A/N: Yes! The story is being continued, fear not readers! I just recently moved to a different state and started a new job, hence the loooong hiatus. My schedule is still rather hectic, so the next update won't be right on the heels of this one, but it shouldn't be such a long wait either. Now, on to responding to some comments I recieved:

1) This story is post Mass Effect 3, takes place during Gears of War 2. I realize I probably could've made this clearer in the first chapter, my apologies. It takes place about a year after the whole death to Reapers via red firey death which Shepard barely survived (she's really starting to anger Death and his cronies).

2) Good catch with the initial population, I kind of just threw that number out there.

3) Fates of favorite characters: EDI lived by downloading herself into an electromagnetically sealed, unpowered data cache and jettisoning it. Not sure how I can work that into this story, but I'll try. Tali is alive and kicking and is the engineer on this mission, she'll pop up later. Some pockets of the Geth survived the blast, specifically runtimes and platforms too dated to implement the Reaper code (lucky them!). Joker is helping the Alliance, but thinks EDI died and therefore declined Shepard's offer. The other crewmembers survived for the most part, and are helping with reconstruction back on Earth. Liara, Garrus, Ashley, James, Cortez and Tali are the ones who joined Mara on her mission

4) Someone made the comment that it feels rushed. All I can say is; guilty as charged. Comes from trying to squeeze writing in between work and other demands on my time. All I can promise is that I'll work on it, although this chapter is probably going to feel rushed as well.

As you can see, I do read the comments and listen to them, so keep them coming! If you find something wrong with my recollection of GoW2 (I only played it once, but it made an impression) mention it, odds are I either tweaked it to fit the new story or I remembered that mission wrong. If you find errors or oddities with my writing, by all means mention them, that's how I improve. But enough about me, back to the story!

"They came out of nowhere?" Mara knelt next to, what she now knew was, a Locust and carefully rolled him over, running her omni-tool over the carcass and forwarding the readings to her ship, "You are one ugly creature." she muttered to herself.

Marcus patted Dizzy on the shoulder and walked over, "Ugly bastards popped right out of the damn ground, no warning at all. Hell, the only reason anyone is still alive on this planet is because we hadn't fully spun down from the last war yet."

Mara's followup question was interrupted by a COG trooper over the radio, "Inbound craft! Not friendly, not responding to hails! Treat as hostile!"

"Hold fire!" Mara hit Marcus' shoulder and ran for the trucks, "That's my shuttle, tell your men to stand down! It's on our side!"

The Kodiak narrowly dodged an AA burst, it's armor absorbing the small arms fire with little difficulty. "Cease fire, dammit! Cease fire!" The shots quickly petered out following Fenix' order, the shuttle slowly inching closer to it's designated landing zone, softly setting down amidst the tombstones and plinths without disturbing them.

"Dammit Cortez." Mara squeezed through the opening hatch, fuming "I told you to use 113.44 and radio me before you landed." She glanced around the interior and sighed, rubbing her forehead, "And what are you doing here? My orders were very specific."

"C'mon Shepard. Fancy new guns, new friends to go along with those guns, a whole new type of enemy to use those guns on?" Garrus shrugged and stood up, grinning in his awkward turian manner, "Did you really expect me to sit quietly on the ship calibrating the guns?"

"And did you expect me to stay up there when you're about to explore the home of a subterrainian civilization that remained undetected from even the Protheans?" Liara crossed her arms, "Plus puts you in extreme danger?"

Mara leaned on the container, "Liara, you're taking the shuttle back with Cortez. End. Of. Story. I am going down there as blind as a bat and I will not have you down there with me."

"I had a suspicion this might happen, and since I know all too well how stubborn you are, I went ahead and got this." Liara handed a datapad to Mara, placing her hands behind her back, "It's the orders for this mission, written by Hackett and the other admirals. My favorite part is block... four, where it lists the commander, and de-facto establishers of the final say... or should I say commander's'?"

"You..." Mara's shoulders slumped slightly and she rubbed the bridge of her nose, slowly shaking her head, "... conniving... blue... minx..."

Liara curtsied slightly, dantily taking the datapad back, "I learned from the best!"

"Lemme guess. Joker." Mara sighed tiredly.

"Perhaps a little, but I learned most of it from yours truly." She lightly poked Mara's shoulder with her index finger and smirked. "Besides, I just did this to make it easy. I would've won the argument anyway, but we're pressed for time."

"Oh really? You would've won anyway?" Mara looked incredulous, "Cold day in hell, T'Soni."

Liara spun, giving Mara a gentle smile and slowly walking towards her, voice dropping into a whisper, "Then the devil, as the humans would say, would've had to buy a parka, wouldn't he?"

Mara stared at her evenly, then slightly slumped her shoulders in defeat, "I hate you."

"Love you too, Shepard." Liara spun and introduced herself to an extremely amused looking Marcus Fenix, back to her normal doctoral self.

"It'll probably be dark down there." Mara felt Garrus behind her as he whispered, "I could shoot her if you wanted. Y'know, in a playful way."

"If you could place a concussive round right on that princess perfect backside of hers, I'd be grateful." Mara joked, opening the metal container inside the ship and doing a quick resupply/reequip. She paused briefly and smirked over her shoulder, "Actually, nevermind. I'll do it myself."

A small crowd was gathering outside the shuttle, soldiers gawking at the two strange aliens chatting with the human. Dom leaned in closer to Vega, "Dude, did I take a rock to the head? Because that chick looks blue."

Vega laughed, "Naw mano, your eyes are workin just fine. Our Dr. T'Soni is as blue as... ah..." He rubbed his neck, "Mierda. I had something for this... a blue ocean I guess."

Dom laughed and patted Vega's shoulder roughly, "Must be lonely at home with suave moves like that, huh? Say, are all them blue girls that easy on the eyes?"

"Even their abuelas... ahh, the really old ones, have bodies like that." He looked over his shoulder and nudged Dom, "Help me disperse the onlookers, will ya?" Vega whistled loudly, "Alright ladies, enough gawking. I may be new here, but I know you have better things to do."

"You heard the man, back to your duties. Move it!" Dom gave a slower soldier a slight kick in the tail as he jogged past, "Didn't like your friends being treated like zoo animals, eh?"

Vega laughed, "I didn't want your boys getting hurt, mano!" He spun Dom and pointed, "That redhead over there is loca, man, she woulda killed your boys for eyeing her fiancee like that."

Any further conversation was interrupted by the crew inside the Kodiak clearing out and running towards the trucks as the shuttle lifted off and bugged out in a hurry. Marcus fired up his comm, waving Dom and Vega to follow as they ran by, "Control, this is Delta. We got heavy incoming, we need any available air support to buy us some time while the Rigs deploy!"

"We see them too, Delta. Set up defensive positions, Ravens are inbound to do what they can. You need to start this invasion now." Marcus shouted his acknowledgement, running for one of the trucks that had been positioning themselves around the graveyard.

"I figure now's the time to ask, but..." Mara paused and looked up at the gigantic truck Dom was climbing up, "... what the hell are these rigs? And how are we getting underground?"

"In grind-lifts. Long story short, it's a self-propelled capsule that digs through the ground and busts through the roof of their caves. Behind the bulk of their army." Marcus grunted between words, rapidly climbing the ladder and stepping out onto a wide platform on top, "Grub'll never see us coming."

"That's for sure." Mara scoffed, "I'm sure the last thing they expect is an aerial insertion underground." She watched as the large towers extended, the doors to the lift pods opening and revealing room for two people braced against the walls. Mara raised an eyebrow in mild surprise, "So... we're going to dig through a thousand meters of rock in a soup can?"

Marcus laughed and patted Mara roughly on the shoulder, "C'mon Commander Shepard, are they short on adventure where you're from?" He whistled and twirled his hand, "Alright boys, lets get this invasion started! Defensive positions now, keep those grubs away from the rigs! Lets move!"

"Fenix. How long is this whole insertion going to take?"

"Each rig can burn through all eight grinders within twenty minutes if things go well, why?"

Mara grabbed his shoulder and spun him, pointing to incoming aerial units, "Because I seriously doubt we have twenty minutes." She jumped and yanked Liara down behind the rig's railing as a mortar exploded at the base, showering the platform with dirt and rocks.

Glancing quickly over the side, Vega fired a quick burst and ducked down as a hail of bullets answered his shots, "I second that sentiment, Commander. We have a fiesta down there, and they are not friendly."

"Izzy! Get these grinders moving! Tai, Dom, keep those grubs off the rig for a few minutes." He waved Mara and Liara towards the lifts, "You two are up first, get down there and secure a dropzone for the rest of us. Think you can handle that?"

Firing a quick burst to cover their movement away from the railing, Mara grinned dangerously, "Sending us down into the nest of the enemy? You have a peculiar way of greeting newcomers."

A loud screaming drew their attention to the source: a large, lanky Locust deftly wielding what appeared to be a dual-bladed chainsaw. Fenix pushed Mara unceremoniously towards the open grindlift, "Actually, I think you're getting the better end of the stick. Now move it, princess!"

The two girls leapt into the lift, quickly pulling the braces down over their chests as the doors slid shut. A few tense seconds passed and the lift dropped, slamming to a stop as it hit the earth, then shaking violently and resuming it's rapid downward pace. Mara and Liara clenched their jaws tightly, a headache rapidly developing as they were jerked back and forth by the lift impacting random clumps of dense rock and loose sand. The shaking stopped suddenly and the sensation of free-falling returned, followed a split second later by a bone-rattling impact on the stone floor of the cavern.

Mara was the first to free herself, falling gracelessly onto the floor with a loud grunt, the wind being completely forced from her a second later as Liara mirrored her ungainly tumble. Liara groaned and sat up, rubbing her forehead slowly and shaking her head a few times, "Not the smoothest ride I've experienced, but I can't deny it's effectiveness."

"Fun..." Mara gasped, pushing herself up onto her hands and knees, still fighting to get her breath back and gain a sense of her surroundings. She pushed back onto her knees and looked up just in time to see a second lift burst through the roof, almost directly above them. Diving onto Liara, they rolled off a small cliff as the lift impacted the ground where they had previously been kneeling, showering them in dirt and dust for the second time.

"I'm getting too old for this." Mara groaned, deciding to stay where she landed for a few moments, "Remind me to take up stamp collecting after this."

Liara waved at Vega and Ashley as they emerged from the grind-lift, giggling and offering Mara a hand, "Knowing your history, the stamps would probably self destruct when collected in sufficient quantity." She looked around the massive cavern, "Goddess... it's immense."

"We're not in Kansas anymore, Toto." Mara closed her eyes and rotated her head slowly until a loud crack sounded from her neck, causing her shoulders to slump and a relieved sigh to slide from her lips, "I don't care what the doctor says, that always makes me feel a million times better..." She opened her eyes and looked around the large cavern, "Hmm, looks like Fenix's intel was right; this insertion caught the ugly things with their pants down."

"A most unpleasant mental image..." Liara shook her head quickly, trying to force said image from her mind.

Another more grind-lift crashed through the roof, thankfully landing a reasonable distance away and not inducing yet another frantic leap to safety. Fenix and Dom quickly exited, Dom commenting on a fellow soldiers inability to hold his lunch on the ride down.

"Tai! Izzy! Anyone at the dig site, respond!" Fenix shook his head in frustration, "Control, Delta One is in the hollow. We've lost contact with the dig site, please advise. Control? Control! Ah, shit." He waved Shepard and her team over, "I've lost contact with Control, we're probably under too much rock for radio signals to get out, so we're on our own. These lifts are going to be coming down all over this cavern, we should try to meet up with as many teams as possible and coordinate an offensive until we get comms back."

"Delta, this is Carmine, are you there?" Fenix silently held his radio up so Shepard and the others could get on the same frequency.

"Yeah, I'm here Rook. Where are you?"

"My lift went off course. I'm here with Delta-Five and that weird alien guy the newcomers brought with them. Orders sir?"

"Understood, hold your position. We're comin to you." Fenix gestured for the team to follow him and took off jogging, following his soldiers locating beacon.

"Shepard, are you on this frequency?" Garrus' voice was accompanied by the sound of machine-gun fire in the background, "Looks like our presence was noticed, we're under heavy attack."

"We're on our way, Garrus. Just hold them off a little longer." Mara slid to a halt as the path they were following was blocked by what appeared to be root growth. Without hesitation, Marcus and Dom activated the chainsaw attachments on the bottom of their rifles, making short work of the roots and clearing a path.

Vega turned and thumbed in the direction of the sheared roots, "Shepard, I'd like to take this moment to mention my birthday is coming up."

"Noted. Now move!" They rushed through the open pathway, finding themselves in the ideal situation of being behind the force attacking the misguided lifts. Mara and Liara moved right, providing support from a distance while the rest fanned out and hit their flank hard, pushing the enemy force back slowly. Marcus and Dom both closed the distance and engaged the grubs with their lancers, slicing the enemies violently and grappling with them in hand to hand.

Electing to take the safer route, James and Ashley busied themselves with pushing forward on the right, pinching the enemy in a semicircle with Delta-Five comprising one end, Dom and Marcus the frontal wall and themselves, removing the locust's room to manouver or flank. The battle was hectic and vicious, but hardly in doubt as the ambushers became the ambushees and were slaughtered down to the last soldier.

Carmen shook his head as Fenix approached, "I tried, sir. There were too many. It was all I could do to save myself!"

Dom patted his shoulder, "Hey, you did good to survive like you did, rookie. That's what matters here."

Fenix stepped aside, having finally managed to contact his superiors, and discussed their next move while the others checked their equipment and prepared to move. Mara helped Dom and Carmen collect the tags of the fallen, which Dom reverently placed in a pouch on his belt, "You know the war is going badly when you bring an empty pouch just for this." He commented to no-one in particular, reverently ensuring each tag was securely inside.

"Alright, here's the plan." Fenix quickly strode over as a previously cloaked robot began working on a grind-lift behind him, "JACK is going to fix that lift and we're gonna use it to drill through this wall. Our mission is to find the Locust's home and blow it to hell."

"Sounds simple enough, whats the catch." A machine-gun burst whizzed overhead in answer to her question and she spun to see another wave of locusts approaching, "I had to say it."

"Yeah, you did, now help me keep them away from JACK!" Marcus hurled a grenade and levlled an enemy with a burst from his lancer, sliding down behind the rock formation for cover as the others spread out and began picking the enemies off one by one.

"Can't you tell that thing to work faster?" Ashley twitched as a chunk of rock dislodged next to her head, prompting her to jump out of cover and mow down the grub responsible with her rifle before being forced to take cover again.

Dom threw a grenade of his own, grinning in satisfaction as the explosion sent two locusts flying in multiple directions, "If he worked quickly, it'd take away from the tense drama of the situation."

"Some ladies just don't understand good storytelling, mano." Vega whooped as his rifle burst caught an enemy between the eyes, dropping it in a crunching spray of blood.

"Alright, this isn't getting us anywhere. Garrus, you're with me. The rest of you, stay here while we handle this." Mara leapt over the rock wall, Garrus close behind her, and attempted to flank the enemy towards the left, "Okay, Garrus, here's the plan-" Her words were cut off by a large explosion taking out part of the wall in her path and revealing enemy re-enforcements and inducing an unceremonious scramble back to the safety of their defensive line. Mara awkwardly scrambled around the corner of the formation as bullets assaulted her shields and the earth around her, leaning up against the rocks and panting loudly.

"Wow, you two back so soon? Fight them off already?" Liara snidely commented.

Garrus joined in on the ribbing, "Hey Shepard, care to fill me in on the rest of the plan now?"

"If we this, I'm going to kill both of you... slowly..." Mara peeked around the corner and receved a face-full of dust and rock-shards as the enemy opened fire on her position, "Dammit all!" She rocked back and forth, rubbing her eyes and cursing under her breath for a few minutes before whirling out of cover and dropping two enemies with rapid headshots, the rest of the pinned team choosing this moment to press the attack on the enemy forces, pushing them back away from the grind-lifts and JACK.

The enemy attacks slowly petered out, with the remaining grubs either pulling back or being felled by the accurate fire of the small force opposing them and JACK chimed in success; the grind-lift activating and quickly boring a hole through the wall.

"That worked better than I thought it would." Mara brushed dirt and rock-chips out of her bright red hair, then coughed and waved her hand in front of her a few times, "The dust, however, is pretty much as bad as expected."

"C'mon, lets go. We need to press this advantage before the grubs react to our presence on their doorstep." Marcus flipped his flashlight on and quickly followed the grind-lift, the rest of the team slowly following, each with their own thoughts of what was waiting for them deeper in the catacombs.

A/N: Not exactly the longest chapter, but it advances the plot. Those of you who have played GoW2 can probably see some of the comical opportunities up ahead. Rest assured, I will exploit as many of those as I can. Oh, and props if you can find the references to other games or movies I tossed in.

So, yeah, off to finish the whole move-in process and do more work! Holla!