Priority – Operation: Get Carter

- Normandy SR-2, CIC -

The plan was set. Around Shepard, the rest of the bridge crew were quiet as they prepared for take-off. As was becoming too normal – Loki had run more upgrades on the ship and Shepard silently wondered how much was the same. He knew he could ask EDI and she'd bore his ears off, but it was more about how comfortable his crew was. He looked at the holographic representation of the world where Ba'al held Carter - a world named Par'jat. Teal'c had mentioned it meant something like "refuge" but it didn't really matter.

What did matter were the six Ha'tak in orbit, along with the twenty others that were less than an hour away by hyperdrive. Loki estimated that Coalition forces needed to outnumber them 3-1 to guarantee success with "acceptable" losses.

They barely outnumbered them by 4 ships once they'd gone though all volunteers. The Turians jumped at the chance to strike back, but most of the Alliance and Quarian ships were unwilling to abandon their posts - protecting the refugee worlds where the Tok'ra were stretched incredibly thin as well as the Migrant Fleet. Loki had convinced the Quarians to move to those worlds and assist the Tok'ra in building a true refuge, but like the saying went, Rome wasn't built in a day.

The Langaran survivors had all been sent to those worlds, and supply ships and the Stargates were on almost constantly. The Tok'ra had begun their accelerated farming but feeding millions would take at least a few months before production reached a point of self-sufficiency. That was hoping there were no snags or major influxes. That also didn't include the Citadel that was running low on DextroDNA foodstuffs - Shepard had heard Garrus joyful that the Quarians were willing to share with the Turians as long as they got support in kind.

This whole situation was unreal, the last few months had evolved from simple skirmishes with the Collectors to a full blown out and nigh unwinnable war of attrition. Carter's blunt words after they'd killed Ameratsu rang true - Apostle hadn't even deigned them any real threat yet.

Now Ba'al had gone too far. When he'd asked Loki what a fight against Baal at the same time would look like in his models he hadn't answered. Shepard knew he little grey alien well enough now to know that was a very bad thing, their odds with Ba'al not fighting them were already abysmal.

He'd never been in an unwinnable fight before - not that he counted getting spaced- and it was daunting like a weight on his neck. Shepard recalled the flashes of memory on the SR-1, how Joker had been unwilling to leave and in some respect, was the cause of his own death. They'd talked it out awhile back before this whole mess and Shepard knew the man wouldn't leave his post again. Joker would die at the controls of the Normandy and that was just a fact they both accepted.

Now though, Shepard was going over the plan they'd come up with. The few ships that had agreed from their call for volunteers would distract the Ha'tak, while Normandy slipped in under cloak and searched for Carter. The danger was Ba'al might be scanning for cloaked ships in which case it'd be a fast and less than stellar mission. They'd get close to the target and either drop in like they had on Taurus, or shuttle in if safe enough.

Meanwhile, Stargate Command would dial the opposing Stargate and launch a ground attack with the bulk of their forces. Alliance operators and engineers had been drilling them nonstop and they'd incorporated light tech and robotics - Fenris and Loki mechs would take point along with surveillance drones. The Stargate General O'Neill had been well prepared - through the Stargate they were also ready to provide a crazy plan for fire support. Laser and camera guided missile strikes as long as the Stargate was outside, and even if it wasn't, O'Neill saw little issue with throwing the Stargate onto its back once the troops were through and blowing a hole in whatever structure it was in.

Creative, excessive, and a degree of common sense Shepard didn't see enough of. He had quickly decided that O'Neill was worth the pain in the ass it was to wake him up from that Cryotube.

The only problem was there were so many variables, and this structure on the ground was unlike anything they'd seen yet. It wasn't a facility or a few sub levels worth of corridors, this was a large two towered structure that was lined with gantries and industrial workshops. Loki surmised it was a ground based shipyard, but it was much larger than even a Ha'tak. Loki suspected it could have been used for Anubis' mothership, but that was long gone. Getting in wouldn't be a problem, but finding their way around would be.

Shepard only hoped that Carter was still in one piece - he had no doubt she was alive, but after what he'd learned the Goa'uld did to their prisoners, would she still be intact?

-Asgard Vessel Sleipnir, R&D Facility-

John gasped as he opened his eyes and saw nothing but black. Instantly he was back in that sarcophagus and panic began to go through his head - this time though he knew what was happening and controlled it. The doors to the strange medical chamber Loki had put him in opened up and then bright light blinded him. It took a second to get used to and he then he could make out familiar faces. Miranda, Jack, that Salarian Mordin and Loki.

What was strange was that in his head, he didn't really feel any different. When Loki nodded to him though, John instinctively moved his arms first - something was different, but it didn't feel different. It was hard to understand – let alone describe. He began to step out of the chamber. Loki's idea of surgery was unique to say the least but he'd been unconscious and felt no pain whatsoever. The "not different" feeling was coming from his arms, legs, the back of his head and the base of his spine. Actually, he felt weird all over.

"Are you alright? What do you feel?"

John was about to shoot a look at Miranda but he found it much easier to control his anger. Instead he raised a hand and curled his fingers one by one - it felt so much more intense. "I... it's weird." He pumped his fist a couple of times. "It's like... I know something is different, but it doesn't feel like a change, it doesn't feel different."

"Not should it." Loki explained. John had never seen him so focused on a person before, not that he had a lot of reference material. "Your implants are amplifying your nervous systems. Your brain's electro chemical system is also being augmented by the AI wetware. The AI is not fully active but it will still augment your processing capacity even while dormant."

"Even your voice sounds... different." John said. "Your voice sounds... almost too perfect." He turned to Miranda. "Not yours. Yours sounds normal just... deeper? Not pitch, just… I can hear you more, better." He saw Jack give him a weird look while Mordin was almost smiling which was just creepy.

"Your brain is making use of the extra processing power to improve your sensory perception." Loki replied. "A minor side effect, you will adapt quickly. I am intrigued about your biotics." He motioned over to the side. "I have set up a target for you. If you feel comfortable, please use your biotic energy to attack it."

John turned to the target, it was a holographic mockup of a Jaffa husk. Before anyone could say much else, John focused on his right arm and flung it up in an underhand motion - a Biotic Lance formed instantly and shot out like a bullet.

The hologram reacted realistically, its neck exploded outwards from the lance punching clean through. John was even more confused – he knew exactly why and what he'd just done, but how? "

"Impressive." Miranda quipped, John could swear he felt her eyebrow go up. "Now catch this."

John turned to her and watched as she lobbed a biotic throw at him. It felt slower than he expected, was this another convoluted 'test' of hers? Somehow, he instinctively knew it wasn't and brought his left arm up in a defensive posture – a biotic aegis shield appearing. Without even thinking, John swatted upwards with it and reflected the biotic throw up harmlessly into the ceiling.

"Holy shit." Jack replied. "Nice backlash."

John again stopped and started trying to understand. The problem was that he did understand perfectly, just how he understood. "I… the hell. I don't even feel tired. I… I know what that was but I… I know how I did it, I know what I did, but it's…"

"Yes, biotic implants now using naquadah in your system to augment your nervous system." Mordin replied. "The implant in the base of your spine is the core of the system. You can also manually overcharge your powers once the AI link is established. "

Loki continued. "You can manually activate it once you've linked with a modified armor suit we've created for you. It appears the biotic understanding transfer has worked. There may be minor side effects with time."

"Sounds like you're getting the full retrofit." Jack said. She chuckled. "Don't go crazy on size, just learn how to use it better."

John heard Jack's jab at him, but he also heard something more – she was disappointed. "Uhh… yeah." He turned to Loki. "How long until we leave?"

"Is that wise?" Miranda asked. "Admittedly you clearly have grown significantly stronger, but you also seem… confused."

John focused on her voice – it was almost as if he was analyzing every word and detecting the intentions and meaning behind it. Especially from Miranda. She was… legitimately concerned, but for what exactly reason John couldn't tell. This new level of detail in everything was almost overwhelming, but somehow, he knew exactly how to deal with it. "No. It's not wise. In fact, it's incredibly stupid of me." He turned over to Miranda and stared right into her eyes. "Ba'al won't be expecting stupid."

"We're as ready as we're going to be." Miranda said.

Shepard stared at the holographic display. There wasn't anything left. Carter had been a POW for almost four days now. It was hard to sleep knowing that but he'd forced himself to with melatonin and a white noise generator.

"John is aboard, he's stable for now but his new... abilities are giving him some unexpected side effects."

"You mean now that a part of you is literally in his head he's crazy?" Shepard shy a glance towards her. "It's alright, I know the feeling."

Miranda rolled her eyes. Around them, the crew were doing a final prep for the mission and Kelly had taken the time to brush up on her wartime psychology, not that she really knew how to deal with what Shepard expected to be a hell of a case if O'Neill's reports were anything to go by. "The Prothean probe you encountered on Eden Prime is not quite the same as what the Major has had. He only has the memory patterns of how to use biotics, nothing more."

"I hope so." Shepard mused. "This whole team we've got is nothing but aiming some deep psychological problems at our enemies."

"I'm perfectly sane." Miranda replied. "If anything, I am too sane - hence why I make a great second in command."

"You've got issues." Shepard retorted, he noticed on his screen he got the greenlight from another ship in their flotilla. A Tyrian heavy frigate. "You want me to go over them?"

"Yes." Miranda replied instantly. "Though perhaps after the mission, when we're sure we'll have time."

Shepard didn't reply to that and instead opened up a comm channel to Joker. "Joker, Normandy up to spec?"

"Roger that Commander." Jokers voice was serious. "Good. Signal the fleet that we're heading out. The Goa'uld will likely see us coming. Double check everyone has the right time codes and frequencies for the mission plan."

"Copy, triple checking."

Shepard knew he'd said double, but then figured Joker would have already done it and now was just re confirming, in all honesty Shepard was perfectly fine with that since they were heading into a fight.

His own teams were ready as well, Grunt swore he'd head-butt Shepard if they didn't get a good fight this time, while John had locked himself in the armory and was testing his experimental armor. Shepard had EDI put together a one pager for him on it and Loki hadn't lied about it being the most advanced thing they had. It was bulkier than N7 Onyx armor but much more than just armor.

Shepard hoped it would be enough, Intel on this stronghold was that it was filled with Ba'al's most loyal Jaffa, Kull Warriors, and gods knew what other monstrosities. It wouldn't crack without a hell of a fight.

-Normandy SR-2, Armory-

Jack didn't like to wear armor, but these new shield emitters that Loki had provided were more like accessories on a belt than anything else. She figured it was worth it. The armory had become some twisted tradition and had been restocked again. This time with Loki and Mordin's prototypes.

At least she didn't turn out like John had ended up. The suit he wore made him look like a Loki mech on steroids. She could even see his face through his helmet unless he deactivated the opaque polarization of the glass.

It reminded her of Kestral armor in looks, but the defensive plates shifted almost too easily with his movements.

The way he kept popping one of the arm gun mount in and out was getting annoying though. "Are you fucking autistic or something? Do repetitive actions calm you?"

John didn't react beyond popping the guns again, forearm mounted versions of mass effect and Goa'uld type weapons. A pair of mounts on each side meant he had 4 guns to most soldiers two. "Have you ever thought about how your fingers move when you move them? Like, think and then it happens?"

"Yeah." Jack replied tersely. "I sure as shit did when I was drugged up getting trained."

"This is different." John replied. "I think, I... I mean I don't even have to think specifically, 'open my left arm gun.', it just happens as soon as I want it to. Like how we walk and don't really think about exacts on where we step."

"Sounds kinky, like having a whole new body." Jack replied. "Popping in and out, like the suit getting' blue balls."

John stopped and turned towards her. "The sex jokes are tired. Put out or shut up."

Jack couldn't help but laugh. John had finally gotten the hint. "If we survive I'm taking you to Omega remember? Trust me, you won't regret it."

John turned back to his arm and popped out the opposite gun, Jack didn't recognize it but she knew from their initial conversation that it was an anti-Kull blaster. "My only goal is getting Carter back. Nothing else matters right now."

Jack sighed and turned toward the table with guns on it. Her shotgun had been cleaned and modified again, this time with a micro concussion generator so crowd control vs Kull would be easier. "Life goes by too fast if you let it." She sighed. "One day you're an angry biotic who wants nothing more than enough credits to not worry anymore, the next you're one of the galaxies most wanted criminals, locked up in some freezer."

"I was married, you know?"

Jack turned to John, this she didn't know. "Wait, really? Was? The fuck happened?"

"I'm not marriage material." John replied, his voice was cold. "I fuck up, I make bad decisions and I ruin good things. You don't need to tell me life is passing me by, I know full well what I've got." Some of the armor plates on his arms and shoulders popped open, Jack could hear the gentle hiss of venting. "And what I've got is a suit that's made of 400 pounds of "fuck you" and space magic, and I'm pointing it at the sickos who want to kill us or worse."

Jack hadn't heard John, or just about anyone except mercs right on the breaking point talk like this. She went from teasing to worried fast. "Alright. I get that. What after?"

The vents closed, and John tapped on the Omnitool on his left arm. "Did you wonder when you escaped?"

"No. But I wish I had." She crossed her arms as she tried to bury the memories. "Maybe I wouldn't be bald and covered in tattoos. But Cerberus would have always chased me down."

"You wouldn't be here." John said. He was so assertive it had gone beyond rude and was delving into psychoanalysis territory. "You'd be a refugee, or militia, or something other than an angry bitch with a gun and a mind that can flay people."

It was freaky how John just suddenly knew exactly what he was talking about. Jack wanted to shoot back but he'd been so confident in his answer she just realized it was the truth.

So, she stayed quiet about it and instead changed the subject. "You turn on that AI bullshit Loki and Mordin were jizzing over?"

"No, and vulgarity doesn't hide the fact you pivoted." John turned his head to her. This wasn't like his impotent attack on her previously. This was insanity. "I don't know if I have enough time to get used to it. I know exactly what it does, but I don't know how it'll affect me."

Jack decided not to shoot back and instead went for honesty. "You say your mission is rescue Carter, gotta use everything, right?"

"Right." John said. He audibly sighed. "All in." He tapped on his onnitool again, and after a few second he twitched. "Ah, the hell? Who are you?"

Jack raised an eyebrow. "Uhh Spiky, you okay?"

John held up a hand. "No, Not you, this... it... in my head?"

"I am using a private intrasuit frequency to speak with you." The voice replied. John had never heard such a perfect voice before. There was nothing at all wrong with it except he couldn't tell gender, or whether it was his suit or brain talking to him. "I am called Guardian. I was created with a combination of..."

"Woah whoa whoa!" John replied. He could see Jack was confused as hell and backing away. "Baby steps." He started thinking about it and the flood of knowledge poured past his eyes. He knew this AI was connected to him on a quantum entanglement crystal that had been implanted inside him and linked to his wetware, he knew it gave him access to various suit functions, and even that it wasn't too dissimilar to EDI, but significantly more advanced... and shackled. He barely understood any of it but the knowledge was there.

"I… I know all that. I know everything about you but..." he sighed again, again looking at Jack who still looked at him like a madman. "Do you understand how weird it is to have a disembodied voice inside your head?"

"Haven't done DMT in a while." Jack quipped. She still looked confused. "So that thing is inside you?" Her confusion turned to a wry smile.

John didn't lower himself to her obvious joke, instead he focused on this thing. "Okay, Guardian, is it? You've been on just quiet this whole time, right?"

"Yes." The voice replied succinctly. "I have been boosting your neural response times and alacrity while also enhancing various aspects of your physiology."

"Right... is that why I can hear so much... more?"

Jack rolled her eyes realizing that John wasn't paying her any more attention. "Have fun with that thing stuck deep inside you." She shook her head. "You better hope it's worth it for Carter."

John gave Jack a nod as she left the armory leaving John alone with this AI.

"Yes, I am both enhancing your ability to analyze incoming information and artificially activating the appropriate memory clusters in your brain to better understand the world around you. If this is too much, I can lower the output."

"Great." John replied. "Now if only I could talk with you and it didn't sound like I need padded walls that's be swell."

"You can. Merely think as if you are going to speak with me and I will be able to hear you."

That was unknown to John. No crazy memory flash, no inspired thoughts that told him exactly what he needed to know. In fact, it sounded an awful lot like… 'So... you can read my mind?'

"Not quite." The AI replied. John noted that it was true, he hadn't said it, this thing just replied to his thought. "The quantum entanglement implant in which I am connected to you does not let me read or manipulate your thoughts or memories, however when you actively think or wish to communicate, it passes through my connections and I am able to reply as appropriate."

"Okay." John was already deep in his whole upgrade implant thread, there was no going back now. "So, what do I call you?"

"Loki and Mordin have deigned me "Guardian" as that is my primary role for you."

"Uhh... sorry to ask but... are you a girl like EDI or...?"

-Normandy SR-2, Hangar-

"We are approaching the target planet Commander. ETA 6 minutes to combat zone."

Shepard was already in the hanger. The Kodiak could accommodate all of them if they held their breath, so he was glad this was going to be a short trip.

Tali, Kal, Garrus and Jack had already taken their seats, inside, they were going to get in and do their best to scramble and disrupt Ba'als communications and electrical grid. He trusted them to get the job done safely.

His own team - while short Carter, was going to push to the heart of the base and try and find Carter. Between his Widow and Avenger, Ashley's choice on a slug shotgun and sidearm, and Teal'c's Revenant, he was confident they could deal with anything that came their way. Especially since every one of them was prepared for a full out war.

He waited while the rest of his own team filed in, Ashley shot him a strange semi respectful, almost appreciative look. Shepard wondered if maybe she missed the constant fighting. Teal'c on the other hand just looked ready for anything. This mission was to save Carter and give Ba'al the bloodiest nose possible, so there was a lot of emotions involved.

Finally, Miranda, John and Grunt showed up on the elevator. Shepard had seen the specs for John's armor prototype, but he had no idea it would make him almost as imposing as a Krogan. Miranda wasn't petite by any means, but she looked small compared to the two giants next to her.

"We're almost there, we're not sure if Ba'al sees us coming so we're going in guns blazing."

"Good." Grunt replied. "Tired of all this sneaking around. I've got a bet riding with Tin Can here I can get more kills than him."

"Tin Can?" Shepard mused. "How are you Major? Anything… abnormal?"

"Literally everything." John replied through his suit, his voice sounded distinctly more robotic through the speakers. "Let's get Carter back. Grunt is creeping me out."

"Ha!" Grunt chuckled. "I guess only I actually agreed on the bet." He turned to face John. "Maybe when we get back we can spar and I'll show you what Krogan perfection means against a can of soup."

To Shepard's surprise, John almost instantly began to glow blue along his arms and chest. He turned to Grunt just slightly. "I don't need this suit to take you on. But save that quad for the Goa'uld. They're the ones that deserve it."

"Ha!" Grunt laughed. "Biotics. Flashy lights and tricks. Nothing beats a good old fashion bashing."

"Let's focus this bravado towards our target." Miranda said – it didn't sound like a suggestion. "You two are ready for anything, and I plan on us being most useful." She turned to Shepard. "Colonel Carter deserves our best."

"That she does." Shepard replied. "Now get on board – we launch as soon as we're in atmo."

-Stargate Command, Control Room-

Jack sighed and looked down at the screen where Walter waited. They had a program that would dial the Stargate where Ba'als world was, and the hallways to the side of the Stargate were literally lined with soldiers and drones and holy shit they were going to war. Jack had seen real war before, and he knew some of these faces wouldn't be coming back. Jack didn't want to think about it, and he knew Weir didn't want to think about it either.

The IOA Council had requested they both come as soon as possible to Washington DC in order to give them an in person update of the SGC's activities. Jack hoped to give them an update that the war with the Ba'al had come to a head – and maybe even if Shepard's team was fast enough they could cut the damn snake in half.

That was a pipe dream though, and Jack knew that the IOA wouldn't wait till the end of this mission for an update. Weir had confirmed with some level of disdain that they'd be needed, but at least they'd be able to watch this battalion of soldiers go through the gate before they had to take a ridiculously long trip to DC. Not that Jack recognized the soldiers. The Mass Effect technology was so far beyond what he was used to. Jack had survived the gulf war as well as various other small black ops operations but this? Weir had asked him about this but even her clearance wasn't enough to cover some of it. It was strange to have to keep a part of his life secret with someone that he was working with so closely but when he sat down and thought about it wasn't anything he wasn't used to. Like he told before it wasn't his first voyage in the violence.

He never thought that he would be in charge of a multinational group of the toughest soldiers across the world's special forces, least of all Spetznaz, but here he was with Sgt. Siler being one of the best quartermasters you could've ever asked for and Walter giving him that mix quiet sarcasm and steadfastness that he needed in the gate room. All he was really missing what's Carter, but that's what this mission was all about - getting her back.

Instead Doctor Weir was standing a few feet away looking just as pensive as he was. He had to admit she grown quite a bit in the time that he knew her and it wasn't as if she wasn't ready for something as difficult as this. For a politician, she seemed pretty ready to get shit done. Her little talk with him regarding how easy it was to waste lives when in such a position of power had spoken deeper to him that he'd first admitted. It was very rare to find someone who understood the difference between spending lives and wasting lives especially in the political circles the Jack was used to.

So, he didn't mind Weir watching as they waited for the quantum signal from the Normandy to come in requesting backup. He just hoped it began before the final call for him and Weir to head up to the helipad for their trip to Washington DC.

- Normandy SR-2,Hangar -

"The fleet's dropping out of FTL in seven seconds commander. We'll be dropping in 15 seconds after and Immediately cloaking. If Loki planned this out properly then they should be too distracted with the initial attack to notice us cloaking." Joker said confidently.

Even though it said it with confidence that was always the air of doubt inside of Joker's mind. EDI could tell him whatever she wanted and he would always have just a twinge of doubt. She proven nothing but competent and even surprisingly human in some of her interactions, especially with Loki, but as much as Joker was enjoying the replica of another sentient being he couldn't help but always remember that she was an artificial intelligence.

"Roger that. The squad is ready inside the Kodiak. We'll link telemetry with Normandy and launch as soon as we're inside of atmosphere." Shepard said.

" Best guess is in three minutes Commander give or take a few seconds." Joker replied." Also depends whether they see us or not and whether they have any anti-air defenses."

"I trust you to get us there in one piece, Joker." Shepard replied. "Carter is counting on us, we can't let her down."

As if Joker didn't feel like there was enough pressure on him Shepard had reminded them that this whole mission was about saving a single woman. Not that he'd ever do something like this, but his imagination let him know all the horrible ways he could coerce a woman in an interrogation. Loki had been candid in his briefing about what to expect, it wasn't as if Joker didn't know what Kelly had been reading up on. She'd confided in him that some of the information that should read on posttraumatic distress syndrome was darker than what she usually dealt with. Joker could only hope that Kelly was studying needlessly.

Joker watched as EDI showed him the map around the planet where Ba'al had imprisoned Carter. The seven ships that they had convinced joining the attack left FTL close enough to ensure hits with their new Asgard plasma cannons, but also give them a chance to dodge any return fire. Their shots would also be insured of not hitting the main industrial complex where Carter was imprisoned, but unlike most attacks the Joker was used to on a planet there was no rules of engagement when it came to missed shots and hitting the planet.

Thanks to the Asgard technology that have been implemented into the Normandy, Joker could see that the mix of Turian and Alliance ships that had volunteered for this attack have launched their first volley. The Asgard cannons were significantly stronger then even Class D enhanced Mass effect cannons. They were actually very similar to the damage levels he'd expect from disruptor torpedoes. Without meeting the ammunition of the disruptor torpedoes, the ships could continue will be fire at longer distances and for better rates of fire then any disruptor torpedoes.

The Normandy had the same Asgard cannons installed as well, but unlike some of the other alliance or Turian ships, the Normandy had been equipped with close range railgun weapons. Loki had noticed how often the Normandy was needed for close air support and understood the need for an air to ground weapon that could be used in close quarters. "Danger close" was something that Shepard had seemed to grow fonder ever since this war with the Goa'uld had started. After working past the emotions and trauma of nearly killing his friend during previous encounters Joker was ready to assist however needed and however Cmdr. Shepard decided the Normandy was needed.

60 seconds at best and Joker focused on the screen where the Goa'uld were fully occupied with the seven ships that suddenly jumped out of FTL and we're hitting them with shots of that were equivalent to their own plasma cannons. Whether they had seen them coming are not on their FTL sensors didn't really matter anymore the battle was joined in Joker was about to hop in.

"We are launching in one minute." Shepard said over his squad frequency. He knew it might take a little longer than that but he wanted his people frosty. He knew the Stargate people would be completely dedicated to getting Carter back and even more he knew at least Garrus, Tali, and Kal by extension would also give their one hundred percent given that they knew her somewhat better. It had taken a bit of thought but he realized that the team that he had was made of people who despite acting on logic when it really came down to it were guided by their emotions more often than not.

Everyone was silent. They all knew the mission that was coming and even more they all had access to the telemetry from the going on outside. Shepard watched quietly as the distraction fleet flew in firing at all the ships surrounding the planet desperately hoping to get their attention. It was a foolhardy move, but Shepard hoped the fleet broke their lines just enough for the Normandy to slip in and call in the SGC for the ground attack. With the SGC backing them up it was very likely that they be able to cause enough chaos on the ground to extract Carter. As long as they got her out of that hellhole, it was worth it. It was more than just the knowledge that she had on the whole operation. It was morale, it was the fact that this was a victory that they could cry out amongst all the media that still worked throughout the citadel and home planets. In the back of his mind though, Shepard had never forgotten about Illium or Omega, places he knew where there were potential allies or at the very least resources that would help the war effort.

The Normandy came out of FTL, and Shepard watched on his heads-up display as the rest of the fleet fired indiscriminately at the defending ships. It took only a few seconds for those same ships return fire but the Asgard cannons had been designed to fire in bursts rather than the single shot Goa'uld plasma cannons. This may have given the coalition fleet a distinct advantage at range but as soon as they closed the distance that advantage would melt away as even with enhanced barriers the Goa'uld Ha'tak would easily overwhelmed the number of coalition ships.

Shepard watched intensely at the telemetry that was coming to him from the sensors, a few nearly panicked seconds confirmed to him that the Goa'uld hadn't seen the Normandy amidst the cacophony of incoming fire. Or merely if they had they weren't paying it any attention. Once Joker engaged the duel cloaking device the Goa'uld would have to use their anti-cloaking countermeasures to find the Normandy. Since the ship was only depositing the team and then joining the fight against the capital ships surrounding the planet, it didn't really matter. With the Normandy's guns, it was a relatively simple matter to call down airstrikes as long as the Normandy was within a reasonable angle to the target zone.

Shepard counted the painful seconds as it took Normandy to enter atmosphere in a stealthy way. The difficulty was to enter atmosphere at a velocity that would not generate enough heat to appear on the enemy sensors as an enemy ship. Shepard trusted Joker to do the job though just like he had on IOS. In fact, after having to force Joker into the escape pod during the attack on the Normandy SR-1. Shepard truly understood how dedicated Joker was. At the time, he thought only Ashley wouldn't need that level of trust, but right now it was just a bit revealing to his future life how much how truly entrusted his life to Jeff.

The entry into the atmosphere of the planet happened with irritating slowness. In the distance, he could see the trading fire between the Coalition fleet and the Goa'uld Ha'tak protecting the planet slowly fade out as the atmosphere obscured them. John has noticed that a good amount of what he would've normally considered regular time suddenly felt very slow to him. Guardian had explained to him that with his newfound ability to gather more information from his senses and with the assistance of the AI he would quickly find regular human communication was both incredibly low key as well as high level in terms of context.

After just their few conversations John has been able to create what he felt was a relatively accurate dossier on every member of his team. His team, it almost sounded amusing to him now. Specifically, after his brawl with Miranda he'd been able to dissect everything that had happened. He understood she specifically wanted to him to improve, but it wasn't merely out of the goodness of her heart, she wanted him to be a weapon. After the last three conversations John had with her after his upgrade, she had sounded genuinely disturbed and empathetic. These were traits in her speech that he would've not picked up on without Guardian specifically enhancing his cognitive ability.

He had forced all of these revelations as well as the revelations about the rest of this team down though. Like he had told Jack, there was only one mission right now. Even though he understood that control of his abilities was based in the logical directions made by both him as well as the Guardian AI, this specific mission to rescue someone that he knew must have undergone something horrifying in the past four days crushed every emotion he had. The scary part was how easily he understood every emotion. He was angry, so he knew the first Kull Warriors he would see would get absolutely no mercy as the anti-Kull blaster embedded into the left arm of his prototype of armor would see heavy use. The other three conventional weapons he had we'll see similar use against any Jaffa he saw during his attack.

He didn't even care that Miranda was technically his squad leader. With Grunt as his squad mate, John knew that this team was designed to be the hard hitter. Not just some kind of long range specialists, or even CQC shotgunners. This form of war was very different from what he'd done in Bosnia and Afghanistan.

It was fairly simple to do given that John and Grunt were the hard hitters meant to break down walls, while Miranda stuck behind them with the support they would need. John began to see the city below him through the window. He understood it was really just the complex, but it was large as a city. Even more so with what looked like skyscrapers in the center. Guardian gave him a level of direct awareness and connection to all the telemetry being picked up by the entire fleet – but it also focused on his specific target so it didn't overwhelm him.

He heard the others talking behind him – they were talking about the plan of attack, about specific mission objective, even-

Guardian pinpointed a specific section of the city on the HUD below him, the scans into the city had found his target – Carter's implant signature.

"Target found! We're going to touch down as close as we can, circling back to-"

"Guardian, can we make it?" John asked ignoring Shepard's voice.

"Yes John." The voice replied, John didn't listen any further and just knew what he had to do. He keyed in the codes to the door which began to open up. He heard several cries behind him of surprise and shock, but he also knew they were all strapped in and safe. Miranda's voice cut through the rest, but he still ignored it as John pulled himself out and into the open air.

"The fuck are you doing Spiky?"

Miranda knew that John was on edge, but this was well beyond what she'd expected from him. They were still easily 4 kilometers in the air, but since they were all suited up in one way or another, the sudden blast of air and cold wasn't more than annoying. Shepard screamed for a sitrep but it was lost in the chaos.

He'd leapt out without hesitation. Miranda knew that with biotics he could survive the skydive without a problem, but this was not the way she'd expected to start the mission. Realizing that John wasn't going to wait for anyone, she figured it was worth going in for a pound. "Grunt! Come on! Follow him!"

She saw Grunt give her a confused look, but only for a moment. "He better leave something alive for me to kill or he's dead!" And then rushed out into the sky just the same as John. Miranda followed shortly – quickly wrapping herself and Grunt into a Biotic bubble to guide them after John who she could see in the distance. It wasn't entirely hard to form this bubble, but the shifting fields to keep up with John was definitely harder than her usual theatrics.

"Miranda! What the hell is going on back there?"

Miranda could hear Shepard over her headset – the biotic field thankfully kept the worst of the cold and air ripping past her as they fell. "Oh you know, special tactics."

"You planned this?" Shepard's voice was shocked and incredulous. "Warn me next time!"

Miranda focused on her fall and looked below to where John was rocketing towards the signal where Carter's implants had pinged, Grunt to the side was laughing as he also descended in the impromptu airdrop. "Oh I plan to."

"Can we punch through?" John asked, though somehow, he already expected the answer.

"Use your slugs to drill a pilot hole, a biotic increase in mass leading to a Nova will breach the metal used in the building."

John ignored the strange sensation of knowledge in his head and just aimed his left arm forward, a targeting reticule came up and as soon as it flashed green he fired. The heavy shotgun slug flashed out and hit the target almost instantly, just as John flipped his body to land feet first. He focused his biotic energy as the last hundred feet came up to him and he crouched.

The Tau'ri attack was already underway, it was foolish to strike here, more Ha'tak were on their way and an entire battalion of Kull and thousands of Jaffa were stationed here.

Even with the recent rush off world transfers, there was no way-

The sudden crash and sound of twisting metal above Tay'fas drew a reflex from him as he instinctively raised his arms to protect his face. Something had just punched through the ceiling - stray fire?

He prepared for anything else that might-

Another crash, this one louder, but he'd already steeled himself and was ready for it. It broke through the ceiling landed with a hard thud – dust and wind ripped through the air and blinded him. For a moment he thought it might be an undetonated bomb. Closer inspection led him and he others in the storage room to the conclusion. It almost looked like a Kull warrior except it was enveloped in blue energy.

He aimed his staff at it and approached, the figure had landed with its legs spread, one hand creating a tripod of sorts and the other raised in the air.

Before Tay'fas could take 2 steps he heard the strange Kull like creature cry out in a furious voice "Here's Johnny!" and slammed his hand to the ground.

A single shot came out of the staff before the hand hit the ground and all that blue energy pulsed out like a shockwave sending Tay'Fas flying back like a rag doll.

John raised his hand and felt a twang of heat along his spine, but he ignored it. Every sensation, every reaction just felt like it was amplified to eleven. He could clearly see how the Nova shockwave had slapped back the plasma from the staff leaving only a cloud of heat. Now the AI had tagged every target in the room along with the ideal weapon to use, along with an augmented reality path for him to follow to get to Carter's location.

John gave in and aimed.

Miranda breathed in deeply, this kind of biotic display wasn't exactly how she expected to start this mission. Krogan and possibly psychotic soldiers falling from the sky were definite "drinking" story material though.

John had opened up a path for them into the roof of the building where sensors were picking up Carters implants, so she aimed her and Grunt's descent towards it and shifted her biotic fields – Grunt was heavy and having to control both of their falls wasn't easy, but she managed it and despite the speed, their lack of mass meant their impact on the roof didn't hurt at all.

"Not the Krogan hot drop I was expecting." Grunt muttered as he shook off what Miranda herself felt as shifting gravity once the biotic field fell. "Fight Time!" he cackled as he jumped into the hole John had punched through.

Miranda followed and kept her SMG at the ready – the burst fire Tempest would work well against Jaffa, and the hastily fastened Anti-Kull Blaster attached the rail meant-

"Damn it!" Miranda heard Grunt scream like he'd broken a bone. She quickly snapped up after landing and saw him fire a burst into a wounded Jaffa on the ground putting him down for good. "You just had toturn him into a biotic killing machine. He went left, I'm going right!"

Miranda realized that she had little to no control over Grunt – maybe Shepard had assumed something like this would happen. What was the worst Grunt could get into? Death? Krogan could be replaced. "Go on then." Miranda hissed at him. She made a slicing motion across her neck twice. "Chop chop."

Grunt's cackle at her frustration rolled off her quickly. Grunt bolted into the hallway and immediately roared as he opened fire. "Stop running you cowards!"

Miranda instead inspected the room they'd landed in despite hearing gunfire outside. It took 2 seconds for her to see the impact dents where John had hit – his armor and biotic powers were incredibly focused – the kind of thing Miranda knew she was capable of but never really pushed herself to. Various crates and debris had been strewn about in a circle around the dent – Nova blast. Miranda brought up her HUD and spotted John a mere floor away but his vitals were surprisingly calm.

She noted the several dead Jaffa – most from gunfire but one near the door had blunt impact. Did John punch his way out of here? A hint of worry crossed her mind – what had they created within him?

John could swear time had slowed down, but that nagging feeling in the back of his head told him the truth

'Enhanced reaction time and predictive algorithms, will feel like time is slow.'

All he knew was that when he stepped out into the hallway and a trio of Jaffa behind a Kull opened fire at him, he was able to reflexively curl into a ball, roll, all while aiming his conventionally armed left hand in a sweep to wound the Jaffa, while his right fired a pulse from the AKG into the Kull's torso.

A trio of shots still swept across his shields and he saw the temperature begin to spike. It'd take a lot of fire to stop him, but even with the armor's vents, it was unlikely to dump heat fast enough. John ignored how he knew this – it was too confusing to matter right now.

The Kull crumpled to its knees as John rushed forward and pushed his biotic energy into a palm strike. He slammed into the soulless creature like a screaming freight train and sent it flying back into the wounded Jaffa. He scanned them quickly with the built-in sensors on his gloves fingertips – the Kull was dead, so was one Jaffa who'd taken shots to the neck, and the other two Jaffa were wounded and bleeding.

Carter wasn't far. He could hear screaming ahead of him – were the Jaffa preparing for him?

John didn't hesitate and kept rushing forward and leapt over the bodies – they'd figure it out after.

This facility was built haphazardly – the golden browns the Goa'uld liked to use were accented by rust, and crates upon crates everywhere. Given this was so close to what appeared to be landing pads it made sense, but this was much too large to be an airport. Maybe a construction or repair facility?

Guardian AI spoke up in his head. "I am detecting several Kull Warriors ahead – marking their location."

John watched as red blips appeared on his HUD – just translucent enough that it wouldn't bug his regular vision. This didn't even feel difficult, it just felt so fluid.

"Drop drop drop!"

Shepard plugged in the final course for the shuttle and let it go autopilot. It would land itself as the team jumped out and secured the landing zone. They'd landed near the Tower where John had apparently punched his way through the building, rather than try and cut their way through like he did, Shepard chose a large balcony with plenty of cover options as it made a perfect landing zone.

"Contact! Covering fire!"

Shepard heard Garrus yell, and then a scattering of fire. As he turned around and unslung the Raptor from his back he only just saw Jack leap out shotgun at the ready.

Garrus leaned up against the door jamb and let off snapshots. Shepard heard screaming outside and bursts of fire. A trio of plasma shots flew into the Kodiak and scorched the back wall. Shepard peered out and could see the Jaffa and Kull inside firing at them from inside the building. The entry gateway was large enough for even large cargo to come through.

"Flash bang out!" Teal'c screamed from below, Shepard pulled himself out before the shuttle landed, and he heard Garrus behind him jump out too.

Shepard rolled and polarized his HUD, just in time to hear a cut-off trio of bangs, with a tiny dot of light popping up ahead of them.

Cargo crates served as decent cover, with Shepard quickly pushing ahead right behind Teal'c, Tali right next to him with her shotgun covering his flank.

Shepard cut in behind Teal'c and slammed his back into the crate, he just had enough time to position himself when Teal'c leaped over the crate and opened fire. Shepard watched as Teal'c took several staff shots, but his shields repelled the lethal damage and just left him in a haze of heat.

The crazy gambit worked to take down a trio of Jaffa who'd peeked out of cover and drop one Kull to his knees from the anti-Kull blaster that had been hastily under barrel mounted onto the already heavy revenant.

Shepard aimed carefully and out of the corner of his eye saw Teal'c duck and roll behind other cover. In the Alliance grade armor Teal'c looked like some imposing demon spewing hellfire. The Jaffa ahead of them began to fall back, letting the Kull move ahead.

The trio of Kull including the downed one kept firing, right up until Tali screamed something and flung a disruptive charge right at their center mass. A small drone appeared soon after and quickly zoomed ahead past them.

The Kull's plasma weapons had been disabled and they now charged ahead without any self-preservation. Shepard obliged and changed to his own Kull Blaster and let loose.

Behind the Kull who crumpled into heaps after multiple hits, Tali's drone fired off zaps of energy, surprisingly easily dodging the incoming fire from the Jaffa.

One Jaffa tried to come up behind the drone and use his Zat, but Shepard watched his head snap back in a red mist as Garrus easily picked him off even from behind.

Shepard took the initiative and took point from where Teal'c had been standing. "Move in! Split up! Clear a path to Carter's signature!

From deeper inside Shepard heard an unearthly roar and gunfire. It wasn't hard to guess Grunt had made t down safely, now he only hoped the SGC could have as much luck.

-Stargate Command, Gate Room-

"Chevron 7- locked!"

Colonel Dixon stared up at the kawoosh of the Stargate and took in a deep breath. There was no need for orders, the crew assignments he'd made worked spectacularly together. Not that he expected their plan to meet contact, but he'd deal with that in mere moments.

The Tech trained soldiers quickly created drones from their omnitools, and the drones quietly zipped though the Stargate. A squad of Loki and Fenris mechs followed soon after. It was kind of lucky that they'd even been able to dial, he'd think one of the first things he'd do if Earth came under attack would be to dial the Stargate to prevent exactly what they were doing.

Instead, the drones went in and relayed telemetry back. Dixon had just made out a few confused Jaffa when the drone cameras flashed with gunfire. Those Lokis and Fenris weapons would need some sustained fire to take down Jaffa, and they stood no chance against Kull, but this was just part one.

Another group of soldiers, these wielding the latest iteration of the riot shield and heavy SMGs lined up and waited several seconds, and then charged forward in a phalanx.

Another squad of soldiers followed, this one armed with shotguns and close-range assault rifles, then another, and another...

"Got your panties on?"

Fullerton didn't take the bait, Parker had ribbed him relentlessly his whole training and now it was time to put up or shut up. "Need something to remind me of your sister."

Parker just laughed in response. They were coming up now and the mixture of SGC soldiers and Alliance trainers felt natural now.

"Next squad, Go!"

Fullerton double checked his helmet and started the walk up to the gate, Parker was next to him, as were the dozen others in his large fire team.

The strange extended stretch feel as he stepped through was always just a bit disorienting, but he pushed t aside and raised his Avenger rifle. His HUD adjusted color and polarization quickly, with markers appearing and pointing out friendlier and enemies.

Fullerton aimed and fired a snap burst as soon as he was out of the gate, he doubted he hit anything, but it would serve as suppressive fire. He wasn't disappointed as plasma fire came streaking in from across what was now obviously a warehouse. At least three dozen Jaffa had been on the other side and took cover as they tried to repel the incoming invaders.

Parker was right beside him and their fire team pushed up and ahead – he wasn't about to get caught up near the gate so he risked taking fire and dove over crates to get closer to the Jaffa. Staccato fire from Avengers and the drones filled the air, including the odd zap or scream as a drone was shot down or a Jaffa fell from the gunfire.

A different scream came from beside him as one of the SGC soldiers was caught in a crossfire and took several staff shots across the chest. His shields would save his life, but Parker winced as he remembered what training at told him would happen – burns inside a sealed suit of armor didn't sound fun at all.

One of the riot shielded soldiers stood up and faced off with the crossfire protecting the injured one. Fullerton trusted the situation and popped up – his Avenger could fire almost eighty rounds before he'd cook the heatsink, so that's exactly what he did using his body to brace it against the crate.

A nearly horizontal line of tracer fire spat out – joined by more and more as the SGC soldiers pushed in. The Jaffa fired blindly back scoring hits just from the sheer mass of men coming through the gate, but without anything heavier, it was going to take sustained fire to cause serious injury.

Fullerton heard Dixon scream over the radio. "Chase em down! Secure the LZ and scout out the area, we want Gate Missile Fire Support ASAP! Move move!"

Parker chuckled and pulled out his Carnifax handgun, cocking it in a way that Fullerton knew damn well did nothing but make him look cool. "Easier than plugging Batarians."

"If you swing that way. " Fullerton replied. He could have gone way worse – but there wasn't time for too much comedy now. "Moving out! Cover the flanks, watch for stragglers!"

He vaulted over the crate he'd hidden behind and kept his Avenger at the hip – with a trained movement he racked back the heatsink and heard it give a satisfying sizzle and pop as it ejected, and he swapped in a fresh one. Fullerton watched his back and kept a few paces behind him.

Grunt roared as he charged into the Jaffa warrior that had decided to stand against him. His trio of buddies behind him had fallen back, so he was still surprised the Jaffa fired at him. It wasn't a nasty surprise though, Grunt could feel the heat spike along his plates and skin, but it wasn't anywhere near what he'd learned of Krogan hot springs.

He just caught the Jaffa's shocked gaze as Grunt plowed into him and slammed him into the wall to the side. He grabbed the Jaffa by the collar and slammed his forehead into the Jaffa's face – a trio of hits and the Jaffa's bloodied face showed that 'shock' that he knew humanoids fell into from sudden injury. Rather than let him go, Grunt picked him up and carried him forward, chasing the other Jaffa who ran away. "Stop running! I'm angrier when I'm tired!"

He had taken several steps forward and rounded a corner towards a set of stairs when more shots came in. Grunt had expected a possible ambush though, and held up his Jaffa hostage as an impromptu shield. Unlike Grunt, the Jaffa didn't have a tech barrier and heat resistant plates. The stairs led down which only made the next decision obvious. Grunt threw the now dead Jaffa down and directly at the ambushers.

Maybe it was just the surprise attack, but these Jaffa were not putting up a good fight. He'd need to talk to Shepard about a possible transfer to the front lines if this 'spec ops' bullshit kept up.

-Alliance Frigate "Khe Sahn", Above Par'Jat-

Captain Karel Demone of the Khe-Sahn kept an eye on his VI's 3d map of the battle. This Ba'al's forces had apparently been caught off guard – they'd managed to disable two of the many Ha'tak in orbit in the initial strike, but now it was a game of falling back and taking potshots while the Goa'uld widened their phalanx and began to encircle their small fleet.

The Turian ships had been a bit more daring – and the first to find out their upgraded shields indeed did protect them far better than barriers did from the focused heat of the Goa'uld's plasma cannons. One had been forced to fall back and vent their heatsinks to bleed off the excessive heat, but unless they took more fire they'd be fine.

Demone watched the trading fire on the 3D Map – orange yellow bolts flew towards the Coalition fleet, while ice blue shards of Asgard designed plasma weapons fired back. It made even their D-Class Cannons look like peashooters – at least against targets in space. What concerned him was the Goa'uld weren't fighting as hard as he really expected them to.

The other Alliance ships were holding back just a bit as well – Demone understood, without their "Earth", they were the only ones left. At least it felt that way.

Now though, Demone just focused on the Goa'uld – several transports had escaped and more were fleeing, and the Ha'tak were beginning to chase them away from the planet. The two disabled Ha'tak though had launched their fighters and Al'Kesh – all heading towards the planet. With only Normandy down there, it didn't look great for the ground teams. He hoped they got Carter out and bugged out soon – or else those Ha'tak would come back with hell to pay for bloodying Ba'als forces nose like this.

-Ship Construction Facility, Par'Jat-

John kept his back to the wall but he could see a reverse image in his HUD Guardian put there for him – it was like having a built in zoomable rear view mirror and as much as he knew it should confuse him, he just kept calm. There were 3 Kull Warriors spread out covering what looked like the entrance to a larger room, all across a bridge exposed to the air. He was reminded of how some castles would keep prisoners or VIPs in secluded towers with limited access.

Without proper cover, that left only one choice. John would have to rush them. Taking too much fire wasn't ideal, but he had to push ahead. The element of surprise was still with him as the Jaffa he'd run into either fled or fell easily enough. Guardian kept his heat readings on the bottom right of his vision – he was hovering around 30% after that last fight where he'd taken shots.

John took a deep breath, then stepped out into the hallway leading to the bridge. The Kull warriors immediately noticed him and opened fire. John raised his left arm and formed a biotic backlash, he could feel a tingling sensation along his spine as he literally swatted away the rapid-fire pulses of plasma, even as he stepped up into a run.

The Kull were caught off guard by the reflected fire and seemingly hesitated, John cut the distance between them and raised his right arm. The Anti-Kull blast flew past the closest Kull and instead hit the one in the middle. It crumpled from the strange energy weapon but didn't fall completely. The others didn't even care, but John expected that now.

He speared into the closer Kull warrior and picked him up into the air – He could feel the Kull begin to hit his back with its fists, a pair of shots impacting directly against his armor, but this wasn't the same armor he'd worn before and even the Kull would have trouble denting it. The heat spread along John's back in a goosebumps producing tingle – enough that it actually started to bother him,

John pulled the Kull into a suplex and just flung the Kull backwards across the bridge. The third Kull took advantage and drove 4 close range shots into John's shields, spiking his heat even more, but John was ready for it. Without looking, John aimed his Kull blaster up at it and fired. The third Kull fell to the AKG and like the second- struggled to even crawl.

The first Kull who'd been flung was now getting up – John wasn't about to let it use its seemingly inhuman strength again and formed a biotic slam at the Kull's legs with his left hand. He raised it into the air – where it flailed in confusion. John then swept back with his right hand and sucked the Kull out into the air – falling what he now realized was several dozen stories towards the ground. He grinned wondering what a Kull would think of falling this distance.

John turned back to the two wounded Kull and quietly put a pair of blaster shots into them as he walked past – 54 percent was the readout Guardian's heatsink reading told him. Worth it.

As he approached the door he prepared himself – just because Carter's readings were here didn't mean she'd be okay. He'd seen the horrors of Jihadi warfare, and how desperate people would fight back. With everything he knew about the Goa'uld, they'd be even worse.

The doors opened and John took in the sight – his enhanced senses detected several things right away.

Right away, he saw Carter on the right-hand side. She was strapped down to a table and he could hear her groaning in what he could only interpret as deep pain. There was a Kull warrior protecting her, along with an important looking Jaffa next to her monitoring some kind of big visual readout. He couldn't tell what it was.

The Kull took cover almost instantly by flipping a nearby table and crouching. John instinctively dove to the side – then seeing the Jaffa also fall back, but instead of a Staff he pulled out a Zat. A Zat would disable his weapons, be much harder to dodge, and leave him vulnerable. Gods knew what it'd do to his implants.

So, John immediately rolled up to his feet and jumped in a sideways somersault. The name "John Woo" flashed across his mind but was quickly replaced by the inertia and timing he'd need to pull this off. Halfway through his flip, he got a good shot off on the Kull warrior which fell back from the headshot – John landed and immediately bit back a scream as the Zat shot hit him right in the chest.

His HUD scrambled and he felt every hair on his body stand up. His skin prickled and everything itched. He had no idea how many of those he could take, so John enacted the second part of the plan he'd come up with in a split second.

With his left hand, John formed a biotic energy sphere in front of him, reared back like a cobra, and then punched forward with his right hand. He'd never done this before, but every movement was burned into his brain and he knew it would work.

The biotic charge felt nothing like the Stargate or Normandy FTL. In a split-second John could feel his body shift gravity and snap forward like a bullet. He'd aimed it perfectly and his body slammed into the Jaffa dead square in the chest sending him flying back into the wall hard enough John was sure the Jaffa had been severely injured.

As he came out of the Biotic Charge, John could feel his tendons and muscles burning – whether it was just the pent-up rage, the emotion at finding Carter and even as he fought hearing her cries of anguish, or just some kind of venting. Regardless, John walked over to where the Jaffa had crumpled up on the floor and picked him up by the collar. The Jaffa looked up at him and…

John could see the fear in his eyes, and after everything that had happened to him in the past few months, John liked it. Without hesitating, John drove his right fist into the Jaffa's face. No biotics, just his metal gloved hand against the flesh of the Jaffa's face. He punched the Jaffa again, this time throwing him to the ground a few feet away. John crouched down and punched again, and again, and again, and again. John kept punching for what felt like minutes, eventually adding his biotic power and hitting the Jaffa so hard he felt bones cracking even though his armor, or was that the floor underneath? He'd lost awareness and then suddenly found himself back up and looking over at Carter.

"Carter!" He rushed over – his faceplate and armored gauntlets were soaked in blood, but he didn't hesitate to pull up his helmet visor. Carter was in her military issue undergarments, and they'd been torn up like she'd been whipped. She was gaunt and looked pale, and even like that seemed like she was going to hurt herself fighting her restraints. "Carter! It's John!"

She seemed to stop bucking about – but through grit teeth she hissed in a half scream. ' Stop! Stop!"

"Stop what?" John asked – then without even thinking raised his hand – the scanner built into his suit fed him info into his HUD – John didn't question it as his instincts truly were not his own anymore. "I… What the…' the HUD brought up an augmented reality highlight along the side of her head – a small plug thing was in the side of her left temple, hidden by her sweat drenched hair. "What the hell is that?"

Carter managed to reach just far enough to grip John's armor and bucked her head from side to side. "It's in me. Make it stop! Please god make it stop!" and then screamed again.

It was only a moment or two before Guardian's voice popped up on the speaker. "John, Colonel Carter has a Goa'uld implant. It appears to be recording her thoughts."

Carter motioned her chin up to the display above them. John turned and looked at it properly. It looked like a countryside. "Get it out, get it out, get it out!"

John hesitated – before he could speak his thoughts Guardian replied privately to hi, 'Ripping out the implant could cause permanent brain damage, but there is no time to do it safely. Hold her down and crush the implant with your fingers. "

John turned down to Carter and gentle pinned her shoulder down with one hand. "Are you sure? It could hurt you-."

"I don't care!" Carter screamed. "Do it! Do it! Do it!"

It wasn't a choice anymore. John took a deep breath, then reached over to the implant. He pried it just a bit off her skin noting that it had a pair of spikes that went into her skull and then squeezed. The implant crushed like popcorn in his fingers.

Carter convulsed suddenly and the image on the screen behind John flickered. She gave a strange half gurgle scream that sounded like her tongue was falling into her throat. John held her down and waited for her to stop shaking before yanking out her restraints. He could see her vitals which had become erratic, but hadn't dropped yet.

John pulled his helmet back into place and then raised Carter to her feet. He was surprised when she slurred. 'gun…"

"You're in no shape for a fight." John remarked as she lifted her by the hip and draped her arms around his neck. She wasn't a small woman by any means, but in his armor, she might as well have been a child. "We're getting out of here."

He'd just gotten to the doorway when he heard footfalls outside – he raised his right arm ready to fire a shotgun slug or a Kull blast – but then held his fire as Miranda appeared with her gun up. She lowered it quickly and John could see the genuine horror in her eyes, and how well she could hide it in her voice. "Good job. Let's get her back home."

The SGC battalion had broken through the warehouse, and now moved out into the surrounding area. They'd spotted Al'Kesh and Death Gliders that the Coalition fleet had warned them about, and it was just about time for that Gate Missile Support. Dixon had cleared a path in front of the gate and used his omnitool to paint the opposite end of the wall as a target. "Stargate Command, target is a metal wall- likely Carbon Trinium alloy, give me a HEAT round, fire when ready."

He noted several of his soldiers had been wounded – or at the least scorched by plasma fire. Nobody reported any deaths thank god but he knew that wasn't likely to stay that way. "All units, fire in the hole!"

It was only another two seconds for the sudden deep roar of a missile streaking out of the Stargate and slamming into the roof of the warehouse. Dixon covered his face instinctively and changed back to the SGC's frequency.

Shepard let Ashley take point as they broke through the Jaffa line. These weren't the warriors he'd expected, if anything, their Kull Warriors seemed to be in charge as once his team confirmed Kulls down, the Jaffa would flee.

He could hear gunfire from deeper in the tower, but it was scattered. More prominently, he felt a slight shift in the ground and heard Dixon scream in the background of his comms. 'Good hit SGC, good hit! Drones on recon duty!"

They had precious little time. EDI had maintained a small picture in picture on his HUD of the status of the ships in orbit. About a hundred smaller craft were coming back - either to hunt the Normandy down or worse, strafe the ground troops.

Ashley cleared corners ahead of her and Teal'c kept right with him as they watched the rear. Ash hadn't said much to him, but was following his orders so he didn't pay much mind to it.

When she held up a hand and lurched back, Shepard took note. Then winced seeing a fusillade of plasma and mass effect weaponry stream down the hallway, a few catching her as she took cover.

"Shit! Jesus there's a lot of them."

Teal'c readied up and took the line behind Ash, Shepard stood on the opposite side of the hallway, ready to dart out and take cover on the opposite wall. "Cover me, I'll jump across."

"No." Teal'c replied. "My weapon is better suited. Target the Kull!" Teal'c moved up beside Ash and cocked his leg ready to jump.

Ash gave Shepard a quick look to which Shepard shrugged and nodded. "Wasn't keen on going out there anyway." He readied his own gun, the Raptor's high pitched and semi auto fire would be a drumbeat to Ash's Avenger.

He smiled with silent pride as Ash didn't wince back from the incoming suppression fire, and instead counted down. "3-2-1-go!" She leaned out just enough for her gun and sights to draw a bead. Teal'c dove out and took a few shots, but nothing his armor and shields couldn't take. Shepard aimed above Ash and crooked his body above her to get the same purchase but from on top.

Ash screamed as she opened fire. "Hey! You snake lined sons of whores! I'm gonna make you wish your gods were real!"

Shepard didn't say anything, but he then saw Teal'c take refuge behind a column jutting out of the wall and launch his own suppressive fire. "Your deaths are needless! Ba'al is nothing but a pretender!"

Shepard took the momentary pause in fire squarely directed at him and gauged the enemy. The hallway extended out into a plaza of sorts. There were at least 40 targets, about half Kull and half Jaffa, some of the Kull were armed with Mass Effect guns, it looked like a mixture of Batarian and mercenary gear, where they'd gotten it was a mystery. Damn, they'd walked right into some kind of barracks/rec area.

As more fire poured in, he noticed his HUD blinked again. Friendlies ahead - John, Miranda, and thank god it looked like Carter was with them. "Miranda! We're on the other side!"

John could see them all. This is where they'd retreated to and were going to make their stand. It was some kind of open plaza - likely some kind of training area. There were benches and crates spread around the room including some outcroppings that made separators. It all provided fantastic cover.

Instead of merely standing their ground, the Kull warriors were taking cover and made it harder to hit them at range.

Shepard and his team was on the other side of the room, it wouldn't be easy to cut through these forces but John knew he couldn't wait. If they took too long, reinforcements could come in behind them and pincer John, Miranda and Carter.

John decided to break it through sheer brute force. "Miranda, get ready to move though."

Miranda was hoisting Carter on one side and held her SMG in the other. She gave John an incredulous look. "I didn't realize you kept a CAIN in that suit."

John ignored the quip, and focused on the forces inside. Guardian quickly assessed the situation and showed him how they could break through. John keyed in his radio. "Commander Shepard."

A second later his voice came through, "Major! I see you in the other side! Is Carter okay? Why isn't Miranda talking?"

"No." John replied succinctly. "And she's busy." John linked his omnitool and sent the quickly formulated plan to Shepard, Miranda, and the others across the red area. "I want you to focus fire on your left-hand side, my right. Miranda's going to punch through with Carter so you can exfil, copy?"

"I am?" He heard Miranda ask as she took cover beside the door, somehow making the clumsy act of reloading her SMG with only one hand look less idiotic. "I guess I am." She hoisted Carter on her shoulder and prepared. "And you?"

John took a deep breath and prepared his guns. This was a little more than he'd bargained for but his chips were all in anyways." Gimme an overload charge on the left. You just get through while I distract them."

"What? Are you..." Miranda began but John didn't let her finish. Instead he stepped out into the doorway and formed a biotic barrier in front of him.

"Come on you sons of bitches! You want a real fight? Come and get it!" The plasma impacted leaving only heat behind, but a few of those Kull Warriors were armed with Mass Effect weapons. John focused and moved forwards, arms out and pointing up. "Now Miranda!"

Shepard didn't hesitate seeing John's crazy mission and while he'd ordered Teal'c and Ash to focus on the left, he specifically targeted Jaffa that stood in front of John. Whatever insanity John was doing was already in progress and he'd just have to compensate.

A trio of detonations ensued that made Shepard wince, a disruptive blast, a concussion blast, and then John using his biotics to charge right into the cluster of Kull Warriors and set off what looked like a Nova. 'Jesus what did Loki do to him?'

The weapons fire died down, but Shepard could hear John screaming as he punched and kicked, using his biotics to keep the Kull off their feet. The odd flash of his anti Kull blaster served a fantastic distraction.

Miranda lurched forward holding Carter over her shoulder and moved cover to cover on the opposite end of the room. Those Jaffa hadn't been stunned or overloaded, so they owned fire on John's position. Teal'c and Ash made them pay as the flank maneuver gave the team easier shots.

Shepard switched focus and instead targeted the Kull Warriors that hadn't been overloaded. There stood between Miranda and escape, so he focused on the further one out. The Kull was firing blindly into the cluster melee where John was swinging around like some drunken biotic ninja. So, Shepard took the distraction and fired a shot directly into its neck. Rather than ping off the armor, the Kull shuddered and fell to one knee. The Raptor didn't have enough power to do much more than stun it, but he'd given Miranda the opening to biotically lift and fling the thing aside.

"Heat sinks are nearing overload."

John didn't reply, instead he reached out, grabbed the Jaffa by the collar and spun around. He didn't even need biotics to throw the Jaffa in a judo like move into the Kull he'd just tripped into the ground.

The threat of the Jaffa was a distraction and their Zats, with Miranda's overload and someone, likely that Chief Williams' concussion blast, John had thinned out the herd of them.

There were still 25 of them, and John was already taking point blank return fire. But Miranda was only half way through, and he spotted one Kull warrior who suppressed her with blind fire.

John focused and reached out with his biotics, lifting the Kull into the air and then yanking him back, Johns arms and spine burnt, and it felt like he was running on fumes already, but as the Kull floated towards him, John clotheslined it with his right arm, spun backwards and kicked it up into the ceiling with his right leg. The Kull made no sound but a loud thud told John it hit the ceiling hard.

No sooner had he done that, he felt something tug at him from behind, another Kull had grabbed a hold of his shoulder and pulled, spinning him around to strike.

Unlike last time, John's armor could take it. He felt a hard punch to his chest, but it did nothing but dent slightly, John reached out and grabbed the Kull's Arm and twisted. It would have easily broken and human or Jaffa arm, but the Kull just spun with the attack. So, John went further and spun around again, using the Kull as an impromptu flail.

He'd just done one spin when another Kull jumped at him and clawed at his shoulder. John let go of the other Kull and drove his knee up and into the second Kull sending him up from the hit. As he began to fall back down, John felt his other leg give out under him. Yet another Kull had decided to take him down and three others approached.

John let himself fall to the ground and willed the energy of a nova into his fist, with another scream he slammed it to the ground as he fell, and the biotic energy exploded out sending everything near him back.

John rolled to his feet and could feel the danger to his left, a pair of Jaffa had taken cover begin a pillar and opened fire on him with staffs. John flourished a hand up and swatted the projectiles back with his backlash. He could feel the burn along his spine and arms, and Guardian put a warning on his HUD of too much energy expenditure.

John ignored it and instead aimed, his guns still worked, so he put a shotgun slug through one Jaffa's face, and a burst of fire into the other one's shoulder.

He'd only just begun to turn away when another Kull grabbed a hold of his arm and twisted, John felt a lateral pull when alarms went off on his HUD. The Kull had dug his fingers into the armor plates of his shoulder and pulled, John tried to shimmy out but it was too late and the Lull pried the armor plate off, exposing the inner insulation and electronics.

John ignored Guardian's warnings and instead leapt at the Kull, it wasn't expecting the attack and John got ahold of its face plate. With equal ferocity, John ripped it off exposing the Kull's face.

It hissed at him, John hadn't expected it to feel anything. It didn't stop him from driving his fist into its face as hard as he could. The Kull fell back, but John held on and punched it another three times with a squelchy crunch on each one.

John had already turned away before the body hit the floor, with his implants, the unarmored target easily crushed under his power. But the other Kull had recovered, and the Jaffa were encircling him and taking potshots. John just pulled his hand from the sticky mess he'd made and planned the next move.

"Christ, the fuck did they do to you?"

Shepard plugged shot after shot into a Jaffa who'd strayed too close as Ash pulled Carter away and into cover. "John! We've got her! Get outta there!"

"Negative!" John replied. "I'll hold them here! Go!"

Shepard watched as John bucked off a Kull warrior who'd tried to hold him in place. It was almost mechanical as John used the same momentum to swing around and punch at another Kull. There was no way Shepard could get close, not with that many Kull. John seemingly stood a chance with his biotics, and that crazy armor Loki had fitted him with.

So, Shepard made the decision. He turned to the others. "Alright, let's move."

Miranda turned to him with an incredulous look. "We can't abandon him."

"It's not our choice anymore." Shepard replied. "Let's not waste the time he's buying us, move!"

John pried at the Kull's helmet and yanked, the face plate snapped off and the Kull's alien translucent face was exposed. Ugly motherfucker thought John as he shifted his momentum and drove his fist in. His augmented punch crushed though and he heard he crunch of bone. John didn't loiter and instead spun around to see another Kull aiming its arm at him.

John dodged to the side, but another Kull caught him. The Jaffa has fled from his rampage and now caught in the bear hug of one Kull, John felt the hits get him across the chest.

His armor could take the heat, so he overpowered the Kull holding him and shifted to throw him over this shoulder. The Kull has managed to grasp onto the open plate of his left arm cannon and yanked out one of the guns. John heard another alarm and it quickly silenced. That was a slug shotgun down, and the Kull had their blasters back.

So, John changed tactics and brought up a biotic backlash along his arms. He charged headlong into that two Kull he'd stymied with the bodily attack and fired his anti Kull repeatedly.

He'd gotten a pair of shots out when another trio of shots hit him from behind. The path he'd come down through with Carter and Miranda now spilled out Kull, at least another dozen at a quick glance.

John focused and felt that burning along his spine as he shifted the mass effect field behind him and then punched ahead - the biotic charge nailed the lead Kull in the chest, knocking him back like a bowling pin.

John spun and drove his biotically enhanced fist into the nearby Kull Warriors gut, doubling it over, and then drew his knee up and struck it in the chin. The Kull's head snapped back, its helmet pinged off exposing his ugly face.

Before John could strike, he felt a trio of plasma hit him across the back, his shields protected him from the impact but his sensors flared as the heat continued to rise.

John darted to the side and dodged the next wave of fire, but only that one as the two Kull that had appeared at the doorway adjusted. John braced himself and brought his biotic barrier up. He'd overextended this fight, but he knew he had to buy Carter and the others as much time as he could. Even clearly outgunned, john didn't feel any fear.

Another pair of Kull jumped out from behind the doorway, adding their fire.

John could feel a burn along his spine that wasn't from the plasma, but also the heat from his armor plates. He tried to power up a charge but he could feel the drain was too much.

In an instant, he had a plan. "I need guns Guardian! Turbocharge!"

There was a moment of hesitation, another four plasma shots hit his barrier raising the heat even more. Alarms were sounding as the Kull moved in to circle John.

Instead John heard he armor plates on his back, arms and legs pop open, then a suddenly loud whine of steam hissing off. The alarms about his guns being overheated shut off and he spread his arms out forming whatever barrier he could, all while screaming as loud as he could.

He'd just noticed a Jaffa behind the Kull when he opened fire. At this range, it was impossible to miss - headshots with the Kull blaster were an instant kill, and the burst fire gun on his right knocked them back giving John respite.

He'd fired three shots when he felt his arm with the Kull blaster suddenly yank upwards, the Kull he'd punched not seconds ago had recovered and jumped on his back, instead of trying to strangle him or attack directly, it dug its hands into his arm cannon and tore at it. John tried to buck him off but it was too late, the Kull tore out the anti Kull blaster and kicked off him for good measure, knocking John down with the strike.

John rolled immediately, but he came under fire again and shifted. His biotics were strained and any hard usage might cause him to pass out, and now he only had a single effective gun against them that didn't even kill. John began to back up now knowing he'd overextended well beyond even his new abilities capacity, but it was a solid 30 feet to the other side of the room.

He didn't have time as the Kull who remained opened fire again. John felt each impact send a shot of heat into his armor even if the kinetic force was nothing it couldn't handle. He dove and tried to take cover but the Kull just drew closer to him. One in particular flat out ran and speared over his cover, knocking John back again.

"We cannot sustain many more strikes."

John rolled over with the Kull warrior and snapped his fist up into its chin. The awkward uppercut with some biotic force behind it broke the Kull's face mask and knocked it back and off of John. Only now did he even really realize that he'd been doing it as it was the only effective counter against them at such a short range.

John growled as he got up and prepared to keep fighting, but instead felt another deluge of plasma fire nail him in the back. He spun around and pushed the heat away with his biotic but it was too much. Alarms rung in his head and he knew his armor was done for. John took merely a second before deciding his next move.

"You wanna kill me?" John screamed as he opened his arms to the side, almost embracing the shots now hitting him in the chest. Plates of armor had been stripped away in the fight, but that didn't matter anymore.

The rear section of his armor popped and hissed as the seams began to come apart to let him out.

"You think you can kill me?" John kept talking as the armor broke the links with his implants, and his handheld omnitool activated.

"You come and take it you soulless monsters!"

The clamps that's held him in place in the armor came loose, just as he could hear the temperature sensors spiking - the armor's power supply would explode taking everyone violently, likely killing everything within earshot. John pushed himself out of the armor and landed feet first on the ground. He spun around to face the Kull he'd knocked over to-

A trio of shots nailed John right in the chest as he spun around. The Kull had recovered and fired point blank at him. He felt a burning sensation for a fraction of a second before it was gone - but the smell of burnt flesh and leather was there.

John didn't question it and instead lunged ahead, an Omni blade formed in his right arm. He tried to scream an obscenity but it wouldn't come out. What did happen is his blade drove right into the Kull's face, John could hear the Omni blade slice into the inhuman creature's unprotected flesh below the jaw, and a sickening crunch of what sounded like bone as the blade shattered inside. John came down with the Kull, and then rolled to his side. He couldn't scream, and he felt like he was out of fuel. He looked up and saw another Kull advancing on him as his Jaffa handlers behind him shot at the now empty and steaming armor. It was the other Kull who's mask he'd snapped off.

John finally accepted what was coming. Guardian must have shut off his pain somehow, and as he looked down at his chest he could understand why, burnt flesh and what looked like actual craters on his body. How he was still conscious...

The approaching Kull didn't raise its hand, instead it merely walked towards him, as if not giving John the dignity of a clean kill, instead preferring the messy close up shot.

John knew that armor was going to blow soon, if he was lucky, none of them would survive. He somehow willed the energy to rise to his knees but the Kull didn't care. John hadn't kept count, but he hoped-

The Kull suddenly rose into the air, the fist it had raised to bash John's face in swung wildly. Blue biotic energy shifted around it until-

CRUNCH. John winced as the Kull suddenly flew apart at the waist, the biotic energy had snapped him in half and flung it away. John couldn't turn, he has just completed run out of energy, he was so out of it he couldn't even feel the biotics lift him and then pull him back, right into Miranda's hold.

"You suicidal knob." Miranda muttered. She shifted around, John could barely tell what was going on anymore. His eyes were fading out but he could still hear and think clearly.

Miranda felt the burn along her arms as she had to force biotic energy into John to make him light enough for her to carry easily. The few moments his full weight had been on her though felt like carrying a bag of bricks.

How he was still alive was irrelevant, Miranda wasn't about to let his death be so needless. Shepard had insisted she come with them as they rushed towards the Kodiak, but Miranda had decided that she wasn't about to lose John. Where Grunt had gone off too was a question she didn't want to think about.

John hissed something, clearly trying to speak as she pulled his body aw-

She had just rounded the corner to the opposite hallway of the battlefield when she felt the ground shake. She realized what it was and reacted instinctively. She swung John over and behind her as she spun and raised a defensive biotic aegis. She focused as the shockwave from John's detonating powered armor rushed past her, visibly buckling the walls.

Miranda threw everything she had into the barrier, but the blast was so strong it pushed her back and knocked the two of them down. She felt the heatwave roll over her as her biotics shattered, but the worst had passed.

She got back to her feet and felt a head rush. Her body was reacting to such a high demand from her biotics, but she willed it away and again lifted John up into her shoulder.

"Miss Lawson." A strange voice came up suddenly. Miranda just replied not caring who it was. "Busy!"

From behind her, Miranda heard screaming and the twisted whine of metal. Her back hurt from her arse to her left shoulder where she'd fallen and even with biotics picking up John just felt - wrong.

"I am forming a link between Major Sheppard's mind and his omnitool for communication. His injuries are severe and I estimate no more than 30 minutes before even I cannot prevent shock from causing permanent brain damage."

"Right..." Miranda replied - she had no time for what she now realized was the AI in John's head. "I'm not exactly in the mood to speak with him."

Miranda raised her free hand and brought up a tactical map, Grunt's locator was several stories down, moving like some kind of beast possessed. "I will ask you though, does the Normandy have the medical facilities to treat him?"

"No," the AI replied flatly. "What little oxygen John is able to process I am diverting to his brain, and within 29 minutes he'll have expended what reserves his body has and suffocate."

Miranda put aside the grisly ordeal it would be and instead focused. "Then we're not going to the Normandy." She again looked at the map. Outside, Gliders and Al'Kesh swooped the city and took potshots at any targets they could. The SGC had turned the Stargate into an intergalactic missile launcher as it spit missile after missile out.

With their objective complete, they'd have to dial back soon, that was the only chance.

She just hoped she still had enough energy to do what needed to be done.

"Colonel! Colonel come in over!"

Dixon heard the urgency in the voice that came over the radio. He also recognized the voice. "Parker? Status?"

"We're fucked, sir! Shit get down, get down!" Dixon could hear gunfire and what sounded like heavy staff fire in the background. "Jaffa are running but Kull are adapting! Taking cover and they're using those anti-air staff weapons on us! I've got two men down and-!"

Parker's voice suddenly cut out in a cut-off scream. Dixon looked over to where the squad had gone and said firmly into the radio. "This is Colonel Dixon – any units near Captain Parker are to reinforce them now. Once your positions are secured you are to return for exfiltration." He didn't wince as another missile streaked out from behind him and up into the sky through the destroyed warehouse ceiling.

As much as he had the distaste for death among his men, this fight was going well. Commander Shepard had already confirmed that he had Carter and was reaching his Shuttle. This fight wasn't going to last much longer. He only hoped things were going as well in space.

-Alliance Frigate "Khe Sahn", Above Par'Jat-

Karel spat fire orders to his pilot and watched as another Turian Ship fell back into Hyperspace. Three ships remained, but this fight had been strange from the beginning. The Ha'tak hadn't chased them down – if anything they seemed much more focused on protecting their transport ships. That was another question altogether – since they'd gotten there the Goa'uld had launched ship after ship out.

They'd also bugged out when the Coalition ships focused fire – they weren't in the fight to the death. He'd been briefed that it was likely that the Goa'uld would hold and fight like the brainwashed soldiers Karel assumed they were.

Instead, they fell back – the fighters and Al'Kesh that had gone down to the surface hadn't done as much strafing fire as he expected. The Goa'uld just didn't seem that… concerned with their planet.

Even so, they'd been able to hold off the fleet. Normandy hadn't made any sign of being in trouble or even so much as a peep. Karel wouldn't be surprised if they'd just hidden in the desert of the planet and were waiting for Shepard to call them in.

The only problem he could really see was that once the Fleet fell back completely, the SGC forces on the ground had zero chance of survival. He opened his radio frequency to the ground comms and spoke clearly. "This is Captain DeMone of the Khe-Sahn, Colonel Dixon, we can't hold them off here much longer. Suggest you get the hell out there."

It took a few moments, but Dixon's voice came through with a bit of static. "Copy! We're getting ready to pull out – any cover you can provide is appreciated."

Karel winced – there wasn't anything he could do.

Then as if by some miracle, a third voice joined in, and the navigation officer called out dozens of new bogeys in the skies. "Captain DeMone – this is Major Kirrahe from STG. Our main force will support you against the Ha'tak – I am using the distraction to lead a raiding party on the planet."

"Holy crap." The navigation officer cursed in surprise. "They must have FTL'ed in from the nearest relay- thirteen Cruisers and thirty Frigates! They're jumping in behind us!"

Karel opened his radio and spoke. "Good to see you Major but we're about ready to pull out. The-"

"Our ships will aim to disable the Ha'tak with Disruptor Torpedoes, the ground force will overwhelm the ground and gain air superiority."

"Wait." Karel insisted. "Why are you even here?"

"Stealing anything that isn't nailed down." The Major replied.

Karel raised his eyebrows, then turned to his pilot. "You heard him, Kyle. We can still take a few shots – more than those Salarians. Give them cover!"

-Landing Pad, Ship Construction Facility, Paj'jat-

Shepard waved in what remained of his team. Deep in his head he was thinking of what could have happened – though he could still see Miranda, John and Grunt's lifesigns on his HUD. Grunt was tearing his way down the tower, while Miranda and John had reached a balcony opposite where the Kodiak had landed.

He was just a tiny bit surprised when he saw Garrus leading his own team back – Tali and Kal'Reeger each carrying a satchel full of… stuff. Exactly what he had no idea. Garrus motioned towards him as he grass hopped cover to cover on their retreat.

Teal'c and Carter were already inside, and Ashley had taken a cover position inside the Kodiak. Jack rushed past and Shepard could see that slightly glazed look in her eyes – clearly, they'd seen at least some combat. Shepard waited until Garrus drew near before calling out. "Get onboard! We're leaving!"

Garrus backpedaled past him and hopped back up into the Kodiak – Shepard followed and shut the door. He rushed to the pilot's seat and quickly tapped in orders. Normandy sent a silent ping back in reply – they were ready for pickup. Once he'd set the autopilot, he turned back and focused on Carter who'd been lain down on one of the seats. Teal'c crouched next to her – having carried her all the way back without words.

"Hey, Where's Miranda's team?"

Shepard turned to Garrus and shook his head. "They know what they're doing. We don't have time now. We're getting more help anyway so I think they'll be fine."

Approaching Carter, Shepard heard Garrus mutter. "Three for one… gods I hope it's worth it."

Shepard ignored the quip and instead focused on Carter. She looked like a concentration camp survivor and was twitching and breathing sharply. "EDI, any idea what's happened to her?"

"Scanning." EDI replied though his HUD.

"I recognize this." Teal'c said pointing to a wound on the side of her head. "This is where the Goa'uld would implant certain memory amplification device that allows them to recall the memories of injured or captives."

"Captives?" Shepard turned to Teal'c. "Shit. So, you mean Ba'al has her memories?"

Carter suddenly reached out and grabbed Shepard's hand and pulled him down. She hissed at him and garbed something. He didn't understand and replied. "What? Carter slow down, I can't understand you. You're safe now."

Carter again blurted out something, she was still shivering and Teal'c draped an emergency thermal blanket around her. Shepard knelt down and turned to everyone around him – they were all disturbed by Carter's condition.

"Scan complete – adding to the information sent from Major Shepard's scan, it appears she is dehydrated, malnourished, and the implant in her head has caused electrical destabilization in her brain. She requires medical attention."

"No shit EDI." Jack replied. "Fuck, I've seen guys get messed up but this is top ten for sure."

Carter kept saying the same thing, Shepard could hear the 'th' blending, but she couldn't get the rest of it out. He leaned in and focused on her. "Carter. Slow down. We'll talk when you're back up and running we-"

Carter's hand pulled on his and she stared back at him. "Uuuhhhtth!"

"Commander, if I may?" EDI asked on their squad comms.

"Go ahead."

EDI opened up a monitor on the Kodiak – Shepard looked ahead and could see the buildings fly past – the Kodiak was moving away from the fight and heading right towards Normandy. The arrival of Major Kirrahe and his announcement was welcome, but he didn't have time for it right now.

The monitor opened up the sound file and began to run it through filters. EDI tried various different versions before coming up with a more clear version the entire squad heard. "uuuurrrthhhh"

"Urth?" Kal'Reeger asked. "She's scared. She wants to go home."

Carter fought to get up – but in her weakened state and with Teal'c and now Tali holder her down there was no way she could. "nnnnuhhh!"

Shepard didn't need EDI for that. "No, no that's not it. What is it? What about Earth?"

"Baaaa" Carter replied – she was in such bad shape she couldn't even-

It struck Shepard with a black hole in his stomach. "Wait… Ba'al… Earth?"

Carter rocked up and down – she was nodding.

"Shit." Garrus replied. "She doesn't mean?"

"Joker!" Shepard screamed over his radio. "Signal the fleet! We need to fall back to Earth now!"

-USS Prometheus, High Earth Orbit-

Kevin Marks was about halfway through his shift – the job of helmsman on the Prometheus wasn't the most glamourous job ever, but he'd gone far beyond what he ever dreamed in his wildest dreams.

What appeared on his sensor readings was an absolute nightmare. 3 Ha'tak had just blinked in out of existence at the edge of the Solar System. He had just enough time to raise shields, and call a general quarter alarm when they entered hyperspace and snapped in and out in mere moments, appearing right in front of Prometheus.

Gut reaction had him pull the ship to starboard as hard as he could – dodging about half of the Ha'tak's opening volley. It wasn't the most effective way to begin combat, not to mention the screaming around him and Pendergast over the radio.

It took literally seconds and Pendergast demanding a radio channel to the Pentagon for it to click. Earth was under attack.

a/n: Not dead, just super busy.