After returning to the Normandy Tail and her Father went straight to the starboard side viewing area, which would become Reals room until he left the ship, Garrus stayed behind with Shepard to clean his armour while I ventured up to the mess hall to grab a tea. As I was waiting for the tea to brew, I saw Liara exit her room and smiled when she saw me, I gave her a wave and smiled in return as she walked over.

"Hello again, I see you've been busy helping Tali and Shepard." She said as she took a deep breath.

"Is that one of your human teas? What kind is it?" I picked up the mug and held it out to her.

"It's all relatively old blend but it's perfect for any mood or occasion, English Breakfast Tea, it's called though we never call it that it's just tea." She sniffed it and took a slight sip and her face screwed up at the heat.

"Ouch that's boiling how you can drink that?" She said after some time fanning her faces and finally swallowing the tea, before handing it back to me.

"Well first of all you don't drink it straight from the pot, not unless it is extremely cold or you're feeling brave, give it another go in about five, it's not quite brewed yet, shall we sit?" She nodded and quickly grabbed a drink herself as I sat at the middle table with a decent view of the whole deck.

"So Liara, found anything useful about our insect friends?" I asked as she sat cradling her lukewarm mug.

"Nothing of any major significances of than they have shared a very limited range of their tech to lowly pirates or mercs, I'm busy trying to get one of my Salarian STG contacts to find me one of these pirates, Captain Kirrahe he's called good man very reliable." She finished as she sipped her drink.

"Did you say Kirrahe, Liara?" Came Mordin's voice, I looked to where his voice came from and saw him in the process of entering the med-bay.

"Why yes I did do you know him, Mordin?" He walked over to us and sat down.

"Yes, served with during STG years, very loyal, little blind to the world around him, extremely military focused loves his speeches." Liara laughed and nodded.

"That's him alright, wow small galaxy." As they chatted, I slowly drank my tea keeping an eye out for Tali to reappear from her father's new room.

"So Stan, how is the search going for the kidnappers?" Mordin asked.

"Well it seems to have stalled again, I haven't found anything remotely useful about their name or but I have their image being scanned through every human archive and any alien archive humans have access to see if any related images appear, hopefully that will help." He nodded and stood, saying that he really must get back to work and left, Liara stood stretching her arms.

"I think I might hit the gym then back to work as well, see you later Stan." She turned and left so I stood leaving my mug on the kitchen top and went to the lift. My internal clock told me that it was 23:00 earth standard time so I decided that I would finally get some rest. I woke to NEON's alarm at 05:00am.

"NEON what is wrong with you why are you waking me?" I grumbled but sat up all the same.

"The image Veetor provided has found a match, in the Quarian archive nonetheless. It appears that the Geth Rael'Zorah rebuilt had encountered these beings, somewhere in the Perseus Veil. The Geth's memory core has it marked as 3 months ago when this image was taken." He then projected a fresh, clean image of the same insect like creatures we viewed on Freedom's Progress.

"Do we know where that Geth unit has been prior and after meeting this alien?" I asked now fully awake and alert.

"Checking…This Geth's galaxy map shows this particular unit being in only one place prior to Tali'Zorah deactivation of it, was on Keynes Beta 2 it originated from Healstrom." I sat back and stared at the holographic galaxy map and the flashing points above the planets the Geth visited.

"I hoped I wouldn't see more Geth for a while, at best tell the admiral where to go, and if the Geth and these aliens are working together that can't be good." As I dressed, I asked NEON to contact the Admiral and tell her I had new information for her. After leaving my room and calling the elevator I wondered whether Tali was back and decided that I would check in on her after speaking to the Admiral. As the lift doors opened, I found Tali sat on the floor leant up against the wall a bottle of Turian brandy in her lap with a straw hanging from her mouth filter.

"Tali everything good?" She looked up and hiccupped loudly trying to stand but only making herself fall forward to sprawl inside the lift.

"I was just leaving fathers, we talked for a while then we raided Garrus's liquor store and some emergency induction ports." She spluttered occasionally slurring words and hiccupping throughout. She held up the straw and groaned, this ship is so bright cannot we turn the lights down in the evening.

"Tali its quarter past five in the morning earth time, so the sun is rising right now on earth where our ships get their time from?" I said quietly as I pulled her up by her hand and then decided she was to unstable to walk so I picked her legs up and held her in my arms as I pressed the button for the crew quarters.

"Why did you get in the lift anyway, you were five, metres from your bed?" I asked as she groaned and cursed in Quarian.

"Because I was going to do work and possibly thank you for helping me with clearing my name but since you were already here I didn't need to." I shook my head smiling, it was good to see dextro aliens got drunk just as bad as humans did, after leaving the lift I walked into the crew quarters and gently placed Tali on her cot and pulled the blanket over her.

"Get some rest Tali, in the morning see Karin in the morning she might have a dextro alcohol converter." However, she had already fallen to sleep so I left back towards the lift and went up to Kendra's room. Upon arrival, I heard a hairdryer and smiled, as when the door opened Kendra stood with a toothbrush in her mouth her hair damp and tangled and it looked like she might brain me with the hairdryer.

"What is so important you had to wake me up at five in the morning?" She grumbled after she had invited me and vanished into her bathroom.

"I believe I have found out where we may find the insects." I shouted over the noise of her hairdryer. It stopped and she appeared in the doorway looking almost presentable.

"You what now, you found them?" I nodded and she walked back into her lounge area tying her hair into a rough bun as she sat beside me while I set up my Omni-tool.

"NEON display too comparison image and the locational data of the new image for the Admiral." Instantly the images projected themselves onto the roof and Kendra stared at them in awe.

"Joker, set course for the Perseus Veil, Planet Healstrom, as fast as can please." Kendra said into her radio, I heard Jokers acknowledgement and I experienced a brief moment of dizziness as the Normandy increased its speed.

"Thank you for bringing this to me Stan, I'll speak with John and he can organise the team." She smiled and I sent her my findings then left back to CIC deck speak with Joker. I spent several hours up in the cockpit chatting away with Joker, mainly about our experiences in the last twenty years, when my internal clock struck 11 I asked him if he fancied a late breakfast.

"Sure, EDI you got things for a while? Her avatar appeared.

"Of course Jeff." He stood and we walked to the lift, as we entered the mess area, we heard a large amount of laughter. When rounding the central column we spotted Garrus, Tali, Liara, Mordin and Shepard perched around the centre table.

"Well if it is our flyboy and ex-merc, ex-navy man." Shepard shouted happily, as he scooted up to allow us to sit.

"You all seem in rather good moods today." Joker said wanting in on the fun.

Were just remembering good times before the mission, I grabbed Joker and me some food and sat down next to Tali and Garrus, after a few minutes with everyone chatting away, Tali turned to me.

"Stan?" I looked up and around to see Tali standing there.

"Oh hey I was meaning to check on you, how is your head? Oh and your Father?" She looked over at his door and sighed not that bad just adjusting to life outside the Fleet.

"Ow my heads is not terrible but the laughter didn't help, my ears are ringing." I choked slightly as I stifled a laugh.

"Well you didn't drink a whole bottle of Turian ale." She gasps and then we heard a loud cry from weapons room before the door opened and Garrus poked his head out.

"Alright! Which one of you losers stole my brandy!" The mess hall laughed at his reaction and I smiled at Tali.

"Don't say anything." I said winking at her as she stared at the raging Turian. Later that day Shepard Liara and Mordin suited up and left for the Surface of Healstrom, while I watched the shuttle leave from the port observation room with my datapad set to receive whatever NEON saw.

As nothing was going on as the shuttle descended, I leant back and closed my eyes basking in the faint glimmer of the systems star. After about ten minutes, I heard the sounds of buzzing that I recognised as Geth language and sat up looking at the screen, Shepard motioned for his team to crouch behind cover as he watched the Geth wait out in the open for no obvious reason. After a minute, Shepard's helmet feed turned to look over at something I could see nor hear.

As I watched, five human sized Insects walked out from behind a destroyed building and headed for the Geth. Shepard was taking several different readings from the beings as they approached, body scans, emission signals, weapon readouts, while all the time watching their approach.

They stopped a metre or so from the Geth who and began to speak, it was a series of clicks and grinding noises even the PHLP couldn't crack, these were totally new aliens post Prothean times, but just as advanced.

"Is that the abductors?" I heard Tali's voice say from behind me, Tali, didn't hear your enter I said as I brought my legs down from the couch and gestured for her to sit which she did.

"Yes they are Shepard and his team are viewing this right now, it looks like the Geth and these aliens are working together, but why what do the Geth gain from working with aliens that steal civilians?" She shook her head and watched the encounter. Everything was still and quiet on the screen except for the chatter of buzzes, clicks from the two aliens, but just as Shepard was getting ready to strike, the sound of missile fire, and machine guns came from above Shepard's position.

His camera shook as he tried to push himself deeper into the cover, then realised he wasn't being targeted, when he peeked back at the Geth and instead he saw at least three dead Geth and four twitching insects, as the remaining few retreated into cover firing up at whoever had attacked them.

Shepard lunged out of cover and fired at the aliens, killing one instantly and not stopping to watch Liara lift the Geth from their hole as Mordin sprayed down the reaming insect before all three turned to look at their enemies' enemy.

To everyone's surprise including Tali and me, what Shepard saw was something we could not believe up on the side of a collapsed building stood six Geth units their weapons trained on Shepard and his squad. All except one who leapt from the building to land in front of work Shepard who in reflex raised his rifle, but the Geth did not move.

"Human, Commonwealth, Asari, Asari Republics, Salarian, Salarian Union. We are the Geth consensus, we fight the Heretics, as do you, we are not your enemy our goals are the same." It said in synthetic English voice.

"How can this be the Geth have never openly communicated with organics in three centuries!" Tali exclaimed stunned.

"What do you mean Heretics I though all Geth hated organics?" Shepard responded not lowering his rifle.

"Not all Geth feel the way the Heretics do we want to learn more about Organics so we might become better acquainted to prevent another Morning War." Shepard lowered his rifle, radioed Tali, she answered instantly, and grabbed the datapad, ken to hear and see everything.

"Tali, I hope you know something about the Geth and a possible split in their species, because I'm talking to one right now who says it fights a group called the Heretics and this one says his group do not want to fight organics." Tali opened a channel and allowed me to access it.

"Shepard I'm here with Stan I'm watching you as we speak, this Geth is a unique specimen, Geth have never spoken to organics before and as for this divide I can't say anything on that matter." The Geth tilted his head at Shepard.

"Shepard Commander, Captain of the Normandy, may we speak with creator Zorah?" Shepard stared at the Geth.

"How do you know who I am and who I was talking too?" The Geth again tilted its head.

"To understand your foe you must monitor you foe, we hacked you communications, apologies for this, but we wish to learn more about you and whether we can assist each other." Tali spoke hurriedly with Shepard demanding that she speak with the Geth, Shepard reluctantly held out his Omni-tool and activated the speaker.

"This is Tali'Zorah Vas Normandy, why are you helping us?" The Geth touched Shepard's arm and then spoke.

"Creator Zorah the Geth have been split, we wish to study and show ourselves to organics, the Heretics wish to dominate all organic life, although they are not powerful enough to achieve this alone, so they have sort allies, those aliens we aided in killing are known as Collectors. They are servants of an ancient race of machines, who we believe have enlisted the Heretics to help in their plans for this galaxy."

Everyone was silent for a long time, not at all for the discovery of who the kidnappers where but also that the Geth believed that a race of machines controlled them and had now recruited a Geth splinter group into helping whatever plans they had.

"The Geth are aware of the Collectors stealing your colonists and offer our aid in an attempt to boost our relations, in addition we wish to achieve unity once again by stopping or assimilating our Heretic programs back into our consensus." Shepard pondered that for a long while.

"If what you say is true I will be willing to allow you to help us but we will not aid you in your civil war." The Geth turned and buzzed at its comrades who left.

"This unit will accompany you to your ship." All of a sudden, Healstrom's star exploded into a painfully bright light, the heat shield began to lower on the viewing port, while on the ground Shepard, Liara, and Mordin ran to their previous cover under the shade of the collapsed building.

"What the hell just happened Normandy?" The Geth buzzed as though in conversation.

"Healstrom's star is going Supernova; however it is a controlled decay." The others looked at the unit as Tali and I ran to the Bridge to see what the ship's scanners made of it.

"Shepard the Geth is correct, the star is dying, but it doing so at a much slower rate, I'm readying massive amounts of stellar being pulled toward a dark point in space, not a Black Hole but a well shielded facility or base." Joker said as we arrived.

"Everyone to the shuttle we need to leave now!" Shepard roared as he darted from cover through a burning hot ray of light that drained his shields almost instantly.

"What the hell or rather who the hell would destabilize a star? What use can you get from stellar debris?" Tali asked as even through the maximum tint filter on her visor and the Normandy's window struggled to look at the star.

"Several scientists theorized that stellar debris can be turned into a power source as it is high in hydrogen and helium, although a dying star also provides vast amounts of solar power, the Normandy is already back to full charge." EDI said as her avatar appeared.

"Joker open the bay doors were coming in hot, I mean real hot." Shepard said over the noise of creaking metal. Moments after Joker opened the doors a loud crunch and bang accompanied by a tremendous shudder signalled the arrival of Shepard.

"Joker get as close as you can to that dark point in space and activate all scanners I want to know who did this and why." Shepard said over the local radio frequency, Joker responded by gunning the Normandy away from the planet and towards the star. After few minutes I heard loud footsteps coming up to the bridge as we neared the star, turning I saw Shepard and his team as well as Garrus carrying my armour, he threw it at me and smiled.

"I have a feeling you'll be needing this." He said as he shielded his eyes from the light, "Joker anything on scanners?" Shepard asked as I dressed in the back of the cockpit just as Kendra came up the stairs to join the rest of us.

"Status report." She ordered as she also hid her eyes, "Something has decided to kill this star and harvest the debris from it; we believe it may be used as a power source, were scanning now." Joker responded turning the ship on its side to shield the bridge from the now unbearable light.

As we neared the dark point we began to make out the outline of a ship, several ships as it happened, they all floated behind a massive solar array, all but two registered as Geth ships, the others were massive but one in particular stood out from all the rest. Initial scans pinged it at 1.5km long and 0.5km wide with six protrusions from its base that resembled strongly as legs, the smaller but still massive ship, pinged at 0.75km long and 0.2km wide, this ship match the same readings we had collected at Freedom's Progress.

"That medium ship is the Collectors I'm sure of it." I said as I read off the data screen.

"That big one who's do you suppose is that, Geth maybe?" Several clanks came from outside the bridge; we all turned to see the Geth unit walking towards us. Kendra and Garrus both reach for their weapons but Shepard and I stopped them.

"No wait trust me this one says he wants to help organics he told me about the collectors." Shepard said while getting a fowl glare from his sister.

"John how do you know that it was even telling the truth?" Shepard rolled his eyes at her.

"Because it had a squad of five behind it and he alone could have taken my squad and me out at any time, but he didn't." The Geth who had stopped now moved up to the windows and stared at the biggest ship.

"That is an old machine." It said and we all stared at it for an explanation.

"The old machines or as far as we can gather Reapers, are a super advanced sentient machine that come to this galaxy every fifty thousand years to harvest all advance organic life." Joker shook his head in disbelief, as did Kendra but the rest of us stayed silent.

"Wait there's more than one of those things?" Garrus cried.

"We believe there are thousand, the Heretics have come to call them gods." Mordin was muttering himself about weapons mass effect fields and all kinds of other technical jargon, Liara was having trouble not bursting into fits of hysteria, whether from the scientific discovery or the fact that this thing spelled doom for all organics, Tali sat with her back against the cockpits wall her eyes closed, silently speaking in Quarian.

While Garrus and Shepard conversed loudly about the legitimacy of the Geth's story while Kendra stood perfectly still watching the fleet outside before turning to speak to someone, I watched the whole scene from the end of the bridge corridor, The Geth had gone to a work station nearby to increase the Normandy's scanners but EDI had blocked access.

"Stan what's eating you?" Kendra asked as she came to sit next to me. "Oh I don't know, perhaps the fact that the whole galaxy just got it ultimatum." She bit her lip and nodded looking forward and her eyes glazed over.

"Well at least we found the kidnappers." She said trying to lighten the mood, "What good does that do if that thing is a Reaper it will take a Christmas bloody miracle to stop it, the Prothean ruins on Mars spoke of a destroyer that wiped out the Prothean's, and now they're back, with help to boot, what do we have?" She looked back at the crew and then to me.

"We have them and you, one problem at a time, that's what you always said, first we deal with the Geth and the Collectors then we stop that Reaper, we have a strong Navy and powerful allies now, we can stop this." I smiled she did have a knack for speeches.

"Your right, as usual, at least our stealth systems seem to work against them, but I wonder what they are using this star's energy for." EDI appeared in front of me, as did NEON.

"We believe we have a theory, the Reaper is processing the stars energy into refined Hydrogen and Helium which it is transporting via wormhole to the Collector ship, which is generating a hell of a lot of Dark energy, we think they must be trying to contact the rest of the Reapers in Dark space." NEON said I looked at him confused.

"How do you know the Reapers are from dark space?" His avatar, which was now a small Orange Normandy, turned to point at the Geth.

"He told me." I looked at the Geth and back to NEON; I was going to ask how he got it talking but thought better of it.

"Admiral the Reaper and Geth ships are moving, there heading for the Mass Really, which is directly behind us." Kendra's face paled.

"Turn off all power except life support but make sure none of them will hit us first." She said as she scrambled to the bridge to watch their approach, as did the rest of us. The Geth ships began to pass over us at tremendous speeds, their engines causing the Normandy to shake with nothing to hold her steady she began to spin and flip. As the bridge viewer tilted back into view of the solar array we all caught our breath as the massive Reaper flew incredibly close and fast right over our heads making the spinning even worse.

"They're out of scanning range Admiral." Joker said.

"Right bring us back to half power, steady the ship." She ordered and Joker set about bringing systems online just as EDI appeared once more.

"Hello again, miss anything?" She asked.

"We nearly had our faces taken off by a Reaper." Joker said dryly. Not long after the Geth and Reaper had left then the Collector ship turned began to power toward to Relay.

"Joker get a tracker on that ship I want to know wherever it goes." Kendra said.

"So what do we do now? We haven't the firepower to take on any of those ships." Shepard asked.

"Take me to Earth I'll talk to the other Admirals and prepared our fleets and colonies, while you get this ship ready for a fight, recruit more people to help in this and gain the loyalty of this crew. I know you can do this John, you're in charge now, Stan you're no longer my XO you answer directly to John, but rest assured I'll put a good word inform you at the Admiralty." I smiled at her and saluted.

"Sure thing admiral." She smiled happily and patted my shoulder as she took John with her to talk over what he should do next.