The Gamechangers

by Goodpie2

ABANDONED BECAUSE TERRIBLE. The Turians are old hands at warfare- they know the rules of the game, and are the best players in the galaxy. But what happens when they run into a species that not only plays a completely different game, but breaks the rules to that one, too? M for violence and swearing.

9. Escape

Firstly, an announcement. I'm slowing down my fanfiction to work on my novel for a while. In addition, things are really speeding up in my life, so I won't have as much time to write anything at all. I'll try to update at least one story a month, but that's all I'll commit to.

Thirdly, I decided to do "thirdly" second, and "secondly" third, and then, just to make sure the numbers were totally fucked up, put "fourthly" sixth for no real reason.

Secondly, I'm really struggling with The Power He Knows Not. I would greatly appreciate ideas for chapters. If there's something you want to see, send me a pm or leave a review with your idea. Otherwise, it's gonna be a while before I get an update out.

Also, not all of the biotic powers used in this story will be present in the games. If you see one you don't recognize, go to page 3 of the Encyclopedia Biotica, found here. s/9133835/3/The-Encyclopedia-Biotica Sorry for any confusion caused by this.

Next- the poll for this story's fate is officially closed. The will of the readers is clear- I will not be bringing back the Reapers. That said, however, I really need ideas for what to do with this story. Give me ideas, or get a short-ass story. Those are your options, people.

Fourthly, I've decided that, since my chapters are so damned short, it makes more sense to put the codex at the bottom of the page than to mix it in with the story like I was originally doing. The codex will include any powers mentioned in that chapter, whether they've been described before or not, unless their nature is particularly obvious or the power appears frequently enough that I feel that's unnecessary. This is to make it so that you don't have to go back through twenty chapters to find out what the hell a "typhomancer" is. Although, for that one, you'll have to wait. I took him out of this chapter, so he doesn't get a Codex entry yet. Or you could just google it. But that would be cheating, and cheating is bad, and if you do bad things, Slenderman will find you.

Lastly, my laptop is doing really weird shit every time I save a word document. If there are typos, errors, or problems of any kind when I post a story, please let me know. Especially tell me if there seems to be a portion of the story missing entirely, but what's more likely to occur is missing punctuation or words, or odd spacing.

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Denver Croom woke up as the tattoo on his arm began burning. Looking down, he saw that it was glowing red, and, for the first time in almost a year, he grinned. Her Imminence had finally declared war on the batarians. That meant it was time for him to escape.

Denver looked around until he spotted his partner. Walking over, he gave her a gentle shake.

"Jenna!" Denver whispered. "It's time to go. I need you to find the others."

Jenna Roberts nodded and closed her eyes, searching for the minds of the rest of their team. Denver waited patiently until she opened her eyes agian.

"Found them. Herman, Enaliya, and Maverick are close enough to rescue. Most of the others have already been contacted by other infiltration teams. I couldn't find Jim, so I'm guessing he's dead, and Heinz's mind was too damaged for me to repair. He's gone. The best I could do was put him out of his misery. Don't worry, though- the batarians don't know a thing. The secrecy spells held, if nothing else."

Croom frowned, then shrugged. There was no time to think about the fact that he'd already lost two of his men- the important thing was that most of the team was alive, and that now it was time to escape.

He walked over to the other two prisoners in their cell. Unlike himself and Jenna, these two weren't part of the infiltration team. In fact, they weren't even military. They were actual slaves. That meant that they had to be handled very carefully.

Putting his hand over the first man's mouth, Denver gently shook him awake. The man struggled and grunted, but Denver hushed him quickly.

"Listen, we're going to get out of here. I need to know if we can trust you or not, so Jenna here is going to do a quick scan of your mind. She'll make it as painless as possible, and won't go into anything personal, but we need to be safe. Understand?"

The man nodded.

"Good. Now I need you to maintain eye contact. It's easier for her that way."

Jenna walked over bent down in front of the slave. Her eyes glowed purple, and she looked the man in the eyes.

"He's good," she said a few moments later.

Croom nodded, and let the man up, then they repeated the process with the fourth prisoner, who Jenna cleared as well.

"Good," said Croom, then faced the two men. "Now, we're going to be getting out of here. What are your powers, and how much combat training do you have?"

"I'm telekinetic," said the second man, who had introduced himself as Devon Hart after his mind-scan. "I took the advanced combat classes before I was captured."

Croom nodded, then looked to the other man, named Osmund Rey, who shrugged.

"I'm not going to be much use, I'm afraid. I'm a communicator, and I only ever took the basic defense classes. I'm a decent shot with a gun, but not good enough that I ever bothered with the advanced classes."

Denver frowned, then spoke. "Okay, here's the deal. We free everybody in this area, then make contact with the other infiltration teams. Devon, Osmund, you two stay here until we're ready to go. Anybody with an extra pair of eyes comes in, kill 'em. Once that's done, we'll have to move to the jungles outside the city. We know that humans can eat some of the stuff native to Khar'shan, so we're good there. Now let's go. Jenna, anybody outside?"

At the woman's negative, Denver focused on the area, searching for any security cameras. He found one just outside their cell, and fed it a loop of the past thirty seconds of playback. Next, he focused on the electronic lock of the cell door. A moment later, the door swung open.

"Okay, first things first. Jenna, which cells have infiltrators in them?"

Jenna indicated the cells in question. Croom opened the nearest cell door and went in. One of the prisoners inside saluted.

"Corporal Rodi Teeling, Infiltration team Three-Tango-One, sir. Rune-enhanced summoner. Specialization in terror tactics and battlefield control."

"At ease, corporal. I'm Captain Denver Croom, Infiltration team Two-Bravo-Three. Technomancer. I specialize in security systems and sabatoge." Denver turned to the other three prisoners in the cell. "What are your names, powers, and training levels?"

One of the three, a brown-haired young man whose beard (all of the male slaves had beards) was a strangely reddish tinge, stepped forward and offered his hand to Denver, who took it.

"Sinclair Goodall, sir. I'm a pyromancer. I was actually training to go into basic before I was captured. I've taken all of the combat classes available to civilians, and have some additional private training in hand-to-hand combat."

Denver nodded, and looked at the other two.

"Nathan Johnson, sir," said a lanky blonde. "I'm a lycan. You can guess what I'm good for."

Denver grinned. "Good. We'll need somebody tough until we can get our hands on weapons. And you?"

The last man, an older man with a pronounced limp, nodded. "I'm Arnold Willey, and I'm a creationary illusionist. I've only got the basic combat training, though, and I'm not as young as I used to be, so I'll be useless in a fight."

"How good are you with your illusions?" Denver asked.

"I'm decent. If we run into any four-eyes that we need to scare off, I could probably whip up some passable power armor for you, or a few extra soldiers if we need 'em."

"Good. We'll need a way to scare the batarians into surrendering if we can't kill them. But do not run them off. If word of our escape gets out too soon, we're fucked. Now, I'm sorry to do this, but Jenna here is going to have to scan all of your minds. Yes, even yours, corporal. We can't afford to let a traitor in our group. Don't worry, though- she won't be invasive, and she'll minimize the pain. Also, any crimes, short of treason, rape, or slavery, which she discovers by accident will be pardoned. Understood?"

The three men nodded, and Jenna stepped forward, eyes glowing purple again. Once she'd cleared the four men, Croom started giving orders.

"Johnson, Willey, go to that cell over there. Guard the men inside. I'll be sending any noncombatants there until we're ready to go. Sinclair, Teeling, on my six. Jenna, where's the next infiltrator?"

The next cell's infiltrator was a healer, and the civvies were a paralyzer, a beast-tamer, and a scryer. None of the civilians had combat training beyond the basic classes that all Imperial citizens were required to take, so all four of them were sent to the non-combatants' cell. The third cell contained two infiltrators- a vanisher and a flesh-morper- and two civvies. One of them, an aeromancer, had advanced combat training. The other, a fireskin, had only basic training, and was sent back to the noncombatant cell.

It was in the fourth cell that the growing force first ran into problems. Croom was explaining the need to scan the prisoners' minds when one of them, a red-headed woman with a collar, who cowered whenever she was approached, tried to make a run for it. She shot a wad of web out of her hands (apparently she was a webmistress) to blind and entangle the other occupants of the cell, and bolted down the hallway.

"Master!" she called. "There's an esc..." The woman stopped yelling as a tremendous gust of wind blew her down and knocked the wind out of her. Before she could stand up again, she was surrounded by the escaped prisoners standing over her. One of the men from the latest cell, a goliath by the name of David Diggle (he had been bound to the wall by an electric collar and cuffs, but Croom had disabled them), held the woman down while Jenna examined her mind (after the woman had been gagged, of course). After a short scan, the glowing in Jenna's eyes died down an she turned to Croom.

"She has a severe case of Stockholm Syndrome. She genuinely believes that she deserves to be a slave to the batarians. I can fix her, but it won't be easy, and it'll leave me too tired to continue the scans."

Denver considered this. "Can you detect any other psychics in the area?"

Jenna focused, then shook her head. "I'm afraid not. Nobody nearby, at least. There are a few psys a fair distance away, but there's a fair sized batarian force between here and there. There's also two others who have already been rescued by another team. Should I direct them to come here and give us a hand?"

"Yes. We're already too big a group to hide, so the more people we have with us the better a chance we stand."

Jenna nodded and focused once more. "I sent them our location. They say it'll take them a little while to find a way here. One of their psychics is working on getting a map from the batarians' heads, but it's difficult to take that much information without alerting your victim, especially when it's not surface thoughts." She turned back to the collared woman. "So, what should we do, Captain? Do you want me to heal her, or keep going with the scans?"

Croom frowned. "I really hate to do this, but we need you to keep scanning until another psy gets here. At least we know we can't trust her- the real risk is if the batarians have any informants hidden in the cells. Diggle, take her to the noncombatant cell and tell the men not to let her escape, but not to kill her."

"Should I close her mouth, boss?" the flesh-morpher asked.

Denver shuddered. "No need for that, Peller. The gag'll do fine, and she's not a traitor, she's traumatized. We don't need to be making her situation worse."

The man shrugged and stepped out of the way as the goliath stepped forward and picked the shivering woman up, then carried her to the noncombatant cell, then returned. After the mind scans, Jenna pointed to the next cell with an infiltrator, and they moved on.

It was fifteen minutes later that they found their first informant. When Croom explained the mind scanning procedures, one of the men in the cell they were freeing began protesting vehemently.

"You can't just read my mind! That's an invasion of my privacy!" he said, backing away from Jenna.

"I already told you," said Croom, glaring at the man, "it will be completely noninvasive, and most crimes will be pardoned. So unless you're a traitor, a rapist, or a slaver, you shouldn't object. Which is it?"

The man spluttered. "What are you saying? I'm not any of those! I just value my privacy!"

Croom glanced at Diggle. "Sergeant, grab him."

The huge man moved forward. The protesting man dodged him and tried to escape, but Diggle was blocking the exit. The man struggled for a moment in the goliath's grip, then stopped. His struggles returned as Jenna stepped forward, eyes glowing. A few moments later, Jenna stepped back.

"Captain, this man is guilty of treason. He has been informing the batarians of the slaves' actions for the past eight months in exchange for lighter duties and better food. He is responsible for and guilty of the deaths of eight men, and the rape of two women, one of which he actually participated in. I recommend his execution," she finished coldly.

Denver shook his head. "Unfortunately, I don't have that authority. What I can do, however, is make sure he doesn't give us away or escape. Corporal Peller, I want you to seal his mouth. In addition, bind his arms to his waist and limit his leg movement so he can't go any faster than a walk."

The large, scar-faced man grinned and stepped forward. "Sure thing, boss," he said as he reached out his hands towards the struggling traitor.

"You can't do this!" the man shouted. "Guards! Help! Escape! He-mmmmppphhhhhh!" The man's mumbling quickly turned into muted screams of pain, which disappeared as well when Peller destroyed his victim's voice box, in addition to sealing his mouth. The sadistic marine winked at the traitor, then Diggle ripped off the man's shirt. Peller's eyebrows creased as he focused on the next alteration. The man's arms broke as they were forced to his sides against their owner's will, and then the muscle around his arms bled into his torso, attaching the broken limbs to the sobbing traitor's waist. Peller's focus shifted again, and the muscle in the his prey's legs deteriorated so that he could barely manage a fast walk.

The civilians (and a few of the soldiers) watched in horror, while the more hardened members of the party had looks of grim satisfaction on their faces as the traitor was punished for his crimes.

"Oh dear," said Croom as the man collapsed to the ground, sobbing silently. "I see you forgot to shut off his pain receptors before beginning. I know it's standard procedure, but I suppose it just... slipped your mind?"

Peller grinned. "Sorry, sir. I have a terrible memory for procedure."

A few of the people present looked horrified as they realized what had happened, but Croom just shook his head. "Well, make sure you remember next time," he said as Jenna began to scan the minds of the remaining prisoners.

Unfortunately, the traitor's yells had attracted some attention. Two batarian soldiers burst through a door in the hallway just as Diggle was leading the traitor to the noncombatants' cell. They stared for a moment at the transformed man, then opened fire on Diggle. The soldier roared as mass-effected rounds poured into his body, then charged at the two batarians. The traitor took this opportunity to walk away from the scene as quickly as his damaged legs could carry him, but was brought down by a gust of wind from Varley, the Aeromancer. Goodall sent a fireball at the batarians, which exploded upon impact, throwing one of them to the ground just as Diggle tackled the other.

The batarian on the ground pressed a button on his wrist, and an alarm began going off.

Croom swore viciously, even though he was privately somewhat relieved- he'd been focusing on feeding a feedback loop to three different cameras during the entire escape, and it was starting to put a strain on him. Now that the cat was out of the bag, he could just destroy the cameras and be done with them. "Varley, kill the batarian on the ground, and keep an eye on this one. Tell Johnson to transform. Jenna, contact the other psychics and tell 'em we've got trouble, in the event that they don't already know. Tell them to book it. If necessary, they have my authority to perform a mind-rip to get the map of this place. If they get court-martialed, I'll say it was on my orders. When you're done, I'm officially ordering you to perform a mind-rip on our batarian friend here to get a map of the area. Teeling, start summoning. Focus on scary looking hunter types- things that'll run around the center and keep the batarians on their toes, then let 'em loose with orders to kill anything with four eyes. Make sure you can still run when you're done- don't tire yourself out. The rest of you, grab a weapon and come with me. We're getting as many prisoners out of here as we can. We'll have to skip the scans until we're clear."

The aeromancer nodded, and the batarian suddenly found his lungs gasping for air as he suffocated. Diggle hoisted the struggling traitor onto his shoulder and ran to the cell where the civilians and noncombatants (and their guards) were waiting. Jenna's eyes glowed purple as she contacted the other psychics, and Teeling's runes began glowing a bright scarlet as he started concentrating. A few feet away, a large cloud of red mist appeared, and something inside it began to take form. The remaining members of the party took the batarians' weapons (an assault rifle, a shotgun, and two pistols) and waited for Croom to move.

Orders given, Denver focused on the nearest cell's lock. The door opened, and out stepped a short, lithe woman with red hair and void-black tattoos all over her body.

"Corporal Orlene Rone, Infiltration team Four-Sierra-One. Rune enhanced Gravitomancer. Specializing in heavy damage."

"Good. I'm Captain Croom. We're busting out of here. Start ripping the doors off of the cells. You take the cells on the left, I'll take the right. Jenna, keep an eye on her. Anybody tries to help the four-eyes, kill 'em. We don't have time to disable every traitor we find." The psychic nodded and hefted her newly acquired rifle, and followed as Rone used her power to rip the hinges off of the nearest door, causing it to fall to the ground.

Croom turned to where the other prisoners were coming out of the cell he'd just opened.

"Okay. If you can fight, follow either Rone or me. If you can't, stick with the Goliath and the lycan. Goodall, go with 'em to provide some extra support. Fugit, keep an eye out for the batarians. If they start coming, give us a warning." The vanisher nodded, took the offered shotgun from Goodall, and disappeared. Croom looked at the other half of the escaping party, which had just arrived from the original cell. "Rey, you follow Rone and I. Anybody we bust out, you give directions to. If they can't fight, they stick with Johnson and Diggle. If they can, they make whatever preparations they need to. Vanishers spread out and keep an eye out for batarians. Let's move, people!"

Not bothering to check with Jenna on the cell's occupants, Croom opened the next door. Four asari were waiting by the door. He nodded to them and passed on to the next cell. Rey began explaining the situation to them and the salarians that Rone had freed. They went on like this for about five minutes before they heard a series of gunshots from down the hall. A few moments later, Fugit reappeared.

"They're on my tail, boss. They took cover when I shot 'em, but they'll get their courage back in a minute or two."

By this time, they had cleared about half of the cells in the area, and had found a hulk and a banisher to help open cell doors. Since they weren't checking the occupants, they'd started to find aliens as well as humans- all sorted together by type. The party now consisted of roughly seventy people, no more than a quarter of whom could fight.

"Shit!" Croom muttered, then yelled. "Okay, everybody get ready! Teeling, move your monsters into that empty cell! Melee fighters, form a line behind the guys who can fight ranged, but hold back. That means you, hulk. Rey, tell the asari to get ready to start throwing out singularities and shit, but make sure not to get our allies. Rone, join the fighters. Carson, put a force-field in front of everybody. When I give the word, drop it and throw up another one behind the fighters. Everybody who can't fight or can fight from behind a force-field, get towards the back. Pollen, you keep opening cells with me. Rey, stay low, but follow us. Jenna, how far away is the other team?"

Jenna answered as the others began preparations.

"They should be here in about thirty minutes, cap. Their group is smaller than ours, but they found the armory, so they've got plenty of guns for when they get here. There's also two more teams that are already on their way out of the center. One team has a psy."

"Contact him and tell him not to leave the slave center yet. We want to all move at once. Have that team lock down the entrance to the slave centers if they can."

As Croom and Pollen (the banisher) ran down the hall opening cells, the batarians rounded the corner, guns blazing. The mass-effected rounds hit the force-field and bounced off harmlessly. As soon as the batarians stopped firing to allow their heat-sinks to cool, Croom shouted "Drop it! Everybody fire!"

The green-glowing force-field disappeared, only to reappear behind the line of fighters. At the same time, the humans let loose with all of their powers. A tremendous fireball knocked down the aliens in front, closely followed by several clouds of three inch-long, carbon-plated darts traveling at 100 kilometers per hour. The first swarms of darts knocked down the enemies' shields, allowing the following groups to pierce the batarians' skulls and armor, dropping two of the batarians immediately. Meanwhile, several large, stone spikes erupted from the ground where the fallen batarians were lying, killing and maiming three more. Then a pair of singularities hit the remaining batarians, hurtling them to the ceiling where the escaping slaves could pick them off easily. A stream of fire took one, swarms of darts took another, a cloud of telekinetically propelled shrapnel one more, and the last two clutched their throats as they suffocated.

As the final bodies fell to the ground, Croom picked up a pistol. "Rey, from now on, follow me and repeat everything I say. Now, everybody who hasn't had their mind scanned, get in a line, with the people who can fight up front. If you don't want to be scanned, we can give you the same treatment as our traitorous friend here," he gestured at the transformed man. "Any crimes other than rape, slavery, or treason will be pardoned. If you're not a human, you will be granted asylum in the Empire. Try to run, and you'll be shot. If you can't use your powers or biotics to fight, grab a gun once you've been scanned. Everybody who's been scanned will be fighting to hold back the batarians until Jen's finished with the rest of you. Maveric, Enaliya, and Herman, Jen scanned you from the cell before our escape. You're clear to fight. I need the three of you to spread out and keep an eye out for the batarians."

A salarian and an asari protested vigorously at the "invasions of their privacy." The salarian actually consented to the fleshmorpher's treatment, but the asari wasn't so easy. Throwing a powerful singularity into the center of the group of escaped slaves and another at Croom, she dashed down the hallway, screaming for help. As she rounded a corner, Herman Mathis reappeared with a gunshot, and the asari's head erupted in gore as she fell to the ground. Herman disappeared again, and the remaining slaves consented to the scans without argument.

About five minutes later, Enaliya Stone came sprinting around a corner. "Captain, we've got company. About twenty batarians, all members of the suppression forces."

There was a loud explosion a ways away, and a few moments later, Fugit reappeared. "We've got about forty of the regular guards headed our way, boss."

Croom swore. Thinking quickly, he called out. "Willey, Carson, over here, quick." He waited for the soldier and the elderly civilian, then spoke rapidly. "Willey, I need you to put up and keep up an illusion of a wall. Follow Stone, she'll tell you where to put it. Carson, throw up a force field right where the illusion is. Stone, keep an eye on the movements of the suppression groups. As soon as they're out of sight of the fake wall, you two are going to drop it and run to the next position. Make sure those soldiers don't reach us for a while. Now GO!" He barked, and the three humans ran off to where the highly trained suppression forces were approaching. Next, he turned to Jenna. "How long on those reinforcements, Jen?" he asked.

"Ten minutes, sir," she replied after a moment.

"Damn." He looked at the long line of prisoners yet to be scanned- over thirty of them. All of the combatants were through, and now it was just civilians and those to weak from mistreatment to fight. "You know what, fuck this. The damage that anybody could do is minimal at this point. Give me five minutes, and we'll move out. Tykes! I need you here NOW!" he called, causing the Geolance to come running. "Put angled spikes in the ground in the hallways once people start coming back. There's a suppression force somewhere in the center, and we want to make sure they don't come behind us. Jen, where are Stone and the other two?" he asked, as the sounds of roaring, screaming, and gunshots came from the direction of the regular guards.

Jenna focused, then pointed in off to the left. "That way, sir."

Croom nodded. "Are you still able to fight?"

The psychic shook her head. "Not well, sir. The scans have taken a lot of energy."

"Damn. Goodall! Rousse! Follow Jen. Jen, go get Stone and the others. Pull them back as soon as possible. Everybody else, get ready to fight as soon as the guards show up." Then, as a realization struck him, "Damn. You, and you-" he pointed to two asari. "Go down that hall until you find a green blob sticking to the ceiling. Tell the blob that it's time to move out. You-" this time to the single krogan in the group. "Go down that hall until you bump into something you can't see, or Herman shows up. Give him the same message." The two asari glanced at each other, but didn't question. The krogan made a rumbling deep in his chest and stomped off. Everybody else, get ready. We need to hold off the batarians for as long as it takes for the other group to get here, then run for it. Fox, grab the prisoners- and don't crush them. Johnson, Diggle, grab a couple of these doors and use 'em as shields. Get in the front, and protect the group. Varley, get between those two and get ready to start killing batarians."

The escaping slaves waited tensely, listening to the sounds of the batarians fighting Teeling's monsters for a few minutes. Jenna, Stone, Willey, Carson, Godall, and Rousse reappeared while they waited, and the ranged fighters formed up behind the impromptu shields. Carson took a position in the middle of the formation, ready to throw up a forcefield in case of heavy weapons. The hulk, named Jermaine Fox, was behind them, with the webmistress under one arm and the traitor under the other. The transformed salarian was allowed to walk freely, but in front of Fox. After a couple of minutes, the roars and shrieks and gunfire and batarian screams died off. About a minute after that, the batarian guards came around the corner and opened fire. Mass effect rounds flew through the air and bounced off of the heavy steel doors, designed to keep even a krogan in his cell. After a few minutes of pointlessly firing at the doors, losing a few of their party to concentrated spears of air from Varley (all of the batarians were wearing rebreathers), the batarians changed tactics. Three grenades were thrown towards the group in low arcs. The telekinetic Devon Hart, thinking quickly, grabbed the grenades out of the air and propelled them back towards the batarians, where they detonated, killing eight and wounding four of the guards. Two more guards fell to Varley, who pulled back and let Rousse replace him so he could rest for what was to come. Swarms of deadly darts shot forth from her wrists and through the narrow gap between the two doorshields. Maverick and the two asari returned. A biotic pull struck the doors, causing the two protectors to strain until Rone countered it by pulling gravity in the opposite direction. Two more guards fell to swarms of darts. Mathis and the krogan came back, and Tykes began closing the passage behind the group with a dense field of razor sharp spikes. Finally, it was time to move.

"Diggle, Johnson, on my go ahead, I want you to drop the shields and get as low to the ground as you can. When they do, asari, I want you to Lift the batarians. Rone, throw a ball of gravity behind them. Varley, I want a goddamn hurricane down that hallway. Everybody else, just open fire. We're blowing these motherfuckers away." Croom waited a minute for Rey to finish translating, then counted down. "Three. Two. One. Let 'em have it!"

The batarians didn't stand a chance. The Lifts threw the guards into the air, where, effectively mass-less, they had no resistance to the powerful gust of wind which came howling their direction, blowing them into the ball of incredibly strong gravity that pulled them into the wall, flattening them against it, where they made an easy target for the hail of gunfire, biotic abilities, and magical powers which hurtled towards them. Fireballs, telekinetically propelled shrapnel, a biotic shockwave, mass effect rounds, and numerous singularities burned, pierced, crushed, and tore the enemy to shreds. There was a cheer from the former slaves, and Croom had to yell to keep them from rushing to the nearest exit like children on the last day of school.

"Stop!" he cried. "There's still a team of suppressors in the building, and more soldiers outside!"

The cheering stopped abruptly as the asari, salarians, and humans froze in their mad dash for freedom. The more level minded, and anybody who had been in a military, hadn't moved. Everybody looked to Croom as he spoke.

"We're going to wait for another group of escapees to arrive, then make contact with a third, and maybe a fourth. Then we'll bust out of the slave compounds and find a way to the jungle, where we'll wait until the Imperial Fleet takes Khar'shan. It took a lot of planning to get everybody free, and more than one person died for it. So let's not ruin this opportunity by making a rush for the exit like sheep under attack, alright?"

There was some sheepish mumbling from the gathered prisoners, and a few aliens looked at one another. Nobody said anything, though, until the krogan pushed his way through the crowd to stand in front of Croom, hefted his shotgun, then growled something in his language.

"He's asking who put you in charge," Rey repeated with a slightly worried look on his face.

Croom answered coolly. "That would be Her Imperial Majesty, Empress Eleanor Tyson. But if you won't listen to her, listen to him. Or him. Or him, him, her, her, him, her, him, him, him, or her." he finished, gesturing towards each of the human fighters in turn. A swirling storm of debris appeared around Varley, Johnson flexed his claws and growled menacingly, Goodall's arms were suddenly on fire- each human demonstrated his particular power in as menacing a manner as possible. "Mind you," said Croom, "none of us are going to make you stay with us. You're perfectly free to head out on your own. But I highly doubt that you have an escape route planned, or a working knowledge of which of Khar'shan's plants and animals can be safely eaten and how to prepare them, or an army of over six hundred highly trained, well-armed, professional soldiers heading towards a specially picked location. And I know you aren't in charge of those six hundred highly trained, well-armed professional soldiers. So that leaves you with three choices. You can fight all of us, and die. You can run off on your own and try to escape alone, and die. Or you can follow my orders until the fleet gets here, and do whatever the hell you want to do with the rest of your absurdly long life. Have I made my point?"

The krogan growled something that Rey didn't translate, but nodded and walked off.

"Now, if there are no other objections, let's get on our way, shall we?" Croom said, looking at the rest of the group.

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Codex Updated- Human Powers- Humans have a wide variety of "supernatural" powers. The use of these powers usually requires the expenditure of energy, but the energy required depends on the skill, practice, and strength of the human in question, much like muscle usage.

Aeromancers- Aeromancers can control air and gasses.

Banishers- Banishers are able to cause nonorganic material to disappear entirely. They do not simply turn it into air, they actually destroy the matter through unknown means.

Beast-Masters- Beast-masters can control animals.

Communicators- Communicators can speak with any living creature. The communication involved is strictly limited to the intelligence of the creature in question- speaking with an ant is pointless, as it can't understand even the most basic of instructions, but an ape or chimp would be able to operate simple machinery if properly instructed. Likewise, the creature can only communicate back based on its intelligence and other factors, such as personality. A dog, for example, would be able to tell you how many people had passed a certain area, so long as there were no more than a dozen or so, and he hadn't been distracted at any point. A chimp would be able to communicate not only how many people had passed (as long as it could count that high), but whether any of them had had beards. A squirrel would be able to tell you only that lots of really big things had been there. Whether that referred to a pair of dogs or a stampeding herd of rhinos would be impossible to know.

Fireskins- A fireskin is immune to any kind of heat or burning. There are also lightningskins, frostskins, acidskins, etc.

Flesh-Morphers- One of the darker powers available to humans, a flesh-morpher can alter the flesh of any target he lays hands on, so long as he does not alter the target's mass or genetic structure. The process is extremely painful, and major shifts often result in death. Almost all flesh-morphers study biology extensively so as to be able to make the largest possible changes without killing their victims. Flesh-morphers differ from polymorphers in that polymorphers are able to turn any living thing into any other living thing. While it would be theoretically possible for a flesh-morpher to do this, it would require a great deal of finesse and biological knowledge on the part of the flesh-morpher.

Geolancer- Geolancers can create spikes out of the ground

Golaiths- Goliaths are true giants. They possess tremendous strength, as well as impressive regenrative abilities, and they can shrug off practically any injury short of decapitation or disembowelment (sometimes even that, depending on how thoroughly the goliath is disembowled). Despite their greater size, goliaths are actually slightly weaker than incredibles.

Gravitomancer- Gravitomancers are able to control gravity.

Healers- healers can heal wounds and injuries. As with many powers, the exact nature of the abilitiy varies with the individual. In some cases, an understanding of the biology involved is necessary. In others, no understanding is required, or the Healer's power actually grants him an understanding of the wound he is trying to work with.

Hulks- Hulks are even larger and more resiliant than goliaths (though they don't posess regenerative abilities), and stronger than the incredibles. Unfortunately, they are, like their namesake (an ancient human "superhero"), rather unintelligent.

Illusionists- Illusionists come in several types. A mind illuisionist is able to cause one (or more, depending on the strength and training of the illusionist) target's perceptions to change. A creationary illusionist can create images that anybody in the area can see. A disguise illusionist is able to change the appearance of things that are already there. They can be either mind illuisonists or creationary illusionists. All illusions require concentration and active control to move or change. For example, if an illusionist creates an image of a fire, he must concentrate on the flickering of the flames, the burning of the fuel, and the movement of the smoke. Most illusions are strictly visual, but some individuals have the ability to add sound or smell. Other kinds of illusionists may be added to the story later on.

Incredibles- Incredibles possess enormous strength. Unlike goliaths, they are of normal size, and have no special resistance to damage.

Lycans- Lycans are limited shapeshifters (a shapeshifter who can only take a certain form or list of forms) whose secondary form resembles that of a werewolf from human mythology (like the ones in Skyrim and such, not the ones who actually look like wolves). Unlike many shapeshifters, they are actually able to increasetheir mass, most of which goes into muscle. In their secondary form, they are much stronger and faster than a human, and posess keener senses than normal. Their hide also is also as tough as pre-dontrin kevlar. While it can block human bullets, it cannot block the fast-traveling mass-effected rounds used by the Citadel Races.

Paralyzers- Paralyzers can paralyze targets; some with a touch, some from a distance. This is a "magical" effect which cannot be reversed by chemical or biological means. However, it is temporary. The duration of the effect depends on the skill and power of the paralyzer, as well as the energy expended on the target.

Pyromancers- Pyromancers are able to create and control flames.

Scryers- A scryer can see things, locations, and events from a distance. In order to do so, the scryer must focus on a target which he has personal experience with. The target can be a person, location, or object which he has personally viewed. He is then able to see and, in some cases, hear, the events going on wherever the target is from an omniscient point of view- he can simultaneously see the target from all angles. Most scryers make it a point to learn to read lips, and to learn as many languages as possible.

Summoners- Summoners are able to create creatures or monsters out of thin air, which then obey their commands until slain or dismissed. Stronger summoners can create greater numbers of creatures and/or more powerful creatures. The creature summoned is entirely up to the summoner- the only limit is the summoner's imagination. Since the creatures are created "magically", no knowledge of biology is necessary to create them.

Technomancers- Technomancers are able to detect and control technology or arcaneotechnology with their minds. This requires a basic understanding of how the device works, but such an understanding can be gained by studying the device in question using the human's technomancy.

Telekinetics- Telekinetics are able to move nonliving, nonattended matter with their minds. The amount of force which the telekinetc can apply depends on the skill and power of the telekinetic in question.

Thermomancer- Thermomancers are able to control temperature

Vanishers- Vanishers can turn invisible.

Webmasters/mistresses- A webmaster can shoot strong, adhesive web out of his hands to entangle targets. They are very much like the ancient human "superhero" named Spiderman, but without superstrength, climbing, or a sense for imminent danger.