CHAPTER FIFTEEN
Infiltration

Half an hour later, Kara had finished suiting up, switching on her headset to check the state of her armor. The automated diagnostic had already completed, showing all systems green, and her power cells fully charged. She checked her heavy pistol and assault rifle, sliding them into their holsters. Her pockets were filled with the usual high-energy bars, and a supply of thermal clips and spare power cells were strapped to her belt. "Are you ready, Liara?" she asked, adding a personal barrier generator to her arsenal. Several salarians had disappeared while on patrol; if they were captured, a chance at rescue might present itself. The small device did not afford much protection, but it could block the occasional stray bullet.

The young asari delivered a terse, "no."

Kara smiled, despite the situation. She knew the feeling, and brushed the back of her hand against Liara's soft cheek. She resented the layer of cloth that kept her from touching skin. "You can do this."

"I know. You'll be with me," Liara smiled back. It had been a mistake, to take even so small a step beyond friendship, but it was done; Kara could only hope that it would not get them killed. If only she could justify leaving the asari behind. "Let's go, Captain."

Kara nodded, and led the way out of the armory, down the corridor and into the cargo bay. Her XO was waiting there, and Brynja. "Keyx," she said. "You came down to see us off?"

"Yes, ma'am," he nodded. "I wanted to wish you luck."

"Kaidan will need it more, but thanks," she replied. "You're clear on your orders?"

"Yes, ma'am," he confirmed. The energy requirements of atmospheric flight left them vulnerable to rockets and heavy weapon fire, which would normally be blocked by their barriers. That was why the Normandy could not safely participate in the fight, even after the AA towers were shut down. Fortunately, the same would be true of any geth ships.

"Good," she told him. "I'd like you blow out the main gate, once you're in the air, but no heroics."

"That'll thrill Joker."

"Maybe," she sighed. "Brynja, keep watch for geth ships, and tell Jeff to keep out of their way. I'd prefer he avoided an atmospheric fight."

"Stop worrying, Kara," the blond smiled, the expression forced. Her blue eyes hid as much anxiety as Kara felt. "We'll be fine. As for you—take care of her, Liara." She advanced, catching the asari in a warm embrace. "You'd better get going," she muttered, straightening her shirt as she backed off.

Kara nodded, and made her way down the cargo ramp. Kirrahe was giving a speech as she approached, while all three assault teams listened attentively. Kara waited patiently; it was fairly standard Salarian military rhetoric, and though well delivered.

After he finished his speech, he turned to face her. "Shepard. Lieutenant Septalus and her squad have just arrived at their insertion point. Corporal Ilan'ne is returning with the Ke'val now."

"Good," she said, indicating that he should follow her toward the group of human marines. "Is there anything else you need, before we get started?"

"No. My troops are ready."

Kaidan and Tali emerged from his team, as Kara approached. The rest stood to attention, except for Garrus. She waved them down irritably. They probably expected a speech, but she couldn't think of anything to say that didn't sound trite. There were eight in the team, seven of them human. After more than a month together, she could say that she knew each of them. They had trusted her, some because of the legends surrounding Elysium, some because of Sayuri and Torfan, and she was about to get them killed; some, at least, and maybe all.

"You all know why we're here," she began, keeping her voice low and intense as she met their collective gaze. "You know that Saren is building an army of geth and krogan, and that countless lives will be lost if he's allowed to continue. Though we may not stop him today, we will destroy his base, and this army with it. This won't be an easy battle, so fight hard, watch out for each other, and don't get killed. We can do this."

Sayuri tossed her a strange look from the back row; Ehigha looked as though he was about to be sick. The rest were nervous or grinning.

Kara gave them her best, confident smile. "Take care of them, Kaidan."

"I'll do my best, sir," he told her. He was good at covering his emotions; much better than her.

The Ke'val glided up to the edge of the camp, slowing down with the faint roar of thrusters. Time for her to go.

Kara crouched in the jungle less than a hundred meters from the eastern entrance to Saren's base. Kaidan had reported moderate resistance at the first outpost, which they overcome with a single casualty. Marine Private Shih Baojia had taken a bullet through his chest just after the attack began. No news yet on whether or not he might survive the injury, but she knew Ehigha would do everything possible. With a limited battlefield medkit, it could easily not be enough.

"The geth are taking the bait," reported Kirrahe's quick voice. "Aegohr, hold your position and wait for my signal."

"The network link is down," Kaidan said. "Turret One is under local control. Attempting to pass control to the Normandy VI."

"Control link established, Lieutenant."

A few long minutes passed. Kaidan spoke again; "Geth reinforcements have arrived at Outpost One. Engaging."

"Aegohr, that's our signal. Mannovai, start your assault on Outpost Two. Shadow teams, go."

She gave her pistol one last check, and moved out. Her headset showed that her two companions were following—she resisted the urge to check. She did not need another view of Liara's beautiful blue eyes. She needed to focus. Instead, she kept moving, watching carefully for any sign of geth at the small side entrance. The jungle provided cover for most of the way, and she paused before coming out into the open. Nothing was moving between them and the wall.

"Tali, get the door," she ordered, leading them out into the open. She gestured for Liara to take the side opposite the controls, and positioned herself alongside the quarian. On the far side of the base, she imagined Orlanis doing much the same, though she had given the turian the safer entrance.

While Tali worked to bypass the lock, Kara drew a deep breath, and focused intently on her biotics. Performing well-rehearsed forms, she wrapped her pistol in a warp field, an advanced technique that interacted heavily with the weapon's mass effect fields. The interaction would intensify the field strength, further decreasing the mass of the projectile inside the barrel, and producing a higher exit velocity. If things went well, a field would linger on the metallic shard, increasing its mass beyond standard, and therefor its momentum, as it struck its target. She let her suit-integrated amp take over maintenance, knowing that it wouldn't hold for long.

"Aegohr, form up. We've got targets approaching from the base. Jaeto, take our left flank." Jaeto was Kaidan's group. They must have mopped up the first group of geth reinforcements. They would be starting the attack on the main entrance soon; she set her comm to filter out all but priority messages. Kirrahe did not need her giving orders, just as she didn't need the distraction.

"Ready, Kara," Tali announced, looking at Kara over her shoulder. At a nod, she opened the door.

Kara tossed a disruption field at the first geth she saw, firing her first shot through the small gap that opened in its barriers, punching a hole in the robot's chest. She must have missed anything vital, for it staggered, but stayed upright. Her second sent it sprawling backwards. She rolled out of the way as its three companions returned fire.

Liara readied her submachine gun, and fired a burst around the door frame, leading with a biotic attack. Inaccurate sprays of bullets were effective at pushing suit VIs past their panic threshold, but Kara had no idea how well that would work against the geth. She knew that each platform had a single CPU, but not how much power they could dedicate to vector analysis, or how effectively calculations could be shared with nearby units.

Information was important, and every detail she collected added to her knowledge. Their barriers were slow to correct for biotic attack, which suggested that the four platforms not closely networked with rest of the garrison. She doubted that range or latency were an issue, so there had to be something else. The geth had adopted a fluidly hierarchical networking protocol, prior to their rebellion, to ease communications issues, which could mean that that they were self-segregated into units, just like an organic military. Or did she have it all wrong? Perhaps Kirrahe's attack on the gate had tied up so many resources that those at the rear were vulnerable?

As Kara prepared to take on a second target, Tali stepped out with her omnitool active, initiating one of her tech attacks. "Hey, it worked," she said, cheerfully, moving through the opening with her pistol at the ready.

The door opened into a warehouse, with crates piled in orderly rows that filled the room. There were no other targets in sight, not even in the office, which looked down on them from a half-floor above.

"I triggered a fake overload signal with an EM pulse," Tali explained, carefully shooting the two intact geth. "They'd reset in a few minutes."

Kara nodded, and managed an encouraging smile. She wondered if the young quarian had used the same technique to acquire the geth memory core that had implicated Saren, and what else they might discover, if they had the time. "There should be VI access in the office," she said, indicating the room. "Download whatever you can.

"Got it," Tali confirmed.

Kara waited until the quarian had climbed the half-flight of stairs before turning her attention to the crates. They were all, as far as she could see, labeled in turian, but it was the red symbol behind the name that she recognized. She checked her omnitool for confirmation, letting it translate the text. Sure enough, the label referred to Armax Arsenals, a high-end manufacturer of weapons and armor, owned by the turian state.

It raised questions. Armax primarily supplied the turian military, and its external sales were tightly controlled; one did not bulk-purchase armor from them without attracting attention from the highest levels of the Hierarchy. Krogan armor would have gathered even more scrutiny. Had he could not have bought them one at a time, but perhaps through dummy accounts and intermediaries. Where had he gotten the considering amount of credits he must have paid?

"Hey, Kara," Tali said, coming out of the office. "I downloaded the general VI database, but there wasn't much on it. I did find a proper map of the base, and I crashed the defense net on the way out."

"Good work," Kara smiled. "Pass me that map, and we can figure out how to go about this."

A moment's effort, and Kara had the map up on her omnitool's holographic display. She had already examine the layout from orbital scans, but that didn't provide internal structure, or purpose, of the buildings. They were in what was designated as a prep area, with connected armories and spacious barracks nearby. The lab facilities and Saren's office were both to the south. She laid out a route in her head, one that would keep them out of the open where possible, then sent an encrypted copy of the map to her allies.

"Let's go."

Kara didn't know if it was Tali's sabotage, or Kirrahe's assault on the main gate, but they faced only minimal resistance as they advanced through the base. Without the defense network, the geth could not track them, which only added to the need to move quickly. They could not risk allowing the geth time to summon reinforcements, or to plan an ambush, where they might get pinned down and encircled. That any delay on her part increased the danger for her allies was also a strong incentive.

The labs were located in the south east corner of the base, an L-shaped building with an emergency exit on the north end. Tali overrode the lockout to gain them entrance, and did the same for the lift. The main research labs were on the first and second floors, with storage rooms occupying the lower level.

Reaching the third floor, the lift opened out onto a large room. Cloning tanks lined the walls, and an impressive variety of equipment fill the floor. Some appeared to be of turian manufacture, but most was salarian. "Most of this equipment is for genetic manipulation," Liara remarked, looking around. "Cutting edge, too. Everything you could need to cure a gene-altering retrovirus like the genophage."

"I've seen tech like this on the Rayya," Tali added. "They use it to try and improve crop yield, mostly."

As Kara understood it, the genophage virus remained alive and active within the bodies of every krogan, and that any cure would first have to deal with its presence before the genetic damage could be repaired. Presumably, that would begin with the development of antibodies, which might be written into the genes of a krogan zygote. The isolated environment of a cloning tank would allow the krogan to mature without exposure to the virus.

"See if you can recover their research data, Tali," Kara said, approaching one of the tanks. If the quarian responded, she didn't hear it. An adult female krogan stared back at her from within the tank, suspended within a transparent fluid.

Kara tried not to leap to any conclusions, but she did know that a certain combination of genetics, in the pregnant krogan and her offspring, temporarily bypassed the genophage coding in her genes, allowing her to successfully carry the child to term. What if the 'cure' was nothing more than the same female, with the same fetus, cloned repeatedly…

She checked the next tank, and found the same red eyes staring out at her. It was not a solution that could revitalize the krogan species, or the result of long-term research using sophisticated tools. It also reinforced the point that Saren only cared about raising an army.

"Kara, look at this," Tali called, interrupting her thoughts. Kara walked over to the terminal. "The latest entry; status of salarians prisoners. They're being held on the lower level, in something called the indoctrination lab."

More troops for his army, in the form of converted STG operatives? That hardly made sense, when he could breed krogan to fight alongside the geth, though she did think it was clear that he was unwilling to rely on his synthetic allies, over the long term. "We'll take a look, as soon as you're done."

"Good," Tali nodded. "I'd hate to leave them here to die."

"Kara!" Liara yelped, moving to cover near the lift. "Someone's coming up."

Kara took up a position in the open, in front of the lift. "Tali, finish your work. We'll cover for you."

With a soft tone, the car locked into position, and the door slid open. Three krogan stepped out. Two were young, but their was something odd about them; they didn't look excited or even interested at the chance to test themselves in battle. The third did, though he looked older, and angry. He snarled at her, showing off a row of blunt teeth. "You must be the reason those pathetic salarians worked up the nerve to attack. I would have crushed them them the moment they landed, but Saren thought it was a waste of time."

Talking was good. The longer they talked, the more time Tali had to finish her work. "Shouldn't you be out there fighting, rather than in here mocking them?"

"I'd love nothing better, but some pathetic human is trying to raid my lab. It's too bad I'm going to crush your skull; it'd be fun to watch the indoctrination chamber break you."

"Is that what happened to you?" Kara demanded. "Is that why you're willing to turn your entire species into slaves?"

Kara had thought the older krogan angry before, but now his yellow eyes narrowed in fury, and his jaw clenched tightly. Oddly, the other two remained disinterested, even as he raised his shotgun and fired at her. She let her barriers absorb the impact.

As she raised her pistol, his two guards began to charge her, only to crash into one of Liara's biotic attacks, which flung them backwards. She and the asari both focused their fire on them, rather than the older krogan, who seemed content to keep his distance.

With both of them firing on the same guard, his barriers flared into panic mode, quickly draining their robust capacitors. Once they failed, Kara turned her attention to the second guard, punching a hole in his barriers with a disruption field, and firing several shots through the gap.

His two guards down, the older krogan charged Liara, firing blast after blast from his shotgun. Kara attempted to throw him, but his barriers absorbed the biotic attack. The asari had switched to firing on him, but he was too close. He struck her with his shotgun butt, knocking her to the floor, and took aim at her.

An EM burst overloaded his suit, shutting down his barriers. Kara leveled a shot at him, but Tali got there first, firing her shotgun into his face at point-blank range. Blood and brains sprayed from the wound.

The young quarian turned away. "Bosh'tet," she muttered. "I feel sick."

Kara watched as Liara went to make sure the other two krogan were dead, firing several shots into one of them. "I'm sorry, Tali. I should have been faster."

"No. I wanted to be here," Tali replied. "I just need to think about something else."

The blood-and-brains horrors of combat had ceased bothering Kara some years ago, but she remembered when it still had. Tali had a bionic stomach, but she had not, and had thrown up more than once over the course of her first battle. "Let's get out of here."

Tali nodded. "Yeah." She led the way into the lift.

Kara followed reluctantly, with a last glance at the tanks. There was really nothing she could do for the trapped krogan females, no matter how much she wanted to. Freeing them would be pointless, as they had nowhere to go, if they even possessed the mental development to act.

As the lift proceeded downward, Kara checked her map for the best route to the indoctrination lab. STG operatives were trained to resist known mind control techniques, so she hoped that those most recently captured would be coherent. A rescue would be a small victory, but she could feel the need for it in Tali's glum gait.

The journey was uneventful; bland, grey corridors and locked doors. They were all labeled as storage on her map, but through the small windows she could see row upon row of cloning tanks, each one potentially filled with another copy of the same enslaved female. She clenched her jaw, and kept her expression neutral, despite her anger. There was no justification for what Saren had done, here, but she found that to be a common theme when it came to his actions. He had to be stopped, and soon.

A few minute later, they arrived at another unmarked door. Tali started hacking the door as soon as they arrived, while Kara stood ready. When it opened, she rushed in.

The room was empty, save for two salarians, unbound, working at a console. They turned to stare her. Their eyes were… empty, she supposed. Devoid of emotion. Their clothes were nondescript, white and loose. They didn't speak at all, their confusion simply contorting into rage. One of them pulled a pistol and began to fire.

Kara rushed him, knocking the gun away and slamming his head against the wall. He slumped to the floor, unconscious.

The second salarian had time to react when she attacked him, but his movements were slow and unfocused, and she quickly overpowered him. She lowered him gently to the floor.

"Hey, you! Let me out of here," a tense voice demanded.

There were cells on either end of the room, sealed with mass effect barriers. Each contained a number of salarians, some of which watched her through dull eyes, while others sat, muttering to themselves as though nothign had happened. In one of them, a slim, solitary figure waved to attract her attention. "Who are you?"

"Lieutenant Ganto Imness, STG. You must be working with Captain Kirrahe to destroy this base?"

Kara holstered her pistol, and retrieved the one dropped by the fallen salarian. "That's right."

"Kara, this equipment," Liara said, studying what looked like a modified neural scanner, "it's all for neural imaging. Whoever worked on this was trying to improve the resolution."

"Yeah," Tali agreed. "It's like they're studying something, not doing experiments themselves."

"Yes, yes. They call it Indoctrination," Ganto interrupted. "They subjected my squad to it. I watched them become like that."

Kara followed his gesture to the next cell, where four salarians were kept. None of them had acknowledged her presence in the least.

"At first they complained of hearing voices. Whispered commands. They said they needed to obey, but over time they became less coherent. Now…"

Kara nodded, and opened Ganto's cell. "What about you?"

"The asari said I was the control group," he remarked bitterly, walking out of the cell to stare at his former squad. "They were my men, and I had to watch them become like this."

"It's true," Tali whispered, over Kara's shoulder. "There's a report from four days ago, which mentions keeping him 'free of indoctrination.'"

What struck her about the situation was that Saren clearly did not understand the process of Indoctrination, as had been done to most of the salarian prisoners. Was it a technique pioneered by the geth, or yet another weapon of the reapers? With that possibility, trusting Ganto remained a risk. Was the asari he mentioned sure that he remained unaffected?

Kara approached the cell, studying his face. The experience he described had left him troubled, but determined rather than uncertain. She shut off the barrier, and offered him her personal barrier generator and the salarian's pistol. "We have to go. Are you coming?"

"Yes. No reason to stay here and die," he said. "This place has to be destroyed."

"Normandy, this is Shadow Two. The defenses are down. Begin your assault. We'll see you at the drop site."

Kara sighed with relief. They had just entered Saren's office building through the north door, the only entrance on the map. Once they finished looking around, they'd be ready to meet Orlanis at the drop site. The mission had been one horrific revelation after another, and she felt more than ready for it to end.

"We'd better hurry, Kara," Liara noted. They were in what appeared to be a secretary's office, with a wide desk and a lift at the back, which led up to Saren's office.

"I'll get the lift," Tali volunteered.

An asari rose from behind the desk. "Uh, I can get that for you. Just don't shoot me."

"You!" Ganto shouted; she barely had time to duck before he started shooting. Kara had to wrest the gun from him. He continued to glare furiously at the asari. "That's the asari who experimented on my men!"

The asari peered over the edge of the desk. "Saren hired me to study Indoctrination," she admitted. "I only studied its effects, I never hurt anyone. It makes people obey him, but I don't really think he controls it."

"Keep talking," Kara ordered coldly.

"It's that dreadnought, Sovereign. It generates some sort of signal, but we can't even trace it. It doesn't just affect who he wants. I had the terrifying job of examining my predecessor. I'd rather not be next."

Dreadnought? None of the recorded geth attacks had included a ship of that class, or anything bigger than a light cruiser. That didn't mean he didn't have one under his command, but it did not make sense to install mind-control technology only on the largest and least common warships.

"Did you think about leaving?" Ganto shouted.

Rana laughed bitterly. "Sure, and go where? Virmire is a secret base. Saren controls every ship that comes through."

Kara could think of an option off-hand; Rana could have helped Ganto and his squad escape, back when they were just captured and still capable of doing so. It was revealing that she had not considered it. "So what exactly were you researching?"

"Saren wanted a way to prevent, and possibly reverse, the effects of Indoctrination. I think he was worried that it might be affecting him."

Interesting. Not only did Saren not understand the process, but he did not control it. If not the geth, as seemed unlikely, then perhaps the reapers? Or a reaper? And if he didn't control it, could it be that he was already under their influence? "Have you got a name?"

"Uh… Rana, ma'am. Rana Thanoptis."

"Open the lift, Rana" Kara ordered, waving towards the controls. Hopefully, they would find some facts to corroborate her speculation in Saren's personal database.

The asari scientist was as much a prisoner of Saren as the salarians, but that did not excuse her lack of concern for her test subjects. Still, it was no reason to leave her die, when she might have useful information. Her haste with which she punched in the code confirmed that she felt no loyalty towards the rogue Spectre.

"Rana, you're coming with us," Kara decided.

"I'd rather—"

The asari scientist was interrupted by a series of explosions. "That was my ship blasting holes in this base's defenses," Kara noted, calmly. "Next, we're going to plant a bomb that will reduce this place to rubble. Reconsider."

"I'll come with you," Rana muttered.

"Good. Tali, Liara, into the lift. Ganto," Kara ordered, handing the salarian his gun back, "watch her. I want her alive."

"Fine," he grumbled. "As long as she ends up in a cell."

Rana frowned, but, faced with an armed and angry former prisoner, she did not voice her concerns.

Kara stepped into the lift, and pressed the control. She should, perhaps, have left Liara behind and taken Ganto along, but she was not comfortable with the idea of separating her squad. Or was it simply letting Liara out of her sight?

The lift stopped, the doors opening out onto a single large room. Tall windows on the far end revealed a beautiful vista of blue ocean contrasted with a pale indigo sky, interspersed with islands of green jungle below, and white cloud above.

"Kara, look; another beacon," Liara exclaimed, pointing across the room. The black spire, about three meters tall, sat between two panes of the window. Lines of green light emanated from its surface. "It's active, too."

"Just like the one on Eden Prime," Kara said, as they walked over to it. If Saren needed both visions, then she so did she, but the first had knocked her unconscious for hours. While better prepared now, it was a risk she didn't care to take. She tried lifting it with a biotic field, but she could feel it resisting. Even if she could control it, it would take more concentration than she could spare. "Liara, I have to use that beacon. If I lose consciousness, you'll have to take charge."

"Kara, I can't—"

"You can," Kara interrupted softly. She turned away quickly, and stepped into the beacon's range. It flared to life at her touch.

Pain, again, though less intense; violent flashes of images, mostly the same as before. Still jumbled and confused; fire and death, and a city, intact one moment, then crumbled ruins. Despair, and determination.

Blackness.

Someone was shaking her roughly. "Kara! Wake up!"

"Liara?" she muttered; her head ached, and she struggled to remember where she was. Her eyes opened, and fell on the asari's face. She looked relieved; Kara couldn't help but smile. "Where am I?"

"We're in Saren's office, remember? On Virmire?"

Virmire. Breeding krogan. The raid. She jerked upright. "Fuck. How long?"

"Ten minutes," Liara said. "Tali got everything she could, but we were interrupted by… Kara, Sovereign isn't a reaper ship. It is a reaper."

"Let's go," Kara muttered, struggling to stand. This time, the visions were already coming back to her, but they remained disjointed, as though she viewing scenes of story without any plot to connect them. With Liara's help, she stumbled toward the lift.

"There's something else," the asari said. "The Normandy landed just after you activated the beacon. Most of the geth broke off from the fight at the entrance. Kirrahe ordered a charge."

They started down. "Damn. You did good, Liara," Kara sighed. "Kirrahe, this is Shadow One. What's your situation?"

"Shepard? We're under heavy fire. We'll try and make the drop site, but you may have to leave without us," the STG captain responded.

"Shadow Two, report."

"We're at the drop site. The core is deployed and ready for activation. There are geth incoming from all sides, but we're holding."

"We'll be there in five. Can you break out and assist Kirrahe?"

"It won't be easy," Orlanis said.

The lift halted. Rana was staring at Ganto with wide, fearful eyes, when the door opened, but they were both still alive.

"Try," Kara ordered. Kirrahe had likely made the right decision, protecting the Normandy by forcing the engage his troops, but she knew it would be costly. She hoped Orlanis could provide enough cover to get them through the enemy lines.

"You two," she continued, staring firmly at Rana and Ganto, "we're heading for pickup. Stay close and keep up. Tali, bring up the rear."

She led them out of the building, and along a raised walkway. A moderate headache made their slow-run difficult, as they headed north and west, towards the center of the base. The edge of the ocean washed right under the southwest corner, so that their path led them along a raised walkway.

They did not encounter anyone until they drew close to the Normandy, but the scattered geth seemed intended more to delay her, rather than provide real opposition. She carefully rationed her strength, switching to her assault rifle and not using her biotics.

When they approached the landing site, she discovered the reason for their tactics. The Normandy's position was not simply centrally located, but had limited access with good cover, to help the few marines on board fend off any counterattack. It also meant the approaches were easily guarded, in this case by a group of eight geth, two of them larger and better armed than the others. They didn't have time to go around.

"Liara, were you trained in team biotics?" she asked, as the archeologist stopped beside her, just out of sight of the enemy.

"You mean, like commando pairs? Yes, but I haven't—"

"I'm going to generate a static field in the middle of those geth. Can you detonate it?"

Liara nodded, though she looked uncomfortable.

"Tali," Kara continued, motioning for the quarian to join them. "After the biotic detonation, we'll have to charge them. We can't stay here. Liara and I will take on the bigger platforms with a disruption field pair. I'll lead on the first."

Tali nodded. "Got it. I'm ready."

Kara turned back on the geth, and concentrated on building a static field. The varied field of biotic energy was not meant to effect anything within it, which made it extremely difficult to detect. However, another biotic could detonate the field. "Now, Liara," she muttered.

A wave of blue light flashed across the scene, sending the geth tumbling. One of them had shattered; the rest struggled to regain their feet.

Kara charged. She threw a disruption field at the first Prime. Its processors attempted to adjust, but Liara followed up with a stabilizing field, solidifying the hole. They fired together, their repeated shots tearing open its robotic head.

As Liara took the lead on the second Prime, Tali used her EMP burst to disable several of the smaller Geth, shooting them with her shotgun before they could recover.

Kara stabilized Liara's disruption field on the second Prime; a few seconds later, it too was down.

She used a biotic field to lift two the remaining geth off the ground and, even though she felt light-headed, used another disruption field on one of the two robots still standing. A few quick shots and it was down. Liara held the other one in place with a mass-increasing field, while Tali blasted at it. The two floating robots were easy enough to pick off with combined fire from their weapons.

Kara tore open one of her energy bars, as she waited for Rana and Ganto to catch up with them. The textured carbohydrates were dry and unpleasant as always, and she washed it down with a drink from her canteen. Her dizziness began to fade immediately, but it would take some time before she regained her strength.

She took point again, on the last stage of their journey, though they encountered no further resistance. It was a relief to see the Normandy, clearly intact, as they entered the plaza. Ashley jumped from behind a crate in the cargo bay, as they approached. "Kara, ma'am. Thank god. When the geth stopped coming, I thought they were gathering for a final assault."

"Not quite," Kara smiled. "Is the bomb still safe?"

Ashley nodded. "We lost Handel, ma'am. I'm sorry. I heard he was a friend."

Kara closed her eyes. They had served together on the Kyoto, two years earlier. He had saved her life during the same pirate attack in which Captain Li made her XO, dragging her out of the decompressing armory while she was still dazed by the explosion that breached the hull. They lost a lot of people, and very nearly the ship, surviving in part due to his assistance in patching the ship's systems. She had lost a competent marine and engineer, all at once; and yes, a friend. "Yeah. Look, get these two inside," she said, gesturing at her two unarmored charges. "Shadow Two, this is Shepard. We're at the drop site. Do you need assistance?"

"We could use someone to clear the geth off our backs," Orlanis reported. "Just head north from your position—you can't miss us."

"Hold on," Kara replied, "we're on our—"

"Shepard!"

The resonant turian voice took her by surprise, and she spun, aiming her pistol at the turian former-Spectre. "Stand down, Saren."

He laughed. She had not expected him to agree.

"I know about Sovereign and the reapers. Why are you helping them?"

The question appeared to give him pause, when it should have been an easy answer, even if dismissive. "The reapers cannot be stopped, Shepard. All who oppose them will be utterly destroyed, like the protheans before us, and a thousand civilizations before them. Only by cooperating can we hope to survive. If we prove ourselves useful to them, they will spare us."

She recalled Rana, and her belief about Saren's fears. "You opposed them once, didn't you?" she asked. "They won without a fight. The Council's most capable agent simply gave up."

"No!" he shouted, his grip tightening on his pistol. "Sovereign needs me. It can't Indoctrinate me; it needs me intact. The more influence it exerts, the weaker the subject becomes."

"If they need you, then you can hurt them," Kara asserted. She carefully generated a small disruption field inside his gun—just enough to force a misfire. "They can be stopped."

"No!" he screamed, throwing his weapon aside and charging.

It took Kara by surprise, but she had time to meet him with a carefully timed biotic field that muted the impact; and then they were fighting hand to hand. His eyes burned with anger, and he attacked with a raw, wild strength. With careful control, she countered him without much difficulty, but he left no opening for her to take the offensive.

As they fought, his rage faded, and discipline took over. She could see it in his eyes, and the slow tightening of his forms, he fell back, allowing her to spend her limited energy attacking him, but she couldn't break through his defenses.

Then they traded roles again. She stepped back under his assault, her foot catching on the edge of the cargo ramp, and fell.

The turian pinned her face-down, deflecting the biotic field she attempted to use to throw him off, doubling her headache. He had picked up her assault rifle. Ashley and the others were busy fighting off another geth attack.

Saren grinned. "Goodbye, Shepard."

Something struck him from behind. He rolled away, but Kara could hardly move from the pain. Thankfully, he fled under a hail of rifle fire.

"Thanks, Ash," she breathed, clutching at her head. She wasn't sure if she could stand.

"You'd better go. Orlanis is expecting you."

Kara did try to regain her feet, but movement only seemed to make the pain worse. "Can't," she muttered. "You go. Take Tali and Liara. I'll stay here."

Ashley frowned at her. "Okay," she said, switching on her comm. "Doctor Chakwas, Shepard needs you in the cargo bay."

Kara thought about protesting, but the dark-haired marine was already moving off, Liara and Tali following closely.

Note: I finally feel like I'm making some progress on this. I gave serious thought to altering the genophage 'cure', but ultimately declined. Instead, I tried to clarify things.

A detail you may not be aware of; in this revised edition, the first mention of Sovereign comes here.