason than to ensure she wouldn't need them in the future. And it would be that side that won as she grinned, going back to browsing with Naruto right behind her.

Elsewhere, Alicia was moving with purpose towards a bar down in the Wards. She was dressed casually, wearing pants and mid calf boots with a t-shirt and a bolero jacket, her hair loose and free. The reason being she didn't want to draw any more attention to herself then she was already planning to. The human Spectre had decided it was high time she deal with the growing problem that was her krogan team member.

She stopped for a moment to look down at her omni-tool, to confirm that she was at the right bar. Wrex had messaged the name of the place he was planning to drink at, just in case something came up and they needed to find him. Now Alicia took a deep breath before entering the establishment.

Surprisingly it wasn't some hole in the wall, dirty bar filled with thugs and criminals all glaring at each other. It was at least somewhat respectable, though some of the clientele did seem to be on the seedier side of society. Her eyes roamed the crowd, picking out humans, turians, salarians, asari, and even a quarian. Her eyes widened when she also noticed a hanar and a drell in one corner. The large jellyfish like hanar seemed to be communicating with a human sitting in a booth, while the drell, an alien who resembled humans save for their dark colored eyes and reptilian features, was standing watch. It was rather rare to see a hanar outside of the Presidium, and even rarer to see a drell at all, considering how few of them could be found off their dying home world. The arid world of Rakhana began a swift descent into lifelessness when the drell's industrial expansion grew too rapidly, dooming their race to extinction since they had not yet developed spaceflight and lacked the resources to do so. The hanar made first contact with the drell, and began evacuating as many as they could. However, fears and riots on Rakhana led to the cessation of the evacuations out of fear for the safety of the hanar crews, resulting in a few hundred thousand drell being evacuated while the remaining billions were left to perish on their world.

She continued to look for Wrex, noting a few krogan before her eyes narrowed. In one corner she sighted her krogan teammate, currently in discussion with a batarian. Alicia tensed, her fists clenching and her eyes narrowing as she felt her heartbeat increase. She walked over to them, noting a few things about said batarian as she drew closer.

She was caught off guard when she realized the batarian was in fact a female one, as it was incredibly rare to see a female batarian outside of Hegemony space. The Hegemony kept a tight control over its citizens, but its females even more so, attempting to keep them docile and content within the caste systems that made up batarian society to help maintain the status quo. Only a small handful apparently ever dreamed of leaving the Hegemony, and fewer still managed to succeed, the rest usually ending up in 're-education centers'.

Looking over the female, she saw the normal four eyes, these ones slightly narrower with longer eyelashes, as well as the distinctive inverted triangle nose. What made her distinct from a male batarian was that the cartilage ridge running from her nose up along her head and down to the back of her neck was covered in a growth of fur or hair, while her overall facial features were softer. Her skin tone and facial fur was also darker and duller in color too, compared to a male batarian.

As Alicia reached the table, she noted that the batarian was dressed in a leather outfit with a lowered hood and a pistol holstered at her hip. She was reading a pad that Wrex had handed to her, only to glance up slightly as Alicia joined them. "Sorry sweetie, I'm busy working right now," she said, her voice a higher pitched version of the guttural tones most batarians had. She glanced back down at the data pad, only for her eyes to widen as she did a double take. "Holy shit…you're her," she said, all four eyes wide as she looked at Alicia.

Alicia stood there, arms crossed as she stared the batarian woman down. "You know me?" She asked, barely controlling her anger as she remembered the day her father died, cut down by batarians while trying to save the colonists on Mindoir. The batarian woman didn't seem to notice, just nodding as she stared at Alicia.

"I can't think of a merc, smuggler, or criminal who doesn't know about the Blue Maelstrom," she said, setting the pad down and looking at Wrex. "Guess you weren't shitting me when you said you were working with her."

"C'mon Vressha, you should know me better than that," Wrex grumbled, nursing a mug of some type of alcohol. "So you any closer to that thing I asked you about?"

The now named Vressha nodded, grabbing the pad. "I've got a few leads; hopefully one of them will pay off. I'll let you know as soon as I hit pay dirt," she said, standing up. "Just don't die out there, you still haven't paid me yet," she added, before looking to Alicia, noticing for the first time the hardness in her eyes. She blinked, suddenly feeling very unsafe, causing her to mumble a goodbye as she flipped her hood up and headed out of the bar.

"Trouble kid?" Wrex asked, watching the whole thing as Alicia stared after the retreating batarian woman, before sitting down opposite of Wrex in the chair Vressha had occupied.

"Nothing to be concerned about," she said, her voice hard and still carrying hints of her anger. Wrex just watched her, a seemingly knowing look on his face as he signaled to the bar.

"Trouble with batarians, huh?" He asked, causing Alicia to blink in surprise. "Don't look surprised kid. In my line of work, I've seen that look plenty of times. Someone feeling anger and hatred towards someone for what others of their race did. Hell, that's almost the go to look for most krogan when it comes to salarians and turians."

Alicia just took a deep breath, trying to calm down. "You could say that," she said as an asari waitress came over, placing a new mug down in front of Wrex and turning to Alicia to get her order. Alicia gave her an order before sitting back, looking at Wrex. "So wanna tell me what you're looking for? You've got the ear of someone with access to a lot of information…or at least, access to people who can find a lot of information," she said, trying to change the subject.

"Personal stuff Commander. Drop it," Wrex said, only for Alicia's eyes to narrow.

"Not really fair of you to go nosing a bit into my personal stuff if you don't let me do the same," she countered, hanging one arm over the back of her chair, while Wrex just growled softly.

"It's none of your business, Shepard. Drop it," Wrex said again.

Alicia shrugged as she remained in her slouched, comfortable position. "What exactly is your problem Wrex? What have you got against letting someone help you out? Or trying to trust someone?" She asked him.

Wrex just snorted, grabbing his mug and practically emptying it in one go as the waitress returned with a mug for Alicia. "You trying to get me into that happy, trust circle, teamwork bullshit again?" He asked her.

Alicia finally pulled her arm off the back of the chair, leaning forward to grab her drink and down some of it. "I'm trying to make my team as strong and effective as possible," she said. "And I'd like to think that so far I'm succeeding. Garrus is getting along better with almost everyone while Tali has at least stopped stuttering and apologizing for everything. Everyone else was already doing pretty well, except for some rough patches between Ashley and Garrus. But you, you're the one we've still got problems with."

"I'm doing my job, aren't I? You wanted big muscle, big biotics, and big guns. You didn't ask me to join the team because of my sparkling personality," the krogan countered.

"You're right, I didn't. And in a fight, you've delivered. The problem is that you've also been disruptive, argumentative, and put yourself and the ground team in harm's way on more than one occasion. Like I said on Therum, it's my job to try and keep everyone alive. And if there's something that is making that difficult, I deal with it," she said.

Wrex studied her, before letting out a grunt. "I admire the conviction, but I don't see the point. I'm fighting for you, I'm killing geth and plant monsters and whatever else you need. So what more do you want?" He asked.

"I want to know you're not going to shoot us in the back the instant a better offer comes along," Alicia said. "I want to know you're not going to charge headlong into an enemy, possibly getting someone else killed because you weren't there to cover them. I want to know that at the end of the day, you've got out back just as much as we have yours. And so far, you haven't shown that," she told him. "So that's why I'm here. Because one way or another, I'm dealing with this problem."

"And you think me sharing my life's story with you will do that?" Wrex asked her, finishing his mug and waving for another. "Shepard, I have spent a loooonnnggggg time working as a mercenary, and the one thing I've learned is you can't trust anyone. Someone who has your back today will just as happily put a knife in it tomorrow. All I can tell you is I honor my contracts. You can trust me to fight for you till the job is done."

Alicia shook her head, letting out a sigh. "Maybe that's how it is out in the mercenary world, but have you stopped and looked at who you're fighting with? We're not mercs, Wrex. A C-Sec officer, a quarian kid on her Pilgrimage, an asari archeologist who can barely handle a gun, and four Alliance soldiers who have absolutely no reason to fight you…unless you give us one. Why is it so hard for you to try to trust us?" She asked.

Wrex just let out a rumble as the waitress returned with another mug. Instead of answering her he began to drink from it, causing Alicia to growl in annoyance before finishing her mug and slamming it down. "Fine, then how about this?" She asked, signaling the waitress for another. "Drinking contest, you and me. If I manage to out drink you, you finally throw me a bone. You out drink me, I'll drop the whole thing," she said, staring at him defiantly.

Wrex raised one scaly eye ridge as he studied her. "…you're ridiculous, you know that?" He asked her. "You honestly think that will solve anything? Us trying to out drink each other?"

"Hell if I know, but I'm out of ideas short of trying to beat the answers out of you, and I think that would just make you laugh more than actually get what I want," she said, getting her second mug. "So you in or you scared to get your tail out-drunk by a human, old man?" She asked.

Wrex just stared at her before shrugging. "So long as you're paying for your drinks," he said, setting himself more comfortably on his chair. "This should be fun at least."

"Then drink up!" She said, gulping down her second mug and signaling for another.

Roughly three hours later, Liara was returning to the Normandy dock after completing a few errands on the Citadel. She had retrieved some data discs and other packets of information that she had requested from a few universities, to help further her research into the Protheans and thus further help the mission. She also had gotten a few more comfortable outfits for relaxing onboard the ship in.

As she arrived at the elevator that would lead up to the dock, her eyes widened as she saw Wrex's large figure supporting a rather limp looking Alicia, causing her to rush over. "Wrex, is everything alright?!" She asked worriedly, moving to check Alicia.

The large krogan looked at her, grunting a bit as he kept Alicia on her feet. "The Commander decided it'd be a good idea to try and out-drink me. Didn't go so well for her," he said, as Alicia hung limply against him, seemingly half asleep. "Mind getting the elevator control?"

Liara quickly activated the holographic controls, causing the elevator to ascend, before turning back to the duo. "What happened?" She asked, again trying to examine Alicia.

"Nothing you need to worry about T'Soni," Wrex rumbled. "She'll be fine after some sleep, and probably some hangover remedies." As if to confirm his statement, Alicia blinked and looked in Liara's direction, before letting out a drunken giggle.

"Heh heh heh, hey dere….preshy lady…get a kish?" She mumbled with another giggle.

"Why was she trying to out drink you though?" she asked, blushing as she tried to ignore drunk Alicia's comment.

Wrex just shook his head. "It's nothing that concerns you, alright?" He stated firmly. The asari just blinked at him, before shaking her head and moving to support Alicia from the other side, taking some of the weight off the krogan and earning another giggle from Alicia who slumped against her now. Not that he really minded as he could easily handle the weight; it was more just the awkward movement of supporting her that had been uncomfortable. He couldn't help but chuckle to himself though, thinking about their little drinking contest. He knew the outcome, and he knew Alicia did as well, but that hadn't stopped her from trying. He had to admit she did better than he expected. He had to respect her determination and stubbornness at least, they were almost krogan like. But in the end she had collapsed first, forcing him to pay off for her last drink as well as his before carrying her out of there.

As the elevator came to a halt and the door opened, revealing the dock and the ship, he couldn't help but wonder a bit why this human was so determined to get to know him, to get him to open up. Hell, it confused him when he saw her do it for the turian. The young hotshot had some personal problem he wanted to take care of, and Shepard put her whole mission and even team at risk to help him out. Maybe it wasn't that much of a risk, but still. He shook his head as he and Liara supported the red haired human along the dock and onto the crossway to the ship, the krogan deciding it didn't really matter. He'd finish his contract and move on to the next one. That's what mattered, nothing else.

Arcturus Station

Admiral Hackett stood in the middle of the command room on Arcturus Station, watching the on-duty officers and enlisted personnel manning their stations, or carrying reports as they entered or left the command center. The middle of the room was dominated by a large holographic map that was constantly being updated with information from across Alliance space, detailing the locations of every ship moving through human space whether it was Alliance, civilian, Council, or otherwise. There was also information being fed to them concerning the status of every human colony and outpost.

At the moment, the main focus was on the Armstrong Cluster, and the five explored and mapped systems within it. While the majority of geth ships had retreated to the border, where now they now were evidently keeping a large portion of the Second and Fourth Fleets occupied in combat, a coupled dozen geth ships had managed to begin building up fortified bases within the Armstrong Cluster. Two task forces from the Second Fleet had discovered these bases being constructed, but did not have the manpower or resources to take on all five bases by themselves, as well as the now estimated forty geth ships present.

However, Read Admiral Alviano of the Fourth Fleet had come forward with at least the beginnings of a plan, which strategists on Arcturus Station had built upon and refined. Hackett turned away from the map as a woman in a captain's uniform approached and saluted him. He returned the salute, causing her to drop hers and speak up. "Admiral, we've finalized Operation Hidden Blade and are ready to submit it for your approval," Captain Amelia Howards, the analyst who had been one of the major players behind the strike on Torfan, said while handing him a data pad.

Taking it, Hackett's brow furrowed as he began to read and study the information carefully. He frowned slightly as he looked up at her after finishing reading the proposal. "This is a risky plan your team has come up with," he said, causing her to nod.

"Yes sir, but with our limited available resources, we feel it is the best one. The Second and Fourth fleets have their hands full as it is, and the other fleets have their own orders. We can, however, deploy the ships of the Seventh Fleet to bulk up our forces on station in the Armstrong Cluster. As you read though, they are merely the diversion for the true attack," she said.

Hackett nodded as he studied the data pad again. War was all about taking risks, but also knowing when not to take them. This operation hinged on some of the newest and untested ships of the Alliance fleet to handle fighting the geth and drawing their attention away so their true attack could strike at what was the most vital part of the geth forces. The only other option was to wait until more ships could be called upon to launch a full scale assault on the geth bases and ships, which given the number of defenses already in place, could quickly turn into a slaughter. Nodding, he handed the pad back to her. "Operation approved. I'll begin gathering the necessary ships and personnel together. Have copies of the operation made and ready to transmit to the key personnel," he ordered.

"Yes sir!" Howards said as she saluted him. He returned the salute, watching her head off to fulfill his orders before he turned around and studied the map. The plan was a risky one, and could result in hundreds of deaths if things went wrong. But it also was their best chance to remove this potential beachhead within their space that the geth might use to launch further invasions into Alliance space. If they couldn't stop the geth buildup, then the synthetic bastards could control the mass relay in the Armstrong Cluster, and use it to intercept ships attempting to travel through it, or use it to attack other relay systems in other nebula clusters. They needed to drive the geth back now, to try and secure their borders from further attacks. Nodding quietly he turned as another officer approached with another data pad, turning his mind back to his duties of helping coordinate the actions of the Alliance fleet.

SSV Normandy

Alicia let out a mumbled curse, doing her best not to let her pounding head get the best of her as she slowly sipped her coffee and pushed away the empty tray of food. It had been far worse when she first woke up in the medical bay, as she literally could not move without wanting to throw up. Thankfully Dr. Chakwas had been able to give her a medical concoction that helped her with the nausea, dizziness, and headache, allowing her to stumble to her quarters to get a change of clothes. Now after a shower and a meal to fill her stomach, all she was left with was the pounding headache.

She mumbled as she sat there at the table in the captain's cabin, eyes closed as she did her best to stifle the throbbing feeling in her head. That is until a sudden chime from her personal terminal caused her to wince as the noise made the headache flare up again. Take a couple of deep breaths to steady herself, she slowly got up and moved to the terminal, accessing it. She blinked in surprise as she saw an alert concerning a message directed to her through the Spectre office, but with no known sender attached. She frowned as she set the security systems to scan it for any potential malware or viruses before sitting back, her headache momentarily forgotten as her interest was piqued. Was it information on Saren? Was it some other Spectre related business? Was it perhaps a trap being set up for her? When the security system confirmed the message was clean she leaned forward to access it, only for the intercom to go off.

"Commander, we're receiving a message from Arcturus Station from Admiral Hackett," the communications officer reported, causing Alicia to sigh as she set the message aside for now.

"Prep it in the communications room," she said, standing up and straightening her uniform. Grabbing the mug of coffee she immediately headed up to the communications room, passing a few crew members on duty and returning their salutes. Once inside the briefing and communications room she gave herself a once over before nodding as she activated the intercom. "Put it through."

Within seconds a holographic image of Admiral Hackett appeared and she promptly saluted. "Sir," she said.

Hackett returned the salute before speaking. "Commander, I'm sorry to pull you off your investigation but I'm afraid a situation has arisen and we need your help," he said.

"Understood sir. What's the situation?" She asked him, wanting to get to business.

"We have a buildup of geth forces in the Armstrong Cluster that we need to eliminate. They're attempting to dig in and build up what could be a fortified anchorage there. For the moment we've managed to keep control of the relay, but our available forces have been stretched thin pushing back the ships they used to try and distract us from Feros. We have a plan for dealing with their forces but we require you, your team, and your ship to accomplish this," he said.

Alicia nodded in understanding. "Understood sir. I'll get my team ready and we'll depart at once."

"Not so fast Shepard. We need one of your ground team members to try and contact their people, to give us a bit of extra aid on this. You'll receive the details in the operations packet. If they are unable to secure help for us, we'll have to go to plan B. Brief your team and await further orders. Hackett out," he said, cutting the communication. At the same time the communication console beeped, indicated they had received a data packet.

Alicia sighed as she activated her omni-tool, sending a message to all her ground team members to meet in the briefing room in an hour, giving her time to read and understand what exactly was going to be required of them.

By the time she had finished and had downloaded the necessary images into the briefing room holo-projector, the others had begun to enter. She nodded to each of them as they came in, taking their seats. She couldn't help but smile slightly when she saw Tali sitting next to Ashley, conversing with her about something, while Kaidan and Liara sat down in chairs next to each other. She could hear the asari archeologist questioning Kaidan about his biotic implant and his biotics. The last one to enter was Wrex, who smirked as he saw the signs of Alicia still recovering from her hangover. "Hope you learned your lesson Shepard," he grunted out, sitting down.

"I should have gone with option B," she muttered, causing Wrex to let out a laugh as the others, save for Liara, looked between the two in confusion. Alicia just shook her head as she activated the projector, bringing up an image of the Armstrong Cluster.

"Sorry to cut the fun short everyone but we've unfortunately been called back to duty. This is Operation Hidden Blade, a two phase assault upon a geth position in the Armstrong Cluster. While we were busy on Feros, the Alliance Navy has been pushing back the geth forces that were meant to distract them away from their assault on the colony at Feros. The majority of geth ships have fallen back to near the border with the Terminus Systems, but they are continuing to harass our ships there, to keep them distracted so that forces located in the Armstrong Cluster can build up what looks to be a fortified anchorage. If they succeed in not only completing this facility and its defenses but retaking the relay in the nebula cluster, they'll have a strong foothold to launch attacks even deeper into Alliance space, not to mention potentially harassing the Council's borders. We're being called in to take part in the assault," she said, activating the controls of the projector. With a few commands the projector zoomed in, showing the five explored systems of the Armstrong Cluster.

"At the moment, the geth have established what appear to be four fortified mining outposts in these systems," she said, highlighting the Vamshi, Hong, Tereshkova and Gagarin systems. "Each one is protected by a small flotilla of geth ships and at least two or three ground based anti-orbital cannons. This makes an assault with anything smaller than a full assault task force inadvisable. Our main focus, however, is their main base in the Grissom System," she said, now highlighting the last system. "The geth have centered their main base of operations on Solcrum, a moon orbiting the gas giant Notanban. VI controlled probes were able to confirm the presence of a ground side facility with several defense cannons in place, as well as what appears to be a half constructed orbital facility. All of which is guarded by at least twenty geth ships."

"That's a lot of firepower skipper," Ashley commented, causing Alicia to nod.

"It is. The Alliance cannot spare the ships and manpower needed for a full assault against their forces here at the moment. However, they're hoping that they won't need to," she said, looking to Tali. "Tali, Alliance Command wants to get in contact with the Migrant Fleet and work out a joint operation here," she told the young quarian.

Tali's eyes widened behind her mask, as everyone shifted in surprise. "They…what is it they want?" The quarian asked the Commander.

Alicia shifted the holographic display, to show the intended battle plan. "The Alliance is putting together every spare ship they can to make up four task forces. They'll initiate the first phase of the operation, which will consist of attacks against the four fortified mining outposts. However, their goal is not to defeat the enemy, but to draw away geth reinforcements from the main base. At that point, if your people have agreed to aid us, the quarian ships will attack the remaining geth ships in orbit of Solcrum. Hopefully there won't be too many of them, and so it shouldn't be a tough fight. However, if the Migrant Fleet doesn't join us, we'll go with the backup plan, where we'll attempt to deploy an EMP mine to disable as many of the geth ships in orbit as we can. We need those ships disabled, distracted, or destroyed, before we switch to phase two of the operation. Which consists of our ground team leading an assault on their main base," she said switching now to a rendering of the geth ground base.

Naruto studied the image of the geth base, created from what images the VI probes could transmit before they had been forced to either retreat or been shot down. The main portion of the facility was an enclosed building, most likely to protect the technology and its inhabitants from the scorching heat and constant irradiation caused by Grissom's blue giant star. However there were several open walkways connecting the main base to other smaller facilities, including a landing pad. At least five large cannons, each aimed skyward, could be seen surrounding the facility.. "How did they get all this set up so quickly?" He asked, causing everyone to look at him. "You can't tell me they got all that set up in pretty much a week or so."

"The analysts back at HQ think they've been working on it in secret even before Eden Prime. They simply gave up on being discrete once the defenses were in place," Alicia said.

"Commander, when you said we'd be leading a ground team…?" Garrus asked Shepard, trailing off to let the human Spectre answer the question.

"We're going to be joined by a Hornet-class dropship carrying a platoon of RITA troopers. They'll be approaching Solcrum from the opposite side of the moon, and will fly low through the atmosphere to try and avoid detection before making their drop. We'll be doing the same in the Mako, and rendezvous at this point here," she said, bringing up a map of the area surrounding the geth facility and marking an area on the map that would be shielded from view by a few mountains. "After that, we'll proceed to assault the facility. Our primary objective is to disable, capture, or destroy the facility. Failing that, we are to disable or destroy as many of the defensive cannons as possible, to make it easier for a full on assault later. Now comes the tricky part. The moon is heavily irradiated due to the nature of the system's star. Our combat suits will shield us from the radiation for a while, but eventually they will fail, so we cannot linger. Otherwise, the worst we have to worry about is the geth," she said, closing down the projector. "Any questions?"

"Do we know what kinds of geth we'll be dealing with?" Ashley asked, causing Alicia to shake her head.

"Unfortunately no. We can assume the standard assortment of regular troopers, rocket troopers, and snipers, with some of those Primes thrown in. Estimates put their number between fifty to a hundred and fifty. They might have some of those walker units like we encountered on Therum, but so far it doesn't appear that they have any facilities to support them set up. However, we do not have detailed information on the facility beyond what the probes could uncover, so there is a possibility we'll run into some Colossi," she said, using the designation the Alliance military had assigned to the large four legged walkers the geth seemed to use as both an anti-vehicle and anti-infantry mobile platform. "If that happens, we'll be reliant on our Mako and the two Mako's the RITA troopers will be deployed in. Not to mention some of their other 'toys'," she said. "Anymore questions?"

When no one answered she nodded to them, turning off the projector. "Alright then. Check your gear and weapons; make sure they're ready to go. Tali, can you please contact your people to set up communications between them and Alliance HQ?" she asked. As Tali gave a surprised nod, Alicia grinned. "Good, dismissed," she said, before pointing to Liara. "Liara, a moment please?"

The asari blinked, looking a bit nervous as the others filed out of the room, leaving her with the human commander. "I-Is something wrong?" She asked nervously.

Alicia looked a bit sheepish as she rubbed the back of her head. "Actually, I sort of wanted to apologize. I understand you saw me after Wrex and I finished our little…'contest'," she said, grimacing in remembrance of what happened.

Liara's eyes widened in understanding before she smiled. "You do not need to apologize Comm-I mean Alicia," she said, struggling to remember to call Alicia by her name, per her request. "I would admit to being curious as to what happened but as Wrex…delicately pointed out, it was none of my concern. I hope you're feeling better?"

"Not as much as I'd like, but better then I was earlier," Alicia grimaced, before getting serious. "I also wanted to talk to you about this mission we're going on. I know you're not exactly comfortable in combat yet but I hope you'll be willing to join us. We could really use your biotics out there in the field," she said.

Liara shifted a bit uncomfortably, glancing down. "I…I will admit…I'm still very nervous and scared about going out into the field with you. I know I helped out on Feros, guarding everyone with my biotics and helping out where I could, but…I'm still terrified…I'm terrified of dying, but I'm also terrified of…of failing. Of not being able to do what you might need me to do out there, of allowing someone to be hurt or worse," she admitted, her voice soft and trembling.

Alicia moved over to her, gently placing a hand on her shoulder, causing the young asari to look up at her. "I understand Liara. And let me tell you something…you're not alone. I'm pretty sure almost every one of us feels that same way going into combat. I know I do. Hell, I bet the only one on this ship who doesn't feel that way is Wrex," she said, causing Liara's eyes to widen in surprise.

"Y-You…feel afraid as well? But…you're always charging into combat, seemingly…unafraid, uncaring of your well being. How can you be afraid as well? You have all your training, your experience you-," she said, starting to babble until Alicia gently squeezed her shoulder, causing her to stop.

"You're right, I do. And a lot of that helps. But it doesn't get rid of the fear. The fear is still there. It just doesn't control me," Alicia told her, smiling a bit. "Bravery isn't the absence of fear…it's acting in spite of fear. That's what is important to remember." She patted Liara's shoulder before pulling away, barely missing the slight blush on Liara's cheeks. "I'd like for you to be part of this mission to try and gain more experience, but I also will understand if you request to stay onboard. You've got plenty of time to make your decision. However, if you don't mind, I'd like to offer to help you work on your gun handling, while we wait?" She offered.

Liara blinked, before nodding. "I think I'd like that," she said with a bit of a shy smile. One that Alicia returned with a broader grin as she and the asari left the briefing room, heading down to the hanger deck.

Solcrum, Grissom System, five Days later

The moon known as Solcrum hovered quietly in space, a seemingly lifeless world covered in darkish blue-grey rock and dirt, slowly orbiting around the gas giant that had been its home and captor for countless millennia. Yet now movement could be seen in orbit of this lifeless moon, as ships could be seen moving around an orbital structure, some of them guarding it while others ferried supplies to it from the surface or hovered near the station, acting as depots of supplies for the construction crews working to finish the station.

Suddenly, almost seemingly as one, a large portion of the ships suddenly turned and moved away from the planet, their engines burning brightly as they accelerated away from the moon and began heading towards the edge of the system. The departing ships eventually reached the edge of the Grissom System, where their FTL engines kicked in and they disappeared entirely.

The remaining warships tightened their defensive perimeter around the half constructed space station, remaining alert and wary for any signs of potential hostiles. The remaining geth continued their work on the station, which would act as an orbital docking point for further geth ships delivering supplies and drones.

Almost ten minutes passed after the departure of the other geth ships, before new contacts appeared on the geth sensors. The remaining geth ships immediately formed into intercept formation, hovering between these unknown contacts and their allies as they prepared for contact. Within a few minutes, the new unknowns entered visual sensor range.

It was a menagerie of ships, numbering perhaps thirty in total. Over half the ships were older, outdated models of warships from various races, consisting of frigates and cruisers from humanity, turians, asari, and even a couple of bulky, sluggish and ungraceful batarian ships. The remainder of the fleet was made up of ships that all shared similar design appearances, having large vertically aligned hoops that were bisected by a long main hull that trailed back, and a small bulge at the front of said hoop. Some of the larger vessels of this type bulged out near the stern, indicating more powerful or more numerous engines, as well as having more mounted weapon emplacements on the hull.

Onboard the lead ship, Captain Jessin'Jogar vas Reisha of the quarian Migrant Fleet watched the holographic display as his task force, led by his heavy cruiser Reisha, settled into an arrowhead formation. All the heavy cruisers and some of the light cruisers had formed the main point, while the other light cruisers and frigates formed onto the wings, ready to flank the enemy ships. The quarian captain, like all members of his race, was clad in an environmental suit, this one with blue trim and brown cloth covered in diagonal patterns. Unlike the female suits, the male suit did not have a hood but instead a strip of cloth that covered the top rear of the helmet, allowing a series of conduits and tubes to be visible extending from the back of the helmet down into the suit. The helmet also jutted further forward, compared to the female equivalent.

As his ships closed with the geth ships, Jessin felt excitement build in his chest, an excitement that had begun the moment he had been briefed on this surprise mission and been made the mashin'tomar of the operation. Within the Migrant Fleet, the five members of the Admiralty Board each held a position of overall command of a branch of the Fleet, while each individual captain held command of their particular ship. When an element of ships needed to undertake an operation that was not personally commanded by one of the admirals, one of the captains was selected to be the senior captain or 'captain-major' as the title translated into common tongue. A temporary position to denote command and seniority amongst the captains involved in said operation. (1)

"Captain, we'll be within firing range in thirty seconds," his tactical officer, a female wearing the same colors as his own but with slightly different designs decorating it, spoke from her console as she looked back. Behind his mask Jessin grinned, eager to strike a blow against those who had driven their ancestors off of their home-world.

"Very good. Open a channel to all ships," he ordered, getting up from his seat. As soon as the communications line was open he gave out his orders. "This is the Reisha to all ships. Focus fire on those two cruisers first. We need to eliminate the threat they pose at this distance," he ordered.

With confirmations coming from across his 'fleet', the quarian captain moved to the holographic display, highlighting the few enemy frigates present as the next priority targets after the geth cruisers were destroyed. His tactical officer called out again, telling him they were ten seconds from firing range as he transmitted those orders to his other ships, before nodding to the tactical officer.

Almost as one, the thirty ships of the Migrant Fleet fired their main cannons, the rounds hurtling through space at high speed and converging on the two geth heavy cruisers that were part of the remaining geth warships. Their kinetic barriers lit up around them from absorbing and deflecting shots, while the geth ships began returning fire with their own main cannons. Both groups of ships approached each other, their main cannon rounds streaking back and forth across space between them as they grew closer.

As this was going on, another ship watched the battle from a distance, completely undetected as its stealth systems continued to prove their worth. Alicia turned away from the holographic display that showed the geth ships becoming fully engaged with the quarian ones and activated the intercom. "Helm, begin our approach vector. Comms, contact Bulford-7 and tell them they can begin their run," she ordered, her latter command referring to the long range drop-ship carrying a platoon of RITA troopers and their two Makos.

Seeing her orders were being carried out she turned to Pressly. "You have the conn. If you get a chance, try to give the quarians a hand. They're risking their necks for us," she told him. The navigator and executive officer nodded, giving her a salute and taking over after she returned it. Alicia quickly made her way to the hanger deck as she felt the deck rumble as the engines began an acceleration burn.

On the hanger deck her ground team was finishing up their last minute weapon and suit checks, making doubly sure on the latter. Given the dangerous nature of Solcrum's atmosphere, a single break or tear in the suit, or even a malfunction with the armor's shielding could be dangerous if not outright fatal. Naruto was finishing his own weapon check, placing his Viper sniper rifle and Lancer Assault Rifle on his back plates when Alicia arrived. "Everything going according to plan?" He asked her as she moved to her gear locker.

"So far. The quarian ships have the geth outnumbered and distracted," she said, grabbing her weapons and checking them over. She glanced up to see Tali looking a bit anxious, wringing her hands slightly. While it was true the quarians had superior numbers, as well as a better understanding of the geth then the Alliance did, the geth had the advantage of three hundred years advancement in their technology, over the outdated ships the quarians had to jury-rig and soup up to utilize efficiently. Alicia watched as Ashley gave Tali an encouraging pat on the shoulder, causing the quarian girl to try and calm down.

Alicia just smiled as she turned back to her locker, grabbing her helmet and locking it up before turning and finding Wrex giving her a stink eye. She grimaced as she put on her helmet, being reminded of how during her training with Liara, the asari fired off a practice round that had missed the target, ricocheted off a bulkhead, and managed to hit the krogan right in his tail. Even without his armor on, the krogan still had a very tough scaly hide and the round was a practice one, meant to have no real penetration power or danger to it. But it still stung the krogan quite a bit, since apparently their stubby little tails were sensitive, by krogan standards. Despite Liara being the one who fired the shot, the large krogan blamed both of them for the few moments of stinging pain and undignified dancing he had gone through.

Shaking her head, she got her team's attention. "Alright people, listen up. Phase 1 of the operation has been a success so far, so let's not squander this. We're going to be dropping down into a dangerous environment, so I want no screw ups. It's not just the geth that will be trying to kill us; the environment will be as well. So let's get in there, secure this base, and get this down fast. Understood?"

As they all gave different acknowledgments, she grinned and pointed to the Mako. "Then let's mount up!"

The Normandy, having completed its re-entry approach and now angled back down for atmospheric flight, quickly soared through the atmosphere towards the drop point. The stealth frigate angled down slightly, its hanger bay opening and allowing the Alliance IFV to surge out of the hanger bay, the thrusters on the vehicle firing to stabilize it as it quickly dropped. A few kilometers away, a similar scenario was happening with a smaller ship, one that was only half as long as the frigate but wider in comparison, with two large hanger bays opening and allowing a pair of Mako's to drop onto the surface. The Hornet-class long-range dropship Bulford-7 quickly angled away, doing its best to stay amongst the mountains and rises to prevent the geth from detecting them and giving the RITA troopers a better chance at getting in close.

Alicia, at the wheel of the Normandy's Mako, grimaced as she did her best to navigate the rocky, uneven terrain of Solcrum, all while a continuous alarm went off. The IFV was well equipped to handle a number of dangerous environments, including heavily irradiated areas. Of course though, the vehicle also had to keep the passengers reminded of the dangers of the environment outside, hence why a continuous environmental alarm was going off.

Garrus grimaced from the back, looking forward. "Can't you turn that off?" He asked over his suit radio, only for Naruto to shake his helm covered head.

"No can do. It's a safety feature, to ensure crews don't miss an alert about some type of danger. The best we can do is lower the volume so we can hear other alarms and each other. And I've already done that," he reported.

Garrus just grimaced behind his visor as the Mako bumped along, gripping the safety harness. "Well at least we're not getting blasted with that…rock and rubble?"

"Rock and roll, and it's better than that stuff you listen to," Alicia grumbled. Garrus had tried to 'educate' her on turian music. It wasn't bad, but it tended to sound more like some type of patriotic rock opera. It couldn't compare in her opinion.

Ashley chuckled from the gunner's position as she kept rotating the gun around, searching for any patrols or other potential dangers. She paused for a moment, aiming the gun up higher and seeing small flashes of light in the night sky. "…I hope they're giving those synthetic bastards hell," she murmured loud enough for the radio to pick her words up.

Tali blushed a bit at hearing that, looking down at her hands. She was honestly still shocked the Alliance had been willing to reach out to them for help, considering the reputation her people had. She didn't think the Alliance really needed them, given how advanced their ships were, how well trained their soldiers were, and how many resources they had. Seeing Naruto and Alicia in combat left her feeling a bit in awe, especially compared to when she had seen some of the quarian marines train. She didn't think they could compare.

Yet, as Alicia had told them in the briefing, the Alliance Navy was stretched thin fighting the geth and protecting its borders. And with the Council races refusing to act, the higher-ups in the human chain of command had decided to turn to the one group who not only had probably the most knowledge on the geth, but also the most ships to spare. Tali didn't know the details of the meeting between the Alliance leadership and the Migrant Fleet Conclave and Admiralty Board, but apparently it had been enough to warrant the arrival of the thirty quarian ships currently engaged in combat with the geth ships above.

Tali was shaken from her thoughts by a large bump, as the vehicle bounced heavily with Alicia cursing a bit. "Damn terrain," she muttered, while Naruto could be heard mumbling under his breath in rapid vulzan. Tali could only grimace, the contents of her stomach shifting from the bumpy ride as she closed her eyes and tried to settle her stomach.

About twenty minutes later the vehicle rolled to a halt, with Alicia staring out the window at the two Makos parked in front of her. She nodded to Naruto, who activated the radio. "This is Normandy 2-1 to Striker 1-1, code phrase Hammerfall. Over?"

There was a moment of silence before the radio crackled. "Normandy 2-1 this is Striker 1-1, response Baker-Seven. Glad you guys got here," spoke a male voice. "Major Xavier Lensfeld and 2nd platoon are at your service."

"Roger that Striker 1-1. Proceed to Phase Line Charlie and prepare for combat operations. Normandy 2-1 out," Naruto responded as Alicia grinned and gunned the engine, taking point. The other Makos fell in behind as the trio of vehicles rolled forward towards the geth base location. It was not a long trip, as within ten minutes the vehicles had arrived in position on a bluff overlooking the facility.

Alicia whistled softly as she saw it, eyes roaming over the structure. "That's a big building," she murmured, staring at the four story structure. Surrounding it was a few buildings and landing platforms connected by walkways to the main building, as well as several large cannons pointed skyward. Her eyes narrowed as she noticed a series of metal pylons surrounding the base perimeter, before accessing the radio. "Striker 1-1, this is Normandy 1-1. Are you guys seeing those pylons around the base? I don't remember seeing them in the schematics we had," she queried.

"Copy Normandy 1-1. They must be a recent addition. Maybe it's some type of radiation shielding?" The leader of the RITA troopers responded, while Alicia frowned.

"Tali, can you come take a look?" She asked over her shoulder, scooting to the side as much as she could while Tali awkwardly did her best to move forward. Despite being perhaps the smallest member of the ground team, even she still had trouble squeezing past the turret position where Ashley sat, and getting between Naruto and Alicia so she could peer through the forward viewports.

"…I think I've seen those before," she muttered, bringing up her omni-tool and going into her data-files. "About two…maybe three years ago, one of our salvage teams found an abandoned geth base on a planet that was heavily irradiated, like this one. It was near the Perseus Veil…yes, yes, they reported similar pylons like those. They're some type of radiation shield masts," she said, finding the data she was looking for.

"Guess the geth made things a bit easier for us," spoke up the female voice of Striker 2-1, from the third Mako.

"Guess so. Alright, so here's the plan-," Alicia started to say, only to be interrupted by a flash of light. The flash came from one of the cannons, still aimed skyward as it fired a round up into the sky. This soon was followed by more rounds being fired from the other cannons.

A few moments later the radio crackled to life. "Normandy 1-1 this is Normandy Actual! We've got a bit of a situation up here!" Joker yelled over the communications.

"What's going on Joker? The cannons down here just opened up on something in orbit!" Naruto yelled into the radio.

This time, Pressly responded. "Commander, the quarian ships were routing the geth, pushing them back, but they managed to pull the quarian ships into the firing range of those orbital cannons. The quarian ships are trying to get out of the kill zone, but more geth ships arrived from outside the system! They'll be within combat range in twenty minutes."

Alicia cursed at that. "Alright team, change of plans! We're going in hard and fast, no time for subtlety! We've got twenty minutes to either capture the control for those guns or destroy them and give the quarian ships a chance to evac! Pressly, get on the horn to those Alliance taskforces and tell them we're going to need backup ASAP! Strikers 1 and 2, follow me in. We're blasting through the front door," Alicia ordered, gunning the engine as Tali quickly scrambled back to her seat. Within moments the three IFVs were streaking forward, kicking up dirt and rock behind them.

The three vehicles soon quickly broke through the surrounding ring of bluffs and rocky ridges, roaring across the open area surrounding the base. Immediately an alarm went up at the geth base as a few automated defense turrets rotated towards the Alliance Makos, preparing to fire on them. However, it was the three human vehicles that would get off the first shots, each one firing a 155mm round from their cannons at a turret. A flash of light went up around each turret, showing they were equipped with shields, but soon the shields were being drained by rapid fire from the co-axial guns. The turrets responded in kind, firing cannon rounds back at the Makos as their drivers swerved to avoid being hit.

"Five hundred meters!" Alicia shouted out as dirt and rock sprayed the vehicle from a round that almost hit them, the suspension barely dampening the concussive force of the near miss. The three Mako's began drifting apart to give themselves more room to maneuver and keep the turrets from focusing fire.

Ashley let out a triumphant yell as she pumped another cannon round into the turret she had been targeting and watched it explode, quickly switching to another turret that was being peppered by machinegun rounds from Striker 1's Mako. The duo soon brought the turret down, only for them to hear a yell from Striker 2. Ashley swung the turret around in time to see the shields of the Mako shudder and blink out of existence from a round striking the vehicle. "Striker 2's shields are out!" She yelled, trying to take out the turret that was attacking the third Mako. Unfortunately a second round slammed into the right side the Mako, blowing off two of its wheels and sending it flipping over before Ashley and Striker 1 could take out the turret.

Alicia cursed as she saw Striker 2 stop on her display. The two still active Makos quickly formed a barrier between the geth base and the stricken vehicle, as the troopers in Striker 1 piled out, moving to help the troops in the stricken Mako. The damaged Mako was flipped over, lying at an angle due to the gun and turret, preventing the driver side hatch from opening. Currently the rear hatch was open, with the RITA troopers pulling themselves and their wounded comrades out of the vehicle.

Alicia was keeping an eye on the geth facility, seeing the movement of dozens of troops, while Ashley and the gunner of Striker 1 kept up a barrage of weapons fire from the turrets to provide cover. "Status!?" She called over the radio to Major Lensfeld.

"Three wounded, one badly. The rest are combat ready and are getting their gear. We'll need to give them a ride the rest of the way," he reported, as two of the RITA troopers were supporting a third whose leg appeared to be broken. The remainder were quickly gathering what supplies they could out of the Mako, tossing them into the other Mako.

Alicia nodded at that. "We'll move ahead to draw their fire on us. Catch up as soon as you can," she ordered, turning and gunning the engine. Her Mako immediately shot towards the geth base, drawing the attention of the geth troopers who were forming up to defend against the attack. Ashley quickly began sweeping the geth troops with machinegun fire, firing the main cannon at groups of them or any that were moving to take cover.

Alicia grimaced as several rounds began impacting the front of the Mako, halted by the kinetic barrier but depleting it with each hit. "Everyone get ready! This will be a hot deployment!" She shouted as the others all gripped their safety harnesses.

Soon enough the Mako roared past the pylons and immediately the environmental alarm shut off, leaving now only the alarm going off due to the shields growing weaker from continuing weapons fire. Alicia immediately spun the Mako around behind a landing platform, shielding the rear of the vehicle from the weapons fire. "MOVE!" She shouted, even as her ground team was rapidly deploying. Alicia and Naruto crawled over the driver's seats and past the gunner's turret, where Ashley was continuing to lay down cover fire from the turret, dropping out the back with the others who already were crouched with weapons drawn. Alicia quickly joined them, drawing her Lancer.

"Alright team, we're going to hold here till the platoon can rejoin us, before making a push further in. So don't try anything crazy, I want all of you to keep down and keep safe until it's time to push forward. Understood?" She asked, looking them all over. As they each nodded, she raised her weapon. "Then let's go!"

Immediately the team spread out, moving to find the best cover they could as they began spraying fire towards the geth troopers who had moved to engage them. There had been perhaps twenty of them, though a few of them were now sparking wrecks thanks to Ashley's fire, while the rest were in cover.

Wrex, naturally, was the first one to open up, his Revenant LMG rapidly barking out rounds into a cargo container that a couple of the geth were using for cover. One of the geth attempted to peek out to fire at the krogan, only for a sniper round to slam into its shields and stagger it, leaving it vulnerable to Wrex's concentrated fire. The riddled geth dropped to the ground as garrus shifted to a new target, while Wrex went back to spraying the container and the remaining geth there.

Tali meanwhile was using her Predator pistol, since the shotgun would be useless at this range. She carefully aimed at a position where one geth was hidden, waiting for said geth to pop out, before firing the pistol as rapidly as she could as soon as said geth revealed itself. Several of the rounds hit its shield and since she, like everyone else, had the disruptor round mod equipped to her weapons, the rounds quickly brought down its shields and forced it back into cover. She quickly ducked down as well as another geth began firing on her position, before a ball of biotic energy arched over and detonated near the geth she had been shooting at and the geth that had started shooting at her. It expanded into a singularity which dragged both geth helplessly into the air as Tali popped out and quickly downed them both with her pistol. Glancing over she could see Liara ducking back down, having been the one to throw the singularity out.

Alicia gritted her teeth as she gunned down another geth, watching the riddled broken frame fall over, before noting one of the troopers raising a rocket launcher and aiming it towards her position. She swung her Lancer over too late, only to watch as instead of firing the rocket launcher malfunctioned, leaving the geth defenseless and allowing her to quickly gun it down as well. She turned to Kaidan, who gave her a nod which she returned, only to gasp as a round streaked down and slammed into the tech armor surrounding Kaidan, nearly downing the protective shielding and almsot throwing the marine lieutenant onto his back. Looking up, she could see four geth snipers positioned on one of the walkways encircling the upper levels of the base. "Snipers up high!" She called out over her radio.

As one, Garrus and Naruto both immediately began focusing on the snipers. Naruto was the first one to get a shot off, piercing right through the optics of one of the snipers and destroying it, while Garrus landed a shot through another's chest. The other two geth snipers quickly focused down Naruto and Garrus, forcing them to take cover. A move that proved futile when a second round from one of the snipers pierced through the container Garrus was using for cover and took off near half of his shields. The turian grunted as he was knocked back, quickly rolling to the side to avoid another shot as he tried to find thicker cover.

"Garrus, you alright?!" Naruto called out from his position, with Garrus shaking his head and rubbing his back a bit.

"Bruised but alive. And wondering where I can get one of those sniper rifles they're using," he said, grimacing as he waited for his shields to recharge. Another round impacted his new cover, causing him to wince. That is until there was a sudden roar and the walkway where the remaining geth snipers had been standing exploded into twisted metal and smoking debris.

"You're welcome!" Ashley called out from the Mako, swiveling the main cannon to focus on the troopers on the ground.

Alicia could only grin, seeing that they were making progress in thinning out the numbers and was about to tell her team to move up, when a number of new enemy signals appeared on her motion tracker. "We've got more coming in!" She shouted, readying herself for the next wave.

Thirty geth could be seen streaming out of the base towards them, including at least two of the 'Prime' units, but what was worse was the sight of two four legged walkers emerging from a larger door in the side of the building. Kaidan cursed as he saw them. "We've got Armatures!" He called out. The two walkers were not as big as the Colossus but were still highly effective anti-infantry platforms, with two rapid firing cannons mounted in the head. In a few of the ground engagements between geth and Alliance forces, they had been seen acting as flank protection for the larger Colossi, keeping infantry from attacking the larger walkers sides while the Colossi would engage enemy vehicles or fortified positions.

Now these two walkers began opening up on the ground team's position, rapidly spewing out rounds that forced them all into cover. Ashley swung the Mako cannon around, firing both weapons at the closest Armature and watching it reel a bit, but seem otherwise undamaged from the cannon round that had slammed into it. It turned towards her, the twin rapid firing guns quickly draining the shields. Ashley grimaced as she watched the loading indicator, praying she'd get another shot off before the shields failed and the fire did more serious damage to the vehicle.

Just as it seemed like the shields were going to collapse, a rocket roared past the Mako and slammed into the Armature, depleting it's already weakened shields and ripping right through the body of the walker, destroying it. At the same time, Striker 1's Mako roared up, several troopers crouched on the back of it with their magnetic boots while one of them lowered some type of rocket launcher from his shoulder, popping out the depleted power-cell and slotting a new one in. A second RITA trooper raised a similar launcher, aiming at the second Armature and firing, the missile slamming into the shield and exploding, staggering the Armature.

"Now that's what I'm talking about!" Wrex shouted, standing up and letting out a roar as his Revenant roared to life once again, spewing out rounds and ripping into a couple of the geth. Alicia grinned as she shot up as well, sending out a biotic throw to send a rocket trooper geth flying while the RITA's Mako stopped and the RITA troopers piled out, taking up positions as they began firing on the geth. Each of the troopers was clad in armor similar in appearance and design to the standard Alliance marine combat armor, except that the supply compartments for thermal clips were expanded and the armor was somewhat bulkier. On their right pauldrons there was a unit patch, a pegasus with wings outstretched as It reared over a pair of crossed rifles.

The RITA troopers quickly fanned out, taking cover as they fired on the geth troops, moving out to either side of Alicia's group as their Mako swung its cannon around, finishing off the second Armature with a cannon shot. Major Lensfeld quickly dropped into cover next to Alicia as his soldiers took up their position. "Sorry to keep you waiting Commander," he said, drawing out his own Lancer and opening up on a geth trooper, damaging it and forcing it back down into cover.

"Your timing couldn't be better, Major!" The human Spectre said with a grin. "Now that you're here, we can start pushing up. But those Primes are going to be a problem. You think those Bodkins of yours can handle them?" She asked, referring to the two M-237 Bodkin Anti-Armor Launchers the RITA troopers had used on the Armatures.

"Easily," the major said with a grin, before signaling those two troopers. "Heinkel, Samuels! Prioritize those Primes!" He shouted.

The two troopers both nodded, readying their shoulder fired launchers. Within moments there were two roars as they both fired their payloads, the two rockets streaming towards the geth Primes. Similar in design to the larger disruptor torpedoes on warships, the rockets of the Bodkin launcher were designed to generate a 'mass field' that increased their mass, allowing them to hit harder than normal to bypass enemy shields or barriers. Combined with the narrow reinforced nose cone designed for maximum armor penetration, the rockets lived up to their namesake in armor penetration. A fact made apparent when one of the rockets easily pierced the armored chassis of one of the Primes and detonated, ripping the large geth in two. The second Prime narrowly managed to avoid the other rocket by making an awkward 'hop' to the side, leaving the rocket to slam into the side of the base and explode.

However, the second squad of RITA troopers all immediately began firing on said Prime, their combined fire slamming into its reinforced barriers with a vengeance. The Prime aimed its cannons towards the humans, preparing to fire at them as they quickly got into cover, only for fire from the first squad to now hit it in the side. It quickly aimed at them, while a series of deep stutters and clicks emanated from it. A combat drone soon detached itself from the Prime, activating and beginning to fire at the second squad of RITA troopers to keep them down, as the Prime focused on the first squad with its cannon.

The RITA troopers hunkered down as the heavy cannon began blasting their cover, a cargo lifter left sitting on the landing paltform. The cannon blasts were slamming hard into the loader, slowly ripping away at its exterior and making it less viable for cover. Meanwhile, the second squad found themselves pinned by the holographic combat drone as it fired bolts of electricity at them, while other geth troopers were now rallying to the Prime, firing on both squads of RITA troopers and Alicia's ground team. Liara was grimacing, keeping her helmeted head down as weapons fire tore into the landing platform near her, before shakily raising her head enough to peek. The Prime was keeping the RITA troopers pinned, and their cover was quickly deteriorating. She knew it needed to be dealt with, but her weapons were useless. All she had were her biotics. She could attack the Prime with them, but what good would it do? She tried to think, yet all the weapons fire and shouting added to the confusion she felt from her fear. She didn't belong here. She wasn't a soldier. She was useless. She should have stayed on the ship.

Hearing a yell she looked back up, seeing one of the RITA troopers had been knocked over by the rocket of one of the geth rocket troopers, which had exploded near them and knocked them out of cover. The Prime immediately homed in on said soldier, preparing to fire at them. Reacting on solely on some unconscious impulse, Liara shot her hand out, her biotics glowing around her limb.

The cannon of the geth Prime lit up, surrounded by her biotics as she yanked it up and the barrel followed suit, firing into the sky. Liara pulled the cannon free from the Prime's grip, throwing the weapon away and leaving the hulking geth weaponless. And in that instance, the RITA trooper Heinkel rose up, firing another Bodkin rocket at the Prime. The missile exploded dead center against the Prime, ripping the mech to pieces and leaving only a pair of legs behind that remained standing for a few seconds, before falling over. Liara let out a gasp, sucking in air as she didn't realize she had been holding her breath, hand still outstretched. Before she could even register what happened, something slammed into her side, pulling her to the ground. At the same time there was the sound of a crack and something passed through the air where her head had been.

Liara let out a cry of pain as she hit the ground, looking up to see Naruto there, as he had been the one to slam into her and pull her down. "Keep your head down Liara!" He shouted, popping up with his Viper sniper rifle and firing, claiming a geth sniper that had nearly shot her. He ducked back down, looking to her. "You alright?"

The asari nodded a bit numbly, realizing what had happened. "T-Thank you," she said.

"No problem. You did a good job with that Prime there," he said, popping back up and firing at another geth trooper, dropping it. "But next time, try not to freeze up. Alicia would be upset if you got injured," he said with a grin.

Liara blinked at that, about to question him, except he moved to a new position to help set up a crossfire on a group of geth troopers pinned by Ashley in their Mako and the gunner still in the other Mako. She turned to look in Alicia's direction, to see the human vanguard was busy pulling a geth trooper off her gauntlet blades before bringing up her shotgun to fire at another one. Shaking her head she shakily drew her pistol, trying to calm herself before she rejoined the fight.

In space, Captain Jessin watched the holographic display as events unfolded. His ships had been hammering the geth ships, eliminating the two heavy cruisers and three of the five frigates that had remained behind, leaving the geth with two frigates and a light cruiser. But the geth ships had managed to reposition themselves to give their ground cannons a clear shot at his ships. Two of his frigates had been destroyed, with a light cruiser heavily damaged and limping away from the fight. But what was worse was several more geth ships had been detected on long range sensors re-entering the system. He still had a numerical advantage, but the technological advantage of the geth ships would negate that if they didn't negate that. He did have a potential way of slowing those reinforcing ships down, but it would be extremely dangerous. He quickly moved to the communications console. "Patch me through to the human ship," he ordered.

On the Normandy, Pressly was watching the developing scene on the holographic display. Externally he looked calm and collected, while internally he felt conflicted, eyes flickering to the damaged quarian ship and the locations of the two destroyed quarian ships. He, like quite a few other humans in the Alliance, had been mistrustful of the aliens they had encountered, especially considering their first contact with actual alien life had sparked a small war. Events following the First Contact War hadn't done much to change his outlook on the other races of the galaxy. When Alicia had invited the alien members of her ground team onto the ship, he had almost protested to her about it.

And yet having watched them, having even spoken to them…he would admit that they were, for the most part, no different from him. They were just people trying to live their lives. What's more though, they were here, willingly fighting for Shepard, helping humanity out. And now the quarians were helping out even more, fighting and dying to help out the Alliance.

He was shaken from his thoughts as a communication alert went off, before a voice spoke up. "SSV Normandy, this is the Reisha. We need your assistance."

Pressly straightened up, looking at the holographic dot that represented the lead quarian ship. "Understood Reisha, how can we help?" He asked.

"I have a plan to delay those incoming ships and try to buy us some more time, but it is dangerous. Some of my ships will move forward and attempt to deploy a group of EMP mines in the path of those warships. However, the geth might deploy a fighter screen to intercept those ships. Can you attempt to provide cover for them, give them time to deploy the mines?" The quarian captain asked.

Pressly looked to the crew for a moment, before nodding. "Understood. We'll provide an escort for them. Normandy out," he said, cutting the comm line before activating the intercom. "Helm, take us forward to rendezvous with their ships. Tactical, prepare for combat!" he ordered, as the crew leapt to action. Soon, the sleek frigate was surging forward, joining a group of quarian frigates as they moved away from Solcrum.

On the surface, the geth troops that had moved out to repel the Alliance troopers were being driven back. Despite having numbers on their sides, the RITA troopers on the flanks and Alicia's team in the center had managed to catch them in a three way cross-fire, decimating the troopers numbers. The two Mako's also had continued to lend supporting fire, their main cannons ripping apart cover the geth might have used while their co-axial guns shredded any geth caught in the open.

Alicia could only grin, watching as Wrex was stomping a damaged geth into the ground with a giant armored foot, roaring as he used a powerful biotic throw to send another one crashing into the base itself. Naruto nearby could be seen vaulting over cover that a pair of geth drones were using, gunning one of the troopers down with his Lancer while his Carnifex barked out, finishing off a damaged rocket trooper. Tali and Kaidan both were alternating between their weapons and launching sabotage and overload programs, with Kaidan adding in biotic attacks as well.

However, the battle had not been one sided. Nearby, Liara was holding up a large biotic barrier shield, allowing a medic amongst the RITA troopers to try and stabilize one of their squad who had been badly wounded. The asari was doing her best to keep them shielded, as occasionally a geth would fire in their direction. Garrus would quickly pick them off as soon as they'd start firing, helping ease the burden on the inexperienced archeologist.

Alicia quickly targeted one of the few remaining groups of geth, slamming into one of them with a biotic charge before hitting the ground with a powerful nova attack, scattering them and leaving them easy prey for the others to shoot at. She brought up her shotgun, blasting one geth as she rushed for the next bit of cover, diving behind it as rounds from a geth assault rifle tore through the air where she had been. Switching to her Lancer she quickly got up to one knee, firing over the cover at the geth who had been shooting at her, draining its shields before one of the RITA troopers from their first squad picked it off from the side. Clear for the moment, Alicia hunkered down, accessing her radio. "Sit-rep people, how we doing?!" She called out.

"There's maybe six or seven left! I think they're trying to reach the main door and get inside the base," Major Lensfeld called out.

""Don't worry, we're cutting them off! Besides, I think that krogan is looking to finish them!" Major Lensfeld second in command, Captain Rowan Betsford, called out with glee evident in her voice. Her squad currently had the geth pinned down and unable to retreat, leaving them wide open for Wrex.

The large krogan let out yet another battle roar, shotgun in hand as he charged right at the geth, leaping over their cover. It was like watching a wolf amongst injured sheep. He slammed his helmeted head into one hard enough to destroy its optical port and head, turning and clubbing another with his shotgun before shooting it. A third tried to shoot him but he merely swung one arm out, his biotics slamming into it and sending it crashing into another geth, leaving both of them open to be gunned down by RITA troopers. Wrex dropped his shotgun at this point, grabbing both the arms of one of the remaining geth and ripping them off before beating the geth with them, while the sixth geth was brought down by Garrus before it could shoot the krogan in the back. Wrex soon dropped the destroyed arms, roaring out his victory as he stood over the smoking remains of his victim.

Alicia quickly checked her HUD motion detector, seeing no more enemies on it, before standing up. "Clear!" She called out, soon getting similar replies forma cross the battlefield. Keeping her Lancer drawn she quickly moved to where Wrex stood, with everyone else who could joining her. "How'd we do?" She asked the major as soon as he joined her.

"Two more wounded, but my medic thinks they'll pull through. Your asari there really helped out by giving them cover," he reported, nodding to where Liara was now attempting to help out the medic treating the two wounded soldiers. "My men did an ammo count, and they're still ready to fight."

"Ground team is ready to go," Naruto reported, slotting a fresh thermal clip into his Lancer. "Liara and Garrus are going to hang back to provide the medic and wounded with cover."

"Good call. Williams, get up here. You're going to be replacing Vakarian," she said over the radio, before turning to the door. "Now we just need to get through that, and deal with whatever's left in the base."

Captain Betsford looked at the doors to the base, before looking to the side. "We could maybe try to get through with the Bodkins. If we fire enough of them at it," she said, indicating the wall of the base where one of the rockets had hit when it missed its target. The blast area showed some damage. "I'm betting the wall of the base is a lot more reinforced then the door is."

"Let's see if we can't hack it first. Tali, Lieutenant?" Alicia asked, looking to her two tech experts.

"I'm not sure ma'am. Geth security algorithms are pretty tough and I don't even seen a control terminal to try and hack," Kaidan said, moving to the door. Tali didn't answer, merely moving to the door and feeling along the walls near it. Stopping at one point, she seemed to rap a fist against the metal before bringing up her omni-tool and began working on it.

"Tali?" Naruto asked curiously, joining her as she quickly worked the holographic keyboard on her omni-tool.

"It's a manual override," she stated simply. "Quarians designed our doors with a manual override that was hidden behind a panel with its own separate power cell to ensure that if the base's power was ever compromised, the doors could still be opened from the outside. If you know where to find it, that is. The geth seemingly kept the design after all these years, since it was practical to do so. No one would ever know what to look for, and even if they did find it they wouldn't necessarily know what it is." With a few key strokes the panel slid back, revealing a lever.

"Clever," Wrex murmured, while Alicia just nodded.

"Good work Tali. Everyone, get ready to move. My team will take point," she said as Wrex eagerly moved to the door, Revenant ready to start spewing rounds at any geth on the other side of it. Alicia and the others took up firing positions as well, with the Commander giving Tali a nod. The quarian quickly pulled the lever, causing the doors to slowly open.

The ground team found themselves facing an empty hallway, much to everyone's relief save Wrex, whose shoulders slumped slightly. "Move out team," Alicia ordered, taking the lead with Wrex, followed by Naruto, Kaidan, Tali and Ashley. The two squads of RITA troopers soon followed, weapons drawn and at the ready as they kept sweeping the hallway for any surprises.

Alicia frowned as she took in the appearance of the hallway, while throughout the base they heard alarms going off. This was the first time they had seen the inside of a geth ship or base, and the hallway itself seemed a bit oddly designed, the walls being slightly…off, like they were angled or something. She couldn't describe exactly how, but it felt truly alien to her. She shook her head before speaking up "Keep an eye out for any automated security systems. I doubt they'd rely on just troopers for defense."

As if to prove her right, Wrex rounded a corner only to find two turrets extending from the wall, both of them opening up on him. He grunted as he threw up a biotic barrier to protect himself, allowing Alicia to move up next to him and arm a grenade. She stepped out long enough to throw it, quickly hiding behind the barrier again as it stuck onto one turret and soon exploded, destroying said turret and damaging the other one. Wrex dropped his barrier and began spraying the remaining turret with his LMG, destroying it. "Heh, you some kind of prophet, Shepard?" He asked, moving past the wreckage of the two turrets.

Alicia just followed him, with Tali moving up behind her. "If we can find a terminal, I can maybe give us a map to wherever their command center is," she said, gripping her shotgun tightly. She knew time was running out for the quarian ships in orbit, and they would either be destroyed by the geth ships, or driven back into range of the cannons. They needed to hurry to protect her people.

The hallway, after about twenty meters, soon rose up in a ramp that they carefully ascended. However, just as the last of the RITA troopers reached the top, another pair of turrets appeared out of the walls behind them. The two soldiers in the back, who had been checking the rear, quickly shouted out a warning as they dropped, followed by everyone else as the turrets opened fire onto empty space. However, the sheer amount of return fire that struck them obliterated them before they could reacquire their targets.

"That was too close," the captain of second squad stated, looking to her troops. "Major, Commander, we might want to spread ourselves out more, give their security measures less of a target."

Alicia nodded at that. "Good call. Major, keep your men at least twenty feet behind my team. Captain, same with yours behind his," she said.

"Commander, over here!" Tali shouted from slightly ahead. They found the quarian in a small alcove, accessing a terminal. "It's a maintenance console, connected to the power distribution system. I can hack it and use the power system to chart out the base," she said.

"Do it. Everyone, form a defense perimeter," she ordered, as Tali set to work. At her command, the soldiers and her ground team took up defensive positions facing down both ends of the corridor, weapons at the ready. Tali kept working on the console, downloading the data to her omni-tool and bypassing security programs and firewalls that kept popping up as the geth attempted to block her access.

Suddenly, a new noise joined the alarms sounding through the base, the whirr of engines and the hum of anti-gravity fields. From both sides, swarms of combat drones appeared, similar to the ones Alicia's team had encountered on Eden Prime. The drones quickly began firing on the Alliance forces, who returned fire, quickly downing drones while continually shifting positions, making themselves as unpredictable a target as they could. Yet with no cover, there was no way to truly protect themselves from the drones fire. One RITA trooper went down when his shielding failed, rounds piercing into his leg and dropping him to the ground, even as he managed a burst from his Lancer to finish off the drone that injured him. Another wasn't as lucky as rounds riddled his chest plate, overwhelming the armor plating and killing the man who dropped soundlessly to the ground. Alicia quickly cleared one side using a shockwave, the biotic blasts slamming the drones into the walls of the hallway and badly damaging or destroying most of them, while the RITA troopers of squad two, with help from Wrex's Revenant and Ashley's Mantis, managed to finish off the drones in the other direction.

As the last geth drone fell to the ground, little more than scrap, Alicia lowered her hand and quickly scanned her group. Her team was fine, but one of the troopers was dead, while two were wounded. The one who had been shot in the leg was being stabilized, while another was holding their side where a couple rounds had penetrated lower down near his stomach. They had managed to miss any vital organs, and medi-gel soon had stabilized both the wounded men. She watched as Naruto approached Major Lensfeld, who was crouched next to his dead soldier.

"I'm sorry," Naruto said, as Major Lensfeld nodded, slowly resting the man's hands on his chest.

"It happens…especially in our line of work," he said, as two of his men moved to the corpse gently to one side. Naruto slowly lowered his head, whispering a few words in vulzan, paying respects to the man.

Alicia turned away, trying to stop her stomach churning from guilt at the death of someone else fighting alongside her, looking to Tali instead. "Tali?" She asked.

The quarian was looking over a holographic rendering of the base interior. "I think this is it," she said, indicating a room. "There's a significant amount of power going to this one room. I would say this is most likely the command area."

"Plot a path and transmit it to everyone's HUD's," she ordered, before turning to Lensford. "What do you want to do about your men?" She asked, indicating the injured.

"They'll stay here and hold this position. We can't take them with us, and I don't think we can sacrifice anymore of our firepower, especially if the geth decide to try and hold that command area in force," the Major said, looking to the two wounded soldiers. "Rollins, Heinkel, think you can hold?"

Heinkel just grinned behind the breather mask of his helmet as he handed his bodkin launcher and power cells to one of the uninjured troopers. "Do you need to ask sir?" He asked, getting a chuckle from the other RITA troopers. Lensford nodded, turning to Alicia who simply took up point with Wrex again, following the highlighted path on her HUD thanks to Tali.

In space, Joker grimaced as he felt the ship shudder slightly from impacts caused by several rounds fired by one of the geth fighters that were currently assaulting the Normandy. He expertly rolled the ship, watching as the holographic display showed another of the small insect like fighters disappearing in a display of plasma fires and explosions as one of the GARDIAN batteries ripped it apart. He turned the ship around, keeping it between the geth fighters and the quarian frigates, which were finishing up deploying a series of mines along the incoming path of the geth warships. The human ship had been running interference, keeping the fast star-fighters from attacking the quarian ships, using a combination of missiles and GARDIAN fire to keep them at bay.

However, the fight was starting to feel overwhelming for the stealth frigate, as even with its numerous GARDIAN batteries, the fighters were slowly overwhelming them, able to get in closer and closer with each new attack. The kinetic shields were dropping, and a few rounds had managed to hit the hull armor.

Thankfully, they soon received the all clear signal from the lead quarian frigate and began to beat a hasty retreat, joining the quarian frigates who began adding their own fire against the geth star-fighters and driving them back. Behind them the mines hovered silently in space, each one powered down save for a few maneuvering thrusters and sensors, to minimize the chance of them being detected.

Near him, the sensor officer shook her head. "I hope that'll hold them for a bit," she said softly.

Joker looked over his shoulder at her. "Look on the bright side…we've got a better chance of surviving this battle than anyone else does," he said.

The ensign looked at him in confusion, as he elaborated. "Because we've got the best pilot behind the controls of one of the best ships in the Alliance," he said with a grin, looking forward again. As he did, his grin faded as he took on a serious look. 'Really could use some good news soon Commander,' he thought as he piloted the ship back to the quarian task force.

Inside the base, Alicia's group was making progress. The geth were continuing to put up resistance, with several automated turrets and a few more groups of geth drones attacking them. However, the former were no longer surprises, since Tali had been able to use the power transfer system to mark their locations, allowing the team to anticipate their position and activations. The drones were also not much of a threat, once Wrex and Naruto were repositioned at the front and rear of the team, to provide biotic shields while everyone else picked off the drones.

The real danger came when they came across a group of geth troopers holding a defensive position near what they believed to be the command center. At least ten geth troopers and a Prime were utilizing combat barriers to blockade the way forward, firing at the team as they rounded a corner and forcing them back.

Naruto, currently crouched, popped out to fire a burst from his Lancer, seeing the rounds impact mostly against the barrier, before pulling back as a hail of return fire hit the corner or shot past him. "We need to break this stalemate," he said, checking a chronometer on his HUD. "The quarian ships don't have much time left."

"We need to remove those barriers. We can't get a clear shot with those in the way," Ashley said, peeking around the corner and quickly retracting her helmet to avoid enemy fire.

"What about the Bodkins? We've got some shots left, and those barriers shouldn't be a problem," Major Lensfeld suggested, only for Alicia to shake her head.

"Whoever steps out to fire wouldn't survive long enough to pull the trigger. Not unless we gave them some cover first," she murmured, looking to Tali. "Tali, can their optics see through smoke?"

The quarian engineer blinked at that. "Our ancestors didn't modify their optics to do so, but that doesn't mean they didn't upgrade themselves in the three hundred years since then. That would be a bit of a gamble," she said.

Alicia gained a thoughtful look, before signaling Kaidan. "They don't have any snipers, so if they do start shooting, they shouldn't be able to take you out before you can get back behind the corner. So let's test our theory," she said.

Naruto nodded at her, quickly drawing a single grenade and priming it as a smoke grenade, before tossing it around the corner. They soon heard a soft 'whump' and the hiss of escaping smoke, which was Kaidan's signal. He stepped around the corner, seeing the cloud of smoke filling the hallway. There was some weapons fire coming through the smoke, most likely in response to his movement being picked up on motion detectors, but none of it was accurately aimed at him.

Alicia grinned as she saw that before signaling Ashley to pop a second one. As soon as she did, she signaled Samuels, who stepped out with his launcher ready. Dropping to one knee, he aimed in the general direction of the first barrier, firing a rocket before quickly rolling to the side. The rocket burst through the smoke and exploded against the barrier, ripping it to pieces and sending the geth behind it scattering. Samuel's quickly fired a second rocket at the general location of the second barrier, before diving back into cover with Kaidan following him. They heard the explosion of the second rocket, causing Alicia to cock her shotgun. "Alright, let's do it! Wrex on point! Target the Prime!"

Wrex let out a gleeful roar as he rounded the corner, shrouding himself in biotics yet again and surging forward. Everyone else followed suit, rounding the corner and firing when they had a clear shot.

The geth, somewhat off balanced from the two surprise rockets, were caught in the open. Several of the troopers were cut down by rapid fire before they were given a chance, as Wrex didn't even both drawing one of his guns. He simply rushed the Prime, slamming into it and wrapping his arms around its torso as he carried it off its feet and into a wall, slamming it hard enough into said wall to dent it. He stepped back and slammed his helmeted head as hard as he could into its optical ports, followed by several more slams to blind it and disrupt its systems. Pulling out his combat knife, he slammed it into the exposed neck tubing with a grunt, tearing a jagged cut through the hydraulic and electrical lines in said tubing, effectively finishing the Prime off.

Naruto slid on the ground feet first towards the geth, firing his Lancer at one before dropping it as he spun to his feet, his gauntlet blades extended as he slashed them in a cross fashion across the chest of one geth, ripping its armor plating open and exposing the circuitry within. He quickly stabbed in, the blades of his left gauntlet shearing through more vital components and ending the geth before he turned, throwing it off his arm and grabbing another geth that attempted to club him with its assault rifle. He slashed down against the arm, severing hydraulic lines and forcing it to drop said rifle before tossing it to Alicia, who kicked it as it was thrown at her, knocking it to the ground where she finished it with a shotgun slug to the head. Near her, another geth fell to weapons fire while the last one was stabbed in the neck by one of the RITA troopers with an omni-blade generated from his armor's omni-tool. With the last geth down, the group quickly formed back up, staring at the two large doors the geth had been protecting.

"This should be it," Tali said, moving to the control console for the door and trying to hack into it. She frowned, typing in several commands, before cursing in quarian. "The damn bosh'tets erased the command codes! And the manual release is on the otherside of the door!" She shouted angrily, slamming a fist against the door.

Wrex snarled, about to ram into the door, only to be stopped by one of the RITA troopers, this one with sergeant stripes on his armor. "Allow me?" He asked with a grin, before moving to the door. "Picked up on a trick about two years back, when we were helping raid a slaver outpost. Let's see if it'll work here."

He pulled out a canister from his supply pouches, with a small tube attached to a trigger sitting on the top of it. He quickly began pressing the trigger as he ran the tube along the seams of the door, releasing a semi-molten substance. "A lot of people simply go with electronic hacking when dealing with doors, so security measures are centered around that. However, if you just apply some omni-gel to the seams of the door and let it work into the gears and servos, you can pop the door open with a simple electrical surge through the gel. The gel conducts the surge into the mechanisms, triggering them," he explained. After about ten minutes he held up his omni-tool, typed in a command, and pressed a finger to the omni-gel. There was a brief spark from his finger, before the omni-gel briefly lit up, and the door opened up.

Tali just stared at that, before looking at him. "Omni-gel? Really? She asked, eyes wide. The semi-molten substance was essentially simple alloys, ceramics, and industrial plastics broken down into a reusable substance that was often used in simple repairs or modifications of technology. She hadn't ever thought it could be used to break open a sealed door.

The sergeant just shrugged with a grin. "You never known when the simplest items can be the most useful," he said.

"Good work Sergeant," Alicia said, moving past the man with shotgun raised, sweeping the room beyond as the others followed her. What they found surprised them.

The room was some strange cross between a server room and a command center. Terminals were set up for command operations, but all of them were linked to large computer servers dotted with flashing lights. Alicia looked questioningly to Tali, but Naruto quickly caught on. "The geth are running the base from inside the servers, aren't they?" He asked Tali, who nodded.

"Yes. It allows for much faster response time, since everything can be done in nano-seconds. They still have physical terminals for use by their platforms when they inhabit them, but otherwise they operate out of those servers instead," she explained.

"So how do we take command of the base from them? Can you take over the base controls?" Alicia asked, only for Tali to shake her head.

"There's no way I can beat them. Not in their environment. If it was just some security protocols, sure. But they…there are probably a few hundred of them inside those servers, all working in unison. I wouldn't just be trying to beat one of them, I'd be trying to beat all of them. However…we still can seize command of the base," she said.

"How?" Major Lensfeld asked, causing Tali to shift a bit, suddenly uncomfortable as she realized everyone was staring at her.

"Well…if you can set your grenades to release an EMP burst…we place them on the servers and detonate them. The geth programs inside each server would either be deleted when it shuts down, or they'll transfer out of the servers to somewhere else. Either way, they won't be here to stop me from hacking into the base controls," she said.

Alicia grinned at her. "Devious. You heard her people," She ordered.

Quickly, the troopers began moving to the servers, only for a new alarm to go off throughout the base. Tali whirled, moving to one of the terminals and cursing at what she saw. "They're attempting to overload the main reactor! They want to try and take the base out!"

"Can you stop it?!" Alicia asked her, moving next to her. The quarian engineer nodded a bit distractedly.

"I think so, but I need to be able to take control of the base to do it! Get rid of those geth servers, and quickly!" She shouted, already setting to work.

"Won't this overload the terminals though?" One of the RITA troopers asked, only for Tali to shake her head.

"The geth stole this design layout from my ancestors. There are physical safeguards to prevent both the terminal and the server from being affected by a failure or destruction of the other. You'd have to go after both of them," she assured them, still working on the controls to get a jump start on preventing the reactor overload.

The soldiers quickly set the EMP grenades, stepping back and quickly detonating them. Almost as one, the servers connected to each terminal went dark, and the terminals flickered before rebooting, now operating solely by manual controls. Tali grunted in satisfaction as she found herself dealing with less security now, working on taking control of the main reactor.

It was a tense few moments, everyone watching the quarian rapidly typing into the terminal, her mask preventing any of them from seeing her face and gauging her progress based on her emotions. She simply kept typing before letting out a satisfied grunt. "Done!" She called, as the alarms faded away.

"Good work. Can you access those defense cannons?" Alicia asked, causing Tali to nod as she moved to another console, and started hacking into it.

"It'll take me a few minutes. And I need to hack the base's security systems first, to prevent any additional geth from reaching us," she said, working quickly.

"Alright you heard her. Form a perimeter around the entranceway and keep the enemy from retaking the command center," Alicia ordered, moving outside the room, along with the rest of her team and the RITA troopers. As they set up defensive positions, Tali continued to work, hacking her way through the geth security systems.

In orbit, the quarian ships found themselves slowly being forced back to Solcrum. The minefield had bought them some time, catching the geth ships unaware as they activated within only a few hundred meters of the geth ships and homed in on them, damaging several and actually managing to destroy one geth frigate. But there had been too few mines and after the initial surprise, the geth had been able to destroy the rest before they could make contact with their ships.

Afterwards the quarian ships, with the help of the Normandy, had fought a slow retreat, doing their best to keep their distance from Solcrum. Yet they could not advance, as the geth ships quickly proved to be deadly in closer ranges, their GARDIAN batteries having a greater range and damage output. And so they were slowly pushed back, closer to the kill zone that was the ground based anti-orbital cannons.

On the Reisha, Captain Jessin gripped the armrests of his chair, watching as a fifth ship began to spiral out of formation, the ship too badly damaged as the survivors began to abandon ship. The numerical advantage he had was quickly being eradicated, as the geth ships continued to force his ships back with accurate long range fire. The only thing that had stopped them from charging his ships and slaughtering them in close quarters combat seemed to be the Normandy, as the human ship would make quickly darting attacks, surging out of formation to quickly make a pass at one of the enemies flanks, launching a barrage of missiles and main cannon fire before darting back into the safety of the quarian fleet. Jessin had to admire the courage and skill of the human crew, especially their pilot as said ship seemed to dance around the geth's return fire.

He was about to shout out new orders when his communications officer spoke up from their post. "Captain, we're receiving a message from the surface!"

"Put it through," he ordered, only for the comms officer to shake their head.

"It was a burst transmission sir, directed at all the ships. It's some coordinates, followed by…'you're in the way'." They stated, their voice confused.

Jessin blinked, taking a look at the coordinates and seeing they led to the other side of the orbital station. His eyes widened, before he turned to the communications officer. "Send to all ships; tell them to make best speed to those coordinates! Now!" He shouted.

Within a few minutes every quarian ship, along with the Normandy, had turned and was pushing their engines to maximum, quickly opening the distance between themselves and the geth ships. The geth ships began to pursue as their prey began to split apart, some ships going on an upwards trajectory while others began to angle downwards. The geth simply followed, firing their main cannons at the quarians as they could, unaware of what was about to befall them.

Suddenly, several streaks of light shot up from the planet, slamming into the lead ships of the geth force. Two frigates were ripped apart instantly, while a light cruiser was badly damaged and a heavy cruiser nearly lost its shields. Within seconds, another barrage of rounds slammed into the geth ships, destroying and damaging more of them, as the quarian ships safely regrouped on the other side of the half constructed orbital platform. The quarian crews could only watch and cheer as the geth's own defensive cannons ripped their ships apart, firing barrage after barrage into the geth ships. The geth ships began to maneuver to try and avoid being easy targets for the ground based cannons, but this left them vulnerable to fire from the quarian ships, which had now regrouped. Their morale bolstered, the quarian ships ganged up on the outlying geth ships, picking off the ones on the flanks and forcing the ones in the center to bunch up again, making them perfect targets for the ground based cannons. Soon twenty or so geth ships had been reduced by over half their number, and the remainder began fleeing, leaving the quarian ships bloodied but victorious.

Operation Hidden Blade was over, and for the combined Alliance and Migrant Fleet forces, it was a resounding success.

Man do I really hate myself right now. I am so sorry that this chapter took so long to come out. Part of the reason why is all this craziness with the COVID-19, but part of it also was I was constantly re-writing this chapter over and over and over again, trying to get it right. And I'm still not sure if this is good enough. I guess I'll let you all be the judge.

Sorry, no Ranger Lair craziness for the end here. I'm- *is forced to duck an empty bottle of ryncol being thrown at my head*

Wrex: Don't pull that crap on us! You took away our end bit last chapter!

Alicia: Yeah! We deserve it!

LR: Uuurrgghhhhh, why are you rebelling against me? You're supposed to be the good OC's and personalities.

Alicia: We are. Which is why you can't bail on the Ranger Lair here. You owe us.

DFSLLR: Yeah! *is busy playing against DSTLR in video games*

DSTLR: Hah, take that! SHEPTALI FOREVER! *smirks as his character headshots DFSLLR's character*

DFSLLR: No fair, I was distracted!

Alicia: I GOT WINNER!

LR: …..I need a drink…or twenty.

Thank you for reading and reviewing my chapter! And thank you to a7xfanatic11 for his help betaing this fanfic!

1. This, as far as I know, is not canon at all. I completely made this up because I thought it might help expand the lore of the quarians a bit, with just a fun little additional piece of info. However, if anyone has actual canon sources that support or contradict this, please tell me immediately so I can fix it.