"Shepard — I believe this was a trap."

No shit, Sherlock! Myla gritted her teeth, leaning out from behind the strange glossy honey-comb to fire at a descending platform of Collector drones.

"I'd figured that out myself, thanks EDI. Guys!" She snapped at the mic to get the attention of her squad, who were happily shooting at the incoming enemy. "Fall back — we need to get out."

Jack growled and let loose a wave of biotic energy that knocked the twisted mockeries of Protheans from their platform.

"Why the hell didn't ya do tha' with the first two bloody platforms?" demanded Zaeed, using the barrel of his assault rifle to scratch the long scar on his face. Jack flipped him off, grinning.

"Shepard, tell the kids to stop flirting and move!" She grinned at the sound of Joker's voice, glancing over her shoulder and waving her team forward.

"Let's go, ducklings!"

They raced over uneven ground, not stopping to marvel at the trillions of empty pods, the rows and rows of expectant vessels that stretched as far as the eye could see. The whir of insect wings crackled all around them, walls gleaming wetly with… Shepard didn't want to know.

Through dark halls — skid, stop. Cut off. Cut off, cut off, cut off — don't panic. They had the high ground — good defensive position. A low wall-cover. The enemies would—

"Grab cover!" she yelled, as a moaning wave of husks surged out of an adjoining room, accompanied by several lurching scions and a handful of Collectors. A violent thrumming announced the arrival of another giant… what the hell was that thing? The tremors hummed, she felt it buzz in her sternum.

"Hey, ugly — it's your special friend from Horizon," Jack sniggered, reloading her SMG.

"If you're so tough, you take it out instead 'a mouthin' off like a — " the grizzled old merc lobbed a grenade into a mass of zombies It exploded in a blinding fireball, completely incinerating the husks. He continued as if nothing had happened, "-bleeding little two-year-old."

BZZZEEEEEEW! A particle beam blasted against the low rock outcropping, and brilliant molten drops of what had once been solid stone flew through the air. Shepard switched to her Kassa, wishing she'd brought the Cain.

"If you two decide to do anything other than talk," Shepard grinned, adrenaline singing in her veins, "I'll need therapy to get over the shock."

She sprang out of cover, using her omnitool to overload the thing's shields, getting six solid shots in before it turned its weapon on her.

"Shi—" BZZZEEEEEEW! It hit her full on in the chest, immediately overtaxing her shields and knocking her back. This saved her life — the force of the beam pushed her to the ground where the angle of the low wall that she should have been using as cover and the fortuitous placement of a stone column prevented the thing from finishing her off.

Zaeed stood and fired a burst of incendiary ammo at the bobbing menace, letting Myla scramble back to safety.

Jack grinned, shaking her head as a stream of profanities filtered over the comm channel. Shepard bit her lip, waiting for the iridescent blue blip that meant her shield had recharged. She shouldn't have jumped out like that. She'd thought she was past this. Sloppy.

EDI's clipped tones interrupted her internal beration. "If you clear the hostiles, I can safely override the locks to the door on the far side of the room. Schematics indicate that the alternate route would join with the original —"

"Thanks, EDI, we're on it." Her shields were back online and she nodded to her squadmates, "Jack — take left. Zaeed — go around the right. I'll try and draw its fire."

"Shepard, this thing is powering up its engines. Get your ass back here — I'm not losing another Normandy!"

"What, you gonna leave me, Joker?" She popped out of cover, firing determinedly.

He cursed her again; she grinned. Her smile grew wider when a biotically reinforced bullet slammed into the floating monstrosity, ripping through its shields and downing it.

Jack's crow of triumph reverberated in the large chamber, followed shortly by staccato footfalls as the three took off running again. She shot a teasing glance at Zaeed as they moved.

"Huh, looks like the old-timer was too slow for the kill. I'll let you have the next one, Gramps."

Several minutes of useless banter and a few brief periods of extremely graphic violence later, they had managed to reach the Normandy SR2.

As Shepard's boots touched down on familiar metal, her ship, her home, she heard the marrow chilling roar of the Collector vessel's engines coming online. Jack and Zaeed were firing around her at pursuing drones, their eyes narrowed in concentration, their faces lit with strobing muzzle-flare.

"Go, Jeff, go!" She yelled into her mic, sealing the hatch behind her. She didn't wait for his response, tearing through the ship to get to the cockpit. If the thing's engines were up, its weapons wouldn't be far behind.

She reached his chair, almost crashing into it, just in time to see the monstrosity turn laboriously towards their ship. Joker's hands moved frantically, but he was in complete control — the look of furious concentration on his face was the only sign he was worried. His lips moved slightly, muttering something over and over again.

A golden glow was gathering within the depths of the Collector vessel and he moved faster, plotting points and adjusting pitch and… Shepard's knowledge of navigational terms failed her.

"Get us outta here, EDI!" He kept his eyes glued to the displays.

The colossal ship fired — Shepard's breath caught in her throat. Not again, not—

The Normandy swooped neatly over — under, around…damn the lack of accurate directional terminology in space! — to avoid the murderous beam.

"Not this time, you bastard," Joker spat, his voice heavy with hate. Myla looked down — his eyes were alight with something that scared her.

EDI's passionless tones struck an unsettling contrast to the tension of the moment. "Specify location, Mr. Moreau."

The Normandy shook as Joker pulled her into a sharp turn, an evasive maneuver which would have sheered most Alliance ships in half.

The Collector weapon was charging up again. They couldn't outrun it.

"Anywhere that's not here!"

The Collector ship fired, but the Normandy was already gone.

...

A/N: Thank you once more to ShadesofMauve for her awesome beta-reading and patience! :)

As always, please review-I'm lonely.