Garrus knelt at the airlock of the Normandy, looking down the scope of his rifle. There were currently two groups of unidentified aliens on the battlefield, but only the second group had attacked on sight. He probably should have radioed Shepard over the comlink, but they'd been on them to fast. He clicked on 'Fire in the Courtyard' instead.

The red skinned humanoid had heard them first, saying something in the same unknown language. The other three stiffened, scanning the forest beyond the new clearing. A few seconds later, they were under attack.

Garrus made a mental note to advise Shepard to install some sort of point defense. The Normandy wasn't really designed for direct landings like this, but she was always asking about ways to upgrade the Normandy.

He pushed that aside, that wasn't important right now. What was important was that he had a hostile's cranium in his scope. He squeezed the trigger, the mass effected bullet sped towards its target, and impacted. The force of the bullet probably would have cracked the sucker open like an eggshell, if it wasn't being held together by a helmet. As it was though, it clearly knocked his foe down, and he wasn't getting back up.

His attention was attracted by the human, who pulled something off his belt and pitched it forward. It struck one of the hostiles, which promptly turned into a block of ice. A freezing grenade? The idea intrigued Garrus. He'd had cryo-ammo, but never a grenade. He lined up another shot at the frozen hostile, and while it quickly defrosted, it didn't do so quickly enough.

BOOM came the report from the rifle. Garrus smirked.

A chirping noise came in, dampening the music. EDI was routing a message to him from the comm system. "Something's bothering me, Garrus. Check with EDI and see what language it is actually translating." She must have meant her earpiece module. Garrus ducked down. The enemy was returning fire.

"It'll be a moment, Shepard," he replied blandly. "Some locals have decided they wanted a tour of the Normandy and decided they would not take no for an answer. The guards that were left here are seeing them off."

"Do you need help?" came Shepard's reply. Garrus had the opportunity to watch as the spiked headed demon launch itself in the air with some sort of jet pack, firing a missile into a group of attackers, knocking them all to the ground. It was a thing of beauty. It was the time for opportunity fire. He lined up his next shot and took it.

"Scoped an..." Oops. His comlink was still on. "Sorry. Negative. Last of the hostiles are being mopped up. I'll be with you in a few minutes." He gave it a few seconds to clear the channel. "EDI, can you take care of the translation question for me?"

"Affirmative, Garrus," was EDI's prompt reply. Excellent.

He had to pull up his next shot, though. The bug eyed alien had made another appearance. He was, to Garrus's surprise, a melee fighter, having flanked their enemies and gotten inside the minimum range of their energy weapons. Once inside that range, his staff did a reasonable amount of damage. Their armor seemed designed to defuse energy attacks, as well as projectiles. The blunt force trauma of the staff strikes seemed superbly effective.

They'd dropped enough of their foes that the rest of the squad seemed to be against ticking around. Garrus pondered firing as they retreated, but they disappeared among the trees, and just didn't leave him with a clear shot long enough. He dropped down to the forest beneath, looking for any remaining foes, but the clearing was quiet.

He back-holstered his sniper rifle. He was offered nods by the three turian sized folk. The unblinking golden eyes of the brown cloak stared up at him with unabashed curiosity. He stepped back as the thing pointed at his face, chattering excitedly.

"Utinni!" it squeaked, or something like that, as Garrus backed up away from grasping hands. The demon laughed, looking almost apologetic as it grabbed for the cloak.

It chittered sadly up at Garrus, who felt somewhat taken aback. What was that about?

The human looked vaguely disgusted. If the bug eyed alien had any feelings on the subject, he was keeping it hidden. It was sufficiently inturian like to be impossible to read. He heard an explosion in the distance, the five of them looked up to the sky to witness a beautiful multicolored firework display.

"Escape pod flare," Garrus said, before remembering they probably couldn't understand him. He pointed up at the smoke trail that began to drift across the sky. He began to walk towards it, before glancing back to see if they would follow. The small fellow looked excited, grabbing at the demon's armor, trying to drag it toward the smoke.

The human frowned, looking at the smoke, then at the ship.

The demon sighed at the little guy, saying something to the human. They conversed back and forth for a moment before reaching an apparent agreement. The brown cloak jumped up and down excitedly, and began to run across the jungle.

The jungle grew dense quickly as they made their way toward where the flare had gone off. The brown cloak had the lead with the demon close behind. Garrus trailed the other two, keeping an eye out for angry wildlife or hostile contact.

After about a good ten minutes fast walk, or perhaps a slow jog, the demon held up a hand. Garrus stopped, retrieving his assault rifle.

"Report, Garrus," chirped the comlink.

"I think we're approaching the pod now, Shepard. I'm detecting a number of heat signatures, though. Too many to just be the pods occupants, though."

"Are you alone?"

"Negative. Two of the locals that were guarding our ship came with me. The other two maintained guard duty."

"Copy that," Shepard replied. "I've located Legion. He's transmitting information on the local language to EDI. Hopefully, we'll be able to get the translations going soon."

"Not having to mime everything, check," Garrus replied. "Garrus out."

"See them, Blizz?" the demon asked his partner.

Garrus had to admit it, EDI worked fast.

Blizz jabbered back at his partner, pointing at Garrus. "Utinni!"

Well. Perhaps not that fast.

Garrus strode forward. It was, indeed, one of the Normandy's escape pods. Apparently, the inhabitants had taken a defensive position inside. He gave a very visible nod, pointing at the escape pod and then to myself. The small group of about three hostiles had...

Was that little guy holding a SAM launcher?

The missile fired, impacting the ground at the feet of the hostiles, and causing a much smaller explosion than he had expected.

Both demon and Turian charged forward, the demon firing with a pair of heavy energy pistols; Garrus with his assault rifle.

"Blast it, Garrus!" came the shout. "I wanted to take them on. I was still setting up"

"Sorry, Zaeed," Garrus said with a smirk. "I thought I heard Kelly's voice."

Zaeed growled something not to complimentary that Garrus chose to ignore.

He reached in to the pod, helping to haul the others out. Zaeed got his replacement comlink.

The small fellow dove into the pod chattering excitedly.

"Sorry," said the devil. "He's like that around technology, especially unfamiliar technology. He still wants to take your eyepiece apart."

"What?" Zaeed asked, looking around at Garrus in amusement.

The demon blinked at Zaeed. "Do... do you understand me?"

"What gives?" Zaeed asked. "You don't understand me?"

Garrus sighed, and offered as much as an explanation as he had, as they made their way back to the ship. He radioed ahead to Shepard.


Ten pods had launched from the Normandy. Maybe half an hour or so after touching down she'd gotten confirmation on two of them.

Whatever arrangements these natives – Voss, she reminded herself – were making to secure her ship were ongoing. She had been promised aid in finding the others. Rega-Le had led her to, well, Shepard would have called it a bar. It had the same low lights, the same smell of alcohol, even a similar looking bartender as the one on the Citadel.

[Is it the type of bartender that dispensed drinks, or the kind that prefers selling information?]

It was about another ten minutes before a blue skinned human alien, with black hair and glowing red eyes, walked in. He looked around the bar for a few moments, before his eyes settled on the three of them. "You are Commander Shepard?" he asked in a calm, crisp voice.

"I am," she replied.

He cocked his head, frowning. Shepard scowled. Maybe she'd have time to stop by the ship and get an extra earpiece. "I apologize, Legion. Would you be willing to translate for me?"

"Yes, Shepard-Commander." He turned toward the alien, and identified her in the same stilted voice. "This platform is called Legion by Shepard-Commander. How are you identified?"

He turned toward the Cantina's door and waved someone over. "It is not my full name, but please, call me Jer'Do, of the Chiss Ascendency. I'm a representative of the Sith empire." His voice was smooth and cultured, even through the translator. "And please let me introduce my associate, Doctor Lokin."

Doctor Lokin was human, male, a mostly bald fellow with tufts of white hair. He was attempting to make it up by growing out his sideburns into a nicely groomed beard. He nodded sourly to the group. "Delighted," he muttered.

Right then. "I assume the Three sent you? Have any more of my crew been located?" She turned belatedly away from Legion about half way through. Legion repeated the line for the others.

The Chiss seemed to be focused on something else though. "You get translation through... an earpiece. In real time?"

The Doctor leaned on the table in front of him. "That's pretty impressive."

It was, Shepard was willing to grant that. It was also aside the point. Or maybe it wasn't. Maybe it was supposed to be Shepard's job to provide compensation. "We might be able to give you one if you can help us find our crew mates." A brief pause while Legion translated that.

[Shepard's said it is all right if I stop mentioning Legion's translation duties.]

"I was doing this as a favor for the Imperial Ambassador," he said smiling. Then added, even more smoothly, "It wouldn't be necessary, though it certainly would be appreciated."

That was pretty suave, Sheppard had to admit. He managed to both reject the reward and ask for it at the same time. "Very good, Jer'Do, can I safely assume that you do know where one of the escape pods have landed? Where members of my crew are?"

He nodded. "A report came in detailing the crash landing of an unidentified object in the Nightmare Lands. I volunteered to help you take a look."

The Voss, Rega-Le, visibly paled. "Right. Good luck. I won't be joining you."

"How can we get there from here?" Shepard asked.

"We take an Imperial shuttle," the Chiss replied.

The imperial shuttle was, in Shepard's opinion, rather spartan. The crew chamber was basically a pair of bench (barely cushioned), with a brief gap for the door. The ride was at least smooth, as well as short, only about fifteen minutes. It was impossible for her to tell how fast she was going, though.

She took the lead at jumping out, with Jer'Do, Legion, and Dr. Lokin following in order. If this was the Nightmare Lands, Shepard decided, they really didn't look that much different than the rest of Voss. She relayed that thought to Jer'Do.

"This is the outskirts," he told her. "Gehn's Overlook, it's been called. The true Nightmare Lands are south of here," he said, pointing vaguely. "Which reminds me, how resistant is your droid to slicing?"

"I'm sorry. Slicing?" Shepard asked.

Legion replied to her directly. "A homonym, Shepard-Commander. They use 'Slicing' to mean infiltrate and perhaps repurpose computer style programming. The equivalent English would be 'Hacking'. They believe their infiltration to be more elegance than brute force. This platform has not observed slicing in action, and will not comment further. With Shepard-Commander's permission, a backup of current Geth run-times has been stored on an isolated server."

Shepard nodded, she vaguely remembered approving that just before the mission against the Collector base.

"Yes, we are," Legion told the Chiss.

The Doctor apparently caught on to the grammar involved, as he raised a single fascinated eyebrow. If the Chiss caught on, he didn't say anything.

One of the Voss approached the party, as they began to make their way to the edge of the camp they had landed in. "Excuse me," he said, looking at group as a whole. You are intending to go into the Nightmare Lands, correct?" he said.

"Indeed," said Jer'Do.

"Before you go in, Murbek Gehn would like to speak to you. The Nightmare Lands will wreak havoc on an unprepared mind."

"Murbek Gehn?" asked Dr. Lokin. The Voss pointed behind them, up the ramp. The name for Gehn's Overlook just became apparent.

"All right," grumbled Shepard. "Let's go see what he wants."

Shepard had not yet met many Voss, but Murbek Gehn gave her the feeling of an older one. He certainly looked like one of the Three she had met back in the city. He wore robes, and looked at the group through mellow, half open eyes.

"You intend to go to the Nightmare Lands," he began. Shepard worked to keep from rolling her eyes. "The Nightmare Lands drive most who enter insane. There is a dark power there, a dark power that speaks to people and usurps their minds. Imperial, Voss, Republic, Gordok. All have fallen prey. There is a ritual that can help you. A focusing crystal," he said, holding up a piece of blackened crystal. "Bring it to the shrines of former members of the three. Meditate on the words there. Then, when the crystal is ready, take it to Master Kun's shrine, and defeat the evil within. The purified crystal will contain the madness."

The doctor looked nonplussed, and Jer'Do seemed skeptical.

Shepard stepped forward, bowing. "I'm grateful for the help."

He produced another two focusing crystals, giving one to each biological member of the party. Legion didn't object, and was impossible to read.

[Shepard? Why did you make time for this? Either it was a lot of mumbo jumbo, or it wasn't, and there were people out in it! Shepard wants me to note that she felt she owed it to the Voss, the culture that was helping her recover and repair her ship. They were clearly technology savvy, if a little mystical. If she could improve their relationships by following their cultural lead, she would.]

The trips to the shrines, just inside of the Nightmare Lands, were not completely uneventful. At each shrine, Shepard found herself involved in short but intense firefights with multiple aliens, though nothing she'd had real trouble with. Jer'Do searched some of them, those dressed in military uniforms and armor. He retrieved what appeared to be dog tags, explaining that he intended to return them to the commanding officers in the Imperials.

Each shrine had an inscription, written in Voss, translated into 'Basic'. [When I asked what they were, Shepard just shook her head.] They focused on the words, each repeating them in their own language. When they were ready, they proceeded to the last shrine. Again, there was a quotation of the master in question.

When they were done, they were faced with, of all things, doubles of themselves made up of shadows. Even Legion was represented, to their surprise. Shepard broke out the assault rifle right away, even as Jer'Do dove for cover blasting away with an energy pistol.

Legion backed up. Shooting from the hip with a sniper rifle wasn't the most effective strategy, but the forces opposing them didn't seem to have common sense. They had no sense of self preservation, and did not even try to dodge.

Shepard, on the other hand, could feel her adrenaline pumping. She and Legion both focused their fire on Shepard's double. The commander hit the head, Legion hit the chest.

Meanwhile, the doctor and Jer'Do were both targeting the Shadow Chiss. Both of them used energy pistols. Lokin, however, seemed to be focused more on repairing the wounds on his companion. The medical probe (for lack of a better term) seemed to be capable of keeping the Chiss almost unwounded. Shepard had to admit it seemed to be more effective than medgel.

With another burst of fire, Shepard's shadow dispersed, and they moved to assisting Jer'Do. Shepard heard steps behind her, and Lokin appeared behind her. He made a brief jab at her shoulder. She could feel something injecting into her, and it felt like almost pure adrenaline. A warmth coursing through her system.

What the hell was this stuff?

She refocused her mind, focusing through the rush. She laid down another pattern of assault rifle, reducing the equation to a four on two.

Legion had found something resembling cover and had lapsed into sniping. After a few more moments they dispersed the last of the shadows.

When she pulled out the crystal she was given, it was no longer black. It was apparently some kind of jade, and in fact glowed with an internal green light.

[Fine. Fine. Maybe there was something to this after all.]

"We've done what we were asked," Shepard said. "Let's go find that pod. We can turn in our crystals when we do."

Jer'Do nodded. "The Shadowlands are reasonably big, considering. From what I've heard, we'll need to be careful. Not only are there madmen in there, the wildlife is inexplicably hostile, as well."

Shepard winced. "Sounds like Tuchanka,"

Legion did not reply, also declining to translate.

When they descended into the Nightmare Lands proper, Shepard could see instantly why it was called that. It was darker, almost oppressive. Even the shine in the stones they carried seemingly lost luster.

Despite the atmosphere and Jer'Do's warning, the group crisscrossed the area without real incident. Some local animals did object to the presence, attacking without warning, but the combination of the four of them all firing upon them meant they didn't last long.

"This is taking too long," Jer'Do told her.

Shepard had to agree. She hadn't wanted to use it, but she did have a flare gun. "All right," She told them. "Let's hope we get an answering flare, and not a convergence of hostiles."

"Understood," Jer'Do said. "Going to attract as much attention as we can get."

Shepard sighed. Even when she wasn't with Garrus, it was like being with Garrus. She fired her flare.

She was lucky. There was an answering flare. They ran in the direction of the flare, and thankfully. There was an intact group of survivors, first and foremost...

"Tali!" Shepard exclaimed, as the glinting faceplate of the Quarian came into view.

"Tali-Creator," echoed Legion.

"Shepard!" said Tali Vas'Normandy in obvious relief. "I tried to go out, tried to lead them to safety. But..." she stuttered, her eyes searching the nightmare lands past Shepard. "I could hear him. He's gone now, but I heard him again just outside."" She gave an audible swallow. "My father. I swear I heard him."

That actually did make Shepard look around her nervously. Tali's father, Admiral Rael'Zorah was dead, killed by reactivated heretic geth. This place apparently really did do something to affect the mind. Tali might be a little hot headed where the geth was concerned, but she was otherwise extremely observant and logical. This was not like her. "I've got what I need," Shepard told the others. "Let's pull out. I've got a bad feeling about this place."

Only when they were safely on a shuttle back to the capital of Voss-Ka did Shepard remember to give Tali a fresh comlink to replace her fried one.

And ask the Doctor about whatever healing/adrenaline compound she'd been injected with.


Only non-affiliated ships were permitted to land directly on Voss. Those that bore markings of the Sith Empire or the Galactic Republic, had to dock instead at space stations in opposite orbits above the planet. The Voss believed, probably correctly, that it prevented large scale attacks on their capital.

Jack had heard the loud clank of the tow cable attaching itself to the escape pod. She could feel the momentum shift as it jerked her along. The small window proved that she hadn't gone towards the planet. The silence of the pod was overwhelming.

The space station grew in the escape pod's small porthole. When it had finally gotten close enough, she could feel another force, a momentum that pulled the pod inside.

A shudder. A loud metal on metal thud.

She'd arrived.

Somewhere.

She waited several minutes, until she could see other forms through the porthole, and assumed it was safe to open the pod. She checked her shotgun, made sure it was loaded. When she pressed the door release, nothing happened for a moment. Then it slowly opened.

It was the sterile entrance of a space station. It reminded of her of Purgatory, the prison station she had been held in cryogenic stasis before Shepard had come to rescue her.

She did not like the memory.

Her eyes silently tracked across the floor. Ships decorated the landing area, though she could see doorways leading to other parts of the station. There was only one inhabitant.

He was human, mostly. His sunken eyes glowed red, tracking her with mingled disgust and curiosity. What she could see of his skin, covered with a brown hooded road, seemed almost yellowed and cracked. It wasn't age that had done it either. He smiled a tight, thin lipped, smile.

Jack raised her shotgun. She'd seen that look before. All of it. "Where's Shepard?" she snarled.

He pointed a finger at her, and spoke in a commanding tone that Jack could not understand a word of. But she hated being commanded by someone she hadn't met. Even Shepard had not tried that. She pointed her shot gun to the the side, and discharged it with an explosive burst. "I said, where's..."

Lightning. Lightning flew from the man's outstretched hand. It danced over her skin, and she cried out in familiar agony. Harnessing her anger, mastering the pain, she gave a shove with both her hands, reaching out with her biotics. She lifted the opposing biotic in the air, pulling him toward her, fully intending to give him both barrels.

Jack began to choke. She'd been lifted off the ground by an unseen force compressing her neck. The man had dropped to the ground, landing on his feet. After a few seconds, Jack was thrown into a corner of the room. More lightning, more pain.

At the end, Jack felt something hard hit the back of her head, and she lost consciousness.

Jack awoke in what Shepard might have called a bachelor's officer's quarters. It was bigger than a cell, if smaller than a hotel room. It contained a bed, which she currently was lying on. Her weapons were missing. Her comlink was missing, not that it had worked from the pod. Her earpiece had been carefully removed, placed on the small table next to the bed. Her clothes were still on.

The room was otherwise barren, and felt like a prison cell.

Jack's head hurt like hell. She pushed herself up, stalking to the only door out. Locked.

Jack swore again. She pounded on the door, her temper flaring. No give. She tried her biotics, sending out a shock wave, but the door held.

She paced, back and forth, growing in frustration. A few minutes after she had pounded, the door clicked open.

"Let me tell the master you are awake. Please, follow me." came the mechanical voice on the other side. It contained a tone of nervousness, but was more similar to the smooth speech of EDI than the stilted voice of the geth Legion. The copper plated robot was clearly afraid of Jack, which suited her fine.

Jack was led down a hall way to a perfectly circular room. The man who had given her such a warm welcome sat in the center, his legs crossed. He had his back to her. He spoke, his words more neutral but still not understandable.

"My master greets you, and apologizes for the... violence in his introduction," the robot stated.

"Name." stated Jack, her voice was cold.

"I am," it stopped, then restarted. "He is Darth Rael."

"Where is Commander Shepard?" Jack asked.

Darth Rael stood, as the droid spoke back to him, focusing his red eyes on Jack. His voice had not lost the harsh edge as he replied.

"My master says that if he was..."

"She!" Jack snapped.

"If she was in the craft that you ejected from, she was probably killed."

Jack snorted. "The collectors tried to kill her. Whole galaxy thought they'd done it. They just pissed her off. There's no way she died like that."

"Maybe?" the droid sniveled. After another bark of communication from Rael. "The master says he senses great power in you. Great untapped power. He wishes to teach you how to harness that rage, that power. To tap further into the mysteries of the Force."

Jack had been ready to tell Darth Rael exactly what he could do with his teaching offer. She'd had enough of teachers. She did not want to learn any more about. Wait. What did he say? "The force?" she asked, not quite mockingly.

In answer, lightning blasted the metal wall. The wall absorbed it, dispersing it to who knows where.

"No thanks," Jack said, snorting. "I know enough ways to cause people pain. I don't need another."

Even before she finished speaking, she heard a hissing noise. Darth Rael had pulled something from his belt, or perhaps a pocket. It looked like a simple cylinder until the red beam of light extended, causing it to resemble a sword from the old Earth holos. His eyes glowed, either from an internal light or a reflection of the ruby red 'blade'.

"My master is not willing to take no for an answer," the droid explained, quite unnecessarily.

Rage, mixed by more than a little amount of fear, poured from Jack in waves. She had escaped from Cerberus only to be trapped again. She was not nihilistic, though. She stepped back, holding her hands up, palms out. "How do I begin?"


The escape pod solely inhabited by the Krogran known as Grunt had crashed into a rather large mountain range. Where was found by a group of mercenaries, while the sole occupant was knocked out from the landing and wreckage. As a way to pay for their cybernetic implants, Grunt was sold to a low class smuggler who had sold them resources. He thought, in turn, he might make a profit selling an unknown sentient to the Hutts. Especially one as powerfully built as this one seemed to be.