A/N:

This is the fight you've been waiting for. And, since people have had problems with 'last minute saves' or other people kill-stealing from Shepard...I've adjusted for that.

Korlus is obviously much different than in canon.

Thanks to the Editing Gang for their usual bang-up job, and to several of them for pointing out much needed clarifications.

EDIT: Minor fixes


'Every warrior dies, and how one dies is utterly meaningless. It is the when and the why that separates fool from hero, that defines a failure to the race from one who strides across legend and eternity to sit at the foot of the gods of myth and song.'

Doctor Ganar Okeer, 'The Irrelevance of Perspective', one of the few literary works produced by krogan


The Takara Ship-breaking Dock had become a war-zone of horrors in a matter of minutes.

Explosions, both from the liberal amount of heavy weapons on both sides of the conflict and the heavy bombardment by the Normandy, had blown open hazardous materials containers and fuel tanks.

Thousands of tons of toxic chemicals spewed from ruptured tanks, some corrosive and damaging whatever they splashed over, others merely poisonous. Clouds of toxic gasses spiraled into the sky, shredded by winds and scattering to the east in diffuse masses, killing birds and other aerial wildlife flying through them.

Given that Korlus was hardly the sort of place to attract environmental activists or animal rights protesters, the damage being done to the environment was unlikely to even register on a planet once used to crash wrecked ships just to clear the trade lanes.

Okeer's krogan army was hardy and difficult to kill, and they waded through such hazards with disdain. Many emerged sporting horrific looking chemical burns that only fueled their blood rage to higher heights, while others in more expensive armor were nearly immune to such dangers.

The Firestorm merc company, using more incendiary and conventional weapons, didn't run into such issues. Moving carefully from cover to cover, under the profane and pointed orders from their leader, their northern approach was mostly free of the hazardous materials tanks anyway. Krogan rushed their lines in haphazard waves, roaring out war-cries – only to run into the omni-mines and incendiary grenades thrown by the Firestorm.

Shepard's mech force ranged far ahead of Miranda's team, identifying areas of concentrated hazmat to avoid. The Normandy Marines, honed by battles on Virmire and New Louisiana, fired for effect, not mere explosions, and the mechs used heavy weapons like a normal human would use an assault rifle. The krogan that charged their positions met precise, murderous fire, and their own attacks bounced impotently off the super-heavy armor of the marines.

It damaged the mechs, but the Inusannon metals in their construction merely flowed back together sluggishly in mere minutes, and the robots continued their slow, dreadful advance, weapons firing as they implacably crushed their foes.

The Blue Suns, however, in their haste to acquire as much military hardware as they could, did not fully consider the ramifications of the battlefield. Almost sixty of them died nearly instantly when a clever krogan launched missiles at a hazmat tank, spraying the lightly armored mercs with boiling fluoride. The krogan took advantage of the chaos, three groups of them swinging around to flank the Suns, who found their line of retreat cut off by burning hazardous materials, their advance blunted by dug in krogan, and their cover slowly being threatened by the explosions all around them.

Jedore's advance stalled, even as the few GTS defenses still online began firing back in their earnest at the Normandy's swooping bombardment runs. The ship jinked and dodged as well as possible, but it was larger and much more massive than the old Normandy, and she took several vicious hits from missiles. Not that they did a lot of good against cyclonic barriers and Silaris armor, but it prevented the Normandy from aiding the Blue Suns mercs.

Given Jedore's near-panic at the idea of the Butcher visiting her camp, Shepard found herself not really giving much of a shit if the woman and her mercs lived or died.

Shepard could only smirk as she tore through another band of krogan, smashing her fist directly into one's gut hard enough to shatter his armor and immerse her arm into his insides. He gave a horrific scream that was choked off as she flared warpfire inside him, followed by a hard push that sent him flying off her now bloodstained arm and tumbling into three more charging krogan.

Jack was laughing insanely at her own opponent, a krogan biotic who was hurling shockwaves and blasts of warpfire at her, only for her to bat them aside or turn them back on him. She snarled as she limberly leapt aside from one such flare of energy, her own biotics erupting out in a bright white lash-like effect that tore the krogan's left arm off, sending blood splashing about.

She then turned to another krogan, charging at her with a shotgun, flinging a push field that picked him up off his feet and sent him smashing into the wall hard enough to splatter, orange liquids erupting in gory sprays between his now crumpled armor.

The first krogan she'd engaged staggered back, looking almost comically at his now missing arm only a second before roaring incomprehensibly. Jack flung out her hand again, focusing her will on a heavy scrap beam to one side, blue glows outlining it as it was pulled free. The I-beam flew through the air, impacting the krogan in the back and slamming him into the nearby outer wall hard enough that his hump ruptured, spraying orange carnage all over the wall in mess not far from where the other krogan had been smashed.

Tali and Kiala were back to back, circled by a ring of hotly glowing drones, spraying attacks in all directions, Tali's omni-shield deflecting the sloppy incoming fire from the krogan they had pinned down. Dost calmly put shots from his rifle into each on, pausing only to throw grenades when they tried to charge. Krogan died all around them – melted, harried, blasted by missiles, their weapons overheating and detonating in their hands, armor locking up and spraying medigel uselessly into the air.

The one krogan who managed to win through the barrage of fire missed his wild swing at Tali.

She plucked the omni-knife out of one of her boots, and drove it home into the edge of the krogan's plate. He jerked back screaming in agony until her Reegar erupted, melting his upper body into white-glowing slag.

"...krth'ka! Ruined my knife." Tali's voice was peeved as she turned to shoot another krogan.

Shepard ducked under the slow punch of an equally wildly charging krogan, backhanding him hard enough to send him to the ground. The krogan looked at her incredulously even as blood streamed from his shattered muzzle. "Impossible!"

She unslung her ODIN II with one hand, placing a fiery blast of burning hot uranium hexafloride into his skull, shattering his upper torso armor along with it. "Deal with it." Kicking the mess of the krogan's body out her way, she tapped her comm link. "Vigil? Status."

Vigil's voice sounded in her ear. "I am down six mechs, two more are immobile but repairing. The krogan are rallying. Miranda has pulled into a very tight, secure defensive location and my mechs are backing her up, but the HAMMERHEAD is pinned down covering their location. You do not have much time before the krogan overwhelm the Blue Suns and turn in your direction – it will be some time before we can put this group down to assist you."

Pausing to throw a pair of plasma grenades at the three krogan still tangled in the corpse of the one she'd gut-punched and fried up from the inside, she glanced up, where a tower – seemingly converted from the wreck of an old turian cruiser – loomed overhead. "Understood." She tapped her omni. "Zaeed, status?"

As the rest of her small squad finished off the last of the krogan, the rough voice of the merc sounded loudly in her ear, along with the roar of plasma throwers and screaming krogan. "It's guddamned wonderful, if you like fighting idiots and crazies." There was a pause, and the sound of a roaring krogan demanding blood for his 'War-father', followed by the ominous humming sound of a power maul charging up, and a truly appalling meaty thud.

Zaeed muttered. "Well, he's not getting any of mine."

Shepard snorted. "How far can you push?" She moved along the nearest wall, eyes peeled for movement. A troop of krogan hustled towards the wall in the distance but didn't see them, and she motioned her team forwards.

"Dunno. Lot of krogan in here, most of them fight like absolute shit. Shitty armor, shotguns. Not much of a good matchup for my boys. But there's a handful in black armor that are right fucking nasty."

Tali nudged the black-armored form at her feet and tilted her head in a skeptical manner, but Shepard merely grinned wider. "Understood. My people are pinned a hundred meters north of the tower – see if you can help them out."

Shepard clicked off. "Let's move." They moved carefully along a narrow, filthy alleyway between two large warehouses, the end blocked by old crates that Shepard shoved out of the way. The boxes spilled into a large, metalled road, leading straight to the heavy converted cargo bay doors that formed the main tower entrance.

A squad of krogan in heavy black armor loomed near the door, most of them carrying heavy machine guns, and one lugging around an elcor ion bombard. She winced at the last weapon – that could actually hurt even her. She glanced around the area for cover, and turned back to her team.

"Squad at the front door. One of them has a fucking bombard. Jack, hit them with your heavy shit while I throw a singularity. Tali, Kiala, pin the rest down with missiles and grenades. Dost, put as many shots as you can into the one with the bombard before he brings it to bear."

The lieutenant gave a firm nod. Shepard put away her ODIN and drew out her Harrier, pausing to flip to armor piercing rounds. "On three."

A few seconds later, Shepard and Jack rushed out in unison. The smaller woman, with a yell of focus, hurled out a pair of warpfire blobs, barely in control but huge in size. These splashed violently at both sides of the krogan at the door, melting a hole in the doorway while setting most of them on fire.

Shepard's singularity arrived along with the missile barrage of the quarians, the resulting combined biotic and conventional explosions rocking the entire area. Pieces of krogan flesh, armor, and bits of unidentified scorched metal rained down as they charged forward, even as more alarms began to blare.

A small squad of krogan stormed out of one of the side alleys, but didn't get two steps before a ball of glowing gray-green light hit the leader, erupting into a blinding explosion. A moment later, the white-hot flash of a DACT dropping from above crashed into the rest of the group, sending one krogan flailing to the ground with his entire skull smashed a good foot into his torso. Montoya came to his feet, firing his BRKR rail-gun at one of the surviving krogan, the green ball blasting off most of the krogan's upper body with a single shot.

She smirked as Florez came down a moment later, pausing to fire his lance cannon at point blank range at the last moving krogan. "Boss Lady! Lawson told us to follow you, secure the entrance to the tower. We'll keep the assholes off your back."

She nodded, moving towards the gore-spattered and damaged entry way. "Good. Fall back if it gets too hot – the mercs should be incoming sooner or later."

They entered the tower, the normal hard lines of turian construction heavily altered, but still recognizable. The large room beyond the doors – once, some kind of cargo bay – had been heavily converted over to some kind of mass storage bay, while heavily reinforced elevators had been installed along the far wall. Stacks of building materials and hoppers of various ores were haphazardly shoved against the walls, along with what looked like sleeping pallets made of animal hides.

Tali dispatched two smaller drones to scout. "I'm not picking up any large power sources except near the upper sections, but … smaller sources are two floors above us."

Kiala, on the other hand, was examining an ODN dataport on one side of the walls. "Shepard, we can access some of his network from here. Not sure how much control he has over this ship, but turians install some very nasty anti-boarding defenses. If those are still active..."

Shepard nodded. "I figured we'd run into something like this. I want you two to stay here – and hack what you can. I know you two can handle yourselves... but Okeer is big leagues, and this isn't the time to be brushing off rust. Dost, can you keep her safe? The DACT are right outside to back you up, and I'll have Miranda's group move in as quick as she can get here."

The big man nodded. "Yeah. We'll do what we can from here and catch up if need be." He slung his rifle, and moved to start shoving some crates around to provide cover.

Kiala, for her part, pulled some kind of kit out of her belt. "Probably for the best." Her tone became a touch worried. "I am, after seeing the soldiers we have faced so far, less certain of our odds against this Okeer himself."

Shepard frowned but nodded. "That was sort of my thought. I just don't have enough people I can depend on to make up a real squad yet. Stay here, and comm me if you get into trouble."

A moment later, the entire tower shook, the lights flickering, and additional alarms rang out. She glanced around, eventually moving towards the elevators, tapping her commlink. "Vigil?"

The dry voice of the AI was amused. "Jedore appears...unamused at her losses. She is having artillery bombard some of the inner areas. I have blunted most approaches to your position by way of missile strikes, but we are now taking some minor damage to the Normandy. Miranda is moving her force out behind the battle tank towards the tower, the krogan assault on their position was … poorly planned."

She nodded, tapping a control on the elevator even as Jack and Tali stepped onto the large platform. It began ascending with a jerk. "Understood. The two DACT are guarding the entrance, and Dost and Kiala found an ODN port they're going to try to hack. Instruct her to move the force closer to the tower."

"Understood, Shepard. So far, I've intercepted and jammed all outgoing transmissions. Be aware whatever those Prothean power sources I picked up earlier were they are within the tower and now active."

She nodded, clicking off. The elevator platform rose smoothly through a hole cut into a structural bulkhead, smoothly coming to a stop flush with the rough metallic platform built into it that formed a ramp. A series of handholds and a crude pictograph instructing krogan to grab onto the handholds was painted in blue on one wall, and Shepard followed the instructions.

She was flipped in mid air, letting go of the handholds to land perpendicular to the surface of Korlus. "He's got the ship's power-core on, and the artificial gravity. Just grab the handles and let it flip you around."

Tali and Jack followed, the latter a bit more clumsily, as Shepard checked out the far bulkhead door. She glanced back. "Drones find anything?"

Tali shook her head. "No. The other shaft ends up in a room like this, with sealed doors as well. I'd say we were roughly midships given the size of the cruiser."

Shepard pulled her ODIN shotgun, frowning at the idea of close-quarters combat with hordes of krogan. "Why can't Okeer be goddamned stupid with his defenses? Jack, please tell me you did what I asked and had mag-linings put into those boots?"

The ex-convict nodded sourly. "Yeah, not sure why you wanted me to though. Or why the hell it matters."

Shepard engaged her own mag-boot system. "Because with the gravity being generated by the ship and us like this, if he turns it off we'd go falling the length of the cruiser. Let's go."

Moving more slowly and deliberately due to the magboots, Shepard opened the next set of bulkhead doors. The space beyond was some kind of common living area – heavy hide rugs flanked a sort of open kitchen, surrounded by low metallic countertops and a trio of large-scale industrial refrigerators. Heavy hammocks of rough canvas were slung in rows along the walls, while a haptic screen on the forward wall was still showing some kind of action movie.

Eight krogan were in the room, five of them wearing reddish armor, the other three black armor. Tucked behind a series of armored barricades near the front of the room, the krogan ducked down immediately as the doors boomed open. All were already tucked into cover, and as the bulkhead finished opening, began throwing grenades.

Shepard cursed, using a push field to deflect the explosives as she searched in vain for any decent cover. As the grenades exploded in the krogan's faces, she found herself without any good options. The best she could do was the flimsy looking set of storage shelves along one wall. She hustled into cover as best she could with the magboots, firing with the ODIN to keep the krogan suppressed.

Tali simply triggered her omni-shield, the slight forms of herself and Jack both able to use it for cover. While Tali's drones surged forward, spraying flame, Jack flung a burst of blue energy. Ugly roiling masses of biotic energy smashed down on three of the krogan on the right. Two of them were merely knocked from their cover, cursing – the third, hit more directly, was flung onto his own barricade with tremendous force. The cheap metal splintered as it was driven into the krogan's chest and face, hunks of metal bursting out of his back in eruptions of orange.

The krogan, of course, did not like this, and four of them charged out, firing shotguns at the omni-shield. Shepard hurled a singularity, lifting them from their feet, and followed it up by a heavy throw. Jack acted at the same time with a push.

The biotic forces interacted violently, a biotic explosion shaking the room. Two of the krogan were hurled against the walls with sickening cracks, hard enough to dent it. One krogan went flying into two different directions, as most of the armor on his back went through his own body to tear out his front.

The final black armored krogan bulled through the explosion, however, smoking. "I AM ANGRY!"

Tali stepped out and shot him in the face with the Reegar, the electro-plasma burst searing through the helmet to melt a gaping hole in the krogan's upper body and head. As the krogan skidded to the ground past Tali, smearing the decking with burned flesh and bits of orange, she spoke in a deadpan tone. "And now you are dead, bosh'tet."

Shepard chuckled, even as she fired several times at the last standing krogan, the shots punching right through the heavy armor. It staggered, and Shepard kicked off the ground to disengage her magboots before she kanquessed behind the krogan even as it tried to fire back. Her ODIN came up to the back of its head and barked once, blasting it to the ground. She put two more shots into the krogan, and then a few more into the ones by the wall, before grunting.

"Well, they certainly take more killing than pirates." She glanced at the only way out, another large bulkhead door, the red access lock indicating it was clearly sealed. "Tali, you'll have to hack the door."

Before Tali could even move, the haptic screen on the front wall flickered and darkened, the images of the movie being replaced with the smiling image of Doctor Okeer. "Fascinating. Would you be so kind to indulge my curiosity as to why you are attacking my works, Butcher?"

She slowly turned to face the screen, scowling behind her helmet. "...Doctor Okeer. Mass murder, slaving filth, and in league with the Reapers, Collectors and the Shadow Broker. You're supposedly a smart krogan, so it should be obvious why I am here."

The figure's eyes narrowed, a genial, almost pleased chuckle emerging from his massive mouth. "Ah, exquisite. When I first saw your taunting videos, linking yourself with the Sisters of Vengeance and the Archangel, I wondered why you would not also announce your antipathy for my esteemed colleague. But your mention of the Reapers and Collectors...you are not what you seem."

Shepard gestured to the door, and Tali moved ahead. "Why is it every fucker I kill wants to give me a goddamned speech?"

Okeer's smile widened. "I myself blame the exposure of most cultures to turian melodrama. But I digress. Your ill-advised assault will soon come to a violent and ugly end, as soon as the many friends I have in the planetary defense force receive my alarms."

She smirked. "Yeah, about that. They sort of aren't getting through." She paused. "In honor of the original Butcher...you have one chance to surrender. If you don't take it, you are dead."

His rich baritone pissed her off as he laughed. "I am disinclined to submit to your form of justice, asari. But amusement is never a poor thing. Come, behold my works and my brilliance, and when you draw your last breath – understand what I do here is only to save my people."

The screen went dead, and Shepard snorted. "Tali?"

"...bosh'tet...de-centralized...stupid..." A moment later, with a spray of sparks, the doorway shuddered open, Tali's omni-tool ceasing to glow. "Sorry. His security systems are built on top of the turian ones, and they're not easy to get past."

Shepard moved up, ODIN ready, and nodded. "Stay behind me and be ready to drop behind your omni-shield, Tali. Jack, I may need a quick barrier – turian ships are setup to make life difficult for boarders."

They spent a few minutes moving through a series of large rooms. Shepard was not sure what they'd been designed for on the turian ship this once was, but mostly they were now used as living quarters or storerooms.

They came out into a wide, spacious horizontal corridor, with several doors leading off of it and a trio of elevator shafts. Tali gestured to the elevators. "Those should take us from this bottom deck towards the upper decks where command and control is likely to be."

Shepard nodded, even as the center elevator chimed. "Shit, cover."

The three moved towards the low barricades set into the middle of the corridor, as the doors to the elevator slid open. For a moment, nothing happened, then a heavily armored reinforced leg stepped out.

Shepard's eyes widened as a heavily reinforced krogan with heavy cybernetic conversion stepped out of the lift, coming to its full height a second later. Thick plates of armor covered the krogan's chest and thighs, while the arms each ended in strange, green-lit canisters of what looked like some kind of beige flesh, with several tubes running from the canisters to the torso.

The tips of the canisters were glowing green crystals. The head of the krogan was the most horrific – the lower jaw replaced with a plate of metal, the eyes covered with a wide band of cybernetics, black lenses and glowing sensors, and sections of what looked like circuitry and cyberware visible under clear armaglass sections of the skull, along with the brain.

Okeer's mocking voice rang out. "Saren's clumsy butcheries of my people were hardly worth keeping around, but the concept for augmenting the bodies of krogan too wounded to be of any further use was certainly sound. My friends the Collectors suggested a few improvements of their own. I fear I am far too busy to crush your feeble bodies myself, so I sent my associate here to do so."

The giant krogan growled, omni-armor flickering to life all over the cybernetic body, and Shepard cursed hotly and thoroughly. She scrambled to one side a second later, as two carving beams of pure particle energy sheared through her cover, blasting it into smoking metallic scrap.

Vigil's voice rang in her earpiece in alarm. "What is this? Those are Prothean shear-class particle rifle blasts!"

She slid behind another barricade, popping up to open fire with her Harrier. The bright rounds impacted the krogan with no real effect, the omni-armor not even flickering. Tali's mini-missile barrage didn't even stagger it as it stepped forward.

Jack hurled a spear of warpfire, which began to waver as it got closer. Jack winced as her strike splashed, burning warp energy blackening the armored surface of its chest but not much else. "Shit! Thing is packing a goddamned phase nullifier!"

Grimacing, Shepard put away her Harrier, drawing her ODIN. "Keep in cover, girls." She amped her response time and slaved her reflexes to her sensors, then pushed all her biotic energy towards her speed and strength.

Mass accelerator fire could be dodged most times because she could literally see the person about to fire, her systems calculating the trajectory and moving her out of the way before they even pulled the trigger. This particle beam blast, however, was not going to be so easy to dodge, as it had no tells indicating it would be firing.

She flashed into the kanquess, firing as she went, blasting glowing craters into the mega-krogan's armor. With a grunt it rounded on her, a small rack of mini-missiles lashing out to strike her.

The impacts struck her barrier, shattering it, and her kinetic barrier came up automatically, flickering into place just in time to take the impact of the two particle beams. She barely ducked out of the way before they blasted towards her, wincing as one melted a line right through her armor. Alarms blared in her cybernetic vision, even as omnigel and medigel flooded the impact site.

"Fuck!" Slapping down the switch on her ODIN, she moved to the krogan's right, going full auto-fire, blasting at its legs. Chunks of heavy armor flew off, as black liquids seeped out of the wound, but the creature ignored the damage.

It lashed out again with the particle beams, green energy carving smoking lines into the decking as Shepard fell back again. "Vigil, can I take a direct hit from those things?"

The voice of the AI was lower than usual. "It is not advisable, even for you. But it is almost certain death for your allies."

She nodded. "Tali! Jack! Stay back and in cover, harry it when you can."

Jack hurled more warp fire, mixing thin strikes with heavy blobs, but most of it grew diffuse as it approached the thing. "Yeah, no shit!" She followed her strike up with a shotgun blast, making the thing stagger as it turned in Jack's direction.

Using that opening, Shepard kanquessed to the krogan's side. She fired point blank into its left knee, then rolled backwards, using a push to get distance rapidly, wincing at the pins-and-needles sensation of a truly strong pulse dissipator somewhere inside the creature.

It roared, even as two drones appeared, peppering it with flame blasts and small-scale plasma darts. A lance of green blew one drone apart, while the other arm swung out like a bludgeon, shattering the omni-construct in a single blow.

Tali's voice warbled in worry. "Nothing we have is even denting the thing!"

Shepard came out of her roll, shipping her ODIN, instead pulling out grenades – one a heavy EMP burst, the other one an omni-goop grenade, designed to fling about a mass of rapidly hardening omnigel. "You forgetting what the admiral taught us already, Tali?"

The quarian's voice was wary. "That he's a sneaky bosh'tet with Tourette's?"

Despite the danger, Shepard found herself laughing as she threw the two grenades. The EMP burst washed over the thing. While its own systems were apparently resistant, the omni-armor segments over its legs and head faded. Then the goop grenade detonated, ropy strings of omnigel tying it to the ground.

The thing struggled, one arm pinned to its side, and Shepard moved. "Nope! When in trouble, fucking cheat!"

She came in hard from the side with the arm pinned, drawing her warp sword and pushing as much strength as she could into the blade. She slashed out, the black blade carving into the flesh pod of the left arm. This time she actually felt resistance to the weapon, and her slash came to a juddering stop as it hit something dense.

She pulled her blade out and rolled to the side as the thing tried to turn. Jack took this opportunity to hammer it with more shotgun blasts, and Tali added her input in several blasts of electrical discharges. Shepard's blade slashed down, cutting through the back of the giant's knee, then upwards, sinking deep into its chest.

With a roar of pain the thing surged upwards, the arm tearing free to bat Shepard away. She flew a good twenty feet back to slam hard against a barricade which crumbled, her ODIN and sniper flying off her back and her warp sword slipping from her hands to clatter on the ground.

Shepard spat blood inside her helmet, wincing as scrolling haptics from her cybernetic eyes reported the damage. She rolled, picking up her blade and triggered her energy systems, augmenting her strength to the max.

She felt a hot sort of burning sensation in her body, but ignored it. A particle beam punched through her right shoulder, her armor melting and splashing under the hit, but she spun around and kept charging. She gritted her teeth at the agony in her shoulder, using the pain editor to cut it off. With a leap she moved into the kanquess, angling up so that she came out just above the thing's head.

With every bit of strength she had, she swung the blade down hard on the krogan's head, letting her own momentum drive the blade home and force it down. As she fell, both hands on the weapon, her own weight forced the weapon deeper, carving a line of gore down the back of the krogan's head and back. She landed, tearing her weapon free and throwing all her strength into a kick at the base of the krogan's spine, grunting with the effort.

The thing staggered and then fell, the remaining omni-goop compromising its balance. Without actual hands, it fell hard on its outstretched gun-arm, and the weight was too much. The flesh pod burst in a spray of green crystals, blood, and black ichor, with a burst of streams of green energy that lashed out in all directions.

Jack hissed as one of the beams seared her right arm, burning through her armor. Tali managed to duck behind her omni-shield, which flickered and nearly crumbled under the blast. Shepard kanquessed back just in time. The bulk of the green energy blasted the krogan, most of it pouring through the center mass of the creature in a torrent that melted a hole in the outer walls, letting in sunlight.

Shepard came out of the kanquess, wincing and cutting off her augmented strength and speed. Nausea assailed her, as did a hollow feeling in her stomach. She checked the damage to her shoulder, wincing at the sight of ugly, gray myomer muscles speckled with blood, noting that it didn't want to move very much, although there was no pain due to the pain editor.

She had of course known she was mostly cybernetic, but seeing it openly like that – and being able to cut off the pain – was still unsettling. Her armor was reporting some minor failures, the servos in the shoulder completely destroyed. With a shiver, she killed the energy to her warp sword. "You two okay?"

Jack was pulling out an medigel patch. "Yeah. Thing fried my upper arm when it blew itself up." The wound on her arm was an ugly red, with blisters already forming around it, and the edge of her omni-armor gauntlet was half-melted. "FUCK this hurts." She poured the medigel across the wound, hissing as she did so. "And the shit fucked my ink up."

Shepard shook her head. "You nearly get your arm blown off and you're worried about tats? Priorities, Jack." She turned to Tali. "You good?"

Tali stood, moving cautiously towards the krogan, hands on her Reegar. "I'm fine. Are you?"

Shepard grimaced as she stood. "Just fucking peachy. Can't use the kind of fancy tactics we picked up on Pinnacle in close combat with ...whatever the fuck that thing was." Taking a deep breath, she looked at the elevator the thing had come out of. "Catch your breath real fast, but we need to keep moving."

She tapped her commlink first though. "Dost?"

The sounds of gunfire erupted across the commlink. "Here, ma'am. Big pack of krogan showed up. The two DACT are inside with us, the big guns are keeping 'em off of us for now, but they're pushing hard. Lawson is trying to get through but more krogan are swarming the place...not sure if she can punch through."

Shepard winced. "Any luck with the hacking?"

Kiala's voice was even more waspish sounding than usual. "Some. I've locked out his control of the ship's power systems and shut down most of the defenses. The area of the flag bridge is under local control and the system hard lines have been severed somewhere, so I can't affect that area. There's a pinnace bay adjacent to the flag bridge I also cannot access, but internal sensors report he has a pinnace being fueled."

Shepard nodded. "What about the surveillance systems?"

"I'm working – but whoever is in the system is good, Shepard. Very good. I can keep him locked out of the power and defenses, but pushing through to other subsystems is looking like it's beyond me"

Shepard nodded. "When Miranda's people push through, she's got robots run by Vigil – he can help. Until then do what you can, and if it gets too hot, blow the entry way to seal it and retreat up the elevators."

"Will do."

Shepard killed the comm, as Jack finished drinking a bottle of energy drink while Tali applied a more complete medigel patch to the wound in the woman's arm. Shepard moved her own wounded shoulder, grimacing at the lack of a full range of motion, and then moved towards them.

"We can kill the mag-boots. Kiala has the defenses and power controls down. But we gotta move, she says he's fueling a pinnace near the flag bridge."

Tali nodded, finishing her quick first aid. "Just watch the arm, Jack. Whatever that was burned you pretty badly, and medigel is not the best thing for burns..."

The young biotic flexed her arm experimentally, and nodded. "...thanks."

Shepard tapped the elevator controls, the doors sliding open smoothly. The control panel inside the car had blocky scrawls of korogish over the elegant claw-like turian scripts, but her omni-tool could translate both. She hit the appropriate button for the flag bridge deck and squared her shoulders. "You two ready?"

Tali shrugged. "I'm as ready as I can be. Just in case, though, I had Sedanya prep for more cybernetic surgery." Her voice turned dry. "I seem to have a habit of losing bits and pieces in the bigger fights."

Shepard didn't know whether to laugh or feel horrible. She blew out a breath. "Tali..."

The quarian shook her head. "I'm kidding, Shepard." Her voice turned more serious. "Before, I was not ready. Admiral Ahern was right. I was a stupid child, convinced of her own importance, and too scared of being sent away to admit I had no place in those fights."

She adjusted her grip on her Reegar. "I'm not the same person as I was back then. I've trained and I understand now what he was trying to get me to see." The glowing eyes met hers through the faceplate. "Besides...aside from some of your marines, who else has been here from the start? You need to know you have your back covered."

Shepard felt a warm sense of gratitude flow through her, some of her tension flowing away. "And you don't know how much better I feel knowing that, Tali. I'm sorry at the shit you've had to go through."

Tali shrugged. "It has ended up with me living a life I am more pleased with than being some idiotic child on the Flotilla. Keelah, can you imagine how I'd have turned out if I had gone back, without Jeff in my life, just listening to my father?"

Jack sneered. "Do you guys always fuckin' bond and shit before going out to kick ass?"

Shepard turned to glance at the biotic. "Bitterness would suit you a lot fucking better if you didn't try so hard to push people away, Jack." She felt an impulse to pinch the bridge of her nose and settled for a gusty sigh. "And no. I dragged Tali into complete fucking bullshit because I was a thoughtless clown … and I don't want this fight to go like the one against Saren did."

Jack's mulish expression flickered. "I thought you guys beat his ass?" She flexed her wounded arm again, wincing in pain, before glancing at Tali.

Tali's tone returned to dryness. "Yes, and we spent a week in the hospital, I lost a leg, and we nearly all died. Not to mention the singing."

Shepard grimaced herself. "Don't fucking remind me." She looked at the elevator. "Ah, goddamn it."

Tali looked up. "What?"

Shepard's voice was exasperated. "This is a fucking turian elevator. We're gonna be here all day."

Jack did not understand why Tali burst into sudden laughter.

O-TWCD-O

"War-father, they come. We cannot hold the ones in white and blue back, they have slaughtered the companies of the host by the score! And the Butcher herself approaches, she has slaughtered the Protectors of the Tower and has thrown down the Mighty One."

Okeer stood in the middle of the flag bridge, his eyes moving from display to display, hammer still in his hands. "Calm yourself. This is actually performing a useful task. Our assault on Tuchanka will require us to fight past more than this. Use this experience to harden yourselves, and weed the weak from the strong."

The krogan's wide mouth grimaced. "But War-father, we have lost almost a fourth of our number already!"

Okeer merely smiled. "The cloning facilities will make such losses irrelevant in mere days. Truly, the Collectors do marvelous work." He straightened. "This is but a minor setback. While we have taken losses, if the last experiment batch is viable, we can recover. And regardless of the actions of the Butcher...everything is prepared. "

He looked pointedly at the smaller krogan. "The western facilities are secure? No attacks on the cloning chambers, or the females?"

The smaller krogan shook his head. "No, there have been no intrusions to the west. Both the cloning facility and the female living area are unharmed. We still have almost a third of our strength guarding that sector."

Okeer's bass voice rumbled. "Good – do not remove them from the protection of the area, they are the highest priority. Even if I die, as long as the females I have modified live on to escape, and the data from the cloning project is retained, eventually the krogan race will be redeemed."

With a motion of his hand, the eldest of all krogan gestured. "Take whatever forces remain in the Tower and fall back to the pinnace bay. I will meet the Butcher in combat personally. If I fall … you are to attempt to surrender to her."

The smaller krogan's eyes widened. "What!? But War-father – "

Okeer shook his massive head. "They have at least one atmosphere capable military vessel. The females and cloning tanks can be evacuated via tomkah before they could be overtaken – the pinnace with my legacy aboard will not escape so easily, and I doubt she will let you leave with it in peace. If she wishes to kill me, she is already too late to stop my masterstroke – but I will not allow my legacy to be destroyed. Answer her questions. Agree to her demands. But ensure she departs – with the Project."

The krogan frowned. "I thought the Project was still a failure."

Okeer's eyes bored into those of his servant. "I have not had the time to rectify his resistance to the tank imprints. But that does not mean he is a failure. I must plan for all possible outcomes, and the Broker may be treacherous still. He will serve as a form of ... insurance. Carry out my orders."

With a snarl, the lesser krogan withdrew from the room. Okeer turned back to his displays. He was a bit surprised that even the altered krogan hybrid had fallen to the Butcher, but she had not escaped unscathed herself. Her associates were curious, a quarian and a lightly armored human biotic. Hardly fitting to face himself, but he had not lived to his vast age by underestimating any opponents.

It would be an interesting fight. He glanced at the status panels in front of him, noting the Butcher and her people were ascending the elevator.

He lifted his head as his comm-screen illuminated. "War-father, this is Kassuk. We've broken the Suns unit to the south, although we cannot drive them out and they stole a great deal of materiel. Their artillery is damaging the tomkahs and the outer walls. The other mercenary group has been halted as well – they are fiercer, but lack the range of our missile launchers."

Okeer nodded. "And the group in blue and white?"

The krogan's voice growled. "They killed Ventah, she would not stay with the females and insisted on leading a strike. They have war robots like nothing I have ever seen in any of the imprints, War-father – even blasting them to the ground does not stop them!"

Okeer's mind was fascinated by such an idea. "Corral them. Capture one of these robots if possible. If not, drive them towards the tower."

"War-father, they are already headed towards the tower. You must evacuate! We will die to the last to cover your escape!"

Okeer gave a laugh. "Certainly not. I will not hide from weaklings behind my own children. Split your force – have half move to the western area and begin evacuating the females and the cloning data. Use the tomkahs there and head to the secondary fallback position. Do not give battle and ensure they get away. The rest of your men should head north and drive back the mercenaries there. If you can, recapture the comms antenna."

Kassuk's voice was firm. "Yes, War-father. But … what of you?"

Okeer smiled. "I have guests to entertain. The Ganar clan endures through all things." He clicked off, then smiled wider as a flashing alarm illuminated.

"It is time." Shrugging out of his black robes, the krogan warlord checked his omni-tool, then brought up his myriad defensive systems. Most Collector technology was biotechnological in origin, and the improvements he'd made to his battle armor and hammer were pinnacles of their craft.

He did not fear death, nor defeat. He'd transmitted the bulk of his findings almost three days prior, after all, and had seen off the first tithe of ships to the Broker's secret hold-fast – fifty females, and two hundred of his initial run of the Project. The krogan – his krogan – would survive the coming cleansing.

All krogan would hail the name Okeer, forever. Well, those who survived. The krogan of Tuchanka were most likely going to expire as they had lived, in blind rage and futility, but this is what came of not listening to their elder, after all.

O-TWCD-O

The elevator doors opened almost sullenly, into a wide bowl shaped deck. Pale blue carpet on the floor was dirtied and torn by the tramp of feet, and the wide observation windows looking out over Korlus were grimy.

The room was almost sixty feet long and twice as wide. Two heavy doors on either side were shut firmly, thick borders of metal indicating they were probably airlocks. The vast archway in the middle of the far wall, however, was open. Beyond it was another expansive room, nearly as large, curved into wishbone like shape similar to the Normandy's CIC.

In the middle was a plinth of some sort, control panels in gray-white haptics flanking it in a semicircle. Stepping down from the plinth, his footfalls heavy enough to jar them even from this distance, was the single largest krogan Shepard had ever seen in her life.

Broader across the shoulders and thicker in the chest than Wrex, Okeer's stance was almost hunched over. Thick plates of armor covered every inch of his form, save his face and crest, overlain with silvery-white omni-armor and traceries of some organic material in a pattern like veins over the bronze-colored metal. Powerful mass effect jets jutted from his boots, and his belt was festooned with small oblong spheres – the krogan version of grenades.

The huge hammer in his hands, however, was what held Shepard's attention. A thick haft of some kind of black-gray metal ended in a simply titanic curved arc of metal, the front end thickened and glowing with crackling black energies of some kind. The leather wrappings that wound around the length of the blade were leathery and darkish brown, and korogish runes were burned into the strips.

Okeer took a deep breath. "So, you have come, mighty Butcher." His eyes, bulbous and a chillingly cold green, flicked over the forms of Tali and Jack dismissively. "And with only two allies. Brave of you, child."

Shepard stepped forward, hands tight around her ODIN. "Look jackass, I'm on a fucking schedule. For once, can we skip the goddamned bleating and macho posing and just proceed straight to the part where I ventilate your stupid ass?"

Jack could not resist a grin at this, while Tali shook her head.

Okeer sighed. "How uncouth. But we must talk before I slay you, Butcher."

Behind her helmet her eyes narrowed. The chance that Okeer would actually surrender had to be basically zero – but he was also the one person who had insight into what the Broker and Collectors were up to that they could get their hands on. And nothing was stopping her from giving the sick fuck to Wrex later on.

"The only discussion we need to have is if you're giving up or not. If the answer is no, then you have to die."

The krogan smiled. "If you do not agree to listen to my terms, we will all die."

Shepard frowned. Oh, really? How is that?"

He nodded. "I have seen much of your prowess in battle. I have ... not been idle, waiting for you to arrivel." He tapped his omni-tool, and harsh reddish light flooded his section of the flag bridge. "I have rigged this ship with exceedingly powerful neurotoxins. One command, and you, I, and everything else in this tower dies in excruciating pain. The toxins are derived from consumptive black nanotech – they will eat even through quarian environmental seals in mere minutes."

He spread his hands. "I have no doubt that today is my day to die, but I shall do so on my own terms – and give you what you wanted. You came here for knowledge, not merely to kill me, no?"

She bit her lip, but kept her voice calm. "And what makes you think I'm just not here to kill you for being an asshole who fucks around with Collectors?"

Okeer's smile widened. "The mere fact you know of my link to the Collectors is telling. And I know you came here for information because you would have orbitally bombarded this facility if you needed no data from it, after all."

She exhaled. "...your terms?"

Okeer's rich voice deepened. "As I said, your prowess intrigues. You have slaughtered your way into the nightmares of an entire sector of the galaxy – and no normal asari could hope to have defeated my servitor. If I am to die, it will not be in the disgraceful fires of artillery strikes or orbital fire. I will die in battle."

Shepard gave him a doubtful look. "You didn't build this crazy ass facility for nothing...you'd give up your plans for a last good fight?"

Okeer laughed. "The chances of you defeating me in battle are low. But I am more prudent than mighty Saren or Lady Benezia were. Save for the ending of my life, my own legacy is already secured. My people will be renewed. I have already made my masterstroke – even if you kill me, what I have discovered will still be saved from what comes."

He rose to his full height. "All that remains is the final coda. Face me in single combat, Butcher. Win, and my followers will surrender. Lose, and I go free."

She snarled, but her mind was racing. She had reservations about dragging Tali and Jack into this fight to begin with. While she certainly didn't plan on facing the big krogan without backup to begin with, seeing Okeer in person only reinforced her doubts at how well Tali - or Jack - would come out of this fight.

The fact that if she didn't do this would get them all killed left her no choice.

She stepped forward, voice hard. "You have a deal, Ganar Okeer. I am blood-sister of Urdnot Wrex, whose son you killed. This is his vengeance, and mine. I will face you in single combat."

Okeer merely grinned wider. "Then he will mourn your death soon enough as well." He tapped his omni-tool, and the red lighting faded, and then his hands wrapped around his hammer, lifting it. "And now, truly, the time for speech and words has passed. There is nothing else to be said, except the language of blade, claw, hammer and spilled blood."

She narrowed her eyes. "Just you and me?"

Okeer nodded, tapping his omni-tool bracelet and tossing it away. "Just you and I, Butcher. Have your small friends stand away."

Tali's voice was pitched low. "This is a baaad idea..."

Shepard's voice was like iron. "You guys stay out here. This won't take long." She stepped forward again, flicking the auto-fire switch on her ODIN.

Jack looked at her incredulously. "She's fucking crazy."

Tali's voice was sad, and so soft Jack could barely make the words out. "No. She's just scared of losing anyone else." Her voice hardened. "When you get a chance, use your biotics to snag that omni-tool..."

As Shepard stepped through the doorway however, the doors slid shut behind her, a omni-field barrier leaping up in front of them. Tali cursed.

Within the flag bridge, Shepard glanced over her shoulder, then turned back to Okeer. "I'm gonna enjoy killing your ass."

Okeer himself stepped forward, swinging that massive hammer in one hand as if it weighed nothing. "You have made me a happy krogan, Butcher."

She exploded into the kanquess, coming out above him and slamming her foot into his hump, making him stumble. "Now, I make you a dead one."

With a roar, Okeer swung the hammer, the head smashing into the decking as Shepard barely had time to dive away. She lifted her ODIN, firing, but the blasts merely ricocheted uselessly off his armor, runnels of green energy erupting over the surface of the armor. Okeer laughed.

"Your feeble weapons … such garbage. You cannot triumph over me with mere toys. Show me your rage, your power All of it!"

He rushed her, and she kanquessed out of the way, but as she emerged, he flung up his hand. A line of silvery-white rope or cord, ending in a disc-shaped mass attractor, lashed onto her thigh armor, and with a tug she was flying through the air back at him.

Before she could do more than attempt to strengthen her barrier, he batted her away with his hammer. A blast of black lightning erupted from it as she flew black, searing into her armor and cybernetics. Wild alerts flashed as she slammed into the far wall hard enough to dent it, screaming in agony as she slid to her knees on the ground.

Okeer merely shook his head. "Pathetic. Can you asari weaklings not fight any better than this?"

Shepard grunted, spitting blood inside her helmet. Shifting power to her strength systems, she engaged her reflex overrides. She'd dropped her ODIN as she'd flown through the air, and instead drew her warp sword, the edges of the blade flaring into deep blue flame.

She let her anger build, and flashed into the kanquess. Rather than coming out in melee range, she emerged behind him, throwing her strongest shockwave. The waves of glowing blue power rocked him, but he only swayed, blue energy writhing over his form being battled by the green radiance from the weird vein-like markings on the armor.

"Biotics...always biotics with asari." He rushed forward, moving surprisingly fast for his size, and swung his hammer in an angled arc. She rolled back, coming up in a cross block that barely caught his return swing, black Reaper metal and blue fire meeting black energies and the gray metal of his hammer with a resounding, hollow clang.

She nearly buckled under the blow, pain exploding across her shoulders and hips from the sheer impact of the blow, but used her biotics and her strength to hold firm, drawing a surprised look from the krogan. Still, her felt servos in her armor give, alarms chiming in her vision about stress impacts.

Note to self: don't block the hammer again. Fuck, that hurt.

She whipped her sword out and down, making him hop back, then leapt into a flying snap kick, crashing her boot against his unarmored face, sending him stumbling back. She followed up with an elbow to his gut, triggering the omni-blade in her elbow to activate and cut deeply into him.

He howled and jerked back, and she smiled grimly. Not stopping, she swung her blade in a heavy slash at his leg, the blade cutting through the omni-field and armor. Green radiance flashed and crackled over the blade as it dug in deeply, drawing blood, and he crashed his head into her helmet in a savage headbutt, knocking her back. His follow up swing clipped her chin, knocking her head back in an explosion of stars to crumble against a console, stunned.

He shook his head to clear it, noting with dismay his crest was slightly indented, before taking up his hammer in both hands and swinging it down on her with crushing force. The blow whistled through the air, coming to a stop with a hollow clunk as it rebounded off her barrier field, raised hastily.

With a blindingly fast maneuver, Shepard levered herself up, backhanding the krogan with all of her strength and biotic power. The blow tore skin from his muzzle and actually sent him back a good four or five feet, and she followed it up with a straight thrust to the chest with her warp sword. Again, omni-fields and hard armor ground against the blade, and she screamed in fury as she flooded the blade with every bit of biotic energy she could muster.

It slammed through his chest, the blazing blade burning away some of the green traceries on the armor's surface and the tip bursting out of his back, drawing an enraged roar. He reared back and punched her knocking her away, then withdrew the blade and flung it after her.

Shepard landed in a rough roll, barely bring up her omni-blade in time to knock the spinning blade away. It sank into the decking not far from her, as she tried to steady herself from the hard punch, noting her chest armor was buckled.

Okeer wiped blood from his mouth, swinging the hammer in short, testing strokes as he approached. She rolled to the side, grabbing up her warpsword, and as she came up her free hand flung an explosive grenade at his feet.

The blast did little damage but staggered him, and she once again kanquessed, coming out to his right side and slashing at his arm with her blade. As soon as the blow landed she burst into kanquess again, coming out above and to his left, even as he turned to swing his hammer at where she'd been, exposing the broad armored curve of his back. She lashed out with a hard slash even while hammering him with a strong pull, tugging him back even as his armor fought the biotics.

Her blade sunk in deeply, and she let her weight fall onto it in full as she shoved it home, twisting it as she then kicked off his back, barely evading a crushing backhand. She came down in a roll, lifting her blade, but not fast enough as the hammer's long haft let Okeer swing it around far enough to catch her in the side.

Armor crunched and splintered, jagged fragments of it driving into her side, drawing agony from her. More alarms flashed, this time in dire red, signifying serious internal damage. She hopped away, wincing and unable to stand up straight, and Okeer shoulder checked her with a roar, sending her flying to crash hard into a data console.

It shattered under her, metallic pieces and splashing crystal display gel smearing over her as she landed with an awkward sprawl. Once again Okeer lifted the hammer for a downwards strike, and she rolled out of the way, biting back the pain as she triggered her pain editor. The hammer's strike literally crumpled the ground just to one side of her, and she lashed out with a kick at the krogan's exposed knee.

He retaliated with a stomp on her outstretched leg that would have shattered an organic limb. The super-strong bones of Shepard's cybernetic leg were too tough for that, but myomer muscle bundles shredded and snapped, and she hopped to her feet with a limp.

She brought her sword up in a shaky guard, breathing heavily, while Okeer merely grunted and squared his shoulders. Blood flowed heavily from the blackened slots in his armor where she'd stabbed him, the warp fire preventing his regeneration from working at its normal speed. Shepard winced as the Inusannon metals finally snapped together in her side, easing the pressure on her body, although one of her armored rib spars was bent.

Okeer's eyes narrowed as he began another charge, and this time Shepard didn't meet him head on, instead using her biotics to flip out of the way, tossing a pair of smoke grenades over her shoulder. She smirked to herself as the krogan roared in irritation even as her eyes shifted to infrared. Lightening her weight as much as possible, she leapt up, coming down in a fast, strong slash that was aimed at his weapon arm.

The blade carved completely through his shoulder plate, smashing deep into his bicep before coming to a jarring stop against the thick bones of his arm. Shepard used a push against him to propel herself away, emerging trailing streamers of smoke as she landed lightly. Okeer burst out of the cloud a moment later, only for Shepard to spray his face with plasma from her omni-tool, drawing a howl of agony and making him fling his arms up to protect himself.

The moment he did so, she concentrated her biotics on the deck under his feet, using a strong shear. The decking warped and buckled, the massive weight of the krogan making him sink into the splintering metal, immobilizing him. She moved with every bit of her speed, throwing herself into a full extension lunge that shoved the heavy blade ahead of her, targeted for his head.

He managed to somehow hear or feel her movement and flung his arm up in a block, the sword shearing through his forearm in a blast of warpfire. Even as he screamed, though, his other hand came up with the hammer in a short, heavy swing, crashing against her bad shoulder.

Black energy burst free at the blow, and her armor crumpled like paper. The sheer force of it spun her around, and she crashed to the floor a second later, her arm entirely unresponsive. Smoke and flickers of black energies crawled along it, myomer strands writhing and snapping as if on fire for several seconds.

With an irritated grunt, Okeer pulled himself free from the floor, hissing in pain. His right forearm was gushing blood, and he plucked free a heavy packet of medigel, shoving it in the space where his armor had been sheared away before once more picking up his hammer.

Shepard levered herself up shakily with her sword, blood leaking from her mouth. Forcing herself to try to stand straight, she backed up slowly... racking her brains for a tactic to use.

Okeer's bloodied teeth flashed as he smiled. "You fight well, for an asari." He slowly straightened, and she noted with dismay blood no longer trickled from the wound on his chest. "But you were a fool to try me. You came here, expecting to find a crazed madman. And instead you found a god."

She snarled. "God? Please. I've survived way worse than you, asshole." She couldn't use her left arm, meaning she'd have to let go of her sword to throw grenades. Her sniper rifle was useless in such tight quarters, her Harrier didn't have the punch.

She'd have to go with the Sunfire, then. She exhaled again, lifting her blade and putting a taunting note in her voice. "The mightiest and oldest of the krogan can't even put down one mere asari. Quite a legacy, you'll be the laughingstock of every clan on Tuchanka."

Okeer sneered. "You confuse me with the brutish thugs my people have devolved into, Butcher? Thinking you can taunt me into rash action? How amusing." He hefted the hammer. "But you are quite right, this farce ends now."

She kanquessed – up, as high as she could, triggering her mag-boots and thankful for the cybernetic conduits that allowed her to do so with a mere thought. Landing on the curved, high ceiling of the flag bridge, she flung her sword at Okeer, along with a push of all her strength.

Expecting another flanking maneuver, he was unprepared when the weapon sheared into his left shoulder, driving almost to the hilt. With her working arm now free, she pulled the Sunfire, letting it charge up as he tore the weapon free and tossed it aside.

He had time to look up before the first shot struck him in the face. The blast splashed hot plasma and melting flesh into his eyes and he staggered back,and she pulled the trigger again, and again.

Two more hot-white comets slammed into him – one blasting a hole into his chest, the second barely clearing his crest to scythe through the armor over his hump, fragmenting the armor. She fired yet again, the shot blowing through the armor on his right knee, and he fell to his other knee.

The pistol fired a final time even as its heat-sink overloaded, the shot punching yet again through his chest armor, blasting out the other side of his body to melt a sloppy hole in the decking. She leapt down from the ceiling, dropping the pistol as she landed and rolled. Scooping up her warp sword and pushing her biotics into it she lunged, the blade hammering right through his hand to penetrate his head.

He gave a blood choked roar of pain, wrenching the blade free as he staggered to his feet, swinging his hammer blindly and wildly. The huge weapon connected with a console, smashing it to pieces and raining debris over Shepard as scrambled back.

Despite his agony, Okeer heard the scrape of her boots on the decking and flung the hammer with all his might. Black energies burst out of it as it struck her directly in the chest, armor crumpling and sending Shepard skidding back against the deck until she struck the far wall.

She winced, barely able to draw breath. Flashing graphics across her vision warned of damage to her lungs and heart, and her power star was at fifteen percent energy and falling. She watched as Okeer slowly sank to the ground, slumping against the other wall a moment later, blood pouring from his mouth and other garish, plasma-splashed wounds.

She coughed up blood again, toggling her helmet to try to get more air. Grimacing against pain – and realizing her pain editor had either failed or overloaded – she managed to half stagger towards the half wrecked control panels.

Her omni-tool laid an overlay for the many controls before her, but it took her almost fifteen seconds to find a control to open the doors. She pressed it, sinking to her knees in exhaustion, even as Tali rushed through the opening doors, shotgun ready and eyes wide.

Jack followed at a more sedate pace, glancing around the room and taking in the shattered, beaten giant krogan against one wall. "Daaaamn."

Tali skidded to a stop next to Shepard, omni-tool flaring as she ran some kind of diagnostics. "Keelah! You crazy...stupid..." She turned Shepard's head to face her. "Sara? Answer me, how badly hurt are you?"

She smiled as she coughed, using her only working arm to wipe blood from her lips. "Mostly dead. But that fucker is all dead." She spat blood. "Vigil?"

The voice of the AI sounded more smug than it had earlier. "Yes, primitive? Your life signs appear to be in some level of disorder. Bite off more than you could chew?"

Shepard rolled her eyes. "S-status."

The AI sighed. "The krogan have inflicted very heavy casualties on the Firestorm, who are falling back. The Blue Suns force was routed. More krogan are massing to the west side of the complex, although so far they have not taken any hostile actions and fight purely defensively. Miranda and her combat team are on the lower levels of the tower, waiting for instructions."

She nodded. "Good. Pop a copy into a war robot and get it up here." She changed comm links. "Zaeed?"

The voice of the mercenary sounded angry. "I'm guddamned busy."

She sighed. "Pull your people out. I'm going to try to use my ship to take the heat off you."

The man's voice did not sound any happier. "We're fucking pinned, so that's going to be a mite difficult to do."

She was about to speak when Jack frowned, turning. A force of krogan had entered the room with the elevator lifts, a good fifteen or so of them, all in black armor, lead by a slightly larger krogan with white trim on his black armor., and the same dark brown crest and pale skin as Okeer.

Tali tightened her grip on her shotgun, bringing up her omni-shield, and Jack's hands glittered with biotics, but the krogan merely held up his hand. "Wait. The War-father has fallen?"

Shepard was blocked from their view by the form of Tali. She tiredly triggered her helmet, sealing away her features, before leaning heavily on Tali and standing. "If you mean Okeer...yes. I killed him in single combat."

The krogan in the room all seemed to slump, and the leader gave an almost pained cry before mastering himself. "Then … his last orders were to cease combat. We have … females and materials in the western compound, and important items we must not allow to be destroyed."

Shepard blinked, but then thought for a minute. Her people were likely surrounded, Zaeed's mercs were pinned, the Normandy had taken at least some damage, and the Suns were probably routed. She tilted her head. "You must leave the tower immediately and have your people fall back towards this western compound."

One of the krogan snarled. "The Project – "

The lead krogan held up a hand again. "I know, Turkus. The War-father instructed me to follow this path." The pale green eyes flicked back to the Butcher. "We will fall back...and if your people attack us, death will not stop us from our vengeance. It is only on the orders of our War-father we allow you this – and we are taking his body with us."

Shepard glanced at the battered corpse. While she would have loved to have an examination of the armor – particularly the green shit – she understood enough about krogan to realize that was expected. "His weapon is spoils of war."

The krogan did not seem concerned about that, four of them stepping into the room. They cried out again when they beheld Okeer's body, moving to his side and lifting him up. Bearing him from the room, they pushed past their fellows.

The lead krogan folded his massive arms. "The War-father left his last project in the pinnace bay. I am .. instructed to surrender it to you. His mightiest soldier."

She frowned at that, even as the elevator lifts opened again, disgorging Miranda, her DACT, and five war robots. They all trained weapons on the krogan before Shepard called out.

"Cease fire. The krogan are going to fall back to the west. Let them go."

Miranda gave her a raised eyebrow, but said nothing. The lead krogan turned back to face Shepard. "I will need to access the communications plinth to order a fall back."

She gestured. "Tali, cover him. He does something shifty..."

The quarian nodded, while Shepard limped over to a corner of the room, picking up Okeer's omni-tool he'd tossed aside.

The krogan, meanwhile, touched the comm panel. "Brothers...this is Kassuk. The War-father has fallen. Cease combat, fall back to the western compound. Kill anything that attempts entry."

Shepard tucked Okeer's omni-tool away before tapping her own. "All forces, this is the Butcher. I've come to an agreement with the krogan. They will be falling back to the west. Do not engage or you are on your own. Butcher out."

She let her arm fall, and stared. "...if that is all, get the hell out of this tower."

Kassuk gave her a very faint nod. "Very well...Butcher." The krogan backed out of the room, followed by his fellows, who kept their hands on the handles of their weapons even as they tapped the elevator controls, giving Miranda's group a wide berth.

For her part the Cerberus officer ignored them, moving quickly to Shepard's side. "Dammit, your systems are failing. Kill power to your augments before you literally shut down."

Shepard did so, and her legs gave out on her. Tali and Miranda both struggled to support her weight before Shepard managed to steady herself. "...sorry. Took a bit of a beating."

Jack was trying to lift Okeer's huge hammer, but even with biotics she was straining. "Fucking hell. You got HIT by this thing?"

Shepard nodded, and Miranda scowled, tapping her commlink. "Joker, the krogan are falling back, and Shepard is badly hurt. I have two moderate and five serious injuries among the marines. Bring the ship into static observable and wait for instructions."

Shepard glanced at the war robots, tossing one of them the omni. "His omni-tool. The rest of the computer systems are here, I think."

One of the RAMPART mechs stepped up to the console, hands moving rapidly over the controls, while the one the omni-tool had been tossed to was accessing it. After several seconds, Vigil cursed. "I'll need more time to decipher, but it looks like Okeer struck deals with the Broker and Collectors to do some kind of genetic mods to the krogan – in particular, female krogan he's altered to be less affected but not immune to the Genophage."

Shepard grimaced. "A cure?"

Vigil's voice was musing. "Manifestly not. Rather an adjustment of how it kills – certain DNA keys are flagged to prevent the Genophage from triggering at all, by altering the base chemistry of certain phage attachment sites. The krogan doctor was trying to... force evolve the krogan by changing what offspring would be killed in utero by it."

The sphere pulsed. "He was also working on some kind of 'pure' krogan – one based on the science the Collectors gave him. There isn't much detail – something about somaprojection and implanted memories and failures. This 'super krogan' was supposed to be the first of a class of males to impregnate his souped up females but kept running into issues."

Shepard sighed. "Fine. Take three robots, load up this krogan thing, and stick it in their pinnace. Two more should take this place apart and upload anything else – and bring along the hammer when you're done."

She tapped her omni. "Did the attacks stop?"

Zaeed's voice was a mix of frustrated and grateful. "...eventually. Stupid, undisciplined bastards. They're moving off to the west...follow?"

Shepard shook her head. "No. Fall back to your reserve positions and stand by for us to come pick you up. Pass that along to Jedore too." She clicked off.

Miranda frowned. "We are getting you back to the Normandy and into the med center. You've taken internal damage and you have systems failures all over." Concern colored her voice, as she glanced in curiosity at the mostly unwounded Jack and Tali.

Shepard winced but nodded. "Tali, you guys see if you can't find anything the war robots miss, then ...I'll have the shuttles pick everyone up at the tower's base. From there, we'll get the hell out and clear the system."

Vigil chimed softly. "The sooner the better. I believe the authorities are about to start a planet wide recon search to determine if any real emergencies are happening."

Tali nodded, moving along in the direction of the doors, and Shepard sighed in relief as Miranda did something with her omni-tool and the pain stopped. "Your pain editor malfunctioned...I told Wilson that thing was erratic."

Using her biotics, Lawson helped lever Shepard to a standing position. Her voice was hard. "Jack. I need you to make sure we're not attacked as I help Shepard."

Jack sneered, but glanced at Shepard's beaten form and then gave a curt nod. "...sure thing, cheerleader."

Miranda's lips tightened but she said nothing, instead turning to Shepard. "We have had no deaths, although as I mentioned several marines were hurt somewhat badly. Sedanya is fully prepped."

Shepard nodded. "...let's get the hell out of here, then. I feel like I used to after most of my Spectre drops."

O-TWCD-O

All told, Vigil and Miranda managed to police up the area in less than twenty minutes. The pinnace was offloaded – along with a heavy life-support tank containing a simply gigantic krogan, there were several large datastore computers, pallets of strange machinery seemingly blended with organic components, and – most troublingly to Vigil – a case of heavy green crystals he identified as Prothean power crystals, used in the creation of particle beam weapons that were the favorite weapons of the Prothean Empire.

The crystals were new, not relics. Shepard wasn't sure what to think of that.

Vigil was crunching data from both the omni-tool, downloads from the tower, and the computers from the pinnace. Shepard had Chief Haln and Dost load the pinnace with fusion explosives, and crashed it directly into the tower as they left orbit.

The rather battered light cruiser that housed the Firestorm limped into the solar plane not long after. Shepard, laid out in the special medical area in front of the medbay, was in no condition to talk to Massani, so instead instructed Miranda to have them meet up in a system two jumps away from their home base.

She would deal with Zaeed when she felt less like hammered crap. She was tucked away into a repair device of some kind, Sedanya and Miranda working in unison on her systems and myomer musculature.

Sedanya trimmed out a section of burned, melted myomer and began laying fresh strands across her leg. "Defeating a krogan warlord in single combat sounds like the stories my mother used to tell me of war priestesses of the Thirty, blessings trail their names. Very impressive."

Miranda, immersed in fixing Shepard's completely ruined shoulder, scowled. "More like impressively stupid. This is why I don't like letting you go off by yourself, Shepard. One wrong move and that krogan could have flattened your skull. You are not invincible."

Shepard arched an eyebrow. "I figured you were familiar with how this goes. Shepard finds bad guy. Shepard listens to stupid rant. Shepard whoops bad guy's ass but is beaten down. Shepard sits in hospital."

Miranda's sigh was a mixture of exasperation and frustration. "And we specifically explained to you that fighting like that could have serious consequences! A slightly more direct hit to your chest and you would have had a broken armor plate jabbed directly into your heart."

Shepard looked at her. "Okeer was not someone Jack or Tali is ready to fight. OR you, for that matter. Maybe if Jacob was here, I'd have taken him - he'd have been perfect. But he's on goddamned Bekenstein, which no one told me about until it was already going down. If I had a strong leader for my marines I might have taken you, but I don't."

Miranda shook her head. "Then why not take war robots? Or some of your marines? Surely your DACT are capable enough to fight such foes. You claim you don't like losing your people, but another few inches and whatever blasted Jack's arm down to third degree burns would have killed her. Why go solo against a warlord of Okeer's power when you could have simply waited for additional backup?"

Shepard's eyes narrowed. "Weapons weren't doing dick-all to Okeer or his fucking zombie-krogan thing. Bringing along people trained to fight in a battle line makes them a liability against shit like that." She sighed. "Maybe if I'd dragged Zaeed with me I'd have risked it, but even he would have been almost helpless in that mess. I had to shoot him five times with a Sunfire and stab him directly in the brain with a warp sword to kill him – and this was after shooting, stabbing, and blowing his ass up more than once. I took him solo because I can be repaired."

Shepard's voice hardened. "And maybe I am off in dragging Tali and Jack along...but what choices do I have? Do I have anyone else tech-heavy who can hack like Tali? A biotic like Jack? Every war robot I took with me was one less to make sure my marines didn't die. I work with the tools I've got. Waiting for backup … ha." She sighed. "Sorry, I'm still not quite used to the idea of actually getting backup. Even if I did, waiting might have let Okeer escape."

She leaned her head back. "I made the call as I saw it. Okeer's dead, none of my people are, and I now have a giant krogan popsicle and a new hammer. Don't see the problem."

Miranda shook her head, exasperation coloring her tone. "Shepard, I am more concerned about your unwillingness to consider the dangers to yourself than to your crew and marines. You continue not to value your own life, just as you did in your Alliance career. But it is valuable."

Shepard snorted. "What, as a tool for TIM?"

Surprisingly, Miranda nodded. "Yes, there is that. But even setting that aside, no one else can affect both the struggle against the Reapers and the situation with the Alliance as much as you can. If you die, we have no one powerful enough to kill the Broker, or Tetrimus. We have no one who can call him out on his lies. No one will trust Cerberus as we are – even when we are doing no wrong and trying to stop the Reapers."

Sedanya made a clucking noise as she finished up her own work on Shepard's leg. "Seawater does not cease to be salty merely because you put it in a cup. That being said …" She pulled a loose flap of Shepard's artificial skin over the wounded section of her leg, and then began wrapping it in medigel infused bandages. "...you must realize, Shepard, there are people who would be badly hurt by your death."

Shepard flinched at that, and laid her head back on the pillow. "I'm still getting used to the idea I died the first time. It's only been a couple of months for me."

Miranda sighed, then looked up as Vigil appeared. "Sorry to interrupt, primitives. But the first comms bursts from Korlus are hitting the extranet – lots of coverage over what is left of the Takara docks. Jedore appears to have gone public with our involvement – clearly stating that it was the Butcher who assaulted the works of Doctor Okeer with the stated intention of killing him."

Shepard sighed. "Great. Have Joker switch to full stealth and here's hoping Zaeed doesn't try any kind of double cross. Send him a message, we'll meet him in the planned system in … six hours."

The sphere vanished, and Shepard glanced back at Miranda. "How much longer until you finish this oil change?"

Miranda just rolled her eyes and went back to work.