Guilty Sparks

by General Rage

Fleeing from the glassing of Reach in the belly of the Pillar of the Autumn, the crew of the SR-2 Normandy find themselves stranded with their UNSC allies on a strange Forerunner constructed ring world called Halo with the Covenant hunting them. But Halo holds a secret, one deadlier than both the Covenant and Reapers combined... and it's hungry.

30. Gauntlet

Chapter 29: Gauntlet

Liara had been deep in discussions with Aria for over an hour. She was relieved when they were finally over with. Her cooperation came with a price of course, but Liara had expected it would. At the very least they'd both get what they wanted. That is, if everything went according to plan. It was impossible to plan for every permutation though. She could only hope they'd be able to adjust while they were still in the field.

Outside of her room, Nel and Wrex were waiting for her. They looked like they had a bit on their minds and wasted no time in asking questions.

"What did Aria say?" Wrex asked first.

"She's sending a portion of the Terminus Fleet," Liara answered simply. "She'll be overseeing the operation from Omega, but she'll be in constant contact with us through the ships under her command. The only catch is she wants her organization to have full access to the array once we acquire it."

"Why?" Nel asked, somewhat confused. "Does she want to set up shop beyond the wormhole too?"

"No, she just likes the idea of having a network that's off the grid," Liara clarified, shaking her head. "It would make her own clandestine activities harder to trace and easier to set up. I couldn't exactly argue with her, not when she made it perfectly clear she wouldn't help otherwise. That and since the Communication Relay itself is in the Terminus, she would prefer to remove the Covenant from her backyard."

As strong as Aria was, even she was aware she couldn't take the Covenant on directly. If she wanted them removed, she would need the help that only Liara could provide. The anti-ship defences surrounding the moon the inter-dimensional communications relay was located on would tear her fleet apart if they got too close. They would need someone to shut them down for them. It just so happened that Liara was that someone. Like it or not, they needed each other to get what they wanted.

"Isn't she worried the Covies are going to attack Omega for this?" Nel asked sincerely. "I mean, did she ask you to help beef up her own defences or anything?"

"I think she's aware the Covenant doesn't really see any strategic value in Omega," Liara presumed. "It's not going anywhere and neither is she after all. No sense in attacking now and putting all their future plans at risk. They've been able to hide themselves in this dimension for almost a year. Not even Vorsa would decide to compromise that secrecy to destroy some crime lord out of spite. I imagine he's still too focused on those artefacts of his that he was going on about at the Summit to care anyway."

That wouldn't last forever of course. Aria no doubt realised that if the Covenant succeeded in their plans, inevitably they were going to tie up any remaining loose ends. That included her. Aria was likely confident that she could win any fight, but she clearly preferred not to get involved in a shooting war to begin with. Better to let Liara sort the mess out before it got that far. Liara just wondered if Aria was hoping she'd end up getting killed while dealing with the Covenant. You could never tell with Omega's Queen how much or little she valued your life in the grand scheme of things.

"So how is this going to go down?" Wrex asked next.

"Aria is going to stay out of range of the moon's defences," Liara readily replied. "She'll draw the Covenant ships guarding the area away from the moon to engage her. Our task will be to get inside, shut down the defences for the moon and secure the facility. Then we can figure out how to start moving it."

"Yeah, how do we get inside by the way?" Nel asked. "We're not going to try for another mad dash or anything like the station are we?"

"Vik's working on something with our new friend," Liara informed her. "It should make insertion easier this time around. I'm more concerned with just getting to the Communications Relay itself. We can't rule out the possibility of the Covenant scuttling the site to prevent us from acquiring it."

It was a possibility they had to consider. The Covenant destroying such a strategic facility wasn't all that far-fetched. Given how voracious the sangheili were when it came to defending their lines, Liara had to presume that there was a risk of them destroying the relay hub before allowing it to be taken. That meant speed was a factor in this mission.

"It sounds like you're expecting a hard fight," Wrex noted.

"If they lose this inter-dimensional relay, they lose their connection to their forces on the other side of the wormhole," Liara elaborated. "If they allow us to get it, we'll have a potential advantage over them. Even if they decide not to destroy it, they won't surrender it easily."

"If that's the case, I hope Aria's help isn't limited to blowing shit up in space," Nel said with a tinge of concern. "We may need some major backup on the ground."

"Once the base defences are down and the battlecruisers dealt with, Aria should be able to send in her mercenary forces," Liara assured. "It may take them awhile to reach us though. Therefore, Wrex's krogan and my Operatives will land on the moon first once we take the defences down. Our shuttles may have stealth drives, but I imagine the Covenant will be prepared for that."

Before Liara could continue, her omni-tool went off. Activating it she saw a message from Vik displayed on it.

"Vik wants me to see something down in the hangar," she informed Wrex and Nel. "He's probably made a breakthrough with that plan he and the Huragok are working on. You two best get ready for the assault. I'll catch up with you later."

"Hopefully our little conspiracy nut has a better plan than his scrambler in mind for this," Nel told her as she walked away. "I don't think it's gonna cut it this time."

---

Liara found Vik outside his shuttle. Inside, she could make out the distinct glow of the Huragok from a distance. As she got closer she saw it was indeed their new alien guest with his tendrils deep in the inner workings of the Truth. For a second, Liara thought Vik was horrified that some alien creature was touching his stuff. In reality, he was actually extremely excited, even overjoyed.

"This creature is amazing!" He jubilantly shouted at Liara. "Kayap wasn't kidding when he said they were like supercomputers! I've run three diagnostics over the past few hours and each time he's increased the specifications beyond what I expected! And he's still improving the shuttle! I think he's even building it a shield generator!"

"All well and good, but does any of it get us past the array's defences?" Liara asked astutely.

"I was just getting to that actually," Vik assured her. "One of the first things he started working on was the ship's IFF signal. He's changed it entirely! He downloaded Covenant specs into it. Now it reads as a Covenant signal. We'll be able to slip right by their defences and they'll just think we're one of them!"

That was definitely a lot more air tight than a scrambler. If it worked, then they had a shot at getting inside without any one suspecting them. They defences would simply see the ship as a friendly and let them pass. She just hoped it would work.

"I doubt they'll be expecting that," Liara complimented. "Nicely done."

"I didn't really do anything, it was all Coda," Vik humbly stated.

"Coda?" Liara asked, her brow slightly raised at the quarian.

Vik pointed back towards the Huragok, still fiddling with the inner workings of the Truth.

"It's what I named him," he explained, his hands motioning about as he talked. "I figured it was better than just calling him Codemaster or the Huragok. I thought to myself, Codemaster... Coda... it fit."

Liara supposed it was as good a name as any. It certainly wasn't as near a mouthful as Codemaster. Liara watched Coda as he continued his work. The creature's glowing tendrils slunk and slid into various slots, panels and corners throughout the shuttle. It was hard to tell what exactly the alien was doing, given his girth. What was clear was it seemed entirely focused on the self-appointed task at hand.

"It's fascinating, isn't it?" Vik asked Liara. "A biological organism capable of storing digital code and data onto itself, it's unlike anything in our galaxy. It's like an AI, but it's not a machine. I'm struggling to figure out how it evolved."

"It's possible they could've been made by another alien species," Liara suggested. "Genetic engineering postulates the theory of creating something very much like this in fact."

"That's what I was thinking actually," Vik admitted. "He's able to learn as fast as an AI. This is the first time he's seen this shuttle and he's already repairing it and improving on the original design. My fuel cell charge is now twenty times more efficient. I didn't even think you could do that with these older models, let alone increase their speed. Certainly saves me a ton of credits for the future."

Coda suddenly turned around, his snake-like head twisting and turning as it eyed the shuttle. It quickly moved over to a nearby panel and pulled it off, plugging its tendrils inside. They could hear it shifting about mechanisms, but the extent of its repairs was again unclear. That was until the inside of the shuttle lit up brightly.

"He just fixed the lighting system," Vik said astonished. "That's been broken for over a year! I could never figure out the problem! It must've been some damaged wiring all along."

"I guess he's moving on to the smaller things now that he's done most of the larger repairs," Liara concluded. "Has he done any work on the shuttle's computer yet?"

"Yeah, actually," Vik replied. "In fact, there's something on it I want to show you. Come on, we probably won't be in his way now."

Vik led Liara onto the shuttle, waving politely at Coda as they did. The Huragok merely whistled back as it continued its work. Vik and Liara continued onto the cockpit where Vik began digging through the shuttle's files.

"Not only did Coda decide to give me a faster extranet connection, but he downloaded some files onto my hard drive," the quarian began to explain. "I think you'll find them interesting."

Vik brought up what looked to be a floor plan of a facility of some sort. It didn't take long for Liara to realise what facility it was though. Beyond the recognizable elements she could spot, she could clearly see the inter-dimensional relay's main hub at the center of it all. It was the array complex.

"That's the inside of the moon?" Liara asked inquisitively.

"Yeah, and it's a lot more detailed than what we saw on the Hegemony's systems," Vik informed her. "I guess the Collectors weren't the only thing the Covenant didn't want the batarians finding out about. Look here."

Vik shifted the layout to a sideways view. The first set of plans of the moon facility had shown that it was a grand undertaking, but this new layout revealed more of the story. The power stations and command centres they had found were only a portion of the facility. There were actually a large number of additional rooms and passageways snaking through out the underground complex. Liara's interest was certainly piqued.

"The Covenant couldn't have built all this during the time they've been here," she reasoned. "Even with Reaper assistance, they'd need to hollow out a third of the moon. It doesn't seem feasible."

"That's the conclusion I reached," Vik added. "I stated wondering how they got this place up and running so fast. Then I realised, they didn't. The defences, some of the portions of the complex, yes, they constructed those, but they didn't make everything. The additional power core rooms, living quarters, command and control stations, those were built on top of, or around, what was already there."

Vik drew her eyes deeper into the complex, to one of the lower levels. Liara gave it a careful look and soon realised why Vik was pointing at it. There was a large space near the back of the complex. On closer inspection it looked similar to a mass effect drive, but not exactly. It looked far more intricately complex, but one thing was for sure, it did look like a propulsion system of some sort.

"Is that an engine room?" Liara asked. "What's a ship's engine room doing inside an underground base?"

"Maybe it's not a base," Vik forced her to consider. "At least not all of it is. Maybe... this thing is a ship. I'm thinking the Covenant didn't actually make this inter-dimensional communications hub. What if they found it and just figured out how to fix it? What if it's been buried there for who knows how long and somehow they just stumbled onto it?"

"If that is true, it's unlikely they discovered it by chance," Liara considered. "I smell Harbinger's influence in this, or at least one of his fellow Reapers. Whatever the case, this changes everything. If this place is a ship and it's still working, we can move the array a lot easier than we previously thought."

It still left a lot of question, like who built the ship and why? Liara had a few theories, but she imagined there were at least a few candidates for it. The revelation didn't, however, change the fact that the Covenant weren't going to make this easy for them. Vik was quick to remind her of that.

"Do you really think they're expecting us this time?" He asked her sincerely.

"Vorsa is arrogant, but not stupid," Liara gravely replied. "He no doubt knows about the destruction of the space station by now. He'll put everything on alert. That was one of their most secure places after all. It's gone now and that means nowhere is safe and he knows it. We'll need every trick in the book if we're going to pull this off."

"In that case, maybe we should take Coda along," Vik suggested, pointing back with his thumb towards the Huragok.

Liara looked to see the floating alien pulling out several motherboards, chips and bits of machinery and rapidly repairing them before her eyes. She had to admit, he was an asset now, one that was a key component in their plan in fact. He also knew the layout of the complex. He probably could help guide them through the facility just by memory alone. She still had to point out the concerns regardless.

"He won't be much use in a firefight," Liara noted. "He is basically a giant floating ball of gas from what Kayap describes."

"He knows the communication relay inside and out," Vik insisted. "It would be a lot easier to hack inside it if he was with us. He has all the codes, with his direct help I should be able to break into the system faster and grant us full access. Then we can delete all the Hegemony and Covenant profiles off the security hard drive like we planned and have total control over the hub. It would be a lot easier than him just giving me the codes and cracking it from there."

Liara couldn't argue with that logic, she just worried about the dangers involved. Then again, there was the chance of none of them surviving this little mission. The risks were high for all of them. She still wanted to increase the floating alien's chances though.

"I don't suppose you can get him some armour for the mission then?" Liara asked. "He could use it."

"I can probably share the idea with him and he can build it faster than me," Vik replied. "Don't worry though. We can make sure he stays out of any protracted firefight."

"Then you best get to it," Liara told him. "We don't have much time. Our window is closing. We need to strike before Vorsa shuts it entirely."

---

On the edge of the system, Liara waited with her strike team inside the belly of the Truth once more. They had gotten here before Aria's ship's intended to make their jump and begin the firefight. It was a stipulation the Queen of Omega had made. She wanted some firsthand intelligence before she sent her fleet in. Since Liara had to get in position to prepare for their landing, she agreed.

The moon below was a rocky desolate, ugly looking little planetoid. Orbiting the moon were several automatic defence cannons, no doubt Hegemony in origin. On the surface one could easily see, even at this distance, a high concentration of Anti-Air plasma turrets. Despite being locked in an uneasy alliance, both the Covenant and batarians seemed to recognize the importance of keeping the inter-dimensional array safe.

However, the defences weren't nearly as foreboding as the three massive Covenant battlecruisers patrolling the region. Their menacing silhouettes stood out against the giant yellowish orange gas giant behind them. Taking them on would be no easy task, even for Aria's forces. Which was why shutting the moon's defences down was the key to the whole operation. It would give them more room to manoeuvre and allow them to start landing troops onto the surface. Liara just hoped Aria would be able to last long enough for them to shut the defences down.

"You were right about them sparing no expense to keep this place locked down," Wrex noted as he looked over the co-pilot seat Liara was sitting in. "They pulled out everything for this. Maybe we should call in our forces early."

"No," Liara said shaking her head. "The stealth drives won't work. Those orbiting gun platforms aren't based on heat detection like most guns, they're based on movement. I recognize the model. The shuttles will be sported the second any get close to them. The Covenant IFF signal Coda programmed into the Truth is the only thing that will keep that from happening to us. There's no time to go back and fix the other shuttles either, Aria won't wait that long."

"So it's either turning the guns off now or nothing," Wrex growled. "Great, how do we do that?"

Liara turned to Vik for the answer. He immediately pulled up the relay hub facility's layout on his omni-tool and scanned the hallways with his finger. He eventually highlighted two rooms on the map.

"We can shut off the power to the plasma turrets on the ground," he suggested. "The problem is the orbiting auto guns. They have their own individual power supply. We'll need to locate their control room and shut them off from there. Coda's little map should keep us from getting lost."

"Is it possible to turn the guns on the Covenant from the control room?" Liara asked the quarian.

"Yeah, but you're dealing with a time factor then," Vik cautioned. "If you want them offline fast it would be easier to just initiate a systems shutdown. If you want to give Aria some extra support it will take more time. Considering they're her ships you may want to ask her which one she prefers."

That wouldn't be a problem since Aria would be in direct contact with them at all times once her fleet arrived. The problem either way would involve time. The second the fleet showed up and started shooting they would have to act fast.

"We'll need to work fast," Liara reasoned. "We'll drop in close to the power station and work our way there. Then we move to the control room for the defences. We then call in our forces and make headway towards the relay hub. We'll be outnumbered in there, so it's best we keep a close eye on one another. That includes our newest friend of course."

Liara looked back to see Coda floating close to Nel. The Huragok was now wearing some light armour it had quickly pieced together over its bulbous form, covering his otherwise vulnerable gas bladders. Its tendrils were currently working their way towards Nel's own armour. The turian, however, slapped the tentacles away from her whenever they neared her.

"Don't get fresh, Newbie," she warned. "I don't want your slime all over my equipment."

"He probably just wants to help improve the systems," Vik politely told her. "He turned this old junker into a decent ride after all. Just give him a few minutes to work, trust me on this one."

Coda cooed and whistled at the turian once more. The alien's beedy little eyes seemed to plead with her. Nel just sighed, giving in to the floating alien's desires. She turned her head away and waved Coda forward.

"Just don't access my omni-tool's extranet history while you're working, okay?" She asked. "That's private and some of the sites might warp the little supercomputer you apparently have for a brain."

Coda whistled with delight and began working on the turian's armour. As the alien began, a voice came on Liara's secure frequency. It was Aria, right on time as Liara had expected.

"The Terminus Fleet is close," she informed Liara. "Where's that recon you promised?"

"I was just waiting for your call," Liara assured her. "There are several orbiting auto guns and a sufficient number of anti-air plasma turrets on the surface of the moon. Keep your ships out of range of those. You have three Covenant battlecruisers on patrol. They won't be easy to take down. It would be best to tread lightly with them."

"Good to hear," Aria replied. "Deal with the guns whichever way is fastest then and we won't have a problem. Now, let's kick these religious fanatics out of my backyard, shall we?"

Seconds later, Aria's fleet jumped into view. They were a way off and out of range of the moon's defences. There were a number of frigates and one dreadnaught, but most of the ships consisted of cruisers. They began firing on the Covenant battlecruisers immediately, pelting their heavy shields with all guns.

The Covenant ships immediately drew off from their standard patrol to engage. As they opened fire with their plasma torpedoes, the Terminus Fleet broke formation and pulled further away from the moon. It drew the Covenant ships out and gave Liara the opening she needed.

"Take us in, Vik," she ordered.

The quarian began to move the shuttle towards the moon's surface. All the while they watched Aria's fleet engage in a fevered exchange of fire. The Dreadnaught was firing everything it had at the battlecruisers, but their heavy shields and armour withstood the shots. One of Aria's cruisers took a direct hit to its side and limped to the right. Aria's fleet began pulling back, forcing the Covenant to follow further. Still, it was clear to Liara how dire the situation was. They needed to shut the guns down soon if they wanted to keep Aria's fleet from being blown out of the sky.

Luckily they didn't have to worry about the guns, although there was a brief moment of anxiety. Whenever they passed by one of the orbiting guns, their platforms moved to target them, sensing the motion of the shuttle. Eventually, however, they moved away. Coda's reprogramming had worked. As far as the guns were concerned, the shuttle was just another Covenant ship.

"So far so good," Vik muttered as they passed by the last of the orbiting auto-guns.

As they closed in on the surface, Coda finished his work with Nel's armour. Curious to see what the floating alien had done, she did a systems check on her omni-tool. She was shocked to discover what the Huragok had done.

"How the hell did you manage to route more power to shields without compromising any of the other systems?" She asked the floating alien. "It says they're stronger than ever now. Damn, you weren't kidding, Bucket. This guy's a miracle worker!"

Coda just cooed joyously at Nel's compliment. Liara was happy to hear Nel's armour had boosted shields as well, she'd need them. Now more than ever in fact, since they were closing in on the surface of the moon.

The Truth touched down at last on the dusty surface. Everyone sealed their armoured suits and exited the vehicle. Saya took point, his pistol aimed ahead of him. He motioned the others to follow, spotting no enemy patrolling the surface. Vik kept his omni-tool activated as he searched the layout.

"There's a ventilation port close by, according to the layout," he informed Liara. "That's our ticket in."

"Found it!" Kayap shouted over to everyone.

The little unggoy had rushed up ahead, Coda by his side. With the help of the Huragok, they pried open the vent covering, revealing the shaft below. It was a tight squeeze, but it looked like they could all fit down there. Wrex was hesitant regardless.

"Ugh, I hate small places," he grumbled. "People are always stepping on my tail."

"Come on, Wrex," Nel tried to encourage him. "You can't beat a classic. Ventilation shafts are the go to for infiltrating enemy strongholds. Enjoy the moment in all its cliché glory."

Nel was of course the first to jump down. She went prone when she landed and began shuffling through the vent itself. The others followed, although not nearly as quick to jump down as she was. To Nel's credit she waited for them at the bottom.

Wrex had been right about the vent being a tight fit though. They'd all have to move through it in single file. The toughest fit was actually Coda, who had gone in last and had to push himself forward with his tendrils. Kayap remained in front of him, waving him forward as they advanced.

"Find our nearest exit Vik," Liara ordered "Preferably close to the power and control rooms if possible."

"On it, Doc," Vik assured her. "We need to take a right up here."

"Well then let's get going," Nel declared as she moved out. "We can't keep the Queen of Omega's fleet waiting, can we?"

---

Before long, Vik had directed them to a hatch to exit out of. Nel punched their way through it, revealing the room beyond. She dropped down first landing on the floor below. The others soon followed, pouring out of the vent slowly but surely.

Liara scanned the room when she landed on the ground. From the looks of things it appeared to be on the second level of a docking bay, if the contingent of Covenant fighters stored below were any indication. These fighters weren't banshees however. They were significantly larger and more saucer-shaped, although with a slightly elongated tail.

"Seraphs," Kayap noted. "They're designed for space-combat, not just repurposed for it."

Some of the Seraphs were already powering up and moving towards the long tunnel carved into the moon's rock. Obviously they were heading out to assist in fighting Aria's fleet. Liara doubted this was the only docking bay though, there were likely more Seraphs already taking off in other docking bays just like this one.

The bay itself was different from the station they had previously attacked. The architecture was similar to the Covenant, but more angular than before. Also it wasn't nearly as purple and sported a shining silver coating. There was no time to think more on the aesthetics of the room though, they had to get moving. A fact that became even more apparent when one of the sangheili on the floor below them suddenly spotted them. As he cried out in his alien tongue at the intruders he began opening fire with his plasma rifle and the team sought cover behind the second level's support columns.

"Reinforcements are probably on their way already," Liara recognized. "We need to get out of here."

"The door that will take us to the power source for the surface guns is on the ground level," Vik informed her frantically. "We just need to reach it."

"No sense in wasting time then," Liara decided. "Wrex, with me, the rest of you cover us!"

Liara left her cover, gun raised and leapt down to the ground floor. She used her biotics to float her down before letting loose with a biotic wave that sent a few Covenant soldiers backwards. Wrex followed suit soon after, landing with a slam and sending out a biotic shockwave rippling across the ground. It struck a singular sangheili with enough force to send him hurtling into a wall.

As the Urdnot Clan Leader followed up his attack with a carnage blast, Liara opened up on the Covenant herself. She picked off a kig-yar as he tried to recover from her biotic wave and tossed out a throw attack at another of the sangheili. As that sangheili found himself tumbling into a wall, another sangheili quickly opened up on Liara, forcing her into the cover of a small weapons container.

As she waited for her moment to strike, the others opened up on the Covenant from above. Their gunfire distracted the Covenant long enough for Liara to get an opening. She rolled out into the open, firing shots from her pistol. She caught the sangheili assaulting her as his shields failed from a green overcharged plasma bolt no doubt fired by Kayap. It still took most of her thermal clip to put him down though. Liara quickly sent out a singularity next to pick up another kig-yar close by. She then hit the alien with a warp, detonating the biotics and obliterating the Covie.

Wrex wasn't having nearly as much trouble putting his foes down. His assault rifle spewed out rounds, cutting through the sangheili shields with ease. He followed up the attack with another shockwave that forced the Covenant Officers further back, their tumbling bodies scraping against the floor. One of the sangheili, however, managed to get in close, charging at him with a plasma sword. Wrex barely managed to step away from his slash, switch to his shotgun and fire a blast into the alien's leg. He then punched the Covie in the side of his head, knocking him to the floor before firing another shot to finish him.

Suddenly, the fight drastically changed as a shadow fell on the docking bay. A large Seraph fighter had lifted up into the air and was now taking aim at them. It charged its heavy plasma cannons, firing off rapid shots at the second level. It forced the team above to duck down or be annihilated. Liara looked to Wrex who nodded in response, instantly understanding her meaning. He fired a carnage shot at the Seraph. It didn't do anything but scuff its armour, but it attracted the fighter's attention.

"Cover!" Liara shouted aloud.

She and Wrex now rushed back into the cover of nearby support columns at the back of the docking bay. Plasma bolts nipped at their heels the whole way, the Seraph unrelenting in its pursuit. Liara ducked down low as the plasma flew all around her. She had gotten the Covenant Fighter off her team though and that was what she wanted.

"Kayap, you have the Fuel Rod," She shouted into her comm. "Take it down!"

"I need an angle, one second!" The unggoy's voice shouted back.

As Liara and Wrex kept huddled in the rapidly deteriorating cover they had chosen, an explosion suddenly erupted along the side of the Seraph. It wasn't loud enough to be a Fuel Rod Cannon though. This sounded more like a missile launcher. She had suggested everyone pick a heavy weapon to bring on the mission, Nel had chosen that one.

"Come and play with me, fucker!" The turian's voice screamed out across the docking bay.

Liara wondered what Nel was doing at first, but she didn't have to wait long. As the Seraph shifted its target to Nel it turned about. Eventually, Liara could see the craft's backside more clearly, along with its propulsion systems. It was leaving itself vulnerable on that side, the perfect angle for Kayap.

Just as quickly as she spotted it, the engine was hit with three large bright glowing green bolts. They slammed directly into the engine of the Seraph, puncturing and detonating the plasma core. The backside of the saucer-like craft exploded, its tail breaking clean off. The fighter careened into the wall of the docking bay and then spun out towards the tunnel entrance. It crashed down in a fiery explosion that completely set the forward part of the room ablaze.

"Nice shot, Gas Sucker!" Nel's voice cried out over the radio.

"That one was for all those times they put me on maintenance for those damn things!" Kayap shouted with delight. "All that oil and engine fluid, took forever to wash out between my scales! Well who's gonna clean you up now, you worthless hunk of junk?!"

While Kayap revelled in his payback, Liara took at the destruction they had wrought. From all appearances, the crash had more or less destroyed every docking clamp in the bay. She imagined it had also damaged or destroyed most of the Seraphs still inside at the time as well.

"I don't think Aria is going to have to worry about this docking bay anymore," Wrex noted.

"It won't mean anything unless we take those guns offline," Liara reminded him.

Moments later, Liara looked up to see Kayap being lifted down to the ground by Coda, the Huragok's tentacles wrapped around him. Saya landed nearby rather gracefully. Nel did not, she landed on Wrex. Luckily the fall didn't break the bones of either the turian or the krogan. Wrex did however shove her off rather forcefully.

"Next time, shout something out first before you do that," he grumbled.

"Sorry," Nel apologised. "I couldn't think of a cool thing to say just now."

Nel turned back to the level above them and shouted up.

"Come on, Bucket, we're burning daylight here!" She cried out.

"I'm not jumping!" Vik shouted back nervously. "I don't have an exoskeleton like you turians! I'll break both my legs!"

"I'll catch ya!" Wrex promised. "Just hurry up!"

Vik was timid to follow through at first, but finally sucked it up and went for it. Thankfully Wrex was able to catch the quarian with his biotics as he fell. He then slowly drifted Vik down to the ground before plopping him on his backside. Nel moved over to pick him up off the ground with a helping hand.

"Next time I'm taking the stairs," he grumbled as he let the turian pick him up off the floor.

"Oh where's the fun in that?" Nel chuckled. "Hell, if I had my Havoc armour it would've been even cooler. I miss that thing, it had jet boosters."

"No time to reminisce," Liara informed her. "We need to get going."

Vik pointed them to the door they were looking and quickly moved through it. There first stop would be the power station for the surface plasma turrets. However, after this little firefight, they fully expected a harder fight ahead of them.

---

After exiting the docking bay, following Vik's directions on his map, Liara's team the team soon found themselves passing through what appeared to be an airlock. On the other side they found the corridors of the main base seemed to differ aesthetically from that of the docking bay.

They appeared more familiar in design, not nearly as angular or pristine, but Spartan and militaristic. It lent credence to Vik's earlier suggestion that this underground base wasn't actually a base at all. They would not have much time to question the shifting architecture style. For they soon discovered how immediate the Covenant's response to their intrusion had been.

The team suddenly ran into a mess of barricades blocking their progress. These weren't the quickly erected ones they had encountered on the station, however. These were specially designed custom floor barriers that could be activated at the push of a button to provide cover. The sangheili were using them to full effect, but the metal barriers also provided cover to Liara's team as well, so it wasn't as if they were completely without options.

Wrex attempted to fire off a carnage shot at one of the sangheili, but the alien ducked down before it could connect. The blast smashed in Covenant Soldier's protective cover instead. The only thing it managed to kill was a passing kig-yar that got caught in the blast radius as it moved up. While not entirely worthless, the attack still left the far more dangerous sangheili alive, frustrating Wrex to no end.

"Where the hell did they even get these damn shields?" Wrex grumbled. "They didn't have these things anywhere else we attacked."

"We suspected Vorsa would strengthen security," Liara suggested. "Perhaps this is one of his measures."

Liara reloaded her pistol once more, huddling in the outcropping of the wall for shelter. She leaned her arm out, firing blindly at the enemy. She managed to catch one sangheili in the arm, but his shield protected him. Plasma bolts rained down on her position, forcing her further back into cover.

"I got him!" Kayap shouted aloud to the endangered asari.

The little unggoy fired off his plasma pistol. The overcharged bolt took out the sangheili's shield and forced him back down into cover. Liara used the chance to suppress the hostile alien completely with her pistol. This gave Kayap another chance to prove his worth. He switched from his pistol to his needler and tried to pick out a target. All he could find was a kig-yar armed with a beam rifle staring right at him.

The unggoy ducked low as a beam shot flew over his head. He popped back up at once and let several needles fly at the kig-yar. Two of the projectiles struck the alien sniper in the neck before shattering. The kig-yar fell over, disappearing behind his cover. Kayap instantly knew his foe wasn't about to get up from that one.

The sustained fire of the well-protected Covenant defenders was still proving to be a problem. Even Saya was having difficulty getting a proper shot on their enemy. Every time he lined up his rifle to fire at a sangheili's skull for a quick kill, he was forced to pull back down into cover. Saya eventually got one shot off that connected with its intended target. However, the shot missed the sangheili's head. It struck the alien in the shoulder, penetrating the shield with ease. The wound was hardly fatal for the eight-foot alien warrior though and he was quickly back on his feet firing once more.

Nel found herself that the only thing she could do was strafe her rounds over the heads of the Covenant as they sought cover. She was hoping to keep them suppressed long enough for someone to move up and take the Covies down, but the sangheili's shields made that difficult. Every shot she managed to actually connect was shrugged off by her opponents and she in turn was forced to duck back down into cover.

"We need to get around them," she reasoned. "Maybe we should circle back."

"Chances are they'll just chase us down the second we try to pull out," Liara informed her. "We need to break through here or not at all."

Vik was trying to assist in some small way himself, but his first idea was met with massive failure. He set up his turret to try and suppress the Covenant, but they were quick to the target the floating gun and blow it to bits. He tried to get his drone out into the field to cause some havoc, but the Covenant had seemingly learned to recognize the danger of the little energy ball. The sangheili instantly targeted it, disrupting the drone with ease.

"Argh, they're too well dug in," Vik growled. "We need something they can't react to fast enough."

Vik tried to survey their surroundings a little. He didn't see much in the way of opportunity at first, but then he spotted something on the wall. It was an energy regulator junction box, a sign they were close to the power core and a possible opportunity if they used it right. He turned to Nel, knowing once he explained his plan she'd be eager to give it a try.

"Do you still like explosions?" He quickly asked her.

"Do you even have to ask?" The turian responded with a smirk.

"When I tell you to, I need you to shoot that junction box next to that wall," he quickly explained. "Hit it with an incendiary round, it's probably our best bet."

Nel didn't seem to understand at first, but slowly she began to nod as a devious smile spread across her face. Vik just hoped she'd be ready when he needed her. First, he typed a few commands on his omni-tool to bring up a program of his. It was one he designed to create a power surge for certain pieces of equipment. He never thought he'd use it in a firefight though, just to spike potential enemy hackers.

He targeted the junction box with his omni-tool, wirelessly connecting to the regulation systems. The program detected an increased energy intake for the junction. They were now at a critical level. Vik looked to Nel and gave her a nod. The turian answered back with a grin before popping up and letting loose with a furious barrage of inferno rounds at the junction box.

The rounds penetrated the box with ease. Instantly, the overloaded circuits of the box exploded in a large fiery ball. It engulfed two of the sangheili close to it. Their cover had protected them from gunfire, but the explosion had completely blindsided them. In the ensuing chaos, Vik rushed up to move forward. Nel followed, firing off more rounds to keep the quarian covered. They had only taken down two of the enemy after all. There were still others they had to contend with.

Vik slid into cover behind one of the barriers. The sangheili pulled back to cover further down the hall at the same time, prompting Liara and the others to move up themselves. At the same time, Vik got a closer look at one of the pop-up barriers as he huddled behind it. What he saw engraved on it answered Wrex's previous question about their origins. VykurCorp's insignia was emblazoned on the metal barrier. It seemed the Hegemony weren't the only ones donating defences to the Covenant.

"These barriers are designed by VykurCorp," he informed Nel. "Vorsa must've asked Orukuri to install them!"

"That fucking prick," Nel grumbled. "As if he hadn't made our lives difficult enough with those fucking implants of his, now he's giving them proper cover wherever they want!"

"No, this is good," Vik assured her. "Thanks to Noveria I'm familiar with their systems. Give me a second. I need to hack in manually."

Vik feverishly set about prying apart the inner workings of the barrier's base installed into the floor. Nel took it upon herself to keep the attention of the Covies off the quarian's work the only way she knew how. She let loose with a ton of gunfire and a lot of taunting.

"Over here, dipshits!" She cried out. "Come and get a little taste of turian lead!"

She fired repeatedly at one of the sangheili, forcing his attention onto her. The Covenant soldier unleashed a furious barrage of plasma bolts from his rifle. Nel quickly strafed to the side and ducked behind another barrier. Her intention was to keep their eyes from wandering back to Vik's position and his work. As she fired off a concussive shot, she hoped the damn quarian was working his ass off.

Thankfully, Nel didn't find herself completely pinned down. Liara sent a biotic attack flying at one of the Covenant. The throw tossed the sangheili to the ground with ease. Saya also provided sniper cover, forcing the Covenant to keep their heads down.

Then suddenly, a bright blue light started shining from Vik's position. The quarian pulled his arms out of the innards of the barrier's mechanism and began typing commands on his omni-tool. He then pointed it towards one of the barriers and pressed down hard on a button. The barrier suddenly folded back up into the ground, exposing the Covenant behind it.

"I've got the command codes for barriers," he shouted. "I can retract them whenever I want!"

Vik demonstrated this once more as he clicked the command again. Another barrier folded back into the ground, exposing two more sangheili. Nel just laughed at the sight heartily.

"Good one, Bucket!" He chortled. "It's open season on these fuckers now!"

Nel switched to disruptor rounds and let loose with her assault rifle. She tore through one sangheili's shields with ease as he pulled back. Now that they had lost their cover, they had no choice. They didn't turn to run though, that wasn't their style. They retreated facing the intruders the whole way. Nel wasn't about to let them get away though, no one intended them to.

Wrex fired another carnage shot, and this time it mulched its intended target. Saya landed a series of shots directly between another sangheili's eyes. Two destroyed its shields and the last killed the Covenant officer outright. Liara opened up with both her biotics and pistol, tearing apart her intended sangheili's shields with each hit. Meanwhile, Kayap tossed a plasma grenade at the sangheili, catching one on his knee. The explosion killed him and one of his fellows next to him.

Nel kept herself out in front, chasing after her intended target and firing viciously at him. When the shields were gone she fired off a concussive shot that sent the sangheili falling onto his ass. She quickly rushed up alongside him and plugged a final round into his brain before he could recover. She then looked up to see the rest of the sangheili's team pull further back down the hall.

"Looks like they're headed to the power core," she reasoned.

"They've probably already guessed at our objective," Liara determined. "That means they've likely guessed our designs for the control room. We need to act fast before they can set up a defence."

Kayap called on Coda, who had been hiding out of sight on Liara's orders to move up with them. Liara quickly led the team down the corridor and towards the door to the power core. Saya quickly prepared his sword to spread explosive gel across the locking mechanism as the others stacked up for the breach. The salarian pulled away and then detonated it.

The explosion ripped apart the lock and the doors opened wide. Nel was the first to jump in, Vik nearby. As predicted the Covenant were waiting, hiding behind the control panels and support columns around the room. In the very center was the power core itself, a huge generator spewing out vast amounts of energy. Electricity sparked and arced around the massive device, but its defenders were the most immediate concern.

The Covenant opened fire on Nel as she rushed into cover, ducking behind one of the support columns. As she did, she saw what looked like a series of plasma bolts hit her side. She was worried for a moment she had taken a hit, but as she prepared herself for the pain, positive that her shields had failed, she felt nothing. Then she realised she was coated in some kind of strange purple glow.

"The hell?" She asked herself, confused at the sight.

She looked over to Vik, who was hiding behind a control panel nearby. He also had the purple glow covering his body. It looked like a biotic barrier, but that wasn't possible. As Vik looked himself over inquisitively, Nel searched for the others.

She spotted both Liara and Wrex, covered in the same purple glow and taking cover as well. Kayap even had one of the strange barriers over him and she saw it easily protect him from fire as he ran into cover. Saya had remained at the back at the doorframe, but he too had a purple glow. Then she spotted the cause, Coda hovering above them with energy pooling from his tendrils and bright comforting glow about him.

"What the hell is it doing?" Nel called out to Kayap.

"What the Huragok do best, helping!" Kayap cried back jovially. "They can generate shields in combat. It's the one time we ever actually get some protection in a fight!"

"Then let's use this to our advantage," Liara declared. "Press the enemy! But be mindful of the barrier. It's unlikely it will be able to hold up against too much fire."

Nel followed Liara's advice. While she, Wrex and Kayap took one side of the room, Nel and Vik would take the other side. With Saya providing sniper support, the turian rushed in straight at a sangheili and butted him in the face with the end of her rifle. She then fired a burst of rounds into the Covie before he could recover Vik followed suit using his overload to sap on sangheili of his shield before plugging him with two clean blasts from his shotgun.

As Vik set down a turret to lay down more fire, Nel closed in on her next target. Another sangheili, this one armed with dual plasma rifles. He opened up on Nel, pummelling the barrier Coda had provided. She rolled to the side, firing her assault rifle like mad. She then bounced back up and slammed into the Covenant Officer with the full force of her shoulder.

Meanwhile, Vik had targeted another sangheili this one armed with needler. He fired several shots at the quarian, who quickly ducked into cover to preserve his barrier. Vik's turret caught the Covie's attention though when it unleashed a barrage on the Covie. As the needles struck the offending turret, Vik jumped up from his cover with shotgun at the ready. As his turret exploded in a pink mist, Vik unloaded what was left his shotgun's ammo on the sangheili. The individual blasts tore right through the shields and then blew a hole right through the Covie's chest.

At the same time, Nel had her sangheili on the floor. She was attempting to pummel him to death, but the sangheili wasn't about to die so easily. He batted the turian off him with a single punch. Nel rolled to the side and watched as the Covenant soldier lorded over her menacingly. He aimed his remaining rifle at her, but she didn't give him the chance to use it. She kicked the Covie right in the sack. It didn't seem to hurt as much as she expected it to, but it did forced the sangheili to back off growling. She then pulled out her pistol and leveled it at the alien's head. She fired a single shot right through his skull.

As the Covie fell to the floor, Nel began to stand back up and brush herself off. As she did, she heard Vik call out to her suddenly.

"Behind you, Vid Trailer!"

Nel turned and then just as quickly ducked low. She barely missed getting decapitated by a sangheili's plasma sword as he came at her from behind. She fired at him at point blank range with her pistol, but it just bounced off the shield. Vik's shotgun, however, blasted right through the shield and perforated the sangheili in two shots. The sangheili slumped over dead against a wall.

"Nice save, Bucket," Nel thanked the quarian gratefully. "That was a little too close for comfort."

"Funny," Vik slyly told her. "I kinda expected more of a one-liner out of you just then."

"That was your kill, if anyone should be giving a one-liner it's you," she corrected him. "Besides, I'm saving my quota for the real fight at the relay. You can use yours though, if you want."

Vik awkwardly thought for a moment before blurting out the first thing that came to his mind.

"Uh, never bring an energy sword to a shotgun fight?" He said shrugging.

"Meh, okay I guess," Nel playful stated. "We'll work on that for next time."

The room was clear by now, so Nel and Vik rejoined the others at the central control terminal.

"You're up, Vik," Wrex told him authoritatively. "Shut those surface guns down already."

"No problem," the quarian assured. "Just give me a moment."

Vik began working to shut the core down. As he did, Coda floated over to him. He didn't take over for the quarian, but he did offer and extra set of hands or in the Huragok's case, tentacles. Vik let the floating alien assist and before long the core went silent. The electrical sparks and arks finally stopped.

"I've wiped the start up commands clean from the systems," Vik informed Liara. "They won't be able to turn it back on again without my newly installed authorization code. That should give us the time we need to shut the orbital guns down and for Aria to start her attack."

"Good, we best inform her of our progress then," Liara ascertained.

The asari contacted Omega's Queen through their secure line. She hoped Aria would be at least pleased to see they were making progress, but she doubted she'd get much for her efforts at this point.

"Aria, we've taken the surface guns offline and we're moving to the orbiting autoguns now," she informed her less than savoury ally.

"Good for you, but my fleet is reporting some significant casualties," Aria cautioned. "They've lost a few cruisers and a third of their frigates. The Dreadnaught has been hit hard too. All we've managed to do is severely damage one of their ships. My fleet has pulled back towards the gas giant and are circling it now. We can't delay assaulting the moon for much longer. Either those guns are offline when they come back around or I'm calling this off."

"They'll be down, Aria," Liara assured. "I promise."

"I don't like promises, only results," Aria warned. "Get it done, T'Soni."

Liara sighed as Aria terminated communications. It seemed they would have to push up their schedule or risk losing the relay forever. They needed to high tail it to the command room for the autoguns now.

---

Saya stabbed his sword into the door's crease and released explosive gel directly into the door's lock. He moved back slightly before detonating it, forcing the door to open with a loud ringing blast. Both he and Wrex took their turn heading in first this time and greeted the defenders stationed near the door. The unggoys ran in fear, leaving only a few kig-yar and their sangheili commanders to face the two.

Wrex blasted a hole clean through one sangheili with his shotgun, while Saya cut down the kig-yar with a few quick slashes. The explosion had shorted out their shields, making them easy prey. The first slash cut across the face of one the kig-yar. The second sliced another from stem to sternum. The third slash killed the final kig-yar with a diagonal cut across the neck. As Saya finished him off, Wrex charged at and kicked another sangheili down to the ground. He fired at point-blank range at the downed alien, blowing open the sangheili's chest.

Saya and Wrex moved into the control centre proper now. They went straight up the middle while Liara and the others took opposite flanks. Coda was still providing his barrier, but had shuffled himself to the back of the fighting. A good idea, considering how vulnerable he was without a weapon or any armour to speak of. Before long, the room filled with row upon row of command and control terminals echoed with the sound of plasma and gunfire from end to end. And Wrex and Saya were stuck smack dab in the middle of it all.

Saya fired his pistol ahead of him, hitting a kig-yar in the arm. As the alien lowered his shield in pain, the salarian closed the distance to cut him down. Plasma fire from a sangheili behind a control panel hit him, but Coda's shield protected him. Saya responded by firing back on the sangheili. The Covie backed off slightly, giving the salarian a chance to make a move.

He vaulted the control panel and dropped down on the sangheili from on high. The Covie grabbed the sword in his hand, making it miss his head. Saya turned on the electrical current of the sword in response. The sangheili was painfully shocked, his shield being disrupted with ease. The Covenant Soldier kicked the salArian off him, but Saya levelled his pistol at the alien's head as he flew back. He fired one shot on the unshielded Covie, hitting him in the head.

Wrex was more direct in his actions, charging down the middle firing off his shotgun. One sangheili took two shots from the Claymore, blowing off the alien's arm. Wrex next aimed at another, firing a carnage shot at another sangheili just as he stood up from cover. The attack hit against the terminal causing it to explode and send the sangheili hurtling to the ground end of end. Wrex began reloading his Claymore as fast as possible, his eyes still looking at the charred sangheili he had partially hit.

Just as he finished putting in a fresh thermal clip, another sangheili grabbed Wrex from the side and punched him hard. Wrex took the hit, but remained standing. The sangheili prepared to fire his plasma rifle at the krogan, but Wrex grabbed his arm, pushed it down and plugged his Claymore right into the Covenant soldier's chest before pulling the trigger.

He then tossed the limping body away, right into another sangheili coming at him from the side. Wrex used the distraction to charge into the sangheili full throttle. He slammed the alien against a terminal before grabbing him by the neck and shoving his head into a control panel's screen.

As Wrex continued to beat on the Covie, just to make sure he was dead, another sangheili prepared to fire on the distracted krogan. He would be too late to fire a plasma bolt though, for something long and sharp suddenly penetrated the back of his head. Saya had chucked his sword at the sangheili, electricity still running through it. The electric blade fried the alien's brain as it slice clean through it, instantly killing him.

Saya was about to go over and retrieve his sword and see about assisting Wrex more directly, when he was suddenly tackled from the side. Saya found himself pinned to the floor by a charred and smoking sangheili, no doubt the one Wrex had partially hit with his carnage shot. Although badly burned and severely injured, his armour blacked and bits of his skin coming off, the sangheili wasn't about to die without taking someone with him. With both of his scalded hands, he grasped at Saya neck and began to choke the salarian to death.

Saya struggled to remove his assailant, but he was not as strong as a sangheili. Even one this badly injured was too heavy and too powerful for a salarian to remove. Saya tried to reach for the pistol that had been knocked from his hands by the sangheili's tackle. It was mere inches away from his hand, but the STG agent couldn't reach it. He kicked and struggled, but the sangheili only laughed at his efforts to escape.

Then, something forced the scorched sangheili off Saya. A biotic hit delivered by Wrex threw the burnt Covenant Officer off the beleaguered salarian. The krogan quickly raced over to the downed sangheili, stomping his boot onto the alien's stomach before he could get back up. He then delivered a biotic punch to the downed Covie that broke the sangheili's skull clean apart.

As Saya regained his breath, Wrex walked over to help the salarian up. He reached down with his oversized reptilian hand. For a brief moment, Saya resisted, but inevitably accepted the offered help. Wrex pulled him to his feet, smiling broadly. He then walked over to the sangheili Saya had downed by throwing his sword at him. The krogan wrenched the blade free from the skull and handed it back to Saya courteously. Again, Saya accepted the krogan's gesture gratefully, taking the sword and placing it back in its scabbard. Wrex amicably nodded silently at the salarian and Saya nodded back in kind. They didn't need to say anything more.

The two regrouped with Liara at the central control console in the room. They had already cleared out the defenders. With the area secure, Coda was free to float back down and begin breaking into the systems for the autoguns with Vik. Once again, it didn't take long to initiate the shutdown sequence.

"There we go," Vik declared. "The orbiting defences are offline. Aria is free to send in her troops."

"Which means so are we," Wrex added. "I'll contact the Lucen and tell our people to get down here. We need to get moving already."

"Agreed," Liara concurred. "I'll contact Aria."

Wrex radioed their ship and Liara opened another line to Aria once more. She just hoped that they weren't too late. She was either expecting a pleased Aria this time or one tell her she was one her own. She got something unexpected instead.

"Aria," Liara began. "The guns are all offline. Your people are clear to make a landing run and your Fleet has free reign to manoeuvre now."

"Well that's real nice, T'Soni and I appreciate you moving so quickly," Aria began, sounding strangely annoyed. "But how about yout start explaining to me what kind of game you're playing?"

Liara was taken aback in confusion by the response from Aria. Was she too late? Had she failed to get here in time? No, it didn't sound like that, Aria would've contacted her earlier if that was the case.

"What do you mean game?" She asked, somewhat offended by the accusation, whatever it pertained to. "I've done what we agreed on."

"Then would you mind telling me why my Fleet Commander is reporting a second group of ships that just showed up?" Aria demanded to know. "Who else is on this job, T'Soni, and why didn't you inform me about them?"

Liara stood in shock from Aria's declaration. A Second Fleet? One that by the sound Aria's anger wasn't more Covenant ships come to reinforce the moon? Impossible, she hadn't told anyone else about this. Saya had reported their progress to the STG, but she doubted Kirrahe would've been able to come on such short notice and unannounced.

"I told no one about this mission besides my crew and you," Liara assured her. "Even if I had, why would've I hidden that information from you?"

"Well, if they're not here on your account then we seem to have uninvited guests to this party," Aria reasoned rather astutely, her anger subsided. "I'm looking at the feed now from my Dreadnaught's sensors. There is another fleet, just as big as ours heading towards the moon. They're engaging the Covenant and sending transports down to the moon as we speak. They must've been waiting for you to shut down the defences as well."

Engaging the Covenant? That should've been a relief, but Liara wasn't about to consider this new arrivals allies just yet. She needed more information, especially if they were about to send soldiers down to the moon themselves.

"What kind of ships do they look like?" Liara asked Aria. "Do they have any distinguishing features?"

"They appear human in construction from what my Fleet is telling me," Aria explained. "They don't look Alliance though, markings aren't right. I've ordered my people not to engage them and to focus on the Covenant for now. We might as well use the extra manpower to take those battlecruisers out of action. My ground forces are loading up now as we speak to launch a full assault, but it will take time for them to reach you."

"Then we best get moving to the relay now," Liara concluded. "Thank you for the information, Liara out."

As communication with Aria ended, Liara turned to her team once more. They were just as concerned about the sudden development as she was.

"Where did these ships come from?" Vik asked. "How did they even know how to find this place?"

"More importantly are they here to help or leech off all the hard work we did trying to find this shithole," Nel added. "Cause I'm telling you right now, if it's the latter, I am going to be so pissed off."

"We'll find out soon enough," Liara informed her. "But if they are here to take the Communications Relay for themselves, I have no intention of letting them have it."

Liara looked to Coda who was still at the console's controls.

"There's something I need you to do, Coda," she explained to the Huragok. "I think you're the only one who can pull it off in fact. Can you connect to the moon's entire defence grid from here?"

Coda merely whistled and cooed happily at the request. Liara decided to take that as a yes and smiled lightly at the Huragok.

---

Liara's team soon entered another airlock, which began its pressurised decontamination cycle once they stepped inside. As they waited for the doors to open again, the group noted that the airlock itself was different from the standard design. It, like the docking bay, was more angular and stately with a fine silver finish.

"You mentioned something about this place actually being a ship on our way here," Nel recalled, looking towards Liara. "You think these airlocks are part of it?"

"It was Vik's theory, actually," Liara replied. "As to your question, it would seem to be so. It certainly doesn't look like a Covenant ship. Although there are some slight similarities, I would imagine the Covenant's designs are simply derivative of this supposed ship."

"Either way, how could they hide it from the batarians?" Nel asked in follow-up to her previous question. "What cover story did the Covenant feed them?"

"They probably just told Balak these were here for security or decontamination," Wrex suggested. "My guess is the batarians just didn't really look into it all that much. They recognized the communication hub relay was important and left it at that. Something tells me though they won't appreciate not being informed about what this place really is after today though."

Liara concurred with Wrex's assessment with a knowing nod. Balak didn't strike her as someone who would tolerate being left out of the loop. She doubted the revelation would destroy their alliance, but if it created some much needed extra animosity then that was good too.

"So, if this is a ship we're inside," Kayap began. "Are we planning to fly it out of here?"

"It would probably be the best course of action if we want to get the Communications Hub to a safe location," Vik answered simply. "Of course, the Covenant have built their entire base on top of this ship. Getting it to lift off... might be problematic."

"We'll deal with that when the time arrives," Liara informed him. "Right now, we have bigger problems, such as our uninvited guests."

"How far do you think they've pushed into the facility by now?" Nel asked.

At that moment, the airlock doors opened and the sounds of gunfire nearby could be better heard. With Nel's question seemingly answered, the team rushed off in the direction of the gunfight. Coda kept floating after them, staying at a slight distance away. He was already providing barriers for the team in preparation for the potential coming fight. They ran through the twisting corridors only stopping when they came to a corner a few feet away. They could hear the gunfire more clearly now, it was just down the hall from them.

Liara peered past the corner and saw several unggoys and kig-yar running away in terror from a hail of rounds. One single sangheili came into view, his plasma rifle pointed to where the gunfire from the unknown combatants was originating. Suddenly his shields died and he took several rounds to the chest. Bloodied and riddled with bullets, the Covenant officer fell to the floor dead.

It was then one of the alien's assailants came into view. It was hard to tell, but Liara was sure it was a human. He was wearing what appeared to be armour similar in make to Systems Alliance gear, but it wasn't the same color. The helmet was different too, yellow highlights around the temples with a single red strip visor and a blank white faceplate covering the mouth.

At first, Liara wasn't sure what to make of the unknown human as he fired his weapon into the head of the dead sangheili. Then she saw the insignia on the human's shoulder, a squashed hexagon turned on its side with a small space cut into its bottom. It was flanked on both sides by what was best described as two misshapen Ls contorted to the hexagon's shape. Liara instantly knew what he logo meant.

"Cerberus," she growled under her breath.

Before she could properly inform the others, the Cerberus soldier spotted her and raised his gun to open fire. Liara ducked back into cover, along with the others, as the bullets hit against the sides of the corridor.

"Well, they aren't friendly!" Nel observed, preparing her rifle.

"Most certainly not," Liara assured the turian.

The asari stepped out and let loose a biotic throw that sent the Cerberus soldier flying into a wall. Unfortunately he was not killed, nor was he alone. His squad rushed in to assist him, firing down the corridor at Liara and her team. The two at the front hid behind small omni-shields attached to their wrists as they advanced, trying to keep their fellows behind them well covered as they themselves returned fired.

"Take them down," Liara ordered.

Wrex sent a shockwave rippling out to knock one of the Cerberus shield carriers down. Nel opened on the falling Cerberus soldiers along with Kayap, determined to make sure he wouldn't get up again. At the same time, Vik used his sabotage function to cause the second shielded soldier's gun to explode in his face. The quarian then fired off a blast from his shotgun that finished off the injured hostile.

With their protection gone, the two remaining Cerberus soldiers ducked into actual cover. Wrex fired off a stream of shots from his assault rifle. He hit one of the hostiles in the arm as they backed into small alcoves on opposite ends of the hall. Both of the humans fired on the krogan in return, but it would take more than a few shots from their rifles to put him down. Wrex did back off though and let Saya race down the corridor instead.

The salarian bounced himself off the enclosed corridor, avoiding the incoming fire before he charged straight at one the hostiles. With his sword pointed forward, he stabbed one of the Cerberus soldiers through the stomach. Still gripping onto the sword, Saya turned and fired several shots at the downed human's companion next to him. He landed several good hits on the Cerberus soldier's upper torso and one clean hit between the human's eyes.

With both Cerberus soldiers dead, Saya withdrew to cover, turning himself invisible with his cloak. As he did, a third Cerberus Trooper at the end of the corridor opened up with a stream of fire. He didn't stay to engage them though as he rushed off down the hallway and out of sight, along with at least two other Cerberus soldiers.

"After them!" Liara ordered.

The team raced across the hall, stepping over the bodies of the Cerberus soldiers they had just taken down. They found the remainders of the squad they had engaged already further down the other hallway when they arrived. Another of their number armed with a shield turned back to fire one them as his fellows kept moving forward into the facility. Two more joined his stand, lending their aid by taking cover behind some Covenant storage containers in the hallway.

With little cover for Liara's team to hide behind, Vik activated a pop-up barrier the Covenant had installed into the floor. He raced to get behind it alongside Kayap, while Wrex, Nel and Liara sought shelter behind a small alcove. Liara sent out a singularity into the fray, pick up one of the Cerberus troopers from off the ground. Wrex used the opportunity to fire a Carnage shot at the floating hostile and blew him into bits as he flailed about hopelessly.

"Keep hitting them," Liara commanded. "I'll make them easier targets for us!"

The asari used her pull ability from afar and sent it at a curve into the second Cerberus Trooper still hiding behind cover. The Cerberus Soldier was pulled into the open where Nel opened up on him with her assault rifle, riddling him with bullets.

That just left the omni-shield carrying trooper, who had obscured his less than protected legs behind one of the Covenant containers. Vik kept hitting his shield with shotgun blasts, but that was only to keep him pinned when he was. Kayap soon tossed a plasma grenade at the enemy. He arced it well enough that the little explosive attached itself to the top of the Cerberus Soldier's head. It exploded moments after, taking him out.

Suddenly, a shot rang out from behind their position. They all turned to see a lone Cerberus Trooper with his gun point at them. Then, he suddenly lowered it and collapsed to the ground. Behind him was revealed a decloaking Saya, his own smoking gun in hand.

"Thanks for covering the rear," Wrex complimented.

Saya only nodded in acceptance of Wrex's words as the others gathered around the dead Cerberus soldier. Liara's eyes were glued to the insignia on his shoulder pad, along with everyone else's. They all instantly knew exactly who these people were. All save for Kayap who was still new to this universe. He just stared oddly at the dead human. As Coda floated towards the group to rejoin them though, Nel was the first to introduce the unggoy to their new friend.

"Fucking Cerberus," she growled at the corpse, she then violently spit at on the dead trooper's back. "Xenophobic anti-turian scumbags, the fuck are they doing here?"

"They must be after the inter-dimensional communications relay," Vik was quick to postulate. "Cerberus only goes this brazen when they're after something. They'll shoot through and kill anything, or anyone, in their way, the bosh'tets."

Vik sounded almost as furious to see the dead Cerberus trooper as Nel. Liara didn't find it too surprising. A terrorist group spouting human supremacy was unlikely to appeal to him. Considering their history with quarians, specifically the attack on the Migrant Fleet ship the Idenna, that just gave him more personal reasons to hate them. It was probably what he was referencing just now in fact.

"But how did they find out about it?" Wrex asked, more confused than anything. "And why would they want it in the first place?"

"I'm not exactly sure about the how, but I have an idea as to the why," Liara informed her krogan friend stoically. "They want control over this hub for the same reason we want it, they want to find Shepard and the Normandy. They probably also wouldn't mind their own private off the grid network, like Aria."

"Who knows, they probably want it to spread their bullshit message to any other humans from the next dimension over willing to listen," Nel added. "Hell, it could be the first step in a little invasion plan of their own."

"Yeah," Vik was quick to agree. "Think of all they could do unmolested and unchecked in another universe where no one knows who they are? They'd still have to get by the Covenant Fleet blocking the wormhole, but with the right stealth craft they could sneak small teams past them to establish operations on the other side. They're just missing a line back home! This communications hub is it!"

Liara put up her hands to stop Vik before he went further.

"Let's not concern ourselves too much with the details," she informed them all. "All that matters is we can't let them take the hub relay. If we do, we miss our chance at contacting Shepard. We need to kick them off this moon and figure out a way to fly this ship out of here."

"They have their own little armada up above us," Nel reminded her. "How are we supposed to fly this thing past that?"

"We'll worry about that when the time comes," the asari replied. "Right now, we need to secure the inter-dimensional communications relay. Vik, get us the fastest route to the relay. I'll contact Aria, we need reinforcements if we're going to take this base and push them out."

It had seemed they had gotten rid of one problem only to be confronted with this new wrinkle. Liara knew they couldn't let Cerberus get this kind of power. It was now a three way fight for the inter-dimensional communications relay, and Liara had every intention of winning.

---

They followed the path the Cerberus soldiers had taken through the corridors. It wasn't hard to track them as they left a lot of dead Covenant in their wake. Mostly unggoy and kig-yar of course, otherwise they'd be having more trouble if there were more sangheili. A hypothesis proven to all when Liara's team entered a large living space and found the Cerberus Forces engaged with several dozen sangheili in black armour.

Taking advantage of the fact the two sides hadn't seen them enter; Liara ordered the others in cover behind what looked to be a console of some sort. They watched as the Covenant and Cerberus exchanged fire, both parties refusing to yield against the other. They watched as one Cerberus soldier's wrist-mounted omni-shield was unable to protect him from a cleanly delivered plasma beam shot fired by one of the sangheili. It burned off shooting arm before another shot blasted through his stomach.

Liara didn't particularly care that both sides were butchering each other, but she did care that they were between them and the inter-dimensional relay. The door leading to communications was at the very back of the room and past the raging firefight now occurring.

"Think we should wait it out or join in?" Wrex asked Liara.

"I'd prefer to avoid the fight altogether," she answered back. "While they're battling each other we can sneak by and get to the Communications Hub."

As Liara relayed her plan, one of the Cerberus troopers activated what appeared to be a small mechanical turret that hovered over his left shoulder. As he blasted away with his shotgun, the turret sprayed the sangheili forces with rounds. All it managed to do was kill a silver armoured unggoy rushing up with a fuel rod cannon. The heavy weapon went off as the unggoy fell, its shot hitting the ceiling and causing debris to fall down onto the field.

"Avoiding that sounds good to me," Kayap concurred, pointing his head towards the firefight.

"Problem," Nel was quick to point out. "How do we sneak by these assholes anyway? We don't all have cloaks like frog ninja here."

Nel looked back quickly towards Saya as the salarian stared at him.

"No offence by the way," she was quick to offer.

"We'll just need to try to be careful," Liara informed the team. "If we are spotted though, engage both sides. We can't risk Cerberus getting the jump on us again. Saya, you should cloak. If we do get spotted you can act as our trump card and get inside one of their positions."

Saya only nodded. Liara then looked for potential cover in the room to keep them out of the sights of both their enemies. She spotted a series of what looked like benches circling the center of the room. That could keep them well protected and get them closer to the exit. She waited for their moment and then waved the others to follow her. She vaulted over the console and hunched close to the ground. She kept her head low as she ran to the benches, the rest of the team following her example.

The hardest to follow the sneaking plan was Coda. He wasn't exactly built for stealth. All he could do was deflate his gas bladders to get him as close to the ground as possible. Then he had to crawl to keep up with the others. Liara was forced to wonder if they'd be able to sneak him by. At the very least, she hoped they'd get close enough to their enemies before they found out they had stumbled into their firefight.

As they pressed against their new cover, the battle between Cerberus and Covenant intensified. The sangheili spec-ops threw out plasma grenades at the Cerberus forces. The humans had no defence against such a tactic. Two of the grenades stuck to their targets and exploded. All the other Cerberus troopers could do was duck for cover and hope they weren't close to their comrades when they exploded.

The plasma blast of the grenades did offer Liara's team another chance to move up. They rushed to the next series of benches. They were now so close that the gunfire was practically ringing in their ears. It was so loud at this point that Liara opted to use hand signals to communicate to the team. They needed to stay quiet anyway, lest they tip off their entangled enemies too soon.

Liara searched once more for a way to move forward unseen, but could only spy a pillar nearby. It seemed they would have to sneak around the backside of the Covenant lines to reach the door. She doubted they'd be able to keep from being spotted going that way. It did open up an opportunity though, one that could allow them the upper hand.

The death of another Cerberus soldier, his body singed with plasma bolts, showed how badly they were fairing against the Spec Ops Sangheili. In her mind, this made the Covenant Forces a greater threat for the moment. Taking them out now, while they were still unsuspecting, could give them the opening they needed. They just needed the right plan.

"Nel, circle round to the flank of the sangheili," Liara whispered to the turian. "We're going to keep them focused on us until you're ready to strike."

"So take out the Covies first, huh?" Nel surmised. "Cool, but what about the human supremacists across the way?"

"Better to use them to help thin out the Covenant than have to take the sangheili on alone," Liara replied.

Nel agreed with that assessment and began to slowly move. She headed to the pillar, keeping her head down as she did. The Covenant didn't see her, thankfully. The sangheili were far too busy working on what they thought would be a major victory. They were about to be sorely disappointed.

When Nel was set up, Liara ordered the others to open fire on the sangheili. She shot up first, her pistol aimed at the closest of the black-clad warriors. She fired several shots at his head, lowering his shields before send a warp attack into his unprotected body. One final shot to the cranium ended the alien's life.

Wrex fired a carnage shot for his opening salvo while Kayap let off full burst of needles into another of the sangheili. The dual explosions mulched their respective targets. Vik let loose a turret at the same time and had the heavily armed drone spray rounds into the Covenant lines. At the same time, he fired off blasts from his shotgun, taking apart one sangheili's shields before he could react.

As the sangheili turned to fire on Liara's team, Nel tossed a cluster grenade into the Covenant lines. The explosion erupted among the sangheili, ripping a number of them apart and destroying bits of their cover. Nel followed up with a burst of rounds from her assault rifle. At the same time, Saya rushed in, decloaked and stabbed at a downed sangheili before moving into cover beside the turian.

The Covenant were quick to rally themselves after the devastating hit. They reconsolidated behind what cover was left and dropped transparent mobile shields to the ground to make up for what they lost. They returned fire on Liara's team, forcing them to duck back down into cover. Even with Coda's barriers, they were still enough sangheili standing to tear them apart with a few well placed shots.

"Can your overload attack take down those portable barriers they just set up?" Liara asked Vik.

"If I can stand up long enough to fire one off," the quarian replied.

Thankfully, Vik would get his chance. The Cerberus Troopers knew an opportunity when they saw it and began firing on the Covenant once more. Even with their diminished ranks of the Cerberus Soldiers, the Covenant were still facing two enemies at once. The human terrorists weren't about to ignore a chance to swing the battle in their favour once more.

One sangheili got hit with several powerful disruptor rounds from one Cerberus soldier. The rounds killed the shields first and then perforated him. One of the sangheili turned to charge the Cerberus lines, his sword out and ready.

However, he ran into a trooper who smacked him across the head with his omni-shield. It didn't do much but piss the sangheili off and he skewered the Cerberus soldier for his actions, but one shotgun wielding Cerberus soldier snuck up from his side. He blew the sangheili away with ease, unloading shot after shot before the Covenant warrior could turn around.

Liara didn't expect the Cerberus intruders to remain on their side for long. The second the Covenant fell, she fully expected them to turn on her. They couldn't both get the relay after all. She was confident she could take them though, but didn't want to force their hand just yet. They needed to focus on the sangheili, the far greater threat.

"Take out those portable shields, Vik," Wrex called out. "I'll cover you!"

Wrex fired on the Covenant lines with a mixture of assault rifle rounds and biotic shockwaves. Some sangheili were thrown sideways, others ducked down into cover. As the Spec Ops soldiers fired blindly back, Vik used his chance to overload one of the portable shields. Kayap himself fired and overcharged plasma pistol into another one. Together, the two shorted out two of the shields and gave Liara an opening.

She threw out a biotic throw into the mess of sangheili, tossing two of their number who were behind the now inactive portable shields into the far wall. As Nel fired concussion rounds into the mess of Covies, Liara next used a singularity to pick up the fallen Covenant. The sangheili fired back, even as they tumbled about in the air. Liara ducked slightly to avoid their shots and then returned fire. She unloaded her entire clip into the two sangheili, hoping it would be enough to put them down.

However, the Covenant refused to surrender so easily. A few of them from the back of the line suddenly pulled up to the front. They were armed with Concussion Rifles and wasted no time in opening fire on both Liara's team and Cerberus. With their cover getting pummelled, Liara knew staying where they were was a death sentence.

"Pull back to secondary cover," she ordered.

Everyone obeyed, red plasma falling about them. Nel and Wrex kept facing the enemy, trying to force the Sangheili Grenadiers to pull into cover as they fell back. Vik sent out his drone to try and run interference, but the little energy ball barely got out into the open before being hit with everything the sangheili had. Saya himself could only cloak and rush back, unable to offer anything substantial against the red plasma onslaught. Thankfully, Coda's barriers kept them all relatively safe until they reached better cover, but it was seriously close.

"We could really use some help right about now," Nel grumbled. "Where the hell are Aria's people?"

"No idea," Liara shrugged. "But we need to get back in there. You keep them focused here and I'll work around to their back again. I'll hit them with a full biotic barrage from behind."

"I'll go too," Wrex added. "I can double your damage."

Liara smiled as she looked at the krogan and readied her weapon. However, before they could put their plan into action, one of the walls directly behind the sangheili positions exploded inward. Rushing through the newly made hole, were a number of various soldiers in different types of regalia. They opened fire on the Covenant from behind, barely giving them a chance to retaliate. One vorcha, a flamethrower strapped to his back, laughed sinisterly as he unleashed a torrent of flame onto the sangheili.

"Well ain't that just like backup," Nel grumbled. "Always stealing your kills."

"Are you seriously complaining about this?" Vik asked her, cocking his brow at the turian.

"Not really, but I just know they're gonna gloat about how they saved us," she elaborated. "It wasn't like we were on the rocks or anything here."

The Cerberus soldiers that remained did not appreciate Aria's forces arrival at all though. They immediately opened fire, puncturing the vorcha with the flamethrower's tank and killing him when it exploded. Aria's forces looked for cover as the Cerberus Troops tried to pull back, they knew they were in no condition to fight fresh soldiers.

However, they soon ran into a second problem when one of the side doors to the room burst open. Pouring out were several Urdnot Warriors and ShadowNet Operatives. They rushed towards the left flank of the Cerberus, catching them completely unawares. Liara couldn't help but grin.

"Well, let's not let them have all the fun then," she told the others.

Nel answered Liara's suggestion with a hearty laugh and charged into the fight once more. The rest of the team followed suit, closing in on what was left of the Cerberus forces while Aria's people mopped up the Covenant.

Vik used sabotage to explode on trooper's gun in his face before overwhelming another's omni-shield with sustained shotgun blasts. Saya closed in and cut down another trooper with a stab through the gut. He then pulled the blade out, sliced apart another soldier's shoulder turret and finally cut through the human's neck.

Nel bum rushed one of her targets. She knocked him down with her shoulder before unloading rounds into him. Wrex just rammed through a shield carrier, crushing the human's chest when they slammed into a wall.

Kayap let his needles fly, sticking them on one hapless Cerberus soldier before he exploded in a pink mist. And finally, Liara, who used her singularity to pick up two Cerberus soldiers from behind cover before hitting them with a warp. The biotic detonation occurred shortly after, ending their threat for good.

The room was at last secure, all combatants had been felled. Liara wasn't kidding herself though. She knew Covenant resistance would be worse at the relay itself. However, with their forces inside the base now, perhaps they could even the odds a little. She turned to one of her ShadowNet Operatives.

"Scour the base with Aria's people," she relayed to him. "Tie the Covenant down and eliminate them where you can. The same goes for Cerberus, keep them away from the Inter-dimensional Communications Hub."

"Acknowledged, ma'am," the operative replied.

With that done, Liara's team moved for the door that would take them to the hub itself where their final objective lay. As they did though, Aria's voice came over Liara's comms.

"T'Soni, we may have a problem," she started. "Some of my forces have spotted more Cerberus troops moving on the Inter-dimensional Communications Hub from other corridors. It seems that little tussle my people just saved your ass from was a diversion to keep the Covenant's best people out of their way."

Liara chose to ignore Aria's slight condescension in favour of the greater task ahead. Cerberus was probably already at the communications relay now. They wouldn't be able to work it, not without Coda's data, but she couldn't risk them playing around with it. They could unintentionally keep them from securing it in the long run if they activated a security lockdown or something.

"Let's move, people," she ordered. "It's time to get what we came for."

---

At long last, Liara entered the inter-dimensional relay room itself. After all the twists and turns, the setbacks and wrinkles that appeared, she now laid eyes on their prize itself. The specifications they had found had said the device would be huge, but even those blueprints hadn't done the real thing justice.

The device took up most of the center of the room, stretching up high to the ceiling itself. There were several little control consoles and command stations around the device itself. She could only guess they were used to operate the unique machine. Wherever the operators were now, she couldn't say. They had probably been evacuated.

However, the array's relay hub wasn't just the large bulky central device. From what Liara could see, the relay and its command deck were positioned on a platform that seemed to just hang suspended in the air. Below the platform was a pit that extended down into the very bowels of the room itself. Liara and her team were on a smaller platform, the pit between them and the main command platform the Inter-dimensional Hub resided.

She could also see wires and entangled bits of equipment circling down into the darkness of the pit. The wires looked different from the rest of the room itself. They were also not of the same metallic silver sheen of the room. They appeared more atypical of technology she was familiar with. Perhaps the Covenant had jury-rigged it to supply the array power when they found this place. More and more, it appeared Vik had been right to guess that this place was a ship the Covenant found and not built.

Liara stopped gazing about the room and the device. She instead looked for the Cerberus Soldiers she thought would be here. She could hear gunfire, but didn't see the source of the sound until the Cerberus Troopers came around the opposite end of the device. They appeared frantic and in disarray, desperately searching for cover.

It was then she realised whom they were shooting at. The hulking, massive forms of two familiar aliens, Bash and Blast stomped into view through the hail of gunfire. The mgalekgolo brothers were engaging the Cerberus Forces without pity or mercy. The one Liara suspected was Bash, knocked one Cerberus trooper to the floor and then squashed him with a single hit from his giant shield. Blast casually fired a shot that obliterated three Cerberus soldiers before turning fire again at a fourth at close range.

"Oh great, these dipshits," Nel grumbled as she watched on. "Well, better Cerberus than us, I guess."

"Vorsa must've sent them here as a last line of defence against us," Liara reasoned. "Cerberus just ran into them first."

The blessing in disguise had spoiled the two mgalekgolo's shock value, but Cerberus' arrival was a stark reminder. They had never beaten Bash and Blast, ever. They had built up some experience fighting them, but never beaten them. Cerberus was now getting the first taste of the two hulking aliens' power and Liara couldn't help but think of their own failures in facing off with them.

She watched as Cerberus forces were smacked clean away, falling off the platform to their deaths or blown to bits by Blast's powerful cannon. The hapless human terrorists were making the same mistakes, their bullets bouncing off the two mgalekgolo's shields. Their attempts to circle around to one of the creature's backs were circumvented by the other mgalekgolo covering his brother. And when one Cerberus soldier got too close, he paid for it dearly.

Just like someone else Liara had known.

Liara's team had already learned these bitter lessons from before. She wasn't about to let the fates of these Cerberus Troopers be that of her team. Their goal was in sight, they just needed to take it. If that meant going through both Bash and Blast, then so be it.

"We need to kill them if we're going to secure the relay hub," she informed the others. "There's no other way."

"We're going to need a plan then," Wrex surmised. "They were always covering each other when we had to fight them before. We need to split them up, then crack open their damn armour."

"We got the firepower this time," Kayap suggested, holding up his Fuel Rod Cannon.

Everyone grabbed for their own heavy weapons at that remark. Nel held her missile launcher, Vik his Arc Projector and Wrex his grenade launcher. Saya had only his sword, but given what it could do that was probably enough. They had at least come prepared this time, but Liara was cautious.

"Yes we have the firepower, but we can't risk a stray shot damaging the array's hub," Liara reminded him. "Only fire if you think you have a clear shot. Let's also be wary of any new surprises. The Covenant has been using them as guinea pigs for all their genetic and technological advancements."

"Fine, but how do we get across to actually fight them anyway?" Nel asked. "We seem kinda stuck here."

Liara searched around for a way to cross, but it was Coda who offered the solution. The floating alien hovered over to a small terminal near the edge and used one of its tentacles to touch the interface. Within moments, a bridge of light appeared, connecting their platform with the main one. Liara tentatively touched the bridge with her foot and found it was solid.

"Incredible," was all she could muster to say.

"I'll say," Nel agreed. "Come on, guys. Let's go chat up my former oversized students then. It's time to show them why they should've paid attention back when I was training them."

The team moved across the light bridge, quickly taking up positions behind command consoles and control stations. Their first plan of action, separate the titanic Covenant juggernauts from each other and keep them from assisting the other in combat. A task easier said than done, considering how close they kept to one another.

"We should try taking up positions on opposite ends of the platform," Liara suggested. "That should divide their attention."

"Just give me a minute to get around them," Wrex said. "I'll get their attention no problem."

The krogan moved to circle around the hub and onto the mgalekgolo's other flank. Liara followed, motioning to the others to stay where they were. The plan wouldn't work if they all followed after all. Thankfully, their movements were still being masked by the Cerberus Forces as they desperately tried to take down Bash and Blast. Eventually, Wrex and Liara moved in on Bash's backside. The giant alien hadn't seen them and was too busy crushing a Cerberus soldier into the floor.

"Let's let him know we're here then," Wrex stated as he armed a frag grenade.

He tossed the explosive at the titanic Covenant Warrior. Wrex didn't expect the grenade to do much, but he did expect the explosion to be big enough that the monstrous creature wouldn't be able to ignore them. The grenade went off a few feet to the right behind Bash, rustling the giant alien's spines. The mgalekgolo turned slowly towards the explosion and eyed Wrex as the krogan shot a spray of rounds at his head.

"Over here, ya giant sack of worms!" He taunted the walking tank.

Bash bellowed at Wrex and started stomping towards his and Liara's position. He only fired a single shot from his cannon, exploding to the direct front of the two. They were forced to duck and then pull away as the giant Covie got closer. That was fine by them of course, as it meant he'd be further away from his brother.

Blast himself had noticed his sibling abandoning the fight and turned to follow. Knowing they couldn't let that happen, Nel fired a concussive shot that smacked the walking worm colony where his armour left his skin exposed. Although it was now covered in the Thresher Maw hide Charlan had given Blast and his brother, the hit was still strong enough to turn the trigger happy mgalekgolo's sights back onto them.

"Yeah, that's right shithead," Nel grinned. "Class is back in session."

"You're going to pump this teacher angle for all its worth, aren't you?" Vik asked her, only sounding slightly annoyed.

"Hey, you work with what they give you," Nel informed him.

Blast certainly believed in that sentiment. He charged his cannon to capacity and let off and huge shot that rippled through the air. Vik and Nel ducked back down into cover as the Covie's shot slammed into what was left of the Cerberus Soldiers. When the dust cleared, Vik, Nel, Saya and Kayap had the complete undivided attention of Blast. Not exactly an enviable position, but it was what they had wanted.

"Alright," Nel began, trying desperately to sound calm as they all ducked into cover. "We got this. I mean seriously, all we have to do is force him into a position where we can safely unload every rocket, fuel rod and giant ass artificially created lightning bolt on his ass. We do that, we got this made."

"Sure, sure," Vik replied, also trying not to sound too frightened. "I mean, there's four of us and one of him. That's good odds, right? What do you think, Saya?"

The salarian was peeking out of cover at the moment, but he quickly turned to the quarian. He pointed his hands in different directions and gestured with them. Nel just nodded at the STG agent.

"Oh, I see what you're getting at," she reasoned. "We split his focus! That stupid cannon of his can only fire a few shots at a time. We get him to target one of us and then the others just unload!"

Another shot from Blast rocked the platform. A huge green plume erupted just a few feet away from them. If they wanted enact their plan they would have to do it now.

"I'll go right, you and Kay go left," Nel suggested. "Saya can go all ghost-like and try to get in close. Hopefully these big fuckers don't see by sound or some other ninja shit that allows him to spot invisible people."

She then turned to Kayap with an earnest inquisitive look.

"Uh, they don't see with sound, do they?" She asked. "Cause I don't even know if they have eyes."

"You can sneak up on them with a cloak," Kayap assured her. "Can we just move before he blows us sky high?"

Another shot from Blast's cannon flew over their heads, striking the back wall. With that, the team split up, grabbing different positions along the platform while Saya went invisible.

On the other side of the relay platform, Bash charged forward at Liara and Wrex. He smashed through control terminals and consoles, barely slowing down as he forced his way forward. Liara and Wrex used their biotics together in an attempt to push him off course. A shockwave and throw attack caught the mgalekgolo off balance, but smashing into control console was the extent of the damage it did. Bash himself seemed relatively undamaged.

"We should try getting around him," Wrex suggested. "Even with Thresher Maw hide genetically grafted onto him, that space in his armour is still our best bet at killing him. We'll just need to hit it twice as hard, that's all."

"You have the heavier weapons," Liara acknowledged. "You move in, I'll try to keep him distracted."

Wrex moved to the side while Liara kept firing on Bash. Her rounds bounced off Bash's shield without effect as the giant alien moved towards her. As he closed in, Liara saw Bash's cannon charging up. Thinking quickly, she dived away as the cannon's blast ripped apart the control console she had been using as cover.

Before the Bash could follow up his attack by closing in on the asari, Wrex rushed in from the right. The monstrous Covie was a bit too big to be knocked around too much by the ramming attack, even by a krogan. Bash did, however, stumble off his path enough that he smashed into a control console. As sparks began to fly, Wrex opened fire at the space between Bash's armour. Wrex's Claymore's incendiary rounds didn't seem to do much against the Walking Tank's genetically enhanced hide.

They did seem to at least agitate Bash, as he reacted to the krogan's attack violently. He turned on Wrex, using his cannon to bat him away. Wrex slammed into another control console and Bash closed in to finish him off with a proper hit from his giant shield. As the mgalekgolo raised his shield to strike, Wrex fired a carnage blast at close range. It struck beneath Bash's arm, causing him halt his attack and pull away roaring in pain as he did.

Wrex quickly used the brief reprieve to get away from Bash. He returned to Liara, who had moved to a more secure control console section. Bash's composure had already returned and he placed his focus back on the two once more. As he approached, Liara fired a repeated spray of submachine gun rounds alongside Wrex's assault rifle. As some of the shots hit his head, Bash covered it with his shield and continued to press forward.

"Incendiaries hurt him," Wrex told Liara as he kept firing. "If we can burn those gene mods off him we might have a chance!"

"We should try getting away from the relay first," Liara told him. "Then you can use the grenade launcher on him."

The two were forced to duck down as one of Bash's cannon blasts cut through the air. It flew over their heads, just barely missing. Liara just had to take solace in the fact they had hurt Bash for now, that was a marked improvement over past encounters.

Meanwhile, Vik had dropped released a turret drone on Blast. The floating gun peppered the mgalekgolo with round after round, but all it did was seemingly annoy the giant alien. However, the turret was just a distraction. It kept Blast from noticing the others moving about to flank his various sides.

Opting for overkill as a solution, Blast discharged a shot from his cannon and destroyed Vik's turret. At that moment, Kayap fired an overcharged plasma bolt at Blast striking the mgalekgolo in the neck. Nel's position had placed the relay hub behind her, giving her the chance to use the missile launcher. She pummelled Blast's side with shot after shot, forcing him to turn his shield towards. That gave Saya, who had placed himself opposite of Nel's position, the chance he needed to fire a sniper round clean into Blast's back.

Blast let out a roar, stomping his foot down on the platform. He then raised up his cannon and it glowed with a bright green light. He then aimed the gun at Nel. Fearing his shot would endanger the relay hub, the turian made a run for it. She managed to keep the hub out of danger, but she would find it hard to outrun Blast's attack. For when the mgalekgolo discharged this weapon this time, it let out a sustained beam of plasma that cut across the platform.

Nel found herself chased by the beam and soon everyone else was abandoning their positions as well. As control consoles were blown apart, the beam singed a black line across the platform in its wake. Blast only stopped firing when Saya rushed up along his side and cut deep into it. The sword was unable to fully penetrate the thick modified hide, but it did touch a nerve when Saya activated the electrical current.

Blast halted his attack and swung his shield back at the salarian. Saya was forced to flip away before he ended up crushed. He then cloaked before Blast could aim his weapon on him. While he had only managed to annoy the mgalekgolo and not wound him, the attack had given Kayap, Nel and Vik a chance to pull back to safer cover.

"Okay, we need to rethink this," Nel reasoned. "That bastard's only real weak spot is his behind. We need to get an opening on that."

"What we need is a better distraction," Vik informed her. "He prefers to use that cannon rather than his shield. If we can get something close enough to him we can negate that weapon of his and force his attention onto it. My combat drone can do the job."

"Sounds good, just get that thing away from the hub," Nel requested. "Those missiles still seemed to hurt him a bit. If Kay, me and you can hit him all once with everything we have from our heavy weapons, I think we can bring him down. We just need to opening."

Back on the other side of the platform, Liara and Wrex were trying to find an opening too, an opening in Bash's armour to be specific. The giant alien refused to reveal his backside to either of the two, constantly moving about to block their shots. Liara attempted to make a move on Bash's flank, but he fired off his cannon as soon as she tried leaving her cover. She ducked back behind her console as a green burst of light flooded the immediate area.

"He knows what we're trying to do," Liara reasoned. "He's just trying to stall us long enough so he can get closer and finish us off the way he prefers to fight."

"Which is smashing things with that huge shield of his," Wrex concluded for her. "He'll only need one good hit from it to crack us open like eggs. What we need now is for him to point that slab of metal he's lugging around at something else."

"Or force him to stand still," Liara suggested. "I'm not sure how effective stasis will be on him, but it's worth a shot."

Wrex just nodded in compliance with the plan and opened fire on Bash to catch his attention. As the giant alien turned towards him, Liara popped up and flung a stasis attack at the behemoth. The attack worked at first, freezing the walking tank in place. Not knowing how long it would last, Liara rushed to find a better position while Wrex ran in an opposite direction in hopes it would split the mgalekgolo's focus.

However, as Liara was about to move into cover, the stasis field around Bash gave way and the monstrous alien was free once again. He spotted Liara immediately and charged at her. Liara vaulted over what had been her intended cover and began running through the mess of terminals and consoles along the platform. Bash merely bulldozed through everything, fully intending to flatten the asari beneath his feet. Liara eventually was forced to dive away as the on rushing titan closed in.

She missed getting trampled, but she also nearly fell off the side of the platform. As she moved her eyes away from the dark pit below she looked back to Bash, who was already intending on correcting his mistake. He closed in on the downed asari, while Liara fired shot after shot from her pistol. She was working up a biotic punch for when he got close, hoping it would be enough to knock him off balance so she could get away.

Then a concussion shot hit the menacing mgalekgolo on the side of his head. For a brief moment, Liara thought Nel and the others had finished off Blast and had come to help. The truth was different. Both she and Bash looked to see a small squad of Cerberus soldiers moving through the maze of terminals. They focused their fire on Bash, hoping to take the seemingly biggest threat down first. In a rage, Bash forgot about the asari and turned his attention to the human interlopers.

Bash smacked a broken piece of a console at the Cerberus Soldiers. They ducked down into cover as the broken machinery hit the top of some other terminals and bounced over their heads. Bash was now able to get even a closer and swept his massive shield across the area. He struck two Cerberus Soldiers and sent them flying through the air before slamming the shield down on a third's head.

Liara, however, now had a clear view of the mgalekgolo's backside. She wasted no time in exploiting that advantage. She rushed across the platform, her arm crackling with biotic energy. When she was close enough she sent a powerful warp attack flying directly into Bash's back. The attack connected directly with the Covie's unprotected portion of his backside. Even with the gene mods and thick Thresher Maw hide, the warp still managed to accomplish its intended purpose, tearing at the alien's body.

As Bash roared in pain, Liara unleashed a torrent of fire on the now hurting Covenant Warrior. She let her SMG pepper the suffering mgalekgolo, the rounds cutting through Bash's genetically modified hide. The Covie then suddenly turned towards her, his shield raised high. Liara at first didn't think she was close enough for it to do any damage, but she soon realised she was mistaken. For the shield suddenly resonated with a powerful aura of energy.

She backed away just as the shield came down and let loose a perfectly directed energy shockwave. It rippled across the floor, tearing through terminals and consoles. Liara barely managed to get out of its path and still found herself thrown sideways by the attack as she huddled in cover, her barriers weakened heavily.

The effect was similar to a biotic shockwave, but more powerful and certainly similar to a mass effect field. No, this was technological upgrade, something VykurCorp gave Bash no doubt. Now Bash's shield could generate an energy burst at close to medium range. Liara imagined it was particle beam based, the way it tore through the area. The attack certainly complimented Bash's preferred fighting style.

Thankfully, the raging mgalekgolo was once more engaged with the Cerberus Soldiers, using his new toy on them directly. Liara watched as he swatted the ground again and let the shockwave tear through the helpless human terrorists. However, she noticed this second shot didn't resonate with the same powerful glow as the first. Perhaps the weapon needed time to recharge to full power. They could use that to their advantage with any luck.

Meanwhile, back on the other side of the platform, the rest of Liara's team were still heavily engaged with Blast and his assault cannon. The lumbering alien did find himself constantly pestered by Vik's little combat drone. The roaming ball of energy continuously shocked and zapped at the giant creature's legs and back, destroying the walking sack of worms' concentration. Blast kept trying to swat the drone and end its nuisance, but the little ball managed to elude every shield strike.

"Maybe you should've learned to be proficient with all your weapons," Nel shouted aloud from cover. "That was my first lesson back in boot, dipshit!"

The turian launched two missiles at the mgalekgolo, one after the other. The projectiles struck blast in the side causing him to growl in anger and turn towards her.

"Hey, don't blame me," Nel told him cheekily. "You and your stupid brother should've been taking notes!"

Blast opened fire on Nel, who rolled away from the sustained beam of energy as it blazed a path over her head. However, while Blast was distracted by Nel, Vik fired a powerful shot from his Arc Projector. The attack surged through the alien's body, ignoring the protective thresher maw hide and injuring the mgalekgolo badly.

Angered by the quarian's attack, Blast prepared to fire off a barrage of shots at Vik, but found his attention pulled elsewhere when bullets started hitting him from the rear. Another squad of Cerberus Soldiers had unexpectedly shown up and were now firing on the giant alien with everything they had. Blast turned around and used the assault cannon's barrage he intended for Vik on the humans instead. Green clouds of super heated incendiary gel fell upon the Cerberus Troops, devastating the small squad.

"How many of these guys are in here?" Kayap asked from his hiding spot.

"Point is they're distracting the bosh'tet even more," Vik informed the unggoy. "We should hit him now, when his back is turned!"

"Way ahead of you, Bucket!" Nel declared, arming a cluster grenade. "Fire in the hole!"

The cluster grenade managed to land between Blast's feet and exploded moments later. The small eruption beneath the mgalekgolo ripped at the alien's armour and scorched his flesh. Blast hunched over as the smoke clear, his body smouldering from the attack. He was not, however, dead. Although injured, he steadied himself with his shield and kept firing on the Cerberus Troops that still remained.

"Damn, fucker is tough," Nel grumbled.

"He's still wounded," Vik shouted over to her. "Now's our chance!"

Vik rushed forward, his shotgun out and at the ready. He aimed for the unprotected space on Blast's back. Kayap backed Vik up by firing off needler shots on the injured Blast. At the same time, Vik started firing his shotgun off, hoping the powerful rounds would puncture the thresher maw hide. It seemed to work, as some blood began to trickle down cracks in the hide. The shotgun was cutting through.

However, as Vik was circling the mgalekgolo, Blast violently turned towards the quarian. He raised his shield suddenly in an attempt to crush Vik, forcing the shotgun wielding hacker to duck away. The shield slammed into the platform floor, barely missing Vik by inches.

Blast aimed his cannon at Vik as he fled, intending to finish the quarian off. Before he could fire though, he felt a stinging pain stab into his cannon arm. Materialising out of thin air stood Saya, his sword jammed deep into Blast's firing arm. As he activated the electrical current, shocking the Mgalekgolo with as many volts as the sword could generate, Blast screeched in pain. The giant alien swung his arm violently, forcing Saya to fly off. The salarian managed to land right side up, but slammed into a terminal as he skidded across the ground.

Blast did not counter-attack the thrown STG Agent. He instead curled up onto the ground, tucking his head between his arms. As he did, some kind of protective barrier activated over the Covenant Warrior's body. Saya watched Nel try to fire on Blast, but the bullets just bounced off the barrier. Saya reasoned quickly that their attacks had taken a toll and this was some kind of protective measure.

He didn't know what the mgalekgolo was doing while he was behind this impenetrable barrier. He just knew that Blast out of the fight for the moment. It was time to capitalise on that. There was no only one active Walking Covenant Tank on this platform and Saya could see it engaging both Wrex and Liara just a few feet away from him.

Liara was using her pistol in tandem with biotics to keep Bash off balance, while Wrex was firing his shotgun point blank at the alien's exposed bits between its armour. Bash thrashed around, trying to swat one of them away, Saya made his move. He rushed up to the massive creature, his sword scraping against the ground. When he got close, he leapt onto Bash's back, slicing at the spines as he landed.

Bash growled in pain and he began shaking his body. Saya held onto the giant's collar piece and quickly set to work. He stabbed his sword down along the mgalekgolo's back, activating the explosive gel dispenser. He sliced the sword up, covering the length of the armour's back plate.

Eventually, Bash's thrashing managed to throw Saya off of him. The salarian slammed against the ground and tumbled towards the edge of the platform. Saya stabbed the sword into the floor, successfully stopping himself from going over. As he forced himself to sit back up he saw Bash focusing on him directly. The salarian simply stared back and triggered the explosive gel.

In a spectacular explosion, the entire back plate of Bash's armour was blown clean off his body. As pieces of metal fell to the floor, Bash tried to keep himself standing by using his shield as a prop. He eventually stood up proper, but it was clear he was badly injured. The drops of orange blood dripping onto the floor made that fact clear to everyone.

Saya joined Wrex and Liara as they stared the injured Covie down. Liara could just see that, while his back was still covered in Thresher Maw hide, he was still horrendously exposed now. They had a bigger target and she knew just how to hit it.

"Wrex, use your carnage shot on him until you have an opening for the grenade launcher," she ordered. "Saya, keep him off balance. I'm going to hit him with warp. Now that his flesh is more exposed, hitting him with it should be easy. Move!"

The team broke up from each other, falling in to their assigned tasks. Wrex fired a carnage shot as he circled around Bash. The shot connected with his backside, forcing him to stumble to the side. Saya came in close and sliced at the giant's legs. Bash responded by trying to step on him, but the salarian was just too fast. And while he was distracted, Liara sent another warp attack straight into the square of the mgalekgolo's back.

As mass effect fields shredded Bash from the inside out, he let out a painful shrill scream. Several feet away, Blast heard the cry from within his protective barrier. He suddenly jumped up from his huddle, his protection deactivating. He spotted his brother in trouble, being pounded on by Wrex's carnage blasts and Liara peppering his exposed back with pistol rounds. Blast flared his spines and roared in anger at the scene before taking off like a bullet to help his beleaguered comrade.

On the side lines, Nel, Vik and Kayap watched as he closed in on Liara's position with astonishment.

"Looks like his little nap did wonders for him," Nel noted.

"He probably used the time in the barrier to heal," Vik reasoned. "We have to keep him away from Liara! If he's back to full strength they won't be able to handle him and Bash!"

Vik sent out his combat drone again to catch the mgalekgolo before he got too far away. The drone fired a powerful blast as the Covie's backside before circling around to his front. The drone then fired again, forcing Blast to pause for a moment and attempt to smash the drone. Vik then fired the Arc Projector again straight at the giant Covie, fully forcing the massive alien's hand and making him away from his endangered brother to deal with the other half of Liara's team.

At the same time, Bash stumbled further away from the relay hub. Wrex, now free to use his grenade launcher without concern of damaging their objective, unleashed everything. He fired several grenades at the giant Covenant Warrior, striking him with several explosions all at once. Pieces of armour fell off as the grenades ripped into Bash.

In a desperate attempt to strike back, the Covie raised his shield on high and began charging it to full power once more. He was intending to tear his enemies asunder with a final energy burst from his tech upgrade. Liara quickly noticed this and quickly took aim. She fired every shot she had left in her thermal clip at the still charging weapon.

"Shoot it! Shoot it now!" She ordered the others.

Wrex and Saya followed her lead, the former firing one more carnage blast and Saya using his sniper rifle to target the charging energy burst. The combined attacked disrupted the tech upgrade's charge sequence. Before Bash could figure out what was happening, his shield's tip was ripped from his arm in terrible explosion.

The embattled mgalekgolo dropped to the floor, orange blood pouring from its wounds. His body was smoking from the backfired energy burst and the walking worm colony himself could hardly move. Liara coldly walked up to the downed alien and stuck her pistol between the creature's armour until she could feel the barrel rest against the Covie's neck. Bash's featureless and scorched head looked up to the asari as she stared down at him.

"This one's for Ben," she told Bash softly and threateningly.

She expended one last shot into the downed mgalekgolo and the alien's body slumped to the ground, dead at last. However, as Liara stepped back, she was quickly reminded that they had only solved half of their problem. Bounding out of nowhere, Blast rushed towards Liara. He began swinging his shield at the asari as she retreated back. Blast didn't follow her however; he turned to his fallen brother instead.

The giant's rage seemed to ebb as he looked at his dead comrade's corpse. He poked at the limp head with his shield, murmuring softly as he stared at what had once been his lifelong companion. The orange blood pooled around Blast's feet as he stood dumbstruck by the sight before him. He kept prodding his brother, perhaps hoping beyond hope he'd wake up. Nothing came of it.

Slowly but surely, Blast's gaze turned to Liara. The spines on his back shook violently, as Blast let out a angered vengeful roar. He then slammed his gun on the floor twice. The weapon suddenly began to resonate with green smoky vapours that circled the cannon's fuselage. The green glow the giant gun gave off became almost blinding. He then aimed the weapon at Liara and fired.

The asari and her compatriots were forced to scatter as Blast unleashed a barrage of incendiary gel on them all. Liara could only assume this was another tech upgrade, something that had boosted even more power to an already devastating weapon. She could only assume particle beam technology had been grafted onto Blast's preferred weapon as well, increasing the destructive capability of the cannon tenfold.

However, upgrade or no, Blast's anger had blinded him to the fact he was now completely alone and even worse, surrounded. A fact he was soon reminded of though, for as he closed in on Liara, firing a sustained and terrible beam at her position, a missile struck him in the back of the head. Blast turned to see Nel, Vik and Kayap aiming their heavy weapons at the giant walking worm colony.

"You trying to skip out on my class, asshole?" Nel asked with a smirk. "School bell hasn't rung just yet!"

Blast merely roared in anger at the turian and readied his assault cannon to fire again.

"Hit him with everything we have!" Liara ordered from afar.

Wrex switched back to his grenade launcher, firing as many shots as he could at Blast. The Covie tried to turn to fire back, but was struck along the side by Saya as he rushed along his right. The salarian's blade cut deep into the alien's side, trailing blood as it exited. Blast remained standing though, even when Vik unleashed shot after shot from his Arc Projector as a follow up.

"Pop quiz, Blast!" Nel cried out. "What's the best strategy against a turian with a missile launcher?"

Nel fired three more missiles at Blast, the projectiles striking him along the backside, ripping out one of his spines.

"Answer: Prayer!" Nel informed him. "Cause that's the only option you got left, shithead!"

Blast fired off a beam at Nel. As the blast rocketed towards her, Vik pulled her out of the way. The two barely escaped the blast radius before it tore through what was left of their cover. Kayap picked up the slack though, firing a fuel rod cannon shot at Blast. The shot connected with the mgalekgolo's chest, burning clean through his armour.

"Keep hitting him!" Kayap called to the others. "He can't take much more of this!"

But Blast had no intention of going quietly. He fired off barrage after barrage, in every direction, forcing the groups to abandon their positions or being blown to bits. Liara was almost a little too slow though and found herself thrown from her cover.

Seeing this, Wrex quickly ran straight into Blast, firing a carnage shot at close range into the mgalekgolo's arm. The giant turned to fire on Wrex, but the krogan grabbed the burning hot assault cannon in his arms. He pulled away from his head as Blast discharged it. The searing heat from the shot forced Wrex to let go.

Thankfully, Wrex had backup. As Blast prepared to fire on the krogan, Saya charged in and stabbed the assault cannon with his sword. He activated the electrical current as he jabbed the sword deeper in. The attack caused small explosion that sent the salarian flying backwards. He crashed into a busted console, but Kayap rushed out and drag him into cover.

Liara had since gotten back to her feet and watched the fight unfold before her. Blast's cannon was now sputtering out incendiary gel all over the place, its green glow vanished completely. He banged it on the ground repeatedly, trying to get it working again. Eventually, the cannon activated again, although the impressive glow and smoke it was bellowing a few moments earlier were gone. Saya's attack had probably disrupted the overcharge upgrade. It hadn't left Blast defenceless, but it did take away his sudden advantage.

"Keep hitting him, team!" Liara ordered. "All together now!"

The group rallied around Liara's words and began firing on Blast all at once. Each hit blew pieces off Blast's armour and pushed him about. The mgalekgolo retaliated best he could, firing off disparate shots at his assailants. The team began hustling among the bits of cover about the platform, hoping to avoid the indiscriminate barrage. In the chaos, Liara could see Blast getting closer and closer to the edge of the platform. Each shot moved him back one step further.

She had an idea, one that would hopefully end this fight quickly and without further delay.

"I'm going in, cover me!" She cried out.

Liara vaulted her cover, a blue glow running up the length of her hand. Blast looked to take aim at Liara as she ran at him. He aimed to get a decent enough shot, but he kept getting thrown off. Kayap's Fuel Rod Cannon hit him along the side, tearing into his arm, while Vik fired another electrical burst from the arc projector, singing the alien's flesh. Nel set off a final barrage of missiles that impacted against the mgalekgolo's cannon. Blast discharged the weapon, his aim thrown off, missing Liara by a hair. The asari kept coming regardless.

Wrex fired another volley of grenades, setting off a string of explosions along the Covie's shielded side. Saya in the meantime fired a sniper shot that struck Blast in the head. It bounced of the helmet of course, but it still kept the walking tank from raising his weapon again. Liara now closed the distance between her and the giant, ready to set her plan into motion.

She sent off a pull attack along Blast's side. She didn't expect it to do much other than push him further back towards the edge, but that was all she needed. Next she sent a warp attack hurtling towards the mgalekgolo as the mass effect field still resonated around him. The detonation of the two biotic fields sent Blast into a disoriented stumble. With bended knee on the ground, he raised his shield up and rested his gun on it, intending to get the perfect shot on the charging asari this time. He fired the cannon, but Liara was ready for it.

She dropped backwards onto the floor and slid under the cannon shot as it flew over her head. She then let loose a biotic throw that struck Blast head-on. Blast stumbled back onto the very edge of platform, teetering on the rim. Liara stopped her slide and yelled to her teammates.

"Fire!"

One final barrage from everyone tore into Blast, blowing off his armour and shattering his insides. The force of the blast from everyone's heavy weapons culminated in him toppling right over the platform's edge. His massive form fell into the darkness below, a pained roared echoing as he dropped out of sight for good.

Everyone gathered around the edge of the platform, trying to see if they could spot the body from up here. They very much doubted he had lived, however. Not even a massive creature like him could've survived such punishment.

"Thus endeth the lesson," Nel declared.

"You done now?" Vik gruffly asked her.

"Yeah, I'm good," she sincerely promised.

The battle was over, but there was no time to celebrate. As Coda floated back down from the safety of the ceiling, Liara motioned him and Vik over to a manual console on the relay hub itself. It was time to do what they had come here to do.

"Vik, you and Coda get us into the system," Liara ordered. "As soon as we're inside, we'll try cycling the Normandy's communication frequency. With any luck, we should be able to get a hold of them."

"We may need a terminal," Vik cautioned as he began to work. "Try finding one we haven't busted yet. Otherwise we may need to hook one up."

"Hey," Kayap called out, waving his arms and pointing at one terminal at the far end of their position. "Is this one good?"

Liara walked over to the unggoy and saw the terminal in question he was pointing to. However, it didn't look Covenant. It was a circular pad with a small command console circling it. Liara wasn't sure what to make of it at first, perhaps it was part of the ship itself. A closer look revealed that it didn't match the design of the place. This was something different. Sure enough, she figured out exactly what this out of place terminal was just moments before it turned on itself.

Everyone turned to eye the terminal, their guns out and ready, even though it was unlikely the device posed any threat. They were all still wary from their battle and the sudden activation of the mysterious terminal did not ease their mind, nor did the image that appeared from it.

Standing in the center of the pad, was a well-dress middle-aged human man with greying hair, light coloured skin and piercing bright blue eyes. In one hand he held a cigarette, the other a glass of what was no doubt some sort of alcohol. He took a drag off the cigarette for a moment before blowing smoke back out. He was faintly see-through, but he wasn't a VI. This was just how someone looked when they were using a quantum entanglement communicator.

"Doctor T'Soni," he spoke, in a very matter-of-factly way. "It's been awhile since we last spoke. Close to over two years, I believe?"

"Illusive Man," Liara growled lowly at him. "Why am I not surprised to see you here?"

"I wanted to keep a personal eye on this mission's progress," he explained. "It was too important to simply let it play out entirely on its own."

By now the others had gathered around the pad and were giving rather disgruntled looks at the Illusive Man alongside Liara's own.

"I must congratulate you on your success," He informed them all. "My reports suggest my away teams within the base have been exhausted, your men and Aria's handiwork no doubt. It seems you secured the prize we all sought."

"Save your praises," Liara snapped back. "I don't want them."

"There's no need to get so abrasive, Doctor," The Illusive Man informed her politely. "After all, we're here for a common purpose."

"I sincerely doubt that," the asari replied coldly.

The Illusive Man let out a seemingly disappointed grunt beneath his throat. He looked over to the relay hub behind them all, a small smile edging onto his face.

"An impressive piece of machinery," he stated. "The ability to communicate across the fabric of reality itself, it opens whole new worlds, a whole universe in fact. It's no wonder these aliens defended it so fiercely. It's a far more powerful tool than any weapon could ever hope to be."

"Yeah, and we did all the work finding it," Nel was quick to point out. "So how in the fuck do you xenophobic terrorist shitheads know about it anyway?"

"Because they've been tracking us, Nel," Liara informed her readily. "The real question is for how long."

The Illusive Man just smirked at her.

"Please, T'Soni," he began. "Do you really think your quarian conspiracy nut was the only one with suspicions about Charlan's illegal experiments on unwilling slave test subjects? We had been monitoring them for awhile, until you decided to bust your way inside."

"How did you even know it was us?" Liara asked him, her question sounding more like a demand.

"It wasn't hard to acquire the security footage from the break-in," he answered readily. "Your quarian friend is good, but our technicians were able to recover enough of the deleted data to piece together a sum total of the events that transpired. No offence to your skills, Mr. Sajee, my people are just very good at data recovery. Let's just say we've had a lot of... recent practice."

Vik returned an icy stare at the Illusive Man, struggling to keep every nasty word he had to say inside.

"Once we realised your involvement and these strange new aliens," The Illusive Man continued, briefly pausing for a moment. "Well, we couldn't just ignore what was happening. The fact we later learned of a possible connection to the Normandy's sudden disappearance just made the matter even more pressing."

"Don't pretend you care about Shepard," Wrex growled. "Last I heard you stabbed him in the back."

"I did no such thing, he turned on me," The Illusive man corrected the krogan. "He was unable to take the necessary risks. It doesn't matter now though. The only issue is the fact he still has Cerberus property. While we may not be in agreement, I still believe Shepard will play a necessary part in the coming Reaper Invasion."

"Still holding out that he'll suddenly play by your rules then?" Liara asked, instantly laughing at the very idea. "I think you will find yourself very disappointed when the time comes."

The Illusive Man simply took a sip from his glass, never taking his eyes off the asari as he spoke.

"Your continued hostility is understandable, but unwarranted, Doctor," He explained to her. "If we did not take an interest in this endeavour, if we didn't track your movements, then none of us would've gotten this far."

"And how the hell have you been managing that anyway?" Nel asked, rather confused.

"It wasn't very hard at first," The Illusive Man elaborated as he swirled his glass. "Considering the mess you made on Noveria. It was a bit more difficult when you started striking at various targets across the Galaxy. However, when information leaked about Heritage Fields going up in smoke on Khar'shan... well, it didn't take a genius to put two and two together. Going to the heart of the Hegemony Empire? That's most certainly the type of crazy a former associate of Commander Shepard would do."

It didn't take long for Liara to put the pieces together herself.

"That disruption Vik encountered when he hacked into Rakavekyon's security," she quickly concluded. "That was you. You were hacking our feed. Watching everything we were doing."

"It wasn't too hard to accomplish," The Illusive Man explained as he took another puff from his cigarette. "Your ship is turian in origin and I'm very familiar with their communication subroutines. The tricky part was your quarian's secure connection feed though and disguising it as a small disruption. It is our luck I suppose that we have been analysing Mr. Sajee's code sequences. That made covertly entering his data stream far easier than expected."

"Next time that happens your wannabe technician is going to get spiked," Vik suddenly threatened. "Let's see you bosh'tets track us when your damn servers all explode in your faces!"

"I surmised you'd be the least appreciative of our spying, Mr. Sajee," The Illusive Man replied. "The fact is though, if we hadn't done so you probably would all be dead and that secondary Collector base would still be in operation."

It wasn't hard to figure out what the Illusive Man was referencing. The same frequency disruption from Rakavekyon had happened again on the station. It was clear to Liara that they had been close at hand there are well.

"You destroyed those banshees, didn't you?" She asked.

"Stealth fighters destroyed them, but yes, they were Cerberus," The Illusive Man answered casually. "When we saw you weren't heading immediately to the inter-dimensional array, we suspected there was more to the puzzle. We wanted to know what was happening in that station as much as you. So I had my people shadow you with explicit orders to make sure you made it inside. Thankfully, you did and we learned the awful truth. These new aliens and their anti-human crusade are connected to the Reapers. That is a wrinkle in things I take grievous issue with."

"Am I supposed to feel grateful?" Liara asked coldly in return. "You made us do all the hard work for you so you could then kill us and take the relay for yourself. You didn't do it out of charity you did it for your agenda."

The Illusive Man merely shrugged.

"My men may have been overzealous in their actions..."

"Oh, is that all?" Vik sarcastically interrupted the human. "Was that the excuse you used for what happened on the Idenna?"

"Or how about all the turians you fuckers have killed over the years with your little black ops and shit?" Nel asked. "Just more trigger happy jerks I suppose?"

"Let's not forget you killing an Alliance Admiral and trying to train Thorian Creepers to do your damn bidding," Wrex added. "Shepard mentioned how you kept trying to act like your hands weren't dirty. He didn't buy it for a second, and neither do I."

The Illusive Man's face turned sullen and disgruntled as the group berated him. He took another drag on his cigarette before properly addressing them once more.

"Given all you have done, I don't think any of you are in a position to criticise me," he lectured. "What my organization does benefits humanity and the galaxy at large. Whatever actions we take are meant for a benign end, regardless of what you think our ultimate motives are or the means we take to accomplish those goals. I don't need to justify anything to a paranoid hacker, a military washout, a struggling chieftain whose people barely listen to him, a voiceless racist, a simpering defecting coward or even a lovesick asari doctor."

Everyone just glared at the Illusive Man, but Liara's look was the coldest of all. She stepped up from the main group to look the human projection right in the eye.

"Why are we even talking, Illusive Man?" She demanded to know. "Are you just here to insult my team? Or do you actually have something of value to say?"

"I do have something to say, an offer if you will," he answered as he dropped his cigarette on the ground and crushed it with his foot. "The Covenant ships above the moon have already been destroyed by the combined efforts of my fleet and Aria's. I had intended to take this base for Cerberus, but I am willing to work with you. Simply allow Cerberus full jurisdiction over the relay hub and I will assist you more directly in fighting the Covenant and their unwitting batarian allies."

"And if I refuse?" Liara asked, crossing her arms.

"You don't have the option to," the Illusive Man informed her coolly. "I can blast Aria's ships out of the sky and simply send more troops down to the moon. You'll be overwhelmed eventually and I can just take the relay regardless. I'm offering you a chance to work with me instead if only because I recognize your resourcefulness, Doctor T'Soni. It would be foolish of you not to accept, you've only made it this far because we've been watching your back after all."

Liara just smirked at him, stifling a laugh.

"Is that what you really think?" She asked. "Because from where I stand, I believe we were doing just fine without you."

"Don't get cocky just because you've pulled off a few scattered victories," The Illusive Man cautioned. "What makes you think you can even help Shepard from your position? Even with your newfound occupation, your recruits aren't exactly... top tier."

Liara looked to her teammates briefly, before staring back at the blue-eyed man unwaveringly.

"They've done good by me so far," she steadfastly claimed. "I don't really see what you can offer me that I don't already have."

"Don't be foolish, T'Soni," The Illusive Man was quick to declare. "This ragtag misfit nonsense will get you killed. You can keep them on as your team, but bringing me in on this directly will give you Cerberus resources. They can more readily assist in your efforts, namely getting Shepard back sooner."

"Oh, but you don't want Shepard back," Liara slyly deduced. "I think I realise why you want this relay hub so badly. It's your best method at reconnecting to the Normandy again. It went AWOL on you and you can't recall it because they overrode that command protocol. But if you can work your way back into the ship's systems you can take over the Normandy manually. All you need is the proper access frequency and this hub to hack into the mainframe. Then you can force them to come back to you whenever they return through the wormhole."

The Illusive Man just looked at Liara with a grimace as the asari placed her hands on her hips.

"Go ahead, tell me I'm wrong," She insisted.

But he said nothing in response. His glowing blue stare did not waver and his expression only turned to a slight frown. He was done negotiating. The Illusive Man drank the rest of his beverage and exhaled deeply before finally speaking again.

"Give me the array, Doctor T'Soni," he said, trying to sound calm. "This will end badly otherwise."

"I don't think so," she replied confidently. "Vik, Coda, switch on, now!"

The quarian and Huragok obeyed Liara's command. While Vik typed up commands on his omni-tool, Coda plugged his tendrils into the remains of a nearby terminal. The Illusive Man could only watch with a growing sense of befuddlement.

"What are you doing?" He cautiously asked.

Liara just kept grinning widely. Moments later, Vik's head shot up.

"Power's been returned to the surface turrets and targeting parameters have been altered successfully," he informed Liara.

Coda just cooed happily as he floated back towards the group. Liara smirk rested a very satisfied position as looked at the Illusive Man.

"Your fleet is no doubt sending you messages about how the base's orbital guns are now back online," she explained. "And how, along with the surface turrets, they're all targeting your fleet. Attempt to send anyone else down to the moon and all they'll accomplish is making new craters."

The Illusive Man was suddenly looking to the sides of the QEC, obviously at whatever screens were near him. Eventually he sighed deeply and turned his attention back to Liara.

"You've made a mistake today, T'Soni," he warned. "Just like Shepard you threw away a resource because you're too damn stubborn to admit I'm necessary in the end. Your ego blinds you, just like him. Why you never got together surprises me. You're both so much alike in that regard. But if you think you're going to get far copying Shepard, you're in for a rude awakening."

"I'm not copying Shepard," she denied wholeheartedly. "I can't copy Shepard and I'm not trying to. Not anymore. I'm Liara T'Soni and that's the only person I need to be. Now tell your fleet to back off before I show you why that is."

The Illusive Man slowly activated his omni-tool and opened a channel.

"Oleg, the attack is off," he stated. "Return to base. We'll deal with this issue... another day. It's not like this array is going anywhere."

He shut down the omni-tool and looked straight at Liara.

"We'll be back, and we'll be watching," he warned. "Don't doubt that."

"It's your funeral," Liara shot back.

The QEC deactivated and the Illusive Man vanished from whence he came.

"I always knew the Illusive Man was real," Vik grumbled. "I thought he'd be taller though."

"Least we scared him off, for now anyway," Nel cautiously noted.

"He'll certainly try again. He won't give up that easily," Liara concurred with the turian. "At least he doesn't seem to know that this place is actually a ship. That gives us some time to cover our tracks and get out of here."

As Liara spoke, Aria came back over the radio.

"Hey, T'Soni, Cerberus is bugging out," she exclaimed. "I assume you had something to do with it, what with the defences coming back online and targeting them."

"Pretty much," Liara replied. "Is the base secure?"

"All teams report Covenant and Cerberus forces have been neutralized," Aria reported. "Now then, you have an idea on how we're going to hold this place?"

"I'll fill you in soon, just be happy to know that you'll get your share of the inter-dimensional array," Liara assured her. "We'll have it online soon, T'Soni out."

Liara looked back to Vik and Coda as she shut her omni-tool down.

"Best get back to work then," she informed them. "We need to contact Shepard and prep this ship for launch. Who knows when Cerberus or the Covenant will come back to reclaim it."

"We're on it, Liara," Vik assured, turning to his Huragok companion. "Come on, Coda. Let's hack in, scrub the system and get it ready for transmission."

Vik and Coda took off to finish their work while Liara eyed their prize. It had been a long road, but they had finally scored their first major victory. They had taken the Covenant's ability to contact their home away. It was a major coup and one they would exploit.

"We really pulled through today, didn't we?" Wrex said to her proudly.

"Yes, but this was just the start," Liara reminded him. "We still have to deal with the Covenant and the Hegemony's ultimate plans. We've hurt them, but now we have to follow up on it."

"We will," Wrex assured her, placing a hand on her shoulder. "After all, Liara T'Soni is on the job. She's kinda ruthless from what I hear."

Liara just laughed under her throat. She couldn't help it, Wrex's dry wit was too much sometimes. She was just glad he was here with her and that they had gotten this far together.

"Thanks," she told the krogan cordially. "For believing in me when I didn't."

"Don't give me too much credit here," Wrex told her. "You're the one who pulled this off after all."

She had, hadn't she? For a mismatched crew of outcasts and misfits, they had done alright. Maybe not like how Shepard would've done it, but they had gotten the job done in the end. They had beaten the two toughest adversaries the Covenant could throw at them and stolen a key piece of equipment. There was only one objective left here in this ancient alien ship for her to accomplish. It was the very thing that had started her off on this long journey in the first place.

"Alright then," she stated boldly. "Let's see about getting Shepard on the line then, shall we?"

"Let's just hope he's not in the middle of anything important," Wrex added. "You know, like, blowing up an enemy planet or something."

Liara rolled her eyes at the krogan's statement.

"You're starting to sound like Nel," she chuckled. "I mean seriously, blowing up a planet? When would that ever be something anyone would have to do in their lifetime? Honestly."

---

AN: If only she knew, well she probably will in a bit.

This has been a fun chapter to write as it allowed me to do a wide variety of battle sequences. That, and show the members of Liara's squad acting as a truly coordinated team. Oh, and I got to show Cerberus' forces before they decided to turn themselves into husks because their leader is an indoctrinated nutbar.

As an aside, I've been considering asking you all some creative questions, just to give you guys something to think about. For our first question, what human created media do you think the races of the Covenant would like if they weren't so hard up on killing us? So, imagine it's after the war, the Covenant is no longer out for blood and the individual races can go their own ways. What kind of films, music or entertainment in general from our history would the Covenant be drawn to? What would you introduce them to if you could? Flex your brain muscles, I'm interested in seeing what you come up with.

This wraps up Liara's portion of the story folks. Next time, we return to Halo and see how our friends there are going to get out of their predicament. Check out the profile for more insights to this chapter and remember review and maybe even edit that TV Tropes page when you got time. See you around, Readers.