A/N: Hmm…I was expecting to have updated one of the other stories before I got to here.

Upon arrival to the Erebus system they picked up a weak distress signal, "Mayday, mayday, mayday. This is Lieutenant Marie Duran, 3-14th Infantry. Alliance 10th Frontier Division. The listening post has been overrun by unidentified hostile life forms. Request immediate extraction."

Located on the first planet, Nepmos, Shepard had Jorge, Six, and Williams join her to help however they could. Using map data collected by the Normandy, they headed southeast of the Mako's landing zone. Due to the hazardous condtions, Six secured her new Kameko within her hard case and reinserted Dot into her suit. Dot had been given strict parameters by Six to never look through her memories without prior consent, though she recently allowed her to do so long as it was related to the Prothean visions.

They found the remains of a small outpost with three Alliance marines courageously defending themselves against rachni warriors. Jorge was the first one out as he started cutting though the bugs as Six provided precision cover. Shepard noticed their turrets weren't firing. As Williams joined the others, Shepard took a look at the generator for the turrets. They were out of power, but the Mako had plenty to spare. Shepard ran a line from the Mako directly into the generator to bring the turrets back online.

With Shepard joining as well, the rachni were quickly decimated before they had a chance to get within striking distance. As the smoke cleared, one of the marines on scene saluted, "First Lieutenant Durand, ma'am. Third Brigade, 14th Infantry Regiment. And I am damned glad to see you."

"We heard you needed some back up."

"Actually, we need to get the hell out of here. But I guess your ship couldn't carry us all," turning to the two barracks full of injured. "They dropped us here a few months back. We get supplies every couple weeks. We didn't see anything local that was more dangerous than lichen. Yesterday, these animals started coming out of the ground. No idea where they're from. This is what's left out of 90 men. I'm the ranking officer."

Williams looked around, "Why are you out here in the first place?"

"There's been a lot of pirate activity in this cluster. We set up a chain of listening posts in the local systems, in case they have a staging base."

Jorge looked to the acid burns left on the walls, "They're not animals. They're a sentient species called rachni."

Durand was visibly exhausted, "Never heard of them. Can't say I care. What we just fought was a probe. Our seismic sensors are picking up a crapload more on their way up from underground. We've got five minutes, tops. We might be able to hold them off if we were at peak. But you can see the fighting's busted this place up."

Shepard nodded, "Do what you can to secure your positions. We'll see if we can get some of your defenses operational."

Durand saluted, "Aye, aye, Commander!" Durand looked to her two standing men, "You heard the woman! Everybody pool magazines and grenades. Take a leak and a drink while you can. And if anyone wants a smoke, it's as good a time as any."

Jorge was standing out in the open with his M247HMG at the ready. Ashley was helping the marine on the right wall while Six helped defend the left and Shepard took position next to Durand. Shepard turned to her squad, "We don't let anyone of them get past these walls!" the team was ready, and Six was the first one to fire on the emerging rachni.

The Illusive Man was watching Dot record the rachni assault occurring on Nepmos. "It's a shame we couldn't gain control over them. Outfitted correctly, even the geth would have difficulty fighting against them. However, I am concerned about these recent gaps in Dot updating us."

The Director had the data in hand, "Yes well I'm sure Six has a few things she wanted to do without us watching over her. Attempt to put too many restrains on her and she might decide to break them all."

The Illusive Man understood, seeing what she was capable of, and knowing she and the Director were still holding a few cards back from him. "Just as long as she doesn't forget which side she's on."

"I can assure you, she will always be on humanity's side, Illusive Man. Its weather she will still view us on that side, if she were to ever discover our other projects…"

Another wave of rachni were pushing their way from the tunnels, only for the slaughter fest that was waiting for them. Rocket support fire from the turret helped exuberantly to force the rachni to crossfire positions between the various soldiers waiting for them. With the fall of the last rachni and the seismic sensors clear, Durand folded her rifle and turned to Shepard, "Holy hell, ma'am. Talk about a near-run thing. You all right?"

Shepard brushed off the sulfur that accumulated on her shoulders, "Never mind me. Are you alright?"

"Still on my feet. But we've been fighting for almost 26 hours straight. None of us will be standing for long. There's one other thing I should mention. One of our other listening posts went offline three days ago." Durand looked back to the pills of dead bugs, "I don't know if it's coincidence, a pirate raid, or what. But if you could check in on them…"

"We'll check it out. I don't know why there are rachni loose out here, but I intend to find out."

Six and the marine she worked with walked over to Durand and Shepard, "Ma'am? We're getting a signal from one of the ground-scan UAVs. A big hollow space about five hundred meters under the surface."

Durand took a look at the readings herself, "Right. That must be it. That must be where they're coming from. My people aren't in any condition for a clearing operation, though."

"Just point us in the right direction."

"You don't have to do that, Commander. We've bled them. We can probably hold until a bigger ship arrives to get us offworld. If you want to take a throw at it, we'll give you the coordinates. But it's your call."

Shepard looked to the site, "We aren't leaving people behind." She tapped the side of her helmet, "Joker, lock onto our current position, we've got injured marines who need immediate pick up." Shepard paused as she looked to Jorge and Williams, "And tell Kaidan to suit up. Jorge, get ready to move out. Ash, H…Six," tempted to use her actual name, Shepard stopped herself since she has yet to reveal it to anyone else, "start getting the injured ready to evac."

Once the Normandy landed Garrus, O'Brien and Cortez were acting as sentries while Liara and Dr. Chakwas helped the injured. With the ship on the scene, Shepard detached the Mako from the turret generator as she, Kaidan and Jorge moved on to the potential nest the UAV ID'd.

Upon reaching the location they found something that would lead them directly to the hollow space. "A mine shaft, here? Something's not right, Commander."

"Agreed, Jorge." Shepard grabbed her shotgun, "Kaidan, we'll be fighting rachni. Assuming the hollow is going to be tight as I imagine, your biotics should pack a major punch to them."

Kaidan readied his shotgun as well, "No offense Commander, but I think Liara or Wrex might be a bit more helpful than me in such conditions."

"I don't want Liara to be forced to remember what happened on Noveria. And I'm really not in the mood for an 'I told you so' speech from Wrex. Now let's move it out people!"

As Durand and the rest of her unit were helped onto the Normandy, Six was messing with the seismic sensors, "Dot, could we extend the range of these sensors?"

"Not with your suit's current equipment. However I believe I could use Normandy's sensors to help."

Six looked around, "Request permission. Then show me the results."

As she waited Joker contacted her, "Uh, I don't know if you asked it, but your AI friend is asking me to let it use the Normandy's scanners."

"I did. I want to make sure there aren't rachni pockets we might have missed."

Wrex walked out of the Normandy's garage, "If you're planning a bug hunt, you aren't going without me."

"Count me in!" Williams walked up to her too with rifle at the ready.

O'Brien had his sniper rifle slung over his shoulder, "Someone's got to keep you two company while she runs in headfirst."

Dot finished her scans and displayed it onto the group's HUD. "I have detected two major seismic anomalies. The first is north-northeast of our current position, several hundred meters out. The other is northwest with roughly the same traveling distance."

"Then let's get started."

Entering the mineshaft Shepard received a transmission from Six. "Commander, we've discovered a rachni attack site, along with a mining camp. The equipment comes from Tenkarra Mining Consortium, however the campsite suggests they had more equipment than currently present."

Shepard was staring at several rachni mounds within the room with a crate with the company logo on it. "Thanks for the heads up. I think I know where the rest of their gear went."

"Understood. We're heading to another possible rachni ambush site to confirm."

Kaidan turned to Shepard, "Did she just say 'ambush site'?"

Jorge opened the next door, "Six's a big girl. Besides, if she knows they're there, it's not much of an ambush." He was slow to enter as he spotted more crates and mounds. "Looks like we found bug central. Who get to kick the hornet nest first?"

Shepard took aim with shotgun in hand, "I've got point, just cover my flanks. Kaidan, get your biotics ready." Shepard slowly walked down one of the narrow paths checking her surroundings. Without warning a mound started forming before her as two rachni popped out of the dirt. Kaidan used his biotics to lift one of the rachni to render it incapable of combat as Jorge and Shepard killed the other. That just left the last one to deal with, simple enough as they continued to fire on it until it was dropped to the ground. "We can't let Six show us off, let hurry up and finish wiping out the rest of them."

The Prophet of Pity and his geth didn't seem to take notice of the rather small opening within their defenses, though Rayta had to move the fleet precisely to keep the illusion of a 'perfect' defense grid. However discontent over the geth has spread far more deeply than the Fleet Master had realized.

The Yanme'e viewed the geth as a new Huragok that could replace them and their niche within the Covenant should the machines be allowed to learn more about the ships and weapons, rendering them to be nothing more than aerial Unggoy. The Unggoy also had the same concerns as the Fleet Master, breaking their religious taboos, however even as a collective the Unggoy were too cowardly to speak out against the Prophet's will. The Kig-Yar were also starting to feel threatened by the geth, as the geth did not require sleep or food in order to function, could be deployed from any situation far faster than them, and their sensors could potentially eliminate the need for Kig-Yar search parties, eliminating all need of hiring the Kig-Yar. Though the Lekgolo have not shown it, even they could feel the encroachment of the geth, particularly the armature units. However their positions were safeguarded thanks to the need for Lekgolo colonies to control certain machinery and create Mgalekgolo for enclosed spaces that the armatures could not traverse.

As for the Sangheili, many were still in opposition of working with the geth, unfortunately a few were starting to embrace it. Unflinching, expendable, and durable, by some the geth were viewed as the greatest weapon the Covenant has ever acquired. The only commonality among the Sangheili who were prompting this idea was the fact that they have toured the Sovereign a few times now, and Shipmaster Ramo' Ranjamee was their biggest promoter. Rayta has been able to curb Ramo's attempts thus far, however he would eventually be given a chance to speak if Pity had any say about it.

After about half an hour of carefully clearing out the tunnel, Shepard discovered rachni brood warriors. Given accounts from the Rachni Wars, the brood warriors would only fight when they were strained for warriors to defend the nest, suggesting that these rachni were completely eradicated from the planet.

Durand and the survivors of the 14th Infantry Regiment were picked up by Alliance Command while the Normandy continued to Altahe to investigate Listening Post Theta. Using the same technique Dot used to find the two other rachni attack sites on Nepmos, the Normandy scanned the area near the Alliance base, discovering several surrounding the base and one a few hundred meters east. Unlike Nepmos, there were no survivors however they were about to triangulate the coordinates of the supply depot that send the unmanned supply ships to the two outposts within the past few days.

Reaching the supply depot, Six took lead on this one, killing the few rachni workers she could find, and nothing else. "Commander, something's wrong. This can't be it."

"Just keep your eyes and ears peeled for anything." Shepard also brought Wrex and Williams with her, knowing how tight the ship could be. Reaching the cockpit and crew quarters they found an active terminal next to an explosive device. Six activated the terminal, "Personal data recorder for Major Elena Flores."

"Play the first entry."

"Sigma-23 is almost fully operation. The barracks and storage lockers are complete, and we've begun stocking the munitions. It's highly unlikely the Alliance will patrol in the nebula. I expect our only risk will be from pirates. And who'll believe them? Looks like we'll have space for two reinforced platoons of Cerberus commands."

Williams spit, "Cerberus. Damn. We should have known." Six looked back to her. "That's right, you and the others weren't with us when we found them. You were talking with that big friend of yours. Well, all you need to know is that they're all a bunch of human extremists that give humanity a bad name."

Six knew all of this, more than she'd like to admit, though she continued to play dumb for the time being. Shepard took over on the terminal now, "Play the second entry."

"The package arrived today for field testing. I'm told they're fundamentally similar to the units being developed on Noveria. They promise this batch will be stable. Something about them developing in proximity to the master control unit. We detected some pirates setting up an anchorage in a neighboring system. I think we'll try deploying them there first."

"Play the last entry."

"They've escaped containment. Clever bastards. We treated them like animals. We should've treated them like P.O.W.s. They're spreading. Boarding the supply ships and sending them to random destinations. They'll be all over the cluster in a week. General, if you recover this message, my advice is: screw the rachni. They're too smart. Use one of the other projects. Flores, signing off… for the final time."

Wrex was laughing to himself, "This is a familiar story. A failed experiment with the rachni. Nice to see humans are consistently stupid."

With the rest of the ship already explored Shepard armed the explosives with a seventy second countdown timer. Running back through the cargo area more rachni workers tried to impede them only for Six to stop them cold. Wrex wrestled down a rachni warrior long enough for Williams to use her shotgun and blast its head off. Thirty seconds still on the clock the team jumped into the Normandy's airlock and dusted off before the ship exploded. With the four still in the airlock waiting for the pressurization, Joker looked back to how close the explosion was, "Uh Commander, could you, I don't know, maybe set the timer to be a bit longer so we can be certain we can escape the blast?"

After that mission, Six pulled Dot from her helmet to privately talk about Cerberus and the rachni. "Are you kidding me?"

Jorge turned to O'Brien, "Six jokes, but she never kids. Still," turning back to her, "I can't believe they did that. It's like ONI or the UNSC trying to control the Buggers."

"And ONI would probably be sending guys like us to clean up that mess. Now we have to find a way to sever Dot from the Director once and for all."

"I can't keep Dot out for too much longer. They might get suspicious." Six walked into the elevator, clearing her mind of their discussion and reinserting Dot.

Cortez then turned to Jorge, "You worked with Dot too, right? Do you have any idea how she might be able to break the chain of command with him?"

Jorge started rubbing the side of his helmet, thinking. "That's tough. Déjà never broke the chain of command either. With Six being the highest ranking member here, besides this Director fellow probably, maybe Six could order her to cut the ties. I doubt that'll work though without something for Dot to say he's no longer fit for duty."

Just as Six finished tying Kameko back onto her armor, the elevator doors opened with Lamenting Light hovering in, "Ah, Reclaimer. Excellent timing. I was just about to seek you out. Were you going down?"

Six really didn't want to deal with him right now. "No. I was just getting off."

"Apologies," Light then hovered out to allow Six out. "Reclaimer, I must ask you, why have you been avoiding me? The other Reclaimers are distant as well, however you go to greater lengths to avoid contact. Are you worried that I would interface with your Construct without permission? If that is the case I will simply avoid such interactions with your Construct unless permitted."

Six continued toward the mess, "That was part of it. The rest is a bit more…complicated. I don't want to talk about it."

"Very well, Reclaimer. My only purposes now are to ensure my archives are safe and accessible to you when ever requested and to assist however I may."

A/N: The roots of deceit have been planted, can the Covenant survive much longer under Pity and the geth? Personally I never liked how we help kill the rachni on Nepmos and just leave the marines to a possible rescue later. If the Normandy SR-2 can land on Ilium without any visible problems, then I think the Normandy SR-1 could have land on Nepmos, which has the save surface gravaty of 1.2 g(and how else does the Normandy pick up the Mako after every mission?).