Earth, 2186 CE

Niya was taking it slow and being unusually cautious as they made their way to the landing zone, for which he was grateful, the nerves already had his stomach in knots. He heard a muted voices from the cockpit before Niya called out to them, "Hold on to something, it's about to get fun."

He barely had time to react before the shuttle swerved violently to the side, almost knocking him off his feet. It was some time before the shuttle was stable enough for him to make it to the cockpit.

"Report," he ordered.

"It's that freaking AA gun, someone was supposed to have taken it out by now." as she spoke, she gestured wildly with one hand, keeping the other firmly on the controls, for which he was glad.

Ven turned to face him, "we tried to radio the team responsible but. ..." he trailed off, the obvious left unsaid.

"And it's not like we have the equipment to do it. So, what's the plan, Captain?" Niya asked.

"We'll have to find another landing zone."

She choked out a laugh, "No disrespect meant, sir, but have you seen it out there? There is nowhere else safe to land!"

"What other choice do we have?" Ven asked.

"Find us somewhere to land out of targeting range of that gun. We can handle any enemies we might face," he ordered.

"Right, let's hope they don't shoot us down first." Niya muttered as she began scouting out a decent enough LZ. "There," she pointed at the map projected from her omni-tool to a site a few clicks away from their original destination, "doesn't seem to be many life signs within scanning range, could be safe."

"Good work," he laid a hand on a her shoulder and squeezed gently, "now take us in." she nodded and he left to inform the rest of his team. As he left the cockpit all eyes turned to him.

"What happened?"

"We had to find a new site to land." He readied his rifle and checked the clip as he walked to the door. "We're heading down now but we don't know what's out there so be prepared for anything."

A few of his team stood by him as he opened the door and scanned the surrounding area, it appeared clean so he gave the all clear to land. As the shuttle touched down they all made their way out, weapons ready and alert. A quick scan showed the location of the life signs they had seen earlier, he signalled his team to stay silent before he and Aela headed towards the signal.

As they turned a corner they found the source of the signal, two creatures huddled around a fallen ally, feasting on it's corpse, now he saw why some had taken to calling them cannibals. They hadn't noticed them yet and Aela took the opportunity to take one out silently, pressing it's head into the ground with the heel of her foot and he followed her lead, taking out the other before it had a chance to react. It was a wise decision, shooting them would only waste thermal clips and alert any nearby enemies to their presence. Once they were as sure as they could be that they were safe, they headed back to the group.

2033 lead them to an Alliance forward operating base, not the one they were expected at, but the closest to their current location. As the walked the streets he took the time to really look at the city, he imagined it may have been beautiful once but now it was covered in rubble and corpses, both friend and foe, the FOB was in a partially destroyed building, this looked every bit the war zone it was. Soldiers of every race gathered around the base, some hard at work, patching up the wounded, fixing the tanks and watching the perimeter, while others got some much needed rest. His team made themselves useful while they waited for orders.

Almost an hour had gone by before they were finally called to action and ordered to protect the tanks, it seemed like a simple task but he knew it would be anything but. He patched his suits comm into the radio so he could get a better idea how the rest of Hammer was doing and it seemed, for the most part, that all was going well. He knew Shepard was out there somewhere and wherever she was, Tali was sure to be. Though he shouldn't—she could look after herself and was with one of the most well respected soldiers in the galaxy—he couldn't help but worry for her safety, she had been like a sibling to him back on the Rayya.

As he looked to the sky he could see the Citadel in the distance, the light it emitted acting as a beacon as they made their way towards it. 2033, who had been leading their group, stopped and scanned the area quickly, "enemy forces incoming." it announced.

"You gotta give us more than that! Where are they coming from?" Ven asked.

Rei had pulled up her omni-tool to get her own scan of the area, "Everywhere." She brought up a projection that showed heat signatures closing in on them from almost every direction. Until now they had encountered but a few stragglers, now it was as if they had kicked the nest.

"Stay in small groups, stick to cover and don't let yourself get overwhelmed. Move!" He ordered before taking off with Josin and Rei, finding cover behind some rubble that would allow him to fire his gun with relative safety. Husks and Cannibals poured in from everywhere, lead by packs of Marauders. They worked together to take out as many as they could and he could see the rest of his team doing the same. Rei fired cryo-blasts at groups of enemies, freezing them in place so he and Josin could take them out easier with their rifles, but no matter how many they killed, more just kept coming.

For what seemed like hours they were kept pinned down, unable to do much of anything. What had started out easy became increasingly difficult as Brutes and Banshees tried to flush them from cover, but they had made it through with only minor injuries. He had tuned in and out of the radio as he fought, only taking in what seemed important, they had failed their mission, that much he knew. They were supposed to get the tanks closer to the beam to take out a destroyer, like the one the fleet took down on Rannoch, but were too far away to target the thing, luckily it had been taken care of and what remained of Hammer started their push to the beam.

As he heard that the rest of Hammer had been wiped out, he was frozen in fear, it couldn't all be for nothing. He barely registered the shouts, barely felt it as he was pushed forward, only snapping out of his terror, too late, as he was knocked forward by a blast, he felt his face plate break, glass cutting into his flesh, as he collided with a wall before finally hitting the ground and blacking out.

Minutes felt like days as he faded in and out of conciousness. He fought against the pain to take in his surroundings; Rei was laying on the ground not far from him, a frantic Niya at her side, she was speaking, perhaps shouting, but he could barely make out the words over the ringing in his ears. On the battlefield he could see 2033 shielding two of the recruits from enemy fire and he could see Aela doing her best to protect the rest of his team as enemies tried to flank them. He had barely seen 0402 during the fighting as she shimmered in and out of sight but now she stood in the open, her light focused on him. He could do nothing to warn her as a Banshee plunged its claws into her chest, wires sparking and white liquid oozing out as she was lifted of the ground.

Just when he had thought her as good as dead, her fist sparked with more electricity than he thought possible, she slammed her fist into the creatures face and it stumbled back in pain, dropping her in the process. As she lay lifeless on the ground he felt something he could have never imagined just months ago, grief over the loss of a Geth. His grief was chased away as her light flickered on, much dimmer than he had ever seen it but it was still a sign of life and that meant more to him than he ever thought it would.

He almost choked as he coughed up blood but smiled when he felt the cool air on his face, a feeling he was glad to have experienced at least once before the end. All the time he had spent with her, 0402 had been changing and he hadn't even noticed, but as he watched her now, he saw it. As she fought the last of the Reapers she seemed just as alive as any organic, perhaps even more so, which was almost funny given how damaged she was now. With deadly precision she took out the last remaining enemy and ran to his side.

"Kal!"

Funny, she had never called him anything but "Creator Reegar" in the past. She knelt beside him, "please..." she begged, his heart ached at the sound of her voice, he didn't think it was possible for a Geth to sound so distraught. She clutched his hand in hers, a gesture that was more comforting than he would have imagined, he squeezed her hand and smiled up at her.

"Please don't leave me..." her mechanical whisper was the last thing he heard before everything was bathed in a brilliant green light and he fell into darkness once more.

Authors notes: So, most of this chapter is completely new and it turned out much longer than I was expecting, which I hope is a good thing. If you'd like, let me know what you think, I'm always looking to improve. :)