As with all things of late, time was a very critical commodity in very short supply. The taskforce was currently in high orbit over Zion, hiding in the planet's magnetic field. The Normandy now joined the group, taking on an emergency crew that needed to be trained while preparing to go on what many assumed would be a wild goose chase. Admiral Hackett stood at the Galaxy map in the CIC, an air of anger warding off any that might be bold enough to approach.

The C-Sec officers- Hyrawl Skarsgaard and Tarkus D'saad- were aboard with the asari scientist Yasea Renthe. They brought along a massive cargo container, medical equipment, medical grade nanites, a resevoir of omnigel and medigel, and several geth to help. What they were working wasn't clear to the Admiral, some sort of armor designed for a biotic shock trooper. At this point, Hackett would take anything he could get. Which was partly why Wrex was along. He knew Shepard helped the krogan overcome the the genophage, but the grateful krogan were still as violent and ready to fight as ever. Hopefully that got put to good use.

As for the rest of the taskforce, it was sitting idle. There was no telling what had happened to Shepard by now. EDI and Miranda were hard at work combing through thousands of encrypted transmissions to pinpoint where Cerberus was hiding. On top of all of that, Hackett wasn't here to supervise. He was here to fight. But like everyone else, he needed direction.

...

"Are you sure you want to go through with this?"

Yasea watched the human Hyrawl, unsure of everything at this point. What he was planning to go through with would in all likelihood kill him. Now or when the mission was completed. What they had finished building and preparing was a large powered armor. While not uncommon in this day and age, it was mainly an external biotic amp, capable of far more than most asari were until they reached their matriarch years.

"Yeah, I'm the only other biotic here that doesn't have any other duty. Nothing to go back to either, really. I don't even know if C-Sec exists anymore," Hyrawl said, almost distant as he looked at the machine he was about to test. It was certianly intimidating looking, it's body reminded him of a geth prime. Transmitters and sensor equipment in the blade extensions reaching up from the shoulders. Covered in moving plated armor, it even had an articulate face. Mandibles like a turian, with sharp angled 'teeth'. It was further modified with a new left arm, as his own prothsesis would not work within it.

What was making Yasea doubtful of the whole thing was the black spikes sticking out of it's chest, back, sides, shoulders and thighs. They were composed of nanites, and they were going to be injected into the human's body. Ideally, this process would be gradual, well in advance of testing the suit itself. But with time against them, they had to gamble on chance. Essentially, conduits had to be woven into his entire body to allow the various VIs in the suit to monitor and maintain his body in combat.

It would also allow him to better interface witht he suit to allow it to amplify his biotics. But the pain involved with aggressive nanite infestation would drive even an asari justicar insane, if not kill them outright. How could he hope to survive this? WHy was this human doing this? Yasea had to know. She stepped in front of him, standing almost intimately close, hands gripping his arms to get his attention.

"But why? With the krogan and the geth alone this could be pulled off! How is killing yourself going to improve the chances of success?"

Looking into the asari's troubled eyes, he forgot for a moment she hardly knew him at all. Much of his life, he was keenly focused on the asari as a species, then he found he was quite fond of them, hoping one could have a life with him. But most were so restless, not ready to settle down within a human lifetime. Maybe he had given up a little hope in the end.

"Because I am not as capable as Shepard. She's done things I cannot. I'm not that flexable. I've lived long enough to see what I am good for, and in the days to come, I'm not going to be that useful. SO why linger and remind everyone else of what was?"

"So you're a coward then?"

That evoked a strong reaction. It cut deep and the asari thought for a moment he might lash out at her. But he managed to keep control and looked away from her. "It isn't fear." Yasea wasn't satisfied, reaching up to turn his chin to face her. "Then what is it?"

"I guess it's genetic. My bloodline hails from a cold, unforgiving place on Earth. The gods there were powerful, but only fate could topple them. The gods knew the hour of their end, but they fought against it anyway. I am a human, my life is so short compared to yours. You can live to see the galaxy flourish again. I won't be that lucky. At least I would be remembered trading my life for that of the great Commander Shepard."

"So is it glory? What? I thought humans were good at doing what couldn't be done? That possiblities and probablitites were just a minor inconvieniance!"

The hanger fell silent after that. Yasea was almost shaking. Hyrawl looked a little troubled, like he was beginning to doubt himself. "What would you have me do, then? We don't even know if she still lives. Cerberus still has to be dealt with. It's not the best solution. Not the safest, or cost effective, or most subtle. Maybe this will all work out, or we all die. The ideal situation sare few and for between for humans. So we go with being bold occasionally. It doesn't always work out, but like Shepard has proven- it works when it needs to."

...

"What's the status down here?"

A question asked more times than any of them would have liked. Yasea, a geth, and Tarkus were all completing last minute checks before Hyrawl probably ruined his existance. Admiral Hackett was getting impatient and Wrex was wanting to kill something. EDI and Miranda had identifed a hidden outpost on Terra Nova that Cerberus was at least holding some of the Normandy's crew. He wanted to know if Hyrawl would be joining them.

"We'll be ready to start in a minute or two. What we're about to do might kill him, but if it works, he'll be able to get you Shepard." Yasea would not look away from her console, making last minute revisions in sections of code. Hackett walked to the container, looking through the containment field to see Hyrawl just before he closed up the suit and donned the helmet.

"I hear it'll hurt like hell. Any chance you'd reconcider this? Can't use you if you're dead," Hackett said, eyeing the menacing armature's face.

"No time to back out now. At least if it all goes south, you'll all know these things are a bad idea," Hyrawl quipped, stepping into a set of very strong restraints.

"Will those hold him?" Tarkus asked, mainly to the geth that fabricated the containment pod.

"Unknown at this time. Even with the biotic amplifier offline, the stress may induce an upturn in his biotic power."

"Alright, we better do this. If he dies, I assisted in his suicide. If not, I might have crippled him," Yasea said, sounding a little indifferent to the man risking his life. Tarkus muttered something the asari could hear but Hackett couldn't, then gestured everyone back away from the container.

With little ceremony and no time for any last words, the doctor pressed a light on her display, and for a moment nothing appeared to happen. But then, with little warning at all, the armature began twitching. He jerked a little, grunting and growling a little, then when the spikes of nanites jabbed into the body two inches deep. The body arched, and Hyrawl threw back his head and howled. He made no effort to hide his pain, screaming as he felt the sparp spikes drive deeper into his body then branch out in slithering, agonizing slivers.

Tarkus could not watch, he looked away as a fellow officer writhed in pain. Hackett watched, his composure faltering some, in awe that a man was willing to go through this. Yasea watched, silent and trembling as unbidden tears streaked down her cheeks. Half of the nanites had been injected and Hyrawl felt as if it had been going on for hours. He was close to passing out, almost concidering death preferable to this.

But he remembered he couldn't fail. It was his turn to shoulder the hope of an entire galaxy; if only breifly. He had to be strong. Stronger than Cerberus. Stronger than pain. Hackett blinked as the howling changed. A slight inflection of... anger. Howling became deep growling, the voice becoming more synthetic. Soon his growling and roaring sounded like machinery, hissing and bellowing. The nanites' work was nearly done, but now Hyrawl's spasming tore him free of the restraints.

Before he could lunge blindly for the containment field, a shutter slammed down in his way. Pounding both fists into the metal composite and then bashes his head into it. The suit's construction was impressive to say the least, completely unmarred as Hyrawl's adrenaline pumped through all vessels in his body. And all of the sudden, quiet. Heavy breathing could be heard in the container, and then a crash as the human inside collapsed. No one moved for a moment, then the geth advanced silently.

Waving an omnitool over the shutter it slowly retracted, pieces falling to the floor and Hyrawl flopped onto the floor. The geth ran a diagnostic before turning to look up at Yasea and Admiral Hackett. "Proceedure completed. Given rest, he will be ready for duty in 3 hours." The asari then began checking him with her own omnitool. The console nearby lit up with information. The process was hard on him, it did nearly kill him. But he was alive and just needed rest.

...

While Hyrawl recovered, Wrex and the geth would attack the outpost on Terra Nova. The turian ship was escourted by three of the geth frigates. Wrex and the geth would land in shuttles while the turians in orbit jammed all communications. In the dead of night, the shuttles circled the post, dropping Wrex and the geth at the base entrance. Gun platforms on each shuttle would provide cover.

Once on the ground, Cerberus troops trickled out into cover, holding their fire for the moment. They could not cover each attacker, but all they needed was to protect the entrance. One Centurian stepped forward, confident as 30 yards seperated Wrex and himself.

"And what do you want?"

"To fucking kill you!" the krogan shouts, zipping the centurian with a volley from his assault rifle. To say Wrex was waiting to do this was a grave understatement. He threw down his rifle and pulled his trusted shotgun from behind his back, rushing forward with the geth prime hot on his heels. Finishing off the centurian with a single blast of his shotgun, Wrex threw himself into the Cerberus front line, smashing the armored thugs with relative ease. It was like they had all been weakened.

The geth reformed once outside resistance was crushed. Wrex had taken minimal injury and without pause they pushed inside. They all washed over the Cerberus soldiers like a flood, leaving them dead and trambled underfoot. It wasn't much of an outpost, it was just enough to stop over for a short stay. Inside they found a majority of the Normandy's crew. Among them was Grunt, James Vega, and Specialist Traynor. They were in relative good health, just a few scratches or bruises.

"Where's the rest of the crew? Where's Shepard?" Wrex asked Traynor, who was still in shock over the ordeal. When she couldn't answer, the krogan found his tank grown subordinate. "Gone," Grunt said after walking outside with Wrex as the crew was loaded onto the shuttles to begin heading back to the taskforce. "They took Garrus, Joker, that Alliance reporter, the Prothean, Kaiden, Liara and the engineers. They took them to where ever they are holding Shepard. They were talking about killing them in front of her. How the hell can they do that, Wrex?"

The warlord paced away for a moment. A geth appraoched him to report that all OSDs and computer cores were secured and information was being sent to the Normandy to track down Shepard. Waving the geth off, Wrex turned back to Grunt. "Whatever they're doing, we stop them. The anchestors would rise up from the dust if we let them do any more to her. We can't execute anyone just to torment her. She's carried that enough."

Grunt nodded and grinned a little.

"We kill them all."

...

"Admiral, we are ready," EDI informed Hackett as he stood at the galaxy map.

"How much of the crew is ready for this next leg? We are short on time."

EDI was silent for a moment, performing the inqueries needed before reporting back. "Grunt is ready for duty, James will provide support from the shuttles, he sustained a back strain in the struggle when the Normandy was boarded. The remaining crew are at their stations."

"Have you and Miranda found where Shepard is? She doesn't have time for us to survey two or three systems!" Hackett practically roared.

"We have an exact fix on the remaining Cerberus fortification. They are on Therum, through the Artemis Tau Relay. Near the northern polar region. I have the course laid in and have informed the taskforce of our new heading."