"Work fast," Sheffler had hissed as Siu and Kolyat began making their way to the Sanctuary facility.

Then it started to rain Reapers. This was a cause of some concern, but once the Reapers stopped dropping…well. They stopped dropping. None of the big ones appeared, so either it was up in orbit or had already carried on with more important business.

Nevertheless, Kolyat and Siu managed to reach the landing field without incident, beginning with the newest shuttle to have arrived—which hadn't landed in the main landing field, but in what was probably a private space.

It was bad luck and bad timing that that unidentified shuttle had slammed into the facility, causing people to come pouring out. Some ran in a general 'away' direction. Others headed for the landing field, and the surrounding area littered with abandoned shuttles. The chaos wasn't doing anyone any favors.

Kolyat wasn't sure how well some of the bugs, so hastily planted, would handle the journey, but they were doing the best they could. It would have to be enough. He'd pray that it was enough.

About halfway through, he and Siu began finding someone else's bugs. Not Alliance standard equipment, more like techmines than anything else.

About halfway through that, Siu opened a shuttle's passenger door and jumped back. "Who the hell are you?!" he demanded, voice shrill with surprise.

Kolyat appeared at his shoulder, pistol leveled at a quarian who stood on the other side of the shuttle, aiming a pistol at Siu. "Alliance?" the quarian asked dubiously.

"Yeah," Siu asked. "But you're not."

Siu was prone to statements of the obvious when he was startled. Kolyat was glad the quarian chose not to comment on the fact.

"No, I'm not. I'm attached to the Normandy. Special wartime whatever," the quarian answered. "But I recognize you. Kolyat, Thane's son."

"Yes. That makes you…Tali, I think," Kolyat answered, recalling her—or someone dressed like her—from his father's memorial.

Tali put the pistol back in the holster at her hip. "What are you doing here?"

"The same thing you must be: bugging shuttles before they can go anywhere," Kolyat answered. "I take it those were yours we've been finding? More like techmines than proper bugs?"

"They are proper bugs. I simply don't need them to be so special as to be recognizable, like fingerprints, for them to work," Tali answered proudly.

Kolyat sensed a point that shouldn't be argued or debated, so he asked a question with a glaringly obvious answer of his own. "Is Shepard here?"

"Of course she is. She went on ahead because that's what she does. I've got those already," she motioned over her shoulder at the remaining shuttles. "Probably best we met in the middle—"

She paused, as they all looked skyward as a lone shuttle lifted off, arrowing away and out of the atmosphere.

"That was that lone shuttle that showed up before the Reapers did," Kolyat observed.

"I hope the same person who landed it is driving it now," Siu said. "Because if so…we've got them."

"I hope so, too," Tali said. "This nonsense has gone on long enough."

"We've got the rest. If you don't mind, I think it would be best if we rejoined our unit, since our objective's been met. I think you should come, too. Commander Sheffler will probably want a word," Siu said, putting the bug he meant to plant in this particular shuttle back into his bag.

Tali considered this, then shrugged. "Why not? It might be better, later. We've got a rescue for any civilians still in there underway. They could use the extra hands, I'm sure."

That was easy. Easy and painless. As was the trek to the rendezvous point, which was much closer to the facility than the original base camp had been.

"Shuttles are bugged…a couple might have gotten away undocumented in that initial chaos, but we got the rest." Siu shrugged. "And we picked up a visitor. Her." He indicated Tali.

"Tali'Zorah vas Normandy," Tali identified herself.

"I recognize you. You're one of Shepard's," Sheffler said holding out a hand for Tali to shake.

She did so, with the awkwardness of someone not accustomed to the greeting, but not wholly unfamiliar with it. "You should know, we're staging a rescue of anyone trapped in that facility. We could use the extra hands, unless you have other business," Tali continued.

"Nope, no other business. Who's heading the mission?" Sheffler asked.

"Spectre Alenko. He's being backed by all nonessential personnel from the Normandy. We weren't sure what kind of help we could count on from you." The Normandy swung overhead. Tali fiddled with her omnitool. "That will be them, now. Alenko?"

"Yeah?" Alenko called over the noise of the Normandy on the other end. The sound, instead of being on her personal radio, played through her omnitool so everyone could hear it.

"I've got about half a dozen more pairs of hands. A Commander Sheffler and his unit." What she thought about this didn't show in her tone.

"Like Sheffler who sent us the tip?"

"I think so."

Sheffler nodded affirmation. "We were the ones who did the initial recon. It's why we're still here."

Clearly, Alenko did not hear this statement of explanation. "Sounds good! Bring them around and we'll put them to work! We're already going in, just follow the bodies. Not a lot of resistance, so far."

"Sounds good. Expect some, sooner or later." Tali disconnected, then regarded Sheffler's unit.

"Let's go," Sheffler said, grinning as he took his rifle off his weapons rack and uncollapsed it. The check that followed was habit, but not performed blindly. "We'll arrive just in time to come in handy."

Tali led the way to the facility, through the field of abandoned shuttles…and a trickle of refugees from deeper within the facility, many of whom seemed to be so grateful to be out of Sanctuary that they had no immediate thought of leaving the planet's surface.