Six was only partially listening to Shepard's conversation with Kenson and her confirming the rumors the batarians spread was a tad disconcerting. Six was starting to wonder if that dream of hers was something more. Kenson contacted her team to prepare for their arrival and to allow Shepard to examine this Object Roe.

Docking at the base on the massive asteroid, Six noticed a countdown above the archway leading into the base. Kenson proudly declared, "Here we are. Welcome to Project Base."

Shepard pointed up to the cloak, "What's this?"

"That's our countdown to Arrival. When that gets to zero… the Reapers will have come. Just over two days and counting. Puts things in perspective, doesn't it?" The Covenant may not be as comparable, but the pressure will no doubt be to of a similar scope.

Shepard was more concerned with the implication, "You're saying the Reapers could be at Earth in two days? There's no time to waste."

Kenson nodded, "Then let's show you that proof." She started to walk, "That door exits the hangar. The artifact is in our central lab area."

Following Kenson through the base, Shepard had to ask, "So, what would it take to get the Project back up and running?"

"Everything was in place when we were arrested. It wasn't a question of 'could we', but 'should we'."

"What alternative do we have."

"The Reapers will reach this system, regardless. But the Alpha Relay is their shortcut to the rest of the galaxy. If you want to keep the Reapers at bay, this relay must be destroyed."

Something felt unusual. As the trio entered the elevator, Six started to wonder why there were so many wearing armor along their path. Soldiers may need to prepare for a skirmish, yet this base, this entire operation doesn't sit well in Six's mind.

Once they reached the lower level, Six moved toward the door to the lab, "We need to get the Project started. We need more time."

"One sec. Let me get the door." Kenson entered the room before them, as they looked upon a massive pulsing ornament before them, "Commander Shepard, I give you Object Rho." It had a strange energy swirling at its core, either emanating from it or being fed by its many arms. It was difficult to say.

There was no shielding, no barrier of any kind around the object save for waist high railing around the object. "You have the Reaper artifact just sitting here…out in the open."

Kenson smiled, "When we found it, it showed me a vision of the Reapers' arrival."

"Kenson, this is not good."

"Give it a moment, Shepard. It'll give you the proof you need." Six wasn't going to wait. She pulled her pistol on Kenson, not trusting her, but the object released a pulse that bore images of a massive Reaper fleet converging on the Alpha Relay and swarming the galaxy.

Both Shepard and Six were brought to their knees as some of the terminals around them started to spark from the pulse. Kenson took Six's pistol as she aimed it at her. "I can't let you start the Project, Shepard. I can't let you stop the arrival." Soldiers from the base started to enter the area to apprehend them, giving Six her opening. When Kenson looked away for a split second, Six rushed her arm, breaking bones and reclaiming her weapon. As soon as the soldiers started to open fire, Six prioritized on them, as Kenson huddled away in pain while Shepard tried shooting her, "Take her down!"

With the door they arrived through locked by Kenson, they were trapped in the room with the Reaper artifact and soldiers trying to stop them. "You know, I can't help but think things are only going to get worse from here."

Dot was scanning the room using Six's armor sensors. "Lieutenant Commander, there is only one other entry point for this room. I advise surrounding the entry point and commence a pincer assault."

Shepard killed one guard as more rushed into the room. "Assuming we can get through the ones who already trying to do the same to us."

Six twisted the silencer off her Revenant, "Leave the left to me." Six waited a moment for a lull in the gunfire before she moved to her side of the room. Her return fire was mostly to keep them down rather than taking them out. Once she was ready, she swapped to her DRM to pick them off.

Shepard didn't have as much trouble, using her Overload tech mine and a Geth Pulse rifle that was recovered on Haestrom but never utilized until now. Legion's assistance was appreciated for better understanding and utilizing the weapon, though it didn't seem concerned about the crew utilizing them.

Shepard tore through her side, getting a better position behind some terminals with a clear view of Six who had pinned a few guards down just for Shepard to blast through them. Kenson started to yell at them through the speakers, "Don't make this difficult, Shepard!"

"Do not resist." The voice of Harbinger started to emanate from the object, "Give yourself over and be spared."

Shepard and Six weren't going to give up now that they had battlefield superiority. The soldiers were now caught between Six's precision shots or getting mowed down by Shepard's gunfire and tech attacks.

One of the soldiers tried to cover for their pyro units but Six's shot on the gas canister only proved to be a hazard. "Shepard won't go down!"

"Noble Six, be alert. Object Rho is steadily building up energy." Six could see the energy starting to gather as it washed over the entire object slowly but steadily growing in speed. This could be that energy pulse that Kenson was talking about, though without any other intervals for Dot to analyze they just had to be careful.

After they took down the third pyro trooper and more soldiers, Kenson tried to stop them. "We don't want to hurt you, Commander. Lay down your weapons!"

In stark contrast to Harbinger's messages, "The galaxy is in sight. Your final days are at hand."

One of the soldiers managed to find some cover from Shepard and Six, "We can't keep this up much longer!"

The soldiers were getting a bit more tactful with entering the room now, trying to suppress Six from getting her precision shots using the flamethrowers while at the same time blinding Shepard with flashbangs. This was what Six was worried about when they approached the base, it was too large for such a black op group even for such sensitive information of this importance.

If it was Cerberus, Six might understand the reason for the size of the base. The Illusive Man spared no expense for his dealings, no matter the human cost. Six had to switch things up a bit, blind firing the Revenant as Shepard did a similar tactics swap by using the Arc Projector and her combat drone to tag targets while blind.

"This will only get worse for you, Shepard."

"The end of your species will come."

Now they were starting to deploy engineers and their elite soldiers. The engineers focused on trying to counter Six with drones being deployed behind her while the elites muscled through Shepard's drone and heavy weaponry. This tactic did force the two of them to fall back for a moment to recover, but it also opened thing up for the guards.

"Activate the heavy mechs."

Falling back may give them the chance to utilize the mechs which meant the two needed to focus on regaining control fast. Six switched over to the shotgun, surprising the first fool who tried to rush her.

"Patience. It's only a matter of time."

"Struggle if you wish. Your mind will be mine."

The telltale sounds of a heavy mech approaching the area meant they were going to be in a difficult situation. For now, it seems that they want to continue to bog Six and Shepard down separately to give the mech the chance to move in and support the soldiers.

Not trusting whatever was happening with the reaper relic, Six continued to fight with just her weapons rather than use any of her armor abilities against these mind altered humans. The YMIR mech was targeting Shepard leaving Six an opportunity to try and clear out the soldiers.

Shepard zapped a group of soldiers and the YMIR with an Overload tech mine before falling back. Six had Dot overcharge her shielding so she could rush out and blast though the soldiers before her. After shotgunning the last soldier, she could see, Six maneuvered around the YMIR as Shepard continued to draw its attention. Finding her opportunity, Six climbed the mech and went straight for the head. The mech desperately tried to throw the Spartan off but Six had too well of a grip on it while pulling out cables and cords. Arm articulation prevented it from shooting her off while Six finally started pulling the head off.

Six rode the fallen mech down, tossing its head aside as she prepared for a new wave of soldiers. Instead, "Alert: Energy reaching critical mass."

Shepard and Six both immediately turned to the artifact while the energy pulsing at the core was even more rapid. "Have faith in the artifact. It'll be over soon."

The artifact finally released the energy, hitting Shepard and Six at full power, knocking them both down. "You shall be the first to witness our arrival."

Six wanted to keep fighting, but her body felt so heavy. Her mind was splitting in pain as Kenson and more soldiers arrived to retrieve the two. That blast of energy was either effecting their vision, or perhaps it was revealing the truth as Kenson's eyes were glowing and speaking like Harbinger. "Take them to the med bay and patch them up. We want Shepard alive."

Jorge was on the CIC pacing around the entire table, much to the anxiety of the crew. Cortez and O'Brien were nearby as well, suited and ready for combat. Two days of no contact felt wrong, and what communications that EDI has been able to intercept indicated Shepard and Six freed Kenson already. The mission should have been completed and yet…

Even outside of his armor, Jorge was a massive imposing figure who assumedly could easily break anything within the Normandy with his bare hands and the tension from him was hard to ignore. O'Brien moved to Kelly, "Why couldn't we scan the asteroid belt this who time?"

"Even if we scanned the entire asteroid belt, would we even know what we'd be looking for? Not to mention the batarians are on high alert now for any activity in the system."

Jorge wanted to punch something, but nothing around was sturdy enough for that. Cortez moved closer to the star map, "We need to stay alert just the same. We know their mission was a success, why are they taking so long to return?"

"We should have pushed harder to join them on this mission." Cortez didn't realize how heavily Cal's death weighed on O'Brien. Not that he ever really talked about it since that mission.

Cortez looked up, "Joker, EDI, how long can the Normandy stay stealthed while scanning territory not controlled by the batarians?"

"That could risk us being on the opposite side of the system when Shepard or Six make contact."

"Not to mention we'd need to find a safe place to discharge the heatsinks regularly."

O'Brien punched the wall, leaving Cortez to grab his shoulder, "We just have to remain on high alert until they return. I'll have the shuttle on standby. You should cool your jets before we jump. You remember what they say about jumping in too hot?"

"Yeah, yeah…not burning out before ever reaching hell…"

Kelly was about to say something, but Jorge opening the elevator looked back, "EDI, keep us updated on any changes."

"Very well, Jorge."

Six's body was restless, uneasy. The last thing she remembered was the blast from the Reaper artifact, yet something felt wrong. She had to get up, she needed to get up. There was a small prick sensation on her neck, but it felt odd.

Reactive instincts kicked in and grabbed the arm injecting the needle into her neck. Six remained on the metal slab she could feel under her head, her face showing no sign of activity as her grip on the arm tightened.

She could feel the person struggling to get her arm free, continuing to feign unconsciousness. With such a vice grip on this mystery nurse tending to her, obviously startling the attendant. "Let…go… Hey, someone help me in here!"

Six could hear the metal footsteps of armor approaching her, obviously confused by the scene. "What happened? Did you give her the wrong dosage?"

"I don't know. She appears to have an unconscious spontaneous reaction to the dosage. Now help get me free of her grip! She's hurting me!"

It wasn't too difficult for Six to keep her grip while someone tried undoing her fingers. "What did you do to her?"

"Nothing out of the ordinary. I upped the dosage of the sedative based on the strength needed to move around in that armor." Six slowly opened one of her eyes to start surveying her opposition. Her lashes were long enough that most shouldn't notice her eye was open yet, not that her face was the focus at the moment.

The soldier was struggling to free the nurse who was also trying to pull her arm free while he tried prying Six's fingers open. Finally seeing their positions, Six relented, allowing the guard to 'pull' her fingers off the nurse. "Can't believe she has that kind of strength, even while lugging that suit. We sure we couldn't get her out of it?"

"We don't have to tools to safely unlock the suit. And tampering with it may have some kind of failsafe that detonates the suit's nuclear reactor. There are too many unknowns with her and her tech. Not that it'll matter when the Reapers arrive."

Now was the time to strike, everyone had turned their backs to her and within her striking range before they could react. Six quickly rolled toward them, grabbing the soldier first as she immediately pulled him in to bash her head against his, helmet or no helmet. Six immediately pulled the pistol off the guard to shoot the nurse in the back. Then her immediate attention shifted to the second guard running in to check on the situation and putting in several shots out before he could activate his kinetic barrier.

With those two dead all that was left was the original guard she grabbed. Rather than waste the bullet Six broke his neck before he recovered from her headbutt. There didn't seem to be any extra security around the medbay, and Shepard who was laying on a table in the adjacent section.

Six picked up the datapad from the medic and quickly skimmed through the journal entry for Shepard and Six's sedation. The only reason Six was able to awaken so early was thanks in part to them underestimating her altered physiology. From the entries it seems Shepard might have awakened on her own in another 12 hours or so. Six started to muse if Miranda's thoroughness with the cybernetics and nanites were too similar to some of Six's Spartan augments that Cerberus learned about.

Six immediately searched for her helmet so she could get Dot's assistance in resuscitating Shepard safely. Thankfully her helmet wasn't too far away, "Sorry for taking so long."

"Running systems diagnostics. No noteworthy tampering detected."

"Good. Now we need to get Shepard back on her feet." She immediately moved to a terminal to get a counteragent for the sedative that hadn't been neutralized by the nanites running through Shepard's body without going too far.

Six pulled Dot out to insert into the terminal to work on the counteragent. Unfortunately, this cut an hour into their time before the arrival. Six kept watch for any extra security that might appear, but none appeared. It seemed they assumed the sedative treatment would keep them down until the Reapers reached the system.

Dot was back in her place before Six started reviving Shepard. As Shepard slowly regain consciousness, she felt a ringing in her head. Seeing Six in her armor Shepard was able at least allow herself to bear the pain. "What happened?"

"The artifact knocked us out. Then they tried keeping us sedated until the Reapers appeared."

Shepard finally got back up, "How long?"

Six tossed a datapad to Shepard, "Judging from the data entries from the nurse, and the countdown clock, nearly a day and a half. Meaning we need to get the rockets started and evacuate before this rock hits the relay."

Six didn't even mention trying to evacuate the batarians, meaning she must be thinking that attempting to would be a waste of time. Shepard and Six both found their weapons stashed in a nearby locker, which was fortunate seeing that they didn't seem interested enough to attempt to dissect Six's weapons. Six had Dot search for data on the layout of the base and where they'd need to go to initiate the Project.

From what Shepard and Six could see of the base's layout, they were going to eventually have to fight their way to start the engines and evacuate. "We should also anticipate the probability of needing that comms tower to contact the Normandy for extraction."

"Conjecture: Probability that indoctrinated soldiers will destroy or utilize escape vessels is high."

"That's also why I had Dot download the personal roster. The Alliance might be able to intercept them before they do any further harm."

Shepard knew that there was nothing more they could do for the soldiers here, that didn't make what they had to do any easier. "Alright, let's grab anything that might be useful."