A/N: WOW...so much going on in the world...Bin Laden delared dead...all this Mass Effect 3 info...and my work. Since I was gone so long I'm giving a special 2 chapter update. Sorry, another underestimation on my part of 3000 odd words.


Opening the door, Shepard and his team slowly moved towards the transmitter. Before they could even past the first set of cargo, screams from Scions echoed out. From behind the transmitter a pair started to move towards Shepard. The Scions continued to moan which brought a small army of husks to assist. Grunt shouted loudly, "I AM KROGAN!" Grunt started to rush a group of husk.

Garrus was forced to switch his sniper rifle for the M-15 Vindicator Battle Rifle. Garrus used the butt of the rifle to knock back a husk as he started to shoot down others. "Just like old times Shepard!"

Shepard had gone back to back with his turian friend as he continued to gun down husk with the Collector Rifle that Cerberus had acquired. "Throw in a few geth, maybe a krogan battlemaster, it'd be just like fighting Saren."

One of the Scion fired the Shockwave-like power. "Watch out!" As the waves continued towards Kasumi, she jumped backward just barley avoiding the blast. She pulled out the M-12 Locust in her left hand with the M-5 Phalanx in her right. Kasumi gunned down a few husks. After landing a husk tried to attack her from behind. Just before its arm could land its strike, Kasumi disappeared saying, "Now you see me…" Within seconds she reappeared, with the Locust strapped to her hip again, she struck the husk with her right arm with an active omni-tool. Kasumi disappeared again and reappeared next to Dr. Solus, "That was close."

Mordin tossed an Incinerate tech at an incoming husk as it burned to a crisp. "Wish I weren't standing downwind!"


The gunship arrived to pick up the last team. Inside, Rang was examining one of the dead Collectors in the back of the gunship. Beviin greeted Aran as he hopped into the hold, "Welcome back vod."

Aran gave Bev a fist pump, "Good to be back. Rang, find a way to kill these bastards faster?"

"Just a sec boss man." Rang tossed a pair of Collectors out of the gunship and burned the bodies with an Incinerate tech. After which, Rang started to stuff the rest of the corpses back into the small hold where a pair of speeder would have been.

Vren asked team one in general, "So, how many kills have you guys gotten?"

Nyona was the only one to indulge an answered, "Personally killed eighteen things today. Assisted with seven."

With everyone in, the bay doors closed and the gunship took off. Aran then moved to the cockpit and banged on the side, "Get us to the spaceport."

"Copy that. Next stop bug city. Hope you guys are ready for it."


They have been fighting for about three minutes, taking out most of the husks and one of the Scions but the husks seemed to just keep coming. Suddenly a low humming sound started to fill the air. The humming was getting louder but still kept its relatively low decibels. The same odd gunship arrived. The ship started to fire green beams of light out of the four balls, two on the end of the wings and the other two were next to the sides. The beams precisely gunned down husk after husk as the ship was getting closer to the ground. The sides opened up to reveal the Mandalorians along with another unknown person who's armor configuration looks more like one of the men controlling the ball turrets. The team was efficient as they also brought down husk at the elevated level. The Scion tried to bring down the gunship but the weapon fire hit a rather strong shield of some type. The front of the gunship turned to the Scion and the guns in front also fired green beams but in busts as it shredded through the Scion as if it was made out of wood. With the area cleared, the gunship moved itself between Shepard and the transmission tower.

Now a head was visible near the top, possibly a second behind. Aran was visibly ordering them around but he kept the chatter between their radios.


"Mandalorians, defensive spread! Vren, Rang. We're going to move some of these crates to better protect C3 while she slices the tower. Move out Mandalorians!"

The others started to make sure the husks and Scions were down permanently as the LAAT pulled back.

As the others continued their jobs, Beviin greeted Shepard, "Commander Shepard." Beviin might have given a salute to Shepard, were it not for his official KIA status. "We have the situation under control. All we need now is time and some luck."

Shepard had to ask the blue armored commando, "How did you guys know about Horizon and why aren't you being affected?"

Rang was listening in on Bev's channel as he shouted, "Your 'illusive' friend decided to try and use reverse psychology to have us go, in my opinion, so he could capture us easily."

Vren, Aran and Rang had taken three large crates and moved them around the tower's controls.

The little red and blue droid used her jet thrusters to 'jump' down from the gunship to the flat ground around the transmitter. She rolled into the new enclosure as Vren placed the last crate down. Vren saw the young krogan before the gunship touched down. Vren moved to the krogan and sized him up. The young krogan was in silver armor with no sleeves. Vren could easily tell how young he was, as the krogan was rather short and the ridges on his head had not formed into a solid crest yet. He could see the krogan was examining him in his blue and gold armor. "Good kid. Too bad you don't have a true krogan role model to learn from." Before the younger krogan could argue otherwise, Vren turned around and left.

Nyona reported on an open channel, "Clear. All hostiles are dead, for the moment."

Garrus asked Bev, "So, friend of yours?" The scared turian pointed towards the gunship that hovered above them.

Beviin only answered, "Vode." Shepard tried to get to the transmitter but Beviin stopped him. "Sorry, commander, but we have someone working to restore the turrets."

Shepard tried to explain, "Turning them on isn't the only problem the…" Before he could say a series of beeps and whistles started to come from the direction of the tower.

Beviin placed a finger to the side of his helmet, nodding. "The targeting system is not properly calibrated. A simple fix for who's doing the job."

Kasumi then asked, "And who might that be, 'Mr. Expert Slicer'?" Kasumi and Keiji once worked with a few of the Mandalorians on a job, Bev and Rang were some of them.

Forta was watching the little astromech droid at work cutting into the panel starting to cut wires and solder things together. "Are you sure about that?" The droid started to buzz angrily at the batarian for questioning her. "Alright, I'll let you do your job." The droid then started to whistle in a joyous manner.

Dagger translated to the team, "C3 says she's restored comms but it's going to be weak if we contact the ship. She's starting on fixing the targeting program now."

Aran finally got over to Shepard to greet the former Spectre. "Shepard. We keep meeting in the strangest of situations. Garrus, if you want to use your sniping skills to the fullest you can join Nyona and the others." As he said that the gunship returned touching down with the doors open. Rasen, Nyona, Rang and Forta returned to the gunship's bay.

Dagger used the speakers, "Gun calibrations are finished. When you're ready, she'll start up activation sequence. C3's reporting it'll take time for the generators to produce the proper level of energy and we'll be a hot target once it starts."

The young krogan knew what that meant, "The Collectors will try to stop it. Good." Vren remembered his youthful days when he was like that, ready and eager to fight anything.

Garrus grabbed his sniper rifle and shrugged his shoulders, "Why not. I've never had a chance to snipe from a ship before."

Rang used the loud speakers on, "Don't worry, we got you covered with precision shooters and lots of explosions."

Swoop took over the speaker, "Buggers inbound! Northeast of the tower!"

As the Collectors start to fly in, one of them became 'empowered' in midflight. The moment that process started Garek was screaming in pain again. Swoop and Dagger had no choice but to move themselves further away from the battlefield. The sudden movement away, made Garrus lose sight of his target, which prompted him to yell, "Hey, the battles that way!" Garrus then saw Garek on the floor, "And what's wrong with him?" Garrus turned specifically to Rang, "Can't you give him sedatives or something?"

Rang shook his head, "Not as simple as that. If I could, I would help, but I can't. It's complicated. You and Ny are only one who can help for the time being."

Nyona couldn't complain, as she already did before to Aran. Nyona adjusted the zoom so she could see with her scope and started to shoot at Collectors. Garrus looked at her and joined in.


Back on the battlefield Grunt saw as the gunship pulled further away. "Cowards!"

Aay'han defended their actions, "They aren't retreating. They're moving to a more 'suitable' location for the moment."

Vren took a few opportune shots at the Collectors still flying in, "Less chatting more killing ladies!"

As they cut down Collectors, the 'possessed' Collector started to speak. "Mandalorians; you are nuisances. There is no place for you or any of your brood." The Collector tossed a black orb, slower than the fire balls he had tossed earlier. It made contact with a crate Beviin was hiding behind and knocked him to the ground like a blast from an LJ-50. The Collector then stated as he stood above the commando, "You cannot stop us. I am the Harbinger of perfection." Before he could launch the fire ball in hand the Collector was hit by a series of blue light.

"You just don't know when to shut up?"

The Harbinger 'possessed' Collector stated, "You only damage the vessel, you cannot hurt me." Aay'han blasted it about five more time as the body disintegrated itself. As the body turned to ash, Harbinger stated, "Kill one and one hundred will replace it."

Aay'han quickly pulled Beviin out of the line of fire. "Me'vaar ti gar?"

Bev got back to his feet grabbing Aay'han's hand, "Naas." The two of them exchanged a nod and reengaged.

Tare was taking cover behind the tower. As he reloaded his assault rifle the quarian noticed, "Husks, coming from the west."

Mordin was behind cover as he turned to see. Dr. Solus tossed an Incinerate tech as he shouted, "Should burn through any armor."

That dealt with one of them as more continued to come. The young krogan wanted to charge recklessly and seeing the husk gave him an excuse. "Feel the blood rage!"

Vren saw a bit of himself in the kid, not much but enough that the vet was going to keep the Collectors off the kid's back. An occasional sniper round would find its target that was out of range for the others.


"He wants to do what!"

Rang repeated himself, "Hey don't yell at me Swoop, he said he wanted to go down there. I wouldn't mind getting closer so I can blast a few but not at the General's expense."

Garek got back on his own, leaning against the wall. "I am a Jedi. I will help…even in this weakened state." Garek started to remove his boots and gloves, tossing them to Rang. Before removing the helmet Garek gave one final order, "Warn your brothers…and the others. They will need to stay as far away from me as they can. This will also be an opportunity to help out."

As soon as the helmet was clear off Garek's head, Rang started panicking, "Wait, you're a…and we've said…but you're also a…ah blast."

Forta couldn't tell, "I don't get it? What's wrong?"

Rasen remembered some of the tales Sigma Squad spun during their down time back on the ship. She could tell this is one of the species Rang talked about fighting as often as the droids or Geonosians.


After a grueling fight, it seemed the Collectors had stopped. As Tare and Kasumi checked the area near the transmitter, more Collectors started to fly in. "Aran, we have more bugs. South of the tower!"

"Mandalorians, defend C3 and that tower with your lives!" Everyone started to move to position to engage the Collectors taking a few down before they could land.

As suddenly as the Collectors appeared, an open channel transmission broadcasted, "To all Mandalorians and others fighting the Collectors, hold your positions. Repeat, hold your positions. You're about to get destructive reinforcements."

The Harbinger continued his banter in his attempts to weaken moral, "You prolong the inevitable. Face annihilation."

Aran turned to Shepard, "Tell your krogan to stand down, unless he wants to die here."

"Grunt, get over here." The young krogan seemed to respond to the name as he took cover next to Shepard.

Grunt seemed as though he wanted to yell as Shepard about hiding but before a word could escape his scale covered lips, the gunship returned within audible range. Nyona, Garrus and Rang fired at the Collectors before a shadowed figured jumped from the highly elevated gunship. The figure somehow evaded all of the fire from the Collectors as it landed behind a few crates. Suddenly a bloodcurdling roar echoed across the area.

As the Collectors moved in to try and contain the new factor, the figure became clearer. The being's body was covered in scales of olive green and strips of black. This new being was relentless in its assault. It killed the Collectors without remorse, stabbing the first clean through the chest with its razor sharp claws. The yellow fluids dripped from the Collector down the being's arm. The first Collector was tossed aside like a ragdoll, turning its claws against the next Collector slashing it across its body. The reptilian-like being grabbed another Collector, slamming it to the ground only to jab the neck through with its claws. It's when the being pulled out a small silver cylinder like device when Araniik, Beviin and Aay'han knew. Araniik then yell to everyone, "Stand down, we'll only get in the way!"

"Why should we?"

Rang answered young Grunt's question, "Just wait a few seconds plate face. You'll see why few ever survive a fight against a Jedi." The silver cylinder activated with a buzz as a humming black beam about 1.3 meters long appeared. Garek then swung it, making a clean slice from shoulder to hip as a Collector fell in two; the sliced area was molten hot.

"You are ignorant, we are knowing." The blade was quickly deactivated as Garek jumped out of the way of Harbinger's attacks. Landing behind it, the black blade reappeared with a buzz as it pierced through the possessed Collector. The Collector was lifted into the air for a few moments before the body gave out and started to dissipate. "This form is irrelevant."

The other Collectors tried to hit Garek but the black blade blocked all projectiles that would have hit. The others could hear the sizzle as the metal slugs made contact with the humming blade. The cylinder was tossed from Garek's hands to the Collectors as he took cover behind some crates, the black blade was still active as it sliced through the group of Collectors and their weapons as if they were comprised of paper. The blade cut through anything the black light touched and as it approached C3's barrier, the blade started to turn, acting like a boomerang, returning to the Jedi. There were still three Collectors left as they attempted to fight but Garek simply used his hands to deflect every shot. One of the Collectors placed a barrier that resembled a holographic bug hive. Instead of attacking, Garek ran to the barrier and ran up the curved shield and pushed off, grabbing the retuning, deactivated, blade.

As the Jedi pushed off, Rang and the gunship had moved into position, "Smile for me ugly!" Rang had his LJ-50 in hand as he fired the shot. The shot made contact with the barrier and quickly started to build up energy before imploding, destroying the barrier and severely injuring two of the Collectors behind it. Rang fired a second round to finish the dying pair off, leaving the last one for the Jedi to deal with. The last Collector was trying to get the jump on him, using tactics similarly seen executed by a B1 battle droid. Unforeseen by the Collector was the unprecedented speed by which Garek moved intercepting it before it was in position. The Collector tried to fire but the shots were blocked by the black blade. Garek cut the weapon in two rendering the Collector helpless. Garek produced a faint snarl as he moved closer to the Collector. As they watched, Garek raised his right arm, and as the arm was raising so too was the last Collector. Garek's hand started to squeeze as though holding something, at the same time the Collector was trying to remove something that apparently was chocking it. No matter how hard it tried to grab to weaken this mysterious grip there was nothing but itself to claw at. The Collector was heard making strange clicking noises before Garek snarled once more and finally crushed his hand tightly. At the same time the neck and part of the face of the Collector caved in on itself. The hanging Collector floated in the air, lifeless, for several moments before the Jedi tossed his arm towards the tower and the Collector flew in that direction.

Dagger scanned the area before finally declaring, "Area's cleared!"

The three clones on the ground rushed to aid their Jedi General, "General. Are you alright sir?"

As they checked on Garek, Garrus looked around. He still didn't like the situation, "Get ready. Got to be more soon."

Dagger tried to lower the gunship so they could pick up the exhausted Jedi, but as the ship started to lower a pair of machines started to fly over from the Collector ship. The pair looked like four-legged jellyfish but as they got closer they became visible. They were a new form of husk, an abomination greater, and probably more powerful, than the Scions encountered before. The top of the head was similar to the Collectors in shape and design, having an almost saucer shaped head and four eyes. These one must have been created from dozens of husks as several heads could be seen within what might have anatomically be considered a mouth. One of the new machines slammed down onto the ground, releasing a splash of Biotic next to the tower. C3 was trying not to draw attention to herself within the confined space but that wasn't easy for a scared droid. The second one aimed for the gunship trying to slam into it with the four sword-like legs, but Swoop and Dagger evaded the initial strike and flew off with the machine continuing to give chase.

Dagger closed the bay doors, "Hang tight fellas, this is going to get rough." The LAAT started to make sharp turns and skim tops of buildings. The new husk did not have any trouble, as it used the four limbs to push off the buildings. "Swoop, take control of the tail gun. Try to take that bastard out!"

Swoop e took manually control of the tail gun leaving the flying completely up to Dagger. "Eat plasma you son of a Murglak." The anti-personnel turret let loose a barrage of green plasma bolts at the incoming hostile. The bolts hit but there was some type of purple shield. "Damnit! Bastard's shielded! This is going to take longer than I'd hope."

"Evasive maneuvers!" Jak and Rook's turrets couldn't turn far enough for them to help but they could see the monster just fine as they both saw the four eyes light up. The eyes then shot out beams that formed together to make a stronger laser. The laser was strong but the shield from the ARC-170 was stronger.

Dagger saw the readings of the attack as it started to drain the shields. "Hang tight; this is going to get rough." The gunship pulled a hairpin turn around a large building.


A/N: Sorry, I was wrong, now the next chapter will finish Horizon off.

Mando'a Translation: About time...Sorry I don't have much.

Me'vaar ti gar?(Meh-VAR tee-GAR)- How are you? (Lit: what's new with you?) Can also be used to ask a soldier for a sitrep. If a Mando asks you this, they expect an answer; it's literal.. The response for "I'm fine thanks," is "Naas." (Literally - nothing. )

Naas(nahs)- nothing