Halo belongs to 343 Industries and Mass Effect belongs to BioWare.


Whether to just shoot the guy, tech him, or come up with something more colourful was usually as far as his thoughts went for slavers and criminals, not the why and when they did what they were doing, but the chatter amongst the Quarians was beginning to make a certain kind of sense as Garrus watched them scurrying around the growing salvage piles.

Chatter about how they had recently outstripped humans as the most sought after slave pool.

Some Batarian big shot, known only as Domo, had somehow clawed his way to the top of the Hegemony's biggest unofficial business and had left ideology and caste concerns behind.

The often out-dated, salvaged, and unregistered nature of the ships and technology used in the Terminus made most Council engineers useless, but Quarians were another matter.

As Garrus watched them in action, it was easy to see the cold, hard reality of Domo's new direction. The downed Kowloon freighter they'd found on this frozen, backwater planet was being fileted in front of him with no heavy equipment at all, just a thousand precise swipes from a handful of omni-tools and tool carts.

At night, in the midst of a snow fall and just a handful of flood lights to illuminate their work, it was all coming together at a speed any Turian engineer would be impressed by.

That this old space crate was already pillaged from years earlier hadn't fazed the them as they set to work, and their sensibility was growing more and more apparent as the piles of wiring, insulation, and every other component became larger and larger. This was currency in the Terminus, with its monetary and exchange system as adhoc as everything else in its unregulated glory.

"Beautiful sight, huh?" Kal' Reegar stepped up beside Garrus, taking a quick break from his perimeter patrol. "Give them another hour, even the superstructure will be in bite sized pieces."

"And it's not just what they're doing, but how they're going about it. They don't have to say anything to each other to work." Garrus shifted his weapon to his other hand as he tried to flex the cold out of his talons. "With what I've been hearing, working on Anvil isn't much more dangerous for the Quarians then any other trip into the Terminus lately."

"Yeah, you heard right. Raids on the patrolling craft, or people just not returning from their Pilgrimage, we've lost more people in the last seven months then in the last fourteen years. First time in our history that it's been encouraged to do your Pilgrimage in a group. And then the whole Flotilla is sandwiched between the Attican Traverse and Outer Council space hoping that the Heavy Fleet mixed with the Council patrols will keep everyone but the craziest away." Kal' Reegar was happy to find a sympathetic ear, but the conversation would have to wait as both their two-ways crackled to life.

"Vakarian, Garrus. Nine unidentified aircraft inbound to your position, and a further eight inbound to the second salvage area. ETA three minutes." Legion's modulator clicked in, breaking his radio silence from his mountain-top over watch to the south. "Local air support insufficient to defend dual locations. Ascension notified and sending support. ETA for Kodiaks seven minutes."

"This is Kal' Reegar to all teams, rendezvous inside the Kowloon in one minute, we have raiders inbound!" Kal' Reegar wasted no time getting his people to safety. "Team Bravo, what's your situation?"

"I'm moving everyone to a nearby rock formation, but it won't be enough against an air assault!" Tali replied. "Requesting air support for Bravo's location!"

Garrus pulled Legion's input up on his omni. Positioning him as an over-watch wasn't exactly welcoming him into the fold, but he was a perfect specimen for the task.

"Garrus?" Kal' Reegar looked to him as they both waved the salvage teams into the wreck; the air coordination for their four gunships had been left to him… and two Quarians trying to avoid another Haestrom. "How in the hell did Tin Can know they were coming before us?"

"Legion, direct our gunships to the second location and set up a firebase to give us cover. Inbound Kodiaks to remain at 10 000 feet until situation is resolved. All units report in once you're in place. Somebody get those flood lights turned off!"

Garrus adjusted his eye piece as they last two Quarians scurried behind the Kowloon's bulkhead. Seeing where all the friendlies would take a back seat to getting a read on the gunships' status.

Reegar and his marines would be a match for most enemies in close quarters, but not in wide open spaces without any heavy weaponry. Tali and her detachment were in the same boat. Even with the asari air support the odds were against them.

"Alpha and Bravo teams, with is Ai'shee Val of Third Escort, we're holding at 10 000 feet and… uhm…" the Asari helmsman fumbled on her words over the radio. "and reporting that the Master Chief made his way onboard and is offering assistance."

Damn it… if we had just brought him planet side. And why isn't Jay'em with him? Garrus grumbled.

"Remain there; it's not safe for a ground deployment. What's the ETA on getting more gunships?" Garrus replied.

"Scrambling now. Perhaps fifteen minutes."

"Do they know we're going to be dead in ten minutes?" Reegar chimed in.

"We'll hold out the best we can. Everyone to positions." Garrus keeping his voice calm. "Reegar, get everyone to shore up every opening and hatch other than the port side entrance. They'll channel themselves trying to get in or break people off the assault to make a breach."

"Ain't that pounding nails into our own coffin? How are we supposed to get out if they open up with heavy weapons?"

"Nobody would attack scavengers hoping to score big on salvage… they're slavers. They won't shoot up their pay day. Expect krogan, or at least vorcha, on their assault team."

The krogan and vorcha were the only species strong enough, or stupid enough, to go close quarters like this with an enemy for cheap; killing an opponent is a breeze compared to capturing him.

Reegar started barking orders as Garrus walked back to the Kowloon's hatch, his monocle painting a picture of the dark inside; Quarian marines lining the walkway with weapons at the ready, individual shield and health tags projecting each soldier's vitae in Garrus's HUD… and all their hearts were racing.

This was the only line of defense they had for the fifty salvagers tucked behind the secondary door; A Spectre candidate, a Quarian team leader and twelve of his marines, and a next generation Geth providing cover in the cliffs to the south.

Come to think of it, this would've made for a wicked public relations vid.

Garrus looked into the swirl of the snow from their make shift bunker as Kal Reegar finally stepped inside, and the team leader wasted no time walking the black corridor, slapping shoulders and talking bravado.

Not something seasoned fighters would need, but for a bunch of greenhorns away from the Fleet for the first time, it was just what was needed.

Small dots of light began to shine behind the wall of snowfall, the dim flickering of their search lights becoming more and more pronounced as the gunships sped forward, the scream of their engines finally piercing the storm's wind as they closed in.

"Engaging." Legion's voice clicked in a heartbeat before a gunship's search light jerked violently to the right, the blue flash shining off its hull betraying Legion's use of phasic ammunition to strip away their shielding.

Two thruster sets erupted into an after-burn instantly, powering two gunships away from their flight group to deal with this unseen threat, their jet wash shaking the Kowloon as they tore overhead and into the cliffs.

"Good work, Tin Can." Reegar chuckled into his radio.

Garrus might have smiled at the comment if the other seven ships weren't inbound, five of which were now forming into an extended line in front of the others. Five gunships for cover fire, two troop transports in echelon. By the Spirits, he wanted to see more than just their search lights out in the snowfall. Just knowing the ships' make and dimensions would give him a chance to estimate their troop capacity and fire power, and by default a rough guess on their tactics.

"Get ready for it!" Garrus yelled down the hallway as the first search light shone directly on the entry hatch.

The high pitched trill of high velocity shards chewing away at the hull and crashing into the hatch floor drowned out any other sound and the Quarians pushed themselves even harder against the bulk head, with only Kal' Reegar standing beside Garrus, feigning indifference to hail of gunfire .

Garrus wasn't seeing the damage from these rounds that he knew they could produce; the gunship was using reduced shells to keep this suppressing fire from killing anyone.

"Alright boys, the moment his fire stops, they're gonna be all over us! Shotguns up front, rifles behind, MOVE!" Reegar's orders barely making it through the squeal of pelted metal around them.

Garrus felt the click-click-click of his HWSR unfurl as he set his thermal clips up to the left of the door for his rifle. Any book on CQB doctrine would decry mixing assault and sniper rifles and say to bring out the shotguns, but that's not how he worked.

His fine motor skills would go out the door like everyone else's if he just shoved an area weapon at an enemy and pulled the trigger… sizing up the attackers, making each shot count, and make each of those shots land exactly where they were needed is how his situational awareness stayed perfect. Each shot was a thought, not a reaction.

The last shell sounded on the hull in time to meet the ascending screams of vorcha charging towards them, their shadows finally breaking the spotlight as they reached the door.

The thump of Garrus's high explosive shell sent a ripple of pressure through entire hallway as the vorcha it had struck flew backwards in chunks and knocked his clan brothers backwards, the assault's momentum faltering slowly as the next group tried stepping around the first assault wave.

"Suppressing fire!" Kal' Reegar stepped full in to the entry hatch as he and his marines opened up, the chk-chk-boom of their shotguns either returning a cry of pain or silencing one. Garrus slid his own rifle into the fray and put several bursts into a pair of pyros bringing up the rear, his monocle painting their silhouettes against the still blinding spot light.

The flickering of impacted eezo fields fluttered to life as the gunship opened up on the Quarians, trying to clear the entrance as the vorcha withdrew. Garrus pulled Kal' Reegar to his side of the entrance as the marines darted to the other side. Their shields were reduced but they were unharmed from what their tags were signalling.

"This was a recon by attack, gentlemen. The real meat's gonna be in the next wave, so fresh clips in all fired weapons." Garrus popping a new clip himself as the wall of bullets kept coming through the hatch inches from his busy talons.

No armour, shields, or covering fire; obviously rookies cutting their teeth to impress the boss. One look at those vorcha's injuries they'll know our weapon mods and any specialty ammo… and the only one I hit with the HE shot is a guaranteed kill… and even the ones injured won't be for long and they aren't a tactical asset to an experienced group of raiders. Garrus rolled the situation through his head as the marines returned to their start positions.

This was just beginning.

The hail of bullets stopped cold. Every soldier squeezed the butt of their weaponry into their shoulder a little harder as they waited for the cascade of raiders to hit the door, each weapon barrel levelled at the entry… for nothing to happen.

The spotlight was still directed at the door, but there was no rush of troops or cover fire. Were they trying to lure them out? Was the next team in the line of fire?

The hollow 'thump' of a low velocity slug being fired sounded outside, and the question of what was happening was answered as a fat projectile clumsily banged through the door and began discharging aerosol.

"Thermobaric!" Garrus yelled as he charged towards the marines with Kal' Reegar. He knew they'd have no idea what was coming.

The aerosol transformed into white light as it ignited, knocking the entire team backwards as the pressure wave ripped down the hallway as each wisp of chemical in the air ignited. Even as he crashed backwards Garrus could feel its heat pop his shielding and singe his scales through all his insulated layers.

Garrus flopped on his back as the flash burn sunk deeper into his flesh, hearing the screams of Quarians as they rolled on the ground, their face plating now molten shards burned into their faces. The curse of them only excelling at star side combat had undone them again; no one would dare us a high pressure-wave weapon in a ship's vacuum-sealed environment, so no hope of them knowing how to counter for one.

Where had his weapons gone? He felt around on the floor for them, but was only finding debris and random equipment pieces from the marines.

He had hoped to cover the Quarians when he dove on them, but he feared he might have done them more harm than good as he looked up from where he had landed. Just as the vorcha that had taken the HE shot, he had just been blown over the entire detachment and landed behind them, knocking over the marines the pressure wave hadn't.

"Marines! Sound off!" Kal' Reegar yelled while still huddled on the floor. He'd been thrown just as far as Garrus, and trying to gather himself as he checked his omni for his squad's status, the smoke filled hallway denying him any visual confirmation.

At least he'd stopped the heat wave from reach some of them, but the pain and blur of Garrus's eyes made him feel the price he had just paid for it.

Precision shooting was out of the question now, with these flash burned eyes of his. The pressure wave wasn't affecting his aural diaphragm as much as it would a human with their easily burst eardrums, and he thanked the spirits for that as he heard the unmistakable rumble of krogan boots shuffling on the metal floor.

"On your feet soldiers! ON YOUR FEET!" Kal' Reegar yelled as he dragged himself off the floor with help of a wall support. "THEY'RE COMING FOR YOU!"

It was too late as the first marines were dragged away, most unaware of their predicament in the haze of the bomb's over-pressure and their shrapnel peppered faces. One marine dared to stand up in the dissipating haze and was instantly knocked back down by a concussive shot, the two krogan providing cover for the seizing party still making sure unnecessary casualties didn't cut into their profits.

"HEY! OVER HERE!" Kal' Reegar pulled his boot knife and marched towards one of the krogan in front of him. "Put the toy down and show me what you got, HUMP! YOU'RE MINE!"

Kal' Reegar was unarmed and as dazed as the rest of men still writhing on the floor, but his stride betrayed no hesitation as he closed with the krogan. That was certainly one way of buying his marines time to rally themselves.

But neither was there hesitation from his adversary as he tossed his shotgun aside with a laugh.

Swatting off his partner's attempt to grab him, the seven hundred pounds of krogan let the blood rage consume him as he tore head long at the Quarian upstart to his front, only to have his targeted pushed aside and have a turian standing in its place.

Garrus let the rampaging reptile catch him square in the chest as his talons grabbed the top of its helmet while his heel struck the krogan's right knee, their backward momentum instantly crashing into the ground.

The krogan's massive bulk caught on the pivot Garrus had made of his helmet as they tumbled over completely. Garrus kicked himself backwards as the omni-blade slid out of his gauntlet's micro-fabricator; its nanometer width slicing into the krogan's neck coiling easily as the two of them finally skidded to a halt. And with one twist, the minute incision began gushing orange blood and spinal fluid as Garrus pushed himself off his paralyzed quarry.

"And… that still hurt." Garrus feeling his ribs scream in pain. He knew his plate armour had more integrity then Kal' Reegar's composite suit, but getting steamrolled doing this was inevitable.

Two snarls sounded from the entrance and then they quickly clamoured towards him, the remaining krogan steeping aside as his two pets sped forward to handle this problem for him without any more personal risk… varren.

Well trained varren, besides, as the first of them clamped its dripping teeth onto his right gauntlet as the second one bit into his left calf. Shooting hand pinned, and the second creature clutching on the opposing leg to keep him unbalanced. Classic neutralization; all that krogan had to do now was walk up and use a stun baton.

Garrus's free hand skittered over the ground for anything to gouge in the varren's eye, feeling the press-studs of his under suit crack as the varrens' torque popped the suit's framework from the hard shell. It would be his own tendons being ripped if he couldn't get at least one of them off shortly.

Garrus saw a blurry outline clamour besides him as a marine went for the varren holding his arm.

A wide Quarian thumb shot into the varren's nostril and twisted, tilting the animal's head just enough to one side to squeeze a shotgun between its teeth.

"EAT THIS!" The marine screamed as he pulled the trigger, a plume of orange blood spraying from the back of the varren's head instantly.

Another marine was one his feet and feeding shot after shot into the second varren with his sidearm as it dragged Garrus down the hallway, unaware of just how much damage a varren's folded hide could withstand. A carnage burst ripped into its head as the first marine shifted fire, his experience dealing with these beasts clear as the shot landed under the varren's neck flap.

Garrus pulled his blood-splattered foot from out of its mouth and got to his feet, feeling his torso plating shift as it hung from the handful of fastening points left.

"Reegar? How many?" Garrus picked up an abandoned assault rifle as he limped towards the entrance, intent on letting the raiders know there was still some bite left in this squad. "How many?"

"Seven… they got seven. With what's left, three are down with facial trauma and probably infection in a few more minutes. My last two can at least pull a trigger while we're waiting on air support." Kal' Reegar sluggishly made his way to Garrus at the entrance. "Injured will go back in the hold with the salvage team once they get first-aid, and we'll stagger my last two down the hall if anyone gets past us."

"Just like old times." Garrus muttered as he tried to raise Tali on the radio. "The second group of slavers must be jamming the second sight, Third Escort. Any means to break through it on your end? Or can you even give us a sitrep?"

"Windfire Wing reports they're keeping the slaver gunships at bay but the troop transports broke off and are on a heading of 2-7-0."

"Then they're heading for us! Tell the Ascension to scramble any craft available for a star-side intercept! They're going to do a cut-and-run here while Windfire is held up at Tali's position! What about reinforcements?"

"Still ten minutes out. I'm sorry!"

The painfully familiar scream of the gunship firing on the hull cut the conversation away as Garrus and Reegar took shot to either side of the entrance.

A horrified scream from the shuttle pilot pierced the gunship's prattle on the bulkhead.

"HE JUMPED!"

"What? Who are to talking about?" Reegar finally losing his patience. "We don't have time for that shit! Tell whoever to sit the hell down and then you focus on getting us that damn…"

"No! Out of the shuttle! The Master Chief jumped out of the shuttle!"

"Who the hell gave you permission to land?! We can't risk losing anymore…"

"We're still at 10 000 feet, for Goddess sake!"

All the weapon noise went mute to Garrus as the pilot's words sunk in.

Jumped? Why? After everything that had been poured into him… after seeing just a sliver of what he was capable of. Gone. With everyone left behind still so eager to see what was to come.

"Jay'em will cry." Garrus spoke, though mostly to himself.

"Keelah… that fucking sucks." Reegar spoke his own rough sentiment. "Come on, Garrus. Keep our heads in this fight."

Garrus nodded his agreement as he turned back to the port hatch. Shuffling all their captives back to the transport ships had cost the raiders time they needed to regroup, but the landing lights for the second set of transports now flashed in Garrus's monocle, ready with fresh troops ready to take over the second attack.

This is it. Garrus thought as the gunfire shifted from the hull and back unto the entrance. There'd be a fresh horde of slavers the moment the shooting stopped.

At least it was about to, just…

The searchlight and gunfire both jerked downward from their hover point, their luminescence and devastation now crashing down on the newly arrived slavers just about to make their assault, caught in the gunship's unintended fire as it thrashed about in the air.

It was swirling about with its nose pointed down, but couldn't right itself long enough to regain control as it looped drunkenly over the salvage field, its nose turret still blazing. As it drifted over the Kowloon, its flight path finally steadied and stopped, its thrusters still vectoring spastically to keep itself from falling out of the sky.

"What the hell's happening, Garrus? Did another ship hit it or something?" Reegar chanced a quick look out the hatch at the new chaos.

"I'd have spotted something that big. Maybe it just lost its lateral stabilizers when…" Garrus's words ended as the gunship's shattered canopy smashed into frozen ground before him, its shatter-resistant envelope now crumpled from a huge impact point.

The question of what was happening only deepened as the yells of the Batarian pilot came from above, audible for a half second from it being heard over the gunship to the crunch of his body off the ground.

The snowy air turned brilliant yellow and orange as the rabid gunship finally asserted itself, launching its entire missile battery in one burst. The field was now a kaleidoscope of criss-crossing shadows and explosive plumes as the four remaining gunships exploded from the salvo, the Batarians and krogan raiders now caught in the open field with no cover as the burning gunship hulks crashed all around.

"Vakarian, Garrus. Both gunships abandoning search for this platform and returning to your position." Legion's updated as the rogue gunship flew over the Kowloon to counter them. "Recommend any tactical options be exercised while enemy air cover is compromised."

"Hell, yeah! You two hold the door!" Reegar called to his men as he stepped off, eager to seize the initiative. Garrus followed as they sprinted into the storm, knowing their small fire team would still trump the raider's larger numbers, now in total chaos from whatever possessed that gunship.

Garrus's torso plating flopped raggedly as he charged, pinching his shoulders as he brought the rifle up to fire on the raiders, popping up in ones and twos as they became visible through the snowy night.

He was quick to realize the raider teams hadn't been using those search lights just to blind their targets; the they had also been using them to see through this storm during their assault, and now they were floundering over the field lost, with most of their soldiers without their weapon at the ready when he and Reegar stormed into view and cut them down.

Twenty five seconds and fifteen enemy dead later, the snowfall in front of them stopped producing lost enemy soldiers and gave only empty field; they'd blown through the skirmish line and were behind the raiders now. Time to consolidate.

"What the hell, Garrus? Don't any of these idiots put a signaller out when they move outside their ship?"

"They won't do anything that makes their presence detectable to their target, not even an eezo source for shielding, if you hadn't noticed; it's the quickest, cheapest way to run a smash and grab." Garrus spun his omni's power up. "It also means they don't have any proper scans being run during an op, either. Let's go."

The captured marines were still on the ground, and they could reach them before the raiders sorted themselves out. A quick scan pulsed out from his omni, pinging across the field around like the sonar systems of old. Four large electrical networks just 150 meters away, two of which were still winding down their power output… the newly arrived transports from the other site. All four craft had killed their landing lights and engines upon landing to avoid fire, and had been in quiet vigil until now.

"Hey Tin Can, what's going on with that crazy gunship?" Reegar called over the comms as he and Garrus took a knee, taking a summary of the situation before their next move. "And then what's your sitrep?"

"Currently providing counter fire for ally gun ship, it appears to be out of ammunition and manoeuvring to keep the last slaver gunship from your position. Addendum; now ally gunship is approaching slaver gunship at high velocity."

The 'whump' of the midair collision beyond the Kowloon rippled across the field with a small slap of high air pressure and a swirling gust of snow, the orange plume of ignited fuel filling their adhoc battlefield an eerily calm sun for just seconds. The nearest transport craft was given up by its canopy glare, the explosion's mushroom cloud reflected in its glass perfectly.

Time to move.

"Legion, provide fire support to targets of opportunity on the ground; prioritize moving personnel over those that are bunkered down." Garrus began making his way to the transport.

Trying to recover their men by process of elimination was going to make this even more dangerous as the raider captains clued in; the system of expendability that Hegemony steeped itself in guaranteed that whoever was running this op would be aboard and well out of harm's way, so any craft could be the one with a panic button at the ready.

The walk became a run and finally a sprint as the two soldiers flew towards the access ramp, like an open maw beneath the transport's cockpit. Only the emergency floor lighting snaked between the metal slats underfoot, just enough not to trip its occupants while too little to give its self away in the dark of night. Obviously a repurposed vehicle shuttle by the size of its loading bay, and now echoing the wind's howl and the clatter of Legion's heavy weapon fire as they finally reached the top of the ramp.

A quick summary of the bay's layout cut right to their approach to the cockpit's entrance, the usual civilian layout that put the command crew above and front of the bay so they could assess their crew and cargo at a glimpse. Each soldier took a personnel ramp as they ascended to the cockpit, the double entrance splitting around the cargo ramp and to the cockpit entrance above it.

Tight quarters. Sensitive flight instrumentation that would be destroyed in a spray-and –pray firefight.

Definitely Quarian turf they were stepping into.

Reegar closed the circuit on his shotgun's eezo core with the flick of safety, the power now redirected to the melee stunner fixed under the gun's muzzle. Garrus doubted he'd even have to pull a gun as he watched Reegar ignite his omni for the follow up attack. He readied his own omni for the door hack as the Quarian lined himself full on the cockpit door.

The sparks of the door hack caught the batarian flight crew unaware as the door crashed open, the navigator taking Reegar's flash bang in all four eyes as the Quarian's omni caught him full in the face. The eight eyes of pilot and co-pilot barely caught the sight of the intruder as his shotgun caught each of their bare heads in one swing, its strobing contact point sending them both into convulsions as the electrical current flashed through them and into the floor.

"Three seconds! Damn, I'm good!" Reegar dragged the navigator to his feet by the scruff of the neck. "Where are my men?!"

"Your men?" The now blind Batarian kept his eyes covered with his hands.

"The Quarian marines you just jacked! Which ship has them?!" Reegar shoving his shotgun's muzzle beneath the batarian's chin. "If you don't wanna talk, that's fine, 'cause I'll have two much more eager volunteers in about a minute when they wake up and find your brains decorating the cockpit!"

"It's… already too late. We've lost that ship." Reegar felt his heart burn from the batarian's cautious words.

"Lost? What do you mean lost?!" Reegar thumbed the safety off on his shotgun. "I swear if you're trying to play with my men's lives, I'm going rip your spine out of your ass and…"

"It's true! We don't know what's happening out there!" The batarian sputtered. "Just turn on the radio!"

Garrus turned his attention to the control panels, a throwback layout of switches and knobs with a barely discernible 3D rendering of the ship diagnostic. Complete with coffee stains and gauge markings worn down to the metal from constant use, it was a few tries before the speakers began blaring the sounds of chaos; crashing of gun fire and squad orders being screamed over hastily reactivated comms.

"Onto the last ship! Everyone gets onto the last ship!"

"RUN! RUN! RUN!"

"It's still coming!"

"Hold formation! I'll shoot you myself…" a squad leader's last words as a bullet thudded into his chest.

Garrus and Reegar looked up at each other. What was going on now? Did the Ascension send in a crew of commandos? A second raiding party now counter-attacking?

The staccato of muzzle flashes finally died out in the blur of snow outside, leaving the two soldiers to just listen the whistling of the wind and stewing in the mystery that had overrun this battle field.

"Maybe we should get that ramp closed and try to re-establish comms before whatever is out there decides to pay us a visit?" Reegar spoke as he pushed the navigator the floor with rest of the flight staff.

Garrus only stood in silence, his eyes blank as his monocle registered the vibration of heavy footfalls through the floor down to the ramp, distinct from the consistent thrumming of the transport's electrical hum and moving parts. The weight that was creating it was heavier than a krogan, but was barely registering any sound.

I know that walk! Garrus charged to the back hatch and activated the door.

He looked over the hatch's balcony as he hit the bay's light switch, and confirmed a reality that shouldn't have been real.

The Master Chief deftly turned his head towards the balcony, looking as though he was giving the ship a cursory glance instead of having just owned an entire raiding party. The gold of his visor gleamed from the lights placid reflection, giving a surreal contrast against the turret cannon he held in both hands, silently boiling away the snow that covered its overheated barrel.

"Remaining ships secure. I have the uninjured marines disabling the ship IFFs to delay any more incursions. Legion is still providing cover." The Master Chief spoke sparingly. "Orders?"

"Ugh… my marines?" Reegar approached the balcony, tentative for the first time since Garrus had met him.

"Second ship on the port side."

"Reegar… check on your men while I get the salvage crews ready to depart. I'll get the flood lights reactivated to give Third Escort a clear LZ, and we'll pick up Legion with the last bird to lift off." Garrus spoke quickly as he descended the stairs.

"… is… Team A… your… Are you alright?" Tali's voice clearing up as the raiders disembarked her site, taking their signal jammer's envelopment with them. "What's your status, Team Alpha? We took some light injuries, and Wind Fire is okay, I think. Raiders have completely withdrawn from this location and we're preparing to evac back to the Ascension."

"Roger that, we're clear here as well. Third Escort will be in contact with you shortly to coordinate pickup." Garrus sending the 'all clear' signal to the shuttles. Reegar hustled down the ramp as he went to check his marines, while Garrus stepped off for the Kowloon. "Wait… Master Chief, hold these prisoners until I return."

"Understood."

Garrus restarted his way outside as he rolled what had just happened through his head. Prisoner detail was pretty lightweight for someone who had just pulled their collective asses out of the fire, but he didn't seem the sort to deny any duty given to him.

He trod around several corpses as he shuffled to the generator, recognizing a few of them from him and Reegar's charge, and clicked a few select switches on the distribution board to 'on'.

Like a blind man regaining his vision, the dark and haze of the night began to ignite in dim splotches as the frozen lights charged up, repainting the frozen tundra with a far darker tone from just ten minutes earlier. Bodies were strewn everywhere on the field, many laying in long swathes from where their positions had broken and run, their firing lines seemingly torn apart from a beast reaching out from the dark and consuming them whole.

The silhouettes of the dead were telling; the oval shape of krogan humps, the acute angle of vorcha shoulder pads, and the numerous supine forms with only their helmets and weapons to break up the outline of their death pose; human and batarian corpses mostly, with the occasional turian in the mix.

Garrus focused on a transport's body covered ramp nearby, where the Master Chief had caught the landing party off guard as they had just begun disembarking the ship; only two or three of them had reached the ground as their bodies rolled down the decline. The tell-tale roar of its half-powered thrusters said the command crew had been half through an emergency take off when he'd reached their cabin.

It had taken him a five day siege on Omega to reap this kind of carnage, so much of which had been streamed to him compliments of his bridge. Jane had her suicidal level of courage and unstoppable momentum when she fought with, he brought a science and refinement to the death he doled out, and even Urdnot Wrex, who was a living definition of focused carnage, and all the amazing warriors he'd happened upon in his voyages with Shepard, they had all left their own signature on a battle field.

In the end, it had been the synergy of the team itself that made their contribution so redoubtable.

But this… he didn't have words that could describe it or even make it sound plausible.

Probably on the same order as hijacking gunships midair after ten thousand foot falls through snow storms.

Garrus focused on the Kowloon as he ran the next ten minutes of operations through his head, picturing the breakdown of salvagers with marines to keep them calm after such an ordeal, a quick coordination with Wind Fire to keep air cover over everyone, and the dozens of details to include while trying to see two steps ahead.

If only the quarians were actually behaving like the scared children he'd pictured, his plan would have been acceptable, but that they were already breaking off into teams to salvage the downed gunships was very intriguing.

"Marine… what gives?" Garrus walked up to a marine conspicuously armed with a Claymore shotgun, a marine he knew had been seized by the raiders' in the second wave. "Call back everyone! Third escort will be here in minutes and we can't protect everyone after…"

"Master Chief's orders, Vakarian, sir. He said salvage was still our objective and that he'd be providing security while the wounded were being evacuated, so I came here to get the salvagers moving."

"Wait, what?"

"Just what I said, sir. They'd hauled our asses into their ship, all chained up in the bay, and they had their medic tend to us. Then we started hearing a gun battle outside get closer and closer when BOOM! The Chief came flying up the ramp from outside and kills all the guards, and I mean he'd punched one krogan's head right into the back of his hump, and then throws me this without missing a beat." The marine hoisted the Claymore up with a grunt. "He took care of the bridge crew, passed on his orders after making sure we were okay, and then went to find you, sir. The whole thing didn't take him two minutes."

"And the salvagers are fine wandering around a corpse ridden battlefield minutes after they were attacked?"

"We're made out of sturdier stuff than people realize. I was working eezo fields with my dad when I was twelve, and everyone here has a story like mine. And well… the Chief's here. After I told them what happened, everyone feels safe now."

"Oh… how nice." Garrus feeling a bit emasculated. "Carry on then."

Garrus turned back to coordinating the shuttles with a touch of angst, looking on as the salvagers got to work. Burning fuel cells were extinguished quickly, salvage piles were policed, and a quick suggestion from a quarian supervisor had him requesting authorization to use the raiders' own transports to get the gunships back to the Ascension.

The transports might come in handy in future ventures like this.

And every so often a green juggernaut appeared on the outskirts of the field, patrolling in the marines stead, having quietly changed his station without airs. The usually ant-like frenzy of the quarians' work paused to look at him as he patrolled nearby, the fear and respect that had surrounded him aboard the Ascension now taking a different shape. That of protector… and of a saviour.

With a pause between the shuttle sorties and shuffling of the batarian prisoners aboard the transports, Reegar found his way back to Garrus, listening to Legion reporting skies empty of any threat since the raiders' withdrawal fifteen minutes earlier. His marines were all accounted for, and safe other than the inevitable infections from the suit ruptures. He had to admit that the raiders were very 'Johnny on the spot' with the first aid to make sure their merchandise didn't die unnecessarily.

He'd also been hearing his marines talk, seen the new reverie they and the rest of his people looked at the Chief with… and had just finished the body count as the dead were policed.

"Tin Can is the last one for pickup?" Reegar broke the awkward silence with a rhetorical question. "Oh… what the hell, Garrus? Like five minutes ago we were wrestling krogan to the death, wasting bad guys, and had great big, hairy balls. Then it's all "Oh, but the Master Chief's here now!" "We don't need to worry about a counter-attack, he'll protect us!" Reegar making air quotations as he talked.

"Then I feel like a dick for comparing dicks… Keelah." Reegar crossed his arms as he looked up at the sky, still impregnable any view beyond fifty feet with the flood lights turned on. "But that was still pretty bitching, jumping through that mess onto a gunship. Hierarchy got any doctrine on ship seizure that includes atmosphere insertion? We sure as hell don't."

"Then air-to-air combat, mid-air collisions and annihilating a company's worth of Terminus slavers in the time it takes to boil an egg… nope, never seen a training vid that would cover that." Garrus chuckled. "He is pretty easy to understand, though. Won't kill anyone that's unarmed, he'll kill humans when they're the enemy, and won't abandon his objective; a soldier through and through."

"Or a walking nuke." The two soldiers began making their way to their assigned shuttle as the last transport took off, the ship itself even more valuable than the gunship salvage it now carried. "And now we know he's on our side, thank the Ancestors."

"No… no, I think we just clued into the fact we're on his side." Garrus smiled.

Just like a certain human Spectre he knew. Someone that was always on the right path, it just took everyone else a while to realize it.

He'd definitely have to put the Chief's tactical footage into a presentation for the higher-ups, because Spirits help you if you thought explaining something like this would convince anyone. Plus, Jay'em would over the moon.

And Kal' Reegar… brazen, confident, and couldn't be kept down. He definitely had the right stuff.

Other than a few bruised egos and light injuries, this was a good day for Anvil, the Ascension, and everyone onboard.

Today, they became a team.