"Hostage situations are like karaoke - you just want to shoot the guy holding everyone's attention, but it isn't socially acceptable."

Aside from the bruises, scrapes, damaged tissue, burns, and enough adrenaline to kill a bungee jumper, Vega thought that his initial incursion had gone fairly well. The meaning of which, naturally, being that he wasn't dead. Neither were most of the enemies on that level of the complex, but he'd take what he could get.

Vaya had informed him that he'd be meeting up with the Science Team's head of security inside, and he was hoping that this individual would be as fast as he could. Having so many people shooting at him made for a not-particularly-shining view into his immediate future. A bullet grazed past his face and took out a chunk of the wall he was hiding behind, and another thought occurred to him; his cover was crap, too.

He returned some weak fire around the corner blindly. His weapon automatically swapped to the backup shells some time ago, which meant that his incendiary upgrades were doing exactly nothing, and the opposing shields and armor much more. He reflected that it was much more difficult to kill someone if they not only had several friends firing at you, but your gun required more than a half dozen pinpoint shots just to do the job.

That wasn't to say he hadn't done so, of course. At least four bodies littered the corridor within minutes, but it was still relatively slow going.

However, when a vent popped open behind enemy lines, Vega had a sneaking suspicion it wasn't going to mean more trouble for him.

The wiry man rolled out from his hidden cover and immediately liquidated two nearby heads. Not only did the skulls literally explode, but a flaming cluster of shrapnel spiraled out from each, piercing the armor and flesh of their former compatriots. Vega only realized a few seconds too late that his rescuer had a shotgun. Two headshots while rolling without any firing pause with a shotgun.

He needed to get the guy some flowers, stat.

New Shotgun (Vega made a mental note to come up with a better name - calling this guy 'New Shotgun' made him feel sick) did a brief check on the surrounding area, to make sure he had actually eliminated all of the hostile threats. One of the batarians was writhing in pain on the ground, still on fire. Skulltrimmer (marginally better) took care of that problem immediately, choosing to use his pistol rather than consume unnecessary shotgun rounds.

Vega let his rifle hang loosely at his side while he approached. "Nice shooting. You the guy from the radio?"

He nodded. "Security Chief Jacob Taylor. I'm guessing you're my backup."

"Sure am. You got a plan?"

Jacob nodded. "Sweep and clear. This entire complex has enough mechanical security to level a small city. We paint friendlies, the Corporal uploads their coordinates, and a room's clear."

"That easy, huh?" Vega asked, impressed.

Jacob shook his head. "Maybe not. We've still got to avoid fire until locations get uploaded. And if they're using human shields, we need to take them down personally."

"So we got nukes." Vega sighed. "You have any spare clips? My gun's only got the gauss backups left, and those aren't so hot if I need a quick fix."

"Yeah." Jacob tossed him two thermal clips, with the unspoken implication that he should use them wisely. "Shoot to kill. We don't need any mistakes here." Or perhaps not so unspoken.

"Sure thing." Vega nodded. "Lead the way."

Jacob obviously had all of the door codes, so their entrance to the next room was hardly stunning. However, they encountered no further firefights for some time. The silence should have been gratifying, but it made them both nervous.

"They can't all be in the lower levels, can they?" Vega asked.

"Maybe." Jacob conceded. "Makes sense, if whoever they want is down there."

"Whoever." Vega repeated. "You got a theory?"

"Yeah." Jacob didn't look happy about it. "I guess they need someone good with genetics. Something about making more Collectors. Why and how and...well, everything else? Shot in the dark."

"So they need a scientist." Vega thought aloud. "Maybe more than one. Could be they're doing a roundup."

"Something else I thought of, too." Jacob's scowl was growing deeper the longer he considered their mission. "Most of what these guys were able to do here...I know the defenses around this place like the back of my hand. You can't just walk in and turn some of this off. You need to be in the system."

"Like clearance." Vega said, catching on quickly. "Someone on the inside turning all this off, giving the batarians directions on how to get in."

"Exactly." Jacob turned before opening the next door. His face was set, determined. But his manner still seemed ill-at-ease. "I didn't even think about it before, but Cerberus being involved makes sense. If they got their hooks into one of the scientists here...hell, most of them used to be in the organization."

Something clicked in that moment, for Vega. "Wait, ex-Cerberus scientists? You aren't the same guys from Arrae, are you?"

"Most of us, yeah." Jacob confirmed. "Huh. Thought your profile looked familiar. You were with Shepard, right? Pulled us out of the fire?"

"Sure was." Vega put a hand over his chest dramatically. "I'm surprised you didn't remember me right away."

Jacob scratched the back of his head. "Well, honestly, I was kind of distracted at the time. Shepard, the crumbling base, that prothean..."

Vega snorted. "Pfft. Showstealer."

Jacob held up his hands defensively. "Don't get me wrong, I was grateful then and I'm grateful now. Sure as hell didn't expect someone from the Normandy crews to show up. Anyone else with you? The Corporal said there were just two of you, but..."

"Two of us available for the assist, yeah." Vega paused, then. His next answer brought up a few questions of its own that he had to answer before he went on. He wasn't sure he could even handle the possibility of Garrus and Kaidan not having survived long enough to be rescued. He had to keep believing that they still had time. Otherwise... "Garrus...Garrus and Kaidan came planetside to help. Liara, too. Last I heard, they were pinned and waiting for us to clear the complex. Mission first. I have some marines with us, but...I don't know what happened to them."

"Damn it." Jacob muttered. "We're gonna have to rush it, then. Get finished and topside quick enough to help them out. It's not like this was already easy, anyway."

"'Specially with Harbinger here..." Vega remarked, largely without thinking.

Jacob had his hand halfway to the door's activation terminal when he stopped cold. "Harbinger's here? How?"

Vega shrugged. "Hell if I know, camarada. But I'm sticking with my best guess of 'bad news'."

"You understand what's happening, here?" Jacob asked heatedly. "If Harbinger's involved, it doesn't matter how, or even why. It means the Reapers are involved. And if Cerberus is helping them again..." His face paled notably. "We have to get to the scientists!"

"Isn't that what we were just-?"

"Now!"

Aside from the danger, location inside of a warzone, and eminent worry of being killed in a sudden and ignominious manner, Vaya found it remarkably easy to concentrate. The defense systems didn't come with mapping, so she couldn't tell where her teammates were or how they were faring. All she was able to record were their life signs, and even those were limited by whose information she had to keep track of. T'Soni and Vega's marines were effectively MIA, so she had no idea as to their conditions.

Even so, she had a job to do. The moment she caught wind of an IFF signal, she needed to input the location immediately. Any hesitation or distraction could cost lives. The mission came first. Not that she wasn't paying any attention to the world around her. While her eyes were focused on the input screen, her other senses were primed for recognizing any hostile contact. She refused to be caught off guard. She wouldn't allow it to compromise her or her record. Not twice, anyway.

She still had to weigh the risks of preparing a defense - it was a necessary step, but could cost her crucial awareness. For example, how to deal with whatever was creating the approaching footsteps without leaving her post?

Her breathing quickened as she allowed the adrenaline already building itself in her veins to takes its course. It might give her the right amount of extra alacrity at the cost of some of her accuracy. But in such close quarters, her calculated risk was upon the basis that accuracy wouldn't matter very much. She drew her pistol and exhaled slowly. After all, it only took one round.

When the door opened, she was ready. One leg lifted, aiming very carefully so as to maximize potential impact area. It didn't hit their hand, but her foot struck the arm with enough force that her new foe dropped their weapon and went sprawling.

She launched herself at them, and her own arm snapped out at the interior control panel. The door closed once more. When she landed, her hand was gripping an armored throat, her weapon pressed against a temple.

Black eyes locked. It took her a painfully long half-second to comprehend what he was saying.

"Nae that I mind this p'rticular position, lassie, but...did ye have tae rough me up firs'?"

"Lokkan." She growled. First she felt relief, then mild distaste. "This is...a coincidental posture."

"Noticed ye're nae in a hurry ta get off." She really would rather have struck him, but she pushed herself up to her feet, muttering vaguely-defined and grisly promises directed at the engineer.

He rose as well, grunting all the while. She could tell that he'd been wounded, though not to a particularly great extent. While her thought about it being such a pity was sarcastic, she genuinely hoped he could still work his shotgun. "Seen anyone else?" He asked.

"No." She told him, turning her back so as to resume focus on the defense systems. "Vega reported that you were dead."

"Well I lost sight of 'im, an' th' marines too, fer a wee bit." He scratched beneath his fringe. "Bastarts rigged th' comm building. Beam nearly caved in my skull. Drew in some hostiles righ' quick, too."

Vaya nodded noncommittally, busy with her thoughts. That just left three members of the various teams unaccounted for. Which...had been the situation forty seconds prior. Perfect.

"'Ey, Corp'ral." Lokkan said softly. At the edge of her vision, Vaya saw him pick up his shotgun and take up a position by the door. "You see Mavarr come by?"

She nearly lost her internal composure. Of course, the scientific liaison. She hadn't even asked Vega about his status. She recalled only that her thought process at the time had been something akin to 'objectives now, body count later'. She was used to that assessment, but thinking of another turian as a casualty number still felt wrong to her.

"No. Vega was alone when we made contact, and I...did not ask."

"Huhn. Prob'ly ran to a buildin'. Good on 'im." His tone indicated that he was trying to convince himself, but wasn't buying it. Vaya didn't buy it either, but she didn't say so. "No civvies on th' front, aye?"

"Aye..." Vaya replied, too absently to notice her accidental mimicry until it was too late. "I mean, yes." His bark of laughter only served to worsen her temper. All of that became irrelevant when her omni-tool flashed. She input the coordinates into the IFF system. "They are on the move again..." Normally her commentary would be internalized, but she decided that Lokkan may as well know what was going on. Her omni-tool flashed three more times in quick succession, and she blinked. "Very quickly."

Despite what should have been, for them, typically easy odds in a routine firefight, Kaidan thought that their continued defense was going terribly.

Thanks, no doubt, to Bravo Team, the compound's defense systems had kicked in during a particularly overwhelming raid attempt. Garrus had sustained a leg wound, and Kaidan had only narrowly avoided having his head removed. But even the turrets and mechs weren't enough. There were simply too many hostiles in the force. They had severely underestimated exactly how many there actually were. All they had left were a few moments' breathing room provided by their dwindling extra resources.

Therefore, the Atlas was honestly the last thing they expected.

It struck like thunder, completely out of the blue. The only warning any of them had was a faint whistling sound, like a giant falling brick. Then the machine crashed feet-first into the hard ground. For a moment, everything was still. Then, it rose to full height, guns beginning to whir.

The offensive line broke before bodies even began to hit the dirt. Rockets flew in various directions, grenades were wildly tossed, and while the batarians managed to hit several times with their small arms, the machine was just as much a juggernaut as it was designed to be. By the time it had only just begun its killing spree, there was nothing left to shoot. Except possibly Garrus and Kaidan, who still couldn't quite believe their eyes.

The main hatch opened, the air from inside mixing into the planet's atmosphere. Their savior clambered out with a pistol in hand and sprinted over to their cover, which resembled less a building and more a pile of selective rubble.

"Status report?" Shepard asked, kneeling down for a better position in which to apply medi-gel.

"Now? Fine." Garrus tried to come off as playful, but his leg was still aching. Bullet wounds were like that.

"Cute." They could tell she was rolling her eyes behind the helmet. "Looks like you'll have to take it slow. And I wouldn't rely on that leg too much."

"Commander..." Kaidan began hesitantly. "Not to say I'm ungrateful, but...I thought Dr. Chakwas confined you to the ship?"

"She did." Shepard confirmed. "But while I'm disbarred from active ground support, operating heavy machinery is perfectly within my limits."

"You'll be staying in the Atlas, then?" Garrus inquired.

Shepard shook her head roughly. "Not a chance. Comms are out, remember? The doctor can't inform me that I'm outside of my medical boundaries. And hell is going to freeze over before I let my team get shot at without me while I can still stand."

"Damn I love you." Garrus said.

"What are we going to do with that?" Kaidan asked, pointing behind them at the Atlas. He was clearly eager to steer away the conversation from its current direction. "And where did you get it?"

"Apparently EDI and Joker got permission to store one aboard the Normandy, 'just in case'." Shepard shrugged. "I'm not going to complain about it."

"Uh-huh..." Garrus smirked. "And which of them suggested this plan of yours?"

"EDI." Shepard said unflinchingly. "She had to...what was her phrase? 'Logic the hell out of' Dr. Chakwas first, but I've got to hand it to her, it was impressive. That, and I think she was honestly eager to get me in the field as opposed to watching me slowly succumb to insanity without any field reports."

"As for what we're going to do with it, I have a suggestion." Garrus said, motioning to his leg. "I might slow you down alone, but I think I can drive one of those."

"You just want to pilot a walking tank." Shepard told him accusingly.

"Obviously." He nodded.

She sighed. "Get on it. Kaidan, you're with me. What's the situation?"

"On last count?" Kaidan asked, running through the list mentally. "Vega and Jacob are clearing the science compound, Corporal Vaya is running the defense systems, some marine reinforcements are MIA and we don't have word from Liara on her status. I'm going to guess that means she's fine."

"Jacob and James are here?" Shepard sighed. "Damn it, they don't know I'm alive again yet, do they? Maybe Joker's cosmic scoreboard will give me points for making the mission surreal and awkward at once."

"I think Kaidan and I can both agree that getting your ass saved by a ghost has a lasting effect." Garrus pointed out. "Not necessarily a bad one."

"Thanks for the...comforting thought."

"No problem. Hey, this thing has a cupholder? I think I know why Joker wanted to keep it around..."

"Wait." Shepard held up a hand, facing Kaidan. "What about Lokkan? What's his status?"

Even with the barrier of metal between her and the world, Shepard could feel the ambient temperature drop in despair. "He's...he's gone, Commander."

The shocking part of it all was how little she felt at the news. The blow was softened by repetition, by experience. By war. She'd woken up from the Reaper conflict only to be thrust into a new one. No real time for recovery. Only action. All the soldier's she'd watched die before most likely had funerals, graves. Even herself. But she hadn't been to any of them. She'd gotten too used to the term 'KIA'. She could still cling to the emotion of loss, but only barely.

The numbness she was feeling was nigh-unbearable. She wished she could break down at the news that one of her crew, even someone she hadn't known particularly well, had fallen in battle. But she had to press on. She always had to press on.

"We'll arrange a service when we get back." It sickened her, how unintentionally toneless her voice sounded. Would it kill her to sound disheartened, at least? Probably. She refused to stay still long enough to see the faces of her companions. Illogical, since all of them were covered. But logic wasn't really her primary concern.

Instead, she tapped her omni-tool and opened a short-range link. "Corporal Vaya, this is Commander Shepard, do you read?"

"Yes, Commander." She hardly sounded surprised, which was either commendable or disturbing. She'd decide which later. "Do we have communications with the Normandy again?"

"Negative, I'm planetside."

"I see. I assume you need an update?"

"That'd be nice."

"I am currently guiding Security Chief Taylor and Lieutenant-Commander Vega through the science complex. The Identify-Friend-and-Foe measures are unresponsive to general overrides, and we are being forced to manually insert the locations of nonhostiles."

"We?" Shepard asked.

"Well, I." Vaya sounded suddenly toxic. "Lokkan is only guarding the door."

"Lokkan?" Shepard asked, a jolt running through her. Kaidan and Garrus responded in kind, suddenly paying much closer attention to the conversation. "I thought he was..."

"Aye, well." The accented flange itself broadcasted across their frequency. "Reports of me death've been grea'ly exacerbated. Wait, damn it. Tha's nae how it went, was it?"

"Twain aside, it's good to hear you're all right." Shepard said.

"Mmph. I though' so too."

"Perhaps we can celebrate later?" Vaya said shortly. "I believe Taylor and Vega could use your assistance, Commander."

"Agreed." Shepard said, nodding assent. "Garrus, Kaidan, keep a perimeter outside the compound. The Atlas is going to need support with more maneuverability."

"And you're going in there alone?" Kaidan asked.

Shepard shook her head. "Knowing James and Jacob, I'll only be alone while following the trail of bodies." She tapped her comm unit. "Vaya, I'm sending you my coordinates. Lock me into the IFF system. If you feel up to multitasking, try getting Liara into contact with us, too. I'd feel better knowing her status."

The door, just like all the others previous, was unlocked. Jacob might have had some harsh words in mind for whoever was in charge of security during this crisis, but unfortunately recognized that it was him. Which made their ease of access not only disconcerting, but embarrassing. It was possible that techs ahead of them had simply hacked the consoles that controlled door functions, of course, or that whoever had reconfigured the defense systems had reset the doors as well, but that didn't make him feel any better.

In the back of his mind, behind his concern about the infrastructure of the compound, he was pleased that nothing was holding them back from reaching their destination; the labs. If the batarian force had any kind of interest in the place, that was where they'd be, or would once corralled. Incidentally, that was the entire secondary point of the lab levels. They were wide open, with plenty of automated security and little cover. Not to mention several dead ends. They'd been designed to be not just the only place a hypothetical invading group would retreat to, but also become the doom of said group.

It was the reaching the labs in the first place which held the difficulty. Not because of the doors, but more because of the large amount of hostiles in front of them. Harbinger obviously wanted to make sure he had as much time as possible to complete whatever goals he had and, while he and Vega had some theories in that regard, it was mostly a shot in the dark. It was possible he was looking for a geneticist, or possibly some technology, maybe a recent progress. Hell, maybe he just wanted to screw up Jacob's life some more.

Whatever the case, he'd certainly been thorough and forward-thinking. Jacob still recalled with clarity that it was a very annoying trait for a Reaper to have. And they all had it. Every new room needed to be approached like a mine because, without exception, there were human shields on the other side. Standing still with one hand around a struggling civilian and one hand gripping a pistol was clearly not a comfortable position, but by virtue of either discipline or fear, each soldier did exactly that.

It was a testament to the experience of the intruding pair that none of them ended up with their brains on the floor, not that they cleared a particular room with any sort of brevity. In Jacob's opinion, they wasted time with every shot fired and, aside from brief notices to stay put, they barely provided any freed staff with a moment of time.

And through it all, he never caught a glimpse of who he actually wanted to see.

Jacob and Vega stopped cold eventually, slamming their sides against a wall on either side of the next door. Jacob had memorized the complex enough to know what was behind it. He held his hand up, his breath coming out quick and lightly strained from exertion. "This stairway goes down a level, and then we're in the labs. Three rooms, no cover, so we need to be quick."

"And then?" Vega asked.

Jacob shook his head. "And then nothing. If they try to run, it's just a dead end."

"So it's in the bag as long as we're careful." Vega surreptitiously deactivated the phosphorous casings he'd mounted next to his thermal clip. "Got it."

"Check for mines every step." Jacob said, opening the door. "I don't think these guys are as stupid as we think they are."

The stairwell wasn't trapped (in case, Jacob surmised, they needed to make a quick exit), but that only made his internal alarm go off much more insistently. Something was going to go wrong, and the only thing he wanted to know at this point was what. When they finally got a good view of the first lab area, it became unpleasantly clear.

Most of the equipment that used to be part of the scenery had been either dismantled, in the case of a few consoles, or pushed to a corner. That left the center clear for the main 'attraction'. Fresh corpses littered the floor, scientists without exception. Each suffered from a single gunshot wound to the center of the forehead, execution-style. Jacob recognized each one. Department heads, mostly. A few unlucky assistants who might have been chosen due to possible knowledge of...security? He honestly couldn't find a reason for all of them to have been killed like this. It was barbaric.

Red began to color the edge of his vision, and he suddenly couldn't hear anything over the roaring in his ears. A movement brought him back down to earth somewhat; his arm felt like it was moved suddenly of its own accord. When he looked down, he realized that he'd been gripping his weapon so tightly that he fired a cluster of rounds directly into the ground. A small part of him was happy his foot wasn't perforated. Another questioned what that mattered when just one bullet had ended the lives of so many other good people.

He certainly was no stranger to losing civilians or even soldiers, but this was different. He knew their names, their stories, their families. Each one had put their faith into him, trusted that he could keep them safe. So much for that.

"Hey there, papá lobo." Vega put his left shoulder into an iron grip that the marine probably thought was some kind of reassuring. Jacob wanted to knock him out. Reassuring...with all of this? The only thing that could have done that was setting fire to whoever ordered the massacre. Whoever ordered the attack. That thought made him remember something. He glanced downward and, sure enough, he still had incendiary rounds locked and ready to go.

"Keep your head on," Vega continued. "You'll need it. We'll get these guys, but not if our aim's low."

"Yes." Jacob growled. He didn't trust himself to articulate much more. He inhaled, slowly. Then out. It didn't help. He would have called the psych evaluator out on it, but he was lying in a pool of his own blood a few paces away.

They moved to cover and open the door in what was close to unison, though Jacob distracted himself in a minor capacity by searching the walls nearby for a terminal he could access to see what was going on inside. Unfortunately, the only one available had been short-circuited. Not exactly subtle, but at least he'd been right about their intelligence. Somewhat. They had pissed him off, after all. That would end up being a very bad move for them.

The door opened instantly at his touch. Unlike a traditional doorway, behind it lay a medium-length, somewhat narrow passage that opened into the second lab area. Like the last, pieces had been moved around and electronics destroyed. Practically the only thing they left were the lights. However, that wasn't the part that drew his attention.

There were four people who occupied the lab. The most visible, a batarian in the heaviest armor Jacob had seen so far, who had a gun pressed firmly against the head of a dark-skinned little girl. He seemed to be arguing with a woman to his right, while a man to the side stood fairly passively for someone in a life-or-death situation. Jacob didn't know who this batarian leader or commando or whatever was, but he knew the other three immediately. Michelle Taylor, Brynn Cole, and Liam Gadschalk. His daughter, his wife, and the engineer in charge of mechanical security, respectively.

His vision turned red again.

"-Head..." The batarian was saying. His helmeted head turned towards Jacob when he opened the door, and he suddenly sounded amused. Needless to say, this only served to irk Jacob even more. "Huh. Visitors. I figured my 'army' wasn't worth a damn. Well how about your two drops those guns before I make a mess?" He nudged some of Michelle's hair out of place with his weapon for emphasis.

As much as Jacob wanted to set the invader on fire, his instincts as a father took precedence. Slowly, reluctantly, he leaned forward and placed his shotgun on the ground. Behind him, he heard movement which indicated that Vega was doing the same. Brynn, nearby, closed her eyes, like she had expected this, but didn't like it.

"Finally, some cooperation." The batarian shook his head. "I'm guessing you're the legendary security chief here?" He said 'legendary' with such irony in his tone that it left no room to guess exactly what he thought of Jacob's efforts. That was fine with him. He felt the same, just the other way around. "Maybe you can give me the codes so I can get what I want and leave."

"Depends on what you're here for." Jacob replied, trying desperately to keep his voice calm.

"Ehh, decisions, decisions." He shrugged. "I'll just go with everything you have digitally stored. Figure out the exacts later."

"Look..." Jacob took a step forward. Just talk. He thought. Buy some time. "Nobody else has to die, here. We can work something out."

"I just told you that, idiot." He said impatiently. "And don't come any closer."

"I can give you the codes," Jacob continued, moving again. "But we-"

"I said don't come any closer!" He shouted, raising his pistol and pointing it directly at Jacob. That was what he'd been waiting for. Accelerating from tentative footsteps to a sprint, he ducked to one side and launched a biotic projectile at the hostage-taker. The weapon discharged, and Jacob's shoulder felt like it would burst with pain, but the move had done its job. The batarian went flying back, as did his weapon.

Vega's reflexes didn't fail him, either - his omni-tool was out in a flash, transmitting the coordinates of the other three to Vaya. "Lab room two!" He shouted. "Now!"

The turian was quick on the uptake. Right on cue, several turrets lowered themselves from the ceiling. It didn't take long for them to warm up, nor for the commando to realize what was going on. He barely had time to scream before the machinery perforated him with dozens of high-velocity rounds.

Jacob let his head rest none too gently on the floor. One hand kept pressure on his shoulder while he winced and tried to breath. He'd had worse, and he was sure he'd live. Didn't stop the pain, though.

"Nice plan." Vega sounded mildly relieved, a feeling that Jacob privately shared.

While Liam was backpedalling, trying to get enough space to breathe, Brynn shoved Vega out of the way and crouched down next to him. "Are you all right?" She asked.

Jacob nodded. "I'll live. What about you?"

"Just a few bruises." She shook her head. "He must have really wanted that data."

"What do you think he was looking for?" Jacob inquired.

"He wasn't very forthcoming, like you saw." She exhaled softly. "What's going on here, Jacob?"

Jacob sighed. "Wish I knew. The important thing is, they didn't get what they came for."

"Incorrect." Perfect. The last voice Jacob ever wanted to hear. He looked up and, sure enough, there was a collector body he recognized. The insectoid biped was glowing, light tracing across its skin like its veins were filled with plasma. Jacob waited for the turrets to waste him, but they continued turning as though nothing was wrong.

Vega raised his weapon, but a blast of concussive force knocked him and everyone else in the second lab room who weren't already on the ground down. "You have disrupted my plans, as usual. But this will continue."

Jacob's vision blurred slightly as he tried to simultaneously lift himself to his feet and figure out what Harbinger was doing. His damaged arm screamed in protest, and he soon found himself fully prone again. He strained to lift his head, and for a wild moment thought that Harbinger had sprouted another pair of legs. But then he realized that there was someone behind him.

"Wrong." Why was that voice so familiar? "End of the line, Harbinger." Like something out of a dream...

Harbinger's head turned. He considered whoever was behind him for a long few seconds. "Shepard." He mused.

Then his fist slammed into the door controls, and the entrance between lab rooms closed.