A/N: Sorry for the late update but unfortunately its something that may very well end up happening in the future. Uni is annoying like that. Anyway onward to Chapter 26.

CryNet Phantom Operative designation Wraith

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

Current Location: Approaching FoB Gipsy outside of Port Hanshan, Noveria

Current Time: January 29th 10:21

"Alright Titan, Sable, we're approaching port Hanshan now." The pilot of the Vulture dropship we were currently in, said over the intercom. "We're going to be landing outside of the port itself at FoB Gipsy. The FoB is currently the base for all for all CryNet and Turian operations in the region. I've been told to tell you all to report to the HQ for a debriefing."

"Understood Osprey. Thanks for the info." Shepard said before looking over at me. "So whats the situation? What are the ceph up to Wraith?"

I shrugged "Not much at the moment. They seem to be staying within and in the immediate vicinity of the Sphere itself. Right now we're mobilizing our forces for the inevitable assault."

"So where will we be deployed to? Any particular area or company?

I shook my head slowly. "No. Unfortunately we will not be deploying against the ceph." I raised a hand to forestall any immediate protests "I got word that you will all be going into quarantine."

"What?" "Why?"

I sighed as I looked at everyone who had expressed shock at my statement. "Because you have all been exposed to a ceph Epidemiological agent. Also known as the Ceph Nanospore. You will all be quarantined for treatment and study. This order came from Director Duncan himself. I am sorry for having kept this from you, but I needed to make sure you weren't distracted by that knowledge." I apologized.

"Wait, that man we talked to." Tali said slowly "The one down in the hot labs. Was he infected with the spore?"

I shrugged "I don't know. Was he delusional? Had strange growths on his abdomen? Jabbering on about the Ceph being deities? Anything like that?"

Tali nodded slowly.

"Then yes. It sounds like he was infected. And that is why you guys have to be treated. We can't afford to have that happen to you guys."

"But my suit has all kinds of filters! Surely I wouldn't be affected?" Tali protested.

"Yeah, well we're not taking any chances. So you're all going into quarantine. We don't have enough information on the spore yet. It could be that it can penetrate through most armors and through your skin. We're not taking any chances here. "

"So wait, why aren't you going into quarantine? You've been exposed to the spore just as much as we have, if not more so since you did enter the hive itself." Ashley asked curiously.

"Nanosuit contained the infestation before it could go anywhere. I can't say that your armor could do the same." I sighed heavily as I felt the vulture touch down and the ramp began to open. "Well we've arrived. Lets get you guys checked out."

The ramp hit the ground with a muted thump revealing the seven Phantoms waiting outside. SECOND had them marked and tagged long before I saw them and I as I walked down the ramp I greeted them. "Well Raven, looks like you're still trying to get in the thick of it huh?"

"Yeah well, I was getting bored. I haven't blown anything up since X57." Nova quipped. "There's talk that the Turians are thinking about dropping an Anti-matter bomb on Peak 15 to wipe out the ceph. That ought to make for a good explosion."

"That it should. It would-" I stopped mid sentence as I realized what Nova had said. "Wait what? Fuck! They can't do that!"

Typhoon tilted his head "Why not? Sounds like a pretty good way to get rid of them to me. I figured they were just waiting until you got out of there before dropping it."

"Fuck!"

"Wraith? What's the problem?" Shepard asked stepping up next to me.

"Well you know what that ceph sphere does right? It drains energy from everything within it. Now what do you think will happen if we drop a bomb with that kind of energy yield?"

"Oh, shit." Shepard muttered.

Atlas turned to stare at me "The bomb will just feed the sphere!"

"Exactly. I gotta go contact the Director. He's got to stop them." I muttered starting to stride away "Raven, get Titan and Sable to the medical facility. They need to be treated for the nanovirus immediately!"

Breaking into a jog I headed out of the base where I stopped and opened my QEC. "CARLA, quick I need to contact whoever is in charge of the turian forces on Noveria, as the director."

"Understood director. Preparing to render visual feed now. Comm channel opened."

I waited until a screen showing the turian general appeared on my Visor. I knew that even now CARLA was sending him fake footage of me, rendered in realtime to fit perfectly with my facial expressions within the mask and my words. "General Corinthus."

The turian general narrowed his eyes slightly as I greeted him "Director Duncan. To what do I owe the pleasure?"

"General I just received word that you are planning to drop a Anti-matter bomb on the peak fifteen facility, is this correct?"

"That is classified information. I would love to know how you received that intel. Nevertheless it is correct. I have just received my orders from the council to destroy the facility. The orbital battle station is moving into position as we speak."

I took a deep breath. "General, call off that bombardment. If you drop that bomb on that facility you will only succeed in making them stronger. As the most knowledgeable in the Ceph I strongly advise you to call off that attack immediately."

"Director, are you asking me to disobey direct orders from the council itself?" Corinthus's eyes narrowed to slits "I'm afraid that I have my orders and they will be carried out to the letter."

"Damn it man! That bomb will not work! It will do the very opposite you have to call off that bombardment now!"

"I will carry out my orders Director. Unless you can get the council to call off the attack there is nothing you can say that will change my mind." The general turned to face someone offscreen for a moment before turning back. "The battle station is in position now Director. I'm ordering the bombardment of that facility now. Good day." With that the channel closed and I stood staring in disbelief and slight fear. I slowly turned to face the direction of peak fifteen. The blizzard had let up by now, letting me see the mountain that peak fifteen was located on. The peak itself was still surrounded in a sphere of clouds and snow, the visual indicator of the energy sphere the ceph had deployed. I stood in silence just staring for a minute until there was a big flash of light in the distance and the peak vanished in a blast of energy. I stood watching, just hoping beyond hope that my initial estimates were wrong, that the anti-matter bomb wouldn't cause what I feared it would.

Yet a moment later I swallowed heavily as I saw that the sphere expand dramatically, until it enveloped the surrounding mountains. I knew then that we were not prepared. Whatever the ceph would do with all that energy, it wouldn't be good for us. "CARLA. Inform all forces on and in orbit around Noveria to prepare for imminent ceph assault. And tell them to prepare for evac! Secure landing zones, send in all dropships we have, have the turians to the same we need to evac everyone right now. The ceph will be on us within minutes, and we will be unable to deal with them when they do. All CryNet forces are to hold the LZ's until everyone is evacuated."

"Understood director. Orders sent. General Corinthus is on hold wishing to speak with you Director."

"Its too late to talk now." I muttered to myself.

"Should I tell him that you are busy?"

"No. Patch him through."

"Director! What is this I'm hearing? You gave the order to pull out?"

I nodded "Yes General. This is no longer a fight that we can win. We don't have the forces to deal with this anymore. We can now only hope to keep the ceph contained on Noveria."

"I thought you were specialists in the ceph Director. Now I hear that you are retreating? What is the meaning of this?"

"Yes we are specialists in the ceph. That means that I have the best idea of what just happened. That Sphere that you decided to bomb? It drains the energy from everything inside it. Now you fired an anti-matter bomb that when it detonated released energy that was immediately absorbed by the sphere. It's safe to say that whatever the ceph will use that energy for is not good for us, therefore I believe that this is no longer a fight that can be won by our current forces. The rules have changed General. I have given the order to all CryNet forces to evacuate. I strongly urge you to have your forces evacuate as well. In any case I believe that the ceph will be attacking soon so alert your men. I have my own forces to coordinate. Duncan out." Closing the channel I looked back over towards the greatly expanded sphere. I zoomed in on the sphere with my Visor and saw tons of black specks heading in all directions from the sphere, moving at impossible speeds.

Taking a deep breath I triggered the CryNet alarms before turning to run back into the FoB where there were now alarm claxons blaring loudly. Following the waypoints created by my suit I soon arrived at a small prefab building where I found Jackal and Typhoon leaning against the wall outside.

"Boss! I'm guessing that they still bombed the sphere?" Jackal asked stepping towards me.

I nodded "And now we have a shit ton of ceph inbound. Tell the others to get ready for incoming."

Typhoon nodded once as I walked past them and entered the building seeing Titan, the rest of raven and Shepard's squad checking their weapons. "Shepard, Atlas, Viper. Looks like this quarantine is being postponed. We're evacuating. The treatment will have to wait until we get offworld."

"So whats the situation?" Atlas asked me as I strode up to them.

"Turians decided to ignore the Director's advice and tried to bomb the ceph. It didn't work so well. We've got ceph incoming. They'll probably be on us within five minutes. We're heading to the nearest LZ. We're going to hold it with CELL, and whatever Inquisitors and Phantoms are also being evacuated from there."

Shepard sidled up to me "Wraith, the squad is exhausted. Most of them have been up for over twenty-four hours now. Titan has been in the field for over a week now, and though they're probably more experienced in operating over longer periods of time, we're not super human. We don't have nanosuits to keep us awake. They don't have much in them." She turned to look at me "I'm still good to go, but Tali, Liara, they aren't used to this at all. They're dead on their feet. Even Garrus, Kaidan and Ashley are tired. Wrex still looks good but he's a krogan."

I sighed, nodded as I cast my gaze on the readouts my suit was giving me on the squad. "You're right. I'll see if I can get us a shuttle out of here asap. Where's the Normandy by the way?"

"In orbit. They were apparently ordered to take off to make room for other ships."

"Right." My eyes flickered over a new readout on my HUD "There's a drop ship coming in that can take us up to the Cruiser 'Fury' which should have the facilities required to treat you. Inform the rest of the squad to get ready to move."

"Should have the facilities?" Shepard questioned. "As in you don't know if they do?"

I winced, grateful for my mask that hid my face. "Unfortunately we don't have a cure for the spore. At least not yet." I turned to stare intently at her "But I will find one Shepard, you have my word."

"Oh. Ok. I'll tell the rest to get ready to go. Should I inform Titan as well?"

"Shepard." I said resting my hand on her shoulder. "I will find you a cure."

She smiled "I know you will Martin. I trust you, if you say you will then I'm not worried in the slightest." She murmured quietly squeezing my hand lightly before turning back to the squad. I stood staring at her for a few seconds as she clapped Garrus on the back, nodded to Wrex and gave encouragement to Tali and Liara.

"You two have gotten pretty close huh?" I started slightly not having noticed Nova walk up to me.

I turned to face the other Phantom "We're all close. Shepard put together one hell of a team."

"Yeah, but you and her are different than the rest. I'm happy for you."

I shook my head "I can't. Those who get close to me end up hurt. Just look what happened. I got them all infected with the ceph spore."

"Oh for crying out loud." Nova hissed angrily. "Don't go blaming yourself for that! Shepard would have gone to Noveria with or without you. She would have gotten infected with the spore even without you being there and she and the entire squad may very well have died in the ceph assault after the sphere went up." She sighed shaking her head as she looked down at the ground for a moment before looking back up at me. "Don't lock yourself away. You deserve to have some happiness in your life."

Before I could respond, I picked up the sound of gunfire and explosions originating from outside. I pulled up some visual feeds from various phantoms, inquisitors and CELL troops "Time just ran out. We have to get going now!" I shouted jogging out the door, Nova right behind me. Bursting outside I saw that the sky had been filled with black shapes that I quickly recognized to be Ceph Scouts. Drawing my MOAC from where it was hanging on my back I glanced over at Jackal and Typhoon who had their weapons drawn. A loud crack-crack drew my attention to to top of the building I had just run out of where I saw Bolt and Kestral fire at one of the scouts with their rifles, both shots hit a scout however it merely changed its course to fly over the two snipers.

A moment later I spotted another couple of scouts flying directly towards us. Shouting a warning I opened fire at the first scout with my MOAC, sending streams of icicles at the ceph exoskeleton. The familiar sounds of a SCAR joined the unusual high pitched whine of the MOAC as Jackal opened fire as well. Beside him, Typhoon also opened up on the scout, but it just kept coming as sparks showered off of its armor. A thump sounded from next to me and an instant later the Scout was hit by a grenade fired by Nova's grenade launcher. This time the Scout didn't survive and was sent spinning down to the ground with a loud thud. By now the other two scouts had flown over us, dropping a multitude of smaller troopers that immediately moved to attack us.

Typhoon didn't hesitate in raking his Mod 0 over the group, heavy shots smashing their way through the light armor that the troopers had, destroying a couple in his first burst. Two more loud cracks sounded from the roof and two more troopers fell to the ground where they self destructed a few seconds later. A loud roar accompanied by a Krogan charging out the door at the group of troopers was definitely a sight to see, yet right behind the krogan I saw a smaller form joining the krogan. A few meters before they arrived in the thick of things, Viper jumped up in the air right fist raised high over his head. The moment that Wrex smashed two troopers aside with the impact of a small freight train the Phantom landed in the midst of a group of three troopers, his fist smashed straight down on top of a trooper crushing it into scrap. Before the two other troopers could react my second in command spun around with the superhuman speed granted to him by the nanosuit and blasted both of the troopers with the shotgun that appeared in his hands.

The nonphantoms were far from idle while raven team quickly and efficiently destroyed the troopers dropped by the scouts. Shepard had flared blue and launched an orb of biotic energy at one of the scouts that had returned to circle the skirmish, constantly firing down at the combatants. The warp hit the scout, twisting and tearing its armor until a shot from Garrus, accurately placed right at the weakened armor brought it down for good. Titan had spread out and focused their attacks on some new ceph troopers that had arrived.

My attention was drawn to the last scout that was performing strafing runs on us, forcing us to keep our heads down whenever it arrived and getting away before we could return fire. A plan formulated in my mind as my gaze was drawn to the building that Kestrel and Bolt had abandoned once the Scout performed its first strafing run. I glanced over at Jackal who was currently cloaked as he relocated to avoid the fire of a trooper that had started suppressing him. The moment he uncloaked behind a piece of deployable cover I called out to him over the comms. "Jackal! Toss me your pistol!"

The phantom didn't hesitate, grabbing his Majestic he tossed it over to me one handed as he fired his SCAR with his other. Grabbing the heavy pistol and dropping my MOAC I turned and waited patiently for the Scout to perform its next strafing run. It didn't take long for the scout to turn around and begin heading for us again. I waited for a few moments until I judged the moment was right and burst out of the cover I was hiding behind, making a beeline for the building.

"Maximum Power"

I dashed across the battlefield at superhuman speeds, a few shots whizzed past me before a sudden onslaught of suppressive fire from raven team forced the ceph firing at me to change their targets, get behind cover or be destroyed. Reaching the building I jumped up, grabbing the edge of the roof I pulled myself up and propped my feet on the ledge underneath me just as the Scout flew over me. Pushing off with all the power that my Nanoweave could give me I jumped up over the scout and as it flew underneath me I started falling down to land on top of the mechanical squid. Grabbing hold of a plate I held on tight as it tried to shake me off with a sharp spin but I held on tight. Raising my right fist I brought it slamming down on the metal plating. It impacted with a loud clang, denting the metal. Again I brought my hand smashing down on the dented metal, further damaging the armor. Now I pulled out Jackal's hand cannon and fired it at the dented armor. Six times the revolver bucked in my hand, as it sent six high caliber, shards of metal slamming into the armor at hypersonic speeds. When the first heatsink rotated back into position I quickly attached it to the magnetic pistol holster at my hip. The Scout swerved sharply, still trying to shake me off but I held on true. Fitting my fingers into the hole made by the majestic I ripped off the armor plating from the scout, sending it spinning away to the ground. Below the armor plating, in what was obviously the pilots space was a single fleshy naked ceph. The squid flailed wildly as I reached down with a single hand and grasped the ceph tightly before suddenly and violently ripping it out of the scout, which immediately started to fall to the ground. Still holding the flailing ceph I jumped free from the now pilotless exoskeleton and after a second of falling, I hit the ground with a muffled thump, my legs bending to absorb the impact. The ceph was still flailing about, wrapping its tentacles around me, a futile attempt to kill me.

I looked at the squid for a moment as my visor darkened, showing me a frozen wireframe of the ceph that I was holding.

/ chrybds sbjct dtctd /

The wireframe zoomed in until I was watching as its DNA raced passed and after a moment it ended and my visor changed back to normal.

/ scn cmplt /

I looked at the ceph for a moment before shrugging and grasping one of its tentacles in my other hand I ripped the tentacle off. The ceph writhed in pain at the loss of a tentacle as I threw the ceph to the ground where it continued to writhe in the snow. Pulling out Jackal's pistol I raised it and fired twice into the ceph. The two shots caused the squid to completely rupture, sending blood and gore everywhere.

It didn't take long for me to find the rest of the group from where I had landed. When I did find them they were already heading in my direction, no doubt looking for me, we all began making our way through the war torn base. I made sure to take my MOAC from Typhoon who had picked it up from where I dropped it which proved very useful when we encountered multiple groups of CELL and Turian soldiers holding out against the ceph we arrived at the LZ that our Vulture was going to pick us up at. The LZ itself was filled with transports taking off and landing as CELL platoons evacuated. The perimeter was manned by soldiers wearing the grey/white armor that was standard CELL issue. I also saw multiple Inquisitors and also noticed a phantom team, that my visor tagged as the Raiders, waiting for evac. I turned to face the group.

"Welcome to LZ echo!" I said over the radio so that I could be heard over the sounds of engines and gunfire. "Our extract is landing over there right now!" I pointed over to a vulture that was landing near the eastern perimeter.

By the time we arrived at the vulture the other phantom team was in the process of boarding.

"Raynor!" I shouted raising a hand in greeting to the leader of the Raiders, or Raynor's Raiders as they were more commonly known in the phantoms.

"Wraith! How're you doin?" The leader of the raiders, James "Marshall" Raynor, called out in return as he stepped forward to shake my hand.

"Not bad." I said cracking my neck "You know just got back from the the peak where I was running round in the squid hive. What about you?"

"We've been carrying out a couple of missions in the terminus, hunting down cerberus bases."

"You were the team sent to deal with cerberus?" I asked, pretending that I hadn't known or been the one to send them on their mission.

He nodded "Yup. We've been hitting cerberus hard. We were on our way to raid another base when we got the order to come here. And now we're being shipped out again. We just arrive and are being sent off again."

"Yeah, well. If the turians hadn't been so trigger happy we wouldn't be pulling out, but now that the ceph got all that goddamn energy from the bombardment… well you know."

"I see you got a new toy." He nodded towards the MOAC in my hands. "Looks like its Ceph."

"It is. Took it from the a scout in the hive. Figured it would be better in our hands than its tentacles."

"A safe assumption." Raynor nodded as he turned to walk up the ramp after Shepard who had followed her squad and Titan in.

Strapping myself in next to Shepard and opposite Atlas and Raynor I pounded my hand against the pilots cabin twice to signal that everyone was aboard.

"Now don't put any dents in my ship now back there. You coulda just told me."

"But where's the fun in that?" I called out to the pilot as the ramp closed and the Vulture slowly took off.

The flight up to the Fury was a mixed affair. Members of Raven and the Raiders laughed, joked and told stories together while most of the Squad and Titan were rather silent, dozing in their seats as in the safety of space their bodies finally realized that they should be exhausted. Shepard, Raynor, Atlas and I talked about previous missions, the ceph in general, which eventually evolved into a group wide discussion about which weapons were the best. We were in the middle of an argument between Viper and Wrex on whether a Marshall was a better shotgun than a Claymore when we touched down in the main hangar of of the Fury. Bidding each other farewell, the different teams split up, Raven and the Raiders heading to the docking bays to board their ships while I joined Titan and the squad in going to the medical facilities. The medical and science team who had been waiting on our arrival quickly set to work scanning everyone, soon going about taking blood samples. A clean room had been prepared for Tali so that she couldn't get infected from the procedure, carried out by a Quarian Doctor that had been sent specifically for Tali. Even I was strapped into a Cradle and scanned extensively for insight on the spore in order to find a cure.

"Well, we've completed our analysis of the ceph nanospore and there is quite a bit of good and bad news." The chief scientist, a man by the name of Doctor Anton started. "First some good news. It seems that the nanospore is tailored to attack humans and humans only. Garrus, Liara, Tali and Wrex you are all fine. You show no signs of any cellular breakdown and there are no nanospores present in our scans. However the humans are all- with the exception of Wraith- showing signs of the Spore. Titan you are showing the most signs of cellular breakdown and I believe that much longer and you will start to show physical and mental signs of the infection."

Everyone seemed to hold their breath as the Doctor continued. "My team and I have used previous data gathered, the data gathered by the operatives Nanosuit and the scans and blood samples taken from all of you in search of a cure. Unfortunately we have found no viable cure. By our estimates it may take weeks to find a cure, weeks that I'm afraid we do not have."

My eyes widened at his words and I opened my mouth to protest but before I could utter a sound he continued.

"However, I do believe that we have found a way of containing the spore. It would require us to extract a large amount of Nanites from the operative here. The nanites in his body have already adapted to contain the spore and we would only have to do some very minor modifications to make sure that they will be compatible with the new hosts."

I stilled as I realized what the Doctor was suggesting. The process of extracting the amount of nanites and nanocells needed for everyone would be extremely painful, but I had already made up my mind, before Dr. Anton had finished his explanation. "The Nanites from the Operative will contain the spore until such a time that a more permanent containment solution is found, or we find a cure."

"Well then. Lets do it." I said clasping my hands tightly behind my back.

The Doctor seemed surprised by my immediate acceptance of the plan, but he recovered rather quickly. "Right. Operative, if you would please follow me we can prepare the extraction. The rest of you can wait in the waiting room until the procedure is completed."

CryNet Phantom Operative designation Wraith

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

Current Location: SSV Normandy, departing from CSV Gipsy

Current Time: January 29th 15:03

I sighed in relief, sinking down in the chair in my office exhausted. My entire body still ached from the effects of the nanite extraction and as I raised my hand in front of me it twitched and shook uncontrollably. I had made sure to keep my pain hidden from Shepard and the rest of the crew while they got their nanite infusions and in the three hours after as we boarded the Normandy and left for the Citadel. I pulled my helmet off, leaned my head back against the headrest and before I knew it my eyes closed and darkness took me.

Some time later I woke up to the feeling of someone gently moving me from my chair to my bed. Cracking open an eye I saw the dark red hair that I instantly recognized as Shepard's framing her face as her emerald eyes met mine. I smiled softly at the Spectre. "Have I ever told you how beautiful you are?"

A faint blush appeared on her cheeks at my words "You usually aren't so bad looking yourself."

"Usually?"

Shepard let a small laugh loose "Normally you don't look like you were tortured."

A faint grimace flitted across my face "Not tortured really. Just…"

"You just went through an extremely painful procedure and then tried to hide it from everyone?"

"How-?" I trailed off weakly.

"How did I know?" Shepard asked with a slightly concerned look on her face. "You couldn't hide that from me. You probably did succeed in hiding it from the rest of the crew, although Tali may have picked something up."

I chuckled weakly. "I hoped to be able to not worry you. Looks like I can't hide anything from you."

Shepard arched an eyebrow. "I knew something was up the moment you agreed to that procedure."

"You did?"

"Mmhmm. Was there really no other option? Did you really have to submit to such a painful procedure?"

I nodded. "None that were viable. We didn't have the time to spare. The nanites that you were infused with will contain the spore, give us time to come up with a proper cure that will-"

Shepard placed her finger on my lips stopping me mid sentence. I stared up at the smiling woman. "I understand Martin. You'll have plenty of time to rest up while we are at the Citadel. So get some rest. For me ok?"

With that Vanyali leaned over me and planted a soft kiss on my lips. My eyes widened in surprise and I could only watch as Shepard smiled and walked out of my office before I could recover. I stared at her retreating figure, noting the hip-sway that she had added to her steps. I continued staring at the closed door for a few minutes until eventually exhaustion claimed me once more and I fell into the embracing arms of a dream world filled with a laughing redheaded, emerald eyed woman.

A/N: So there we go. The end of Noveria. I know that it might seem that I cut off the entire Ceph part very suddenly. I could have continued on with this particular arc for another few chapters, but then the entire ME events would have to be put on hold for that long, and I would rather continue on with the story than get hung up on Noveria. This is by no means the last time we will be visiting Noveria and the Ceph. I have big plans regarding the Ceph in the future, but those won't really start unfolding until much later in the future. Currently the earliest time that the Ceph events will really start unfolding again is after the suicide mission. I won't say anything more about that.

And now the Relationship between Shepard and Wraith is picking up. Mind you this is not a romantic fic, and I suck at writing romance so don't expect too much in the way of that but it will play some important roles in the future.

Anyway as always if you have feedback leave a review so that I can work on making NE even better.

Until next time

~LEGION