A/N: I'm implementing a new thing during dialog, "italicizing radio chatter"

O'Brien continued to provide cover fire for the others at the entrance of the tower as more geth deployed from the dropship that was sitting above the broken roof. The geth continued to deploy against the group as the close quarter combat got more intense. Shepard, Ashley and Tali disposed of geth with shotguns before they had a chance to deploy. Six and Cortez were using their combat knives to sever their spinal tubes while Sork continued to toss geth to the others or destroying them himself with a swift jab of his gauntlet's energy daggers or crushing them under his hoof.

The dropship deployed one last geth, a destroyer unit before fleeing the fight itself. Sork wasted no time and sliced the bulky mech in two with an energy sword. Sork let out a roar to the hole in the roof as he stepped on the remains of the geth destroyer.

"Uh Commander…"

"What is it, Joker?"

"Just a head's up, that floating flashlight is waiting for you guys in the Mako with some sort of urgent message or something."

Shepard looked to Six as she responded, "How urgent are we talking about?"

"It won't let me say over the comms. It says they're not secure enough for the 'threat' it has to warn you about. I think it's just having a meltdown without Six or Cortez."

"Thanks for the update."

O'Brian stopped Sork, "So what's your take on the situation, squid-head?"

"The humans of this world seem afraid, though I feel as though I am not the only reason for this unusual fear. They hide something from us, possibly the very reason why the geth are here. Be on your guard, imp, for you of all of the humans I've observed not only put yourself in harm's way, but force others to save you because of it. Pray they do not sacrifice more than needed for you." Unaware that he hit a rather personal subject.

Shepard inspected her shotgun as she started to leave the tower, "Come on. Let's update Fai Dan and the colonist that the immediate threat from the geth is gone for the moment."

The Covenant Spec Op team was rummaging through one of the destroyed tower like scavengers as a geth patrol walked past them. Soon enough one of the Uggnoy started to complain, "Half a cycle on this planet. When are we leaving?"

The sub-commander grabbed the Uggnoy by his breathing mask, "We leave when we find the artifact. Less you wish to join the geth in their assault on the humans and the Thorian."

The Uggnoy quickly cowered as he tried to distance himself from his superior, "No, no, I go back to looking, Excellency. No more complaining!"

The other Uggnoy scurried off to continue the search elsewhere as one of the Sangheili warriors now approached, "Sub-Commander, do you really believe an artifact of the gods rest on this decaying world? There are no signs of their technology and even the Jiralhanae might find it difficult to live on such a decrepit planet. Could the Prophet be wrong about this?"

The sub-commander gazed upon the various skyscrapers still standing above the cloud cover. "I have my doubts, but if we return empty handed and the geth succeed in their mission we will look incompetent. We must find something."

A series of screeches echoed through the tunnels as three Skirmishers jumped down from the holes in the roof. "We found it. Roughly eight stories up, surrounded by masses of tendrils. They moved, they attacked us."

"The tendrils moved? Are you sure you didn't simply fail to notice a falling piece of debris that moved it?"

The Skirmisher's feathers started to rustle as it shrieked at the Spec-Op soldier, "You think me for a fool, Sangheili? The tendrils surrounding our query attacked us! They killed two of my kin!"

The sub-commander examined the Skirmishers closely as he found signs of battle on their persons; their feathers were ruffled as though they struggled to fight free from something's hold, the leader's left Point Defense Gauntlet was crushed and one of the Skirmisher's legs was injured. "We shall proceed with caution. Lead us to the artifact. Now." The three Skirmishers ran off ahead as the Sangheili and Uggnoy followed.

Having informed Fai Dan about the current situation, spoken with several of the colonists, and restocked their supplies with the salarian merchant Ledra, Shepard took a moment to speak with the team in front of the elevator. "I think we need to split up, one team to find what the geth are after and while the other to help the colonists reestablish themselves."

Cortez stepped up, "I'll stay behind and help the colonists."

"O'Brian should stay too."

"Great, another mission I don't have to worry about ugly trying to kill me."

Cortez socked O'Brian in the arm, "Six is right. You're a great shot but at close quarters we're expected to find in the other building, it may put you in the hot seat."

"I'll stay with them too," Ashley remarked.

"I can't force you to do this, Chief."

"Don't worry, Commander, we'll be fine."

"Then let us be off," Sork activated the elevator console, "the Oracle awaits us."

As the elevator door closed, Ash couldn't help but let out a sigh of relief. "You can't stand split lip either?"

"Every time I see him and that sword I can't help to remember 212 as his kind slaughtered them all so easily."

Cortez rested a hand on her shoulder, "You were unprepared and you'd never fought against an enemy so powerful or tactically superior before. You didn't even know they existed before that day. Don't blame yourself, if anything you should be commended for surviving so long on your own."

"Hey you know what'll cheer you up? Blasting some geth. Let's go find some while we look for the water valves and all of that stuff for the colonists."

Lamenting Light was forced to act to destroy a group of geth recon drones that had gained access to the garage where the Mako was loaded into. The elevator opened as Lamenting Light finished dispatching with the bothersome pests. With the presence of the two colonists, Lamenting Light played his role as a VI unit rather well, "Master, all hostile forces have been terminated. We may proceed with your objective."

The team entered the Mako and sealed the hatch to speak with Light, "OK Light, what is it you needed to tell us about?"

"Forgive the inconvenience but I could not risk the lives of the Reclaimers if the infestation has saturated to such a…"

"Just tell us."

"Of course, Reclaimer. As I was examining the geth you terminated just outside of the Normandy, I decided to examine the deceased human, for curiosities sake. My sensors detected genetic material not originating from the human. I did not wish to jump to a conclusion, so using Normandy's systems, I determined the truth about the foreign genetic material. My analysis concluded that the human was infected by the Flood."

"We need to warn Cortez and the others."

"I would not recommend that, Reclaimer. If infection is as far spread within the colonists as the Normandy's sensors have determined, that would only doom them."

"The Flood?"

Sork snarled as he replied to Tali's question, "The Parasite. An ancient enemy of the go…the Forerunners," forcing himself to stop viewing them in such light, "Many within the Covenant believe they are but one of many trials we had to overcome in order to achieve the Great Journey. It is also written on several ancient texts of how the Forerunner purged the Parasite from existence when the Great Journey had commenced. It seems that is not the case."

Lamenting Light seemed rather vexed by Sork and his perversion of history, "The Parasite is not a force one can simply conquer. With every new victim consumed or converted, the Flood gains all knowledge they knew. We must initiate a planetary purge of all organic matter immediately before the Flood can have a chance to escape."

Shepard grabbed Light, "No one is purging anything. You got me?"

Light didn't seemed bothered, as it's glow intensified for a moment, "The lives of roughly thirty humans are nothing compared to the devastation the Flood will bring should they be allowed to expand beyond this star system."

Tali still wasn't sure the 'precautions' were even necessary, "Can't we somehow remove this Flood from them instead of purging everything?"

Light directed itself toward the young quarian, "Quarian, from the technological achievement tiers my creators used to assess species, this galaxy stands roughly at a Tier-3, the Forerunners were a Tier-1. The Forerunner had attempted every possible means they could to remove or sterilize the Flood from infected hosts, all experiments were a failure and all subjects were terminated before infestation over took them. We cannot allow the Flood to escape. Initiate planetary bombardment now before the Flood realize we know of their existence."

"I agree with the Oracle, we must glass the entire planet to ensure every last Flood spore has been destroyed."

"And the rest of the colonists?"

"Their sacrifice will mean the rest of the galaxy will not have to suffer the same fate. Or are you not willing to commit to the tough decisions that must be done, demon?"

Six wanted to punch Sork, and given his bad eye she could, but instead pointed something out, "Light, when the Flood infect a victim, you said the host's physiology is changed."

"Down to the very last cell."

"Then why is it that the colonists looked normal?" This caused Light to pause for a moment. "Lamenting Light, were there any genetic differences between these spores and a Flood spore?"

Light quickly answered Six's question, "Yes, a 2.63879% difference was present from the samples I had available and the Flood sample from my records."

"That seems too small of a variable to be coincidence."

Lamenting Light took a moment to think about Shepard's consideration to re-review the data. "You are correct human. Now that I'm reevaluating the data, the mutations were too select to be through natural selection." Lamenting Light just remembered something, "The Primordial claimed that the Precursors created the Flood in retaliation to my creator's 'rebellion' against them. The Precursors were believed to have been a Tie-0 civilization, with the ability to accelerate evolution and traverse galaxies. If the Precursors had the capable of traversing the universal plane, such as us, then it could theoretically be possible that this specimen is the genetic base, or even a test specimen, which lead to the Flood. If that is the case then we must secure a large enough sample size for testing purposes to find a weakness, or possibly even a solution, to the Flood."

Shepard released her grip on Light, "One step at a time you. We get to the ExoGeni building and find what the geth are after. If we find anything relating to this Flood thing, then we'll go chase after it." Shepard stopped it before it could comment, "Only after we deal with the geth. Understood?"

Lamenting Light seemed perplexed by the unusual priority but it seemed to understand, "Very well Commander, we will proceed as you see fit. Though, should the Parasite escape, we will know whose choice lead to that end."

Cortez, O'Brien and Ashley found the three valves to the water supply, along with groups of geth holding the tunnels. As the trio continued down the path they found an estranged man, just standing around the rubble alone. "You don't want to go down there!"

"What are you doing down here?" Cortez demanded.

"Nothing I should be. Anything I shouldn't. NOOOOO!" The man screamed as though something was tearing at him from the inside. The strange man stood back up after the subsequent pain trying to shake it off, "That was a good one. Very intense."

O'Brien jokingly told Ash, "This guy's taken a few too many shots at the glass."

He seemed to have overheard O'Brien's comment, correcting him, "No, just invoking the master's whip. Helps remind me I'm still alive." The man paused before he suddenly changed the subject, "You're here for the geth, aren't you? You're not the only one interested in those…things."

Williams didn't like the sound of that, "Who else is looking for the geth?"

The man corrected her, "Not looking for, looking to get rid of. They're a thorn in the side of the…" Something was stopping the man from telling anything relevant as he let out a pain filled scream. The man struggle as he tried to continue, "Trying to get to the…" again he was stopped by the pain as he was laughing at it all now.

Ashley was no longer able or willing to watching the man continue as she stated, "Come on guys, we should just leave him be."

O'Brien turn to Cortez, "Maybe we should end his suffering. Not unless he wants to…"

He smiled at O'Brien's comment, "I've thought about that. Several times. I would rather die fighting." The man was still struggling with something, at least in his mind.

"Fighting what?"

"Not that kind of fight. It's like running through a thorn bush. The more you struggle… Time's up. Company's coming. Ask Fai Dan. Ask him about the—aaaaagh!" the squad turned away as the man fell to the ground in pain.

As the team turned back to the tunnel they spot a pair of geth troopers trying to sneak up from behind. "Look out!"

The trio split as they took cover. Ashley and O'Brien distracted the geth long enough for Cortez to toss a grenade to the machines. Cortez joined the distraction long enough for the grenade to do its job. With the area cleared, Cortez regrouped with O'Brien and Williams, "Those geth had to come from somewhere. Let's check the passageways we passed earlier."

Cortez and Williams flanked the door as O'Brien steadied the sniper rifle. Cortez opened the door, O'Brien spotted a sniper perched on a small platform and took it out before the geth had a chance to target them. As the sniper fell to the ground another geth jumped down to fight. Ashley and Cortez handled it as O'Brien shot down a drone that tried to target Ashley.

Traveling along the skyway, Tali picked up on a weak signal emanating from the tower ahead. Shepard decided to investigate the signal despite Sork and Lamenting Light's disapproval. Light stayed to watch over the Mako as the others moved to investigate. Before walking down the ramp, Sork activated his active camouflage so the humans wouldn't react, should they have seen any member of the Covenant during the assault. As they walked out of the shadows, the two security officers took aim behind makeshift barriers as a corporate man aimed at Shepard with a pistol, "That's close enough."

An older woman beside him lowered his arm, "Relax, Jeong. They're obviously not geth."

The man however didn't seem to listen to her as quickly raised his arm again and started to wave the pistol at the squad, "Get back Juliana. Who are you? What do you want?"

"Commander Shepard. I'm here to remove your geth problem."

The woman smiled as she tried to calm the man down again, "You see? You worry too much."

"And you trust too easily, Juliana." Jeong quick snapped, something Six noticed as she kept her DMR in hand, as she heard Sork let out a faint growl of resentment.

Juliana on the other hand was grateful, "I'm just glad to see a friendly face. I thought we were the only humans left on this planet."

Shepard corrected her statement, "Fai Dan and some of the members of Zhu's Hope are still alive."

Juliana turned to Jeong, scornful, "I thought you said they were all dead."

"I said they were 'probably' all dead…"

Tali added to the Commander's correction, "They live, though the geth have devastated their colony."

Juliana recalled the initial attack and the subsequent waves soon after, "We know what that's like. Those damn synthetics are relentless."

Six however was more interested in any other hostiles, "Are geth the only things you've encountered?"

Juliana wasn't sure why she asked, giving the strangely armored woman a vaguely confused face, "There are varren, but they were here before we even established the colony. Someone did mention something about krogans, though I wouldn't put much merit behind that though. I mean, synthetics working with organics, that's outrageous."

With that information however, Six seemed more troubled then before. Shepard assured the people, as she addressed them all, "I'll do whatever I can to keep them away from you. But I need some information."

"What kind of information?" Jeong asked in a rather suspicious tone, weary of the Commander.

Juliana shook her head, "Ignore him. The geth are up in the ExoGeni headquarters. Just a bit further along the skyway."

Jeong had to add before the Commander thought about leaving, "Those headquarters are private property, soldier. Remove the geth and nothing else."

Shepard tried to ease the corporate man, "I'm not interested in your company secrets."

As Shepard was about to leave, Juliana stopped them, "Commander, before you go…My daughter, Lizbeth. She's missing…"

Jeong refuted, "They shouldn't waste time poking around. We can do a proper account of our casualties after the geth are gone."

Juliana almost fell to her motherly anger to sock Jeong, but she kept her composure and reduced it to a shout, "That's my daughter you're talking about! She's still alive. I know it."

Six, unexpectedly, was the one to ask her, "Where was your daughter last, ma'am?"

"She was working in the ExoGeni building when the attacks came."

Jeong was skeptical, "Oh yeah! There are several places she could hide. For a short time."

Sork then whispered between them, "And if a special operations team has been dispatched to this world, her likely hood of survival drops even further."

Even Dot had her doubts, "Noble Six, the Elite is correct. The probability of Lizbeth's survival for so long against both geth and Covenant forces is doubtful. The mathematics are determinate."

Six ignored Dot and Sork's comments, "Commander?"

Shepard didn't understand why Six suddenly offered assured her to find Lizbeth, and even if Shepard didn't want to look, Six probably would without them. "If she's in there, we'll get her out."

"Thank you, Commander. Thank you."

A/N: Yeah, I called them Skirmishers, only because they and Jackals are the same species(different sub-species) so I'm just going to refer to the bulkier cousins by the human designation, though in conversations with Covenant species they'll be referred as Kig-yar. I'm sorry, I forgot to explain a Covenant cycle and its human equivelant. A cycle is roughly one artifical day on their holy city, High Charity(basically Omega in shape and build but 7 times bigger and mobile) and a cycle is at minimum 265 units(roughly 265 Earth hours).