Three Phantoms and two Spirit dropships flew directly to the Cartographer. On the way there, something was bothering Six about Lamenting's words. The Cartographer would give them full access of this strange world, or so it claimed. Perhaps it meant that once they had access to the Cartographer they could find the central control hub. At least she wasn't alone in her concerns given the SpecOp teams that the Fleet Master was sending with them along with the extra muscle in the form of three pairs of Hunters.

It was a unique experience riding down on a Covenant dropship, waiting as they felt the inertia of their travel with nothing but the dark interior with minimal lighting. The main differences from the Pelicans was the lack of seating or safety harnesses. They got a few dirty looks from some of the Elites, though they stopped when Raja looked at them.

The Cartographer was built into one of the many mountain ranges that ran throughout this Dyson Sphere. Getting closer the landing platforms activated for them, revitalized and ready for reactivation.

The teams disembarked from their transports, securing the area first. Light however saw no need for such action, "Reclaimer, it would be faster if we just proceeded inside."

Jorge didn't look away from keeping his eyes on the Sentinels in the area. "Just want to be certain that nothing here tries to kills us for activating this."

"So long as a Reclaimer is visible and not assaulted there should be no reason for any action."

Six looked to Jorge. "Stay in radio contact, and try not to have all of the fun."

"Don't worry, I won't be setting any bombs off any time soon."

Six looked to Cortez who nodded, "Right. Don't provoke anyone, O'Brien."

O'Brien waved him off, "Play nice with the locals…got it."

Raja looked to his men, "We are on sacred ground. Do not attack anything unless attacked. I will accompany the demons into the temple."

Vaht moved toward his commander, "Are you sure anyone else…?"

"I will not be alone," looking over to a few Grunts and another SpecOps Sangheili moving to Raja's side.

Six knew that she could handle these SpecOps if things did turn for the worse and they turned traitorous, but she was hoping that they were just a show of concern and uncertain over Light's comments.

"If we're ready…" Lamenting floated off toward the door, firing a beam from its eye to open it. "Shall we proceed?" Without saying anything, Six, Cortez, Raja and his team followed Light into the Cartographer.

It was a quiet venture into the facility as it took them further into the mountain. The Grunts received a few scares from systems that suddenly activated when they walked by along or when a maintenance drones whizzed past their heads.

It wasn't much further after the elevator ride down were they entering another room. This one had Light all a flutter. "We're just about there now. Reclaimer, activate this panel and everything should reactivate properly." That's what's worrying her.

Six slowly approached the holographic console, turning back to make sure Cortez and the others were ready for anything to attack. She reached her hand out to the terminal as the panels reconfigured themselves to interact with her hand.

Soon a hologram of the planet appeared as it enlarged itself and started to section every piece of the planet into a strange puzzle-like grid pattern. That wasn't what Light was waiting for. A new hologram appeared at the center of the planetary display. The hologram didn't take on a form, more like a pattern, just as Dot presents herself.

"Reactivation complete. Assessing time scale…" some of the lights shifted through the area, "Monitor, how have you brought Reclaimers to my instillation?"

Lamenting suddenly became rather subservient to this new presence, "Apologize for our sudden intrusion Archeon. Reactivating your Cartographer was the safer path to engage your activation."

"A wise choice given your…company. But you have not answered my original inquiry. Humans exist in this universe but they were not given the gift of the geas. How do these humans hold the geas?"

Cortez stepped forward, "We came from a different Earth. And if Lamenting's information is right, we could use your help fighting the Reapers."

"The Reapers…" the unknown AI shifted over to the Monitor, "And how did you find me? Our Creators ensured my destination was a secret. You shouldn't have the coordinates to this location."

Light humbly lowered his gaze, "I was not aware this Shield World existed. I had assumed my facility and its few hidden gems were all that was left of the Forerunners. A hidden data stream was unlocked recently within my systems. It suggested that it might help defeat the Reapers. When we arrived, I did not have any other information that could be of assistance. Only to reactivate the Cartographer to engage with the Archeon and ensure the safety of the Reclaimers."

"As is your duty, Monitor." This AI seemed rather authoritative toward Light, then again its responsible for a whole planet while Light simply had a single facility. Raja and Six noticed that the AI had started to slowly surround the area with Sentinels, "Now I must ask, is this your only reason for coming to this instillation?"

Raja looked up to the ancilla, trying to show his respect as he knelt down, "Yes great one. If you have ships or any means of combatting the Reapers, it would significantly help us with our immediate concerns."

"So the Reapers have yet to return. What stopped them?"

Six stepped forward, "The Forerunners altered the keepers, preventing the Reaper vanguard from ushering the Reapers in full force at the Citadel. We killed the vanguard, but the Reaper threat has yet to subside."

"Then they are traveling by traditional superluminal speeds and not their mass relays. That won't be too much of a burden on the Reapers, but they will need extra time to prepare their invasions. Tell me, when did these events transpire?"

"Nearly two years ago."

The AI took a moment to calculate the threat, "Worst case scenario, the Reapers will flood the galaxy by year's end."

Raja quickly asserted, "Then we must station fleets at every system with a mass relay at the edge of the galaxy. Prepare them to…"

"To be slaughtered?" The AI focused on the Sangheili, "For you to have come to this place seeking our ships, suggests that few actually believe the Reaper threat is a genuine one or that attacking that one Reaper drained your combined forces that drastically. Either prospect does not bode well for the galaxy. My personal recommendation would be to gather your best fighters and weaponry to this sanctuary to hid and bid our time to use all assets of the new galactic civilizations against them."

"No!" Six stepped toward the console, "We can't give up without trying! We have a chance to stop them. And with your help it'll be considerably better."

The lights shifted again, "You may be Reclaimer, however that does not mean that I believe in your tactical capability of defeating such a powerful opponent. Even should this galaxy unite, unless they have been preparing for war, they will struggle, some may even become extinct."

Cortez stepped forward, "That a risk we just have to take. But we will fight them, with or without your help."

The AI was silent, letting them wait for its deliberation. "Very well. Reclaimer, our forces will be ready for combat. However," stopping Six or Cortez from thanking it, "I will not deploy my ships until the Reapers spread their numbers thin, as they always do. Monitor, you will alert me to when the Reaper invade and provide their invasion patterns. I will determine the best tactical usage of our assets. Now leave."

There wasn't much they could do, not with the number of Sentinels now hovering over them. Six retired her assault rifle to her back, "Thank you for your assistance."

Lamenting Light traded information with the AI, ensuring to be able to contact it as ordered. As the humans and Covenant left, Light fluttered after them. A few Sentinels followed them, making sure they didn't deviate or attempt to stay behind.

Outside wasn't much better. Jorge and the others were surrounded by even more Sentinels, feeling like they could blanket the sky. O'Brien looked to Cortez, "So, what did you guys do down there to piss them off?"

"Nothing. We met the AI in charge of this planet and we made a deal. Now let's get going before he thinks we're stalling or something."

Raja ordered Covenant forces back to the dropships, leaving behind the facility and the Sentinels. All they could do now was wait for the Reapers to arrive, though they still had a mission of their own to finish.

The Normandy received coordinates with Six's identification code and on arrival were met with the same Covenant ship as before. They didn't say much about what kept them busy so long, though Six went into detail once she and Shepard were alone and disabled the hidden surveillance in Shepard's cabin.

"Are you sure we can rely on this Forerunner AI?"

"I trust it about as much as I do telling Miranda anything related to the UNSC. Regardless, it has experience fighting the Reapers, or at the very least data from when they invaded and wiped out the Protheans. We can't let a strategic asset fall out of our hands, or into Cerberus' hands."

"They haven't figured out this geas thing Light kept talking about, right?"

Six shock her head, "Without an outlier among us to establish a baseline, it would be rather difficult to pin what identifies us as Reclaimers compared to everyone else. Even if they did, it wasn't all too pleased to see us. It even had its Sentinels ready to gun us down if it didn't like what we said. Due to how advance it is, Cerberus wouldn't be able to hack or reprogram it much less approach the surface without it knowing. If anything, it would probably only enrage it." Six tried not to sound worried, though, "So…anything eventful happen while we were gone?"

Shepard shrugged, "Well, we did find Jacob's father, and most of the crew of the Hugo Gernsback still alive, with Jacob's father acting like a tyrant king until the men revolted. A couple of mission knocking mercs around, found a Reaper artifact that turned all the miners into husks. Oh, and we tracked down Samara's life draining daughter and Samara killed her."

"It couldn't have been easy."

"Emotionally, but Samara never lost her nerve when she killed Morinth." The lights flickered back on. "I still think the fish tank could use a new background," keeping to the original conversation Six started before she shut the cameras off.

"Are we ready to acquire the Reaper IFF?"

Shepard pulled up a plan of the Normandy, "We've built and installed all of the upgrades we could find to give us the best shot at getting there. Along with a few mods to bolster our offensive and defensive capabilities."

"Have there been any new developments about the science team?"

"None. Though being inside a Reaper, I can't say I'm too surprised. I can only hope that some of them can be saved."

As much as Six might want to argue that there could be survivors, she couldn't see how. "We shouldn't take a large team. But we shouldn't underestimate the danger in there either."

"Tali's tech expertise and experience will come in handy… Though that would mean Vaht will insist on going. We could use a third power hitter like Samara or Jack…"

"Who's the first?"

"Who else?" Shepard jabbed at her, "I know you'd never let me take a step inside the Reaper without you." Shepard wasn't wrong there. The only question is if five people inside would be too many or too few.

The crew heard the news, they were finally going after the Reaper IFF. That meant they were one step closer to ending the Collector threat. As the ground team started to prepare for whatever was inside the Reaper the ship suddenly started shaking violently. Shepard rushed over to the cockpit, bracing herself on Joker's seat, "What's with all the chop, Joker?"

"Doing my best. The wind's gusting to 500 kph." Joker saw the notification, "There's a second ship alongside the Reaper. It's not transmitting any IFF, but the ladar paints its silhouette as geth."

"I guess we know why the science team stopped reporting in." As suddenly as the violent turbulence started, it soon ended. "What just happened?"

Joker swiped a few screens away, "The Reaper's mass effect fields are still active. We just passed inside their envelope." Shepard pat his seat as he looked back to her, "Eye of the hurricane, huh?"

Even as a joke, one false move could prove fatal here. Six couldn't stop Jorge from inviting himself along, then again not many could have. Joker found the Cerberus airlock and docked them in as EDI unlocked the door.

The traveled through the tunnel though they were greeted by a grizzly sight. A charred body and blood staining the wall above it. Six checked right with a shotgun as Jorge secured left. "Clear, for the moment."

Samara moved to the body, checking the damage and the stains, "This does not look like the work of geth."

Vaht also moved the body, "No. Most geth weaponry has focused damage points. This is too slathered and messy."

"Things are only going to get worse from here." Jorge looked back to the mangled body, though there wasn't anything could do for him.

The rest of the prefab lab didn't seem to be damaged in any visible way. They found a recording with the lead scientist, Dr. Chandana, "The airlock has been installed at the far end of the holed section. We have begun pressurization for shirtsleeves work. The crew is edgy. I reassure them it is mere nerves. A superstitious reaction to what this hulk represents—the corpse of a vast, ancient life form. Privately, I can't deny the atmosphere. The angles of the walls seem to press down on you. I find myself clenching my teeth."

Six moved ahead to the next door, finding another recording that was accessible. "We finished cataloguing specimens A203 to B016. No evidence of active nanotechology noted. Dr. Chandana believes they would have decayed over the last 37 million years. There's not enough data to support his claim. He asserts that the truth is 'patently obvious.' I am…concerned. Chandana has been staring at the samples for hours. He says he's 'listening' to them."

Vaht was rather concerned, hearing similar things said by those who had been identified as indoctrinated Covenant who could potentially threaten their future. There wasn't anything in the lab that had the Reaper IFF. They moved to the internal airlock, ready to go further inside. While the airlock sealed, and started to pressurize, there was a strange quake rocking the entire ship. Joker was quick to contact the team, "Normandy to shore party!"

Shepard turned back, "What just happened?"

"The Reaper put up kinetic barriers. I don't think we can get through from our side."

Tali jokingly noted, "As curious as I am about Reapers, I'd rather not be trapped inside one."

Six was ready to move out, "Simple solution. We take out the barrier generator. Dot."

"At the moment of activation, a heat spike was detected. High probability to be the Reaper's mass effect core. Coordinates sent."

EDI added, "Be advised: this core is also maintaining the Reaper's altitude."

Shepard summed up the danger, "So when we take the barriers down to escape, the wreck falls into the planet core."

"And that means everyone dies. Yeah, I got it."

Shepard wasn't worried, "If any helmsman can pull us off this thing before it reaches crush depth, it's you. We'll make a sweep for survivors and recover what data we can. Stand by."

"Aye, aye. Good hunting."

The door opened to more charred bodies left out on the walkway. Jorge looked around, "Not sure we're going to be finding any survivors here."

The bodies however weren't the more outstanding thing to the war veterans of the group. Six quietly asked Vaht, "Did you ever see this part of a Reaper?"

"No. If we had, I doubt the Fleet Master would have allied us with Saren. Then again, the Prophet may have tried to force our hand into the alliance regardless."

Shepard found another console still active with a recording of two scientists, "You're married? You never mentioned that."

"Katty had anger management issues. When my brother got married, the best man tried to hit on her. She kicked him down the church steps."

"Wh—? Katty's my wife! I must have told you that story."

"No, I know my wife. I remember—that day was the only time I saw her wear stockings."

"Yeah. The kind with seams up the back. That's what I remember, too."

"What the hell is this? How can we remember the same thing?"

Vaht sneered, "Even deceased, the Reaper still exerts its presence over them. Corrupting their minds."

Six didn't need to hear it, moving ahead on the only path they had. She immediately stopped when her motion tracker picked up unknown targets as moans echoed. Six was ready for the husks, though she wasn't expecting the red suicide husk, dubbed an Abomination by Cerberus researchers. Six blasted the Abomination's head clean off before it could finish climbing up the platform, stomping the normal husk.

Samara opened fire on a group crawling up ahead of them, "I had wondered if the technology to make husks from the geth or Sovereign."

"Of course," Vaht readied his plasma repeater, "It was the Sovereign who supplied the geth with the impalement devices to create husks and the upgraded geth leaper units."

Jorge pushed Vaht aside before he started firing. He fired in bursts, causing the high-pressure tanks the husks were moving around to make short work of the group. "I think that's something that can be discussed back on the ship."