Traditional Disclaimer:

I do not own either the Harry Potter or Mass Effect franchises. This piece of fiction is being written merely for my own pleasure, and no monetary profit is intended.

Update - 2015.04.07: made an important change to the very last scene of the chapter. Anyone who read it already should check it out. First-timers won't find anything amiss, for some reason.

Chapter 5

.

Hidden Dangers

.

.

.

Legionnaire Patrus ran.

He gripped the Phaeston assault rifle in his hands so hard, he was surprised the metal was not groaning in protest. The dry crushing of the red earth beneath his feet, and his own labored breathing, were the only sounds he heard. Everything else was deathly silence. The faint glow of the twin alien moons cast just enough light that he could see where he was going, his helmet having been lost somewhere he did not care about. Against his will, he risked a look behind him, to the distant impenetrable darkness that covered the entire forward operations base. No movement could be seen beyond the inky wall, but he knew there would not be any.

He knew the Ghost had taken all his brothers and sisters.

He kept running. There was a small marsh not two kilometers in this direction, if he could reach it, maybe he would be able to stay hidden. Here, on the open ground, he was completely exposed. But perhaps it did not mattered anyway. Did terrain even meant anything to the… creature that attacked them? Would a few plants hide him from something beyond the living world?

He did not know the answer, but it was his only hope. Running was his only hope. A turian soldier never gave his back to an enemy, they said. Never retreated without careful coordination. But turians soldiers never faced something like that thing. All his fellow legionnaires had proudly stood their ground, and now every one of them was gone.

Suddenly, a crackling voice came over from his omnitool. "…ase?! Respond Talon Base! Anyone listeni…?!"

He was startled for a moment, but hastily brought the tool to his mouth, never breaking his desperate stride. "This is Corporal Nalkan Patrus, Talon Base! Justice, is that you?!" he would have screamed, but that would reveal his position.

"…atrus?! Corporal, what's happe… …own there?! Where's your commanding officer?!"

"She's gone! They are all gone! The Ghost took them all!"

There was a small pause. "Take a h… …yourself, soldier! What are you talking ab…?! What attacked you?! Report!"

But Patrus was lost in memories, barely listening anymore. "The things he did, those were no fucking biotics! Our bullets did not work, nothing worked! Grenades, tech mines… Ulta had a rocket-fucking-launcher, but she might as well have used a sprinkler! And you know why?! It's because he isn't really here, he isn't alive!"

"Corporal, we are send… a shuttle to get you. Is the area around you safe? Any anti-airc… … nearby? Give us a secure LZ!"

That snapped the soldier's attention back, violently. "NO!" he screamed now, unconcerned if the beast would hear him. "Don't send any more soldiers to die on this place! Just tell General Desolas to take the Fleet and leave this cursed system! We should have never come here!"

"… shuttle is on its way. We have your transponder signal, just find some… …and stay hidden. ETA is ten minutes."

"AREN'T YOU LISTENING?! If you send anymore turians down here, the Ghost will just get them, too! We CAN'T hurt that thing!" the soldier had stopped running. His own life did not mattered anymore. All that mattered was keeping more legionnaires from walking into this deathtrap.

A new voice came on the radio. A voice every turian in the 16th Fleet recognized. "Legionnaire Patrus? This is General Desolas. Please calm… …elf down."

The soothing voice of his commanding officer managed to quiet the storm on his mind just enough so that he could think more clearly. He knew what had to be done. "General Arterius, sir! Listen, you have to use the Justice's main gun! Strike Talon Base! Maybe IT is still there. Maybe we can take it out!" he looked frantically around, watching the wide, desert plain, assault rifle at the ready. Every rock outcropping made him restrain the urge to open fire.

"Nalkan, is it not? Listen to yourself, my friend. Bombarding the base? What about your fellow soldiers?"

"They are all gone, sir." answered the man, a deep and desolate keening in his voice. "I watched them fall, one by one. I'm the only one left."

"You are in shock, legionnaire, but we will take care of you. Find some cover and stay there. We will bring you to the Justice and you can tell me personally what happened. Whatever attacked you, we will bring it down."

He shook his head. "You aren't listening. Soldiers can't fight it. I've just watched an entire company being wiped out. Our only hope is to…"

Patrus stopped speaking, because he had just heard the sound he had been dreading to hear for the last fifteen minutes. A very faint crack in the air, like a suppressed gun shot.

Right from behind him.

"Corporal? What is happening? Are you under attack? Just stand your ground, my friend, help is almost there."

But he wasn't listening. He let his arm fall back to his rifle. So that was it, then? It was his turn now, there was nowhere else left to hide. He took a deep breath, clenched his talons around the metal, and turned around, gun pointed straight ahead.

In the dim of the night, the only thing he saw was a vague humanoid shape, and the golden-orange eyes that would forever become a source of his nightmares, standing not ten steps from him. Before he could fire a single shot, a bright red light flashed, and he knew only darkness.

Five days earlier.

Harry was at his new lab, which he had relocated from his habitational unit at Green 14 to a small cave on the slope of a solitary mountain surrounded by mires, roughly two hundred kilometers south of Central Settlement. The cave had actually been ready a long time ago, it had just remained mostly empty until three days before. He made a point to prepare a bolt-hole at every planet he planned to spend any extended period of time on.

So call him paranoid.

He had the place warded to hell and high water, and it would serve as his own personal base of operations for the duration of the crisis. He used magic to carve the already large space into an almost perfect rectangle. Like usual, the rock walls had a brown-red coloration, but he had made them, and the floor, smooth. Numerous little orbs of light floated near the ceiling, providing illumination. He arranged the space in two distinct areas, separated by a thin wall. The one he was currently in was dubbed the work area.

It had all his equipment; his Enchanter's Table at one side, flanked by small stockpiles of rare woods, noble metals and precious stones; a long wooden table where three golden cauldrons sat atop low fires, potions of different colors brewing merrily inside two of them; a clothes stand, from which hung many different articles. Next to the stand was a small table, upon which sat a thin black case along a much larger metallic-silver one.

There was also the heavily expanded traveler's trunk he used to carry most of his belongings. One of his original possessions, it was old-fashioned and turned heads everywhere he went, but he thought it much easier to use and secure during space travel than the backpack he tried when he first left Earth, and it matched his collector persona. He also just liked it a lot.

The space at the other side of the partition, the 'living area', was less impressive by comparison. It only had a large table with chairs, a small pantry stocked with food and water, and a handful of comfortable beds, besides which laid a cabinet filled with both normal and magical emergency medical supplies. A small area had been sectioned off and turned into a crude, but functional, bathroom.

Considering the hurry it was made in, he was very satisfied with the place. He called it The Refuge.

Astrid called it Harry's Magical Love Cave, or simply the Love Cave. She was such a child.

"So, it's time to go out to the field, then?" asked said companion.

"Yes, it is." he answered. He picked up his trusty mokeskin bag and left it open above a cupboard. He had just finished stuffing the bag with ration bars and an expanded bottle filled with Earl Grey. Harry had briefly considered putting his Everlasting Kettle in there, but Astrid's snickering had convinced him not to. He did not know what was so funny about it, he liked his tea. "If everything works as planned, the Shroud will force the turians to send people to the surface, instead of just sitting up there, hammering the colony."

He opened a cupboard and took out an assortment of objects, putting them into the bag. A lighter, a compass, a bundle of rope, a small torch, and many other gadgets. "In that case, their first target will probably be one of the outer settlements, which are not under the protection of the Shroud. So that's where I will be staking out."

"You are not actually going to be at one of the settlements, will you?"

"Of course not, girl. I certainly would not put it past that general to not simply shoot the buildings from orbit, even if there isn't a single military structure in the place." he examined a Swiss Army knife, opening and closing the many tools. "Then again, they just might look like military buildings to them. Who knows what turian architecture is like?"

"Hey, just checking." her voice was back to its usual cheerfulness. It seemed she had finally stopped grouching about being stuck inside a cave. "And about the alien's constructing fashion, I'm sure it can be mostly resumed to straight lines and angles. I think I know why they have metal skin; it must be so they don't kill themselves by bumping into all those sharp edges."

He snorted, then put the knife inside the bag and took it. "Anyway, there are no shortage of marshes and caves in the region where I can put up a shelter and still keep an eye out for any incoming transports." he went to the smoking cauldrons and checked the potions there. His timing had been spot on, and both were just finished. He took out the fires and just let them sit for now. He would hopefully come back a couple of hours later to bottle them up.

"You mean I will keep an eye out for any transports?" she asked in a light tone.

"Oi, I will be just as vigilant as you, girl. But we organics have to sleep from time to time."

"Humpf." was her mocking retort. Seriously, she continued. "Won't anyone notice your absence at the shelter?"

"The colony officials don't exactly make roll calls every day, Astrid. The Bhatias know I will be gone and they will tell any civilian who asks that I am doing some spelunking work for Authority. I actually announced that in the tent so the Baumanns and the Flints heard it as well. If anyone finds out it's a load of codswallop, the Bhatias can just say I lied to them, too."

"What about the girl's boyfriend?"

"Elliot?" he sighed. He went to the potion's cabinet and started to put aside a selection. "Yes, that could be a problem. Letia even said he was looking for me some time ago. I will just hope the lad is too busy to investigate deeper. I know Letia doesn't like hiding the truth from him, but Elliot is a Marine through and through. He would never cover for me in this situation."

He paused in the process of deciding if he should take one more flask of Strengthening Elixir, and gave a slight frown. "I really don't like leaving them in the dark like that. I can see that Ms. Bhatia and Letia are worried, even if they know I can take care of myself. And it's amazing, really, how they just believe me when I say I will fight the turians. All they know is that I fly around looking for new planets, which hardly qualifies me to do a better job than the Marines." he decided to just take the extra flask, it would certainly not hurt.

"Yeah, right." Said Astrid with a scoff.

He frowned for real, then. "What's that supposed to mean?"

His ship explained with the tone of someone who knew an inside joke. "You don't really pay attention to the stories you tell, do you? You talk about saving an old man from being mugged by a gang on Earth, or kicking a trained soldier's ass in a bar on Terra Nova, or rescuing a damaged freighter from crashing down on a moon of Borr, all as if it were stuff normal people did every day. You have all that 'knightly' vibe going and don't even realize it."

He went to interrupt, but she just kept going, tone much more serious this time. "You keep telling me that those three are some of the smartest people you know. Well, you should remember that. You are a guy who has stood up against evil in one shape or another for your entire life, be it abusive relatives, school bullies or self-entitled dark lords. You also underwent the wizarding world's version of elite police training. You can't hide all that behind the eccentric explorer, people notice it. Do you remember the application process for the Voyager license at Demeter? All the physical and psychological evaluations? Do you remember how four different Navy officers tried to convince you to enlist? They made a special notation on your file."

She quoted. "Excellent fitness. High intelligence and learning capacity. Superb stress resistance, tactical thinking and situational awareness. Exceptional leadership qualities. If subject ever joins the Navy, recommended fast-tracking to the ICT program."

Harry did not knew exactly what to say. When she was not being a joker, or trying to wind him up, Astrid was never derisive or mocking of his abilities. But she was also not in the habit of singing his praises like that. In the end, he just asked. "ICT program?"

"Interplanetary Combatives Training." she answered. "The Navy's new premier special forces program. I think they nicknamed it 'N-School'. It was just being planned back then, but the first class was supposed to begin training this year. We will likely see the first trainees or graduates in the reinforcements the Alliance will send."

"I see…" he shook his head and put most of the separated flasks in the bag, but left a few at the table.

It seemed Astrid was not finished, though. "As for the Bhatias, that family loves you. Ever since you rescued the kid when he fell down into that cave, you can practically do no wrong in their eyes. Honestly, for the way you guys behave around each other, you should just marry the lady and adopt the kids already."

Thatmade him almost drop the flask he was holding. Forgetting for a moment that the glass had been spelled to be unbreakable, he scrambled to catch it before it could reach the ground. "W-what?"

"Oh, please, the boy already sees you as his personal hero. The girl let you give the 'father talk' to her boyfriend without a single complaint. And the mother-bear allows her children to be alone at a single man's house and trusts you completely to look after them."

"All right, look. I admit that the Bhatias may treat me like more than just a friend, but you are exaggerating here. Ms. Bhatia at least has never given any indication she might fancy me that way."

The retort was immediate. "And is that because she isn't interested, or because she is sharp enough to recognize you still carry a torch for an old love, and doesn't want to intrude on your privacy?"

He had to take a moment to consider a counter-argument, but realized there was no fault in her logic. So he went for a different track. "Even so, Ihave never thought about Ms. Bhatia like that." he said firmly.

"Isn't she beautiful?"

And he was throw off again. "What? I don't… of course she is."

"Like a grown up version of that chick you went out during Hogwarts, Parvati? You told me you found her pretty."

"Well, yes. But that was just once. I was a boy, made an arse of myself, and nothing ever came out of it."

"And isn't she smart?" she continued, ignoring the rest of his answer. "And loyal, and dedicated, and strong, and funny?"

"Yes, Astrid, to all of that. What's your point?"

"Well, there you go!" she finished brightly. "You are thinking about her 'like that', now."

"I…" he stopped his answer and realized she was right. He shook his head and let out a grunt. "You are evil. You know that, right?"

"Thank you, I try." she answered in a fake humble tone.

He closed his now fully packed bag and put it above a table. With a little more effort than he would have liked, he pushed aside the thoughts Astrid put in his head for later. "Are we done discussing my bloody love life? Or lack thereof?"

"For the moment. But I reserve the right to bring it up again when it is convenient."

"Can't wait for it." he said in his most sarcastic voice.

He went to the stand and paused for just a moment. It had been what, two years since he last wore his Master Auror battle uniform? Yes, that sounded about right. The last time was when he had to break into that helium-3 refining station orbiting Zion, which had been captured by pirates, something that was still very rare in human space. The Alliance never could determine how the station was liberated. The pirate's claims that they had been hunted down by a phantom were largely ignored.

He started to gear up. First, he stripped to his underclothes…

"Ah, to be a fly on that wall."

"Stuff it, Astrid."

…then he put the trousers and long-sleeved shirt. After that were the black dragon-hide belt, boots, gloves and jacket, then finally the long light-brown trench coat. As each layer was added, he could feel the protective enchantments surrounding him like the walls of an invisible fortress.

Personal armor had been used by wizards and witches since they started killing each other in ancient times. Magic could make even the softest material more resistant than steel, and many fabrics and leathers from magical creatures were naturally tough, so metal armor was rarely used except for accessories.

The practice of wearing clothes spelled for protection had become increasingly less common though, as they were hard and expensive to make, as the use of physical weapons fell out of practice, and for the simple fact that an Avada Kedavra would overwhelm any kind of magical defense or physical cover directly or indirectly connected to someone's body. In fact, since the use of body armor was outlawed at dueling circles in the earlier 18th century, they became culturally associated with weak spellcasters who had no confidence in their ability to defend themselves.

A self-defeating logic, if there ever was one, but that was a fault of many a tradition.

All dressed up, Harry went to the table with the two cases. He briefly took the small, black one and considered it for a while, but ultimately put it back. Then he took the large, metallic one and opened it.

The inside was lined in red velvet. Resting on the left side was an ornate silver dagger, with a golden hilt encrusted with small rubies. He took the small blade and put it into the sheath at his right boot. Then, he took the long rod at the top of the case. It was almost the length of his arm, and made almost entirely of a clear and smooth blue-tinted crystal. It went into a strap on the inside of his coat, where it would rest until needed. The last object on the case sat to the right. He passed his hand slowly over the black metallic surface, before taking the old-fashioned looking (for their current age), heavy pistol out.

When Harry first left Earth, he had no intentions of possessing a gun of any kind. He was content with just his blade and battle rod for personal defense. His first serious scuffle in outer space (coincidently, the assault on Zion's mining station) convinced him that a ranged weapon would come in handy, though. He was initially going to just use one of the new mass accelerator guns.

Astrid, bless her little bloodthirsty heart, would not have it, however. She said he was a wizard, and if a wizard needed to have a gun, it 'damn well had to be a proper, kick-ass magic gun'. A few days of applying her superhuman brain power to the task, and she soon came up with the design for the extraordinary piece of arcane weaponry in his hands. All parts considered, it was the most complex bit of enchantment work he ever made, but it surely paid off. It would never beat a wand for sheer versatility and destructive power, of course, but in terms of speed it certainly trumped straight spellcasting.

He took four of the five magazines and put them into one of his coat's pockets. For the last one, he took a quick look at the slightly glowing, golden viscous liquid within, before putting it inside the pistols' grip. He then put the gun in the holster he had added to the left side of his dragon-hide jacket.

Now wearing almost all of his gear, Harry went to the potions cabinet and took the previously ignored selection of vials, stowing them inside his other pockets. That done, he went to another table and picked up the last item of his outfit. Unlike all other pieces, this one was a very modern addition. It was a black face-mask, made to cover the head entirely. The eyes' section was empty, as it was designed to incorporate his usual amber-tinted visor. He kept the headgear in his coat too, for now.

"All right, time for the waiting game." he said.

"Just remember that I have my hands full keeping the Alliance's systems safe from the Shroud." reminded Astrid, with a slightly apologetic note. "I won't be able to hack into any computers unless they come very close to Central. Eli… she was always much better at breaking and entering from a distance than me, anyway."

He chose not to comment on her last sentence. "I know, girl. Don't worry, I will be careful with any crafts they bring down."

"Of course. Well, let's hope the evil overlord don't take days to send his minions." said his ship. "I can't wait to see if turians make some kind of armored bunny when transfigured."

He chuckled softly, gave one last look around the cave to see if everything was in its place, then Disapparated with a very faint crack.

"What a damn waste."

"Commander?" came the curious voice of her First Officer.

She pointed a talon to one of the Shadow's observation window, beyond which they could see the lights of the downed frigates from the 16th Fleet, being slowly towed to orbital positions around the human planet. And even further away was the moon where the human soldiers had tried to find a safe hideout. "Ten ships that will need dry-dock to fly again, one completely lost, and thirty fighters gone. One hundred and twenty-three legionnaires dead, along with probably hundreds of foreign nationals, and for what? A minor colony? A chance for the Hierarchy to drawn first blood in a war nobody needs? Spirits, this whole situation has been one mistake after the other from the start."

High Commander Mavis Vakarian was not a happy woman. She had not been a happy woman ever since she got the notice that some of her Group's frigates had destroyed an unknown species' ship on a previously unmapped system. Arriving at said system to find out one of her ships had been lost to the counter-attack of said species had not improved her mood any. Receiving Palaven Command's orders to assist a small fleet in tracking down the alien's nearest world, and proceed to subjugate it, had been the last straw.

It was official, her superiors were all idiots.

"Well, it must be said that these humans did commit a very serious criminal offence by Council laws. And they did destroy one of our ships." pointed out the subordinate, reasonably.

"Oh, sure!" she turned to him and fixed her deep blue eyes on his pale yellow ones, a mocking shine to them. "A dormant Mass Relay is very dangerous because we don't know if an easily provoked species of unknown capabilities might be just waiting to come out of it and try to conquer the galaxy. But there's absolutely no problem with all but declaring war against a possible easily provoked species of unknown capabilities that was trying to open one."

She started to pace in front of him. "And of course it is such a shock that said species just might have taken exception to having one of their ships destroyed, and came back to confront their attackers." she shook her head. Hear heart went out to the Occram's crew, it truly did. She knew the frigate's commanding staff personally, and every single one of those legionnaires had been a valued subordinate. She was saddened and angry to learn about their deaths, but those feelings had not clouded her judgment. They were in a First Contact scenario, and they had already made all the worst first impressions. The humans had not tried to attack the Occram at first sight, they tried to communicate with them. When the Shadow arrived, they fled before she could try to reestablish contact.

Mavis had given the commander in charge of the detachment a serious dressing down, both for his first decision to attack and his later decision to ignore the alien's hails and try to force their way out. The man seemed to understand just how badly he had blundered, but he owned up to his decisions, good or bad. If nothing else, she could respect that.

The past could not be changed anyway, they could only try to fix things. So she sent her report to Palaven Command, along with her recommendations on cautious diplomatic actions. Command's response had made her restrain the urge to bang her head against the CIC's holo-table. "This…" Mavis opened her arms in a gesture made to encompass everything around them. "…is a completely unnecessary escalation of hostilities." she concluded, emphatically.

The First Officer put his hands up in surrender. "All right. I understand, and I agree. But Command is incensed about the apparent challenge, and they have reason to believe the humans will not be hard to bring to heel. They are seeing this as a police action against a foolish and underdeveloped new race."

"And what if this Systems Alliance is only the poor cousin of a giant galactic empire, Adrien?" she countered, arms crossed. "What if the ships we faced are from an old generation, ready to be decommissioned? What if they have terrible weapons they would only be willing to use against a threat like us? And in the end, it doesn't matter the size or strength of their military, that isn't the point. The point is that we have been at this game for a long time and we should know better. What do you think will happen when the Council learns of this? And they will find out about it sooner or later, the STGs or some Spectre will make sure of that."

He nodded, understanding her line of thinking. "Things are still in the small scale for now. The 16th Fleet is small enough that they can vanish for a month or two without raising suspicions, but that could change at any moment." it was an unspoken truth that all three Council Races kept a very keen eye on each other's respective movements. Of course, they presented a united front to the galaxy, and the feeling of alliance and cooperation was mostly genuine. But they also knew that they kept each other in check, and watched closely for what they judged as excesses. "The salarians might agree with the principle, but will rebuke us harshly for such a direct approach. And Thessia will raise a horrible fuss."

"And they would be right to do so. Frankly, this is a very bad time for the Hierarchy to decide to relieve their frustrations with the batarians or the Terminus Systems."

"You think that is what this is?" he asked, in mild surprise. He apparently had not considered that before.

"Isn't it?" she challenged. "Think about it; we are supposed to be the guardians of the galaxy, to keep people safe from all threats. And yet almost half of known space is filled with criminals we can do nothing about. There is also an entire nation governed by slavers that we have to just smile and wave at. So there comes along a new species. One who we find in the middle of questionable actions, one who responds to aggressiveness with more aggressiveness. It's easy to label them as wild children who need a good spanking before they can be taught as proper adults, and it gives Command a chance to flex their muscles and believe they are doing something."

The man concluded for her. "Except that we may have bitten more than we can chew. And even if not, there comes a point were punishment just turns into plain torture."

She let out a mirthless laugh, and went once again to the windows. Her silvery plates and dark blue marks reflected back at her. "You ask me, that point came and went. We would never tolerate one of our colonies becoming occupied; only arrogance would make Command believe anyone else would." she took a deep breath. "I don't know what was said in that first meeting with the human general, but I'm certain we had a golden opportunity for a peaceful resolution, and lost it."

All Arterius had told her about the meeting was that the human leader was unwilling to accept his reasonable terms. She had a good idea what the general's 'reasonable terms' had been.

"I am curious as to why General Arterius has not made the recording available to us." he came to stand with her, but kept a respectful step behind. The man's own dark plates were contracted in a frown, his stark white markings in clear evidence. "It is his right, of course, but there is little sense in the move. Unless he wanted to make sure you would not try to interfere somehow, or maybe he just wants to present his report to Command in the best light possible." he pondered, head tilted in contemplation.

Mavis suppressed a smile. Lieutenant Adrien Victus was a bright young turian, who was developing into a fine leader. And just a few months ago, he would never have dared to question a superior's motives so openly. When she first got the man into her service, she could see right away that Adrien had a cunning and imagination that were uncommon in her kind. But all of it had been buried under years of the strict turian military indoctrination. So of course she did her best to bring it out.

It was clear her own… uniqueness had rubbed off on the Lieutenant. Some of the more conservative officers often said she had a corrupting influence on those she commanded. She was not sorry in the slightest.

Mavis scoffed. "I have made my opinions on that man clear enough, I believe."

He nodded, face grave. "You have, Commander. And I admit that everything I've seen until now give me no reasons to doubt your words." he looked to the distant natural satellite, a distasteful flanging in his voice. "That attack on the retreating human soldiers was beyond justification. It would have been acceptable against confirmed belligerents posing a clear threat to equipment or personnel, but against a beaten foe? It would have been better to just let them starve on that moon."

The superior officer nodded. It was not about the loss of lives, even if that still mattered to Mavis, personally. It was the method. Turians were known for their overwhelming tactics. They were famous for ruthless campaigns designed to leave an enemy utterly broken, so as to prevent any chance of retaliation. But there were still limits, lines that should not be carelessly crossed. Arterius had crossed a line after the battle, and she could only think it had been done out of spite.

Victus looked at her. "What will you do, Commander?"

She sighed. "What can I do, Adrien? I have to answer to Arterius until second order. We will keep watch over our ships and patrol the perimeter. I will keep a close eye on his actions and write the most comprehensive report I can to Command. And I will pray to the Spirits that when the humans return, we can find some way to dialogue. I have little hope of it happening as long as that man is in charge, though."

He nodded, and lifted an inquisitive brow plate. "You know what I'm wondering right now? Why has the General not started shooting at the colony, yet?"

"You and me both, Adrien." and that was another thing. Arterius had opted for a kinetic bombardment of the human planet, even when such an action was forbidden against a garden world by Council law. Sure, there was an exception when the target was a hostile world, which technically made this legal, but that was yet another case of her people ignoring the spirit of a law to concentrate only on the letter of it.

At least this time there was a more acceptable reason. The general had argued that, as they did not knew if or when the humans might send reinforcements, it would be better to commit the least possible number of equipment and legionnaires to a ground campaign. In the remote chance, in Arterius opinion, that the aliens send a force greater than their own to liberate the planet, compelling them to retreat from the system, the faster they could recall their troops, the better. Mavis could find no fault with the logic, so had grudgingly kept her peace about the strategy.

"It has been over a day, now." continued Adrien. "Even if the humans only possess a single settlement, they should have found it already. And I think they have found it, or else the cruisers wouldn't be packed together like that. So why has the general not made any move?"

"And of course, he is keeping us in the dark about that, too." she scoffed. As her subordinate said, it was his right, but there was little reason to withhold information like that. Unless it was so that Command would hear only his account of the events. Mavis had never felt completely comfortable around the man when they served together, some gut instinct warning her about his over-polite mannerisms and friendly attitude. When he started to spout thinly-veiled supremacist propaganda to her, she knew those instincts were founded.

"Of all the generals in the Legions to command this intervention, it had to be this one." she thought ruefully, as both officers kept watching the occasional shuttle coming and leaving the damaged frigates from the three cruisers in high orbit over the red planet. "Frankly, one of the old warmongers would have been better. At least they would have been honest about wanting to destroy the humans."

Mavis Vakarian would perhaps be surprised if she knew, but destroying the humans was currently to farthest thing from Desolas Arterius' mind. In fact, he was deeply regretting his previous decision to wipe out the defeated human soldiers. He could use a few prisoners right about now.

"Drone is a hundred meters from the target." came the operator's voice.

Commander Felix shook his head. "Let's hope it works, this time."

"Indeed." was the general's only answer.

"Twenty meters. Ten meters. Five… contact! The drone has passed the event horizon. All communications lost."

"As expected. Now we can only see if it comes back."

They all waited in tense silence, every turian on the Penitent Justice's CIC watched the screen which seconds ago displayed the video feed of their recon UAV. Now it was completely black.

Half a minute later, the operator spoke again, reluctance clear in his voice. "The V.I. should have brought the drone back by now, General."

"I know, soldier. It seems we have met with failure one more time. It is no fault of your own, you did well."

"Thank you, General."

Desolas turned to Comms. "Tell the shuttle to return, please, Specialist."

"Yes, sir."

"What kind of Void-cursed technology is THAT?" Felix screamed in frustration, for what was probably the tenth time.

The First Officer's words echoed the thoughts of almost every turian on the commanding staffs of the three cruisers from the 16th Fleet. For almost a day, they had been desperately trying to understand just what kind of artifice the humans had used to cause the unbelievable effect their sensors and eyes were registering right then. This was beyond anything they had ever encountered, and it came as a shocking surprise. To think many believed they had gotten the measure of human technology already.

They were once again proved wrong.

It had all begun simply enough. After making sure the facility on the inner moon had been completely destroyed, Desolas ordered the 53rd to move against the remaining enemy frigates one more time, while he had his cruisers keep guard over his downed vessels. This time, the human ships had not bothered pretending to fight and just left the planet's vicinity.

The general knew trying to defend the crippled ships would just be a waste of time and effort, so he had most of the frigates' crews distributed amongst his cruisers, along with their supplies and equipment. As for the vessels themselves, they were useless in a space combat capacity, but could still assist in other roles. Though they had no main engines, they still had maneuvering thrusters and thus could sustain stable orbits, once put there. With that in mind, he planned to have the frigates towed to orbits around the human planet, where they could act as powerful reconnaissance platforms and even use their main guns (those that still had them) to strike at targets on the surface. Only a skeleton crew would be needed for that, and all those remaining legionnaires understood the terribly vulnerable position they would be in if any surprise attacks came, but accepted the risks without complaint.

But first, they had to make sure there weren't any orbital-range artillery emplacements on that world. With Vakarian's group keeping a wide patrol around the planet, the Exalted Lance was sent to make a preliminary scan, using their own sensors and releasing reconnaissance drones and survey probes. The ship kept a high enough orbit as to easily dodge any possible attacks, while the small unmanned crafts went into low altitude. With the quality of their sensory suits, the turians expected to have any non-concealed settlements found in a day.

Actually, it had taken no more than half an hour for them to find the first sign of human presence. It was very hard to miss, really.

"Lieutenant, any new conclusions?" asked Felix impatiently from the officer in charge of their sensors.

The woman shook her head, mandibles spread in dismay. "Commander, right now the only thing we can be reasonably sure of is that it is not a solid object or even some kind of energy field. The visual effect we see is the result of the exclusive reflection of short wavelength visible light, even if horribly distorted. All remaining radiation is impeded somehow. Whether it is being absorbed before passing the boundary, or if is being kept from reflecting back to us after reaching the surface, is unknown."

She then pointed to the screen once again showing the overhead view of the area. "And of course, that means no transmissions of any kind can be sent or received through the event horizon."

They had now run countless scans of a region on the planet's northern hemisphere, just a little above the equatorial belt. It was a series of extensive plateaus interspersed by rivers and narrow plains. Until now, they had counted seventeen individual settlements of varying sizes on that region. A few more had been found in other locations, but went largely ignored. Almost all of their attention was centered on the absurd phenomena the covered a good portion of one plateau.

A giant translucent purple dome more than thirty kilometers in diameter, and approximately a kilometer in height.

Though 'translucent' was a relative term. While the dome was not opaque, everything inside it was just a colored, indistinguishable haze.

When the sensors operators first received the readings, they immediately assumed an equipment malfunction on the drone. When the second drone arrived and reported the exact same image, they were baffled. When the Lance got into position above the area and confirmed both readings, the commanding staff of the Justice went silent for a few seconds, before exploding into activity.

Their scans found no trace of movement or even energy emissions on the small settlements. They had apparently been completely evacuated and their support systems turned off, though they had found signs of frantic recent activity: ground vehicle tracks and lingering emissions from aircrafts. They knew most of the structures were composite prefab units stacked together to form larger buildings. There were plenty of sectioned fields presumably for agricultural purposes. No apparent military installations where identified as of yet, there were no batteries of any kind they could see. All of this they could easily read from up in orbit.

But no scanning array could penetrate the area covered by the dome. Even after bringing both additional cruisers, no more information could be gained. They used every single piece of equipment they had, for naught. In fact, the dome could only be seen in the visible spectrum. In all other readings, it appeared as a black void over the otherwise red surface. One fact was clear, though: whatever that thing was, it was concealing the humans from all outside observation. Every probe they sent stopped transmitting the moment it passed through the dome's edge.

Specialists in all the ships had been furiously debating over how the effect worked and how, in the name of the Spirits, it was being created, and the general left them to it. He did not join the discussion, because he had a terrible feeling he knew exactly what that effect was. He had seen something very similar not even two weeks before, on a rogue moon thousands of light-years away.

When he first got the reports, he demanded in an unusually sharp way to see the images for himself. After spending one minute looking at them in total silence, legionnaires watching him avidly, he ordered all ships to keep their positions and do nothing. Them he left the Justice's CIC and went with all the hurry protocol allowed to his cabin, where he immediately sent a private transmission to the Serarth. Due to lag, he had to wait almost two hours for the frigate's response. Lieutenant Abrudas somewhat confused assurance that the Arca Monolith was still safely stored in the ship's cargo hold, and that Specialist Aetius' evolved form still kept silent guard over it, calmed Desolas' fears somewhat, but still left the question of what that dome meant.

Suddenly, what was meant to be a bothersome military action, a highly unwelcome diversion from his plans, had become a matter of gravest concern for him. Had these humans developed a power similar to his distant ancestors? Had they stumbled on another of the Titan's artefacts? Or was that something altogether different? A strange coincidence?

Desolas had scoffed at the though. He did not believed in coincidences.

The First Officer shook his head, before turning to his superior. "How should we proceed, General?"

"How should we proceed, indeed." thought Desolas. Suffice to say, the dome's presence had shattered his previous plans of simply bombarding the human facilities. They did not had any target to aim at. He could pulverize the entire region with mass drivers, or asteroids, or even bombs. But destroying the alien's military infrastructure was no longer his priority, he wanted to find out how they were able to replicate the Monolith's powers like that.

The Sensors officer interjected. "Sir, there's nothing else we can do from out here. We have to send something or someone inside the event horizon."

"It's risky." pointed out Felix. "Our drone was most likely taken out by some kind of AA defense grid, and instantly as well. A land-based mass accelerator or a powerful enough laser turret could strike from any point inside of that area, and we would not be able to dodge at that distance." he made a dismissive gesture with his arm. "A shuttle could suffer the same fate. Even one of Vakarian's frigates would be at too much risk. No, a ground approach is now our only option, and even that is a chance."

"Agreed." said the general. "We need information, soldiers. We have to suppose that barrier is only one-way, and that means our human friends can track our movements all the way to the edge. Even a ground team could be just greeted with heavy-weapons." he pointed to one of the human settlements surrounding the concealed area. "We need to see if we can find any data about that defense in their little villages."

Felix punched the edge of the holo-table lightly in frustration. "This mission just became a lot more complicated."

"It cannot be helped, Commander. It is now more important than ever that we find all possible information about these people. This kind of technology bears an explanation. Palaven Command will want to know."

HE wanted to know.

"Yes, General." nodded the other man. "How should we start?"

Desolas had a burning desire to personally go down to that planet and look at the dome himself, all risks be damned. But there would be no justification for the turian in charge of the whole fleet to take point like that. With an internal sigh, he brought the other settlements in closer view on the table. "First, I want all frigates and cruisers to keep an uninterrupted vigil over the rest of the planet. This could be only a distraction. Then, we will need to secure a position…"

"What are those fucking birds playing at?" wondered General Williams aloud.

"Your guess is as good as mine, sir." answered Lieutenant Brody. They were both looking at the hazy images from one of the sensor arrays positioned in Outer Settlement 09. It showed the many transports bringing down aliens and material from the ships in orbit to a location some way from the village. It was a low but wide hill, which would give the turians a decent overwatch of the entire region. Unfortunately, they could not get an image of the alien camp. Every single satellite in orbit had been found and destroyed, there were not that many to begin with, anyway. The where also no mountains or other elevations within the horizon line from the place.

Still, by their best estimates, the aliens must have moved at least a hundred personnel in there, along with a lot of equipment and definitely two heavily-armored vehicles. It might not look like much, compared to the forces the Alliance had at its disposal, but they could never forget that the turians had orbital superiority over the planet. Laser AA turrets could take out any flying craft they sent for a raid, and sending one risked revealing its take-off location anyway, if not on the way out than certainly on the way back. Any sufficiently large ground force would be detected and blasted into oblivion by the cruisers before coming anywhere close. The only way to ensure they would not get a hypersonic ferromagnetic slug on their heads was if they were engaging the enemy in close quarters. So that meant either inserting a covert small team inside it, or letting the birds attack first.

It was a hard but simple truth. In these modern times, surface warfare was impossible without naval support, unless both parties were deprived of it.

"Why such a drastic change in strategy? Their ships have orbited above Central hundreds of times. There are fourteen different probes buried in the city. The old headquarters are completely exposed." the young officer shook his head. "For three days we have waited for those cruisers to start raining fire down on the city, and now they decide to establish a base?"

Williams grunted. "How should I know what passes inside those metal skulls of theirs? At least that camp is not close to any of the civilian shelters." he turned to one of the operators. "What about that teams we sent?"

"They still have a long way to go, sir." responded the man. "They are using any cover they can, so they are moving at a snail's pace. We expect it will be three days before they arrive in position."

When the turians began setting up their base, Williams had ordered two squads to move close and establish positions. Unfortunately, they would have to cover the distance by foot, and move very carefully. A small squad could avoid orbital detection, and a single vehicle probably could as well, but it was not a risk he was willing to take right now. It was unfortunate that they could not have left covert teams in the Outer Settlements before the invaders arrived, but they were stretched too thinly and had to keep their forces close.

"Just keep me posted, son."

"Aye, aye, General."

"I must say, I'm not very impressed with the quality of their hardware." said a warrant officer. "That drone two days ago just dropped dead from the sky."

"I still say it's a trap." affirmed Williams. It was the reason he had not sent anyone to investigate the crash site.

"Listen, legionnaires, our mission is simple." The sergeant brought up an image of the human settlement on the transport's screen, a collection of eighteen buildings arrange around a central square. "Our drones have swept over the settlement, and found no sign of enemy forces or traps. But don't ever let your guard down! Once we arrive, each team will go to their designated areas and conduct a thorough search. You know what to look for. Any digital device will be packed, along with anything containing text. Books, letters, even a damned card, I don't care."

She walked closer, looking over the small platoon. Counting herself, there were sixteen soldiers. They would be divided into three fire teams, plus the four-man team that would remain behind to guard their shuttle.

They were one of three such groups, the others having been sent to their own settlements. They would investigate each one of the human urban areas, getting progressively closer to that freakish dead-sensor zone, which was thankfully hidden beneath the horizon. Every soldier was unnerved by the sight, even if no one talked about it.

"Keep radio contact at all times." she reminded. "If you find any resistance, fall back and regroup with the others. Let's take no unnecessary risks here, we still don't know what kind of small arms these people have. We can't just assume they will be inferior to our own."

"We will be careful, Sergeant." said one of the team leaders. "But I, for one, am just happy we will finally start working."

There were nods of agreement everywhere. After over two days of setting up Talon Base, everyone was eager to get this occupation moving. While the ground forces investigated the settlements, their ships and drones scoured the countryside for concealed hideouts. They also kept a close watch for anything leaving the dome. Until now, they had not found anything.

"I am too, Corporal." nodded the sergeant. "But let's take this slow. Remember the space battle, these aliens are crafty. In the end, though, it won't matter. Turian discipline and firepower will win, like it always does."

A chorus of 'yes, ma'am' sounded. And right after, the pilot informed them they had arrived. The sergeant put her helmet on, followed by all others. Soon, they felt the transport touching ground. "All right, soldiers! Move out!"

Shanxi's long twilight painted the sky red to match its ground. Sitting down on the roof of a building in Outer 11, a disilusioned Harry Potter twirled his holly wand in his fingers and watched as the turian soldiers left their shuttle to spread out in teams of fours, guns at the ready. Each one went to a different prefab. Three soldiers stood guard around the vehicle, while another manned a machine gun placed on its side. Like always, they moved in a manner that was almost robotic in its precision. These people brought the word 'organized' to an entirely new level. He thought that human militaries were disciplined, but the turians went way beyond the curve.

He was familiar with the sight by now. For the last two days he had observed them quietly while they established their forward base. He had spent many hours visiting the place, invisible, just watching the men and women move about doing their duties. Translation charms and supersensory spells allowed him to learn many things, three of which had been most important in his mind. The first was that the Shroud had done its job. The turian leaders were totally stymied, unsure in how to proceed. Instead of immediately beginning their kinetic bombardments of human structures, they were now forced to approach this much more slowly. It not only allowed him more time to learn things before the shooting started, but every day spent in preparation was one less day the it would take before the Alliance fleets arrived. He never believed the invaders would have spent a whole month gawking at the Shroud, of course, but even these five days of delay would hopefully limit final casualties on both sides.

The second thing he had learned was what he suspected from the beginning. These people were just as human as… well, humans. Though far less than what you would see in a human unit, the turian soldiers still talked a lot at their base. They joked, laughed, traded insults and took verbal shots at their enemies. There was a lot of very racist commentary, but that was only natural. His people's mood was no different.

He had heard many stories about husbands, wives and children. Yesterday, a female boasted proudly to her colleagues about how her son had just finished school at the top of his class. She could not wait to meet him again, having spent more than a year away from her colony on tour. Harry was not naïve; he knew that woman would not hesitate to kill an enemy soldier, and probably a civilian, too. Perhaps even a human boy the same age as her son. But it reaffirmed his conviction that he should not just plant a bomb in the middle of their base and blow them all up to hell. He just was not built like that.

He still planned to take the base out. It should send the turians into another funk, and hopefully buy Shanxi more time. But he could do that without killing every soul on the place.

The last thing was that he had found absolutely no signs of magical usage or knowledge, until now. That was both a great relief, and a terrible disappointment. But there was still much to learn and, after all, if the turians had a magical society, it could be just as hidden from mundane folk as his own had been. The lack of real magic aside, there were some very interesting technologies displayed here that almost seemed like it.

"Those omnitools are amazing!" said Astrid in his radio. She had been enamored with the things since they first saw them in use, and the wizard had to agree they were handy little gadgets. One of the soldiers was currently using theirs to force open a prefab's door just below him. The 'omni' part was very apt, as the devices could perform an incredibly diverse set of tasks, from scanning to constructing small objects, or even shooting fire! How they could cram so many things into such a small piece of hardware was beyond him. And every soldier had one.

"They sure are. But I think it's their shields that will give the Marines more trouble." he said.

"Oh, that's incredible, too. The Alliance is still years away from making Mass Effect emitters small enough to produce personal kinetic barriers. Not to mention a power source compact enough to juice the thing up."

"Indeed. It's a good thing shields are useless against almost every spell. And many can bypass armors, too."

"Yeah." she agreed. They both watched as the soldiers got the door open and fanned inside the building. When both other teams did the same, Harry got up from the ledge he had been sitting on, and gave a small sigh.

"All right, let's get this show started."

Harry could sense a feeling of anticipation from deep inside of him. He fished a specific bottle out from his pocket. It was a round flask, filled with a smoky black liquid. He took his wand and made a wide circle over his head with the focus, before intoning "Máquina Silenciosa", and smashing the flask against the ground. Black smoke spilled from the prefab's roof in a furious torrent. Soon, it had encompassed the whole area.

"Clear!" said the first soldier to enter the human building, breaking to the left.

"Clear!" echoed the second, who had went to the right.

The house was deserted, as expected. They were in what appeared to be a living room, a large seat facing a screen. There were many objects strew about, some familiar and some alien. To the left, a corridor led to some doors, bedrooms most likely, while to the right there was a kitchen. Human aesthetics were very different from turian's, but at least they seemed to build their homes in similar configurations.

The team's corporal spoke. "Okay, soldiers. You two, check those rooms. Feyreen, with me. Let's start to sweep. Remember to alternate your viewing modes and record everything. Move."

"Yes, sir." they all said. The corporal and the other soldier began opening drawers and cabinet doors.

They had barely started when the light coming in from the windows just vanished, throwing the room in darkness and startling all of them. Seconds later, a horrible, strident noise sounded in all of their ears, like very loud static. Everyone let out surprised cries and looked around in alarm, weapons raised, before they realized the sound was actually coming from their radios. They all tried to turn off the things, but before they could, the speakers suddenly went dead. Instead of loud noise, there was now total silence. Without radios, they could not communicate, or even hear outside sounds with their hermetically sealed helmets on.

The corporal was the first to push the button at the side of his headgear, opening the faceplate, and turning on the flashlight on his weapon. All others following suit, and one of them asked. "What was that?!"

"Some kind of electronic countermeasure, most likely!" answered the corporal. He looked somewhat anxious at the blackness outside the windows. "We have been compromised, everyone back to the transport, now! Close your helmets again, we will communicate with hand signs."

All the turians did as told, and the team leader went to the exit. But before he could reach it, the door suddenly slammed shut. Everybody froze.

The building had no power, their readings made that clear. The electronic door could not have closed by itself.

The corporal turned back to his men, and looked at the four figures watching him or the door. Even under their helmets, he could feel their perplexity, as it mirrored his own. What kind of trap was this? How should…

Wait a second, four figures?

"ENEMY!" his shout went unheard, but the pointed gun got the attention of his teammates. They all turned, and raised their own rifles to the stranger who stood relaxed against the wall, unperturbed by the glaring lights on his face. He or she was dressed in some kind of brown fabric coat over black clothes, and a black face mask with an amber visor concealed all facial features, but the body shape was unmistakably human. The corporal was uncertain. Should he just open fire, or try to question to alien? How had he remained hidden all this time? Because he surely could not have entered after the soldiers.

His decision was taken out of his hands, though. Without warning, and faster than any of them could react to, the human gave a sharp wave of his arm and the two legionnaires closest to him were violently flung against the room's walls, rifles flying from their hands. The two other soldiers immediately opened fire, while the word 'BIOTICS' screamed itself in the corporal's head. The human, in another shown of unnatural agility, dodged both mass accelerator bursts, the diminutive metallic chips striking against the wall instead. It was impossible to dodge a bullet after it was shot, of course, the enemy was simply not where they aimed anymore. He closed the distance to the third soldier in a single movement, quicker than any fighter the corporal had ever seen, and touched the glowing tip of some stick that had not been there before to the woman's chest. She was enveloped in a haze of red light and dropped, boneless, to the ground.

The corporal shot another burst blindly in the direction of the human's chest, while he made a jumping roll and got behind the room's wide sofa. Time slowed down, he thought he had seen two more flashes of red light, and all the while his mind raced. That initial attack must have been a biotic strike of some kind, but there had not been the telltale glow of dark energy around the human, nor had the soldiers' barriers flared up. And the device he or she used to incapacitate Feyreen also met no resistance from her armor. The turian suddenly felt unarmed, even with the assault rifle in his hands.

He risked a brief look over his cover, and was once again startled to notice that the hostile had vanished. Only the three unconscious (or dead, he thought in dismay) bodies of his fellow legionnaires could be seen. Before he could consider his next move, a red shimmer coming from his left made him turn his head instinctively. Towering beside him, red light glowing from the stick not five centimeters from his head, was the human. The corporal could barely begin to ask himself how this being had seemingly teleported to stand behind his cover, when a bright flash filled his vision, followed by darkness.

"Blue Team?! Respond Blue Team! Green Team? Yellow? Damn it!" the sergeant punched the side of their transport in anger.

"It's useless ma'am." said one of her subordinates. "Every line is dead. We also lost all contact with Talon Base."

"Do we have any visual on those soldiers?" she asked.

"No, ma'am. All teams are still inside their buildings, and all doors are shut."

"I can see no more flashes coming from Blue Team's location, ma'am." said another turian. Nobody knew if that was a good or bad thing.

"Curse this! We have been set up!"

"Spirits, is this what being inside that dome feels like?" whispered the legionnaire manning the machine gun.

The pilot of the turian transport listened as the soldiers talked amongst themselves. They were all unnerved. Out from the blue, thick-black smoke had raised up from the ground all around the small settlement and formed a cover of darkness over the whole area. They could barely start to comprehend it, when they realized none of the fire teams were responding. The sergeant had immediately ordered him to be ready to flee at any second. So he had the craft geared up and hovering just above the ground. He was now using the shuttle's sensors to keep watch over the surroundings. Nothing unusual registered yet inside the dome, and none of his sensor could penetrate the outside. All soldiers were now using their night-vision.

"Sergeant, more flashes! Coming from Yellow Team's site!"

"Fuck!"

He was looking out from the cabin's small windshields and also saw red bursts coming out from the building's window. One, two, three, four crimson blasts, and everything was quiet again.

Then, a loud breaking sound came from the other direction, Green Team's location. The prefab's window exploded outwards, evidently from gunfire, and shortly after a turian jumped out of it. But he had barely come out from his forward roll, when a bright red streak came out from behind the shattered glass, and hit him squarely in the back. He dropped unceremoniously flat on his face. The flash had been much slower than a bullet, but still faster than any biotic bolt, almost too swift to keep track of. With the now open hole, gunshots could be heard clearly coming from inside the building. But just like the other two times, whatever debacle was happening inside that place was over in a matter of seconds. Soon, nothing moved on the human town.

From the time their comms went down, a little more than a single minute had passed. Twelve legionnaires had been taken out.

"Soldier down!" yelled one of his fellows.

"Do not approach! Everyone back into the transport, use the doors as cover." barked the sergeant. He heard them entering the vehicle. "Keep a lookout for attackers on the roofs. If anything that is not a turian comes out of any of those buildings, fill them with slugs!" the last part was directed at the legionnaire operating the shuttle's machine gun.

The next thirty seconds were spent in grave tension. They could not just leave, they had twelve turians out there whose fates were unknown and they still had not gotten a single glimpse of their enemy. All they knew was that they used some kind of instant-kill energy weapon that not only ignored their barriers, but also seemed to bypass physical armor.

The pilot detected a sudden movement at the edge of his vision. He turned his head to the front of his craft just in time to catch the bright blue energy bolt coming straight at it. The light washed over the shuttle, and every single one of his screens went black. A second later, an ominous groan could be heard coming from the Mass Effect drive at the back, and the vehicle dropped like a brick to the ground. Fortunately, they had been hovering only at jump height, and the crash did nothing more than rattle everyone aboard.

"SHIT!"

"Is everyone all right?! What about the shuttle?!"

"Everything is dead, Sergeant." he yelled, while frantically trying to restart the systems. "Engines, instruments, barriers, all of it! There's no power!" he turned to look at her. "It was some other kind of energy weapon, the shooter was straight ahead of us but he is gone now."

She shook her head in disbelief. When she told the soldiers they did not knew if the aliens' personal weapons could be of higher quality than the turians', she certainly had not expected this. "Grab a weapon and come here, if we can't operate the transport, we can use another gun."

He nodded, and got up from his seat. He got himself a rifle from the locker in the cabin and checked it was fully operational. In the meantime, the non-commissioned officer relayed instructions. "This thing has no barriers anymore, but still has thick armor. We can't just stay here forever, tough. When I say it, Loqun will make a run for the edge of that spirits-damned field and try to go outside. We will all cover him. When you get out, have Talon Base send help."

Everyone nodded and prepared for the run. He made one last check of the systems, still dead, and turned to join his fellows. He had not given one step towards the passenger's cabin, when he witnessed as the four turians inside were yanked out of the large doors by some invisible force, all at the same time. The moment he saw their feet leaving the metal floor, he had threw himself backwards, crashing harder than he would have liked on the console behind him.

"SERGEANT!" he screamed to them. He had knocked his head hard on the craft's windshield, and though his helmet prevented any injury, he was still dizzy for a few seconds.

"Spirits!" came a faint voice from outside. It seemed they had not been throw too far away.

"Fucking biotic Pull!" said another soldier. "What the hell is wrong with our barriers?!"

"Rorick is down! He hit the damn gun on his way out! Doesn't seem to be anything serious."

"Get into cover, now! We have to… AHEAD OF US!"

The pilot had just cleared his vision and was jumping forward when there was a bright silver flash, followed by a burst of automatic fire and followed by another, smaller, red flash. When he got to the doors and looked outside he saw, ten meters away, two turians prone on the ground and two others stumbling around as if drunk out of their minds, weapons dropped. There was no enemy in sight.

Concern for his friends overriding self-preservation, the pilot dove out of the shuttle and ran to the two standing soldiers, bringing them with him to the floor. That done, he got on his knees in front of them and scanned the area, but only the dead silence and still image of the abandoned human buildings greeted him.

Until the silence was broken by a shout, coming from somewhere to the far right of him. "EXPULSO!"

There was the deafening sound of an explosion, and a fiery blue-white glow came from the shuttle's direction. A powerful shockwave hit him, but his kinetic barrier flared up and he stumbled more out of surprise than actual force. He wanted to look at the hostile, he really did, but his eyes were locked on the sight of the transport. The almost five-ton, armored spacecraft was flung over the side like a children's toy, the hull almost ripped in two and pieces of metal flew everywhere. The shuttle crashed back to the ground and rolled once, then twice, before coming to rest upside-down on the red earth, twisted and ruined. That was more damage than any personnel-carried heavy weapon he knew could cause. Void, it was more damage than a tank could do.

For a few seconds, the sound of the distant flames was the only noise in the still air, until…

"Bloody hell! Sorry about that, mate." came the deep, clear and impossibly flanging voice from behind him. He turned and brought his rifle to bear, and had just enough time to correct his aim before the alien made a sharp gesture with his hand, the sound of snapping fingers registering in his ears, before the assault rifle in his hands broke apart into its base componentswith a bright green smoke. The little pieces fell to the ground in front of him, and he could just watch in total stupefaction as he was left holding only the weapon's stock. The human kept talking, as if nothing was out of the ordinary. "That took me by surprise, too. I didn't know how tough your shuttle was, so I'm afraid I may have gone kind of all out with that spell back there. Don't worry, I think all your friends are fine, their barriers held up all right."

The pilot just did not cared anymore. All his friends were down, and the enemy was mocking him. A distant part of his mind noticed the being carried no weapons beside a short stick. An even more distant part of his mind registered the fact his omnitool was not translating the human's speech. He was speaking in perfect turian, with just the slightest Cipritinean accent.

"So, not to cut this meeting short or anything, but I still have a lot to do today." he brought the stick up. "Oh, and sorry about this, but I really want to test something out and as you are the last chap here, you just volunteered. Don't worry, this shouldn't hurt one bit."

With a little twirl, a white streak came out from the thing on the alien's hand and struck him in the chest. The pilot felt the most bizarre sensation of his life, as the world seemed to grow bigger around him.

Harry's Magic was singing to him. It was happy to be fighting the good fight again, apparently. The wizard had his head tilted to the side, as he contemplated the sight before his eyes. "Well, will you look at that?"

"Yey! I knew it!" came Astrid's jubilant voice. "Look at him, so cute! He's a knight-bunny!"

Hoping around on the floor, looking as confused as a small mammal could, was a light-brow furred rabbit covered in dark-brow metal plates.

Harry shook his head. "That was probably more of a botched transfiguration than the true end-result, girl. I'm sure I can turn him into a proper rabbit with a little more practice."

"Don't you dare! He is perfect the way he is! Can we keep him? I'm gonna call him Sir Whiskerslot, the Third."

He sighed, he should not have bothered. "No, Astrid, we can't keep him. This is a sentient being, remember?" he shot another spell at the turian-bunny and it now turned into a ten-centimeter tall wooden figurine. It still had a slight metallic sheen to it, but that was all right. He summoned his mokeskin bag from the roof of the building he had been sitting on at the start.

"Spoilsport." muttered his companion, sullenly. Harry just ignored her and checked if the guy was still alive inside there. Getting a positive result, he then went around doing the same thing to the other downed soldiers, after performing a brief diagnostic charm on each. Fortunately, he did not need to have any knowledge of turian physiology for the healer's spell to confirm they were all right. Actually healing them might be a different matter, of course.

"So, that's one done and two more to go. If the briefing we watched follows through, the second group must be reaching Outer 08 in about five minutes. Have to hurry up." a zipping sound alerted him, and he turned to catch the flying magical bag in mid-air. He finished transfiguring the turians and tossed the statuettes inside. He straightened and looked around, sparing a longer glance to the still burning wreckage of the shuttle. He really went overboard on that blasting curse. He had cast it almost at full power. He really had to hurry, he still had to collect the soldiers inside the houses.

"Well, that was fun. But no rest for the wicked, as they say."

"Are you going to hit the base straight after dealing with the other teams?" asked Astrid.

"That's right. They know something went wrong here by now. I have to strike the iron while it is hot." he agreed.

"And what's the plan for that?"

"Well…" he cracked his neck. "I was thinking a little bit of shock and awe is in order."

Up on space, Mavis Vakarian kept watch over the Ascendant Shadow's CIC. After three days of being kept in the dark, Desolas was forced to reveal to her the truth about the delay on the attack. It would not have been long before one of her ships caught the anomaly, anyway. After looking at the data herself, she was now more convinced than ever that this war had been a foolish move on their part. She also had the strangest suspicion that the general knew more about the bizarre sensory-blocking field than he was willing to tell.

Or perhaps she had just started to question anything that man said on principle. It seemed like a smart thing to do.

"Commander, one of our frigates has detected a small starship leaving FTL very close to the planet!" came the urgent call of Comms. "It's barely shuttle-sized."

She immediately brought the frigate's position on her battle map, and ordered. "Have them chase it down."

Comms, however did not have good news. "It's too late, ma'am. They will never catch it before it makes into the atmosphere."

"Understood. Warn General Arterius and keep track of the unknown object. Let's see if we can discover where it lands."

"Yes, High Commander."

Standing nearby, Adrien looked at her. "That ship almost certainly came off-system. The humans are making their own moves."

She nodded. "As we always knew they would. The next one might just be a dreadnought." Mavis sighed. She was not afraid to face anything the humans might throw at them, and had in fact spent the last days elaborating strategies against all kinds of different scenarios. It was the why she had to make those plans in the first place that got to her. "Tell all ships to keep sharp. Inform me immediately if anything like that happens again."

"Yes, ma'am."

"Bugger! What a cock up."

"C'mon, Harry. Two out of almost fifty? Not too shabby, you know that." her voice was kind, but firm.

"I know."

He was looking at the two bodies laying a short distance away from the burning wreckage of another turian shuttle.

He was taken by surprise. He had just finished dealing with the turians on the second settlement when a third transport broke into the Obscuration Field. He had been inside one of the prefabs at the time. He expected the craft to land and deposit more soldiers, but instead it turned around and flew off.

Hurriedly, he Apparated outside the field in the direction they had gone and managed to hit the craft in mid-flight. It was just starting to gain speed, and was still not very high up, but two soldiers still died from the crash, and one other suffered critical injuries.

He now regretted the hasty decision, would it have made that much of a difference, allowing them to escape? But what was done, was done, and he could not let himself be caught up in remorse every time he took an enemy's life. He would most likely do so many more times before all was said and done.

Astrid was right, two casualties, maybe three, out of five tens was not a bad job. He looked upon the dead turians' faces and committed them to memory, as he tried to do with every soul he took from the universe. Then he transfigured the corpses, and moved on.

Talon Base had been erected in a hurry, but still sported the same kind of structured excellence that all turian camps boasted. Tall metal walls lined by catwalks provided protection and many different laser AA guns should be able to take care of any fighter-sized crafts that came their way, as well as intercept any long-range missiles. Many elevated barracks and tents where place in precise positions, reinforced metal shacks housed the main stations like Command, Medical and Requisitions. A mobile fusion plant at the center of the base offered plenty of energy to all systems, and was protected by its own kinetic barrier.

The entire 4th Company of the 37th Legion had been relocated to the ground, 215 legionnaires. All counted, the 16th Fleet carried a thousand strong ground complement, and half again that number could be taken from the crews and still leave enough personnel to operate the fleet for a short time. In fact, as the crews of their frigates now mostly found themselves with nothing to do, their reserve forces were even higher than usual.

Along with the soldiers, a lot of equipment had been brought down. The high ground and orbital support should make their vanguard force capable of facing any opposition the humans might have available in such a sparsely settled world. Especially if they had to dedicate a portion of their forces for civilian guard duty.

Field Commander Nayra was not so confident anymore, though. "Nothing?" she asked.

The turian in front of her shook his head. "Nothing, ma'am. All three platoons are radio silent. Worse, we just got these images from up there." he entered a few commands on his omnitool, and the sad fate of their very first strike teams was revealed.

Half an hour ago, they had lost all contact with the first reconnaissance group. Shortly after, the second group suffered the same fate. The third was immediately recalled and sent to investigate. The shuttle had reported a black dome apparently made of some thick gas partially covering the site of the second human town. The officer in charge took a risk and went for a brief look inside the dome. They came back, and just managed to confirm that the platoon and their transport had been neutralized, before they also went silent.

Their orbital images confirmed the report. It seemed the humans had taken electromagnetic sensory denial to an art-form. These black covers had a similar effect to the giant purple dome, except they seemed to be actually made of some unknown physical substance and had a much more limited range, about a hundred meters. They also dispersed after a short time. The most recent images she now looked at showed the two contact locations. Three destroyed shuttles could be seen, one of them mangled beyond recognition. There were no traces of corpses, nor where they receiving any transponder signals.

Humanity was proving a far more dangerous foe than they could have imagined. It was anyone's guess as to why they were not able to employ their mysterious ECM technologies in space, but here, on this planet, it was breaking the turians game at every turn. At least it was not active camouflage (the commander shuddered at the mere thought of a city-wide invisibility field) and was very obvious when in use.

The entire base was already at alert, every single soldier keeping their weapons close. It was evident the human towns had been trapped. How such a thing escaped the long hours of observation by their sentry drones, the commander did not knew. But Talon Base was clear, so they would now wait for the enemy to come. General Desolas was already mobilizing a rapid-response group.

"Thank you. Return to your post, Lieutenant." the man saluted her and left. Nayra watched over her people, grim tension gripped them all. She looked to the sky; the long twilight was almost over, and night would soon fall.

There was another person watching over the many people moving about the turian camp. Harry Potter was once again concealed, this time sitting casually at the top of the base's communication tower.

This was it! Show time! Taking out this base would either make the turians back off for some more time, or send them into a frenzy. If it was the later… well, the Shroud could do a lot more than just conceal an area from all outside observation. They would learn that the hard way. They could also just start to shoot randomly at the surface, and one thing the Shroud could not do was to act as a shield. But most of the population, Marines and civilians alike, were safely hidden deep underground. Harry ultimately wanted to keep this fight between the turians and himself for as long as possible.

The wizard fished out another flask of the Obscuring Solution from his coat, along with a small runic slab. He had not spent the last two days only studying the turians. He had also taken the opportunity to lay down some nasty surprises all over the place. Holding both items in his left hand, he jumped off the tower, spinning in the air, and pointed the holly wand at his previous perch in mid-fall, mentally chanting.

"REDUCTO!"

Field Commander Nayra had just got herself a cup of hot lathan, when a bright blue flash burst from the middle of the base's communications tower. She let the metal container fall to the floor with a 'clack' that went unheard, as half of the structure disintegrated before her surprised eyes.

"ALL HANDS TO BATTLE!" the shout, and the subsequent loud alarm, brought her mind back to reality. She dove for the rifle resting on the wall next to her, thoughts racing. Just how, in the name of sacred Palaven, had the enemy infiltrated their base? Whatever shot destroyed the tower could not have come from outside. Could it?

"Spirits, it's happening here!"

She looked to where a nearby officer was pointing. From next to the base of the ruined comms structure, black smoke burst forth in a dark wave that swept over the ground faster than a person could run. When the smoke reached the outer walls, it raised up to form the dreaded black dome over the whole camp. Nayra could do nothing but watch as the stars in the sky vanished one by one. Soon, there were none to be seen.

"All squads, form up and take cover!" she ordered. "All soldiers on the catwalks, turn your guns to the gates. I want all drones on the air right now!" she turned to another man. "What about our patrols outside this cursed thing?"

"No contact, ma'am!" he answered, confirming her fears.

Over the noise of frantic moving soldiers, they heard two loud sounds. The commander turned to the western gates, to see they had just finished closing up. She looked at the eastern ones, and confirmed they had done the same thing. She yelled. "Who ordered those gates shut?!"

"No one, Commander."

"Well, someone did…"

Just then, every single vehicle left at the base, four transports and two Frangit Assault Tanks, exploded. Huge holes where left in the engine sections, making them completely useless.

Before she could finish processing that, a loud 'bang' echoed and a bright flash was seem from the viewing holes of the camp's main barracks.

Inside said barracks, almost thirty turian soldiers had been resting when the alarm blared and made them all jump to their weapons, no one having taken their armor off. In a matter of seconds they were ready and moving to either of the two exits. The soldier leading one of the lines stopped abruptly, though, when she got sight of the fabric door.

On the surface, a circle of light not unlike a holographic projection shone a pale yellow. It was rotating slowly and seemed to be filled with tiny alien inscriptions.

"Everybody stop! Get away from the door!" she yelled.

"Lieutenant!" called a fearful voice from the back of the long tent.

She quickly turned her head to look at the speaker. The male soldier was the farthest from her and he was pointing at another glowing circle exactly like the first one, floating over the opposite entrance.

"Shit." was all she could say, before both circles detonated and blinding white filled her sight.

"Somebody check on those soldiers!" she yelled. White smoke, like water vapor, could be seen drifting from the barracks.

She saw a team running to the barracks, when another explosion went up in the opposite direction. She looked at it and saw a fireball, a fucking GREEN fireball, enveloping the platform where their drone wings had been stationed. They had sixty of the small V.I. controlled combat robots parked there. Somehow, she was not surprised to see the hundreds of little pieces from the drones strew around the equally ruined platform.

On the other hand, she was VERY surprised to see a lone male turian, probably one of the drone's technicians, standing inside the blasting zone looking stunned and completely unharmed.

He was also naked as the day he was born, his armor and undersuit gone.

The man looked slowly down at himself. Under the disbelieving eyes of all the nearby soldiers, who seemed to forget that they were under attack at the moment, he bent down and picked something at his feet. Nayra thought she recognize the gauntlet of a standard turian armor. He looked at the metal piece in his hands for a second, as if in contemplation, before falling sideways in a dead faint.

They did not get to remain gawking at the sight, because another 'bang', and another flash, started to come from every single tent or shack on the base, as well as from the vicinity of every gun emplacement up on the catwalks. There was cursing and screaming everywhere. Nayra turned her head just in time to catch seven turians who had been inside the Medical shack dropping to the floor after it, too, flared up. That's when her brain clicked, and she flung herself over the low wall of the command shack.

Just in time, because she could feel a heavy concussion force blasting at her back. She hit the ground rolling, and after stabilizing herself turned back to the shack to see white smoke coming out of it, while none of her officers was left standing.

She looked around and saw all the surviving turians trying to organize themselves and hunker down behind any cover they could find. She did a quick mental count, and was dismayed to realize there were very few left. No more than fifty.

And where the hell was their enemy?

Harry Potter was currently mopping up the second, and last, patrol group that had been keeping watch outside of the base. The five-men teams were not hard to bring down when one could Apparate right in the middle of their formations and stun them all with a single wide area Concussion Hex. A handful of Stupefies later, and that was that.

Actually, he was not even bothering with the Stunning Spells anymore, and was just transfiguring the heavily disoriented soldiers straight away. Much faster that way. The few groups of drones scattered around where even more easily taken care of.

A short way behind him, he could hear the many screams and explosions as his runic traps went off one after another inside the base's walls. That should take care of most of the opposition. All of the traps he used were non-lethal ones; they would knock the targets unconscious or, in the case of the one he left at the drone recharge station, damage only artificial objects.

"You know, I almost feel sorry for the guys. Maybe we should stop here." said Astrid.

"Really?"

"Of course not! Go back there and finish them off!"

He let out a small laugh. "As my lady commands."

Everything had been quiet for the last minute. Commander Nayra managed to bring order to her people and they had formed into ten small teams. Whatever traps the enemy had managed to plant into their base, and she was burning with the need to know how they did that, seemed to have run out. But the black dome still hung overhead, and they could not open either of the gates.

They were covering all possible directions. Ready for anything.

Except, perhaps, for a loud CRACK to sound from the dead center of the camp. As one, fifty turians turned to look at the source of the noise, and found a single human standing over it. He had a stick in one hand, and a black pistol in the other.

The field commander did not hesitate. "OPEN FIRE!"

At same time she began speaking, the human whirled around, his brown coat flying. Before the storm of gunfire could reach him, a dozen thick slabs of red rock raised from the ground and surrounded the target completely.

She was astonished, and so was every other legionnaire, but they did not stop firing. They kept the deadly rain on for almost a full minute, until every weapon had overloaded at least twice. While that happened, five different soldiers tossed frag grenades at the thing. When the smoke cleared, the unnatural rock formation had been reduced to fine rubble, and the human was nowhere to be seen.

A flash came from her right, and four turians went flying as one of the teams was blasted apart. They hit the ground hard, but their armors should keep them safe from major injury. The human was there for just a second, then he vanished.

"WATCH OUT, TACTICAL CLOAK!" she yelled, finally founding an explanation for the enemy's ability to move around unnoticed. They still did not knew how the enemy could move so quickly, but it was the only logical way.

Another blast. Another group of soldiers tossed around like rag dolls. Before the target could vanish again, she saw a marksman up on the catwalks hit him with a burst from his powerful rapid-fire Incisor sniper rifle. The three rounds were all stopped, however, by a shimmering silver force field. The alien almost negligently pointed his own gun in the direction of the soldier, barely looking at the man, and shot a single time. The black frame lit up in red lines, the muzzle flashed in golden fire, and the sniper was throw back against the wall hard. There was no flare of barriers, and he did not get up.

The human pointed his stick at another team, and a white light shot from it, hitting the red earth under them. In an instant, the solid ground turned to a semi-liquid right beneath their feet, and all five turians went neck-deep under it. He vanished again, and almost instantly appeared next to yet another group. He shot three of them with his gun before they could react, each one dropping instantly to the earth, and the last one was hit by another red light from the stick and went down as well. A heartbeat later, he was gone.

A scream made her turn and look as the low steel wall another group was using as cover came alive and enveloped the legionnaires like a solid metal net, completely trapping them.

By now, any other group of soldiers in the galaxy would almost certainly have broken down and fled in the face of such otherworldly power. And a part of Nayra's mind screamed at her to do just that. But they were turians, and her people was made of sterner stuff.

"Scatter!" she screamed. "Don't stay close or this monster will just take you all at once!"

Barely more than twenty turians were left, but they all moved to obey. Looking around, the commander noticed that only a single soldier was left on the catwalks. All others were down. Another loud CRACK, and the human was back at the center of the camp. He began to move swiftly and strike at each soldier, one by one. He was incredibly fast, and deadly accurate with that hand cannon of his. Every soldier who was out of cover went down with a single shot. Those who got something between themselves and the beast found their covers being lifted out of the way, turned into sand, or even just vanishing into thin air.

The monster did not pretend to run anymore. He walked calmly and took every shot they aimed at him. That silver kinetic barrier was impossibly strong; it just would not overload. Disruptor ammo, incendiary ammo, one soldier even tried cryo ammo, all with the same effect. Three combat engineers threw tech mines at him, the small glowing disks detonating in bright electric blasts, but they might as well be using fireworks for all the good it did.

"CLEAR OUT!"

Nayra watched as a female soldier hoisted an ERCS M-100 Grenade Launcher. She took aim and discharged the entire magazine of the heavy weapon. One, two, three, five of the misnamed rockets hit the alien dead in the chest. For a few seconds, smoke prevented them from seeing the target…

…until he stepped out of the fog, none the worse for wear. Another lightning-quick shot took the female turian out.

That was the moment Nayra realized she and the lone soldier on the wall were the only ones left.

The monster shot another red light from his stick at the man on the catwalk. He managed to jump out of the way, but stumbled and fell down over the railing, and straight through the black dome.

Her enemy seemed to pause at that, looking to the point the soldier had vanished. She would not let that stand.

"I'm right here, you freak!" she shouted, firing her rifle at him. He turned his amber eyes back to her and resumed walking in her direction. Soon, her Phaeston overheated. She threw it to the side and brought her own heavy pistol out. When that, too, had to cool down, she tossed it as well and activated her omintool's blade. It was a rarely used feature of the tools, as no one but the krogans tried to use melee in a gun fight. With a battle-cry she flung herself at the monster.

Only to find herself suspended in mid-air by a hand gesture, completely at the creature's mercy.

"Finish it!" she spat, when he just looked at her for a few seconds. "What is one more death?!"

He shook his head at her, and spoke. She was surprised to find his voice was not filled with venom and evil. It was actually quite pleasant. "Sorry. You are one hell of a brave lass, but neither of us is dying tonight."

He gently touched the tip of his stick, which she could now see was made of some kind of wood, to her forehead. He gave a whisper and she felt herself falling asleep.

"We have WHAT hanging over us?" asked General Williams one more time.

"A thirty-three kilometers wide, sensory repelling barrier, General." repeated the man at the other side of the screen. "I assume it is the only thing keeping the invaders from following through on their threat to bombard the colony, and also the reason why they established their ground base so far from your main settlement."

"Jesus Christ." whispered the flag officer. He looked again to the image he had been sent, providing proof of the man's claim. It had been shortly corroborated by the recon squad that had left the barrier area. "How is this possible? How come our sensors are not picking this damn thing up?"

"Probably for the same reason we are having this conversation, General, even when our transmission should have been blocked like any other electromagnetic wave. When we got close enough to it, it also vanished from our ship's sensors. It's only visible to the naked eye now. Something is keeping your systems safe through the battle network, most likely put there by the same party who erected the shield in the first place."

Williams gripped the arms of his chair hard. "Could it be the turians? Have they broken into our systems?!"

The man was quick to soothe him. "I don't believe so, General. Until now, the barrier has been a hindrance only to the aliens. It very likely spared many of your Marine's lives. While you should investigate how someone could compromise your network at such a level, I don't think these individuals mean us harm." he leaned forward. "Which brings us back to our mission here. Will you accept our help, sir?"

The officer shook his head to banish his dark thoughts, he would have to deal with freakish energy domes and security issues at another time. "Are things really that bad on Earth?"

The man nodded. "Right before we left, the United Nations were locked in discussion over how the Navy should respond. There are many parties who are vying for a diplomatic approach, they don't want to risk a war with an alien race. There are also a few who fear the power the Alliance could have if they took charge of the situation. It looks like it's going to be a very long discussion."

"Damn alien-lovers and powermongers!" snarled the general. "They are not the ones who had to watch as over two hundred brave people were wiped out without mercy! We need to act NOW!"

"I agree, and so do my backers." said the man, firmly. "We always knew this day would come. Now it's the time for us to show any civilization out there that humanity is not a race that can be trifled with. Trust me, General; right now, my people are doing everything they can to break the political impasse. And I guarantee that the Alliance will respond, with or without Earth's backing."

He gestured with his arm. "But that is for later, you need help right now. You have seen my qualifications, and those of my team. We will be at your disposal. No mission is too risky, no challenge too great. Just point us at a target, and we will make it work."

The man spoke with absolute confidence. And if the records Williams received were to be trusted (and they bore the digital signatures of three different Navy admirals), he had plenty of reason to be confident.

"Very well. I'm really not in any position to refuse competent help. Can you make your way here on your own, Mr. Harper?"

The man's grey eyes shined, a smile breaking out on his classically handsome face. "That shouldn't be a problem, General. And please, it's Jack."

Harry gave a sigh, contemplating the prone form of the last turian soldier. With the adrenaline rush subsiding, fatigue was starting to set in. How long had it been since he used so much magic in such a short time? He managed to keep his skills sharp enough, but his endurance had clearly been affected by the years of peaceful space exploration. He would have to keep a closer eye on that in the future.

"Harry, the Alliance knows about the Shroud." informed Astrid.

He took a moment to answer. "Well, we knew that was not a secret that would last for long. How did they find out?"

"A small ship came from Earth; a black-ops team, posing as mercenaries, absurdly high qualifications. They saw the Shroud and informed Williams. Their leader, a guy named Harper, is sharp as a tack. He deduced immediately that someone is using the battle network to clear their equipment."

"Understood, we will deal with that later. Just let me finish here." he kneeled next to the soldier, and was just about to transfigure him when the voice coming from the guy's omnitool grabbed his attention. He knew that voice.

"Patrus? Answer me, soldier!"

The wizard debated with himself. Would this be a smart move? Could it make things worse?

Well… no risk, no reward, right?

He reapplied the modified Translation Charm he created just the day before and carefully removed the omnitool from the turian's arm. Then, he brought the device to his mouth.

"General Desolas? Just the man I wanted to talk with."

The line went dead for many seconds. Harry just waited.

"Who is this? What have you done to Corporal Patrus?" the voice was pleasant enough, at first impression. But he could detect the threatening undercurrent in it.

"Oh, don't worry, General. Your man is just fine. In fact, most of your people are in very good health."

There was a light scoff. "Forgive me if I do not take your word for it. And you have not answered my first question. Are you an officer? Or just a soldier on the strike force sent to destroy my base?"

He let out a small laugh. "No, no, General. No strike forces, no armies, just me and a few good friends. We are not not even a part of the Alliance. We are just a group of people who decided to take grievance to a fleet invading their home, that's all."

"Again, do you expect me to believe that?"

"I expect nothing of you, old chap. Nothing at all. Go ahead and check it out with your sensors. But wait, your sensors are not working all that well these days, are they?"

There was another pause, and when the turian leader next spoke, there was a hunger in his words. "What do you know about that dome?"

"That, General, is called The Shroud. And you can be sure I know a great deal about it. We are the ones who created it, after all." a blatant lie, though only partial. He knew all the theory behind the Resonance Orbs. He just was not skilled enough to replicate them. "It is very old science, a power from the distant mists of the past. The very same power I used to take out your base this night. Almost like magic, isn't it?"

Merlin, that sounded so dramatic.

It seemed to light a fire in the turian, tough. "Like magic, indeed. It seems I have made a terrible misjudgment of your race, my friend. If humanity has such power as to create that effect, and to easily take out a heavily fortified military camp in a matter of minutes, my superior's decision to subjugate your race may have been hasty at best. Is it too late for us to try and fix this? Would you not consider a dialogue? We can arrange a meeting on neutral ground."

Harry suppressed a shudder. He wanted this conflict to end, he wanted peace. But he knew without a shadow of doubt that Desolas Arterius could not be trusted. The man was a snake, and any deal made with him would be poisoned from the start.

"I'm afraid we don't have that kind of authority, General. We're just civilians, remember? But let me tell you something: you take your ships off orbit, you leave us alone. You send for diplomats from your people, or from this Citadel Council we have been hearing about, and I'm sure the Alliance will be happy to negotiate with them."

The turian began speaking, but the wizard interrupted him. A part of him noted that this was the same thing the general had done to Admiral D'Amico at their own meeting. What goes around, comes around.

"If you insist on carrying this invasion forward, however, let me give you a friendly warning, for courtesy's sake: your base, tonight? That was nothing compared to what we will do if you send more forces down here."

A very long pause. "Is that a threat, human?" the fake warmth was gone, the general's voice was pure ice.

"A threat?" it was Harry's turn to scoff. "A threat implies that I hope you will heed it. No, General, we have learned enough about your people to know you are not easily intimidated. This, is a statement."

He spoke very slowly. He put every single fiber of his conviction on his next words, the weight of an entire life fighting against beings like the man on the other end of that line. "Every ship you send down here, we will destroy. Every piece of equipment you drop on this planet, we will tear to shreds. Every turian that steps foot on this earth with the intent to harm innocents will be our prey. There will be no walls thick enough, no shields strong enough, no guns powerful enough to save them. We will hunt them down, and we will take them from you."

The man was silent for almost half a minute. "Bold words." Despite the still cold tone, Harry could detect the tinniest hint of doubt on the man's voice. He felt fiercely proud of that.

A sudden light flooded the place where he was standing, coming from the shuttle he knew had been approaching for quite some time. It was hovering just in front of him, the large frontal guns aimed at his chest. He made no effort to hide himself, and he would make no effort to hide what he would do next, either.

Desolas voice came out triumphantly, a mocking tilt in his perceived victory. "Let's see how your group does without their apparent leader. Now, may I know the name of the man who is just about to become my prisoner?"

Harry looked to the turian soldier he had stunned a few minutes ago, recalling his last words. It was fitting enough.

"I believe your Corporal Patrus told you already, General." he charged the spell behind his back. "We are the Ghosts of Shanxi, and this is our planet."

He shot the electric-blue spell at the transport. It washed over the hull and took out every electronic circuit connected to it. The lights went off, the guns died, and the heavy spacecraft tumbled to the ground with a deafening crash.

Harry let drop his last flask of the Obscuring Solution. That done, he finally transfigured the soldier and picked the small figurine up, then went to take care of the transport's passengers that were even now crawling out of the wreckage. He had dealt with the first turian play on the planet, and now he had plenty of prisoners to interrogate and devices for his ship to hack into. That should give them enough data to plan their next move.

"Not bad for a day's work, heh?" said Astrid.

"Not bad at all." he agreed.

ANs:

So, we fast-forwarded a few days and Harry got to show some toys and kick some ass.

As I explained to some, Harry is a full paragon but he is no saint. He hates taking lives, but will do so if necessary.

A 'thank you' to both adrian11 and willboon for their reviews. No PMs allowed to either.

*User exillion did not enjoy the admittedly clichéd start. I understand, and wish him the best.

*GJMEGA, magic itself has not disappeared from Earth. Only all magical creatures, including wizards and witches.

Next chapter, all parties deal with the things that happened in here.

Till next time,

Fish

.

*Update - 2015.04.07: so, I have made a very important change to the chapter. When I first chose to make Harry announce himself as a solitary fighter, I did it to emphasize the reasons as for why he decided to reveal himself in the first place. Those reasons should be properly explained in the chapter after the next (chapter 7), if anyone is wondering. However, a review made by the user So Inclined made me think about it, and I realised that one thing didn't necessarily depended on the other. So I changed it. Not because of the intimidation factor he pointed out (even if it is a completely valid reason), but because it makes the story a little more plausible to the turians point-of-view. And it also opens opportunities for interesting effects later in the story.

I hope this also shows I'm open to suggestions, in so much as I find them interesting and they do not clash with the core elements I have already planned. Like I said from the begining, most aspects of the story are already all planned out, but details like this can be certainly improved upon. I mean, if it is an improvement in your eyes, of course.

In any case, I thank user So Inclined for prompting the change.

I've also decided to remove Harry's last threat to Desolas. While giving the ultimatum had its purpose, that last line was not justifiable at this point, and it was pushing the whole 'invincible badass' vibe a little more than I intended.