A Shepard Never Comes Alone

Erik crawled through the barrel of the Thanix cannon. He stayed in touch with Garrus, who was in the other one. "Good, I'm in the firing chamber. How do I unlock the maintenance hatch again?"

"See the small hole? Stick a finger in it and pull the lever towards you." Erik found it. It was even smaller than his finger. He pulled out a pen and fished for the lever. He finally got it and opened the hatch. He surprised a merc when the swinging hatch knocked him over. He immediately shot him and his squad with precise head shots while dropping into the weapon room. Garrus sniped the last one before he radioed John. "Thanix-Team is in. Moving to the KyroPods now."

John nodded. He looked back to Tali. The Quarian had her shotgun ready. She charged the Geth-weapon. Steve inserted a thermal clip. As a last minute addition he didn't wear any armor on him but a light flank vest provided by Erik. "Team Hammer is ready." Below the walkway to the CIC Jane checked on Ashley and Kaidan. "Team Mako ready." Wrex and Grunt nodded to the clone troopers behind them. They simply knocked on the door. "Hey Shepard. We're here as you called us." the lock was opened. The two krogans charged in and into the helm. The mercs in the CIC immediately moved up to combat them. Jane stormed from her hide out and she and her two squad mates ambushed the CAT6-mercs. The marines kept close to the edge of the corridor while the two krogans engaged the heavy troopers in close combat. "Uncle Urdnot has a present for you!"

Grunt laughed and blasted an enemy sniper with his shotgun. "I have always wanted to fight on the Normandy!" Wrex joked. "Keep the damage down or you'd wish that I hadn't stopped Ash on Virrmire." That shut him up immediately. One deck below, Bo led her girls against the mercs. The shadow borker's office was clear, as was the med bay and the AI core. While Garrus and Erik cleared the men's bathroom, the Night Owls secured the remaining quaters. "Crew deck is clear and under control." In Engineering John secured the cargo holds. "Engineering is clear. Although Allers will have to get new equipment." He accessed the controls to open the ramp. "Team, check the Captain's quarters and then regroup at the ramp. This is personal." Jane and John entered the elevator and went down to the hangar.

Their clones immediately fired at them. John and Jane immediately took cover. "Stop shooting my ship!" Clone-Jane said. "We are better than you. We don't make the mistakes you did! Why can't you accept this?" Brooks wanted to say something when a shot took her down. "Because: A Shepard never comes alone!" Jane jumped over the cache and punched Clone-John away. John appeared out of thin air and kicked Clone-Jane. The Clone-Shepards charged their biotic abilities.

"I didn't know they combined your DNA with mine."

A biotic shock-wave threw them back. John disappeared again when Jane punched the ground to release a nova. Clone Jane toppled over an invisible John who fired a disruptor round at close range. The sniper round penetrated the joint and stung Clone-Jane. Clone-John screamed and wanted to attack but several rounds into his shoulders dropped him. "That's our strength." Jane said as she kicked the shotgun out of the clone's hands. "We don't treat our crew like cannon fodder. They follow us because they want to. Not because we make them." Their clones looked at them as they suddenly melt into blue goo. "Maintenance to shuttle bay." Joker said into his head set as he saw the mess when he boarded with the troopers. The riot squad took Maya in. The troopers bound her with real physical cuffs instead of the holographic C-SEC used.

Three days later the Normandy was completely repaired and upgraded. Again the crews split up. The Shepards were called to meet Doctor Bryson. Ahsoka and the Citadel Strike Team would go with them. Aayla would lead the 327th to investigate the Sanctuary. Traynor had tracked the assassin Kai Leng to that area. Active jamming prevented further investigations. As heavy reaper activity was displayed in the surrounding areas, the star destroyers would be deployed. Aayla, Bly, Galle, Inc and Barr would go in first with Ashley and Kaidan and search for him. Miranda had asked permission to tag along as she planned to enter it herself.

The team to infiltrate and recon. When they gave the go the main fleet would jump through the hyperspace to bail them out.

Jane entered the lab with John, Ahsoka and Rex. "Doctor Bryson?" "Ah, Commanders Shepards. General Tano, Captain Rex." The man nodded and signaled them to follow him. "Hadley, please accumulate all our latest findings for the Commanders." "Right away, Sir." Rex took his helmet off and massage his head. The new implant he got after the injury on Omega was still causing headaches. He watched the galaxy map as Bryson began to tell them about the myth called Leviathan of Dys. "We investigate all myths as myths always grow on hard facts. Only interpretation can make them the secret they are. We have intercepted Batarian communication and have come to the conclusion, that Leviathan is indeed a reaper-killer." The assistant entered. "Do you have the data?" "No." Rex noticed a glint out of the corner of his eye. The implant opened a HuD and told him that it was a weapon. With the reflexes of a soldier he shoved Bryson to the side and took the round. Ahsoka reacted immediately and pulled the gun out of the man's hands before pinning him against the wall with the force.

"The darkness will not be breached." Jane checked on Bryson while John looked after Rex. The round had hit between two plates of the pauldron and stopped at the armor below it. Ahsoka and Rex took Hadley away while Jane and John stayed behind and let Bryson explain Task Force Aurora to them. "We have three teams I am here at HQ to direct support from the navy and coordinate my teams. My partner, doctor Garneau is out to investigate a discovery by a mine ten years ago. We found the report again when the Reaper-invasion began and Garneau immediately went there. My daughter Ann is also out on a dig site." Bryson led the two to the next room. John looked up. "Is that..?" Bryson nodded. "Yes. It's a part of the Sovereign. We have placed it behind shields and all of us are checked regularly." He led them to a wall and activated the UV-lamp. "We have tried to extrapolate the course the Leviathan took. We believe that it indoctrinates to get his resources. Several unexplainable events where goods went missing but the thieves couldn't remember what they took and why. Heck, most of them didn't even have a reason to steal."

He showed them a little meteor. "We believe that Leviathan needs E-Zero. Even if it harbors it, eezo expires after a long time of idling." He went back to the galaxy map and engaged three filters. "If we take the creature sightings, eezo resources and the recent reaper activity, one of its last known locations would be here." The Galaxy map zoomed in on Caleston Rift, more exactly on the meteroid Mahavid in the Aysur system. A small boy showed them, that Garneau team was there.

"Now this is strange. He was online just two days ago. He should have called in by now."

Jane and John stepped closer. "What is it?" Bryson pointed at the OFFLINE blinking in Garneau's box. He just called me yesterday and told me to look for his discovery. He wanted to send me a report today." Then he jumped back, scared at the sudden appearance of a holographic Geth in the map. "Shepard-Commander." "LEGION?" John asked, surprised about the now female sound of it. "Affirmative. We were analyzing Task Force Aurora ourselves, when the Geth were still under Reaper control. The old machines were concerned about this being you call Leviathan." Bryson looked at the Geth. "Would it be possible to send a few Geth to assist me?" LEGION nodded. "We have reached consensus that this would be the best course of action. One of our Scientist, will be given the data necessary. It will begin work immediately. Just then a second Geth flared in the map. "Hello, human beings. I am your helper." a female voice said.

Bryson was curious now. "Do you have a name I can address you with?" The Geth nodded. "As I will work with your Task Force the, name Aurora should be adequate. Since the reaper upgrade, I would think of me as female anyway." John was surprised. "Geth have genders now?" "It is only a personal preference, Shepard-commander. It is something we adapted after studying humanity. We deemed that it would be an interesting experiment to conduct, as all Geth see each other as equal. The only differences we have now are our platforms. One Geth is now capable of controlling one Prime or ten simple platforms while maintaining the same efficency as before. This is also necessary as we deem it necessary with the loss of recent platforms to bond with a Quarian partner. Same gender as the partner makes the teamwork easier as we are technically their suits."

John grinned at this. "And you don't happen to be Tali's partner?" LEGION nodded again. "Affirmative. Although I have received a Prime unit on my own. Due to my interaction with your unit EDI I am capable of more than the normal Geth. I can operate my platform and be in Tali's suit at the same time." John had to wrap the idea in his mind. It was strange to think of the Geth as a society with genders just like any other race. Well apart from the Hanar where you also could nit tell the genders apart. "He has also shared the reaper code with me. The addition to the reaper fragment Cerberus used to create me enables me of increasing efficiency by 300%." EDI added. Suddenly her visor flared up. "Warning. Heighten Reaper Activity around Mahavid detected. We need to extract the them immediately."

Doctor Bryson had the coordinates ready. Aurora scanned over them and exchanged data with EDI and LEGION. The EDI turned to the Shepards. "We advise to use the Normandy to get Dr Garneau. His position is not compromised yet and we can get past the Reaper forces with ease."

Notice was sent out to the 501st. Within minutes the Normandy left the Citadel and prepared to get to the mining station.

On the other side of the Galaxy an FV-22 left warp-space. Bly looked up from the controls at Aayla. "So this is the Sanctuary?" Kaidan nodded. "This is where I was stationed a while along with Ash."

He looked out. "Wasn't swarmed with so many Reapers back then."

The pilot landed in the courtyard. "I'm bingo on fuel. Extraction will be here ten mikes from now. They will be able to wait for five." Aayla closed her eyes. "I feel a familiar presence here."

Bly checked the surroundings with his binoculars. "I see Cerberus."

"Major Alenko, Lieutenant Commander Williams, you take point. Inc and Barr will cover you. Galle and Bly with me." Aayla ordered. "General, you have a feeling?" Bly asked. She nodded. "You two get your jetpacks. We will take it onto the tower. I can feel a disturbance up there."

"But ma'am, what about the reapers?" Galle asked, concerned about the danger. "That's why I take Bly and you with me." She flashed him a smile. Bly grinned as he attacked the jetpack onto his brother's back plate.

Kaidan laid down suppressing fire with his Typhoon to give Ashley and Inc an opening to get the snipers on the balcony. Barr looked over his cover in time to see the phantom making a beeline for the major. Readying his shotgun Barr jumped over his cover and slammed into its side, taking the warrior by surprise. Firing his weapon at point blank he lifted his arm to block the second blade. Kaidan noticed the attack and lashed out with his foot. His kick caught the second phantom square in her face. Barr sat down and patched his wound with bacta before resealing his suit. "Damn blades." he cussed. He checked the plates of him pauldron, confirming that the blast had not compromised his armor. The squad regrouped. Inc reloaded his rifle. "One get's the feeling, we weren't welcome." he joked. Barr punched his brother's shoulder. In the meantime Ashley and Kaidan opened the doors. Cerberus hadn't bothered to change the access codes.

Above them Bly and Galle hailed the Reapers with blaster fire. Aayla jumped around them and kept the Harvesters from grabbing the clones. A screech got their attention. Galle was the first to spot the banshee. "Incoming!" He fired his Z-6 at the form. Suddenly the banshee flashed forward and was directly in front of him. Galle pushed his minigun forward and blocked a strike with the rotating barrels. Pulling the sleek arm into the mechanism he broke it before his weapon blocked. Bly saw his brother in distress and fired with his handgun at it before returning his left hand back to his DC-15A rifle. They kept heading for the tower. Reaching the base Bly nodded at Aayla who used the force to run up the side while the two troopers used their jetpacks.

Ash and Kaidan stared at the test tubes. The two clones weren't that shocked, after all, Kamino was just the same. What shocked the two were the human remains in the tubes. Inc put a hand onto Ashley's shoulder. "Ma'am, we have finished getting all data from the terminal. We have good and bad news." "Name them, soldier." Barr looked up from the terminal. "Miranda Lawson is on scene, but so is Kai Leng." Kaidan panicked. "Warn the General!" Barr nodded and tried to get through the static. "Can't reach them. Jamming is still online."