Captain's Personal Log: Eagle Nebula, Imir System
Ghost Ship

I stared up above me at the millions, no, billions of pods hanging from the far off ceiling and down the walls. The lines of pods stretched as far as the eye could see. I glanced at Miranda who was also staring up at them, her blue eyes visibly wide in horror through the faceplate of her shiny black helmet. "They're going to target Earth!" My stomach dropped into my boots at hearing her voice confirm what I was truly afraid of. The people I'd grown up with were assholes, but I wouldn't inflict this on them. Bright sunlight glinting on metal, straining to reach the ground through the mountainous skyscrapers. Look up, view of the blue sky obscured by skybridges so the hard working people of the city don't have to see scum like me. Stench of chemicals and exhaust fill my nostrils, heat of the Texas summer bathing me in sweat as I inhale deeply, sighting down the barrel of my gun into a rival gang member's face. He was gonna do me, so I needed to do him. Law of the street, kill or be killed. Dead green eyes in my face staring into dead brown ones as I hesitate to put the lights out. "What are you doing, kill the son of a bitch already!" Adolescent male voice, cracks on last word. I fire the gun, body jerks, the dead brown eyes closed. A lank and mangy alley cat skitters from behind a pile of trash, skinny body low to the ground, frightened by the sound of the shot no one will ever investigate. But just in case, we take off running. Nearly stumbling over my own feet brought me back to the present.

Of course, this begs the question, why were they targeting Earth? I couldn't see the reason for turning my entire species into lab rats, which was what the Collectors' Modus Operandi had been up until now. Maybe I was missing something?

I looked over at Garrus to find the inscrutable, opaqued faceplate of his helmet pointed in my direction. He just shook his head. I looked back up at the ocean of pods. Behind my eyes, false memories of the Prothean's home planets scorched into unrecognizablity flashed across my mind, my helpful imagination providing me with images of Earth's skyscrapers shattered and her forests razed, using those memories as a jumping off point. That stupid alley cat that was probably already long dead being torn up by husks. The piles of bodies behind us that I was glad I couldn't smell through my suit and the startling information that the Collectors and the Protheans were one and the same didn't twist my stomach in quite the same way as the possibility of the Reapers harvesting the population of Earth for some nefarious purpose. I remembered the statues on Ilos. They looked nothing like the bugs the Collectors were. But then, only one percent of our DNA separated us from chimpanzees. What would humans look like repurposed like that?

"Move out. We still haven't found anything useful." Not for the last time, I had to wonder what the hell we were doing on this ship. Yes, it was the one that raided Horizon, but it looked like the pods that had once held the colonists were either empty and the bodies piled in corners, or they'd already been delivered to their intended destination. We had so far not seen any signs that the Collectors had even had a pitched battle with a turian ship. And where was the turian patrol that sent the distress beacon? EDI and Joker had found no trace of it.

I froze, however, when Joker and EDI told me that this same ship was the one that shot me out of the sky two years ago. My hand tightened on my gun till my arm trembled and my heart pounded in my ears. Not a coincidence. Not by a long shot. Garrus' hand on mine steadied me for a moment and I took a deep breath, his gesture had been subtle and quick and timed when Miranda was looking away. I was grateful for that.

"I have a bad feeling about this," I said to no one in particular.

"I hate it when you have a bad feeling," he muttered back.

"That just because they're always right."

He looked up at the ceiling, "I wouldn't say, 'always.'" I snorted.

When the Illusive Man showed his true colors, it wasn't a surprise, his method was. It was hamfisted and I'd walked right into it. Miranda, however, didn't seem to share my ability to add two and two. "No! The Illusive Man wouldn't do that! He... he just wouldn't!"

For one brief moment, rage cleared my head and everything suddenly gelled. Between heartbeats, my mind raced. My nerve endings on fire as I remembered the Reapers' wiping out the Protheans as if I had been there, thumpthump, my lungs collapsing as I struggled for oxygen in the silence of space, thumpthump, waking up on the cold slab of metal in a surgical theater, wearing only a hospital gown and dozens of new scars, thumpthump, an anonymous colonist standing rigid in a stasis field, only his his eyes able to move, only his internal organs still working, thumpthump, a child's beloved doll, abandoned on the ground, thumpthump, staring down at my helmet in my hands. Thumpthump. "Of course he would. Anything for a tactical advantage," I told her through my clenched teeth. I really wanted to put my fist through something. The bastard had gone too far this time. But if he hadn't, I wouldn't have known their ultimate target. But the Illusive Man had set us up with a fake distress beacon for no real reason I could discern, he had no way of knowing they were targeting Earth. Buried in the patterns, my ass.

"And here I thought I'd gotten my share of betrayal and attempted murder for this year," Garrus muttered, his tone wry, breaking into my rage. I forced myself to loosen my grip on my shot gun.

So, the trap being sprung by the Collectors, we had to fight our way out. Of course. Garrus and I, being the adrenaline (or whatever its equivalent in a turian) junkies we were, traded off shooting and beating back the husks that continuously attempted to flank us. Miranda stripped away armor and shields from behind us, her Tempest mowing down anything that approached her.

Harbinger, however, was getting on my nerves. The Reaper's consciousness continuously infested each bug just before it died and we'd have to kill it all over again. And its taunting! Each time that thing disintegrated, it meant we'd at least have a few more minutes with just the peaceful moaning and growling of the husks.

Then, we turned a corner and the blast doors came down and that thing from a nightmare that we'd fought on Horizon levitated straight for us. The data we'd downloaded a little while ago labeled the multi-legged and multi-headed monster a Praetorian. What it had in common with a Roman governing body, I had no clue, but it hit like a son of a bitch. I dodged its beam that took out my shields far too quickly. My HUD alerted me to more approaching husks and a few bugs and I swore. "Lawson, Vakarian! You keep those fuckers busy and I'll deal with this thing!"

A chorus of, "You got it, Shepard," and "Yes, Commander," echoed back to me. I turned my attention back to the floating monstrosity bearing down on me. I unslung my M-920 Cain. I just needed some distance to be able to get the shot off before the thing killed me. But it didn't stay focused on me.

I guess it was programmed, or something, to provide cover for the ground troops as they charged my team. The problem was my team was swarmed by husks already. I fired at it with the assault rifle I'd been slowly learning how to use. The thing's shields dropped and I almost cheered. Until it slammed itself on the ground and knocked Garrus out of cover. Then my HUD wouldn't lock on it so I could activate Charge to get to him faster. I launched myself over the wall and landed behind Miranda. "Keep the husks off me!"

"What the hell are you going to do?" she shouted.

She followed my gaze to where my eyes were drawn back to Garrus who was pinned out in the open with husks surrounding him. The turian spun and punched and hit with the butt of his gun, but when one went down, three more seemed to take its place. Just to add to his challenges, the praetorian's beam weapon was chewing up the organic deck, heading straight for him. But, I could now Charge at it. And I needed to do it fast so Miranda could help Garrus.

Miranda had other ideas, however. She looked back at me and I took my eyes off my friend long enough to watch her arrive at a decision behind those dark blue eyes. She dodged out of cover, ran past me and raced to another low wall. I felt the static charge build up behind my ears as her hand moved in her mnemonic for Warp as she ran. She flung the field at the monstrosity and it moved eerily quick to aim that devastating beam at her fleeing backside. "You help Vakarian, Shepard!"

I started to yell at her for disobeying a direct order, but the praetorian spun, its beam weapon tearing up more of the deck. I ducked as it swung over me, searing the wall behind me right where my head would have been, aiming for Miranda. She was too far away to rescue, but her actions made it so I had to place a priority on one of their lives and adrenaline and anger flooded my veins as I raced to Garrus, who was now the closest one to me.

I holstered my gun, knowing that in these close quarters, I was more likely to hit Garrus and deplete his already weakened shields and armor. So, I was going to have to touch them. I was glad I was in a helmet with a breather mask. They stank on Eden Prime and everywhere else I'd ever encountered them without a helmet. Rotting flesh, metal and the burnt ozone of unfettered electricity did not a pleasant combination make. Fortunately, I was also stronger than I used to be.

Garrus saw me coming and redoubled his efforts to fight free, including throwing one of the technological zombies over a cliff behind him. I grabbed one out of the group and punched it in the head, aiming for behind it as I was trained. The cranium caved in and I dropped it twitching to the ground and jerked another one back and repeated the process. Garrus continued to twist and punch the ones still surrounding him. I was glad these appeared to have a longer build up time before they let loose with that electronic attack I was used to from the husks I had fought before. One of them finally noticed I'd been punching my way through their mob and spun. It hit me, hard, against my helmet and rocked me back a few steps. It was at that moment my HUD decided to alert me to Miranda's waning health. "Fuck!" I kicked in the head of another husk rushing at me.

And then, suddenly, I was standing next to Garrus, panting. I glanced up at him to see his opaqued helmet looking down at me. I fought the urge to throw my arms around him in a hug. That was a bad idea in the middle of a battlefield. The fact that there were more husks rushing toward us reinforced that. I gestured in the mnemonic for Shockwave and a freight train of biotic energy raced away from us and tossed the husks like ragdolls. "Where's Lawson?" the turian's voice grated over my comm set.

Before I could answer, the lifesign readings in my HUD for Miranda flatlined and I realized she was out of the fight and didn't have enough Medigel to revive her in combat, she'd just be taken out by a stray bullet. The Praetorian spun and started heading for us. "Son of a bitch!" I unholstered the Cain again and Garrus and I ran up the ramp as the floating monstrosity edged closer to us. "Strip its shields!" I shouted at Garrus as we flung ourselves behind the low wall. Garrus leaned over and aimed his 'Tool at the thing. A shock wave of an EM pulse shot out of it and hit the thing hard. At the same time, I stood up and aimed the Cain at it, waiting for the charge to build up. I prayed it was enough away from Miranda that the blast wouldn't hit her, but it was a risk I had to take.

My heart pounded in my ears as the Cain powered up in my hands and the praetorian moved closer to us. "Shepard! Shoot it!"

The recoil from the gun as the huge round exploded from the muzzle rocked me backward and I felt something else hit me from the side and I slid into the far wall, the blinding flash from the sub-nuclear explosion temporarily blinding me.

I blinked and the world came rushing back. I was flat on my back with arms like steel cables pinning one of mine to my side, the massive gun and the hand that was holding it was wedged between me and the wall. Garrus' helmeted head and armored shoulder covered my face. He lay flat on top of me and his legs tangled with mine. He lifted his head, his silvered visor aimed in my direction. I grinned feebly, my ears still ringing, "Of course, this means you have to buy me dinner."

He laughed and ducked his head. "It'll have to be somewhere cheap. I'm afraid there's not a lot of profit in being a vigilante."

I had to laugh, too. "Get off, you're heavy."

His voice still held a note of laughter as he pushed himself away, "I don't think now's the time for that, do you?"

"Degenerate. Your mind's always in the gutter."

He laughed again and held a hand out to help me up. My levity faded when I realized, that in the empty chamber, we were the only signs of life. Miranda was still flatlined. Slinging the heavy Cain back into its holster, I broke into a run past the pile of ashes that used to be the praetorian and headed for where I'd last seen the brunette.

Her crumpled body in its shiny black armor leaned limply against the low retaining wall. The armor was no longer pristine, but singed in places and chipped and scratched from husks. I reached her and hit the command function on my suit that would override her safety functions and pump the last of our medigel into her battered body. I saw her eyes flutter open under her faceplate and breathed a sigh of relief.

And then I yelled at her, "What the fuck were you thinking, Lawson? I gave you a direct order! That is the last time you disobey me, got that?"

Her blue eyes flashed in anger at me, "I disobeyed your order because you're more valuable! You are far more important to this mission. I did what I had to do keep you alive!"

I rocked back on my heels and stared at her, "Miranda, I'm not a complete idiot. I did have a plan."

She shook her head at me. "I saw your plan, Shepard. It was a bad one."

"That's not for you to decide, Lawson."

"As your XO -"

"Can we have this argument back on the Normandy?" Garrus interrupted.

I glared at him and his blank faceplate met my gaze impassively. I was trying to decide whether to take him on, too, for his insubordination when Joker's sarcastic voice came over the comm, "Commander …any time now!"

"Acknowledged, Joker," I snarled back and glared at both my teammates. I stood up and hauled Miranda to her feet. "I will deal with both of you, later." We reached the door EDI hacked and the wail and moan of husks greeted my ears. Good, I can work off my anger. Shouldn't berate the underlings when I want to rip them limb from limb. Even him.

The husks helped me work out my irritation at Garrus and Miranda. Mostly Miranda. We pounded our way through them and a few more Collectors with that trash talking glowy thing that liked to call itself Harbinger spouting insults at us. I heard Garrus snort over the comms when it said his species was too primitive.

We made it back to the Normandy after a final sprint through a solid wall of husks. Panting, I stood in decon as our suits were scanned for microbes and other contaminates and cleaned and switched my glare from my XO to my old friend. "I'm going to deal with the Illusive Man. And then there'll be a debrief. After that, I will meet with you both individually to discuss what just happened." EDI announced we were clean and the airlock cycled open. I took my helmet off and jerked my head toward the open door. "Dismissed."

I didn't bother changing to speak to Old Blue Eyes. He could talk to me in my collector and husk blood spattered armor. Just because I was pissed at Miranda, didn't mean I'd forgotten the bastard's betrayal. Just like Akuze, a little voice in the back of my mind offered.