Were it So Easy

by Sigma0327

Six's life was a giant war. Every battle was a test of sheer tenacity and stubbornness against insurmountable odds. Every moment, every bullet fired, every Covenant, Insurrectionist, and Flood spore killed has led up to his last fight. Once again he was one of the few that stood between Earth and her enemies. This would be his final battle, and nothing could change that, right?

8. Chapter 8

Chapter 8: Desperate Resistance

Disclaimer: I do not own anything from the Halo and Mass Effect universes.

Rated M

•••

The sounds, smells, and sights associated with war were something that every soldier would eventually learn to accept as an ever present constant in their lives.

Gunfire and explosions, fire and brimstone, screaming and dying, the smell of burnt flesh and charred bone, and the rapid decay of previously standing cities down to lifeless husks. The assault on one's senses was mentally degrading, and so one must have the mental resolve to overcome the trauma associated with witnessing such horror.

With training and experience came the mental resolve, but even so, everyone had a breaking point. Some broke before others and some could withstand the trauma better than others.

She tuned out the sounds of war, not intentionally, but rather a subconscious action; anything to momentarily escape the plight of their situation, outnumbered and outgunned beyond what was reasonable. Anything to grant her a moment's respite.

But there was none.

"Tali!"

The name flew into her mind, it was her name. It sounded quiet, yet desperate, as if the person that uttered the name was searching for her broken corpse buried in a pile of rubble and debris.

"Tali, I need your help!"

Did they? She wasn't a soldier. She wasn't trained for this type of large scale conflict. The young Quarian thought that her time with Shepard on the original Normandy had hardened her. She was confident in her abilities, believing herself to be capable of taking on more challenges than when she had first started her pilgrimage.

The current events have reminded her that she was still young, naïve, and inexperienced. She had much to learn, if she survived, that is.

"Tali! Tali! TALI!"

The sound of Jacob screaming in her face shook the young woman out of her paralyzed state. She tried her best to calm down. Her heart was racing and there was enough adrenaline in her system that she was shaking almost uncontrollably.

She heard another scream, this one agonizing, blood curdling. She looked at the figure hunched against the wall that Jacob is leaning over, and her breath caught in her throat.

One of the Alliance marines that they linked up with took the worst of the explosion. His entire leg was severed at the knee. Shredded muscles, ligaments, tendons, and the bone itself were all visible. Blood shot out of the horrific wound and painted the ground around him red. The man continued screaming his lungs out, and the Quarian felt her stomach churn at the sight, almost losing her lunch in the process.

Fear gripped at her heart as she realized that very well could have been her. She had simply escaped that fate through luck and luck alone.

Jacob pressed some medical dressing into Tali's hands, and then restrained the screaming soldier who thrashed around like a wild animal that just got ensnared in a hunter's trap.

"Wrap up the leg! Quickly! Before he bleeds out!" Tali moved as quickly as she could. She had some first aid knowledge, but the woman feared that it wasn't enough. She tried to be as delicate as possible to avoid causing the man more pain.

"Faster Tali!" Jacob roared. "Don't worry about hurting him, his life is on the line!" Tali flinched, never knowing Jacob to be so loud and aggressive before. The Cerberus soldier was a quiet and laid back individual and to see this polar opposite version caught the Quarian off guard.

She quickened her pace, and applied more pressure as she wrapped the white sterilized fabric around the bloody stump. She winced and tried to ignore the screaming coming from the man. By the time she was done, the white fabric was already completely soaked red with blood, but none of it made it through. Hopefully that will keep enough blood in his body so he doesn't die.

"D-done!" She stuttered. Jacob got off of the marine. He withdrew a syringe filled with morphine, hesitated, and then gave the marine his third injection. Tali cringed, hoping that the morphine overdose didn't kill the man.

It might have eased some of the pain, but the psychological trauma of losing a leg was an entirely different issue to deal with.

"Oh my god, is my leg gone!? Is my leg gone!? Fuck, I can't fucking see it man! Where is it?!" He blubbered, tears flowing freely down his face. The feelings of phantom limb conflicted with what he could see with his eyes.

One of the marines took the poor man's hand and squeezed it firmly.

"It's okay Dave, breathe. We're gonna get you out of here okay? We're gonna get you out of here and you're gonna come home to your family just in time for Maria's graduation."

Dave looked at his close friend. "Y-you promise?"

"I promise."

Tali looked away and choked back her tears. The death, the violence, the sounds of war and its effects on not just the people involved but the people related to the victims, it was too much for the Quarian, and she found herself being suffocated, like she had nowhere to go.

She felt a firm hand on her shoulder, she turned around and her eyes made contact with Jacob's.

"We'll get through this." He said firmly, though Tali could tell by the way his shoulders sagged that he was feeling the effects of the conflict too. "Let's go and help Kasumi."

Jacob turned towards the marines. "Keep him safe." He said before leading Tali through the wrecked buildings. After they were cut off from the original group of marines they left the base with, they ran into another squad of marines sheltered in a city block that was hit by a Collector airstrike. Most of the buildings were dust. To get to their destination they had to move through craters in the foundations of the buildings, which afforded them some cover from the Collectors. But moving from crater to crater was dangerous as they had to crawl over the rubble to lower their profile and avoid getting shot.

The devastation was horrible, the worst that Tali had ever seen. The Quarian had never seen total war like this before, and it was easily the most depressing thing she had the misfortune of experiencing. The result of the attack reminded her of an infamous battle Shepard told her about that occurred in Human history over two hundred years ago. The Battle of Stalingrad, she believed. Though the devastation, to her knowledge, was limited to this city block in their case and not an entire city.

The loud cracks associated with rounds flying overhead came nonstop as she clumsily crawled over the rubble and tumbled down one of the larger craters. She wasn't injured, so she picked herself up.

"How's things back there?" Tali turned to the source of the voice. Kasumi was laying on her stomach at the edge of the crater, she fired a burst from her Tempest submachine gun and cursed. "Dammit! Why is it so hard to kill these things?"

The Quarian joined her friend. To her left, Jacob took up position and shouldered his Mattock rifle.

"Not good." The Quarian replied somberly with a shake of her head. "Lots of injured and dead. Keelah, how are we going to get out of this?"

"We'll find a way, right?" Kasumi didn't sound too confident despite her best efforts.

The Quarian carefully observed the scene before her. They were boxed in the remains of a city block hit by a Collector airstrike. In front of them was a relatively large roundabout, surrounded as it was by several buildings four or five stories in height.

None of the structures were unscathed, and while they were covered in holes from explosions, the damage was relatively tame compared to the real estate Tali found herself fighting to defend. Directly in the center of the roundabout was an Alliance Mako armored personnel carrier. It was part of the limited armored presence the Alliance had on this planet, and while these vehicles didn't have as much armor due to their role as an APC, they had great firepower, enough to wipe out platoons of soldiers caught in the open.

Unfortunately, this particular vehicle won't be of much help as there was a pair of large holes burned through the side of the vehicle's hull. Tali wondered what could have done that as that particular event happened well before they arrived on scene.

The vehicle wasn't that far; maybe seventy to eighty meters away from them, halfway from one end of the roundabout to the other. Three marines were pinned down behind the vehicle, unable to move or retrieve the injured crew member slumped up against one of the Mako's large tires.

She empathized with those soldiers; she certainly did not want to be in their position.

Several whip-cracks shook the Quarian from her thoughts as rounds from Collector weapons zipped over her head.

"Shit, sounds like the Collectors are mounting an attack!" Jacob growled. He fired his weapon in the direction of the enemy. Tali winced at the deafening sound of the weapon's bark.

"Multiple Collectors, twelve O'clock third story, fourth window from the left." Tali followed the man's directions, and sure enough, she could make out the shapes of multiple Collectors all the way across the roundabout.

She squeezed the trigger of her rifle and sent several rounds downrange. At this range, without the benefit of a long range optic and the panic coursing through her veins, the Quarian was confident that none of her rounds hit. But at the very least, it kept the Collectors' heads down.

She hated these longer range engagements. Sure, she might get a few hits in but then the stupid Collectors could go and hide, waiting for their barriers to recharge. This isn't even mentioning how durable they are even without their barriers and the fact that the monsters don't seem to feel pain or anything at all.

It made combating them a difficult and frightening task.

"I wish the Collectors would get close enough for us to just kill them." Kasumi said between shots. "I don't think I've killed a single one so far from here."

"That is not something we want to happen!" Jacob replied. "They outnumber us so if they get too close then we're finished. We keep them back until reinforcements arrive."

That was it? That was the plan? Tali knew that Jacob was much more experienced than she was and most certainly knew what he was doing, but surely there was a better option, right?

She voiced her concerns, but Jacob wasn't having it.

"There is no other option!" He yelled as he continued to send suppressive fire downrange alongside some surviving marines that assisted from other parts of the defensive position. "If we try to fallback, flank, or assault them, then we get caught out in the open and die! They outnumber and outgun us and the only way to survive is to stay here and keep shooting to keep them back until reinforcements arrive."

"And how do we know that help will come?" The Quarian replied hotly.

"We'll just have to live long enough to find out." The man's words did little to comfort the Quarian. They haven't seen anyone from the Normandy crew, and they've only seen a few pockets of marines barely holding on. There was nothing that could be done and Tali was certain that they were fighting a losing battle.

That was scary to Tali. Cut off from help and thrown into an impossible situation where the only option is death was scary. Dying is scary and Tali didn't want to die. But it looked like that was going to happen.

A rocket was suddenly launched by one of the marines, it zipped towards its target alarmingly fast and struck true, hitting the Collector position that was proving too stubborn to die. The wall exploded outwards, sending shrapnel in every conceivable direction. Some Collectors fell to the ground, cracking their exoskeletons and leaving their organs pouring out onto the ground. Tali forced down the bile creeping up her throat.

Immediately, the surviving marines scattered around the destroyed city block concentrated their fire on the squad of exposed Collectors, cutting them down.

The Quarian saw movement below the destroyed position, it looked like one of the Collectors survived the fall, Tali looked on in disbelief as the thing fumbled for its rifle and tried to stand back up. How durable were these insectoid bosh'tets?

The Quarian took aim and breathed in, trying to remember what Garrus had taught her about long range shooting. She squeezed the trigger once, then twice, sending a single round downrange one after the other.

She must have sent a dozen or so rounds towards the Collector before it stopped moving.

Then the young woman remembered some of the darker lessons Shepard taught her about making sure the enemy was dead, something the Quarian at first found unnecessary but then realized the folly of ignoring such a lesson early on when she stepped over the body of a Geth trooper she thought dead. It was only thanks to Shepard's quick reflexes that the Quarian managed to survive without getting her skull caved in by the machine.

Tali sent more rounds into the body of the Collector, it didn't move so it seemed dead to her.

"Good kill." Jacob complimented.

Kasumi, on the other hand, huffed. "He was totally mine."

Tali rolled her eyes. "I think we have other problems to worry about."

"Just because we're fighting a losing battle doesn't mean we have to act so serious." Kasumi responded, though Tali could detect the forced sarcasm. Tali understood the humor; she learned that it was Kasumi's way of coping with the violence. Kasumi was young just like Tali, and while she's had her fair share of crazy events, the woman wasn't trained for frontline combat either. Tali could tell that these past events were having an effect on Kasumi.

Tali didn't respond, she focused her attention on the Collectors, doing her best to keep their heads down with suppressive fire. She hated listening to Jacob because he was Cerberus, but she had to admit that the man was right. They were outnumbered and outgunned and yet they were keeping the Collectors from overrunning them.

They must have been fighting for an hour and already Tali could feel the effects of fatigue, a quick look to her right told her that Kasumi felt a similar way. Jacob looked tired as well but the man was holding himself together much better than the two younger women were.

Frontline combat was so draining. Having to stay constantly alert and to scrutinize every single detail to determine the relative position and movements of the enemy to make sure they don't get flanked or overwhelmed was difficult enough with the fear and adrenaline coursing through her veins. But her lack of experience and training coupled with having to perform these same actions over long periods of time while under fire by a superior foe proved to be extremely difficult for Tali.

Keelah, how much longer do we have to keep doing this? How much longer until help arrives?

A Collector emerged from a door and fired. A thin yellow lance of energy struck a position on her left. Even among the deafening sounds of battle Tali could hear the blood curdling scream.

That could have been me. Tali's breath caught in her throat at the realization.

She could feel her resolve breaking, she knew that this was the end. Tali wanted to stop fighting, wanted this nightmare to end. What was even the point? Why were they fighting? To prolong their deaths? To the Quarian, it seemed like they were fighting for nothing, as if they didn't even know why they were fighting, as if this struggle was meaningless.

But if she gave up, what would Jacob and Kasumi think of her? What about Shepard? Or her father? Would they be disappointed? Or would they understand? Understand that she was fighting against the impossible and that no amount of effort or grit would save her.

No, they'd be disappointed. Tali knew this.

And so she steeled her nerves, and pushed through what felt like an eternity of combat. The Collectors kept popping out of windows and doorways and hopping around from cover to cover like crickets. They were doing well to keep them on the defensive, whittling them down if not through casualties then through their resolve. They had all the time in the world and more than enough troops to throw away at pockets of stubborn resistance.

Tali and her allies sent suppressive fire downrange, keeping the Collectors at bay. Marines would occasionally fire rockets at groupings of Collectors hunkered in fortified positions. In turn the Collectors would hit them back with those nasty beam weapons, occasionally she could hear the poor souls screaming if the beams found their mark.

Tali took a round from one of the Collectors but her barrier absorbed the impact. Even so, it took her a second to get her head back into the fight.

It took her a moment to realize the reduction in gunfire from the Collectors.

We're… winning?

Tali almost couldn't believe it. They were actually beating back the Collectors?

It seemed that Jacob and Kasumi were noticing it too.

"Keep firing! Don't let up, we've almost got them on the run!" Jacob's weapon hadn't stopped firing this whole time, the veteran was completely focused and dedicated to eliminating the invaders.

"Keelah, I can't believe we're doing it!"

Kasumi laughed a little despite the fighting. "I told you we'd find a way." Kasumi smiled at the Quarian, and Tali could tell it was a genuine smile by the way it reached her eyes. Tali smiled back.

"Yeah, I guess you did."

Before long, the gunfire died down almost completely. The Collector resistance was paltry and the few potshots they took at the marines was met with swift and brutal concentrated gunfire that cut the resistance down quickly.

"Status?!" Jacob screamed.

"We're clear here!" One of the marines responded in the distance after a few moments.

Jacob turned towards Tali and Kasumi.

"Okay, we need to pull those guys out of there before the Collectors come back." He was talking about the soldiers trapped behind the destroyed Mako. How those marines managed to survive all of that given their terrible position was beyond Tali, but she knew they needed to be relieved, and she sure as hell didn't want to let anyone die to those monsters.

"Alright we're gonna retrieve the survivors, cover us!" He screamed again so that they could hear him.

"Copy, we're covering!"

Tali followed Jacob and Kasumi out of the crater. Now they were in the open and exposed, something that made Tali nervous. It would be so easy now for the Collectors to kill them, but she tried to keep the thoughts out of her head.

One of the marines next to the Mako noticed them approaching and then started frantically gesturing to them.

"No, no! Get back!"

"What is he talking about?" Kasumi muttered. "We're here to save them."

"I don't know." Jacob replied, his voice and expression wary. "Something's wrong. Stay on your toes." Tali clutched her rifle, remembering something that Zaeed told her a while back.

You always trust a veteran's gut, always. Cuz' that might be the difference between life and death.

What could have spooked those men enough for them to not want help to come to them?

"We're here to help!" Jacob responded. "We can get you out quickly before the Collectors return!"

"No!" The marine yelled back. "It's gonna come back for another pass! Get the fuck back!" The desperation in the man's voice made Tali feel uneasy.

"What's coming back?" Tali questioned shakily, suddenly feeling the eeriness of the situation weigh down on her.

"You two get back." Jacob said. "I'm gonna see what's going-" Jacob was suddenly cut off as a pair of blue beams of light slammed into the Mako's rear from around the corner on their left.

The light burned through the armor and then cut the four marines in half instantly. Their severed torsos fell to the ground, though there was no blood as the intense heat instantly cauterized the horrific wounds. Tali felt herself freeze up as a massive levitating, deformed shape came around the corner.

It was a Praetorian.

"Fallback! Go, go!" Jacob grabbed Tali's wrist and wrenched her along with him. The massive Praetorian fired again, its beams slammed into one of the positions, melting through the concrete walls and killing the marines inside, they screamed out the last of their agonies as their lives were cut short in a most gruesome manner.

A tsunami of gunfire from the Collectors' side erupted afterwards, some of the rounds slammed into Tali's barrier, almost making it through before she tripped and tumbled back into the limited safety of the cratered city block.

It seemed that the Collectors were far from finished. They've returned, and this time, with more troops. Tali cursed herself for the optimism, cursed herself for thinking that they actually had a snowball's chance in hell of surviving this.

She grabbed her rifle and found herself in the same position as before, only this time their situation was far more dire. Rounds flew over her head and explosions from hand grenades deployed by both sides threatened to overwhelm her kinetic barriers if she didn't exercise caution.

Another rocket was launched from an unseen position, it slammed into the massive cyborg war machine. To Tali's horror, the Praetorian easily took the impact with its barriers.

Keelah! How are we supposed to kill that thing!?

The abomination returned the greeting in kind and struck with its horrifying beam weapon, vaporizing the marines before they could even scream.

"A plan would be great right about now Jacob!" Kasumi yelled, though Tali could hear the pleading and fear in her voice.

"Return fire!" The soldier responded. "Just gotta hold them back!"

Tali felt herself shrinking at the realization that they were once again forced into a situation where that was the only option they had. They were backed up against a metaphorical wall with nowhere to go but straight. But they can't go straight, not up against the enemy they were dealing with. So where could they go?

Nowhere. This was the end of the road.

The Quarian fired her weapon aimlessly into the mass of rapidly approaching Collectors. There must have been dozens of them, and the paltry return fire was doing nothing to deter them from being on top of them.

Gunfire, explosions, screams, sweat, and tears. It overwhelmed the Quarian like nothing else, and her mind worked on auto pilot as she applied no thought into firing her weapon into the Collectors. It was a byproduct of all the will and energy being sapped from her. The feeling that they've lost, the feeling that no amount of effort they put into fighting back will change the outcome.

The Praetorian turned towards them.

"Get down!" Jacob screamed.

Tali didn't move, she slowly lowered her weapon as the lumbering abomination charged its weapons. She was so paralyzed with fear that she couldn't move. Her hands shook, her heart was racing, and tears were welling up in her eyes. The massive Praetorian turned towards her in slow motion. She saw her life flash before her eyes. Her childhood, the beginning of her pilgrimage, Shepard saving her from death, their absurd quest to desperately hunt down and kill Saren, the news that Shepard was dead, then later on, the relief he was alive and all the events in between. It happened so quickly that Tali couldn't keep track of all her memories zipping by.

There was an overwhelming flash of blue light that threatened to blind her, and the next thing Tali knew, she was on her back. She yelled out in pain as the sensation pulsated all throughout her body, it felt like a pack of stampeding Krogan trampled her underfoot.

She was dizzy, her vision and hearing was failing. Every bone in Tali's body felt like it was broken and she struggled to get up. She could vaguely make out Jacob, slumped up against the edge of the crater, his sidearm held in his hand, ready to fight off any Collectors trying to get too close to their position.

The first of the Collectors stepped over the rubble, weapon in hand, looking more like an executioner than a soldier.

Their executioner.

Jacob fired, sending rounds into the alien's barrier. They struck true and the alien collapsed. Tali looked around her for a weapon, anything to try and help the veteran soldier. But there was nothing that she could use.

A second Collector approached, then a third, then a fourth. Jacob squeezed the trigger, but nothing happened. He was out of ammo. He held out his hand, trying to summon what little biotic power he had left, but with his fatigue and injuries, it was a fruitless attempt.

The Collectors quickly filed into their holdout. Tali's heart was beating alarmingly fast as the aliens scanned over the young Quarian and Jacob. Kasumi was gone, presumable vapourized by the Praetorian. Tali sobbed at the realization, but the sounds of war made it so no one could hear her. One of the aliens approached a defeated Jacob.

It raised its weapon, and Tali reached out with an outstretched arm, screaming as if she thought she could save the man from his fate.

This was how everything ended. This was how they all died, their suffering and efforts all for nothing. Tali supposed it was foolish to think that they stood a chance at beating an unstoppable menace like the Collectors, outgunned and outnumbered as they were.

Her thoughts turned towards her father. He was always hard on the young girl, when he wasn't so distant, focusing his efforts on helping the Quarian people to reclaim Rannoch. She liked to think he cared in his own weird way, and it pained her to know that her father will learn of her fate, dying on a Human colony pointlessly fighting against impossible odds when she could have been home with her people and working to fight for their place in this galaxy.

I'm sorry, father.

A burst of gunfire rang out, and Tali felt her world shatter.

But she quickly noticed that it wasn't Jacob's blood that was spilt. Rather, the Collector that came so close to ending the man's life collapsed to the ground in a lifeless heep.

Before the Quarian could even register the possibility of someone actually coming to help them, another Collector dropped, and then another.

She could barely make out a shape dotting her vision, before two more Collectors had their exoskeletons smashed inwards, pulverizing their innards and killing them as fast as any headshot.

Awe turned to palpable fear as she realized what had done it. Clad in a familiar suit of jet black armor, laden with a plethora of weapons that Tali was sure most people couldn't carry, and eyes hidden behind a terrifying gold visor.

It was unmistakable.

It was that monster that sent them here in the first place. The one that can't be seen, can't be heard, and is graced with supernatural feats that would quell the lust for battle of even the most crazed Krogan battlemasters.

He towered proudly over the corpses of the dead, his visor locked with Tali's, and she could feel death personified staring into her soul.

Jacob became more animated, his eyes were wide in fear and he was frantically looking around for a weapon. Tali knew it was pointless. With the way she just witnessed him slaughter the Collectors with little effort, she knew in her mind that the Collectors weren't the unstoppable force on this planet.

He was.

The physical form of the Grim Reaper stepped towards the Quarian. She tried to crawl away, only to bump into a wall behind her. She started to hyperventilate, remembering what this thing did to Grunt. She wondered what gruesome fate awaited her now. Death by Collectors would have been quicker but this creature has the power to rip her apart limb from limb if it so desired. Tali could feel tears flowing freely now as the gravity of their situation went from bad to worse.

She only hoped this armored monster would make their deaths quick.

Please.

It stepped closer, and closer until the thing towered over her. She waited for the mech to deliver the killing blow, for it to put a fist through her skull or kill her in any one of the million ways it could think of it.

Only it didn't.

The massive titan surprised her as it took a knee next to the injured woman, speaking in a deep, monotone, and authoritative voice that sent shivers down her spine.

"What's your status?"

What?

Tali was caught off guard by the question. She hesitated, not sure if the monster beneath the armor was trying to trick her or not. But then why would he do that? Tali was defenseless against this thing. There'd be no reason for him to waste time on such things.

"What's your status?" He repeated.

The Quarian tried to speak for a second, she couldn't. The young woman cleared her throat and tried to build up the confidence to speak.

Calm down, if he wanted you dead then you wouldn't be alive right now.

"I-I-I'm okay." She stuttered like a mischievous child that just got caught by their parents misbehaving.

The mech nodded, before digging through the rubble and handing her a rifle. She accepted the weapon hesitantly.

Jacob limped over to the giant enigma and knelt down next to him, the large man looked like a child in comparison.

"We on the same team now?" Jacob asked apprehensively.

"Affirmative." The soldier responded instantly. It seemed he had no qualms about fighting next to people he essentially got arrested.

The golden visor turned to his side. "Weapon down, the Collectors are the threat."

An astonished Kasumi materialized next to the Spartan. Tali was flabbergasted. How did he see Kasumi? Her optical cloaking was among the best in the galaxy!

"Kasumi, you're alive?!" Tali exclaimed, relieved. "I thought you were…"

The young woman turned towards Tali and grinned. "Aw, what? You thought that a little Praetorian could kill me? Please." Tali wanted to scold Kasumi for her seemingly carefree attitude in this horrifying situation, but instead chose to be relieved and happy that the woman was alive.

Kasumi turned back towards the giant soldier.

"How did you see me?" The Asian woman asked, still mystified by the giant in front of her.

"Alliance marines are currently purging classified military databases planetside." The soldier declared, ignoring a miffed Kasumi and adopting a calm and professional attitude that Tali was in disbelief at. How can he remain this calm?

The soldier suddenly whirled around so quickly that he became a blur. His weapon barked and two approaching Collectors dropped to the ground.

Tali couldn't believe it.

"We need to buy them some time." The mech continued, completely disregarding the impossible feat he had just performed.

"How are we gonna do that?" Kasumi asked.

"By thinning the herd."

He made it seem so easy.

It was the same damn plan as Jacob's, basically. But now they had him.

"Suggestions?" Jacob asked.

"Maintain this defensive position." He replied. "I'll draw their fire. Do not engage until their focus is on me."

Just like that, he was willingly putting himself in harm's way for their sake after saving them from certain death. Who was this person? If it even is a person.

"What about the Praetorian?" Jacob asked. It was interesting to see Jacob immediately fall in under this soldier's command. It was obvious that even though Jacob was experienced, this newcomer was far more experienced and knowledgeable than the veteran soldier. Shepard did tell her once that experience outranks everything else. Tali supposed that was true. The Spartan looked towards Jacob, expecting the man to elaborate. "The giant floating killing machine." The soldier finished.

"I'll handle it." He responded without an ounce of fear.

He turned to leave.

"Wait!" Tali called out. He turned towards her once more, visor meeting visor.

"Who are you?" She asked meekly. Wanting to know the name of the man that saved their lives.

"Spartan B-312." The soldier, no, Spartan, responded. "Call me Six."

The response confused the Quarian. What kind of name was that? His name was a designation and his nickname was a single number? She supposed it further hinted at the idea that he is indeed a robot, or at the very least, some seriously secretive special forces.

The soldier crouched low, and shouldered a large, box-like weapon.

He squeezed the trigger and held it in place. The Quarian watched with fascination as a small red targeting laser was deployed from the weapon. She quickly approached the Spartan from behind, watching as the weapon was aimed at the rapidly approaching Praetorian.

"Shield your eyes." Six said.

Tali polarized her visor. The high pitched whining of the weapon became more and more intense as it reached its climax, letting loose a blinding lance of ruby red light. Tali could feel its heat even from where she was standing. It ionized the air around it and slammed into the Praetorian, burning through it instantly and melting completely through the building behind it.

The giant monstrosity fell to the ground with a charred hole the size of a dinner plate burned into its side.

Tali was frozen with awe, at what looked like a handheld weapon that could harness the power of a ship-borne GARDIAN laser. The Quarian's awe turned to fascination and excitement as she tried to imagine the technology that went into constructing such an absurdly powerful weapon. This thing could destroy even the biggest and most heavily armored Geth with contemptuous ease.

The Spartan replaced his heavy weapon with an Alliance made Avenger, and blurred out of existence. Almost immediately, the gunfire increased in intensity.

"Guess we don't have a choice but to help him." Jacob said through pained grunts.

Tali wordlessly took up position next to her comrades and joined in the fighting. The Collectors were close now, close enough that Tali couldn't miss. She squeezed the trigger and claimed the lives of two Collectors, catching both of them center-mass.

Jacob and Kasumi joined her, and fired into the mass of chitinous aliens. What Tali found odd was that the Collectors' return fire was minimal. Instead, the aliens, who were spread out all around the remains of the large roundabout, were focused and shooting at every possible window in all of the buildings.

The Spartan was nowhere to be found.

"Where the hell did he go!?" Kasumi yelled. "How did he disappear that fast?!"

There is no way that he just left them, right?

A muzzle flash in Tali's peripherals got her attention. Several of the Collectors turned to the source of the fire and opened fire, tearing into the concrete walls of the structure.

Tali and her friends took advantage of their distracted state and picked off some of the closer enemies. Tali sighted in the closest target and downed it with bursts of gunfire, just as she was taught.

Seconds later, another muzzle flash could be seen from another window on the other side of the apartment complex. Several more Collectors dropped alarmingly quickly and two more were ripped apart by an explosion.

Tali was confused, at what looked to be multiple shooters in the building, downing the Collectors at an impressive rate. Did some of the marines make it out and use the confusion to reposition?

"You guys seeing what I'm seeing?" Jacob asked.

"Yeah…" Tali said. "Is that… Six?"

"No way." Jacob replied confidently. "He can't relocate that quickly."

"After seeing what he just did, you really think he can't?" Kasumi was right. They've all seen how fast he could move, who's to say that isn't him moving around in those buildings?

Still, Tali just couldn't picture it.

The muzzle flash disappeared again once the Collectors tracked down its position and let loose a torrent of sustained automatic gunfire.

Tali tried not to pay it any mind, and instead focused on the Collectors, she threw a grenade at a group of Collectors focusing on the buildings. They didn't even notice the explosive clatter to the ground before it exploded and killed them outright.

Jacob and Kasumi emulated her tactic and threw their own grenades at the closest aliens, eviscerating a good number of them. They worked methodically, engaging the closest Collectors with sustained bursts of gunfire and grenades, before working their way towards the enemies further away from them that didn't pose as much of a threat.

It was a simple strategy, and it was thanks to the Collectors' distracted state that it was working better than Tali thought.

More of the Collectors started dropping like flies. Tali quickly found the source; a muzzle flash, this time in a different building all the way on the other side of the roundabout. The Collectors were faster this time, and were already firing upon the assaliant's position.

Tali could make out a shape, what looked to be a humanoid shaped golden strobe of light in the window, before it turned into a streak of golden light and then disappeared quicker than the Quarian could blink.

Tali could feel goosebumps on her skin.

It's him.

It was unmistakable, the stature of the golden figure, even from the distance she was looking at, was huge, and the speed at which it moved out of enemy fire matched up with what the Quarian witnessed from Six just moments prior and several days ago.

The fact that he could move and reposition himself so quickly that he could give off the illusion that multiple shooters were present was not only unreal.

It was terrifying.

Jacob and Kasumi didn't notice, they just kept firing into the mass of Collectors, downing them left, right, and center. But it didn't take long for the appearance of the muzzle flashes in different windows around the apartment to draw their attention as well once the Collectors started to try and breach the building.

"The Collectors aren't even paying attention to us!" Kasumi exclaimed in disbelief.

"They're gunning for Six." Jacob declared. "It's gotta be him, there's only one muzzle flash visible at all times. But… how the hell is he doing this?"

There was a moment of hesitation before Jacob spoke. "Let's move, even he can get overwhelmed fighting that many Collectors at close range."

Tali wasn't so sure. But she didn't argue. The Collectors moved fast, and were all in the building by the time they left the safety of their cover. The sound of gunfire could be heard from within almost constantly.

There must have been thirty Collectors in there! How were they gonna clear out a force that large all by themselves?

It took them a good three or four minutes to reach the building, and by then they couldn't hear anything from within. Tali found it unnerving, not sure what they would find.

They stacked up against the door and prepared themselves to enter.

"Check your targets." Jacob said. "Last thing we want is to piss Six off by shooting him by accident." Tali shuddered at the thought.

"Ready?" Both women nodded. Jacob was the first to enter, his weapon swept along all possible angles. Tali and Kasumi followed a moment later.

The first thing they noticed was the bodies. They were strewn about, thrown like weightless ragdolls. Some of them sported gunshot wounds to the head, some had their exoskeletons smashed in letting blood and organs ooze out onto the ground. Some of the Collectors sported horrible slash marks from some kind of nasty bladed weapon and a few of them even had their limbs forcibly detached from their torsos, as if they were simply ripped apart.

Tali shuddered at the nightmarish scene.

"My god-" Kasumi threw up the contents of her lunch onto the floor.

Jacob looked almost haunted by the creepy scene. The way these aliens were slaughtered seemed so cruel; it was obvious from the kills that Six fought and killed with no mercy, and had no problem using his considerable physical strength to its fullest, not concerned with how messy the results are.

It was absolutely terrifying to Tali that that could very well have been the Normandy ground team.

"Keep moving, and check those corners." Jacob said through gritted teeth. "We gotta find him."

After seeing what Six could do to his enemies, Tali suddenly wasn't sure that was a good idea. The kills were so brutal, savage. No quarter was given. Tali didn't detect any hatred from the large soldier, so what drove him to inflict such damage on the Collectors? Is this how he normally fights? If so, why? A product of training? Past experiences? Both?

Tali followed Jacob down the cramped hallway with Kasumi as the rearguard. The Quarian woman made sure to carefully step over the bodies and gore that caked the floor and walls.

They spent several minutes searching the ground floor in complete and utter silence. Tali didn't dare say a word, lest she alert the surviving Collectors to their presence, or elicit an aggressive response from the elusive Spartan.

They were about to finish up on the ground floor before Tali heard something; what sounded like footsteps. A quick glance at Jacob and Kasumi told her they heard the same thing.

She slowly followed behind Jacob, trying as hard as possible to make herself as light as air as they crept slowly towards the corner in front of them. Jacob raised his fist as he approached, they all stopped and didn't say a word as they listened.

Nothing could be heard. It was so quiet that one could hear a pin drop on the floor above them.

Jacob turned the corner as fast as his body let him, Tali followed, and they came face-to-face with a Collector drone. Before Tali could fire her weapon, even before Jacob could neutralize the threat. A mammoth-sized gauntlet smashed through the concrete wall on the right and caved in the Collector's skull, causing Tali to yelp in surprise.

The alien soundlessly collapsed to the ground, dead before it even knew what had transpired. There was a moment of silence, as Tali and her companions got over their dumbstruck state.

Jacob was the fastest to recover. "Six? You out there?"

Six stepped out from behind the corner, with his weapon half ready. He soundlessly approached the trio of Normandy survivors. Tali's heart rate increased as the Spartan drew closer to them. She was well aware that the Spartan was the only reason they are alive right now. But to Tali, he was still an unknown, as alien and as foreign as the Collectors themselves. What were his motivations? To whom did he owe his allegiance?

These were all questions that the Quarian asked herself, wondering if allying themselves with this walking enigma was really the best course of action for their long term survival.

Six stopped in front of Jacob, towering over the already fairly large soldier.

"All threats are neutralized." He confidently declared.

He spoke casually, but what he did wasn't casual to Tali. He engaged and killed a platoon of Collector drones in close combat in just minutes. Grunt would be hard pressed to reproduce such brutal results.

"Y-yeah…" Kasumi stuttered. "But I'm pretty sure the Collectors will be back." She looked at Jacob for confirmation. "Right?"

The Cerberus soldier grunted, both in acknowledgment, and pain. "We made a lot of noise. Doubt they're gonna let this slide."

"Where's the rest of your team?" The Spartan questioned. He stepped past them and leveled his weapon down the hallway, making sure that no one attacked them from behind.

"Got separated in the early stages of the attack." Jacob responded, training his rifle opposite to the Spartan. "We don't know their status."

Tali felt a pang of sadness in her heart at the mention of everyone else. She hoped that somewhere out there, they were doing alright. She couldn't stand the thought of them dead.

"Then we bring them here." The Spartan rumbled. Tali couldn't get over just how deep and powerful Six's voice was. That along with the fact that he looked like a walking battle tank and was so massive that Tali didn't even reach his shoulder along with the fact that his leg was probably as thick as her entire torso made Six look very intimidating. Even so, Tali couldn't shake the feeling that there was more to the Spartan than meets the eye.

"What do you mean?" Jacob questioned, confused.

"Collector forces are dedicated to the destruction of all Human life on this planet, which correlates with the rapid decrease in Human numbers." Six responded, the nonchalant nature of this declaration was off putting to the Quarian. "There's no time to search for additional military assets with the widespread communications blackout and rapidly approaching hostile forces."

"Yeah we've been investigating the Collectors in response to recent mass Human abductions." Jacob responded. "But slaughtering Humans like this?" Jacob sighed and shook his head. "This isn't their usual MO. They've switched tactics, but why?"

"Purpose of the abductions?" The Spartan inquired.

Tali could feel Jacob grit his teeth in frustration. It was a feeling that everyone on the Normandy shared, the feeling of making little to no progress over the course of several months."We're trying to figure it out." Jacob said.

"We're confident that they are working as agents of the Reapers." Tali added, hoping to feel more useful, even if just by contributing to the conversation a bit more. "A race of hyper advanced machines that wipe out intelligent life every fifty thousand years."

The Spartan nodded. This surprised Tali; he didn't seem at all phased by that revelation. He didn't seem shocked yet at the same time he didn't seem to think they were lying or making things up.

"You don't seem bothered by this." Kasumi said, unintentionally voicing Tali's thoughts.

"I've been around." The soldier simply said, and Tali believed him. The aura Six was surrounded with made it seem like he's seen things, things that would give even the strongest of individuals an unhealthy dose of nightmares, things that Tali simply could not comprehend or imagine.

Of course, there was no proof of this… but…. it was just a weird gut feeling that Tali had.

"There was an incident two years ago at the Citadel, people died, and a Reaper was destroyed, stalling their invasion. Shepard was responsible for it." Jacob explained. "We think the Reapers see Humanity as a threat because of it and are using the Collectors as a means to weaken us. As for the abductions? It makes no sense. A traditional invasion targeting infrastructure and population makes more sense."

"Like what's happening now." Kasumi added.

The Spartan motioned everyone to follow him, and he spoke as his weapon scanned the interior of the building. "Citadel response to the incident?"

"There was no response." Jacob growled. "The Reaper attack was covered up under the guise of it being a Geth attack. As for the Collectors? Batarian pirates are usually blamed."

"You're the only ones investigating the Collectors." The Spartan said matter of factly. "They've noticed you."

The way the Spartan said that sounded more ominous than it should have, at least to Tali.

"You think the Collectors attacked this colony to take us out?" Kasumi questioned.

"If their MO involves maintaining secrecy, then yes. They are quite aware that the galaxy is ignorant with respect to their operations. If what you're saying is true, then you're the only ones engaging Collector operations."

It made so much sense to Tali. The Collectors had to have noticed the Normandy crew and their actions. They see the Normandy as a threat, and now that that threat is in a vulnerable position, they've decided to strike at it. They want to destroy the few people actually trying to expose and take them out.

Six stacked up against the entrance to the building and scanned the outside world for hostiles. Tali took the opposite door with Kasumi, not feeling comfortable with standing in arms reach of the Spartan, not that it would matter.

"The normal Collector MO involves immobilizing all Humans using seeker swarms, they put you in a stasis field, rendering you helpless." Jacob said. "Why would they change their tactics?"

The Spartan responded. "Either to throw off future investigation and contingency plans, or to test Humanity's defensive capabilities and military response before the Reaper invasion, assuming what you are saying is true. A combination of both seems more likely."

Tali raised an eyebrow, surprised at the Spartan's response. How could he know? How could he be so confident in his answers? Tali could understand the first case, but testing Humanity's defenses? Sure, she supposed that could be possible, but that wouldn't have been among Tali's first guesses. So how could Six have come to this deduction so quickly?

Jacob voiced Tali's thoughts, and asked Six.

"Because the Collectors are cannon fodder in service to a significantly more powerful and intelligent force. This type of relationship suggests a possible caste system where the Collectors are seen as expendable second class citizens to be used and discarded for a greater cause." The Spartan crouched low next to the building's entrance. "This is further corroborated by the Collectors' drone-like behavior. They have no sense of individuality, possibly no sense of free will. They are tools."

The response, to Tali, was more concerning and suspicious than anything else. How could Six deduce such conclusions with almost no prior knowledge or context? Supposedly, he's supposed to be from a different galaxy, obviously he spent the last few days learning about the galaxy but that isn't nearly enough time to confidently make these conclusions.

His last point about the Collectors' drone-like behavior suggesting they are tools to the Collectors made sense to Tali. Mordin has been hypothesizing for quite some time that Reaper indoctrination is more extensive and complicated than anyone could predict. Tali supposed it would be very Reaper-like to indoctrinate factions like the Collectors to do their bidding. But then that begs the question, what exactly are the Collectors? Who were they before the Reapers indoctrinated them?

She suspected that if they do find the answer, it won't be a pretty one.

Tali took a deep breath, and mustered up as much courage as possible to speak to the giant soldier.

"H-how do you know?"

The Spartan didn't answer her question, as his mind was already in a different place, whether to deflect from answering her question or simply because he didn't care enough to answer she did not know.

"We need to regroup with the rest of your team and any surviving military personnel, confirm the destruction of all compromising intel, and then consolidate and combat the Collector threat." He withdrew something from his supply belt. It looked like a small pistol but with a short and fat barrel. Tali recognized it as a flare gun, it was a primitive but useful tool especially in survival situations.

"You're gonna fire off a flare gun?" Jacob questioned in disbelief. "You wanna give away our position? The Collectors will kill us before help arrives!"

"They've had eyes on our position this whole time. Reinforcements are inevitable." Six responded nonchalantly. He brought up his rifle and fired towards the remains of the Mako.

The shape of a Collector materialized out of nowhere, it dropped soundlessly and didn't make a move to get back up.

"Keelah!" Tali exclaimed. "Since when can the Collectors cloak?"

"And how did you see him?" Kasumi asked, amazement present in the tone of her voice, a feeling that Tali shared. That thing was cloaked and almost a hundred meters away from them! How could Six have seen that? Does he have some kind of technology that lets him see the enemy? Thermal vision perhaps? Is it just experience? Tali found the latter harder to believe, cloaking isn't very common around the galaxy, Six would need to have an insane amount of experience to spot cloaked enemies like that. But he claimed to have come from a different galaxy, if that's true, then maybe optical cloaking is more common where he's from?

Tali didn't know, and figured it would be best to save herself the headache by not thinking about intergalactic travel for the time being.

"Cloaking Collectors?" Jacob said grimly, cutting off Tali from her thoughts. "Never seen them before. I know that they are far more technologically advanced than any other race besides the Reapers, but still. Who are these guys? Their version of spec ops?"

"Affirmative." Six said. "Stay on your guard and close to me, it's your best chance of survival."

"Keelah…" Tali mumbled. How can she fight an enemy that can't be seen? Dealing with the Collectors as they were was hard enough as it is!

The Spartan pointed the flare gun into the air.

"Get ready." He said before pulling the trigger.

Tali watched the bright red flare launch into the sky before lazily floating back down. The Collectors already know where they are, so it didn't matter whether or not the flare was launched in the first place.

"Take position on the top floor." Six ordered. "Keep the enemy suppressed."

"What will you do?" Jacob asked.

"I'll defend the ground floor."

Just like that, Tali found herself trapped in an apartment building fighting off against an endless wave of Collectors with Jacob, Kasumi, and an invincible supersoldier. How did she find herself in this situation again?

She supposed it didn't matter now, only their survival mattered.

"Multiple hostiles spotted." The Spartan announced. "Get in position."

Keelah, not again.

•••

Shepard raised his rifle and squeezed the trigger, rounds flew forth and impacted its target, a motionless Collector corpse. The Commander sighed, allowing himself to feel relief, if only momentarily, at the conclusion of that firefight.

"You can say it now." Said a female voice behind him. Shepard turned around, and raised an eyebrow, confused. Phoenix stepped towards the Commander with a grim scowl on her face.

Shepard and his team, which consisted of Jack, Grunt, and Zaeed, have spent the better part of an hour combing the interior of the military base in the hopes of finding the rest of the team. Unfortunately, with the loss of the ability to communicate over long range, they've had no success.

Shepard was taught many tricks about regrouping with separated comrades in the event that communications were being disrupted or radio silence was being practiced. It was among the many topics covered during his special forces training. Unfortunately, being trapped in a hectic urban combat zone against an enemy force that is likely tracking their every move makes this an extremely difficult prospect.

Best bet would be to find some high ground and scout the area, looking for survivors visually or perhaps auditorial queues, such as the sounds of combat, to triangulate the position of the Normandy team or surviving marines.

"What are you talking about?" Shepard asked.

Phoenix, Shepard could tell, was not exactly happy to meet Cerberus personnel once more, she was even less happy about having to work with them. But the lieutenant knew that their desperate situation dictated that having to work with Shepard and his team was much better than having no one at all.

"That you told me so." Phoenix said casually.

Shepard rolled his eyes. "Look, you were right to not trust me."

"My lack of trust got people killed." She retorted.

"Even if you trusted me there was nothing that could have been done, and you know that." Phoenix looked towards the ground, Shepard could see the conflict in her eyes. He slowly approached the woman until they were within arm's reach.

"This will not be another Tokyo." Phoenix flinched at the mention of that particular tragedy. "We're dealing with a force far beyond our comprehension and the fact that you and your team are still alive tells me all I need to know about you as a leader."

"I don't need a pep talk from you Shepard." She growled. "Not from someone that betrayed Humanity to join Cerberus." Shepard frowned.

"Hey! I'm almost done here!" Said one of the marine's from the back of the server room, a man by the name of Joel.

"Look as much as I hate you right now." Phoenix said. "The extra firepower is much appreciated." Shepard just nodded.

Shepard and his team were almost done searching the complex when they heard the shots. They immediately followed the sounds until they reached, to their surprise, a giant server room. Shepard could only imagine Phoenix's surprise at seeing, quite possibly, the last people she'd expect to see.

"So what are you guys doing here anyways? The fight's not in here you know?" Grunt asked from his position at the room's entrance.

"Destroying classified Alliance documents." Said one of the marines, a large muscular man named Gunther. "Anything that the Collectors can use against the Alliance."

Shepard nodded, it made sense. To his knowledge, this is the first time the Collectors had attacked a Human colony with this large of a military present. The possibility for a security breach is significant.

"This a new Alliance protocol or something?" Questioned Zaeed. "Can't say I've heard of anything like that before."

"Nah." Said the final member of Phoenix's group, a gung-ho marine named Marcus. "It was Six that made the call."

"Who's Six?" Said Shepard.

"The giant armored killing machine." Marcus replied almost excitedly, surprising the Commander.

His name was just a number? No, the man was special forces obviously-if he is a man at all.

Shepard raised an eyebrow and then turned to Phoenix, who was just standing there staring at Shepard with her rifle in her hands.

"You took orders from him?"

Phoenix rolled her eyes. "It's not so simple. Look, best way of describing this is that he's experienced. I mean… he knows his shit. The Collectors knocked out our command structure early on… he was the only one that had a solid plan."

"Ok?"

She sighed. "Look, there's no time for me to be telling stories, you'll just have to talk to the guy to understand."

Shepard just nodded. "Where is he now?"

"Crazy bastard went out alone to buy us some time." Marcus responded with a chuckle.

Just one man? Against the entire Collector invasion force?

"He's got quite the quad, that's for sure."

"It almost explains why there was so few fucking Collectors for me to kill." Said Jack. "But it sounds like soldier girl here is blowing smoke up our asses. One fucking guy? Bullshit."

Phoenix gritted her teeth, irritated at the biotic. "You'll believe me if we run into him."

"Ok! I'm done." Joel declared. "Let's get the fuck out of here!" The marine quickly left the console room and joined the group of survivors.

"All the data's burned?" Phoenix asked.

"All of it." The man nodded. "I sent that shit down to the Davy Jones locker equivalent of the electronic world. No one's digging it back up."

Shepard nodded. "Good work." He took stock of the individuals in the room. No one was injured, everyone was armed to the teeth and despite the dire situation, eager to fight.

"Now our time window is limited." Shepard said. "The Collectors likely know what we've been up to and will retaliate. Our only chance of survival is to regroup with any survivors we can find. Anyone that can hold a gun will increase our chances of survival."

Marcus raised his hand, as if he were a schoolboy. Shepard nodded towards the man. "Then what?"

"We'll cross that bridge when we get there. Our survival is what matters, any civilians or military personnel come with us. No one gets left behind."

"There is no command structure for us to lean on for support so we will need to rely on ourselves and our own judgment. You weren't trained for this, but as long as we work together we'll get through this. Keep your heads on a swivel, call out potential targets, and check your shots." He locked eyes with everyone present in the room with him, making sure they were paying attention to what he was saying.

The rank and file marines were not trained to operate without a functioning command structure quite like N7's and other special forces. As a result, they weren't as self-reliant. Shepard has worked with numerous marine and army units in the past. Generally they stay back and act as support or a buffer while the special units take the threats head on.

It was no different here. Phoenix and her marines will need to work under Shepard's command to get through this alive. They won't like it, but the Commander trusted them to put aside those feelings.

"Zaeed, Grunt, you're on point with me. Jack, you'll be on our six with those biotics. Something tells me we'll need them." Shepard turned towards Phoenix and her marines. "I trust you guys to bring up the rear."

The lieutenant nodded. "Consider it done."

The ex-Spectre shouldered his weapon. "On me."

They filed out of the room with practiced ease, weapons held half ready in case the Collectors try to surprise them in the cramped hallways. Shepard stepped over the bodies of the dead. There were so many of them, mostly civilian workers, that were killed mercilessly by the Collectors' onslaught. Such a horrible waste of life… If Ashley saw this, then maybe she'd have changed her mind about joining Shepard.

Shepard shook himself from the thoughts; no use dwelling on the past.

"It's the same everywhere else." Joel muttered. "Dead civies, no one left to protect them, and Collectors as far as the eye can see. Hope the Alliance gets here soon."

"It's too late. The Collectors will bug out before reinforcements arrive, and the whole thing will be pinned on the Batarian slave groups. That's how it always goes." Shepard said.

"Six said the same thing." Phoenix replied. "Not really, he said that this planet was lost. He seemed to be familiar with the situation."

"Maybe he dealt with something similar to the Collectors back in his galaxy." Gunther hypothesized, his voice barely a whisper.

"I think the bigger problem is why the hell would the Alliance be ignoring the Collector threat?" Joel said.

"Because ya'll are pussies, that's why." Jack growled.

"Look, I'm not a politician so I can't say I know what the hell is going through their brains when analyzing the remains of those colonies. "Shepard said, his weapon sweeping around the corner of a hallway leading them into the main lobby. No threats. "But let's just say there's a reason I didn't turn to the Alliance for help, no offense." He said.

"None taken." Marcus replied candidly.

The military was always bound by politics and red tape. In Shepard's experience, it was more of a hindrance than a help. He believed that politicians had no right in dictating what the military can and cannot do in a crisis that these politicians have no experience or knowledge of. The Collector situation is a crisis as far as Shepard was concerned, and ignoring the threat whether to avoid inciting panic or simply because 'it is impossible' is causing a great deal of harm to Humanity. There is a reason why secretive intelligence agencies and special forces units exist; so that the military had elite units to secretly strike at the enemy and wipe them out before people find out and start panicking.

Why wasn't the Alliance using those assets? The Sovereign incident hadn't wiped those assets out such that the Systems Alliance was fundamentally incapable of carrying out classified operations against, for example, Batarian slave groups. So what was the Systems Alliance doing?

"Lobby's clear." Shepard reported. He examined the Collector bodies, most of them had a single hole in the center of the forehead. Shepard whistled. "Damn, lotta headshots."

"Yeah that was Six's work." Revealed Phoenix from across the lobby. "The bastard knows how to shoot a rifle."

"No shit."

"You guys sure love to kiss his ass." Grunt chuckled. "Still got a bone to pick with him after he pulled that cowardly stunt."

"Now's not the time, Grunt." Shepard growled. "He's on our side whether you like it or not. We'll need all the guns we can get."

"And after?"

"Not a chance."

"Why not?"

Shepard scoffed. "You really want to take your chances after seeing what he can do?"

"He got lucky." The krogan growled.

"You're not gonna start shit with him and that's final, no arguments."

Grunt didn't respond to Shepard, but the soldier could hear him muttering in frustration. Shepard rolled his eyes, sometimes Grunt was a real pain in the ass, especially when his pride had taken a hit, sort of like what's happening now.

"Haven't been through the main entrance." Zaeed commented absentmindedly. "Shit, looks worse off than the others."

He was talking about the bodies and destroyed vehicles. They were everywhere.

"The assault took us by surprise. They came in fast and hard, we didn't stand a chance."

"You do now, Phoenix." Shepard said.

"We'll see."

Suddenly, a burst of gunfire struck Shepard in the torso. He could feel pain in his shoulder from a round penetrating. The veteran swore and dove behind the remains of the Alliance checkpoint.

"Contact, contact!" Phoenix roared. Everyone else opened fire towards the enemy as Shepard recovered, applying medigel to his wound and waiting a moment for his barriers to recharge. His shoulder stung, but the numbing effect of the medigel took effect quickly. He sighed a little in relief, grateful that the round passed through his flesh and not a bone or an organ.

One of Phoenix's marines took cover next to Shepard. "You good?!" Joel asked.

"Took a hit in the shoulder, minor injury, I'm good!" Shepard turned to his left, towards Phoenix who was on the other side of the large checkpoint's entrance with the rest of Shepard's team. "You got eyes on?!"

"Negative." Phoenix responded. "No visual. Marcus, Gunther, watch our six."

"Copy!"

Shepard poked his head around the corner, through the sea of vehicles he couldn't see anything. He couldn't make out the distinct shapes of the insectoid Collectors, nor were they taking any return fire. Yet no one confirmed any visual on the enemy.

"Cease fire!" Shepard ordered. The gunfire stopped, and the cacophony was followed by an eerie silence. The only noise Shepard could hear was gunfire and explosions in the distance, far enough away that it wasn't a concern for them.

"Can't see the cowards anywhere." Grunt commented. "Did they run away?"

Shepard frowned. "Can't be, that doesn't seem like the Collectors to just retreat or hide." They were just drones, completely fearless and unfeeling. They've had limited engagements with the Collectors, but out of those experiences, the Collectors have always fought to the death no matter how outmatched. For them to just completely change tactics was concerning.

"You've said they've never engaged a Human colony like this." Phoenix remarked. "So if they're changing the methods they use to take out Human colonies then it makes sense that they are changing their tactics to account for the change in battle doctrine."

It made sense, but then it all leads back to that question: why did the Collectors switch their doctrine?

"We shouldn't assume anything right now." Shepard said. "We keep moving and maintain our formation. But this change in tactics means we have no idea what to expect. Be ready for anything."

"Understood." Said Phoenix.

Shepard took point, leading everyone past the safety of the checkpoint and out in the open. They had nothing but the husks of cars and trucks for cover, and were surrounded by dozens of potential ambush points. Apartment buildings allowed the Collectors to engage them with the advantage of high ground in their favor.

As Shepard weaved through and around the wrecks, he found himself spooked by the situation. The Collectors took a potshot at Shepard and then ran away? Were they leading them into a trap?

"No visual on the assailants." Joel confirmed. "Negative contact."

"Hah." Zaeed chuckled. "So the bastards did run away."

Shepard heard something. What sounded like someone kicking a pebble. He froze. Shepard held up his fist, and everyone else froze as well. What was that? It sounded like it came from right in front of him, behind a car around fifteen meters away from him.

Shepard looked to his right and locked eyes with Phoenix. She nodded, and they slowly advanced towards the vehicle, Shepard approaching from the left and Phoenix from the right. He could feel his heart beating faster, his sixth sense going off, telling him that this is a trap.

The hit and run tactics, the retreating Collectors, now this? Something was going on.

Shepard matched his pace with Phoenix so that they'd reach the vehicle at the same time.

Come on, where are you hiding?

Both soldiers were about to reach the vehicle, stopping just before looking around it. Shepard looked at Phoenix, seeing her uneasiness. Phoenix looked back, and they shared a nod again. Both soldiers simultaneously moved, crossing the remaining two meter distance as quickly as possible and sticking their rifles around the husk of the vehicle.

They found nothing.

"What the fuck?" Said Phoenix, perplexed. "You heard that too, right?"

"I did." Shepard responded, the uneasiness getting worse and worse.

Suddenly, a bright flash of red light caught Shepard's attention, he followed the source, looking up in the sky as he did so. His eyebrows raised in surprise as he noticed a flare lazily flying up into the sky.

"That's a flare!" Joel exclaimed. "That must be where some survivors are held up."

"Collectors are gonna be headin' there too." Zaeed muttered.

"Then that's where we're fucking going!" Growled Jack, eager to find some Collectors to take her unadulterated anger on.

The sound of footsteps caused Shepard's heart to skip a beat. He spun around to his right along with Phoenix and pointed their weapons towards the entrance of an apartment building. It was dark inside, impossible to see if anything was looking back at them.

But that wasn't the problem. The sound was too loud for it to be from within the building. There was something else on the sidewalk, Shepard noticed. He couldn't really describe what he was looking at other than it looked like a subtle distortion in reality. It looked a little like heat radiating off of sand or asphalt but less natural. The ex-Spectre squinted his eyes in confusion; it wasn't even hot enough for such a natural phenomenon to be present.

Then the realization hit him, and Shepard's eyes widened. The enemy didn't retreat and hide.

They've been here this whole time.

"Contact!" Shepard roared. Time seemed to move a little slower than usual. He had his rifle in his hands, ready to engage the threat, but will the weapon kill the target fast enough? He didn't know if the enemy already had their sights lined up on them, so it was entirely possible that the unknown hostile could kill Shepard or someone else before Shepard's rifle could chew through the kinetic barriers and armor.

The Commander's brain was on overdrive, and he settled for what he thought was the best option.

His left hand glowed with ebon blue energy, and he lashed out towards what he thought was the enemy. A powerful wave of energy slammed into a physical form and launched it into the concrete wall behind it. There was a heavy 'thud' and suddenly, the distortion, so subtle that even Shepard's well trained eyes could barely see it, materialized into a Collector.

With practiced ease, Shepard shouldered his rifle and opened fire, tearing into the Collector's chest and killing it.

"The motherfuckers can cloak now?!" Said Marcus, who was absolutely in disbelief.

Before anyone could respond. Gunfire erupted around them, Shepard dove behind cover. He looked around him, spotting several muzzle flashes originating from the windows of the apartment buildings.

Shepard cursed; so this was a trap.

"Multiple enemy contacts, all directions!" Joel yelled amidst the ensuing cacophony.

"They're cloaked too! Hostile visibility is low!" Gunther replied.

Shepard sent short controlled bursts downrange towards one of the visible muzzle flashes, but even if the enemy had no cloaking, they had them completely surrounded. They had to get out of here.

"Jack! Biotic barrier now!" Shepard said with a tone that brooked no argument even from the normally argumentative biotic. "Form up around Jack, we're falling back to the end of the street!"

"Copy that!" Phoenix responded.

Everyone formed up around Jack who had erected a sizable bubble of blue biotic energy around the team. The barrier rippled like water from impacts of the Collectors' weapons.

"Move, move! Before we get overwhelmed!" Shepard roared. The entire team's pace turned into a full run, not even bothering to fight back against the Collectors. Under normal circumstances, running in the open in an active combat zone was suicidal, even with the benefit of biotics. But given the fact that they were surrounded on all sides with no cover to protect them from the enemy above, this option was better than spending longer periods of time taking shots from the ever-present Collectors.

"Contacts nine O'clock high!" Reported Phoenix. "They're massing on our position!"

"Faster guys!" Shepard urged.

They were now fifty meters out from the apartment, probably the only safe haven they had now, if it could even be called that.

"Can't hold this up for much longer Shepard!" Said Jack, straining to even speak.

"Almost there!" He encouraged.

"Fuck, fuck, fuck!"

Calm down, Joel.

As they drew closer, the building's windows lit up with their own muzzle flashes, sending fire downrange towards the Collectors and not them. Shepard allowed himself to smile a little bit as they drew closer and closer with enemy fire becoming more and more accurate.

The door to the building opened, and an Alliance marine emerged, firing his weapon towards the insectoid menace.

"Get the fuck in now!" He screamed. He didn't need to tell him twice. Shepard was the first one in, he stuck his rifle out of one of the windows and sent short controlled bursts into one of the adjacent apartment buildings. The rest of the team joined in moments later and sure enough the entire building was putting out a steady stream of gunfire where ever the Collectors made their presence known.

Then just like that, the Collectors stopped firing, Shepard called for a ceasefire once more, but no one spoke, making sure that the Collectors didn't attack again. The silence persisted for a few minutes more, but to Shepard that was worse than if the Collectors came back for more. He knew that those cloaked bastards were still out there. They had no way of knowing how many they killed or if they killed any at all.

"Looks like we're good." One of the marines said.

"Calvin? You're still alive, huh?" Phoenix said, relieved.

"Lt?, son of a bitch it's good to see you." The man chuckled and held out his fist. Phoenix smiled and then bumped it with her own.

"It's good to see you too, all of you." She said to the half dozen new marines.

Shepard looked around the interior of the building. It was a small, square lobby. Behind the semi-circular desk in the center of the room was a pair of elevators to the left of an emergency staircase. Aside from that, the room was bland, and if it wasn't from the rays of sunlight shining through the windows, it would have been shrouded in darkness.

The marine, who Shepard recognized as a sergeant, regarded Shepard and his team for a few moments. "Cerberus, huh? Linked up with a few strays a few clicks back. Said they were looking for you, Shepard." Shepard's eyes widened in surprise. They found some of his team? Who? How?

Before Shepard could ask any questions, the marine went to the staircase and cupped a hand around his mouth. "Hey! Get your asses down here! Found more of you Cerberus bastards!"

There was a moment of silence before Shepard could hear several pairs of footsteps getting closer. Shepard watched the stairs intently, and failed to keep the smile from reaching his lips as Garrus, Miranda, Thane, and Samara made their way down the stairs.

Upon seeing Shepard, Miranda sighed in relief and Garrus spread his mandibles in a characteristic smile. Even the usually unexpressive Thane and Samara wore very subtle smiles.

"I'm glad that you guys managed to stay above ground." Shepard said, relieved. "How's everyone?"

"Ah, you know, kicking ass and taking names. Mostly thanks to me of course." Garrus glanced over at Miranda. "Don't get me wrong you guys helped… sort of… made for some nice distractions, I guess."

"Yeah bullshit, can't carry a team when you're hiding behind that sniper of yours as always, bird brain." Grunt chuckled

Miranda rolled her eyes in exasperation. "We're all fine." She said, straight to the point as always. "Minor injuries, we can still fight. You?"

"Minor shoulder wound, we're good." Shepard frowned, as the team was still three members short. "Have you guys seen Tali, Jacob, and Kasumi?"

Garrus' head hung low and Miranda frowned. "No." Garrus spoke for everyone else. "Not since we were separated."

"Shit." Shepard clenched his teeth. He had no way of knowing where they were at, if they were separated or together, or even if they were alive. Shepard shook himself from those thoughts. They had to be out there somewhere, he just knew it. But right now, there was nothing they could do to help them.

"We've been having the same problem." Said the marine sergeant, Calvin. "Got split up in the early stages of the attack, we barely had enough time to grab the bare essentials in terms of equipment before they were on top of us."

Shepard nodded. "Collector's rely on striking hard and fast before any effective defense can be mounted. But they usually disable and kidnap a planet's population, not wage a conventional war."

"How?" Asked a confused marine. "How could they kidnap an entire colony?"

"Seekers swarms." It was Garrus that responded. "Large swarms of insects latch onto you and put you in stasis, Collectors grab you and take you off world. As for why? Who knows."

"Jesus." Calvin said. "You guys have seen that shit?"

"Through surviving surveillance footage, yes." Miranda said. "They are very good at deleting evidence of their arrival, but not perfect."

"It's a little hard to believe."

"I know." Shepard said. "Even harder to prove their existence to the galaxy and the Alliance."

"We should worry about that later." Suggested Phoenix, swapping out thermal clips. "Does anyone have any idea what those cloaked fucks are and why we're just encountering them now?"

"We don't know." Miranda said, Shepard could see from the clenched jaws that Miranda was annoyed at the lack of knowledge. Her line of work required having access to as much valuable information as possible and so the woman dedicated much of her time to scavenging up any possible intel through essentially whatever means possible. It was invaluable in most cases, though rather annoying when it came to jeopardizing the privacy of the Normandy's crew. Shepard and Miranda argued often about that, though the Cerberus operative eventually gave in to Shepard's authority.

"What we do know is that their tactics involve waiting for survivors to exit the safety of any fortified position and then ambushing them when they're out in the open."

"Saw it happen to another squad of marines." Whispered Calvin, almost fearfully. "They weren't that far in front of us when they were cut down. The only thing that gave away the Collectors was the muzzle flashes. It's damn near impossible to see the faint shimmers of the optical cloaking. When we retreated into one of the buildings, they stopped."

"They resumed their aggressive behavior once we exited the safety of these ruins." Samara finished.

"Fuckin' creepy." One of the marines commented.

"It sounds like they were following you." Gunther remarked.

"Hunter killer units." Said Shepard. "Trying to root out the survivors."

He sighed; things just had to get worse, didn't they? Still, Shepard looked around the room, their numbers have gone up quite drastically now that they've found more survivors. Originally, there were eight of them. Now, with the addition of six additional marines along with Miranda, Garrus, Thane, and Samara, there were eighteen of them.

Shepard liked these odds better.

"You guys saw the flare, right?" Shepard asked.

"We did." Calvin responded. "We were about to head over there before we heard the gunfire and saved your asses."

Shepard nodded, satisfied that everyone seemed to be of the same mindset; there's strength in numbers.

"Ok, let's get over there then." Shepard said. "We saw the flare and so did the Collectors, that gunfire in the distance? That's the sound of those survivors clinging on to life. They launched that flare for a reason: they're desperate and see no other way out. We're gonna give them that way out."

He paused and looked around the room, making sure everyone was paying attention. Some of the individuals present looked apprehensive, worried. Some, like Grunt and Zaeed, looked eager. Jack looked angry as usual. But everyone was listening with rapt attention. Good.

"We can't afford to get bogged down in a firefight before making it. There's no telling how many of those cloaked bastards are following us right now. Could be a platoon or a whole damn battalion. Either way, you stay in the damn buildings at all cost. If we need to cross then we do so cautiously with everyone covering every damn sector imaginable. Got it?" Everyone nodded without saying a word.

"Miranda, your team will bring up the rear. You'll be team 2. My team, team 1, will take point and watch our twelve. Phoenix, you and your marines will be team 3 and in the middle. But be damn sure to watch every other angle. If you see anything suspicious you call it out immediately. I have a feeling that there's more going on out here than just invisible Collectors. Any questions?"

"We gonna fucking go or just sit on our asses all day?" Growled Jack.

Shepard smirked. "Get in position, and let's haul ass."

There was no argument there. The large team assembled together, forming a long line of spaced out individuals that would comb through all the narrow hallways and small rooms as they made their way towards the isolated survivors. This was the largest ground team that Shepard found himself in command of for quite some time. Granted, these marines were simply putting themselves under his command as they understood the desperate situation that they found themselves in and that Shepard was the best leader to get them out of it alive.

Under normal circumstances, they would have climbed up the building to assume the high ground, an advantage that any soldier with a handful of brain cells must always fight for. In this case, they needed to move from building to building, from cover to cover.

This, of course, presented the problem of crossing streets. Urban warfare was chaotic. There's always dozens of possible angles in any given area that the enemy could engage from. Windows and doors in apartment buildings, piles of rubble or vehicles in the streets. Shepard remembers a few instances of mercenaries and slavers hiding in manholes, waiting for the right moment to pop out and kill any unaware soldiers. It was a common tactic he witnessed when combatting organizations like the Blue Suns or the various Batarian Hegemony sanctioned slave groups. Annoying bastards may not have the best training, but damn did they know how to dig themselves in like ticks.

"Hold position." Shepard said, raising his fist as he did so. They have reached their first obstacle; a small road separating their building from the one across from it. He shouldered his rifle and crouched low, trying to make himself as small a target as possible as he poked his weapon around the corner of the building's entrance.

He frowned and felt a pang of sadness as he noticed the few dozen bodies spread out on the ground, he only noticed a few of them were soldiers. So much senseless death, so many innocent lives snuffed out.

He did his best to ignore the tragic scene, the blood and the gore, and looked around their surroundings. He made note of the building across from them, a small two storey clinic leading towards additional apartment buildings. To the left was a small corner store and to the right were several small businesses. Convenience stores, small time clubs, and a bar. These were places that people would congregate to enjoy themselves, take a break from life, not anymore.

"We'll cross one team at a time." Shepard said. "Team one's moving."

Shepard left the safety of the apartment building with Zaeed, Jack, and Grunt in tow. They ran across the street, trying to limit their exposure time as much as possible. Too long, and they risk getting gunned down by the Collectors.

Shepard allowed himself to sigh in relief as they made it across the street with no issue. Shepard and his team readied their weapons and prepared themselves to cover the other teams. The ex-Spectre stuck only the tip of his muzzle out the door and no more, he didn't want to give his position away by exposing his weapon. Shepard could make out Phoenix crouched partially behind the door across the street. He gestured to her, and the woman repeated the gesture to the marines behind her. The ten of them ran across the street.

But before they could cover the distance, gunfire erupted from several angles, in the apartment buildings and even from the corner store next to the clinic. Shepard's breath caught in his throat as one of the marines fell, but quickly picked himself up and continued running.

"Contacts, covering fire!" Shepard commanded.

He and his team opened fire at whatever positions they could see the Collectors' muzzle flashes.

Miranda and her team moved just outside the door and joined in, opening fire towards the Collectors and trying to keep their heads down so that the marines could cross the street.

Shepard moved to the right of the clinic's entrance and smashed the window with the butt of his rifle he leaned out of the window, exposing himself to the enemy. From the corner store the Commander could see a muzzle flash originating from within the building, the tell tale sign of a cloaked Collector. Shepard scoffed and primed a grenade, he carefully lobbed the grenade through the window. The explosive flew through its intended trajectory, clattered against the ground, and exploded with a heavy 'thump'.

The gunfire from the store stopped, and so did the gunfire from the other positions. It was over as quickly as it had started. The suddenness at which the gunfire ended was unnerving to the Commander. Shepard turned towards the marines, he did a headcount, and nodded to himself; everyone made it.

"Anyone injured?" Shepard asked.

"I got grazed in the thigh." One of the marines said, wincing as he applied medigel to the wound. "Just a flesh wound, I can fight."

Shepard nodded, and then motioned to Miranda. He knew that the Collectors were waiting for them to cross, but this time they had Samara, a biotic more than powerful enough to defend them with her biotic barrier. They sprinted across the street with Samara in the middle providing them with that protection. But unlike what Shepard was expecting, the Collectors didn't fire.

Not that Shepard was complaining, but it made him worried that the enemy was smart enough and disciplined enough to pick and choose what targets to engage and what targets to not engage.

"Guess the Collectors were too scared of me to shoot at us." Garrus chuckled quietly to himself.

"Let's keep moving." Shepard urged.

"Fuck sake." One of the marines grumbled. "I might get sent to an early grave if we have to deal with this shit every single time we cross the damn road."

"No other way man, just gotta keep moving."

"Yeah I fucking know that. Doesn't make it any better."

"Swear to god when I get my hands on those Collectors they're gonna wish they never set foot on this planet."

Shepard listened to the banter among the marines, and despite the situation, couldn't help but smile a little. It reminded him so much of his old life serving in the Alliance military. The light-hearted jabs and jokes exchanged back and forth, the complaints exchanged back and forth about the horrible situations they found themselves in. He met a lot of men and women in the military, and formed the strongest bonds with them, something that no one else can understand. They were brothers and sisters in arms. He cared a lot about his new family aboard the Normandy, and would do anything for them. But a small part of him missed his old life.

Things were simpler back then.

"Another road." Shepard said, raising his fist as he did so. He squinted his eyes as he peered through the sunlight, looking up towards the rooftops. This area of the city would have been more densely populated due to the larger number of apartment buildings.

"Watch for snipers." Shepard said. "This place looks like prime real estate for those assholes."

"Would be easier to spot them if the bastards weren't invisible." Zaeed quietly murmured behind him.

Shepard frowned, fearing that another ambush was inevitable. His team had Jack and Miranda's team had Samara, but what about the marines? Shepard has biotics and so does Miranda, both were exceptional but nowhere near as powerful as Jack and Samara. Still, should be enough to cover a small three person team while the two biotic heavy hitters cover the marines.

"We're gonna have to switch tactics." Shepard suggested. He turned to face everyone behind him, moving back as he did so allowing for Jack, Zaeed, and Grunt to watch the street.

"Samara, Jack, I need you two to stay with the marines and combine your biotic barriers. Should be more than enough to shrug off any gunfire from the Collectors. Miranda and I will provide biotic support for our respective teams."

Everyone nodded, agreeing with the plan. Some of the marines seemed relieved at the prospect of having additional protection, and grateful that Shepard was looking out for their well-being just as much as his own team.

Shepard's mindset was clear, no one was getting left behind or singled out. Everyone under his command was vital and he'll do whatever it took to get them out alive.

"What if they start using anti-tank weaponry against the barriers?" Asked Phoenix.

It was a fair point, and that idea had Shepard worried. He wasn't sure if Samara or Jack could deflect an anti tank missile with their barriers. He knew that Miranda and himself had a snowball's chance in hell of performing a feat like that.

"You better run fast." Was all Shepard said. It was honest and to the point, he won't make the effort of lying to these marines; even with the benefit of biotics, they were not invincible.

Shepard returned back to the front. "You ready?" He whispered to Zaeed and Grunt. They nodded, Zaeed with a grumble of annoyance and Grunt with a predatory grin, of course he was excited about running through a hail of gunfire.

Shepard raised the biotic barrier and immediately felt his energy sapping. Biotics were useful but they required a lot of energy to use. The average biotic could only use their abilities a handful of times in combat before needing sustenance and rest. Biotics, as a result, suffered during long term engagements unless they restricted their usage of their biotics.

Shepard and his team crossed the street with no trouble and entered the adjacent apartment. Not a single shot was fired. Strange. Shepard sighed, dreading what was to come. He signaled to Lieutenant Phoenix, and she and her marines sprinted across the street with Samara and Jack providing them with protection. The pair of ebon blue bubbles overlapped with each other, looking almost like a pair of cells in the process of separating during their replication process.

Amazingly, the Collectors didn't open fire, surprising Shepard, and also worrying him. They were stalking them, waiting for them to make a mistake and then strike when they were at their weakest. Clever bastards.

Miranda, Garrus, and Thane followed suit and made it safely across.

Everyone took a moment to collect themselves.

"Well." Garrus said, panting from the exertion of sprinting across the street weighed down by his equipment. "Sounds like the Collectors aren't so interested in us."

"Nah, those bastards are still out there." Calvin said apprehensively.

"They must be waiting for our biotics to tire out, then."

"Yeah, I was thinking the same thing." Shepard commented. "We need to link up with those survivors before that happens."

The next half an hour happened much the same way. They covered ground slowly, moving team by team and always under biotic protection. Not once did the Collectors open fire, not once did they run into any conventional forces, Shepard suspected that they might be engrossed in the distant fighting.

Shepard knew they were out there, he could feel their eyes on him at all times. It was unnerving. The silence was unnerving as they swept through rooms and hallways, and even as they sprinted across the streets, with the dead lying there in mute witness, the only sounds coming from their boots striking asphalt as they frantically made their way from cover to cover, lest they get gunned down by the ever watchful cloaked Collectors.

With each use of his biotics, Shepard could feel fatigue setting in, the feeling of exhaustion becoming more and more noticeable.

The setting reminded Shepard of the countless night time exfiltrations he had performed with his N7 teams, moving from cover to cover under the cover of night as well armed and well equipped criminals desperately tried to hunt them down.

Only this wasn't during the night, and the enemy was not only constantly aware of their position, but also many times more dangerous than those petty criminals ever were.

They crossed the last street, and made their way into a small five storey residential building. Now the gunfire was deafening. They had finally reached the epicenter of the fighting, and as far as they were concerned, quite possibly the last pocket of resistance they were aware of.

"Take positions! We're going loud!" Shepard ordered. He flew up the stairs to the fifth floor and slammed through one of the doors into a small, cramped living room. The Commander mounted his rifle on the window and took stock of the situation. The fighting was happening around a large roundabout, and the place was absolutely annihilated. To the right an entire city block was reduced to smoldering piles of rubble, smashed to dust by what had to have been an airstrike.

There were no signs of life over there as far as the Commander was concerned.

To the left, on the other side of the roundabout, as a large apartment building. From within, he could make out a handful of muzzle flashes originating from some of the windows. The middle of the roundabout…. It was a massacre… but not for Humanity.

There were dozens of Collector corpses strewn around the battlefield. He had yet to see the insectoid aliens take so many casualties over the course of this invasion.

"Someone was busy." Garrus remarked from beside Shepard. "Spirits…"

"Holy shit!" Phoenix said from the kitchen window on the left. "Look at that thing! Ten O'clock low!"

Shepard followed her directions, and widened his eyes as he saw a massive Praetorian corpse with a hole burned right through it.

"That's a Praetorian." Shepard said. "Think of it as the Collector's heavy armor." Those bastards were heavily armored and packed a punch. The Mako in the center of the battlefield with a pair of holes burned into its armor was a testament to the latter.

"Six must be here." She said. "No one else could have done this."

Shepard felt both nervous and eager to meet this enigma. Eager to meet someone that could kill the Collectors so effectively and nervous that they might become his next target.

The roundabout was still crawling with Collectors, dozens of them. Even with the augmented numbers, Shepard and his team were heavily outnumbered. But the Collectors were out in the open, and they had the benefits of having the high ground and a fortified position.

"Weapons free!" Shepard screamed, making sure his voice could be heard.

Just like that, eighteen individual weapons opened fire on the Collectors simultaneously. The effect was immediate as Collectors started dropping left, right, and center. Shepard sighted up one of the Collectors hiding behind the Mako, and squeezed the trigger. Years of experience made sure the rounds found their mark, and shredded the Collector's organs like paper mache. The enemy collapsed.

He fired again, and again, killing the enemy one by one. Now the Collectors were focusing on them and Shepard ducked low as rounds flew over his head.

"Taking effective fire!" Yelled Phoenix angrily.

"I see him!" Garrus said. His sniper rifle barked, its noise easily distinguishable from the less powerful automatic weapons. "He's down!"

"Much obliged!"

"Hey! Hey! Collector assault teams trying to breach the survivors' position!" Called out Marcus. Shepard's eyes traveled towards the building's entrance, clenching his teeth in anger as a dozen Collectors started stacking up on the door.

Fuck off!

Shepard fired off into the crowd of aliens, gunning two of them down before the rest rushed into the building, probably realizing it was safer in there than out in the open. What caught Shepard off guard, was the door suddenly exploded, sending some of the Collectors tumbling back out the door and landing on the ground. Their limbs went limp like wet noodles as they landed sprawled out on the ground.

"They using tripwire traps down there?" Garrus mused aloud.

"Must be." Shepard agreed. "Anti personnel mines aren't that powerful and that explosion was too small to be a demo charge."

These people were pretty crafty, Shepard had to admit.

The remaining Collectors congregating around the doorway collapsed one by one in quick succession, and then the next thing that happened, made Shepard's jaw hit the floor.

A blur streaked out of the doorway and made impact with a Collector, sending its headless corpse flying through the air. Shepard caught a glimpse of what did it, and his breath caught in his throat.

It was Six. The giant stature, the heavy jet black power armor, and the emotionless golden visor. The giant soldier's weapon barked, dropping Collectors alarmingly quick before blurring out of existence.

He seemed to be in multiple locations at once, downing Collectors with gunfire and what looked to be unarmed combat. Whenever Six got close to the Collectors, there was an instant where he became a blur of unimaginably fast movements, and then a second instant where the Collector came out of the encounter as a mutilated corpse. Limbs were torn off and skulls were separated or even removed entirely in some cases.

The few times that the Collectors' aim was true, his armored form was engulfed in a brilliant gold light from what Shepard could only assume wasn't a run of the mill kinetic barrier.

"Oh my god…" Shepard whispered to himself, unable to come to terms with what he was witnessing.

The scale of the massacre that had befallen the Collectors, it made sense. No platoon of Alliance marines could have done this. It was Six, from the moment that flare was launched into the sky and certainly before that, the Spartan had been brutally purging Collector troops in a bid to buy Phoenix and her marines the time they needed to prevent vital intel from falling into Collector hands.

How long had he been slaughtering the Collectors for?

Witnessing this horror show chilled Shepard's blood. If this is what he could do to the Collectors, then what could he have done to Shepard and his friends?

The spectacle was so surreal, so impossible, that all of the eighteen combatants momentarily stopped shooting to get a better look.

Phoenix chuckled. "There he is. There's that crazy bastard." She said with a grin.

"Now the Collectors are fucked!" One of the marines yelled from the floor below Shepard's. "Look at him go! Fucking hell!"

"I can barely… see him… spirits."

Shepard noticed a glint of light in the distance, all the way on the other side of the roundabout across from them.

Shepard recognized the glint of a sniper's scope when he saw one.

"Sniper! Twelve O'clock-" The sniper fired and the round struck true, zipping past Shepard and striking Garrus in the chest. The Turian collapsed with a gasp of pain.

"Shit! Garrus is down! Suppressive fire on that sniper!" The entire team opened fire on the enemy sniper as Shepard grabbed Garrus and propped him up against the wall.

"Garrus! Breath Garrus breath!" Shepard pleaded. The Turian gripped the ex-Spectre's forearm, looked into his eyes, and smiled.

"Heh, don't look so worried, I'm fine. I'm the one that took a rocket to the face, remember?"

Shepard scowled. "Now's not the time for that, you're bleeding." The round hit Garrus in the center of the chest and went all the way through, though it was a little too high so it has a lower probability of hitting vital organs. He was glad that that was a mass accelerator and not a bullet that could tumble around inside its target and generally cause more internal damage.

"I'll be fine, let me return that asshole the favor and then I'll patch myself up." He grunted, sitting up and grabbing his rifle.

Shepard cursed himself for allowing himself to get so easily distracted like that, if he was focused then he would have spotted the sniper and Garrus wouldn't have gotten hit.

Shepard heard the enemy sniper fire again.

"Man down! Tyler is down!" One of the marines screamed from the fourth floor. Shepard clenched his teeth

"Make it count." Shepard said, the Turian nodded and the both of them shouldered their respective weapons.

Garrus propped up his rifle, wincing as he did so, something that did not go unnoticed by the former N7 commander.

Shepard sent suppressive fire downrange in the general direction of the sniper.

"I can't see the bastard." Garrus grunted. "Come on…"

The scope glint returned, and Garrus responded immediately, firing three rounds into the sniper.

"Got him!" He said. He sat down and began the process of treating his wounds.

"Sniper's down!" Shepard reported.

It took Shepard a moment to realize that in the span of time it took for them to find and eliminate that sniper, Six was busy wiping out the last of the Collectors, it only took a few minutes of sustained fire from Shepard's team, the survivors, and the shear brutality from the giant soldier to eliminate the last of the resistance.

Shepard shook his head in disbelief, it was time to say hello to tall, dark, and mysterious.

Shepard made his way quickly to the fourth floor, he moved into one of the rooms where two marines and Thane surrounded a marine slumped against the wall, the man's fate obvious. Shepard closed his eyes momentarily, ignoring the feeling of anger coursing through his veins.

That was on him.

Phoenix entered shortly after. "What's Tyler's status? Is he-" She stopped herself as she entered the room and laid eyes on the limp body.

"Fuck!" She yelled. "Son of a bitch!"

"C'mon." Shepard said. "We should get out of here before more show up. I'll grab him, no one gets left behind."

Phoenix nodded. "Let me go first, best if he sees a familiar face first."

Shepard slung the body over his shoulder and followed Phoenix and her marines out of the building.

They exited the building and moved quickly through the open ground. In the distance, Shepard could see the intimidating form of the Spartan staring at them as they drew closer.

"Good to see you, Six." Phoenix said. The marines and the more disciplined members of the Normandy filed past the Spartan, taking up positions around the Mako wreckage. Garrus stared at the Spartan with barely concealed awe and fear while Grunt and Jack glared at the hulking super soldier. "You've been… busy." She hesitated, staring at the Collectors' corpses.

"Was the data purge successful?" The Spartan inquired in a powerful, monotone voice.

"Affirmative, everything on the servers has been wiped. We owe you for that distraction."

The helmeted head nodded once, before locking onto Shepard. He could feel a pair of eyes scanning him from beneath that visor, Shepard did his best not to wither under the gaze.

"Six." Shepard nodded. "Wish we could have met under better circumstances but I'm glad that we've found ourselves on the same side."

The Spartan simply nodded. Prompting Shepard to frown, he wasn't very talkative.

"My team got separated in the early stages of the attack." The former N7 operative revealed. "We managed to link up for the most part but we're short three people, two Humans and a Quarian. Did you managed to see them?"

"Affirmative." The soldier simply said, causing Shepard's heart to skip a beat. Before he was able to ask who and where they were, a familiar accented voice drew his attention.

"Shepard! You're alive! You're all alive!" Shepard turned to the source of the voice, eyes widening in disbelief as Tali, followed by Jacob and Kasumi, both of which were limping, exited the building that the Collectors were originally assaulting.

The Commander couldn't help but chuckle as he felt relief wash over him. Everyone was alive, a little banged up, but alive and together.

"God, I'm so glad you guys made it out." Shepard smiled. He noticed Tali's slumped shoulders.

"Everything okay, Tali?" Shepard inquired apprehensively.

The Quarian hung her head low, hesitating.

"Well… I just thought you guys didn't make it and… there were some marines with us… we couldn't save them." Shepard frowned. He suspected that Tali and Kasumi wouldn't be taking this situation well. Out of everyone on the Normandy, they were the most sensitive and least experienced with respect to frontline combat. The past few hours must have been difficult for them.

"Hey." Shepard said. "We're all here. Everyone's alive, that's what matters." Jacob limped over to the Quarian and put a gentle hand on her shoulder.

"You saw how many Collectors there were out there." He said softly. "The odds were stacked against us and there was nothing that we could have done for them. All things considered, we did well to survive like that."

"We wouldn't have made it if it wasn't for Six." Kasumi said, she smiled a little. "You guys should have seen the show he put on. Poor bugs didn't stand a chance."

"Oh, we saw it alright. Good to know that you guys had someone looking over you." Garrus said.

Jacob laughed despite the depressing scenery around them. "I almost felt bad for those bastards. If the Collectors had bowels and ate then the asphalt around us would have gotten a nice brown paint job. Now that's the smell of victory I wouldn't mind having right now!" Some of the marines laughed.

Shepard turned towards the towering Spartan, who was silently scanning the environment around them, always maintaining a watchful eye of their surroundings.

"Six." Shepard said, earning the Spartan's attention. "Thank you, for saving my friends. You didn't have to throw yourself at the Collectors like that, and yet you did. I'm in your debt."

The Spartan nodded. "The Collectors have deployed cloaked special forces units." He said, changing the topic. "Have you encountered them?"

Phoenix spoke before Shepard could respond. "Yeah, tricky bastards spent the better part of over an hour stalking us as we made our way to your position, only engaging us when we're exposed."

Collector troops aren't exactly the most intelligent of enemies Shepard has ever fought. But they were durable, had the benefit of superior firepower, and often came in large numbers. Now that the Collectors are fielding special forces level troops with enough intellect to stalk targets and maintain enough discipline to engage said targets when they are in vulnerable positions, they'll need to rethink their strategy.

"We've engaged Collector forces only a handful of times." Shepard said. The Spartan's visor turned to stare at him as he spoke. "This is the first time we've ever seen this type of enemy before." It was unnerving, looking at the visor. He couldn't see a face, didn't know what the Spartan was thinking, he didn't even know what lies underneath that visor. All he could see was his own reflection enshrined in that hexagonal golden visor.

"It is possible that this Collector invasion is retaliation for your actions against their operations." The Spartan stated confidently. "These specialized units could fill in several roles, including but not limited to, sabotage, reconnaissance, and assassination."

It was the last one that made Shepard antsy. Assassination? Was this whole invasion an attempt by the Collectors to eliminate Shepard and his team?

"So you think the Collectors were trying to kill my team and I?"

Six nodded. " I've been informed that your team is the only group of individuals actively engaging the Collectors." Shepard looked towards Tali, Kasumi, and Jacob. He wasn't sure if it was the best idea for them to divulge this information to Six, but he figured he'd let it slide. Kasumi smiled sheepishly, and Shepard resisted the urge to roll his eyes,

"The invasion itself could have served more than one role." The Spartan continued, maintaining his cold, professional mannerism as he spoke. "This attack could have been initiated to act as a distraction, a test of Systems Alliance capabilities before the real invasion starts, as well as a sudden change in tactics to throw off future investigation by other parties or in the event that your team survives the assassination attempt."

Shepard frowned. That was a lot to take in, especially coming from a stranger that supposedly comes from another galaxy. He could see what Phoenix was trying to say. It seems like this guy's got a lot of experience in these things. Shepard was surprised that the Spartan didn't seem to be dismissing the existence of the Reapers. How the hell could an outsider remain so open minded when the damn Council can't? Shepard supposed the answer was obvious; he's seen some shit in his life. The ex-Spectre wondered what that might have been. Well, it didn't matter now, it was time to focus on the task at hand.

"What proof do you have?" Miranda interrogated. "That's quite a claim. How do you know that the Collectors have had their eyes on us this whole time?"

"Personal experience."

"What might that be?"

"Classified."

Miranda growled softly. "That's not very helpful."

"You should consider all possibilities." Six said, turning to Shepard as he did so, which suggested that this was a message to the Commander. "Study all possible approaches, all possible scenarios, and develop contingencies for them all. Assume the enemy is watching you, and assume they know everything."

Shepard considered the Spartan's words, believing that he stood in the presence of a veteran of war that could teach him a lot. "And what about the Collectors here? Sounds like our best bet is to hold out until reinforcements arrive." A loud roaring sound was heard emanating in the distance. It sounded like aircraft engines. Sure enough, in the distance, Shepard could make out a dozen or so large dropships leaving the surface of the planet with many more heading from the Collector ship down to the planet.

They looked like giant wingless wasps, suspiciously very similar to Geth dropships.

"They are retreating." Six said.

"How can you be so certain?" Samara questioned.

"Maintain this defensive position." Six ordered, he turned to face Shepard once more. "What is the name of your ship?"

How did you know?

"It's the SR-2 Normandy." The Spartan nodded, he looked up towards the Collector ship, both Shepard and Phoenix caught on to what the Spartan was planning.

"Oh no! No, no!" Phoenix said angrily. "You are not going to try and board that ship, are you crazy!? You're gonna get yourself killed!"

"Once I get aboard the ship, I will contact the Normandy and inform them of your situation." He turned to leave.

"Is he fucking crazy?" Shepard heard one of the marines whisper in disbelief.

"You saw what he did to the Collectors, right?"

"Dude look at the size of that ship! He may be the most amazing soldier I've ever seen but he's not that good!"

Shepard tuned out the banter and watched in disbelief as the soldier turned around and left, willing to through himself up against suicidal odds without hesitation. Why?

"Six wait!" Tali said. "You can't do this! There's thousands of Collectors in there."

"Focus on your mission." The soldier deadpanned in a tone that brooked no argument. "I'll focus on mine."

"And how do you propose on getting to that ship anyways?" Miranda questioned, almost condescendingly. "What are you doing?"

"Hitching a ride."

Before anyone could say anything more, the soldier became little more than a blur, sprinting across the open ground, kicking up dust and leaving massive boot prints in the ground.

Shepard shook his head in a mixture of disbelief and sadness. While Six may have been the reason that Shepard and his crew were detained, he was also the reason why Tali, Kasumi, and Jacob were alive. He was the reason why Phoenix and her marines were able to destroy classified Alliance intel without too many Collectors breathing down their necks. The Spartan was a soldier the likes of which Shepard has never seen before and to see him so freely sacrifice himself was… sad.

"Thank you for saving us." He heard Tali whisper.

•••

The Collector presence was now essentially non-existent. Six tore through the streets with speed that only a Spartan could muster. He searched through buildings, crossed intersections and sprinted down entire city streets without encountering any enemy resistance or survivors. Yuri's hunch was right; the Collectors believe their job to be complete and are now in the process of retreating.

But, considering that the Collectors haven't sent forces to engage Shepard and his team, it could be possible that the Collectors believe they are out of time, which suggests that Alliance reinforcements will soon arrive. This is, ironically, concerning as it suggests that they are well acquainted with the military response time meaning they've been studying Humanity for quite some time.

Right now, that didn't matter. Spartan B-312 had an enemy ship to destroy. It wasn't his first time. The Spartan has destroyed his fair share of Covenant ships in the past. Usually these were special missions planned for in advance, and so the Spartan would bring a nuclear weapon onboard the ship to destroy it from the inside. Other times he'd sabotage the ship's reactor, which was more difficult but still possible to do.

Operation UPPERCUT was unique, the brainchild of Kat's genius. The plan was a testament to the UNSC's ability to improvise and the lengths at which Humanity would go to beat back the Covenant. It was also a testament to how desperate Humanity was, as at that time, the UNSC's seemingly limitless nuclear arsenal was either expended or needed elsewhere which was why Kat suggested the use of the improvised slipspace bomb in the first place.

The destruction of the Long Night of Solace, a 29 kilometer long Covenant supercarrier of unimaginable power, did little to deter the massive Covenant fleet that showed up in system moments later. It was the largest Covenant fleet that had been mustered against a Human world, and the second largest fleet that Six had seen, surpassed in size only by the fleet that accompanied High Charity to Installation 05 prior to the assassination of the Prophet of Regret at the hands of Six and the Master Chief.

Six frowned, as the memories briefly replayed in his mind. The sacrifice of the UNSC personnel, the UNSC Savannah… the sacrifice of Jorge-052, it was all for nothing, a common theme during the Human-Covenant war.

Yuri shook himself from those distracting thoughts, and was instantly back on mission. His objective was to make his way to the enemy ship and destroy it from the inside, to do that, he needed to board an enemy dropship. There were dozens of them in the sky, some were ascending back towards their mothership and others were heading down to the planet's surface, presumably to extract leftover hostile forces.

As the Spartan tore through the city streets, he noticed another detail. He was encountering less and less dead bodies as he continued combing through the city for an enemy dropship. The Spartan recalled earlier on in the assault when the Collectors were gathering Human dead and piling them in the road. But why? For what purpose would the Collectors want to gather Human dead? Jacob mentioned that the Collectors were kidnapping live Humans. Could the two events be related somehow?

Those were questions for another time. The hyper lethal crouched behind an overturned vehicle, and inclined his head upwards, observing the hostile air traffic. He watched the trajectories of the aircraft, trying to estimate where they would land relative to his position.

Suddenly, the Spartan heard gunfire in front of him. His visor zoomed in towards an intersection perhaps two hundred meters away from him. He followed the muzzle flashes towards an apartment building on the left side across the intersection. He could make out maybe half a dozen Alliance marines holed up inside. Yuri was surprised that there were more survivors out there, they must have been hiding, avoiding hostile contact before being spotted.

He zoomed in on their faces, noticing that most of them were quite young, probably seventeen or eighteen years old. One of them had a familiar face, and the Spartan instantly recognized him as the recruit that had taken him to and from Colonel Yan's office.

He frowned, they were young and inexperienced, outnumbered and outgunned. We wouldn't mind helping them… but he didn't have the time to. The mission comes first, always.

If his hunch was right, then the Collectors should be sending a dropship very soon to extract their forces. So, instead of heading over to the intersection, Six went right, entering a rather quaint office building and tearing his way up the stairs until he reached the rooftop. The Spartan was still almost a dozen rooftops down from where he wanted to be, fortunately, each of the buildings, around equal in height, were separated by only a few meters.

Yuri lept from rooftop to rooftop, moving faster than any Human had the right to. He reached his desired position in less than half a minute, and crouched down at the edge of the rooftop.

From up here, about a hundred meters above the combat zone, the super soldier could easily make out the Collectors exited from below him and moving towards the intersection, taking cover behind destroyed vehicles and sending suppressive fire towards the pinned down marines. No competent soldier would leave the safety of a fortified position like that, unless, perhaps, they were expecting an extraction.

The Spartan merely watched from above, not engaging the enemy, it would be foolish to give away his position. He needed to stay hidden for long enough for an enemy dropship to show up, then he would make his move.

So he waited, watching as the firefight continued for a few minutes. The Collectors didn't seem interested in killing the survivors, only in keeping their heads down long enough for extraction to arrive. Those marines were lucky, as even if it was obvious that the aliens were trying to kill them, the Spartan wouldn't have helped. It wasn't personal, and the Spartan did not relish such things, but sometimes these sacrifices were necessary for the success of the mission. It was a mentality that was ingrained in the minds of all of the Spartan IIs and IIIs.

The Spartan heard the loud roar of an engine pierce through the cacophony of combat, he followed the source to one of the strange dropships the Collectors employed. It looked like a giant wasp without wings, and was about as large as a Covenant phantom, maybe slightly larger.

The large aircraft perfectly positioned itself between the tall residential buildings over the intersection, directly below the Spartan. Without hesitation, Six jumped, activating his magnetic boots as he fell over fifty meters. Fifteen hundred pounds of Spartan collided with the armored hull of the ship with a deafening 'clang'. His boots dented the armor, leaving noticeable imprints in the metal. But other than that, he didn't budge.

He patiently waited, listening as the gunfire died down. Once the sounds of combat died off completely, he could feel the ship accelerating upwards. Six crouched low to lower his center of gravity, but pretty soon even that wasn't enough as the large dropship accelerated rapidly at high speed, taking the Spartan up to thousands of meters above the ground. The buildings looked like tiny ants at this altitude.

Six activated his life support systems as they reached the stratosphere, and the blue sky began to make way for the inky blackness of space. In the distance, he could see the massive Collector ship, now having left the atmosphere of the planet.

He turned on his comms. "SR-2 Normandy, this is Spartan B-312, how copy?"

He waited, not sure if the Normandy would even respond to the Spartan if they were in communications range.

"SR-2 Normandy, this is Spartan B-312, do you read me?" He waited a few moments for a response.

"Yeah, I read you." Six heard a male voice from the other hand, strangely lacking the formality that the Spartan was expecting. "You mind telling me who the hell this is and how do you know about us?"

"SR-2 Normandy, I am contacting you at the behest of Commander Shepard. His team has linked up with marine forces and requires support. Head to these coordinates once the Collector vessel has been eliminated." Yuri sent the appropriate coordinates of Shepard's current position. "Out." He cut off the communications before the man could respond.

Normally, attempting to communicate openly like that would be foolish and irresponsible as the Collector vessel could be listening in, but with the Spartan rapidly approaching the cruiser, it won't be a problem soon.

This time, he'd be engaging the Collectors on their home turf. There will be thousands of them on this vessel, and he'll need to engage them in a close quarters environment. For the first time since meeting this new enemy, the odds are finally turning slightly in their favor.

But as the dropship finally docked inside of the massive, chitinous looking hangar bay, the Spartan knew deep down…

Those odds won't matter.

•••

Fuck this chapter is long, and it took forever to write. Last chapter I wanted to start responding to some reviews but… I forgot to do that and just posted the chapter… if you could believe that.

So, first thing, let's try not to start a war in the chat and keep things civil, okay guys? Ghostly, normally I appreciate people giving me ideas, but this is too much. Please don't send me a dozen reviews over the span of a month filled to the brim with very specific ideas that I can only assume you expect me to follow to the letter. No author will do this. I can see you have a lot of ideas, have you considered making your own story with those ideas?

Anyways, let's talk about some other things. Firstly, bullet velocities. I'm not gonna give specific numbers because I feel that is a little too tedious but I do think that 26th century bullets should hit HARD. Several kilometers per second. I'll probably discuss the mechanisms by which the UNSC makes that happen but that will require some additional research. I love Halo lore, but some things are just stupid and make no sense. In what world does it make sense for the UNSC to still be using 21st century bullets when they have slipspace, smart AIs, and MAC guns just to name a few crazy things that 21st century science can't even come close to replicating. I think that is a discrepancy in the lore that is pretty dumb.

The idea of romance has been mentioned. I'm not planning on making this happen with Six. It just makes no sense. He witnessed his home get glassed and family butchered at the age of six, and then was indoctrinated into the Spartan III project where he was basically trained non stop from the age of six to twelve to filter out all emotions as much as possible. Not only did the traumatic events he witness destroy his Humanity, but he was trained and indoctrinated to actively filter it out in order to get the best results of whatever mission he is assigned. He was taught to think like a robot almost. Yes, he still feels emotion and knows why he fights, but the concept of love is extremely foreign to him, and it wouldn't be understood by him. Even if it was, he'd actively avoid those feelings because he'd think it would distract him from his purpose as a Spartan. He's too logical, too closed off, and lacking in the ability to understand these emotions to even consider being in a relationship with a Human nevermind an alien. Not to mention he was trained to actively filter out those emotions. Honestly, I'm also kind of sick of seeing countless stories with Spartans romancing other characters. I feel like it's an overdone cliche. Most of them are not even close to realistic…. Honestly if the character development was more realistic than it wouldn't be as big of a deal.

Of course, I can totally see Six becoming friends with some of the Normandy crew, it would just take a while. If Chief can become friends with the Arbiter in the games, then why can't Six become friends with members of the Normandy's crew? Just gotta make it realistic and believable you know? Which brings me to Six joining the Normandy. This isn't something that should happen right off the bat and it's annoying when it's portrayed as such. Six (or any Spartan for that matter) isn't one to trust easily, and so it will take some time for him to even consider joining Shepard. This will take some time, and it will be tricky for me to make this work but hopefully I'll figure it out.

I think that's about it for now. As always let me know how I did, the good, the bad, and the ugly. Thanks!