Fraught with Peril: A Halo Mass Effect Story

by A-01

John was born for war, and even in the wake of defeating the Didact, there will be no respite. Thrust into the Mass Effect Universe he must either find his place or find his way home as his presence brings new hope to Shepard and his campaign against the approaching Reaper armada.

10. Chapter 10

Man, I was so ready to write this chapter immediately after the last one, and I got the first two sections of it done within a couple of days. But of course, work does what work does and gets in the way of personal life and hobbies. On the bright side of my disrupted attempt of writing, it helped me actually work out a storyboard. So I know a fairly accurate path for my story to take now. Hope everyone likes it!

Please review your thoughts and enjoyment – please keep it constructive if you don't like something I've written. Readers and writers; we're all just folk after all.

Review responses:

TheDarkChronist: One thing that I always feel weird about in games compared to novels (novels for those same games and its franchise) is some of the different depictions of enemies and power and such. Of course, often that's so that plots can progress and the game itself can be playable, but even still. That's in reference to both the scope of the threat that the Guardians represent and the strategies and psychology of the UNSC.
So to start with; the Infinity was actually being built originally as a form of emergency colony/escape ship in the event of the UNSC collapsing so that Humanity could survive through the ship. That being the motive for its original canonical construction I felt that showed how ready to UNSC really was to abandon things if they really needed to, and that they wouldn't zealously fight to the last like the Covenant would. Of course, they did on multiple occasions try and try and continue to try to retake worlds and resources, but that was earlier in the war.
The Infinity did also witness a Guardian in action on Sangheilios and saw their capabilities causing widespread damage in simply awakening, and were given after action reports from Osiris about the Meridian Guardian, and in all likelihood would have been given more after action intel from Earth. So Lasky would have had a fairly good understanding of their offensive capability. And considering the speed of which they disabled both Earth and Sangheilios, the homeworlds of the Orion arms two more prominent species, I think even after their 30 year war that anyone in leadership would be considering how to preserve their species.
Of course, that's all creative supposition, and it my justification of moving my fic in this direction.
The story also tells of the fact that the Forerunner builders who essentially stumbled through the portal were unable to use it to transit back, and that they were only able to hold it static to that location. The portals will be an ongoing plot point, but the implication was that they are beyond the Forerunners capability, which by extension also means Cortana. Of course, Lasky not know that took a gamble in his decision, which is something he's known for in taking calculated gambles.
But again, that also does leave the implication that perhaps they can be understood and be reopened, in either direction… Like I said, an ongoing plot point.
As to your first point about the Chief in the first half of the story: Partly that was due to my being creatively separated and struggling to get my writing back in character again, but it was also meant to partly depict his psychology shifting as his options changed, and he adapted to those things.

Trife: What is said and what is done (no matter how convincingly it is said) in the ME universe are usually very different, which always bothered me. Like you said, the Council always felt like it was close to fracture, and the Turians were always verbalised and chronicalised as an almost radically military race, and yet in ME modern timeline are apparently all talk no action. So I felt like I made the talk from ME into action.
I'm not sure to what extent I'll have the other species allowed into the Shield World yet, since to get there they'd need to be given a ride with a UNSC ship…. I shall mull this over.
But the Forerunners will return in a sense, but not how you'd expect.
As to the Geth, yes, I was going to do that in this chapter, but work has kept me from writing much and this turned out bigger than I expected so I decided to cut out for the next chapter.
The more I write the more I'll depict the political and social turmoil of the Asari and their individual perspectives on their leaders.
Stuff about the Turian's will progress in this chapter, and expand in a very un-ME fashion in the next chapter.
Happy that you're enjoying it so much!

Emberframe: I too was of that thought originally. But doing a little research suggested it was a lot, lot, lot, less! I actually increased the amount from what various people have counted out and estimated from.

Artyom-Dreizehn: Someone pointed out to me that an AI revolution had been hinted at in Halo ever since H2, and going back, it certainly did follow on from that. I'll admit any day that I don't like the AI gone evil trope, but everything else around that has been done very well, so I withhold hope that it's not actually what it seems and it evolves into something much more.

Ferox Pretorius: Combat returns in this chapter! But there shan't be any Sangheili on Shepard's or Chief's teams, but there will be a Sangheili team announced in this chapter which will work with Shepard in the next chapter. I hope I've continued to have good characterization in this and that you keep on enjoying. : )

Doctor Dandy: Even though your review was to Chapter 2, as the last review added I'll reply here in the off chance you're following: ["Solitude, I need all of your recorded data?" Chief asked slowly as he resolved on his path forward.] The question is described as a question, and the manner in which he spoke it was described in a manner that would be contrary to a statement or order, as such it is correct being punctuated with a question mark. Just about any line that would typically be depicted as a statement could be structured as a question with proper –even simple- description, and the same the other way around.

Chapter Ten
.:: Fractures, Battlelines & Alliance ::.

February 18/2186 - Systems Alliance Earth Date

February 18/2559 – UNSC Synchronised Adoptive Date For Erda Colony

UNSC Controlled Forerunner Shield World – Erda, Charum Nebula

John could count on one hand the amount of times that he'd thought about a sensation feeling pleasant or nice in his entire lifetime, and this was one of them. He was free from his armour and even the gel layer, wearing standard UNSC fatigue pants and a grey t-shirt with the UNSC's logo emboldened on the chest.

The clothing was as always, a tight fit. The last time he'd worn clothing that had been an ideal fit had been on Reach before any of the Spartan II's had even touched or known about their armour when everything they touched or wore was made to purpose for each of them.

But John was happy to trade the slight displeasure of the pants that hugged his thighs a little too tightly and the t-shirt that was struggling with his chest and biceps for the pleasant feeling of the warm air breezing over his skin and the sunlight dappling through the netting above warming his back. He stood stone still beneath the net canopy looking over the picture perfect surreally green grassy plain to the outer edges of the small Forerunner city as teams of marines, Spartans, and civilian scientists marched in and out of it carrying all manner of equipment.

They were all acting directly under his orders now; after the Infinity had arrived within the shield world and Lasky had ordered them down, John had been on the first pelican to the ground. John was likewise the first man on the ground, Halsey, Buck and Tanaka right behind him with the Infinity's entire complement of pelicans and deployment bays being launched to establish a ground side presence.

Halsey had looked to John and insisted he be the one to name the world that would serve as the home for the UNSC branch of Humanity.

His memories had flared and the most fitting choice came to mind and visions of Forthencho's life and feelings showed him the world that Earth once was, so he'd chosen the earliest ancient Humanity' name for the world which had harboured and nurtured them, "Erda."

Over the next twenty days, they had set up a base of operations on the grassy plain bordering the small Forerunner city; designated Alpha Base. A typical UNSC looking series of structures had quickly been erected and were continuing to expand outward to make troop housing more comfortable and research capabilities greater.

After the shield worlds' central cartographer and control room had been found in the dead centre of the city every day had been another day of a methodical military and scientific exploration of the city, building by building, room by room; cataloguing, documenting, understanding and planning.

John had even discovered that the swarms of constructors that flew in massive clouds like insects could be controlled from the Forerunner control room, and then used to dismantle any of the structures and build brand new designs with the Forerunner alloys.

Several days after that, Stridents' One, Two, and Three had arrived, and a full briefing about the unexpected turn of events had been laid out. But rather than instantly jump into action as their instincts called for them to do, John, Lasky, Halsey and Palmer conferred and agreed that establishing a base of operations that would function both militaristically and societally was the most important task to undertake with any immediacy.

In that happening, John had found himself with very little to do. He could explore, like any number of thousands of personnel who were, but he couldn't be more useful that way than anyone else. There were no enemies to fight here, and he wasn't needed to be a leader, neither was anyone in the line of command; as all of the Infinity's crew were both very well trained in their tasks and disciplines and were equally diligent.

The culmination, for John, had been Halsey talking him into removing his armour a couple of days later for her to run maintenance and upgrade systems where she could.

"You better stay in the shade, might melt otherwise!"

The awkward joke which disrupted John's thoughts could only have come from the only other man present who was likewise de-suited and was in the process of somewhat uncomfortably laughing at his own joke from his lounging position in the lush grass.

"Get it? 'Coz you're so white?" Buck even more uncomfortably tried to explain with his smile very quickly turning into a cringe. "-Like snow…?"

"If Edward Buck could make Flipyap laugh then we'd be seeing a miracle in action, let alone the Chief," Vale snorted in mirth from her seated position in a fold-out canvas chair beside a deployable holographic table.

Unfortunately for Vale's accurate description of Buck's eternally poor sense of humour, the Unggoy in question was within hearing range. "Red lady call my name!" The high pitched squeaky voice of the hard-working -if simple-minded- creature shrieked as he halted his task digging up a square patch of earth a dozen meters back toward the primary encampment of deployed bases and came bounding toward them.

"Dammit, Vale!" Sarah groaned as she rolled forward from her casual and relaxed lounging position on her own canvas chair and let her forehead fall into her hands in frustration of the interruption to their rare chance to sit back and relax.

"Red lady! Did you say joke for Flipyap?" The Unggoy skidded to a halt at the very edge of the sheltered area with his bottom jaw lolling up and down in exertion from running from his task, and his strange facial features managing to show excitement at being spoken to by the group of highly ranked Spartans.

"Flipyap!" Vale ground out his name, hating the small part of her mind that felt mirth at pronouncing the typically silly sounding Unggoy title, "Stop calling me Red Lady! What is my name?"

The lolling excitement on the diminutive creatures face started to wash away as he realised he'd not been intentionally called, and he scuffed his clawed feet onto the grass and looked down dejectedly, "Sword Team Spartan Olympia Vale," He answered with all of his former enthusiasm washed away.

Vale sighed in exasperation and again found herself hating the small part of her that thought the Unggoy's simplistic behaviour and characteristics as an individual cute. "Thank you, Flipyap. Now I would strongly advise you get back to taking soil samples otherwise Commander Mahkee will be very displeased."

Flipyap's head shot up and his eyes went wide in fear, and he instantly spun on his feet and stampeded back to the job he'd abandoned, retrieved his pick, and started hacking away at the ground with gusto.

"Since everyone's awake again."

Buck barked in laughter and wiped mirthful tears from his eyes as John coyly declared his desire to talk shop.

Both of the Spartan women didn't share in Buck's mirth and shot him a glare each, before wiping the displeased expressions from their faces and assuming calm all business ones as they looked to the man who had taken the liberty of assigning them to him as Sword Team.

"I am also awake, Master Chief – Commander," Legion reminded every one of his presence as he stood back to his full height from his folded away posture he'd taken to assuming when he wasn't directly spoken to by the organics.

John gave the Geth a nod and wiped some of the accumulated dust off the surface of the holo-table with his forearm. The display lit up, and he selected the mapping function icon, quickly followed by selecting a galactic view. A galaxy map the size of a large saucer rose from the table and regions lit up in different colours.

John's hand delved into it, and he rotated the orientation to his liking before stopping and circling one area followed by another. The simple AI installed in the table lit up the two suggested areas, "So it looks like the Citadel Council is about to break down and be disbanded, and you were saying that there's a lot of tension between the Asari and the Turians?" John asked, looking up and meeting Vale's eyes.

She quickly nodded, but Legion answered before she could, "We have also picked up on some long-range transmissions that suggest Turian forces are raiding ships in Citadel space for supplies and weaponry."

"So there's war boiling on that border-" John paused and looked into Palmer's eyes next.

The former Spartan Commander, whose role had been given to Holly Tanaka under the suggestion of the Chief, pushed down the unwanted and unprofessional pale pink shading on her cheeks that had been making a habit of creeping onto her features the more she got to know the Master Chief as an individual.

"Sarah, what do you think can be done to hold that war off until the Reapers arrive?"

John, having said her name made the fine blush harder to push down, she and Vale were still getting used to him using their first names on his own insistence, and she knew that it was likely because of his being raised with Spartans who only had first names. Funnily for Edward Buck, when John had first called him Edward and the former ODST had made a wry joke about it, John almost instantly switched back to calling him Buck and said it was more efficient to pronounce.

Sarah wanted to laugh at the semi-recent memory, and she and Vale had both spared a short laugh about how much Edward –or Ed- didn't suit him and how much Buck did.

"From the kind of culture that I could pick up on from their Councillor, the Turians like to be prepared to the fullest before starting anything. I think if we somehow manage to push that preparation along a bit longer, then they'll hold off picking a fight," Sarah finally answered, having conquered the minor blush which could have passed for feeling hot in reaction to the exceedingly comfortable air temp.

John nodded and spun the map again, highlighting a new section before looking up to Legion, "And you and Tali both said that there's the possibility of peace for your people?"

"Yes, Master Chief – Commander, Geth have always been open to peace with the Creators. Your AI, Roland, also said that he can help the Geth become more individual amongst units. The consensus we've built says that such an outcome would help Creators and all organics trust Geth more," Legion, as usual, answered descriptively and clearly.

John let a small smile tweak his lips at the machine beings clarity and nodded. He retrieved a datapad from his right hip pocket and typed in Legion's advisement, then once more turning the galaxy map, "And the Batarians?"

He looked around the small group, and they all shrugged, making John realise that he was likely the only non-native Human to have met a Batarian.

"From things I heard about them on the Citadel-" Olympia began with pursed lips in thought.

John met her eyes, "Olympia?" He asked, saying her name, like he was with Sarah, more to help himself familiarise with them, as to them with him.

"Well they aren't well liked by any of the races," Olympia started with a small frown. "Not one little bit really. If something bad were to happen to them and the galaxy knew about it, I think the only reason any other species would 'condemn' it," She expressed with her fingers held up in quotation, "Would be because of political correctness."

"And the Terminus Systems?" John asked toward Legion this time.

"Master Chief – Commander, you experienced Omega," Legion started with his neck tilting to the right in an intentional expression of not being sure how to continue on the open-ended question. Seeing that the commanding figure wasn't going to refine the question, Legion started again, "The Terminus systems are run by a collection of criminal organisations which all serve Aria T'loak if she demands it. Terminus criminals often raid the Attican Traverse too."

John reached up to his chin with his right hand and pulled at the skin which had started towards becoming the same tone as the other Spartans in the daily light of the artificial sun which illuminated the landscape. He nodded at the information, looking from Legion to Sarah, "So no one will notice –or care- if any criminals' ships go missing?"

Sarah's brow furrowed in curiosity and looked to Olympia to see a similar expression, whereas Buck wore more of a grimace. "That'd be a good idea, Chief," He conceded to the implied strategy, despite clearly not liking it.

"What'd be a good idea? Smashing Cerberus?" Grunts boisterously loud enthusiasm called from beyond the patch of earth Flipyap was still throwing himself into with surprising dexterity.

The Spartans all shifted their posture to regard the approaching Grunt and Garrus, John was always surprised by the Krogans hearing given the strange structure of his head and ear holes. As the two approached John took a few moments to let his eyes settle on the Turian, mentally recalling everything he knew about the upstanding former Normandy squad mate and how he might react to the UNSC's gearing toward the Turians.

"Trading weapons and ships to the Turian Hierarchy to keep them from attacking the Asari right away," John bluntly answered as the two reached the edge of the tent.

"Heh heh heh, not your weapons, I bet," Grunt laughed deep in his chest and winked at John, who even without his armour still stood a head taller than the Krogan.

Garrus, on the other hand, grimaced at the man he'd elected to follow so openly raise the topic of the Turian Hierarchy's aggression. "Chief," He looked at the ground before looking back up into John's face as he tried to hide the vulnerable edge in his eyes. "The UNSC won't attack the Hierarchy, will they?"

John could perfectly understand the alien man's vulnerability -he was knowledgeable in Garrus's past, thanks to Shepard and the Turian's own openness toward explaining his motivations. Garrus had spent the majority of his life trying to not be a typical Turian, and more often than not looked down on the decisions made by his people, but the love for his own kind had never been threatened by alliances turning into battlefronts and friends into enemies.

"No, we're trying to think of strategies to prevent there being a war," John answered with a firm nod. It wasn't the full truth, but it was close enough as far as he was concerned.

John, Lasky, and Halsey had conferred over the UNSC's position within this new galactic structure, and their primary concern was to protect the UNSC and their own future. As the small council that the three had become for their people, they had decided that whilst a purely diplomatic solution to the Turian Hierarchy was possible, that it would demand more time and resources than they were willing to expend, considering the imminent arrival of the Reaper Armada.

John was the first to express the idea of trading under the table with them to help them build up their military even further which had resulted in a scowl from the Captain and an uncomfortable frown from Halsey. He couldn't blame either reaction, Thomas Lasky was a good man who never gelled with the ONI orders that had often been filtered through his ship, and Halsey had made effort after effort to leave the morally grey choices from her past in her past.

And John was of the same mind as each of them, but as he was starting to see the UNSC as his people, he was starting to look to strategies beyond his standard see the enemy and neutralise approach.

His focus came back to Garrus who only looked slightly relieved. Their eyes met, and Garrus smiled slightly, "I knew I could trust you being in charge, Chief. Anyone else would want to attack the Hierarchy for what we've been hearing."

"You've fought with Shepard for a long time, Garrus. We know who the real enemies are," John nodded resolutely in stark contrast to the reality of the deteriorating state of galactic affairs.

Garrus nodded again, and John and the rest of the Spartans could tell it was more to affirm himself than them, "Actually, Chief, I was hoping to find out if any of your ships would be leaving soon? I wanted to get back to the Citadel and help C-Sec with any possible trouble."

"Are you wanting to get back to Palavan?" Sarah asked bluntly, her eyes somewhat narrowed and a shrewd expression on her face.

John had quickly been learning, especially in the presence of Sangheili, that Sarah wasn't trusting of aliens. He couldn't exactly blame her, and he'd seen Lasky cringe at her borderline hostility toward their allied Sangheili crew but refrain from reprimanding her.

But she had very quickly adjusted to the presence of Mordin, Legion, and the Unggoy; all of which expressed open willingness to communicate and show a peaceful front, as opposed to the stronger more aggressively natured species.

"I would like to speak with my father, yes," Garrus agreed with a nod, his confidence returning and covering the vulnerability in his eyes, "But I know which side is in the right. And I know who the real enemies are," He finished with a nod to John.

"I wanna get back to Tuchunka as well," Grunt rumbled in support for Garrus's track. "Urdnot Wrex would probably like a word with you too."

John knew the name; he'd read up about the former Normandy crew member turned clan head, and the state of Tuchunka, along with their history. He couldn't help but culturally compare the position of Wrex as Tuchunka's dominant clan had to Thel's role as the Arbiter for the Sangheili.

"Captain Lasky will be heading to Surkesh with the Infinity at eighteen hundred hours," John answered before looking to his small team, and Legion who'd only expressed loyalty to him over that of the crew he was formerly a part of. "And I'll be taking Strident One to Earth at nineteen hundred hours."

The group stopped, and all looked skyward as several swarms of Constructors zipped by directly overhead and combined into an even larger group before spiralling up like a backwards tornado toward the Infinity. John frowned at the unusual behaviour and quickly reached for the holotable controls, keying the communications unit, "Roland, four swarms of Constructors just-"

"-Nothing to worry 'bout Chief," The AI's yellow avatar sprung up onto the table top next to the still active Milky Way map. He spread his arms and smiled smugly, "Halsey's in the control room, she just got me full access to everything in here. Guess who the Constructors play for now?"

The group went silent at the surprising step forward before a small smile claimed John's face and he nodded to the AI in approval, "Can they build anything you upload?"

Roland simply nodded with his virtual smirk turning into a grin. It was answer enough for John to decide to make at least a semblance of a move to keep that information sensitive from Garrus and Grunt. While he looked at them and saw allies, he also saw representatives of a race who might one day contest the UNSC.

"You can ride with us to Earth and make your way from there. I'm going to make sure Shepard is out of lockdown to begin mobilisation for the Reapers."

"Thank you, Chief," Garrus straightened his posture and nodded more formerly in a show of authoritative respect.

Grunts broad lips split over his large teeth, "Yeah, thanks. Gonna have good friends in the Krogan."

The broad-shouldered towering Spartan gave them a curt nod and looked back to the former Spartan Commander, "Sarah, can you get the terraforming modules recovered from Reach loaded onto Strident One?"

"Of course, Chief," Sarah answered in her all business tone. She reached skyward in a stretch, straightened her muscle shirt, and marched toward Alpha Base after Garrus and Grunt, who were making their way at a much more casual pace.

"My job, Chief?" Buck asked, likewise watching Sarah go and withholding the chuckle that he clearly wanted to release as Flipyap noticed Sarah passing by and promptly halting his work to chase after her. "Gotta say, for how dumb the little bastards can be they sure work hard and get a lot done."

John and Olympia both smirked before the taller of the two tore his eyes away from the departing scene of Sarah doing her best to ignore the Unggoy that was reaching for her in a vain attempt to be given the attention it desired for its excuses not to work.

"Buck, make sure Strident One is fully loaded, I want each Shiva tube to be loaded too."

Buck threw a lazy salute and jogged off a slightly different direction to Sarah to avoid the dejected Unggoy that was just now beginning to return to his menial job. John turned his gaze to the final remaining Spartan besides himself, "Olympia, I want you to go find Mahkee for me."

"Got it, Chief, where do I send her when I find her?"

"I'll be in the control room," John looked toward the small Forerunner city, more like a highly advanced township than a full-fledged sprawling city of the proportions that he was accustomed to seeing.

"Aye, aye," Olympia casually saluted and followed in Buck's tracks, seeing that he'd disappeared somewhere toward Alpha Base without interruption from Flipyap.

"Follow me, Legion," John ordered as he stepped from under the shady cover of the awning and made a casual pace toward where he knew Halsey to be.

X

John wasn't surprised by any of the information that Halsey greeted him with about the functionality of the Shield World. He'd experienced the typical functions of a number of Forerunner installations a multitude of times, and his augmented memory partly filled with Forthencho's accumulated knowledge and partly filled with information that the Librarian had seen it fit to gift him with, he had predicted everything that Halsey was confirming.

"Their knowledge of Slip Space was astounding!" Halsey cooed in amazement once more as she followed after his shadow out of the typical Forerunner design control room and into the dimming early evening light, unable to avert her eyes from her datapad feeding her readings on all of the information within the Forerunner system that her touch and genetic designation had unlocked.

John knew exactly how astounding Forerunner achievement was, both on paper and in the material world, but it was the sight of the dimming landscape that spoke to a more primal part of him and made him peer up at the artificial star to see the crescent shadow which simulated sunset slowly sliding across it.

Sensing him having stopped at the cathedral entranceway of the control room, Halsey stepped up next to him and matched his posture and gaze. "Electromagnetically controlled plasma fluctuations within the core of the sun," She explained as the light grew dimmer yet again around them without the air growing colder; something they could thank Roland for.

Their first three nights within the Shield World had been dangerously cold until Roland had directed John in how to adjust the climate patterns from the control room. The local native animals all seemed to be just as pleased by the change as the new Human inhabitants as the evening air began to fill up with the musical calls of nocturnal birds and baritone warbles of the animals out on their nightly hunt for smaller prey.

"Master Chief?"

The throaty calling of his rank carried John's eyes from the sky and the lights of the Infinity and her Stridents' now visible just out beyond the cities edge situated above Alpha Base to the approaching female Sangheili. "Mahkee," He greeted and stepped forward with an outreached hand.

Her own hand bypassed his and grasped his forearm, he replicated the action and squeezed for a moment until she released and stepped back, giving a respectful nod to Halsey as she did. "Spartan Vale said that you asked of me?"

"Yes," He agreed and clenched his jaw to force down his unease at the thought that he was about to bring to fruition. "You… Your people said that they would follow my orders-"

"-Arbiter spoke highly of you, the Demon warrior who helped free us from the Prophets. We've pledged our strength to you, Master Chief."

John pursed his lips for a moment before meeting the Sangheili woman's emerald eyes, "I have a mission for you and a crew on a Lich."

February 19 – Sur'kesh.

"Captain Lasky, quite a ship you've got there!"

Lasky gave a professional smile to the vidcom depiction of Admiral Steven Hacket. The Alliance Admirals own dreadnought was located a mere five kilometres away in high orbit of the Salarian homeworld and had been treated to seeing the UNSC's flagship emerging from slip space.

"Indeed she is, Admiral," Lasky agreed, his smile becoming something of a cringe as his mouth moved faster than his brain, "So is yours."

To Hackett's credit, he simply chuckled with a wry grin, "It's okay Captain, you don't need to try and play nice. I've been forwarded intel on your three Frigates, no need to throw around niceties because you've got bigger ships than ours."

Lasky let a half smile claim his features, "Of course, Admiral Hackett. Will you be attending ground side? Or should I expect a diplomatic envoy?"

"Yes, I'll be seeing you ground side, I just wanted to introduce myself first." Hackett answered with a thin-lipped smile, "The Asari and Salarian representatives are waiting for us."

Lasky took the hint and passed a small wave to the officer manning the communications station. The feed cut and Lasky made a beeline out of the deck, the patiently waiting Mordin and Tanaka falling into step behind him as he followed the typical route to the command hanger.

Before long the three reached the small three pelican hanger and boarded the closest one. Lasky took the starboard seat closest to the cockpit, and Mordin positioned himself across from the UNSC Captain, Tanaka bypassing both of them and taking the cockpit for herself.

A moment later her voice sounded from the hangers speakers, "Hold tight, gonna make a quick descent."

Lasky quickly reached for the synthetic belt above his right shoulder and dragged it down across his body until it met the clasp at his left hip. Mordin parroted the action and smiled in what Lasky thought must have been a pleasant expression.

The troop bay jolted and the pair felt inertia tug at them as they lifted off and shot from the hanger.

"Very exciting times!" Mordin grinned across at Lasky.

Lasky quickly adopted something between a quizzical and a grave expression to the Salarian with his brow furrowed in curiosity.

Quickly sensing the unease from Lasky from the contradictory way of viewing the current happenings, Mordin forced his grin down into a blank professional expression, "Dire too, of course!"

Lasky scoffed quietly to himself and nodded to Mordin, "I know the feeling."

Mordin nodded enthusiastically with his smile returning as the Pelican bucked, "Atmosphere." Tanaka's voice came in over the speakers again.

Lasky looked from the cockpit door back to Mordin, seeing his eyes following the contours of the troop bay in curious inspection, "You're not worried about my people being more advanced than yours?"

"Worried?" Mordin's eyes snapped onto Lasky's at the line of questioning. "Not at all! Very exciting and interesting! Could not have dreamed that meeting the Master Chief aboard the Normandy would lead to this…" He trailed in thought with his eyes drifted to the ceiling, "…This – Change of the galaxy from the influence of one man, this change of power from his people simply being here; new information and knowledge to be learnt!"

"Hmmm," Lasky hummed to himself in thought, focusing his mind on all of the information feed to him from the Master Chief, Sarah and Vale about their encounters with Salarians and their culture.

"-Touching down," Tanaka spoke again, cutting off Lasky's lead into his next line of curiosity as the ship jolted slightly and the troop bay opened to four armed Salarians suited from head to toe in white armour.

Lasky quickly assessed the scenery behind them in the event of needing to make a fast getaway; both he and Mordin stood from the seats, and Tanaka emerged from the cockpit behind them as they strode down the ramp onto the white metal landing pad.

Stepping from the confines of the ship granted the three the view of the landing pad -which stretched around them- and the other group of four armed Salarians to their right greeting Admiral Hackett with two Alliance soldiers flanking him emerging from a Kodiak shuttle. Catching his eye, Hackett made a small wave to Lasky and strode his way, stepping around the rear landing leg of the Pelican and stretching out a hand in greeting.

Lasky shook it firmly, his lips turning up in a professional smile. "Good to meet you face to face, Admiral."

"Got no idea how good, Captain Lasky-"

"-I assume that means you've looked over the data we supplied regarding the Reapers?" Lasky interrupted.

Hackett's expression turned slightly ashen at the words, "That's part of it, quite a few people in the Alliance have believed Shepard about the Reapers for a long time, we've been doing our best to prepare." He paused and glanced to the fully armoured Tanaka. "But what you represent is incredible. Your people can be an example for everything the Alliance can become."

"Sir's," One of the Salarians interrupted, drawing the eyes of the group onto him. "The Dalatrass has requested that the meeting take place as soon as possible, this way, please."

Lasky half smiled at the order that was diplomatically structured to sound like a request as the eight Salarians assembled around his' and Hackett's group and began moving. Naturally, they all started to move along with the group across the walkway toward the dome structured it was attached to.

He had gone over Sarah's and Vale's helmet cam footage from their expedition to the Citadel and discussion with the Council, and he couldn't have approved more of how Sarah had conducted herself and represented the UNSC to them. He looked to the back of the lead Salarian and felt a small spike of defiance, wanting in some way to prevent the proceedings happening on their terms for the sheer point of this alliance they were here to forge being built of mutual agreement.

Lasky quickly suppressed any feeling of rebellion and defiance and caught Hackett assessing him. The aged Admiral pressed his lips together in a wry smile, "If you don't mind my asking, Captain?"

Lasky met Hackett's eyes and gave a small nod to continue before looking ahead again as they left the walkway and passed into a foyer where more armed Salarians were assembled.

"You appear to be young for a Captain of such a massive ship?"

The UNSC Captain didn't break his gaze from the groups of armed Salarians as they passed through into the amphitheatre room beyond where he immediately saw the group of Salarians dressed in robes rather than armour and two regularly clothed Asari ahead of their own security.

"That'll have to be a story for another time, Admiral. The UNSC was short of good officers," Lasky answered just as the other species representatives made eye contact with him. "Captain Thomas Lasky of the UNSC Infinity," He announced himself to the four aliens who were clearly the diplomats.

Hackett gave Lasky a thin-lipped smile before likewise announcing himself, "Admiral Steven Hackett, Systems Alliance."

"Dalatrass Linron, Salarian Union," The Salarian in her hood spoke in what was clearly the Salarian version of a feminine voice.

"Matriarch Lidanya, Captain of the Destiny Ascension and Spokesperson of the Asari Republic," A typically beautiful and female Asari in a form-fitting black bodysuit announced, nodding to the blue woman to her left in a similar suit, "And former Councillor Tevos."

"Former? You Asari have suddenly become very hasty in rushing into things!" The Dalatrass claimed loudly at the two Asari.

"-Here we go…"

Lasky glanced to Hackett as he mumbled under his breath and from everything he'd been told by the Master Chief and Palmer, the diplomatic structure between species lacked any real concrete structure. He took a small symbolic step forward and raised his palms.

"Representatives, my people are keen to be able to begin rebuilding their lives, but to do what we must defeat the common enemy, and swiftly deal with the galaxy's issues at hand. Can we please do as much without cultural insults or conflict?"

"Captain Lasky is right," Lidanya quickly agreed and met the Dalatrass's eyes. "The reports are absolutely true; Turian vessels have been raiding any non-Turian civilian vessel in Council Space, stealing weaponry, resources, and even the ship itself in some cases! The few times our ships intercepted one of these raids the Turian's fired their flak rounds in warning shots, to hell with them! We have-"

Tevos placed a calming hand on Lidanya's shoulder, "We understand the issue, Matriarch Lidanya, but we mustn't make matters worse." Her eyes found Hackett's then Linron's, "But it is safe to assume that the days of the Citadel Council are over. Even Valern is here, and I assume that Anderson has likewise been recalled to Earth?"

"He has," Hackett agreed, "And Shepard's detention has been lifted in light of the evidence about the Reapers, we now consider his actions to be a tragic but necessary collateral damage."

"We are also of that agreement," The identified Valern spoke up from behind Linron.

"Who cares about a small colony of those savages anyway," Linron bitterly jabbed. "All those filthy Batarians have brought to the galaxy is terrorists and criminals."

"Dalatrass," Lidanya called in a soft tone, catching the Salarians eyes. "We must stay on task on this matter; the Reapers, and how to handle the situation with Council Space."

"Anderson informed me that just before he left that there was a general call for Turian's to depart the Citadel and return to Palevan and that a lot did," Hackett answered the point grimly.

"So it's clear that the Hierarchy also assumes that the Council is about to fall apart," Linron ground while shaking her hooded head.

"What's worse, they are calling for their people to return to their homeworld. That's as bad as stating an expectation of war," Lidanya added with a grim expression and downcast eyes. "Who'd have thought it would come to this?"

Lasky glanced from the Asari to the Salarians then to Hackett and frowned at the lack of input. He shook his head at the lack of strong leadership and grimaced for a moment before taking another small step forward, placing himself in the middle of them all. "Spartan Palmer told me that she gave your Councillors a brief description of the UNSC's history with the Covenant?"

He looked at each of them and caught the affirmative in their faces before continuing, "I mean no disrespect, but this issue must be dealt with swiftly and without casualties in the face of the threat of the Reapers, who we consider a Covenant level threat. The Master Chief-"

"-Your ultimate Warrior?" Linron grimaced, only for Valern to gently nudge her.

"Dalatrass, the context of my description about the Master Chief was lacking. He is an upstanding individual, I spoke too much of what seemed to be his win at any cost mentality," Valern explained with a frown.

Lasky gave both of them a blank expression, catching the look the two Salarians halted and gave a slight nod each for him to go on. "The Master Chief has a plan for keeping the peace with the Turian Hierarchy. It's not a perfect solution, but it will stop any fighting until the Reapers arrive, so you don't need to waste any forces against them."

"And what is your ultimate warrior's plan, Captain?" Linron asked with a barely suppressed sneer.

Lasky wasn't surprised by the Salarian leader's reaction, given what he knew of them as a culture and how the UNSC and the Master Chief had imposed themselves as superior in many fields almost instantly upon their arrival.

"Dalatrass Linron," Tevos called the attention to herself, "Are some things not better left unsaid?"

Linron grit her teeth and looked to Valern's head bobbing in agreement to the expectant face of the UNSC Captain who'd placed himself between them all.

"Many things which our people have done, have been done secretly, Dalatrass," Mordin called from next to Hackett with a smirk, "And thanks to Councilor Tevos, we all know the secrets that the Asari kept, is it not the time to reveal our secrets? Or for us to work together?"

Lasky nodded and spoke before Linron could voice her displeasure about being affronted by one of her own, "Dalatrass, I propose an interspecies alliance between all of us here, and the Krogan too if they agree." He halted and read the blank faces around him, "Absolute military cooperation between everyone."

"You propose a lot, Captain Lasky," Linron spoke up after a minute of silence.

"No, Dalatrass, he proposes that we survive." Lidanya frowned at the Salarian, "The Asari Republic agrees to any terms proposed. Our borders are open to UNSC, Alliance, and Salarian vessels, and we are ready to commit absolute military and economic cooperation."

"Dalatrass, we are being given an opportunity to survive here. Your pride will kill us all if you say no," Mordin grimaced as he spoke toward Linron from beside Hackett.

Linron narrowed her eyes at the former STG member and clenched her jaw, "Fine then, the Salarian Union commits to this alliance too, so what will we do about the Turians?"

Lasky sighed in relief at how relatively painless getting the two alien races to agree had been and let a relieved smile take its place on his lips. "And the UNSC would like schematics for any of your dreadnought class vessels, we believe we can replicate them and help bolster your fleets."

"We can supply them to you right now," Lidanya nodded, "If you can help us survive this enemy, then as you humans say, all of our cards are on the table."

"Likewise, the Alliance is ready to fortify our space as far as is necessary," Hackett stated firmly before looking to Linron along with the Asari and the two UNSC elements.

"While I appreciate-" Valern nudged Linron in the side as she began speaking and gave her a pointed look. She frowned at the look and continued, "-We appreciate the offer to help build up our fleet, I am not prepared to give up Salarian Dreadnought designs. We are; however, ready to work with everyone here on every other front."

"Well that's a start, at least," Lasky smiled and looked around the group until landing on Hackett who returned the small smile and looked back around the group who looked remarkably content with the rushed treaty being drawn.

February 21 – Sol System.

"Good to be free, huh?" Joker laughed over his shoulder to Shepard who was leaning over the top of the pilot's chair and looking up through the window at the gathering fleet above them in high Earth orbit.

"Something like that," he laughed lowly in response and nodded at the fleet, "Any idea why the fleet's assembling?"

Joker shook his head and glanced back at his communications panel, "All I know is that I was given my wings back this morning and you were let out, and grumpy boots Kaiden's back!"

Shepard scoffed and straightened up from his leaning forward position, "And that Anderson gave us orders to retrieve Liara and some Prothean plans from Mars?"

Joker smirked and his fingers danced across the controls once more, "And that, we're off to pick up your lover."

"Shepard?"

The man pivoted to look to Kaidan's familiar voice as he approached along the gangway, "Kaidan, good to be working together again."

"Commander," Kaidan agreed with a nod, "What are we expecting?"

Shepard shrugged, "Not sure. Anderson told me that Liara has found vital Prothean plans in the Mars archives and that he also called for UNSC support from the Chief to back us up in case anything goes south."

Kaidan scoffed, "You mean when things go south?"

Shepard smirked slightly shrugged, "Joker?"

The top of the pilots head bobbed as he nodded, "Just clearing from the fleet before we go to FTL, Commander."

Shepard and Kaidan both slightly stooped to observe and confirm Joker's advisement as they sped past a cluster of cruisers moving to flank a nearby dreadnaught.

"Crazy to think that we've got new allies from a different dimension…" Kaidan spoke in a neutral voice, clearly unsure of exactly how to feel about it.

Shepard nodded at his Lieutenant commander, "One of them helped me stop the Collectors, the Master Chief, and apparently, he brought some of their fleet here after he went his way. He was a hell of a soldier, so I expect this UNSC to be valuable to our fight against Cerberus and the Reapers."

"What do we really know about this UNSC?" Kaidan said with a frown.

Shepard matched the frown and looked from Joker just as streaks of light started flashing through the forward viewscreen, signifying the jump to FTL.

He looked back to his new First Officer with the frown held pointedly in place, "Lieutenant, Admiral Hackett, the Salarian Dalatrass and Matriarch Lidanya just signed a treaty with the UNSC's Captain so I wouldn't have any doubts in our new allies."

"Besides," Joker called over his shoulder just as they returned to normal space above the red planet, "The Master Chief was a good guy! Hell, he was a bit stiff, but did he kick ass!"

"Kaidan, the Chief saved my life, he stopped the Reapers from using the Alpha Relay, and he finally made the Council accept that the Reapers are coming," Shepard said, supporting his pilot against the doubtful Major.

Kaidan held up his palms in defence, "Alright, sorry, it's just a lot to take in… I mean, it's hard enough accepting that you chose to work with Cerberus to benefit the Alliance."

"Kaidan-" Shepard sighed out his XO's name in a tired sense of frustration, only to be cut off by Joker.

"-We got Cerberus ships in Mars atmo! I'm counting one dreadnaught class, two cruiser class and two destroyer class ships!"

"Prepare for evasive manoeuvres, engage stealth and prepare to drop us off!" Shepard ordered as he instantly switched from his lingering personal tone to his all-business Commander voice.

"It would also appear that they have a sizable troop deployment within the Alliance facility," EDI added informatively from the cockpit speakers.

Joker's hand halted their dance across the display, and he leaned forward in his seat, "What the…" He shook his head and glanced to Shepard over his shoulder. "No need, Commander. The ships are holding, looks like they're keeping all of their attention on the ground, picking up a distress call from the facility though."

Shepard furrowed his brow in confusion to the fact that the Cerberus vessels were holding their position and silently wished that he still had the tactical mind of the Master Chief around still. He mentally scoffed at himself at the thought, realising he'd become far too accustomed in far too short a time to the Master Chief's tactical and physical lethality.

"They've deployed all of their troops, that's why they're holding," Shepard said, shaking his head in anger, "Play the distress call."

Shepard's heart instantly doubled its pace as a familiar voice came in over the speakers.

"This is Doctor Liara T'soni, the Prothean archives are under heavy attack! The security won't be able to-" Her voice was cut out by a background explosion before starting again, now slightly more panicked, "Security can't handle the Cerberus troops. They're after the Prothean data we uncovered and are deciphering! Someone, please help!"

Shepard instantly clenched his jaw in anger and grasped Joker's shoulder, "Take us down there right now."

The pilot nodded without hesitation and started on the controls, dipping the Normandy's nose toward the atmosphere.

"Shepard!" Kaidan called in surprise, pointing toward the upper arches of the view screen.

Both Shepard and Joker instantly spotted what he was pointing at as black hole rimmed by white energy slid open several thousand kilometres away, and a ship exited. Joker paused his motions of sending the Normandy into Mars's atmosphere and glanced to Shepard uncertainly.

Shepard likewise stared at the ship that'd just arrived as it turned to face Mars and accelerated. "UNSC ship?" Kaidan asked uncertainly.

As though to confirm his question, a familiar deep voice came from Jokers console, "This is the Sierra 117 of the UNSC Infinity escort, Strident One, Alliance vessel, do you copy?"

"Take us down, Joker," Shepard affirmed his pilot, activating his omni-tool as he did. "Chief, this is Shepard, tell us you'll be able to offer support for this? We're reading a lot of Cerberus troop's ground side."

"That's what I'm here for, Shepard. See you down there."

The line went dead, and the Normandy began to rock as they entered the thin Mars atmosphere. "Hold tight," Joker advised without breaking his concentrated gaze from the controls.

Within moments the detail that had been a glint of light from orbit had grown into the sprawling Alliance complex that was built around the Prothean Archives buried well below the surface. Shepard briefly spared a glance through the starboard side of the view screen at the Cerberus patterned dreadnaught holding its altitude with the smaller vessels nestled around it as Joker swung the ship around for a rapid deceleration.

"Chief?" Shepard asked into his omni-tool.

"Copy, Shepard?"

"Do not engage the Cerberus ships until we know what they're doing here. We can't risk losing the Prothean Archives," Shepard said into the display just as the Normandy began to settle on the orange-red ground not far from the complex.

"Understood, Shepard, Strident One will hold high orbit. We're on our way in a dropship." The gravelly voice instantly confirmed, making Shepard wonder who 'we' was.

"Joker, join the Chief's ship in orbit, I'll call you back down if we need you," Shepard dictated as he turned on his pilot and nodded to Kaidan.

"Aye, aye," Joker called over his shoulder as his two superiors jogged along the gantry toward the elevator.

Shepard and Kaidan ignored the skeleton crew in the dimly lit CIC as they jogged past and rushed into the elevator, selecting the hanger. The descent was fast and smooth, and the doors slid open to reveal a frowning James Vega.

"Shepard, what's happ-"

Shepard held up a palm as he marched passed the heavily muscled dark skinned marine, "We're on Mars to retrieve Liara, any other survivors and Prothean data before Cerberus gets it. We're being backed up by the Chief and his team."

Vega frowned in a moment of confusion before both he and Kaidan caught up to Shepard as he reached the manual release for the loading bay doors. The three men quickly placed their helmets on, and Shepard thumbed the door release, the room hissed as the pressure changed and the door lowered to the red sand below.

"You mean Cerberus is here?" Vega asked in a clearly confused voice as they made their way down the ramp, retrieving rifles from their backs as they did.

"Yeah, they've got a small fleet detachment holding above the far side of the complex, could be anywhere upwards of a thousand troops here," Kaidan answered for the Commander as they jogged down the ramp and onto a flat area overlooking the sprawling crater which cradled the Prothean Archives.

"Well, they didn't try and take any of the stations exterior power offline," Vega observed as they hurried past a small field of solar panels, the red mars dust billowing in the wake of their rushed footfalls.

Shepard and Kaidan both spared a glance to the solar panels but made no other attempt to answer Vega's observation as they continued on toward a ladder that dipped over the edge of a retaining wall. Shepard was the first one on it and slid down onto a well-used dirt road.

The whoosh of the Normandy passing overhead carried his gaze around from Jokers take-off to a smoking vehicle, pocket marked from what had clearly been a hailstorm of rifle fire with four Alliance armoured Marines collapsed against a wheel. Shepard cautiously approached the downed soldiers, trying to draw a conclusion about the circumstances of their deaths.

Kaidan thudded onto the dirt behind him and followed, likewise looking to the murder victims. "Didn't put up a fight," Kaidan observed, nodding to their dropped rifles with full thermal clips still slotted in and fully charged.

"Bastards!" Vega declared angrily.

Shepard clenched his jaw angrily and momentarily thought of the Illusive Man and wished that when he'd been able that he had located the terrorist leaders' base of operations. "Let's keep going."

The two subordinates didn't question their leader as they turned and jogged along the road along the rim of the chasm. As they neared a bend veering away from the crater gunshots filled the air. "Contact!" Shepard called as he dove around the retaining wall that marked the corner and rolled into cover behind one of a half dozen crates that littered the ground.

He peeked around the side with his Avenger assault rifle keened toward the origins of the gunshots and took stock of the scene. "I count five Alliance Marines holding up near the loading doors," Shepard advised to Vega and Kaidan as they settled their rifles on top of the crate to take in the scene themselves.

"And I count a hell of a lot of Cerberus!" Vega hissed in shock at the mass of white and yellow armoured troops running from one point of cover to the next, firing as they went, "How the hell could Cerberus even have this many troops?"

Shepard frowned within his helmet, not remotely sure and not really wanting to think about the most likely answer. Kaidan however, was much more comfortable voicing his grim thoughts, "Human colonies in the traverse and terminus go missing all the time…"

"Shepard, how are we meant to get through that?" Vega asked, "There's got to be a good fifty or so down there."

Shepard grimaced at the unfortunate fact just as a tracer round caught one of the Alliance defenders below in the helmet and set him sprawling, blooding oozing out of the back of his helmet into the soil.

"UNSC Pelican on hot approach, need that landing pad cleared?" A feminine voice announced into Shepard's teamcomm.

The three pivoted to look into the sky in the opposite direction of the Cerberus ships to see the UNSC dropship roaring in. It decelerated harshly with several hard banks to the left and the right until it came to a screaming hover above the Cerberus troops. The turret on the nose of the ship roared bullets and sent a third of the troops into their gory demise, limbs, chunks of flesh and bloody armour flying from the destructive rain of bullets.

The rest of the troops quickly aimed their weapon skyward and began to fire at the new threat, but not before a red beam splashed through their ranks, burning straight through another dozen and leaving two groups behind.

Shepard took his opportunity to vault over the crate and squeeze the trigger of his rifle, sending incendiary rounds streaming into the group to the right of the sole surviving Alliance Marine. His squad joined him moments later and made short work of the group before the dropships chain gun let out one final burst before a strangely eerie silence settled over the loading area, broken only by the whooshing bursts of the dropships thrusters stabilising its position.

Shepard swung his rifle over the carnage once before releasing his grip on the barrel and waving a hand up toward the cockpit of UNSC ship. Clearly having seen the gesture the ship quickly descended, its landing gear unfolding and setting it down amidst the death it had dealt to the Cerberus troops.

Shepard, Kaidan and Vega paced around to the back of the troop vessel to the sight of the ramp dropping and the Master Chief striding from within toward them, flanked by three other heavily armoured soldiers of smaller proportion.

They reached the bottom of the ramp, and each did a slow look around at the swathes of dead troopers before the golden visor of the Master Chief settled on Shepard, and he slightly stepped to the side, allowing the smaller alien crew who'd been hidden behind to step past, "Shepard, good to see you again."

Shepard let a short chuckle roll off his tongue at the Spartans casual greeting in the wake of dispatching all of the dead troops around them. "Likewise, Chief," He nodded pointedly to Garrus as the Turian stepped around the Spartans and made to inspect the death around them, before he directed his helmet at the other Spartans, "You're old team?"

John shook his head, "New team; Spartan's Sarah, Olympia and Buck," He said, looking from one to the next respectively to addressing their names. "We're dropping Garrus and Kasumi off with you too, for transport back to the Citadel."

At the calling of his name, Garrus tore his eyes from a Cerberus trooper whose body had been cleaved through from his shoulder to his naval, "Yeah, the UNSC is about the start assisting the allied races in preparing for the Reapers, I wanted to get back to the Citadel to contact my family and help C-Sec secure a smooth transition."

Shepard nodded at the explanation and looked to Kasumi next. Her face was hidden by her breather, so instead of her usual quirked lips she shrugged with her hands raised in the body language equivalent; "I kinda wanted to stay with the UNSC and help them out somehow… But you should see these guys in action! I felt totally useless in their new colony!"

"New colony?" Shepard instantly asked in confusion.

"We located the final Forerunner asset, it's an artificial world construct, we've begun colonising it as a base of operations," John explained simply.

"Shepard, you should see it, it's incredible!" Garrus added to John's far too simple explanation. "I mean, the UNSC won't need to settle any other worlds for a long, long, time."

"Come on Shepard! Let's kill some Cerberus!" Grunt growled excitedly, still somewhat behind the four Spartans, the three new ones still not having spoken a word that Shepard could hear, but from the limited knowledge that he had about the Master Chiefs suit and comms ability he was sure that they'd been speaking amongst each other during the short conversation.

Shepard shook his head at the morbidly excitable Krogan and refocused his mind to their intended destination. "We think there might be upwards of one thousand troops here, we need to proceed carefully."

Shepard couldn't see it, but within the helmets of each of the Spartans their lips quirked up in small but confident smiles. "We are here for Alliance assistance and asset denial, we'll be your distraction and breach team, we'll get you to where you need to go," the same feminine voice that announced the dropships approach voiced from the grey –clearly female- armoured Spartan.

Shepard looked to the Chief, and seeing the silence as a way of agreeing with the woman under his command, Shepard slightly grimaced at the obvious destructive capability of the extra-universal humans. "Right, I'll lead the way, we need to stay cautious either way, not knowing the layout of this base."

"Excuse me, Commander," The red armoured woman introduced as Olympia interjected, bringing his eyes to her. "We have the base's map; Hackett supplied us with information on all important facilities in the event of something like this."

Shepard wanted to laugh at the irony of the circumstance about the new UNSC assets being far better equipped than himself and his own team but easily held it back within his helmet with the frustration of the reality.

"Let's get on with it," John's firm voice relieved Shepard of trying to find a response that would keep him and his people on level ground with the UNSC.

Shepard nodded once and turned toward the vehicular airlock, stepping up the ramp the lead within toward the sole surviving marine within who was keeping a hand firmly pressed to his hip. Shepard mentally kicked himself for not taking notice of the man until now, seeing that he was clearly holding a bullet hole shut to prevent his suit decompressing.

Shepard's extended team and the Spartans marched into the airlock, and the marine didn't hesitate to press the button by the door to initiate the airlock cycle and the doors closed. The room hissed as the pressure changed and green lights flashed overhead.

All of Shepard's team instantly took the opportunity to remove their helmets and check their weapons thermal clips. The buzz cut Alliance Commander caught the Spartans pointedly looking at them, and once more he withheld the desire to laugh at the fact that they more than likely considered the removal of their helmets in a combat zone foolhardy.

"There they are! Engage!" An electronically modulated voice called from above the group.

They all instantly pivoted to face the Cerberus trooper on a balcony above, the light streaming into the room from behind him telling them of the open door and likely approaching troops behind.

Only several tracer rounds came from the trooper before two quick three round bursts from Sarah's battle rifle caught him in the chest and neck, sending blood spraying through the air and the soldier toppling over. "More contacts inbound," she simply advised.

"Frag out!" Buck called, priming a grenade he'd pulled from his hip and tossing it into the unseen doorway.

Two seconds based before a heavy THWAMP bellowed from above and a blossom of explosive flame billowed out, the concussive force throwing bloodied white armour in their direction.

"Shepard, your team should proceed from the next loading bay and stay on mission, we'll proceed toward the archives on the upper level from this loading bay and make as much noise as possible, try and draw them away from you," John advised; his three troops already following his order and jumping toward the balcony, their jump jets hidden in their armour activating and thrusting them upward.

"Got it Chief," Shepard answered with a nod.

"There wouldn't be this many Cerberus troops here if whatever this data is wasn't important," Vega began with a clenched jaw, "We gotta make sure that they don't get it."

John's helmeted head nodded once at the Alliance shock trooper before following in his team's wake, joining them on the balcony above within moment and shouldering his battle rifle and motioning his team forward.

Shepard mimicked the action to his own team and began toward the door below at a quick jog, his team quickly falling into step behind him with their own weapons raised. The mixed species team hurried after Shepard as he bound through a doorway and down a short corridor past a security checkpoint until they reached another identical vehicle bay from the one they'd entered through. The sound of distant gunfire informing them that the UNSC Spartans were doing what they said they'd do toward relieving the pressure of Cerberus from the base.

The group quickly halted in their tracks, however, as gunshots sounded from ahead of them. Shepard trained his rifle on the air duct above the upper floor corridor similar to the one the Chief had just departed through and held up his left fist to his team.

They each fluidly fell into his command and crouched behind low walls and vehicles with their own weapons raised. A moment later and the grating exploded from the air duct and a blue and white dressed form dove out. Liara landed into a roll and flung a biotic singularity at where she'd just escaped from, drawing the four Cerberus troopers who'd been pursuing her from the duct and leaving them spinning helplessly in the air.

Liara drew her pistol, but not before Shepard squeezed the trigger of his Avenger and sent a stream of incendiary rounds into the enemy soldiers. They grunted in their strange mechanical voices as they ignited, and his entire team quickly added their bullets to the barrage for a moment until the singularity dissipated.

"Liara!" Shepard called as he stood from his crouch, relief written all over his face.

The expression was instantly matched by the young Asari, and she clutched Shepards reaching hands as he approached, squeezing briefly in affection before giving a tired smile and a nod to Garrus and Kaiden, the two faces in Shepard's current team that she did actually know.

"How could Cerberus be recruiting so many colonists, though?" Vega's uncertain and frustrated voice drew their attention from what was about to be a small reunion to him standing over one of the bloodied deceased troopers.

"I don't think they're willingly recruited…" Kasumi mused with a grimace as she stepped into the small circle that Shepard, Liara and Kaiden had formed around one another in greeting, "Kasumi Goto, I've heard great things," She quietly introduced herself to the Asari with a gentle smile.

Liara had likewise heard great things about the master thief and smiled back as she accepted the shake. Her shadow broker intel had informed her a great deal about the thief who'd been serving with Shepard in fighting the Collectors.

"Shepard, what do you know about Cerberus having troops?" Kaiden abruptly asked with suspicion written on his face.

Liara's eyes instantly widened at the direct accusation and implication through her former teammate's words and across his face. Shepard frowned and clenched his jaw in suppressed frustration, having already come up against Kaiden's less than accepting nature.

A hiss of pressure sounded from beneath Vega's hands over the trooper's helmet, and the faceplate slid back, "What the!" He exclaimed in shock and took a quick step back.

Garrus reacted oppositely and stepped forward, stooping over the dead soldier, "Looks like they've used Reaper tech, like some kind of advanced husk…"

"By the goddess, how could they do this to people?" Liara said, her eyes wide in horror.

Shepard grit his teeth in anger at the revelation and found Kaiden's eyes on him with even more suspicion than before. "You look like you expected this, Shepard? Do you have stuff like this in you too?"

Shepard's instinct was to clench his fingers into a fist and strike his Leuitenent across the face, but he suppressed the unbecoming urge and met Kaiden's eyes with a steely gaze, "Actually I did expect something like this. The Illusive Man was always obsessed with Reaper tech, and there's no way that any colonists willingly joined his cause, but how can-"

"-Shepard has been in Alliance custody the past few weeks, you've seen his medical reports, Lieutenant, you know that he doesn't have any implants like this," Vega interrupted with an angry frown directed at Kaiden.

Shepard gave a nod of thanks to the latest addition to his squad of regulars and simply shook his head at Kaiden, "Let's finish the mission, while you're trying to accuse me of being some kind of traitor, the Master Chief and his team are fighting for our people."

Kaiden instantly paled as he realised that he'd allowed his personal foibles gain dominance over the mission at hand, and he suddenly found the floor easier to look at.

"Elevator over here," Grarus called as he waved them over.

Everyone quickly assembled around the Turian, and the small loading elevator ascended to the second level. Shepard put the issue of Kaiden to the back of his mind and raised his rifle and marched forward, entrusting that at least most of his squad would be working in tandem with him.

The group proceeded down a stretching hallway smeared with damage from a sustained gunfight and past dozens of dead from both sides. Shepard caught movement ahead at the last moment as a round pinged off his shields, and he dove into cover behind one of the reoccurring bulkhead along the corridor.

He quickly swung his gaze around and saw that his squad had mimicked him. "Ten or more of them!" Garrus shouted, bringing his incisor sniper rifle to bear on the top of the bulkhead and taking careful aim, despite the rain of rounds that pinged off the walls around them.

Shepard copied his friend and placed his Avenger onto his back and retrieved his Mantis sniper rifle, taking aim on the shield bearing enemies. "Garrus, you've got a better scope than me; are those slits in the shields covered or not?"

Garrus steadied his aim and went completely silent for a moment, then his rifle bucked against his shoulder from the triple bullet shot and blood exploded from the troopers head behind the full body shield he carried. "Unshielded eye sights," He confirmed.

Shepard instantly took aim on another and pulled the trigger. Unlike Garrus's shot, however, his bullet didn't meet success; it ricocheted off the soldiers head and embedded in the ceiling, bringing the trooper's weapon around to focus fire on Shepard's location.

He quickly squeezed off two more rounds and ducked back behind cover, "Liara, are they close enough for you to use your biotics?"

She shook her head and reached around cover to fire off a trio of shots from her pistol. Before Shepard could find a next best option, Grunt roared in excitement and rose from his position of cover, and his shield lit up in fortification. He charged forward with his Claymore shotgun barking its report toward the enemy.

He instantly drew all of their fire and Shepard rose up enough to see that the Krogan's notoriously destructive shotgun was yielding no result against the enemy. Another triple shot sounded from across the corridor as Garrus fired, and another trooper crumpled to the ground, only to be replaced by one of the many that they could now see marched behind as backup.

"I got this, Shep," Kasumi whispered next to his ear, making him jump in surprise at her invisible presence.

Shepard watched two of his grenades lift off his belt, and seemingly float through the air as Kasumi loped after Grunt who was once more moving to take cover as his fortification shields fizzed from the amount of fire he was taking.

The familiar clank of the cylindrical grenades bouncing along a hard floor told Shepard that Kasumi had tossed the first one. He watched it bounce along the floor and come to a stop right in front of shield wall that was slowly approaching them. It detonated with a WHOMP, and the ten shield bearers in the lead were thrown back into the shields of their comrades who marched behind them.

Shepard grimaced at the lack of effectiveness of the grenade, but caught the flicker of light as Kasumi in her still cloaked cover took the opportunity to dive around the edge of the formation and completely disappear behind their ranks. Moments later another explosion sent a dozen of the enemy troops flying from its point of origin in the middle of their ranks, many of them dead or severely wounded.

Shepard didn't take pity on his enemy, however, and instantly stood back up, smoothly switching from his Mantis back to his Avenger and firing at the troops whose shields were down. "Move up! Give Liara and Grunt cover to get close!"

The team reacted in perfect synchronicity and jogged forward, everyone firing their weapons as they did and felling the enemy ahead, leaving the floor clogged with fallen Cerberus bodies oozing blood. Once more Grunt charged forward, but this time reaching the still standing enemy ranks with his head lowered and ready for impact.

His bulk met the lowered shield of one of the still coherent Cerberus troops and sent him crashing into another behind him. Grunt didn't relent, he stepped forward again and crashed his head forward into the chest of the soldier and sent him crumpling to the floor.

Grunts claymore reported from his grip and splashed the soldier's brains across the feet of his comrade who was likewise too slow to defend against the excited Krogan who was already levelling his shotgun for a second blast. Shepard pulled the secondary trigger on his rifle and fired a concussive shot into the troopers shield, sending it arching up from the impact and giving Grunt a clear sight into his chest.

He fired, and the chest armour and flesh underneath was pulverised from the point-blank shot. Kaidan and Liara were next to step into the fray, sending a cooperative singularity into the centre of the remaining Cerberus soldiers and picking them off the ground like toys, along with several of their dead comrades.

Shepard, Garrus, Grunt and Vega fired into the floating enemies and made short work of finishing them off. "Vega, what's the count?" Shepard called as he hurried past the downed enemies along the corridor that lead to an intersecting one with a large glass wall looking over the looming crater that housed the archives.

Vega and the rest of the squad trampled over the dead enemies after their leader, "Thirty-six troops in that group, they're definitely here in force."

Shepard grimaced at the confirmation of their ships readings and sprinted for the intersection ahead toward the cacophony of gunfire. He reached it in a dive and rolled around the corner to the right.

He rose back into cover behind a bulkhead next to the large window and looked to the back of the formation of Cerberus soldiers who were attempting to advance down the corridor away from the direction of the tramline that lead to the archives. Garrus and Liara slid into cover beside him and likewise took aim at the troops whose attention wasn't remotely on them.

"Shepard!"

Shepard grimaced at the not remotely tactical calling of his name from Grunt who rounded the corner and turned left instead of right, unlike himself and the two who were already with him. Naturally, he looked to the Krogan who was already charging in the other direction toward a phalanx of Cerberus armour.

"Shit! Shepard, they're left and right," Kaidan called as he followed in Grunt's wake, his rifle bucking against his shoulder as he unloaded into the approaching troops.

A flash of red caught Shepard's eye, and he identified the red armoured Spartan he'd been introduced to earlier backflipping off a wall and landing among the enemy. She was lost from sight, but the ranks reacted defensively to her presence and stumbled back. Shepard's ear caught the distinctive sound of the UNSC weapons, and he tore his eyes from the enemy who must have known that they were there but were keeping their attention forward.

"Liara, Garrus, take the squad ahead, deal with the incoming, I'll cover these troops!" Shepard roared over the din of the battle.

The two nodded once in acceptance of the order and jumped from cover to follow in the wake of the rest of the squad who'd turned toward the direction of the tramline and were taking pot-shots at the formation of Cerberus spearheaded by the shield bearers that was approaching.

The Commander quickly drew his eyes back in the direction of the most imminent threat and saw the results of another UNSC frag grenade go off as six troops exploded into chunks of meat and splatted the walls and their comrades. Shepard saw a flash of familiar daunting sandy green armour juggernaut through the failing formation. Muzzle flashes showed Olympia's position as she fired directly up into the array of lights overhead.

They shattered, and the corridor dimmed, now only lit by the pale soft hued natural Mars light coming in through the windows. Shepard switched back to his Mantis and started picking off troopers from the back of the formation who were far too focused on the Spartans in their midst to notice him.

He lowered his rifle as he saw the Chief in a circle of the dead troops and half a dozen more levelling their rifles at him. The grey armoured Sarah sent one of them crashing to the ground with a heel kick to his back and fired her raised magnum point blank into the side of the head of another.

His head exploded out the other side of his helmet, and Sarah sprinted to the Chief. Shepard realised that the squad of Spartans must have been talking to one another within their helmets to be so perfectly cohesive and silent. She dove for her leader with an outreached left hand; his own left hand released the barrel of his rifle as he still fired with his right as he caught her momentum, he spun on his heel and released her into the soldiers who were nearest to Shepard.

She crashed into them and sent them tumbling away and then rolled to her feet, her pistol once more bucking within her grasp at the enemy besieging her team. Shepard dashed forward and shouldered his rifle, he skidded to a halt next to her and sprayed rounds into the Cerberus soldiers.

Five final chocked barks from the now visible Buck from his shotgun downed the remaining troops, and Olympia raised her own pistol to fire into the soldiers on the ground who were still exhibiting signs of life.

Sarah relaxed her stance slightly and looked down at Shepard, "Thanks for the assist, they were committed to clogging up that corridor," She nodded past where the Chief, Buck and Olympia were stepping through the layered dead on the floor. Shepards eyes followed the nodded direction and saw the intersecting corridor not far beyond to the group of dead Cerberus troops that lay scattered there and the blood and chunks of flesh that had painted the walls.

Shepard stelled his resolve against the bloody combat and looked into John's visor as he stepped closer, "Shepard," He greeted and nodded over Shepard's shoulder to his own squad combating the approaching formation. "One hundred meters down that corridor to the tramline, then a straight shot to the archives."

"Noted," He agreed, "Much trouble getting here?"

"I stopped counting," Buck grunted as he reloaded his shotgun and pistol.

Shepard caught Olympia doing the same to his left and noticed that the vast majority of the ammunition he'd seen magnetised to their bodies earlier was gone. He shook his head and looked back toward his squad defending up ahead at the difficult truth that he and the Spartans outclassed their enemy in every way, but they needed ammunition to efficiently dispatch them.

"I know," John pre-empted, drawing Shepard's curious eye. "We're low on ammo. We're going to break through that formation, draw their attention, and then your squad is going to fill in behind us and mop them up."

"Chief, I can't count how many are in that-"

"-Eighty in that group," Sarah interrupted.

Shepard frowned at her for clarification which she willingly obliged, "Our motion trackers are very accurate."

"We clear on the strategy?" John asked Shepard and started striding forward despite the lack of immediate response. "I guess we are," Shepard said without a single syllable sounding sure just as the Spartans broke into an instant and blindingly fast sprint.

He followed in their wake, activating his omni-tool as he did, "Squad, Spartans will be breaching their formation, we're following!"

He didn't have time to check if his team had acknowledged his order before the Spartans sped past them and quickly closed the gap between them and the Cerberus soldiers, their shields lighting up as they struggled under the hail of mass effect rounds directed at them.

But their durability held true, and they shoulder charged their way through the first line of shield-bearing troops, firing as they did. More of the station was painted red with blood as the Spartans forcefully carved a path into the enemy troops, downing dozens within seconds.

Garrus and Liara were the first of Shepard's squad to race into the close quarters battle, and they instantly started loosing their specialised attacks.

Garrus fired several concussive blasts in troops who were about the fire into Olympia's back, and Liara threw a singularity above the middle of the formation, drawing a whole section of them into the air.

The Spartans pushed relentlessly deeper in the formation and Shepard's squadmates filled in the gaps, continually firing and reloading as they tore their enemy apart.

"At least these guys go down easy!" Shepard heard the masculine and distinctly amused tone from the black armoured Spartan; Buck.

"Don't tempt your luck, Spartan, there'll be more where that came from," Garrus called back in victorious banter as they halved the number of their enemy.

"Heh heh, bring 'em onnnn!" Grunt growled in excited fury as he charged passed John and barrelled into three troops.

John quickly stepped forward to support the Krogran and unsheathed his combat knife and began opening the necks of troopers in splashes of blood.

"You've got more troops deploying from the dreadnaught now, and two of the destroyers have taken a position directly over the archives," A new masculine and well-spoken voice advised through the entire assembled groups comms.

Kasumi gasped as a round finally made its way past the Spartans and tore through her shield, Kaidan instantly dove and rolled to her aid; dragging her behind a pile of dead Cerberus troopers and slapping a pack of medi-gel over the bleeding wound in her abdomen.

"Thanks, Roland," John answered over the open comms just as a trio of grenades detonated in front of him and threw him back into Vega who had been using John as cover to fire on the troops.

"Chief, we can't keep this up!" Shepard winced as he heard himself call. "You mentioned asset denial earlier?"

Shepard noticed and ignored the astounded look that Liara instantly shot at him and kept her eyes glued on the immediate threat as he reloaded and started firing again.

"Shields down," John advised as he rolled back to his feet and dragged Vega with him into cover behind one of the bulkheads, bullets pinging off his armour as he went.

"Chief!"

John shook his head and recalled Shepard's statement, looking to him as the rest of the squad started scattering to cover. "Strident One is carrying enough ordinance to wipe this place out."

Shepard nodded in grim acceptance as rolled from cover just to jump into cover behind a low pile of bodies that was shielding Kaidan and Kasumi. "Everyone, fall back! We'll dust off with the Spartans dropship."

"Shepard! We can't abandon the archives!" Liara called angrily from where he'd previously been. "You've got no idea how much knowledge is stored here!"

"Liara, if we can't have it, we can't let Cerberus have it," Shepard rebutted as he looked over Kaidan's handiwork that was keeping Kasumi's wound shut. "Everyone fall back!"

"Covering!" Buck called as he broke into a sprint from his cover and resumed his previous task of dispatching Cerberus troops in quick order.

True to his actions, the troops shifted their fire from suppressing and advancing on the squads in cover and started shooting at Buck. Shepard felt a wave of relief as his entire squad took the opportunity gained by the Spartan to stand and sprint back the way they'd come toward the corridor that the Spartans had taken from the loading bay.

"Time to go, Shepard," John called, then looked down to the Alliance shook trooper still shooting around his body, "And you too, Vega."

"Right, sir, better not hang around long," Vega answered and instantly followed the prompting, sprinting in the wake of his team with Shepard joining him.

"Our turn now, Chief?" Buck asked as he slid back into cover again with a heavy breath and Olympia and Sarah took their turn in popping up from cover and opening fire onto the reorganising Cerberus just as several of the shield bearing ones pushed to the front to of the survivors.

"Go, Buck!" John ordered and looked to the two female Spartan's kneeling in the middle of the corridor, "Olympia, Sarah, you too!"

John rose from his cover and retrieved the final grenade from his belt, having kept it in the event of needing to make a tight escape. He primed it with a bump against his thigh and lobbed it toward the enemy, Sarah and Olympia already having spun on their heels and started sprinting away.

John fired a final string of rounds toward the enemy to prevent any from having the necessary time to kick the grenade away as it struck the ground and rolled toward them. A moment of silence followed as he emptied the rounds in the magazine and he copied his squad and spun around and made to sprint back the way they'd come over the dead Cerberus who lined the floor.

The grenade detonated behind the racing Spartan as he rounded the corner that he and his squad had fought so hard to get to only ten minutes earlier. He spied his and Shepard's squad waiting for him at the balcony to the vehicle bay that they'd entered from and he focused on his stride to reach them more quickly.

John dashed past the remains of the foes he'd dispatched and neared the group, "Green to go."

The verbal confirmation given; Shepard slammed his palm into the airlock controls and the door connecting the bay to the rest of the station shut. The air around them was filled with streams of nitrogen as the clearly damaged airlock tried to normalise the pressure of the room before it finally opened to the external assembly area which they'd landed in earlier.

"Get on board!" Sarah ordered loudly and rushed ahead of the group toward the Pelican. A moment later John checked his HUD and saw why she was so rushed at the red wave of blips on his motion tracker being updated from the Stridents data feed.

Thankfully for the Spartan, the entire group took her urgency seriously, and they rushed after her, over the deceased Cerberus and into the troop bay of the ship. "Everyone in?" She called from the cockpit just as John stepped aboard.

His gaze momentarily swung over the Spartans, Alliance and Aliens in the bay, "Everyone is in!' He called back in confirmation.

The troop bay instantly shut, and everyone grabbed onto the walls and ceiling as they were hit with inertia from a very quick take off.

"Breaking atmo in five!" Her voice called over the intercom.

John squeezed through the group packed into the bay and reached the cockpit door. He slipped through and loomed over Sarah in the pilot's seat, "Bring up Strident One."

Her helmet gave a small nod in acknowledgement, and her right hand left the yolk to key the radio, "Sword team to Strident One, do you read?"

"This is Lieutenant Haverson, we're reading a lot of movement down there!" A masculine voice replied.

John leaned over Sarah's shoulder and spoke toward the radio, "Lieutenant, this has become an asset denial mission. I authorise the deployment of our Shiva warheads."

"Yes sir," He answered instantly. "Sir, we're seeing the two destroyers in what seems to be a pursuit trajectory?"

"Sarah?" He asked.

She tapped a feed to her left, and one of the tactical aft camera feeds showed the two vessels rising into the sky below them, "I think they're bugging out, John."

John naturally suppressed the small wave of happiness and familiarity that Sarah had finally started taking on his way of addressing the team and had called him by name as the situation drew his attention onto the circumstances at hand.

"Shiva's ready to fire, Chief," The Lieutenant spoke from the radio.

"Fire," John dictated instantaneously.

"Shiva's away," Answered the fast response just as the sky through the cockpit shifted from red-orange to black as they broke the bonds of the atmosphere and sped toward the Strident Frigate with the Normandy situated off her bow.

The door opened behind John, and he glanced over his shoulder to see Shepard squeezing into the free space on the other side of Sarah's chair to peer through the canopy. "What's that?" He asked with a pointing finger and a concerned voice to the two missiles as they streaked by and dove into the atmosphere.

Sarah continued on unabated toward the Strident but pulled the aft camera feed up onto a screen to her left. Shepard and John both peered at it, showing the Alliance facility bellow with the Dreadnaught and the two Cruisers still holding position above it. The missiles streaked into the very top and middle of the complex and detonated. The immediate area around the facility through the camera feed went white from the explosive power of the nuke.

"Successful hit, Chief," The Lieutenant said from the radio. "Looks like those ships were vaporised."

"And the Destroyers?" Sarah asked back in John's stead.

"Just went to FTL, Spartan Palmer."

Shepard stared at the display of the former Alliance site growing smaller as they reached high orbit and made a beeline toward the Normandy, "I can't believe we just nuked the Prothean Archives…"

Neither John nor Sarah replied for a moment before the woman glanced over her shoulder to see the shock written across the Alliance Commanders face. "They were important to the Alliance, weren't they?"

He nodded, finally looking from the screen to the canopy and his ship beyond, "Very, thanks to them we discovered Mass Effect science and spread out into the galaxy… And who knows what this new data could have been."

"At least no one can get it now," John consoled carefully.

Shepard only shook his head in response, shocked by the drastic action until John spoke again; "And now that you're out of lockdown, you can help us unite the races against the Reapers."

The line drew Shepard's full attention, and he met the point of John's visor that he knew hid his eyes. He gave a firm nod and small smile at the progressive point. "Good to have you here, Chief."