A/N: Neither Castle or Mass Effect belong to me. They belong to others that actually get paid or did get paid to come up with their respective stories. Some dialogue from Mass Effect 2 appears in this chapter.

Surface – Volorus 2 – Terminus Systems

The small readout in the corner of the HUD in Kate's helmet is now showing her a return from their scout drones and she can see that the immediate area is clear of hostiles and their initial path to the colony is also, for the moment, clear of attacking Collectors. Time to move out, she thinks.

Just before she presses a control on her Omni-tool to take them of private mode so that she can once again talk to the whole squad she says to Castle, "Okay, let's do this."

"Right behind you, Beckett," says an encouraging Castle.

She presses the control and then announces to the whole squad, "Alright, Wolf squad, let's move out. Wolf Four and Five take point. Wolf Six and Seven take the right flank. Wolf Eight and Nine the left flank. Wolf Two, Three and Ten with me and Wolf Eleven and Twelve, rear guards. Let's move like we have a purpose people."

So it is in a staggered box formation her squad moves as quietly and quickly as it can through the knee high bushes and grass that cover the floor of the wood that is between their landing zone and the edge of the colony. As she enters the dimmer light beneath the trees of the wood Beckett wishes again that they could have brought their M35 Mako armoured fighting vehicle for the approach to the colony. Unfortunately their scans from orbit had shown that these woods surround the colony on all sides and are too dense for the vehicle to get through.

For several minutes they see no sign of the Collectors but that changes when they are about half a kilometre from the colony. The drone that is scouting ahead of them is the first to see them and the indication that Beckett gets on her HUD is of a cloud of very small red dots directly ahead of them.

Beckett knows what this is and soon her eyes confirms that she is correct as her squad arrives at what is the edge of the cloud of bug like drones that the Collector ship has launched to paralyse the inhabitants of the colony. Trusting in the countermeasures that they were given at the Citadel she does not slow the pace of their advance and her squad walks straight into the buzzing swarm.

At first she and all her people attract the attention of the bugs and their shields spark all over their bodies as the small drones try to penetrate them. She glances over at Castle who is a few paces to her left and a pace behind her and she sees a blue shimmer around him as he uses a biotic barrier to enhance his own shields. Biotics and technology together are even more effective as the number of sparking impacts around him testifies to the inability of the bugs to reach him.

Gradually the bugs must realise the futility of trying to paralyse them and the attacks on them drop off with only the occasional spark on their shields indicating that the drones are still probing for weaknesses. However the drones obviously do more than just paralyse those that they encounter. They must also tell the Collectors what is going on around them, just like Ryan's drones are doing for them because very soon after they encounter the swarm and with only a couple of hundred meters until the first structure of the colony the scout drone ahead of them sends back indications of at least two dozen solid red dots indicating hostiles directly ahead of them.

Also at that moment she receives a transmission from Esposito in her helmet, "This is Cobra One. We have reached the colony and are being engaged by thirty plus hostiles."

On the small map in one corner of her HUD a green flashing icon shows where Cobra squad is engaged about half a klick to their left and Beckett sends back, "Acknowledged Cobra one. Wolf is at the colony and about to engage twenty plus hostiles."

She then makes hand signals to her squad to orientate them towards the threat ahead of them as they continue to move forward. Beckett then turns her head to Ryan to her left and after another hand signal from her he is launching another drone, this one an attack drone.

The glowing gold sphere shoots ahead and after a beat Beckett signals for her squad to follow it. Barely seconds later the icon of the attack drone flashes indicating that it is engaging the enemy a fact confirmed by the sound of explosions and a strange prolonged whine that she surmises must be the sound made by the Collector's weapons.

Her suspicions are confirmed as they reach the edge of the wood with her squad mostly spread out in a line either side of her, in cover, like her behind trees. In front of her in a clearing she sees a group of the very same bulky, tall, bipedal yet insectoid looking aliens with a brown chitinous exoskeleton and four eyes that Castle described from his encounter at Williamstown. They are standing in the open near what she recognises as a detached cargo pod from a freighter that must be serving as someone's home. The someones that must be in the coffin like cocoons, again just like they saw at Williamstown, that she can see grouped near the entrance of the pod.

The Collectors all are carrying strange looking rifles that look like they were grown rather than made and from these beams of white light whine out as they try to hit the madly swooping drone that is flying amongst them, firing small rockets as it goes.

Wanting to take advantage of the momentary distraction that the drone is causing she gives hand signals to her squad to spread out and take careful aim on the group in front of them. Then, when she is sure they are all set and just as their drone winks out of existence after being hit by fire from several Collectors, she sights down the barrel of her own rifle at the nearest Collector and fires.

All around her flashes of flame spew from the edge of the wood as her squad opens up on the Collectors before them. A handful of the exposed enemy drop at once under the relentless barrage but the Collectors soon gather themselves and start taking cover and firing back at the tree line.

Soon there is the first indication that one of her people is hit as a one of the blue dots on her HUD to her far left winks out and over her helmet she hears, "Wolf Six is down." Which is soon followed by one another blue icon flashing to her right followed by a call of, "This is Wolf Four, I'm hit."

There is no time to acknowledge this however as she sees a group four Collectors behind a crate starting to assemble on a tripod a very large version of the organic looking rifles they are carrying. From where she is she can't get a clear shot on them so she looks over at Castle who is, by no strange coincidence, in cover behind a tree very close to her and she calls, "Castle!" pointing at the four Collectors behind the crate.

He immediately takes the hint as he nods, lowers his gun and then with two out stretched hands sends a biotic push towards the hidden Collectors. The biotic wave he sends pushes the crate to one side and actually knocks two of the Collectors off their feet. With them all exposed she makes short work of taking them down with accurate, armour piercing rounds, assisted at the end by Castle himself as he raises his gun again and assists her.

With their heavy weapon taken out the now very depleted Collectors start falling back and seeing an opportunity Beckett leaps out of cover and moves quickly, at a crouch and still firing as she goes to another group of crates ahead of her for cover. She hears booted feet pounding in the dirt behind her and is again not surprised when Castle joins her barely half a second later in cover behind the crates.

The rest of her squad follow her lead and blue armoured figures emerge from the tree line, firing as they go and advance to cover closer to the cargo pod. Beckett does not try to dwell too much as the quick count she does of her people shows that they are now three down. Leaning over the top of her crate Beckett fires at a retreating Collector and is gratified to see it drop into the dust under the hail of her armour piercing bullets.

Then just as quickly as this fire fight began it is over as the last Collector in sight is thrown in the air by an exploding grenade thrown by one of her soldiers. A sudden and incongruous quiet falls over the immediate area but Beckett can hear gunfire, explosions and the strange whine of the Collector's weapons in the distance to her left.

Touching a control on her forearm Omni-Tool she calls out, "Cobra Squad, Report?"

There is a few seconds of silence before he hears he pissed off sounding voice of Esposito say, "Cobra One here. Meeting heavy resistance and we are moving forward but slowly, Wolf Leader. We're taking casualties. Strength down by a third."

Nodding to herself Beckett responds, "Okay, Cobra One. Once we've cleared this area I'll try to loop to you and flank your hostiles."

"Copy that, Wolf Leader," acknowledges a now grateful sounding Esposito.

"Lion squad, Report?" she now says over the comm.

Yet the response she gets is not verbal but visual as several blue armoured figures emerge from the tree line about a hundred meters to their right. The new comers quickly move forward to join Wolf squad in cover around the cargo pod with two of them, a green and brown armoured human figure and a black and gold armoured Salarain moving to join Beckett behind her cover.

The husky voice of Lieutenant Karpowski then is heard in her helmet as the woman says, "Sorry we're late, Wolf Leader. We found four survivors at the site of Alpha Three and had to wait for the medi-vac. Then just after the dust off a handful of Collectors attacked and kept us busy for a while but we took them out thanks to our Salarian friend here." Karpowski finishes by cocking a gloved thumb at the Salarain, Spectre Jondum Bau, beside her.

Shaking her head Beckett responds, "No worries, Lion One."

Likewise shaking his long tapering and helmeted head Bau says, "I did no more than assist your soldiers in the fight. They handled themselves admirably. Reminded me of my brief time with the Salarian Special Tasks Group before I became a Spectre."

There is then a pause as Karpowski fishes out a small bag from a pouch on her belt that has a slight sound of metallic clinks in it as he holds it out to Beckett and says sombrely, "I collected the tags of those that didn't make it. We loaded what bodies we could onto the shuttle when the wounded were medi-vaced out but two are still trapped in the wreck of Alpha Three….one of them is Sully. We'll have to go back for them when this is over."

Nodding and with equal solemnity Beckett takes the distressingly heavy bag of dog tags and says, "That we will, Lieutenant. I promise you that."

Then one of her soldiers that had headed over to the cocoons at the entrance of the pod calls out, "Wolf Leader, you better see this."

Taking a quick look around to see that there are no Collectors in sight she stows her rifle on her back and the bag of dog tags in a pouch on her belt and moves at a quick crouch over to where the soldier that called to her is trying to get their armoured fingers between a crack in the top of the cocoon. With Karpowski, Bau and Castle with her she reaches where the soldier is struggling to pry the cocoon open. Castle joins the soldier and together they manage to force open the cocoon with a hiss of escaping gasses when they peel off the, opaque orange top. Leaning over the cocoon Beckett sees a young boy, no more than ten years old, in brown coveralls and with wide sightless eyes.

Next to her Karpowski runs her Omni tool over the frozen child and then announces, "He's alive but in perfect stasis. Just like the colonists on Williamstown."

Calling over her shoulder Beckett then says, "Corpsman!"

At her call a blue armoured figure detaches itself from a small group behind a nearby shipping container and heads towards her. The group that the figure just left, she can see, is made up of a couple of now treated, wounded soldiers.

The soldier, identified as a Corpsman by the small red winged serpent symbol on the shoulder pads of his armour, drops to his knees next to the paralysed boy that Castle has lifted out of the cocoon and placed on the ground at her feet. After a quick scan of his Omni-tool the Corpsman reaches into a pouch on his belt, pulls out a hypo-spray, presses it to the boy's neck and activate the control on it.

There is a brief hiss as the Corpsman says, "Doctor Parish came up with this after Williamstown. It should counteract the paralysing agents in his system and bring him around in about an hour."

Nodding Beckett turns to Karpowski, indicates to the other four cocoons near them that a pair of soldiers are also trying to pry open and says, "Lion One, have four of your people stay here with one our Corpsman to free these civilians and stay with our wounded."

Getting a nod from Karpowski she says to the Corpsman, "Wolf Eight, what is the condition of our casualties?"

The medic rises from his knees where he was examining the frozen child and says, "Both Wolf Four and Ten are stable enough for transport back to the ship and both should make it though I've never seen wounds like those caused by the Collector's weapons," he then pulls a dog tag from his belt and holds it out to Beckett. "Wolf Six didn't make it. Caught a beam right in the face. I've got her body ready to be taken back to the ship."

Beckett regretfully adds another small indicator of a life lost to the others in the pouch at her belt and makes a silent and probably unrealistic vow to herself that no more pieces of metal will be added to that pouch today. She then clears her feelings of regret from her mind as she says to the Corpsman, "Call for medi-vac to evacuate the civilians and the wounded. As soon as they are evacuated you are to link up with us. We are heading to assist Cobra squad."

The Corpsman nods and says, "Copy that, Commander."

Looking around her taking in the surrounding soldiers in cover and in particular the reassuring sight of Castle beside her Beckett then unclips her rifle from her back, changes out the thermal clip and calls out, "Wolf squad, Lion squad, with me!"

Again she has Ryan send out scout drones and as the glowing white globes speed ahead of them she looks at the readout on her HUD for the sight of any tell-tale red icons showing hostiles. Using an overlay of the "street plan" of the colony that they had taken from orbit Beckett plots their path through the sections of detached freighter and other barely started prefabricated buildings that make up the colony.

Soon they are a lot closer to the still raging engagement between Esposito's Cobra squad and the Collectors as they can tell from the increased sound of gunfire and explosions not to mention the black plume of smoke that Beckett can see over the roof tops ahead. Keeping to cover as much as possible with their weapons up searching every corner, window, doorway and rooftop for any hidden hostiles Beckett and her people move quickly and efficiently through the makeshift 'streets' of the colony.

At a couple of places they find more cocoons some of them empty but some of them occupied with more paralysed civilians. With each occupied cocoon she marks the location on her Omni-tool and signals Ryan and Bau, who was acting as the Engineer for Lion squad, to place mines and combat drones to guard them while also signalling the team that she left with their wounded and the other cocoons their location with instructions to come and collect them once they have had their wounded dusted-off.

She is just considering ordering a pair of soldiers to remain with the latest handful of occupied cocoons when a louder than normal explosion is heard coming from the direction of Cobra squad's fight. Then over the comms comes the panting breath of Esposito saying, "Wolf Leader, this is Cobra One. The Collectors have got some sort of heavy unit that's got us pinned down and is tearing us apart. We could really use some assistance right about now."

Out of habit she puts her had to the side of her helmet where her ear is and responds quickly, "On our way, Cobra One. Just hold on!"

Beckett then gives rapid chopping hand signals to her squad for them to double time it towards the embattled Cobra squad. They round a couple more detached sections of the freighter and the glowing dots on her HUD tell her where the enemy is, thanks to Ryan's drone, even before they round the third and last section and the area where Cobra is pinned down.

Reaching the battle she makes a quick survey of the situation as the rest of her people get set up as thankfully the Collectors aren't yet aware of the large group of heavily armed humans and one Salarian that have arrived behind them. She can see Cobra squad, what's left of them, in cover behind a stack of shipping crates and one, smoking and on fire six wheeled rover. Between her and Cobra are about twenty Collector soldiers in various positions of cover firing their beam weapons at the human soldiers.

As she watches a couple of the Collectors go down as a result of fire from the dug in Cobra so she is not too concerned about them. There are also the human shaped 'husks' that Beckett well remembers reading and seeing on vids taken by Commander Shepard and his team during their battles with the Geth and the rouge Spectre Saren Arterius. These husks are the bodies of dead humans that have been reanimated using massive amounts of cybernetic implants throughout their bodies. Totally mindless, fast moving and used as cannon fodder by the Geth and now it seems by the Collectors, they blindly attack anything that is living. As she watches three of them charge Cobra's barricade only to be immediately cut down by withering fire from the humans.

Beckett hopes they the Collectors brought the husks with them and those now completely dead husks are not some of the colonists they are supposed to be rescuing. She is not worried about the husks, or Twenty-eight Days Later zombies as Castle calls them, but what does have her concerned and draws her attention is the massive thing that is floating couple of feet in the air between her and Cobra's barricade. The thing has a black metallic like skin with a smooth wedge shaped, domed head from which there are four glowing eyes like the other Collectors. Yet this thing is ten times the size of the average Collector soldier, has four legs that hang loosely beneath its floating body and, most horribly, has a body that seems to be made up of the fused together remains of at least thirty husks.

A large purple particle beam shoots out from the heavy's eyes and one of the crates protecting Cobra vaporises. As the now exposed soldiers scramble for cover a white and red armoured figure steps forward and raises their arms. Recognising Gunnery Chief Hastings, Beckett watches as an aura of blue energy surrounds the biotic and then the Collector heavy shudders and shakes as a powerful warp field tries to compromise its armour and rip it apart from the inside.

Just when Beckett thinks Hastings will succeed a white glow, like a shield, covers the skin of the heavy and it slams down to the ground onto its four legs. The force of the impact sends Hastings flying backwards and even has Beckett staggering as the shockwave from the impact is felt by all around. Concerned for Hastings, Beckett looks for her but is glad to see her staggering to her feet and being helped back into cover by the familiar armoured figure of Esposito as he fires his rifle from his hip. The now stationary heavy seems to be regrouping as it just sits there but remains unharmed as multiple bullet strikes spark uselessly off the still glowing shield enveloping it.

With her people in position there is no time to lose so she raises her rifle, takes aim at the exposed back of nearest Collector soldier and shouts through her comms, "FIRE!"

The noise of firing weapons is now added to tenfold and quickly the surprised Collectors drop under the relentless combined fire of Lion and Wolf squads. Some Collectors try to turn and face this new threat from behind them but none manage more than few a wild shot in their direction before they and the remaining few husks are cut down.

As the last of the bipedal soldiers falls the glow around the heavy dissipates and it rises into the air again. Ominously it slowly turns in the air to face her and her people. In fact when it does stop its turn it is now 'looking' directly at Beckett. It's glowing eyes flash and just as she is about to dive out of the way she hears a frantic, "BECKETT!" over the comms and she is tackled out of the way by Castle as the particle beam passes over them.

Knocked to the ground she sees Castle scramble to his feet before she can move and like Hastings, raise his arms at the monstrous Collector. Like the other biotic a blue glow surrounds Castle as he sends a Warp field at the beast. From her position on the ground she can see that again the heavy's armour is weakening and before it can hunker down again she yells into her comms, "All heavy weapons concentrate your fire on the hostile, NOW!"

From several points surrounding the Collector heavy, both from her people and from Cobra squad rockets, grenades and streams of tracer pound the floating Collector. The creature is rocked by countless explosions and from the ground Beckett raises her own rifle to add her own fire to the onslaught. She can see the start of the white glow of its shield powering up but before the shield can fully form the thing is ripped apart by explosions. Then its whole body starts glowing harshly but this is not the bright glow of its shield. Its legs shoot out stiff in all directions as the white light intensifies and Beckett has to shield her face as finally the thing explodes in a blinding flash and with a loud boom.

Small pieces of the heavy are raining down on her as she rises to her feet and then claps a congratulatory and comforting hand onto the shoulder of the gasping Castle, "Well done, Castle."

Turning his head the panting Castle responds with, "Piece of cake, Beckett."

The crunching of boots in dirt and now destroyed Collector announce the arrival of Esposito and a slightly limping Hastings and as the pair stop in front of her Esposito says, "Thanks for the assist, Commander."

"What, no thanks for me, Espo?" interjects Castle teasingly before Beckett can respond.

Esposito's blue helmeted cocks in Castle's direction and he says grudgingly, "Ok, yeah. Thanks, Writer-boy."

While this little exchange happens Beckett checks the HUD in her helmet for the readout from the scout drones that she is now receiving that all the Engineers on all the squads have deployed. Fortunately they seem to have a little time to regroup as there is no indication of any hostiles nearby or approaching, for now.

However time is rarely your friend on the battlefield and knowing that the situation could change in a moment she decides to put them back on track so she asks, "Report, Cobra One?"

Esposito's blue armoured frame stiffens, not quite coming to attention as he turns towards Beckett and answers indicating with a sweep of his arm back to the members of his squad now emerging from cover, "I have three dead and four others injured of which two of those, including Hastings here, can still fight."

Checking the readout on her HUD before she responds Beckett then turns to Lieutenant Hastings and asks, "Are you sure you're fit to go on, Cobra Two?"

Hastings white and red helmeted head nods vigorously in response, "Yes, ma'am. That last big bastard just knocked the wind out of me. I'm good to go."

Nodding thoughtfully in response and now seeing the information she wanted on her HUD, Beckett turns to Esposito and says, "My medic and four members of Lion have seen off our casualties and are currently policing up some paralysed civilians that we discovered. I'll have them head here and link up with your casualties for them to be medi-vaced back to the ship."

As Esposito responds with a, "Copy that, Wolf Leader," their little group is joined by Karpowski and Bau.

Addressing them all Beckett then orders, "Ok, have our people do a weapons and ammo check. We move out in one minute."

Then as they all chorus, "Yes, Wolf Leader," over the comms in Beckett's helmet she hears Montgomery's voice ask, "New York Actual to Wolf Leader, sit rep?"

Looking up into the sky slightly though she can no longer see their ship she answers, "All surviving teams have reached the colony and engaged the enemy. With the loss of Alpha Three we are currently suffering a little over twenty-five percent casualties with almost that percentage again of wounded. We have encountered and rescued several paralysed civilians. I intend moving on the final objective presently."

"Very well, Wolf Leader. I can report that all hostile drones have been destroyed and that Raptor Flight just completed escorting both civilian shuttles safely to the ship. I am releasing Raptor to provide you with close air support should you need it as well to escort our medi-vac shuttles. Advise me if you require any further fire support and when you have reached the main objective, New York Actual out," says the calm deep voice of Captain Montgomery.

With that communication terminated Beckett does a quick survey of her surrounding troops and at that moment sees the medic and Lion squad members from earlier trot into view. She points towards what was the barricade that Cobra had sheltered behind and where their Corpsman is working on Cobra's wounded giving a clear order for what the newly arrived group are to do next.

Then seeing that everyone else has completed their checks she calls out, "Alright, let's move people. Lion squad, take point, followed by Wolf and then Cobra as rear guard."

Command given the members of the New York's assault force, with Castle as always close by her side, now moves through the tight, detritus strewn and still forming streets of the colony towards the looming tower that is the Collector ship. As she and her people move through the streets, clearing each pod and half-finished pre-fab structure as they go, Beckett half wishes again that they could have the Mako with them.

She immediately dismisses the thought however because welcome though its turret mounted mass accelerator gun and armour would be the tight and rubbish filled streets would be close to impassable for the armoured vehicle. Add to that the fact that in close in street fighting that they are likely but yet to encounter a large vehicle like the Mako tends to be one big target for the enemy and just attracts hostile fire.

Again with their drones scouting ahead Beckett is constantly checking her HUD for any sign of the enemy as they advance but, surprisingly, there is none. They do come across several cocoons more and more of them occupied with paralysed civilians and the numbers increasing the closer they get to the landing zone of the Collector ship. As before Beckett has their combat engineers set mines, drones and other traps to guard the vulnerable civilians and marks their locations on her Omni-tool for later evacuation.

Soon, much quicker than she thought would happen, again because of the total lack of further resistance they encounter, she and the rest of the New York's assault force finds themselves at landing point of the massive Collector ship. In the shadow cast by the towering cylinder Beckett sees that they are on the edge of a small open space at the north end of the colony where, to one side, there is what was the front command or bridge section of the freighter that brought the colonists here.

The fact that they have reached this close to the Collector ship without encountering any more Collector soldiers has alarm bells ringing in her head. The deserted and ominously quite space in front of her further adds to the warmings in head as the whole situation spells trap to her.

Yet again, as if he can read her mind, Beckett hears in her ear the voice of Castle say, "Can anyone say, 'trap'."

Taking a moment to check the deployment of her troops on her helmet's readout behind what cover they can find at the edge of the open space she then mutters to Castle, "Yeah, I got the 'trap' memo too, Castle."

Beckett looks beyond the open space towards the base of the Collector ship itself where a large rectangular ramp leads from the ground near the command module of the freighter up to a large gaping rectangular gap in the side of the Collector ship one story above them. The silence and lack of guards at this entrance to the enemy ship has Beckett more than a bit concerned. It is clear that the Collectors want the human soldiers to enter their ship and it is equally clear to Beckett that if they do so they may not come out again.

"Wolf Three, send a drone inside that thing. Let's see what's waiting for us in there," Beckett orders over the comms to the out of sight by nearby, Ryan.

Then as another golden, glowing holographic sphere streaks at hip height towards the enemy ship's ramp, Beckett makes another call on the comms, "Wolf Leader to New York. We have reached the primary objective. No hostile contact at this time. Stand by for further updates."

"Acknowledged, Wolf Leader," responds Montgomery's disembodied voice.

In that short time their drone has reached the top of the ramp and enters the black, forbidding, open hatchway. In the bottom corner of her helmet a small image appears as an infrared image from a camera on the drone starts sending back images of what it can see inside the suspiciously unlit interior of the Collector ship.

Therefore it is no surprise to Beckett when a moment later the image on the inside of her helmet starts showing the glowing outline of one, then another, then another and then several Collector soldiers grouped just a handful of meters beyond the entrance of the ship. In fact as the drone approaches them the number of outline soon fills the small image. Then one of the wedge shaped heads with four eyes raises its rifle and just like that the image from the drone winks out.

Glancing over at Castle, who is right beside her in cover at the corner of a prefab building on the edge of the open area in front of the Collector ship she says, "Well that's one party we're not joining."

Castle's helmeted head then indicates at something behind her as he replies with, "Yeah, well it looks like they are bringing the party to us anyway."

Beckett turns around as immediately sees what Castle is talking about. From down the ramp, that they were so obviously supposed to use to walk into the Collector's trap, now a mass of Collector soldiers come streaming firing their weapons as they go. However that is not all as from high above them, from numerous spots on the ship come more Collector soldiers, these with wings like insects that appear above them and fire down at the sheltering human soldiers. Then to top it off not one but three of the Collector heavies appear from the hatch at the base of the ship behind the mass of charging Collectors on foot.

Sparing a moment for a quick glance back at Castle and getting a small, reassuring nod from him she then turns back around and slaps a fresh thermal clip into her rifle before saying into her comms for all her people to hear, "Time to earn our pay everyone. WOLF SQUADS! STAND TO!"

At an Undisclosed Location in the Galaxy

The Illusive Man looks with anger at the holographic image of the armoured man standing before him. Right up until this moment everything has been going exactly to his plan.

Shepard has used the Omega 3 Relay to find the Collector's base of operations, a huge artificial construct at the very centre of the galaxy protected from the gravitational forces of the surrounding black holes by massive mass effect fields. Getting his hands on that technology alone not to mention all the other advanced weapons technology that the Collector's possess is one of the main reasons he sent Shepard on this mission. All the altruistic talk of wanting to protect innocent human colonists from the Collectors while not totally untrue were really well down the priority list for why Cerberus spent the millions of credits on resurrecting Shepard and building him a new and improved Normandy.

And, up until this point, Shepard had been returning on that investment perfectly. After the Normandy destroyed the Collector ship sent out to stop them they had crashed landed on the Collector base. Then Shepard and all the specialists and mercenaries he'd recruited for this mission had boarded the Collector base to engage them.

After a tough fight they had fought their way to the very centre of the base. There Sheppard and his squad had discovered the fate of the thousands of kidnapped humans and a terrible fate it was. Their bodies had been broken down, converted into a fluid and being pumped into a gigantic cybernetic horror. This horror was in the form of a metallic human skeleton, or at least the top half as it was still only half finished.

Shepard has discovered that the Collectors are surrogates for the Reapers and that this abomination was a human form Reaper. The Reapers, that ancient and advanced machine race of synthetic-organic starships that were responsible for the extinction of the Prothean race fifty-thousand years ago. Each ship, ten times larger than the biggest dreadnought in the Council Fleet, are each an individual Artificial Intelligence and they have one purpose. To consume and exterminate all advanced organic life in the galaxy.

After they destroyed the Protheans fifty thousand years ago they retreated into the dark space between the galaxies to wait for the next evolution of organic life to advance to a level worthy of their attention. They had been behind the attack on the Citadel by the rouge Spectre Saren and the machine race of the Geth that Shepard had stopped two years ago. In fact Saren's ship, Sovereign, was actually a Reaper and was using its ability to warp and influence minds both organic and artificial to control both Saren and the Geth. The attack was a foiled attempt of opening a Relay to the Reapers in dark space so that they could invade and start their cull of the races currently inhabiting the galaxy.

When the Normandy and the combined Council and Alliance fleets destroyed Sovereign the Reaper's plan had been thwarted but only temporarily. Shepard is convinced that the Reapers are still trying to invade the galaxy and his discovery of the Collector's connection to the Reapers and their attempt to build a Reaper in the image of a human and using humans as the organic element in a Reaper's construction confirms this. Because of this Shepard is now preparing destroy the Collector base which is something that the Illusive Man does not want.

While he agrees with Shepard that the Reapers are coming and that they are the most dangerous threat that humans have faced in their history he does not agree with destroying the Collector base or the remains of the Reaper that Shepard just took down. No, he wants that technology to study and use against a possible Reaper invasion and also to make humans the most technologically advanced race in the galaxy.

Unfortunately the surprisingly idealistic Shepard cannot see the benefits of using the bounty of technology he's discovered for the betterment of humankind. The Illusive Man has already suggested that Shepard just use a radiation pulse to kill the remaining Collectors on the base which would leave their technology intact but Shepard is having none of it. No, he is all caught up in the sentiment of revenge over how the Collectors murdered thousands of humans to try and create a Reaper and he just wants to wipe that fact from existence because of it. All despite the effort and expense that he and Cerberus went through to bring the 'hero of humanity' back from the dead.

Normally the Illusive Man does not plead with anyone but the gift that the Collector base represents has him virtually doing that as he says, "Shepard. You died fighting for what you believed. I brought you back so you could keep fighting. Some would say that what we did to you was going too far but look at what you've accomplished. I didn't discard you because I knew your value. Don't be so quick to discard this facility. Think of the potential."

The image of the grim, pale close cropped dark haired man with five o'clock shadow wearing a holographic targeting visor over his eyes responds, "We'll fight and win without it. I won't let fear compromise who I am."

The hologram of Shepard turns away from the Illusive Man and goes over to a nearby console and Sheppard proceeds to fix charges to its base. That console controls the regulation systems for the power core of the base. Destroy that and a matter of minutes later the core will overload and the Collector base will be destroyed.

Desperate now the Illusive Man turns on his holographic projector so that his image spins around to face the black and white cat suit wearing woman with raven black hair that is one of Shepard's squad. This is Shepard's second in command and one of the Illusive Man's most trusted Cerberus operatives, Miranda Lawson.

She is supposed loyal to him and Cerberus and so uphold Cerberus' interests on this mission and so he orders, "Miranda, do not let Shepard destroy the base!"

To his disconcerting surprise the holographic image of Miranda just shoots him a sneering look as she responds with, "Or what? You'll replace me next?"

Clearly a bond has developed between Miranda and Shepard and she is not happy that the Illusive Man wants to replace Shepard just like that. He had thought that there was a chance that Shepard and Miranda might become close and had thought that might work to his advantage. Make Shepard more loyal to Cerberus. That it has had the opposite effect just makes him angry.

"I gave you an order, Miranda," he says venomously at his traitorous agent.

"I noticed. Consider this my resignation," the woman replies sarcastically.

Giving up on Miranda, for now though in his mind she just signed her own death warrant, the Illusive Man turns around so that he can face Sheppard and tries one last time to reason with the man, "Shepard. Think about what's at stake. About everything Cerberus has done for you. You….."

He stops in mid flow as the Illusive Man is suddenly staring at nothing as the image of a kneeling Shepard winks out. Looking over at a nearby console he sees that the transmission has been cut off at the source. He could try to get them back but something tells them that they will just ignore him.

Frustration and anger course through his veins at this betrayal. He didn't go through all this trouble, bring back Shepard, equipping him, helping him to recruit his team, not to mention interfering with the Alliance's efforts against the Collectors so he could have a clear run at the aliens, for it all to be for nothing.

Sure Agent Turner failed in destroying the New York but the he still knew that the Alliance ship wasn't going to be in a position to interfere with Shepard's assault on the Collector's base. Now all that time, money and effort is for naught as Shepard is clearly about to destroy the Collectors and all of their technology.

The Illusive Man pulls out the cigarette case from his pants pocket and as he opens it to get a calming smoke he wonders on how the Alliance are doing against the Collectors? Perhaps if they defeat the Collectors there will be enough to salvage from that battle so that his agents in the Alliance will be able to procure the Collector's technology for him that way.

A rueful smile graces his lips and he thinks on the irony that he is now pinning his hopes on the success of the Alliance for his own success.

Back on Volorus 2

Castle pushes Beckett into the alley between the two unfinished pre-fab dwellings just as the purple particle beam from the Collector heavy or 'Praetorian' as he's designated them in his head, scours the earth at the place where Beckett had just been standing. He immediately takes position at the entrance of the alley, braces himself, extends out his hands and sends as powerful a biotic Warp field as he can at the Praetorian. Now beside him, Beckett is firing her rife continuously at the seemingly impervious creature as her fire sparks off the armour of the Collector.

The battle is not going well for the humans.

While the Alliance soldiers are able to take down at least ten Collector soldiers for every one of them and two of the Praetorians have been taken out by strafing runs by Raptor flight there are still too many of the enemy to stop. More and more of the Collector soldiers on foot and by wing pour out of their ship and they are overwhelming the humans and their Salarian ally by sheer weight of numbers. Slowly but surely the Collectors have driven them back and if they keep this level of intensity then there soon won't be a human soldier left standing.

Panting into his helmet at the effort of trying to generate a Warp field strong enough to compromise the Praetorian's armour after what he has already done today he looks through the sweat streaming from his brow at the horrendous creature for any sign that it is working. Unfortunately for both him at Beckett the thing before them seems to be mostly unaffected by his efforts this time and he can feel his strength sapping and the pain from his implants increase the longer he tries to keep the field going.

"Come on, Castle. Keep going. You've almost got it," he hears the encouraging voice of Beckett in his helmet as she must sense him waning.

Boyed by her words he grits his teeth as he wills the last ounces of his strength to try and rip apart the creature in front of them. Then, disconcertingly, he sees its four eyes start to glow in preparation for what he knows will be the firing of its particle beam weapon.

"I…I don't think I can do it, Beckett," he gasps out in regret to the woman still fighting beside him.

At that moment with the Collector about to fire at them and with nowhere for them to go he is full of regret. Regret that he should die just as he has found a woman he can truly love. Regret that this same woman that has given her heart to him is also about to die and there is nothing he can do about it.

Rage quickly replaces regret and he thinks on how the both of them dying now, just as they've found each other would be such a waste. He also rages at the thought of being taken from his daughter, Alexis, and even that the chance that by them being defeated here it might also mean the ultimate defeat and destruction of the New York and with it the death of his daughter.

"ARGGGHHH!" he screams and he pushes the last vestiges of his strength and power at the Collector.

Then he is done. He's got nothing left.

He drops his hands to his side in exhaustion but the anticipated searing of his flesh by the Collector's weapon does not come. He looks at the massive four legged figure hovering before them and the glow around its eyes has stopped. It hovers there perfectly still with it only swaying slightly as it moves about from the impacts of Beckett's rifle fire on its armour. Not wanting to look a gift Collector in the mouth Castle quickly unclips his sub-machine gun from his belt and joins Beckett in firing at the seemingly now stationary and dormant Collector.

Their combined fire seems to be having little effect but it still hasn't made any more attacks on them so he asks, "What's it doing? Why has it stopped?"

"I don't know, Castle. Just don't stop shooting," responds an equally perplexed sounding Beckett.

Then just as quickly as it stopped the Pretorian turns around in the air and starts flying out of the small street it had chased them into. Castle looks at surprise it the clear eye slits on Beckett's helmet and she looks back at him for a moment before she says, "Come on, Castle."

Together they run in pursuit of the seemingly fleeing Pretorian. At the end of the street they come to a skidding halt as they take in the scene before them. The Pretorian they were pursing is disappearing into the now closing hatch of the Collector ship. Before them in the open space in front of the ship the ground is littered with the bodies of Collector soldiers interspaced with the occasional, distressing sight of a fallen armoured human figure. Small fires and plumes of smoke rise from various points where there are the remains of the two Praetorians taken out by their fighters and from other places where grenades and rockets from the humans caused some secondary damage.

Around them Castle can see the surviving Alliance soldiers, Esposito, Ryan and even the Salarain, Bau, amongst them come out from cover. Some of them are still firing at the fleeing Collectors and a couple fall even as they try to get back into their ship. Then just as the rectangular hatch at the base of the ship closes several ports on the ship start to glow.

"It's taking off! EVERYONE BACK!" shouts Beckett as she grabs his forearm and pulls him after her as she starts running back down the street and away from the Collector ship.

Castle joins her in running as fast as his legs can carry him away from the blast zone that is sure to be caused by the taking off of the alien vessel. They make several twisting turns through the streets as they try to put as much cover and distance between themselves and the landing zone.

However far too soon there is a shaking of their ground beneath their feet and a roar from behind them. Then they are knocked off their feet onto their faces as a blast wave of air and heat washes over them. Warning indicators flash on the inside of his helmet as his shields and armour struggle to deal with the heat of the blast wave washing over them. Dirt, dust and debris fly around them as the engines of the Collector ship force it into the sky.

Fortunately the blast wave ends eventually and when that happens, at the same time, he and Beckett roll onto their backs in time to see the cylindrical Collector ship rise with ever increasing speed into the blue above them trailing fire and smoke. Out of the corner of his eye he sees Beckett raise her orange glowing Omni-tool to press a control.

He then hears Beckett over the comms say, "Wolf Leader to New York. The enemy vessel has taken off. Repeat, the enemy vessel has taken off. Prepare for ship to ship engagement!"

"Copy that, Wolf Leader. We have them on our scope. We'll take it from here. New York Actual, out," responds the ever calm sounding voice of Captain Montgomery.

CIC – SSV New York

Montgomery studies the image of the Collector ship on the tactical holographic display in the centre of CIC as it rises from the surface of the planet. The rapidly increasing numbers next to the image tells him that it is gaining altitude swiftly.

Several targeting crosshair icons start appearing overlayed on the image of the enemy ship and from the nearby weapons consoles he hears reports called out to him.

"Forward missile batteries one through six have target lock!"

"GARDIAN defence system on line and ready!"

"Thanix cannon is armed and has targeting solution on the enemy vessel, awaiting your order, sir!"

Crossing his arms over his chest Montgomery watches the altitude of the Collector ship increase. He will not fire until the enemy has cleared the atmosphere so to minimise the chance of any debris falling back onto the colony and his people there. The Collectors should have no similar restraints but curiously they have not fired yet at the New York. No they just seem to be intent of getting off the surface of the planet as quickly as possible.

The Captain narrows his eyes as the image gets closer and closer to the blue line in the hologram indicating the edge of the upper atmosphere of the planet. Then as the image crosses the line he opens his mouth…

At the Centre of the Galaxy

The Collector Prime moves on its four legs around the hexagonal control console and its holographic displays, its eyes glowing with a bright orange light and with the same light streaming from gaps in its carapace. Its four arms move over the controls as it maintains both technological and telepathic control of all Collector's everywhere. For the advantage of the Collector's technology and biology is that they are all linked together no matter where they are even across the great expanse of space.

Then a rumble can be heard deep within the base and the displays around it flicker followed by several small explosions from some nearby equipment. An explosion particularly close by throws the Collector Prime into the console. As it gathers itself a deep ageless voice can be heard coming from the hologram of a large vessel that looks like a six limbed squid at the centre of the console as it says, "You have failed. We will find another way."

Just like that the glow infusing the Collector Prime's eyes and body fades and for the first time in thousands of years the creature's own mind looks through its eyes at the controls before it. For this is the first time that its master, the Reaper vanguard called Harbinger, has not been in control of its every thought and action.

It looks up the centre of the console in confusion even as the room around it shakes and machines spark. In the centre of the console the hologram of the Reaper folds its legs under itself before winking out completely.

She shaking of the room increases and the last thing the Collector Prime does is look around at the fast approaching searing white blast wave that is heading straight for it.

Flying Bridge – SSV New York

Alexis Castle makes a minor adjustment of the holographic controls in front of her while keeping her eyes fixed on the sight she can see through the view port in front of her. The sight of the Collector ship just clearing the blue and white atmosphere of Volorus 2.

She has brought the New York in close, otherwise known as knife fighting range, so to give their weapons the best chance of doing the most damage. Even now just as they are about to fire she makes sure that the bow of the cruiser, and so their forward firing Thanix cannon and missiles, remain trained on the ever closer enemy ship. The sight of the enemy ship rising towards them gives her hope that her father has survived the battle on the surface. She knows that he will do everything he can do to stay alive for her and also for the new love he is fighting beside. So it is that she will do everything that she can do to make sure that she and her shipmates survive the coming battle.

Glancing down quickly at the readout in front of her she can see that the Collector ship has finally cleared the atmosphere and any moment now she expects to hear Captain Montgomery give the order to fire. The young red head focuses her gaze again on the sight of the Collector ship through the view port and as she does so her eyebrows come together in curiosity as she sees it seemingly stagger in space.

As the ship seems to lose all forward momentum and thus risks falling back to the surface under the planet's gravitational pull a series of explosions bloom out at various point across its rock like surface. Larger explosions rock the ship and pieces start flying off it to tumble away into space or to fall back into the atmosphere to leave fiery trails as they burn up.

Over the ship's internal comms she hears a voice from CIC announce, "Sensors are detecting a massive build-up of energy and radiation within the enemy vessel. Computer models estimate that their engine core is overloading."

"Captain to Pilot. Get us away from that ship. Best possible speed," then orders the voice of Captain Montgomery.

Having anticipated the order the Captain has not even finished speaking before Alexis' hands are flying over the controls and the bow of the New York is turning away from the now crippled Collector ship. Once they have completed a full one hundred and eighty degree turn she pushes her hand forward over the sub-light engine output controls to as far as they will go and the cruiser shoots away from the Collectors at just under light speed.

Looking down at the display on the console in front of her she watches the numbers indicating the range from the Collector ship rise quickly. She just hopes they will get far enough away before the thing blows.

Surface – Volorus 2

Castle stands with Beckett, Esposito, Ryan, Bau, Hastings and a few of the other surviving members of the New York's assault force, with their helmets off and looking up at the sky at the spot where they saw the Collector ship disappear from view. Any moment now he, like everyone else, expects to see the flashes high in the sky signifying a battle in low orbit.

He hopes that the New York wins the battle and, especially, that his daughter, Alexis, survives unharmed because he is under no illusions that it will be a tough fight between the ships. The proof of that is the ferocity of the battle they experienced here on the ground. They almost lost the battle and in fact did not win it themselves. He is sure that if the Collectors hadn't inexplicably just stopped fighting and run then himself and everyone standing around him now, including the extraordinary woman beside him, would be dead.

Something in the back of his mind is wondering why the Collectors suddenly turned tail and fled just when they had the Alliance soldiers on their knees. It was almost as if they got a message that something was happening somewhere else that was of greater importance to them.

A chorus of gasps ripple through the group around him as a blinding white light appears in the sky above them. The light shines as bright as the sun for a few seconds before it snuffs out leaving the after image of it still visible in his vision when he blinks. Then a shockwave reaches the surface and they all stagger as a wind from high above presses down on them and sends dust and debris flying. But as quickly as it arrives the shockwave dissipates and they all sand upright again and look up to see the smoking trails of hundreds of pieces of debris burning up in the atmosphere far above them.

Castle catches Beckett's eye and he knows that the look of worry on his face is plain because it is clear they just witnessed the destruction of a ship high above them but which ship?. Holding his gaze Beckett raises her activated Omni-tool to her face so to speak straight into the comms microphone in it as she says, "Wolf Leader to New York, come in, New York."

For Castle there is an agonising few seconds of silence before the more than welcome voice of Montgomery can be heard saying, "New York Actual to Wolf Leader. I can report the enemy vessel has been completely destroyed. I'm sending down all our shuttles and medical personnel to assist you with any wounded and with the paralysed colonists."

"Great news, New York. We'll mark landing zones for the shuttles for where they are most needed. Wolf Leader, out," says Beckett while still holding his gaze. While she had been speaking an ever wider smile has grown on her face.

Then as the realisation that the enemy ship has been destroyed and that they have won the day makes its way through the surrounding soldiers, cheers, relief filled laughter, claps and a few hugs happen amongst the men, women and Salarian that survived. Castle ignores all this however because he only has eyes for the black and red armoured woman with strands of sweaty chestnut coloured hair framing her face. The same woman that is looking right back at him with the most dazzling smile he has ever seen and what he thinks and hopes is a look of love in her eyes.

A/N: So the battle is won though other events in the galaxy played more than their share in the outcome. As you might guess the events here are tied to the events of the final battle in Mass Effect 2 and as stated at the start include some dialogue direct from the game. So a very belated spoiler alert about the end of that game though it is only a spoiler if you play and choose to have your Shepard destroy the Collector base. When you play you can choose to do as the Illusive Man wants and kill the Collectors while still saving the base. Being able to make your own decisions like that are the beauty of an RPG like Mass Effect.

Just a little more left in this story. Thank you all for reading.