A day late. Sorry bout that. Anyway we have the reappearence of Wraith in this chapter so there is that. Again if you guys spot any mistakes this is unbeta'ed so let me know and I'll fix em. As always I don't own Mass Effect or Crysis.

Lieutenant Commander Shepard

Commanding Officer of the SSV Normandy SR1

Current location: Peak 15, Noveria

Current Time: January 29th 05:33

"Look out! Another wave incoming!"

"Ceph scout! Watch out!"

Shepard flared up blue grabbing hold of a small trooper and ripping it in half with her biotics. After the flash freeze and subsequent loss of shields for the GHOST armors, the situation had only gotten worse as wave after wave of ceph troops kept flooding their position. The situation put the biotics in a better position than most even if the GHOST armor was no longer amplifying their abilities. Shepard ducked behind cover as she reapplied a barrier around herself, already starting to feel the drain from constantly using her abilities. Nearby Liara was already taking more and more time behind cover, just trying to muster more energy to continue fighting. Shepard, Wrex and Kaidan were more used to using their biotics often in combat, but this constant strain was certainly taking its toll on the three biotic soldiers. Kaidan was probably feeling the effects around the same level as Liara was. Wrex was still charging around, his rage and merely being a Krogan putting him in the best position at the moment. Shepard was somewhere in between, still going strong but she was definitely feeling the strain.

Of the non-biotics Atlas was definitely faring the best, currently blasting a couple of troopers away with his . Shepard figured it was due to the extra power cells that he had on his back. It let him maintain at least a minimal shield, rather than no shield at all. As for the rest, they were all behind some kind of cover, sometimes popping out to let a couple of shots loose at the ceph before ducking back.

"There's just too many of them. We've got to get in some kind of better position!"

Before Shepard could respond to whoever spoke she heard Liara cry out in pain, and glancing over she saw the asari dropping back down behind an overturned metal table that she was using for cover, a wicked looking shard of ice protruding from her upper arm.

"Shit!" Athena shouted as she sprinted over to the injured doctor. "Atlas, mY medi-gel has frozen solid! I can't treat her like this."

A moment later Shepard's attention was drawn away from Liara and towards a group of ceph that seemed to be taking fire from what looked like a Ceph weapon. Shepard didn't hesitate at this unusual turn of events, her N-training kicking in to keep her focused as the group was mowed down by the familiar silvery ice rounds that were. The rest of the ceph immediately turned their attention from attacking Titan and her Squad to face the new threat that was tearing through their forces with their own weaponry. A couple of seconds later, Shepard gave a sigh of relief as she saw a dark form wielding what was obviously a ceph weapon of some kind, but was far too large to be wielded by any normal human, step into the room, shards of ice spewing from his weapon at the ceph opposing him.

CryNet Phantom Operative designation Wraith

Current assignment: SSV Normandy SR1. Aide to Lt. Com Shepard, Spectre

Current Location: Peak 15, Noveria

Current Time: January 29th 05:34

My finger was tight on the trigger that I had pulled off of a revenant I had found drifting in one of the ceph's junk rooms, sending a command down into the ceph weapon. In response it let loose a series of ice shards at the back of a ceph trooper. The first shard slammed into the ceph, sending it reeling back, the next couple of shards penetrated the armor plating of the ceph tearing their way through the inner components of the robot, taking it out of commission. Before the first trooper could fall to the ground I switched my aim to another trooper taking that one down before the ceph could completely register my presence. Slowly stepping forward I continued firing shards of ice at the ceph as they began to turn towards me. Without hesitation I took down another two ceph then forgoing accuracy I just held down the trigger, letting loose a wave of suppressive fire at the group of ceph taking down another one before they could even begin to open fire at me.

As they did so another four ceph were taken down by a sudden burst of fire coming from the group that until now had been crouching behind various pieces of cover.

A couple more fell when the ceph released a loud electronic screech and retreated. Another two fell under the combined fire of my weapon and the group I had just rescued. Silence fell over the room when the last cep had turned the corner and the high pitched whine of my weapon subsided.

Raising it so that the muzzle pointed up toward the ceiling I looked over at the group of Inquisitors and Spectre's crew "I didn't miss anything did I?" I quipped as Shepard stepped forward, armor glistening with a thin layer of ice.

"Wraith?"

I chuckled "In the flesh and in the suit. Thought I'd drop by. Figured you might need a bit of help. They didn't look to be the friendliest of people." I looked over at Atlas "Hey Atlas, you still have those spears sticking out of your back?"

Atlas nodded, breathing heavily "Yeah. But listen we need to move, we have wounded and the cold isn't helping things."

I looked over the group and upon seeing Liara, leaning against a metal table with Athena tending to her I nodded. "Understood. I passed a ruptured fuel line a few minutes ago. If we can get to that we patch her up for prolonged movement. We're going to have to get out of here soon however. We won't survive in here by ourselves, especially now that the ceph have activated their energy sphere. Port Hanshan's the staging area for our assault against peak fifteen, so that should be our best bet. We're gonna want to be out of here when the fighting really starts."

"Energy Sphere?" Shepard asked me, keeping an eye down a nearby hallway for ceph. "I assume you're talking about the sudden and rather drastic drop in temperature?"

I nodded "Yeah. Its pretty much like a far more advanced version of the same tech that the Nanosuit uses to get its energy, only on a much, much larger scale. I won't get into the details, but thats basically what happened. No idea what the ceph want with all that energy but it can't be good."

"Sounds good and all, but how can we be sure that CryNet even know about the ceph? We haven't been able to get a message out with this jamming field up. Were you able to get in contact with CryNet?"

I nodded "Yup. And as such we have a shit ton of Inquisitors and phantom teams accompanying a full CELL Battalion. Now we really need to get moving and get to that fire so we can continue this discussion while we move. We're going to have to take the long way to the exit. Elevators and trams will have been disabled by the sphere." I said as I began leading the group along the waypoints that SECOND was giving me.

"Wait, how did you get a message out? As far as I know the long range comms are jammed all around the facility." Shepard asked me, jogging up to walk beside me.

"Normal long range comms are jammed. My QEC isn't."

"A QEC? You've got to be kidding me. Since when do you have that?"

I chuckled slightly as I stepped around a caved in wall. "Well I am the one who gets all the prototype nanosuit tech. Perk, and drawback of being the first and best I suppose."

"What's a QEC?" Ashley called out to me.

"A Quantum Entanglement Communicator." I said looking over my shoulder at the soldier a couple of meters behind me. "Basically it uses Quantum Entanglement technology, to send data between certain particles in my suit and their paired particles on the Prism. It's constantly sending data and information to the prism and lets me communicate with the Prism, no matter what the situation I'm in. Very useful if I do say so myself. But very expensive. The QEC in my suit is a prototype. We're working on finding cheaper ways of implementing QEC's in Nanosuits so that every Team lead can have one."

"So I'm guessing that because Atlas hasn't heard about it yet, that its going to be a phantom only perk?" Ares called out.

"So far. Just no reason for this kind of tech to be incorporated into the inquisitors. Normally you guys don't find yourselves in a situation where you would require one."

"What do you call this then? We could have definitely used one." Achilles commented.

"Well this isn't a normal mission for you guys now is it? Normally there would be a Phantom team here."

"True but wouldn't it be better to have it and not need it?" Atlas asked.

"This sort of tech is extremely goddamn expensive. I'm sure you know or at least can guess how much a normal QEC costs. Now multiply that by fifty and you might be on the right track."

Atlas whistled upon hearing the ballpark cost for the QEC device.

"I suppose you phantoms really do always get the good stuff." Shepard called out from her position supporting Liara along the trek.

"That we do. Anyway, that broken fuel line was just around this corner. The fire from that should keep us warm- or at least warmer than we would be without."

"Alright, everyone who needs to, warm up a bit, Liara lets get your shoulder treated somewhat. we'll start moving again once you've been treated. Everyone else, form a perimeter I don't want any unwelcome surprises."

The group split up somewhat. Liara settled down by the fire that spilled out of the fuel line while Athena knelt down next to her and placed a packet of Medi-gel near the flames in order to thaw the frozen substance. Shepard and Atlas joined her in tending to Liara while the rest of us split up in order to cover both ends of the corridor.

About a quarter of an hour later, Shepard strode up to where I was watching the way that we would be leaving and gave me a short nod.

"Liara's good to go?" I inquired looking back at the asari who was now standing on her feet looking better than she did a few minutes ago.

"Yeah, she got a bit of frostbite, but it won't leave any permanent damage."

"I'm glad. We should probably get moving. We've stayed in one place for too long."

Shepard nodded, "I'll let the rest know."

"I'll scout out ahead a bit. Meet up with me up ahead." Turning I walked on past where Wrex, Ashley, Tali and Ares were talking in quiet voices. "We're preparing to move out. I'm going ahead to make sure nothing is waiting for us around the corner."

Wrex nodded in understanding "Wraith."

I cloaked as I strode forward, my body and MOAC fading away as I turned th corner. I continued on for about twenty meters before I reached a intersection where another hallway crossed the one I was in. To the right was the way back to the ceph hive, a place I had no intention of returning to just yet. However the hallway was still with only a few snowflakes drifting idly in the air.

The silence was broken by the sound of heavily armored feet approaching from behind me and a moment later Shepard walked up next to me, the rest of the group behind her. Giving her a nod I started to lead the way out of the facility.

We had been walking for almost fifteen minutes when Shepard joined me at the front of the group. "So, what happened after that ceph took you Martin?" She asked me on a private channel.

I stayed silent for a couple of moments, stepping over a frozen body lying on the floor, it was obvious that he hadn't been killed by the sphere, but rather his death had come earlier, most likely to a ceph or rachni. I swallowed as I remembered the fear that had flooded through my body as the ceph grabbed and flew off with me. I exhaled shakily "You know how my parents died Shepard?" I asked staring off into the distance.

She shook her head silently next to me. "All I know is that the official story is that they were killed in a bank robbery. The criminals started executing hostages and they were some of the first to be killed. But I'm guessing that that's not true. And I'm guessing that it had something to do with the Ceph instead?"

I let out a short, humorless laugh. "Hah. Yeah. That was the official story. But the truth… might not be as different as one might expect. If one looks at it from a certain point of view of course. You know how Alpha Tech and Sciences was founded by Niel Teems and my father, Michael Duncan? And how in addition my mother and father were lead researchers for ATaS? Well what do you think happens to a booming company, with two very enthusiastic researchers, in the form of my parents, find an alien ruin on Xanadu?"

"Oh. I see." Shepard said catching on immediately.

I nodded "Yeah. Of course ATaS sends in a research team, headed up by both my mother and father, to investigate. Of course they had no idea what they had found. No idea that they had uncovered the most important discovery since the prothean ruins on mars. No idea of how dangerous it was. I was thirteen when they entered those ruins." I swallowed thickly as unwanted memories rose up in my mind. "I came home from school on Terra Nova where we lived, had just aced a biology exam. They had promised to call me that day to see how it went. But instead of coming home to talk to them, Niel was there to give me news that I'd never even considered getting."

"Fuck. I'm so sorry." Vanyali's horrified voice sounded in my ear as I mechanically motioned for everyone to follow me down a branching hallway.

"A single Ceph Scout." I shook my head. "A single one. One of the big guys you know? The type that took me. Somehow a ceph woke up, got in a scout and tore its way through the entire research team and just about the entire guard detail that was supposed to just be there to protect against pirates and slavers. That one Scout? Killed forty-eight people before it was finally taken down. Including my parents. That was the first, and only live and active ceph we've had up until now. So when that ceph took me? Well lets just say it brought up a lot of very unpleasant memories, and if it wasn't for my nanosuit, well I'd not have survived the encounter."

I took another shaky breath. "So anyway, once my suit got me calmed down, the squid tried interfacing with my suit. I think that it thought I was ceph, or atleast my suit was. Well that turned out to be a mistake the suit didn't hesitate in taking. It was able to reject the interface attempt causing the scout to let me go. Of course that left me in the middle of hostile territory, a ceph scout circling around me with no weapons. Things got even worse when a couple of troopers showed up. Good thing I didn't need any weapons to fuck those squid up."

"You took out a ceph scout with trooper backup without any weapons?" Shepard asked disbelievingly.

I shrugged "Well, not really. The suit does basically make me a weapon, and it was able to do a fast on the fly adaptation to let me drain energy from those fucks. So I wasn't completely unarmed. But other than that, yeah I did take out about ten troopers before the ceph turned and ran."

"Hey Wraith, mind telling us whats going on here exactly? What happened to you. What are these ceph capable of?" Ashley called out from behind

"I was actually just telling Shepard about what happened to me after the ceph captured me." I answered.

"Is that when you got that ceph weapon?" Kaidan asked.

I nodded "I got that as a part of my excursion into the ceph hive."

"The ceph took you into their hive?"

I shook my head as I answered Ashley "No, I was able to escape right outside of their hive."

"So you went in the hive yourself." I could feel Shepard's gaze on me. "Why?"

I shrugged "Intel gathering. Had to learn as much as I could, gather as much data as possible. Let my suit do its thing." I made sure not to mention the other main reason why I went in the hive, to get as much info about the ceph virus that SECOND had detected moments before I was taken.

"Let your suit do its thing?"

"Yeah, see what the suit will do with ceph tech, ceph DNA, anything ceph related really. It is based off of ceph tech after all."

"What do you mean how it would react? Sure its based off of ceph tech shouldn't mean that it would react any differently to ceph tech?"

I shrugged, making sure to pretend to be completely at ease with the question, but internally I was tense, making sure that I wasn't going to release any information that I couldn't afford to. My experience, in dealing with all the politics that came with being a director of CryNet was being used fully here. "For normal tech based off of Ceph technology that would be true. But the nanosuit is anything but normal. We designed it to adapt, to evolve. Therefore it very well might react in unexpected ways to the presence of ceph. In fact believe that the ceph tried to take me, because they either mistook, which I doubt, me for a ceph, or just recognized that the suit was based heavily off of ceph tech and wanted more information."

"Wait, they mistook you for ceph? But why would they think that? Sure recognizing reverse engineered technology is one thing, but actually mistaking you for ceph?"

I groaned internally, Atlas was just too smart sometimes "Its just a theory I made because it tried to interface with me. But that could easily have been an attack instead. As it is my suit was able to adapt to be able to drain energy from ceph units, killing them and replenishing my own energy supplies."

"Yeah, how is that right now?" Ashley asked "Your energy reserves. Are they replenishing or has this energy sphere impacted your suit as well?"

"Oh the sphere is definitely impacting my power reserves, but not nearly as badly as your armor. I've merely been denied most thermal energy replenishment. I'm still getting energy from most other sources. Including myself I might add."

"What do you mean, yourself?" Shepard asked.

"You know how the cells in your body generate energy by breaking down the-"

"Wraith!" The spectre interrupted me "In english please."

I sighed. "Oh fine. The suit is able to tap into the energy produced by the body to run itself. Is that simple enough for you?"

I could hear shepard's smirk in her next word. "Yes."

I glowered at her for a moment before continuing "Anyway, if there is no energy that it can take from its surroundings, the suit can draw energy directly from the host. It is able to maintain all critical functions with energy taken solely from the host. Of course this generally means that then the host has to eat a lot more, rather than less since the suit isn't giving the host energy anymore but rather taking it. Besides" I said looking at the party, "Didn't I already explain all this to you guys?"

Shepard shrugged teasingly "Did you? I don't remember."

"I did! Why didn't anyone tell me?"

"Well you seemed to enjoy giving your lecture. I figured it wouldn't be right to stop you."

I glared at Garrus. "You wouldn't be making fun of me now, would you?"

"Alright. Break it up." Shepard said chuckling. "I don't need the both of you actively trying to take each others kills. You might start missing."

"Miss? Me?" "I never miss." But Garrus and I immediately protested.

"Shepard, need I remind you that you are the one who uses a shotgun at point blank range where you might as well be shooting at the broad side of a barn?"

"That coming from the guy who has a suit that can aim for him, basically giving him the real life equivalent of one of those aimbot things cheaters use in games." She quickly retorted.

"Touche."

"Are they always like that?" Atlas asked Liara quietly behind me.

her response was drowned out by Kaidan"So uh, to get back on track, that ceph weapon, how did you get it?"

"This?" I hefted the weapon in question. I took it from a deactivated Scout. Then I was able to hook it up to a handle and trigger I found floating around in one of the cephs garbage dumps."

"Garbage dump?"

I shrugged "It's just a guess. They had a couple of areas that had a bunch of stuff just floating around in there."

"Wait floating? Was there water in there?" Athena asked curiously.

I shook my head "No. Did I forget to mention that they had anti-gravity in there?"

The various exclamations of shock answered my question for me.

I raised an unseen eyebrow "Really? You guys are more surprised about that than the sphere that absorbs thermal energy?"

"Well its easier since we've become accustomed to the nanosuit and its ability to get energy from its surroundings. But actual anti-gravity on the surface of a planet, that's unheard of." Tali said.

I shrugged "I suppose. Anyway, like I was saying I hooked up the weapon to a trigger and handle, letting the suit do some interfacing and boom. There you go. New ceph weapon for use with non ceph."

"So- how does it work? I'm most curious I've never heard of anything like it." Tali asked.

"SECOND called it a Molecular Accelerator, MOAC for short. It condenses and freezes the water in the atmosphere into Ice XI. Ice XI is a ferroelectric type of Ice. After the ICE XI is formed, it fires it in way thats not dissimilar to the way our guns work. By electromagnetic attraction, basically the MOAC is a Ceph gauss that fires ice instead of metal."

"It's hard to believe that Ice is so deadly." Kaidan muttered.

Before I could answer, my suit began giving of a sound similar to that of something banging two metal poles against each other. "What's that?" Shepard asked sharply as I hefted the MOAC.

I aimed the MOAC at the hallway ahead of us, finger hovering over the trigger. "That, is telling us that there are squids that need killing." I glanced back at the squad "Everyone get behind me. I can soak up more damage than you guys can at the moment. But my energy reserves won't last forever, we need to take these things down as fast as possible." The moment I stopped talking four ceph troopers appeared ahead of us rushing towards us. These troopers however caused me to hesitate for a split second before I started opening fire with the rest of the squad. The last trooper had a very different color scheme from the rest of the troopers. While normally the troopers were black with a blue color theme, this last trooper was grey and green. However it wasn't the coloring that made me hesitate, but rather it was the fact that this last trooper had some kind of energy streaming from it to the other three troopers, which had some kind of energy shield around them. My suspicions were correct when my first barrage of ice smashed into the shield from one of the troopers dealing no damage.

The other two troopers were also taking no damage from the hail of fire coming from the rest of the team and even as I watched, a biotic orb that came flying past from behind me hit the ceph with seemingly no effect. "That green fucker is shielding the others!" I shouted over the sound of my MOAC.

"Target the shield guy!" Unfortunately for us, the other three ceph troopers had basically formed a wall between us and the shield trooper, meaning that none of us could actually follow Shepard's orders.

"Anyone got a grenade?" Atlas asked stepping up right behind me, firing accurate bursts, trying to get some shots past the three shielded troopers.

As I worriedly watched my energy reserves quickly deplete I decided to spring into action before anyone could respond. "Watch your fire!" I shouted breaking into a full spring towards the three ceph. Part of me noticed the amount of fire coming from behind me lessen considerably as I started my charge. The ice coming at me from ahead of me however didn't lessen as I dropped the MOAC to the ground. The shouts from behind me were quickly processed and ignored as I jumped forward in a shallow arc, taking me over the three troopers and directly on top of the shield trooper. My hand reaching out to grab the trooper by the crown like projection on the top of its head.

"Energy Siphon Enabled."

My energy reserves that had almost completely been depleted began charging at a rapid rate as the trooper I was grabbing started writhing around, trying to whip me with its tentacles, but my armored form deflected its attacks as the green lights that adorned it began to dim.

"Warning, Energy surge detected. Energy levels exceeding baseline parameters."

I grinned seeing my HUD light up brighter than normal. "Lets get this party started!" Stepping forward I grabbed two tentacles of the nearest trooper, letting the other two swing wildly at me, glancing off of my armor. With a great heave I ripped the trooper in half, one of its tentacles separating completely from the main body. Dropping the tentacle I ripped off I gripped the other tentacle in both hands and swing it, body still attached, at another ceph, using it like a flail to crush the second ceph to a sparking wreck. I turned to face the last ceph only to find it already falling to the ground, riddled with holes and sparking violently. As the ceph began to hum around me I calmly stepped towards the rest of the party, my suit no longer overcharged off of the energy that it had taken from the shield trooper, picking up my MOAC as I passed it. "We need to get moving. I'm sure we'll soon have a horde of ceph trying to kill us. We shouldn't be for from the entrance now. We'll just have to get to the Wisp and hope its still working."

"All of us in a Wisp is gonna be pretty cramped.

"Well we don't really have any other choice, unless you want to walk out of here. I'll see if we can't arrange aerial extraction once we're out of the sphere."

It turned out that either the ceph were slower than I expected, didn't actually know where they were, or we were faster than I initially thought because we didn't encounter any more ceph.

"Huh. I was expecting more ceph to show up." I said, wrenching the outer door open, which had frozen shut.

"Are you complaining?" Shepard asked wryly.

I shook my head "Hell no. Just surprised." I stepped out into the blizzard outside, casting my gaze around at the wreckage of the destroyed turret that I had taken out. It seemed to be so long ago that Shepard had chewed me out for taking it out with explosives in the manner that I did. The presence of the ceph had changed everything. I had always known it was a possibility that there could be more live Ceph in hibernation in the galaxy, but only in my worst nightmares had there been ceph awakenings like this.

"Wraith!" Shepard's call tore me out of my thoughts and I noticed that most of Titan and Sable had already walked past me, down towards the cave that the wisp was parked in. Clearing my head of unwanted thoughts I took off at a light jog, easily catching up to the party as we arrived at the cave. I motioned for everyone to enter while I stayed at the entrance to keep watch. A few minutes passed before I heard the soft whine of the Wisp activating. A few minutes later the Wisp drove up next to me and the door to the drivers compartment opened to reveal an empty seat next to Shepard who was driving. Climbing into the compartment I stowed the MOAC away on the floor and strapped myself in.

"How's the Wisp?" I asked as she hit the accelerator.

"Most of the systems are down to reroute power to the engines and environmental systems. We won't have stealth or any of the other more advanced systems. At least until we get out of the Sphere."

I nodded "Alright. Just get us back towards Port Hanshan ASAP. I'll get in contact with CryNet see what the situation is and if we can get Vulture evac." Inputting a couple of commands I called up my QEC channel. "Operative Wraith to Prism, over."

Almost instantly CARLA's synthetic voice responded "Good to hear from you Operative."

"What's the situation like CARLA?"

"We've informed the council of the situation and they've sent a fleet to Noveria. Right now its enforcing a blockade around the planet, making sure that no ceph ships escape. Unfortunately Stocks have dropped by 41% and the NDC among some other corporations are threatening to sue us if we don't lift the quarantine immediately."

"Goddamn bureaucrats." I growled. "Whatever, I don't care about that shit right now. Whats the situation of CryNet and Council forces on and around Noveria?"

"Four CELL Companies have already arrived. Additional two companies are expected to arrive within two hours. As for Phantoms, the Raiders, Hawk and Raven have already arrived. Eagle will arrive within the hour. Thirteen inquisitor teams have arrived and an additional six are scheduled to arrive with the next two CELL companies. The board is worried about attacks when we are distracted by the ceph so the remaining Inquisitors and CELL forces are remaining our other facilities. Turian forces have landed along with the CELL Companies and the council fleet includes a turian dreadnaught."

"Well, I'm glad to see that the Council is taking this threat seriously. Think you can get us an extract? I'd rather get back to the port sooner than later."

"I'll send Vulture drop-ship escorted by a wing of Lightnings pick you up."

"Excellent. I doubt that they'll be able to pick us up in the sphere so have them wait until we exit."

"Understood. And Martin, we got the feed from inside the hive-."

I sighed "We'll discuss this later CARLA. Right now we have other things to deal with."

"Understood."

"Wraith out." I sighed as I closed the channel. Leaning back against the chair and closing my eyes.

"You alright?" Shepard asked eyeing me concerned.

"I'm fine. Its just the first time CryNet has mobilized like this."

"What about the council? I heard you say that they are taking the ceph seriously?"

I chuckled dryly "Yeah. They sent an entire peacekeeping fleet, complete with a turian dreadnaught and ground forces."

"Huh, they immediately jump and send an army to deal with the ceph. But against Saren and the geth they send a single spectre and ship." She muttered.

I didn't bother to answer that, knowing that her annoyance was warranted.

After an hour of relative silence I noticed a sudden increase in the ambient temperature. "Well it looks like we're out of the sphere now. SECOND, are our comms still jammed."

"Ceph communication jamming field is no longer present. Communications are unjammed."

"Perfect. Open channel to Osprey."

A second later my visor indicated that a comm channel had been opened to the Vulture that was coming to pick us up. "Wraith to Osprey, over."

"Osprey copies."

"Osprey, be advised we've exited the sphere. Do you have an LZ set?"

"Understood Wraith. We found an open area about two clicks north of your current position. Sending you the coordinates now."

I waited a few moments until my visor updated with the new waypoint. "Waypoint received Osprey. ETA two minutes."

"Copy that. We have ceph emerging from the sphere. This is probably going to be a hot pickup over."

"I'll let the teams know. We'll be there soon. Wraith out." I turned to Shepard "You heard?"

She nodded "I see the LZ ahead of us now. I'll let everyone else know to get ready."

While Shepard told the rest of the team to get ready for a fast switch of vehicles I kept my eyes on the sky and soon enough spotted the Vulture landing ahead of us. Circling around the landing site I spotted the three dark shapes of the Lightning gunships that were escorting the Vulture. Shepard quickly and skillfully piloted the Wisp to a halt right behind the vulture and shut it down as I already opened my door and stepped out into the snow. Turning I watched as Titan and Sable climbed out of the back, expressing relief at no longer being in such a crowded environment as they entered the Vulture. Before the first person had entered the drop ship I heard the distant sound of gunfire and looking upward I located one of the lightnings firing at something in the distance with its Gatling cannon. A moment later a streak of fire raced from beneath one of its wings to impact on the ground a kilometer away.

I zoomed in on the target with my Visor as a voice crackled in over our comm. "Osprey, this is Eagle. We have incoming Ceph two clicks and closing, I suggest you hurry it up."

"Come on lets move! Get in the drop ship, go go go!" Shepard shouted climbing out of the cabin and rushing towards the Vulture. Turning away from watching the incoming ceph get pounded by Eagle I turned and jogged up the ramp into the belly of the drop ship. Taking a seat opposite of Shepard I strapped myself in and turned to watch the rest take their seats. The moment that Atlas entered, indicating that everyone else was inside, the ramp slowly closed as the powerful engines increased their thrust until the drop-ship took off.

"Eagle, Osprey. We're airborne. Engaging stealth systems now."

"Copy that Osprey. Lets go Eagles! Lets fuck these squids up until Osprey can get away."

I was pressed against my seat as the Vulture turned and began accelerating. I heard the sound of the Vulture's cloak engaging and a minute later we were in the clear. Over the radio we heard Eagle disengage from the ceph and engage their own thermal stealth systems. Settling back in my chair I watched the rest of the group as they chatted together, sharing stories now that we were out of immediate danger.

A/N: So we learned a bit more about Wraith's backstory. Next chapter will cover the battle with the ceph and leaving Noveria. It will also deal with everyone being infected with the spore. So there is that.

Finally I'm not sure if I'll be able to maintain a 2 week update schedule. I'll do my best but I may have to increase the length between updates. So if I don't update in two weeks that will be why. I will say that I will do my absolute best to update at the very least once a month.

So yeah, if you guys spot any mistakes let me know and I'll fix em.

Until next time

~LEGION