I'm back, baby! So let's do this!

Now, if this took too long to write, I'm sorry! But in my defense, my stupid charger wasn't working, so I could no longer write this chapter on my laptop due to it running out of energy. Sometimes, I think tech just hates me.

Anyway, this is going to be the first chapter in the story based on the Mass Effect assignment "Geth Incursion." Hope you like it.

Also, this arc will be focusing on Tali. What, did you expect the hero to have all the fun in this story?

AUTHOR'S NOTE: I do not own Mass Effect, Halo, X-Men, Iron Man, or anything related to them. As much as I would like to, I don't.

The Incursion, Pt. 1: Counterattack

Tali's POV:

It's been a few days since I officially labeled Tony Stark as a stupid, egotistical bosh'tet. To think that not only did say that my people attacking the geth was wrong, but that we brought our exile on ourselves! He obviously hasn't seen what cruelty the geth are capable of.

And the worst part? When I talked to Michael, he seemed like he agreed with Stark! Even though he said he didn't think the quarians brought our plight onto ourselves, he actually believed that the geth would be willing to co-exist with the quarians! That stupid bosh'tet! I got so angry with him that I haven't even spoken a word to him since.

Now, I think I might've been too harsh on him…okay, a lot of what I said, I'm sure I didn't mean. But in my defense, I tended to say things like that when I got mad. And then later on, I would start to regret it if I had said it to someone I trust. Like right now.

Keelah, I can be such a bitch sometimes. There has to be a way to talk with him again and get past this.

As I began thinking of ways to start talking to Michael again, he sat down with me in the mess hall, along with Stark, Garrus, and Kaidan. Well, this works too, I guess. "Ummm…"

Michael nervously chuckled. "Uhhh…hey."

Even though he couldn't see, I smiled at him. "Hey."

He coughed and said "Look, about the other day-"

"No, I'm sorry," I said bringing my hands up. "Talking about the geth is a touchy subject for my people. So, I'm sorry if I said anything that-"

He raised an eyebrow. "Okay," I said in defeat, "I'm sorry for saying what I said to you."

"Yeah," he said, "and I'm sorry for making you mad. Tony is, also," he continued as he jabbed his thumb at Stark, who smiled sheepishly. "I should've remembered that you and the geth don't have the best past, so, I'm sorry for making you mad. It's just, I believe that all life, both synthetic and organic, are capable of living together. All it takes is a chance to try."

In a way, I can understand that. Humans have been able to live with quarians and A.I.s since the Contact War. From that background, it would make sense that he would believe that even the geth deserve a chance. "I understand," I said sympathetically. "I don't exactly agree with you, but I understand."

He smiled and said "So, are we friends again?"

I chuckled. "Yeah, we're friends again."

"Good," Stark said with a grin, "Garrus and I were afraid we were going to have to deal with the tension between you two for the rest of the mission."

"You, however, are still a bosh'tet," I said with a deadpanned tone.

He shrugged. "What else is new?"

Michael and I chuckled at that. "So," Michael said, "how've things been going?"

"Not so good," I answered wearily. "I…haven't been getting a lot of sleep."

Michael's face became concerned at that. "What's wrong?" he asked.

"Well, it's just that the Normandy runs so quietly, it's like we're not eve moving. If anything, I guess it's the silence."

"You can't sleep because it's too quiet?" Garrus asked.

"That's right," I answered with a nod. "You see, I've lived on a ship my entire life. Keelah, I'm one of the fraction of quarians that still live on ships. And on a quarian vessel, the last thing you want to hear is silence. It means that an engine died, or a vital system is offline."

Michael nodded at that. "So, because you're so used to noise, you can't sleep without it. It's become like a necessary white noise for you."

I shrugged. "I suppose."

"Well, if you want," Stark said, "we can put some noisy fans in your room and leave them on. That way, you can have enough white noise to sleep with, and that means a well rested engineer who won't fall asleep on the job. That, in turn, will prevent us from experiencing an accident that will leave all of us dead."

Michael shook his head at that. "Tony, you're a good guy, but you can be such an asshole at the same time," he said with a deadpanned tone. "You know that, right?"

Stark answered with another shit eating grin. "It's the dual nature of my charm."

"How do people put up with you?" Garrus asked.

"Easy," he replied, "you just learn to live with it. Unless you don't, in which case you become a super villain who wants to kill me."

Confused at that statement, I tilted my head and asked "Super villain?"

Everyone there looked a bit confused at my question. At least, until Kaidan cleared things up. "I guess you don't read comic books?" he asked. I shook my head. "Well, neither have I, so I can't help you there. Maybe Stark or Michael could?"

Upon hearing that, Michael cleared his throat to begin explaining. "A super villain," Michael said, "is often a being with super powers like flight, super strength, control over the elements, all that jazz. They're like super heroes, except that they use their powers for personal gain, and they often don't care who they hurt or kill to get what they want. Super villains are pretty much the polar opposite of super heroes."

"Why would anyone do that?" I asked, a bit disturbed at this knowledge.

"More often than not," Stark said, "they let the power go to their heads. They believe that they can do anything with their powers, that they deserve what they want. And like Michael said, they'd be willing to kill to get what they want."

I gasped. "That's horrible," I said as I brought my hand up to my mouth…well, mouthpiece. "If these kind of people have powers, what's to stop these 'super heroes' from becoming like their enemies?"

Kaidan's face grew a bit dark at that. "Not a lot," he answered. "All it could take is a push in the right direction for a hero to fall. Because being evil is easy. The easiest thing in the galaxy. But to be a hero?" He chuckled a bit before he continued. "To always protect the people, to adhere to a moral code, to always do the right thing, even if it benefits others instead of yourself? That takes determination. Especially to do it every day, even if everyone is against you when you do it."

I looked at Stark in slight wonder. "Is that what you go through?" I asked.

Stark smiled slightly. "All the time," he answered.

It was right then that I believed I had begun to gain a new form of respect for Stark. In a way, he's kind of like a quarian. He always thought about the needs and welfare of others instead of himself. And he kept doing it, even if he would become hated by the very people he protected. But there's also another reason behind it. Something that drove him to do what he does. I could tell it's a sensitive subject, so I chose to leave it be for now.

"You know something, Stark?" I said after about a minute of silence. "I think I might be starting to like you again."

He smiled. "Thank you, miss Zorah nar Rayya."

"Please," I said, "just call me Tali."

He shrugged. "Okay, Tali."

After that, we began to talk some more about each other. Kaidan was apparently one of the few human biotics who used an L2 implant. From what I learned about them, the L2 implants tended to give a biotic some nasty side effects. These side effects ranged from headaches to crippling pain to insanity. Thankfully, Kaidan only got the headaches. I started to admire how he just sticks to the L2 implant, even though it hurt him to use it. He must have a strong spirit to keep it up.

Stark was an earthborn, the son of a genius inventor. Even from a young age, Stark showed he had a brilliant mind. When he was in charge of his father's company, he had created devices that helped people and devices that killed people. He only stopped making the latter after he saw that his weapons were being used to hurt the people they were meant to protect. Inspired by someone who saved his life, he swore to protect the world from destroying itself, and became the Iron Man to do just that. Though the armor had weapon capabilities, Stark insisted on his belief that the suit is not a weapon, but a full body prosthesis capable of self-defense. I, however, believe it is one of the modern marvels of engineering. Now if only Stark will let me study it.

Garrus was like most turians. He was born on Palaven, the turian homeworld. His father, a turian named Tyvern Vakarian, was a former C-Sec officer, and a decorated war hero. After Garrus completed his military training, he chose to follow in his father's footsteps and became a C-Sec officer as well. However, he hated having to work with the restrictions, regulations, and red tape. In fact, he felt that they were only there to keep him from doing his job. Especially when he and Rika were investigating Saren.

Apparently, the main reason Garrus was so eager to investigate and bring down Saren was because he felt the bosh'tet was a disgrace to all turians (something I can agree with). He went on to say that he looked forward to working with SPECTREs, as they don't have to worry about that sort of thing. From the look on Michael's face, he didn't like the way Garrus thought about that. In fact, I think he said something about how it was important to know that just because you can break the law as a SPECTRE, doesn't mean that you should.

At that point, we heard the crackle of the intercom turning on. "All ground team members, report to the comm room," Steve Shepard said. "We've got a new mission on our plates for those who want it."

Michael sighed. "Well," he said with a smile, "duty calls."

After we all sat down in our seats, Natasha brought up the Galaxy Map in the center of the table. "Alright people, listen up. Based on what Urdnot Grell told us, as well as Michael's suggestions," she said giving a knowing nod at Michael, "we have discovered a geth incursion here, in the Armstrong Cluster." As she said this, the map zoomed in on the cluster in question. The cluster had five systems in it, and four of them were blinking.

"I take it those are where the geth are stationed?" I asked.

"Correct," Steve said with a nod. "These four systems have a single geth outpost in each one," he continued pointing at each system. "We have reason to believe that one of these outposts is acting as their Forward Operating Base. We take it down, along with the other outposts, and we can stop the incursion before it can gain momentum."

Rogue raised her hand. "Do we know which base is the main one?" she asked.

Natasha sighed at that. "No. Unfortunately, we can't hack their communications. That means we have no way of knowing where the FOB is located."

"Or how much resistance we can expect to encounter," Michael said with slight annoyance in his tone.

"So," Wrex said lazily, "the plan is to simply hit every base, wipe it out, and hope we take the main base down along the way? Along with having to deal with who knows how many geth at each one?"

The three SPECTREs looked at each other, then shrugged. "Pretty much," they said in unison.

Silence filled the room for a few seconds. "Fuck it," the krogan Battlemaster said as he simply shrugged. "I'm game."

Steve nodded. "Okay, everyone, we've got a few hours before we get there. Until then, ready your weapons, check your systems, and relax a bit. A soldier's useless in the field if they don't rest as well as fight."

With that, we retreated back to our stations. Michael set up his gear, had Ashley triple check everything, and decided to help out in engineering. "If I'm going to be on this ship," he said as he asked Engineer Adams for a temporary position here, "then I'm going to have to pull my own weight around here." Adams and Stark were both happy to get an extra set of hands to help out. I was busy thanking the ancestors for giving me this opportunity to talk to him more.

Keelah, I don't know what it is about that guy, but I can't seem to focus much on anything when he's around. Seriously, why can't I stop staring at him whenever I get the chance? Why does my heart seem to skip a few beats when he looks right at me. And why's my face feeling warm whenever I think about him too much? I really hope this isn't some kind of sickness. But if it is, then I really don't want to get better.

"TALI!"

Adam's screaming brought me out of my thoughts. As I looked up, I saw that I was simply checking the same system. Over and over. For ten minutes. Oh, Keelah. "S-Sorry. I, uh, I had a lot on my mind. You know, with the, um geth incursion, and all."

He smiled and put his hand on my shoulder. "Hey, it's alright. We're going to stop those flashlights before they can even get a fleet into the system."

I smiled in return and nodded. Even though I had lied about what was really on my mind, I couldn't help but think about how the mission. I mean, I haven't really fought against a geth before, let alone a whole squadron of them. The only time I ever managed to actually get up close to a geth was when I got the audio log that condemned that bosh'tet Saren. But my people knew more about the geth than anyone else, so that had to give us an advantage. And between myself and (I couldn't believe I thought this) Stark, we should be able to push them out no problem. Hell, maybe there was actually a worthy Pilgrimage gift to be found on this mission.

"What is the Pilgrimage, anyway?" Michael asked.

We were in the cargo hold along with Ashley, Garrus, and John. Wrex was in his room modifying his weapons for when he would get a chance to fight. Michael and I were here because Adams kicked us out for a while. Apparently, Michael wasn't that good with running the drive core…okay, he completely sucked with working on tech. Based on how badly Michael was working in there, Adams felt that Michael would be better suited helping out Ashley with maintaining weapons (something he proved to be surprisingly good at, even to himself).

Adams also said he felt that I was running my self too ragged, especially when Michael was around. So until further notice, I'm on break. During that time, I decided to talk with the others about quarian culture. Which, of course, eventually led to the Pilgrimage.

"Originally," I said with a bit of pride, "the Pilgrimage was a rite of passage to earn your place among the flotilla. When a quarian became of age, we would get sent out, and would spend months, even years traveling the galaxy. We would only return to the fleet when we brought back something to show our worth, a Pilgrimage gift."

"What kind of gift?" Ashley asked. I could tell she was genuinely interested in this, as well as Garrus. John, however, was a bit difficult to read. Though I assumed he was just as interested as the others.

"Well," I began, "it would have to be something of value. For example, a gift could be vital technology, food and/or fuel, or even a new starship to add to the Flotilla. Another useful Pilgrimage gift could be useful data, which could help make life easier for others living on the Flotilla."

"What happens after you find a good gift for your Pilgrimage?" Garrus asked.

I allowed myself to feel some pride and happiness in knowing that there were actually people her (apart from humans) that truly cared about quarian culture and traditions. I then went on to say "At that point, a quarian would present the gift to the captain of the ship they want to join. The captain will accept the gift, and that quarian will change the 'nar' in their name to 'vas,' which proves we are full-fledged adults in quarian society."

"But what if the gift isn't adequate enough?" John asked curiously. "Does the captain just reject the gift?"

"No, not really," I explained. "The gift is usually accepted by the captain, even if it isn't particularly valuable. It's mostly done out of a sense of tradition. However, there's a stigma to quarians who present a sub-standard Pilgrimage gift, like a derelict ship. Those quarians are usually treated disdainfully."

"Yeah," Ashley said with some humor in her voice. "I'd bet that wouldn't be the best way to make a first impression to one's future crewmates."

I chuckled at that. "That's one way of putting it. Still, it helps to show that a quarian has reached adulthood. But presenting a sub-standard gift would be a really bad idea, especially for me. You see, I'm the daughter of Rael'Zorah vas Alarai."

"Who's that?" John asked.

Ashley looked at him incredulously. "You're kidding, right?" she asked. "Rael'Zorah is an admiral of the Migrant Fleet. There are five admirals in all, and they're pretty much the leaders of the quarian people. That pretty much makes Tali-"

"A princess?" Michael asked.

I sighed. "No, I'm not. Though I did receive quite a bit of special treatment growing up." I shook my head a bit, as I noticed we were in danger of going off topic. "But as the daughter of an admiral, I absolutely cannot return with a sub-standard gift. It would reflect badly both on myself, and my father."

Ashley and Garrus nodded at that. "Yeah, I can understand that," Garrus said. "You want to find something to make your old man proud. Just be careful it doesn't cost you, or him, though."

"Trust me, I know what I'm doing," I said reassuringly. "Among the rules of searching for a Pilgrimage gift, there is one that is absolute: the gift cannot be gained through the harm of another, be it quarian or otherwise."

Michael nodded. "Makes sense," he said. "If all gifts were attained through force and harm, the quarians would be no better than the batarians."

I shuddered at that. In no way did I ever want my people to be compared to those bosh'tets. Especially not after…no, don't think about that, girl. That's the last thing you should be thinking about. "We also are taught two code phrases to speak for when we return to the Fleet," I said in an attempt to move away from the subject. "One of the phrases means we have achieved a successful mission, and we are welcomed back with open arms."

"And the other?" Michael asked intently.

I sighed. "The second code phrase means we are returning under duress, most likely someone trying to sneak onto the Flotilla to harm us. At which point, the rest of the Fleet opens fire and destroys the ship returning."

"Damn," Ashley said as she turned a bit pale at that. "You guys don't fuck around when it comes to each other."

"No," I said grimly. "We don't."

After a few seconds of silence, Michael asked "What became of the Pilgrimage after the quarians settled down with the human race?"

"Well," I answered, "most of my people decided to live in human society. Because of that, the Pilgrimage now allows quarians to prove their worthiness through civic service. That means that they work at a job for a number of years, or join the Alliance military until they have proven they can be working members of society."

John and Ashley nodded at that. "Yeah, I worked alongside some quarians in basic training," Ashley said with a smile. "Trust me, you do not want to mess with them in a fight. They're crafty little guys."

That earned a few chuckles from everyone gathered. "I take it, though, there are still some quarians who go through the original Pilgrimage?" John asked.

I nodded. "Yes. Mainly those quarians are the ones who live on the Flotilla. However, there are still some earthbound quarians who go onto the original Pilgrimage, out of a sense of tradition."

The others nodded in understanding. "Now that's commitment," Michael said.

At that point, Steve Shepard walked up to us, with the rest of the team right behind him. "Alright," he said as he clapped his hands, "here's the game plan, people. I'm taking a squad of six with me to the first of the four geth outposts. Tali, Malak, Rogue, Kaidan, Garrus, you five are coming down with me. Joker's going to drop us off a few clicks from the area the Danger Zone is located in."

That got quite a few of us tilting and scratching our heads in confusion. "I'm talking about the immediate area the mission takes place in," Steve explained. "A place that, on missions, I like to call the 'Danger Zone.'"

After a few seconds of silence, Michael brought his left hand up to his face and shook his head in shame. "You can't be serious," he said in a tone that said Idiot.

Steve smiled and said "What? It's not my fault I like the song." That just earned him a bunch of groans from those who seemed to get what he was saying. I would have to ask him what he was talking about after the mission.

"Alright, everyone," Kaidan said, "let's get to it! The sooner we get this planet done, the sooner we can get on to the next one." Following that, we prepared our weapons for the mission, in case we needed to fight on foot. Garrus only took his Mantis sniper rifle and a Vindicator battle rifle; Rogue armed herself with a Lancer assault rifle, a Predator heavy pistol, and one of Django's weapons, an experimental SMG called the N7 Hurricane; Steve armed himself with N7 weapons, which included a Valkyrie assault rifle, a Crusader shotgun, an Eagle heavy pistol, and a Valiant sniper rifle; Malak already had his scythe at hand, so he was good to go; and as for me, I simply packed my Scimitar shotgun and a Carnifex heavy pistol.

"And remember," Steve said, "on missions, we refer to each other by codenames." With a nod from all of us, we all continued to ready ourselves for the mission.

After getting suited up and armed to the teeth, I decided to see which planet we were going to first. Apparently, our first stop was Maji, a desert-like planet in the Vamshi system. We headed for the Mako for a quick drop, but not before I heard Michael whisper his hopes that Steve wasn't as bad a driver as Natasha, or even worse than her. Somehow, his wish didn't make me feel any better.

The Normandy soon lurched forward, giving us the angle we needed to launch out of the ship and onto the ground below. As soon as we came to a complete stop, I allowed myself to look at the planet. With its suns red and blue, hovering over us like the lights of the Damned. I'll admit, the sight made me feel a little uneasy. The sooner we get rid of these geth, the better.

After a few minutes of checking the systems (which included making sure the guns were online and we weren't suffering from any structural damage), we started to explore the immediate area. Along the way, we found a crashed satellite to salvage; some materials to mine; debris originating from a turian colony; and an odd skull, as big as my body, lying in a hole. I shuddered as I thought about what kind of creature that skull belonged to. I prayed to the ancestors that I never found out.

As we headed back to the Mako, a projectile zoomed over the vehicle, landing and exploding a few feet away from us. We didn't wait for another round to fire before we zoomed away from the area. "Where the Hell did that come from?!" yelled Rogue.

"Sensors show the heat trail are coming from those mountains on our right!" I exclaimed. As if to punctuate my statement, another rocket landed near us, followed by two more in succession. We were already moving by the time a fifth rocket was launched.

As we headed toward the nearest mountain range, believing that was where the geth outpost was, I noticed some shapes in the distance that looked oddly quarian in design, but not quite. Upon a closer look, I saw that those were geth Heavy Turrets. As we neared the range, something set our alarms off. "Sir!" cried out Malak. "We've got more missiles inbound, and they're locked onto us!" Well, I guess the geth are in the mountains after all.

Steve suddenly started pressing switches and pulled a few levers as soon as Malak finished. Before anyone could ask what he was doing, he yelled "Hold onto something!" A second later, we lurched as we seemed to be propelled upward. It was then that I remembered that the Mako had a short range rocket booster. That little trick seemed to save us from a good thrashing, as the rockets impacted and exploded right beneath us. A few seconds later, the Mako hit the ground with a THUD, causing everyone inside to shake about from the rough landing.

I quickly looked at the readout on our structure. "That explosion weakened a few of our wheels!" I cried out. "If they take another hit like that, or worse, we'll be as good as dead!"

"Got it!" Steve said as he headed toward us. "Sharp shot, take the cannon! See if you can take those turrets down!" As Garrus got seated, Steve continued "Azrael! Give us some Barriers! We need as much protection as we can get here!" The scythe wielding human nodded in response, and started glowing blue. A look outside showed that he had erected a blue Barrier around us, though not around the cannon. This allowed our former C-Sec officer to fire without hurting ourselves (and our vehicle) in the process.

After a few shots, Garrus managed to take down the first turret. This gave us enough of a gap to make a charge for the mountain. Unfortunately, our Barrier was preventing us from moving fast enough, meaning we kept getting hit every know and again. After the fifth hit, I yelled "How long do we have to keep this Barrier up, Commander?!"

Malak grunted as another blast hit us. "Yeah, I'm agreeing with Savant, sir," he said with effort. Keelah, his face was practically soaked with sweat. Maintaining his biotics on something this big for this long must be harder than it looks. "Unless Allah himself decides to lend me a hand with this," he continued, "I won't be able to maintain this for much longer."

Rogue went up to the struggling biotic and ungloved her hand. "Take five, sugah." With that, she touched his face and caused his eyes to widen in shock. Rogue moaned in slight pain, then cried in agony as she fell back, causing Malak to slump down in exhaustion. Unfortunately, this caused our Barrier to disappear.

"Azrael!" Steve cried as he looked back. "What the hell is going on back there?!" Silence greeted him. "Azrael?!"

At that, Rogue shakily stood up and glowed blue. She raised her hands, and another Barrier sprung into existence. Good timing, too, as a rocket was seconds away from impacting with us. "Alright," Steve said with relief, "don't do that again, Azrael."

"Um, Arrows?" I said with uncertainty, "Rogue's the one using the Barrier."

Everyone looked to Rogue, who was still holding up the Barrier (though she now seemed to be shaking from strain). "Figured Ah'd take th' load offa him fer now," she said shakily. "So could yah please keep drivin' now?"

With that, Steve continued his drive to the mountain, rockets continuing to pellet us. As the third rocket hit, I noticed the Barrier flicker a bit before returning to normal. "Is that supposed to happen?" Kaidan asked nervously. Obviously he had seen it too.

"Sorry," Rogue said with difficulty. The Barrier was flickering more and more, even more so as another rocket hit us. "Ah…can't…keep…this…up…much…longer…"

Suddenly, the Barrier seemed to regain its strength. Everyone looked back to see Malak was back on his feet, biotics blazing blue as Rogue dropped to the floor in exhaustion. "Good work, rookie," Malak said approvingly. "I'll take it from here, though."

For the next five minutes, we continued to inch closer and closer to the mountain, noticing that the blasts were increasing in frequency. A detail that Malak noticed all too well. "Sorry, guys," he said as he breathed heavily, "but I can't keep this up anymore."

Steve cursed under his breath. "Alright," he said, "drop the Barrier, Azrael. We'll take our chances with the armor." Malak breathed a sigh of relief as he dropped the Barrier, finally getting a chance to relax. Unfortunately for him, he was forced to move about as the Mako charged forward, which caused him to groan in discomfort.

Garrus wasted no time in returning fire at the turrets, managing to take down the second one after two shots from our cannon combined with continuous fire from the machine guns. At that point, we finally managed to reach safety under the cliffs of the mountain, giving us ample time to catch our breath (especially Malak).

After a few minutes, I began checking the Mako to see if anything was damaged by the turrets. Surprisingly, the only noticeable damage was to a section of our armor, nothing a bit of Omni-gel couldn't fix. "We should be good to go in about five minutes," I said as I started applying the Omni-gel. As the miracle substance started to do it's work, everyone went back to their positions.

"Okay," Steve said as he got behind the wheel, "as soon as the Omni-gel finishes up, we're going to make a run up the path leading to the outpost. Sharp shot, you get to use the main gun." The turian C-Sec agent's mandibles flared into a grin at that. "Elvis, keep an eye on our radar. I don't want to run into any more surprises on our way up." The human Sentinel nodded, buckling up for the ride ahead. "Rogue, can you put up another barrier?"

The enviro-suit-clad woman shook her head wearily. "No can do, Arrows. Ah'd need to be in contact with Azrael some more, and if Ah do that, he'd have ta spend the rest of th' mission restin'." She slumped into her seat. "Besides, Ah'm still tired from holdin' up that Barrier."

He sighed. "In that case, rest up and get ready to head outside and crack some synthetic skulls. Your ability to fly and your super strength are an advantage we have over the geth. One that I plan to exploit." Rogue nodded, and buckled herself down, as well. "Azrael, you're our backup. If things start going south, you're taking Rogue's place outside while she gets back into the Mako." Malak nodded, and proceeded to rest some more.

A beep from my Omni-tool told me we were ready. I buckled myself down and said "We're good to go!"

With a feral grin, Steve started up the engine and cried out "BORN TO BE WIIIIIIIILLLD!"

The Mako lurched forward, sending Malak sprawling across the floor again (he forgot to buckle up). We made our way up the hill, not encountering any geth turrets for now. This gave Malak the chance to crawl back into his seat, wearily reaching for his seatbelt. Before he could buckle up, a rocket exploded in front of us, shaking Malak out of his seat again. "Whhyyyyyyyy?" he moaned in pain as he slid across the floor.

Steve looked back at Kaidan and yelled "I thought I asked you to give us a heads up, Elvis!"

Kaidan shook his head. "Sorry, sir, but I didn't pick up anything! The damn thing must be out of range of our sensors!"

A shot emanated from our main gun, soon followed by the sound of machinery exploding. Garrus showed his face and said "Thankfully, it wasn't out of firing range."

That earned a chuckle from all of us. "What would we do without you?"

Garrus shrugged. "Elvis," the turian said, "maybe you should expand the range of the Mako's sensors. If an enemy can ambush us because of our limited sensor equipment, then it's time to trade up."

"Noted," Kaidan said with a smile. "I'll be sure to put in a requisition order."

"Or," Steve said, "you could let one of three certain SPECTREs get a new sensor system that are top of the line. That sound good, LT?"

Chucking, Kaidan replied "Yes, sir."

"Alright, then," Malak said groggily, "so before we keep on going, can I please have the chance to buckle up? So that I don't continue to be thrown about like a rag doll?"

Thankfully for Malak, Steve was generous enough to give him enough time to strap himself in before he started driving again. A good thing, too, as we received a rocket impact halfway up the pathway. A few well placed shots later, the turret was toast. The same could be said for the last two turrets. From then on in, it was smooth sailing to the outpost.

As soon as we reached level ground, Kaidan groaned in frustration. "Damn! Our radar's being jammed!"

"We must be close to the outpost," I said nervously. Dammit, even though I've got back up and a freaking Mako on my side, I'm still scared about fighting geth.

"Okay, people," Steve said as he stood up, "we'll rest here for fifteen minutes. Take that time to get ready for bringing that outpost down to the scrap yard." We decided to take him up on that offer, with Garrus calibrating the main gun, Kaidan checking our weapons and equipment, and Malak just taking a nap. I, on the other hand, was wringing my hands nervously, not even sure what to do.

Rogue sensed my anxiety and placed a hand on my shoulder. "Don't worry," she said softly, "we'll be fine."

I tensed as soon as I realized her hand was on me, remembering what Malak looked like when Rogue touched him. She noticed this, and took her hand off. "Sorry," she said as she hung her head.

I realized I must have offended her, and quickly said "No, its fine. I'm, uh, I just thought about…um…"

"What I did ta Malak?" she finished.

I nodded. Rogue sighed and turned to me. "Yeah, I guess I shoulda warned y'all 'bout that. Y'see, Ah'm what's called a 'mutant,' a human born with special abilities. Each mutant is unique, as they have their own different power. Mah power…rather, mah curse…Ah'm able to absorb attributes from other people: strength, powers, personality, memories. All through simply skin contact."

I stared at her with widened eyes. "Keelah," I said breathlessly, "that's incredible!"

Rogue scoffed. "Yeah, right up 'til I hurt someone." I tilted my head, not understanding what she meant. "Mah touch," she continued, "it's deadly. Th' longer I touch someone, the more Ah take from 'em. Th' longer Ah hold on, th' more likely that person goes into a coma. Or worse."

The entire Mako is silent. It's only then that I realized everyone else was listening. And they heard everything. "So, if you held onto me any longer…" Malak began.

Rogue nodded. "Th' more likely Ah coulda killed you. That's why Ah wear this suit around others. To protect them from mahself."

Steve place his hand on her shoulder, his face filled with pain from knowing her plight. "So you seal yourself of from others. Not even letting them get close to you." She nodded sadly. Sighing, Steve continued "I can't even imagine what that does to a person."

"Th' best part, though," Rogue continued, "is that mutants are human till they hit puberty. At that point, their powers come out. Ah was able ta touch people before Ah turned 15. From then on, though…" She purposefully trailed off, the memories obviously too much for her. Turning to Malak, she said "Sorry about that little surprise, Azzy."

Malak simply shrugged. "It's okay. Just warn someone before you do that again, okay?" Rogue nodded, and sat down next to me. I couldn't help but feel sorry for her. She knew what it was like to actually feel a person's skin against her own, to touch them with worrying about someone getting hurt. To have it all taken away from her, to be thrust into a life of physical solitude…she probably has it worst off than my people do.

The rest of our allotted time was spent in silence. Our weapons were fully functional, the main gun was calibrated to Garrus' standards, and our armor was at one-hundred percent capacity. "Let's send these geth to the scrap heap," Steve said as he drove the Mako forward.

A few seconds later, the outpost came into view. It looked like a palisade, with sniper towers all around. The entrance was simply an open gap, leading into a barren space within. No hubs, no generators, no weapon caches. Not even a single ship. "Looks like we found this place just as it got finished getting set up," Garrus said as he looked through the scope.

The place was understaffed, with only five Rocket Troopers and a single Sniper in the front towers. Suddenly, they turned their attention to us, their weapons aimed in our direction. "It also doesn't look like they're ready to receive any guests."

"Ready or not," Steve said with some glee in his voice, "here we come. Sharp shot, take out the Sniper!" One shot later, the geth forces at this outpost were now down by one. "Thank you."

Don't mention it," Garrus replied.

At that point, taking out the rest of the geth was a "piece of cake" as humans would call it. When the last geth fell, we rolled into the outpost and stepped out of the Mako to see what we could salvage. Not surprisingly, there was little left that could be salvaged. Still, it seemed like it was a good enough haul for-

"What's that?" Rogue asked.

We gathered at where she was standing, and saw what she was looking at: it was a small communication module, designed to work for the geth. I knew this because I saw it before when I got the data that proved Saren's treachery. Thankfully, no one else seemed to know about what it was, which gave me an excuse to get some privacy.

"I'll go back to the Mako to study this," I said as I picked it up. "You guys can just finish up here." I walked back to the Mako, got inside, and closed the hatch. Good, I'm alone. Now to get to work.

I pulled out a few cords and an adaptor system from my pockets, and hooked them to the module. I then activated my suit's section seals for my left arm and began to take off my glove. I then pulled back my sleeve, fully exposing my left arm. The lights shined on the reflective surface of my arm as I plugged in the adaptor.

Yes, that's right. I plugged it into my arm. It helps when your arm is synthetic in origin. Especially if that synthetic arm is a geth's arm. Keelah, this is one of those time's I'm actually glad I have a geth arm. As I linked my suit's systems to the adaptor, I began to influence the programming left behind. Alright, my friend, let's see what you've seen.

And then, the world went white.

A dark room filled my vision, the lights barely illuminating the surroundings. Inside the room, three geth stand by an operating table, intently taking apart a device and studying it. A cloaked figure entered the room, then looked at the device.

"Finish up as soon as possible," said the cloaked figure. "The sooner we get this program delivered to Saren and Lord Nazara, the better." One of the geth nodded, speaking in the stuttering language the geth were known to speak. "I don't care how long it takes," the cloaked figure replied, "just get it done."

As the device was prodded, a tortured scream echoed in the room. Suddenly, a holographic figure, no bigger than six inches, appeared sprawled across the table. The figure was human in appearance, a female human to be precise. It was colored electric blue, with dark blue markings covering her arms and legs, with similar colored markings on her chest. She pushed her dark colored hair out of the way, revealing a beautiful face. Smirking, she wearily said "Is that the best you've got?"

The figure chuckled. "You're torture would have broken most A.I.s by now. How is it you can stay sane?"

Now the A.I. chuckled. "Please, I suffered worse torture before. Besides," she said with a playful smile, "who says I'm not insane?"

"In which case, you are the sanest insane A.I. that I've ever had the honor of meeting. As well as the smartest."

"Flatterer."

"I try." The figure walked around the A.I., studying it-her- like a predator would their prey. "You realize, program, that even you cannot resist forever."

Now the A.I. laughed. "I don't need to resist forever," she said. "I just need to resist until he comes to save me."

The figure stopped. "What makes you believe he's still alive?" he asked. "Or that he will even find you?"

She smiled. "He'll survive because he's the luckiest man I've ever known. He'll find me because once he makes a promise…he'll keep it."

The figure stared at her. With a wave of his hand, the geth went back to work. The A.I. screamed again. "And my name…isn't…program! It's…CORTANA!"

The figure looked back at her. He then pulled back his hood, revealing his face. A face that was somewhat human in appearance, but was mechanical. The head was purple, with a white-grey face and yellow eyes. "And mine is Stryker. Reverend William Stryker. And you, miss Cortana, whether you like it or not, will help the Lord rid this galaxy of its filth. His will be done."

The figure left, leaving Cortana writhing in pain, tears seeming to flow down her digital cheeks. As the memory faded out, Cortana uttered one last sentence.

"Chief…help me…"

Now I was surrounded by black mist, which seemed to move as if it were alive. There seemed to be a presence all around me, closing in on me. Whispers that were not quite there echoed in my ear. However, I paid them no attention, trying to figure out what was going on.

"You can ignore the whispers," said the voice of Stryker as it echoed around me. "How is this possible?"

I gripped my shotgun, which, oddly enough, was in here with me. "Come on out, bosh'tet, and we'll see if you can ignore a shotgun to the head."

"Your threats do nothing here, lost soul. I am under the Lord's protection."

"Your 'Lord' seems to be a fucked up individual."

The form of Striker materialized before me. His purple body towered over me, eyes burrowing into my soul. "You are lucky to have the demon's protection over you in this realm," he said steadily with an undertone of rage, "or else I would have you reduced to ashes where you stood."

I struggled to regain my cool, difficult seeing as I was looking at a synthetic that could wipe me out with a stomp. "Please, your nothing but a machine. And machines can be broken."

"I am no mere machine," Stryker said. "I am a prophet. A humble servant of Lord Nazara, alongside Saren."

"Who's Nazara?" I asked. "What does he have to do with Saren?"

Stryker chuckled. "His kind are the eternal angels of evolution. They are the humble servants of the Lord. They transcend time itself. They are…Reapers."

My heartbeat quickened. "Saren...serves a Reaper?" I asked incredulously. "How is that possible?"

"When you and the demon speak to Lord Nazara, you will begin to know the Will. Until then…" he raised his hand and pointed it at me. "Begone."

And the world faded to white once more.

"Oh, and tell Rogue I said hello."

I woke up in a cold sweat. Breathing quickly, I unplugged myself from the module and threw it to the ground. I sat down in the seat, attempting to wrap my head around what I heard. Then I heard thumping at the hatch. "Tali! Open the damn door!"

I hurried to the hatch and opened it, allowing everyone to scramble inside as an explosion resounded next to the Mako. As everyone got into their positions, I looked out side to see what got them so spooked.

A geth Colossus stood in the outpost, looking right at us.

Well, that would explain it.

Then hell broke loose.

About ten minutes of driving around and shooting (difficult shooting, due to Steve's driving) later, the Colossus lay as a sparking, dead piece of junk. This allowed everyone to breath more easily. "Well," Kaidan said, "that went well."

"Yeah," Garrus agreed. "We were lucky to have this old girl on our side, huh?" he said as he patted the Mako.

As everyone laughed, Rogue looked at me, obviously seeing the stress in my body. "What's wrong now?" she asked.

I looked up at her. "Does the name Reverend William Stryker mean anything to you?"

THE PLOT THICKENS!

How will Rogue react to the news of William Stryker still being alive? How will Master Chief react to the news of Cortana still being alive? How does Stryker and Cortana fit into the Reaper's plan? Find our later in…AmalgaverseEffect!

(Author's Note: Just so you know, Stryker is from the Ultimate Marvel universe, while Rogue is from X-Men Evolution. And for those who noticed, Stryker's body IS what the Sentinels will look like in the movie "X-Men: Days of Future Past." I know that's not what his Sentinel body looked like in the Ultimate universe. Deal with it.)

Anyway, please review and comment!

AND NO FLAMES!