Miranda:

Of all the people they could have picked up or recruited, Cody was the last one she wanted to join their crew. Granted, she didn't know anything about him but the other two Users left enough of an impression for her to get what he should be about. Then again, unlike the other two, Cody had Alliance training and seemed pretty level headed. Plus, he could hold his own in a fight.

"Alright guys, here is what I am thinking", Lucky started, "I lead and you guys wait here until I need you."

"Ty, don't get cocky." Shepard scolded mildly, taking his rifle off his back.

"What? There is three of me and four of you. Granted you guys work good as a team but I am literally on the same wavelength as my other two."

Shepard crossed his arms and looked at Ty and Rage before turning back to Lucky. "Alright, if you can convince the other two to storm off with you, then I won't stop you."

Miranda noticed a bigger smile come to Lucky behind his mask as he looked to Ty and Rage. That smile lessened just a bit as both of them shook their head no. Still, he was perky and ready to go optioning to jump into a glitch after the rejection.

"Alright, that settles it. We all move together." Shepard said turning to Mordin. "Give Cody and Bart the upgrades."

The scientist obliged and began running his omni-tool over the two of them before establishing a connection and sending the program. "Should keep collector swarms off in low enough densities."

"Should?" Bart asked giving him a look. "I'm not sure I'm comfortable having something that should work protecting me instead of something that will work."

"Only 'should' because only been tested on one type of collector swarm insectoid. Don't know if the types vary or remain similar."

"Hm." He looked down at his omni-tool and opened the program. "I see you used F-sharp. I would have used F. It makes for a more solid program."

"Would have gone with F but didn't have enough time to make sure that program would be stable and programed correctly. No, F-sharp had to be used if wanted to have the best possible, refined, defense."

He activated the program and put his hand down before scooting close to Cody. "I do not like this guy."

"Noted." Mordin said before walking over to Cody. "Do you need help activating the program?"

Cody shook his head before pulling up his omni-tool and finding the file. "I got it. So, are we gonna go meet up with Lucky out in the field or are we gonna wait until the gun fire calms down?"

After it was pointed out, Miranda realized that she did hear gunfire ringing out from the other side of the door. She then turned to the two Tys who looked at each other and dove into the glitch that Lucky took. Shepard, then ran over to the console and hit the activation switch, opening the door up to reveal the carnage.

Lucky was riding on top of something that looked like three husks smashed together. Rage was taking three collectors on near the door and doing a fine job of it. Ty was moving from cover to cover, tossing incinerates at the incoming squads, no swarms.

Collectors were swarming the apartments and heading right for the team to kill them. Miranda charged forward, following Shepard's lead as he met the collectors head on with shotgun in hand as his omni-tool activated a Fortification in the other. He then came down on another collector with a fortification enhanced punch to the head.

Nothing was gonna stop the collectors though, they were overwhelming in some area and others were still thick with enemies. Miranda dropped back to Bart and put her hand on his shoulder, gesturing to one of the small buildings.

"Lets get you inside there. It's the only way we can ensure you stay safe."

"Don't have to tell me twice." Bart said, sprinting forward with his head down.

The sentinel stood over him with bother her guns drawn and ready for danger. "Don't stop. I'll focus on the enemies. You get inside and then lock it down."

She brought up her SMG and started to burst fire into the crowd to disorient them. Once she had them off balance, she began popping headshots left and right. Each time, she focused on the closest ones to Bart until he cleared the area and closed the house.

Shepard noticed that as soon as he was enclosed and began barking orders. "Miranda, start using overload and warp to tear down their defenses! Mordin, finish off the weak ones with Incinerate or cryoblast. Ty, start focusing on the big ones, we need to weaken their offensives."

Everyone gave a shout that they understood and began to cooperate and close in to cover each other. Pretty soon, all the collectors were either burned or frozen to death and covered in bulletholes. Still, they all sat read back to back, waiting for minutes without a sound in case more came in. That was until all three of the Ty's fell over in exhaustion.

"Oh, god was that draining." Luckey said, leaning back to back with Rage.

"Tell me about it." Ty said, dryly from against a wall.

"Geez, where did your chipper attitude go? Oh, that's right!" Lucky said, hopping to his feet. "Now, who's ready for round two?"

Rage got to his feet and caught Lucky with a right hook that sent him sprawling to the ground. "Shut… Up…"

John stepped out from the ground, putting his rifle on his back. "We did a good job guys. Let's grab Bart and then get that gun online. I don't think… Nevermind. Don't want to jinx us."

Miranda pointed over to one of the closed housing units that had a trail of dead collectors leading to it. "I told Bart to hide in there. Hopefully, he will be okay."

The all got over to the door and Miranda hit the talk button. "Bart, are you there? It's clear, you can come out."

There was no answer.

"Bart, I repeat. We are clear of collectors out here. You can come out."

Cody pushed past her and began typing in a code that made the door shoot open. "Bart, you son of a bitch! If you're dead, I'm going to beat you in heaven until it becomes hell."

Miranda followed him in his footsteps and they looked around for Bart but he was nowhere to be found. She checked under the desk, bed, and even in some crates but they couldn't find the programer anywhere. She didn't want to flat out admit it but he probably took off in the middle of the fight, when the swarm was at its-

"Uh, guys, I'm up here." Bart said, revealing himself hiding up in one of the light panels.

"How the hell did you get up there?" Cody asked, getting right underneath him.

"You'd be surprised what a person can do when he is scared to death and has a healthy dose of adrenaline."

Miranda looked at him and saw that he wasn't hanging in the light fixture but was splayed with arms and legs pressed against the sides. He made sure he was held there with pressure so all he had to do was release and he would fall but with the pressure kept, there wouldn't be any trace of him unless the light turned on. The only problem was, he wouldn't be able to land safely in any way.

"Okay, Don't worry." Cody positioned himself below Bart and stuck his arms out. "Okay, just fall and I'll catch you."

"Oh, sure. Just like the alliance promised to catch-"

"Bart, as your friend. I promise that I will catch you." He retorted before Bart could finish his statement. "Fuck the alliance and fuck the factions. I'm here as your friend and someone who's trying to do what is right."

Bart rolled his eyes. "Ah, don't go all soft on me. Alright here I come."

He let go and fell right into the marines arms who immediately stood him back up after catching him to avoid and awkwardness. "Alright, was that so bad?"

He began to reach back and itch. "Yeach, your got my clothes all wet… Are you covered in blood?"

Cody collapsed his helmet giving Miranda a good look at his face. He had a more neanderthalic face then Ty or Danny but at the same time it was more rounded. Still muscular, especially since the alliance had been training him all this time but his brow was a bit lower than the other two. His hair was dark but kept short in a crew cut that helped him look a bit older but not by much.

He looked down at his armor and put his hand to his head in shock before pulling it away in disgust, a string of gooey blood going from his hand to his head. "Eh, maybe I use my omni-blade too much."

Cody shook the goo off his hand and smeared it everywhere on the wall next to him. "Anyone see a napkin or maybe a towel to wipe this shit off."

One of the Ty's grabbed a blanket off the bed and tossed it to Cody. "Here you go stretch."

He caught it in mid-air and started wiping it off his face. "You know, usually I'd say we should respect other people's things but I don't think anyone is going to care if we save them."

"Alright, guys. We gotta get that gun back up and running." Shepard stated, motioning for everyone to follow him.

Cody:

Cody stepped through the doors and straight into hell at more collectors were waiting for them on the other side. Luckily, his training took over forcing him to act and save his own hide. As soon as the collectors opened fire, he turned right and darted for a nearby truck while grabbing Bart's collar to drag him along with them.

They dove in the bed of the truck to provide some much needed cover before he turned back around and looked to their comrades. Shepard, Mordin and Miranda made a full on sprint to the cover ahead of them while Ty dove into a glitch before Cody lost him. That was good, it meant that he only had to worry about what happened to Bart and that was it. He gets a pretty cush job for once.

Just as he thought that, a new swarm of collectors and husks crawl out of their surroundings and start to swarm. "Oh fuck me."

Cody ducked down by Bart and pulled his pistol out, ready to take down anyone who came their way.

"What the fuck are you doing?!" Bart yelled at him, drawing attention.

"Trying to keep your loud ass alive!"

"I don't need you to-" He cut himself off prompting Cody to turn around in time to catch a collector blade that would have pierced his stomach.

The soldier smiled at the opportunity that had presented itself and broke the blade off the bastards arm. He then swung it around and smashed it into the collectors gut before putting a foot to it's stomach and kicking it away while snatching it's gun from it's other hand. He then dropped down behind the cover and looked at the recently acquired gun. From what he could tell, it was in perfect working condition.

Grabbing the pistol from where he dropped it, he offered the weapon to Bart. "Here, we have two now so you can take this one."

He grabbed the gun and then scootched off into the corner near the cab. "Alright, so now we just hold up here until the coast is clear?"

"Kinda, now that you can protect yourself, I think I'm going to go out there and help Shepard."

"Why are you gonna do that?! He's a trained super soldier and you're just… Well, Cody. It's not like you have something that can put you on Shepard and his squad's level."

Cody reached up and put his hand on Bart's shoulder. "Bart, thanks man."

"For what? Pointing out the odds?"

"No, for thinking and accepting that I'm normal… But I think it's time that I show off what I can really do." He stood up in the back of the cab and quickly scanned the area, spotting a semi-truck off in the distance with some cargo in the back. "I'm not gonna ask you to cover me because I'm pretty sure that you would somehow end up shooting at them and it would ricochet back and hit me. But, I am gonna ask that you start praying to whatever god governs this world that I might survive."

"Oh my god, you're not gonna go suicide bomber on these guys… Are you?"

"You'll see." He leapt from the back of the truck and headed straight for the truck. Though, with all the fire he couldn't keep a bee line and started to zig zag.

He dove into cover behind some crates that had fallen out of the semi and peaked up. He only had about twenty-four meters to do, still two-thirds of the ground to cover. Too bad there was no way that he could cover the distance with the current amount of fire he was taking. He needed back up for sure now.

He ducked back and looked for his comrades positions and felt his heart sink a bit. Shepard and the crew were all the way across the field, dealing with their own swarm. Not that he could call the four collectors that were attacking him a swarm. Still, one of them was carrying a beam rifle or cannon or whatever you call the damn things.

Cody reached down on his belt and began searching for something that could help him. Just to his luck, he had a few concussive shots waiting for him that he'd forgotten about all this time… or did he? He never left his housing with this kind of weaponry, then again he could have left them on the belt from training exercises.

He shook his head and pulled one off his belt before hooking it onto the collector rifle. Luckily, it fit right in and didn't have any trouble being loaded into the weapon. Just as things started looking up for him, a plan began to form.

First, he would pop up over the cover and blast the collector beam toting one. After that, he could put a spray of bullets out over the field to try and get some of them to back off. Once one or two of them backed off, he could easily drop the most aggressive one. It was a simple plan and after that, it was just wash, rinse and repeat until the job was accomplished.

"C'mon Cody, you're not gonna get any style points by hiding back there!" One of the Tys, he was guessing Lucky, yelled from out by the collectors.

The hollar prompted him to peak out over the cover to observe the three in action and abandoning his well thought out plan. The first Ty, he was guessing Rage, rushed in with two gauntlets of blast caps activated. Using those, he ran up and punched the beam collector in the face causing it to toss the collector beam into the air. That was when another collector got some balls and decided to act against Rage.

He jumped up and began shooting at him with his ass out in the wide open. Rage didn't have time to pull a weapon but he did have a reaction. The collector beam fell in front of him and he punched it with the other blast cap encased hand sending it smashing into the collector. The poor fledgeling got the brunt end of the deal as it spun in just the right way so that the spiney bits on the back stabbed him right where the human heart would be.

Lucky was next to come in from a glitch right behind the collector. Upon jumping out, he reached doing and drew the weapon from the fallen collector. He then fired on the remaining two collectors catching one off guard and obliterating it. Sadly, the other lifted into the air to be possessed by Harbinger when at the same time both Lucky and Rage froze in place.

That left Ty, the real Ty, to bring chaos to the calm as both his doppelgangers weren't moving. He came out from behind the Harbinger collector, Katana shotgun at the ready but his hands were shaking horribly. In fact, he was so stunned that he let Harbinger land in front of him, turn around and began taunting him.

"Ah, so you truly fear my presence. How the mighty have fallen from their high pedestal." He seemed very pleased with himself at Ty's terror.

Once he finished, Cody realized that Ty was holding in laughter not fear but he didn't have his happiness. "Not terror Harbinger. Relief. Me, myself, and I already had a plan for when you showed your ugly mug again." He then made a swirling motion with his hand to signal Harbinger to turn around.

The collector turned his head to see both Lucky and Rage drive omni-blades into his back and grab his arms. "What the- You're not supposed to- There is a plan here and you're not-"

"Ever hear the saying 'Not even the best laid plans survive the first seconds of combat'. That's why I don't have a plan. I just-"

"If you say improvise, you'll regret it."

"Oh I will huh? Well, whatever you do, I'll just improvise-" Ty stopped mid-sentence and dropped his gun to his side, a dull look in his eye.

Harbinger looked back at the other two. "Get your blades out of my back." The two of them pulled their blades out and lowered them to theirs sides.

He stepped out from them and looked directly at Cody. "Now, bring my your friends head."

Hey guys, short A/N this time just to say that I'm out of my writing funk now so I'll be posting every week again! Also, next chapter is a question chapter so if you guys wanna ask anything, I'll address it next chapter. 1473I2.