Disclaimer: I don't own Mass Effect! If I did I'd have unlocked all the Earth DLC characters already and the Crucible wouldn't exist. Also, I'm going to be increasingly nicking stuff from that brilliant SF Author Neal Asher, so I don't own his Polity books either.

AN: Wow it's been a while. Life has been gruelling, and I apologise for the long wait – it's partly my own fault as I insisted on waiting till I completed the Extended Cut before writing any more, then I got blocked, then I rediscovered this series of original stories I'd written ages ago, but the last one was unfinished so I'm finishing it off then rounding off the series with an epic finale and BLARGH. It's hilarious how much I have to do and how little of it I've actually done. In the meantime, thank you all for sticking with this, and I hope to update in the next few days. Thank you.

Also, I'm still ignoring the Extended Cut, and I'm also ignoring some of the Earth DLC background. It'll still show up – just the history behind the weapons might be a little different.

EDIT: Shit, Theodur just pointed out that there's already Praetorians in the ME universe. Whoops. Name change time!

Chapter 10: Morningstar, Part 2

Garrus sat at his console.

I should be on the ground. His arm was fine, the internal pain in his torso minimal, his mandible only slightly off kilter. Ok, his legs were killing him, but he could've lived with that. Given the lack of action, he could have parked himself in a scientist's comfy chair.

I should be watching Shepard's six. She was his commander, his boss, his friend. She needed someone to watch her back, even when it wasn't being covered by swarms of husks. And while he trusted Tali and Liara, and EDI, he didn't trust the yahg. And no-one was as fast as him. That wasn't a boast, it was simply true. They'd had a competition back during the hunt for the Collectors, and he'd outshot every member of the crew save Legion, where Shepard had finally called a tie after two hours and dozens of demolished crates. Legion wasn't around anymore – he needed to be there.

A lesser turian might have given up. But not Garrus.

'Ok, turn left a little.'

Obligingly, the camera view on his omnitool shifted obligingly leftward to pan over the technology adorning the walls.

'This is a really bad idea Garrus.' Tali's voice was a whisper into his ear.

'A bad idea.' He gave a snort that turned into a cough. Damnit lungs, why do you let me down? 'Is that what I think it is?'

A sigh. 'Yes. That is a handheld version of a thanix cannon. Do you want me to leave you two alone?'

'Don't be silly Tali, I'm on the Normandy. Handheld? Really? Presumably it's only as strong as the ones equipped on fighters.'

An omnitool flared into view over the object. 'No, the power requirement is...wow.'

That's definitely the right word. The power figures he could see were almost as high as those for the Normandy's Thanix, and that was just for the standard setting. Tali's omnitool readout also showed it could be triggered into overdrive – higher power consumption but thicker bursts. The only downsides he could see was that the ferrous metal that comprised its ammunition needed to be replaced after every sixty seconds of continuous firing – and that to fire it for that long one would need about ten standard power cells. The thing was even more power hungry than the Cain. But oh boy does it need it.

'Tali, we've found another log.' Liara's voice was unnaturally loud, as Garrus had increased the volume to hear Tali's whispered comments. Wincing, he began modifying the feed to vary the volume based on sound level.

A man's voice echoed from the datapad in her hands, and Garrus was pleased to notice that this time he wasn't deafened. '...Simmons won't admit I'm right about this. Doubling the coils gives more power, yes, but more instability. That's what caused the damn com-tower failure – I just hope there's nothing else going on in the galaxy that we really need to know about. On the other hand, our test version of the rocket boots is up and running, despite Dr Lewis's broken nose. They're great fun, which I guess is kind of the point. Best thing is, they don't require electricity to work, so they won't be knocked out by any form of EMP. It means they're a bit slow though – if you could hook them up to the omnitool software then you could activate them in midair. That'd make you virtually immune to biotics.'

'That sounds...familiar.' Tali's voice was thoughtful.

'Yes.' Garrus and Liara said it almost simultaneously, and he felt brief annoyance.

It wasn't that he didn't like Liara. Liara was his friend. They'd joked together on board the first Normandy, and after Liara had rejoined the crew they'd struck up their friendship again.

But it was the gap in between that bothered him.

You don't abandon your CO. It was drilled into turians virtually from the moment they could understand speech. And in many ways Liara hadn't while everyone else had. She'd never given up on the idea that Shepard could, in a sense, come back. She'd been the one to retrieve her body from the Shadow Broker, and hand it over to Cerberus.

But then...she'd just stopped. Liara had set off on her revenge haunted quest against said Shadow Broker, and left Shepard alone.

He knew all about revenge, about wanting to kill someone for what they'd done to you. But he'd tracked down Sidonis while on the Normandy – couldn't Liara have kept up her war with the Shadow Broker in the same position?

He sighed. That was all in the past now. She'd more than made up for it. But there was always going to be a hesitation in their friendship because of it.

'Wait...Cerberus Phantoms.' Tali's voice was shocked. 'Another one?'

And that was the other reason Garrus wanted to be on the ground.

The first log they'd found had indicated it, and virtually every piece of evidence since, from gently curving swords that EDI insisted were similar to those used by Kai Leng to an actual Atlas, complete with a complaint from an engineer about how they were designed to be mass produced and not worthy of N7 indicated that somehow this place was linked to Cerberus. Garrus didn't know how, and given how the groups had separated to search the labs he couldn't ask Tali to ask Shepard what she thought.

Were they all traitors? Certainly some of them weren't – they had too much pride in their work. Cerberus equipment was good – he even used some of it, a Cerberus modified Mattock they'd nicknamed a Harrier being his favourite assault rifle – but often it was factory style, useless, and gimmicky. Like the armour for the Assault Troopers – next to no shielding, thin plates, minimum of HUD. Totally relying on the Reaper based enhancements to power them through the fight. And that was before he got onto their weapons – one submachine gun? Really?

But some of the stuff they were finding was seriously, scarily good, and Garrus shuddered to think what Cerberus could have done with it. The monomolecular bladed swords had been modified, one to carry a tech burst current, hurling it forward in a series of overload explosions, another to channel biotic energy. They'd been made stronger than the ones the Phantoms carried too – the report beside them had said that these were to be specialists' swords, not like the "standard weapon design we've been working from". An omni-tool program that allowed for a dense burst of freezing Bose-Eisenstein Condensate that acted like an anti flamer, allowing for quick incapacitation of lightly armoured foes to be dealt with later. Some form of armour that, while about as protective as wearing varren skin, enhanced biotics to very high levels indeed, nicknamed 'Fury' by the engineers.

Vega hobbled into Tali's, and therefore Garrus's view. He was clutching some bulky gun in his hands. 'Look at this...isn't it beautiful?'

It was a shotgun, so Garrus kept his thoughts to himself, but he heard Tali's small appreciative murmur. 'Give me the stats.' And there's the engineer I love. A burst of affection shot through Garrus. He'd never really felt that way about any – Pay attention, gun now, mooning later.

'It's called an N7 Piranha, for reasons that should be obvious – ah, if you were from Earth. I'll come back to that. Anyway, it's short range, very short cause of its spread, damage somewhere in the region of a high class Eviscerator, but, the best part is the rate of fire.' He spun the six chambered cylinder on the top of the gun. 'One thermal clip goes in each slot here, with another engaged, right? Eight shots per clip, you just turn it to feed the next one in once its ready, ejects the other automatically. Its rate of fire is high, and I mean high for a shotgun, maybe as fast as one of the big heavy pistols if you were pumping the trigger. Of course, here you can just hold it down. It weighs a tonne – little thing is compact! – but it packs a punch.'

'Hmm. I think I'll stick to my Claymore for now.'

'I'm going to go see if I can find some of the others.' Liara's voice drifted from the right of Garrus's screen. 'Have the krogan checked in yet?'

'No.' Vega's voice was regretful. 'Don't know where the yahg have wandered off to either. They seemed pretty excited to be here though.'

I should be down there. For a moment Garrus considered leaping to his feet, gathering his gear and storming down to the shuttle bay to join them.

Yeah, but Chakwas would kill me, bring me back to life so Shepard could kill me, and then Tali would torture me to death with a rusty – what's that human eating utensil called again...a spoon, that's it. Best to observe.

But what if things have gone wrong? What if things are already wrong? The krogan meant to be with Shepard haven't appeared, and those yahg aren't trustworthy.

Then I'll go down when I see something's wrong. Garrus settled back, and continued to watch over his omnitool.

The yahg who now called himself Shade stared in amazement at the device in front of it.


It was nearly twice his height, gleaming grey black metal with the red and white stripes down its arm. No clumsy cockpit for this machine – instead, it looked as if the pilot simply slid in, was closed up, and then linked their omnitool to the armour, and controlled it like that. For armour it was, like his silvered spacesuit of his own design, but far greater. It incorporated shielding, far better than the one hastily stuck onto his suit by a nervous technician, designed for civilians going into warzones (or so he had assumed from its hideously low output and efficiency). This shielding was angled, reinforced, with redundancies and backups should it fall. And due to how it was controlled...well, it would be like an extension of oneself. No jerky plodding motions, like those of the machines in the stories of the more advanced tribes.

And that was before he considered the weapons. Its selection was modular, starting with simple arms. Each arm, in truth, contained a vast blade well over the width of his ga'tharn'ikta's, which could extend with a thought. Such blades also vibrated at high speeds, allowing even the densest materials to be cut through as if they were but earth. Then the guns – vast rotating weapons, capable of expending their entire blocks that supplied their ammunition within mere minutes. Cannons that could destroy tanks in a mere shot. Missiles with payloads scaleable from a warm gust of wind and a friendly slap to vast nuclear detonations.

All controlled by a highly advanced targeting system, with the aid of a 13th Generation VI.

Or so the datapad he read claimed.

He knew hyperbole when he saw it – he'd employed it often enough to persuade other tribes to buy his wares – but looking at the machine he could almost believe it. The thing was sleek and beautiful and deadly. It was also unsuitable for a yahg, but if he had the design...his fingers twitched in pleasure at the thought of what a true warrior could do with such a weapon.

And that was before he even considered the VI. The idea of them fascinated him – a machine, intelligent enough to handle high level calculations yet not smart enough to challenge its creator. He liked that.

'It is perfection,' he said in the language of his tribe.

Then Shade remembered he was not alone when the strange four eyed alien in the hideously bright armour looked up at him questioningly. 'Excuse me?' His voice was a pleasing rumble at least, but it was also in asari due to the translation program on his omnitool.

He hated the asari language. He'd learnt it from necessity, because he knew he'd have to talk to the aliens, but it was a disgustingly inefficient language. A triple form for nouns and verbs but no dual – no locative case or dative, and no clear differential between different gender nouns? When he'd first started learning it he'd thought he must be going wrong somewhere – only confirmation through the alien's extranet had proved that he had been correct.

English was, if anything, worse. No declensions, verb forms – the best that could be said for it is that it was simple.

He hated simple things.

Chinese was little better – the idea of characters was foolish in the extreme. French suffered in similar ways to English, though not as awfully. Strangely it was the long gone human languages that were the best, though he'd not found much more on Latin and Sanskrit than a couple of pathetic guides to teach oneself on the extranet.

'I was commenting on machine.' His words were soft. It was harsh on his vocal cords to be soft, but one had to lull others. He was also trying out speaking in English – he wasn't sure he'd gotten it completely correct, but no matter. Better that they think less of the yahg. Which wasn't hard given his companions. Bahranik was still sulking, despite the impressive weaponry he'd been gifted with. Yassik and Tehruk were off somewhere, squishing the somehow incapacitated enemies.

That was a twist. All reports indicated the Reapers were truly dangerous foes. Some way of disabling their servants didn't sit well with him. How was he to prove himself in combat to be trusted with more technology, more knowledge, if the foe was no longer a threat?

'It's inelegant.' The alien's tone was angry, or at least it would have been if he were a yahg. 'I don't like N7, but they're stealthy. This is about as stealthy as the Reapers.'

N7. This term appeared time and time again, and still Shade was not certain of its meaning. No matter.

'Strong.' Tehruk's grunt was asari – the other's were finally learning the languages he had insisted they learn years before. Of course, they wouldn't have to forever – the translation program was remarkably efficient, and while it was taking him a while to create an accurate dictionary of his tribe language, the basics would be completed soon.

'It doesn't matter how strong it is if someone opens up on it from orbit, or launches the entire firepower of their base against it.' The alien's head was cocked to the right as he looked up at them.

Maybe that is the point thought Shade. Maybe this acts as the distraction so the true enemy can enter undetected. If there's a rampaging hu'ntya, one doesn't notice the hidden grax'la. He didn't say this. Let them underestimate them.

Instead, he gave the gesture that according to the extranet was called a shrug, a sign of indecision and lack of knowledge. The alien looked away, and he returned to the datapad, reading through it as fast as he could, and copying everything he found to his omnitool.

Knowledge is power. Guard it well.

'We got anything from the computers yet to see if this is all it's made out to be?'


'Negative Commander. The majority of the computer files have been destroyed by a virus of surprising virulence, and much of the operating system is malfunctioning. Moreover, the computer regards me as another unauthorised intruder, despite my frequent broadcasts of Alliance protocol.'

'So have we got anything at all?'

'No. Not yet.'

Shepard sighed. The labs had been in many ways something of a bust. Sure there was a lot of cool technology. The problem was they'd encountered most of it before, in Cerberus hands. Of course, there were some new things.

A cackling roar of laughter behind her signalled that Aralakh Company's 2IC was playing with his new toy. A broad orange shield spread from his right arm as he swung it in a wide arc. 'Shepard, this is truly marvellous!' said Urdnot Jarrod in a cheerful bellow. 'Combined with tech armour, well...us krogan would be truly invincible.' His mouth was a wide grin.

The omni-shield was just one of the things that they'd found that were actually new and useful. It was one of the best too, though most not imbued with the upper body strength of krogan found the diamond crystallised slab somewhat harder to lift and move around with. Another was an armoured battlesuit called the T-5V, which was in Shepard's opinion a rather dull name, but it was heavily armoured and capable of laying down ridiculous fire support, especially given the machine gun they'd found it with.

And yet Shepard still felt a worming sensation of disquiet, and of unease. There was something strange about all of this, and not just the Cerberus stuff.

Where were the scientists? Or at least their decaying bodies? If they were dead, how had they sent off the distress call? Unless one was wounded, and died of his wounds, then the whole situation was a little implausible.

And that was without the husks' bodies, lying on the floor in a seriously creepy way. They were alive alright – just unresponsive. They'd methodically cleared every room they'd been through.

Of course you're uneasy – you still haven't made things right with Liara, because you're an idiot and don't know what to say. She gave a snort. Commander Shepard doesn't know what to say – the news networks would have a field day with that.

On top of that she felt strangely weighed down. She'd taken a full soldier loudout: grenades, assault rifle, sniper, shotgun, pistol, and she'd forgotten just how much it all weighed and how much less manoeuvrable it made you. Every time she went into cover against a wall to peer round a corner just in case, she could feel them digging into her back.

Goddamnit Shepard, you did this for years before you had biotics, what's the issue now? Lack of practice is all. Deal with it, solider.

'Alright, let's check out the next lab. Any more datapads in here before we go?'

Jarrod grunted. 'No. Just this one, which only had credits on it.'

'Good enough.' She pushed a hand against the open button for the next doorway, and slipped through as the doors began to open, EDI just behind her.

The next room was pretty much like all the labs – grey white, desks, computers, equipment...but this one was stained with blood. Thick dried layers of it coated the walls, and the thick rusty smell of it filled Shepard's nose. It decorated the desks with deep scarlet splashes, and coated some of the equipment too.

It was the first sign of death they'd seen in the whole facility.

'Alright, check this one out carefully – EDI, can you get scans of the blood, see if you can tell whose it was and why it's there. Jarrod, we need to do the normal, look for any useful tech.'

She strode at a half crouch between the tables, modified Mattock springing to her hand. From the first moment the Mattock had been sent to the SR2 she'd loved it – and taken it on every mission, in the process improving it so much that all it took was a headshot with Inferno Ammunition and a hostile was down. Then had come her imprisonment and the Normandy's renovation, and when she had returned her souped up Mattock was gone, and all the others she could find were...terrible. Not enough stopping power, not enough accuracy. Until Tali and Garrus rejoined the crew. It had turned out that when they'd all gone their separate ways, Garrus had taken the Mattock for safe keeping, but during the attack on Palaven it had been damaged. Despite his technical know-how, he couldn't get it working the right way again. At least, until Tali rejoined the Normandy crew, and fixed it in thirty minutes.

It's my gun. It was, in a way. Shepard loved it like any member of her crew. It had been through almost as much. There was the burn from where the stock had melted slightly in the burst of heat from a vorcha flamer, there the scratch from where she'd smacked a charging krogan in its faceplate. A long score down one side – that was from the Shadow Broker, I think. She hadn't been able to use it as often as she would've liked due to her change in tactics with her biotics. Now, she could, and despite all the other disappointments it brought it was a relief to hold it again, to feel the cold black stock against her shoulder, and to see that tiniest of crosses on her HUD.

Stop reminiscing Alice. May not be hostile territory at the moment, but that may change. Still don't know what's causing the massed husk paralysis.

'Commander, I think I've found something.' EDI's face was lit up by the omnitool around her hand. 'I've found what appears to be the remains of a severed right arm, but thankfully it has an omnitool attached. While the omnitool has been damaged, its last few files are available, including an intriguing sound file.'

An orange box flickered into place over EDI's omnitool, a sin wave beginning to move across it. 'Goddamnit, how could Simmons do this?' was the first voice from it. 'He was head of the project. What was he –'

'Money, probably.' The second voice was stern. 'Whatever it was, he's got some things to answer for. The attack on the Citadel...the attack on Eden Prime...'

'Well, thank the Maker we got the com tower open, at least to receive.' The third voice was female. The scientists, I think. 'Otherwise we wouldn't have known anything about what he was doing until it was too late.'

'We have to confront him.' The first voice again. 'Now. We have to confront him now. We can't let him come up with an excuse. Not after so many have died. Because of him. Because of us.'

Sounds of walking. Shepard took the opportunity to interrupt. 'So they found out about Cerberus.'

'It seems that way.'

'Also seems like not all of them were in on it.' Jarrod's voice was gruff. 'At least, not the rank and file.'

Meanwhile, a door had opened in the recording. A new voice emerged. 'Please don't interrupt, I'm at a crucial stage of – ah, hello.'

'Why'd you do it? Why'd you throw it all away?' The first voice was distraught.

'Please Lewis – calm yourself. To what do you refer?' Shepard decided that the guy they were talking to, presumably this Simmons guy, was far too slimy for his own good.

'You know what we mean Simmons. We know what you've been doing.' The second voice was firm.

'Cerberus. You've been sending plans of the equipment we've been working on, and sending them to Cerberus. Why?'

A sigh. 'I was wondering when the com tower would come online again. I take it you've already alerted the Alliance to my crimes.'

'We've only got incoming. Once we have outgoing again, we will. Until then, we're locking you in your lab. You won't have access to anything – not the computers, not your omnitool, not any of our equipment. Then, when the Alliance finally come to free us from the goddamn Reapers knocking on our door, we'll release you into their hands.'

'Please. As if you could've lasted a day without me. Who organised the blockades in the halls? Who was it who found the weaknesses in the sewer system, and set guards over all the facilities, preventing any intruders? Who was it who made a device capable of sending a signal separating the Reaper ground forces from their controllers in the sky, effectively rendering them paralysed.'

'That's it!' Shepard's shout was triumphant. 'That's the thing that's got all the husks down. He said a signal – EDI, can you find any signal out of the ordinary?'

'One moment, Commander.'

The recording continued. '-and if you think I am alone, you would be wrong. This base is Cerberus's, as are your lives.' A noise of rapidly moving metal, of bone and flesh being cut through. A scream. Then static as the recording ended.

Simmons obviously pulled some sort of weapon – a sword? I don't know. Cut them down.

So who sent the signal to the Alliance? And where is he?

'Commander, I have one. It's emanating from the room the blueprints tell me is the communications hub.'

'Call Tali, tell her to meet us there – if there's some sort of device, she can scan it and copy the scan up to your memory on the Normandy.' This is what we came here for – something to win the fight with the Reapers, and I'll be damned if I'm leaving without it. 'Jarrod, get your guys, we might be leaving soon. Tell them to pack up anything useful – that battlesuit, the huge thing Ksano called in, the swords – anything that might be helpful, got it?' She pushed a finger to her ear and waited for her omnitool to connect. 'Kirrahe, can you hear me?'

'Yes Commander.'

'We're almost done here – keep an eye out for movement from the husks, but be ready to pack up and go.' She was already striding from the room, the map in the corner of her HUD telling her where the com room was, and the best was of getting there. In many ways, the HUD integral to her eyes was one of the best upgrades beyond human that she had – it was just a pity that it wasn't Cerberus, but Alliance standard, and the Cerberus goons had messed with it and made everything different. She'd managed to at least reset it to Alliance blue rather than that horrid orange colour it had been when she'd first woken up.

Tali was soon beside them. 'You've found something?'

'You bet we have. We found a recording making reference to a device that blocks the Reaper signal used to control the husks – '

'- paralysing them. Hmm. That would be quite clever, but the signal has been almost impossible to find. The quarians tried similar things with the geth to prevent them uploading their programs, meaning they lost more than platforms...' She shrugged. 'It never worked. They just piggybacked their signal on our interference signal. Why wouldn't the Reapers do the same?'

'Why haven't they here?'

'Fair point.'

The door whooshed open ahead of them, and almost instantly the smell of decay hit them. Seconds later, Shepard found its source.

A body in a scientist's suit lay curled up beside a computer, gaping hole in his back. He'd obviously been there for some time – he'd already begun to putrefy, flesh falling in.

Also present were three podia. On one, some sort of wrist attached device had been placed. And the second –

- was dominated by a vast whirring machine. Little lights flickered on and off across its surface. It was hooked up by thick black cables to the computer, where a wave flicked across its screen.

'This is it!' They were almost done here, on this creepy planet with the creepy laboratory and the paralysed husks. And Liara is almost out of whatever danger this planet holds, and then I can be rational and apologise rather than standing around feeling that I was right.

Tali was already moving forward to look at the device. Her omnitool flickered into life.

EDI was already at the keyboard of the computer, hands flicking across the keys. 'Shepard, my scans indicate the item on the first podium may be of some interest to you.'

She looked at it. It still looked like a wrist mounted device. Small. Compact. 'What is it?'

'A weapon. Designated Shruiken by its designers, if it's to be believed. Some sort of VI guidance.' EDI was now too buried in whatever she was looking at on the computer to really talk. This happened sometimes – EDI still found what she called 'human-speed' fearfully slow, and often when presented with a computer screen slipped almost completely into her much faster calculating speeds, where she had little time for the slow work of speech.

Shepard examined the device. It was fairly obviously designed to link with an omnitool – the little spines on its underside for connecting to the nervous system were obvious. The rest...was different. There was some sort of blue light on it, on some sort of squashed sphere shape. The rest looked like a black metal rail over a bracer of armour. Cautiously she picked it up. It was surprisingly light. Even more cautiously, she slid the bracer onto her right arm, and waited for it to connect.

With a stab of pain, it did. Shepard hissed as for a moment electricity surged through her nervous system, a side effect of connecting anything directly to the omnitool.

The bracer lit up some more, a few more lights flickering into being.

Then her omnitool informed her that a new program and hardware had been installed, along with something about antivirus software that she closed. The program was simply named 'Launch', and had already appeared in her HUD.

Cautiously, she selected it with a flicker of her eyes.

Her right arm had been outstretched and pointing at the wall, which is why she didn't hurt anyone. Something rocketed from the bracer with a whirring snikt, a blur of black and blue and silver, slicing through the air and slamming into the wall, leaving a cut deep into it, before hurtling back towards her, stopping a metre away.

Three curved and equidistant blades now had emerged from the squashed sphere, and it rotated, slowly, in midair. Then, spinning up to speed again, it began to circle her.

'Shruiken, huh?' Shepard grinned. She liked it, despite her initial surprise. Checking the HUD she noticed the Launch command had changed to Return. She triggered it, and was unsurprised to see the whirring circle flip down from head height and rocket onto her wrist with a click, blades retracting.

Tali peered from behind the device. 'That was cool. Can I get one?'

'I'm afraid there's only one, Tali.' EDI's voice was firm. 'This was the prototype. We could, of course, make more.' She turned her head to Shepard. 'However, I have found something disturbing.'

'As have I.' Tali's voice became more serious. 'Shepard, this machine doesn't use eezo.'

'What?' Everything uses eezo. Not that it needed to, but most generators found their task more efficient with lighter parts, and so on.

'I believe I have an explanation for that.' EDI moved away from the computer, turning to face them. 'The file I have found makes reference to some sort of archaeological discovery made when expanding the mess hall, some sort of coral-like technology that didn't use the mass effect. It says they weren't able to do much with it, save make two things – the Reaper Signal Blocker and Shruiken. Ah. Both of these were designed by Dr. Eugene Simmons. That is also his body on the floor.'

'What happened to him?'

'Unknown. He repaired the com tower, according to his journal, and having dealt with those scientists who opposed him sent out a distress signal to the Alliance so he could continue his work, and a report to Cerberus. Then nothing.'

'So what happened to the original tech, the one they made this from?'

'There are references to some sort of artefact on the third podium within the computer systems...' EDI frowned. 'I cannot find any direct mentions of it.'

Shepard looked round. 'EDI, there's nothing there.'

'Security footage has been located within computers. The virus has not yet destroyed them. I am searching for signs of what propagated the virus, and killed Dr. Simmons.'

Tali's voice echoed from behind the podiums. 'This machine is brilliant! I don't know how it works, but without the mass effect one would have thought that it would be hideously inefficient. But it's...well that's strange.'

'What?' Shepard's voice was terse.

'I'm picking up some sort of eezo reading from it. I wasn't before. It looks familiar on the scan, sort of like a – '

'Shepard – '

EDI had barely finished her word when the blast caught them. Shepard went tumbling, head over heels, landing hard on her back. Out of the corner of her eye she could see Tali flung clear of the Reaper Signal Blocker, EDI pulling herself to her feet.

Shaking her head to clear it from the ringing impact, Shepard hauled herself to her feet.

'Report!'

'I'm ok, Shepard.' The front of Tali's suit was blackened. 'But the – oh no.'

The Reaper Signal Blocker was a smoking twisted mess. Sparks shot from its surface.

'The signal has disappeared. Shepard...' EDI's voice was almost fearful. 'The husks are waking up.'


Slowly, communications that had been closed for months reopened. Things twitched, and began to climb to their feet. They began to link together, to exchange data as to their situation. The overall command from above had not changed – destroy all within their path. And they would not be alone in this.

Deep beneath the Morningstar Facility, amidst stirring Brutes and shifting Marauders, in a tunnel half carved by man and half carved by monster, something stirred, a single red eye shifting open on it.

It hauled itself to its feet, system checks running. Somehow it had been shut off, but now it was awake again, ready to once again kill and maim and harvest.

A brilliant burst of red shot from its main weapon, destroying the last few feet of metal that stood between it and entrance to the facility. Its forces moved around it. Soon, all would feel the wrath of an Immortal.