Chapter 58: Infiltration

As soon as the doors to the shuttle opened the crew spilled out, automatically forming into their prearranged teams. Mako, Hammerhead, and Shadow. Shepard didn't repeat what she expected them to do. She trusted her team to carry out their orders and fulfill their parts in the plan.

Over their radios, EDI's voice popped in with an announcement: "Penetrating scans have detected an access node to uplink with Collector databanks. Uploading location to your hardsuits Commander. You should be able to navigate the ships interior now."

"Good work EDI. Keep in contact and keep those scans going. I got a bad feeling about this whole thing - I can't shake it."

Coming up on her right hand were Garrus and Tali. The latter nodded in agreement with her Commanders' assessment.

"Love what they've done with the place." Garrus said cheekily.

"I've never seen a ship designed like this!" the young quarian said in awe. The engineering and construction of a ship this size was in a word, astonishing.

"Hard to track lines, angles. Disturbing." the fascination was clear in Mordin's voice as well

"It looks like a giant insect hive." Miranda added.

Her comment caused the others to nod in full agreement. Even Urz growled: as if to make his contempt of the place known.

Unlike the ships of other sentients, the Collector vessel had a very organic feel to it. There were no crisp clean utilitarian geometric lines or bulkheads. No right angles or squared chambers. It was open and multi-layered the bulkheads that did exist were curved and seamless. It was as if some etymologist had cut away part of a wasps' hive for closer inspection.

"Shepard, I've compared the ship's EM signature with known Collector profiles. It is the vessel we encountered on Horizon."

The team was slowly maneuvering down the tube-like corridors that lead away from the 'shuttle bay.' All except Urz who decided to lope off to do a bit of investigating on his own. Shepard decided to allow the beast to scamper off, he needed the exercise. It was not good for him to be cooped up all the time in the Normandy's shuttle bay.

"Maybe the defense towers softened it up for the turians." Shepard suggested as they continued forward. The whole ship echoed with a distant surreal howls and hums. It was subtle, faint but omnipresent.

"Perhaps we can find the missing colonists aboard." Samara said then added: "If they are still alive."

The team passed the distinctive, very very familiar stasis pods. With mixed curiosity and caution the team approached as one might the open casket of a stranger. The only one not showing any concern was Urz who gave the pods a cursory sniff before moving on.

"These are the same containers the Collectors used on Horizon. Only these are empty." Thane commented. He bent down and ran his finger tips along the chrysalis. Like the ship and weapons the pods were bio-mechanical, they seemed to have a life to them like strangle vines clutching at the trunk of a tree.

"I can't imagine it." Kasumi shuddered. "Being completely controlled by the Collectors. My God."

"Alright. Move out. Let's get what we need and get the hell out." Shepard drew attention back to herself rather than allowing her people to become swallowed by their unease. The majority of the squad were not trained Marines she couldn't expect complete disassociation from the self as she could expect from a fellow soldier.

Those like Samara, Mordin, and Zaeed had a lifetime of battles both ugly and of attrition, they knew and understood the score. Even Grunt's implants from his 'father' Okeer allowed complete autonomy when it came to battle and death of innocents.

As an assassin, Thane was no stranger in the sight of death and yet even he would not have bore witness to horrors as was seen on this ship. Kasumi like Tali a couple of years ago, was innocent of such carnage.

Those like Miranda, Garrus and Jack however were very familiar with freelance slaughter and were could easily disassociate their deeper selves from what they saw. And like Shepard used the injustices of it to fuel their passions and strengths and turned it into conviction to fight.

They didn't make it far before the group stopped, this time it was before a pile of corpses.

All human.

If not for the helmets of the hardsuits the smell of rotting meat would have been over-powering. There were more than a dozen mutilated bodies.

Mordin took a step back, repelled by the carnage he saw before him. "Horrible! Despicable." What he saw here was far worse than what he had found in that Tuchankan hospital.

Shepard could not agree more.

"By the goddess…" Samara gasped.

"Oh Keelah!" Tali stared at the bodies, repressing the urge to vomit.

"Why…why would the collectors leave a pile of bodies lying around?" Jack asked clearly disturbed. Even her hardcore shell was not immune.

It was Mordin's analytical mind that gave the answer. "Test subjects from a control group. Discarded after experiment was over."

"Anyone else hungry?" Grunt asked. Clearly not as disturbed as the others, insensitive and blunt as always. Urz whimpered as if say that he clearly was up for a meal.

"Urz. Don't you dare!" Shepard snapped sharply. "Come!" she snapped her fingers, expecting to be obeyed. And she was.

"That probably was not the best thing to say, Grunt." Garrus chastised the young krogan.

"Asshole." Jack sneered at her krogan teammate as she walked by him she deliberately body-checked his shoulder.

Urz looked forlornly at the pile of bodies which he saw as meat going to waste. The mistress was funny sometimes. Grunt knew the score: the meat should be gorged upon.

Shepard gazed at the mound of rotting flesh, making sure to keep her hand upon the thick collar around her varran. "There are worse things than death, like being a lab rat for crazed aliens."

"I know you're right, but it doesn't make me feel any better." Kasumi shuddered a second time.

"As you say, Commander." Samara placed a hand on the young Commander's shoulder. The act and its intent clear. Sometimes even heroes need a shove to move past horror.

The Spectre turned to her chief engineer. "Okay things changed. We now know this ship is the one that hit Horizon. I want-need a full diagnostic and damage report. We clearly wounded it enough for the turians to strike it. I need to know what more we can do for the Normandy to make sure she has the same capacity, so we can do it again. Tali you and the rest of team Mako get to the drive core. You know what to look for. Make it happen."

"Hammerhead. Same thing, I want full diagnostics and damage SitRep. Head up to the bridge, see if you can't find something resembling a black box. Something happened to this ship's crew. I want to know what. Shadow team will go for the data banks in the CIC so EDI can start mining it. Let's go."

As predetermined Shadow team consisted of Shepard, Mordin, Kasumi and Miranda and of course Urz. Going with Tali was Garrus - if he wasn't watching over Shepard as her 'Archangel' he was with his wife doing the same. With them was Jack—a biotic powerhouse. She proved she could crush heavy mechs with her biotics and she once more proved she could follow orders back on Horizon. Jack had a talent for improvisation as necessary when they were on the proving grounds on Tuchanka.

Grunt, Thane and Zaeed rounded out team Hammerhead. The heavies of the group, what they could not snipe from a distance they could smash into tiny pieces up close and personal.

The teams scattered.

Shepard took her team past the body-mound up a small ramp (only then did she release her hold on the hound) to what looked to be a processing outlet that was set up to monitor the pods. Several of them were up-right at a 45ْ angle, all were empty save one. And its occupant was not human.

"That's a Collector. Were they experimenting on one of their own?" Miranda asked for all of them.

Shepard shook her head with a shrug of her shoulders. She didn't have the answers anymore than the rest of them. Beside the pods was a computer terminal. Without hesitation Shepard moved to it and started typing in commands much to the surprise of her companions. To them the data on the screen was written in a language none of them understood nor could read. The same was true for the keyboard. But Shepard seemed to have no issue interacting with the interface.

"EDI, I'm Uploading the data from this terminal. See what you figure out what they were up to." The Commander announced

Seconds later the Normandy's resident AI responded. *Data received. Analyzing. The Collectors were running baseline comparison between their specimens and humanity. *

"Are they looking for similarities?"

*I have no hypothesis to their motivations. All I have are their preliminary results. They reveal something remarkable. A quad-strain genetic structure identical to traces collected in ancient ruins. Only one race was known to have this structure: the Protheans. *

Shepard took a half step away from the terminal and stared at the body in the pod. "My god! The Protheans didn't vanish. They're just working for the reapers now!" Flashes of the images from the beacons flared in her mind's eye. Body being torn apart by tech, vivisections, all that death…it become so much clearer

EDI's voice came over the radio analytical and academic as always. *These are no longer Protheans, Shepard. Their genes show distinct signs of extensive genetic rewrite. The Reapers have repurposed them to their own needs.*

"You'd think somebody would have picked up on this." Shepard thought of her bondmate. Surely in all her studies of the Prothean, Liara had to come across records of this brutal transformation. The Protheans could not have gone from what they were into the Collectors in a single night!

Vigil also should have known as should the vinculum they had discovered. But there was nothing in any of them. In all the vivid dreams and nightmares perhaps even Shepard had know, but simply did not understand what it was she was truly seeing. Yes! She had seen in the opening jaws were not jaws…they were the opening 'mouth' of the stasis pods. The tearing of flesh…the screams…the tube running into skin…yes! Shepard had seen it. The conversion it was all there in the visions from the beacons only she hadn't understood it.

*No one has had an opportunity to study a Collector code in this detail before, Commander. *

"The VI is right, Commander. Most of the galaxy believes the Collectors to be nothing more than ghost stories. Told to frighten younglings." Mordin said.

*I have already matched two thousand alleles to recorded fragments. This Collector likely descends from a Prothean in a colony in the Styx-Beta Cluster. But there are signs of extreme alteration. Three fewer chromosomes. Reused heterochromatin structure and the elimination of superfluous 'junk' sequences. *

Shepard continued to stare at the body. Is this what the Collectors now had in store for humanity? To turn them into agents for the Reapers just as the Protheans had been?

"The reapers didn't wipe out the Protheans They turned them in to monsters and enslaved them. Still they are working for the Reapers now. And we have to stop them." Determination hardened in the Commander's voice as solid as concrete.

The whole of the conversation was live over the radio. Their responses were varied but centralized on one theme.

"I sure don't want to be turned into…that!" Kasumi shuddered

* They are not doing to us what they did to the Protheans! * Jack swore. *No way in hell is that gonna happen! *

Shepard shook the feeling off her shoulders. Her voice filled with far more resolve. "Let's find what we need before the Collectors come back to salvage this vessel. Move

out!"

Across the ship team Mako were navigating towards Engineering. Thanks to Tali's drones and EDI's cyber warfare a blue print of the ship's interior was available over the HUD. So far they had negotiated the strange layout of the organic ship with relative ease. Even still the feeling of utter disquiet filtered into Tali's nerves as she continued to look around her. Part of her was beguiled by the ship's construction the other half revolted.

"Keelah, look up at the ceiling!" the Chief of Engineering pointed with the barrel of her shot gun. "More of those holding containers."

"There must be hundreds of them. How many do you think are full?" Garrus asked

*Too many. * Shepard said over the radio. She too had been looking up at all the amber glowing pods. How many lives had already been harvested? How many more were to lose their very existence?

*I detect no signs of life in the pods Shepard. * EDI commented. *It is probable the victims inside died when the ship lost primary power. * she hypothesized.

At the very least those colonists were spared the indignity of becoming indoctrinated slaves like the Collectors. Even still the loss of so much life…

*Better dead then slave. * Jack said. *Tell you what Cheerleader. I'll do you a favour. The Collectors get a hold of us, I do you, you do me. Same time. Bam! Right in the head. Leave those fuckers with nothing. Same for you Shepard. *

"Appreciate the sentiment, Juvenile-Delinquent." came Miranda. "I'm sure the offer is made out of respect for a teammate's fate and not because you want to do a Cerberus operative."

*You wish. *

*Is it just me or are you two flirting? * asked Garrus.

"*NO!*" both women vehemently denied any such connection.

"Pft. Yeah you so were," toyed Kasumi. "Oh you're become frenemies! It's kinda cute in a weird twisted sort of way."

*Shut it thief. Or I'll shut you.*

"I second that sentiment, Goto. We are no such thing." Lawson glared at the diminutive hooded woman walking at her side.

Shepard could have easily busted down the chatter. But she knew that after realizing what the Collectors were, the pile of discarded dead and the probable fate of humanity her people needed the gallows humor in that moment if only as a coping mechanism. She trusted their attention was on task. All she had to do to confirm that was to look at her immediate squadmates. Miranda, Kasumi and Mordin were at ready-alert. Urz of course was always at the ready. Once more he scampered off to investigate the darkened corners of the ship, unconcerned of the facts of his pack-mates more intimate relations.

*The more you protest the more you confirm their suspicions Miss Lawson.* Samara advised.

*Don't we have a fucking job to do? All yas can just shut the hell up and get to doing it.*

*Talk about it or do it. Didn't Lawson say something like that to you once Shepard?* teased Garrus. *Seems our Cerberus loyalist is rubbing off on our resident ex-con.*

*I said can it, you bird-boned-cat-faced boy.* Jack growled.

"Alright, cut the chatter, everyone. Stay frosty." This time Shepard did step in. There was time for gallows humor and ribbing a fellow teammate or two. And then there was a time to keep focus and not become distracted by what was once light banter escalating into a full-scale squabble.

Miranda was still scowling at Kasumi who sported a very wide grin and a twinkle in her eyes.

*Shepard, we haven't come across any major data banks but there are several terminals. I've scanned them, they seen to contain a variety of research projects, downloading them now to one of my drones' internal memory banks. We deconstruct them once we're back in Normandy's tech lab.* Tali's' announcement broke the teams renewed growing tension.

*As have we.* Said Thane.

"Same here." Shepard confirmed. "These should keep you pretty entertained for a little while, Mordin."

"Yes. Though not Collector tech exclusively. Data recovered is repurposed. Suspect harvested from the colonies the Collectors struck."

"Likely." Agreed the Spectre. "Even so they'll come in handy. Like this stuff on biotics. We already know the scions have biotic abilities. It'll be good to know the full extent of just what sort of tech we're up against."

*Speaking of what we're up against.* Joker's voice interrupted. *Commander, you gotta hear this. On a hunch I had EDI run an analysis on this ship.*

*I compared the EM profile against the data recorded by the original Normandy almost two years ago. They are an exact match!"

Shepard's bow shaped lips curled into a snarl. "The same ship dogging me for two years? Way beyond coincidence."

*Something doesn't add up Commander. Watch your back.* Joker advised, worried.

*You were right, Shepard this smells more and more like a goddamm trap.* Zaeed muttered. The old merc hated the position of not controlling the battleground or at the very least the deciding factors in it.

"Something else that does not 'add up', Commander. Likely crew abandoned ship when it lost power. Suspect not. Doesn't matter in this moment. Pondering query for a while now. Where are the seeker swarms? We have not seen any evidence they were damaged in the turians' attack or initial attack on Horizon."

"That is a good question doc." Shepard agreed. "Mako, Hammerhead any signs of the little green pests?"

*Negative, Commander. No hives other than this damned ship, no little bodies. Nothing.* Garrus reported back.

*Yeah no buggy-things here either, Shepard.* Zaeed answered for Hammerhead. *The Professor's got it right. If they're not here, where in the hell are the little fuckers?*

By now all three teams were looking up at the ceiling which contained thousands of the pods but no indication of nests or hives the seeker swarms might have created as shelters.

"Fascinating." Mordin uttered softly as more and more of the pods aligned the ships' ceiling and bulkheads. There were far too many to count, at least by eyeballing it.

"Not the word I would have used to describe it." Miranda retorted. "They could take every human in the Terminus Systems and not have enough to fill these pods."

"Oh. My. God!" Kasumi gasped as a sickening thought dawned on her. The Terminus was where the Collectors had simply started their harvest as it was closest to the Omega Four Relay. But the Terminus was by no means the extent of it.

*Guess you guys are seeing all the pods as well.*Garrus remarked. *There must be thousands….no millions of them! And this is just one ship. If the Collectors have a fleet of ships just like this and moved towards Council Space-it would mean the end of humanity!*

*They're going to target Earth.* Samara uttered softly the thoughts that had stolen into the thief's mind a heartbeat ago. She like the others was most certainly horrified by the prospect of such an event.

The Code, the Justicar had dedicated four centuries to, demanded she end this travesty before it became an extinction level event. She could not, would now allow such a crime. Her resolve to end the Collectors rose ten-fold as it had with everyone else, human or alien upon hearing her words.

"Not if we stop them." vowed Shepard, each word made in durasteel promise. Cerulean eyes bore on the layers upon layers of chrysalis chambers with a new level of hatred and conviction. "Tali are you sure the drones are recording all of this?"

*Positive Commander, they've scanned everything we've seen and recorded it. I have a few of them free-roaming the ship just like you ordered. Everything. All but one is independent of EDI, it's getting a hard copy too.* Tali answered. Of course she refused to call EDI by any other pronoun other than 'it' despite the fact she had altered EDI's holo-protection to be very clearly a human female.

*Affirmative Shepard, I am recording all transmissions and as previously ordered and I am also transmitting a live-feed to Admiral Hackett, Captain Hanna Shepard and the Citadel Council.*

"That was before Udina slithered his way into on to the Council seat. Send a copy to Admiral Anderson—directly. They all have to see, they have to know. And I don't trust TIMmy to forward anything to the Alliance."

*Good call Shepard.* this came from Jack who never trusted anything branded as Cerberus.

For that matter neither did Shepard, she did however trust EDI. Over the months the AI had proven herself a valuable asset not only to the team but to the mission on the whole.

"Shepard, look there on the platform, it's a control panel." Mordin pointed out as Shadow team drew nearer to its objective.

It was beyond surreal seeing a seat of the ship's power in such a wide-open place. The space beyond CIC the seemed to go on forever. It was easy to forget they were on a starship and not some vast underground realm of forgotten lore.

Just how massive was this ship…how many crewed her? The Destiny Ascension the largest dreadnought in Council Space carried a crew of 10,000 souls. This ship easily was ten times her size. Like Sovereign its mass was so great that without the vast mass effect field emissions it would otherwise be impossible for it to enter atmo. The technology it encompassed was extraordinary!

Was it any wonder TIMmy was salivating over getting his grubby paws all over it? No! Cerberus could not have this technology. That would be as devastating to the galactic community as what the Collectors were doing now with their harvesting…their reaping of human lives.

Even as these thoughts tickled the Commander's hindbrain her forward thought was on the task at hand. To Shepard the CIC carried more of the strange echoing cries and wails. Part of her mind believed it to be the cries of the lost colonists, another had more dire thoughts. A bitter idea took root in that the noises she was hearing did not truly exist that she alone was hearing them. The others had been very vocal about what they saw, yet not a single member of her squad mentioned the eerie sounds around them. Could Ash's comments back on Horizon have some validity?

Considering the Collectors were once Prothean and if she were indeed indoctrinated by all those Prothean devices she had interacted with that had indeed caused Cyan Syndrome to manifest, was it all now just in her head? Were these auditory hallucinations? She could out herself here and now and ask if the others heard the noises, but then that would lay seeds of doubt in her team over her capacity to command and that was something the Spectre could not afford.

The Commander forcefully ejected her errant thoughts from her mind. She had to keep focused. Shepard told herself that once they were back on the Normandy she'd have Mordin run a full diagnostic on her mental capacity. He after all had studied in-depth the effects of Reaper indoctrination.

"Where are the bodies of the Collector crew?" Miranda asked looking around. Thankfully her question redirected Shepard's internal monolog. The loyalist was right, where were all the bodies of the Collectors? They all couldn't have made it to escape pods. Surely. And Mordin was right about his question: where were the seeker swarms? "Careful Shepard something doesn't feel right about this." Miranda shook her head.

Urz crept foreword, hackles raised. He could smell it in the air something was very wrong. Fetid and off base.

"We're going." Shepard scanned the surroundings. This had the perfect makings for an ambush.

*Shepard said it was a trap before we started the mission.* Grunt spoke up for the first time since his admonishment from the turian back at the pile of bodies. *Or weren't any you listening to our Battlemaster? She doesn't get tactical wrong.*

Grunt firmly believed that just as the krogan wiped out the rachni his Battlemaster / mother would wipe out the Collectors. A bug was a bug. You squish it hard enough, it dies. Shepard was very good at killing stuff.

Shepard smiled slightly at the vote of confidence from her youngest teammate but chose not to say anything. Instead she focused on what was before her. And speaking of getting tactical strategy right:

"Hammerhead, fall back towards the shuttle and secure an exit strategy. I get the feeling as soon as we tap into the data node this ship will respond. Keep alert for anything moving that isn't us. Find a natural choke point and hold position."

*Roger that, Shepard, Hammerhead redeploying.* Zaeed confirmed the order. *Come on boys you heard our Commander. Step two.*

"Mako, if this ship 'awakens' we're going to be screwed. Look for ways to cripple her even more than she already is. That includes setting up charges. Garrus use your mines and start creating a cross section of the tripwires." Shepard referred back to the Omni-bow casters she had Kasumi had liberated from Donavan Hock.

*Understood, Commander. We'll make it happen.* Garrus acknowledged his team's orders.

*Hell me and Samara can place a couple of singularities just before the trip wires and a couple after our little net-jobby-thingy and maybe those fucking seekers will get sucked in if they decided to show themselves.*

"Good idea, Jack. Make it happen." Shepard praised the younger woman's forethought. Like Grunt, Jack needed more positive reinforcement than the others on her team. Small affirmations like the one she had just issued bolstered the confidence levels in both of almost exponentially.

The platform Miranda had pointed out was octagonal in shape and seemed to be moored to a docking port. How one piloted such a device was yet to be uncovered. A task better suited to one of the tech expects.

Kasumi was already scanning the flight controls into her Omni tool. In a matter of mere moments the data she harvested would stream to the other teams Omni-tools allowing them to understand the schematics of the platforms and thus pilot them for themselves. In a ship this gargantuan it was most certainly necessary.

"EDI, I'm setting up a bridge between you and the Collector ship. See if you can find anything useful from the databanks." Shepard announced moving towards the terminal with her OMNI tool opened.

EDI had been programmed with every Alliance computer insurgency routine as well as several alien systems. And she has a talent for modifying them on the fly. She processes alien-language-translation software as well. EDI's primary purpose was to infiltrate their computer and communications systems.

She could intercept and decode point-to-point alien transmissions and gave Cerberus updated intelligence in the field. In this case however that intelligence was given specifically to the Spectre and her team.

Intel support in an operation where there had been no reconnaissance. Shepard had to admit she liked that. Even if it put her in same space as TIMmy. EDI's cyber-warfare leveled the playing field significantly. And who better to work as a computer specialist than a sentient AI?

"Data mine in progress Shepard." EDI announced from her podium on the bridge. On the monitors above Joker's head as well as several other terminal interfaces scrolled with data far too swiftly for the human eye to follow.

Then suddenly:

There was a burst of static. EDI's typically cerulean-blue humanoid projection turned orange and in that instant- became the image of a Collector AI. The speakers crackled with garbled transitions and clicks of Collector speech.

"Oh that's not good." the pilot's hands danced over the controls of the guai interface. "Everyone the same?" He asked the rest of the ship's stations.

The bridge went black.

From all over the Normandy techs scrambled to regain control. Back in the CIC it was the same the Galaxy Map / view of the Normandy's exterior was replaced by the same amber-garbled holo-projection. Al the ship echoed with the same clacking transmissions. In seconds of the blackout the lights returned and EDI returned to her normal position.

*I don't know what you did, Shepard but this whole place is becoming hot. I repeat hot.* Garrus emphasized *Tubes along the walls exploded and those platform-disks are activating. Five to dirt.*

*No action here, Commander, not yet. But the whole place is buzzing crazy mad.* Zaeed broke over the comms. *You got shit coming your way, Shepard.*

A repetitious warning but not unwelcome. Shepard, Mordin, Kasumi and Miranda as one looked beyond the platform into the yellow-white glowing expanse beyond the CIC. There were three no make that four disks coming their way. The number of enemy combatants: unknown.

It had been the same where Shepard and her team were holding position tubes along the wall sparked, one exploded others activated.

*We're all fine here Joker, what the hell just happened?* Demanded Shepard.

Joker shook his head. "Major power surge. Everything went dark but we're up now."

"I managed to divert the majority of the overload to non-critical systems. Shepard this was not a malfunction. It was a trap." Said EDI.

Almost as soon as EDI made the declaration the Collector ship seemed to come alive. The moaning wails turned into roaring hums of revving engines. The platforms adjacent to the CIC rose spinning in the air. Including the one on which Team Shadow were stationed.

"We need a little help here EDI." said the Spectre.

* I am having little trouble maintaining a connection. There is someone else in the system.*

"Shit." Shepard snarled. A ghost in the machine.

Without warning Shepard's platform stopped so suddenly it knocked Kasumi to the deck. With no hesitation on her part Miranda swooped in grabbed the thief by the hand and hauled back to her feet. They might have had a bit of a tiff earlier but a teammate was a teammate and you never let them stay down or left them behind.

Even as Kasumi toppled over, Urz nearly went over the side of the disk it not for Mordin grasping for the great beast's collar and yanking him back. The varren gave a plaintive cry and then growled at the indignity of it all.

"Hostiles incoming. Three o'clock. Suggest we prepare" announced the salarian letting go of his four-legged squadmate

"Got it. Get to whatever cover you can find." Shepard ordered even as she gave a nod of appreciation to the professor for saving Urz.

*Connection reestablished. I need to finish the download before I can override any systems.* EDI said without inflection.

"Then you better get it done fast." Shepard barked lifting her M-8 Avenger assault rifle. She and Miranda's bodies immediately pulsed with dark energy. Their barriers up in full-force shielding them from enemy biotic and tech attacks. Mordin and Kasumi's armor flared with a slight amber glow due to his modified shielding.—useful for tech-experts. They could explode the shielding if enemy combatants overpowering their systems if they got within melee range. They all knew from Horizon what the Collectors were capable of.

The platform landed locking on to theirs. As soon as it did both biotics sent simultaneous warpfields to the centre of mass of the Collector vanguards. Urz leapt directly in, charging full force the closest insectoid - going for the segmented carapace neck plating.

Mordin fired several cryo rounds, which Kasumi targeted with her Locast SMG—armed with (thanks to Shepard) warp ammo. The creature shattered like an icicle plummeting from the overhang of a roof.

Fire, duck, fire again. Biotic slams, shockwaves, flares, warps and leashes. Throws and pulls and singularities. Tech-overloads, power surges, flashbangs and shadow strikes, and tech-explosions were scarcely enough to keep the horde of Collectors from swarming.

As soon was one disk was cleared another swooped in. Everyone knew swooping was bad.

"Come-on EDI. Get a move on!" urged Shepard, slamming another heatsink into her own Kassa Locast, it was faster than the Avenger and lighter to hold as she used biotic attacks. Besides like asari huntresses she used the dark energy as her primary weapon.

*DIRECT INTERVENTION IS NECESSARY * The distinctive mechanical voice of a Reaper-thick and dark echoed deeply in Shepard's headset.

Across the ship Team Mako held the line. The whole ship shuttered weapon's fire. As fast Garrus could launch grenades, Jack threw shockwave after shockwave until she was practically on her knees with exhaustion.

Tali slammed a new heatsink into her M-23 Katana and crouched behind one of the organic bulkheads. They had prepped for foot solders and seeker swarms they had not anticipated aircraft.

*We've more platforms coming in our way.* Tali's voice came over the radio.

*Where hell are they all coming from?* this was Garrus.

*I don't know but I'd wish they go back.* Jack snapped.

"Unlikely." Mordin said taking the ex-con's words as factual.

*WE ARE HARBINGER!*

The words echoed throughout the corridors of the ship as within Shepard's mind as a klaxon in an endless cavern.

"So we have a new name for our enemy." Shepard sneered sending a shockwave into the centre of a swarm of rushing husks. "Good to know." To her squadron she said. "Keep frosty everyone. Fire with all prejudice."

There was no comment from the others as to whether or not they heard the declaration. They were far too busy trying to push back the squadrons the enemy storming their position. The buzz of Collector wings filled air within moments after the first wave of husks fell. Shadow team was fast targeting the drones and guardians before they had a chance to land.

Like the geth juggernauts Shepard's flagship team encountered years ago the Collector guardians set up large octagonal hive shields as soon as they landed. Their plasma weapons were able to shoot past their own shields but halted any incoming enemy bombardment.

*WE ARE THE PINNACLE OF YOUR EVOLUTION. IF I MUST DESTROY YOU SHEPARD, I WILL.*

Shepard ground her teeth. She directed her full attention to the scion, "Evolve this you son of a bitch!" she reached out with dark energy summoning the power into her whole being until her whole body glowed blue. Both hands outstretched she forced a singularity directly into the scion's centre of mass then crushed it with a warp, just as she had with the shark on Thessia.

Its death knell screamed out in the cavern, bouncing off the walls. It fell on the floor of the platform, black pus exploded from the mutated tumors along its body, blood spouted out its open mouth then in gargled gasps. And still Shepard continued her assault using a slam in its internal organs until it exploded in chunks of meat.

Miranda and the others looked at one another then to their Commander. Glaring she turned back to them. What?"

"Nothing." the trio said as one. Urz just cocked his head.

For the moment Shadow team was free to catch their breath. With no commands to stop him the varren approached the fallen creature. He gave it a cautious sniff and still no commands by his mistress Urz nipped at the carcass. After all he had been denied his feast before now he gorged.

*Shepard you must reestablish my link to the command console.* EDI announced breaking the respite.

Acting swiftly Shepard linked her Omni tool to the Collector's CIC allowing the AI to directly interface. "You got it?" she asked.

*I have regained control of the platform, Shepard.*

"I knew you wouldn't let us down EDI." Shepard smiled for the first time since they boarded the vessel

*I always work at optimal capacity.* Was that smugness in EDI's tone?

It was only a matter of seconds before Shepard asked. "Did you get what we needed?

*I found data that will help us successfully navigate through the Omega-4 relay. I have also recovered the turian distress call that served as a lure for this trap. The Collectors were the source. It is unmistakable.*

The Commander shrugged. "That makes sense to me."

*Turian emergency channels have secondary encryption. It is present but it is corrupted. It is not possible that The Illusive Man would have believed the distress call was genuine.*

"Why are you so sure?" Miranda asked scowling, not sure she wanted the answers.

*I found the anomalies with Cerberus detection protocols. He wrote them.*

*He knew it was a trap? He sent us into a trap?!* Joker screamed.

Shepard slammed her fist into her palm. "That son of a bitch sent us directly into Collector hands!

*I knew we could never trust Cerberus!* It was Tali.

*I fucking knew it!* Jack growled. *I told you Shepard never ever trust Cerberus scum. Fucking assholes all of them!*

Miranda shook her head vehemently, looking imploringly towards the Commander, needing another explanation, any other explanation. "There has to be some other explanation. He would never do something like this to us. He...he just wouldn't!"

It was not Shepard who answered the loyalist but Jack. *Yeah? From were I am standing Cheerleader he just did and you're still his bitch. I say we toast the bitch right here. She's in on it!*

Back on the Normandy Joker's fingers danced over the comm systems and the reports coming in from the other stations.

"Commander… we have another problem. The Collector ship is powering up. You need to get out of there before their weapons come on line. We're not losing another Normandy!"

"I do not have full control of their systems I will do what I can. Sending coordinates for shuttle for extraction." EDI announced.

Back on the Collector vessel the Commander flashed a look to her team "You heard her, come on let's move!" Shepard demanded. "All teams move out now. Bug out! Urz get over here!"

Shadow team took on the Collectors directly; up the ramp to the left was Hammerhead already in sniping positions directly behind the bugs. The high ground was advantageous, not just for sniping the enemy with extremely accurate headshots, but it allowed Hammerhead to see incoming Collectors. It also allowed Mako to get the drop on the Collectors on the main floor with biotic attacks. There was no way for the bugs to avoid the effects of attacks like pull or slam. Even if they sought cover behind the pillars Shadow was there to finish them with a combination of shockwaves, lashes and flares not to mention a lethal combination of tech-explosions.

More and more waves of Collectors swarmed the main chamber in overwhelming numbers. It seemed for every ten they killed another dozen took their place. Many of the Collectors and husks never made it past Garrus's mines or the tripwire barricades and singularities.

*ASSUMING CONTROL. DIRECT INTERVENTION IS NECESSARY. SHEPARD WE ARE YOUR ASCENSION. YOU CANNOT WIN SPECTRE SHEPARD. WE ARE YOUR DESTINY. RESISTANCE IS FUTILE, SPECTRE SHEPARD. WE ARE THE PINNACLE OF EVOLUTION.*

"Gods I wished that thing just shut up. It's giving a damned headache." the Commander snarled as she struck down yet another of the scions, just as she had with the one on the platform.

*I am opening a door on the far side of the room.* EDI said over the din of battle.

"Shep can you use that tsunami-thingy?" Kasumi asked flinching as a Collector's plasma shot slammed into a pillar next to her.

The Commander took a swift look around her and nodded. "Miranda you must shield the rest of Shadow. Urz stay!" she used her helmets radio. "Mako… Jack, Samara one of you will use tsunami the other shield the others. Hammerhead pull back! I repeat pull back!"

*Roger that.* Zaeed responded. *You heard her boys, time to bug out.*

*I assume you did not mean the pun.* Thane asked dryly.

*HA! Didn't even realize I made one.* His voice sounded ruffled as if on the run.

*We're out range, Battlemaster, Do your biotic thing.* Grunt ignored his krant-mates comments.

"Jack get ready. You know what to do. Samara protect the others." Without looking behind her Shepard addressed Lawson. "Ready Miranda?"

"On your orders, Commander."

*Ah crap, Shepard if your gonna do that fancy thing do it now. We've got one of those big praetorians incoming!* Garrus warned. *And he brought a lot of friends.*

*Commander…* there was hesitation in the Jack's voice.

Shepard knew why. The proving grounds on Tuchanka—and what the ex-con had tried to do to with the thresher maw. It had shaken some of the young woman's confidence while it had bolstered Grunt's.

"I trust you Jack." Shepard said ducking behind a column after shooting a husk in the head.

A Pause. *I won't let you down, Shepard.*

"I know. The rest of you keep them off us. Mirada, Samara—now! Jack, start the reave. Remember step outside the bubble."

*I got it, Commander.* Jack said without her usual caustic retort.

The scream of the Praetorian became a cacophony. It pounced into the centre of the room. As soon as it landed its particle beams targeted Shadow. From far above just out of range of the tsunami, Hammerhead continued to target the praetorian's carapace with heavy warp-shot. As a distraction it worked. The monstrous crap-like creature spun around and directed its assault on them. But they were just out of range of its beams.

Garrus and Tali of Mako, and Kasumi and Mordin of Shadow pushed back the waves of husks and abominations to keep them from swarming the others. They had to buy just enough time for Shepard and Jack to unleash the power they had been pulling from the undead creatures and insectiods. The lifeforce they harvested was great, growing greater still as they pulled from the praetorian.

Then together Shepard and Jack unleashed the wave. The tidal wave of dark energy washed over the whole of the chamber, crushing the life of Collector and husk alike as a fist crushes an empty beer can. The whole of the chamber became awash in blue fire as the tsunami took the life of everything not within the bubble or…out of range. The praetorian peppered with constant volleys from the other teams and the tsunami exploded as if someone put an over-ripe tomato in a water balloon and slammed it as hard as they could with a baseball bat.

*Commander! You've got to move now!* Joker all but shouted out

"We're moving, Joker." Garrus answered. He moved forward and took a very winded Jack by the arm. "Come on, Jack we gotta move it."

"Yeah, yeah. I'm good." Jack breathed in deep breaths. Had she been able she would have drained her canteen of its high energy boosting protean drink. But the circumstances being as they are prohibited such a thing. For her and for Shepard both.

"Do not be too proud to accept help, young one." Samara moved to the other woman's side and placed a supporting arm around her waist was they ran for the nav-point on helmet's HUDs.

Across the chamber Shepard accepted Kasumi's aid as they made a quick dash for the same nav-point. Half way down the ramps both biotics gained more strength. Enough to move on their own.

The way was mercifully clear due to Hammerhead's deadly foresight. Countless husks littered the corridors, all with massive body wounds from point blank shot gun and assault rifle blasts. More than a few were crushed by hand which could only be done by krogan brutality.

*Commander!* Joker pleaded.

The teams scrambled aboard the shuttle, scarcely were they aboard before Shepard ordered the Normandy's FTL to be fired up.

*Commander?*

"Do it, mister!" the Spectre demanded. "And open the cargo bay doors."

No sooner had the frigate's engines flare to life did the shuttle bank hard to the stern of the Normandy. The cargo doors opened like a gapping mouth and like a fly Shepard flew the craft in, not even bothering to release the landing gear. Metal scraped against metal causing sparks to shot out from all side. The shuttle spun around 180ْ before it skidded to a halt.

*We're in.* Shepard's voice came over the intership comm-system.

"EDI, get us the hell out of here." Joker demanded.

"I have not been given any navigational coordinates…"

"GET US ANYWHERE!*

"Affirmative."

The Collector ship was fully awake turning towards its prey. Even as it fired upon the Normandy, she blue-shifted and jumped to FTL and reached the Mass relay.