Flight of the Phoenix

by Elizabeth Carter

Book two: Sovereign is dead, the citadel once ruins is beginning to rebuild, the Council is saved and now Shepard is faced with a new enemy, one held over from ancient days:The Collectors. She must race against time, Cerberus and the shadows of a war yet to come. This is part two of my Ashes world: a retelling of ME2. Many game elements are changed because Shepard wasn't spaced.

39. Below the Horizon Line

Chapter 39: Below the Horizon Line

The Shuttle swept past the designated LZ once before circling around for debarkation. Even from their covered vantage point the flagship team could see the devastation wrought by the Collectors. It was sterile and efficient and eerily silent. The only noise seemed to becoming from the massive pillar like construct that was the Collector ship. It was monstrous and strange-an abusive marriage between metal and organic components. It was more than a little reminiscent of Sovereign's hulk on Eden Prime for Shepard's tastes.

Shepard and her small squad code named Team Mako leapt out of the Shuttle first. She looked up at the towering mass of the Collector's ship with revulsion and horrified fascination rippled through her mind, yet she kept her face as impassive as possible. "The rest of you hang back, wait for my signal. We'll need to test the effectiveness of Mordin's upgrades. But I'm not risking the whole team."

"Just sayin' this once salarian. They better fucking work." Jack groused, giving the scientist a scathing 'or-else' look for good measure.

"Laboratory tests were successful. Need field experience to see fruition of end results." the professor commented dryly.

"Then it should be your skinny ass out here not us, testing it."

"I would agree with you Jack, if not for the issue that if our new shielding does not work, there will be no one with his expertise to make modifications." Miranda stated the obvious.

"All right enough chatter. Move out." Shepard was already three paces away from the LZ even as she gave the order. She was with Jack - Mordin should be out here testing the shield-mods and she agreed completely with Lawson, if he became a victim to the paralytic poisons of the seeker swarms, who then would be there to make the necessary alterations on the shield matrix? Besides she never ordered anyone under her command to do anything she was not willing to do herself.

The Spectre eyed the black buzzing cloud warily. So far they had not swarmed their way: so far so good. She sprinted to take cover behind a low retainer wall. To her three was the alliance AA tower—though inoperative. Not time to wonder if it was ever fired or the Collectors managed to shut it down, she spotted four Collectors, three—no four more flying in.

"These cockroaches can fucking fly?" Jack snarled, incensed she hadn't been told the mother-fucking-bugs could fly. Shit! What the hell they can go squish just like any fucking roach. She raised her fist and slammed one of the flittering ones directly in the torso with a shockwave so powerful it propelled the creature backwards several yards into one of the low-rise walls.

Armed with the Kassa Locast, Shepard primed her body for a full on charge taking one of the Collector's perched on the bed of a utility truck. Her momentum and kinetic force body-checked the Collector knocking his shielding down to near zero. Point blank range, Shepard emptied almost a whole clip into the bug.

Miranda used an area lift on two of the Collectors that had fortified themselves behind a barricade only to have Jack's shockwaves tear into them. Verbal sparring matches aside the two women worked well with each other. Their tactics in deploying biotic attacks complemented one another almost perfectly.

"First area secure." Shepard said though her comm-set. "The rest of you deploy. Be advised the Collectors have natural aerial abilities. Heavy shielding and barriers. Keep a fixed eye for any surviving colonists. You know your objectives. Stay frosty, people."

She got a chorus of aye-ayes from the other teams. Garrus leading Team Hammerhead: consisting of the snipers would take a high vantage point. If the bugs could fly all the better to take them out on the high-ground. The three men moved swiftly to rooftops of the colonists' main structure for a bird's nest.

Samara taking command of Team Kodiak, darted-in and out of cover, fighting their way towards the town centre. The Justicar discovered reave worked exceedingly well to bring down the armor of her enemies as much as the tech-overloads Tali and her drones were utilizing. The quarian also managed to deploy two miniature turrets in cross-fire positions. Any Collector getting caught between them were swiftly mowed down. Her drones were equally effective in ferreting out and harassing the insectoids directly into Mordin's netting of the bow-caster's tripwires.

Lastly was Kasumi's team of two, code-named Shadow. Though he had one Grunt was not as interested in using the tripwires or the bow itself, he charged using his own berserker rage to fuel his body into the nest of bugs like a medieval battering-ram. The boy was enjoying himself if his laughter was anything to go by. He was a storm of rampaging krogan all by himself.

Kass took the stealthier approach. Using cloak she started laying down a series of trip wires all round the Collectors' fortified positions. Trapping them in their own cover. If the bugs moved from their positions they risked setting them off.

Shepard's team was now in the thick of the homesteads facing off against a new squad of Collectors. They were not alone. Behind them a band of …husks?! Heedless of their own mortality the undead creatures loped towards the Spectre and her team with surprising speed, their mangled bodies rippling with the electric blue lights.

"That confirms it." Miranda said as she slung a singularity into the fray. "Collectors and Reapers are working together."

"Stop talking just kill the fucking zombies!" Jack yelped. Using shockwave after shockwave and flares into the host of creatures. "Damn, they're fast." Her body cloaked in the black-mist in the new technique Shepard had shown her, one she herself had learned from the asari huntresses—an annihilation field.

Shepard used the same field around her body. It would curl around her enemies weakening them to the point of near death making them extremely susceptible to shadow-strikes. And biotic slashes. The Spectre loved the sending the pulses of shockwaves through the blade of her sword. It seemed more effective to her.

The current enemies felled. She lowered the annihilation field as did Jack. They needed a closer look at the husks. They seemed strange to the Commander's experienced eyes. Something was off.

"They look sorta human." Jack muttered. "These the colonists?"

"No." Shepard shook her raven head. "No these are different. On Eden Prime the geth used spikes...we called them dragon's teeth to impale their victims. The spikes somehow changed them. I don't see any dragon's teeth here, so the Collectors must have brought them with them. They look a lot different than the ones we fought before as well."

"A superior model." Miranda nodded. "I saw the reports you made on Eden Prime and other locations about the husks you encountered." She was very mindful not to speak of the so called 'Colony of the Dead' where Cerberus and ExoGeni scientist named Gamorle had experimented on the colonists of Chasca in the Matano system. The entire colony of men, women and children had been converted into husks using stolen dragon's teeth. It had not been done by the geth but by ExoGeni scientists and Cerberus collaborators.

Gamorle hadn't apparently been told what the samples he had dropped off were or what they would do, but Cerberus agents did. Just like with the thresher maw traps it was a deliberate act to see how people were converted into mindless undead. TIM would call it a necessary evil that for the greater good sacrifices had to be made. It was there in Miranda's eyes, leaving distaste in her mouth for such knowledge. Absentmindedly she scratched the spot just below her clavicle.

"These also seem faster, more agile then the geth-made husks." Miranda finished.

"Agreed. They are more advanced. Evolved." Shepard nodded.

"Hang on, the tin-cans are involved in this too?" Jack spun on Shepard. "Just how many enemies have you pissed off Shepard?"

The Commander gave a direct look to the Cerberus operative. "That depends on who you ask. No, I doubt the geth are involved in this. And the husks weren't geth creations no matter what you may have heard. They were Reaper creations. The tech came from Sovereign. They must have upgraded from their last incarnations."

"They still die if you shoot them." Jack said. "Dead be dead."

"Aptly put." Miranda said without mocking the younger woman for once.

"The Collectors must be experimenting on the colonists. What are they up to?" Shepard said looking down at the dead husk.

"Speculating will get us nowhere. It could be anything." Miranda said almost curtly.

"Yeah we'll find out for sure when we stop the fuckers." Jack said gratuitously kicking the husk in the head, which resulted in a self-satisfying crunch.

"The Collectors aren't getting any more colonists. Let's move out." Shepard unholstered her SMG, finger flagging the trigger.

*Hey Shep, you seeing what we're seeing? Your undead cyborgs?* Kasumi's crackled over the head-set. There was some very definite interference in the broadcast.

"Affirmative. Take readings off them if you can."

*Hey'ey you're breaking up. Hard to read you. Anyway we got a couple of samples ready. And found something nifty on one of the dead bugs. Looks like some sort of skin-weave thing. Anyway bet Mordin can do something with it.*

*Shep…crackle… Something big….crackle….*

Shepard tapped her earpiece a couple of times "Garrus? Repeat last transmission."

*Can't get…crackle Huge…don't know crackle*

*Command crackle tting all kinds of ..crackle ference. We can't maintain…. crackle* the last voice belonged to Joker.

"The Collector ship must be disrupting communications." Miranda said casting a baleful look to the massive alien ship

"Just like on Sovereign, Eden Prime. Tactical black-out. Looks like we're on our own. Keep your eyes open, people. With no way of communication with the other assault teams we can't know if we're walking in on their firing zones. Last thing I want is friendly fire."

They rounded the bend of the wall and climbed a small hillock. "Just like Freedom's Progress. The entire colony…gone."

"No sign of resistance anywhere." Jack piped up. "The bastards must have dropped in heavy and fast. Bet they didn't even get a shot off on those big fucking ass cannons."

"GARDIANS." Shepard automatically corrected. "Phonetic pronunciation for General Area Defence Integration Anti-Spacecraft Network"

"Yeah like I said fucking ass cannon. Simp."

The Commander offered her teammate an indulgent smile. She didn't bother to point out the navy had slang for it as well. Indeed it was BFAG….big fucking ass gun.

Across the quad in one of the settler's homes, Tali, Samara and Mordin had set up a kill zone. They had crossed paths with more Collectors dropping in over walls. They spotted Team Mako but with radios down there was no way to communicate with them. The whole grounds around the buildings and crates were laced with a lattice network of tripwires. It was fortunate the DNA-IFF was in play least Team Mako inadvertently set them off with their proximity. As it was they might still be caught in the fallout explosions.

Tali watched from the balcony as one of the Collectors didn't join his brothers in the charge against Team Mako. Shepard and other two biotics were holding their own laying down suppressing firepower along with biotic attacks. What caught the quarian's attention was the Collector LT. He seemed to stumble drunkenly. A spasm over took him and he was jerked back with such force it was amazing his spine did not snap in half, his arms stretched out at either side of him like some messianic entity. His body shimmered like a biotic but not in the familiar cyan but in a golden glow.

His whole exoskeleton crackled, the golden light shimmering though the cracks from somewhere deep within it. It was growing brighter and brighter by the breath. As soon as it started it was over, this shimmering body made it seem twice as tall as its brothers. Then it spoke:

"I am assuming direct control. Our power is unmatched." its voice was not its own. It couldn't have been. The Collectors spoke with clicks and clacks, a chittering sound that translators struggled to interpret. Tali had heard it before when they were on Virmire. "You will obey, Shepard. Your form is fragile."

On top of the building Garrus's mandibles flared in recognition. "Ah crap!" he growled, trying to see further through the eye of his rifle's scope. He turned the focus from the glowing-bug to his friend. Shock was on her face, clear as day. They all knew that voice. Or one very like it. Sovereign… but Sovereign was destroyed. Dead. Who then was this?

No time to find out. Team Mako was quickly becoming overrun. Garrus, Zaeed and Thane took their shots, trying to draw off some of the attention that was so focused on the commander.

Shepard raised her gun fired, emptied the thermos clip loaded another and emptied another. Primal energies surged though her. The Commander dipped behind new cover as the Collectors amassed in surges. She, Miranda and Jack all flung singularities in attempts to slow the horde. Shepard drew in her power and flung a flare deep into the heart of the mob, disrupting it. Killing two in the process, weakening others.

Somewhere to Mako's nine another voice. "Assuming direct control!"

"Fuck not again" Jack snarled. She flung leash on one of the mother-fucking-roaches and dragged him across Tali's network of tripwires. In an instant the bug was a mass of chunks of meaty rain. "I will tear you apart!" she snarled and did the same trick again to one of the flying mother-fuckers. Leash, into Mordin's diagonal netting, BANG! Bug gut-rain.

"Do not resist! Even the dead will serve. ATTACK!"

Husks and Collectors regrouped for another charge.

"I know you feel this."

Shepard ignored the taunting- the boasts

"If I must tear you apart Shepard I will. "

"How in the hell does this thing know you, Shepard?" Jack called out, spraying the area with shotgun blasts.

"Keep focused." was all the answer the ex-convict received. Next to her one of the Collectors vanguard's head popped in a mass of orange goo. One of her snipers, make no mistake. . Shepard smiled briefly. Probably her Archangel looking out for her as he always did. She made a small gesture of thanks and slipped into one of the nearby buildings, calling on her Omni-tool for her team to follow. Radios might be down but the inner transmissions of audio-clicks still worked.

Nanoseconds was all it took for both Jack and Miranda to join her. Just as she entered Shepard saw one of the Collector's weapons laying against one of the strange stasis pods the bugs had brought with them. It looked like one of their assault rifles that emitted particle beams. Without thinking about it she picked it out and slapped to her weapon's pack.

At least in the building they could not be swarmed as easily. "Set up nets." she ordered and fired trip wires to the front entrance trusting her teammates to cover their six.

This was getting serious. Harassing the bugs was fun at first, causing disruptions into their ranks, cloaking and digging to shadow-strike the creepies in the back setting up tripwires, tossing flash-bangs, watching Grunt bash in their elongated heads but now these things were becoming possessed and calling Shepard out.

What the hell was all this? Smelled like a right trap. Like damn Hock setting the bait of Keiji's graybox. Right now she'd give real money to them just to shut-up. They were trying to put the freak on Shep just like Damn-Hock had with her back on Bekenstein. Like Shep said, if you want to kill someone, just do it, don't talk.

"I've got a gift for you!" she shouted at Mr. Glowey. She tossed three flash-bangs right into Glowey's face. It had only a minor effect. He stumbled back blinded for only a moment but it was one long enough for Kass to have set up three tripwires behind Glowey. A moment later he was orange mist.

"Did I do that?" she laughed. At least he'd shut up.

Samara and her team laid down suppressive fire trying to keep the Collectors pinned down instead of outright killing them. Mordin's incendiary rounds worked like a blessing on the Collectors' armors and kinetic shielding. In conjunction with Samara's reaves and singularities, Tali's turrets and drones the three of them managed so far to keep the Collectors from amassing on Team Mako once more.

"Curious, they singled out Shepard." Mordin said. "Anxious to discover the meaning behind the boast. They know she feels it."

"Keep your wondering for later when we're not being attacked." Tali scolded. "And that's my friend the bugs are talking about. Just you remember that!"

"Believe me. Our survival and that of the Spectre is in the foremost of my mind." The salarian said taking his aim carefully before he fired. He meant to catch the Collector that was doubled over. Seeing it as a sign it was about to become possessed.

Above the fire Shepard's voice cried out. "Who are you? WHAT are you!"

"WE are the Harbinger of your destiny, Shepard."

A shot rang out from the direction of Team Kodiak's vicinity. But still the possessed Collector remained mobile.

"Why do you continue to resist Shepard? It is futile. We can not be stopped. Your form is fragile. I sense your weakness Shepard. "

"Pft. Sovereign said the same thing to me on Virmire. I don't have to remind you what became of him, do I? He's slag now. I stopped him. I WILL stop you, 'Harbinger'!"

"You only delayed the inevitable Shepard. We are the pinnacle of evolution. We are your end. We are your destiny."

"Just shut the fuck up already you mother-fucking roach." Jack rushed from cover, pooled all her dark energy into a massive spike and charged the controlled-Collector. Her body's velocity allowed her to go through walls, planters and crates slamming hard into the mother-fucking-roach. He was bug-gut city on the wall of some building.

Damn she needed a good stiff gut-rot drink and to get laid right about now. Jack was so hyped up even the Cheerleader would do…

"Destroy one and another one will rise. You gain noting by destroying this body. We are eternal. "

"Up until you run out of bodies you shit-eater" Jack snarled up into air towards the Collector's ship. These mother-fucking roaches were really getting on her last nerve.

In battle there are small lulls. Sometimes long enough to use the head, or light one up, reload and take stock, if there is a butcher's bill to pay. Or in the case of Shepard to find a small corner of her mind that wasn't throbbing. Ever since she landed her head ached as if she had gone on a three day bender.

"Right, mind telling us what the hell that was all about?" Jack demanded coming closer to Shepard.

"At a guess I'd say this Harbinger is a Reaper. It sounded like Sovereign."

"A Reaper? Fuck me." Jack snorted.

"Do you think it is here or back in dark space.?" Asked Miranda.

"I don't know. Hopefully in dark space but it's hard to say. His transmission could be coming through the Collector ship. But how he's riding the Collectors bodies, and pulling them like puppets that's something Mordin can answer better."

"If Harbinger is here that will make things far more difficult." Lawson said.

For us or for your boss to cover up whatever the hell he is doing with the Collectors? Shepard's thoughts were not given voice.

They moved though the town proper and saw many of the colonists frozen. None of them were Ash. Shepard didn't know whether to be relieved or worried for her friend. Had she already been harvested and was now aboard that ship? Was she somewhere frozen in place unable to fight back? Were the colonists even aware of what was going on around them?

"Wonder if they see anything." Kasumi said coming up along side Team Mako. At her tail was Grunt. The whole front of his armor was splodged with orange blood and so was more than half his crest

"Hard to say." Shepard shook her head.

"I almost hope they aren't. To be locked in frozen terror is a cruel fate" the thief shuddered. "It's creepy to look at. All frozen like that."

Shepard looked at a young woman lying on the ground. She had large doe brown eyes, black hair and skin coloring that suggested Indonesian background. She was strikingly beautiful. The man helping her up bore a family resemblance, a brother or perhaps a cousin. Something metallic caught Shepard's attention. It looked like an alliance dog tags. She couldn't make out most of it because it was covered by her shirt but the name read: Samantha Traynor. Was she one of Ash's team or a resident? Both? Suppose it didn't matter one way or the other, the young woman was frozen

"Aware or not, it doesn't matter. We're saving them." the Spectre said decisively, "We've got to get these towers back on line."

"Yeah that's why we came to find you." Kasumi said. "Grunt and I found a mechanic..."

"Some ass named Delan. He's got a deep grudge against you Alliance types. All pissing and moaning about it and some female named Williams. He whined like a batarian when things went ass-end up and blames everyone else especially the Alliance for the attacks. Whiney little pissbag. Said the Collectors came here on account of the towers, the colony didn't need 'em and they don't work anyhow. He's nothing but a coward."

"Yes. Succinctly put Grunt." Kasumi sighed. "He was a little surly to be sure…"

Shepard waved the report way. Her mind circling around one word, one name. "Williams. As in Ashley Williams?"

"Gave no first name, just her clan name. Williams. Said she was some Alliance commando."

"Must be her! Where is she? Did he know?" Demanded Shepard but all she got was head shakes.

"He was convinced Williams was here to spy on the colony. And Grunt is right Delan was insisting that everything bad that happened was due to the Alliance He was sure we couldn't get the towers up and running."

"Gripped the little pyjack by the neck and shook the Intel outta of him on account he was too busy whimpering. Told 'em, we could figure out. He finally gave it. We have go to some place called the main transmitter on the other side of the colony. Targeting controls are at the base." Grunt said pleased with what he managed give to his Commander. "Course when he threatened to lock the door behind him. I made sure he didn't."

Shepard almost hated herself to have to ask the question. "How?"

Grunt let out a deep laugh. "I headbutted him." his maw pulled back into a smile that was all teeth. "Went down like a wet sack of rotten potatoes."

Shepard just sighed.

"Well he sorta had a point. We have to get through and make sure the others do to. I can easily hack it so can Tali but why bother when we don't have to?" The thief supported her team mates more impulsive actions.

"Why indeed. Good work you two." She turned to Miranda and Jack. "You two hold back and gather the others. Kasumi and Grunt with me. We'll take point Kas I need you on the controls to get those guns operational. Miranda tell the others we're going to need heavy support and suppressive fire."

"Understood, Commander." The operative nodded her head rather than offer a salute.

"Move out."

On this side of the colony were no frozen people. When Grunt brought this up it was Kasumi who answered they must already have been loaded onto the Collector's ship.

Fighting alongside two other biotics, Shepard had fallen into a particular pattern. But she had fought with Kasumi before and knew how to conjoin the thief's tech attacks with her own biotic powers. They had become quite effective back at the Hock estate. Grunt was straight up fighter.

A krogan's battle-charge was not something one stood against easily. The husks surely didn't. The young man was completely enjoying the battle. His laughter rang out louder and sharper against the kablamms of his shot-gun fire, or the rattling-tat-tatt of SMGS and the thunk-thaat of shockwaves.

The laugher stopped abruptly when a new husk–creature lumbered before them. It was an amalgamation of body parts. More specifically heads, bulbous and glistening in slimy sheen. It shimmered in dark energy. The monster was a biotic.

The scion's shockwaves tore past Grunt's shield and sent the young krogan spiraling into the air. He rolled with the power—weakened but not incapacitated.

Shepard's barriers had long been up, she flung a desperate heavy flare into the center mass of the creature. "Kas, the controls, get to them!"

"On it!" the thief went silent. She dared glance back over her shoulder watching as the Commander and Grunt circled around the storming husks, taking them down nearly as fast as they came. Many of them exploding into meaty shrapnel as they crossed the trip lines set down by the bowcasters. She hastened to her new task.

It was child's play to hack the system. As soon as she did, she called the Normandy "Normandy do you copy? Kasumi here. Normandy come in!"

*Normandy, Joker here. Signal's weak, Kasumi but we got you. Where's the Commander?*

"Busy shooting monsters. Look we need EDI to get the Colony's defense towers online." There was no other way to save the colony or themselves. The GARDIANS had to come on line.

*Errors in the calibration software are easily rectified, but it will take time to bring the towers to full power. I recommend defensive posture. I will not be able to mask the increased generator output.*

Ah, yes. No matter how bad things were, there was always room for them to get that little bit worse …

"The Collectors will not just sit by while we do this." Kasumi muttered darkly. This was not going to be pretty or much fun.

"Got any other helpful tips." this came from Shepard.

Either EDI didn't understand the sardonic undertones of the rhetorical question or she chose not to acknowledge them. "Just one. Enemy reinforcements are closing in. I suggest you ready weapons." Then again maybe she did.

*She has reinforcements of her own EDI.* Garrus said. He sounded distant and high up.

Shepard turned scanning the nearby rooftops for her snipers and saw the flash of light. Her guys were up there, ready to pick their shots.

*Kodiak team has your left flank commander.* Samara reported in.

*Me and the cheerleader have your right. Got the whole damn ground covered in those tripwires and singularities. Those mother-fucking roaches will be hit so hard candy will come out.*

*Now that's a fucking image I have to see.* laughed Zaeed.

It would be easy to order them to shut their traps and keep alert. But Shepard knew the trade in light humor was needed. They were all on edgy, all frosty, already. "Time to show these things we give as good as we get! Take no quarter!"

The Collectors attacked in mass. Husks Collectors were trying to entrench Mako, allowing for the scions to make the heavy attacks on the other teams bunkered down in the outlying buildings. Shepard dodged in and out of stacked tyres and crates avoiding the scions own shockwaves.

Jack moved forward to jump in the fray but a hand clamped on her leather clad shoulder. Miranda shook her head: No. Her body shimmering. "I'll slam the scion; you pull it into the singularity in that open area near the center."

"Got'cha." Jack nodded her head "Go!"

Miranda peeked up over the mid-wall she and Jack had taken cover behind. Her full body poised to hit the scion with a magnificent body-slam. She knew it probably would knock the hulk off its feet but it would spin it around, allowing Jack to wrap a 'leash' around it and pull into the curling mass of dark energy.

The curling vortex tore into the monster, tearing it apart from the inside out.

*Shepard your form is fragile…The dead are useless.*

"Him again? Jack popped up over the barrier wall and saw one of the mother-fucking roaches glowing orange. God-damn Harbinger puppet. She slammed warp-ammo into the heat-sink chamber of her Claymore—a heavy shotgun created by krogans. It was hell against armor, shields and biotic barriers. Up-close-in-your-face it was the bitch-queen of shotguns. Further way she wasn't so effective. Jack was good at getting into a fucker's face.

"EAT THIS!" she fired several rounds into the monster's back it roared, stumbled forward several paces. "Do it now Cheerleader!"

Miranda hit the puppet with an overload taking down the rest of the shielding of the armor. Jack rushed it with a biotic charge. Her fist slammed into the side of the insect's head, crushing it.

Something screamed. It took a moment for Lawson to realize it was her issuing a warning for Jack to get the hell out of there. Jack turned her mouth opened in a large 'OH'. The word fuck soon followed.

The thing landed hard. It was if the devil scooped up the nastiest looking crab in all of creation and made it a hundred times larger-fuck that a thousand times larger than the ones in the ocean. It was most mockery of a husk to come. You knew it was one of those monster-zombies things by the way it glowed blue electronics around its armored carapace. Its stilted forelegs slashed at Jack, she had barely enough time to dodge. She ducked into a forward shoulder roll and still the thing came, slashing rabidly at her.

The second screeching sound came from crabzilla, a sound that nearly made Jack's ears bleed. Her body felt like an aluminum can being crushed underfoot. Miranda sprinted to her side. "If I fucking die, I'm haunting Shepard!" she wailed over the screams of the monster. Miranda felt her own body shudder from the marrow of her bones to her teeth.

From above three men zeroed in on the new horror. All of them using incendiary rounds. Garrus was shocked to see its maw open up to reveal not rows and rows of sharp jagged fangs or baleen but heads, dozens of decapitated husk-heads.

Spirits above! He zoomed in on one of the heads, breathed once, and squeezed the trigger. Zip-POW. the head burst the creature roared. Two more heads popped as Zaeed and Thane took their shots. The abomination opened its mouth not to scream in pain but to spew out a particle beam. Jack. Miranda and Shepard all on the ground were tagged with it. Their bodies shuddered in blue mist as the power ate away at their shields.

"Whatever the hell that thing is we have to take it down fast." Zaeed said taking another shot. Not at its heavily armored head but at its legs. If a thing can't move, a thing can't attack. He didn't have to explain to his teammates his strategy of changing targets. They were pros like him. They knew their shit.

The drell carefully aimed at another leg praying to one of his weird-ass gods. Garrus took a third leg. Crippled, the creature cried out again.

Thane didn't know what he was seeing but it looked like his Siha was wounded. Shepard was curled up. At her side was Jack who had recovered enough from the attack to erect a large biotic bubble over them. His own talents were not as powerful as those of the women but he knew the barrier bubble was not going to be effective enough to stave off the melee attacks of the incoming husks.

The praetorian had hunkered down as well, healing? Its whole body was glowing blue. The assassin peered through the scope and saw that like Jack, Samara was also creating a barrier bubble around Tali and Mordin. Should he throw one up around himself and the other men?

"Oh this is going to be good!" Zaeed smirked. He had seen this thing before back on Omega. "I hope to fuck we're outta range."

Garrus saw his friend's body rise up a foot in the air, her body growing brighter and bluer. "Oh crap! Down!"

Thane's bubble was weak but it held.

Sam knew the best way to take out the husks, scions and crabzilla was a tsunami. She ordered Jack to create a bubble around herself and Miranda. She stood outside of it.

Jack was arguing she was fucking crazy, she could protect against the particle beam thing but not if Shepard was outside the damned bubble.

*GARDIAN batteries at 100%. I have control.* EDI announced. At that moment the turrets pivoted on their axis and found firing solutions on the Collector ship turned the attention away from the Spectre to the spectacle above them.

Shepard's body curled almost like one of Harbinger's puppets, and like them she floated in the air for a moment. Ah fucking hell Harbinger didn't get Queen of the Girl Sco…what in the hell…?

A reave. Jack recognized it almost immediately. Shepard was reaving the entire area. She felt her own body start to lose energy. Shepard was pulling from her, Miranda….and yes. Samara too. Like a biotic vamp. But she wasn't pulling from her teammates as much as she was pulling from the husks, crabzilla and the mother-fucking roaches. Shepard was leaching life-energy from the creatures, using the other biotics not as a battery but as capacitors.

In seconds Shepard pushed out all the energy she had pulled into a single massive wave. The monsters crumpled up, fell and were torn apart the sheer force of the biotic tsunami. Crabzilla rolled over on its back, like a dying spider it curled its legs up to its torso and crumbled into a mound of disintegrating ash

After a moment, Jack lowered the bubble and gasped for much needed air in the like of an Olympian sprinter after a heat. Shepard was on her hands and knees. Her energy levels utterly depleted. She didn't even have enough energy to pull out her canteen to take a healthy swig of the protein juice within. Jack had to help her.

Those that had not bore witness to the tsunami before stared at the Spectre in a mixture in equal parts of awe and fear.

"That was impressive." Samara said eyeing the young woman wearily. "I have never seen such power before."

Shepard was now on her feet; she took another long draft from her canteen and placed it back on her belt. "I'll explain once we're on the Normandy." she said in a no nonsense tone of voice. Not a soul pressed for further details.

*Multiple impacts. Collector vessel is taking damage.* EDI announcement was welcomed indeed, for many reasons.

.

The flagship team broke out in cheers. It was proof they could win this thing! The constant bombardment ate into the hull of the Collectors' ship. In desperation the enemy ships engines started to wind up into life. The team scrambled for cover, while not exactly at ground zero for the ships take off, they were still precariously close for radiation fallout caused by engine burn.

It was a victory but a costly one. How many colonists were inside that thing? Was Ash?

"They're pulling out." Miranda commented, her tone almost as mechanical as Normandy's AI. "They wanted the colonists, and they've got them. They've got no reason to stay."

"Way to be a mood-killer Cheerleader." Jack rebuked the older woman.

"No, don't let them get away!" the mechanic Kasumi and Grunt had encountered from the bunker came dashing up to the companions watching as the ship rose higher and higher reaching the stratosphere.

"There is nothing we can do." Shepard said grimly, hating the sound of the truth as she spoke it. "They're gone."

"Half the colony is in there! They took Egan and Sam and…and Lilith. Do something!"

"We did our best. You just hid in your damned bunker." Shepard didn't want to hear the man's complaints. Her head was pounding between her ears. She was already berating herself for not being fast enough. "I didn't want it to end this way, either. But there are times you can not save everyone."

"If it wasn't for Shepard, you'd all be on board that ship." Miranda came to the Spectre's swift defense.

"It was a damn good fight," Grunt rumbled, proud of what they had accomplished.

"You got nothing to say sorry about; we saved the other half of the colony." Jack put her say in.

"Shepard?" Delan whirled around, "Wait, I know that name. Sure I remember you. You're some type of two-bit Alliance hero."

"Commander Shepard." Oh thank the goddess! Shepard grinned recognizing that voice. Ash was safe! "Captain of the Normandy, first human Spectre. Savior of the Citadel." she swaggered up to the company, resting her hand upon her hip as she watched her former CO. "You're in the presence of a god, Delan."

The surly mechanic had his arms folded defiantly over his chest glaring at Williams with such distain you would have thought she showered in the cesspools of a rubbish tip. "Of all the good people we lost…and you get left behind. Figures. Screw this. I'm done with you Alliance types." he flipped them off and sulked away.

Jack craned her head and gave the man a not so gentle biotic push into the corpses of the dead Collectors. "Go fuck yourself, ungrateful assbiscuit."

Shepard ignored the scene watching as Ash moved up to her. For a moment it looked as if the LT was going to slug her. Her eyebrow arched then she pulled the older woman into a brief hug.

"Missed you, you know. I sure as hell could have used your help out here." Shepard smiled. "Guessing you were frozen with the colonists?"

The LT nodded. "Must have worn off once that ship pulled out. There are a lot of people left because of what you did and the other did." she looked up and offered a slim smile to Garrus and Tali. The only faces she recognized. The smile disappeared the moment her eyes landed on Miranda Lawson.

Before she said anything more, Shepard turned to her crew. "I want sweeping perimeters - look for any husks or Collectors that may have missed their boat. Mordin get samples: husks, dead Collectors and those stasis pods. I want all weapons policed as well as anything else they may have dropped. Samara, SitRep on our live catch?"

"We managed to bring one down, Commander. It is placed on one of their own pods back in the other quadrant. Though may I advice against taking it with us."

"Why? We went though hell trying to get that bosh'tat thing." Tali protested.

"Because it can be controlled by a Reaper from a very great distance. We all saw it, is it not so? I do not think we wish to call that much attention to ourselves. Our great advantage is the stealth drive, if we lose that…."

"We lose our edge. Your precautions are duly noted." Shepard offered a slight nod to her head. "Mordin take what samples you need. We can give the prisoner to Williams and she can take it before the Council."

Ash stepped up. "Wait, you captured a living Collector?"

"Indeed." Mordin nodded. "Very difficult, but not impossible."

"I want to see it." Demanded the marine.

"Not now." Shepard stepped out of her contemplated reprieve. "You all have your orders. Carry them out. Ash, I need a moment." When the others had departed, the Spectre drew in a long breath.

Ash was watching Miranda walk away with a woman covered in so many tattoos she looked like she popped out of one of Lynn's modern art books. "Skipper I can't believe you're actually working with her?"

"Her? Her who?"

"That Cerberus bitch! Why in the hell isn't she in Alliance custody?"

"You know why. I need her to get to TIM. To do that I need to turn her. I can't do that if she's locked away in a cell or did you forget the plan?"

Williams looked away for a moment. Bitter thoughts running amuck in her hindbrain, the argument she had with herself on cool summer's night when the rain made a small swamp in the front lawn of her quarters. She argued with herself whether or not Shepard was indoctrinated. If the Skipper was indeed compromised. It hadn't been easy to come to the conclusion she had that eve. Seeing Shepard standing before her now; it was even harder to stand by it. But the doubts- the nagging doubts were klaxon loud in her soul of souls.

"No, I didn't forget, but maybe you're buying a little too much into your own long-con."

Shepard folded her arms over her chest. "You want to back that statement up soldier?"

"The news is filled with your supposed alliance with Cerberus. Even the Alliance Admiralty is wary and thinks you're the one that got turned by Lawson not the other way around."

"Which of the Admiralty are you talking about? Not Hackett or my mother. So then who?"

Ash looked away uncomfortable in the gaze of her friend. As if she was not the woman she once knew. There were so many doubts. "I can't say. I have my orders."

Shepard ground her teeth together. "Of course." she scoffed. "And you know damned well TIM wanted to incite a plan that would make me lose all credibility with the Alliance Command and the Council, leaving me in disgrace and dishonored with no recourse but to ally with him.

"You know damned well the Council wants me to get close to kill the bastard. Why the doubts now Ash? What's gotten into you?"

"Gotten into me?! Nothing! I'm not the one that melded with an asari indoctrinated not only by Sovereign but by that thorian thing-who got so wrapped up in ancient Prothean devices it nearly turned your brain to mush."

"You're talking about the CS? I was border-line. And I got better. Clean bill of health both physically and mentally. I've had so many psych-exams…I can nearly quote the damned questions by rote."

"And that's the problem though isn't it? You could tell the shrinks what they need to hear to pass. How do you know? How do you know you're still not being manipulated by those things? You still have nightmares you can't wake from? Headaches. I can see it in your eyes you have one now. Still getting all those flashbacks to memories that aren't yours? Say words that aren't yours? See things others don't."

"That would be called hallucinations. And no Ash I don't see things that aren't there, or hear sickly yellow songs. I'm going to ask you one last thing - what in the hell is wrong?"

"Those psych-exams you think you passed. I don't think you did. I was pressed by the Alliance Health. They're concerned about you."

"You mean my fitness for command."

"Among other things,yes."

"And what did my Trusted, my former XO, my flagship team's 2IC tell these oh so concerned shrinks?"

"That you're a woman of immeasurable integrity and sense of duty. That doesn't shrink in the face of impossible odds. Anyone is lucky to be under your command."

Shepard's face didn't soften. "Why do a sense a but in there?"

Ash blew out a long suffering sigh. "Skipper, you went though a hell of a lot. I mean just look at it from their perspective, from anyone not close to you would think. I mean you get changed by the beacons and no one can say just how much, you died, got put back together again and now you're mostly cyborg parts, went through some weird asari gestalt that changed you again! Then you were connected to your daughter in some meld I can't even begin explain, when she died in her mother's womb.

"Your life was torn apart by some fucking Prothean vinculum memory storage thing and put on display for all to see. It got all meshed up with other Prothean memories stored inside so now you have their memories as if you lived them. Can you even separate them anymore? You have the Cipher locked into your head that changes the way you see and think. It came from a creature that indoctrinates others. How do you know for certain that Shiala didn't pass this indoctrination on to you like some mental mumbo-jumbo STD? You can speak and understand a language long since dead and no one for nearly fifty thousand years not even Liara has heard spoken.

"You became a victim of CS. That disease had your emotional state all over the place; you declared war on all the merc guilds in the Terminus Systems because of it. It had Liara so convinced there was a thing between us she asked me into a triple marriage deal with the both of you. And it touched her mind too, tainting it. And …then this deal with Cerberus? It's a bit much for an outsider to accept without question. Hell is a bit much for those who were there to not question it."

Shepard leaned in close, locking her blue eyes with Ash's deep brown. "Garrus and Tali have never questioned me. Never doubted me. Not once."

"I'm…I'm not questioning you Shepard. Not really. I'm just concerned. I think you need help. Real help. I think the Protheans and the CS did something to you. Something lasting. Like the affects of indoctrination. I don't want to fight with you, Skipper. I'm trying to be objective here. Put some perspective on things. It's not just me that thinks this. Your warnings of the Reapers coming will never be taken seriously if those in command think you're compromised."

"Oh? Is that why my reports about the Collectors hitting human colonies were not taken seriously beyond Anderson and Hackett? You know they're working for the Reapers!"

"I know. But the Brass thinks Cerberus is highly involved and now they think you're working for them. That you've turned your back on them a second time. Some are calling you traitor, Shepard you've joined the enemy!"

"I am not working for them; you know damn well I am no turncoat. I don't answer to them. I sure as hell don't answer to TIMmy. You should know better. You know me!"

"I am only telling you how it looks Shepard. I know I was there when we captured the ship. I know why we did it. Agree with it. But even Hackett thinks Cerberus is involved somehow. The Alliance believes they are working with the Collectors. We got a tip this one could be next."

Shepard nodded. "He might be right on that."

"What?" The answer was clearly not something Ash was expecting.

"You're somehow key in all of this. At least to what happened here. You were put here on Horizon by Hackett because of your history on the Normandy and with me. You know about the undercover work. As you said the long-con but I haven fallen for my own game, Ash and you should know better. But yeah I have reason to suspect Cerberus has their fingers in deep.

"They got the blueprints of the Normandy and built the SR2. They knew about the codes for the stealth drive. Our first ship is shot down; only half of us are not onboard. Something that slipped the Collector spies. But the Collector's were after her. Why?

"All due to that damned forced name change the Council made me do. Why? Because Shepard and the Normandy go together. You can't have one without the other. The ship and I have become some sort of bloody icon. Rumors ran amok 'Shepard is back on the Normandy' That's when Collectors gun her down, only they don't realize that the ship they shot down had a new IDC…the Victory and the real Victory was rechristened the Normandy.

"How'd they get that Intel? It's always bothered me. The Shadow Broker? Quite possibly. Cerberus? Possibly. Both most definitely a probability. Then you are hand picked to be here. Cerberus knew about it. They let the Collectors know where to hit and when. Apparently just at the prime time were you are questioning my very sanity and loyalties "

Williams for a moment flinched unable to meet the woman who once called her Trusted in the eyes. Shepard continued the narrative.

"The colony is attacked. TIM lets me know about it. Like he has his own scouts out and about trailing after the Collectors. If the Normandy SR1 was taken so easily by the Collectors how it that TIM can get so close to their movements without being detected? Answer he can't. He doesn't have to.

"More like the Collectors were somehow lured here. I don't know how, but I think it had a lot to do with you. You and your history with me. TIM wouldn't lose any sleep over sacrificing a colony or several if it gets him what he wants. Reaper tech. And you, you were the bait. For the Collectors and for me."

"You're saying the only reason this colony was attacked is because of me?"

"Yes."

The admission came as a hard blow to the Alliance loyalists. "But what about the other colonies, none of the old crew were on them."

"No, that's besides the point. The Collectors definitely want human bodies for some reason. Take a long hard look at the husks. What do you see?"

Ash moved from her former CO's side to a pile of husk bodies. The husk laying there were far superior then the geth –created ones "They look like husk Mark II's."

"Pure Reaper tech not the bastardized stuff the geth got a hold of. What else do you see?"

Ash looked around at the carnage left by the battles, the scorch marks, bullet holes in walls, burn marks…. but there was a clear distinct lack of something. "No dragon's teeth!"

"Exactly. The Collectors brought these husks with them. I'm giving you recordings of the battles. They'll be encrypted for Council eyes only. But I'll let you watch a few terabytes so you can report to the Admiralty what exactly happened here. I'm also going to download Mordin's formula for the shield modifications we used to disrupt the seeker swarms detection systems. With any luck the R&D division can do something with it to help other Colonies.

"You should know the Collectors have new types of husks. Things we've never seen before. A scion of some kind. It looks like a lot of bodies amalgamated together in a macabre hodgepodge. Worse still, the scions are biotic. They seem limited to shockwaves only. Still they can control dark energy. That's something very new-the praetorians um…crabzilla. It turned to a mountain of ash when it died. But it was massive. It has the ability to shoot out some sort of particle beam. Damn thing cuts your shield and biotic barriers like nothing I've seen.

"It recharges its biotic barriers and sorta heals itself by slamming in the ground and unleashes some unholy death choir. It's also made out of the bodies… dozens of other husks all crammed in its mouth, maw whatever. All those heads screaming out a death knell-it nearly killed Jack. Would have if Garrus and the other snipers: Zaeed and Thane hadn't stopped it screaming. I used a tsunami to finish it off and to destroy the hordes of rampaging husks." The Spectre drew in a deep breath of air that still stank of o-zone and battle.

"There's still more. The Collectors can be taken over….possessed by a Reaper. Like Sovereign did with Saren after he committed suicide. And just as Sovereign spoke though Saren, Harbinger spoke through the Collectors he took over." Sam still bore the deep scar the Saren-husk gave her when he tore her open from collar bone to hip. Her hand unconsciously went to the deepest part of the scar, she had been fortunate not to be disassembled. Despite the fact the wound had cost her life. Only by Chakwas and the medical team's diligent efforts and of course her beloved Liara was Sam even brought back to the land of the living. She dropped her hand, her voice clinical-removed as it tended to grow when ever she touched on something on an uncomfortable personal level.

"I don't know how their ranks go but I'd wager Harbinger some kind of fleet-admiral or general. Something that out ranks Sovereign. Its proof the Collectors are working for the Reapers. Ash they knew I was here. It called me out personally. Baiting me."

"Why?"

"Clarify."

Ash looked at the commander for a moment trying to see her friend, her hero under the doubts laid there by Channing's theories. For a moment she caught a glimmer. "I…guess it doesn't matter why, I mean you did defeat Sovereign…touched all the things he did. You made them curious, maybe even worried."

"Pissed them off if anything. And I didn't do it alone. I had a lot of help. But all that help I built up going against Sovereign is quickly depleting. Even you now question my loyalties. I can't defeat the Reapers on my own and I can't stop the Collectors on my own. Go back to the Alliance Brass given them your reports and give the encrypted data to Anderson. Make sure you do it personally. Your hands to his hands, no one else's. I can't risk Cerberus getting a hold of it.

"Take the live captive back as well. You and Anderson should present it to Tevos. I'd take a couple of dead Collectors as well and the husks, especially one of the scions. The Council will not be able to claim those as layovers from Saren. They will be forced to acknowledge the new creations."

"You want me to give the bodies to aliens…to the Council and not the Alliance? You know this will only fuel the speculations about you."

Shepard's face contorted into a ghost of a sneer. "And what speculations would those be? The ones where I don't know the color of my own blood because I've gone 'native' and I'm now more asari than human? Or where I joined with a sycophant pro-human organization because they gave me a ship, weapons and crew? Maybe you should chose which lies to believe. Or you can believe the truth"

"I do. But in the outside, I told you Skipper you have to admit it looks bad. They say you feel that you owe Cerberus because they backed you when others wouldn't. Like you said new ship, new weapons, funds, personnel. I'm an Alliance soldier. It's in my blood. I know where my loyalties lie but where do yours? No one knows anymore. Cerberus, the alien Council, the asari? Do you know there's even talk you are now a lapdog for Aria T'Loak?

"I may have gotten crap for the old Williamscurse. A lot of COs believed I'd surrender because grandfather did. You're the only one that gave me a real shot. And I'm grateful for that, and that's why I'm telling you this now. You have to pick a side. One that's clear."

"Pick a side?" Shepard snapped. "It's not us against them…against aliens" she waved her hand in the general direction of her motley crew, half of which were indeed non-human. "It's all of us against the Reapers. I will unite the galaxy by any means I can that doesn't include losing our souls to do it. I once told you this is a multilateral mission. It still is. Still willing to kiss a turian cheek if I order it? Well there's one right over there." she pointed to Garrus. This was getting them no where. She didn't want to argue, Ash had become more than a friend, and she had been her Trusted for crying out loud. Granted her first thought had been indeed Garrus but she had gone if she were honest the 'political' route and chose Ashley.

"Shepard…" what more was there to say? This was not how she had planned things, Not how she wanted things to go. She started to turn and walk away

The disquiet in the air hung thickly between them. "So long Ashley."

A half turn, their eyes met. "So long Commander, and…good luck." Then she was gone between the two buildings she had first appeared from.

Shepard turned back to the assemblage of her motley crew. It could have gone better. So much of it could have. "We're done here." she said to the flagship team. Activating her radio she patched into Normandy's comm-system. "Joker, send a shuttle to pick us up. I've had enough of this colony."