Getting the clone tank aboard the shuttle took a bit of doing, but was easier than Jorge had initially expected. Okeer really had been prepared to bug out, the tank was mobile and motorized. Once a portable generator was in place to provide power to the tank systems, it was relatively easy to maneuver the tank through the doors, past Rana's body, and out to a decayed section open to the sky, where the shuttle was waiting to take them all back to the Normandy. The ground team secured the area while it was loaded on, but it wasn't really necessary; Okeer had triggered a total krogan release, and what remained of the Blue Suns had their hands more than full trying to survive. None seemed to care about the command area either; Jorge waited at the stairwell, but no krogan came up. The extraction went perfectly.

On the Normandy, it was a quick jaunt with the motorized krogan tank up the elevator to the port side cargo hold, where it would be kept until Shepard decided what she wanted to do with it. For the moment, everyone wound down from the battle. Jacob went to the briefing room, no doubt for the post action Cerberus report, and Jorge saw Miranda head that way as well, but Jorge and Garrus went other ways, Jorge to get some food and fluids, Garrus down the hall to the main guns.

What would Shepard do? Open the tank and let out the krogan, hoping it could be reasoned with? Or space it, and Okeer's hope with it? Or would she turn it over to Cerberus for dissection? The middle was safest but also most unhelpful, Okeer had claimed his creation had all the information, spacing it would remove that possible source of information. Handing it over to Cerberus might get them the information eventually, but that was handing Cerberus a 'perfect krogan' template, and there was no guarantee they would get the information they needed. Waking the krogan was obviously the most risky, as they had no idea how cooperative it might be, and could end up with someone on the ship dead. But it would also potentially net them a new member of the squad, assuming it could keep up with them, and they would be able to question it at their leisure, directly, without depending on Cerberus.

He figured Shepard would take the first. But would it really be telling if she found the risks too great and went with a different option? Would that reflect a Shepard that was not really Shepard?

"Lieutenant Kadar," EDI's terminal in the room lit up. "Commander Shepard requests your presence at the port cargo hold."

The cargo hold with the krogan. Jorge rolled his neck, hearing a few pops.

"On my way."

Made sense. With his armor on, he could handle a krogan, so long as it wasn't biotic.

Please let it not be biotic.

He found Shepard deep in thought standing outside the door to the cargo hold, waiting for him. He quietly approached before falling to a rest position.

"Thoughts?" she asked without turning to see him.

"This could go badly," Jorge replied quietly. "If he's anything like his brothers. We might have to put him down. But I can handle him."

"Your match with Wrex was pretty even."

"I'm in my armor now."

"So you are," she replied. Her hand reached out, hitting the haptic and unlocking the port cargo hold. Jorge followed her in.

The tank was near the back by the work table, the area a mirror of his own on the starboard side but for the trash compactor. Inside the krogan was unmoving, unresponsive, quite clearly visible through the glass front, suspended in some sort of fluid.

"EDI, can he see us?" Shepard asked, crossing her arms in front of the tank. "Is he awake?"

"Unlikely. Current neural patterns indicate minimal cognition," EDI replied.

"That'll change fast once the tank's open," Jorge grunted, crossing his arms. "His brothers came out in a blood rage."

"Lieutenant Kadar is likely correct. All available literature suggests the subject will awaken in a fight or flight response. Given that the subject is krogan, the fight response is most probable."

Shepard contemplated, then tilted her head.

"Anything else odd about him? Anything we should know?"

"The subject is an exceptional example of the krogan species, with fully formed primary, secondary, and tertiary organs, where applicable. No defects of any kind, aside from the genetic markers of the genophage present in all krogan. His musculature is fully developed, and from Okeer's data appears to be exceptional in density, he will likely be stronger than other equivalently sized krogan. He is an exceptional physical specimen of his kind. His mental state, however, is unknown. Property damage upon his awakening is likely."

"Jorge?" she asked, one last time. He knew what she was asking.

"I can handle him, at least long enough to put him down," Jorge replied confidently.

Shepard nodded. "Then we're opening the tank."

"Cerberus protocol is very clear regarding untested alien technology," EDI intoned.

Shepard's face marred into a frown, showing off a lattice of thin yellow glowing scars across her face. Jorge swore he saw her eyes glow red, for just a heartbeat.

"This krogan is either an asset or a time bomb, and I want it resolved. Open the tank EDI. Now."

"Very well Shepard. The controls are online. The switch- and consequences- are yours."

Jorge snorted and prepared himself, shifting his center of mass just a bit lower, putting weight on the balls of his feet. Fighting with Wrex that one time had left him with strategies that worked, and some that didn't, and some that only thought of later that he wanted to try out…

Shepard stepped forward and hit a set of holographic buttons before stepping back. The tank hissed as the liquid began to drain, the krogan in full armor inside dropping as his weight was no longer supported by the nutrient fluid around him. His head cracked against the glass as he hit his knees, shattering a part of it just as the glass doors opened.

The krogan dropped to the ground and gave a huge cough, watery nutrient fluid coming out in a spray as it dripped from his armored form. Shepard stepped back fully, in a neutral position several feet away, waiting for the beast in front of them to recover.

He stood. Eyes focused. Mouth twitched. Shepard approached a single step, garnering his full attention.

The battle roar he let out was unmistakable, and the speed at which he started thundering towards Shepard was commendable for any creature, much less one that had been unconscious only seconds before. Still, as he thundered towards the small human female, something else blocked his path.

Jorge sidestepped in front of Shepard, getting his Mjolnir bulk in front of her unarmored form. The krogan lowered his plated head and sent a meaty hand grabbing forward, the other balling into a fist and pulling back in preparation for pulverizing whatever had gotten in his way-

It happened in between eyeblinks. Jorge met the charging krogan with his shoulderpad, stopping him cold. Then took both hands to the krogans side and slammed him headfirst into the wall, leaving an appreciable dent in the thin wall plating. As the krogan roared again and bucked to get Jorge off him, Jorge let him, allowing him out enough to spin him… Then grab one arm that was flailing around… then the other…

It was nearly impossible to kill a krogan from behind. The huge, watery, fatty hump was evolved to absorb crushing blows. A blade could pierce it, but had to be long enough to reach the brain through many inches of tissue, and had to be lucky enough to slip through or around the heavy spine that supported the skull, an extremely lucky hit. Hitting other organs was possible, if you were lucky enough to slip between ribs and other heavy duty bones, but piercing a liver or a heart wasn't quite a killing blow when the attackee had a second. Even in the age of the mass accelerator, prolonged shooting of a krogan in the back took longer to kill them than most thermal clips could withstand.

But… that hump was large. It prevented shoulder movement towards the rear. There was a large region up and down their backs that a lone krogan simply couldn't reach on their own. Couldn't get leverage over. Jorge had discovered this when fighting Wrex. The typical solution was to shake the opponent off, or crush him against something else, which had worked well enough when Jorge had been approximately the same weight.

Jorge was in Mjolnir. And, Jorge was tall. Meaning that Jorge was suddenly one the select few non-krogans that could reach around the hump and grab krogan arms, strong enough to hold them in place, and weighed enough that any krogan counterattack didn't throw him off.

And so it was that, seconds after the krogan charged at Shepard, he was held in front of her, weight far enough back that he could barely touch the floor, arms immobilized from behind by the Spartan. He fought. Hard. Kicked and scrabbled. Thrashed. But could do nothing more than slightly move the big man..

Shepard watched for a few moments.

"Do you think he's smart enough to speak?" she asked curiously. Jorge opened his mouth but the krogan beat him to it.

"I can speak, human! Let me go, I'll tear you apart!" he growled out, thrashing even harder. The fact that Jorge had to shift a bit to contain his struggles was a testament to this krogan's strength.

"That's not much incentive for me to tell him to let you go now, is it?" Shepard replied.

"Kill me or release me so I can kill you! Fight me!" the krogan demanded, partly to Shepard, partly over his shoulder at Jorge. Jorge raised a questioning eyebrow at Shepard. She shook her head subtly.

"Killing you would be a shame," Shepard said, stepping forward. "After all, if we kill you, you wouldn't be able to come along and fight the Collectors."

The thrashing stopped at that. Even from behind Jorge could feel his attention focus back on Shepard.

"Collectors. Insectoid. Stronger than they look but still weak, easy to break. They hide behind their technology. Reclusive. The imprints say they rarely come out beyond the Omega 4 relay. How can I fight them if they do not appear on the battlefield?"

"They've come out now. Abducting human colonies. This ship and its crew are going to find them, stop them, then travel through the Omega 4 relay and take them down. You want a fight? I can give it to you. But only if you agree to fight under my command."

The krogan suddenly thrashed, giving his all in a momentous strain. It was not entirely easy for Jorge to keep him restrained. Just how strong was this krogan? But, the krogan stopped fairly quickly, relaxing, still tense but no longer straining against his bonds.

"Or what?"

"Or Jorge throws you off the ship. No fight. No Collectors. No honor or glory or anything. Just you and the hard vacuum."

The krogan twisted, trying to look behind him, but, well, krogan physiology doesn't exactly allow a krogan to look directly behind and above him, even with the wide-set eyes. He only tried for a few moments, then gave up.

"Fine," he growled out. "Now let me go!"

"You going to attack him?" Shepard asked, flicking a finger to Jorge.

"No," the krogan said in a rather half-hearted way.

"You going to attack anyone else?"

"Fine, no!"

Shepard's eyes flicked to Jorge. He raised an eyebrow, and she nodded. Jorge let go, and was quick to step around the suddenly unsupported krogran and back towards Shepard before he could regain his balance. He could see the krogan sizing him up, eyeing his unhelmeted head, the gears no doubt turning in his head to see if he was worth the fight.

"What's your name?" Shepard asked.

"Okeer never gave me one," he grunted. "I am trained. I know things. But a name intended for me was never among his words. Warlord, legacy, grunt… grunt. Grunt was among the last. It has no meaning in my mind. It'll do."

"Welcome to the crew, Grunt," Shepard said amiably. "You have armor already. Did the tank come with a weapon?"

"No."

"Then our first stop is the armory. Thank you for your assistance, Jorge," Shepard dismissed.

"You sure, Commander?" Jorge asked, uncertain. If the krogan decided to renege on his half-hearted promise, he could do a lot of damage to the ship or to the crew…

"I'm sure, Jorge," she replied, with a sharper tone than he was expecting.

Jorge snapped to attention and saluted as a way of apology before heading smartly out the door. He quickly got away to the central area, milling around on the excuse of getting a glass of water from Gardner, the ships' handyman and cook, and watched as Shepard led the newly christened Grunt into the elevator to the armory.

He shook his head.

"Let me guess," Garrus said from behind him at the table. "Shepard decided to open the tank and now we have a new krogan team member."

"No prize for guessing," Jorge grunted back, taking his water and leaning against the bulkhead near the table.

"Well, she is good at it," Garrus mused. "I mean, look at us on the first Normandy. A spec ops soldier, an officer and a soldier, sure, but then we had a pilgrimage quarian, a krogan mercenary, an asari scientist and a turian cop and she whipped us into a team. Now we've got two biotic terrorists, a turian vigilante, a supersoldier from another universe, and a retired STG genius scientist. A genetically engineered super-krogan is right in line for her."

Jorge grunted. Garrus was right. Shepard seemed to have a knack for picking up interesting and talented strays and somehow managing to integrate them into an impressive special ops team. Imagine what she could do with real soldiers.

"Always seems to work out for her, doesn't it?" he asked idly.

"You mean it hasn't bitten her on the ass yet," Jorge replied.

"Yes."

Jorge snorted. "Just might, this time. Shepard's got a way with people but an unstable krogan looking for a fight wouldn't be my choice for a potential team member."

The elevator opened, allowing a pale woman with jet black hair in a catsuit that she called armor with an annoyed expression out. She headed in a precise fashion towards her quarters.

"Hold that thought Garrus," Jorge said. He set his cup down, and with a few long strides intercepted the woman.

"Miss Lawson," he greeted, now standing between her and the XO quarters. She gave him an icy glare.

"Lieutenant Kadar," she said in a tight tone. "If you would excuse me, I have a report to write."

"This will only take a moment," Jorge replied in a polite tone. "Do you have time on your schedule, in, say, 16 hours? For an interview on Shepard?"

He specifically timed it so she had time to compile the report for this mission and send it to the Illusive Man (AIs were immensely helpful in paperwork, after all), yet prior to their next engagement- Jack, their next and last dossier for now, was apparently being held on the prison ship Purgatory. Getting to it was several jumps and a cruise, and Joker had sent out a ping to everyone that estimated it as 24 hours, minimum. Plenty of time.

"Yes," Lawson said through grit teeth.

"Thank you, ma'am," he replied. He pivoted on one foot, no longer blocking her path completely but still forcing her to walk a bit around his large figure. And watched as she walked past him in a controlled manner, opened her cabin, then disappeared inside.

Not all the crew deserved intimidation tactics. Not all the crew deserved his ire. He knew that now from the dossiers. They deserved a bit of a knocking around for joining a terrorist organization, sure… but putting the real snakes on the ship in their place was something he would be glad to do. And snakes didn't come much higher than the leader of the cell. Putting the screws to Miss Lawson might put her off balance, get him the information he needed… it might even be fun.

He wandered back to the table, where Garrus had watched the whole exchange without a word.

"So. Two biotic terrorists, a turian vigilante, a salarian STG genius, a supersoldier from another universe, and now a genetically engineered super-krogan. Next up, a superbiotic criminal. Helluva team. We'll see if Shepard is up to the task."

Urgh.

If you couldn't tell, this wasn't an easy chapter to write. Part of it is I was very nervous about how to introduce Grunt properly, yet also logically and have him motivated correctly. Getting it to a state I felt right about took a good amount of time thinking on my part. The rest of it though...

I've lost a bit of interest in writing overall. Part of it was the sabbatical I took, getting me out of the habit. Another part is that I am not a writer, I usually force myself to sit down and write something, and with life these days, well, that was a chore that I easily talked myself out of. A bit of it is losing some of my spark of interest in both Halo and Mass Effect. All combined, and, well...

Maybe publishing it will kick me in the behind to move on and write more on the subject. That is also why I started publishing the other story as well- that one has been partially written on my hard drive for four, five years now, and I decided after months of hiatus that I had to do something to get back into writing. Maybe publishing these will break that stalemate.

Writing is hard.