Five :::

The Return: Part III


A/N: Okay, before I get flamed… MAJOR CHARACTER DEATHS in this chapter. Just to let you know… before we dive in.


"Perfect…" Garrus may have graveled in relation to the total darkness of deck four. A moment later, the emergency power kicked into gear, dimly lighting the corridor. "Ship's failing with each passing moment," he said to Legion and Mordin in his company. The Salarian, now geared up in an enclosed environmental suit. The three stood by the inner airlock door that lead to the decompressed hanger bay.

"Airlock door looks to still be functional," Garrus said consulting the holographic keypad illuminating the low lighting in a neon glow. The Turian turned to face Mordin, who was making last minute preparations to his flexible environmental suit. "Ya sure you still wanna go through with this, Mordin?" He questioned the Salarian. "Powers blowing out and there's no telling if the airlock door would still be working…"

"No need for apprehension." Mordin had said, fastening the lock to his gloved hand. "Need to study cadavers… imperative it is for survivor of Normandy crew."

Garrus shrugged, "thirty minutes… collect your samples from the bodies then come back."

Mordin flashed the Turian a plain smile from behind the visor of his helmet. The Salarian then bobbed his head that he understood.

"Do not burden, Turian ally," Legion assumed. "Monitoring Salarian ally's vitals, I will be."

Garrus touched Legion's shoulder, "of course you will."


"Can't see anything down here!" Grunt shouted through the pitch blackness of the sub decking.

"Power's out," Thane contemplated, "ship status worsening…"

Breaking the Drell's deep thought, a bloodcurdling scream stung his ears…


"Doctor, wuts goin' on?" Kenneth asked Chakwas as she was passing his cot. The med-bay's emergency lights were active though otherwise useless in providing enough for him to see.

"Just remain where you are, Mr Donnelly," Chakwas instructed him as she passed on by. Just then, in the corner of Kenneth's eye, he sees someone suddenly collapses to the floor…


Mordin felt the clunk of the airlock door behind him close shut. The vacuum that occupied the hanger nipped at the visor of his environmental apparatus. He made his way across the hanger bay floor, to the location of which Legion positioned the unfortunate colonists who succumbed to this spreading pathogen. He wasn't interested in obtaining any blood samples, seeing that the vacuum may have destroyed it anyway. Mordin was more invested on discovering more of this strange bio tissue that clings to the victim's skin post-mortem.

He and the Geth arrived at the far end side of the hanger… where Mordin was shocked beyond belief. The line of cots lied vacant, empty of corpses…


Zaeed erected his head off the cot. Sudden screams and intense mummers filled his ears, for he couldn't really see in the near darkness of the galley. His attention gravitates towards the entryway of the med-bay where he sees Chakwas along with another staff hand lifting a limp body onto a nearby gurney. Zaeed watched as the other medic preforms CPR on the unresponsive person. And then, Zaeed felt his heart skip a beat as to what happened next…


Garrus shook after being startled by a high-pitch scream erupting from down the corridor. The Turian turned his attention away from the airlock controls to look down the hall where he saw a light haired, Human girl running the length of the corridor, screaming her lungs out. She was beyond terrified.

The girl ran into Garrus' body, clinging onto him like a feline.

"T-there's s-something happening downstairs!" The Human girl shrieked.

"Wait—calm down," Garrus nudges the girl off him. "Now what is…?" The Turian's sentence falls short when he saw the haunting look magnify across the girl's face. She then lets out a deafening scream backing away from Garrus pointing and shouting, "BEHIND YOU—BEHIND YOU!"

Garrus pivoted around only to come face to face with a multiple limbed creature emerging from the shadows. "AH!" The Turian grabbed hold of the tentacle like arms as they nearly wrapped themselves around him. The fleshy appendages proved to be far stronger than Garrus, thus tossing and thrashing the Turian into the walls of the corridor. A shirking grumble reverberates from the creature behind the control of these arms.

Gaining an advantage in the scuffle, Garrus managed to force himself free from the creature's grip and stumbled back. He positioned himself between it and the frightened human child. Coming through the darkness, the fullness of the creature revealed itself. And the Turian's blood ran cold when his eyes connected on a grotesque, humanoid figure with multiple twisted limbs branching off from its body. What startled Garrus even more was that this creature shared a resemblance of the latest corpse he had gathered.

"What in the Spirits…"


Kenneth couldn't see what was going on, but the mass of sudden screams filled his heart with terror. Through the darkness of the med-bay, Kenneth saw the person that the doctors were preforming CPR on beginning to convulse. Soon after, from his account, a pair of tentacles burst from this person's chest. He watched in terror as the tentacles reached out and impaled people that were nearby. He couldn't tell at the time, but he may have witnessed doctor Chakwas taking a hit and fall to the floor.

It didn't end there. Kenneth steered his eyes to his left, where, in the adjacent cot, there was another person convulsing like crazy. Kenneth was petrified—unable to move when he saw this person beginning to transform into something he couldn't possibly imagine.

"Oh my Gud…!" He whimpered.


Zaeed saw it all happen. He had no clue what the hell was going on, and he didn't want to linger around to find out. Tried as he might, Zaeed struggled to rise out his cot, but the pain from his battle wound struck him back down. The wind knocked out of him, he tried again, only this time, he gets the shock of his life when a mangled, half torso of what belonged to one of the colonists, pounced onto him from seemingly out of nowhere. Zaeed caught this… thing just in time, right before it nearly bit a chunk out of his neck. It hissed into Zaeed's face, clinching its teeth closer and closer near his flesh. Zaeed was losing strength in his arms and this creature was winning the battle. His arms give out altogether and this thing crashes down upon him. At the last possible moment, Zaeed grabbed hold of this creature's talons that jutted form its face. As hard as he could, he torqued the talons sharply to the left, snapping the disfigured head from its neck. Even still, the thing kept coming.

"Fokin' die already!" Zaeed shouted at it.

His body went off sheer adrenaline. Zaeed finally was able to throw the torso off top him and then he hurried and turned off the cot altogether. In a scramble, he crawled away not wasting a second in staying where he was at. He ignored the wails of terror assaulting his ears from every direction and just kept crawling.


Sheer terror fired into Kenneth, for he was just an arm's reach away from another one of those things spawning in his wake. The colonist's body finishes transforms into a surreal mangled mess of tentacles and other twisted extremities.

Kenneth fell off his gurney and hit the floor with a thud. He immediately crawled under the adjacent cot's support struts to his right and stayed glued to the floor. All he could hear were panic screams from all around him, but his panic state prevented him from stopping.

He makes out the open exit way that leads out of medical and continued to inch his way in that direction. His path is suddenly blocked when a dead body fell right in his way. Kenneth suppressed a yelp as he starred into the dead man's widen eyes: his throat, having been slashed and the blood continued to squirt out, spewing all over Kenneth's face.

Kenneth wiped the blood out of his eyes then worked his way around the corpse. At this point, the frightened SR-2 Engineer crawled his way across the floor of the med-bay. Somehow, he found his way to the entryway and out into the galley, where he saw three or more of those things.

The injured or otherwise helpless colonists laying out on their cots marked across the galley floor were fish in a barrel to what Kenneth could best describe as half-people with protruding fangs. It was a freak show that found its way onboard the Normandy.

In his moment of complete terror, Kenneth had all but frozen in step, unable to believe what his eyes were seeing—what his ears were hearing.

"Aoh!"

Kenneth felt his feet below him slip right off the floor, and soon he lands hard upon his ribs on the ground. A tremendous pain shot up his leg following a numbness that snaked up from his ankle and resonated down his spine. That's when he felt himself being dragged back into the chaos of the med-bay.

Looking back at his leg, Kenneth saw what had flesh-eating grip around his ankle. A bulging, tentecale like arm with barbs poking out of it like a cactus held him hostage and yanked him back with tremendous strength. He caught onto the side of the doorjamb with both hands, gripping the surface with just the tips of his fingers. The tentacle wasn't giving up, Kenneth felt its sharpen barbs dig deeper into his flesh and then another jolting yank that felt like the thing had ripped his leg off altogether.

Kenneth's grip becomes slippery, with the tip of his fingers bleeding from hanging on for so long and with all his strength could muster. But he knew it wouldn't be enough, and this…whatever it was supposed to be was going to kill him.

Just when it felt like Kenneth was done for, he felt the barbs of the tentacle contract and soon the arm itself had loosed its grip enough for him to pull himself free. Kenneth scrambled away, turning his head back to see the person who saved his life.

His gaze flew up to a familiar face of a woman, stomping down on the tentacle arm until it was nothing but puss on the floor. His memory drew blank in identifying who this woman was, but it will be alleged that it was fellow engineer, Gabriella Daniels.

A splatter from the matter of the smashed up tentacle squirts onto Kenneth's face, who remained stunned on the floor. His mind, cloudy with nothing but fear and shock hadn't notices that Gabriella, or as he referred to her as Gabby, was knelled down eyelevel with him trying to say something to him in an urgent matter. It isn't until the noise of his blood swishing loudly in his ears and his attention returns from its state of shellshock is when he was able to make out what she was saying.

"…Come on, can you stand?"

"Y-yea—I—I think… I can stand," Kenneth's shaken voice returned.

"We need to get outta here, now,"

Kenneth looked beyond Gabby, in the med-bay. From what he could tell, there's no way anyone could survive in there—or anywhere at that matter. But it beat laying on the floor waiting to die.

Kenneth wiped a sleeve across his mucked face then stood to his feet. The pain in his ankle shot up his spine, but was numbed by the adrenaline that flowed through him at the moment. He and Gabby then made their way through the galley, now dominated with the screams of those unlucky enough to be coughed by those crawling things that quickly hope on to one victim to the other.

Kenneth limped behind Gabby, the two stayed close to the walls, trying their best to remain unnoticed by the crawlers. It wasn't hard, those things were way too occupied with the colonists, there free meal. Kenneth didn't feel the least bit of shame during that time, for his mind and body were suspended in a constricting state of fear.

Doing his best to tune out the surreal horror in his proximity, Kenneth kept his eyes trained on Gabby's back. The pair had made it across the galley space and were nearing the mouth of the short corridor leading to the elevator. That's when Kenneth felt a strong grip nipping at his injured ankle, and it froze him in place.


"Don't jus' stand there you nitwit!" Zaeed shouted at the startled man starring down at him on the floor. "Fokin' help me up!"

The clearly frighten crewman gets his act together and took Zaeed's extended arm and lifted the man to his feet. A shot of stinging hot pain flushed down Zaeed's body, especially from his bandaged up shrapnel wound. Though his will to survive whatever the hell was happening onboard the Normandy made the pain subtle at best.

Zaeed wrapped an arm around the man's shoulder, who supported him to stand. He didn't like to be catered for, but even he had to admit that he wasn't going to move on his own. Well not fast enough, that was.

The red headed woman this guy was following was ahead of them now, frantically hitting the button for the lift to arrive. By the time Zaeed and the guy make it halfway down the corridor, the lift doors part ways.

"Hurry!" The woman urged them on, now standing in the lift, holding the door for them.

Zaeed and the guy quickened their step, though both were limping like they didn't have feet at all. Their journey to the lift felt like trudging through wet cement, though, by sheer chance and grit, they made it inside the lift.

Both the guy and Zaeed collapse to the floor while the redhead hits the button closing the door to the elevator. Just when the two sides of the doors were joining back together, a large boney talon jutted between the slight opening of the doors and pried them back open.

The redhead yelped in terror backing against the opposite wall of the lift, tripping over Zaeed's legs and falling to the floor with the rest of them. The lift was still operational, moving upwards by the time the thing of which this talon belong to was still relentlessly trying to get at them.

Zaeed's eyes widen at the sight of a sickly Human figure as the one behind the control of these protruding talon like arms. It was nothing like he's ever seen…and he's seen some fucked up shit.

"The fuck is this thing!?" The redhead whimpered, kicking away from the nabbing talons of this monstrosity. It managed to get half its body into the lift cart and it just kept coming.

"Fuck if I know!" Zaeed grunted back. He swung his booted foot hard for the creature's head, knocking it sideways and away from him and his companions. The momentum of the creature's body made it slide back through the proceeding narrowing gap of the lift gate. Before it had time to opt out, the rising elevator severed the creature's head with a sickening, fleshy crunch.

A much needed moment of relief flushed over Zaeed as the elevator continued its climb.


Shepard tried with no avail to contact any active crewmates below deck. His hailer screamed of static; apparently being blocked by some form of interference.

"Core power is all but gone," Jacob reported through the near darkness of the cockpit. The CIC was plunged in blackness, the only thing making visibility possible are the many holographic monitors that have remained active. "Emergency power is active though," Jacob went on.

"What about life support and medical?" Shepard asked coming over, standing shoulder to Jacob from behind Joker's seat.

"Still kicking, considering the state we're in," Jacob replied.

"Just another power outage, right?" Jack asked.

Shepard turned to face her, he then gave her a simple nod. Though, somehow, Shepard knew the critical state the Normandy was in. Outages are pretty harmless, that would be the case if eighty-five percent of the ship wasn't damaged and especially if the mass effect core hadn't went dormant. And to add salt to injury, they were still stranded near a doomed vessel that was occupied by an unknown force.

"I still can't hail anyone from below deck," Shepard said coming over towards Jack and Samara. "We need to make sure everything's in order down there before—"

Cutting the Commander's sentence short, his attention is brought to the far end of the CIC where he heard multiple voices speaking in a frantic tone. Brushing pass Jack and Samara, Shepard approached three people striding their way into the CIC before one keels over and falls to the floor.

"Zaeed?" Shepard uttered at the man gathering himself on the floor. He darts his gaze to the other man and woman in his company and identified them as Kenneth Donnelly and Gabriella Daniels. Yet, there was something total wrong with them, Shepard could literally see the terror etched into their faces. "What happened?" The Commander questioned.

Too stunned to use their words, all Donnelly and Daniels could do was shake their heads. It was Zaeed who spoke, as he recovered up off the floor.

"We got some… shit onboard the ship, Shepard," Zaeed grunted, steadying himself to stand. He pressed a hand over his bandaged side.

Matching the man's eyes, Shepard could see that same look in Zaeed. He never seen this man be fazed by anything.

"Now… I dunno what the fuck it is… but it's the colonists." He shook his head, "they just… I don't fokin' know—transformed into some fucked up shit!"

"Transformed?" Samara recalled coming over.

"Yeah—I guess," Zaeed shrugged. "Barely got the hell outta there—the crew deck is crawling with those things."

Shepard, still dumbfounded with the details Zaeed was trying to convey held his arm out to stop the man from speaking. "Crawling with what things?" The Commander asked.

"The fuck…" Jack's voice broke the spell of their conversation, bringing everyone's attention to the open lift doors.

Jack is joined by Miranda, who abandoned her spot of sulking to see what held Jack's attention. Shepard was too far to see what either of them were looking at, but it won't be for long when he finds out.

"Is that…" Miranda began to say in a disgusting tone. "A… head?"

"Uh-huh…" Zaeed replied. "And you should see what it belonged to."

Just then, Shepard's hailer sprung to life, full of a crummy static, but he was just able to make out a voice on the other end…


It was utter chaos on sub deck for all Thane could describe it as. Through the plunge darkness, Thane didn't see—rather heard and felt the erratic behavior of a cluster of aggressive beings in his immediate area. He felt the life force of the colonists was weak and the screams had all but been replaced with roars and disjointed gargling of something wasn't entirely sentient.

He felt his heart jerk with intimate danger. Following his sharpen wits, Thane dips sharply to his right—he felt the wind of a protruding object that missed his head by mere inches. It smelt of death—these creatures that now dominate his area.

Thane felt the creatures on him again, this time he leaped between a network of piping in which the beings couldn't pursue him. He did, however felt the sharp end of a barb sticking him in the shoulder. Thane grunted, patching a hand on his now bleeding shoulder before retreating deeper into piping. At his heels, he felt one of these unseen creates pinching at him. The urge to panic ravaged his mind, though Thane grounded himself to remain calm, despite knowing the fact that most of the colonists are dead.

Though the madness that now plagues Thane form all directions, he was able to get a sense of where the Krogan is at. And the hulking alien was near—judging from the sounds of the Krogan's massive fist smashing against organic matter.

He was fighting back. Apparently, the Krogan had a better chance on taking these things on than Thane had.

With the limited space, Thane did his best to elude the intimate threat bearing on him. But his luck soon runs out when he ultimately losing his footing, falling hard against the floor and hitting his head on a section of low laying piping.

The blow to his cranium leaves Thane stunned. That is until he feels the creature's rancid breath against his face. Thane then feels something wet and fleshy wrap around his throat and begin squeezing with a vice like grip.

All the blood in his body rocketed into his head, almost like his skull will explode open. Gasping for breaths, Thane's arms flared wildly until his hands find a grip on the creature's squishy body. With all the strength he can muster, Thane dug his fingers into the being's skin and proceeded to literally pull it apart. Calling on all his strength, Thane felt his efforts pull off when the he felt the creature's body slip in half.

The constricting grip unloosens around his neck, granting him a chance to breathe air again. Once the adrenaline wore off, Thane noted the intense silence of the deck. He gathered himself off the floor and stood, where he felt the spiking pain of his head injury. Rubbing a hand to his head, Thane called out to the Krogan in a frail voice.

"Grunt… where are you my friend?"

Weaving his way through the piping, Thane found his way back on the walkway of the deck. His eyes had finally adjusted to the darkness enough to make out several strange body parts scattered across the floor plating. Stepping over the severed limbs, Thane stopped in his tracks when his eyes fill up with the backside of the Krogan.

"Grunt… are you… are you alright?" He asked.

The Krogan didn't answer, back still to him. Thane attempted to approach with an extended hand. That's when Grunt turned around, breathing heavily like an enraged animal. Thane matched eyes with the Krogan's luminescent eyes that speared through the darkness… and he saw something that didn't register as Grunt's normal behavior.

"Grunt—" Before Thane could react, the Krogan's huge fist smashes him square across the face.


"Get behind me!" Garrus instructed the Human girl in his care. He positioned himself in front of this monstrosity that wanted to kill them both. He had no idea how he was going to stop this thing with just his fist. Then, the Turian looked to his left and saw a slim chance of evening the odds. Garrus elbowed the breakable glass that lead to the fire extinguisher. It wasn't his ideal weapon of choice, but it better than having nothing at all.

"Let's dance… you ugly son of a bitch!" The Turian taunted.

The creature charged with a gargled roar, its sharpen tentacle like arms out stretch in front of it.

Garrus held his footing, readying the blunt end of the fire extinguisher for a devastating blow. Instead, at the last possible chance he had, Garrus inverted the extinguisher and fired off a jet of the condense substance, erasing the creature from his eyesight. To his fortunate luck, the sudden diversion stunned the beast down just enough for the Turian to step up and plummet the thing upon the head with the bottom of the extinguisher. The ferociousness of the Turian's blows actually knocks the creatures head off until it was hanging on by a thread of rotten flesh.

Thinking the crises was over, Garrus eased back on his attack, only to be surprise when the creature lashes out with two of its tentacles and scratch him across the face.


Bleeding out from the stab wound at her side, Karin lied on the floor with her back against the wall. She, along with a dozen or so cremates and colonists managed to escape the carnage of the med-bay and took shelter in the cramped A.I. core. Those things were just beyond the doorway and they were relentlessly trying to barge in. Their defanging hollers and incoherent screams flooded her ears that along with the scrape of their boney talon like appendages scraping against the metallic surface of the door.

Five people barricaded themselves against the door, preventing the creatures from sliding it open. Even with their combined strength, it wouldn't be enough to guarantee everyone's safety.

Karin struggled to retain consciousness. She took a life threating blow from whatever that thing was that busted out the chest cavity of one of the medics she tried desperately to revive. It all happened in the blink of an eye, and all she could remember was felling drained of energy, and then being dragged to the back of medical and ultimately being in the A.I. core.

Her gaze dropped and her eye lids felt like lead. She was so tied, all she wanted to do was sleep…

"No—No—no… stay with me doctor."

Karin was shook back into awareness by the Quarian. She stared into the alien's facemask, where as she saw her own reflection starring back at her. Then, Karin heard the Commander's voice, weakly dribbling through the static of the hailer on Tali's wrist.

"…I… Can you…?"

"No good Shepard, you're still breaking up," Tali spoke into her hailer.

"…What's going… down there... where is… are you…?"

"Shepard there is something down here with us," Tali told him. "It has something to do with the colonists… the Collectors did something to them—they—"

A sudden crash against the door jolts Tali out of sentence. Those things weren't giving up and they'll soon get at them. Karin knew this was only a matter of time.


The static that dominated over the hailer had cleared up just enough for Shepard to hear the pounding upon metal and disjointed screams from Tali's end. Whatever it was that made it onboard their ship was bearing down on her.

"Doctor Chakwas is injured," came Tali's frantic filled voice, just barely over the abundance of noise that cloaked around it. "She's bleeding everywhere and I don't know… I don't know what to do."

Shepard wiped a hand across his face, petrified with worry of his crewmates.

"J-Just stay where you are, Tali," Shepard replied. "We'll come for you."

"We're in the A.I. core. I don't know how many of those things are out there but… just hurry."

Shepard didn't waste any time lingering about. He clipped his hailer to his waist band than walked over to the door leading to the weapon's lab. He discovered, that without power, the door wasn't going to open without being commanded from the cockpit control panel.

"Joker, can you get this door open?" The Commander asked.

From afar, Joker nodded that he could and proceeded to do it. Just then, a sudden crash of a metallic object gets the Commander's attention. The ventilation cover adjacent to the elevator lies on the floor, emerging from the opening, a mutilated, humanoid creature leaped out. It released a scrappy snare catching everyone off guard.

The mutilated form had sharpen, boney appendages protruding from where its shoulders would be. Its clothes were ripped and torn, exposing its rotted, brownish skin from beneath. Shepard's gaze fell upon the creature's face, from what he could tell, there was little humanity left in it.

Shepard's heart leaped to his throat when the creature converged on him. He caught hold of the creature as it held him in a bone crushing bear hug; its fanged mouth millimeters from his neck.

The alien's strength was absolute, crushing down on Shepard and progressively getting stronger by the moment.

Gritting his teeth, Shepard grunted as he pried the alien's grip off him and manages to force it back and clear of him. At that moment, a blue shift wave of biotic energy swept the alien off its feet and sent crashing into the nearby bulkhead. Shepard's attention snapped over to Miranda, shimmering her biotic powers.

The alien attempted to stand back up, when Miranda unleashed a bombardment of biotic induced attacks that of which ultimate reduced the aggressive alien into splatter on the wall.

A brief yet heavy moment of shock overtakes Shepard as well as his comrades in the CIC. It's broken by Shepard, who managed to recover from the shock. "Joker… the door…?" He reminded.

The pilot hurried and inputted the clearance code of which granted entry to weapons research. The door slowly slid open and more of those things came pouring through the opening. Shepard vaulted away, retreating back into the CIC with the rest of his teammates.

At that point, the CIC was consumed with these aliens, barring down on Shepard and his comrades as they held their ground in the narrow walkway of the fuselage. Without wasting a moment of time, the biotic adapts present in the CIC began hitting the charging aliens with everything they had.

Shepard fought the chance to utilize his adaptive biotic powers, an ability Cerberus had integrated into his body. Each time he used his ability, it taxed the energy right out of him. So he left the task in keeping the aliens at bay to his biotic crewmates who were far more familiar with the energy field than he ever was.

Even with their added biotic advantage, the strange alien beast just kept coming at them.

"Why don't these fucking things just stay down!?" Jack exclaimed.

Shepard retreated behind Miranda, Jack and Samara as they held off the alien beings. Zaeed, the two engineers and Jacob held spots near the airlocks.

Shepard didn't know how long the three biotics could continue their onslaught on the aliens, but it felt like forever. Once it was over, the gargling screeches of the aliens and the thundering impact of biotic waves against flesh decrescendos.

"Is it over?" Engineer Daniels' asked in a trembling voice.

Shepard shook his head, "not till things are settled below deck, it isn't," Said the Commander. He walked out the cockpit and down the fuselage, now littered with body parts of the alien aggressors. He inched cautiously towards the weapon's lab entry flanked on either side by Samara and Miranda. The Commander stepped over a corpse of one of the fallen aliens near the doorway and chanced a look into the weapons lab. It was clear, from what he could tell. The laboratory itself was left untouched, almost like the aliens teleported inside. How they managed to enter the weapons lab perplexed Shepard, or how all this mess ended up on his ship altogether. Shepard put the lingering question in the back of his mind, and retained focus on the dilemma at hand.

He entered the laboratory and went over to the armaments locker that contained the ship's arsenal. One thing Shepard liked about Cerberus: at least they had weapon stashes in convenient places.

The Commander and the group outfit themselves with a variety of weapons and congregate near the powered off galaxy map. Now was the time they took back their ship. Shepard came up with a brief plan of action.

"Our first objective will be securing the occupants on crew deck," the Commander began explaining to his teammates, horseshoed around him. "Miranda—Samara… you'll accompany me in doing that."

The Asaria Justicar gave the Commander a brisk nod, while Miranda gave a halfheartedly nod of confirmation. Her body language gave off a shameful vibe, a direct result of her earlier behavior that nearly doomed them all.

"We also need to get this ship moving again," Shepard went on, bringing his attention to the two frightened systems engineers still visibly shaken up from the ordeal. "I know you're scared… but you two are the only chance we got in getting the Normandy space-worthy again. All you have to do is reinitiate the ignition sequencing that'll get us moving."

"I…" Daniels chokes out before continuing with, "we can do that," she said looking to Donnelly at her side.

"Wut!?" Donnelly quacked, a stunned look sprawled across his face. Seeing all the eyes on him, he quickly straightens up, "I mean, uh… sure, why not," he chuckled nervously.

"Okay then," Shepard said. "Jack, you'll go along with them."

Jack shrugged, "awesome," she chirped dryly. "Now how are the three of us gonna reach engineering? Cus I don't think these things are just gonna let us stroll right in without trying to bite off our asses."

"The… maintenance tunnel," Joker said, limping over towards the group. His voice was still raspy from Miranda's chokehold. "I used it to… slip the Collectors when they boarded the ship. It'll take you straight to Engineering—you just gotta follow it to the end."

"That's right," Jacob chimed in, "the shaft snakes through each deck of the ship. You can access it from a stepladder in Mordin's lab."

Shepard nodded his head, liking the plan so far. "Alright then, everyone knows their jobs."

The team began to move out when Zaeed stopped Shepard.

"I can help too, Shepard."

"You can help yourself," Shepard countered. "By staying here in the CIC, guard Joker if any more of these aliens should show up."

Shepard attempted to walk off when Zaeed gripped the Commander's arm.

"I. Can. Help," he declared strongly, but Shepard knew the man must have been going through intense pain by the way he was slouched over in his stance and his gaze continued to slip from eye contact.

"Stay here, Massani," Shepard pulled his shoulder out the man's grasps. "And try not to die." Leaving for the elevator, Shepard also ordered Jacob to remain on the CIC to defend Joker… and to keep Zaeed from being… well, himself.

Jack, Donnelly and Daniels made their way through Mordin's lab, and Shepard, Miranda and Samara were armed and ready to face whatever lied on the deck below.


Something caught Mordin's attention in the hanger bay. He noticed the line of equipment crates that were stacked up were know knocked down. There wasn't a reason for this, and it certainly stuck out as abnormal.

Walking towards the crates, Mordin heard Legion call out his name with enough emphises that it didn't sound normal, even for a machine. Before Mordin could pivot to face the Geth, something had slashes at him from behind and severed his breathing apparatus hose to his suit. He heard the air gushing right out into the vacuum. No time to recover, Mordin is knocked away like a ragdoll and goes sliding to a stop on the hanger floor.

Dazed, fear and confusion ran through the Salarian's brain. As his suit drained of breathable air, Mordin brought his attention up to four grotesque humanoid forms converging on him. It didn't seem real at first, but they had their mind set on potentially killing him. And Mordin knew it.

Unarmed and not protected, Mordin made a dash for the air lock door where he tries to hail in Garrus which proved futile. The Turian wasn't there, which meant there was no one around to get Mordin out of this death trap of a hanger. If it wasn't the depleting oxygen levels of his suit that threaten to kill him, it were these things trapped in the hanger with him that would.

Luckily, Legion stepped in to defend Mordin against the alien threats. Whereas Mordin noted that the aliens didn't attack Legion as much as they did him.

The Geth made quick work of the multi limbed creatures, literally pulling and breaking them apart till there was nothing left but entrails.

"Salarian Ally, are you unharmed?"

"Miraculously yes," Mordin replied, "though momentarily, I will not be."


Rebounding from the gash to his face, Garrus retreats a few steps down the corridor, leading the limed creature away from the Human girl.

"That's right you ugly bastard…" the Turian may have mumbled. "Come and get me."

His words were nothing but empty bluffs. He did everything possible to kill this thing—even smashed its head off, but even that didn't do anything. Garrus came to the conclusion that he doesn't have to kill it, just keep it occupied enough till reinforcements arrive. Unknown to the Turian at the time, reinforcements were a pipedream. He couldn't call for help even if wanted with his hailer destroyed during the scuffle. There was no backing down from this fight.

Garrus was running out of options fast, literally backing down the length of the corridor with this thing relentlessly perusing. At least its attention was off the little girl, for now.

The Turian had done everything possible in trying to stop this thing, but nothing seemed to work. His body flamed with pain and agony, but he couldn't go down giving up. He had no choice but to fight to the death…

"GET DOWN!" A strong voice yelled from behind Garrus. It was from Thane, racing up the same steps the girl had used. Only this time, the Drell was trailing Grunt behind him, who was oddly enough holding a piece of machinery over his head.
Garrus didn't hesitate to drop at the moment Grunt chucked the large piece of machinery at a fleeing Thane, who dived to the floor just in time. The piece of jagged piece of metal flew overhead and down the length of the corridor. Garrus watched as the massive object collided with the tentacle armed menace he had been fighting and crushed it to death.

"Shit. Nice toss, Grunt," the Turian chuckled picking himself up off the floor.

"I'm afraid Grunt isn't home," Thane said.

Garrus turned to face the hulking Krogan standing at the other end of the corridor. The Krogan was covered in brownish muck from top to bottom, even still, Garrus was able to see the raging intensity in the alien's eyes.

"Is it safe?" The little Human girl questioned dashing out from her hiding spot and ran to a stop next to Garrus. "Is the scary monster gone?"

"Yeah, we took care of it," Garrus told her, not taking his eye off Grunt. "Go back to your hiding place, young one. It still isn't safe."

The girl gasped at the sight of Grunt, stonewalling at the opposite end of the corridor. His eyes beamed back at them with deadly intentions.

"Remove the Human child out of this," Thane said to Garrus. "I'll handle Grunt."

"Thane—"

"I'll handle him," Thane declared.

Garrus simply nodded his head and backed away towards the girl, grabbing her by the wrist. "Come with me," Garrus said pulling the girl out the corridor where he knew what was going to go down.


Shepard felt his heart in his throat, gripping the body of a modified Systems Alliance assault rifle tightly in his grasps. He had no idea what he was getting himself and his fellow teammates into.

"Tali, what's your status?" He said over his hailer now active on an open channel.

"We're still hanging in there, Shepard," her voice came back. "Those things aren't giving up… whatever you have to do—do it now!"

"Just ten more seconds Tali—hang on!"

The stress of reaching his crewmates fed off Shepard's adrenalin. He was itching to get out this lift and shoot anything that didn't look like any galactic species he's ever seen. The elevator chimes as the trio arrived on deck three.

"Soon as those doors open… you shoot anything with teeth bigger than its face." Shepard ordered Miranda and Samara. The two simply nod pointing the ends of their weapons out in front of them.

The doors part ways, and almost immediate, a wall of those twisted, mangled forms were just waiting on them.

Shepard didn't know who fired first, just a barge of bullets following the thunderous cadence of their weapons sounding off. Chunks and pieces of flesh blasted off the aliens as their rounds tore through them, yet these relentless beings weren't going down that easy. In fact, they actually converge upon Shepard and his teammates. Dozens of pincer like arms clog the opening to the elevator, along with a dozen more waiting in the outside hall.

Hip firing his weapon, Shepard backtracks into the elevator, managing to blow away one of those creatures before it chomped down on him with its scythe like arms. His back was against the wall and these things just kept coming. Their roaring screeches and mangled voices clogged Shepard's ears that he just barely made out Miranda shouting. "CLOSE THE BLOODY DOOR!"

Since the Commander was nearest to the panel, he hits one of the disgusting aliens across the jaw with the butt end of his rifle then forcefully nudged it out the door with his shoulder. The alien trips over another that was prone on the floor and tumbles out into the corridor. In a hurry, Shepard tapped the 'close door' button but to their misfortune, the holographic interface flashed orange, canceling that order.

"The fuck are you waiting for, Shepard?!" Miranda shouted.

"Damn door's stuck!" Shepard told her. "A little help wouldn't hurt?!"

At that moment, Samara unleashes a massive biotic wave that sends the creatures flying back into the corridor wall and out the elevator. The control panel transposed back to its normal hue of blue and the doors closed shut and the elevator began its rise back up to the CIC. That was the case, until the lift became stuck in the shaft and everything went stone quiet.

Samara's legs buckled from under her and she fainted limp. Shepard caught her then gently set the Asari down gently. Even someone of her caliber could get taxed by biotic after effects.

"Shepard…?!" Tali's crummy voice comes through over Shepard's hailer. "Where are you guys? Did you…"

"I'm sorry, Tali," Shepard grudged out. "There were too many—we couldn't… we couldn't get through. I'm sorry."

Tali's end went silent beside the sound of the creatures banging and scrapping against the metal keeping them out. Shepard felt so defeated. That there was nothing he could do to reach his trapped crewmates without getting someone killed. It was hard to take in… after defeating the Collectors they were going to die onboard their own ship.

Stirring his attention, Shepard heard Miranda groan, holding a hand to her abdomen. She stood leaning her back against the wall, her off-white Cerberus uniform was stained in crimson red. "It's nothing," she blew off. "Just a… a flesh wound…" Her voice becomes a slur and she slid to the floor.

Shepard shifted over from Samara to check on her. Gently he moved Miranda hands away only to see a scythe like appendage sticking out from her.

"Jesus!" He swore at the sight.

"Shepard…" Miranda groaned weakly trying to move.

"No—no stay still," Shepard told her. "Just… don't move…"

He had no idea what to do. With absolutely no medi-gel or anything to stop the bleeding, Shepard cleared the panic from his mind and pulled his shirt off. As quickly as he could, he tied a knot around the sharpen appendage in an effort to keep Miranda from bleeding out any further than she already had. He fought the temptation of pulling the sharpen object out of her, only knowing it'll cause her to bleed out quicker.

"Hold your hand there—you'll be alright," Shepard took Miranda's hand and held it firmly over the shirt, quickly transforming red. "Keep your eyes open—okay?"

Now with both Miranda and Samara incapacitated, there was little to no hope at all in taking back the Normandy. But this was just the start of the downward spiral that's soon to come.

"Shepard…" Tali's voice trialed through the light static of the hailer. "Don't take responsibility for this. I know how you are."

Shepard just remain numb to the conversation, practically sitting on the hard metal floor. He wanted to say something so bad… to tell her that it'll be alright. But both of them knew it was a sugarcoated lie.

"Whatever happens…" Tali went on. "Just make sure the galaxy knows what happened here. Do you hear me?"

Shepard bit his tongue. He knew these were probably Tali's last words… and it made him physically sick to his stomach in hearing her say this.

Just when Shepard was throwing in the towel for his doom crewmates, another voice reported over the hailer and it rejuvenated Shepard's hope.

The voice, Shepard made out faintly but was able to recognize that it belonged to Kasumi.

"Now are two trying to make me cry?" Came the woman's sarcastic tone.

"Kasumi?!" Shepard snatches the hailer off his hip and holds it close to his mouth. "W-what's your status? Where are—"

"Starboard observation deck—locked myself in," came the elusive woman's replied. "Loss count of how many of them things are outside... though they seemed to have grown in numbers."

"Are you hurt?" Shepard asked. "Are you with anyone else?"

"I'm running solo on this one, Shep," she said, ignoring the other part of his question. "I can't reach Tali in the med-bay… not without getting everyone killed." She went silent on her, panting her breaths. "But… there might be another way…"

Shepard's blood chilled at the tone that haunted Kasumi's voice. "Kasumi, what are you—?"

"The lift—it's pressurized, correct?" Kasumi questioned cutting Shepard's sentence short.

At that moment, Shepard's realization of what Kasumi was planning hits home. The Commander slowly rose from his seated position on the floor, petrified. "Kasumi, listen to me…" he tried to reason with the woman, but he could tell she wasn't listening at all on her end. From her end, there was a constant hitting noise resonating through the receiver.

"What's that sound?" Tali's voices comes through. "What are you doing, Kasumi?"

The woman didn't reply, but that hitting noise intensified in her silence. Tali continued to try and get Kasumi's attention with no avail. Shepard on the other hand, knew exactly what she was trying to do.

"Look, don't do this, Kasumi," Shepard tried to plea one last time. "We'll find another way—it doesn't have to be like this!"

"I wish that were the case, Shepard." Kasumi finally said. "But you and I both know… everyone onboard this ship is screwed a thousand times over. Some more than others. At least some of us will make it out this mess…"

"No!" Shepard said strongly, his hand griping the hailer tightly. "We're all going to make it out of this—we're all gonna live!"

"Stop lying to yourself, Shepard," came Kasumi's reply. Her voice totally different from her usual matter, it carried a glimmer of desperation. "No incentive words of yours is gonna get us outta this one. But this just might…"

At that instant, the rushing sounds of a door opening following the unmistakable noise of those creatures flood Kasumi's end. Shepard psychically shook when he heard Kasumi's screams dominate the noise of her hailer. And then, there was a sudden and loud blast that splinters Shepard's ears and then… totally silence.

"Oh no…" Tali's chilled. "Did she…? Is she…?"

Shepard shook his head, "she's gone, Tali. Kasumi's gone."


"The fok is dat?" Zaeed asked coming over behind Joker's chair in the cockpit. He, the pilot and Jacob attention was held by a scaled model of the Normandy. A warning indicator flashed red for the entire crew deck compartment.

"Holy shit," Jacob swore chillingly. "I think the… crew deck just… depressurized."

Breaking their conversation, the roar emitting from more of those aliens come baring down on them from across the CIC. It's like this nightmare was never going to end.

Zaeed immediately started shooting with his handgun at the advancing creatures making quick pace for the cockpit. He is immediately joined by Jacob and Joker.

"MOTHER…FUCKER!" Zaeed emptied an entire clip into mass of aliens squeezing their way down the narrow fuselage of the CIC. They might as well started shooting spitballs at the ugly bastards.

It isn't soon until one of the sharpen armed creatures began a sudden charge directly for Zaeed. At the last possible moment, Jacob used his biotic, wonder-boy powers that swept the charging alien off its feet and sent it flying back into the mass of aliens.

Before the aliens had time to regroup, a massive blast door came down, cutting off passage to the fuselage and the cockpit.

"That should… keep em' out," Joker's hoarse voice said.

"Yea, fast thinking there, kid…" Zaeed began to say sarcastically. "Let's just hit the button that sends the big fuckin' door down now." Zaeed flailed his arms, "and now we're foking trapped."

"Our objective is to defend the cockpit at all cost," Jacob reminded. "As long as those things don't get in here…"

"Yet," Zaeed said sharply, cutting Jacob off.

"No chance," Joker said. "Four inches of solid titanium. Gotta be the Hulk to bust through that bullshit."

"Whateva yew say," Zaeed said ill-fatedly.

Coming over the cockpit dashboard, the Commander's voice hailed in. Shepard sounded like he was beyond tired, though his voice retained a bit of authority.

"Joker… what's your status?"

"We had trouble up here in the CIC… it's taken care of," Joker replied. "Nav center is secured airtight, just awaiting word from Jack's group to get us the fuck outta here."

"What 'bout yew?" Zaeed questioned. "We saw up here dat crew deck spaced out."

It took the Commander a moment to reply before narrowly saying, "I know. It was Kasumi."

"Wait—what?" Joker's weak voice cracked. "Commander—"

"Look, Miranda's severely wounded and we're stuck on the lift," the Commander informed changing the subject. "Can you get us moving on your end, Joker?"

"I-I'll see what I can do, Commander," Joker told him. "Just… gemmie a sec, alright?"


Successfully navigating their way through the shaft, Kenneth, along with Gabby and Jack arrived in the engineering compartment. Kenneth was shaking all over fearing more of those things would come bearing down on them. Luckily for now, that wasn't the case, and engineering was eerily quiet.

"Alright hurry up you two," Jack said. "Don't got time to be jackin' off. We get these engines started and we'll be home free."

"I hope so," Kenneth shivered.

"Aye, it ain't no 'hope so'—just do what we came down here for," Jack told him coldly.

Kenneth wasn't going to argue, not cause the bald woman was wielding a shotgun but also because she was right.

Engineering was plunged in darkness with just a little light granted enabling Kenneth to see where to go. His mind was still foggy with the aspects of the controls down here, but Gabby seemed to have knew what she was doing.

"Alright, I've found the ignition sequencing control unit," the woman said tapping away at a holographic interface. "We'll have to prime the system back online simultaneously… if I can remember correctly…"

Kenneth just hovered over her shoulder like a lost puppy. He stared at the source coding scrolling down the length of the holographic screen but it all looked like random letters and numbers. Gabby steered her attention over at him.

"You're gonna have to hop on that other control panel over there," Gabby gestures to the CPU across from her. "Don't worry, I'll walk you through the protocol." She reassured.

"Okay… alright—I can dew dis," Kenneth told himself, even though he didn't believe so.

Suddenly, a sharp metallic thump caused Kenneth to jump in fright. There was scrapping emitting from the other side of the locked door leading into engineering. Kenneth knew what was trying to get in.

"Aye, just stay focus on what you're doin'," Jack told him. "And make it fast."


Grunt came at Thane with an intense ferociousness that the Drell was anticipating. There was plenty of time, yet limited space in the corridor to dodge the charging Krogan effectively, but Thane took the chance.

Thane swerved his body to the side just as Grunt's large mass came barreling at him. His left arm caught hold of the Krogan's head, where Thane swung himself onto Grunt's backside.

"Final chance. Calm down now, Grunt," Thane pleaded with the unexpected raging Krogan. He was prepared to put Grunt down, shall it come to that. But that was a last resort for Thane, he just needed a way to restrain the…

Thane felt Grunt's huge hands snatch him up off him and toss him hard to the floor. The Krogan's foot than slammed down on Thane's back, of which the Drell expelled blood drench saliva from his mouth. Grunt than kicked the Drell away like a ragdoll sending Thane slamming hard into the corner section of the bulkhead back first.

At that moment, Thane recalled seeing the Turian stepping out from the airlock entrance of which he stored the Human girl from harm's way. The Turian had made up his mind to step in.

"No—don't," Thane croaked failing to stand up. "Protect the Human child."

"I'll handle Grunt, you wait here," Garrus told him.

Thane had no energy to protest. The Turian dragged him out the corridor and into the airlock chamber. The frighten face of the Human child huddled down in a corner opposite to Thane was the last thing he remembered before blacking out.


The longer Kenneth, Gabby and Jack remained in engineering, the meaner those monsters got from beyond the door. Their pounding and relentless inchoerenht shouting resonated through the thick door, acting as a preview of what was to come next.

"Hurry the fuck up you two!" Jack shouted over at them through the dark.

Kenneth was shaking like a leaf and his fingers were drenched in a nervous sweat as he raced to finish the ignition sequence that'll hopefully bring the Normandy back and running. It was like the more he typed, the more the source coding made sense, it wasn't soon until the steps were falling back into place like a puzzle he'd finished a hundred types before. He could thank Gabby for her input in it all. Kenneth couldn't understand how she remained calm through their dilemma. He suggested that being afraid would get everyone who's left on the Normandy killed and they couldn't afford that.

"We're almost there," Gabby Said over to Jack. "Just one more minute and—"

—The sound of screeching metal splintered through the engineering compartment. It was soon accompanied by the roaring screams of the monsters who had forced their way in.

"Don't got a fuckin' minute!" Jack shouted. The sound of her shotgun blasting off bashed against Kenneth's eardrums. His heart was racing a million times a second at this rate and he was desperate in finishing the sequencing protocol which seemed never ending at the time.

The deafening sound of Jack's shotgun and the mumbling gargles of those demeaning aliens left Kenneth wondering if it'll ever end. He described it as the most terrifying thunderstorm anyone could be caught in. Only this thunderstorm was aimed in killing him.

Finally, after what felt like forever, the holographic interface on the console illuminates a soft blue with the words 'Ignition Primed'. They got it, now all they had to do was release the auxiliary latch and the mass effect core will be back online.

"Look—you guys gotta hurry this shit up!" Jack shouted from somewhere in the compartment. "Don't know how long I can keep theses fuckers off us!"

Kenneth couldn't see a damn thing, but he could smell the aliens' musty scent around him.

"Just go for the ladder—I'll take care of it from here!" Gabby told her. "You too, Kenneth."

"No! We'll finish it together—I can—"

"I'm the closets to the switch—you won't make it!" Gabby retaliated.

She was right, sadly of course. There was no way—without getting killed, that Kenneth was going to reach the latch… it had to be her.

"Just get out of here!" Those were Gabby's last words to him before the flood of those monsters forced Kenneth to make a run for the ladder. Jack wasn't too far behind him.

"C'mon—move yer ass man!" Jack encouraged that made Kenneth climb the ladder faster. He could still hear Jack firing off her weapon—possibly at a few aliens that chased after them. Between here shots and the flaring screams from the creatures, Kenneth felt a piece of him break when he heard Gabby's wailing screams echoing up the ladder. He felt so guilty for running, but there was no other way all of them were going to get out of there alive if he chose to stay behind.


Zaeed along with Joker and Jacob saw the blinking blue light that flashed off the nav computer dashboard. "Please tell me dat's something good?" Zaeed asked.

"Commander—propulsion systems are back online!" Joker managed to crack excitedly.

"Then vector us outta here Joker," the Commander ordered. "Same coordinate as before."

"Aye—aye," Joker acknowledged.

The pilot made quickly with the FTL protocols then pushed down on the throttle which screamed back the welcoming roar of the mass effect core. It wasn't soon after that the blue-shift encapsulated the craft.

Joker fell back in his seat and puffed a sigh.

At that moment, Jacob remarked, "you two hear that?"

"Wut?" Zaeed questioned with a shrug.

A smirk grew across Jacob's face as he eyed the two, "exactly."

Noting the near silence, the realization of what Jacob was saying hits him.

Joker reaches over the dashboard and hits the button that sent the security door that locked them in the cockpit. By the time the door had risen, the three of them had the shock of their lives… all the aliens lied lifelessly in a pile on the floor.

"What… the actual… fuck?" Zaeed remarked in his comrades absences of words.


Shepard felt the pitch of the lift moving once again, but it was moving down towards deck four. Miranda was stable and surprisingly conscious even as she lied in a pool of her own blood. Samara had recovered enough from her massive biotic break and aided in keeping Miranda alive.

"The… ship's propulsion…" Miranda tried to say.

"Yeah, we got the Normandy moving again," Shepard told her.

At that moment, the elevator doors opened to eerie silence of deck four. Shepard grabbed hold of his weapon and ordered Samara to stay at Miranda's side while he ventured into the darkness of deck four.

He had no idea what to expect but he knew right away that something wasn't right.

"Commander?" Joker's voice came through over his hailer.

"What is it, Joker?" Shepard replied in a whisper.

"The aliens, sir… they just…died or somethin'."

Shepard stopped walking, taking a moment to understand what Joker is saying. Just as he was going to asks what the hell the pilot meant, something caught the Commander's eye. Piercing his eye through the shallow darkness, Shepard spots a large mass lying on the floor at the mouth of the hanger airlock. Stepping closer down the corridor, Shepard made out an unconscious Grunt laying alongside an unresponsive Garrus. There was so much blue blood… Shepard knew it belonged to Garrus and it looked bad.

Shepard immediately fell to Garrus' side trying to get a response from the Turian. He roughly shook Garrus but the Turian's eyes were wide open, starring up at the ceiling with no life behind them at all. Shepard knew, that Garrus—one of his closes friends, was dead.

"I couldn't stop it…" Shepard heard a voice mumble from inside the airlock. It came from Thane, strangely huddled in a corner comforting the limp, bloody child in his grasps. "I couldn't stop it. I couldn't stop it…"

Thane gone, mentally, and Shepard knew it. He was broken beyond anything Shepard could image.

"Aye, it's alright," Shepard said as reassuring as his voice can get. He knelled down near his friend reaching an arm out to embrace the shattered Drell. From the Commander's touch, Thane began to whimper, tightening his grip on the presumed dead girl. "It's okay…" Shepard said quietly rubbing a hand down Thane's arm, "it's over now. It's over."