Disclaimer: I don't own Crysis or Mass Effect.

Lieutenant Commander Shepard

Commanding officer of SSV Normandy SR1

Current Location: Feros, Skybridge

Current Time: January 17th 13:17

After clearing the sky bridge, Sable continued driving on until they picked up some radio chatter on an open channel. It had sounded like a woman was arguing with someone not on the radio, and when they had reached a building halfway to the ExoGeni headquarters they were spotted by whoever was on the radio. Shepard spotted a corridor leading down from the main road within the building that they were driving through.

"Hold up." Shepard ordered as she pulled the Mako to a stop. "I just saw a corridor, I want to check it out. I believe that the ones on the radio who've been talking are in here."

Wrex grumbled as he climbed out of the IFV "We're not at the headquarters, we should ignore this."

"We can't just ignore the survivors here. We have to make sure that they are safe from the geth." Garrus rebuked the krogan.

"Yeah, we'll make sure that they are safe by killing the geth for them." Wrex retorted.

"Quiet!" Shepard ordered as she walked through the corridor into a large enclosed room with defensive barriers, manned by corporate security, set up at the entrance.

The moment the squad reached the barricade a loud voice called out to them "That's close enough!"

When the squad slowed to a halt infront of the man who had spoken a woman who stood next to him spoke up exasperated "Relax Jeong. They're obviously not geth."

Jeong motioned her back "Get back, Juliana. They may not be geth but CryNet is just as unwelcome here as the geth!"

That statement caused Shepard's eyebrow to raise. "Relax, we aren't from CryNet."

Jeong gave her an incredulous look "You walk in here, fully equipped with GHOST armor and using CryNet weapons and expect us to believe that you aren't Inquisitors? Screw that."

Shepard crossed her arms, retracting her faceplate to show her face. "I'm Commander Shepard, Alliance Navy. Spectre."

"You see?" Juliana said "You worry too much."

Jeong snorted "There are no human Spectres. Everybody knows that. Right?" Jeong asked, seemingly trying to get support from around him. When he didn't get it he quickly became flustered. "Besides, a Spectre isn't much better."

Juliana sighed before turning to address Shepard, "I'm just glad to see a friendly face. I was sure that we were the only humans left on this planet."

Shepard shook her head as she uncrossed her arms "Nope. Fai Dan and the rest of the Zhu's Hope colony are all holding out."

Juliana turned to Jeong, eyes narrowed. "I thought you said they were all dead."

"I said that they were 'probably' all dead." Jeong defended himself.

"They're not dead. But the geth really have done a number on them." Garrus told the exogeni staff.

Juliana nodded "We know what that's like. Those damn synthetics are relentless."

"Heh, that's what being synthetic will do for you." Wrex chuckled "You don't need to rest."

Shepard smiled reassuringly "Don't worry, I'll do whatever I can to get you guys out of here safely. But in order to do so I'll need some information."

"What kind of information?" Jeong asked shrewdly.

Juliana rolled her eyes "Ignore him. The geth are up in the ExoGeni headquarters. Just a bit further along. They have a ship attached to the building for some reason."

"Probably for easier offloading of geth." Garrus guessed.

"Or to power whatever they put in there." Wrex said.

Shepard nodded "Well we won't know until we get in there."

Jeong immediately had something to say about that. "Those headquarters are private property, soldiers. Remove the geth and nothing else."

The Spectre narrowed her eyes at the corporate man "I don't care if its private property or not. As a Spectre I can do whatever the hell I want. Now shut up."

"Commander, before you go..." Juliana said, raising a hand. "My daughter, Lizbeth. She's missing."

"They shouldn't waste time poking around-"

"Jeong." Shepard said dangerously. "I told you to shut up. Now." She said turning her attention to Juliana again "I'll keep a lookout for her while I'm there. What does she look like?"

Juliana's eyes lit up with hope "Here, I have a picture." She said, showing the squad a picture on her omnitool.

The VI in Shepard's armor quickly scanned and stored the image within its own memory banks.

"I'll make sure to keep an eye out." Shepard assured.

Leaving the holed up corporate survivors Shepard, Garrus and Wrex got back in the Mako and they headed on toward the ExoGeni headquarters that had a geth ship attached to it like some large parasite. They came across a few geth units along the way but they were easily taken care of.

"Looks like we have to go on foot now Commander." Wrex grunted when the road stopped right outside the main building.

Exiting the mako the squad slowly entered the headquarters. They hadn't made it five meters when they were suddenly assaulted by the geth garrison.

The attacking geth were easily destroyed by a salvo of tungsten, biotics and tech mines. "Looks like the geth don't waste any time moving in." Garrus remarked as he destroyed the last trooper with a head shot.

"What are they up to? There is no point to this unless they are looking for something." Wrex muttered.

"That's what we are here to find out Wrex." Shepard told him spotting a door and walking towards it. Upon reaching it she ran her hacking algorithms and a moment later the red light turned green, signaling the unlocking of the door. Swiping her hand over the sensor, Shepard took one look into the now open door before jumping back behind the doorframe, urgently motioning the rest of her squad to do the same. The reason for this became apparent when an armature unpacked itself within the room and began firing at them with its machine gun.

"Garrus, overload its shields!" Shepard yelled and Garrus immediately gestured towards the armature. A moment later, a shower of sparks exploded from the armature as its shields fried. With its shields down, the squad began pouring fire into its head, but the armor of the armature held up against the small arms fire. "Get down!" Shepard took cover as the armature reared up, its head glowing brightly and moments later a bright pulse crashed into the wall behind which Shepard was hiding.

In the short lull that followed, the squad jumped out from behind its cover to open fire once more.

"My shields are down!" Garrus called out, jumping behind cover as the armature opened fire once more, shots pinging off of his GHOST armor.

"Enough of this." Shepard growled and flaredup blue, hitting the armature with a biotic throw causing it to collapse before trying to get up again. Shepard however would have nothing of the sort and warped the armored head of the armature before unloading a carnage shot straight into its head causing it to explode.

"See... This is where we could have used Wraith." Garrus mumbled.

"We don't need that tin man. We dealt with it easily enough." Shepard smirked.

Leaving the room they saw that the corridor on the opposite side of the room was blocked by some kind of energy field. "Looks like we have to drop down Commander." Garrus said, gesturing at a trench that was the only other way out of the room.

"It's a one way drop commander." Wrex stated looking it over. The bottom of the trench was at least ten meters down, beyond what the GHOST armor would allow them to jump back up.

"It's also our only way forward. Lets go." Shepard said.

The trench led to a large rubble filled room. As they entered the room, they were able to spot a dead varren moments before a gunshot rang out and Shepard's shields flared in response. Everyone raised their weapons towards the calculated source of the gun fire to see a young woman with a pistol held in her shaking hands standing there. "Damn it! I'm so sorry. I thought you were geth, or one of those varren." She cried.

"The lack of flashlight heads should have shown that we weren't geth. Also I have yet to see a varren that can walk on two legs." Wrex growled.

"I know. I'm so sorry! I'm just so scared."

"You're safe now. But why were you here in the first place?" Shepard asked lowering her weapon.

"It's my own fault. Everyone was running and I stayed to back up data." She said, "Next thing I knew the geth ship latched on and the power went out."

"So why didn't you leave?" Wrex grunted irritably.

"I was trapped. I tried to get out but the way was blocked."

"We can clear the way for you. A few geth won't stop us." Shepard told her.

"It's not the geth, it's that energy field. They don't want anyone to get access to the-" She broke off looking unsure.

Shepard immediately latched on to the slip. "I'm here for the geth and it's very important that I find out what they are after."

"Well I can't say for sure, but I would have to guess they are here for the Thorian. It's the only thing of interest here on Feros." The woman said.

"What's a Thorian?" Wrex asked.

"An indigenous life form. ExoGeni was studying it." She said.

"What do you know about it? Where can I find it?" Shepard wanted to know.

"I might be able to help, but not with those geth crawling around the place. Look we need to get out of here, past that field." She said evasively.

Shepard narrowed her eyes but let it go for now "So how are we going to do that?"

"Well I think that the geth ship is powering it. I noticed the geth laying power cables everywhere so you could follow the cables but the geth are everywhere." She said.

"Fair enough. By the way are you Lizbeth Baynham? Your mother was looking for you." Shepard asked.

"Shes alive!? Please get that field down so I can see my mother again." Lizbeth pleaded "Here take my ID. It should get you past any locked doors."

"Alright, we'll go and get that barrier down. Be careful." Shepard said turning away, only to see a pack of varren running towards them. "Varren! Take them down!" She shouted and the squad spun pulling out their assault rifles and opening fire on the varren taking them down quickly.

Once all the varren were dead they left and continued on through a door in the corner of the room. They came out on a staircase where they heard a krogan arguing with a VI. It seemed that he was trying to access some files that were above his security clearance.

"Stupid machine! Access encrypted files." The krogan growled angrily. "No I don't want to review protocol!"

"I am unable to comply. Please contact your supervisor." The VI said way too calmly for the situation.

"Damn it! Tell me what I want or I'll blast your virtual ass into actual dust!"

"Please contact your supervisor for a level four security exemption. Or make an appointment with-"

"Stupid machine!" The krogan roared.

"If there is nothing else please step aside. There is a queue forming for the use of this console."

"Stupid VI." Muttered Shepard as the krogan flared blue showing that he was a Battlemaster.

"Good. I need to kill something." He growled and charged towards the trio.

Wrex responded by also flaring blue and meeting the krogan's charge head on. What resulted was a colossal battle between the two while Shepard and Garrus attempted to get a shot off without hitting Wrex. It was however not needed as Wrex took the other krogan down after a few moments by unloading a shotgun blast into its head.

"ExoGeni corporation reminds all staff that the discharging of weapons while on company property is strictly forbidden." The VI said happily when Shepard walked up to it. "Welcome back Research assistant Elizabeth Baynhem. What can I do for you?"

"What information was the last user trying to access?" Shepard asked it.

"The previous user was attempting to access data on Species 37, the Thorian."

"Tell me about the Thorian."

"All sensors monitoring the observation post at Zhu's Hope have been inactive for several cycles." the VI said.

"What does Zhu's Hope have to do with the Thorian?" Shepard asked.

"Species 37 is located within the substructure of the Zhu's Hope outpost."

"What does the Thorian do exactly?" Shepard asked a horrible suspicion rising in her mind.

"The Thorian is a simple plant lifeform that exhibits a sentient behavior uncommon with other flora. Through dispersion and the eventual inhalation of spores, it can infect and control other organisms, including humans. The Zhu's Hope control group has yielded interesting results. Before sensors went offline, almost 87% of all test subjects were infected."

"You bastards." Whispered Shepard. "You knowingly had humans be infected and controlled? How- Wraith." She immediately turned from the VI placing her fingers on her helmet, right where her ear was. "Operative Wraith. This is Sable. Do you copy?" A moment passed with no answer. "Operative Wraith. Do you copy? This is Sable."

Upon not receiving an answer she tried to contact the Normandy. "Normandy, this is Sable. Do you copy?" When they didn't answer she tried to contact Kaidan and Cobolt. "Cobolt, Sable. Do you copy?"

Seeing Shepard's unsuccessful attempts at reaching anyone outside of the tower, Garrus put in his two cents. "The geth must be jamming all non-geth signals."

"Then we need to take out that ship and get back to the colony." Wrex said.

"Yeah, lets go." Shepard said casting one last disgusted look at the VI and heading up a flight of stairs. They came out in a room with two geth kneeling before what seemed to be an alter. The team quickly dispatched them before they could even begin to stand up. Looking around they noticed two big claws coming in from the outside of the building with power cables running along side of them. Realizing that they had no way of cutting or blasting the claws they decided to keep moving, but not before Garrus commented on the altar.

"This room seems almost peaceful. Do you think the geth were using it as some kind of religious temple?"

"Whatever. I ain't here to learn their customs." Wrex said rolling his eyes.

"It's possible. But right now, I agree with Wrex. We need to clear out these geth asap." Shepard motioned Garrus on.

Continuing along a small winding corridor they eventually came out in a room on the other side of the barrier that they saw before. They were immediately set upon by a few geth troopers, shock troopers and stalkers which they quickly dealt with. The geth dealt with they climbed yet another flight of stairs and came across a room with two charging krogan. The squad quickly focused down the first one and Wrex met the second with his own charge, knocking it down allowing the rest of the team to riddle it with bullets. On the far side of the room there was a terminal that turned out to belong to a colonist that wanted Shepard to retrieve some data.

"What do you think this data is?" Garrus asked.

"Well if we don't like what he tells us we have plenty of options." Grunted Wrex.

Continuing on the squad came across a large room with yet another claw. Before they could examine it closer they had to deal with the two geth troopers and shock trooper who took offense to them being there.

"I don't think we can do anything to this claw either Shepard." Wrex commented looking it over.

"Commander! Over here. I found something." Garrus called out to Shepard from where he was accessing an ExoGeni Terminal.

"This doesn't look good. It looks like the Nodacrux colony might be having problems." Shepard mumbled as she scrolled through the message "We should probably check it out after we leave here."

Climbing a walkway that lead over the claw they immediately saw a rather large group of geth waiting for them. Focusing down the weaker troopers first the squad dispersed themselves behind cover to take down the shock troopers and the juggernaut that was making its way towards them. A overload from Garrus took down the first trooper's shields allowing Shepard to put a burst of bullets into its head. The second shock trooper was sent flying by a biotic throw from Wrex and the juggernaut was then taken out by the combined fire of the squad.

"Commander, I found something." Garrus had found a server node and hacked it.

"It would seem some of ExoGeni's employees dealt with Cerberus recently. Wraith would no doubt be interested in this." Shepard mused looking over the data.

"And here, it looks like the geth are massing up in the Armstrong nebula." Garrus said. "Looks like they are planning to invade Citadel space."

"Interesting. I'll inform the council and the alliance of this later." Shepard called over to him.

"Commander. I think I found a way to smash through that claw." Wrex said from where he was looking at a ticket on a console.

"Let me see that." Shepard said joining Wrex. "31-34 PSI eh? I hope it still works... Lets see 11, 17 and 5. That would be 33 PSI... Perfect." She said pressing three buttons. "High pressure, here we go." She finished grinning wickedly pressing a final button on the console. With a loud hiss and massive crash a hangar door cut straight through the geth claw. Judging by the loud crashes sounding from outside it looked like the ship tore itself loose and had fallen to its destruction.

"That did it. The barrier should be down now." Garrus said relieved.

"This was my kind of mission. Kill a bunch of geth and end things off with a huge crash!" Wrex chuckled.

"Don't let your guard down though, there might be a few geth inside the base." Garrus warned.

Before Shepard could respond Joker's voice came in through the communication channel. "I repeat, Normandy to shore party. Are you reading? Anyone there? Normandy to shore party. Come on, Commander, talk to me!" He sounded rather agitated.

"Is that you, Joker? What's going on over there?" Shepard asked.

"We're in lock down here, Commander. Something happened to the colonists. They're banging on the hull, trying to claw their way inside the ship. They're freaking out!"

"They can't do any real damage. Hold your position, we are on our way back. What's Wraith's status?"

"Uh, we don't know Commander. We were tracking him fine, then he headed back to the colony he suddenly went dark. Kaidan said that he said he was going dark to check the perimeter but not five minutes later the colonists went insane." He reported.

"We are heading back now Joker. Shepard out." She closed the channel before heading back the way they came "Come on, we need to get back there now. I have a bad feeling about this."

"Wraith's suit should protect him from the spore right? I mean it is sealed off from the outside right?" Garrus asked.

"Yes it is, but I think it's the colonist's and the Thorian that are the problem." Shepard muttered jogging along.

"Wraith can handle himself Shepard. I doubt that the colonists could take him down." Wrex said.

"Not if they took him by surprise. Especially if what I think happened is right."

"Which would be?" Garrus inquired as Shepard broke off.

"That they set up an EMP trap for him." Shepard said grimly as they walked through the door where the barrier used to be. She stopped abruptly as she saw Lizbeth Baynham.

"There you are!" She said with relief as she saw Shepard come around the corner "We should get out of here. I don't think this place is safe."

"I need some answers, but you can tell me those on the way." Shepard said walking past her "You knew more about the Thorian than you let on."

"I was afraid. I wanted to stop the tests but they threatened me. They told me that I'd be next. When the geth attacked I tried to send a message to Colonial Affairs but the geth cut power before I could get it out. I never wanted this to happen!" she responded trying to keep up with the fast pace Shepard was setting.

"You did what you could. Now tell me where I can find the Thorian." Shepard ordered as she opened the hatch to the Mako and motioned everyone to get in.

"The Thorian is underneath Zhu's Hope, but the entrance was blocked by a freighter just before the geth attacked.

"But why are the geth after the Thorian? What could Saren want with it?" Shepard mused as she got in the drivers seat.

"Well it does have unique mind-control capabilities, that's what ExoGeni was interested in." She stated from her position in the back seat.

"Normandy to shore party come in." Jokers voice crackled over the radio.

"What is it Joker?" Shepard asked.

"We are getting a lot of geth comm chatter. It looks like they're headed your way!" he said.

"Alright thanks for the warning Joker, now buckle up people. Wrex get on the guns!"

A/N: Yeah, I'm evil. You guys aren't gonna know what happens to Wraith until next chapter. Muahahahahaha.

So yeah, if you have any questions don't hesitate to ask and if you have any good feedback please give it to me.

And so, until next time.

~LEGION