The tunnel leading down under the mountain was way too narrow for Kira's liking. She wasn't claustrophobic per se, but she wasn't a fan of tight spaces either. Not to mention that fighting in such a limited environment would be hell.

"How far down does this thing go?" She asked out loud. Please end soon, please.

The mineshaft had an atmosphere regulator, so they could take off their helmets and not rely on their comms for conversations.

"The scanner indicates that we're 450 meters under the mountain, but I think we're only 100 below ground level." Garrus answered, not really helpfully.

"Awesome." Kira rolled her eyes at the turian.

"You have a problem with tight places, kid?" Wrex asked her, a bit of mocking in his voice.

Kira snorted. "I'm just not a fan of getting crushed under a shit-ton of rocks, in case anything goes to shit."

They made a right turn and saw a door. Please let the descent from hell end, pretty please.

To Kira's joy, when the door opened, they stepped into a giant rock chamber. Yes! Finally, some room to breathe. She took in a deep breath.

They were at what seemed to be the top level of a metal scaffolding. At the end of the walkway, there was some sort of a chamber, but it was obscured by what looked like a biotic barrier.

Bad news came right after they made a couple of steps. Their combat scanner got jammed, which could only mean one thing. "Geth!" The Commander shouted and the team took cover behind metal panels along the catwalk railing.

They took quick care of the few machines that attacked them, including a few flying drones. We're good at this. And honestly? Shooting them is fun. Real fun.

Kira and her mother went ahead to check out the blue barrier, while Wrex and Garrus covered their backs. It was not biotic of origin, more like some electricity powered force field. After that, the whole team made their way to an elevator, which brought them down a level.

"All this sterile white, those Protheans sure knew how to build things homely." Wrex grumbled as the lift swished down.

"It would do better with some art. Or maybe colorful plants." Kira commented. In truth, she was fine with the décor here, she wasn't much of a vibrant colors and patterns person.

"Or how about some pyjak blood on the walls, right? That would fit." The krogan didn't seem to grasp the concept of room decoration. Or maybe this is how krogans do it?

The older Shepard rolled her eyes at them. "Are you two seriously discussing how to decorate the battlefield in art, plants and blood?"

"We're just trying not to die of boredom in this world's-slowest elevator, mum."

At Kira's comment, Garrus finally joined the conversation. "Not by far. The ones on the Citadel are way worse."

Just as he spoke, the metal box came to a stop on a second from the top catwalk level. Still no dr. T'Soni in sight.

As they walked out of the elevator, another group of geth drones attacked them. They were easy enough to kill. At the end of the metal scaffolding there was yet another lift, again going down.

"This makes sense." Kira started. "The Citadel has a shit-ton of elevators and it's also a Prothean ruin. Only fitting that this was their empire-wide design strategy." Her comment got a few snorts out of the team.

They were going down for a few seconds, when the elevator screeched and sparks went flying while the lift stopped over some rubble.

"Everyone in one piece?" The Commander asked her companions. When all of them nodded, she said "Alright, time to climb down, turn the mag-boots on."

As they climbed down, a female voice called out. "Uhh… hello? Is somebody there? Could you help me? Please?"

They didn't have a visual yet, but since Kira's translator has been switched off for the languages she understood, she immediately let her squadmates know who the voice belonged to. "It's an asari. Wanna bet it's our doctor?"

"It sound like it's coming from below." Jane nodded absentmindedly. "Let's get down there and speak with her."

The way down included a drop, which Kira cheekily softened with her biotics, knowing the rest would just have to take it on their joints. Yes, I'm showing off, sue me. My mother needs to see how much I've learned over the years.

They ended up on the same level as the asari who called out to them. There was just one problem. The blue woman was behind the barrier. To add insult to injury, she seemed stuck in some sort of a bubble. Things just got weirder. And more complicated, as a professional might say.

As the team approached the force field, the Commander leading the way, the asari spoke again. "Can you hear me out there? I'm trapped, I need help."

Jane answered with a question. "Liara T'Soni, I presume?"

The asari's face formed a grimace. She looked to her left and whatever she saw made her head drop a little, seemingly in defeat. After a beat she looked back to the party. "I can't understand what you're saying. I don't have my translator on, I didn't think I'd need it in an abandoned ruin." She sighed deeply. "I got my name from that, and yes, I'm Liara."

Kira's mother turned around to face her. "Well, time to shine, kiddo." She indicated the asari with her head.

Wow. Wow. First mission and I have to use my language skills. Honestly, I didn't think they'd ever come in handy, except for showing off to people. Go on, Kira, just translate what mum says.

She stepped up to the front, side by side with her mother. "It's okay." She said to Liara in asari. "I can translate."

"Thank the Goddess!" The woman was visibly relieved to not have a very one-sided conversation. "Listen, this thing I'm in is a Prothean security device. I can't move, so I need you to get me out of it, please."

"How did you end up in there?' The Commander asked and Kira translated.

"I was exploring the ruin, when the geth showed up, so I hid in here. I activated the tower's defenses, I knew the barrier curtains would keep them out. When I turned it on, I must've hit something I wasn't supposed to. I was trapped in here. You must get me out, please."

"Not so fast." Jane held up her hand. Kira decided to just be as interactive as the device sitting in her ear, so she simply repeated the same words in asari, without any gesticulation. "Your mother is currently working for Saren, who's side are you on?"

"What?" Liara's eyes darted between the humans speaking with her. "I'm not on anybody's side. I'm nothing like my mother and I haven't spoken with her in years. I know nothing of what she's up to. Please, just get me out of here."

"I'm not sure I believe that…" The N7 started but as she realized that Kira was waiting for her to continue she made up her mind quickly. "Fine, we'll find some way to help you."

Should I translate the first part? Mum will know if I don't. I trust this woman, I can hear the fear in her voice. But I'm not in charge here, and 'The Commander' told me to translate everything. So she did.

The asari nodded her thanks and warned the team of a krogan, supposedly working with the geth.

"That should be fun." Their own krogan commented, as the squad went down some more catwalks. They finally reached the bottom of the chasm. "Any of you ever fought one of my people before?"

"Working at C-Sec, you barely have a week without some krogan stirring trouble." Garrus brushed off the question with a scoff.

"You know I did, Wrex, you were with me when we stormed Chora's Den." The older Shepard didn't even look towards the krogan as she answered. Damn, how can she stay so focused all the time?

"Alright, I may have been mostly wondering about the kid." Wrex shrugged his shoulders in a surprisingly human gesture.

"I had a krogan friend in the Academy, we sparred occasionally, when the teachers weren't looking." Please don't think I'm a wuss.

"So you haven't." The krogan said simply.

"No I haven't." Kira snapped back at him. "But until today I also haven't even seen a geth and I didn't have much problem in killing them, did I? So just cut the-" She didn't get a chance to finish her sentence and a sniper shot rang out and almost pierced her barrier.

The crew immediately darted for cover. "Great, they're jamming our sensors again." Garrus called out.

They could see the snipers' targeting lasers looking for them. Kira kept glancing around the rock she was hiding behind, trying to find a moment to charge. "I can get over there and distract them while you take your shots." She told her mother and Garrus. "If I charge one of the snipers, they should turn around to get me, it'll give you an opening."

"Alright." The Commander agreed. "Wrex, you're with Kira, draw their fire, myself and Vakarian will take down the snipers."

They all mumbled "Yes ma'am" and set out to work.

Kira was the first to move out of cover, as she finally could see one of the sniper-wielding geth. She charged across the cavern, leaving a light blue trail behind her. As she came out of the charge, she hit the machine over its flashlight head with the butt of her shotgun to stun it. She quickly rolled out of the way and soon heard the sound of a bullet piercing the geth, killing it immediately.

Good shot. She turned around to see the rest of the battlefield. The other sniper was also lying on the ground. Left were a few shock troopers. Wrex was already in the process of giving them some more holes in their synthetic bodies.

She saw an opportunity in a geth that her mother had just biotically warped. Kira charged again, this time setting of a biotic explosion, that threw back another machine standing close. She didn't get to finish that one off, as Jane took it down with her sniper rifle.

Instead, Kira switched her attention to a couple of troopers that had their shields down, probably from Garrus' overload. She shot them with her shotgun in a quick succession, coming close to overheating her own weapon. When it was on the verge, she stopped and instead biotically pushed one of the geth into the other.

The machines collided in a mess of cables and Kira had a quick time ending their existence with a few shots.

After that, the fight was over. The rest of the geth were down and the team was left to peacefully figure out how to get Liara from behind the barrier.

Or maybe peacefully was the wrong word to use, as The Commander's attention turned to the giant mining laser aimed at the bottom of the Prothean tower…