A/N: Yea, sorry this took a while but life takes over most things. I've been failing most of my classes in the year but I've managed by some miracle to pass my Finals and continue my journey through High School. By the way, it sucks. Another side note, I have been helping a fellow author by the name of poison1234 with her story: Hold the Line! which features our favorite neighborhood time-traveling Marine! It's an AU from my story but still very interesting.

For those of you worrying that Nolan will be indestructible, fear not! Because remember: That was a test drive against thugs with weak black market weapons. The real test will be against the Geth and their armor and shield piercing weaponry.

Disclaimer: If you expect me to do this, you are mental and need help.

Chapter 5: A new Assignment

"You're not making my life easy Shepard." grumbled General Asshat as he rubbed his forehead.

"Firefights in the wards, a shootout in the medical bay, all out assault on Chora's Den, then blowing most of it to kingdom come! What are you doing Shepard?"

Shepard stood into an attentive stance. "Making your day Udina. This Quarian has evidence linking Saren to the geth." Udina put his hand to his chin. "This is an interesting turn of events."

He gestured to the Quarian. "And you are?"

The Quarian stiffened a bit before uttering her name in a professional matter. "My name is Tali'Zorah nar Rayya. But everyone just calls me Tali."

"Quite the mouthful..." I muttered.

"How exactly did you get this information?" Udina questioned.

"I was on my pilgrimage when news of the geth reached my people. As the geth haven't been outside the veil in 200 years, I was curious. I managed to track down one of their patrols and snagged one when it got separated with its squad."

Anderson spoke up. "But I thought the geth destroyed their memory cores as a kind of defence mechanism. "

"Most it's memory was fried and completely unusable but I managed to scrape this from its audio banks."

Tali brought up her omni-tool and pressed a few buttons before someone started speaking.

"Eden Prime was a major victory! Now we're one step closer to finding the Conduit!"

Anderson's eyes widened as he turned to us. "That's Saren's voice! This definetly links him to the attack!"

"But wait, there's someone else in here." She pressed a few more buttons. Another voice appeared, much more feminine but with a lot of power behind her voice. "And another step closer to the return of the Reapers." Everyone glanced at each other nervously. I was just leaning on the railing with my arms crossed when everyone looked at me.

"What?"

"Aren't you worried about this?"

"Honestly? Not. I've heard worse stories. Besides, what are these...'Reapers?'" I asked, finger quoting.

"Well, according to its data banks, the Reapers are a synthetic race that destroyed the protheans 50,000 years ago, then vanished."

Udina waved his hand. "This is not the point, the point is we finally have our evidence. I must present this to the council at once. Shepard, do whatever you need at meet me at the council chambers. Anderson, come with me. We have to discuss some things." Anderson gave a satisfactory nod then left.

"So Shep." Shepard turned to me. "What do we do with the Quarian?"

"My name is Tali!" She said sternly to me.

"Yea yea whatever..." I shrugged.

"Shepard, let me go with you. You've seen what I could do! You know that I can fight!"

Shepard thought for a second then looked at her. "Welcome to the team Tali."

"Thank you Shepard, I won't let you down."

"Kaiden, Ashley, you're with me. Garrus, Wrex, and Tali, you will go with Nolan to the Normandy and settle in. Tali, send the data to my omni-tool."

"Already sent Shepard."

"Good, dismissed, team."

Everyone gave a nod and went on their way.

The walk was a tad bit awkward. Garrus and Wrex were arguing about almost everything from politics, to species rivalry, to something called a "genophage." I don't know, I wasn't paying much attention.

"So, for a soldier you have quite the mannerism." Tali said to me.

"I sense sarcasm."

"It was sarcasm."

"First things first, where did you get that suit?"

"I bought it."

"Seriously?"

"Yea."

"I Find that hard to believe"

"Well believe it."

"Where'd you get your suit?"

"Umm...excuse me?"

"What? You asked me about mine."

"You don't know much about Quarians, do you?"

"Not really."

"Well...a long time ago-"

"Can you do me a favor and make it the short and sweet version?"

"Ugh...fine. Quarians have a weak immune system so we have to remain in these suits otherwise we could get sick and die."

"Why?"

"Because we created the geth and they drove us off our homeworlds."

"The geth are the robot things right?"

"In a matter of ways, yes. They were an AI that went rogue. We should have foreseen that as most did in the universe during that time."

"AI's can go rogue? That sure is interesting..." I said with a small cough at the end. Abby spoke up inside the helmet. "Don't look at me! I'm one of the good AI's!"

"I'll keep your word on that. Now Tali, what happened next?"

"We went up into space to what we now call the flotilla. A massive fleet that holds our entire race. We stayed in space for so long that our immune systems deteriorated and thats how I became this." She gestured to the suit.

"That was a nice history lesson."

"Yes...it was..." She said sadly.

We walked into the elevator and waited a little more than I would like to get to the space dock. But we arrived never the less and went inside.

"Woah, we got new visitors? I'm glad you told me ahead of time, might've cleaned up the place a bit." Joker called out from his seat.

"Yea, we got some new guys joining us. Everyone this is our helmsman, Joker."

"What's good, everyone?"

The aliens- oh I'm sorry, thats a bit racist in this universe. The 'new crew members' made their introductions as I lead them into the CIC. I stood at attention with my arms behind my back.

"I'd like to welcome all of you to The SSV Normandy. I don't know much about this ship and I've been asked to give you a tour. Now I know you're all thinking, 'what the Hell?' Don't worry, I thought that too when Shepard told me to give y'all the tour. So fuck it, and let's start. This is self-explanatory, the CIC. Through the doors is the Crew Deck, barracks, Med-bay, and sleeper pods and the elevator. Go down a level and you will have the garage, armory, and engineering bay." Tali, Wrex, and Garrus perked up a bit.

"So, an Engineering Bay?" Tali said with a bit of interest.

"A garage?" Garrus said intrigued.

"Hmph." muttered Wrex.

"I see you're quite enthusiastic about this, Wrex." I said with a smile.

"I've seen better warships then this." he muttered. "But, it will do. I'm going to that lower floor. Might as well set up shop there." He said and stomped past us.

"I'll drop off my stuff in the barracks and go to that garage of yours." Garrus said and walked past me.

"I guess I-I'll do the same." Tali stammered and followed Garrus.

"Quite the crowd you brought aboard Nolan. They seem so energetic." Joker sarcastically said to me.

"Hey Joker, wanna play hopscotch with me?" I turned to him with a sly grin.

"That was not called for. It hurt me deep man." He looked at my depressed.

"Then my job was done." I laughed and looked as Shepard and company entered. He had a small frown on his face. I went over to him.

"So Commander, where's Anderson?"

"He's gone Nolan. The Council promoted me to Spectre status and Udina made Anderson step down as Admiral of the ship. As of today, I'm in charge of the ship." I smiled at him and crossed my arms.

"That's a great accomplishment. Being promoted to Spectre sounds like a pretty big deal."

"It is, I'm the first human Spectre ever since we joined the Council races."

"...I take it back, It is a big deal. What do we have to do now?"

"Find a rogue Spectre named Saren, the turian responsible for the Eden Prime attack."

"Whatever happens Shepard, you saved my ass and I'm 100% behind you."

"Thanks about our guests?"

"They've already settled in down in the lower decks."

"Alright, I'm getting on the intercom. Got a little something to say to the men."

"Say it good, Commander. Feel like we've all got something to say."We both nodded and walked away. I overheard him as he talked to Joker.

"Men this isn't easy to say..." The sound melded into the background as I entered the elevator. Honestly, my military career was nothing but military speeches and fighting. Every speech I hear now just melts away in my mind as I am reminded by my history. The door opened and I found Tali and Garrus settling into their new rooms. Garrus and gave me a nod and Tali waved but I merely ignored them. All the men were looking at the ceiling, looks of motivation and enthusiasm on their faces. Shepard must be giving a Hell of a speech. The door slid open to my room and I took a chip from the side of my helmet. I plugged it into the socket on the wall and a voice sounded throughout the room.

"Gosh, I never thought I would be out of that helmet."

"Don't mention it, Abbs."

"So, what's with you?"

"Speeches...when you've heard one, you've heard them all." I muttered as I pressed a button on my armor. Bolts unscrewed and unlocked the chest plating as I took it off with a hiss. I put it snuggly into a corner before taking off my vambraces and leg gauntlets.

"Hm, theres a panel on the nightstand. Maybe with some configuration..." Abby said with a bit of excitement. Suddenly, a green figure appeared on the panel. The figure was dressed in a tank top and cargo shorts. From the appearance, it was a female shaped body with long hair going down her back. She looked about 24-25 at least? She looked good for an AI. She was stretching her arms and yawning. "I'd never thought that I'd be in my physical form again." She said with a smile and a hand on her waist.

"So thats what you look like? I thought you would be...I dunno." I opened up the drawer and got some crew issued clothes on.

"Be what? I'm curious..."

"A bit younger?"

"You saying I'm old?"

"No, you're body is too old for your mind."

"Well thats just lovely..."

"Yea whatever. Bring up the extranet, if you were to be so kind?"

"What am I, your personal maid now?"

"Well you are in control of my room."

"Point taken." An orange holographic panel appeared on the far wall in front of my bed. I walked over to it and searched in a few things. "So, whatcha doing?"

"I wonder if it's still around...found it." Indeed I have found it, an old heavy metal band I used to listen to when I was just a grunt. Rammstein still had their songs living for a while which made me a bit happy. I downloaded a few songs and started playing Sonne. The room was instantly blasting with the built-in surround sound. Abby put her fingers into her ears and closed her eyes.

"It's an interesting loud choice you picked!" She shouted. I was lightly banging my head as I laid down on the bed.

"Eins...Hier kommit die Sonne." I quietly sang along.

"Zwei...Hier kommit die Sonne." I said with a slight smirk on my face. Reminded me of home.

"What language is this?"

"German."

"I didn't know you spoke German."

"I don't."

"Then how do you understand all this?"

"I memorized it a while ago."

"You are an interesting human."

"Don't mention it. Hey, I'm going to take a nap. Turn off the music and save it to my personal music files."

"Plan to listen to it again?"

"That and a bunch of other songs a plan to add."

"Fine, sleep tight." She said to me with a blowing kiss.

"You sound like my mother." I muttered as I closed my eyes.

"Nolan! Nolan get up!" I was lifted off my feet with a tug on my collar. Sand was in my mouth and my nose. I opened my eyes and saw soldiers...but they were regular soldiers...Only those of the USMC. The marine, My friend, Drey Jarcous was in my face in the crater. "Wow man, thought that PRG took you out."

"You serious? It's going to take more then that. We're Raptors, we survive like cockroaches." I smiled and grabbed his shoulder. Out of the corner of my eye I spotted an Iraqi militia member aiming his AK-74M. I pushed him down as bullets raked the ground above us. I pulled my M16A4 from my sling and sighted him down. A calm burst erupted from my rifle and the fucker fell off his roof. The soft rotors of an AH-6 Little BIrd flew overhead and rained down fire from it's miniguns into the buildings. Drey grabbed me and yelled.

"Enemies are suppressed! We have to move!" We both got up and sprinted down the street, trying for the empty market building.

"This is Gyro 4-7, guns are dry, I repeat, guns are dry. Moving back to base to refuel and rearm."

"Roger that." I calmly said through the radio. "Just get something to help us out here, it looks like those guys are finished yet." Gunfire started to pick up again and bullets sprayed around our feet. I heard a bullet impact somewhere but there was no pain. What did it hit? I looked in front of me to see Drey fall. My eyes widened as I called out. I kneeled down beside him and fired off a few shots. I shook him and got no response. "You are not dying today, you motherfucker." Seething, I grabbed his back lace and dragged him, drawing my Rafica. A few Iraqi's ran from the building, spraying wildly with their Ak's. I fired off and got 2 direct hits and they went down silent. Another one managed to shoot of an RPG and the missile flew past me with quite a whose. It exploded the building behind me and showered us in rock and debris. I picked myself back up and grabbed Drey. I looked over to see the rest of the team dead. The market took a direct hit from the RPG and managed to kill everyone...Me and Drey were the only ones left. Bullets fired all around us until one hit me in the shoulder. I fell with the world going into slow motion. "Shit...this ain't good." I muttered and continued to drag my friend with my only good hand. Another one hit me in the chest and blew the wind right out of my lungs. I fell again and rolled behind some concrete barrier. My M16A4 was lost somewhere and as far as I knew it, Drey was out cold. It was just me, I was truly alone. I went over the barrier and aimed my sidearm until another bullet hit me in the stomach. I fell for the third time and pain finally set in, the adrenaline leaving my body. The wounds burned and I couldn't stop screaming.

"Shit!" I yelled out and sat up. My body was caked in sweat and I was breathing rapidly. The bullet wounds burned on my body as I check my bare chest. The circular scars were there. Forever reminders of that memory.

"Nolan, are you okay?" I heard a female voice. I looked at my door and I saw Ash...The she-devil herself. "You were screaming so loud, I heard it in the dining area." She was leaning against the door and smiled. "Sounded like a pretty rough dream."

I shook my head and wiped away the sweat. "Yea, another bad memory..."

"Listen, Nolan, I just want to say I'm sorry. I'm sorry that I ambushed you and...you know the rest."

"It's okay Ash, at least you apologized. It's more then most people ever gave me." I got up and walked over to grab a towel.

"What are those?" She asked pointing to 3 large circular dots on my shoulders and stomach.

"Old war wounds. Back during my days in Raptor. And this one was the one that was meant for you." I pointed to a newly formed circle on my left arm. She walked over to me and quietly observed. Ashley put her finger and traced it. I grimaced under the shook. The skin was still tender.

"It's quite a number you have. I could only imagine how it would've looked on me." I looked up at her as she did to me. Ash smiled as she looked into my face. The was a knock as the door and we looked over to see Garrus leaning.

"Am I interrupting something? You 2 can save the anniversary for later, Shepard wants us in the comm room. Better put some clothes on Nolan, I'm pretty sure most of us don't want to see you walking around shirtless. Unlike some people..." Ashley's face reddened a bit and I nodded.

"Go Ashley, I'll meet you there." I quickly put on some clothing as she walked away.

"By the way Nolan, I plan to finish this conversation up."

"Whatever floats your boat." I calmly said to her as she smiled again.

"See you there."

A/N: DONE! I'M FINALLY DONE! HERE'S YOUR GOD DAMN CHAPTER AT 3K WORDS!

Don't worry, I plan on writing more chapters over the summer and please RnR! All criticism is welcomed as long as it ain't flaming yong.

I love you all and have a good day and "May the Odds be forever in your favor." :)