Nais - Asari equivalent of woman.

Moruvesin - Winged insect analogues native to Palaven that grow to approximately 2 cms in length. Covered in articulated armour, they are very difficult to kill and have a sting that might not kill you, but burns so severely it will make you wish it had.

Mallupean - A turian song composed to honour the deceased. It is usually written and sung (keened) by their closest loved one as an act of devotion to both the individual and the relationship.

Inluvis - The second gestational period in turian pregnancy. Between 8 and 16 weeks. Slang: Little one, in the sense of being young and underdeveloped.

Senuxem - Ancient exalted. A term of reverence when referring to one's elders: grandparents, great grandparents. Senux: slang. A derogative. Human equivalent: geezer.

46 Days ASR

Nihlus stared at the image on the security screen off to the side of the apartment's front door. Damn, what did the justicar want? Showing up at his home and murdering him as he opened the door didn't seem very sporting. Taking a deep breath, he pressed the intercom control.

"Yes? How can I help you?" he asked, watching the asari's every twitch, trying to read her intentions.

She looked at the camera, a sort of intense hopefulness gleaming in her eyes. "Spectre Kryik?" The thin press of her lips, the tension along her square jaw screamed desperation.

"Yes, you have the right apartment." He swallowed a small chunk of ice, memories of the two weeks spent trying to outrun the justicar spitting it out. She'd proven dogged and resourceful, nearly ending him a couple of times before he managed to slip away. "What can I do for you?"

"I need to speak with you." She stared into the camera for a moment, then clenched her jaw, her whole body stiffening as she turned away a few degrees. Nihlus's mandibles flicked; he knew pride being set aside when he saw it.

"You proved yourself an imaginative adversary the first time we fought," the asari said. "I do not have two weeks to devote to chasing you across this planet. I am here on another purpose, and I would speak to you about it."

Nihlus's brow plates rose. "If you don't have time to hunt me, then why not just stop hunting me?" Annoyance sparked, lighting a fire beneath his temper. "I have never threatened you. I don't have any desire to kill you." He let the fire build. She didn't have the time to hunt him? Seriously? He hadn't even seen her when she opened fire on him all those cycles ago, and even then, he retreated rather than engage. He choked back the worst of the rant that tried to force its way out. "I'll ask one more time, and then I'm going back to my breakfast. Why are you here?"

She spun and paced away from the camera, pivoting on her heel when she reached the far side of the hall. "Last night, why did you pull that youngster away from the asari in the bar?" As she stared into the camera, he saw something move across her face, something very old and very painful, but also something she worked very hard to keep hidden.

He narrowed his eyes at the screen, the spear rammed down through his spine softening a little. "I know someone planning to harm someone else when I see them," he said, his voice softer. The memory of the darkness slithering beneath the asari's seductive grace, the empty well of those eyes, sent a shudder ripping down his body. "That nais was a predator, and a child like the one she was seducing doesn't have enough experience or sense to see past the charming smile and the free 'mood enhancers'."

He let out a long, noisy breath that bordered on a snort and straightened, puffing his chest out a little. Drunken joke of a Spectre or not, he remained a Spectre. "I'm a peace officer, or I was. That means not standing by and letting a child end up raped, or dumped in some alley with a slit throat."

The justicar took a long breath and returned to stand so close her face took up the entire screen, as if she was trying to peer straight into his soul. "If you are an officer of the peace and a protector, why did you kill that nais on Lusia? She was unarmed."

That was why she went after him all those cycles ago? That day … . Nihlus closed his eyes and sagged against the wall … that day had been the culmination of the worst mission of his career. He let out a sigh that felt as if it started around his ankles. "I don't want to stand here and yell this story into the corridor." He reached toward the door controls. "If I let you in, do I have your word that you'll hear me out? If you do, I think you'll find the landscape murkier than you believe."

The lovely, severe face stood square in the camera, a single deep bow and a soft corona of biotic energy answering his question. "I swear that as long as I am not threatened, I will offer you no threat, nor will I bring harm to you or your companions. By the code, I swear it." The blue corona flared slightly then dissipated.

Nihlus turned to find Thane and Sol standing a couple of metres behind him. He shook his head then held a hand out toward the doors to the guest rooms. "You two can retire to your rooms unless you hear gunfire or people throwing one another around."

Sol's mandibles flicked, blue eyes flashing. "And if we do? Just turn up our vids so we don't have to listen to your preteril squeaks for help?" Cocking her head, she backed away a single step.

He didn't rise to her bait. "Yes, or come save me. Whichever one suits your mood." He flipped his hand toward her door.

"Our mood and the quality of whatever program we're watching," Thane deadpanned, then turned and strode for his room.

Nihlus let out a startled laugh and pointed an accusatory finger at Sol. "That's your influence."

She cackled and spun on her toes, practically flouncing to her room. "I know! It's fantastic. Good luck with your guest, senux." The door closed behind her, then opened a crack. "And don't get killed."

Nihlus let a slow, indulgent wave of affection flow through him, waiting for it to ebb before he turned back to the door. Despite the justicar's oath, he held his breath as he hit the control and the door slid open. He really didn't want to have to kill someone in his front room. When no biotics or weaponry appeared, he stepped aside, a quick sweep of his hand ushering her inside.

"Thank you," she said, her tone chill and stiff. Gliding across the floor, she crossed to where the living room carpet began. "It's been a very long night."

Nihlus merely nodded and held an arm out toward the sofa. "Please, make yourself comfortable. Can I get you anything? Water?" His mandibles twitched as he flailed, trying to think of anything else that wouldn't make her ill. He'd never really entertained, particularly any would-be murderers. What was the protocol for early morning detente?

Thane's door opened, the drell taking two steps into the room before giving the asari a slight bow. "I brewed a pot of lemon and ginger tea. It's still hot."

"Thank you," the justicar replied, her tone weary and grateful. "That would be welcome." She folded neatly onto the edge of the leather, holding herself rigid and straight.

Nihlus stared at her for another moment before clearing his throat. "I'm Nihlus Kryik, as you already know." He swept an arm toward Thane as the drell disappeared into the kitchen. "Sere Thane Krios." He glanced toward Sol's door, a thick, dark crease along the one edge betraying that she was spying on them. He crooked a talon, then held out his hand, palm up. "And Solana Vakarian."

The justicar nodded to Sol. "My name is Samara. I am a servant of the Justicar Code. I wish I could make your acquaintance under different, less urgent circumstances, but necessity demands what it demands."

Thane returned with two cups of tea and two of amarceru on a tray. He set them on the coffee table, then picked one up and moved over to a chair by the wall. Sol, on the other hand, gave the drell a wide grin and plopped herself down on the floor across the table from Samara.

Once everyone had taken a couple of stiff, awkward sips at their drinks, Nihlus drew in a deep breath. Time to tell his tale.

"I had tracked an organization of slavers from Lorek to Omega and Illium … a half dozen other worlds before I found the main farm." He took a drink, needing the warmth of the amarceru to fight back the chill creeping out of the past. "I hadn't expected an outfit that enormous, and so I found myself taking on platoon strength guard garrison and mounted weaponry that slowed my advance into the main compound." He swallowed, his tongue sticking to the back of his throat, and leaned forward to set his cup down. "The investigative team the council sent in afterwards said the first explosions were triggered in the mother house, then the barracks. By the time I made it through the wall, the entire inner compound was on fire."

He paused, finding a spec of something on the back of his talon that needed immediate investigation, allowing him to draw away from the stink and the horror of that day. "I found one small child alive. When I went back in after the fires were extinguished, I was able to identify all the inner circle of the slaving ring but for the two ringleaders. One was a batarian; I caught up with him on Omega. The other was the nais you saw me shoot on Lusia." He looked up, meeting the justicar's stare. "No, she wasn't carrying a weapon, but I'd chased her through the spaceport and a cafe. To slow me down, she used her biotics to fling five innocent people in my path. Three survived."

Nihlus cleared his throat and leaned down to pick up his mug, needing the heat on his hands and in his belly. "She was hardly innocent."

Samara bowed her head, still regal and stiff, but some of the hardness around her mouth and eyes softened. "I misjudged your actions. I apologize." She straightened and lifted her cup. "To have gone through such and then to be hunted." A short breath escaped that almost sounded like a regretful sigh before she cut it off.

Nihlus just nodded. 'No problem, don't worry about it' seemed insane considering she'd hunted him across half a continent. Instead, he took another swallow of his amarceru and leaned back in his chair. Her turn to take the hot seat. "So, why are you here?"

Although he would have thought it impossible, Samara stiffened even further. "For nearly four centuries, I have been pursuing the criminal you met last night." She set her teacup down. "She is a mass murderer with a record of hundreds of kills, and had you not rescued that child last night, she would surely have been murdered as well."

Glad to have his instincts confirmed, Nihlus nodded, but it was Sol who answered. "That's a long time to be hunting down one criminal. I'm not sure whether to admire your resolve or fear your obsession."

"Too long," the justicar said, a tight smile showing her agreement. "And, perhaps a bit of both would be appropriate." A brief pause and slight shift in her rigid form marked her topic change. "She is highly intelligent and gifted in the art of manipulation." Big, blue eyes turned to stare into Nihlus's. "I tracked her to Illium, but then saw you in the spaceport when I arrived. She must have been watching me, because she began to stalk you. I believe she did so in order to ascertain why I showed interest in you." A thin trickle of light wove through that stare. "I believe that distraction is why she has fled, but also presents me with my best chance to apprehend her."

Perking up at that, Nihlus leaned forward, elbows braced against the arms of the chair, his mug held between both hands. "You're here to ask for my help?" All the knots in his shoulder muscles began to untie. Helping catch an infamous mass murderer? That he could do. No massive, terrifying, unbeatable forces of doom, just investigating, tracking, and then some running and gunning at the end. Damn, that sounded good.

Except, that chasing down murderers wasn't why he'd come to Illium. He needed to chase his own shadows and discover what his behind the madness of Saren's accounts being cleared out.

"After you confronted her last night," Samara continued, reeling him from his thoughts, "Morinth went to the Eclipse, who smuggled her off world." Her jaw tightened as if she found her words distasteful. "I cannot lay siege to Eclipse headquarters alone. I am an experienced fighter and powerful biotic, but even so, I am one person."

"So you want us to help storm the castle?" Sol asked, her demeanour perking up. Her eyes sparked with eagerness as they latched onto Nihlus. If she started begging, he'd never be able to resist that stare. Thank the spirits, their next goal also meant fighting their way through the Eclipse.

Still, Nihlus looked to Thane first, not wanting to volunteer any of his tiny squad against their will. When the assassin answered his silent inquiry with a nod, he mirrored it, then turned back to the justicar.

"It appears our purposes have converged. Our mission requires that we find Jona Sederis, the Eclipse leader, and we have reason to believe she's on Illium." He shifted forward in his chair and set his mug down on the corner of the table. "Do you have any intel on the Eclipse base?"

The justicar activated her omnitool. "Yes, I spent most of the early morning discovering its location and tracking down a volus trader with knowledge of its layout and a pass to get inside."

"Yes," Sol crowed, flashing a cocky grin his way. "At last, a decent fight, senux." The grin deepened and slanted into one sharpened to her usual edge. "You going to be okay? Should I fetch your tonics and linaments? Your cane?"

Replying only with a twitch toward her room to tell her to gear up, he looked down at the representation of the massive complex. "How do we get in?"

"A volus smuggler gave me a key card to get into the elevator that leads down into the base." She pointed to a large cargo elevator that tunneled through the center of the archology. "They'll be on us the moment we arrive on their level. Pitne For's intelligence puts their numbers at two hundred and fifty Eclipse regulars and initiates, one hundred and fifty LOKI and FENRIS mechs, twenty-five YMIR mechs, and twenty gunships, although they won't be able to mobilize most of those."

Nihlus stared into those earnest, fearless blue eyes for a long moment, letting the knots in his gut untangle before he took a deep breath and nodded. "So basically, the four of us are taking on an army."

Samara nodded, not a trace of humour in her expression. "Indeed."

Later

Nihlus slid into cover beside Sol, assault rifle overheating, knees and ankles shaking, thighs aching, shoulder throbbing, sweat trickling down his neck. "Let's take out an army, she said. I can't take them out alone, she said," he grumbled.

Sol snorted, and shot a spiked glare his way. "Don't worry, gorgeous, ageless asari, we can help you, he said." She nodded toward his shoulder. "How bad is it?"

Firing back a muttered curse, Nihlus shifted his weight to one leg, biting down on the moruvesin-sting burn as he rested the other. "I'm fine. After we get through this room, there's a hallway then a small side room before the next staircase. We'll lock ourselves in there for ten minutes and rest." Settling himself balanced on both feet once more, he popped up, doling out rounds in clusters of three.

At the end of the room, two new mechs raced through the door, setting his heart pounding. "Spirits, two more FENRIS incoming. Sol?"

"Yeah, yeah, I'll protect you from the dogs," the tarin grumbled. "Don't go giving yourself a heart attack or stroke. I don't want to have to carry you out of here on my back."

"I hate those spirit-cursed things." As to carrying him out of there, Nihlus sent a subvocal retort that earned a sharp laugh. He concentrated his fire on a line of LOKI's slowly making their way down the room. The stupid things offered no real threat unless they managed to sneak in close while the team focused on the more mobile threats.

Sol leaned around the crate to hit the FENRIS with an overload, then peppered them with rounds. "Thane, could you please throw those dogs? Buy me time to overload them again?"

"On it." From across and another five metres up the hallway, the drell's arm rolled into a graceful hand flick that sent the two robot dogs tumbling down the tile. A half second later, Thane leaped over his cover, his SMG whittling down the barriers on pair of vanguards at the far end of the room. "Crossing field of fire," the assassin called, then nimbly rolled under Nihlus's sight-line.

"Spirits, he's fun to watch." Sol overloaded the FENRIS again, the two dog-things exploding, taking out two of the nearly-finished-off LOKI, allowing Nihlus to move on to assisting Samara. The justicar had four initiates pinned down behind a long desk.

"Moving up to cover Thane on the right. Samara, I'll be at your five," the Spectre called, then leaped over the crate and sprinted across the hall. When he reached the stack of crates, he didn't duck behind them but rather left himself open, a target to give Samara a chance to take some of the less cautious Eclipse with her reave.

The broken-glass shards of their screams shredded Nihlus's calm as Samara's power tore the life from their cells. Some days made him incredibly grateful that he wasn't a biotic. A bullet through each helmet cut off the torment before it could unspool him entirely. Then spirit-blessed silence fell, a relief he felt all the way down into the marrow of his bones.

"Spirits," Sol moaned, lifting one thigh onto her cover. "Are there enough of them?"

Nihlus merely nodded, hoarding his energy as he leaned against the crates at his side. They'd faced a hard fight getting in, but it should ease up until they reached the Eclipse docks. That provided the next good spot to form a solid resistance. Then, the rest of the mercs would gather around their leader. Even thinking about the last fight tied his muscles into complicated knots.

"The galaxy is becoming a darker and darker place," Thane said, striding past, heading toward the hallway and their rest stop. "People feel it, even if they don't know what it is they're feeling. They seek safety in numbers. They seek companionship, the camaraderie of brothers and sisters in arms." He shrugged. "I don't blame them. I feel it as well." A half-smile lifted one corner of his mouth as he met Nihlus's gaze.

Nihlus nodded. Good company, people he trusted, who had his back ... who loved him … he understood that urge as well. Too bad all the Eclipse corpses behind them hadn't bothered to sign up with Archangel instead. Archangel really needed to do something to start stealing the merc gangs' recruits. If they continued to just wipe out the mercs the way they had been, things could get sticky once the Reapers showed up. Maybe they needed to step out of the shadows a bit, start taking on missions to do more than kill bad guys.

Pushing off the crate, he followed Thane into the empty hallway, his assault rifle sitting heavy in his hands. "Come on, Sol. Let's get this room cleared and actually take a break."

"So how many do you think we've killed or deactivated?" his filitrin asked from his six.

"Seventy-three deceased, forty-seven deactivated," Thane supplied. The assassin paused outside the closed door, cocked his head, then gestured from his tympanic membrane to the door. Without waiting for an order, he slipped into a cover position against the right side.

Nihlus nodded and moved to cover the other side before gesturing to Sol to activate it. As she stepped up to the control, the Spectre listened. One voice: young and female.

Sol palmed the control, then stepped back and away, letting he and Thane lean out of their cover to sweep. Nihlus frowned, one brow plate migrating toward his nose. No one. So, more than likely, they'd discovered an initiate hiding from the fighting.

"We know you're in here," he called. "Come out with your hands raised, and we won't hurt you."

"I didn't shoot," a soft voice said. Hands appeared around the front edge of a computer console. "I swear. I don't even have a gun. I left it on the floor out behind my cover."

Nihlus stepped into the door. "Come out. We won't hurt you."

"Unless you try to hurt us," Sol said, marching past him, "then we'll fill you full of holes." She stepped straight up to the young asari even as the nais climbed up off her knees. After a second, Sol shook her head. "You're just a kid … well, comparatively speaking." Leaning back, Sol crossed her arms, looking so much like her mari in the moment that a keen burrowed down in behind Nihlus's keel. "So … what's your story?"

Nihlus left Sol to deal with their unexpected, reluctant recruit and waved Samara and Thane inside before scrambling the door. They couldn't rest for long, but they all needed a chance to eat, drink, and let their muscles recoup a little. As soon as he turned from the door, his eyelids sagged, his legs turned to rubber, and his arms succumbed to gravity's seductive song.

"My name's Elnora," the asari said in response to Sol's interrogation. "I thought being a merc would be cool, all hunting down bad guys and freeing slaves … like in the stories. It hasn't been like that at all." She wilted as she said the last.

Samara stepped up to look the young nais in the eye. "Mercenaries who possess honour do not find the life an easy one." She spoke with both an authority and passion that pulled Nihlus straight, his heart pumping with purpose.

He pushed off the door, a stiff limp jarring his spine as he walked to a crate and sat. He pulled out a water bottle and a ration bar, then leaned back, content to just listen and watch as his other three team members dealt with Elnora.

They needed the justicar back at Archangel, he decided. Something about Samara pulled together ravelled ends and wove them into a whole: something stronger. Even after a few hours in her presence, he felt it. How much more could she accomplish with fresh recruits? An intractable moral compass couldn't be a bad thing when facing the fight they faced.

Across the room, Elnora began to beam in answer to Sol's suggestion she might find working with Archangel more to her liking, her smile so innocent and filled with hope that it felt like a slap. Samara gripped the kid's shoulder and said something that transformed the wide grin into something solid and ready to face the fight ahead.

A low 'huh' rumbled in his chest. Maybe, just maybe, if Samara returned to Archangel, she could help Shepard weave some of her frayed ends together, and the glowing asses of the Enkindlers might find their way back in at least some of their former glory.

Later

Nihlus twitched, electricity arcing along his hide and between his teeth for a last few seconds, before he collapsed, a puddle of roasted turian on the docking bay floor.

"Senux?" Sol crouched next to him, gentle talons moving over his plates. "You all right?"

He glared at her but didn't move, unsure if he even could, his spine and brain still shooting random impulses down his scorched neural pathways. Opening his mouth, he tried to speak, but his tongue remained glued to the top of his mouth, his jaw still wooden. Fighting the all-too-familiar agony in his overheated and swollen joints, he managed to straighten out the clawed rictus in his talons.

"Spirits, that looked painful," she said, hitting his medigel dispenser. "Not sure this will help, but it can't hurt, right?" She cradled his face between her hands. "Are you in there? Can you see me?"

Oh, he could see her. That made up one of the true evils of dying by devil robot dog. Seeing his inevitable death circling him, hearing his screams and then moans and squeals, smelling his flesh roasting, able to conjure a crystal clear image of Shepard's face as they told her about his death … check. Being paralyzed and unable to do anything about his looming demise while his teeth shattered inside his mouth and his talon joints cracked from stress … also check. Able to do anything to save himself … not so much.

The muscles in his jaw melted from granite to gelatin, followed by enough air flowing through his airways that the thin whistle stopped, and he could speak. "You were supposed cover me while I took out the gunships."

Sol shrugged. "I was. I didn't see that last one dump its load of FENRIS. And when they came charging up the center of the bay …" She winced a little and shrugged. "They're just robot dogs, I didn't think they'd pack a punch like that."

Thane crouched on Nihlus's other side. "A pack of three or four FENRIS mechs can kill in under thirty seconds," he said, his voice heavy with a gentle sort of disapproval. "In a single attack if their quarry's heart isn't strong." He held a hand out to Nihlus. "Your heart muscle and spinal cord may have taken damage and your joints will be swelling. We need to complete the mission and get you to a medical facility."

"I'll be okay. It's not my first experience with those things." Nihlus flexed his talons a few times before he grasped Thane's hand and stood, his arms and legs feeling like saplings in a winter storm. He nodded toward the door out, and gave Samara a small mandible twitch of a smile in answer to her wordless stare of concern. "Go ahead. Secure the next corridor. We're almost there." When the others moved on, Nihlus stumbled toward the nearest crate, leaning heavily against the solid support.

Allowing Shepard's face to remain seared into his inner vision for a moment, Nihlus let the crate hold him up and just sucked in deep, shaky breaths. He still felt the stinging tingle in his hands and feet, still felt random needle jabs along his spine, and as Thane had kindly pointed out, fluid flooded his joints, trying to make up for the trauma. But none of that ached like the thought that he'd come so very close to never seeing Shepard again. He'd just learned what passion tasted like in her kisses.

No. They hadn't killed him. Glancing over his shoulder at the rough circle of seven robotic corpses sparking and leaking slow curls and clouds of smoke, he allowed himself one last shudder. Between Thane and Samara's throws and Sol's overload, they'd gotten him out, and in the end, nothing else mattered. It didn't matter if death's talons missed by a quarter of a millimetre, as long as they missed. Turning his back, he forced Shepard's face from his thoughts. One more room and they could all go home.

"Elnora, time to move up," he called. "Stay in the hallway." When she replied from her hiding hole, he headed for the door.

"Um, Nihlus?" Sol appeared in the door. "You've got to see this." She stepped back out of his path and held out her arm. "It ummm … it appears that the Eclipse have been abducting people and experimenting on them."

Nihlus brushed past her, a vague nausea settling into not just his gut, but his entire body. What in the name of buratrum? Had the entire galaxy lost its mind? He twisted sideways to brush past Sol but the stopped a couple of steps over the threshold. Banks of vidscreens scrolled what looked like scientific data above a line of computer terminals. As he stared at the numbers and information, an altogether too familiar, yet almost forgotten tickle started behind his eyes.

"Is that what attacked Shepard on the Citadel?" Nihlus asked, pushing up behind Garrus's right shoulder. The Spectre shuddered as the orb exploded. "It's not the only one. I still feel them crawling around inside my head."

Nihlus shook off the memory of the darkness and horror of the Haestrom shipyard and turned to his team. "Get what you can off these computers," he said, glancing at Sol. A steady, sonorous alarm began to blare at the base of his skull, echoing up through his skull. Sederis emptied Saren's accounts of millions of credits. Millions he'd assumed had been used to purchase weapons or lavish Illium estates and cars.

That tickle behind his eyes—the feeling of someone else slithering through his mind—that said she hadn't been gathering the money for herself at all. That tickle explained why the Eclipse had thrown themselves into death without the slightest hesitation. "Take a dose of indoctrination serum," he ordered, levelling Sol with a glare that allowed no argument.

Thane obeyed the command without hesitation, but Nihlus glanced over at Samara when he felt her stiffen, hesitating. "Do it, and go back out and give one to Elnora as well. I can feel indoctrination orbs here, and they don't play around." Tiny claws sprouted from the tickle, latching into his brain, sending his talons to his belt pouch to follow his own order.

Ice crackled through his muscles, working its way inward to his spine then climbing into his brain as he realized how much worse things could get. The last time he'd faced the orbs, he'd bolted. He'd taken his serum and still, he bolted. What happened if he allowed the terror to grab hold of him again?

"Nihlus?" Thane called, yanking him clear of his downward spiral. The drell stood next to a vending machine at the far end of the hallway, one hand holding an unsteady volus at a distance. "It appears one of the Eclipse's guests escaped. He's not well."

The volus gave Thane a shove, but only managed to sending himself reeling and then rolling to the floor. When Thane bent to help him back up, he didn't resist, but once on his feet, he threw off the assassin's hand. "I am a biotic god! Fear me, lesser creatures, for I am biotics made flesh!"

Nihlus shook his head as a weak biotic field wrapped around the staggering volus. "What happened to you? Did the Eclipse experiment on you?" He knew that, although rare, the volus did manifest biotics. Mostly due to a wave of turian ships that crashed on Irune a couple of decades before.

"They injected me, and yes, it was terrifying at first." The volus hesitated, his arms slumping to his sides for the space of a couple hissing breaths. "And painful. But then I began to realize my true power! I began to smell my greatness!" He gave another little blue flare, but then stumbled and fell face first on the floor.

"You need medical treatment." Nihlus nodded to Thane. "Take him out to Elnora. He can wait with her." He helped Thane lift the volus onto his feet, then watched them retreat down the hallway, the clock in his head ticking again.

"But, it's my destiny to destroy the Eclipse leader," the biotic god protested as Thane led him away. "She's waiting for me! I'm a biotic god!"

Jona Sederis was waiting for them all, Nihlus agreed. Glancing up at the cameras in the corners, he let out a long breath. They needed to get in there. The four of them had exhausted themselves, and by all his counts they still had a massive fight ahead of them. The last thing they needed to do was give her extra time to prepare.

"I've got everything off these computers," Sol said. She turned to him, her eyes narrow, her mandibles fluttering, betrayed her distress. "There's data here for a dozen experiments, all strange crap, senux. Not normal, let's find a cure for a disease sort of research, but 'let's see what happens if we give the krogan and varren great big brains' or make armies of attack plants sort of research." She swallowed hard and raked her talons down her cheek. "Spirits, what in the name of buratrum is happening to the galaxy? Is everyone losing their minds?"

He strode over to grip her shoulder, not sure how to reply. Galactic insanity certainly seemed to be the most likely explanation.

Thane and Samara returned, not giving him a chance to worry over the experiments and what they meant in conjunction with the orbs. They could worry about all that when they returned to Omega. Questing fingers dove into his pack for his first stim of the day. He stared at the ampule for a half second before injecting it. Looking up, he met Sol's disapproval with a shake of his head. As much as he hated using stims—they ramped his urge to drink up to fifteen on a scale of ten—he didn't see another way to get through the coming battle. Not when someone had pulled the bones out of his limbs and replaced them with wilted villur stalks.

"Sol and I will take on the big mechs," he said, turning to his small squad. "We'll pull them around the room, try to take them out with headshots. Thane and Samara, you two try to whittle down the biotics. We're in for a hell of a fight." He looked to each of them, hating the exhaustion he saw etched in heavy lines on their faces and in the sag of their shoulders, but admiring the resolute determination that straightened their backs and gripped guns in steady hands.

"All right," he said, striding to the door control. "Let's get this done."

(A-N: Just a quick thanks for still being here. I hope it's still holding people's interest. Time to wrap up these missions and get their butts home! :D *hugs for those who want them*)