Chapter 23: Her Full Power

Following EDI's directions was turning out to be easier said than done with all of the Collector troopers running around the area. Jack made sure that he and the others snuck by as many as possible and while Garrus and Mordin kept close, Saren was on a bit of a rampage. Whenever the four of them would pass by a Collector looking the other way, Saren would risk alerting a whole squad just to kill one. A part of it was just Saren's nature, however, Jack was sure that Sovereign's appearance had shook the Turian. He couldn't blame Saren, it had to be terrifying knowing that the thing which had enslaved you was actually still kicking around. Jack was worried about the implications of what Sovereign said himself. The violent outbursts were just inconvenient when trying to remain stealthy.

When the four of them reached the end of an alleyway, Jack slowed the group to a stop so that he could figure out where they were. He could see they were entering what seemed like the main square for the colony, shops lined the exterior walls and a water fountain was directly in the center. The place would've looked totally peaceful if it wasn't for the Human bodies surrounded by the orange energy keeping them in place everywhere he looked. While some of the Collectors were grabbing people and placing them into small cocoon like pods, the majority of the troopers were attaching beacons to the water fountain. Jack watched puzzled by what they could be doing instead of capturing the colonists as quickly as possible.

Saren snarled ready to charge into the field at any moment, "Shepard, what are we waiting for? They're never going to just let us pass no matter how long we stare at them."

Mordin answered just before he could, "Collectors exhibiting new behavior not previously reported. Observation could lead to new avenues of research. Best to wait them out."

Jack agreed with Mordin with a nod, "He's right, we don't want to go out there without knowing what they're up to. The shuttles aren't here yet so we have time to save some of the colonists."

Saren looked to Garrus and gave an irritated huff, "I thought you said he was smart."

Garrus rolled his eyes not feeling any sympathy for Saren, "He took you down didn't he? We aren't going to get anywhere if we just charge in blindly not knowing what's going on."

Jack was still debating what to do when he saw several Collectors carrying Ashley towards one of the pods. While he knew she was stationed on the planet, he had hoped she found safety somewhere. Unfortunately, the set of white and pink Phoenix armor was extremely recognizable, there was no way that wasn't her. That gave him two options; either he could let them take her so they could continue observing the Collectors, or, he could follow Saren's advice and go in guns blazing. Even though it was important to find out what the Collectors were up to, he wasn't about to leave anyone behind.

He turned his head towards Saren and gave him a smile, "Start making some noise, just make sure you don't drift too far. Garrus, follow him and make sure we don't attract every Collector on the planet. Mordin, study the beacons they're placing on the water fountain, I want to know what's going on here."

Garrus raised a browplate trying to hide the fact he was confused, "Ok then, forget everything I just said... What are you going to do?"

Jack made sure his assault rifle had plenty of ammo left and pointed in Ashley's direction, "Saving her I hope, wish m-"

A shout from Saren cut him off and all out hell broke loose. The Turian had a shotgun in hand as he started cutting a path through the Collector forces towards the water fountain where several squads were clumped together. Garrus used the jetpacks attached to his feet to fly up on top of a building's roof to provide sniper support for the group. By the time the Collectors realized what was happening, Jack was already halfway to Ashley's pod while sprinting towards her. He let off two quick shots at the Collectors carrying her, unintentionally sending her paralyzed body crashing to the ground.

Just as he was about to take her hand and drag her to safety, Sovereign's voice came from behind him, "Assuming direct control."

He felt as though his foot was grabbed by some invisible force before his head hit the ground and he was dragged backwards towards the fountain. Jack rolled over and gazed at the Collector that Sovereign obviously took control of. A green light was coming off of the Collector between cracks in it's brown carapace and it's biotics were a black ink color. He remembered seeing a similar biotic power coming from Saren when he was fully indoctrinated, it gave Jack a thousand questions. Could Sovereign do that to all the Collectors at once? Did they have the same potential that Saren had on the Citadel? He knew how much it took out of his team to kill Saren, could they kill multiple?

Saren used a blade attached to his boot to kick at a Collector behind him, slitting it's throat, before he turned around and fired at Sovereign. Jack's stomach twisted in knots when he saw the Collector raise it's palm and catch the bullets just like Saren had on multiple occasions in their previous battles. Knowing they had only been able to defeat Saren when he had been distracted, Jack took multiple shots at Sovereign. The Collector let go of his foot to block the other set of bullets coming at it. Jack rolled out of the way yet again to avoid the deflection and he heard Garrus' jetpacks swoop in and pushed Saren out of the way.

Jack got back up to his feet and started moving in a circle and shooting at the same time, "Everyone just start shooting at him! He can't take all of us on."

Saren grunted while darting from cover to cover while avoiding Sovereign's biotic attacks, "Was I this hard to take down?"

Garrus was acting like a tiny fighter jet, making air attacks with his jetpacks, "Harder because we didn't know how to kill you, this is a cake walk in comparison."

Jack watched as Garrus tossed a grenade towards Sovereign's feet while it was exploding. The Collector wrapped the explosion in a ball of biotic energy and hurled it towards Garrus. If it wasn't a life or death struggle, Jack would've appreciated the beauty in the way Garrus used his jetpacks to spin around and avoid the fireball. As Jack and Garrus kept up the pressure to distract Sovereign, Saren finally got close enough to break it's wrist. He watched as Saren used a complicated set of punches and kicks to snap it's neck. Hopefully, some of Saren's reckless anger towards Sovereign was let go.

Saren glared in Garrus' direction with a furious tone, "What were you thinking with that?! The explosion could've killed you if you weren't careful."

Garrus had a smug Turian smirk on his face as he landed next to them, "I was thinking that I needed to help my brother and best friend. I wasn't going to sit on the sidelines watching you two fight that thing. It worked didn't it?"

Saren grumbled about to say something else when Jack cut in, "Garrus knows how to handle himself just fine Saren, you don't have to constantly worry about him."

The Turian whipped a familiar angry stare in his view, "I suggest staying out of things that don't concern you Shepard." He gave Garrus a softer glance, "Just think about the consequences next time."

Mordin returned to them from the water fountain frowning, "No time to argue strategy. Analyzed beacons completely. Discovered they are commonly used in asteroid towing. Very curious for planetary use."

Garrus tapped his chin lost in thought, "The Collectors aren't idiots with technology, why would they use something so useless in this environment..?"

EDI answered within their comms, "Theoretically, if the Collector dreadnought could generate a truly massive amount of energy, they could be using the beacons for their original designed function. They could power up tractor beams and lift a portion of the ground off of the planet. If a Prothean weapon is indeed under the colony, the Collectors could be attempting to destroy it."

Jack didn't think it was possible to take a chunk out of planet, the energy involved was astronomical. Then again, everything Sovereign had accomplished seemed to break some sort of fundamental scientific rule so, he shouldn't rule it out. If that's really what the Collectors were about to do, they needed to find the Prothean weapon right now. However, despite the fact that they were standing right on top of the marker EDI provided to their omni tools, Jack didn't see anything that looked like it could be a Prothean weapon with enough power to destroy that ship. EDI hadn't led him in a wrong direction thus far, so he had to be missing something.

He kept looking around the square desperately searching for a way to get underground, "EDI I need you to help me out here, I'm at the coordinates you sent and I'm not seeing any way to get underground."

EDI replied immediately in her typical calm tone, "The colonists must've hidden the access control panel to the vault somewhere within the town square. However, at my current estimate, the Collector dreadnought will be within tractor beam range in forty five seconds. I recommend a full retreat back to the Kodiak so you aren't sucked up with it."

He was surprised when Kal's voice came through the comm, "Do I have your permission to engage that kriffing ship with the Normandy's guns Jack?"

Jack wished they had a visual connection so he could give him a skeptical expression, "I don't think the Normandy's guns are strong enough to make a dent in that thing are they?"

Kal sounded worried but responded with, "Just trust me on this, I think we can destroy that ship without hidden Prothean tech."

Jack paced around the courtyard seeing all the colonists bodies still paralyzed. There was too many of them still here to carry back to the Kodiak safely and get out in time. The most logical option would've been to just leave the colonists here and fight another day, these people were already paralyzed from the seeker swarms and he had no idea how long that would last. It wasn't right though, if there was any way to save the colonists and the Prothean weapon under the ground, they needed to take it. He didn't know what Kal had come up with while just sitting around the ship but, he trusted him.

Jack looked up at the Collector ship approaching and bit his lower lip, "Whatever it is do it now. Joker, get the Normandy into combat range."

Joker sighed pretending to be upset, "You know, if I got a credit for everytime you asked me to do something suicidal, I would be filthy rich right now. Imminent destruction coming right up Commander."

As the Normandy swooped in above them, EDI's voice returned, "Warning, I am detecting an alarming power spike to the drive core. It is on the verge of overheat and failure."

The other Jack's voice yelled into his ear, "That would be me...! Ahhhh! Kal hurry up you asssshhhooollleee!"

He didn't put together what was happening until the Normandy fired it's main guns. The normal short laser beam was instead a long blue stream with biotic energy wrapped around it. He knew Jack was powerful after watching what she did to Purgatory prison but, this was something else entirely. She must've made physical contact with the drive core itself and used her biotics to enhance it's power. Normally, getting that close to an active drive core would be suicide from the radiation but, she could probably put a biotic shield around herself to keep her safe. He couldn't help but smile as the beam cut through the front of the Collector ship like it was butter.

Joker cheered as the Normandy flew past the destruction getting ready to make another pass, "Yeah! Take that you son of a bitch! Round two coming up."

EDI's answer to the cheer made his happiness vanish as soon as it had arrived, "Mr. Moreau, we advise taking evasive action. From our cameras we can see Subject Zero is unconscious in engineering."

Kal sounded panicked, "Damnit, I told her she couldn't handle it but, she wouldn't listen to me. Looks like we'll have to destroy that thing another time. Damnit!"

Jack was about to tell the others to start moving back towards the Kodiak when he saw the Collector ship start heading into orbit. While he knew their main gun was out of the fight, the Collectors didn't and were retreating. It pained him to see so many shuttles also return to the dreadnought, that meant he hadn't saved everyone. Jack had been putting hope on the Prothean weapon under the ground, it wasn't to be. Instead, only a handful of colonists were saved and Sovereign had escaped, not a successful mission in his eyes.

Saren shook his head staring up at the escaping vessel, "We played our hand too quickly Shepard. The Collectors will be prepared for that the next time we meet them."

Mordin seemed the most positive about what happened out of the rest of them, "Unlikely, not even best kinetic barriers could block that much power. Mission was a success regardless. Learned swarms are synthetic, saved several colonists. Would call this a good days work."

Garrus suddenly stepped infront of Saren completely, "Williams put down the gun, Saren's on our side here."

Jack followed Garrus' gaze only to see Ashley was standing up again with her assault rifle pointed at all of them. While it was a surprise to see she had recovered from the paralysis, he wasn't stunned by the gun. From her perspective, he and Saren had risen from the dead and were working together. Then there was the fact that he was wearing Cerberus armor which would've given her the impression he was a terrorist now. To show her he didn't mean any harm, Jack put his weapon down slowly and then put his hands up.

Her tone was angry and aggressive as she fired a warning shot, "Our side? What exactly does our side mean Garrus? All I see are people we thought were dead working with the enemy."

Jack kept a placating tone and took a cautious step closer, "The side against the Reapers Ash, you know me."

Ashley gritted her teeth and took a step backwards, "The Shepard I knew wouldn't work with Cerberus. Especially after what they did to your oh so important Quarians."

Garrus spoke up for him, "Things are complicated Williams, Sovereign is back in play. Cerberus is the only ones willing to do a damn thing about it."

Jack added calmly, "I never died Ashley, Cerberus captured me and put me in a cryo pod for two years."

He was just trying to keep her from shooting any of them with that high powered rifle. They certainly had heated arguments on the original Normandy but, he never thought she was going to kill him. Unfortunately, Jack could see the anger and sense of betrayal sparking through her eyes. She must've lost someone close to her because of Cerberus in the two years he had been frozen. With a loss like that he was probably only going to be able to convince her to let them go. At least that was what he was hoping for, otherwise things were going to get violent.

She just gave him a confused look, "And you worked with them even after that?! Why in the hell would you reward them for doing that?"

Jack tried not to get frustrated, "Because I'm looking at the bigger picture here Ashley. With the galaxy at stake I can't afford to hold grudges. Sovereign just told me that the cycle isn't over yet. I have to do everything I can to stop him."

He could see Ashley's finger get closer to the trigger, "I can't believe what I'm hearing, your talking just like Saren did two years ago. I have to take you in Jack. You have a lot to answer for."

Without warning, Mordin threw one of his cryo grenades over his head and it freezed her from her feet all the way up to her neck, "Don't have time for philosophical debate. Need to get back to lab, study new findings. Will be long gone when she thaws out."

Jack sighed and gave her an apologetic glance, "Yeah, let's get off this rock..."