Disclaimer: Anything that belongs strictly to the Mass Effect universe is Bioware's; Corporal Marcus Stacker's voice and name belong to Sally, Vicky, Healion, Emil, Sakkara, Nula, and Agaric are mine and any other named characters you don't recognize beyond this point unless I say so in the description.

CE 2176…0130 hours…February 10…Illyria, Elysium

Samantha slices the last Varren between her and Sakkara and the exit of the turret control building to pieces with her Omni-blades. They quickly run to the exit, the last of the Varren dead.

"Someone open the door!" she yells over the comm.

The door slides open, Buck Stacker on the other side.

"Howdy Ma'am, my brothers at the frontline waiting for you," there is another mushroom explosion from the strange gun Corporal Stacker was using, "I told the fool until they develop a way to eject Thermal Clips from weapons he needed to slow down using that thing, it's bad enough it's a prototype but overuse could cause it to backfire."

"WHAT?!" Samantha gasps.

"That's why I'm calling it the Cain; it's just as liable to kill my brother as it is to kill these bastards. Maybe I'll take the Shadow Broker up on his offer and sell him the gun and blueprints once this is over…Hey where you goin Shepard, I was talkin!" but he was too late, Sam was already hurrying to the battlefield turning on her Tech Armor as she went.

As they approach she sees most of the captives hiding by what used to be their cages and the shuttles, their fearful faces brightening as she runs past. She sees that Stacker, his soldiers, and some of the captives who had taken up guns and were now fighting had moved some cages in front of the shuttles and were using them as cover, in the distance she could see what appeared to be at least a hundred, maybe two hundred pirates and criminals of many different species coming at them, a slightly disorganized horde of krogan, asari, human, turian, salarian, batarian, and varren rushing their position.

"They must have got wind of what you were doin, looks like most of the ground forces are headed here to try and get-got us." Stacker says to her as she slides into cover next to him, the Cain still in his hand.

"I want you to stop using that right now," She says sternly, "I don't need you going all supernova on us or whatever, only use it again if we have absolutely no other choice."

"Damn it, Bucky scared ya with his mess about this backfiring, didn't he, you know…"

"Don't make me take it from you Corporal." She says holding back her temper.

He sighs and switches the Cain in for his Phaeston, and then they turn and begin firing on all the hostiles they can hit. They all continue fighting for what seems like hours, one of Stackers soldiers is hit and isn't fast enough to return to cover before he is gunned down. The enemy continues to close in on them until they suddenly begin to scatter, plowing through the ones to slow to dodge or the ones not paying attention were five Mako tanks. The tanks park in front of the cage barricade and their backs open as the cannons turn and begin to fire on the by now definitely only one hundred hostiles, from the one in front of them come Sally, Healion, Nula, and Agaric, all fully armored with scavenged equipment. From the others are soldiers and brave civilians willing to fight.

"What are all of you doing here?! We'd only need two Makos for a pickup, and I didn't even expect you to come at all." Sam says astonished as they move into cover.

"Colonist from Xenosis spread the tale of you and the krogan; also many heard how you organized us and helped civilians on your way here leaving no one behind. Colonist and soldiers not willing to abandon their hero, and neither are we." Healion says so rapidly Sam almost didn't understand him.

"Ok, so let's show these guys whose boss." Sakkara says behind Sam.

"Damn straight, you comin Sakkara?" Sally says.

"You were planning on leaving me out of the fight?" She asks with a laugh as they stand, the vibrations from the Mako's cannons vibrating the ground under their feet and run into the fray.

"Stop! Damn it," Sam yells after the two before she turns to Stacker and says, "do not use that thing, we've got backup now and the risk for friendly fire is high. Agaric, Nula, you're with me."

Nula and Agaric immediately hop to their feet and follow Sam as she moves into to fight. She puts her Carnifex in her left hand as she activates her Omni-blade in her right. She sees Sally and Sakkara charge headlong into a group of batarians and turians, Sam moves to catch up with them but is intercepted by some humans, she back rolls, just dodging a biotic bunch from one of them, the group are assaulted by a hail of slugs from Nula and Agaric, keeping them from shooting Sam, they begin to run for cover but aren't fast enough as Nula hits them with a Cryo blast, freezing them in place. Sam hits one with a Warp, while Agaric hits the other with Incinerate, causing a dual biotic and Cryo detonation explosions, some of it splashing to a group of asari next to them which caused the ones who weren't hit to turn their attention to them just before they were obliterated by a blast from a Mako, violet blood misting as parts of their bodies flew from the impact. Sam saw as a missile came from the back ranks of the rapidly decreasing numbers of the criminals and hit a Mako, destroying it. Two more came from the same general direction but missed their targets.

"We have to stop those missiles!" Nula yells to Sam.

"We need to cut through, Agaric, you got a turret?" Sam asks.

"Yeah, it's kind of junky because it's made from scrap but I built it to shoot rockets so it should help us bunch through."

He pulls out a small, odd shaped hunk of metal and throws it in the midst of a mixed group of criminals. They turn in surprise as the turret activates and blasts some of them into bits before they can react. The others begin to shoot at it but without slowing down from their run Agaric activates his Omni-tool and uses it to deploy a Combat drone, the little holo-glass orb shocking the hostiles with a large arch of lightning that spread from one criminal to the next.

"Great thinking Lieutenant!" Sam yells back as her and Nula fire on the few remaining enemies, finishing them off, but two more platoons block their way, "You two take the ones on the right!"

"You sure you can handle a platoon Shepard?!" Agaric yells

"Yeah, just go!"

In truth she wasn't sure, but her pumping adrenaline was making her more confident than maybe she should have been. She charges the group, a hodge-podge of salarian, asari, and human soldiers. She uses Throw, flinging all but the five asari to the ground, she could feel the fatigue from exertion of throwing forty-five people to the ground but she powered through it. Pulling out the grenade launcher after putting away her pistol, she opens fire relentlessly. One of the asari flings a Warp at her, ripping off her barriers but it was too late, she had reduced the whole platoon to a large pile of chard and mangled flesh and blood. Breathing heavily she checks the ammo in the launcher, which now only has one shot left, before turning to the second platoon. Between the turret, the drone, and the two soldiers the other platoon was also in shambles. Sam signals for them to move once she moves to them and they finally reach the back line to find three krogan warlords holding the rocket launchers.

"Damn!" Nula yells as she rolls out of the way of a rocket. Her blue form a blur from the speed of her dodge. Sam charges the closest warlord firing her Carnifex until it jams, the heat of the constant overheats earlier in the day finally rendering the gun useless. She throws it to the side and activates her left hands Omni-blade. The krogan accepts her advance as a challenge and throws his launcher to the ground.

"You got a quad human!" he yells over the fierce noises of the battlefield as he charges.

They rapidly close the distance between each other, the warlord drawing a dagger from a sheath on his hump and the two engage in a fierce duel. Nula and Agaric begin to move to assist Sam but are blocked by the other two warlords.

"Looks like you are alone now human," he says an hour later as they trade blows, neither giving an inch, "my brood-brothers are keeping your allies from making this a fair fight, you should give up now."

"You should have given up from the start, my brother took down a krogan before, and I watched and learned how he fought." She dodges a stab from his dagger, and grabbing his arm she uses it to flip up onto his large hump, holding on to his head plate as he struggles to shake her off. One of the other warlords turns and begins to fire on them, but barely any damage is done to her Tech Armor before Sakkara comes out of nowhere and supplementing herself with her biotics, tackles him and begins pounding him in the face. The third warlord is suddenly hit by a biotic charge and is ganged up on by Sally, Agaric, and Nula. The warlord she is on barely even notices.

Suddenly she can hear the sound of the giant turrets around the settlement turn. She is hyped up as an anti-ship missile shoots down one of the ships on the outskirts of the colony and they continue to fire on ships all around and above the colony. Her already high adrenaline now pumping at full throttle, knowing that the battle was almost over and all she had to do was one little push. "Stop moving!" she screams as she pulls out the grenade launcher, "It's over!" using her biotics, she forces its barrel straight through the plate on the warlords head and pulls the trigger. The explosion throws her off the krogan, rips through her Tech Armor and disrupts the kinetic barriers in the armor, as she hits the ground she hears her shoulder pop just before her head hits the ground hard and she falls unconscious.

CE 2176…0500 hours…February 10…Illyria, Elysium

Samantha eyes shoot open. She tries to move but her whole body is in pain, making it difficult to move. She continues to lift herself through the pain until she is gently pushed back down by a three fingered hand.

"Get back down Shepard, you're no krogan, but you tried to fight like one and while I respect it, that was pretty stupid of you to do." She hears the familiar voice of Sakkara.

"Here, let me get the bed for you." She hears Emil say, and after a moment the head of her bed lifts her to see the room. Apparently a hospital, though it was slightly damaged from the invasion. In the room are the familiar faces of Healion, Sally, Nula, and Agaric.

"How long was I out, and where are Vicky and Corporal Stacker?" Sam asks.

"You have been unconscious for three and a half hours." Healion says quickly

"Ok, and what about Vicky and Stacker?" she asks again

"Vicky's down the hall, and Stacker went to the Kilimanjaro, after you were able to hold the defense control building and the turrets came online the pirates became very disorganized as they tried to ditch the colony, though by the time the ones that got away from us got back to their ships thirty minutes ago the Alliance showed up and started to pound what was left of the fleet both here and in orbit. The last of the cleanup is underway now, and since you were the one who saved this place and pretty much everybody agrees with me I think you need to get up and get into that so you can be presentable when the Alliance comes to pick you up." Sally says as she points to Samantha's N7 Onyx armor sitting in the corner, "That is after we let the last of your medicine kick in and your pain dies down, I suggest you wear your helmet though, that ground gave you one hell of a lump on your head."

How'd you find it? I always hide my armor when not on a ship." Sam asks.

"Got it out of your hotel room in a cut out section in the frame of the bed, along with this, it's all you had left after looters got in the place, why do you keep this old thing hid with your armor?"

She pulls out a slightly scratched, rugged old IPod from her pocket. Sam reaches out and takes it without answering the question before reaching up and feeling the bump on her head cringing as she touches it.

"How long do I have to get ready?" Sam asks.

"If it was the turian military another thirty minutes tops, meaning maybe forty five to an hour." Agaric answers

"But we can stall your pick up if you need us to Shepard." Nula adds

"Nah, it's fine," Samantha says as she gets up, the pain meds working as her pain dulls, "I might need some help getting ready though."

The three men in the room leave as Sam stands and moves to her armor.