Who Saves the Hero by Kudara

Chapter 17

Normandy - before the mission to find Thane Krios

Samara was surprised when Shepard chose the young krogan, Grunt, as the third squad member instead of Garrus for their mission to seek out the drell assassin, Thane Krios. The krogan paced up and down the central walkway of the Normandy's second deck, betraying an extreme level of agitation until Shepard arrived. Then, to the justicar's relief, he immediately settled down in the Commander's presence.

They went to the shipping department and asked for Seyrna, who was the contact Liara T'Soni had given Shepard as a person who might know the whereabouts of the drell assassin. Seyrna agreed to talk to them and gave them the name of the drell's target, Nassana Dantius. Shepard immediately recognized the name. When Nassana had been a representative on the Citadel she had contacted Shepard and asked her to kill a slaver; it had turned out to be her own sister who was blackmailing her. Seyrna told a similar tale, she had confronted Nassana over having people killing to cover up her dirty secrets and been fired.

Until now Samara had reservations, though she had kept them to herself, about exactly what they would be doing today. Now however, it seemed that if she had found out about this Nassana Dantius before giving Shepard her oath, the Code would have compelled her to investigate whether or not these accusations against the asari were true. The drell was also not doing this assassination for money; Seyrna said that Thane Krios had mentioned that he was trying to restore the balance of his life with his actions. That information intrigued the justicar, and Samara could tell that it piqued Shepard's interest as well.

On Seyrna's suggestion they came back at the end of the working day and after the day shift workers cleared out of Tower Two. Theoretically, only the Eclipse mercenaries who were guarding Nassana should now be in the building. Seyrna dropped them off in front of Dantius Tower Two and wished them luck before quickly departing. They had just started towards the entrance of the tower when two salarians appeared, running across the wide walkway surrounding the unfinished center of the building and glancing behind them fearfully. Samara frowned wondering why, and then four mechs, two of them mech dogs, appeared chasing after the salarians.

No sooner had the mech appeared than Shepard was off and running toward the entrance, pulling her weapon and firing at them, and leaving Samara and Grunt scrambling to catch up with the human. The mechs shot one of the salarians before they turned to face the Spectre. Shepard had already shot out the glass blocking the entrance. Now the Spectre paused, the characteristic bluish-white glow of a mass effect field formed around her. The human gestured and a strong biotic shockwave started toward the mechs, sending them flying thought the air when it reached them.

Samara was impressed, she hadn't even known that Shepard was a biotic, much less as powerful a biotic as what she had just seen indicated. One of the mechs rose and the justicar sent it flying again with a quick biotic push while weapons fire from Shepard and Grunt quickly finished off the two mech dogs. The one mech Samara had sent flying did not rise again.

Shepard headed off in the same direction as which the surviving salarian worker had disappeared. They found him lying on the floor, severely wounded, and covered in greenish blood. "Help," the salarian pleaded, "I can't feel my legs...my chest is killing me."

Shepard knelt down and began scanning him with her omni-tool. "Who did this to you and why?" she asked.

"We're just night workers!" the salarian sounded confused. "Nassana sent them after us. She sent the mechs to round us up but...we didn't hear. They just started shooting..." he began coughing, "I can't breathe..."

Shepard immediately injected him with a dose of medi-gel, "Here that should ease the pain and keep you alive until help arrives." She brought up another screen on her omni-tool and Samara watched as the Spectre put in a request for a medical team and police at their location.

"Really? This guy? Why?" Grunt questioned the Commander's decision.

Shepard didn't respond, only the slightest movement of her head even indicated that she had heard the krogan. "Take your time," she gently advised the salarian as he tried to rise.

"I think I'm...better..." the worker said as he slowly stood up. "Find the other workers," he looked pleadingly at Shepard, "Help them."

"I will," the Spectre promised him, "but first I need some information. You said the mechs just attacked you?"

"Yes," he confirmed, "We were too slow. It was horrible. Everyone was screaming... The mercs said there was no time. Nassana wanted us out of the way... immediately. Then the dogs..." the salarian closed his eyes, "my friends, co-workers slaughtered. They were jumping off the ledges to escape the dogs..."

Shepard reached out, gently touched his arm, "I'll do what I can to help," the Spectre's voice was strong, commanding and reassuring. The salarian opened his eyes again, stared at her for a moment and then nodded, looking calmer. "What can you tell me about this building? I need to get up to the penthouse."

The salarian told them much of the same thing Seyrna had; adding that the service elevator was the only way up to the level where the walkway over to the other tower was located and that the mercenaries would be thicker the further up they went.

"Why would Nassana kill her own workers?" Shepard questioned the salarian, repeating with slightly different words the same question she had asked earlier. Samara recognized the tactic; it was one she often used herself to see if she could elicit further or different information from someone.

The salarian did give a slightly different answer this time, "To her, we're expendable," he explained. The salarian shook his head, "But... I didn't realize she was that ruthless." The sound of emergency vehicles approaching interrupted anything else the worker had to say.

"Let's get you over to the medics," Shepard said, motioning to the salarian. They made their way back the short distance to the entryway, which was now covered with shattered glass. There were three police vehicles and two emergency vehicles along with their assorted police and emergency medical personnel gathered in front of the building. Four asari in police uniforms made a move towards their weapons as soon as they saw the small group appear and then paused, staring in obvious surprise at the justicar in their midst.

"Samara, do you mind taking the lead in talking to them?" Shepard asked, giving the asari a questioning look.

"Not at all," Samara assured the human, knowing exactly why the Spectre had asked. The police were much less likely to delay them with questions if they assumed she was investigating this matter. Given what she had seen and heard so far, she had no objections to letting them assume just that.

"Justicar," the ranking asari police officer greeted Samara respectfully as they walked up, while glancing uncertainly at the human and krogan standing on either side of her. The medics displayed much less uncertainty, rushing over to the wounded salarian, who they immediately beginning to examine while guiding him toward the waiting ambulance.

"Officer," she returned the greeting, "Thank you for responding to our request for assistance so promptly. Now that he is in your care, there are more workers requiring our aid inside." Samara turned, she knew it would not be quite this simple, but her attitude should hurry things along.

As she had suspected the Sergeant would, the officer quickly asked, "Did you need our assistance, Justicar?"

She glanced back at the four officers, "Your offer is appreciated, but not required officer. The worker was shot by Eclipse mechs, and he informed us there are several dozen more inside."

"Shouldn't take us long," Grunt commented, "If we stop talking about it that is," he sounded slightly agitated to her. Samara glanced over at the young krogan. He did seem restless once again, she had never been around any krogan quite this young before and had no idea if this were usual behavior for his species or not. Plus, as she had learned yesterday, while being given a rather quick briefing on the rest of the Normandy crew in the air car as they returned from the temple, he had a rather unusual origin, being bred in a tank by the krogan Warlord Okeer. Despite being full grown, Grunt was actually only a few weeks old and was supposedly a genetically perfect krogan.

"It's probably best if we handle this," Shepard finally spoke up, "If we find anyone that needs help and can't get down here on their own we'll contact you. And we'll make sure it's clear so you can come up and get them."

The Sergeant's attention turned to the human, "And you are?" she questioned.

The Spectre got as far as saying "Commander Shepard," before the purple hued asari's eyes went wide and her head jerked rather dramatically back and forth between the justicar and the human standing next to her. "I guess you know the rest," Shepard finished dryly.

"Spectre Shepard," Samara could detect a hint of nervous wariness in the officer's tone now. The justicar could see that the Sergeant wanted to ask questions about what they were doing here, but knew she was standing in front of a Justicar and a Council Spectre. Asari did not normally question a Justicar's decisions about what matters they chose to investigate, and a Spectre's duties were usually classified and thus they would not answer any questions about their activities. "Of course, we will hold our position here in case you find any more injured workers and we'll escort the medics up to ensure their safety."

"Thank you Sergeant," Shepard said to her crisply. She motioned to Samar and Grunt, "If there's any hope of finding anyone else alive we need to get moving."

As she followed Shepard back into the building, Samara heard one of the officers behind her comment, "I heard the coroner picked up thirty-seven bodies from that building yesterday. One of which was the Eclipse captain, Wasea." Another voice added, "I heard they found the remains of a gunship in there." Unfortunately Shepard was moving rather quickly and the officers were out of hearing range after that. A gunship, Samara examined the weapon's loadout on the Spectre's back, her attention on the strange looking weapon in the center where a heavy weapon was usually placed. She had no doubt that Shepard was carrying enough firepower to take down a gunship, and from the chatter she had just heard the Spectre had done just that the day before.

"So Grunt," Shepard said as soon as they were out of the officers hearing range, "What did we find out from the salarian?" The krogan gave her a confused glance, but readily repeated what they had learned. "It's hard to get information from a dead person," Shepard commented when he was done. "We had no idea what Seryna's motive was for helping us, no idea if her information was any good or not. Now we have a second confirmation of it, and from a source which we know has a legitimate reason for helping us."

It sounded like a rather cold-blooded and completely practical reason for helping the salarian, and yet Samara had not sensed that from Shepard's manner while the human had been helping or questioning the injured worker. The justicar was reminded of the fact that Shepard had listed some very practical reasons yesterday for ordering the human's Fifth Fleet to assist the Ascension and Council. When they had first met Shepard had mentioned that she went with the best tactical decision first and then with her gut instinct as the human termed it after that. Perhaps this was just a case of both agreeing on the same course of action.

"Ah," said Grunt as he nodded, "Smart." Or perhaps this was merely Shepard's way of teaching the young krogan, Samara reflected. One didn't appeal to their sense of compassion to motivate them. Practical tactical advice however, was likely to be listened to and accepted.

They had not gone very far into the building at all before they ran into their first group of Eclipse mercenaries and mechs. It turned into a pitched battle as they made their way slowly forward, mercenaries from further in the building joining their comrades and replacing their numbers as the trio killed them. Eventually though the mercenaries, or at least all the ones on this floor, lay dead on the floor. There had been more FENRIS and LOKI mechs than mercenaries, so there were more bits and pieces of them scattered about than dead bodies.

One thing the first battle had made clear to Samara, she had been right about Shepard being both efficient and deadly in combat. The human's biotics were powerful, and the Spectre seemed to be skilled at choosing when to use them. Shepard showed a decided preference for using a biotic shockwave, but then it was a useful tactic when facing small groups of attackers who were behind cover. It had certainly worked quite well against the mercenaries. Samara also noticed that Shepard was quite graceful as she moved from cover to cover. Considering that the human was wearing heavy armor, the fact that her movements rivaled the grace of any asari commando, who generally wore light to medium armor, was remarkable. It indicated to the justicar that Shepard was both very fit and stronger than Samara would have expected for a human female.

After quickly checking the LOKI remains and the dead mercenaries for spare heat sinks, the trio continued upward to the second floor of the building. The three of them stopped as soon as they heard a male voice say, "Hey...I think he went in here." The sound of echoed in the partially constructed building, making it difficult to tell exactly where it was coming from.

The next voice was either a female human or asari, "Well go get him."

"You go," the male voice disagreed.

"Get your ass in there," the second, female voice growled, "Nassana's not paying you to stand around."

"Fine, but I..." the male's voice trailed off in a groan. There were sounds of a scuffle and then nothing. The three of them glanced at one another; it wasn't hard to guess that they had just heard the assassin take out one of the mercenaries. They moved cautiously forward and turned the corner, only to see a group of Eclipse mercenaries come running towards them. Samara suspected the mercenaries were actually seeking the assassin, but it was just as possible they had come in response them as well. Each side quickly dove behind the nearest cover and began firing at each other.

Ducked down behind a stack of building material, Samara heard and felt the vibrations in the floor under her feet of a powerful biotic shockwave, Shepard. She rose, as expected there were several Eclipse mercs and mechs now struggling to their feet from where they had been thrown by it, she took the opportunity to put two of them down for good.

"Take out the biotic," the justicar heard an asari Eclipse Lieutenant order.

Well honed habit had Samara ducking back into cover, but then realized with amused surprise that it was actually Shepard they were targeting. That was different. The justicar gathered up a mass effect field and then stepped out, sending a mass of biotic energy the mercenaries way that knocked the Lieutenant off her feet and slammed her into the wall behind her. Time to show them there were two biotics they needed to fear. As with the first floor, the team slowly worked its way forward, moving from cover to cover and taking out the Eclipse mercenaries as they came upon them.

It had been a long time since Samara had fought as part of a group; she usually fought alone. Still, Shepard was only occasionally giving her direction, so the asari guessed that she was remembering her old skills rather well. And this building was laid out well for what they were doing; there were plenty of places for both them and the Eclipse to find cover. Their advantage lay in the fact that they could set up good positions and wait for the mercenaries to come forward to them, rather than having to advance in the face of enemy fire.

Using the communications in their suits, Shepard would quietly indicate, "Moving, left cover." Sometimes the Spectre would add something more specific like crate or stack of metal plates if there were more than one choice of forward cover in that direction. Then Samara and Grunt would ready themselves to give the Commander covering fire as she moved forward. When she or Grunt called out their next position they received either silence and then a 'go', when Shepard wanted them to move, or more rarely, a 'no', and a different location. Shepard would then make eye contact with them and wait for their nod that they had located where she wanted them to move. The justicar found herself quickly adapting to the human's methods, they were simple and straightforward, and they worked well. Samara wasn't certain if this was the way the human military operated, or if this was a method Shepard had developed after working with both non-humans and humans who were not military trained.

Samara quickly realized that Shepard did not want them to be very far forward of her position, and that the Commander preferred to always have a clear field of fire to support their positions. It only took a few times of either her position or Grunt's coming under heavy fire and Shepard acting quickly to thin down those firing at them, for the justicar to realize that Shepard placed them were she could protect them and easily get to them if they were in difficulty or injured. Samara wasn't used to being protected or having someone act protective of her, either during her time as a justicar or even before that when she had been a maiden. It felt strange. Samara couldn't tell if Shepard's command style was a result of what seemed to be the human's naturally strong protective instincts coming to the fore, or if the Alliance actively taught their military leaders this behavior.

They came upon a locked door, the first one they had run into in the building so far. It took Shepard less than a minute to bypass the encryption on it. It opened, revealing a small room and three unarmed salarian huddled nervously together. The salarian's flinched back at the sight of them. Shepard's hand twitched toward her weapon for a moment before the human relaxed again. It was fairly obvious these were more of Nassana's workers, though how they came to be in a locked room was a mystery.

"Please... don't kill us! We'll go... we'll go..." one of the workers pleaded fearfully.

Another one, apparently less traumatized than the rest, noticed what should have been obvious to all three. "Hey, look...their not Eclipse. You're here to help us...right?" he added the last in an uncertain tone.

Shepard nodded, "Its one reason I'm here. Come on out, it should be safe enough. There are police and medical personnel waiting on the ground floor for you."

The three looked surprised by this, and the one who had originally spoken said, "Thank you, we are in your debt."

Shepard responded, "Maybe you can help me, I'm looking for someone. Not a merc -- he's on his own."

One of the salarian's replied, "Well, whoever sealed us in here...when he found us, I thought we were dead. But he just closed the door and locked us in."

"Interesting behavior for an assassin," Samara noted, "assuming it is him." The more she heard about this drell the more intriguing his behavior became to the justicar. He was deadly against the Eclipse, and yet he had acted to save these three from danger.

"Assassin?" the salarian questioned.

One of the other's immediately spoke up, "Here for Nassana, I bet, she's got it coming. You treat people like this. It always comes back to bite you in the ass."

Shepard asked them several more questions. The three seemed very eager to share whatever they knew, even rumors that those who tried to quit working for Nassana disappeared. The human did get a few pieces of useful information, that the cargo elevator was the only way up, and that the upper level had no walls. They would need to be cautious of the winds up there.

As the three salarians left one of them paused to speak with Shepard, "Tell your assassin to aim for her head...'cause she doesn't have a heart!" The Spectre's lips quirked in a small amused smile, and she turned to watch as his colleagues urged him to get moving.

Shepard gave the justicar a long considering look after they left. "You have any issues I should be aware of?" the Commander questioned her, and Samara knew it was a question about what they were doing.

"None," Samara assured her serenely, "I find myself becoming more interested in meeting this Nassana Dantius with every one of her workers that we speak to."

Shepard gave a dry sounding chuckle, "No kidding, she was pretty ruthless two years ago," the Spectre commented, "It seems like time has only made her worse."

They continued on their way, coming across the cargo elevator the salarian's had mentioned not far from where they had found them. Shepard gave it a narrow-eyed look, "If I was them, I'd make sure there was a welcoming committee on this elevator," she noted. She motioned for Samara and Grunt to take up flanking positions on either side of the area before pressing the elevators call button and taking cover herself behind a stack of metal plates almost directly in front of it.

The Spectre was right, when the elevator doors opened two asari Eclipse lieutenants and a krogan were inside. The mercenaries had thought to take them by surprise; instead they were caught in the deadly crossfire Shepard had set up. Samara built up a mass effect field, gestured, and sent a suspension field toward the mercenaries. Both asari Lieutenants were caught up in it, floating in the air and cursing as they tried to continue firing. Shepard and Grunt cut down the krogan, and then it was only a few seconds later that the remaining two mercenaries died as well. The suspension field dispersed right after that, dropping their bodies to the floor.

They stepped around them on the way to the elevator. They rode the elevator up to the bridge level of tower two, when the doors opened they saw a human male in Eclipse armor pacing slowly back and forth at the far end of the area. Shepard silently motioned for them to exit and move to the left of the hallway, which was in heavy shadow.

"Don't worry my team is always ready to go," the Eclipse merc assured whoever was on the other end of his conversation. "I don't know where he is, not yet," he paced to one side and paused looking out the floor to ceiling window. Shepard motioned for them to move forward. About twenty meters ahead of them the human male, still engrossed in his conversation, shook his head, "Don't worry about it," he said, "We don't need any reinforcements." They walked closer, "I'll take care of it," now the mercenary sounded like he was arguing with whomever he was speaking to. "It's under control," he insisted, "I'll take care of it. I'll go down there myself."

They were standing right behind him now. Samara noticed Shepard shaking her head at the oblivious male. Then her expression shifted, hardened, "Turn around very slowly," the Spectre ordered her tone chill. The justicar was taken aback; the change in Shepard's manner was...abrupt and disconcerting. At least her aura hadn't also changed as well.

The Eclipse mercenary stiffened, and slowly turned around holding his hands slightly out as if to show he wasn't holding any weapons, "Damn it," he whispered when he got a good look at the three of them.

"Have you seen the assassin?" Shepard asked him as she took several steps forward. The Spectre moved as if she were stalking him.

The male backed away from her, "Why are you looking for him? You're not one of Nassana's mercenaries, who are you?"

Shepard kept backing him toward the window, "Answer my questions and I'll let you go." Her movement drew the eye with its grace, even as it chilled with its implicit threat.

He finally stopped, his back almost against the glass, "Look, even if I knew where he was, I wouldn't tell you." Samara could tell that the male was breathing faster; you could hear it in his voice along with his nervousness.

Shepard took two more gracefully stalking steps forward, "Not the answer I was looking for," she told him, her tone growing chillier.

"If you shoot me my team's right though there they'll be all over you," he responded quickly. The two of them stared at one another and the male relaxed slightly, obviously thinking he was gaining the upper hand.

Shepard bowed her head, shook it once and then raised it again to look him in the eye. She took another panther like step forward, "You're not thinking this through," her tone was soft, but underlying it was an unmistakable note of menace. "Is a little information worth dying for? Is Nassana?"

One, two, three seconds passed. "No...I suppose not," the male said, breaking the silence. "Ok, look...last I heard, the assassin was down on the mezzanine. But the teams on the bridge think they might have spotted him. Nobody knows for sure."

Shepard took a step to the side, "Get out of here," she ordered him.

He held up his hands, "I'm going," he agreed, and headed right for the elevator.

Samara watched him go, puzzled by what had just happened. She was aware that he was not likely to get very far, after all the police were still waiting at the entrance to the tower. She turned to look at Shepard. The human was smirking, and the air of menace that had hung about her while she talked to the Eclipse merc was completely gone.

"Aren't the police still down there?" asked Grunt.

"Uh huh," Shepard agreed sounding just as pleased as she looked, "Since they've undoubtedly already taken statements from that first salarian, and are probably still talking to those three we sent down a short time ago, I imagine they'll detain him."

"An unusual method of questioning," Samara commented to the human, searching for an explanation as to what had just happened.

Shepard's gaze focused on her keenly, after a moment the human crossed over to her. "Being nice and polite doesn't impress people like him," she explained, "they require a different tactic to get answers from them."

Everything fell into place, "You were acting."

Shepard shrugged, "Some yes, but I can be ruthless when I have to. So I can't say I was entirely acting." She gave the justicar a sober look, "As you mentioned yesterday, we're both willing to kill when the reason's right."

"Would you have been willing to kill him?" Samara inquired, she had not missed the fact that Shepard had never actually stated that she would, only strongly implied it.

"Without him firing on us? No, that's against..." Shepard bowed her head and smiled bitterly. "I was about to say that's against Alliance Naval law, but I'm not even sure I'm in the Alliance Navy anymore." The human drew in breath, straightened, "I guess it doesn't matter though, as they say, once a marine, always a marine. So no, I wouldn't have, we would have had to take him prisoner and then call the police up to take custody of him."

That was what Samara had thought, though she wasn't familiar with the human saying Shepard had quoted. "He did seem quite intimidated by you."

"He did, didn't he," Shepard agreed, looking pleased. She looked down the hallway, "I guess we'd better keep moving if we want to find Thane before they do." The Spectre started up the hallway towards the right most doors just past the elevator they had come up minutes before. As they got closer to the door, Samara noticed a data pad lying on the floor. Shepard paused by it, picked it up. The Spectre scrolled through it for a moment and then held it out towards the asari, "Samara, does this look at all familiar to you?"

After a few pages, the justicar knew what she was holding and why the information in it confused Shepard. "This is the genetic information for a salarian family, the Kirosa's. The salarian's use information like this to bargain for better breeding contracts," she informed the Spectre.

Shepard bowed her head, "Kirosa," she whispered, her eyes narrowed in thought. "Ah," the human's head snapped up, "In the shipping area next to the stairs, the salarian that was talking on his communicator. He mentioned losing this to the person he was talking to, and he mentioned Nassana's name. He must have been one of the ones who got out of the building earlier." She nodded to the data pad, Samara still held, "Keep it?"

The justicar nodded and tucked it away for safekeeping. Doubtless the Kirosa family already had the information backed up multiple times, as important as this type of information was to the salarian's. Nevertheless, returning the data pad to its owner was the right thing to do. She remembered the salarian Shepard was speaking of, but had not paid any particular attention to him.

They went through the door and emerged into a large room, pallets of construction materials were scattered about on the floor. Large pillars supported a wide walkway, which presumably lead out onto the top floor of the building and the bridge over to Dantius Tower One. Two inactive mechs, one LOKI, one FENRIS, were stationed in the middle of the room and another pair of LOKIs were located further back and to their right.

"He's all over the place," once again they heard the Eclipse mercenary before they saw him. The three of them slipped into the first cover available, a long and wide stack of wall panels slightly off to the side of the door.

"What do you mean?" an angry sounding female voice replied.

Shepard identified the second voice in a whisper, "Nassana."

"We've got reports of him on multiple levels. We think he's traveling through the ducts..." the male voice replied to his employer.

"I'm not paying you to think. Just find him. Now!" Nassana demanded.

"Come on. She'll be throwing us to the dogs next," they heard him comment.

"Ready?" Shepard inquired, Samara and Grunt nodded, "Mechs first," the Spectre paused for a second; she started glowing blue and white as she built up a mass effect field. Samara edged slightly further away, not wanting to risk her own barrier coming into contact with it. Shepard said, "Now," and rose, gesturing with her hand. As Samara had expected, the human formed her biotic energy into a shockwave, sending the nearest LOKI and FENRIS mechs sailing through the air. It didn't take more than a few shots after that to finish them off.

By now the mercenaries they had overheard had joined the battle. One human male, likely the one they had heard talking, and two asari, one of which was a biotic. The two LOKI mechs were also still active and attacking them. Once again Shepard sent a shockwave the mercs way, only this time there were two explosive drums in a crate nearby them. The drums exploded in a rolling boil of fire when the shockwave hit them, showering the nearby mercenaries with flaming chemicals and metal shards. Two of them, having been closer to the chemicals than the third, were set afire; they yelped in dismay and began beating at the flames on their armor. It was enough of a distraction for the three of them to quickly finish the two mercenaries, and the remaining two mechs, off. Now there was only the single asari biotic left. She was bunkered down behind a crate and was frantically calling for backup.

"Charging," said Shepard though their headsets.

Charging? Thought Samara, that was something she associated more with krogan biotics than human biotics. A blue blur crossed her field of vision and the Eclipse merc when flying though the air. The asari landed several feet away and didn't move again. Shepard was now standing where the mercenary had been crouched...behind the crate. Incredulously, the justicar looked at where the human had been just a moment ago. Shepard had crossed almost fifteen meters in less than a second and, if she was correct in what she remembered, had went through, not around, the crate between her and the mercenary.

Samara drew in a surprised breath as she realized what the human had just done. The justicar knew of this biotic skill, but had never learned or witnessed it herself. From what she knew, it was powerful, but incredibly dangerous to use unless the biotic was very skilled. Reputedly it took decades to learn all of the different biotic methods involved, and it seemed impossible for a human in her third decade of life to have mastered the skill. Was it impossible for a human who possessed prothean memories though? The more sensible and calm part of herself disputed immediately, reminding her that Shepard had access to at the memories of at least two prothean biotic teachers.

"Where is everyone?" Nassana's disembodied voice echoed through the large room. A second later, "Will somebody please give me a report!" Shepard glanced that way, but headed instead towards a door whose controls glowed red, signaling it was locked.

Samara followed, there might be more workers locked inside by their assassin, as there had been on the floor below. When Shepard bypassed the lock and the door opened she saw that she was right, there were three salarian's inside the room along with the body of an Eclipse mercenary.

Shepard stepped inside the room, "Are you guys alright in here?"

Surprising all of them, the salarian lifted a pistol and pointed it at the human. "Get back! Get back...I'll shoot!" it was obvious he was terrified. Shepard didn't even make a motion towards her own pistol, and neither did the justicar, that would simply make the situation more dangerous. Grunt shifted uneasily, but followed their lead.

"Be at peace," Samara said to him, trying to calm him down. "No one will hurt you."

"I don't want to hurt you..." for a moment the justicar thought it had worked, "but I will. I said get back! I'll do it!" He drew in several quick breaths, his eyes darting between her and the human in front of him. "Please...don't make me do it," he begged Shepard.

"Hey", Shepard said to him soothingly, "Don't worry; I'm not one of Nassana's mercenaries. What's your name?" Samara moved out of the way and simply observed as Shepard skillfully began talking the salarian down.

"I...I'm Telon," he hesitantly responded. He blinked uncertainly at her, "Don't come any closer."

"Telon, I'm Commander Shepard." Samara heard a hint of calm command enter the human's voice. Even she found it reassuring, and she could see the salarian did as well, he already looked calmer. "As I said I don't work with the mercenaries, and I don't want to hurt you. I'm here to help you. We've already found a few more survivors and sent them to safety. There are medical personnel standing by at the base of the building waiting for you, you just have to let your friends help you down there." The promised safety definitely seemed to help tip the scale in his mind.

"I... all right... here." He handed Shepard the pistol he had been threatening her with only seconds ago.

Samara doubted she could have done any better. She seldom had a need to soothe people and most asari, at least those who didn't fear that the Code would find them unjust, trusted her simply because she was a justicar.

"I..." the salarian started to waver, "don't feel so..." and collapsed to the floor.

"Telon!" another salarian exclaimed, hurrying forward to kneel beside him.

"You are?" Shepard questioned him, while watching both of them closely.

The second salarian immediately responded, "Chesith, he's my brother. I just want to see if he's alright." He looked up a Shepard and asked her hesitantly, "Are you the ones who...shot the merc?"

"It wasn't me," Shepard responded, briefly glancing over at the dead body, "Your brother didn't do it?"

"No," Chesith responded, "we were hiding. The merc found us and shouted at us to move. We panicked, and he shouted more. I thought he was going to kill us... then his head just exploded. Telon picked up the mercs gun, but we were too afraid to leave. Then you showed up."

Shepard questioned him for a few minutes, mainly verifying what they already knew. The wind would be an issue and the walkway was well guarded. As soon as Telon recovered from his faint, Shepard urged them to go to the ground floor.

"No need to convince me," Chesith replied. He reached down to his brother, "Telon, get up," and pulled him to his feet.

"Can we go home now?" Telon asked plaintively.

"Yeah," his brother reassured him, "We're getting out of here." Chesith paused before Shepard and bowed, "Thank you."

Shepard nodded, "You're welcome."

They followed the three salarians out of the room, and then headed in the opposite direction. The workers were going down, they were going up. Two LOKI mechs and three asari awaited them on the upper walkway, between Shepard's shockwave, and Samara's judicious use of a pull field, none of the five stood for long against the three of them.

They stepped outside, as the workers had told them the exterior walls were not up yet and they looked out over the city. This side of the building at least was not windy, though it was rather chilly and Samara understood immediately why the salarians disliked it. They went around the corner of the building and the wind picked up slightly, though it was still nothing to be concerned about.

Unfortunately there was a large group of mercenaries on this side of the bridge to the other tower. "Forget the explosives. He's already past us," one of them called out. The human male turned around, saw them, "Look out! Their behind us too!" he yelled as he dove behind a piece of construction equipment.

These were well trained fighters. That was immediately apparent to Samara by the way they fought and worked together as a team. Something many of the mercenaries they had met on the lower levels had failed to do. Shepard, furthest forward as was her habit, was under heavy fire, the Spectre could only rise briefly to return their fire before her shields were stripped and she had to duck down again.

Samara and Grunt worked smoothly together to fire upon the mercenaries and LOKI mechs as they came out of cover. Within the first minute they managed to destroy both mechs and take down one of the Eclipse mercenaries. Now only three were left, but they seemed to be the most experienced ones. Concentrated fire on her position forced Samara to move back behind the wall buttress she had taken cover behind and let her shields recharge. When she moved forward again she noticed that one of the mercs, an asari, had managed to move forward and was now ducked down on the other side of the same piece of equipment that Shepard was using for cover. This asari seemed to be more heavily armored and better equipped than any they had run into before, and Samara suspected she had received commando training with the way she moved and fought. The asari was also a biotic, the blue glow of her barrier was easy to discern as the area was only dimly lit.

Finally, one of the three remaining mercenaries made a mistake and continued firing after his shields were gone. Samara took immediate advantage of it and killed him with a burst from her assault rifle. Now there were only two remaining, another male human and the asari. Suddenly, with a supportive burst of fire from the other remaining mercenary, the asari leapt up onto the piece of construction equipment. She was now standing right above the human. Shepard lunged upward and before the asari could react, the human grabbed the merc's arm and pulled her forward and down. The asari merc barely managed to remain on her feet as Shepard pulled her down off the stack. Now both of them were in too close proximity for Samara or Grunt to fire. There were a few seconds of vicious struggle between them. The justicar saw the mercs head snap back as the Spectre got in a few quick, hard blows to the asari's face, and then Shepard reached up, grabbed the asari's head and twisted. There was sound of a neck snapping, and Shepard pushed the body to the side.

Shepard stood, a mass effect field forming rapidly around her. "Charging," she announced in their headsets. Now Samara had a better view of what exactly Shepard was doing with her biotics, and she watched intently as she had never witnessed anyone using this biotic skill personally, only read and heard about it. The mass effect field the human was building up was larger than what was normally required, and the justicar's eyes widened in surprise when she noticed she could actually see the energy actually forming a short corridor a few meters forward of the human. Then, in a blue flash of biotic energy, Shepard was simply gone from where she had been standing and was now several meters away and the remaining mercenary was flying through the air. There was the sound of a pistol shot and he didn't move again.

Samara's eyes tracked the Spectre's path, through the piece of equipment she had been standing behind and through the side of the shipping container the mercenary had been behind. There was no doubt in Samara's mind anymore that Shepard was performing the same biotic charge as she had heard of during her training as a justicar or that the human had learned this way of using a mass effect field from the prothean memories she possessed.

"Samara?" Shepard's questioning voice over her headset told the asari her distractedness had been noticed.

"My apologies Shepard," the justicar replied and hurried to catch up with the other two where they waited for her.

Shepard regarded Samara with a concerned look as the justicar approached, and then glanced back at where they had just fought. The Spectre's her lips quirked upwards in a small smile, she stepped closer and said, "I'll explain more later, but think mass effect relay."

Samara frowned and then realized what Shepard was saying; relays formed mass effect corridors between them, within which ships traveled at faster than light speeds at near zero mass. The human was shaping her mass effect field into something very like one of those corridors that was an interesting way of viewing the skill. The asari nodded, "The skill is not unknown to me, even though I do not know how to perform it and have never witnessed it utilized before now."

Shepard looked surprised, "The asari know of it?"

Samara nodded, "It is rare because of the difficulty involved, but yes there are a few asari who know the skill."

The human's expression turned thoughtful, "Well good... that will make it less strange that I'm using it if anyone notices." Shepard turned and headed around the corner of the building without saying anything more on the subject.

Samara stared bemusedly for a second at the human's back before following her around the corner of the building, and into the strong wind the workers had spoken about. There was the bridge across to Tower One. Samara put the thoughts about exactly how less strange any asari would find it that the human Spectre knew a skill that was reputed to be among the most difficult to learn and master for asari as opposed to the human knowing a completely unknown skill out of her mind, now was not the time to be thinking about that.

They paused where there were to take a look at the bridge, as the workers had indicated, there were a lot of mercenaries guarding it. They could see at least six or seven on the bridge itself and Samara had no doubts there were just as many on the far end out of their sight. "At least there's lots of cover," Shepard commented, "On the far side though, I think I see an automated defense turret. I bet there's a matching one on the right side we can't see from here." Samara looked at where the Spectre was indicating. Yes, that certainly looked like a defensive turret, and it likely was considering how much Nassana Dantius feared an attack.

Grunt leaned out, risking the mercs on the bridge seeing him, and then stepped back again, "You're right, those should make things more fun."

Shepard just chuckled softly in reply, "I'll take care of them. They should be in range about midway along the bridge."

"About the same time we are," Grunt noted, sounding amused.

"Yes, well..." Shepard grinned at him, "I'll duck fast."

Samara watched the two of them interact, and wondered about the human's behavior. The amount of pain and anguish she had felt from Shepard yesterday surely couldn't be dealt with in only one night. Undoubtedly the Spectre had walled away those emotions once again in preparation for this mission.

"Let's go," Shepard motioned for them to back away from the edge and go back around the bridge support to where they could get down to the bridge itself. Samara noted that there was a lot of construction debris lying around as they jumped down the short two foot drop to the bridge. There was also little cover and the four LOKI mechs guarding this end of the bridge were already activating, rising to their feet and drawing their weapons. Shepard darted to a crate in the middle of the area and crouched down behind it, while Grunt ran to cover on the far side. Samara stayed where she was standing next to the support, it was the best cover left and she had a good firing arc on the mechs. Three of the LOKI's went down very quickly, but there were reinforcements already coming across the bridge. Three Eclipse mercenaries joined the remaining mech and began firing at them.

"I don't care what you do, no one get's across that bridge." Nassana Dantius's order was quite loud, even over the sound of the wind. Samara couldn't tell if the asari's voice was coming through a speaker or if one of the mercenary's communications devices was set on high.

Crouched down behind the crate in the middle Shepard began creating a mass effect field, seconds later she sprang up and gestured and a biotic shockwave swept down the bridge sending the remaining mech and two of the mercenaries flying high in the air. One slammed into a support pillar, the other one the wind caught and carried him past the bridge as he fell. A rapidly vanishing scream was the last Samara heard from him and she hoped there was no one below when he landed. She reached up to her headset; perhaps the Spectre hadn't considered that, "Shepard there might be bystanders below."

"Damn it," Shepard cursed, informing her that she had been right, "Yea, you're right. Ok, no more flying mercenaries... or rather non-flying mercenaries." Samara had to shake her head a little bit at that one, even as she heard the krogan's hearty laughter at it from the other side of the bridge. There was only one merc left, and asari biotic crouched down behind a stack of metal plates about seven meters away. The bluish-white of a mass effect field formed around Shepard, the human announced, "Charging," and stood. Samara shifted her aim; she knew where Shepard was going next. In the next instant the asari mercenary flew backward and into a heavy crate behind her as the human impacted with her, Shepard shot her in the head before she could recover and the asari slumped to the ground dead. That seemed to be a preference of Shepard's, and Samara approved. Not only was a head shot a sure kill, but it was a quick one as well.

"Move up as you can, I'll provide covering fire," Shepard directed them as she stood up and began firing with her automatic at the next group of Eclipse mercenaries headed their way. Samara had already picked out her next preferred firing location, and in a moment, seeing one of the mercenaries go down, she took the opportunity to sprint to it. It didn't take them long to take down the next set of mercenaries, whereupon Shepard used her biotic charge to place herself at the midway point of the bridge behind some stacked crates. The Spectre was now in a perfect position to take out the defensive turrets which had begun firing at her as soon as they registered her presence within their range. The human holstered her pistol and pulled out the odd looking weapon and rose, firing it at the leftmost turret. From what Samara could observe it appeared to be a narrow beam energy weapon, and given the quickness with which it took out its target, a very advanced and powerful one.

The other turret kept firing at the human and then more mercenaries appeared, doubtless spurred on by Nassana Dantius's continued berating of them. The new arrivals concentrated their fire on the Spectre, and Samara knew that would make it very difficult for Shepard to get a good opportunity to take out the remaining turret. Laying down suppressive fire, the justicar sprinted up to a support pillar closer to Shepard's position; from here she was better able to fire upon the mercenaries. As soon as she reached the pillar, Samara started firing quick bursts at anything that moved with her Vindicator assault rifle. That allowed Shepard to finally take out the remaining turret.

There were no more mercenaries on the bridge, Shepard hopped down from the crate she had been standing on and passed close by Samara, "Thanks," the Spectre said to her. The justicar nodded in reply, she had simply done what was needed, but it was good for that to be acknowledged. They continued on to the other end of the bridge unopposed until the very end when more mercenaries arrived and started firing at them from above. They sprinted to the wall and out of the mercenaries' view, to their right there were steps leading upward. Shepard started up them, the bluish glow of biotic energy lighting up her form as she built up a mass effect field at the same time. The justicar was not surprised to hear the rhythmic boom of a shockwave as soon as Shepard reached the top of the stairs and disappeared from view.

At the top of the stairs space was tight, as soon as she turned the corner Samara realized there was only a low wall between them and two mercenaries firing at them. Shepard and Grunt were crouched down behind it, almost shoulder to shoulder. Further to the right was a tall crate against the wall, and the justicar all but threw herself behind it before she attracted the mercenaries attention. With three against two, it didn't take them long to kill both mercenaries. Before they did much more than step out of cover there was the sound of a door opening and then footsteps that stopped, then nothing. Samara saw Shepard frown, the Spectre took a few steps forward and then peered around the wall toward the door, she drew quickly back as a spray of bullets fired where her head had just been. A bluish ball of biotic energy following the spray of bullets had them all quickly backpedaling further away.

The justicar saw Shepard's eyes narrow. The Spectre moved further back towards the stairs, and quickly built up a mass effect field, part of it shaping in a corridor in front of her. And then the human just waited, her mass effect field if anything growing stronger and the corridor better defined. Samara frowned, wondering what Shepard was waiting for and then realized she was waiting for the mercenary to move to where the Spectre could see her. Samara thought Shepard's decision was a bold and somewhat reckless choice, especially not knowing who or what had come through the door. Though, given that they had seen no human biotics among the Eclipse so far, Samara guessed the mercenary was likely an asari.

She heard a startled sounding exclamation from the merc and then Shepard was gone, leaving behind her a rapidly dissipating trail of bluish biotic energy. Samara was moving as well, around the crate and the wall to where there were sounds of fighting. Shepard was fighting a heavily armored asari and was easily holding her own against the mercenary, who already seemed to be in trouble. Both seemed evenly matched in quickness, and to Samara's trained eye Shepard was clearly the stronger of the two. The asari was deflecting Shepard's blows and was on the defensive looking for an opening, as commandoes were trained to do when face with an opponent who had greater physical strength.

That was surprising, the justicar would have thought an asari and a human female, even one as fit as Shepard, would be about evenly matched in strength. The asari should have had a slight advantage in quickness and been slightly more agile but she wasn't, the human was just as quick and just as agile. Samara could tell by the startled, wary look on the other asari's fact that the mercenary was surprised by Shepard as well. An assault rifle lying on the floor several feet away from the two fighters indicated to Samara that the first thing Shepard had done was to disarm the mercenary. Doubtless the mercenary had assumed she would still win a hand to hand battle with a human handily, even after being disarmed. Samara doubted the commando assumed that any longer.

The asari attempted to strike the Spectre, only instead of blocking the blow, Shepard grabbed her wrist and used the mercenaries own momentum to pull the asari forward. The commando, realizing the danger she was in, tried to twist away not wanting to expose her vulnerable neck to the human, but the Spectre was too quick and powerful. A quick, forceful chopping blow to the back of the asari's neck and the Eclipse mercenary went down to her knees, choking and unable to breathe. Shepard was swift; she grasped the merc's head and with a smooth twist snapped the asari's spine. The human stood there for a second with her head bowed and the asari's head still held between her hands before she released the body with a slight shudder and let it slip to the floor.

"Nice moves," Grunt complimented Shepard.

The Spectre nodded to him, "Thanks," she acknowledged his compliment before turning away.

To Samara, who had been watching Shepard ever since she noticed the troubled way the human was acting, Shepard sounded faintly disturbed. Then the justicar remembered that the Spectre had died of asphyxiation, her hard suits breathing apparatus damaged by a piece of her exploding ship. Perhaps it was not so surprising then that the manner of the mercenary's death had troubled Shepard, even if it had been at the human's own hands.

They went through the door and into a short hallway, there were only a few doors here and all of them had plaques with names and important sounding titles engraved upon them. Shepard turned toward her, "Any issue with just letting this assassin take his hit?"

"Shepard, I did swear an oath to follow your commands," Samara reminded the human in a mild tone.

Shepard drew in a breath, "I know that, but technically we should take her in to stand trial. Standing by and watching to see how an assassin makes his hit..." the Spectre shook her head, frowning. "What does the Code say about this?"

"The Code would require me to question her and determine whether or not she ordered the Eclipse mercenaries to fire upon her workers. If I determined that she did, then the Code would compel me to kill her as punishment for her actions," Samara responded. She had noted yesterday that Shepard seemed to have a high respect for the law; the fact that this issue was troubling the human only reinforced that impression in her mind.

"And just letting Thane kill her?" Shepard asked solemnly.

They were back to the human's first question, "Given his statements to Seyrna he obviously considers her to be unjust, and in killing her he seeks to atone for his own actions in the past. Considering all that I have heard and witnessed today about this Nassana Dantius, I find nothing dishonorable in letting him do so."

Shepard shot her a keen look, "You understood that? Is this religious for him?"

Samara nodded, "He has done something in the past for which he feels the need to atone. Now he

seeks to right the balance in his life by killing those who do great harm to others." Shepard's brow furrowed as she considered this. After a few seconds she nodded to Samara and headed toward the door at the very end of the hallway. The justicar followed, wondering what Shepard's decision would be, or if the human had even made it yet.

They walked into a large office, the setting sun showing in the three large floor-to-ceiling windows. An asari in business clothes stood behind an expensive looking desk facing away from them and looking out the window, around her stood three Eclipse mercenaries with their weapons drawn. The asari turned around, the hard look on her face shifted immediately into one of confusion, "Shepard? But... you're dead."

"I got better," the justicar could easily hear the darkly wry humor in the human's tone.

"And now you're here to kill me," Nassana accused the Spectre.

The mercenaries raised their weapons but Shepard ignored them. "You're really paranoid aren't you," the human replied.

The asari scowled at her, "Don't patronize me Shepard," she turned to look out the window.

"Charming as ever," Shepard observed, her tone sarcastic.

The asari turned partially around, "I'm sure you find this ironic. First you take care of my sister, and now you're here for me." She turned around to face Shepard, took a few steps forward, "Well, you've made it this far. Now what?" For the first time Nassana seemed to notice that Samara was a justicar, the asari's eyes fixed on the symbols on Samara's forehead and her eyes widened slightly.

"You really think I'm here to kill you?" Shepard was amused; the justicar could hear it in the human's tones. And from the way Nassana's eyes shifted back to Shepard and the asari glared at the human, she could as well.

"Do you have another reason for destroying my tower? Decimating my security?" Nassana asked angrily, her pacing back and forth betraying her agitation.

"I'm just looking for someone," Shepard stated, crossing her arms and standing in a slouched casual looking manner completely ignoring the mercs who had their weapons trained on her. Though even they were relaxing slightly now that it looked like their employer and the human were going to talk to one another for awhile before anything happened.

"You expect me to believe that?" Nassana asked the Spectre angrily. "Is it credits? Is that what you want? Just tell me your price. We can make this problem go away."

Shepard snorted at her, "You really know nothing about me do you Nassana." Samara heard a banging noise from the ceiling, it sounded like someone moving through the ductwork. She could tell by the slight tilt to Shepard's head that the human had heard it as well. The Spectre shook her head, "All the credits in the world won't make your problems go away this time Nassana."

The asari glared at Shepard "Who the hell gave you the right to play god?" She strode forward, "I may not be perfect but look at you. We both kill people for money. What's the difference?"

"I do not kill people for money," Shepard's tone was cold. "You kill people because you think their beneath you, or because they're in your way like your workers. I kill people when their trying to kill me, or their committing a crime, or threatening galactic peace. I'd say there's plenty of difference between us."

"Don't act like being a Spectre makes you superior to me," Nassana sneered at her, "You get paid well for being the Council's hired killer."

There was a moment of silence and then Shepard started laughing like Nassana had said something extremely amusing. Samara stared at the Spectre; the human was literally bent over in her hilarity. "Where the hell did you hear that?" Shepard finally stopped laughing long enough to ask. "The Alliance kept sending me my usual paycheck after I was made a Spectre and that's it. I've never received one red cent from the Council for anything I've done for them."

"What?" Nassana asked sounding confused. Samara was confused as well; it certainly seemed as if Shepard should receive some pay from the Council. Even she received enough to ensure she could buy food and lodging as well as maintain her weapons and armor.

The noise from the ceiling was much louder this time, even the Eclipse mercenaries heard it and looked upward. "What?" this time Nassana snapped it at one of the mercenaries, an asari.

"I heard something," the asari replied to her.

Nassana slammed her hands on her desk, "Damn it. Check the other entrances!" She pointed off to the north. Then she turned to Shepard, "You," she pointed at the Spectre, "stay put." Samara tried to not react to the sight of a drell dropping silently out of a vent in the ceiling. This had to be the assassin they were seeking, Thane Krios. Nassana, oblivious to his presence, pulled a weapon from her desk and kept talking to Shepard. "When I'm finished dealing with this nuisance, you and I are going to..." In the time it took the asari to say that, the drell had neatly snapped one of the male human's necks, dropped the second one with a chop to his neck and shot the returning asari mercenary in the head.

"Who..." Nassana managed to say before the drell grabbed her hand holding the weapon and pulled Nassana toward him, burying his pistol in her stomach. Nassana had just enough time to look up at her killer before he pulled the trigger. The sound of the shot was muffled by her body. She groaned in pain as the drell gently lifted her and laid her back on her own desk. As she sighed her last breath, he placed her hands on her chest and then began praying.

"So this is our guy, Good," Grunt spoke up in the silence.

Shepard slowly moved towards the desk and then waited patiently on the other side of it for the drell to finish. "Thane Krios I presume. I'm Commander Amanda Shepard, Spectre," she said when he lowered his clasped hands and looked up at her.

"Yes, I apologize for not greeting you sooner," the drell said, "but prayers for the wicked must not be forsaken."

"She made a lot of bad choices in her life," Shepard said, staring down at the dead woman and shaking her head slightly. Samara was surprised at the slight tone of sorrow in the human's voice, and then she remembered Shepard's words to the young mercenary Elnora. The Spectre obviously held some very strong beliefs; perhaps it was not that surprising after all.

The drell looked at her silently for a moment before glancing down at the asari he had killed, "Yes. They were not for her however, but for me." He holstered his pistol, and walked around the desk. "The measure of an individual can be difficult to tell from actions alone. Take you, for instance. All this destruction...chaos. I was curious to see how far you would go to find me." He stopped in front of Shepard, "Well...here I am."

"How did you know I was coming at all?" Shepard asked.

"I didn't," he replied, "not until you marched in the front door and started shooting." He paced over to stand before Grunt. "Nassana had become paranoid. You saw the strength of her guard force. She believed one of her sisters would kill her. You were a valuable distraction."

"I suspected you might be doing that," Shepard commented. "I would have done the same in your position," she admitted.

Thane inclined his head to her, "So, you needed to speak to me. What would you like to discuss?"

"The Collectors are abducting entire human colonies. We're going to stop them," Shepard replied. The tone of absolute confidence in the human's voice bemused Samara. She had made a single trip to the mess hall for dinner and returned to the observation lounge to continue her meditations, during that time she had overheard enough to tell that the Spectre's calm confidence was reflected in the attitude of the crew. Even though it was clear that they knew how dangerous their mission was, she had heard no desperation in their tones, they sounded just as confident as their Commander that they would succeed.

Thane turned, walked toward the windows, he bowed his head, "I've heard of them," he replied. He turned to face her, "Attacking the Collectors would require passing through the Omega 4 relay. No ship has ever returned from doing so."

"They told me it was impossible to get to Ilos, too," was Shepard's even reply.

"A fair point," the drell allowed, "You've built a career on performing the impossible." He turned back to the window and looked out, "This was to be my last job. I'm dying. Low survival odds don't concern me. The abduction of your colonists does."

Shepard frowned, "I didn't know that. How long do you have? And sorry to have to ask, but are you contagious?"

The drell turned to look at her, "If you're interested, we can discuss it on your ship. The problem isn't contagious, and it won't affect my work."

Shepard nodded, "Is there anything we can do for you?" she asked. For a brief second, Samara smiled, just as with her, Shepard was immediately offering her help to her new crew member.

"Giving me this opportunity is enough," the drell replied. "The universe is a dark place. I'm trying to make it brighter before I die." He turned to face her, "Many innocents died today. I wasn't fast enough and they suffered. I must atone for that." He held out his hand and waited, when Shepard reached out as well and shook it he said, "I will work for you Shepard. No charge."

The four of them walked out of Nassana's office, down the hallway and back outside the building. They didn't get very far however, before a black and white air car with police written across its side, descended and hovered over the bridge. The air car door opened, and Samara immediately recognized Detective Anaya. "I thought you might want to avoid the media at the base of Tower One," the purple hued asari called out to them.

"You would be correct," Shepard replied to the detective as she walked over to the air car. The Spectre motioned for Samara to sit up front with Detective Anaya while she squeezed in the back with Thane and Grunt. The justicar did not argue, being in such close proximity to the drell and krogan would not be comfortable for her. "I guess that gunfire and explosions are as much a draw for asari reporters as human reporters?" Shepard inquired of the detective.

Anaya nodded, "They showed up just after the first group of salarian's you sent down." As soon as they were all settled and the doors closed, the detective said, "I guess there's not much use in preparing a case against Nassana Dantius?" She guided the air car back out into the stream of traffic and headed toward the Main Trading floor docks and the Normandy.

"Not unless if you just want to," Shepard replied and then inquired, "Did you take a human Eclipse merc into custody?" before the asari could ask any more questions about Nassana.

The detective smirked, "We did, and he didn't seem to be too happy when he saw us waiting for him. He didn't have anything nice to say about you Shepard."

Shepard laughed, "I only promised him that I would let him go," she commented.

"So we heard," the detective responded wryly and Shepard laughed again.

"Where did you learn how to fight like that?" Grunt asked Shepard when she stopped laughing. "Okeer's tank imprint didn't have a lot of information about humans except their weak points for killing them." Samara noticed the detective glance sharply into the mirror at the krogan's statement.

"Initially, Alliance Marine Corps Officer Training, and then Special Forces training built on top of that," the Spectre replied.

"What's that?" the young krogan asked.

"Special Forces training?" Shepard inquired. At his nod she continued, "Alliance Special Forces training is an eleven month long training course designed to teach basic levels of competence in all the skills required for the N1 specialist designation. You learn small boat seamanship, combat diving, small unit tactics, land navigation, energy weapons training, edged weapons and unarmed combat training, intelligence gathering, long range reconnaissance and patrolling, infiltration techniques, recovery or snatch and grab techniques, prisoner treatment, field medic training, structure penetration, demolitions, general vehicular and vehicular combat training, space combat, and space navigation."

It was a very long list Samara noted, and explained why the Spectre was adept at such a wide range of skills. It also reminded her of her huntress training when she was a young maiden. Many of the skills Shepard had mentioned sounded very similar to the ones she had learned several centuries ago.

"It's based on the old United States Navy Seal or Sea, Air and Land Special Warfare Operations training or BUDS training as it was known then," Shepard continued. "Alliance Special Forces training is four months longer, but it's still divided into four phases, and the second or conditioning phase still has hell week in the middle of it."

"Hell week?" Grunt inquired. Samara was pleased that he had, she was curious about it as well. The name certainly did not imply anything pleasant.

Shepard was quiet for a moment before she finally replied, "It's a five day test of your physical endurance and resolve. The ring out bell is always there, and the instructors are always encouraging you to use it if you've had enough. You're in continuous training evolutions, doing timed exercises, runs, crawling through mud flats or sand." Shepard paused and chuckled, "Usually it's the mud and then the sand, whereupon the instructors call you a sand crab until they send you into the surf to wash off. You spend most of the time cold and wet because you're either in the ocean doing zodiac drills or cold water conditioning... more colloquially known as surf torture. I can still remember that, sitting on the cold beach sand shoulder to shoulder with the other trainees. The surf rolling up between us, and the cold water keeping me awake and shivering. The taste of salt water on my lips and sand...always sand, it seemed like it stayed a part of you for the entire week. The only damn place on me that felt even slightly warm was where I was pressed up against Sayer on one side and Walker on the other. The instructor called out cadence and we all did sit ups together. They wanted to keep us exercising. Make sure we didn't get too cold, but God it was the third day and we were all exhausted and wondering if we could make it for two more. You had to keep time with the count or you would be down when the surf was coming in, and one time with the surf water and sand rolling over your face was a damn good motivator for keeping up."

Samara glanced up at the mirror; this was the not the first time she had heard Shepard curse, but two times in such a brief period? The human's expression was pinched, her lips pressed tight together. She even looked cold to Samara with her shoulders hunched and it was warm in the vehicle. The justicar frowned, something was strange was going on here. She saw Shepard shake her head sharply and heard her draw in a deep breath. The human looked more focused now, as if she had literally shaken herself out of the memory.

"You're not allowed to sleep," Shepard continued. "If you're lucky, you might get four hours of it the entire week and that's while you're doing something else. I never would have believed before that week that I could sleep while holding a three hundred pound log on my shoulder and jogging along with five other trainees," Shepard commented wryly, "but you can when you're tired enough."

"Ring out bell?" Thane questioned curiously, referring to something Shepard had mentioned earlier.

"It's another tradition from the original SEAL training. It's a brass bell at the end of the training quad, or if you're not there it's in a vehicle that follows you around. None of the instructors will ever stop you from heading toward it or ringing it, and if you do then that's it your out of training. If you don't have what it takes inside yourself to not ring it then they don't want you in the Special Forces. It's best for yourself and everyone else if you leave. And it's not really much of a stigma not to be able to make it through hell week, over two thirds of the remaining training class usually drops out at that point."

"Why do they want so many to fail?" Detective Anaya asked in a confused and somewhat appalled tone. "And does anyone ever die during this hell week?"

Shepard met the detectives gaze in the mirror, "Because they only want the people that have the resolve to finish the training to stay past that point. Five days is long enough to weed out those who are doing it because they think the occupation specialty offers better advancement promotion. Or because they think it will impress someone or they boasted they could do it. Or even because their father or mother was Special Forces and they want to do the same thing. By the end of hell week, the only ones that are left are the ones who want it for themselves. To prove they have it in themselves to be among the best in the Alliance."

Samara found it interesting that the Alliance wanted the individuals who were not completely resolved within themselves to complete Special Forces training weeded out early on. Justicar training was difficult and deadly for many of the same reasons. Those enamored of what the vids and adventure tales had made the justicars out to be, usually left within the first few weeks. Only those with an unshakable resolve to finish the training remained after a few months, and then only those who were strong enough, skilled enough and smart enough survived the training to actually become justicars.

Shepard continued, "They want people who won't quit when the mission gets tough. Who won't throw up their hands and say it's impossible when the mission gets difficult to complete. They want people who will continue to drive on and look for ways to complete the mission no matter what they run into or what fate throws in their way to stop them. Special Forces specialists must be able to operate efficiently and competently in all types of conditions from underwater, to sub-zero temperatures, to space. Both their and other's lives often depend on their abilities and competence. If you're still there when hell week is over then you have a good chance of having what it takes to do that."

"As for your other question, there are medics constantly monitoring all the training, they just step it up during hell week," Shepard reassured the detective. "To be accepted for Special Forces training you have to be recommended by your unit and rank in the top twenty percent of your current specialties yearly competency testing. The Alliance doesn't want to lose highly skilled marines and sailors. The medics and trainers work together to make sure that while your pushed to the very edge of what you can physically do and kept there for most of hell week, you're not permanently injured or killed during it."

Unfortunately the ride back from the towers to the Normandy was not long, and they arrived just as Shepard finished speaking. "Well, I guess this is it," the detective said as she guided the air car to a stop beside the Normandy's cargo hatch which was open to receive supplies. The door opened and Thane and Grunt immediately levered themselves out of the air car's back seat. "Do you have any more recruiting to do on Illium, Spectre?" The detective asked before Shepard did much more than slide a few inches across the back seat.

"Are you asking or are your superiors?" Shepard asked with an amused grin.

"I am," the Anaya responded, "I don't think they've heard about tonight's events...yet."

"And you'd like to have an answer ready for them," Shepard nodded. "We're only waiting for a few upgrades to be done now. It should just be a few more days and we'll be on our way. But we'll be stopping back by fairly frequently to pick up supplies." Shepard snapped her fingers, "Oh and before I forget, Samara that data pad we found." The justicar nodded, and slid it out of the pouch attached to her waist and handed it to the other asari. The Spectre explained to Anaya, "There was a salarian standing in the shipping department area by the stairs leading to the main trading floor. I doubt he's still there, but he was talking to someone on his communicator about the data contained in that. It sounded rather important to him; could you find out who he was and return it?"

The detective scanned thought the information for a few seconds and then looked up with a nod, "Shouldn't be too hard for me to find him. I'll be happy to do that for you."

Shepard nodded, slid across the back seat and got out of the air car; Samara followed her. The justicar noticed that Grunt had already left, undoubtedly to return to his room, and Thane was standing several feet away, politely giving them some privacy while he looked about the cargo bay. "Thanks for the lift Anaya," Shepard said to the detective.

The detective leaned across the passenger seat, "Just between us," the asari said in a low tone, "thanks for taking care of Nassana Dantius. I never could get the evidence I needed to pin anything on her, but I'm certain she was responsible for several murders. No one would ever testify against her, they were too scared or worse," the Anaya grimaced, "they just disappeared."

Shepard nodded, "Unfortunately that happens," the Spectre acknowledged, "people like Nassana, who use their power to escape justice, and commit more injustices while doing so, threaten the very tenets of a society's civilization. Laws must be just, and they must apply to all evenly in order for a civilization to have faith in their ability to regulate the behavior of both individuals and the civilization as a whole." Both asari just stared at Shepard in surprise. Not that either disagreed; the human's speech was just completely unexpected.

Shepard glanced back and forth between Anaya in the air car and Samara standing beside her, "Sorry, my grandmother was an Appellate Court Justice; I ended up learning a lot about why laws and a just legal system were important from her and what role they should play in a civilization to support it and keep it healthy." She reached up and rubbed the back of her neck looking slightly embarrassed under their continuing stares, "I'll...Um just step down off the soapbox now."

Samara responded, "No, you are correct, that is one of the reasons why the Justicar Code and the Justicars still exist today. We ensure that the unjust are punished no matter what their position or power. We cannot be bribed or corrupted, for us there is only the Code and its judgment that we must follow." The justicar now felt that she understood at least one reason why Shepard held such a high respect for the law.

"That's what keeps you from being vigilantes," there was realization in Shepard's tone.

Samara inclined her head to the Spectre, "I obey the Justicar Code which is 5000 sutras long. In my 400 years as a Justicar there has not been any situation that I have encountered which the Code has not informed me exactly what action I must take in response."

Shepard nodded slowly, "So the Code itself governs and constrains your actions. Who then governs the Code?"

Samara noticed the detective was not making any move to leave, and gave every appearance of being highly interested in the conversation. "Our civilization governs it; over the millennium it has existed the Code has changed with the asari. It is slow to happen, but sutras have been added and a few words altered over the course of time."

"I didn't know that," Anaya commented, sounding fascinated.

Samara looked over at her, "The last changes to the Code occurred over twenty five hundred years ago when the asari encountered other sentient races for the first time; it is not surprising that there are not many today who know this."

"That's a long time," Shepard commented, "but I guess a lot of crimes still look the same as they always have, only the specific methods used to commit them have changed. Murder is still murder whether you use a rock or pistol to commit it."

Samara's lips twitched in amusement, "Precisely."

"Detective Anaya, please respond. We have a code 245 that requires your presence," the voice came from the police car's radio.

Anaya looked over at the radio, "I've got to go," she said. She held up the data pad, "I won't forget this. Oh, and good luck with whatever it is you're doing Spectre." The detective touched the air car's controls, causing the door to lower, and then she guided it out of the ship's cargo bay, responding to the call.

Shepard and Samara watched the police car disappear and then turned to one another. "I need to get Thane settled, but I'd like to drop by later if that's ok with you for my first mediation training?" Shepard asked her.

Samara nodded, "I believe we should begin as soon as possible. I look forward to seeing you later Shepard."

She watched Shepard stride away. The human stopped by Thane for a moment to speak to him and then the two of them headed toward the door. Today had been an interesting day; it had certainly helped confirm her initial impressions of Shepard. The Spectre was one of the rare individuals whose moral and ethical codes seemed to be extremely strong. Of course, she could still be wrong, Samara knew. Despite Shepard's vacillation today between the question of whether to arrest Nassana or allow Thane to kill the asari, Samara knew she hadn't seen Shepard in a situation where her morals were truly tested. The Spectre's decisions were an interesting mix between the purely tactically practical and an almost idealistic morality. It was an intriguing mixture, and Samara found herself wondering if it would withstand the test of time.

Continued...