The Kalros and her sister ship the Antros just so happened to be facing the largest of the Collector ships, something Krull was very, very pleased about.

"Open gun ports."

Throughout the Krogan armada slabs of hyper-dense stone armour levered open, exposing the barrels of the formidable armaments the ships carried and making the entire ship rattle. The Collectors started reacting sluggishly as the two Tuchanka class dreadnoughts lined up their main batteries.

"Fire the main gun."

A cherry red triple beam leaped forth from the prow of the Kalros, swiftly joined by that of the Antros. The weapons, known among the Krogan engineers as ether beams, functioned by firing a stream of molten tungsten from an internal reservoir at the target. The first trio of beams devastated the Collector flagship, the second set from Antros merely sealing the deal. Moments later the broadsides of the dreadnoughts lit up as volleys of ether beam fire lanced out, smashing into the Collector cruisers that only just reacted, golden particle beams crisscrossing the far more numerous ether beams. The frigates and cruisers accompanying the Krogan fleet joined in, the frigates forming up into pairs and harassing the smaller Collector vessels as the cruisers provided the hitting power, blowing through barriers and hull alike. The carrier joined in with her close defence armament, brutally effective in the chaotic melee of vessels. Being outnumbered and outclassed by the Krogan ships, the Collectors were quickly annihilated.

Cheers filled the bridge of the Kalros as the last Collector vessel exploded. Frowning at his display, Krull checked over the damage report. Three frigates had their shields breached but the miracle stone of their armour had saved them from the particle beams, with only one, the Drogal, showing minor damage. He brought his crews back to attention with a sharp command.

"I want all ships to patrol the system. The Collectors no doubt will send more. Captains, if you ID Collector forces signal the fleet. We'll converge and crush them. Nobody go on any suicide runs, okay? Drogal, return to base and get that hull breach seen to."

The fleet split apart, wormholes opening as they moved to a standard patrol pattern. Nodding at the display, Krull sent his ship into the void.

###

Lizzie groaned and rubbed her forehead.

"I'm starting to make this a habit."

Garrus chuckled from his seat beside her bed in the medbay.

"On the bright side, I've pretty much moulded this seat to my butt."

She looked around.

"Where's the little monster?"

"Playing with Kelly in the observation lounge. Are you okay?"

She rubbed her head again, somewhat surprised at the sudden lack of the minor headache that had plagued her since Eden Prime.

"Yeah. I think I am. Any idea what happened?"

He shrugged.

"From what the docs tell me the cipher kicked in. Your brain needed to reboot, or something."

"Yeah. The visions seem much clearer now and I can sort of access them at will, instead of just having them sneaking up on me. Hello ..."

"What?"

She frowned again.

"I just got the Collector codex. There's sections missing but I have a whole bunch of information on the Collectors. Do we have any samples of their weaponry?"

Garrus looked at her askance.

"Yeah, down in the lab. Why?"

"I just had an idea."

###

Tali tensed up, bending both sets of knees and compressing her legs, hands clenched into fists. She sprang upwards, flinging her arms up and her head back, arcing over the laser beam. Harnessing the momentum from her backflip, she slid into a slide under another laser, kicking her legs up and springing off her hands then twisting her body in midair, hooking a foot round the neck of the training dummy and bringing her other foot to the side of its head, knocking away the laser emitter with one hand while the other supported her on the floor. With a single rapid wrenching motion she snapped the dummy's neck with her legs, springing into a catlike crouch.

Taeri applauded slowly from her position at the side of the cargo bay. Considering how similar Quarian and Atavira bodies were she was the logical choice to train Tali. The elder commando had to admit her charge was a demon in close range and melee combat although her marksmanship left something to be desired.

"Good. Again."

Failing to disguise a slight grumble, Tali headed over to the start of the course again. The course was designed to get Tali's system adapted to the use of encaphelol-C6, a drug used by Atavira commandoes to boost their reaction time and speed. Usage of the drug, nicknamed Adrenaline Rush, without the proper training could easily lead to addiction and psychological damage.

Tali tapped her Omnitool, blasting her system with another dose of Adrenaline Rush as the lasers started up again.

###

Garrus placed the fourth mug of coffee he had fetched in the last six hours down on the workbench and Lizzie grunted in thanks, downing it in three enormous gulps before returning to her feverish work. After a moment she paused, then blinked and stood up, letting Garrus take a look at her creation.

On the table lay what looked like a Collector assault rifle, but subtly different. The weapon had less of an organic texture, chitinous plates replaced with metal and polymers. While the shape was recognisable, if slightly elongated, the appearance of the weapon showed it to be human-made.

"Done."

Garrus looked at the black and grey weapon, then back at her.

"What is that?"

She picked it up, then after a moment of groping found the stud and triggered it to collapse.

"Seems one of the things I got from the beacon was the blueprint for this, the Prothean weapon the Collector rifle is based off. Want to take it down to the firing range?"

He nodded as she slung the weapon on her back.

"Let's go for it."

###

Liara swore as she mashed the Prothean controls, frantically activating the ruin's defensive systems. Her team had been onsite on Therum for just under a week before the Collectors had descended on the place like a pack of varren.

For the Suns, the Collector invasion was a massive boom in their business. Ever since it had emerged that the Collectors were particularly interested in Prothean ruins, digsites throughout the Traverse and the Terminus had been clamouring for reliable and effective private security measures. The Blue Suns were the obvious choice. The digsites on Therum had paid for the best Zaeed had. They had got Proteus battalion.

The battalion were spread over no less than six digs on the planet's surface, the battalion splitting up with the largest group, headed by Liara, on the largest digsite that was also serving as the battalion's command centre. Luckily Liara's group were the only ones thus far under attack and the Little Wing had managed to chase away the Collector vessel but had taken damage in the process, leaving Liara's group stuck with an enormous Collector force bearing down on them and no extraction plan.

The sole Broadsword mech lashed out with its rapidly spinning chainblade, cleaving a Scion clean in half then stomping the two sections into mulch just to make sure. Inside the cockpit, Shylene roared in satisfaction, her artificially three-fingered hands playing over the controls as she brought the mech's missile pod to bear, blasting out a cluster of six high explosive rockets. Since the death of Mesara three years ago something had hardened inside Shylene, becoming a mirror of Liara in personality as well as in appearance. Liara had surprised herself by taking a liking to the new improved Shylene, personally training her until she was an ace in her Broadsword mech painted with hundreds of kill flashes.

Turning her attention away from the rampaging mech, she finally managed to ready the barriers.

"Everyone inside the ruin, now!"

Her team complied, Shylene pacing backwards as she continued to fire off rockets, flanked by the eight silver Krogan, Urdnot Hasok and Mchel Hvachaches laying down withering barrages from the heavy minigun mounted on a makeshift tripod they were operating.

As soon as the unit were back within the confines of the ruins she slammed the button, activating the barrier curtains and sealing them off from the outside world. A knot of angry Collectors congregated outside their little sanctuary, probing at the barrier. Liara spun round, running her eyes over her team.

"Sound off."

"Grunt."

"Theseus."

"Cronus."

"Athena."

"Aphrodite."

"Agamemnon."

"Paris."

"Hector."

"Hasok."

"Mchel."

"Shylene."

"Ocean."

All twelve members of the security team accounted for. Liara felt a surge of relief, briefly cursing the fact that the entire archaeological team had been slaughtered in the first wave then returning her attention to the matter at hand.

"Okay, spread out. Comb the building, I don't want any Collectors throwing us a surprise party. Shy, refuel and rearm your mech. Grunt, Hasok help me set up a redoubt on this level."

Her men jumped to follow her orders, leaving her to gaze speculatively out at the Collectors.

"I wonder how this is all going to end."