Chapter 30 - Guardians of Hell

'I have been entrusted to guard the very Gates of Hell by the God-Emperor of Mankind himself! You? Barely an amusing diversion.' - Ordo Malleus Inquisitor

Arlas smiled to Quel'Nayrae as she walked into the room. *Well done, singer. Your addition will make this task much less dangerous.*

Quel'Nayrae sent back fully justified pride, having completed a difficult job far faster than anticipated in conditions she had never trained for. While she knew how to warp proof a room, doing it on a mon-keigh vessel to a room that hadn't been built for that purpose was an unusual request. That she had done it in a day, when experienced singers required a week was a minor miracle, and Arlas had no compunctions against letting her know she had exceeded expectations. Warp proof rooms were rooms that were completely sealed against the Immaterium using wraithbone and were used in the craftworld by the Warp Spiders to train with their jump packs, Warlocks to train with their powers, and mind healers for healing mental wounds.

Arlas examined the room again, noting the pleasing curves of the walls rather than the harsh corners the humans used, the familiar color of wraithbone rather than the color of hard metal, and perhaps most significant and enjoyable of all, the psy-silence of the room. He let himself enjoy the quiet, only his own and Quel'Nayrae's thoughts echoing in the room, before heading for the door. *Let's go see if Prarmer blew out a bulkhead getting away from the mon-keigh.*

The pathfinder headed for the door only to pause at it opened, his mind coming under assault from every mon-keigh thought on the ship. Taking a second to harden his mind, he headed for the room where he could feel the gyrinx. Arlas opened the door to the room, stepped inside, and froze as he tried to understand what he was seeing.

Prarmer was sitting on the table in the middle of the room, with a half dozen females around him. Liara was gently stroking his throat, Joannis rubbing his back, and two of the crew members playing with his tail. Jaclyn and Vasir were sitting at the back of the group, discussing the similarities and differences between the gyrinx and certain species that had evolved on their home planets. He started to glance back at Quel'Nayrae, only to see the gyrinx notice him standing beside Quel'Nayrae.

Arlas quickly shoved Quel'Nayrae to one side and dove the other way, getting the builder and himself out of the way of the psyker gyrinx. He watched a suddenly ballistic chair fly through the space he was just in, hitting the far wall hard enough to dent the wall and destroy the chair, before Prarmer was in front of Quel'Nayrae snarling at him. He stared at the gyrinx in anger, before taking a deep breath to calm himself. *If I am to leave, you need to move away from the door.*

Prarmer didn't move, until Quel'Nayrae picked him up. He yowled in protest, but let himself be carried out of the room, glaring at Arlas the entire time. Once the gyrinx and his fellow Asuryani had left, he glanced at Joannis, ignoring the shocked looks everyone was giving him. "The room is prepared. Move Benezia in and I will start."

Vasir spoke up. "I will be there to watch."

Arlas sighed, wanting this part of the day over so he could start the hardest job he had ever done, but the mon-keigh apparently were as oblivious as always. "Absolutely not. We just finished isolating the room from all external influences. Or are you attempting to kill either your charge or myself? If so, stick to a weapon. It is what you are good at."

He turned and left before more questions could be asked, heading back to the hangar. He got to the ship through his usual method of using the emergency tunnels, thereby beating Prarmer and Quel'Nayrae to the ship. Once inside the ship, he stripped off his current Striking Scorpion tabard and changed into the Warlock tabard. He would need the calming, empowering, focusing and guidance runes that had been woven into the tabard, though hopefully the protection runes wouldn't be needed. He finished dressing for his task before moving to select the rune stones he would be taking with him, focusing on calming and healing runes, and as almost an afterthought he grabbed his dagger and pistol. Once he completed outfitting himself, he knelt in the rune circle inscribed in the center of the armory, going through the exercises to calm and clear his mind, dismissing the irritation at the fact that this was the third time in two days he had done so.

Once he calmed his mind he left the armory, noting that Quel'Nayrae was working on the Vyper and resisting the urge to throw something at the glaring gyrinx. A slow trip up the elevator didn't help his temper, but he needed to be calm and collected, and scrambling up the emergency ladders would be less helpful than being irritated at the elevator. The elevator announced it laborious completion of its task with a cheerful ding, far too proudly in his mind, before the doors opened to reveal the asari Spectre waiting for him. She gave him a once over, before snorting. "Finally got done with your make-up and decided to come and do your job? It has been four hours."

Arlas simply stared at her, letting a touch of his power manifest and drop the temperature around him. He held the power for a moment, not even blinking as he held the smirking Spectre's gaze, before simply walking past her toward the room as she slowly blinked. He stopped outside the room, before taking a long inhale, holding it, and then releasing it. Done readying his mind, he opened the door.

Arlas stepped into an emotional hell.

He braced himself as the anguish flowed out of the room, cursing himself for forgetting that, while sealing the room against the Warp kept external emotions out, it kept the ones brought into the room inside. And while normally the emotions of the mon-keigh were barely a candle to the Eldar, in a sealed room, even the least of pains would consume a small area like this.

Arlas paused to brace himself, absently noting he had actually taken a step back, before stepping into the room. He glanced about the room before sighing and drawing his dagger. A quick stab at a small 'bulge' near the floor of the room, and he picked up the sparking piece of electronics which hadn't been there when Quel'Nayrae had finished earlier. He placed the destroyed device in one of his belt pouches, before moving to examine the patient.

He eventually admitted that Doctor Chakwas was skilled at her craft, as Matriarch Benezia no longer looked like an asari version of the Crone goddess. Her skin had regained its color to a slightly darker shade than her daughter's skin, and she had started recovering from her previous skeletal state. She was wearing a simple and modest pastel green dress, likely purchased on the Citadel by Liara. Benezia's expression was relaxed, rather than pinched or even horrified as he had expected from the roiling emotions coming off her.

Arlas finished taking stock of… his patient, and resisted the urge to flinch at that thought, before moving around to stand beside Benezia's head. He pulled out his runes, setting four around her head and letting the other four circle him, before gently pressing his fingertips against the sides of her head, just in front of her head crests. Arlas paused, actually hearing every warning and threat of his Warlock teacher in his head as he violated several of the tenants of the shrine, the most basic being that a Warlock did not use their powers to directly help other races, unless it was to help the Asuryani.

It took a moment to conquer that teaching, before he linked his mind with the asari's. The first thing that he noticed was that 'oily slime' feeling he had detected the first time wasn't just a surface feeling, but it went deep into Benezia's mind, though there were several areas where the slime didn't penetrate. The feeling vaguely reminded him of that fuel source used by the insane religious females of the Imperium but with less dissolving of his skin. The second thing he determined was that the foreign sensation did not react to him, nor did it regrow when he tried to use a touch of power to carefully burn a small section 'free' and examine it. The slime immediately dissolved and what remained didn't reform or try to grow back into the cleared area.

He looked up from the small patch of slime he had cleared, his mind giving him the impression it was about the size of a finger, and examined the veritable ocean around him. He allowed himself a sigh of vexation at volunteering for this task, before carefully removing another piece of slime.

Joannis stepped into the mess hall, and frowned as she spotted most of the off duty crew and specialist team gathered around the middle table, loudly cheering and yelling. It almost sounded like they were watching a fight, but the circle wasn't big enough. She growled quietly to herself as she approached the table, and stopped right behind the crowd, and simply began projecting disapproval. The two crew men in front of her immediately turned, their faces going from exerburant to pale as they quickly got of the Commander's way, revealing the scene in front of her. The one of the crew members suddenly remembered protocol. "Room, attention!"

Everyone snapped to attention, as she looked over the table, seeing Ashley trying to arm wrestle an unimpressed Wrex. Jaclyn was standing immediately behind Ashley, who was struggling to stand as Wrex wasn't letting go of her hand. "Elbow comes up, you forfeit human."

Ashley gave him a glare before yanking her hand free, and belatedly standing up. Joannis looked around the room, before turning to her impudently grinning twin. "XO, what is going on here?"

She spotted several faces relaxing slightly as Jaclyn gave a smirk. "Morale building exercise, ma'am."

Joannis gave her twin a flat stare for a moment, before shaking her head in amusement. "Jaclyn, with me. Everyone else, carry on."

The twins walked away from the group as everyone returned to their current education, Wrex's voice thundering over the slowly rising mutter. "You lost, either move or pay up and you can try again."

Joannis rolled her eyes as she grabbed a MRE from the storage cabinet, before heading for one of the tables in the corner. She waited for Jaclyn to join her before raising an eyebrow a fraction of a centimeter and tilting her head slightly to the table. Jaclyn smirked. "Wrex was feeling punchy, so I asked the marines if they thought they could out muscle a krogan. A couple of the new guys wanted to try actually fighting him, but I talked them down to arm wrestling. Ashley was the first to sit down. They had been going for nearly thirty seconds when you came down."

Joannis looked over at the knot of people, unable to see what was going on, when one of the marines suddenly spoke up. "Push him back, Williams, for the Systems Alliance. And for Great JUSTICE!"

Ashley's voice was strained as she snarled back, "Marco, shut the hell up."

Wrex's low, rumbling laughter pierced the yelling of the crowd. "Come on human, at least make me try a little."

Jaclyn nodded to the group, dropping her voice slightly. "Good thing tomorrow we arrive at the destination. When do you want to brief the ground team?"

Joannis shook her head slightly. "After we get scans. I want minimal chance to have something go wrong, hence why all outgoing comms are blocked. At most we get to hit two, maybe three bases if we move fast enough. Everyone but Arlas will be going, so I am not concerned about what we will find on the ground."

Jaclyn's head twisted slightly, and Joannis stopped talking, her twin having spotted someone coming up behind her. How she knew who was coming up behind her was difficult to explain, but she knew one was trusted, the other wasn't, and they were related somehow. It wasn't until Vasir sat at the opposite end of the table and Liara at the middle that she realized why her twin had stopped and given her the reaction she had. She glanced at Liara, and then Vasir. "Spectre, Liara, not joining the fun?"

Vasir laughed. "If Wrex needs to beat on some meatheads for fun, I am not going to get in his way. Though I am tempted to come on the next mission if he is around. Been a while since me and him were on the same side."

The Twins both turned and looked at the newest Spectre on board, but before they could ask for more information, Liara spoke up. "Any news on my mother yet?"

Vasir snorted, her expression twisting slightly. "Nope. He left the room for fours hours after the two eldar modified it, went back in, chased me out, and that was the last I know. Nothing from the tech installed in the room to monitor a prisoner has worked since they covered it with their shit, and I haven't gotten anything out of the room since he went in. Whatever that crap they coated the walls with is, it blocks all signals in and out."

Jaclyn hummed to herself, letting Joannis nod. "He causes it Wraithbone, and it is what his people make their weapons and vehicles from. Apparently they make almost everything from it. So its sturdy, versatile, and blocks electronics as well? Small wonder they use it so much."

Liara started to open her mouth, when the lift suddenly dinged. Wrex had finally finished his bout with Ashley, so the crew were quieter, but the elevator seemed almost to strip the emotions out of the air. Then the doors opened, and Arlas staggered out of the lift.

His appearance was shocking, most of the time he looked like he hadn't done anything but sit around all day. Now he looked like he had fought the entire First Contact war by himself. He was breathing slowly and heavily, his hair was unbound in a snarled weave of darkness, but the worst was his eyes, nearly feral. He looked around the room, before visibly dismissing them all and making his way slowly toward the food counter, like every step took his full concentration to do so without falling over.

It wasn't until Joannis realized his steps were slowing that she understood what he was doing. Putting on a front for the mon-keigh. His pride probably won't let him show more weakness than he already has, even if it ends up killing him. She started to stand up, but Jaclyn was already on her feet. "Everyone out, NOW!"

Joannis quietly thanked whatever god or gods were listening that her twin was just as good as her at putting things together, and turned to Liara. "Liara, get a couple of those meal packs ready for him."

She turned back to see most of the crew dispersing, as Liara moved to the food counter to get a few meals packs out, having to check several different drawers before finally finding more than one. She pulled out three from three different storage drawers, before setting to work on preparing them. Arlas slowly nodded, before moving to the nearest table, and collapsing onto the bench. The only one in the room other than the spectres and Liara was Wrex, who gave them a stare that challenged them to try and get him out.

Joannis stopped at the food counter to get a large glass of water and the first meal from Liara, before placing the two in front of Arlas. The Eldar gave her a terse nod, before grabbing the drink and draining the entire glass, and then offering it back. His breathing was still deep and labored, but he was no longer looking like he was about to fall over. Arlas got two more glasses of water before starting on the meal in front of him, getting halfway through it before he started eating like he was simply starving instead of had not had a meal in a week.

He finished the first meal, and accepted the second one from Liara with a barely perceptible nod, before turning to the four others in the room. "I presume you wish an explanation?"

Joannis leaned over and put a hand on Vasir's shoulder, preventing the asari Spectre from making a sarcastic comment. Vasir instead glared at Joannis, before heading over to the food counter, letting the others answer. Liara spoke up first. "Please."

"I have completed the initial examination, and must say her condition is… unusual. Your languages lack words for what is wrong with her, but I have made some progress, don't appear to have caused further harm, and will be checking her for further changes after I get actual sleep instead of simple rest."

He paused, noting everyone giving him incredulous stares, before sighing. "Well, the asari might have words, but I don't know them."

Vasir spoke up. "So what was that about sleep instead of rest?"

The older asari glanced down at the counter before frowning at the packages that had held the two Liara had handed him, flipping them over while the the others watched Arlas. "Eldar meditate an hour or two a day. We only need to sleep once a week or after a particular strenuous endeavor. This counts as one. Was there anything else?"

Vasir looked up from the two sets of packing she was looking at. "Well, Liara there gave you a levo and a dextro ration set, and you ate both. Wondering when you are going to start showing a reaction."

Everyone in the room except Arlas turned to stare at the asari Spectre, ignoring the dark blush spreading across Liara's face, until the sound of Arlas taking a deliberately noisy bite made them all turn back to him. Joannis didn't try raising her voice like her sister, or physically trying to stop him like Liara did. She did wince when Liara suddenly got grabbed by the wrist and wrenched aside by the Eldar, though he caught her with his leg, cushioning her fall to the floor. Joannis made a note to teach her how to fall properly later. She silenced her twin with a touch to her shoulder, before waiting for Arlas to turn back to her. "So your people can eat both levo- and dextro-amino foods without getting sick? That is… Well, not impossible, but exceedingly improbable."

Arlas rolled his eyes as some of his old arrogance started coming back. "What are those?"

It took the four of them nearly a quarter of an hour to explain the differences between the two types of amino acid proteins, and that was because it took most of that time to convince him they weren't trying to prank him. Arlas then asked how long it took before someone showed a reaction. As no one immediately answered him, he let his smirk grow. "As I thought. Rapidly is the answer, and I am not. Your failings and limitations are not mine. I have survived off mud for a month, so your inability to eat is not my concern."

He finished his meal, before standing up and heading for the food counter. As he prepared another meal for himself, Vasir looked up from her omnitool and meal. "So you normally only sleep… what? Once every week or so?"

Arlas shrugged eloquently, finishing preparing the meal and heading back to his table. He quickly worked through his meal, ignoring the glare from the asari Spectre. "Are you going to answer?"

Arlas took the last bite, before gathering his food trays and putting them in the appropriate disposal slots. "No."

Joannis watched him leave with slow and almost casual steps, but noticed that he waited for the elevator rather than taking the emergency ladder. She glanced at her twin, saw Jaclyn looking back at her and knew she had noticed as well. Noting Vasir's scowl, she chuckled softly. "That is just Arlas. Are you going to be fielding with us, or just staying on the ship?"

Vasir shrugged. "If you think you need me, I can always use some more exercise. Though I have little idea what you are after."

"I will brief everyone once we get there and get the information."

Joannis looked up from the sensor station, glancing at Ashley on the guns and Kaidan in the driver's seat. The ride was much smoother than when she drove, but also not nearly as fast, though he had done a sterling job of handling the descent into Binthu's atmosphere.

Done checking the mako's status she turned back to the others. "Pay attention people. The reason we waited so long for the briefing is because we are going after a terrorist organization called Cerberus. Two weeks ago someone tried to assassinate the human minister of defense. Intelligence has tentatively identified the organization, and we are going after an outpost in retaliation. With any luck, we will get inside fast enough to get more information on assets and other locations, but at very least we'll deny them the ability to use this planet as a resupply point."

Joannis tapped her omnitool twice, sending everyone a file before continuing her briefing. "The scans we did from orbit reveal the outpost is tiny, one hanger on each end, each attached to a supply room, and from the supply room a tunnel leads to the middle room. There is a third corridor leading from the middle room, but without doing a deep penetrative scan, we can't tell more than it exists. We suspect it is an emergency evac tunnel, but our main goal is the retrieval of information and the destruction of the outpost. The Normandy can shoot down anything or anyone that tries to run."

She glanced back at Kaidan, and then at the sensor station she was sitting at. "Kaidan and Ashley will be setting up on the far side of the base in the Mako after dropping us off, to prevent them from trying to run that way. Everyone else will be on the entry team. We aren't hunting for prisoners, but if one of the personnel does surrender, accept it. But I want the entire team coming back to the Normandy alive."

Kaidan spoke up from the driver's seat. "Two minutes out at our current speed, ma'am."

Jaclyn nodded from her seat by the door. "You heard the commander. Last minute checks, lock and load people."

Arlas finished synchronizing with his patient, and examined the mental space he found himself. Before it had seemed to be a sea of oil and ooze, even after he had carefully cleansed small sections of the ooze, only to find more beneath it. His initial goal had been to get below the ooze, see what remained of the mind under the contamination, but that changed as he spotted something different.

The deepest 'hole' he had excised now had a small stream of what his mind translated as water coming from it. He directed his mind to the difference, examining it, before carefully brushing against it.

He could hear the sound of soft fabric rustling as he walked out of a doorway, pausing to look around before noting a small child at the base of a tree, wielding a small shovel. Several pieces of wood and metal were embedded in the soil, and a notebook rested beside a pile of exhumed dirt. He felt a surge of annoyance and exasperation, before striding forward, ignoring several asari in black armored leather quickly moving to the edges of the garden as he strode to the child. "Liara T'Soni, what do you think you are doing?"

His voice was surprisingly soft and husky, and the child turned, revealing a much younger Liara. Her eyes were bright, though he could see some confusion on her face. "Mater, digging for artifacts."

One of the guards made a small noise that might have been a hastily strangled laugh as the child looked up at him with wide, guileless eyes.

He ripped himself out of the memory, surprised at how easily it had drawn him in. Taking a moment to settle his mind, he moved away from the freed memory. It would either widen the gap itself without his help, showing how fast her mind could repair itself, or the memory would be resealed, showing how fast the 'contamination' worked. Either way, this area would be the control for his work.

"My lord, sensors are detecting an unknown vehicle, a minute out. The cognitor is predicting their path will bring them close enough to get a visual on the south hangar."

The large figure in the command room stalked over to the sensor tech, frowning as he looked at the stream of data with an unpracticed eye. "Who?"

The tech stayed focused on the screen, watching the lines of data scroll past. "Unknown, my lord. Medium tank sized vehicle. Could be scavengers, we haven't detected anything coming through the system relay in the past month."

The large figured straightened, though stayed stooped to avoid bumping his head on the ceiling. "No. This is something else. Activate the defenses, report the incursion, and request orders from command. Then begin preparing to purge the base, and evacuate. I will handle stopping them if they get inside myself."

Joannis stopped at the hangar bay door, idly noting it was large enough to allow a quartet of shuttles to enter at the same time. "Tali, door."

The rest of the group covered the quarian as she checked the door for an interface port, before opening her omnitool. Joannis listened to her communicator, and finally heard the two beeps and a chime that meant that Kaidan was in position. After a moment, she glanced at the still working quarian. "What is the hold up?"

"Their cyber warfare defense is obscene. It is the hardest I have ever encountered outside of the geth. Almost got it..."

Another few seconds of tapping, and the doors started sliding open, but halted after only a couple meters, the glow of a decontamination field bright behind the gap. "Everyone in before they disable my override."

The entire group hastily got inside, the doors slowly grinding shut as Garrus squeezed through with a few soft curses. Once inside, Joannis took in the large but vacant hangar shrouded in darkness, only the group's lights providing any illumination. "Tali, stay here and get the doors ready to open again, and this time keep them open. Once that is done, see if you can start stripping data. Everyone else, move up."

In a small room, a large figure slowly but smoothly strapped on his armor, his voice softly echoing through the room. "What is your life? Honour. What is your fate? Duty. What is your fear? Failure. What is your reward? Salvation. What is your craft? Death. What is your pledge? Service."

Done attaching and adjusting the last piece of the carapace armor as he finished reciting his litanies, the figure grabbed his pistol and a short sword with serrated teeth, not bothering with the open helmet of the armor. He put the weapons on his belt, pausing only to glance at a massive suit of armor in the center of the room with a sigh. As he left the room, he grabbed some spare magazines for the pistol, and smiled softly to himself as he slid one home with a familiar click. "A time to train, a time to meditate, and a time to kill..."

As he left the room, he looked to a hideous amalgam of metal and flesh near the armor. "Prepare my main armor for transport."

Arlas glanced about at the 'hole in the mindscape he had cleansed of the contaminate. It was only as deep as his hand, but already two different streams of water, or memories, were seeping through the oil. As much as he wanted to not experience more of Benezia's life, he needed to know how intact her memories were. Judging by the first experience, she had either significant attachment to the first memory, or a well trained mind, for a mon-keigh.

He passed his 'hand' through the memory, and saw himself in a large room full of hundreds of asari with dozens of recording devices around the room. Some sort of stand was in front of him, and he was lecturing about something called siari, which talked about a universal conscious, and how death was a return to it. After a moment of listening to the lecture, which got surprisingly close to the truth about the Empyrium for a race that didn't know it existed, he backed out of the memory, and then her mind.

A glance at his omnitool showed he had been in her mind for nearly an hour. He stood up, done with his current session, and headed back to the hangar. He needed to check his equipment, and give Vasir a chance to put more toys in the room. He had to keep her amused somehow.

Joannis stared at the supply room, having expected it to be mostly empty. Instead, it was packed full of sealed crates, all in neat, orderly rows and stacks. Each was clearly labeled, though she didn't recognize the writing. Shaking her head, she gestured for the group to move up. The lighting was particularly bad in this area, and she was glad that she had ordered everyone to wear helmets. Everyone was in some of the most advanced personal armor in Citadel space, and the helmets had better sensors than some of the vehicles she had used.

The entire area looked deserted, but something was in here. She hadn't seen anything to confirm her feeling, but she could feel it. She looked down the row, her SMG in hand as she opened a private line to the individual with the best instincts in the group. "Wrex, you feel that?"

"Yeah, we're being hunted."

She nodded, even though Wrex was on point with his shotgun ready and couldn't see it. Right before the stack of crates next to him exploded outwards, a figure even taller than Wrex lunging through the falling crates to body check Wrex into the wall.

Arlas merged back into Benezia's mind, and took in the 'shallow sea' in front of him. He had only been out for a short break, but Vasir had found him and gotten annoying. Nothing had changed in the hour he had been gone, but he needed to get back to work to keep the children from being unhappy. His concentration was suddenly shattered as he heard the acting shipmaster Pressley over the ship comms. "All non-essential personnel, report to the hangar to assist with incoming casualties."

Arlas cursed as he snapped out of the mental link with Benezia, knowing when he had left he had accidentally done something, but it could wait until after he figured out how to disable the ship communicator in the room. He stepped out of the room, a quick glance showed he was alone in the hallway, but he suspected most of the crew that could help him were in the hangar. The elevator was even slower than normal, so once again the eldar availed himself to the emergency ladder, arriving in the hangar just as the mako rolled into the packed hangar. He frowned as he saw nearly half the crew, including Chakwas, but before he could find an engineer, the mako opened its troop bay door, and everyone started moving.

His first clue that something was off was when Wrex was loaded onto one of the medical gurneys, carrying a severed arm and leg, and a gaping chest wound making him cough and spit congealed blood and bits of lung. Next out was Liara, unconscious on her gurney, her abdomen armor shredded and held together by a clear substance he recognized as hardened medigel, and a helmet next to her, nearly cracked in half. Arlas recognized the wounds as what a chain sword would do, but it was Icivia's wound that caused him chills and diverted his path to the Twins. Icivia had portions of her armor blown out, and while she was able to walk with the support of two crew men, it was clear she was walking only because of pure will and spite; having been in that situation before himself, he could easily recognize it in another. But he had seen enough bolter wounds to recognize them without needing to ask.

He headed to the Twins, slowly getting out of the mako. "What happened?"

Joannis didn't speak, simply watching the crew members roll two of her team off to the medbay, with another waiting for free elevator space. Jaclyn responded as she gave her twin a worried glance. "They had an… unusual individual guarding the outpost. A moment."

She tapped her omnitool. "Joker, status on the enemy evac shuttle?"

"Ma'am, that 'shuttle' was a hundred meters long and scanned as more heavily armored than us; if that was a shuttle, the Normandy is too. Uh, I mean, it went to FTL before I could get a firing solution, ma'am."

Jaclyn sighed, before closing the communication channel, and brought up a video. "My visor camera recordings. I am most curious as to why they had a chainsword, which seems to be native to your universe."

Arlas watched the 'unknown' enemy body check Wrex into a wall, and then start taking the squad apart. It was taller than him, but it wasn't until he spotted the firearm they carried blowing through Icivia's shield to damage her shoulder arm that he identified them. The fact it was engaging the squad while fighting Wrex in melee only confirmed his conclusions. "Adeptus Astartes."

The two human and the asari Spectres glanced at him, and then at each other. "What did you say?"

He cursed himself, not realizing he had spoken. At least it had been in his native language. "I recognized the foe."

He watched the rest of the engagement; the single foe taking on what he suspected was one of the most competent teams in this universe, and winning. He recognized the weapons, a bolt pistol and chainsword, both unmodified standard; the armor, unpowered scout carapace armor; the tactics, a standard full assault pattern fury delta three; even the colors, the gold trim on white armor. It was an Emperor's Hounds Assault space marine in scouting armor. They must have hit the base fast enough the marine hadn't had time to get into his full armor. If he had been in the full armor, he knew the ground team wouldn't have come back at all. Done reviewing the footage, all forty one seconds of it, ending when Joannis had blazed in blue light before flinging the marine out of the storage room and then blocking the passage by detonating a massive singularity, he glanced at the twins with an amused smirk. "Congratulations, you are the first squad in this universe to fight against an Adeptus Astartes for longer than a half minute and not lose anyone. Very few eldar squads can make that claim for their first encounter."

"And what is an adeptus astartes? That sounds like some kind of cult."

Arlas chuckled, before nodding. "The Imperium of Man is what my people most often had to work around back in my home universe. It had a million worlds with a billion humans, and totaled more than hundreds of trillions of beings."

Vasir cut him off before he could keep going, giving him an unimpressed sneer. "Yeah, that is higher math right there. Clearly a species has to be really advanced to make that conclusion."

Arlas gave her a glare that should have blown her out the back of the ship. After a moment, Jaclyn tried to interrupt the ocular war of arrogance between the two. "Arlas, please continue."

"After the asari leaves."

Vasir left with a gesture and a stream of curses under her breath before Arlas continued. "While the Imperium has normal humans on their fleets and in their armies, the ones my people… 'respect' the most were Adaptus Astartes. They were genetically modified humans, carefully selected and trained and are comparable to an eldar, though focusing on resilience rather than agility. When they were our opponents, we found other ways than to fight directly. That you engaged one for more than half a minute and lost no one is… impressive."

Arlas would never admit that he was exaggerating, but the twin's were clearly needing some sort of morale boost after losing a third of their squad so quickly to a single opponent. "To that effect, I volunteer and suggest bringing Vasir on the next mission that might encounter that individual. I assume you got something after managing to disengage."

Jaclyn gestured Tali over. "Tali, you said you got something from their systems?"

Joannis snapped out of her shocked state to give the quarian a hug, seeing her still trying to get blood out of her suit. "Its alright Tali, we are all safe now."

It took the twins a moment to soothe the young quarian, before she was able to stop scrubbing her suit and focus. "I didn't get much, and I know I didn't get in. I was let in. All I got was information about a shipment that left here, and went to a nearby system. They shipped two hundred tons of titanium to this system."

Arlas frowned as he listened, confused about what space marines would need with that amount of material. It was too small to do anything serious with, unless they were just using it to patch damage to their armor. "Son of a bitch, they could build a company of tanks with that much metal."

Or he could be reminded that everything here was stupidly light and unarmored by the standards back home. He sighed, before looking at the map one of the twins had brought up. "How far is it?"

Jaclyn frowned. "Two days or so, the Columbia system. Doesn't say which planet, so we will have to hunt. Joker, contact command, and inform them..."

"Holy hell!"

Jaclyn stared at the communicator, before taking a long breath. "Joker?"

"One moment ma'am. We are reading a massive explosion on the planet."

The twins shared a glance, but before they could do more, the pilot spoke again. "Sorry ma'am, they must have activated some kind of self destruct. We are reading a nuclear explosion on the planet, at least a hundred megatons. I can send a report, but…"

Jaclyn sighed, letting Joannis reply. "Send the basic report, include the self destruct, and set a course for the Columbia system in this cluster. Arlas, when we get there, please accompany the ground team, I doubt any of the injured will be able to assist yet."

It took nearly another day after arriving to get a rough estimate of the location of the terrorist base, but once it had been located it was fairly clear it was both a recent construction and not big enough to contain the two hundred tons of titanium. In spite of being deliberately led to the system, the twins decided to take the Mako in anyway, once again making him question their sanity. Arlas had done similar things before, but always by himself, and he had always been cautious, especially when he didn't know what enemies were nearby.

But once again, he was sitting in the back of the human 'tank' as it rolled, bumped, flipped, and tumbled across the landscape, despite his previous oaths to avoid the vehicle. He was seriously considering using some of his melta charges on it when the Mako suddenly rocked, and the turret opened fire. After a moment of frantic movements by the vehicle, including several jumps, the mako suddenly rolled to a stop, and Joannis reported. "Alright, we have the base on the other side of the hill, but it has two heavy machine guns and one missile turret left. The mako is almost out of shields, so Arlas, Garrus, and Ashley out, you are going to be sniping the turrets to keep their shields drained. The leftmost machine gun should be nearly dead, but they hit far harder than they should, so keep your heads down. Vasir, get ready to engage once the turrets are down. Tali and Kaidan, see if you get the mako's shields to recharge faster."

Arlas slipped out through the back hatch, grateful to be out of the metal can, and moved to the ridge that protected the mako from the base. Garrus was right behind him, and Ashley was already crouched behind the hill, a barrage of small explosions on the other side of the ridge showing that she had already attacked the turrets. Arlas crouched behind the ridge, and pulled out his long rifle, enjoying the feel of his preferred eldar weapon in his hands, rather than the far heavier geth mockery. He activated his cloak, and glanced over the edge, noting the location of the three turrets, and the wreckage of a fourth.

Garrus set up a short ways from him, and fired on the more damaged heavy turret, causing both to track toward him, though the missile turret stayed inactive. He leveled his laser rifle, and fired at the missile turret, hitting it just under the heavy upper armor, aiming for the more delicate gearing that allowed it to transverse. "So, we really haven't had much a chance to talk, other than whenever we bump into each other in the hangar or the firing range."

Arlas glanced at the turian in disbelief, before turning back to the turret. "Focus on the enemy."

"So you can't fight and talk at the same time?"

The two turrets tracked across his position as Ashley fired, forcing him to duck until they focused on her position. "So eldar can't fight and talk, shame. I mean, we are both snipers, we could have swapped tricks, you could tell me the best way to kill whatever you had fought, I could tell you the best way to put down the threats we normally face. Though you seem to have 'shoot them in the head' down pretty well."

Arlas fired his rifle, placing a bolt in a seam of the armor, and blowing out a servo under it. The turret suddenly whirled to the side as half of the motors driving it suddenly ceased to function. "Focus, turian."

Before they could deal with the second machine gun turret, the three remaining turrets abruptly stopped firing, and retreated into their cases. As all three snipers watched, the exterior door suddenly opened, as if inviting them covered the new opening, while Arlas looked around for anything that might have gotten in position to flank them. Ashley contacted the mako. "Ma'am, we damaged one of the turrets, and then all three retreated into their cases, and the base door opened. Orders?"

After a moment, Jaclyn spoke. "We are coming to you, prepare to advance. Garrus, return to the mako, you are on driving if we need a rescue. Icivia is already on the guns."

A moment later he was joined by the Twins and Kaidan, the former he was glaring at. "Your idea for engaging an Adeptus Astartes is to bring fewer than the most amount of people you can?"

Joannis returned his glare evenly, before marching to the compound. "They are human centric, and from your universe. I am bringing humans or people very similar to humans in sealed armor, and the only person who can tell me if they are lying to try and improve their own position."

"And if they are doing this to get you into melee with more of the same being you encountered back on Binthu?"

"That one fled when confronted with biotics, hence why we have four of them, and Ashley has point. She is just going to delay them long enough for us to get to work."

Arlas didn't reply, simply spinning up his warp jump generator to make sure it worked, not bothering to comment on the holes in her plan. He glanced at the structure, before putting away his long rifle, and getting out his fusion gun and power blade. Not the best idea, getting into melee with an Astartes, but the building would force it. Assuming the guns didn't reactivate while they advanced.

They made it to the entrance without issue, the guns not popping out to try and perforate them, no aircraft tried to make a strafing run, no mines exploded beneath them. For Arlas, it was slightly surreal. It was entirely a codex defense, two turrets of machine gun and missile to defend an outpost, with mines in the approaches the turrets didn't cover. Though since the turrets didn't have a blind approach, he suspected there weren't any mines. But the chapter he suspected they were fighting did NOT blindly follow their precious Codex, realizing it was a guideline, not a hard set of rules the universe followed. While they would have done the suggested defense, they would have added something… 'extra,' depending on the commander and the resources available.

Arlas frowned as he watched the five others troop forward, before looking around. "Tali?"

Jaclyn answered as she stepped into the entrance with Ashley. "In the mako, running ECM from there through my and Joannis' suits."

Arlas shrugged and entered the building beside Joannis, not bothering to look behind him as the door closed. Everyone else glanced backwards, but he was too busy noticing the small room they were in, tall enough for an Astartes and big enough to hold half a squad at a time. And while the outer wall was as thick and resilient as he expected, the inner wall looked flimsy enough for him to punch through. He frowned, taking a position by the interior door while Kaidan worked with the airlock door. After a moment, Kaidan finally gave up. "External comms are down, and I can't get this door open."

Joannis sighed, before nodding to the door Arlas was covering. "Alright, let's move up. Arlas, open that door and then take rear guard. Ashley, take point, and don't die."

"Sir, they are entering the hall."

"Drop the first wall when they get halfway down it. Devastators, don't kill the humans yet. He wants a word with them first."

"The eldar?"

The first figure calculated odds and outcomes in the heartbeat, before answering. "No telling how much the xeno has wormed his way into their confidences. If he engages, kill him. If not… don't focus on him."

The last sentence was uttered as if it was painful, but the second figure simply nodded. "As you order, Brother-Sergeant. The Emperor's Will Be Done."

Arlas was the last in the hallway, when suddenly his danger sense yelled at him. It was an odd sense, one he hadn't ever experienced before, but he turned and dove back through the door regardless. He hadn't survived to his first millennia by ignoring his instincts, and as the wall to his right suddenly fell away from the group, he spotted three figures. Bright white armor with gold highlights wielding heavy bolters, though most concerning was the most decorated unit in the center of the five unit grouping wielding his on his shoulder. Arlas had never seen a heavy bolter like that, and that made it infinitely more dangerous in his mind. He almost didn't see the five space marines beside the Devastators, holding bolters, but they were positioned to physically cover their heavily armed comrades while not affecting their ability to retaliate.

As he finished his roll and slid into cover on the other side of the interior door, he spotted even more humans behind and to the sides of the marines, all of them wearing full body armor in white and gold and wielding equally familiar weapons. At least fifty humans were supporting the ten space marines he could see, and all of them were in good cover with lasguns, though they looked shorter and more blocky than the models he was used to seeing in the Imperial Guard.

All in all, it was enough firepower to make a squad of tanks pause, and most of it was aimed in his direction, despite his desperate dodge. He stayed in cover, having to rely on his 'team' to give him an idea what was going on. For a moment he only heard a confusing babble of mon-keigh voices, before one of them suddenly drowned out the others, clearly amplified by some sort of technology. "System's humans, which is the xeno?"

Joannis' reply was full of scorn. "I won't sell out my people."

There was silence for a moment, before the loud voice came back. "All but the Spectre Twins, to the airlock."

Jaclyn's sneer was easily audible. "And what makes you think any of us are going to do what you say?"

Arlas winced at the sound of a discharging lasgun a couple seconds later, and he heard someone hit the ground, cursing sulfurously in Asari. "Others out. Our leader wishes to talk to the Twins."

Joannis contacted him over his omnitool. "Arlas, recommendation?"

"Accept with their request; if they wanted us dead, they would kill us then move out to kill the tank. Taking out the ship would be difficult, but if they wanted to, they likely could find a way to do it. Possibly a ground based laser weapon, or maybe a ship, loitering cold nearby."

He could feel the glare she was giving her omnitool from where he was, but after a moment he heard her speak. "Fine, everyone out."

There was a pause, but after a moment he saw the rest of the squad, all he could see from the door without exposing himself, heading his way.

Joannis followed the hulking figure in front of her, aware of two more following her and her twin. The one in front and one of the ones behind her were carrying large two handed weapons that looked like unbalanced and blocky grenade launchers, and probably would be too heavy for her to lift. The last terrorist was carrying one of the hip mounted weapons, even bigger than the two the other escorts were carrying, and had a barrel big enough to almost fit her hand inside. The larger weapon also had a second nozzle under the first, with a hissing pilot light making it completely clear what it was for.

They had left the others heading for the entrance, before following their guide down a side path from the center room. The other humans and the 'astartes' warriors had left through a third passage. Her thoughts were interrupted as their leading escort stopped, and turned to them. "Inside."

Jaclyn glanced back at the other two, before glaring at the speaker. "You the only one that can talk, or are they just shy?"

Joannis glared at her sister, fully aware that this was not the best time to be instigating a fight with their escorts if they were as powerful as Arlas had said, but the sudden chuckle from the massive figure in front her was not the response she expected. The huge figure simply jerked his head. "Inside, little human. Pick your fights with beings you can win against."

Jaclyn made a comment in turian that didn't require translation, before stalking into the room. Joannis followed with a second look at the massive figure, reevaluating her impression of the massive figure from a being that could barely talk. Inside however, she found an empty room except for a large circle in the center of the room, but before either of them could react, the door behind them slid shut. Before either of them could react, the circle lit up with a soft blue glow, and began blinking slowly. After a glance, the Twins stepped into the circle, causing several projectors in the ceiling to begin scanning them.

A moment later, the projectors swung around, and began building an image, which quickly resolved into a standing blue human with close cropped hair, wearing a long coat and smoking a cigarette. He looked at the twins, before nodding slowly to them. "Commander Shepard and Commander Shepard. A pleasure."

Jaclyn looked him up and down, instinctively falling into her persona of 'bad twin' as she collapsed her helmet. "Hardly."

Joannis ignored her twin for the moment, focusing on the image before them. "So you are the Illusive Man in charge of Cerebus that we have heard so little about?"

She mentally slapped herself for asking such a stupid question, of course he would claim he was. She was surprised for the second time in as many minutes when he shrugged, before reaching out of range of his projector. "Illusive man? If that is what your leadership has decided to call me than I suppose so."

He pulled a tall-crowned, slightly conical, wide brimmed hat into view, adorned only with a symbol of a winged skull bisecting a stylized letter 'I.' " Though I much prefer the title 'The Inquisitive Man.'"

A/N - Dun dun DUUUUUUUN!

For the fight at the Cerberus outpost, I couldn't write the fight so that it showed the unstoppable nature of the opponent even with his handicaps, so I tried a couple other things to… suggest how the fight went. Not entirely pleased with the result, but hey, past that point now.

The Emperor's Hounds Adeptus Astartes chapter are my custom space marine chapter, so you won't find any canonical information on them. For the fluff lovers, they are an offshoot of the Ultramarines. So smurfs, but not. Their gimmick is that they are less rigidly organized than most of the other offshoots, relying adaptation rather than blind adherence to the Codex. Also, they were added as a response to the poll about adding more W40k characters.

And finally without any other credible canonical sources, I am saying the Mako light Infantry Fighting Vehicle weighs in at 12 tons with its mass effect fields completely off. For comparison, a modern fighting IFV weighs about 15 tons. With the fields fully on, somewhere between 3 and 4 tons.

As for the delays, blame my muse. She wants to work on the next story, not finish this one. However I will not be denied!