"What a mess. Anyone else hungry?" Garrus shot a look of consternation at Grunt, who shrugged, no apologies from that quarter for disturbing the hush around them.

Shepard was listening intently to datalogs left by the Cerberus researchers who'd been investigating this ghost ship. All the surveillance footage so far only added to the ominous atmosphere, made Garrus feel like he was tip toeing around a sleeping giant, instead of a derelict vessel. Was it really dead? He fervently hoped so or their odds of surviving just went pear shaped.

Shepard nodded her head in the direction they needed to go, pulling her shotgun out. The icon on his gun lit up red, ah, incinerator ammo. Shepard was expecting husks. No sooner thought than they appeared, climbing over the walkways like shambling spiders. Garrus pulled out his assault rifle and picked off the furthest of the ghoulish creatures as the krogan and Shepard laid into the close ones.

There was just so damn many of them, it seemed every time they started to advance, a new wave of husks would appear. His radar was flooded with red dots. Thank the spirits that the Cerberus scientists who'd tried to defend this spot before them had dropped so many heatsinks, this one walkway depleted his ammo twice over already. A flash of burning red behind Shepard had him swinging towards her, "Shepard! Look out!"

A husk, burning with energy of some kind, ran in a blur at Shepard's back. She turned to blast it in the face when it exploded, throwing her twenty feet to his left. Garrus felt a wave of panic as husks converged on her fallen body. He charged the multitude, yelling to Grunt, "Shepard's down!"

He was beaten to the punch as a massive body barreled past him with a roar, scattering the hordes. Garrus laid a burst of fire into each fallen husk, making sure they would never rise again. Then he leaned over Shepard, who was grimacing in pain. She accepted his proffered hand and rose smoothly to her feet. "Goddamn medigel dispenser is fried."

He turned her around to assess the damage. Fortunately, the force of the blast had been blunted by her shields which even now were re-establishing themselves. Other than a few scorch marks on her armor and a bit of burnt hair, she was okay. He allowed himself to breath again. The husks had stopped coming for now, but Garrus was certain that they hadn't seen the last of them.

Grunt was getting restless, maybe this place was getting to him too. Shepard patted them both on the shoulder, "Alright. So the red ones go boom. Let's keep moving."

Shepard blazed the trail ahead of them, moving more cautiously now that a new player had been introduced into her battlefield. As the last husk on the platform ran towards them, it caught a bullet in the side of its head. Garrus knew that sound anywhere, "Sniper!"

Trying to track the shot's trajectory, Garrus moved until he could just see down the corridor the sniper had to be in. Zooming in with his visor, he scanned the area. Nothing. Whoever it was was good, they knew how to avoid detection. Grunt cocked his head at the turian, Garrus said, "I couldn't see the shooter. A survivor from the science team?"

Behind him, Shepard was picking through crates, looking for useful items and spare parts and whatnot. Garrus smiled, this was so Shepard. All the noble ideals in the galaxy couldn't keep her from rifling through the pockets of the dead. "If you're done robbing from corpses, can we get a move on?"

She flung a datapad at him, which he barely caught. He looked down at the contents and hummed in approval, it was a sniper rifle damage upgrade the scientist's had been working on. "Don't hear you complaining now. Besides, not like they need it any more."

"C'mon, let's find something big to kill." Grunt pounded his fists together, eager for blood. Or whatever it was these things had instead of it.

"Relax, big fella. Got a big open area up ahead. Sure to be many many more husks." She exchanged a look with Garrus, who took the cue and slipped to the left walkway, she wanted a crossfire. While she headed up the right, he advanced as well. And, as predicted, the decking was soon filled with more husks. Garrus kept an eye out for more of the red ones, popping one's head off before it had even cleared the railing. He looked over just in time to see Shepard punch one through the head, her tiny deadly fist coming out of the back of its dessicated skull. There was the most amusing expression of utter disgust on her face and Garrus couldn't help but laugh.

Shepard shot him an indignant look and tried to wipe her gore covered hand off on one of the walls, leaving a black smear. Grunt called out, "Scion!"

Ugh, Garrus hated scions. Seems every time he'd lined up his shots, he had to move to avoid a damn shockwave. It was annoying. He'd never be able to bring his sniper rifle to bear on the bastard if they couldn't clear away all the damn husks. Shepard saw this as soon as he did and gave the order to fall back into the long corridor they'd come from. Garrus saw the wisdom in this, the husks would be funneled to them in almost a straight line, making it easy to mow them down and it took them out of the scion's range. They scrambled back, the hordes hard on their heels.

He pulled his assault rifle back out and went to work dropping the shambling corpses. When the last one fell, he pulled his Incisor out in one smooth motion, drawing a bead on the advancing scion. He saw Shepard pull out her Viper at the same time. They pounded it with fire until it fell, at last. He cocked his hip at her and snarked, "You know, one of these days, I'm going to have to show you how to handle a gun."

"Oh, maybe I think I can handle a...gun just fine." She flashed him the most wicked grin and he felt a flush under his plates. Oh, the things he was going to do to her when they got back.

"Well, judging from your aim, maybe you're not used to handling such a big gun." Garrus felt a victorious flash of pleasure when a pink blush flooded her face. She moved toward him and he had to swallow, his heart throbbing in his chest.

Her voice dropped an octave in a tantalizing purr, "Are you going to to show me how to handle your big gun?"

"Ahahhahaha." Oh, she was good. He knew when he'd been outclassed. This was fast heading into territory which it would be unwise to explore in this dead ship. He ripped his gaze away from her triumphant smirk and rubbed the back of his neck.

"Are you guys about to mate? Cuz as fascinating as that might be, I think we have bigger problems." Grunt was standing at the end of the room, looking out over row upon row of bodies impaled on 20 ft spikes.

Garrus came up next to him, "We've seen these before, Shepard. Dragon's teeth, your people call them. The geth used them on Eden Prime, right?"

Shepard looked around, pointing, "See how this room is arranged? They treated this like it was some kind of altar."

Blood for your gods, yeesh. Garrus nodded, "It does look like that. But why would they want this to happen?"

"You heard the logs. They were hearing things. Seeing things. They were being indoctrinated." Shepard scrubbed at her face, a frown making her brows crease in the middle, "We can't help these people now. But we won't let the machines use their bodies like this."

She strode back to another exit, blessfully free of husks. Maybe they'd cleared them all out as unlikely as that sounded. The mission briefing had no solid numbers on how many scientists there had been here and there was no telling how many husks were already here before that research team had disturbed the dead Reaper. They moved closer together, weapons drawn when Shepard palmed the lock on a closed door ahead of them.

They were met by nothing, no hordes, no scions, just an empty room as far as they could tell. Shepard gestured them to take positions up ahead when the loud reports of a sniper rifle made Garrus scramble for cover. He looked back just in time to see the husks that had somehow got the drop on them fall to the ground with perfectly centered holes right through their braincases.

Garrus watched Shepard stand out there horribly exposed, trying to will her into cover but she looked past them. Their mystery sniper must have come out of hiding. Rifle trained on the area the bullets had come from and pretty sure an enemy wouldn't be helping them, Garrus moved out of cover to focus his scope over their benefactor.

It stood fluidly from a kneeling position, all metal fibrous muscle and wires, its head a shining light beaming right at them. A geth, he thought bemusedly as it let the barrel of its rifle sag towards the ground. Shepard took a step forward, head cocked. And it spoke, its voice multitoned but mechanical, "Shepard-commander."

"What the hell?" Grunt and he said it at almost the same time. Shepard stood and watched the geth turn and walk out of sight, gloved fingers tapping her chin in a staccato, her eyes swimming in deep currents of thought.

Grunt snorted, "Geth talk? Since it knows you, tell it I don't need its help."

There had been no sign of geth the entire way they'd been in here, despite there being a geth ship attached to the hull. No geth corpses, or anything. Garrus turned to Shepard and said, "Since when do geth operate alone? They get smarter the more of them there are."

There was no time to ruminate on the geth's strange behavior further as they heard a telltale moaning noise from up ahead. Garrus loaded up on some nearby heatsinks and prepared for the onslaught. If it was possible there were even more husks here than in the previous areas combined. They bludgeoned their way past the multitudinous repurposed cadavers, stopping for few breathers along the way. At the end of it all, when they'd finally gotten to the door of this ship's drive core, they were bloody and exhausted. Garrus crouched down next to a wall while Shepard pored over the IFF data, trying to catch a second wind.

After a time, she stood and considered the door, "I'm pretty sure we're going to find our friend in there, in less than friendly company, no doubt."

Grunt stood next to her, wiping away some blood from a cut over his eye, "We have the IFF, we could just leave this dead god to rot."

Garrus almost laughed, would have if he'd the energy. Shepard could never resist a puzzle.

"But then we'd never know." Shepard looked at the krogan askance, pursing her lips ever so slightly.

"Is it worth it just to satisfy your curiosity?" Grunt looked down at the diminutive female, sneering just a bit.

Shepard poked him in the chest and to his credit, he didn't fall back a step, but he did look confused. Her voice was terse, "If not for my curiosity, you'd still be in that tank. Would never have joined Urdnot, or killed a thresher maw on foot, or gotten those copious breeding requests."

Now the krogan looked almost ashamed, a feeling Garrus knew well from his own experiences doubting Shepard's judgement. He ducked his head, "Battlemaster, I apologize. I owe you much."

She placed her palm on his head crest maternally and Grunt rumbled at her, fondly. Garrus shook his head, amazed at her ability to cow and cajole the giant krogan. And to teach the young warrior a valuable lesson at the same time. Not knowing is unacceptable. Willful ignorance is a hazard-filled choice.

Garrus got to his feet, reloading all his weapons as she palmed the green circle on the door. They were greeted by the sight of the geth at the terminal before the drive core, a mob of husks closing on it fast. There was a blast shield keeping them from entering the room. It kept working, even though its position was getting increasingly untenable. It turned to shoot a few that had wandered too close then resumed its mystifying endeavor.

The shield dropped before them and they watched as the geth was slapped down by the hordes, falling into an inoperative heap. They advanced into the room, guns blazing, taking out the ranks of husks that stood on the catwalk. Shepard had them fall into defensive positions as she leveled her rocket launcher at the drive core's exposed heart. More and more of them kept flooding their position and all of them had to switch their weapons more than once. Garrus found himself wishing Liara had rejoined them, yelling, "We could really use a singularity right about now."

Grunt chortled, "What's the matter, Vakarian? Can't keep up?"

"Some of us can't use our mass as a wrecking ball, Grunt. We're used to doing things with more...finesse." They were all getting exhausted fast and Shepard could only get a couple shots off at the core at a time before its shields closed it off from her efforts. Finally, with a yell that was more hope than triumph, she destroyed the massive blue ball of light just as the last husk dropped dead.

They converged on the fallen geth as the ship rumbled and shook around them, writhing in its death throes. Grunt gave it a little prod with his foot, shrugging, "Well, that's the extent of my technical expertise. Want it for target practice?"

Garrus put in his vote of caution, "We should leave it. We have enough trouble."

He elbowed Grunt in the ribs, receiving a baleful glare in return. But he was already reaching for the fallen geth, knowing Shepard's mind when it came to intriguing conundrums. The moaning was starting up around them again, honestly how many researchers had there been?

Shepard spared not a glance for the husks popping up over the rails of the catwalks as she mumbled, "Tali said no one's ever captured a geth intact."

Garrus said "You know the risk. That's all I'm going to say."

"Hmmm. We'll sort it later. Bring it." She got under its other shoulder as Grunt covered their retreat. She opened a commlink to their ship, "Normandy. Come to our position and open the portside airlock."

Joker's voice cut through the air, "Aye, aye."

Garrus and Shepard flung the geth over the expanse of void to the airlock, both turning in tandem to cover Grunt as he followed with a mighty leap. They cleared a small space before jogging forward a bit for a headstart, spinning on their heels and jumping in almost synchronized grace, landing on the Normandy's deck with muffled thud. Shepard thumbed her comm, "We're clear. Go."

The outer door slid shut and they felt the pull of the ship leaving orbit. They grinned at one another like madmen, the battlefield high still singing in their veins. Nothing like narrow escapes to really get the blood pumping. Garrus looked down at their newest problem, "Where do we stow it?"

"Take it to the AI core. The strongest shields are in there. I have to go debrief the suits and hand off this IFF to EDI." Shepard slapped Grunt's chest piece heartily. "Go get some food. We burned a lot of energy today."

When Grunt left with the geth in tow, Shepard turned to Garrus, "You, too. Don't think I haven't noticed how ragged you've worn yourself. Meet me at the AI Core in an hour?"

I'm worn ragged? You're one to talk. Garrus laughed, but was secretly grateful. The last few days had taken their toll on him. Maybe they'd be able to take some downtime soon, preferably on a world with a decent bar. Or beach, that would be good, too. He wanted to spend some time with her off ship, doing...normal things, indulging his fantasy of a normal life, even if only for a day. He thought she'd like that, too. He leaned close, grinning into her face, "It's a date."