Author's note: Not my Best Chapter, but there's not much left to write in Part I. Kind of hard to think straight really.

The Humbling River

XIV

Blue-white shots rained down from all directions, as Section, Harper and Johnson pulled back to a ring of corroded metal for cover. Harper put his assault rifle over his head, shooting stray shots at the enemy, whoever they were. That thought was running through his mind as well; who was attacking them, how did they know the Synthetics were, or did they not even have that as a goal? Were they just opportunistic scavengers, only interested in killing a bunch of Alliance for some quick Batarian creds? Whatever the reason was, it didn't matter in the here and now, and Section yelled over the comm for Prescott to provide some covering fire with her sniper rifle.

Locking her rifle in place, Prescott looked around for a target, and saw several armed forces, of humanoid size, firing down at her comrades. They seemed for the most part clad in white and yellow armor with advanced helmets covering them, except for a black suited man with a long flowing mane of hair. That was weird, but Prescott didn't have much time to choose targets. She assumed that this man was the leader and pulled the trigger.

In a split second she missed though, only hitting the thigh of the man, and he scrambled for cover. She put in a new round, and took a shot at one of the other foot soldiers. His head ruptured in a huge messy explosion that was both gory and satisfying. She continued to rain support, and thin down the troops firing.

For the Autobots, the weapons of the enemy troops weren't doing much damage to them, but a strange grenade was lobbed over the top of the enemy's position.

It landed on the ground, beeped for a second near Ironhide's foot, and then exploded with a cloud of icy gas. The gas spread around, enveloping Ironhide in it. His vision blurred as sheets of ice covered his optical receptors, and his body began to stiffen. "Optimus," he croaked, "I can't see. They've frozen me!"

Optimus fired a shot at the combatants, and yelled, "Perceptor, Marines, stay back from the freeze grenades."

"Cryo grenades," grunted Section while reloading, "They'll affect you since you don't have shields. Stand back and give support fire, we'll take care of them."

"They're falling back!" yelled Prescott over the comm, taking down yet another troop through the chest. "You got them on the run."

"Let's charge!" yelled Harper.

The Autobots minus Ironhide, and the Marines ran up the battlefield, scrambling over an embankment of rocks. The black suited , long-haired man was being held up by a fellow trooper, as they limped to some shuttles parked on the plain nearby.

"Don't let em escape!" yelled Section, "Shoot for the legs!"

Their rounds flew down range, but did little good, as the enemy troops had already gotten into their shuttles, the doors closing as rounds plinked against the heavy armor of the shuttle.

The shuttles flew off in retreat, leaving Section's team and the autobots standing somewhat defeated behind.

"Any idea who those bastards were?" asked Harper.

"No idea," replied Section, "But whoever they are, they have intelligence. I'll let the Admiral know about them when we get back. But let's get back to the task at hand."

They walked back to the camp, Ironhide was still immobile, laying on the ground, head and palms facing skyward. Optimus said, "He's frozen badly."

"It will take time to melt," explained Section, "Cryo burns shouldn't affect him, being Synthetic. Should be good in a couple hours."

Ironhide groaned. Optimus turned away from his soldier and addressed the marines. "You humans fought well against the enemy. You seem to be honorable, at least reliable."

"I take that as a compliment then," said Section.

"Good, I was hoping that would translate."

"Let's call the ship in," said Section, "Its time to get out of here. You have some important people to meet."

Kai Leng sat in the passenger bay of the Shuttle, clutching at the wound in his leg. Blood was streaming down his thigh and onto the floor. Another soldier ran to him with an application of omni-gel, and Leng winced in pain for a second, but then the numbness appeared and the pain started to subside. He took some deep breaths then called out to the pilot, "Get us out of the system, now!"

The shuttle pilot did as he was told, and the shuttle jerked upwards.

Kai Leng stabilized himself, his face covered in sweat. He looked around and saw four other men besides himself left alive in the shuttle. "That was close," he grimaced. "Get me something to goddamn drink," he commanded.

A soldier in full armor handed him a canteen, and he sloshed cold water down into his throat. A female voice sounded out on the shuttle's comm, "Operative Leng, this is Valiant, have mission directives been met?"

"No, Valiant, survivors returning to ship, get ready to fly back to Oberon for Sit-Rep. You are dismissed."

"Affirmative, standing by to receive," was the neutral reply. Leng could sense judgement veiled behind it though. He would judge himself too. He had failed. And the Illusive Man did not look kindly on failure.

Oberon was a small gas planet that had some weather monitoring stations on it, most of them run by Cerberus, a few run by the official Turian delegation that the planet belonged too. Cerberus was pretty much clear and discreet about their operations, so there was no knowledge on the Turians' part. Kai Leng was sitting on a waiting chair, dressed in a simple cloth vest and pants, looking out the glass window. The planet's sky was a hazy red, wind and grit whipping around violently. Finally, a lithe receptionist in skin-tight Cerberus uniform called for Leng, "The Illusive Man will speak to you now."

Leng got up and walked into the communication's room. It was dark, but that changed when the communication field absorbed his image and sent it out. The Illusive man, in full color was represented in front of him, and Leng gave the man a crisp military salute.

"The mission," the Illusive man got right to the point , a cigarette smoking in his hand, "Was not a success I was told. Why was that?"

The Illusive Man was the only being in the universe that Leng had ever met, that commanded such fear over him. Leng tried to get the words to speak, and after swallowing said, "My fault sir. Entirely. We were not prepared enough. The Alliance, a Special ops team had gotten their first, and had worked out a deal with the aliens. I decided out of fear and rash thinking to attack the Alliance. They proved too powerful."

The Illusive Man just stared down Leng for a couple seconds then said, "That...is interesting."

Leng said nothing, and the Illusive Man continued, "It was inevitable that the Alliance would get out there eventually. But they are slow, it takes a couple days for the realization to kick in. So that only means that somebody tipped them off early. And its obvious who that was."

"Shepard?" asked Leng.

"Correct."

"Shepard had always been loyal to the Alliance first," said Leng, "It makes sense that he would tell them."

"Yes, but he also lied about there being anything of interet there, and according to this report, you found something there. Synthetic life forms. Big ones, am I correct?"

"Yes, sir."

"Then, we know now how little we can trust Shepard," said the Illusive Man finally, stamping out his cigarette with finality.

"It would appear so," was all Leng said.

"You are dismissed," said the Illusive Man, "Due to unforeseen circumstances, I have decided not to reprimand you for your failure to bring forth mission directives. You will put on RTB for tasking, soon. You may go now."

Leng bowed and walked off.

The Illusive Man lit another cigarette and began to puff away. Things were getting interesting, but Cerberus had suffered a major defeat. The ability to make first contact and control new aliens, synthetics at that, would have been a sufficient boon to the war effort against the Reapers, the Illusive Man thought. But Shepard had removed that chance, and ensured the Alliance had the monopoly on that. It angered the Illusive Man, but he knew what he had to do. Press on, and try to make up for the loss somehow.

Shepard will get his payback, thought the Illusive Man, when the Collectors are finally dealt with, he will have nowhere to go.

And with that, the Illusive Man went back to work.