Adrift

We had no set objective to follow now; I had recruited everyone that I thought I needed and the Illusive Man had not sent me anything related to the Collectors for a couple of days. Now was as good a time as any to head to Omega to help Samara and gain her absolute support in our operation. I spent my time, as usual, visiting the entire crew and all of my squad and getting to know them better, hearing more of their tales and experiences that they had endured in their lives. I was also concerned for Thane's health now that he had told us of his terminal illness. However, as kind and pleasant as the Drell was to talk to and spend time with, he was always short on that particular topic. Instead, he insisted that he was fine and that I should not burden myself with the stress of worrying over it.

I visited Tali down in engineering, feeling much more relaxed around her after hearing what Miranda had told me. We laughed and talked again just like it was in the old times against Saren, no more slight awkwardness as both of us wondered what my absence for the past two years had done to our relationship. Both of us knew that the other wanted to be together again, but Tali still needed some time to figure things out in her head before she would feel ready, and as before I was prepared to give her all the time in the world. In private, however, I did begin to wonder how much time might actually be left to us. I shook off the creeping pessimism and simply enjoyed the present and being in her company. When I had to go Tali drew herself in close to me and I wrapped my arms around her as I always did, letting her know that she was the only one that I would ever want to be with.

I had told my crew that we were headed to Omega again, to mixed reactions. However, the Mass Relay that would take us from Illium's system and to Omega's was near when Kelly Chambers sent me a notification, marked urgent, that the Illusive Man wanted to speak to me in the comm room. When I was beamed into contact with the mysterious man, I noticed straight away that he looked tired. He was exceptionally well dressed and held himself up straight and tall as always, puffing on the end of a cigarette. As quickly as he finished one he immediately proceeded to light another.

"So d'you have anything for me or am I just admiring the new suit?" I asked him after waiting for him to start. The Illusive Man smirked at my comment and turned to me,

"Gardner, we caught a break. I intercepted a distress call from a Turian patrol. They encountered a Collector ship on the border of the Attican Traverse. The Turians were wiped out but not before they disabled the Collector vessel. I'm sending you to board the ship, establish a direct link with EDI and download what information you can find in their data drives. Any information on how to pass safely through the Omega 4 Relay is priority, but of course all the information we can get will aid our mission."

"How did the Turians take out the ship?" I asked.

"We both know the Turians are fearsome fighters; our reports indicate that all internal systems are offline but the hull is intact."

"They hit the power systems," I said thoughtfully, "there would be no life support; so there should be no Collectors alive on board. We'll get on, and we'll get the data. Send the coordinates."

"Already sent," The Illusive Man said confidently, "this could be our big break, Scott. If we find the information we need, you could pass through the Omega 4 Relay and hit their home world. If we're lucky, we can end them."

The thought was tantalisingly attractive, but from a strategist's point of view passing through the Relay to God-knows where and against God-knows how many Collectors was crazy; underlining the whole "suicide mission" theme that we were going with.

"Their navigational data could tell us where their home world is." I said to the Illusive Man.

"Good," he responded, "get EDI on it. Good luck Commander."

I left the comm room and told Joker to set the Normandy on course to the other side of the galaxy,

"We're hitting a Collector ship!" I told the crew, and their cheers told me they were ready to get some payback for the good people lost on Horizon.

The twelve members of my team, including me, were assembled in the hanger and the engines of the two shuttles fired into life. All of them were adorned in their armour and either had breather helmets or masks on. I walked up and down the line in which they stood and told them what we were facing,

"The Collector ship has had its main drive core damaged by the Turians. They don't know it, but those brave soldiers and crewmen gave us a chance to finish the Collectors with their lives; let us not squander that sacrifice."

Garrus nodded his approval.

"On that ship," I said louder, "is the information we need to find their home world and pass through the Omega 4 Relay. This is our first counter-attack in this war they have started. Everyone work together, cover each other's backs and we will succeed."

The team heard my words and absorbed the message; failure was not an option.

"Even before we began," I continued, "the Collectors had taken too many innocent lives. Even before I was brought back, they had committed their heinous crimes against Humanity for their masters; the Reapers. But this is when our work to stop them really begins. Let's go!"

My full complement of troops from almost all species and walks of life jumped aboard the shuttles, and as the Normandy glided silently past the wreckage of a Turian frigate, bringing back vivid memories of the SR1's demise, we launched and sped towards the colossal Collector cruiser.

With the aid of EDI's scans we found on open bay door on the outside of the hull, and both of the shuttles dropped us all off simultaneously. The interior of the ship was quite dark, and on top of the huge metal doors and patches of wall was the same kind of strange, sinewy fabric that the Collectors' skin was made from. The walls and ceiling had clusters of what looked like large egg sacs on them, glowing with a pale light inside them.

"It's like an insect hive," Miranda said.

"Commander," Kasumi warned, "up ahead."

The thief was pointing to a mound not far ahead and over a sharp drop. We leapt the gap and went to investigate, but before I even reached the mound, I stopped short as the true nature of the heap was revealed.

"Bodies," I gasped, "Human bodies."

The pile of dismembered and disfigured corpses was higher than I stood and many metres deep and wide. There was no order or respect shown to the dead; they were simply disposed of, thrown away like garbage. As I looked from body to body, none of them whole, I knew that I was looking at dozens of destroyed families, hundreds of promising futures laid to waste; and for what?

"What… were they doing to them?" I struggled to get the words out.

"Appear to be test subjects," Mordin answered, "likely control group."

"Tests? Tests?" I growled, "what do they want from us other than to kill us all?"

Garrus came up behind me, he was obviously as shaken as I was by the sight,

"We should keep going Scott; there's nothing we can do for them."

"This is no way for good people to die," I said as I moved forward again, gripping my rifle tightly in my hands as I led my team deeper into the bowels of the accursed ship.

We passed more and more bodies, covered in scars from brutal experimentation, and we began to see the coffins that the Collectors used to transport their paralysed victims from the colony to the ship. We would see one by itself, then a couple together and before long clutches of a dozen or more would be seen, discarded at the side of the path or fixed onto the walls and ceilings. We checked every one that we could reach for some poor soul still trapped inside, but there was nothing; no one.

"It is likely that anyone still inside died when the ship lost power, Commander," EDI informed me. She was only trying to help, save us the effort of checking every coffin that we came across, but she did nothing to make me feel any better,

"I hope it was quick for them at least," I said quietly, as if the words were my new prayer.

On and on the paths weaved, bringing us slowly but surely towards the centre of the ship. Only the patter of our footsteps could be heard echoing down the halls, and the fact that there had been no sign whatsoever of the Collectors only served to put us more on edge.

"This is wrong," Thane said, "where are the bodies of our foe?"

"The bodies burn away when they die," Grunt grumbled in answer.

"Grunt's right," I said to Thane and Samara, "when they're killed their bodies disintegrate. It serves to hide their bodies from investigators, hides the identity of the abductors from the galaxy."

"What foul devilry could do that?" Samara said, "the evil in this place runs deep."

Along and up a level and up another we saw another pair of coffins wired up to a computer terminal. In the coffin nearest us was a Human man, middle aged and though he was definitely dead, his body was being preserved and he looked as if he was only sleeping.

"Where did you come from?" I said to the man, shaking my head, "what was your name? What were your kids' names?"

Tali was standing beside me, hearing the pain in my voice, when Mordin attracted my attention to the other coffin. In it lay a Collector, perfectly preserved like the man, but also clearly dead.

"Are they experimenting on their own? What for?" Jacob said. We all gathered around the Collector and the terminal while I channelled some of my armour's power through my Omni tool and into the terminal, linking EDI to the drives at the same time.

"What've you got EDI?"

"It appears that the Collectors were looking for similarities in Human physiology and that of their own. I have no probable hypothesis on their motives. However, my scans have revealed something remarkable."

My eyes glared into the four sickly yellow eyes of the Collector, hate flooding through my veins. How could they be looking for similarities between my species and theirs; they possessed no soul, no sense of morality, no life other than to serve as slaves to the Reapers. What was it all about?

"The Collectors possess a unique quad-strand DNA structure," EDI continued, "Only one other species is known to have had this: The Protheans."

"My God," I recoiled from the Collector, "the Reapers didn't totally destroy the Protheans; they kept some as slaves."

"To clarify," EDI came in, "these are no longer Protheans. These Collectors have had extensive genetic rewrite. It is feasible that the original Protheans were indoctrinated and, over several cloned generations, as the respiratory and sensory systems began to fail, they were replaced by cybernetics. The Collectors are as much machine as they are organic."

"If they want to do the same to us then why do they need to research us? The Reapers already have Husks."

"As I said; I have no clear indication of their motives."

"This is way above my pay-grade," I heard Zaeed mutter to himself.

Mordin was reading the information that EDI was feeding me on his own Omni tool,

"No way to reverse work of the Reapers Commander. No relevant data on Collector home world either."

It was time to move on again. At the far end of the hall extending off to our left I saw a faint source of light,

"We're nearly finished here," I said to my squad.

As we moved quickly up the lifeless hallway, Miranda said in my ear,

"Sir, if the Collectors are part machine and have had most of their organic systems replaced by tech; maybe they wouldn't have died when the ship's power went out. Maybe they don't need life support."

"Good call, Miranda," I said back in agreement, "make sure everyone is ready for an ambush." I raised my voice for everyone to hear, "everyone be ready for anything. Keep your eyes peeled!"

"Maybe we should find another route," Miranda said, "this has all been too convenient; like we're being guided this way."

"You're right, but this is the quickest way. If the Collectors are tracking our progress, they'll quickly redeploy to counter any course change we make…"

My voice trailed off as we emerged from the close hallway and into an enormous open chasm, stretching for hundreds of metres in both directions. It was like a twisted and distorted vision of a prison in hell. At either end I could see open space, the endless ocean of stars extending forever and ever. To my astounded horror, I saw attached to the inside if the hull, in clutches of tens and hundreds of thousands, were more coffins.

"Keelah, they could abduct every Human in the Terminus Systems and still not fill all of these pods," Tali said in alarm.

"They're going to target Earth," Sophie said. I marched forward towards a central platform that I could see ahead and the team fell in behind me,

"That's not going to happen," I said, meaning it more as an order to the squad rather than just a comment of defiance.

We ran onto the platform and I set everyone except Mordin and Miranda to keep a vigilante watch on our surroundings. We were in a prime ambush location with high vantage points all around us and only one escape route; back the way we came. EDI began downloading everything that she could from the access terminal at lightning speed, but still advised that with the amount of information stored on it the download could still take some time. That was when EDI contacted me with some strange details,

"Commander; I have detected the Turian distress signal intercepted by The Illusive Man. The Collectors were the source."

"So we're right," I said, warning the squad, "an ambush is imminent."

The squad tightened up and all weapons were raised and set on likely firing points while EDI continued,

"That is not all. Turians use secondary encryption on their signals, but it is corrupt in the message. The signal was picked up using Cerberus decryption protocols; there is no way that the Illusive Man would have believed that the signal was genuine."

A dark thought was starting to form in my head, but even though I trusted my aroused suspicions I had to ask EDI,

"And why's that?"

"The Illusive Man wrote Cerberus' decryption protocols."

"That bastard set us up!" Jack growled, her hate for Cerberus having never abated even for an instant.

There was no time to dwell upon the Illusive Man's deceit as Thane suddenly warned us,

"Up above us; Collectors incoming."

With his light-weight sniper rifle Thane shot a Collector from its high point and the body crashed down back up the path from which we had come. Bullets started hammering down around us and the team scrambled into cover and returned fire. Looking up at the swarm of Collectors as they careered down the hive-like structure towards us, I trusted my life to my good-old Mattock and shot down droves of them. The high-powered rifle would kick into my shoulder and a Collector would go down.

The images of these monsters tearing apart Prothean society in my visions and the thought that they would try to do the same to Earth guided my eye and nearly every shot that I fired struck down one of the creatures. I became so enamoured with killing them that I forgot about my own safety and was standing out in the open. My aim was so precise and my fire so lethal that the Collectors actually stopped advancing all together, and out of the corner of my eye I saw Garrus throw me an impressed look. While the Collectors hunkered down in their positions, I yelled to EDI,

"How much longer EDI? We can't manage like this forever!"

"Data mine is in progress. I am currently fighting against several thousand firewalls; there is someone else in the system."

While we were fighting back against the Collectors, using everything at our disposal from our weapons, tech attacks and the masterful biotics of Samara and Jack, I heard noises behind us. I looked round to see more platforms like the one we were on coming towards us, floating through the air on mass effect fields with waves of Collector infantry on them. Time was running out.

"Grunt, Jacob, Jack, Sophie, Mordin; take care of the enemy to our rear. We hold this position! EDI?"

"Download of Omega 4 Relay data complete; loading navigational data for the location of their home world."

I looked behind us at the four platforms that were about to dock next to our one, each loaded with a score of Collectors. Meanwhile above us on the high ground the Collectors were taking advantage of our firepower being divided and were advancing towards us again. If we loitered any longer then we would never get out.

"The Nav data is secondary; we got what we came for" I told the team, "Everyone get to your teams and let's get back to the shuttles. Now!"

Jack sent a powerful biotic wave at one of the platforms as it linked with our own and what Collectors were not blown off the back edge were knocked to the ground with heavy force. Zaeed loaded an explosive shot and landed it directly behind a group of Collectors sharing the same bit of cover. As the bodies and chunks of rock tumbled down to our level we moved as fast as we could. My team made the first dash and covered Miranda's second team when we reached a suitable firing point. We were on our way back.

Back along the hallways we dashed, past the Collector that was being experimented on and past the heaps of Human bodies. Seeing them again and hearing the Collectors and the Husks that they now unleashed behind us made me want to stay and fight them to the death; taking as many with me as possible. However, that would achieve nothing in the long run and I fought the temptation as hard as I was fighting our enemy. The running battle was ambush after ambush while we were running from the main force gathered behind us. Doorways that had previously been shut to us now opened up and squads of Collectors would rain fire down at us. Grunt took a bad hit just above his eye, and in response charged the position that was ahead of us. After clearing out almost the entire squad, he seized the enemy that had shot him and rammed a grenade down its throat. With a grim laugh he threw the struggling Collector's body back towards the closing Husks and when I heard and felt the explosion behind me, Grunt roared with satisfaction.

Over the course of the furious engagement none of us came out unscathed, but no one received any major wounds as I had feared. I had EDI and Jacob to thank for our vastly improved shield modulators that they had created together. I darted around a corner at the head of my team and saw the shuttles waiting right where they had dropped us off and ordered my team to leg it as fast as possible. I dropped to one knee off to the side of the path and covered my friends as they ran past me as one. When they were clear, I threw all of my grenades a few seconds apart from one another and ran for it while the Collectors and Husks received a final salvo of explosions. I felt the comfort of the shuttle's floor beneath my feet again and the doors slammed shut and EDI piloted us away in a flash. We were almost home.

However, looking back out at the ship, I realised that the power had been turned back on and the huge cruiser was coming back life again, turning menacingly towards where an anxious Joker was waiting on us in the Normandy. Just as the shuttles reached the hanger and I leapt out, I saw the Collector ship's main weapon priming; charging up its beam weapon. That same beam weapon had sliced through the first Normandy with ease, and even with the SR2's Silaris armouring I doubted that it could take a direct hit and survive. As I sprinted up the three floors to the bridge, I radioed Joker,

"Joker, we're all aboard. Evasive manoeuvres now! Plot a course to any system, I don't care where, and get us the fuck out of here!"

Joker acted fast and a few seconds later I felt the ship jump to Faster-Than-Light travel. Where we ended up after the jump did not matter; we had hit the Collectors, retrieved the necessary data and everyone had survived with only a few scrapes, bumps and bruises. We had won our first real victory.