Chapter 25 - Arrival on Noveria

'Don't worry men, Tyranids are only as dangerous as a razor slug if you keep your wits about you.' - Imperial Guard sergeant Merrick, seconds before being torn apart by a Tyranid lictor, Dawn of War 2

Arlas woke up as the ship jolted, though it took at least a few minutes before he could clear his head enough to start waking up. During that time, someone removed something from his mouth and throat, and helped him sit up. Arlas tolerated their 'assistance' until they put a drinking tube in his mouth, giving him water, and he took long, slow sips from it, letting his parched body take every last drop in. He had whoever was helping him get two more, before he finally could speak without a rasping cough rendering him unintelligible. "How long?"

He immediately recognized the soft and husky voice as Liara. "A bit longer than three days. It took two of those to get the eezo out of your body, and another day for you to recover."

He blinked the lethargy from his eyes, forcing his body to move and respond. "Where are we?"

"The medbay of the Normandy."

Arlas couldn't stop the flash of irritation he sent, as he sat up, ignoring the burn in his muscles as he moved for the first time under his own power in days. "I meant the ship."

"Oh, just landed on Noveria. We got a lead here on Saren, and three Spectres were going to see the local…"

Jaclyn's voice came over the ship's paging system. "Team Goons, disembark. Now. Come out ready for trouble."

Arlas rolled his eyes as he stood up, and smirked softly as Liara sighed in annoyance. "Sounds like a normal mission."

Liara just sighed, and handed him the tabard he had been wearing when he had collapsed. "I would prefer fewer explosions and lengthier studies on assignments, frankly. Also more understanding and support from my comrades."

Arlas gave her an amused look as he pulled his tabard on, but didn't answer as he turned to the human healer. "Free to go?"

Doctor Chakwas gave him a flat stare, before nodding. "See if you can go another week without needing my services. Surprise me and the betting pool."

Arlas frowned, before looking at Liara as she headed to her cubicle at the back of the medbay, then back to the doctor, and finally at the gyrinx that was doing its best to pretend he didn't exist. "What betting pool?"

Arlas arrived at his ship, his thoughts irritated. He couldn't twist a straight answer out of the mon-keigh if he tried. No one had answered his question about a betting pool, and he still didn't know what a monkey was. He sighed to himself, before grabbing his weapons on instinct, and then frowning. He had his fusion gun, death spinner, his flamer pistols, and his sword. Apparently he wasn't going to be sitting at the back of the group today. He tapped his omnitool, opening a communication line to the Twins. "Twins, Arlas. Any recommendations?"

Jaclyn closed her line immediately, but Joannis replied. "We are currently locked down in the Admin building. Local administrator is crooked, and stonewalling us, so we are trying to bypass him. It is going to take time though."

Arlas listened as he set the weapons on the work table, before turning to his armor. He grabbed the first jump jet, and began attaching it to his armor, as Joannis continued. "So we are looking at a couple hours to figure out a way around him. Currently on our way to meet a couple Spectres already on the planet, see if they have any advice. So get ready to move, though with the constant snow storms and winds, we might stick with the Mako instead of taking the lander."

The eldar acknowledge the review of the situation, and continued to work on his armor, though he did send a thought to the wraithguard in the medical bay. *(Having fun up there?)*

The utter contempt Kap'Eiyl sent back made him respond with mirth. *(So, feeling like you are using your time well? Stopping the horrible mon-keigh from stealing our secrets, not that they could anyway.)*

Arlas could feel Kap'Eiyl ignoring his barbs, so he stopped teasing the spirit. *(More seriously, attaching spectre jets to my armor, suggestions?)*

*Beyond don't? Those take twenty years to become proficient with. In a training setting. And you think you can just slap them on an armor set not balanced for them, and make it work?*

Arlas paused, sending his thoughtful silence for a moment, before allowing amusement. *(Yes?)*

He knew antagonizing the spirit warrior was not the best idea, but he was of the Path of the Outcast. It was his job to poke, prod, and force his people to adapt. Kap'Eiyl's reply of consuming anger simply indicated he was doing his job. Arlas let the link fade, before turning his attention back to the four main jets and eight secondary jets. A quick review of a recording crystal, which he had walked around the Shadow Spectre armor twice with, showed exactly where each jet was supposed to be on the original armor. By the time Kap'Eiyl got back, twenty minutes after Arlas had stopped his sending, he already had the two main shoulder jets mounted and secured as well as three of the smaller one, and was checking the connections.

He paused to help secure the wraithguard in its stand, before moving Kap'Eiyl's crystal to the armor. He then immediately did the mental equivalent of plugging his ears, as Kap'Eiyl snarled at him. *What by Khaine's severed fist are you thinking? The mountings aren't directly to the armor. Why are you using connectors on the smaller jump jets instead of a hard mounting?*

Arlas leaned over and pushed one of the jets in question, tilting it nearly forty degrees to one side before it stopped, and then rotating it twenty degrees up, before letting it return to its resting position. *(Added maneuverability.)*

Arlas hadn't been aware a spirit could groan in mental agony, and made a note to explore that discovery further at a later time. It took another hour to put the remaining thrusters on the armor, now that he had Kap'Eiyl's reluctant help, though the veteran shadow spectre insisted he was insane for even attempting such an augmentation to rune armor. Arlas had simply snapped back that this didn't even make the list of one hundred most insane things he had ever attempted, before quietly admitting it was close though.

As he did a quick check on the armor, his omnitool pinged. He tapped the button, and let Jaclyn talk. "Arlas, what kind of weather is your lander rated for?"

He sent a quick thought to Yol'Pvera, before replying. "If your people can live on it, my lander can more than handle it. I assume you wish me to transport the team to wherever we are going?"

"Wrong, but close. You are transporting Team Light. Team Heavy will be taking our Mako, whenever we finally do get clearance to leave. Also, bring that wraithguard of yours, I want to know if it is any good in a real fight."

He frowned, before replying. "Denied, Kap'Eiyl has another assignment, though he is out of the medbay."

Jaclyn exhaled past the microphone before replying. "Acceptable. Though next mission, he comes."

Arlas just rolled his eyes, before beginning to pull on pieces of his armor. A few minutes of work, and he stepped out into the empty hangar, ready to try the jets for the first time; it wasn't like they would be that different from a hoverbike. He stepped into the cleared area, and set the power feed to the jump jets to one percent before pushing power to them.

He regained awareness on the other side of the hangar with Kap'Eiyl and Yol'Pvera's hysterical laughter ringing in his head, buried under a stack of crates which were thankfully empty, several of which were badly dented. The fire alarm was wailing, and he was being doused in the chemicals that had been stored in a fire suppression pipe that had broken. Before he could do more than struggle to his feet, Tali and the human engineer in charge of the power system dashed into the room, carrying red cylinders. They both paused, staring at the devastation, and then at him. He coughed, as he continued to climb out of the collapsed pile of crates. "Minor armor system malfunction."

Kap'Eiyl finally managed to stop laughing long enough to send something, Yol'Pvera still unable to stop laughing. *That was awe-inspiring, like watching the Avatar use a chaos marine as a projectile. I am so glad I activated a recording crystal. A prodigy you are not.*

Tali's head tilted to one side and her eyes narrowed, as the human continued to gape at him. Then Tali hosed him down with a white vapor from the red cylinder she was carrying. "Minor? That was MINOR!?"

Arlas yelped as the cloud enveloped him, not expecting the attack, before warp jumping behind her, and grabbing the cylinder and yanking it away from her. "What are you doing?"

She hissed up at him. "Stopping a bosh'tet from tearing a hole in the hull."

The quarian gestured to the side of the hangar, and when he looked he noted he had actually put a slight dent in the hangar door. Not much of one, only a centimeter at most, and it didn't deform the door enough to breach the hanger, but Arlas was impressed he had managed to put one in it all the same. A quick check revealed that he had hit with his shoulder, rather than the jets, and the armor had actually dampened the blow enough that it only felt like a bruise. Still, denting the metal the mon-keigh designated as frigate armor with his body alone implied there was a lot of power in the jets. Likely because the other two main drains on the system, the warp generator and rune armor, weren't active, so he had pulled one percent of the total power, instead of just a tiny amount.

He frowned, ignoring the two beings waiting for an explanation as he set up permanent base power divisions, though he would easily be able to manipulate the actual levels if required. He returned to the center of the hangar, and set the power to the jets to minimum rather than a hard number. The human looked at Tali as he pulsed the eight smaller gets, getting a feel for them. "If he dents the hangar again, I am opening the back and throwing him out."

Tali simply nodded. "I will help, Adams. Though perhaps we should wait until he explains the dents to the commanders first?"

Arlas rolled his eyes inside his helmet, ignoring the spectators, before pushing power to the jets again. This time he rose steadily into the air, wobbling slightly as the jets twitched. It was difficult to control them, but Arlas quickly began experimenting with trying to move around. His first attempt to maneuver in the air led to him impacting his arm against the lander almost immediately, and when he reflexively tried to grab it to stabilize, the change in the thrust from a smaller jet, caused him to start pinwheeling through the air again. This time, however, he remained conscious and cut the power to the jump jets, and twisted as he fell to land on his feet.

Engineer Adams was recording with his omnitool, but it was Tali that spoke. "Something tells me that is not something you have done before, Elfy."

He ignored the nickname as he returned to his starting position. "Second attempt. Now for third."

"Wait, so your first attempt was why you dented the hangar door?"

He was already in the air, and didn't answer the question, instead pouring power into the jets for attempt number three. An hour later, he landed gently, able to do some basic maneuvers now in the air with the jets, but using his omnitool or a weapon would still unbalance him, and recovering from that was hard without cutting the jets and landing. Kap'Eiyl sent his unamused approval. *Well, you are learning faster than I expected. Though I suspect it is due to your skill with a jetbike and your outcast training rather than inherent talent with the jet pack.*

Arlas glanced at his omnitool as it buzzed, and replied before tapping the button. *(As long as it works, I don't care how I got it.)*

"Arlas here, doctor, what do you need?"

Doctor Chakwas glared at something off screen, as she replied. "Yes, get that artifact out of my medlab. It started singing again, and the grynix is not amused by it."

"Acknowledged, on my way. And it is gyrinx, not grynix."

He stepped into the elevator, and a few minutes later entered the medbay. The gyrinx turned to glare at him like he knew Arlas was responsible for the 'singing,' the eldar woman was shifting uncomfortably, Doctor Chakwas was glaring at him because she knew he was responsible for the discomfort of her patient, and he could hear the artifact ovaloid singing again. He frowned, before heading to the cabinet storing the psyker artifact. "Doctor, is this the first time it has started singing again since it came on the ship?"

"Yes, now please remove it."

He shrugged, and removed the egg, idly noting a discoloration on it, but put it out of his mind as he headed for the elevator. A moment later, he placed the egg down in a clear space in his room, as the armory was starting to get crowded. He then did a quick check of the supplies he had stored in the room, before nodding to himself. Enough water for a couple months, and food for a month. I might want to consider adding more. Later though, first, back to training.

Arlas' plans, however, were quickly derailed, as when he opened the airlock in the lander, he saw Liara, Tali, Ashley, and Kaidan taking seats in the troop bay. He looked down at his omnitool, before looking at the others. "I assume there is a reason for this?"

Arlas' omnitool finally vibrated, and a quick check showed both Twins opening a call with him. He sighed, and shut the door, before tapping his omnitool, and then turning the volume down. Jaclyn did not disappoint. "Why the fuck did you damage my ship?"

Arlas sighed before tapping another button, closing the call as he sat down at the pilot's station. Another chime indicated that he was being called back, and he accepted this call, speaking before they could. "First, do not take that tone with me, you are neither a senior exarch nor a farseer, I am an ally, and I can change that to neutral if that doesn't appeal to you. Second, it is a couple millimeters deep dent in the hangar door, and a handful of dented, empty crates. Third, I was calibrating a new system for my armor and didn't expect that powerful a response from the jump jets. Fourth, where are we going? I have the rest of the ground team in my lander, and assume you wish them to meet you."

Jaclyn didn't respond but her twin did. "Sent you a map, you can just follow the SHIT GETH! Wrex, left side, left side!"

Arlas frowned at the sudden shift, listening to the sudden sounds of combat in what he had been told was an independent but relatively safe colony. He tapped a button before stepping into the troop bay, increasing the volume. "Vasir, big white geth, stasis it! Garrus, get that hopper. Jaclyn, assist Vasir with the Prime. Dilteer, keep the geth off Garrus. I got the Grizzly."

He leaned against the wall as everyone else in the troop bay listened, their conversations stopped when the door had opened for him again. The battle took very little time, the geth likely hadn't anticipated so many people trying to leave the facility so had only left a dozen units or so behind. It took a moment after the fight Joannis to get back to him, apparently having to discuss something with whoever the two new names were. "Arlas, still there?"

"You didn't finish your orders."

A sigh echoed through the communication line. "Fair enough. The map shows the destination, and we know a group of krogan, asari, and turians came through here with an 'executor' about four days ago with about a dozen large shipping crates. Considering we located one of the crates, as well as a dozen geth, we can guess the crates contained more geth and probably weapons for the 'assistants.' Tali, how many geth could fit inside a standard freight shipping container?"

Tali tapped away for a moment, before wincing. "Depending on the size of the chassi? They could put four armatures per crate, or as many as five dozen troopers. Geth don't need to breath, and as long as they have a hopper, or any of the larger models inside it, the scanners wouldn't have picked up anything."

There was a moment of silence, before an unfamiliar voice spoke up. "So you have a fair sized army between you and Peak 15. Thinking you might have room for another?"

Another voice spoke up. "Make that *hiss* room for two *hiss* more?"

Arlas rolled his eyes, before coughing. "Anything else, Commander? Or should we go ahead to the destination?"

"Go ahead Arlas, we will meet you there."

Arlas closed the communication line, before looking at the others. "Make sure you have everything you need, we leave in five minutes."

Arlas sighed at the sound of multiple thumps from the troop bay, and snapped a thought to his passengers. *I said we were leaving in five minutes. Who wasn't sitting?*

Tali replied, amusement coloring her voice. "Ashley and Kaidan. Mind slowing and leveling out so they can at least stand up and try to get to their seats?"

Arlas sent back his displeasure, before complying. Yol'Pvera was actually flying the lander, he was simply providing overwatch. Not that he could do much, considering all he could see was flurries of white from the raging blizzard. He felt the craft shudder as a particularly bad crosswind hit it, the engines pulsing as Yol'Pvera tried to keep them on course. *I begin to understand why Joannis asked about the lander's capabilities.*

Arlas gave a dry mental chuckle before sending his agreement. *(How are we doing?)*

*About halfway there, and most eldar vessels would be able to handle this wind and cold. I am more worried about…*

Arlas felt a sudden spike of dread, and grabbed the control yoke, yanking it to the left and back towards him, rolling the vessel into a screaming dive. He felt Yol'Pvera yank the ship out of the dive in time to avoid several rocky spikes, but he was more concerned about the bullets arcing through the airspace they had just vacated. He put his thoughts to the troop bay as well as his co-pilot. *(Anti-air just took a swipe at us. No hits, but I did not see where they came from.)*

*Turrets and walker tanks set up along the cliffs, significant overhangs make air assaults feasible only through the turrets' fields of fire. Unless you want to bury them in avalanches.*

Arlas watched several bursts of light briefly light up the blizzard, missiles if he had to guess, but the weapons hadn't tracked the lander. After a moment, he tapped his omnitool, calling the ground team. Icivia picked up first. "Icivia here Arlas, what is it?"

"Geth entrenched around the map marker, unable to land due to anti-air. Orders?"

"Wait one."

Twenty seconds later, Jaclyn joined the conversation. "Assuming you can't make an attack run."

"Unknown, blizzard hampering sensors too much to determine conditions near geth. And I might cause an avalanche with the heavier weapons."

A moment of silence, before the sound of a cannon resounded through the comm, and Jaclyn spoke again. "Alright, hold position. We are slowly making our way up the mountain path. Visibility is shit, but the new mako's shields are tough enough that even when they ambush us, we still win. The shields take forever to recharge though. So we are looking at about four hours to go the six kilometers to the facility, assuming we keep finding geth as often as we do, and take the same damage. If you could get some kind of scans to let us know where the geth are dug in though…"

Arlas hissed, before glaring at the spirit stone in the cockpit. "I don't have enough expertise to do that, but I know someone that can. We will send you an uplink if we get it to work."

He quickly turned off the communication channel, and plugged his mental 'ears.' Just in time for Yol'Pvera to explode at him. *Absolutely NOT. I will NOT accept a mon-keigh anywhere but the bay.*

Arlas sighed, before replying with carefully chosen words. *(Can you find the geth emplacements and send it to the humans? In this blizzard? I know I can not.)*

He waited a moment for her to speak, before continuing. *(But I am certain Tali can. All she will be allowed to access is the sensors. You fly, I will block her access, and we both keep the ship from exploding. And her head too, if we can spare the focus.)*

Sadly, his last comment didn't even get a flicker of amusement from the spirit eldar, and he simply opened a communication line to the troop bay. "Tali to the cockpit."

After a moment of no one moving, he spoke again. "Tali to cockpit, need your help with sensors."

That got Tali to the cockpit faster than a Crimson Hunter warrior being told that orcs were attacking with only fighta-bombas and carriers. It took a couple seconds to disconnect from the lander, and he pushed the currently only chair in the cockpit back before turning to face her. Tali spoke before he could her voice laced with doubt. "This is the cockpit?"

Arlas paused, before looking around. The cockpit was fair sized for an eldar craft and split into two levels. The first level was the forward, lower level, containing the wraithbone chair and console for the 'pilot', which only had a couple small levers, switches, and a pair of control yokes, and Yol'Pvera's spirit stone. The second level was only a half meter higher, and was where Tali was standing. Usually the co-pilot's chair would be there, with an identical console with more switches and only one control yoke, but it hadn't been included as Yol'Pvera was the actual pilot, and he was just supporting her.

The eldar shrugged, before putting one hand on the wall to his right, the console built into the wall to give him a walkway since the lander was for extended missions so he didn't have to open the canopy to get out, and twisted the energies in the ship to give Tali a seat and console. The quarian yelped and jumped back as the floor in front of her shifted and began swelling, watching with wide eyes as the material ballooned upwards, before deflating into a seat and console. After a moment, Arlas sighed, ignoring the utter disdain from his fellow eldar. "Tali, sit, unless you want to let Kaidan come up and try his hand at the sensors."

The threat had Tali move so fast he barely noted her transitioning between standing and sitting. He chuckled, before standing and moving to stand behind Tali. He put one hand on her shoulder, then another on the wall beside him, ignoring the feel of the ship shifting suddenly to avoid more fire from the geth, and the shifting of the woman under him as his hand rest on her. He mentally frowned as he realized the significant shift that thought represented, as she was a woman in his head, not a mon-keigh, but dismissed it to concentrate on the current problem, linking a mon-keigh to an eldar system.

Arlas knew the sensors were calibrated to find, in order, minds, heat, and metal. None of which the geth would show up on in these conditions. He instinctively glanced at what the sensors were reporting, but all it was detecting were massive amounts of cold air, and lots of metal. The mountain must have a metal road to prevent the path to the facility from getting easily destroyed, and seemed to have significant metal deposits just under the snow. Or the entire mountain was covered in thousands of geth, including three readings that seemed to be seventy meters tall. He shuddered slightly at that thought; he was not prepared to fight a titan class opponent.

Taking a deep breath, he isolated the sensor system, as much to keep Tali from wandering off into other systems as to keep Yol'Pvera and the resident warp spiders from trying to kill her. Then he linked Tali into the sensor system, and waited for her mind to adjust.

Joannis looked down as her omnitool pinged, showing Arlas was calling her. "Arlas, Joannis, what is the story on feeding us geth positions?"

"No good. Sensors aren't calibrated for the environment, and the geth are using too little power for me to find them among the massive amounts of raw metal in the mountain. Tali had a negative reaction to trying to interface with the sensor suite, will be combat capable before you make the target area. We will be nearby, so call if you need a strafing run."

Joannis sighed, as she pulsed the jump jets of the mako, dodging a siege pulse, before Garrus replied with the main cannon with significantly improved accuracy. Looking at Jaclyn at the electronic counter and warfare console, she saw her twin frowning. With a sigh, she backed the mako up, and settled in to wait until the shields recharged again. "Right, we are making better time than expected, but it will still take a couple hours."

With a sigh, she brought out her omnitool, and began making a few notes as she waited, two on the geth, and another about the eldar sensors. After a few minutes, the shields beeped, indicating they were at full strength again, and she set out, driving slowly as the blizzard made it nearly impossible to see anything. After a few minutes of slowly crawling forward, the mako suddenly rocked as a siege pulse slammed into the front barriers, and Garrus replied with the main cannon. Joannis sighed, this was going to take forever.

Three hours later, Joannis rolled the mako to a stop, staring at the entrance to Peak 15, listening to Garrus whistle in surprise. "That looks like a pretty effective 'keep out' sign if I have ever seen one."

Jaclyn snorted in amusement as Joannis opened a communication line to the lander. "Joannis to Arlas, got eyes on the objective. Going to be…"

She threw the mako in reverse and stomped the accelerator, throwing the mako back around a corner as three entrenched weapons suddenly pivoted and began obliterating the area where the mako had been seconds before. Once around the corner, she continued. "Sorry about that, geth said hi. Going to be a bit of a fight to get in. Saw a pair of armatures, a couple destroyers, and three new platforms, same size as an armature, but with two long barrels instead of a flashlight head. Looks to be a rapid fire anti-air unit."

"Yes, I encountered them before, but didn't see them before we were forced out of range. Suggestions?"

"Hit them from two directions at once."

The long silence indicated Arlas' enthusiasm for the idea, before he spoke. "Activate a beacon, and send me the scans of the area. I doubt you want me burying the entrance of the facility with an avalanche."

Arlas warp jumped out of the cockpit, landing on the snow immediately in front of the lander. Thanks to the scans the Twins had managed to do before they had been driven back, he knew the terrain around the facility well enough to start doing his job. What he was not ready for was how quickly the cold bit through his armor and undersuit. He grimaced in pain, before running forward, around the rocky protrusion that had hidden the lander from the geth, and nearly screamed as the wind seemed to directly flay nerves like a scourge used by one of his fallen kin.

He ran forward, before jumping down the cliff, falling nearly twenty meters before pulsing his jump jets to arrest some of his momentum. He still landed heavily and off balance, staggering a few steps before dashing forward. He slid to a stop behind a rock, and looked around, before cursing under his breath. The Twins had said there were three turrets, two armatures, and two destroyers, but he could only see two turrets. He took a second look around, before sprinting to the nearest turret, the one closest to the path the ground transport was taking, pulling out one of his melta bombs. He carefully placed it between two of the six supporting legs, the wraithbone fusing to the metal as he activated the melta, before carefully moving around toward the second turret, taking an oblique path to try and avoid setting off any alarms or sensors.

He was halfway across when both turrets smoothly pivoted toward him, their barrels dipping to squarely target him, firing. He threw himself into a warp jump, feeling the last shell glancing off his chest plate, and landed behind a rock that would give him at least temporary cover. He winced as he felt the cold starting to make him sluggish, and opened his comms even as he detonated the melta bomb. "Turret closest you down, push."

He fought off a shiver as he drew his fusion gun and pistol, before sticking the pistol around the corner to blindly fire at the turret, just to remind it that he was still alive and kicking. Then he heard a loud thump followed by an explosion, and the turret stopped firing at him. He poked his head up, and just barely spotted the turret in the swirling snow storm, its turret swinging around as the mako fired the main cannon again, its repeaters chattering as they tried to chip away at the powerful barriers on the turret. Arlas waited until the turret fired again, before warp jumping around behind the turret. He quickly fired the fusion gun, and then jumped back to cover behind the rock.

After a moment of silence, punctuated only by the boom of the mako's cannon, he poked his head back out to see what he had done. He was remarkably impressed when the turret didn't fall over or explode, but it did have a fairly large hole through it. What was more impressive was the fact its barriers were still working. He quickly keyed up his omnitool again. "Turret down, cease fire."

The mako slowly stopped firing its repeaters, though the main cannon didn't shoot again. At his signal, the lander swooped around to land, and then it fired its scatter laser turret, gutting the remains of the turret. *(Yol'Pvera, we were about to capture that turret for study.)*

All he got back was a feeling of smugness, making him sigh in vexation before he warp jumped into the lander to warm up. "Arlas to Twins, Yol'Pvera took exception to the turret still having power. Turret destroyed."

Tali immediately started swearing profusely at him and his eldar companions in quarian, apparently forgetting that he could understand it all. He waited until Tali finished and after warming up enough to not stammer before suddenly looking over at her. "I don't think most of those were anatomically possible."

Tali's embarrassed whimper was amusing, and everyone else jumped out to pile into the door into the hangar of the Peak 15 facility. Arlas replaced his expended melta bomb, just in time to hear his communicator crackle as the group breached the Peak 15 hangar. "Shit, geth turret! Find cover people."

Wondering how they had managed to get the geth turret into the hangar with a burning transport blocking the door, he kept rearming himself. A quick glance to the side showed that the geth long rifle was in its rack, so with a sigh he grab the sniper rifle. Not that he expected to get to use it much, but better to have it and not need it than need it and not have it. He warp jumped into the airlock that connected the hangar to the outside as he finished rearming, before opening his mind. He could feel the entire ground team spread out through the hangar in small groups, though he could feel a pair of individuals on their own that he didn't recognize, as well as several other minds that felt… wrong somehow.

Done finding his allies and opponents, he leaned against the wall to stay out of the firing line, before opening the door. And swearing up a storm as dozens of bullets screamed through suddenly open door. He hated smart enemies, preferring ones that were dumber than him. He cursed even louder when the firing suddenly tracked to the side, putting noticeable dents in the wall he was using as cover, but relaxed as the turret moved on to another target, rather than trying to cut him down through the wall.

A quick glance around the corner showed the geth were well entrenched, the two destroyers, armatures and the turret from outside having reinforced a pair of geth primes, and several dozen standard platforms. A handful of krogan provided close combat support and a turian sniper was assisting in directing the battle. The turian was keeping Garrus suppressed with his rifle, while the rest of the geth suppressed the rest of the team, trying to get the krogan into melee and shotgun range. Simple, brutal and effective, but they apparently had forgotten that he was present. He flipped his cloak's hood up and fed it power, dropping from vision, before carefully unlimbering the long rifle.

He announced his presence by shooting the enemy sniper in the head, the overpowered rifle shot punching completely through the target's barrier, lightly armored helmet, head, and then burying itself in the ceiling beyond the target. Done with his priority target, he turned to the turret, and then ducked back into cover as two rockets screamed through the space he had just been occupying, as well as another flurry of bullets. As the turret attempted to kill him, several biotic explosions ripped through the enemy ranks, significantly thinning out the number of geth as the turret detonated, before Garrus, Icivia and a volus tore apart the krogan still trying to press forward.

Then the volus suddenly poked his head up, turning it to both sides like he was counting the number of geth, before he then confidently strode into the open, his two submachines chattering as he focused down a geth rocket trooper. Every geth with a clear sight lines, a half dozen geth troopers and a destroyer, turned and fired, burning through the volus' barriers, but a wave of his omnitool and the barriers came right back to full strength. Then he started spinning like a top, tossing out omnitool attacks and firing his submachine guns, tearing through the geth that had fired at him, even as an asari suddenly biotically charged the geth destroyer, blasting its destroyed chassi across the hangar. Arlas reached out to Kap'Eiyl as he watched a single volus obliterate over a dozen geth without even appearing to try. *(Remember our reactions to the volus?)*

A wordless reply of agreement came from the spirit, as well as a underlying feeling of shock. *(Either that one is the equivalent of an exarch, or we seriously underestimated their battlefield potential.)*

Another emotion of agreement, before Arlas stepped out of the airlock. He watched the Twins and Icivia approach the two new mon-keigh. Joannis spoke first. "Good showing. Think you can find what you two were looking for here, or would like to press deeper with us?"

The asari sauntered over, idly pausing to put her boot heel through a geth's head. "I saw the crates I was looking for earlier, but I doubt Dilteer is going to find what he needs out here."

The volus looked up from the geth prime chassi they were scanning. "Truely. *gasp* I doubt I need *gasp* to go that deep in *wheeze* though."

Arlas was certain the story of why they had picked those two up was absolutely fascinating if someone cared. He dropped his cloak, and moved over to join the others, ignoring the curious looks from the two newcomers. Joannis spoke. "Alright people, two teams here… Arlas, that new armor?"

"Modified my original."

"Does it have barriers?"

He just sighed, and tilted his head, waiting for her to get on with it. After a second, she smirked and nodded. "Fair enough. We are going to have three teams for this mission. Garrus, Liara and Kaidan, stay here and make sure nothing comes in behind us, Kaidan is in charge of team Reserve. We might have missed geth on the path, and we don't want to be flanked. You can wait either in the hangar or the mako. Tali and Ashley, you will be team Evidence and will be helping Spectre Dilteer hack through the local files once we get to the mainframe, Ashley will be handling security once the rest of us go hunting for Saren's executor. We have no idea who that is, video showed only a cloaked and hooded figure entering the two hangar bays, but we think it might be Matriarch Benezia."

Liara looked up, her face conflicted, but Joannis silenced her with a sympathetic look before continuing. "Seeing how she has been instrumental in Saren's plot so far, taking her alive is an objective, but she is an asari matriarch, and likely won't be easy to subdue, if it is even possible. Push comes to shove, I will settle for bringing everyone on my side home, though we will make all reasonable attempts to force her to surrender. However if she was going to desert, she would likely have already. The rest of us are Team Capture."

She looked over at the new asari and volus, before tilting her head slightly. "Is division of personnel acceptable, Spectres Vasir and Dilteer?"

The volus shrugged, while the asari actually replied. "Actually, taking Dr. T'Soni with us would be a better idea. Give us more biotic boom, which the geth really can't counter. And I can keep an eye on her, make sure she doesn't get too badly hurt."

Liara shot the asari Spectre a glare, but the older asari simply ignored her. After a moment to share a look with her twin, Joannis looked at Liara. "Your choice, Liara. No one on the ship will think less of you for whichever you pick."

Liara didn't even hesitate in making her decision. "I need to come. I need to hear my mother justify her actions. And if she can't, then I need to… deal with her."

Arlas approved of both her resolve and the speed of reaching it, and could feel the asari spectre did as well. The other spectres were also supportive of the idea, though Joannis was worried about the young asari. But Joannis didn't dwell on it. "Alright then, you stay with the main team then. That means me and Jaclyn, Icivia, Arlas, Wrex, and Liara will be pushing ahead until we encounter Saren's people. Vasir, will you want to come as well?"

The spectre considered it for a moment, before shrugging, glancing at him with apparent disinterest, but he could almost hear her thoughts about observing him without even activating his psyker abilities. "Sure, might as well. No one gives the asari a bad name and gets away from me."

Joannis frowned at the other asari. "Remember, we want to take her alive if reasonable."

The asari gave a flippant wave of her hand, as Joannis turned to the others. "Alright, everyone, let's move out. Wrex first, Jaclyn, Vasir, Liara, myself, and then Icivia. Arlas, you are floating, either be where we need you most, or be scouting. I want to know about fights before we get to them."

Arlas nodded, before flipping his hood up and providing power to the cloak, vanishing from view and causing the asari and volus to start. Vasir suddenly smirked. "So that is why Huntress command was so interested him and his tech. Huh, I might actually have fun this time."

Arlas was only four rooms in, about two minutes ahead of the rest, but already he could tell it was going to be one of those missions. Two small anti-personnel turrets in the hallway leading in, but pointing toward the facility, not the entrance. A broken window, which was supposed to be effectively shatter proof, but looked like it had been melted. And now he had found a half liquified geth chassis, another scattered about the room in pieces no bigger than the palm of his hand. But most damningly, there was absolutely no clue as to what had caused any of it. He couldn't sense any heat sources or minds, but he could hear something psychically singing. Very muted, but just barely perceptible.

After a moment, he stood up from the destroyed geth, and continued deeper into the facility. "Arlas to Joannis. Fourth room, two destroyed geth, no signs of source. Moving deeper."

The next room was a simple curving hallway, but the next one made him nod to himself. "Arlas to Joannis, sixth room is a server room. Still no contacts. Three paths, suggestions?"

Joannis replied. "Last of us are coming up the elevator from the garage. Wait in the server room for us. Still no contacts?"

"None."

The new asari spoke. "That is not unlikely. There were one hundred seven listed personnel in the lab. Eight days ago at least. Whatever triggered the omega protocol would have had that time to pick off survivors."

Arlas frowned. "What was the personnel distribution?"

"Twenty three eggheads, twenty one janitors, a dozen general scrubs, fourteen administrative flunkies, and thirty seven security fodder."

More than a third were security? Arlas frowned at that thought, before shaking his head. Unless they were experimenting on something nasty like orks, they should have at least killed a couple of them. So where were the bodies, of either side? He frowned again, his head turning to the flooring, the grating allowing him to see under the floor. For a second, he thought he had spotted something moving, but it was gone before even he could see it, if it had been anything other than a shifting of the lights. That though made him look up, noting the ceiling was grating as well, and one of the lights was shifting slightly.

Arlas frowned, drawing his fusion gun, and backing toward one of the walls. His dangersense wasn't pinging, but his instincts were screaming at him.

Something was watching him.

Not hostile, but definitely unfriendly. Like how an exodite would watch him. After a second, he reached up and shoved the ceiling grate above him to one side, before jumping up and looking around.

Nothing was visible as he clung to the ceiling with one arm, even when he switched between vision modes. But he saw something more concerning than the empty space should have been. He saw several ventilation shafts leading away from the rooms, and one of them had a very unusual dent in it. In fact it looked a little like claw marks…

"What are you doing, Elfy?"

Arlas dropped down to look, his fusion gun snapping to the voice, before relaxing and dropping to the ground as he saw it was Joannis. "Something was up there."

The rest of the group trooped in, not bothering to listen. "Did you actually see anything?"

He gave a sigh, before shaking his head. "Not directly."

"Then until it is a confirmed presence, we proceed as planned. Tali, Dilteer, get that main VI up, I want to know what they were doing here."

"Your *wheeze* quarian is already..."

The core suddenly hummed loudly, before a standard female VI interface popped up. "It appears you are trying to restart this mainframe. Do you require assistance?"

Jaclyn sighed, before slapping her palm to her forehead and groaning. "Ah, crap. A popup ad."

Her comment got a few weak chuckles, as Joannis began interrogating the VI. "Council Spectre Joannis, I need this mainframe up immediately."

"Alert: VI running on local backup power. Unable to fully restart mainframe without main power. Error: Landlines severed. Error: Main power offline. Errors must be corrected to fully restart mainframe."

Jaclyn sighed. "Of course they do, why can't this shit ever be simple? Why is there always strings attached?"

Wrex snorted in amusement. "Because it would be boring otherwise. Makes you appreciate us mercs that just ask for credits."

Joannis finished interrogating the VI, and turned around. "Alright, new assignments. Wrex, Jaclyn and Icivia will be heading top side to fix the landlines. Dilteer, Ashley and Vasir, stay here to get the main computer online as soon as you can. Tali, Liara, Arlas, you three will be coming with me to fix the main power. Alright, everyone move out."

As they left, Joannis tuned her communicator to only talk to the people in her fireteam. "Alright, this might be simple, might not, depends on what went wrong. Tali, you stay in the middle, you are the only one that can fix the more dangerous problems. Arlas has point, me and Liara will bring up the rear. Arlas, try to not block the path with the melty gun."

He sighed, unconsciously correcting her terminology even as he headed out. "Fusion gun."

"Whatever."

The walk was short, and a quick elevator took them down a level to an enclosed room. "Do we even know what is wrong?"

"Only that the power is off. Stay alert, I doubt it turned itself off."

Arlas sighed, before doing a quick mental scan of the next room. "Nothing alive in there that I can sense."

He tapped the left door control to open it, and found himself staring at a shotgun wielding destroyer. He dove to one side, snap firing his fusion gun, and heard the geth fire at the same time. Then there was a scream of tortured metal, followed a few seconds later be a loud clang. Arlas took a quick glance through the door. Or what was left of it, his snapshot had been a bit low and taken out the door, part of the frame, and a section of the suspended metal floor beyond the door. A quick glance down showed the shoulders and head of the destroyer geth, three floors below. He shrugged at the women as they all glared at him, before heading to the other door. "I will aim higher."

"What did I just say about blocking the path?"

"That I shouldn't test my armor against a shotgun."

He ignored the others behind him as he opened the next door, but this one didn't open to a waiting enemy. Instead it simply opened to a metal grating. Joannis kept talking. "Arlas, put the melty gun away and use something else."

"Would you prefer the rifle that can penetrate three meters of metal, or the power sword that cuts through metal like flesh?"

He could feel her surprise, before she replied, as Tali stepped around him to start examining the power plant. "You have the two pistols and that big cannon looking thing."

"A flamer pistol, a death spinner, and the double pistol is used with the power sword. Yes, let's set everything on fire in the power plant, I am certain that couldn't possible cause any problems. And the death spinner is only good against unarmored, unshielded foes. Neither of which are the geth."

That thankfully ended the conversation, though he could feel the human glaring at him, making him suspect that she was going to start managing his weapons if this mission didn't justify his weapon choices. So far, it certainly had not.

Tali rounded the corner ahead, and came back around even faster, her shotgun discharging as fast as she could fire. "GETH!"

Arlas swore, the main silo was blocking his line of sight, but there were two paths. Tali and the others were moving to block one, leaving him to take the other. His path abruptly stopped at the hole he had melted, but it was simplicity itself to physically jump across the two meter wide hole. He traded his fusion gun for his power sword as he landed, and charged the three troopers turning toward him, all armed with rifles.

One and two, one and two, through and through, his power blade went snicker-snack. Effortless cutting through the foes, he hit the geth in the back.

His allies held the geth in place with suppressive fire, and his sword scythed through his opponents, but there were more on the landing above, on the second floor. He dashed around the silo, before nodding to the human. "Better?"

Her glare was cut off as Tali asked a question. "Why are you carrying a geth head?"

He flung the head around the corner instead of answering, the improvised projectile clanging off one of the geth chassi, fouling its aim. He then stepped to the side so Liara could put a singularity in the ramp leading down. The geth immediately realized this was an extremely bad thing, the juggernaut and destroyer trying to charge through it, while the sniper and two rocket troopers desperately sought cover.

Then Joannis hit it with a warp, setting off another large biotic explosion. The detonation badly damaged the ramp, but it stayed attached, but Arlas could hear the metal stressing under the sudden pressure. He turned and glared at the human. "You just lost the right to complain about my weapon choices. Ever. I am not setting off artillery explosions."

She glared back, but both of them stopped as the metal flooring they were standing on screamed in protest, and the entire grating on the side of the room with the ramp suddenly dropped about five centimeters, before screeching to a halt. Arlas gave the human another glare, before pointing to the top. "May I suggest you check the upstairs, ma'am? Make sure the rocket troopers didn't survive?"

She simply nodded, recognizing that it was a good suggestion, even if the tone had suggested it was anything but. Arlas walked around to the backside of the silo, where Tali was working on several fuel lines. Liara was standing nearby, keeping an eye out for any geth. Arlas nodded to Liara in approval, before turning to Tali. "How long?"

Tali grumbled. "Question of my life. If the question is, when will this power plant be fully online, two weeks, earliest. This is pseudo-plasma damage, all major fuel lines are fused."

"That is too long."

"Which is why I am redirecting two of the waste removal lines to act as fuel feeds. … You are in my light, Arlas."

Arlas smirked. "Of course, builder. As you were."

He glanced at Liara, who was watching the byplay with amusement, and chose his words with care. "You injured, Dusk?"

She took a deep breath, before nodding. "No, but that doesn't matter. I need to know. I need to."

The eldar simply stared at her for a moment, before slowly nodding. "Fair enough. Keep Gemling safe."

Liara smiled as Tali muttered something unpleasant in quarian at Arlas, but kept working for a few more minutes. Arlas suddenly looked up as the silo started humming, and Tali sighed. "Power restored. We can…"

"PRIME!"

Joannis' warning came just before the grating that made up the floor shook, and then screamed in protest as several connections snapped and dropped another few centimeters. Arlas drew his fusion gun again, putting the sword away, and stepped around the corner, to find the huge prime advancing from the door, apparently having jumped down from the upper level. He tried to get his fusion gun up, but the geth fired first, just before he did. The massive shotgun hit his stomach, blasting him backwards a pair of steps and knocking him onto his back, but he didn't feel the pain of being torn open, so his armor must have turned the blow aside.

Arlas heard metal screaming in protest as his fusion gun's blast landed, and then suddenly the floor fell out from under him with a deafening crack. He forced himself past his pain, it was fleeting and didn't indicate real damage, and twisted . Tali and Liara were within reach. He twisted some more to grab them both, having lost his grip on the fusion gun at some point, before mentally grabbing Kap'Eiyl. *(REALLY need your help here!)*

Kap'Eiyl snarled something inelegant in his head, but took control of the mental impulses to control the jets, and then dumped all power to the jets. Arlas nearly screamed as he took all of Tali and Liara's momentum into his arms as the jets fired, feeling like he was about to have his arms ripped from their sockets. But Kap'Eiyl managed to slow them enough that Liara could focus a lift on herself, and then they landed. He dropped the girls onto the ground, and then slammed into the wal before the jets stopped providing power, before collapsing. He groaned, before weakly pushing himself upright.

"Arlas, Liara, Tali, report. Any of you alive?"

"Liara here, Tali and I are uninjured. Arlas managed to catch us."

*No, I did. Your welcome, you ungrateful…*

*(Enough Kap'eiyl. They think you are still in the Wraithguard. And without telling them about the spirit stones, they will continue to think that.)*

The spirit snorted in disgust, but Arlas turned his attention to the conversation. "Arlas here, still breathing. Need a minute."

Joannis' next question was laced with static, but understandable. "Injuries?"

Liara replied first. "Bruising for Tali and myself."

"Strained my arms, significant impact to shoulder, shotgun blast to the gut but armor caught it. Other than that, mobile. No way back up from here, meet you in the server room if possible."

He paused, before looking around. "Where is my fusion gun?"

The eldar didn't spot his fusion gun, and forced himself to his feet. He looked up, setting his helmet to search for wraithbone, and groaned before reactivating his communicator. "Joannis, Arlas. Can you biotically pull my fusion gun off the wall? It is up where the floor was."

After a moment of receiving only static, he frowned. "Joannis? Do you hear me?"

He glanced to the side, and saw Tali tapping at her omnitool. "Tali?"

She looked up and shook her head. "Something is jamming communications. Something in her area."

Arlas nodded, before turning to Liara. "Can you biotically pull my fusion gun down?"

It took a moment to get Liara to see it, and another few minutes for her to get it loose, but eventually it slipped off the dent it had lodge in, and fell into his arms. He froze at a semi-familiar keening noise, before slowly raising his head to stare at the only door out of the current level of the silo room. Tali and Liara both turned, Liara speaking first. "What was that, the wind?"

"I have no idea, but I know that wasn't machinery."

Arlas, however, sighed in vexation. "Joannis, do you hear me?"

When she didn't reply, he cursed in eldar, before leveling his fusion gun. "New orders, kill everything between here and the rally point."

Both women turned to him, Tali's voice suddenly sounding flat. "You know that noise."

He nodded at her statement. "Shoot first, keep one eye above you, and set your weapons to incendiary rounds. Liara, you will be in middle, Tali, you have to take point. I will take rearguard, and we need to move quickly, before they bring their numbers to bear."

"So what was that noise?"

He paused, before looking both women right in the eye, though the helmet reduced the effect he was trying to have.. "A… minor bug problem."

A/N - Easier to write than the last chapter, but the divergences are starting to pile up. Hopefully this one was more enjoyable, because Arlas is really getting annoyed at getting hurt again. Usual author requests go here, fav, follow, review, and don't forget to vote on my profile poll on the new poll. But most importantly, enjoy.

May 12, 2018 - And seriously, I misspelt ork ONCE, get over it people! Half the reviews caught that, and all of them were loud and vocal about it.