Something went wrong with the last upload and this chapter got overwritten. Unfortunately, I didn't have a backup, but I managed to reconstruct most of it. The story hasn't changed. That'll teach me to make a backup every time I upload a new chapter.


Therum

"Gory, gory, what a helluva way to die;

gory, gory what a helluva way to die;

gory, gory what a helluva way to die and he ain't gonna jump no more."

The Mako sailed through the air

"He counted long, he counted hard, he waited for the shock.

He felt the wind, he felt the cold, he felt the awful drop"

With a bone-jarring shock, the Mako hit the ground and the humans stopped singing. A few moments passed, while the occupants reassured themselves that they were still alive and the non-humans among them shared a look that was fast becoming a habit: humans are insane.

"Well, so much for that," Shepard said. It seems we're in one piece and so is the Mako." She tapped a button. "Start recording: First combat deployment of the Mako from USM Normandy by way of airdrop complete. Drop successful. Vehicle and occupants have reached the ground intact." She paused for a second. "Note to self: This form of deployment not to be recommended and should only be attempted when absolutely necessary. Crew and passengers expected to be functioning at severely diminished capacity for several minutes after landing".

She looked up. "I may add a note that any officer who recommends this form of deployment should be summarily executed. Publicly, as a warning to others."

"Right," Garrus nodded. "Why not start with the person who came up with the idea in the first place?"

"I'd love to, but I cannot. He died a couple of years ago. I checked."

"What a shame."

"Isn't it just? And I was so looking forward to tieing him under the Mako for the next drop. Anyway," Shepard powered up the sensors and turned the turret around for a better look at the environment. "Welcome to Therum. World of rock, lava, and more rock. It looks like there is really only one way ahead. We'll just have to follow this canyon until we reach the prothean ruins. Estanza, get this thing moving. And try to avoid the lava. I know the Mako is shielded, but I'd rather not test that by driving into a pit of molten rock."

"Yes, ma'am." The Mako started moving.

Shepard changed her comm channel. "Normandy, we're on the move. Hold position as planned and keep monitoring the area ahead."

-0-0-0-

"Enemy ahead!"

Shepard peered through her gunsight. Several hundred meters ahead of the mako, a group of geth was waiting, strung out in a line across the canyon.

"Keep the Mako moving. I'll take them." Her hands tightened on the gun controls as she checked her targets, looking for a way to determine some sort of priority. Unfortunately, there was little to go on. While it may have been a fallacy that all aliens looked alike, it was definitely true for robots coming off an assembly line. True, here seemed t be some variations in colour scheme, but she had no way to tell what, if anything, those colours signified. She gave up, aimed at the left-most target, and pressed down on the fire control. At the front of the turret, a five-barreled Gatling gun span up and a stream of bullets lashed out at the enemy.

The first burst missed by a narrow margin. The second did not

As they had already found out on Eden Prime, the average geth platform was not all that heavily shielded or armoured, though, in all fairness, there simply was no way to protect any man-sized target from this kind of onslaught. Within a fraction of a second, a score of bullets, each powerful enough to go through multiple organic enemies if they were dumb enough to stand in a line, slammed into the geth and dismantled the platform in short order.

"Rocket!" Before she could pick her next target, the Mako braked, turned, then slid to the side

"Watch the Lava!" Shepard snapped, as she worked the turret controls, trying to keep her targets in the gunsight while the Mako skidded dangerously close to the stream of lava that passed through the canyon floor. Even as she spoke, a smoke trail reached out from one of the geth, narrowly missing the Mako.

Okay, guess they're not completely stupid. Shepard wasted no more time, either picking targets or conserving ammunition and simply held the fire control down as she swept the turret back and forth, tearing the remaining geth apart. Within seconds the engagement was over and bits and pieces of the geth platforms lay scattered on the canyon floor.

"So," Shepard said. "They do have some sort of anti-vehicle weaponry. That's good to know. Start moving again, but keep an eye out. I don't know what kind of warheads they've got on those rockets, and I really don't want to find out the hard way."

As if on cue, the communication link with Normandy went active.

"Commander?"

"Yes."

"There's a geth ship moving in on your position. Low altitude and moving slowly. Looks like they're trying to cut you off. Shall we engage?"

Shepard considered briefly. "No. Keep an eye on them, but don't engage yet. Where are the others?"

There was a moment of silence.

"We've got three more of those ships on our sensors. One is close to the ruins, practically on top of them. The others are hanging back."

-0-0-0-

"Enemy sighted." And stupid, Shepard thought as she watched through her gunsight. Dead ahead, a geth ship was hovering low over the valley floor. Resembling nothing so much as a frigate-sized butterfly without wings, it moves slowly as it dropped a line of geth platforms directly in the Mako's path. No tactics, no strategy, not even an attempt at flanking. And that ship is hideously vulnerable during the drop operation, hovering like it's a freaking helicopter. At least they should be able to drop the lot of them at once. Well, if you give me the opportunity, don't mind if I take advantage of it.

"Normandy, I have eyes on the geth. Stand by. I'll give it one shot with the main gun. If it doesn't work, you'll have to take it down. I'll follow up against those platforms."

Pressly's voice came back over the comm. "Understood, Commander. Normandy's ready."

"Estanza, as soon as I fire, you move. Straight ahead, and get me within range of the ground troops."

Shepard adjusted her aim and switched to the main gun. She pressed down on the fire controls. The Mako shook as the mass accelerator fired. As she watched, the hypersonic projectile hit the geth vessel. Either its shields were uncommonly weak, or perhaps they had been powered down in order to enable the troop deployment. Either way, they failed to stop the slug, which slammed directly into the hull, tore it open and went on to wreak havoc in whatever lay underneath. The ship twisted in mid-air, rose and accelerated away, trailing smoke and debris before disappearing over the canyon walls.

"Well, that just happened. Geth ship out of sight, switching targets." Even as she spoke, the Mako accelerated, quickly closing the distance. Shepard switched guns, firing repeated bursts from the co-axial Gatling at the line of geth platforms, even though the range was still long, especially when firing on the move.

One geth went down, a second-

"Shit!" Two, three smoke trails suddenly reached out from the surviving geth platforms.

"Hold on!" The Mako seemed to spin in place, as Estanza worked the controls. The first missile missed, so did the second-

The vehicle lurched violently as the third missile slammed into its shields and exploded, but the shields held, if barely. Shepard cursed, adjusted her aim and fired again, and again. With the Mako at a stop, aiming was easy, and within seconds the geth platforms were torn apart and scattered over the landscape.

For a moment, nobody spoke while Shepard checked the status of the vehicle, then Estanza's voice came over the intercom.

"I'm sorry, commander. I couldn't evade that last one."

"No help for it. This is why vehicles should operate in groups, with infantry screens. Driving around like this, we're just a big obvious target for everyone to concentrate their fire on. Still, better that you evade two and get one hit than the other way round. Seems the warhead was purely high explosive, not armour piercing, which is good news. Anyways, I guess we can add a shield-test to the notes as well. They held. To be honest, I'm surprised."

"Better than expected, Commander?" Garrus asked.

Shepard shrugged. "Somewhat. For what it is, it's not a bad vehicle. It gets the job done. Good mobility, good firepower, and the shields give it decent protection. The big problems, from a purely tactical point of view, are the total lack of crew comfort, which will make it pure hell for long-term deployment, and the lack of space. An APC like this should be able to carry a full rifle squad, instead of just half. Using a two-men crew to ferry six shooters to the battlefield is just plain inefficient. Still, for what we're doing right now -deploying a small strike team- it works. It can carry us to the target and provide fire support. The problem is, that's just too narrow a focus for a vehicle that's this expensive. On top of that, there is a maintenance issue. Right now, we've got a Mako that's straight out of the factory and has been maintained right up until the moment we dropped and it shows. All systems are operating at ninety-seven per cent or better. The thing is, during the trials, the test teams saw a marked drop in performance if they kept them in the field for more than twenty-four hours without a maintenance cycle. And I suspect that under actual combat conditions it will be even worse. Again, that is something you can live with if the vehicle is a cheap, easily replaced piece of crap. But not if it costs as much as a shuttlecraft."

Shepard shrugged. "Anyway, never mind armoured vehicle design philosophy. While the shields can clearly take a beating, I'd rather not test them more than necessary. So, we'll definitely not take this thing all the way to the ruins, even if we can find a path. I'm not going to play armoured warfare in an urban environment. Even these geth are going to learn from their mistakes sooner or later and all it takes is a couple of those rocket launchers hiding on our flanks and we'll be in a world of trouble."

-0-0-0-

Therum, prothean ruins.

"For the last time, I - don't - know! Do you really think I would still be hanging here if I knew how to get out of it?"

The krogan snarled something in his own language that her translation implant did not pick up and turned away, ignoring both Liara and the geth platforms that were studying the force field. In a way, Liara could sympathize with his frustration. She wanted out of the bubble too. By now she must have been hanging in the old prothean cell for more than an hour. Not that she could check this, of course. the forcefield inside the bubble had stretched her arms out to the side, making it impossible to use her omnitool. She wanted out, she needed to get out. In fact, she was rapidly approaching the point where being captured by a group of geth and a krogan. -A group of geth and a krogan? Just when did the universe become this bizarre?- began to look like the better alternative.

It had seemed like such a good idea at the time, fleet into the abandoned building, activate the force field and trust in prothean technology to kee an effective barrier between her and whoever was pursuing her. That had worked. Unfortunately, she seemed to have activated something else as well, or perhaps prothean cells just automatically trapped the inmates into floating bubbles. Either way, it made any form of escape impossible. She could not physically get to the controls and because of the force filed sealing off the entrance, neither could the krogan and the geth. Initially, that last part had seemed like good news, but in the long run, it just added to the problem. Somehow, despite the fact that not even her biotics could get through the bubble-the first thing she had tried- the bubble was permeable to air, so she was not going to suffocate. She was, however, in danger of dehydration and starvation. More acutely, she felt the steadily increasing need to perform certain bodily functions that required her to remove several articles of clothing and she did not want to contemplate what the smell in the bubble would be like if she did not manage to do so in time.

"Argh!" The krogan stopped pacing in front to the forcefield, lifted his shotgun and fired a shot straight into the forcefield.

Liara screamed and twisted around in a desperate attempt to evade the shot, but she could have saved herself the trouble The bubble would not let her move and in any case, there was no need. Whatever its original intent, the force field was highly effective and the blast was deflected harmlessly. He stood there for a moment, breathing heavily.

"Just you wait. We'll have you out of there soon enough if I have to blow this building apart to do it."

The krogan turned around and stalked off, leaving Liara alone with the ever-silent geth.

-0-0-0-

Therum, approaching the ruins.

The Mako came to a stop and the ramp dropped down.

"Last stop. All passengers, please disembark. Do not forget your belongings. Thank you for travelling Mako Express and please come again soon!"

"About time!" Wrex grumbled as he unfolded himself with some difficulty.

Shepard grinned. "Sorry, but this thing wasn't designed for Krogan."

"Or for turians," Garrus muttered as he rubbed the top of his head. "From the height of it, I'd say it was designed for volus."

Williams snorted. "Yeah, right. Then we could stack them on top of each other. The moment the ramp drops, they'll come rolling out like bowling balls."

"Chief." There was a warning note in Lieutenant Alenko's voice, but it was drowned out by multi-species laughter.

"Alright, alright. " Shepard looked around. "Listen up, please. We're about a kilometre away from the ruins. According to the images we got from Normandy, there is a small encampment,-modern stuff, not ancient- between us and the prothean buildings. Probably a left-over from that first expedition. So far, no movement spotted, but that doesn't mean much. Remember, we're not dealing with your standard opponents. If these geth don't want to move, they'll be as still as rocks, and the same has been observed for the xenomorphs, if they're around. So keep your eyes open and stay in cover as much as you can. Jin, Estanza, drive the Mako back to that wide spot in the canyon where Normandy can pick you up."

-0-0-0-

The path narrowed to the point where they could only advance one person at a time. Shepard's eyes narrowed as she looked ahead. About fifty meters ahead of them, the path widened abruptly, creating an open area littered with large rocks. beyond that open space was a solid wall of rock, with only a narrow path leading upward. At the top of the cliff, she could see several artificial structures, including shipping containers and what appeared to be a small observation tower.

"I don't like this. This place couldn't make for a better ambush-site if it'd been designed that way. Alenko?"

"Yes, Commander."

"Get your drones up and try to see what's on that ridgeline. Unless I'm sadly mistaken, we're going to have to fight our way out of the canyon."

They waited, as two small drones spun up, rose into the air and flew off.

"No movement, ma'am. If they're there, they're sitting still."

"Try the tower. Remember, they can fold up pretty well so you may have to change the angle to get a look."

"Yes, ma'am. Moving the drone now- There!" Alenko tapped the screen. "One geth platform. It's folded up like an origami inside the tower.

"And you can bet your first-born there are more," Shepard nodded. "Probably inside those containers. This is gonna be tricky. We cannot afford to be pinned down here with the geth shooting down from the ridgeline. When the shooting starts, you and Zorah stay low. Try to get into their communications network. If being alone makes them dumb, then let's make sure they become as stupid as possible. Vakarian, stay with them. Keep an eye on the 'bot in that tower. The moment the shooting starts-"

"I drop him." The turian nodded.

"Yes, but watch yourself. From that ridgeline, they can shoot down on you, even if you're behind a rock. Wrex, Williams, with me. We'll get as far forward as we can. The moment they move, we charge up that path and we keep moving. We have to get to the top so we can clear the ridgeline, or the others will be pinned down."

The team spread out, staying low and behind the rocks as much as possible.

"Movement!" Alenko sounded tense. "At least two more geth moving up to the ridgeline."

"Understood." Shepard checked her surroundings one more time.

"Wrex, Williams, when I say the word, move fast. Get right up against the cliff face, underneath their guns. The rest of you, stay low, wait for them to make the first move." She checked again. Still no sign of geth on the rocks above them, but that was only a matter of time. "Now!"

Without looking to see if the others were with her, Shepard broke cover and ran, as fast as she could. Suddenly, there was movement, then the sound of mass accelerator fire as at least one, probably more, shooters above her opened fire.

There was a crack of a supersonic projectile passing through the atmosphere and a geth platform fell out of the observation tower. Shepard hit the face of the rock, looked around. Williams was next to her. Wrex, moving with a speed that belied his bulk, was already ahead moving up the path out of the canyon.

"Let's go!" There was no time to lose. Gunfire was streaking back and forth above them, but the geth held the high ground. Under those circumstances, the battle would be over quickly.

Shepard reached the small path, Williams close behind. There was no sign of Wrex, other than the remains of a geth platform, lying on the ground with multiple spikes sticking into and through its chest plate. She kept moving, going up the path as fast as possible without risking a fall.

The area on top of the cliff was flat, but covered with large boulders that could provide cover, as well as the varies containers and prefab buildings. As Shepard reached the top, she saw Wrex, his barrier down and his armour scorched, who had taken cover behind one of the containers.

"How many?"

"Three, at least!"

Shepard risked a quick glance around the rocks. There were two geth platforms near the edge, covered partially by the rocky terrain, firing down. No sign of the third, but that meant nothing and there was an excellent chance that there were other still hidden. She fired a burst in the general direction of the geth, more to distract them from firing down into the canyon than with any hop if hitting them. Theo geth platforms moved, turning to face the new threat.
More gunfire came out of the valley below, submachinegun fire from Alenko, and again the distinctive cracking noise of Zakarian's sniper rifle. One of the geth went down, the other fell back from the edge, trying to escape from the potential crossfire. As the platform moved, Wrex stepped out, his biotics rippling through the air, tossing it back and out into the open. Another burst of automatic fire and it was gone.

Where is the third? From the corner of her eye, Shepard spotted movement. Another geth platform, hiding behind the rocks was shifting to aim a rifle. She fired a quick burst to force it back into cover. There was more movement, in several locations, were additional geth seemed to be hiding between the rocks and the prefab buildings. They were far enough from the edge, not to be a threat to her remaining team members in the canyon.

"Alenko?"

"Yes, ma'am."

"Ridgeline is clear, but there are more geth dug in. Any chance of jamming them?"

"We're seeing a lot of signals. Trying to provide as much interference as possible."

"Good."

She moved, sprinting out of one place of cover and into the next. It was only a few steps, but even so, Shepard felt at least one hit slamming into her shields. Not enough to bring them down, but depleting them to a dangerous level. Still, it had allowed her to close the distance. Behind her, she could hear the characteristic rattle of the full-auto option on a Draco assault rifle as Williams sprayed gunfire over the geth's position.

"Commander, Alenko here. We're in. Their communications should go down in a few seconds. But it won't last, so whatever you're going to do-"

"I'll do it fast." She checked behind her. The others were ready; Williams almost directly behind her, Wrex off to the side.

"Now!

They advanced, moving from cover to cover, firing as they came. One geth fell to bullets. A second, trying to flank from behind a container took a shotgun blast to the chest, then was flattened as Wrex, moving fast, slammed into it. A third tried to fall back, but a quick burst of fire took off one of its legs, and a second burst put it down for good.

Shepard stood for a moment, looking for new targets. Another geth platform suddenly broke cover and started moving toward them firing as it walked.

What do you know, they really are getting dumber.

She fired another burst into the platform and it went down.

"All clear?"

"All clear!"

"Good." She looked around. That had gone a lot better than she had feared. Score one for multi-species fire teams. "Alenko, Zora, Vakarian. You can break cover; we got them all. Join up with us and we'll move on."

-0-0-0-

"Now that's an impressive sight."

It was, even though they had hardly noticed during the brief engagement. From the top of the canyon wall, they could clearly see the spires of the old prothean buildings rising against the sky. many of them seemed broken, as though part of the structure had collapsed, but for something that was at least fifty thousand years old, it was quite remarkable

"You've got to wonder though," Williams mused. "Why did they build it in a place like this? I mean, the view is spectacular, but it isn't very practical."

Shepard considered or a second. "Well, the area might have been a bit more hospitable fifty thousand years back. And even if it wasn't, there are some advantages to living in a place like this."

"Right, nobody is gonna be knocking on your door with a copy of Watchtower around here."

"Exactly. Security-wise, it makes things a lot easier. No animals, so nothing moves. And if you do see motion, you can bet they're coming for you, because there is nothing else around here. So, they're either invited guests or the enemy. Makes tactical planning more straightforward."

"Speaking of security." Vakarian walked up to them. "What happened to all the geth that were supposed to be around here? I mean, there were at least four ships. And I cannot believe that what we just fought was everything they dropped."

"Agreed." Shepard jerked her head toward the prothean ruins. "How much do you want to bet that there is another ambush lying in wait somewhere in those buildings?" She shrugged. "But we don't have much of a choice. I suspect T'Soni is till around. Otherwise there wouldn't be much reason for the geth to stick around. Spread out as much as you can and advance. And for God' sake, pay attention. We've got a lot of open ground to cover and I don't want to get pinned down in the open."

-0-0-0-

"Still nothing?"

"No." Garrus adjusted his vizor while scanning the buildings. They were halfway across the open ground and nothing had moved.

"Normandy?" Shepard seemed to be increasingly on edge, the longer nothing happened.

"Nothing on our end, Commander. Their ships are still standing off from the ruins and we see no motion at all."

"Okay." Shepard started moving again. "Let's go, people."

They picked up speed. Garrus' eyes traced across the buildings. In a way, he could understand Shepard's worries. They were in a vulnerable position and this was the perfect moment for an ambush. There was no cover to be found within at least a hundred meters, while anyone in the ruins would have their pick of hiding spots. Still, it seemed as though-

"Movement! High in the buildings!"

"Forward! Run!" Without checking if they obeyed her command, Shepard sprinted toward the prothean ruins. Garrus, after a moment's hesitation, followed. From the corner of his eye, he could see the others moving as well, still spread out across the plateau, but converging on the buildings. Even as he ran, he saw the movement again, a small shape that seemed to leap from one position, high up in a ruined building, to another.

There was a shot, then another and he saw the tell-tale flare of a collapsing barrier, just as Williams dove behind a pile of rubble.

"Shepard to team. Everyone in cover?"

There was a chorus of voices confirming their positions.

"Good. Vakarian, high-up, you said?"

Garrus looked up, trying to find the place where he had first sene the movement. "Yes, Commander. Something like two or three stories up." As he scanned his surroundings, his hand went for his sidearm. Rapid fire would be more important than accuracy in this kind of fight.

Nothing, nothing, more nothing. The partially collapsed buildings formed perfect hiding places. As long as the geth did not move they would be almost impossible to-

A faint shimmer, as from a barrier of a cloaking device triggered his visor's alert. "Commander, my position, about ten meters high. I'm about to- " Suddenly the cloak dropped and a strange, shape, more organic than robotic appeared, seemingly fixed against the wall of the building. At the same moment, the sensor's in Garrus armour was triggered by the appearance of a targeting laser.

"Spirits!" Garrus flung himself to the side, trying to bring his pistol to bear.

"Got it!" Shepard's shout nearly coincided with his own and a burst of automatic fire hit the general area of the thing. Garrus raised his pistol, firing even as he was lining up. At the same moment, the thing leapt with incredible agility, sailing through the air to land on another building, sticking to the wall as though it was glued there. As soon as it landed, the shimmer reappeared as it started to recloak, but it was too late. More fire from multiple rifles slammed into it, stopping the cloaking process and sending it tumbling down.

"Great, a fucking mechanical frog with a sniper rifle." Even through the translator, Garrus could hear Williams' disgust, though her words made little sense.

"Cut the chatter." Shepard's voice sounded clipped. "Check around, there's bound to be more. Alenko, Zorah, scan anything and everything. Any movement, even if it's as much as a twitch I want to know. Wrex, Williams, converge on me and-"

"More company." The anticipation in Wrex's voice was unmistakable. "Two walkers. No, three."

"Okay, change of plan. Williams, move over and support Wrex. Vakarian, any more of those jumping things?"

Garrus had been scanning the buildings even as they spoke. "No, Commander, but as long as they don't move..."

"I know. Just keep scanning. Better a last-minute warning than no warning at all."

Garrus moved cautiously along what had once been a prothean street, scanning the buildings as he advanced. A sudden burst of gunfire announced that Wrex and Williams had engaged the enemy.

"I'm tracking a communications signal," Tali Zorah's voice made him halt. "It's faint, but I think the source is nearby. Vakarian, it's almost on top of you"

Probably another stealth unit. Garrus flattened himself against a nearby wall, trying to make himself as small as possible; not an easy task for a turian, thanks to their height and somewhat stiff bodies. If the enemy unit was above him, it would have difficulty finding taking the shot. So it will have to move to get a better angle, which means-

The geth platform leapt across his line of vision from the building that was serving as his cover to the one opposite. Garrus fired, and, with a combination of luck and skill hit it in mid-air, spoiling its leap. The geth tumbled down, landing on all fours. It twisted around, trying to scurry away, but Garrus hit it again, then a third time, putting it down for good.

"One more down."

"Good. Be careful, it was communicating with something. Probably nearby."

-0-0-0-

Lieutenant Kaiden Alenko, United Systems Military Marine Corps was not having a good day. Under normal circumstances, his primary contribution to an infantry battle would be reconnaissance, using the elaborate sensor suite attached to his armour, as well as a number of small observation drones, to locate targets and provide advance warning of potential threats.
Unfortunately, these were not normal circumstances. The small recon drones that he used to scan the surrounding area contained some of the best sensor technology humanity had ever produced, but they were not perfect. Limited by their small size, they relied primarily on movement to determine what was -and what was not- worthy of a second look. That worked fine against organic enemies. Against geth, it was not nearly as useful. Geth only moved when they had a need to do so. When they had no such need, they remained in one place, and they could sit still far better than even the best trained organics. They did not twitch; they did not fidget; they did not even have to breath. As a result, the drones simply spotted no movement at all. Lacking movement, they had to rely on other factors to determine points of interest. Such a possibility had been taken into account when the drones' software was designed, allowing them to use both passive and active sensors to scan an area and use a complex algorithm to determine what was interesting. However, the concept of 'interesting' was inherently subjective and not something that any computer program, no matter how advanced, could easily determine. This was a particular problem in the current situation because, in the half-collapsed ruins of an old prothean settlement, nothing matched the drones' built-in library, and therefore everything was potentially of interest. As a result, he was being overloaded with potential threat warnings, while at the same time things that should have been highlighted for further investigation where being missed. Things, like the large, shiny pyramid, sitting in the middle of what had once been a street, that the drones had apparently dismissed as harmless.
This was one of those moments when good old human intuition could be a big help; and intuition was telling him that shiny, clearly new pyramids did not belong in the middle of the street of a fifty-thousand-year-old ruin.

As Kaiden watched, the thing suddenly moved, rising up on three legs and unfolding iself to raise a long neck, topped by an oversized version of the typical geth flashlight head. Kaiden did not wiat to find out what this thing was and threw himself to the side, landing behind pile of rubble that had fallen off a nearby building. A fraction of a second later, the geth platform fired. Kaiden felt a wave of heat wash over him, his barrier collapsing as it passed. When he looked up, the pile off rubble and debrid that had protected him looked scorched.

Run!

Fortunately, the half-collapsed buildings offered plenty more cover and made it relatively easy for someone human-sized to pass through, whereas the large geth machine was stuck to the streets.

"Commander!"

"Here." Shepard's voice came clear through the communicator.

"A large geth unit. It's on its way. We're going to need more firepower."

-0-0-0-

"Here, take a look." Shepard crouched down next to Tali Zorah and showed her the image on the small display. The quarian muttered something under her breath that the translator did not pick up. Then she looked up.

"We call it an armature. Basically a siege unit. Slow, but lots of armour, shielding, and a big gun."

"Blast. Where's the Mako when we really need it?" Shepard shook her head. "We'll just have to make do." She checked her surroundings. Most of her team was spread out over the ruins of a large building, which provided reasonably good cover. "Wrex, Williams, status?"

"Two down, Commander. One more to-" Over the comm, SHepard could hear a burst of gunfire. "Make that three down."

"Good, fall back on my position. We have a problem."

In less than a minute they had joined her.

"Alright, here's the deal: We have some sort of heavy geth unit on the move. It's slow, but it has armour and shields, and we cannot have it running around while we search for T'Soni. And I cannot bring Normandy in to shoot it up, either. Too much risk of buildings collapsing if we start using that amount of firepower. So, we have to take it out ourselves."

"Not with rifle fire." Tali Zorah's voice came over the comm. "EVen if we manage to wear down its shields, the armour will stop the bullets. Meanwhile, we're all easy targets and and that plasma cannon can one-shot any of us, even in heavy armour."

"Can you hack the shield and bring it down?"

There was a moment of silence.

"Yes, but it won't last. A few seconds and it recharges."

"That should be enough." Shepard unslung the grenade launcher on her back. "I'll put in an armourd piercing grenade. Question is, where to hit it. I won't get more than one sho and that thing must have some redundancy built in."

"What about the head. The central processor is in the hull, but the sensors are in the head."

"Too small, and it moves to much."

"What about..." The quarian hesitated. "what about the neck, or the point where the neck enters the hull. It's flexible, so the armour is not too strong and all the sensor feeds pass through that point."

Shepard risked a quick glance down the street, where the geth unit had come to a stop, searching for targets.

"Good enough. People, this will have to be a combined effort. Zorah will bring the shield down. The moment it drops, hittaht thing with everything you have to draw its attention, then break off. Remember, the gun has an area effect, so it's not enough to get into cover. You have to it turns it's head away from me, I'll fire."

-0-0-0-

The geth armature moved forward, it's head swivelling from side to side as it searched for the intruders that the other, now destoyed, platforms had encountered. That in itself had not been such a bad thing. any of the routines on those platforms had copied themselves to the armature before destruction, increasing it's nominal intelligence and enhancing its capability for independent analysis and action.

As the armature moved, it became aware of a signal.

***/ CREATOR PRESENCE DETECTED _ ENHANCE ELECTRONIC DEFENSES _ ALERT- MALFUNCTION /***

A command string entered the armature's hardware interface and its barrier collapsed. Immediately, the shield generators reactivated, but re-establishing a shield took time. Not much time, but still a little and at that same moment, a hail of small projectiles rattled against the unprotected hull.
The armature turned on its three legs, it's neck twisting as it aligned its primary sensors as well as its main gun with the new threat, which seemed to emanate from all over the nearby buildings. A fast, highly energetic round slammed into the head. It failed to penetrate, but the impact interfered with the optical sensor, causing another system reset.

As the armature turned, Shepard rose from behind the low wall, where she had crouched and lifted her grenade launcher. While hardly the most accurate weapon, it had been designed with the consideration that it would be fired rapidly during an emergency and its sights had been optimized for minimal aiming time. As soon as the sights lined up, Shepard fired and the projectile sped away and slammed into its target.

It was an old concept. developed in desperation to give soldiers on foot a chance against armoured vehicles and perhaps the people who had come up with it in the middle of humanity's most desperate war would be pleased that it could still do its job, centuries later. The grenade hit the target and a sensor at the tip of the projectile was crushed by the impact. In a fraction of a moment, the signal travelled back into the grenade, causing the payload to explode. As it did so, the explosion liquified the metal plate in front of it and that liquid metal, superheated and accelerated to hypersonic velocity slammed into the geth armour.

There were defences against a shaped charge, such as multi-layered armour, or even two armour plates separated by a layer of air. SUch things could reduce the impact, or even render it altogether useless. But in a galaxy where all armoured piercing weapons relied on the velocity of the projectile, few people bothered with such defences and the geth were ultimately not given to original thinking. They analysed past events and based their decisions on the analysis, rather than dreaming up hypothetical threats. Unfortunately for them, no past event had prepared them for something that humans had dreamt up before they ever left their homeworld. The jet of molten steel hit the armour, liquifying part of it in turn, and then proceeded into the internal structure of the armature. From the outside the damage looked small, just a hole, a few centimetres wide, surrounded by buckled and scorched metal. However, that outward appearance belied the impact of a stream of superheated metal on the mechanics and electronics of the armature's insides and the geth construct collapsed, even as smoke started billowing out of the newly created hole.

"Problem solved." Shepard looked around. "Everyone, good job. Let's spread out and search for that asari. But watch yourselves. There may be more geth out there."