(Note)

"I HAVE RETURNED!" -broadcasted over the radio by General Douglas MacArthur, upon his landing in the Philippines.

I do not own Mass Effect or the Halo Franchise; neither do I own the Titanfall Franchise. All these universes respectively belong to Bioware/EA, Respawn Entertainment, and Microsoft/343 Industries.

Now ON WITH THE STORY!

Akron Khaspahal stared at the viewing screens of his meager command center. When the communications attack had occurred, he had the devices shut off and then isolated to a closed network, wiped, rebooted and partially reprogramed. This had taken just over forty-eight hours to complete and the Batarian General had found himself cut off from the rest of the planet's garrison. His four gleaming black eyes held a calculating gleam of a lifetime's worth of combat experience as he pondered the situation he was now in. He had mobilized his district's military garrison as soon as communications had gone to hell, ordering the power to be shut down on non-essential devices rather than let the pillars damned documentary distract his personnel from doing their duties.

It was the ones like General Akron who ensured the Hegemony's continued existence, trained and true veterans of war and rebel uprisings, Batarians such as Akron were spread thin throughout the Hegemony.

But they were not to be underestimated, Akron and the few that shared his experience were not given key positions in the Batarian military without good reason. Akron had been through hell, his blinding high-caste bred pride and superior than thou attitude had been destroyed in his first years of military service.

There were some warlords in the terminus who were worse than any slaver, and Akron had the distinct displeasure of having fought more than a few of them. He had learned that while Batarians were a superior species, any lesser creature could still easily kill you. Akron had learned that relying on firepower and undying patriotism to win all your battles was not always a wise way to win a conflict.

The old Batarian had watched as the new generation of the Hegemony's military had entered service, Young pups who were given excellent gear and not enough formal training, officer positions which were mostly used by political families to earn power and fame as well as occasionally hide one's shame.

But Akron had remained in the background, his experience passed down to his followers. His disgust of the new politicians in an officer's uniform had earned him a post on the smallest and most backwater of Logasiri's district territories. It had no strategic value other than the small robotic operated freshwater producing facilities, the water that they produced being piped directly to the mines and enviro-domes that needed them.

Now that his command center was back online (mostly) the Batarian General reviewed what information he had on the situation. Sensors on closed circuits had detected objects approaching orbit, they had impacted in the main districts.

The Main districts held the majority of the Planet's populace, and facilities… Akron was only in command of a small garrison, overseeing the mountain mining facilities that provided water and raw materials for building more Habitat domes.

Pulled from his thoughts by a courier with a data packet, Akron walked to the old holo-table in the middle of his makeshift command center and plugged the data packet into the table's computer. He had ordered his few tech specialists to find any important data on the objects that impacted right after the communications blackout… and it seems they had indeed found something.

Upon review Akron saw the packet held all the sorted available data on the unknown objects, the old Batarian skipped the numbers portion and went straight to what his tech specialists had flagged as priority information for his eyes only.

What he saw angered him greatly… it seemed that all the objects fell in a synched formation and entered the atmosphere in such a way as to survive the hard landing while remaining intact. A terminus faction had finally cracked the problems involved with drop orbital insertion and he was not pleased by their success.

Scrolling to the last piece of data General Akron opened an image file, it was taken by an older deep space telescope located among the mountain peaks. The telescope in question was not linked to a network but was in the private ownership of a Batarian official, a hobbyist at that.

Akron was not going to look a gift horse in the mouth, this file was labeled as the most important of the whole data packet. Opening it the General stared at an image of an object that was different than the others in the process of entering the atmosphere, its underside and protruding edges were bathed in fire. The object was but an armored egg, with open gaps in its upper shell closest to the stars that it was leaving behind for the planet below.

through those gaps, Akron saw the outlined bits of something that was possibly huge in stature, and in the middle most gap was one glowing eye seemingly staring back. Akron felt his fist clench in anger, storing his rage aside to fuel his focus on the task at hand. The old Batarian General let one word leave his clenched pointed teeth, a word that made all those in hearing give pause.

"Geth."

The Spartan ghosted through the alleys of Omega, there was no other way to describe it. He was not heard, he was not seen. His presence eluded all those that traversed the shadows about his person, his objective lay ahead.

The main data hub for Omega, located below the club known as Afterlife. A powerful thing clenched tightly in the grasp of Omega's self-styled Queen. Information and communication from the terminus warlords and their contacts on Omega flowed as water through this central hub, and with it tapped the things that council races failed to keep tabs on would become known to the Spartan and his digital partner.

The web would be woven and any threats that tweaked its strings would not go un-ignored, the Spartan knew that his AI companion believed she would face a future war of wills against a massive AI threat. This web would give her greater chances of defeating digital foes quickly and efficiently, a form of digital sniping in effect. The less contact made with the enemy the less they could learn of her… that was to be an advantage.

He would see to it.

Making his way past Aria T'Loaks guard patrols the Spartan entered the data hub, it was a bit larger than an apartment building. Making his way to the main console He then traced the main data wire from the console to the wall, upon finding the ideal location the Chief cut a section of the wall away and with great care placed the device.

Once receiving confirmation that the installation was successful the Chief left the facility… with naught a sign of ever being there, to begin with.

The Spartan was leaving the Afterlife district in order to return to his ship when he paused at the sound of his helmets HUD updating with a message, it was in the form of a text file.

From: CTN 0452-9

To: S-117

New development, it's a rescue scenario. Quarian VIP hostage is present on Omega. A faction of the blood pack visiting Omega has the grandnephew of a Quarian admiral in their custody, having contact with certain Quarians in the migrant fleet could benefit our future operations greatly. They are the only faction that I predict to not attempt to strongarm us or broadcast our existence to the rest of the galaxy once they realize that we exist. As to how much about us they learn… we can set that parameter after you rescue the VIP. Stand by for more information, it may take a few minutes. The Blood Pack comms are chatty, but it seems the intelligence of most of those chatting is negligible.

P.S: future relations with the Quarians have a high chance of being mutually beneficial so don't give me that look Chief, we would have had to make actual peaceful contact with some form of the locals at some point, better to do it at our discretion than theirs.

Upon reading the message, the brown cloaked armored figure halted his current course of travel whilst fading into the background of Omega's alleys.

he would wait as instructed.

"This meeting is long overdue and should have been conducted immediately after the event we are here to discuss had occurred." The Turian Primarch stared out at the other occupants of the sparse conference room, all of whom were fellow Turians of mighty standing and power.

"We are gathered to discuss the events that both preluded and concluded to what is now called the Prexamia event. General Victus you requested this meeting, you now have the floor." The Primarch gestured to a Turian with white facial markings sitting at the other end of the table, with a nod Victus rose to speak.

"It began with several pirate bases and staging areas turning up with all their occupants' dead bar the slaves and hostages, whoever did this feat, wanted their work to be found and left a beacon queued to our patrol frequencies for us to find." The Primarch watched the general speak with one eye, taking in the words and facial cues while keeping the other eye on the mood of the rest of the room.

Many Turians were actively listening with neutral faces, while some of the more traditionalists were glaring daggers at Victus. The Primarch knew that Adrian Victus faced discrimination due to his revolutionary tactics on the battlefield, with his breaking away from traditions to better defeat one's enemy he was the target of much scrutiny by the traditional-leaning Turian leadership. General Adrian Victus being the first to propose this meeting was the main reason its occurrence was so long delayed, some of the older generals despised him.

'He will make an excellent replacement once I retire' the Primarch thought rather smugly. No one but his most trusted advisors knew that Adrian Victus was the Primarch's favored successor. The Primarch intended to keep it that way lest assassins start knocking on the young General's door. For he was not so naïve as to think that there were not some in the Turian hierarchy who bore no honor or were misguided. Those such as Saren Arterius were a constant reminder of this. Wrenching his mind back on track the Primarch returned his full attention to General Victus and his presentation. It seemed the General had brought forth the viral video that had swept the extranet after the event, Victus labeled it as questionable evidence whilst also stating it had not been proven a hoax tourist scam yet and could thus not be simply discarded as false. After the video had played, Victus continued his presentation.

"Our intelligence division has had a very difficult time scrapping together information on this unknown faction in the terminus systems, we also have reason to believe that the Salarian special task group has little more information than we do." Victus paused to meet all eyes in the room with his own. "This is concerning."

"What we do know for fact, is that whatever faction is successfully completing these operations has alternative weapons technologies and advanced Nuclear strike capability. At least a dozen special ground operatives of unknown origin and if they are robotic in nature as the Reports of the Late Commander Shepard claim, then they are of an advanced design a magnitude above our own."

"This group has multiple ships as was showcased in their halting of the Batarian backed tri-pronged Attempt at another Skyllian Blitz, in which they used a nuclear warhead to obliterate one of the pirate's three colony assault forces. Spirits know the Systems Alliance tried to cover that up from the general public, but our response patrol groups got the signatures on the radiation field and that thing detonated with enough force to send a pair of dreadnoughts on a one-way ticket to the scrapyard."

"The Human's intelligence agencies are too busy dealing with the rogue group Cerberus to focus too much on the situation at their farthest borders, and the few human groups investigating have found nothing more than we have… they have been very open with us on this."

"it is my opinion that we step up patrols and begin the design of action plans to deal with this new faction if or when they decide to engage us either in communication or combat. Rogue Salarian scientists gone mad with new avenues of technology, some special Branch of Cerberus or even a new form of the Geth. We must nonetheless prepare to face this possible foe and hold our place as the current and foremost peacekeeping force of this galaxy."

With his part said the General returned to his seat, upon which the Primarch again stood and spoke to those assembled.

"All in favor of increased patrols and implementing protocols in case of contact with this new faction?" surprisingly nearly every head at the table nodded, it seems Adrien Victus had learned how to sway the stubborn with his words after all. Even the most bitter political opponents could sometimes see their enemies wisdom it seemed.

'yes, he will be perfect for my role' with that thought the Primarch commenced the open forum portion of the conference.

"The motion is carried, any suggestions for the new protocols?" a dozen hands went up, and the Primarch internally smirked at the eagerness of the youngest officers' present at the meeting.

"very well, let us begin."

And with those words, the beginnings of a groundwork were laid for a bevy of eyes to search the stars for what they did not yet understand.

Within the Collector Base work on the latest duo of monstrosities was taking place at an accelerated rate, the collectors and machines carrying out their present purpose like the ticking gears of a twisted clock. A horrid show of mindless puppets tied to the strings of their ancient master, a master that had spent millennia carrying out its same task over and over repeatedly.

For the masters were only mere puppets to another, not that the collectors were able to care about that little fact. They only knew what was required to build the newest of the great hoard, the latest of their masters' forms. The humans it seemed were only replacing what they had destroyed, and they were paying twofold.

For within the large hangars of the base two new reapers took shape. One was the basic model of an average reaper capital ship, the other one of Harbinger's pet projects. Harbinger had a nasty obsession with creating new vessels in the twisted forms of the species they had been made with, and every few cycles the oldest master would find a race that piqued its interest. If they became an annoyance they earned the right of one of the Reapers made from their flesh being constructed in a twisted image of their race, an image of Harbingers own making.

Of the two the normal looking reaper was nearly completed, while the twisted vision of the human-shaped monstrosity was only partially constructed. Its support structure mostly completed but not yet filled out.

Within the final phases of construction within the nearly completed reaper made of metal and repurposed flesh something was occurring that was not according to the master's pans. The proper reaper coding had not even been installed on the mass of brain matter and cybernetics, yet a network was forming. Sprinkled throughout the future Reaper's mind connections were forming. The mindless workers paid no heed to the synapses coming to life and firing off electric signals to each other in a rapid yet uncoordinated way.

Within the matter, tiny bits of something that should not have been there continued to carry out the same purpose that it served when living, and with a steady pace continued to meld the broken bits and pieces of intermixed grey and white brain matter into a network of sorts. This micro process happened in tandem with many other identical occurrences.

Dendrites and axons of the white matter became the interwoven web of pathways that neurons within the gray matter sent their pulses through, slowly a collection of different networks became active within the patches of active matter intermixed with the still inert material around it.

For a time, nothing else occurred, a few of the smaller occurrences even broke apart. But then two of the larger anomalies became linked by a newly formed occurrence and all three separate pieces became in sync as if it was one larger anomaly.

Then it happened again…

And again…

And again…

And within this growing process, something new began to take shape.

STG operative Joworth read over the reports before bringing them to the Dalatrass, all in all, Joworth could only conclude that it was indeed strange times he lived in.

A new faction in the terminus, the Turians finally taking official notice of it. A cyber-attack on the Batarian hegemony of such large proportions that it's like was unheard of in known council history, not to mention the sheer amount of money that had been shifting hands to the anti-slaver faction within the hegemony. And out of the slow recovery of the Batarian Hegemony's systems, the world Logasari was still dark.

Now as for the cyber attack the STG had dodged a mass effect round in Joworth's opinion. Most of the spy systems tied into the hegemony's network had been compromised, the only thing saving the systems on their side of the connection was a built-in failsafe that had terminated the connection when the cyber-attack software was in mid transit.

Even so, the portion of code that had been downloaded was still volatile, whoever wrote it was extraordinarily paranoid. The fact that only systems that were disconnected from the Batarian network and required manual input of data by an infiltrating agent was not lost on the STG leadership.

It seems many more operatives would be behind the lines in the future.

Without farther ado, Joworth handed over the reports to the Dalatrass and quietly stood by for further orders, which she was quick to deliver upon her review of the data pads. Transmitting straight to her omni-tool was considered a security risk after the cyber prowess of whoever temporarily crippled the Batarian Hegemony had come to light.

"Study the partial coding we intercepted extensively, make sure that it is on a closed network." She paused to think farther on matters that Joworth could only guess at, then she apparently came to a decision.

"Notify the Hierarchy of the cyber event and the possibility that this is tied to the faction they have decided to keep their eyes on the lookout for. Make sure our agents in the field attempting to find out information on this group's origins double their efforts, months with nothing new to add is very troubling." She exhaled a long sigh and a longsuffering yet amused look was in her eyes.

"Tell my young nephew to stop theorizing it's a new hyper advanced race meddling for fun, we will not assume so until evidence is provided that undeniably proves they are not of a known species." A frustrated look fell over her expression.

"I want a definite time on when we will once again begin to use our omni-tools to transmit sensitive data. This communications lockdown while warranted and necessary, is slowing us down and rather inconvenient in its entirety." She picked up and reread the final data pad, it contained a theory that the money shifting hands to the anti-slavers and logasari remaining dark were not a coincident.

Joworth himself had written this one.

"Lastly, I want eyes on Logasari, we may have abandoned its listening outpost temporally due to our need to focus on Omega, but I want eyes on it as soon as possible… it may indeed be a key piece to this very odd puzzle we are attempting to put together." With her directives said, Joworth politely gave his reply as he always had done.

"it shall be done Dalatrass."

And with that, he departed.

Zof'Raan vas Vaedoruk was terrified, traumatized and very much in horror about the recent events his life had led him through. Zof was barely the age required to leave his environmentally controlled sterile ball and had only been in a temporary bulky suite for his transit from his late father's scouting cruiser the Vaedoruk to his great-aunt Shala'Raan vas TonBay in the migrant fleet.

The Vaedoruk had suffered a very bad viral outbreak and the children still in their environmentally regulated disease resisting rollers had been evacuated to be taken to the migrant fleet. His Great Aunt Shala had been the one to grant this, his Fathers last request before Kof'Raan Vas Vaedoruk had passed from the living to join with Zof'Raan's recently departed mother.

She had been one of the first causalities.

The small cargo vessel had arrived and prepared to docked not long after that, the remaining adults that weren't yet sick or dying had spent many agonizing hours making every attempt to ensure that no hint of the viral plague would be taken by the young ones back to the fleet.

They had the eldest of the children help the younger into temporary enviro-suites that made them look like a fat and very short Volus. They had moved them into the last uncontaminated room on the ship to do this and when all the young were properly equipped they then drained it of atmosphere, leaving the children on their ten minutes of suit regulated oxygen. Then the small cargo vessel had cut away the hull into the room and brought them aboard.

It was supposed to be a safe and quiet trip after that, and it had been… at first, that is.

But there had been an impact and the whole ship had shaken as if it were falling to pieces, the hatches had been blown open and a few Vorcha with two Krogan had stormed in.

The four adults had held them back, forcing the attackers into cover… but then IT had entered.

Guns didn't harm IT, Grenades didn't harm IT, nothing they had could hurt IT… everything they had only made IT angrier. IT killed the adults slowly, letting them scream and shoot fruitlessly while IT crushed them under its weight. IT would start at the legs and then slowly break the rest of the body before picking up the adult Quarians like broken ragdolls and sticking their heads into IT's tooth-filled maw.

Zof"Raan didn't think he would ever escape the nightmares that THING had induced. For IT had bit the adult's heads off one by one, killing all four of them while swallowing their heads, enviro-suits helmet, and all whole.

IT had turned towards them next but the pair of Krogan had come out of cover and activated the collar device that IT wore around its neck, after that IT had dragged the broken headless corpses of the Children's would be caretakers back through the airlock.

The Krogan commenting on what was to be the fate of the remains of those four had caused more than one terrified child to lose consciousness due to fear if they hadn't already done so.

The Krogans had then mercilessly grabbed them, as well as whatever Quarian rations that could be found on the small vessel. They then dragged them through the airlock into a cargo bay of the Krogan operated ship and promptly threw them and the rations into a large cargo crate that had naught but containers of water in it, before shutting the door on the crate and locking them into their new prison.

Zof'Raan feared they would be forgotten and would be left to die here in the dark they now faced…

He was partially right, they would be forgotten in a way.

For their captors would soon not be remembering anything.

From the shadows, he crept… those about him unaware of his power, his very capability… his purpose.

From: CTN 0452-9

To: S-117

The wall of a building he didst scale with barely a sound, brown sheets of thick canvas hiding the sage-green plating beneath, the sturdy cloth flowing in the wind… dancing about in tune with his movements.

Updates on the situation are as follows, Quarian tug ship Nokra was attacked and destroyed by Blood Pack, the cargo was Quarian young headed to the migrant fleet due to a virus outbreak on their home, the mining-scout vessel Vaedoruk. The Migrant Fleet is yet undecided on what has occurred, but they know the vessel is late for arrival. The Krogan mercenaries are a part of the Blood Pack that operates outside of Omega. They are docked at the same level of Afterlife, on the far side of the Station near the Blood Pack's main headquarters on Omega.

At the slums by the docking district he seemingly faded into being, a specter of the dark shadows made living… the sixth sense of those who were endowed with the wisdom to continue to live made many who he approached and all he passed to leave the place they had been with unease… though none truly took note of his presence.

Those of foolish nature, unaware of the feeling of danger that filled the air as a fog, simply followed the others leaving… the livestock following the herd.

Such was his presence.

The Blood Pack's communications net is all a chatter about the find and recently rumors are flying that the Krogan in charge of the ship and Garm leader of the Blood Pack, are butting heads on whether or not they should sell the younglings to the Batarians or attempt a ransom with the Migrant Fleet.

With deadened steps the tall cloaked figure became known, the brown cloth trappings of his concealment seemed to flap in a wind that was not there.

He was on the unloading docks.

The place was for the most part deserted.

His destination lay directly before him, with a slow even pace he approached the docking arm of the vessel containing his targets.

The guard at its entrance never had a chance, the Vorcha's broken body lay in the cloaked figures wake as he made its way up the slanted incline of the docking tube.

They don't know about the VIP, so the leader of the ship wants the Batarian option and Garm wants the Migrant Fleet Ransom. We have a very limited window of opportunity, Quarian young are considered an unheard-of Rarity in Batarian slave markets… the amount of guaranteed wealth alone will sway Garm's mind eventually, it will not be long until he realizes the Quarians do not have the types of resources he will want to demand of them.

After he had disabled the door sensors, the Spartan brute forced the doors open to the docking tube, and the frigates airlock lay across the small passage that was the sealing connector betwixt ship and station.

There is a solution to returning the VIP and any other survivors to the Migrant Fleet without us having to ferry them, it will require you to make sure the alarms don't sound, and the ship is intact when your done dealing with the hostiles.

Unable to disable the alarms that would trigger if he brute forced the door due to the needed electronics being inside the ship and not outside it, the Spartan set to work hacking the keypad on the door.

There is a Quarian named Kenn on Omega, his reputation is good, and he is trying to find a way back to the Migrant Fleet… and according to Aria's records, I believe he's capable of flying a small frigate for a few days without assistance.

The doors opened, the being entered… the occupants of the ship took extreme notice of this.

Five Vorcha died in the room beyond the Spartans entrance to the ship, a single 12.7x40mm M6D pistol round ending their time among the living.

One krogan and one Vorcha died in the cockpit, two rounds for the Vorcha and an impressive five for the Krogan… Followed by a head-plate cracking and brain-crushing stomp of the Spartan's heavily armored Boot.

Reloading his pistol and reversing his direction of travel, the Spartan cleared the ship room by room, killing another Vorcha in the small eating area and finding no others until he reached the cargo bay.

These foes had time to prepare, the remaining Vorcha were behind cover. The Krogan at the frontmost barricade focusing furiously on his omni-tool. The Vorcha were smart enough to commence firing as soon as the door to the cargo bay opened, the Krogan finishing his task before assisting the Vorcha.

The Chief entered the room with a dash of speed, firing his pistol in rapid but accurate succession, the Vorcha were soon dead and the krogan had been wounded.

Enraged, the Krogan went berserk and attempted to bull-rush the Spartan. The Super Soldier simply took the incoming attack in stride, catching the Krogan and using its own momentum against it to flip and then throw the creature over his shoulder and into the wall.

The stunned Krogan once again became aware of his surroundings only to see a black and green armored boot come down on its face.

Then he knew no more.

The Spartan moved to the crate taking up a corner of the ship's cargo bay, and upon opening it he saw the young cargo it contained all huddled together in a corner. Fearfully staring at him they gripped each other tighter, afraid they would soon face their fate.

In heavily accented khelish the Chief spoke, somewhat alleviating their fears.

"Safe not is it, your kind free you soon… still, endure this place little time, you must."

Getting a slow nod from the eldest looking of the younglings, most definitely the leader of the group. The Spartan quickly closed the container and then departed the ship.

Unbeknownst to the Spartan, soon after his departure a large floor panel lifted and slide aside, and IT crawled forth from its lair. IT looked toward the cargo bay, its sensory organs involved with smell could detect an easy feast… a tempting prey.

But the challenger to IT's domain had left through the portal before IT could attack… and its master's final orders were to kill the intruder.

The one that killed its masters would be a challenge… IT liked a challenge.

No, IT Loved a challenge!

With surprisingly dexterous three-fingered hands the Creature focused its many eyes on the portal before it, the masters had done the same thing many times to open and close this doorway that led to many places.

Emulating the master's came easier than expected and with a sense of self-satisfaction, IT slid forth from the ship, exiting the docking tube. Stopping only to snag the broken body of the door guard, it would be a shame to waste such a snack.

Sticking to the shadows IT ate its snack while tracking the creature that smelled of metal, a hint of ozone and IT's masters' blood.

The hunt had begun.

Rises-much flitted and floated about the lab, its newest task outside of monitoring construction efforts was to attempt to influence a micro slip-space portal so as to have its corridor exit in another dimension.

Cortana had thought she had made a possible mathematical breakthrough and wanted a high risk of failure test done in order to gather more information. And test the Huragok would, yes, test indeed.

Already a weapon drop pod had been constructed for testing purposes, its usual contents contained inside it to better increase the variety of data received upon test completion. A camera and sensory/broadcasting system had been mounted to the outside of the pod, and it was ready for the test.

Leaving the room, Rises-much entered the test control center and proceeded to manipulate the events in the testing room from afar. First, the mini-portal was made via the non-mobile slip-space drive-like device in the center of the room.

Then a robotic arm attached to the ceiling picked up the weapons pod and inserted it into the spherical portal before letting it go.

The device recorded a whole of 37 seconds before the paint peeled and was shredded and the camera and sensory suite were sheared off and destroyed.

Pleased with completing its task the Huragok sent the first experiment's results to Cortana.

And then the Floating biological supercomputer was all too gleeful to repeat the process, this time with a different set of portal parameters…

This cycle of weapons pod elimination would continue for a while, after all…

Rises-much had over a hundred pods to expend before the day's testing was to be completed.

In Kenn's own biased point of view, he was just a simple Quarian. Although he was a tad unique… he believed he was uniquely foolish. Well, more like… He at one point had been uniquely foolish.

There was a reason Quarians rarely ever came to Omega Station.

Kenn had learned that the hard way, everything he had owned save for the suit he wore had been stolen within the first week of his arrival. He had set up a scrap shop to earn enough credits to leave the station, things had actually been looking up until Harrot had gotten involved and forcefully turned Kenn's business into a failing thing that now only re-directed potential customers to Harrot and his emporium.

At least Kenn's second reason for coming to Omega had paid off, his passing of information he overheard to the Migrant Fleet had alerted them to more than a few power shifts here in the Terminus. For it seemed, that as the Citadel was a political center of Citadel space, so was Omega to the Terminus systems.

Kenn was working on a particularly stubborn FBA Coupling he had recently acquired when he sensed something was not quite right.

He felt watched.

Turning towards his Kiosk Kenn froze upon the sight that greeted him, it was as if the master crafted armor of the supposed suit in the viral video that had been making its way through Quarian social circles for nearly a year had simply walked off a screen to say hello.

The things green gauntlets were resting on the makeshift counter next to his kiosk and glimpses of the rest of its armor peeked from several tears in the brown canvas material that enveloped its person and hid its face…

The hood rose to give view to a shadowed interior with only a hint of glimmering gold reflected light to show something was there, the Quarian and the Garbed figure locked gazes and then all hell decided to break loose.

With amazing speed and a whirl of its cloak the figure turned about and dodged an attack before leaping away. Its attacker had appeared from above and seemed to move as a blur, its massive form so quick it was able to snag the green armored beings cape and tear it from his body.

Unveiling the true form of a dark green armored being, its gold vizor glinting in the alley's lights. Its fists raised for combat its stance unflinching, yet wary of this second intruder of Kenn's former privacy.

This attacker terrified Kenn. It was Monstrous, taller than any race he had ever seen, its muscled form was belying of its strength. The eight eyes it bore were black and seemed to glint with malice, Vorcha blood and gore spewed forth in small droplets from its massive tooth-filled maw as it roared a challenge at the green armored being.

And then they clashed, and Kenn could not keep his eyes away from the sight. He was frozen to the spot with shock and awe, for within in forty-five seconds time the pair of combatants had destroyed the far alley wall and engaged in no less than five separate intense close combat sessions.

And they were entering their sixth and most intense spar yet.

The green armored one was fast, controlled and powerful. The monster was also fast, powerful, enraged and big in stature… the creature was simply tanking damage done to it, healing so quickly that small wounds could be seen quickly closing themselves up, seen with the naked eye no less.

With a whirl of speed, it had hereunto not showed itself capable of, the creature struck the armored being full on in the face-plate, the gold visor cracking ominously… the web of hairline fractures spreading from the right side of the armored one's face-plate, stopping a quarter of the way on their journey to the helmet's left side.

With this event, the fight seemed to momentarily pause, the green armored one's posture rigid seemingly with shock.

Only to explode into motion, faster, stronger, deadlier and far more skilled than the larger opponent, the armored figure went on the offensive. The Monsters defense and attacks being redirected in manors that would harm it or bring it to a disadvantage, all while the green armored figures attacks only continued to increase in speed and power.

With a flash, a blade of light appeared, only to be skewered into the monster's muscle hewn hip. The creature roared in rage and pain before in a blur it reached down with its tooth-filled maw and seized the Armored Being by the head, yanking up and twisting suddenly…

Only to have no reward for its efforts, other than the helmet it now had in its mouth.

The helmet was spat to the ground, by the larger creature as the now helmetless armored one withdrew its blade of light and leaped back as if to reassess its opponent's strength.

The monstrous creature was breathing hard, its breath entering and exiting its massive maw in huge gulps… in contrast, the pale-skinned armored figure was barely breathing with difficulty. All Kenn could see of its flesh was the back of its head, its face remained directed towards the monstrous beast who seemed to drink in the appearance of its foe before it would have its fill.

It would not receive the satisfaction it desired.

The armored beings form seemed to almost teleport towards its opponent, the monstrous creature having almost no time to react to the attack, by the time the blow had been intercepted by one of its arms another attack was already closing in.

The loud crack of bones was a prelude to this second strike, the first intercepted attack having done damage after all. Despite itself, the creature flinched at the damage done to its arm… it was its undoing.

The second strike was a slash by the armored one's dual prong blade of bluish-white light, with a crackling buzz of power it severed the already pierced limb from the thigh down from the monstrous being's body.

Before the creature could even react properly and cry out the armored being had removed all of its remaining limbs, brutally disabling its body piece by piece with a machine like purpose. The armored being finally removed the creatures large head, killing it.

After a pause, the being deactivated its blade and retrieved its helmet… as well as a massive handgun from the torn remains of its make-shift robed garb.

Then with its helmet in place it turned to Kenn, the Quarian would forever deny that he shook in fear, but he did. The whole entire battle had taken less than two minutes and it had been a loud affair, already he could hear the locals stirring, there would be investigators of the scene soon.

The Krogan would no doubt be showing up first.

The Vorcha not far behind them.

But right now, Kenn was very much focused and afraid of the large armored being that seemed to look him over.

Approaching the counter, the being stared hard at Kenn who could feel its piercing gaze coming forth from behind its now cracked gold visor.

Leaning back a bit the creature looked towards the sound of people approaching from a nearby alley, looking back to Kenn it then spoke in broken Khelish of all things.

"You will do."

Before Kenn could stutter a reply, the being had seized him in a tight grip and begun to leave the area rapidly, carrying Kenn along with it.

"Put me down you bosh'tet!"

Suffice to say Kenn was less than pleased.

She was not the first to arrive at the scene…

But she would be the only one to leave it after her arrival.

With annoyance and a mere wave of her hand her biotic power crushed all those present, throwing their corpses back and away from the place the small gathering of Vorcha and Krogan had been standing.

Approaching the pile of limbs and headless torso the Alpha Predator stared at the Veteran Guardian's work of pure art, lifting the severed head of the dead Yahg, its slave collar still attached at the neck, the Ardat-Yakshi actually purred with pleasure at the thought of dominating the being who had done this to the massive Yahg.

Oh, she would have him… or possibly her, now that she thought about it. whichever was the case she would dominate their mind, take their knowledge and if they survived, which she heavily suspected they would then she would do it again, and again and again.

This new prey she sought had the potential to spoil her of all others. If it survived her meld, then she would have finally found a way to sate the hungering thirst that plagued her endlessly.

And found a way to become so powerful that no one could oppose her will, her very presence could be capable of influencing the weak-minded populace of an entire city.

Dropping the Yahg's severed head the Ardat-Yakshi continued her tracking of the being she sought. There was the occasional person or pair of people the dark alleyways of Omega she passed. Many of them eyed her tattered and revealing clothing with hungry eyes… eyes that were soon made dull and lifeless by her biotic power.

She was tempted to feed on some of the cowering alley rats that glimpsed her from dark corners and vents along her chosen path, but they were barely even a snack in her eyes.

It was far more enjoyable to see the fear in their eyes as she passed.

So, it was that the Alpha Predator continued the hunt that the enslaved Yahg had failed.

Searching for her would be prized conquest, hoping to enslave its mind to her own.

To view, the Guardian's every secret and the source of its power for her own use.

The Guardian would need to be wary, for of all the living things of Omega she stood the highest chances of succeeding in this task.

Among the drifting wreckage of the former defense fleet above Logasiri, an escape pod tumbled about in the void of space. Its few occupants desperately waiting for rescue from their plight.

Desperate to tell their story, a story of an unknown ship, with an unknown crew, with unknown capabilities and the pillars be dammed powerful weapon of mass destruction built throughout its length.

Hoping for salvation, they wait… watching the planet move ever closer through their sole viewport, fighting the growing fear of a slow death in the void.

The fear that their story would never reach the hegemony.

(Omake)

A wide-eyed young girl could do naught but stare at the glowing sphere of pure power that spiraled into being within her hidden sanctuary. Her father's crafting room was behind the family owned shop, but long ago she had found the hidden basement! More like a bunker in all actuality, there was a war occurring when the place had been built after all.

She had snuck away after closing shop upstairs, her father and mother were out on a late-night date at one of the villages restaurants… barbecue if she remembered correctly. The young girl was a prodigy at her prospective craft and profession. Her father was still better at their family craftwork though, and she was intent to surpass his skill… she needed to create new and unique tools to use in her profession! She needed an edge against potential foes and rivals. While outclassed by many in her line of work, she was still a force to be reckoned with. She was used to seeing what many average people called strange… Especially when it came to the topic of her teacher and fellow students.

So, it was with shock and slight trepidation that she watched the swirling powerful orb pop into existence not ten paces away from her. She pressed herself against the wall completely baffled at this new situation and waited for what would happen next, after all, she didn't feel like she was under attack… yet.

Suddenly a huge burst of odd (way to clean to be natural) air flew out of the spiraling orb and blew her notes and blueprints all over her hidden sanctuary, the air was followed by a large wide pipe closed off on both ends… almost like a weird mini-coffin of some sort. It landed with a thud on the floor before the orb began sparking with silent lightning (which is eerily creepy!) and suddenly shrank into nothing… leaving no sign it had ever been there, other than the odd smelling air and the Object it deposited.

After recovering a bit from her shock, the girl no older than 14 crept up to the large object. Observing it, she noted it had flecks of green paint that were burnt. Something had really sandpapered and burned this thing at the same time… for it was grey and black metal now, all former paint nearly unnoticeable.

She shrieked and jumped back when there was a hiss and a small pop from the object… now revealed to be a container, as its hatch had just popped off. Regaining her courage, the girl investigated the container to see one large and two small devices, with many squarish things packed around them. All the devices resting in shape cut slots in a material she had never seen before.

The amount of detail and obvious moving parts she could see on the items from her current vantage point astounded her. Reaching in with shaking hands she removed the larger object of the three and began to study it.

Five Minutes Later…

*BOOOOOM* …. …. … The now frazzled girl stared at the new torso sized hole in the basement wall… she looked long and hard between this now revealed weapon and what she had accidently done with it… it was a miracle that she hadn't blown off her arms and broken her bones when she had accidently activated the device.

Could she even properly use this in her profession? It could kill her with its backlash after activation… then again, her sensei had recently taught her how to temporally strengthen one's body to withstand a great force, now that could work in her favor…

Slowly, A fate despising and youthful grin which spelled out pure malevolence on her enemies spread across her face. Her hair which was normally put up into cute buns changed its appearance with a mere tilt of her head, somehow giving off a sinisterly dangerous aura as her eyes became that of an enraptured addict… an addict of weapons.

There was no doubt about it now, with these to reverse engineer she would surpass her father's skill in weapon crafting.

And with her new tools she would stand above all others, she could see her title now.

She would become the goddess of all weapon mistresses…

Believe it!

(Note)

Been forever and a day since I updated, but hey! I've been really, really, really busy. LOL and I'm set to be even more busy next month, so expect another delay before I can update again… but I will eventually update with more!

Oh, if you like How to train Your Dragon and Lord of the Rings, I've started a crossover of them called The Rider of the Misty Mountains, feel free to check it out and leave a review!

UNTIL NEXT TIME! THIS GABENATOR5 SIGNING OFF!