Ron the True Fan: Do I LOOK like Gene Roddenberry, or that I work for Paramount or CBS?! Tell the bloodsucking lawyers to piss off!

Takeshi Yamato: We also don't own Mass Effect, or anything else that might make a cameo in this story… what can I say, I love importing things from other franchises and tweaking them to fit the destination! It still belongs to whomever created it, though.

SSV Normandy - near Novaria

It had been a busy two weeks for the Normandy Task force, as the galaxy had begun coining the three ship formation that had been touring the galaxy, hunting down Saren.

They had put down a rogue VI on earth's moon, an AI on the Citadel, recovered data that Tali might find useful for her pilgrimage, destroyed several Geth patrols, and recovered a large number of artifacts from worlds they had been searching for Saren, including a set of armor that belonged to Wrex's father.

Now, however, they were orbiting Novaria, a private research world. They had tracked a lead that may have put them within arms reach of Matriarch Benezia, Saren's right hand woman. As such, the Normandy and two shuttles from the Ra-Cailum and Raging Tempest were on their way down to the planet.

"Approach Control, this is the SSV Normandy," Joker said over the comms to the local ExoGeni facility. "Requesting a vector and a berth."

"Normandy, your arrival was not scheduled," came the reply. "Our defense grid is armed and tracking you. State your business."

"Citadel business," Joker replied. "We have Council Spectres aboard."

"You have two craft escorting you," the controller declared. "State their identity-"

"This is Captain Pinkerton of the USS Ra-Cailum." Ron's voice informed. "Shut the hell up and let us land, or I'll be forced to take hostile action."

Shepard shook her head. The two Federation starships had a powerful reputation, especially after the Feros mission briefing was somehow leaked.

"U-Understood," the controller replied, now terrified. "Docking clearance granted!"

"Thanks for that, Ron," Shepard remarked as they began settling into the berth. "Hitomi, Nihlus, Liara, Ashley, Wrex, Tali, gear up and meet me at the airlock."

The Normandy landed in the docking port, followed by the Cyclone and one of the more unique shuttles on the Ra-Cailum: a Class-1 shuttlecraft, also known as the Class-F refit. Both shuttles landed alongside the Normandy, and as soon as they left the ship, Tali began geeking out over the two shuttles, mostly the Class-1 Cheron, which was even painted like the shuttles used on the Enterprise-A. 'Someone likes history,' Shepard thought.

Ron and Sonja, along with two of his security personnel, left the shuttle fully armed with phaser rifles and sidearms. "IS COLD!" Ron yelled out.

"Don't pull the Russian thing, boss," Sonja replied.

Takeshi and Linda stepped out of the Cyclone, along with Mogire Kostran, the Raging Tempest's dark-blue haired Betazoid Chief Medical Officer, along with Serin ch'Tholis, an Andorian, and one of the more skilled Assault Personnel on the Raging Tempest.

"Jeez, this place is cold," Takeshi remarked.

"Agreed," Serin replied. "Andoria is an ice planet like this place, but this place seems even colder than that, if that's possible."

Several security personnel walked toward the group, but they seemed… fearful. Then again, the Federation ships and what they could do were a widely known fact now. "Commander Shepard, Captain Pinkerton, Captain Yamato. Welcome to Novaria. I'm going to have to ask you for your weapons."

"Not happening: General Order 15 is very clear on that, and I'm technically a flag officer."

Shepard wracked her brain for the order in question. 'Oh, general order 15,' she thought. 'No flag officer shall enter a hazardous area without armed escort.'

"Not to mention this blade of mine has been in my family for centuries," Takeshi said, a hand drifting to the hilt of his Katana. "It's still battle-worthy, though - and if you try to take it from me, you'll get first-hand experience on its capabilities."

The security personnel raised their weapons, afraid for their lives, but luckily, they didn't need to do anything. "Stand down, all of you! Commander Shepard, please come to the security office."

The human spectre shrugged before heading to the office in question. Everyone else, including an extremely amused Ron, stayed with the security team.

"So, ever heard of the one where a Klingon and Krogan walk into a bar?" he asked.

"What?" the Security Team asked.

Meanwhile, Shepard headed up the stairs, heading up to the security office.

"Commander Shepard, welcome to Noveria. I am Gianna Parasini, the assistant director. I have to say, I wasn't expecting you, or the famous Federation ships to show up."

"Well, we have something we need to take care of," Shepard replied. "Has anyone unusual come through recently?"

"Unusual? No. An Asari Matriarch passed through here only a few days ago: Lady Benezia. According to the logs, she left for the Peak 15 research post an hour after she arrived. She's still there, to the best of my knowledge."

Shepard looked at Ron. "I know what you're about to ask," Ron said. "Miss Parasini, we're going to need the location of Peak 15."

"You'll need to ask Administrator Anoleis for clearance to leave this port," Parasini replied.

"And you entirely missed what I meant," Ron replied. "I just need its' location."

"Captain, we know about what happened to Feros," Parasini replied. "I don't want that to happen here."

Ron pinched the bridge of his nose. "Fine." He tapped his combadge. "Pinkerton to Ra-Cailum: scan for any lifesigns currently in our database, including artificial ones."

"Aye, sir," Corpsa replied. "Scanning now."

Ron smirked. "If there are any Geth down here, your little privacy clause ain't going to do you much good."

"Geth?" Parasini asked. "How can there be Geth-"

"Ra-Cailum to Captain," Corpsa said over the comms. "We're picking up odd readings from one of the mountain bases, including what look to be insectoid lifesigns. We aren't detecting any active Geth, though. Sorry, sir."

"That's fine," Ron replied. "Pinkerton out."

Shepard looked at Parasini. "I assume that 'Peak 15' is the place where those odd readings were coming from?"

Parasini sighed, pinching the bridge of her nose. "Most likely. I will take you to Administrator Anoleis. Please follow me." She led the party to a lift, which would take them to the office. "Noveria is used by multiple corporations for scientific research of all kinds, so I still have to get you all clearance to go to Peak 15."

"There's a good reason the Federation doesn't HAVE corporations," Ron said. "I thank whoever created the moneyless economy for reducing my headache number."

"Yeah, but we still do have to deal with corporations every so often…" Takeshi reminded. "Mainly run by Ferengi."

"Money obsessed idiots," Ron remarked.

The lift came to a halt, and the team left the lift, following Parasini to the administrator's office before she pressed the call button. "Administrator-"

"I know," came the reply. "The Spectres and those Federation people are here. Send them in."

The party stepped into the office, revealing Administrator Anoleis, a Salarian.

"Forgive me if I don't stand up," Anoleis said. "I have no time to entertain refugees from that urban blight called Earth."

"Insulting our homeworld is a VERY bad idea, Salarian. It's even worse when you have someone who is rapidly losing his patience dealing with a galaxy that wants our technology, can't have it but keeping demanding it."

Anoleis looked at Ron, then remembered who he was insulting, unintentionally or not. "This is a formality, Captain: I will cooperate only as requested by the board. Now, you want access to one of our research facilities. You're going to have to wait: there's a due process that needs to be done."

"What kind of 'due process'?" Takeshi asked.

"Paperwork of all kinds," Anoleis informed. "Non-disclosure agreements, weapons passes. It will take time."

"Time we do not have, Administrator," Ron informed. "Unless you've checked the news lately-"

"I haven't-" Anoleis began

"Saren is a wanted criminal," Ron said. "That makes anything he's connected to subject to investigation, and if you are attempting to stall it in any way, there's going to be hell to pay."

"So, if you could get us access to this 'Peak 15' Matriarch Benezia went to, and with all due haste, it would be much appreciated," Hitomi replied, the sweet smile she was making contrasting with her hardened eyes.

"Well… I am not attempting to stall you, Captains, Commander," Anoleis said. "I am trying to preserve my career. That being said, I will… inform the board of your needs. Please tour the facility in the meantime."

Ron nodded respectfully, saying something in a language that they failed to understand.

Anoleis didn't. "Wait, how can you speak Salarian?" he asked.

"I study." Ron replied.

The team left the room, and as soon as the door was shut and they were out of earshot, Nihlus summed up what he was doing. "He's stalling us and trying to cover his ass."

"Agreed," Takeshi replied. "We need to get to Peak 15 now. If we had the coordinates of the place, could we beam over there?"

"We're about to get the answer," Ron said, before tapping his combadge. "Pinkerton to Ra-Cailum: where are those readings coming from and what are the rock compositions?"

"Location has standard rock composition for a Class-M-3 planet, sir," came the reply. "Iron, silver, gold, copper, etc. Nothing blocking us from scanning it."

"Then how come you can't detect anything?" Shepard asked.

"Bioelectric interference on a massive scale is blocking us from getting clear readings, but we do have a partial map."

Ron sighed before handing over several combadges to the Normandy team.

"What are these for?" Hitomi asked.

"Just put them onto your armor," Ron said.

Takeshi understood what he was doing. "Do it," he said.

The Normandy party placed the combadges on their armor, the magnetizing agent attaching them to the armor.

Ron pulled out his tricorder and pressed several buttons before speaking. "Can you understand me?" he asked.

"Yeah, we can," Hitomi replied. "Why do you ask?"

Ron smirked. "Because I'm not speaking English."

"What?" Shepard asked. "That's impossible! We can understand you perfectly!"

Ron pressed a button on the tricorder before speaking again, only this time the words were rough, guttural and almost savage.

"I don't know what that is, Ron, but I LIKE it!" Wrex said.

Ron pressed the button again. "Like I said, not English. That was Klingon. Or should I say is Klingon?"

Tali was the one who realized it. "These badges are fitted with translators, aren't they?" she asked.

"Universal translators, actually. They can translate almost any language, providing the language is in the database and isn't so overly complex that the microcomputer can't handle it if it's being translated for the first time." Most of the team were surprised about that revelation. Tali was not.

"Oh, wow, this is incredible!" she said. "How does it work? Does it intercept signals heading to the ear and translate them into the requisite language, or does it directly affect a person's brain, allowing them to understand one language as if it was another, or-"

"Tali, you can dismantle the damn thing to figure out how it works later," Shepard informed her. "Nice idea, Captain."

"I'm the only one not using the translator," Ron said. "Helps having some of the collective knowledge of thousands of races inside my head."

"What's the plan? I want to blow shit up, Ron," Wrex said.

"The plan is simple," Ron informed. Wrex and the Starfleet personnel will go back to the shuttles, claiming that we're not actually needed down here while you get official clearance to get into the lab."

"And what about you?" Shepard asked.

"We'll beam into the facility and perform force recon," Ron replied. "We'll inform you of anything we run into and secure the place if need be."

"Sounds good to me," Takeshi replied. "This'll be fun."

Agressia orbit - same time

Flay waited in the Markus Wolf for the second Asari warp fighter to enter position. She hoped round two would end up pretty much the same as round one, but her finger was on the abort button if need be.

"Thessaly 2, Markus Wolf," she said. "Waiting on you."

"Markus Wolf, Thessaly 2," the test pilot replied. "We're beginning start-up procedures. Standby." The warp fighter fired its' sublights, moving to the warp point. "Warp field is forming. It's stable! speed increasing to warp .6! .7!"

'This is going smoother than intended,' she thought. 'I underestimated the Asari's technical skill.' The fighter nearly actively entered warp speed before Flay pressed the abort button, causing a cascade reaction that caused the port nacelle to explode and tear the fighter apart due to subspace torque. 'THAT'S a new one.' The cockpit survived, however, preserving the valuable pilots.

"DAMMIT!" the pilots yelled over the comm. "We almost HAD it that time!"

"Recovery ship, do your thing. The ladies at the yard will have the next prototype ready in a few hours, but I want you two rested and ready for the next test flight. Three days and we'll try this AGAIN." Flay had to sound annoyed that it didn't work, which was easy because she WAS annoyed that it WAS working. 'They're getting closer to breaking the warp barrier. I'm going to need to actively sabotage the fighter this time.' She guided the Wolf to the shipyard, ready to do her 'dirty business'.

Noveria - Peak 15 labs

In swirling columns of light, Takeshi, Linda, Mogire, Ron, Sonja, and Wrex materialized in the lab facilities on Peak 15.

"OK, where do we start?" Takeshi asked as they looked around.

"Split up, teams of two," Ron replied. "Wrex, with me; married couple, you go that way; Sonja, you're with Mogire. You see anything, shoot first and piss on the smoldering ashes later."

"HA!" Wrex cheered as he and Ron went down one of the corridors, keeping an eye out for anything abnormal.

Takeshi and Linda advanced down another corridor, Takeshi with his sword drawn, and Linda holding her TR-116 at the ready.

"It's quiet around here," Takeshi remarked. "Too quiet."

"Agreed," Linda replied. "I'm not seeing any researchers around here."

A small creature entered view, having a hanging underbelly, a head on a thick neck and four legs. It rushed at the two Starfleet officers, forcing Linda to shoot the creature.

After Linda had shot it, more appeared in front of them, and charged. Linda was firing as fast as her TR-116 could reload, while Takeshi sliced into any that got close with his sword. In less than three minutes, the corridor was strewn with corpses.

"What the frak were those things?!" Takeshi asked.

"Pinkerton to Yamato," Ron's voice said. "Come in."

Takeshi tapped his combadge. "Takeshi here," he replied. "Linda and I just ran into some unusual creatures."

"Really? So did we!" Ron replied.

"Unusual my Quad!" Wrex exclaimed. "Those were Rachni! How the fuck did RACHNI end up here?! We killed them centuries ago!"

"Saren might be cloning them or these things were genetically engineered from basic DNA to BE Rachni," Ron surmised. "Either way, we've found the source of the interference. Switch to ranged energy weapons: shoot them on sight! Pinkerton out."

"Understood," Takeshi replied. He sheathed his sword and drew out his MACO Pulsewave, even as Linda drew a Phaser Sniper Rifle. They resumed advancing, though more cautiously as they kept an eye out for more Rachni.

That was when they heard mechanical trilling. Linda took cover before a burst of mass effect-using assault rifle rounds fired from a Geth pulse rifle shot past her husband, and forced them to take cover. "Wonderful," she said. "Geth. The bioelectric interference blocked the signals from their power units!"

"Yeah," Takeshi replied as he fired off a Photon Grenade. "Ron, this is Takeshi, we have found Geth in the labs - repeat, Geth are in the labs!"

"Preaching to the fucking choir!" Ron yelled back. "Assholes are sending their heavy units after me and Wrex! Wait-" Both were heard in stereo over the comm that time. "WHAT THE FUCK IS THAT THING?! I DON'T KNOW! SHOOT IT!"

If they were in a less serious situation, Takeshi would have laughed at their antics. As it was, he was worried. "I'll contact Shepard!" he said, even as he let off another shot. "Let her know what's going on!"

Linda tapped her commbadge, but there was only a buzzing sound. Either the bioelectric field the Rachni were putting out were blocking the signal or the Geth were actively jamming them. "Damn it, the signal's blocked!" she called out.

"Sonja to Captains," Sonja's voice said. "I've found some kind of device over here. Looks PRETTY important. Might be blocking our long range comm signals."

"FOR THE LOVE OF ALL THAT IS HOLY, BLOW IT UP!" Ron yelled.

"Got it, boss!" Sonja replied. "Explosion in three! Two! One!"

There was a loud BOOM as the lab rocked from the shockwave.

"Takeshi to Shepard!" Takeshi called out.

The Normandy team

The Normandy Team was busily working their way through some abandoned offices, taking out corrupt guards in order to get some information that they could trade for a pass to the garage, when the combadge Shepard had been given chirped. "Takeshi to Shepard!" Takeshi's voice called out.

Shepard pressed her hand to her ear piece before remembering the commbadge and tapping it. "Shepard here. Go ahead."

"We've determined what's up here at Peak 15!" Takeshi informed. "We've run into things Wrex referred to as Rachni! We've also run into Geth! Their signals must have been jammed by the Bioelectric interference!"

Shepard lowered the volume of her voice before replying. "Rachni?" she asked. "But that's impossible: the Krogan killed all the Rachni almost a thousand years ago!"

"Regardless of how - BLOODY HELL!" Takeshi yelled. "The frakkers are alive NOW! Get your butts over here and HELP US, DAMN IT!"

"Understood," Shepard replied. "Shepard out." She turned to the others. "We need to get to Peak 15 now - Hitomi, you and I will stay here and finish dealing with this. Nihlus, Liara, Ashley, Tali, beam over to Peak 15 and help them out - we'll get there ASAP."

Tali, who was enjoying her commbadge too much to be safe, tapped the device. "Tali to Ra-Cailum," she said. "Requesting beam over for 4 to the Peak 15 labs."

"Copy that, ground team: standby." The four man team disappeared in columns of light.

"Just you and me now, huh, Nicole?" Hitomi asked. "Almost reminds me of some of our exercises back during N7 Training."

"At least our N7 exercises didn't involve corrupt bureaucrats and idiots."

The pair left the offices, heading for location of the turian that would give them the garage pass, Lorik Qui'in. "Ah, Spectre," he said. "Always a pleasure. Might I inquire as to the affair I asked you to look into?"

"We have the data," Shepard informed, "but an Internal Affairs investigator contacted me. She wants you to testify against Anoleis."

Lorik wasn't pleased about that. "I see," he said. "You aren't telling me want to do with my own property, are you?"

"Not at all," Shepard replied. "I'm just saying that if you testify, you might be a hero. Public good and all that."

It was a low blow, and a VERY low one at that, but it was also true. Turians prided themselves as servants of the people, and anything they could do to improve they did. Lorik knew that and so did Shepard. "I see your point," he said. "Thank you, Commander. Tell your contact that I will testify on her behalf."

"Thank you," Shepard replied. "Good day, Mister Qui'in."

The pair quickly made their way to Parasini's desk, where the woman was currently working on a report as part of her cover. "Do you have the evidence?" she asked.

"We've got it," Shepard replied. "Now we need access to the garage and Peak 15."

"Alright," she said, handing them a garage pass. "Again, thank you for your help. I'll give you a map with directions to Peak 15, and if you need to get there quickly, we have a Mako in the Garage you can borrow."

"Thank you for your help, Miss Parasini," Shepard replied, before the pair left the office, heading for the garage.

"Should we just beam there, or actually borrow the Mako?" Hitomi asked. "We ARE on the clock."

"We'll beam there," Shepard replied, before tapping her combadge. "Shepard to Ra-Cailum - two to beam to the Peak 15 Labs."

"Copy that. Energizing." The two disappeared in columns of light.

Peak 15 lab

"I don't know what the fuck this thing is, where it came from or who the hell made it," Ron remarked. "I only know two things: Saren's responsible for commissioning it and I'm glad it's dead."

It took 5 minutes of concentrated fire to kill the abomination that now laid in a smoking heap. The damn thing was a cybernetic hybrid of a Rachni and a Geth armature, making it a bitch to kill.

"Damn thing was almost weapons-proof," Wrex complained. "How the hell did it manage that?"

Ron checked the body, finding something he didn't like. A neuroprocessor. "Oh. FUCK. Pinkerton to Yamato."

"Takeshi here," Takeshi replied. "More bad news?"

"I'll give you a hint," Ron replied. "Resistance is futile."

There was a moment of silence. "Oh, bloody frakking hell!" Takeshi swore. "You mean to tell me Saren got his hands on Borg Tech?!"

"I'm looking at a Borg neuroprocessor right now," Ron said. "It's inside some kind of fucked up Rachni/Geth… thing. with the Batarians getting their asses handed to them, it might've been easy to get their hands on a Borg drone and… well, pull a Tal Shiar out of their asses." He performed a scan of the creature. "I'm not detecting any element zero in the body. Looks like the borg can't adapt to it."

"Saren's gotta be trying to make up for that," Wrex remarked. "I mean, I've looked at those reports you keep collecting: the Borg use their ships."

Ron nodded in agreement. "They might be using a workaround since the two technologies don't exactly work well together," he said. "In any case, set your weapons to a fractal rotating modulation: the thing we ran into had a higher resistance to our weapons, so Saren might be coming close to making Borg adaptive EM shielding."

"Roger," Takeshi replied. "And we might start mixing in Projectile Weapons - Borg can't adapt to those."

"Not if these assholes are using kinetic barriers," Ron reminded. "Use your instincts and take the assholes out. Pinkerton out."

"So, Borgified Geth now?" Wrex asked. "Is there any way this could get more fun?"

"We're about to find out."

With Takeshi

Takeshi and Linda continued their trek through the corridors, blasting any Rachni or Geth they saw.

"Jeez, things are really not going well," Takeshi remarked. "First Rachni, then Geth, now Borg Tech? Things are going to hell in a handbasket!"

"We'll need to find a way to contact Starfleet," Linda replied, as she blasted a Geth Juggernaut with her Phaser Sniper Rifle, vaporizing it. "We need more help to deal with the situation now that the Borg are making inroads."

"Yeah," Takeshi agreed. "But figuring out how to duplicate what got us here in the first place, and control it so we can get back, is the tricky part."

"FUUUUCCCCKKKK!" Shepard and Hitomi yelled as they ran down an adjacent corridor, firing their weapons blindly at whatever was chasing them.

"WHAT THE HELL IS THAT THING?!" Hitomi asked.

"I DON'T KNOW!" Shepard replied. "IT'S BIG!"

The target entered their sight, revealing itself to be a Borg-Geth/Rachni construct like the one Ron and Wrex ran into.

"Oh, bloody frakking hell," Takeshi remarked, priming his MACO Pulsewave weapon.

"Agreed," Linda replied, grabbing her TR-116. "This is going to be tough…"

Shepard threw a grenade at the creature, causing it to flinch in pain before the two N7s opened fire on it with everything they had, with Takeshi and Linda pouring Starfleet-issue fire into the monster. "I think we might need to blow this place to hell, Takeshi!" Shepard yelled. "What's the General Order for blowing up something like a lab without killing everything on the planet?!"

"Don't think there is one, but I agree with you!" Takeshi replied, as he fired off a Photon grenade into the thing. "Once we find Benezia, we apprehend her, beam out, and blow this facility off the map!"

The grenade blew open the freak of nature's belly before the forward legs collapsed, allowing them to blow the thing's brains out. "I think you have the right idea," Shepard remarked. "Shepard to Pinkerton: where are you?"

"Dealing with a crazy bitch and her psionic commandos!" Ron replied. "Benezia's here and she's NOT happy!"

"Guess that answers that," Hitomi remarked. "Come on: we've got a Matriarch to capture."

"Agreed," Takeshi said. "Everyone link up at Ron's location, and hurry!"

"We're en route, Captain!" came a chorus of replies.

The Normandy team, plus the Raging Tempest's command staff, made their way through the labyrinthine lab complex, making their way to a central hub where Ron and Wrex were fighting off a squad of Asari commandos and a LOT of Geth.

"Could someone kill that bitch please?!" Ron called out. "Her psionic powers are making me mad and the horde of assholes ISN'T HELPING!"

"Liara, help Ron and Wrex with Benezia," Shepard ordered. "See if you can talk her down, otherwise counter her Biotics! Everyone else, deal with the Geth first!"

Liara jumped over a railing in order to get closer to her mother. "Mother!" she yelled. "Please, stop this!"

The Matriarch looked at Liara, her eyes almost glazed over for some reason.

"Goddess," Liara whispered. "What did he do to you?"

Benezia launched a wave of biotic energy at Liara, forcing the younger Asari to return the favor just to survive. "I! HATE! THIS! PLANET!" Ron yelled.

Wrex downed two more Geth before leaving cover and charging at the synthetics, covered by Ron, who shot at the Asari Commandos, although he was forced to take more cover than anything else.

Shepard took cover, herself, before beginning to open fire with her Mantis, precision fire nailing Geth and Asari Commandos alike in the heads, even as Linda and Nihlus added to the sniper fire. Everyone else closed in and started firing whatever weapon they were most proficient with, though Takeshi and Hitomi drew out their swords and charged forward.

At this point, the battle was nearly over, as most of the Geth were dead and the commandos on the floor drooling from the phasers set to heavy stun. Linda took aim at Benezia's leg, intending to disable the Matriarch so they could interrogate her before firing. The shot tore into her knee, knocking her to the deck.

"Ok, that was annoying," Ron remarked.

Wrex looked at the glass enclosure, spotting the source of their Rachni problem: a queen. "They weren't cloning them: they found one and bred the damn thing!" Wrex took aim at the glass, but Ron lowered the Krogan's rifle with his hand. "We can't kill it. Do that, you're no better than the assholes who used the genophage on the Krogan."

Wrex looked thoughtful for a moment, before he nodded, lowering his weapon.

"Still, what do we do with it?" Hitomi asked.

"We transplant this thing to another planet and pull a Tarchannen III out of our ass," Ron said. "Quarantine it and place warning beacons in orbit, so no one goes there. The Rachni deserve some form of life and peace, just like the Krogan." He looked at the downed form of Benezia. "Tag her and beam her to the Ra-Cailum. I'll have a team send down pattern enhancers so we can transport this thing out of here before blowing up the lab."

"Right," Takeshi replied. "Might want to have a Vulcan or Betazoid take a look at Benezia - I'm getting an odd reaction from my Spatial Awareness when I look at her."

The Rachni looked at the team, seemingly understanding what they were planning to do with it as more teams began to beam in to evacuate any survivors and prep for the use of whatever explosive device they planned on using.

Citadel - Office of Councilor Tevos

Tevos sighed as she listened to Captains Pinkerton and Yamato, as well as Commander Shepard and Lieutenant Yamato, as they gave their report.

"The Rachni, plus the Geth AND Borg technology?" she asked.

"Yes," Ron replied. "With the Batarians getting their asses whooped, securing a single Borg drone is easy. We've secured the Rachni and are en route to an undisclosed planet to drop it off."

"Make sure it's not connected to the Relay Network," Tevos informed. "I agree with you that it should live a life of peace after everything that's happened, but I'd rather we not have a second Rachni War. If it's not connected to any relays, that makes it less likely that the Rachni will find their way back to the galaxy."

"If there's a relay in the system, we'll destroy it first," Ron replied. "We'll keep you posted. Pinkerton out."

The transmission ended with Tevos blinking at the 'destroy the relay' part. They could probably rebuild a relay, given enough time, but… "Put me through to Agressia," she said into her comms. "I need an update on our program."

USS Raging Tempest - near uncharted planet

"What's it look like, Kim?" Takeshi asked as the ship hovered over the unknown planet.

"According to the scans, the planet is perfect for the Rachni," Kim replied. "Class-L atmosphere, cut off from the rest of the galaxy, no relay. The only way anyone's getting here is wasting their time in FTL."

"That's good," Takeshi replied. "Rina, contact the Ra-Cailum - I think we have a home for the Rachni."

"Aye, sir," She said as she sent the message to the Ra-Cailum via QEC, followed by the ship itself entering the system not fifteen minutes later and entering standard orbit.

"Ra-Cailum to Raging Tempest," Ron said over the comms. "We're beaming the Rachni down now. We'll deploy the beacon as soon as that's done."

"Understood," Takeshi replied. "After that, what's our next destination?"

"We'll meet up with the Normandy near the edge of the Terminus systems," Ron said. "After that, the council's going to have to send us any more intel."

The Ra-Cailum turned away from the planet, its' mission complete as both ships headed toward the system with the nearest mass relay.

It was only an hour or two later when they arrived at the Normandy, and that's when things got even worse.

The screens went blank, followed by the thing Takeshi never wanted to see appearing on the monitors. A Greek letter. Specifically, the last. Omega.

"What the hell?" Kim asked. "What the hell is doing this?!"

"I don't have computer control!" Rina called out. "It's all locked!"

Takeshi input his command code into the helm console, and things began returning to normal. "Brok'tan, you have the Bridge," he said, standing up from the helm. "I'll be in my office. Keep our current position until further orders."

"Aye-aye, sir," Brok'tan replied, as Takeshi left the Bridge.

"What the hell is that about? He never just ups and leaves without an explanation," Kim asked.

"Maybe we'll find out," Rina replied.

USS Ra-Cailum

Ron marched onto the bridge, inputting the command codes to unlock the computers before telling Riza to hold position and have all the sensor data transferred to his ready room. "Computer, seal the doors to this room," he said. "No entry without my authorization."

"Doors sealed."

He sat in his chair, then activated the monitor screen. "Access secured datafile Omega one," he said.

"Voiceprint confirmed. State clearance code."

"Pinkerton four-seven Alpha Tango, level 10," Ron replied.

The computer beeped in acknowledgement. "Confirmed," it said. "Sensors have detected the Omega phenomenon within 9.1 light years of this vessel. Implement the Omega Directive immediately. All other priorities have been rescinded."

Ron held his head in his hands. "Computer, lock onto Captain Yamato's commbadge and beam him into this room."

Soon enough, Takeshi was beamed into his office. "Let me guess," he asked, not having reached his office yet. "Omega?"

"Omega. All priorities are rescinded as of this moment. Even the Prime Directive no longer applies."

Takeshi sighed. "I know the protocol calls for total secrecy, but I don't keep secrets from Linda - I don't keep them from the crew, period, but especially my wife. I'm going to have to bring her into it, at the very least. And it might smooth things over with the crews if we just tell them."

"Considering that we're not using our ships for this, I will have to agree," Ron said. "Computer, lock onto Commander Shepard and Lieutenant Yamato. Beam them directly into this room on my mark."

"Acknowledged."

"Pinkerton to senior staff," Ron continued. "Report to the conference room in 10 minutes. Inform the Raging Tempest of the same."

"Aye, sir," came the reply.

Takeshi tapped his combadge. "Takeshi to Shepard," he said. "Ron and I need to talk to you and Hitomi in person. Stand by for transport."

"Wait, wha-" Shepard began to ask.

"Computer, energize," Ron ordered, and the two Spectres appeared in the ready room, missing something rather important.

Their pants.

"Well… This is awkward." Ron remarked.

"No kidding," Takeshi replied, turning away from the two women. "I'll get some pants for them from the replicator."

"What the HELL was so important that you needed to beam us over without consent?!" Shepard demanded.

"The greatest threat in the known multiverse," Ron replied. "To quote the Borg, in this case, dignity is irrelevant. We'll brief you here, then have your team beamed over for briefing and a retrofit to the Normandy."

"Wait, Retrofit?" Hitomi asked. "The only thing that makes sense with that is if you fit it with your technology, but your Prime Directive-"

"Doesn't apply anymore," Takeshi replied, throwing the two women a pair of pants each. "This threat is so big that dealing with it even overrides the Prime Directive."

Both paused in the middle of putting them on, falling onto the deck in the process. "THE FUCK!" Shepard asked as she swiftly pulled the pants on before getting back up. "What the hell is this 'threat'?" Ron spun the screen around to show them.

USS Ra-Cailum - Conference Room C

The largest conference room on the ship was filled to the brim with Shepard's team, navigator Pressly, and the combined senior staffs of both Federation ships.

"What the hell is going on?!" Pressly glared. "Before we were… beamed here, your engineers were transported onto the Normandy! What the hell is this?!"

Sonja returned the man's glare. "I don't know what's going on. I was told to send them over under Mitod's command and nothing else."

The doors opened, allowing the four with the answers to enter the room. "Computer, lock the door, deactivate recording devices and activate audio suppression field, authorization Pinkerton Omega One," Ron ordered.

There was a beep as the order was carried out.

"Okay, people," Takeshi began. "You all want answers as to what's going on. We're about to provide them. First, though, let me say this: Because of the situation necessitating this, all other priorities, including the Prime Directive, are hereby rescinded until further notice."

Everyone looked shocked at this. "Wait, it's THAT bad?" Kaidan asked. "WORSE than the Borg?"

"Infinitely," Ron said as he brought up a file. "The Starfleet personnel have all seen this symbol." The emblem of Omega appeared on the monitors. "Omega, the last letter of the Greek alphabet. Chosen by Starfleet to represent a threat not only to the Federation, but to the entire galaxy. Only starship captains and Federation flag officers have been briefed on the nature of this threat. What you're about to hear will not go beyond this room. I will enforce it upon pain of death if I need to. Is that clear?"

They all nodded. This was serious if Ron was willing to go that far.

"Good," Ron said. An image of a molecule appeared on the screen. It appeared to be… more complex than even eezo. "This is Omega."

"A tiny little particle?" Ashley asked. "What's so bad about that?"

"Not just any molecule," Ron replied. "The most powerful substance known to exist. A single Omega molecule contains the same energy as a warp core, if not even more than that. In theory, a small chain of them could sustain a civilization. The molecule was first synthesised over a hundred years ago, by a Starfleet physicist named Ketteract, who managed to synthesise a single molecule particle of Omega but it only existed for a fraction of a second before it destabilised." He pulled up an image of a space station, clearly of Federation design. "This was a classified research station in the Lantaru Sector. Ketteract and 126 of the Federation's leading scientists were lost in the accident. Rescue teams attempting to reach the site discovered an unexpected secondary effect. There were subspace ruptures extending out several light years. Omega obliterates subspace. A chain reaction involving a handful of molecules could devastate subspace throughout an entire Quadrant. If that were to happen, warp travel would become impossible. Space-faring civilisation as we know it would cease to exist. Hell, maybe even mass effect-based FTL wouldn't work anymore. When Starfleet realised Omega's power, they suppressed all knowledge of it. And we've detected Omega here, in this universe."

Everyone's eyes widened. "So… the reason the Prime Directive doesn't apply anymore…" Linda began.

"Is because of this," Takeshi replied, nodding to his wife. "The Omega Directive is Starfleet's answer to the threat of the Omega Particle by any means necessary - when it's detected, the primary objective of any starfleet personnel on site is the safe elimination of Omega. Nothing, even the Prime Directive, matters in comparison to the threat Omega poses to all civilization."

"If we were back in our universe, we wouldn't be having this conversation," Ron said. "We would be in contact with Starfleet Command, and they'd send in a specialised team to deal with the crisis. In lieu of that, I am taking the best ship available: the Normandy. Mitod will be retrofitting the ship with a small warp core, a deflector shield generator, four detachable phaser array strips and a supply of photon torpedoes modified to be fired from your launchers, as well as an ablative armor system and a single transporter. Once the mission is complete, all of this will be removed from the Normandy."

Pressly nodded. "Hence the crews beaming over," he said. "OK, so, once the retrofit is complete, what's the plan?"

"I have a crew modifying another photon torpedo to destroy Omega, as well as a harmonic resonance chamber designed to contain and stabilize Omega so we have a target to shoot at. That brings up the reason for the retrofit." A stylized red 'hand' appeared on the monitor.

"What's that?" Ashley asked.

"That is the symbol associated with the Borg," Takeshi replied. "Given that you've never even heard of Omega before, the likelihood is that some of the Borg brought to this universe were working on Omega themselves - the Borg consider it the pinnacle of Perfection: their equivalent to God, if you will."

"It's also likely they weren't and will go after Particle 010 themselves," Ron informed. "We're on the edge of Batarian and Borg space and neither Starfleet ship will be able to assist. We destroy Omega and any source of the boranite ore used to create it. Dismissed. Computer, rescind previous command."

The Computer beeped as the doors unlocked, and everyone filed out of the room.

Kite's Nest - Vular System

The Borg had finished the assimilation of yet another Batarian Hegemony world, and their lives were adding to the perfection of the Collective. That moment faded when the Queen suffered an almost orgasmic reaction to a sensor reading taken by the Collective on the edge of their territory. 'Particle Zero-One-Zero detected. Particle Zero-One-Zero detected.'

"Yes… I know," she replied. "Send a ship to intercept Particle Zero-One-Zero. Omega will add to the perfection of the Collective."

A recently converted Batarian cruiser, now an almost complete Borg sphere, set course for the source of the Borg's holy grail.

'Vessel detected,' it reported. 'Federation Starfleet: Sao Pauloand Sovereign-Classes. One thousand lifeforms in total.'

The Queen scowled at the involvement of one of the few organizations to ever give them trouble. "Send tactical vessel 025 to intercept them," she ordered. "Assimilate if possible, destroy them if you can't."

SSV Normandy - on approach to Adek

"Approaching the coordinates now," Joker informed, having been notified of the basics of the reason for the refit - hunting down a Doomsday Particle. "Disengaging FTL." He then sighed. "Too bad these upgrades are only temporary - we could really use some of this stuff on a longer-term basis."

"We might, if the Alliance develops warp drive and we join the Federation," Shepard replied. "Captain, what are we seeing?"

"Research station in orbit," Ron replied from the Cargo Bay. "Looks to be hastily built from a pair of cruisers, seeing as this is a pretty nasty planet for Batarians. The source of the emissions is coming from the station itself."

"Understood," Shepard replied. "Joker, take us in, fast and quiet."

"So, were the Batarians putting all their hopes on this thing?" Joker asked.

"According to Ron… I would think so," Shepard replied.

Joker guided the Normandy into docking position, although the trip was NOT gentle. "Sorry about that," he said. "Turbulence of some kind."

"It's being caused by Omega," Ron informed. "And I just found out how they made it: the entire planet's crust is littered with boranite deposits. We're going to need to do something rather extreme to make sure the Borg can't use it."

"How extreme?" Kaidan asked.

"Causing a supernova," Ron replied. "And I have the way to do it. Sending data." Shepard looked at a nearby monitor. "If we destroy a mass relay, it'll cause an explosion akin to a supernova: a Class-12 shockwave. Nothing in the system will survive."

"Uh, that include us, or are we gonna make a heroic exit outta the system at the last second?" Joker asked.

"I'll send out the Zambezi to tractor one of the asteroids into the damn thing," Ron informed. "It's been equipped with a mass effect core, so it'll be able to make an escape. Rutia's volunteered to fly the runabout for some reason, but I won't complain. Once we're clear, this system will be a footnote in a book."

"Understood," Shepard replied. "Captain, I'll want you, Hitomi, Kaidan, Tali, Garrus, and Nihlus with me at the Airlock - let's find Omega."

"Shepard."

The Spectre turned around to see Wrex walk over. "I want to go with the doc on the runabout," he said.

"What?" she asked. "Why?"

"She needs a co-pilot and I've always wanted to say I blew something up that no one's ever blown up," he replied.

Shepard pondered that, then nodded. "Alright," she said. "Have fun with her."

"You have no idea how much this means, Shepard," Wrex said before he walked away, heading for the lift before the team, plus Ron, arrived at the airlock.

"I have to tell you this, Commander," Ron said. "If I pause at any time or say something counter to destroying Omega… hit me."

"What?" Shepard asked. "Why?"

"I'm an ex-drone," Ron replied. "You've heard me call Omega by the borg designation. I might be compromised by the… lure of Omega. Just do it."

Shepard blinked, then nodded. "Alright," she said. "Hopefully it won't come to that, but I'll be ready in case it does."

The airlock doors opened, and they were introduced to the inside of the station. Bodies were everywhere, mostly burned and sometimes missing the lower halves of their bodies.

"My God, what caused this?" Tali asked.

Ron pulled out the tricorder and began scanning. "There's enough traces of subnucleonic reactions to indicate that there was enough to kill an entire solar system full of people on the station," he informed.

"Will we be alright?" Hitomi wondered.

"My implants protect me, and your suits have been… modified."

Shepard nodded. Good enough for her. "Let's move out," she said.

The team entered the core of the station, finding a boxy containment cell with a Batarian fused to the metal. "That is a nasty way to die," Garrus remarked.

"I wouldn't wish that on anyone, even a Batarian," Hitomi replied.

"We need to get Omega out of here before the Borg arrive, that way we can torpedo its' ass and get the fuck out of this solar system," Shepard informed. "Being this close to Borg space is making me jumpy. Captain?"

Ron pointed at several points around the containment unit. "Place pattern enhancers around it," he said. "That'll make it possible to beam them over to the containment unit on the Normandy."

As members of the team went to place the Pattern Enhancers, they were interrupted by swirling green columns of light… which materialized into Borg Drones.

"FUCK!" Ron yelled.

Two of the drones turned to Shepard, but paused because of the proximity to Omega, allowing Tali to shotgun them to death.

"Set up the enhancers and let's go!" Shepard ordered. "Garrus, Nihlus, you're on Borg patrol! Everyone else, set up the enhancers!"

Ron froze, and had to repeatedly shake his head. "I can hear them," he said. "Christ, I hate it when that happens."

Tali and Kaidan set up the pattern enhancers around the vessel, then activated them. "We're ready!"

"Normandy, beam Omega into the Containment unit!" Shepard ordered. "As soon as that's done, everyone back to the ship!"

The containment unit emptied of Omega as the sound of a transporter was heard. "We had to detach, Commander," Pressly reported. "Activating transporter."

The team was beamed back to the ship, thankfully away from the station. "Joker," Shepard yelled, "GTFO, NOW!"

"Hang onto something!" Joker replied as he flipped the ship over, then moved at full throttle towards the Relay. A Borg Sphere gave chase.

Danube-Class runabout USS Zambezi - en route to mass relay

"I've never blown up a solar system before," Rutia remarked. "Well, might as well look at it from a doctor's viewpoint: the Borg are a disease. I'm injecting the body with a healthy dose of fuck you."

"HA!" Wrex crowed. The runabout was towing a massive asteroid, probably the same size as the one that ended the Mesozoic era, toward the relay at full impulse. "What about those torpedoes?"

"Modified and ready for delivery," Rutia replied.

"Good," Wrex replied. "Today marks the end of the genophage in my people."

The console began beeping out a warning as the Normandy shot toward the relay, still carrying Omega and pursued by a borg sphere.

"Aww, fuck." Wrex said.

The frigate ejected the Borg-designed containment vessel before the makeshift aft torpedo launcher fired the gravimetric torpedo, which impacted and destroyed the Omega particles.

"That's going to piss the Borg off," Wrex remarked.

Rutia cut the tractor beam and went to full impulse, heading for the relay. And Tuchanka.

SSV Normandy

"Omega's gone, but the Borg are REALLY pissed off!" Joker remarked, then blinked as the runabout made contact with the relay, heading for the rendezvous point. "I thought WE were supposed to leave first!"

"FLOOR IT, JOKER!" Shepard yelled.

The Normandy made it to the relay, and zipped safely away from the system, seconds before the asteroid hit the relay.

The shockwave hit the sphere first, obliterating the Borg ship before going through the entire solar system, eventually touching the star and causing a true supernova, destroying everything and denying the Borg Omega.

"We're clear," Joker informed.

Sighs of relief echoed all throughout the Bridge at that. Then Hitomi asked. "Where's the Zambezi? We know they left the relay before we did…"

"I'm tracking the course now, but if she jumped to another relay, we'll never find them," Ron said. "Wasn't Wrex on that thing?"

Shepard blinked before she started putting it together. Wrex was a Krogan. Rutia Yulanra was a doctor who despised the genophage. The Federation had superior medical technology then the Salarians. "That's why she wanted to pilot it, and Wrex wanted to go along," she said. "They've gone to cure the genophage."

Ron scowled. "That breaks the Prime Directive in so many ways it's not funny," he said, but his expression soon changed to an evil smile. "But under the circumstances of the Omega Directive, which will not be over until the equipment on this ship is removed, it's still in full action."

"So, as long as we wait for her to get back before removing the equipment, she'll be in the clear as far as your regs go?" Hitomi asked.

"Oh, no," Ron replied. "I'll have it all removed when we get back, but I'm going to tell them to take it NICE and SLOW, making sure this ship is exactly the same as we found it. I'll even ask them to give the ship a spit shine!" It was official. He was crazy. "How long until we get back?"

"Uh, 8 hours," Joker replied.

"Make it a day and I'll tell Rutia to cure your bone disease when she gets back," Ron said.

"Alright," Joker replied. "We do need to get back to the other ships, but no one said we couldn't take the scenic route…"

Tuchanka orbit

It had taken the Zambezi only a few hours to reach Tuchanka, and they had no trouble avoiding the frigate nearby that tried to intercept them.

"I'll beam you down as soon as we're within range," Rutia said, "then begin the torpedo sequence. Then the Krogan are free of this thrice-damned plague."

"Got it," Wrex said as he stepped on the Transporter pad. "Thanks for this, Doc."

"We condemn the use of biogenic weapons. I'm just doing this to fix the problem," Rutia said before she checked the console. "75000 kilometers. We're within transporter range."

"Then it's time." Wrex entered the transporter alcove, then turned to face the doctor. "This is going to be the last time you look at a Krogan infected with the genophage, Doc."

"I'm taking pictures," she said. "Energizing."

Wrex disappeared in a column of light, reappearing on the surface, near the Urdnot clan compound.

He headed towards the Compound, carrying his Phaser Rifle as he went. Time for one last thing to do before rejoining the hunt for Saren.

The head of the clan glanced at Wrex as soon as he walked in. "Wrex," he said. "I thought you were offworld, doing something not worth doing."

"Oh, it was worth SOMETHING, uncle," Wrex replied. "I just saved our race while you just sat there, doing nothing!"

The Krogan stood up, pulling out a shotgun. "You're going to regret that, Wrex," he said, before charging at Wrex, who fired the phaser rifle at the old bastard and vaporized him.

The rest of the Krogan of Clan Urdnot all looked at Wrex, before one stepped up and said, "Urdnot Wrex, what words do you have to say as new Clan Head?"

Wrex chuckled. "We've been fighting for as long as we've been able to think," he said. "It's what we are! We make death a science! And we're damn proud of it! I'm not letting the Krogan simply get dragged into some damn history book, read by some Salarian centuries after we're dust! I found a group of people that I'm proud to call Krogan not of our blood! Warriors who have the power to conquer anything they put their minds to! They undid in less than a month what took the Salarians and the Turians years to do! I AM URDNOT WREX! I AM KROGAN! AND THIS IS OUR NEW BEGINNING!" That seemed almost timed as an explosive shockwave hit them, making the Krogan smile.

The other Krogans of Clan Urdnot began cheering, as some looked to the sky, watching the detonations of the modified torpedoes in the atmosphere like fireworks, causing the cure to be spread on the winds.

By the time the day was over, the genophage would be a thing of the past.

"They might not look like much, but they're worth being called Krogan," Wrex continued. "They saw our plight, and they vowed to destroy it. I didn't even ask them! They decided to help us of their own will, not expecting a reward! I'd say that makes them worth calling brothers in arms!" The Zambezi flew overhead in a slow pattern, causing them to look at the craft. "Hell, if it weren't for them, I wouldn't even BE here! Treat these people with respect! They sure as fuck EARNED IT!"

USS Raging Tempest

Takeshi sat at the helm console on the bridge, watching the relay that the Omega team would return from. "I didn't think it'd take them this long to get here," he remarked.

It had been 23 hours since they left, and while the relay was gone, the Normandy hadn't arrived yet.

"Contact on sensors," Kim reported. "IFF reads SSV Normandy! they're back!"

The Normandy dropped out of FTL, and they hailed the Tempest. "Normandy to Raging Tempest," Ron's voice called out. "Sorry we took so long, but I wanted to take a bit of a walk."

Takeshi chuckled. "That's fine," he replied. "What's the situation?"

"The Borg still don't have Omega. Mission was a complete success."

"Captain, we're being contacted by the Council," Rina said, paling. "Judging by the rude words they're using, they are not happy."

"Let Ron and the Normandy take it," Takeshi remarked. "He can handle their BS better than I can."

"I'll patch us in so we can hear it," Rina informed. Seconds later, Ron's voice piped in.

"Councilors," Ron said. "Is there a problem?"

"Do you realize what you've DONE?!"

"I blew up a relay," Ron informed. "I had a good reason."

"WHAT?! Not - You don't even know?! YOU BLEW UP A RELAY?!"

"I'll explain it in person," Ron replied. "Just one word, though: Omega."

"I don't care! You CURED THE GENOPHAGE!"

Takeshi's eyes widened. "That's a major PD Violation," he muttered.

"But technically doesn't count, because it happened when carrying out the Omega Directive," Brok'tan commented. "Clever."

"Directive Zero, Subsection One," Ron informed. "All orders upon activation of the directive in question, including General Order One, are rescinded until completion of the directive. I cannot charge whomever did cure the genophage of a crime because there was no crime to commit. Besides, you've been catching flak from everyone about this. Just say that you finally came to a decision to… release the krogan from their sentence of fear and because you couldn't do it, you asked us to perform the duty."

"He hates politics, but he can play the game as well as any of them," Linda remarked.

"Agreed," Takeshi replied. "Talk about a game-changer, though."

"Argh!" Sparatus cursed.

"Captain, what is this Omega you're talking about?" Valern asked. "There's only one Omega we know of, and that's a station."

"Sending data packet now," Ron replied. "It's a good thing that if anyone's listening in and trying to access the intel from the call, it'll fry their computers. Gotta love viruses. You'll keep this to yourselves, or I will have your heads hanging from the prow of my ship. Pinkerton out." The call ended after that.

"He definitely knows how to deal with politics," Takeshi remarked.

"Yeah…" Rina replied.

Citadel - Councilor Tevos office

The Asari shouldn't've been surprised at Flay's appearance, but she was. The S31 agent was reading a book, sitting in her chair. "Councilor," she said. "I heard about Omega. Thought I'd brief you."

"What IS Omega?" Tevos asked. "If it made Pinkerton break the Prime Directive-"

"The Omega Directive, or Directive Zero, makes all directives a non-factor. The Omega particle that the directive is named for is too dangerous for things like the Prime Directive to stand in the way. Omega destroys subspace. Without subspace, warp drive is useless. Is that good enough, Councilor?"

Tevos blinked, but nodded. "Yes, I understand," she replied. "Still, I doubt curing the genophage was related to stopping Omega."

"Starfleet has problems with biogenic weapons use," Flay replied. "Hell, an operation was destroyed because of that once. Besides, you can't prove it. Who will the Federation Council believe when the time to address that comes? A Starfleet officer who keeps a log so exact they can piece together his day from it? Or a group of races that used biogenic weaponry?"

Tevos got the picture. "I see your point," she said.

"Good," Flay replied. "I'll be going, then. By the way, your warp program is doing very well. TOO well. The last try nearly broke the barrier. If it weren't for my sabotage, it would have been a complete success. Two more tries, councilor. Then the day the successful test flight is due to begin, the Ra-Cailum and Raging Tempest will be there to see it."

Tevos nodded. "Very well," she said. "Goodbye for now, Miss Allster."

Flay beamed out, and repeated the process with Valern. Not that Tevos knew that.

USS Ra-Cailum - sickbay

Rutia had been marched into sick bay the second she came back, and was told she would be curing Joker's brittle bone problem. It was her 'punishment'.

'Not much of a punishment,' she thought. 'Two hours of work and he's perfectly fine.'

Still, she was proud of destroying the genophage. Leonard McCoy would be proud. 'What the hell am I doing? I'm a doctor, not a psychologist!'

As soon as it was done, Joker was running through the halls, screaming like an idiot.

Speaking of which, he ran into Sonja, who was rushing to the bridge. "Get the hell out of my way!" she yelled.

The chief engineer rushed into a turbolift, heading for the bridge and Ron's ready room, where the captain was talking with Takeshi.

She barged in unannounced. "I've got it!" she yelled.

Takeshi blinked, and looked up. "Got what?" he asked. "And shouldn't you have knocked?"

"With due respect-" Sonja began

"You don't have any," Takeshi remarked.

"Fuck you, Captain Yamato," Sonja snapped. "I got it!"

"Got WHAT, Sonja?" Ron demanded.

"The way home!" Sonja said. "I've been studying ways to get us back, and I found it!" She put the PADD she was carrying on the desk, displaying a holographic image. It was a transwarp gate. "I've modified the design using a few ideas the Batarians had with their, uh, Omega program, plus our experiences with alternate universes. Using a quantum resonance scanner, I can lock onto our home universe's quantum signature. Then, we have a way back."

Takeshi looked over the image. "Sounds like it could work," he said. "How much time would you need?"

"Three days to build the gate with a little help from the Council races," Sonja replied. "I have the PERFECT place to put it, too!" She pointed at the general location of the Asari world Ilium. "We put it there, we have access to their trade routes if we decide to maintain contact."

"Well, the Asari have asked us to pay a visit to Agressia," Ron informed. It's one of their mining colonies, and they want us to deliver something to them: medical supplies, mostly. I'll take the Ra-Cailum to Agressia. Takeshi, you go with the Normandy to their next target. It's a nice little place called Virmire."

"Understood," Takeshi replied. "We'll help them deal with whatever Saren has there, then join you at Agressia. Might also have the Normandy come with us once we're done on Virmire."

"Make sure they come back in one piece. No casualties. Those people aren't just our allies. They're our friends. And in your case, family."

Takeshi nodded. They'd gotten a chance to run a DNA test on Hitomi, and aside from the obvious gender differences, genetically she was almost identical to him. They'd considered each other siblings from that point on. "I'll make sure it gets done," he replied.

"Good luck."

Agressia orbit

The final warp fighter (and as far as the pilots knew, their last chance, as if this one failed, the program was cancelled) was in position. The Markus Wolf was nowhere in sight, being hidden on the surface under cloak.

"Preparations complete," the pilot reported. "Beginning start up."

"Understood," the chase pilot replied. "Good luck."

"This better work," the Copilot said. "I'm tired of bailing out of these things."

"So am I," the pilot agreed.

Thessaly 5 began moving, and everything was just like before. "Warp .7!" the pilot reported. ".8! .9! .97!"

"This is it!" the Copilot yelled.

The fighter successfully jumped to warp, disappearing in a flash of Cherenkov radiation.

USS Ra-Cailum - En route to Agressia

"Captain, you're not going to believe this," the Science Officer reported.

"Tell me," Ron said.

"I'm picking up a warp signature!"

Ron smiled. "First sign of home in a month!" he said. "Where's it coming from?!"

"Near Agressia."

"Drop us out of warp!" Ron ordered. "Let's see who it is."

The Sovereign-Class ship dropped out of warp, ready to intercept/greet the warp ship.

Soon afterward, the other signature dropped out of warp - revealing Thessaly 5.

"What the…" Ron said. "Lifesigns?"

"Captain… they're Asari," came the report. "And if I'm reading this right, all of the parts are of local manufacture. There's no sign of anything from our ships."

Ron leaned back in his chair. "They developed warp drive," he said. "No help, only a vague idea of what the hell it does, and they make a working prototype. Open a channel."

Thessaly 5

"We did it! We finally did it!" the pilot yelled.

"Yeah, and look who spotted it!" the copilot replied, pointing out the window to see the Ra-Cailum nearby.

They had done it, and with the Ra-Cailum in full sight!

"This is Captain Ronald Pinkerton of the United Federation of Planets starship Ra-Cailum," Ron's voice said over the comms. "Do you need assistance, Asari fighter?"

"This is Thessaly 5," came the reply. "We could use a tow back to Agressia, Captain! We've been working on this for over 4 months! It's about time it worked!"

"…We'll have you and your fighter transported aboard," Ron replied. "It will be an honor to have you."

"Understood, Ra-Cailum," the pilot reported. "Standing by."

USS Ra-Cailum - bridge

'Four months,' Ron thought. 'We've only been here one. They did this by themselves.'

They were on the way to developing warp drive months before they got there.

"Sir, you know what this means," the Science Officer said.

"I know, T'Rerva," Ron replied. "They just became eligible."

The three keys: unified government, social progress and warp drive.

The Asari Republics may have been like ancient Greece, but they, too, were technically a unified state.

The social part was easy, too: Asari were VERY open minded.

And now… they had warp drive.

"Thessaly 5 is on board, Captain," the Operations Officer said.

"Contact the Raging Tempest," Ron ordered. "Takeshi needs to know about this."

USS Raging Tempest - Virmire orbit

Takeshi was once again sitting at the helm. Virmire was packed with AA Turrets, so the decision had been made for the Normandy to drop the Mako, clear a path to the STG Team that had been investigating the place, so the Normandy and perhaps the Raging Tempest could land.

"Captain, we've got a message coming in from the Ra-Cailum," Rina reported.

"Put it on," Takeshi replied. "Let's see what's on Ron's mind."

The senior captain appeared on the viewscreen. "Takeshi… You're not going to believe this," he said. "Hell, if I hadn't seen it, I sure as hell wouldn't."

Takeshi blinked. "What is it, Ron?" he asked. "What happened?"

"The Asari… they were developing warp drive," Ron informed. "Before we got here."

Takeshi's eyes widened. "You serious?" he asked.

"We ran into their version of the Phoenix en route to Agressia," Ron replied. "It was their first successful warp flight. We're taking them back now, and… Takeshi, I think the Council, ours, will need to know about this once we get back."

"Agreed," Takeshi said with a nod. "We'll need to get a more permanent portal set up between this universe and ours, so we can establish official contact."

"According to Sonja, the gate can connect to another one, but we need another one on OUR end," Ron informed. "If this works, we can have the SCE build one in Federation space. For now, though, your job is to take out Saren's base on Virmire. I want you to see this through personally, Take. Make this asshole regret fucking with the United Federation of Planets Starfleet."

"Understood," Takeshi replied. "Also… given the circumstances, when we get the gate here finished, one of us should stay here, maintain at least a marginal presence in this universe until the gate back home is done."

"As soon as you're done, head back to the Citadel," Ron said, chuckling. "We'll head back to our universe. One of us is overkill enough. Think you can handle being the official Federation ambassador to this galaxy until we get back?"

"I'll try my best," Takeshi said with a grin. "I was always more warrior than explorer or diplomat, but I'll still try my best."

"We're heading to Illium now," Ron informed. "The Asari are going pull together a corps of engineers to help us build the gate. Hell, the Turians asked us if we needed a favor a few hours after we left. Guess I'm calling it in. Good luck. Pinkerton out."

The transmission ended, and Takeshi let out a breath.

"Well, looks like we're establishing a more permanent presence in this universe," he said. "With the Borg here, I was likely going to push for it anyway, but now it looks like it's official." He looked over to Rina. "Rina, status on the ground?"

"Shepard's cleared the AA guns on the ground," she replied. "We're clear to land, and the STG forces on the ground have a plan to destroy the base: a nuclear bomb. And there are reports of Krogan on the surface: probably clones working for Saren. But there are also reports of Geth and… modified Krogan. I don't like the sound of that."

"Neither do I," Takeshi replied, bringing the ship down into the atmosphere - like its predecessor the Defiant, the Sao Paulo-Class was capable of atmospheric entry and landing on a planetary surface. "Once we land, Linda will take a team of her choosing to take part in the assault. We'll keep the ship ready for anything that requires air support."

"I'll inform the Normandy," Rina said. "I have a bad feeling about this."

Illium orbit

Two Asari transports and a turian dreadnought faced the Ra-Cailum over the trade hub world, where the engineering teams from the two Citadel races were conversing on the latter ship with Sonja in one of the conference rooms, discussing the design and the construction problems.

Nearby, Mitod was going on building a major addition to the things orbiting Ilium: a Regula-Class starbase. They were small, used mostly for outposts and research stations (like the namesake, Regula 1).

Not as grand as Lya-Class starbases like Earth Spacedock, but it would do as headquarters and supply post for the engineering teams.

"This is going to be weird," T'Var said.

"Agreed," Ron replied. "I know trading would be a must if we had constant contact, but with the Asari developing warp drive, this opens up a major can of worms."

If the Asari so wished, they were now more than capable of joining the Federation.

"Not to mention this shows the other locals that it can be done with their tech," T'Var continued. "Depending on how long it takes us to build the gate, get back to our universe, and build the companion gate, we could be seeing the Turians, the Salarians, the Systems Alliance, and who knows how many other races building their own warp drives."

"Unfortunately, the Klingons won't be pleased about this," Ron informed. "Our relations with them might be getting better, but we're still on a knife edge. I do hope that retard J'mpok decides to be wise and reopen the Accords." The Klingons might find an ally in the Batarians, who were leaving their worlds en masse due to the Borg invasion, and maybe the Krogan, who also had a link to the Federation thanks to Rutia's actions in curing the genophage. It might prove to be the link that allied them with the Klingons again: the second Narendra III. "At least the starbase is getting built. Thank god for those prefab parts we kept in cargo bay 5."

"Agreed," T'Var said. "We'll likely need to keep a small team here to run it even when we head home - help keep the Raging Tempest supplied with Torpedoes until we get a regular supply chain going."

"He's going to need to learn to use his phasers and photon torpedoes until we get a quantum torpedo manufacturing facility up and running," Ron replied.

The turbolift doors opened, and out came Sonja. "Good news, boss," she said. "The engineering crews are ready to get started."

"Good."

"Bad news is I'm going to need a lot of parts these guys just don't have to build the gate," Sonja continued. "We've got the equipment, but these guys don't have any experience using it. I'm going to need to have to leave almost all of my people here, including me and Mitod, to get it started."

"You're the only Starfleet Corps of Engineers personnel we've got," Ron said. "Do it. Leave a team on the Ra-Cailum to keep the ship patched up."

"I planned on it," Sonja informed, as the viewscreen showed the workbees building the Regula. "We're here to stay, it seems."

Virmire

After the AA guns had been blown to pieces, the entire team had been deployed to the surface, and the news of a lot of Krogan (likely clones) being down there had made Wrex VERY angry.

Saren had likely been planning to make an army with a genophage cure.

BIG mistake.

"I might hate you damn Salarians for neutering my people," he informed, "but Saren bribing these ones with a cure and revenge? Fuck that! My people are free of that shit!"

"Calm down, Wrex!" Shepard ordered.

"Screw calm!" Wrex yelled. "I'm going in there to fuck them up!"

"Well, at least he's angry at them and not us," Captain Kirrahe, the lead Salarian remarked. "We have enough Angry Krogan as is, but as long as his anger's directed at them, I don't mind. What was he meaning, though?"

"I doubt you've been informed, but the Starfleet ships cured the genophage," Hitomi remarked. "The second they heard about it, Captain Pinkerton and his ship's doctor were pissed off about it. They have a thing against bio-weapons. Have to say I agree with them."

"They what?!" Kirrahe exclaimed. "Do they realize what kind of threat they've unleashed?!"

"Captain Pinkerton told me a few days ago that they wouldn't unleash a mad dog they couldn't control," Shepard informed. "They might have a way to direct the Krogan's rage. Maybe they've got something the Krogan can fight back in their universe."

Kirrahe seemed thoughtful at that. He had failed the Borg technology recovery mission (not on purpose) and now that he knew the Federation didn't exactly approve of things like the genophage… well, the more you know. 'I will need to inform the dalatresses about this if we make it back,' he thought.

At that point, the Raging Tempest flew in, and Linda beamed down, along with Mogire, two Assault Squad Members, and a Fabrication Engineer. "What's the situation?" she asked.

"Bad," Kirrahe informed. "Saren has a large number of Geth and Krogan in the facility, and some of the Krogan are modified somehow. Two of my men were killed facing the one we saw. I have footage of it I can show you."

Linda nodded, but when Kirrahe pulled up the footage, she blanched at the alterations that had been made to the Krogan.

The Krogan in the file had dozens of extra implants, plus an eyepiece over the left eye and the left arm had been replaced with a sickening-looking hybrid of an assault rifle and a light disruptor cannon, as well as exoplating.

"Great…" Linda muttered. "Krogan Tactical Drones. Well, we knew Saren got his hands on Borg tech from Noveria. Still, This Is Gonna Suck."

"Tactical drones?" Kirrahe asked. "As in Borg tactical drones?"

"What do you know about them?" Linda asked.

"A Salarian ship was attacked by the Borg. We managed to rescue some of the crew, but two of the civilians were in the process of assimilation. We… had to put them down."

Linda had an understanding look on her face. "We've been able to save people from the collective a fair amount - Captain Pinkerton among them," she said, "but often times we still need to do mercy kills if someone's been injected with nanoprobes." She then sighed as she looked back at the image. "But yeah, that's definitely Tactical Drone armoring on that Krogan. A regular Tactical Drone is bad enough - equipped with personal shields and more powerful weapons - but a Krogan Tactical Drone is going to be a lot worse."

"Any weapons you can lend us to deal with them will be well received," Kirrahe informed. "They are using kinetic barriers, but they're sub-standard: like the Borg technology weakens it instead of enhancing it." That was something Morden figured out when they saw the Batarian drones discarding weapons instead of using them. They had recovered some weapons they tried to assimilate, but they were useless. "It appears Saren circumvented that issue. That energy weapon is as powerful as one of our GARDIAN point-defense weapons, if not more so."

Linda sighed. After a moment, she tapped her combadge. "Linda to Raging Tempest," she said.

"Takeshi here," Takeshi's voice replied. "What is it, Linda?"

"Can you beam down a few dozen Phaser Rifles, and some TR-116s?" Linda asked. "Saren's got his hands on some Krogan Tactical Drones."

A moment of silence, followed by a sigh. "Of course," he muttered. "When it rains, it pours. Alright - we'll beam them down immediately. We'll send down some Target Designators, too - if they prove too tough, or you find too many at once, don't hesitate to call down the rain."

"Understood," Linda replied. "Linda out."

"Is this at all related to General Order 24?" Kirrahe asked. "We heard of what happened to Feros."

"Actually, this is more 'Really Close Air Support'," Linda replied, "but we still want to keep it in reserve. Mix up your weapons loads with phaser rifles and mass effect weapons: those things are just as good as our TR-116s. Take what you need."

The crates beamed down, and the Salarians picked what weapons they wanted from the crates, as did the Normandy Team. Wrex, of course, already had two Phaser Weapons, in addition to his Assault Rifle and Shotgun: a standard Phaser Rifle, and a spare cannon from the Ra-Cailum's Titanoboas.

"What did it take to down one of the KroTacs?" Shepard asked.

"KroTacs?" Kirrahe asked, before he got it. "Oh, the assimilated Krogan. The shields were weak, but their physical resistance to damage has been… what is the human term? 'Dialed up to eleven'?"

"So it's like the ground version of any of our ships fighting the Ra-Cailum or Raging Tempest," Ashley remarked. "Fucking wonderful."

"Typical when facing Borg," Linda remarked. "While not quite as bad as Wolf 359, Borg are still really tough to kill, on the ground or in space. Of course, on the ground, the race the Drone was assimilated from really affects how tough it is, so a Krogan will be really tough. Hopefully we can do it. Anyway, you have a plan to take out the base, I take it?"

"We're going to use the drive core from our ship as a makeshift bomb. Not as powerful as one of your photon torpedoes, but 20 kilotons of explosive force might do the job. The problem is delivery."

"Dropping it is out of the question, I take it?" Linda asked.

"Partially," Kirrahe explained. "The base itself has a large number of AA guns that would tear apart a delivery craft. There's also the problem of the detonator: it has to be triggered manually. After 30 seconds, there is no stopping it and no way to evacuate anyone forced to detonate it."

"We might have a solution to the second problem." Linda held up a small device.

"What's that?" Kirrahe asked.

"An Emergency Transport Unit," Linda replied. "Developed in 2379 by then-Commander LaForge, it's widespread these days, with everyone on an away team having multiples. Activate it, and it automatically beams you to the closest Federation Starship. It only works for one person, though, and it burns out after one use - it's why we have multiples. I can give one to whoever is detonating the bomb."

Kirrahe's eyes would have been dropping out had it not been physically impossible. 'We need to get our hands on warp drive: those ETUs would save the lives of hundreds of operatives!' "Commander Shepard, I need to borrow one of your men to lead one of my teams," he said. "I know that I have no authority to ask you, but it is necessary."

Shepard nodded. "Kaidan, you'll go with them," she said. "Your Biotics and skills will definitely help out in their assault."

"Understood, ma'am," Alenko replied. Linda handed him an ETU, which he pocketed.

"Your team, Commander, will be codenamed Shadow," Kirrahe informed. You're going to hit them where it hurts while we distract them. Commander Yamato, your team will be codenamed Hammer. The naming reasons are… plainly obvious. Take part of Shepard's team with you: we don't have enough men to go with you."

"Understood," Linda replied. "Shepard, who would you recommend coming with us?"

The first word out of everyone's mouth was 'Wrex'. The Krogan smirked. He liked working with the Starfleeters.

"Anyone else?" Linda asked.

"Tali, you go with Commander Yamato," Shepard ordered. "They'll need a tech expert. If they aren't using borg computers..."

"Understood, Shepard," Tali replied. "I'll do my best."

Illium - Starbase Yucatan

The Regula-Class starbase was half-finished, but ready for the crews to start building the gate. In fact, several shuttles were already towing parts of a construction scaffold into position.

"It's going to take months to build that gate, Commander Henderson, even with your more advanced technology," an Asari said.

"Actually, this is only going to take about two weeks," Sonja replied. "The modifications will only take a few days, and testing… Well, depends if the quantum resonance scanner works properly."

"And the original version of this… links worlds throughout your Federation?" A Turian asked. "Sounds a bit like the Relays, only built by us instead of left behind by ancestors."

"Actually, we didn't invent the transwarp conduit system. We built our network, but we took the idea from someone else with a much bigger one."

"Really?" another Asari asked. "Who?"

"I think you know," Sonja informed. "They're currently raping the shit out of the Batarians."

The Turian's eyes widened. "You're saying the Borg have their own transwarp network?" he asked.

"Oh, yeah. MASSIVE network with six transwarp hubs," Sonja informed. "We blew up one of them in 2378 when Voyager came home, and five years afterward, we didn't hear a damn thing from them until last year. Our network is much smaller, although if you want one as big as theirs, we'll need hubs like theirs." Sonja activated the computer core, bringing up the displays and the emblem of the Federation before the starbase's MSD replaced the Great Seal. "If the Asari are going to be joining the Federation, I'm going to need a list of your best engineers to take on as apprentices."

"Understood," an Asari replied. "You'll have that list within the hour."

Sonja stood up, heading to the door. "Follow me: we've got to bring the shield generator online, as well as the transporters and the new mass effect core. If this hybrid design works, we'll adapt it for every station in the Federation."

The others present nodded, before they followed her.

"What can you tell us about this type of station, Commander?" the Turian asked.

"Regulas are research stations and advanced command posts most of the time," Sonja informed. "The first and most famous is Regula 1, although the station was abandoned after 2286."

"After the Battle of the Mutara Nebula?" an Asari asked.

"Ooh," Sonja remarked. "Someone's been studying history. Yeah, with the research staff getting killed, no one wanted to be there. It's a monument to our hubris towards genetic engineering and to playing God."

"So… these are your most common form of station?" the Turian asked.

"They used to be. The newest type of starbase is the Mauretania-Class: highly expandable, easy to build and far easier to upgrade, as you add things to the central core to build up the starbase. But in terms of size and capability…" She stopped at a console to pull up another image, this time of a much larger starbase. "The Lya-Class outstrips EVERYTHING. Earth Spacedock, the oldest one, held off a planet killer starship force for two hours. A Mauretania wouldn't've lasted."

"Wow," an Asari remarked. "That's a lot of defensive capability, there."

"Best part is ESD's age," Sonja informed. "130 years old, yet it's built like a tank. It's still got five times the firepower of any starship we have in service, including the Odyssey-Class. Only weakness is the bulk of the station, but that's supplemented by smaller ships and the over hundred thousand personnel on board. If you want to try and take the station… you will die." The Ra-Cailum's chief engineer walked off, heading for the generator.

"Wonder if we can get one of those built here?" an Asari asked.

"Not sure, but we'll see what happens," another Asari replied.

Virmire

Shepard had chosen quite the wrong path. She had entered part of the base that Saren had been conducting experiments with Borg and Geth technology on the Krogan. But this part of the base looked less and less human the deeper they went. Alcoves were lining the walls, only missing the drones that regenerated in them.

"Looks rather creepy," Hitomi remarked. "Is this what the inside of a Borg Ship would be like?"

"Probably," Garrus said. "I've never been inside one. Look at this."

Shepard looked at what Garrus pointed at. It was a Krogan tactical drone, only less Krogan and more Geth and Borg. The legs had been replaced with ones clearly based on the Geth, only far more robust and shorter, and one of the arms was now a mass effect/disruptor cannon hybrid, and most of the head was covered in implants.

"Great," Shepard remarked. "That's even worse than an assimilated Krogan - a Krogan/Geth/Borg Hybrid."

"I get the feeling we're going to have nightmares when we leave t-" Garrus was interrupted as the Krogan's eye opened. It was awake.

"OH SHIT!"

The drone… thing began firing at them with disruptor-infused mass effect cannon rounds.

The team all broke for cover, some firing with Phasers, the others with their ME-Based weapons. "Shepard to Linda, do you read?" Shepard yelled. "We've engaged some sort of Krogan/Geth/Borg Hybrid!"

"What the bloody hell?!" Linda exclaimed. "Get the hell out of there! Takeshi, we have a problem that we can't deal with conventionally!"

"I heard!" Takeshi replied. "Shepard, activate a Target Designator, slap it on that thing, and get as far away from it as you can!"

It fired another shot, barely missing Hitomi and OBLITERATING a wall.

"HOLY SHIT! RUN!"

The… thing continued to fire at them, destroying wall after wall. "This thing is a team's worst nightmare!" Shepard yelled as she managed to tag the monster with the designator before they got the hell out of there.

Soon after they had gotten away from it, Takeshi called out, "Receiving signal from the Target Designator. Going hot!" Soon enough, the sound of the Pulse Phaser Cannons could be heard as Takeshi hammered the Hybrid Drone with enough firepower to slag a Borg Probe in a single volley.

The floor collapsed, and they dropped several levels down. "Well, here's hoping we don't see ANOTHER one of those things," Shepard remarked as they approached a door, which opened and revealed HUNDREDS of the same thing, with slight variations, like the cannon arm or the implant number. "Oh… shit."

"Let that door shut, then weld it shut with the Phaser!" Ashley, who had discovered the welding capabilities of Phasers, said. "It might not stop them from getting out, but it should slow them down!"

"Wait," Garrus said. "They're… not moving." He was right: the krogan-based monstrosities were still as statues. "We should be able to cut through to deeper into the facility through here. And they should ignore us until they consider us a threat."

"And how are you so sure?" Shepard asked.

"I've studied up on Borg behavior from the database the Ra-Cailum gave us," Garrus replied. "Borg drones are single-minded - as long as you don't get between them and an objective, or do something that makes them see you as a threat, they should just ignore you."

"They've practically assimilated the Batarians," Hitomi reminded.

"Because they wanted to add a new race to their Collective," Garrus said. "And because they were easily available, they decided to assimilate them. The Batarians who've escaped avoided fighting them. They might be able to start new lives elsewhere, maybe even in the other universe."

"I… guess that makes sense," Shepard remarked. "Still, I'm glad we'll be getting rid of this place."

They began tiptoeing past the Borg, hoping that they didn't wake up. "We might need a bigger bomb, Shepard," Ashley remarked. the nuke the Salarians have might not be enough."

"Are you SURE these things aren't going to wake up?" Hitomi asked Garrus.

"Even if they do, they might ignore us," he replied. Two Krogan drones marched to their alcoves, and they could see the team. "Lower your weapons!" Garrus hissed.

The team kept their weapons on safe and not pointed at the drones, who proceeded to ignore them as they stepped into their alcoves.

"That was… weird." Hitomi asked.

"They always do that," Garrus informed. According to reports from the Enterprise-E, the first team to run into the borg on board were ignored until they tried getting into main engineering. THEN they came out of the woodwork."

"Why do I get the feeling these things are more like Borg and less like what Saren wants them to be?" They approached a terminal, and they were greeted with a big surprise.

"Commander, look," Ashley said, pointing into a corner of the room. "It's another beacon. Like the one on Eden Prime."

"What the hell?" Shepard asked.

The device activated, and they were presented with a red-tinted holographic image of the ship the Ra-Cailum and Raging Tempest had damaged. The worst part was that it spoke.

"YOU ARE NOT SAREN," it said.

"What the hell?" Nihlus asked. "Is this thing a VI or-"

"It's not a VI," Hitomi replied, looking right at the image. "Those Starfleet people were right. You're a Reaper."

"REAPER?" the image - Sovereign - asked. "A TITLE THE PROTHEANS GAVE US: A TITLE FOR THEIR EXTINCTION. WHAT THEY CALL US IS IRRELEVANT. WE SIMPLY ARE."

"You're Sovereign," Shepard remarked. "News flash, asshole: there's a REAL Sovereign waiting to kick your ass back into dark space! He kicked your ass over Eden Prime!"

"YOU SPEAK OF THE SHIP THAT CAUSED MY FIRST INJURIES IN AGES," Sovereign replied. "AN UNFORESEEN VARIABLE, BUT NOT INSURMOUNTABLE. THE CYCLE CANNOT BE BROKEN."

"We'll see about that," Shepard remarked. "Starfleet's coming, and when they do, I'll be there to watch them kick your asses. Tell your fellow Reapers that!"

"WE SHALL SEE." The image faded away.

Shepard moved from where they had seen Sovereign, and moved towards the beacon. "What are you doing, Nicole?" Hitomi asked. "You remember what happened with the last beacon!"

"The vision that beacon gave me was incomplete," Shepard replied. "I'm hopeful this will give me a more complete picture - we need to know what the Protheans were trying to tell us about the Reapers. It might give us some clue to help stop the Reapers this time."

The beacon activated, but seconds later, green columns of light appeared as Batarian drones materialized inside the chamber. "Of all the fucking things - Linda, we've got actual Borg down here!" Hitomi yelled.

"We know!" Linda replied. "Takeshi's engaging a cube in orbit!"

"Dammit!" Hitomi replied. "Everyone, take them down! Cover Nicole while she deals with the beacon!" she suited action to words, firing a blast from her Phaser Rifle at the closest drone, followed by a shotgun blast.

That was actually a bad call, as the Borg were ignoring them and focusing on the Krogan drones, preparing to add them to the Collective. As such, one Batarian assimilated a Krogan, who activated the rest. And they began beaming up to the cube, leaving a few down on the surface to engage the team. "Congratulations, Lieutenant," Garrus snapped. "You pissed them off! They were IGNORING us!"

"Shut up and shoot them!" Hitomi replied, even as she let loose another blast.

The team continued shooting the drones, downing a few even as they kept them from getting close, even as the team surrounded Shepard, protecting her.

Nihlus fired his phaser rifle at a Batarian, but some form of shield blocked the shot. "Garrus?!" he asked.

"They've adapted! Remodulate or switch weapons! Either way, don't let them touch you!"

The Borg paused as another drone, this one being VERY unique, beamed in.

It was obviously female, and her body appeared to be mostly machine except for her bust and head, which were organic. She had no hair, though - rather she had mechanic parts in the place hair would be.

"You are the ones allied with the Federation," she said. "Interesting: two of you belong to Species 5618, but you are infested with that… substance."

"What?" Hitomi asked, stunned. "A drone that talks?"

"I… don't think that's a drone, Lieutenant," Garrus replied.

"I am the beginning. The end. The one who is many. I am the Borg."

Garrus seemed almost awed. Then again, who wouldn't be? "The Borg Queen."

"You know of us?" the Queen asked.

"Yes," Garrus replied. "You… you're the leader of the Collective."

"You imply disparity where none exists. I am the collective."

At that moment, Shepard was released from the beacon, and finally noticed the Borg. "Borg!"

"Don't!"

"Indeed," the Queen replied. "Stay your weapons. I am not here to fight."

The Commander lowered her weapon.

"Species 5618," the Queen said. "Human. Warp capable. Origin, grid 325. Physiology inefficient, below average cranial capacity, minimal redundant systems, limited regenerative abilities. Our previous attempts to assimilate your species were all direct assaults. They failed. Thus we will not assimilate you: too difficult for now. But the day will come when your voice will add to our song."

"That's heartening," Hitomi remarked sarcastically. "So, if you're not here to assimilate us or to fight us, why are you here?"

"Because… you are unique. A human who gathers those of other races to herself, those who detest her species. We do not wish to see you die. And in this time alone, you will be given our assistance. This world will be cleansed of all imperfection. The being known as Saren has created mockeries of my drones. When the time comes, you will deliver him to us."

"What makes you think we'd do that?" Hitomi asked, as everyone else looked like they agreed with her.

"Species 11063: Turian," the Queen said. "Hardened against radiation exposure and hardened dermal tissue makes them near-perfect tactical drones. Resistance quotient: non-existent. Homeworld: Palaven."

"You wouldn't-" Nihlus began, but was interrupted.

"Species 5618: Human," the Queen continued. "Homeworld: Earth. Resistance quotient in current reality: non-existent."

The threat was clear - if they didn't bring her Saren, she'd assimilate their homeworlds. "Alright, fine," Shepard replied, bile rising in her throat from having to do this. "Still, how are we supposed to deliver Saren to you?"

"You will forward his location to us," the Queen replied. "We cannot detect him at this time, as he is not on this world. I will send a vessel to acquire the being. You may do with the creature Sovereign as you wish."

So Saren wasn't here. Well, that wasn't the best of news, but it worked. "You said you would help us destroy this place," Shepard remarked.

"We will fire tricobalt warheads at the facility, destroying everything," the Queen replied. "All lifeforms will not be here when that happens."

"What the he-" the team was encased in green columns of light, and the queen was VERY tempted to assimilate them.

The temptation faded as quickly as it came: she had to focus on the assimilation of the Batarians first. Some would get away, but the rest were trapped inside Borg space.

"Gather what data you can," she said to her drones. "We will depart soon."

SSV Normandy

Everyone from the ground teams suddenly materialized on the Normandy. Joker looked back from the pilot's seat at Shepard. "Uh… why did you beam in like that?" he asked. "Aren't Starfleet transporters whitish-blue?"

"I'll explain later!" Shepard yelled. "Shepard to Raging Tempest, do you read?"

"I read you, Shepard!" Takeshi replied. "What's going on?"

"Cease fire," she said. "The borg are blowing the base. As for why… they want Saren. They threatened to assimilate Earth and Palaven to make us cooperate."

"They'll try sooner or later," Takeshi replied. "You KNOW that."

"Better later than sooner," Shepard replied. "We don't stand a chance against them right now. With the Federation, we stand a chance later on."

"Okay, point taken," Takeshi replied. "Let's not mention this to the Council, however - no clue how they'd react."

"We'll head back and tell the Council the borg blew up the base after you were forced to beam us out. Contact Captain Pinkerton: we're going to need to explain this to him, too."

USS Ra-Cailum

"Excuse me?" Ron asked. "You AGREED to give them Saren?"

"More like threatened," Shepard replied. "The Queen threatened to attack and assimilate Palaven and Earth, and you're both just two ships: you can't hold off an entire Borg armada."

Ron was reminded of Wolf 359. his grandparents were killed there, and his father was assimilated in 2373 by the Borg when they hijacked the Enterprise-E. And he was assimilated just 6 years prior, and only broken out during the attack on the Vega colony. "Commander, Takeshi, go back to the Citadel," he said. "Sonja's beginning construction of the gateway, and we'll be able to test it in less than a week."

"I thought you said it would take two," Takeshi replied.

"The Salarians have offered to help," Ron informed. "That's speeding things up. I'll send a shuttle through with our log entries and how we did this. After that… god help us all."

"Right," Shepard replied. "We'll see you at the Citadel, then."

"I have to stay here for now. But I'll keep my engines on hot standby. Just in case everything starts going to shit. Takeshi, no matter what, I want you at the Citadel. I've quantum dated that thing: it's millions of years old. The Protheans didn't build it."

"The Reapers," Takeshi replied. "It has to be. They created the Citadel, likely the Mass Relays, too - every civilization that rises relies on them, and the technology of those who came before, and are easy pickings for the Reapers!"

"Sovereign - the Reaper - did mention a 'cycle'," Shepard informed.

"Cycles break, and we're breaking this one," Ron said. "Shepard, as of this moment, I'm granting you a field commission to the rank of Commander. Welcome to the Federation Starfleet. It'll help get you free if the Council decides to stop you from leaving. Tell them you have our authorization. Also… Sovereign?"

"It's what the Reaper called itself," Shepard replied. "And thank you very much."

"I'll shoot you a catalogue of the various uniforms available to Starfleet Officers," Takeshi informed. "If you're going to need to throw your new status around, you'll likely need a visible symbol of that status."

"That's it, people," Ron said. "Good luck. All my hopes. Pinkerton out." The transmission ended, and Ron looked out the viewscreen to see their gateway, which was almost halfway complete. Building it was the easy part: that could take a day or two, depending. Getting it working… that was the hard part. Sonja was going to make it work: she was one of the people who helped set up the Federation network as a Lieutenant before getting posted to the Ra-Cailum. The issue was getting it right the first time. 'I have faith,' he thought. 'She'll do it.'

Citadel

The Raging Tempest and Normandy were docked at the Citadel again, and Takeshi, Shepard, Hitomi, and Nihlus stood before the Council. This time, though, Shepard had exchanged her armor for a similar uniform to Takeshi's, only with Commander's Rank Insignia.

They were all very surprised about the uniform. When asked about it, they said Ron gave her a commission, and that it won't affect her work with the Alliance or the Council.

"The Borg destroyed the base?" Tevos asked.

"They beamed in drones and assimilated the Krogan… things Saren was working on, but the Raging Tempest got us out of there before they could try to assimilate us," Shepard replied. "They couldn't hold off the cube AND protect the Normandy all at once."

"I see…" Sparatus remarked. "Well, against a foe like the Borg, even Starfleet has problems, from what I've seen of the footage - it just goes to show how powerful they are. It's good to know that the base was destroyed, at least, even if it was the Borg that did it."

"We were also able to access another beacon, and we've identified the ship that attacked Eden Prime," Shepard said. "I know you don't want to hear it, Councilors, but it's true. The ship isn't a ship. It's a Reaper calling itself Sovereign."

They sighed. "You are right," Tevos said. "We don't want to believe it, but given Starfleet's encounters with ancient sentient machines in the past, we have to admit that is a possibility - and apparently, you've just confirmed it."

"There's more," Takeshi informed. "Ron's quantum-dated the Citadel: this place is millions of years old, way too old to have been made by the Protheans."

"But… his crew never took anything from the station," Valern informed.

"Quantum dating uses scans of the object in question," Takeshi replied. "The oldest quantum particles inside the object give off its' age. Of course, there is an oddity about this type of scanning technology: anything that comes from the future has a negative number instead, no matter how old it is. For example, if we quantum dated you after you were sent back in time, you would have a negative number indicating how far you were sent back instead of your actual age."

Valern cupped his chin in thought as he began thinking of ways to use that sensor technology. "Commander, what about Saren?" he asked.

Shepard sighed. "He was never on Virmire," she replied. "He fled from the planet before we got there, or after the krogan hybrids took over."

Sparatus sighed. "Well, that isn't good," he said. "Do you know where he's going next?"

"No, but the beacon did plant more information in my mind," Shepard informed. "I'm going to be paying a visit to the Raging Tempest in order to put all of it in order and figure out where I'm going next. It might not be as expansive as the Ra-Cailum's sickbay, but they've still got some of the equipment to do the job."

The fact that a warship had THAT kind of medical equipment was rather unnerving. "…Very well," Tevos said. "Do what you must, Commander. after that, however, we want you to check a mysterious ship sighting near the Pangaea Expanse. We could not identify it. Perhaps you can. We will send the data to the Raging Tempest."

"Understood, Councilors," Shepard replied. "And thank you." The group all turned and left the Council Chambers.

USS Raging Tempest - sickbay

Sickbay was rather basic, being more of an infirmary than anything else, but they still had all of the equipment they needed to straighten up Shepard's new memories. A transparent aluminium half-dome with several small probes attached to it that was size of an adult human's head was the thing that was unnerving Shepard the most. "Uh… do I HAVE to put my head in that thing?" she asked.

"It's perfectly safe," Mogire asked. "A less-advanced version of that thing saved Admiral Riker's life back in 2365, and that only stimulated memories while unconscious. This one allows you to actively access them while you're awake and even awakens repressed memories!"

Hitomi took one of Shepard's hands in hers. "I'll be right here beside you the whole time, Nicole," she said.

"Let's get this done. The less time I spend near that thing, the better," Shepard said, laying down on the biobed as the device in question was placed over her head.

"Just relax," Mogire instructed.

A probe punched through the skin and skull, much to Shepard's discomfort. "Ow!"

"I'm placing things where they usually aren't supposed to go," Mogire informed. "Of COURSE it's going to hurt." Several more neural probes and more complaints from shepard later, the process was complete. "Ok, activating neutral interface." The pattern appeared on a monitor, mostly as an EKG-type reading. "Good lord, this is a mess. I'm going to start jump starting the process of reorganizing the memories, but it's not going to be pretty."

"What do you mean by that?" Hitomi asked, worried for her lover.

"Think of it like this," Mogire said. "Any memory she has, pleasant or otherwise, conscious or not, is going to be experienced in the span of fifteen minutes. I'm starting to wish this was a bigger ship: I'd have a more expansive sickbay and this wouldn't be as crude." She pressed several buttons, and Shepard winced and flinched several times. "Humans say your life flashes before your eyes before you die. Well, Shepard's experiencing the flashing without the dying. In a few minutes, though, she's going to WISH she was dead."

USS Raging Tempest - bridge

While Shepard was undergoing what was jokingly called shock therapy, Takeshi and Linda were sifting through the sensor readings the Council sent them.

"This might be a fool's errand," Linda said. "We might have a large database, but we don't have every ship in this universe listed."

Takeshi shrugged. "Better to try and fail than not try at-"

The computer beeped before he could finish. "Match found," it said. "Cross referencing with known starship classification." The ship class in question was type-matched seconds later. The image was enough for a bit of nightmare fuel.

"No way that's supposed to be in this universe," Linda said.

"Yeah," Takeshi replied. "That's a Scimitar-Class Warbird if I've ever seen one - what would it be doing in this universe, though."

"We'll need to find out, but we can't go," Linda reminded. "Ron ordered us to stay here and protect the Citadel."

"We'll inform him about it and he can go check it out," Takeshi decided. "Rina, open a channel to the Ra-Cailum."

"On it," Rina replied, as she set up the channel.

Ron appeared on the screen, missing his jacket and wearing the vest used in lieu of it. "Take?" he asked. "What the hell's going on? I was in the middle of a meeting with a Turian general."

"We've got an unusual situation we need you to check out," Takeshi informed. "The Council wanted us to check a 'Mysterious Ship Sighting' in the Pangaea Expanse. We went over the data, and know why it was 'Mysterious'." He paused a moment. "Ron, it's a Scimitar-Class Warbird."

"…Fuck me with a parsec-long pole," Ron said after a moment. "We'll check it out: the Ra-Cailum's got twice the armament of the Enterprise-E back then, so we can hold it off if that thing's Tal Shiar. If it's Romulan Republic… well, that changes matters."

"Gotcha," Takeshi replied. "We'll inform the Council. Also, Shepard's in the process of getting the Vision decrypted in our sickbay, right now - once that's done, she'll know precisely what it's telling her, and where they'll need to go to find that 'Conduit' thing - and Saren."

"Remind me to talk to the boys at the UPIDB about upgrading the sickbays on the Defiant-type," Ron said. "She is going to be PISSED when she gets up. Pinkerton out." The transmission ended, and the view of the Citadel returned to the screen.

"He is right, you know," Linda remarked. "Luckily, she'll have an outlet - Saren, the Geth, and Sovereign."

"True," Takeshi replied. He then tapped his combadge. "Takeshi to Sickbay. How's Shepard doing?"

"Pissed off," Mogire replied. "We have a location, though: Shepard's using the computer to calculate the position now. She'll send the intel to the Normandy when she's done."

"Understood," Takeshi replied. "Linda, I want you on that team. Take one of the Titanoboas Ron made for us onto the Normandy: two tanks are better than one."

"Right," Linda replied. "See you later, Takeshi." She gave him a quick kiss, then left the bridge.

USS Ra-Cailum - edge of Pangaea Expanse

The Sovereign-Class starship arrived only a few hours later by virtue of the mass relays, at yellow alert. "Slow to impulse," Ron ordered. "Start scanning for that dreadnought warbird."

"Scanning," Corpsa said. There was silence for a few moments, then… "I've found it, and I'm detecting another ship nearby."

"Romulan?" Ron asked.

"No," Corpsa replied, blinking. "It's something that's incredibly old, possibly 200 years or maybe older, but it's been patched and repaired so much that I doubt there's much original material."

"Scan for lifesigns," Ron ordered.

"Over 500," Corpsa replied. "Captain, according to this, they're Quarian."

"Quarian? Tali's people?" Ron asked.

"Yes, sir," Corpsa replied. "They must've discovered the ship."

Ron shook his head. "We cannot let the Quarians get their hands on that Scimitar," he said. "Scan that warbird and open a channel to the Quarian ship."

T'Var looked at the captain. "Sir, the vessel is a Scimitar-Class warbird, but far older than most of them," she said.

"You're sure?" Ron asked.

"Yes, Captain." The Vulcan science officer pulled up the scans on a screen. "The ship has also taken a large amount of damage. The weapons signatures appear to match that of a Starfleet Sovereign-Class starship."

"How the hell is that possible?" Ron asked.

"I am also picking up traces of thalaron radiation and a faint IFF beacon," T'Var said. "This isn't just a Scimitar, Captain… it's the Scimitar."

Shock could not begin to describe Ron's reaction. "Shinzon's warbird," he said. The ship that nearly killed Earth. The ship that cost Starfleet one of its' finest officers. "Scan for positronic signatures!"

"Captain?" T'Var asked. "If the Scimitar survived, so did Data's original body! We can figure out how this thing got here later!"

"Captain, I have the Quarian ship on the line," Corpsa replied. Ron sat back in his chair, composing himself. "On screen."

The image of another Quarian appeared on the screen. "This is Admiral Zaal'Koris vas Qwib-Qwib. You must be the Captain Pinkerton of the Ra-Cailum that has the whole galaxy getting turned on its head."

Ron was tempted to make a comment about his name, but he would be the bigger man. "I am," he said. "Admiral, with respect, I'm going to have to ask you to hand over that warbird: the Prime Directive applies even to the Quarians."

"I'm sorry, Captain, but we need this ship," the Admiral replied. "Our people need this ship."

Ron sighed. "I wish I could let you have it," he said. "I really do. But it seems I need to take it from you. Please, don't take this seriously: I'm just trying to protect you from yourselves."

"I understand, Captain," the Admiral replied, "but I cannot back down. Zaal'Koris out."

The screen showed the Quarian ship alongside the Scimitar. "Status on the Scimitar?" Ron asked.

"I'm reading some patchwork over the battle damage, and even an Eezo core," T'Var replied. "Looks like the Quarians have already been here a while."

"Damn it," Ron growled. "That means they probably repaired the weapons systems and the cloaking device. The Quarian ship isn't a threat: all weapons to full power and target the Scimitar!"

Even if the ship was a dreadnought warbird, it was 30 years behind the times. The Ra-Cailum was more than a match for the first ship of her class. The warbird banked, albeit sluggishly, and fired her disruptors at the Ra-Cailum.

"Shields down to 89%" Corpsa reported after the ship shuddered from the hit.

"Return fire," Ron ordered. "All phasers; stand by quantum torpedoes."

"Sir?" Corpsa asked.

"The Scimitar's cloaking shields were disrupted by the Enterprise-E using quantum torpedoes on it," Ron informed. "Until it cloaks, fire all photon torpedo launchers, rapid fire mode."

The Ra-Cailum's more up-to-date weapons fired on the old warbird, which began to run before engaging the cloaking device.

"Damn it!" Corpsa yelled.

"Reset phasers to one one-hundredth of a percent power and fire in a 360 degree arc," Ron ordered. "We're going to have to do this the hard way."

The phaser arrays fired in all directions, striking both the Quarian ship (which took no damage) and the Scimitar's shields.

"Got you," Ron said. "Continue firing in that general area; stand by to fire quantum torpedoes."

Former Reman Warbird Scimitar

"Shields are down to 50%!" One Quarian reported. "And that last attack allowed them to see our general location!"

"How did they-" Zaal'Koris began to ask before the ship rocked from another impact.

"The shields are down to 35%, and the cloaking field is unstable!" the first Quarian reported. "If they hit us again-"

Two more quantum torpedoes hit the Scimitar again, revealing the damaged warbird in all its' glory.

"The cloak is down!" came the report. "Shields are weakening!"

The Ra-Cailum continued her assault, damaging the aft shields as the ship ran away.

"The aft shields are almost gone!"

"Evasive maneuvers!" Zaal'Koris ordered. "Try and avoid their-"

The Scimitar rocked again, and several consoles sparked from the overloads they received.

"Aft shields are down!"

"Assault team to bridge," came a report from elsewhere on the ship. "The android is gone! They beamed it off!"

"Divert all power from the weapons into the shields!" Zaal'Koris ordered. "Warp us out of here NOW! Don't head directly back to the Fleet - go to a system with a Relay, then jump us to the Fleet from there! We need to make sure that he can't follow us there!"

The Scimitar jumped to warp, but Korris forgot the Ra-Cailum, too, had warp drive, and the Sovereign-Class ship followed him, firing photon torpedoes at the Scimitar the whole time.

"Admiral, we need to divert more power to the shields!" came the report.

"Take life support offline and switch to suit functions!" Zaal'Koris ordered. "We NEED this ship!"

The Scimitar dropped out of warp and entered the refuge system, heading for the mass relay. "Ra-Cailum to Scimitar," Ron called out over the comms. "Stand down, Admiral! I don't want to shoot at you, but I can't let you have that ship!"

"I can't do that!" Zaal'Koris replied. "With this ship, we might finally possess the power to retake our homeworld! We can't just give it up!"

"And I have to uphold the Prime Directive!" Ron replied. "I'm sorry, but I need to do this!" more torpedoes hit the Scimitar before it made contact with the mass relay and jumped out of system.

"My apologies, Captain," Zaal'Koris said, even though Ron couldn't hear him anymore, the transmission having cut when they hit the relay. "We do this for the good of the Fleet, so that we can finally reclaim our homeworld from the Geth."

USS Ra-Cailum

"FUCK!" Ron yelled as he slammed his hand on the armrest. "Open a channel to the Raging Tempest. Takeshi isn't going to like this."

A few moments later, Takeshi's image appeared. "What's up, Ron?" he asked. "Did you figure out who that Scimitar belonged to?"

"It wasn't A Scimitar," Ron replied. "It was THE Scimitar. Shinzon's warbird. It ended up here somehow."

Takeshi's eyes widened. "No way," he breathed. "That's crazy! It should have been destroyed by what Commander Data did to it at the Bassen Rift!"

"IFF and battle damage confirmed it," Ron said. "It was the Scimitar. The thalaron energy must've overloaded the singularity core and opened a brief hole between our universe and this one. I've even got proof."

"What?" Takeshi asked.

"Data's body. We beamed it off the Scimitar just before the bastards could re-raise their shields."

Takeshi sighed. "Someone else found it first, didn't they?" he asked.

"A Quarian ship found her and brought it back to operational status. We nearly destroyed it, but it escaped through a relay."

Takeshi facepalmed. "Well, we can pretty much screw the PD as far as the Quarians are concerned," he remarked. "No way will they want to give it back, and I doubt we'd be able to force them."

"The Romulan Republic will be," Ron said. "Anything the Star Empire had is their property. And a few D'Deridex-Class Warbirds with modern equipment are more than a match for the almighty Scimitar. Still, we'll deal with the Quarians later. We're heading back to Ilium. Tell Shepard that if she finds Sovereign… he's mine."

"Funny you should mention that," Takeshi replied. "Shepard and the Normandy took off an hour ago - she finally got that Vision deciphered. They think the Conduit's on this planet called Ilos, and it's possible Saren might already be there, so they're making best possible speed. Linda and one of the Titanoboas you gave us are with them."

"And there goes that problem," Ron remarked. "We'll head back to Illium. Pinkerton out."

SSV Normandy - en route to Ilos

the Normandy exited FTL, flying past the Ra-Cailum, who had chased the Scimitar into the same system.

"Whoa, shit!" Joker yelled as the prototype stealth ship barely avoided the Ra-Cailum before the other ship used the relay to head back to Ilium.

"Well, looks like his search for that Scimitar took him out this way," Linda remarked. "Wonder how it went?"

"A bit of warning or a sorry would've been nice!" Joker snapped.

"Believe me, that was nowhere NEAR dangerous," Linda informed. "If we were 5 meters away, then there'd be a problem."

"Just get the Mako and the Titanoboa down there, Joker," Shepard ordered. "Show off those skills of yours." Joker scoffed before taking the Normandy down. "Hope you don't get sick."

As they headed down to the cargo bay, Linda said, "Likely will need to bring the full team in for this one. I'm assuming you and Hitomi will take the Mako? We'll need to split the rest between the Mako and the Titanoboas… or perhaps just the Titanoboas, given that I think they're terrified about how you drive, Shepard."

"Why do you say that?" Shepard asked. "I don't think I drive that bad."

"We'll compare you to some of the worst drivers in history later," Linda quipped. "Let's get down there."

Ron the True Fan: And we've pulled out the Scimitar. The ship exploded with almost no debris, so I used that as an excuse. I regret nothing!

Takeshi Yamato: And we're closing in on the ME1 Endgame! With Borg, Reapers, Geth, and two Federation Starships getting involved, it's going to be a lot more hectic and chaotic than in canon.

Ron the True Fan: Keep ready for the next chapter. First contact with the Federation isn't going to end so well for the Reapers!

Takeshi Yamato: Not to mention the Klingons will likely want a piece of the action, to say nothing of the Romulan Republic. Also… KROGAN VS. UNDINE! BATTLE OF THE MILLENIUM! PLACE YOUR BETS NOW!

Ron the True Fan: Until then...

Both: Ja Ne!