Shepard stepped off the shuttle, and into the Normandy's shuttle bay, followed shortly by Laura and Samantha, as they carried the tank aboard. Shepard saw Miranda and Jacob waiting for her, and she sighed as she approached them.

"Yes?" She asked.

"Are you sure it's a good idea to bring… whatever that is onboard?" Jacob asked.

"Okeer died trying to save it, so whatever it is, it must be worth it."

"Fair enough Commander, I hope you're right. Before you do anything else you should know Kara sent a communique. She's going to rendezvous with the Normandy, and she has intel she's only willing to share in person, and privately aboard the Dreadnought." He said as Shepard turned to leave.

Shepard hummed in acknowledgement. If Kara wasn't willing to share her findings over even encrypted channels, then it must be important.

She moved to the bridge, joining Joker. "Hey Commander, what's up?"

"The Dreadnought is inbound, thought I'd watch the light show."

"I thought Kara would have us rendezvous with her."

"Why? Her ship is faster than any other ship in the galaxy."

"I don't know, mind games or something, y'know? Like make people come to her and not the other way around, a kind of dominance display or something."

"I still don't know why she'd do that."

"Who knows why she'd do anything? People like her are scary."

Shepard huffed, but before she could respond, a massive flare of light appeared off the Normandy's starboard side as a wormhole was torn open, followed shortly by the gargantuan Dreadnought gracefully sliding through. Shepard watched for several seconds, then turned to leave as she saw a glimmer of light approaching the Normandy, a dropship carrying Kara, Rocket and Jack. As Shepard made her way through the bridge to the elevator, she noticed the anxiety present in the Cerberus crew.

It wasn't the first time they'd seen the Dreadnought, but what it represented to Cerberus was indeed frightening. A species that surpassed Humanity so vastly was bound to instill existential dread in most people. And to add to that anxiety, Kara had made it clear she considered Cerberus an enemy, and would eventually treat them as such. The only thing that kept their fragile alliance intact was necessity.

She took the elevator to the cargo bay, which doubled as the shuttle bay, and donned her helmet as the dropship entered. Kara waited for the bay to repressurize before opening the door, then followed Jack and Rocket as they entered the bay.

Shepard raised a hand in greeting before removing her helmet, then looked at Jack as she walked past. "You all good Jack?"

"Yeah…" The woman said, before brushing past Shepard, and entering the elevator.

"Is she good?" Shepard asked Kara and Rocket once the elevator doors closed.

"She's not as angry as she was before going to Pragia." Kara said.

"Yeah, she should be fine, but just in case, I'm gonna talk to 'er while you two catch up." Rocket commented as he moved to the elevator.

Kara looked at Shepard, and jerked her head towards the dropship. Shepard followed her into the ship, and crossed her arms as Kara shut the door behind them. "So? What'd you want to tell me?"

"Nora and Machiko accomplished their mission on Palaven. They retrieved a file on an individual that I believe is our "Illusive Man": Jack Harper."

Shepard took a step back as she processed that. "Are you sure?"

Kara shrugged. "Harper fits the profile I've built on the Illusive Man: Highly intelligent, with Alliance training and close ties to high ranking Alliance personnel, as well as a strong motivation to found Cerberus. Jack Harper was a colonist on Shanxi when it was attacked by the Turians, where he was trained to be part of an elite paramilitary unit, founded by General Williams to fight against the invaders. I believe that once the conflict was over, he used his ties to Williams to kick start Cerberus."

Shepard shifted her feet as she thought. "But are you sure?"

Kara crossed her arms. "There are photos of Jack Harper, but I've never seen the Illusive Man, so I can't compare. Here." Kara said as she turned, and entered commands into her Ancilla, then beckoned for Shepard to step closer.

She did so, and Kara twisted her arm so she could look at the display. Shepard scanned the face she saw, then nodded to Kara. "That's definitely him. Younger, but yeah. So… What now?" Shepard asked as she stepped back.

Kara sighed. "Knowing who the Illusive Man isn't as nearly as important as knowing where he is. For now, you and I will continue our mission, but I've already ordered Nora and Machiko to track down Jack Harper's known contacts, see what intel they can squeeze from them."

Shepard nodded. It was troubling, but not surprising, that the Illusive Man was ex-Alliance. And that went for a lot of Cerberus's recruits as well. Shepard scowled, the Alliance would have to clean house before they dealt with Cerberus. If theyeven could, there was no way of knowing how much of the Alliance brass supported Cerberus.

Shepard's train of thought was derailed when a sudden knocking on the side of the dropship snapped her back to reality. Kara slid the door open, and they saw Miranda on the other side. "Commander, there's a priority transmission from the Illusive Man."

Shepard looked back at Kara. "I'll be right there." She said, simultaneously gesturing for Kara to follow her. "Do you think we should let him know we know who he is?" Shepard whispered, so quietly only Kara could hear.

The Hunter paused for a moment, thinking. "I don't see any harm in doing so, but I also don't see any tactical or strategic benefit, aside from maybe possibly getting under his skin."

"And that's not worth it?" Shepard smirked.

Kara shrugged.


Rocket stepped down the staircase leading to Jack's hideout, intentionally jumping on a few so she'd hear him coming. When he reached the bottom, he turned the corner, and raised a hand in greeting as she spotted him. "Hey Jack."

She sighed. "What do you want Rocket?"

"I wanted to see how you were doin'."

Jack growled, irritated. "Do you want to fuck me? Is that it? Look, just say so or leave me alone."

Rocket scoffed. "I'm married, Jack."

"Yeah, because marriage means so fucking much."

Rocket sighed. "Listen, very carefully. I don't want to sleep with you."

Jack stood, and began to pace angrily. "Then what do you want!" She shouted.

"I want you to be able to live without being haunted by the scut you've been through. I want you to be able to sleep at night, and have a reason to get out of bed. I want you to be… ya' know, happy, or at least as close to happy as you flarkin' can be."

Jack looked like she was about to shout more, until her anger fizzled out, and she simply collapsed, exhausted. The two of them were silent for what felt like an eternity before she finally broke the silence. "What… What did they do to you?" She whispered.

"I don't know why the flarkin' scutheads did what they did to me…The first thing I can really remember, I was… I was on an operating table, and they… they cut my skull open, and had a bunch of crap connected to my brain. I could see the top half of my skull just… Lyin' on the table in front of me. I couldn't even scream at the time, they didn't… get to that part yet. They broke my arms and legs… or just legs at the time I guess, and reshaped 'em to look more people like. Eventually they got around to flarking with my throat, finally let me talk. The first thing that ever came out of my mouth was a scream. And they never, ever, used pain meds or scut like that. Like they'd be wasted on me or somethin'." Rocket felt himself start to sink into a "stress response" as Kara would call it, and he shut his eyes, breathing through his nose until his lungs felt like they'd burst, then released the breath slowly, repeating the process until he calmed down. "They'd still use anesthesia, obviously, 'cus me and the other subjects would fight like hell whenever they took us out of our cages."

"Fuck. How'd you get out?"

"One of the scientists, some flarkin' girl, eventually stopped seeing me as an experiment and more as a pet or something. After they were done with the experiments, she was the one who dragged me back to my cage. Every once in a while, she'd put treats in it, maybe every day or so, it was hard to keep track of time there. Never touched the flarking things, but she still put 'em in. Eventually, one night after the rest of the "doctors" went home for the day or something, she opened my cage. I have no flarkin' idea why she did, but she did."

"What'd you do?"

Rocket pulled his lips back, revealing his needle sharp teeth. "I jumped out of the cage and bit her throat open. I remember for a split second, she actually looked surprised, like, she couldn't begin to comprehend why I'd do that. Anyway, I took the keys and badges she had on her, and left."

"What about the other su-... prisoners?" Jack corrected herself before calling them subjects.

Rocket shook his head. "Most of 'em were… Well, the lucky ones were already dead, the others… there wasn't enough left of 'em to move, they hadn't been put back together yet."

Jack swallowed. What she'd been through was undeniably horrible, so bad she had thought nobody in the whole damned galaxy had suffered like she had, but after hearing about Rocket's past… "How did you… y'know, get over it?"

Rocket shook his head. "Well, I occasionally still have panic attacks, so I ain't exactly "over it". I just… learned to live with it."

"How?" Jack begged, her voice laden with a heartbreaking desperation.

"I… found a family, the Guardians of The Galaxy. Don't get me wrong, they were flarkin' idiots, but they were my flarkin' idiots, even if… it took me a while to accept that they actually did care about me. Having them, and Kara, people who not only accepted what I was, who I was, but loved me for it?" Rocket cleared his throat, and felt tears begin to drip down his face. "Knowin' that I had people who had my back, even when I was an ass, even when I tried to push them away, I wasn't alone anymore. And Kara…" Rocket sat down across from Jack, and closed his eyes. "When we met, the very first words she ever said to me, she was treating me like a person, an equal, and not some stupid thing. I was like you at first, thought she had some angle, that she was manipulating me for something, but no. She made it clear she always saw me as this brilliant, brave man that she was proud to call a friend."

Rocket shook his head, wiped at his eyes, and cleared his throat. "But I digress. Purpose, and family Jack. That's what helped me. And trust me, Kara and I are more than willin' to give you both. Anyway, that's all I wanted to say. And I know you'd probably think only a loser would do it, but if you ever want, you can talk to me about whatever you want. Believe me, it helps."

Rocket hopped off his seat, and started to leave, before halting. Deciding to take another page out of Kara's playbook, he turned, and placed a gentle hand against Jack, and gave her a soft smile.


Shepard entered the comms room, and waited impatiently as the conference table sunk into the floor, then stepped onto the platform in the center, and watched as the room around her faded, and she found herself in a dark void, with the Illusive Man silhouetted by a red sun behind him.

He snuffed out one of his cigars that always seemed to be on hand, then looked up to address her. "Shepard, we have a lead on the Collectors. We've just lost contact with the colony of Horizon. We won't get another chance like this again Shepard. Hit them hard."

"I intend to… Jack." Shepard said as she stepped back from the platform, smirking to herself as she saw a faint crack form in Jack Harper's mask.

"EDI?"

"Yes, Shepard?"

"Have Garrus, Mordin and Jack get ready, and set course for Horizon."

"Right away Commander."

Kara nodded to Shepard. "I'll have my fleet relocate to a low orbit around Horizon. We can't have that ship escape."

"Good idea. Time to get some payback for them killing me."


First Lieutenant Kaidan Alenko glared at the datapad in his hands, scowling at the readouts on screen. The AA towers that the Alliance had sent him and the recently promoted Master Sergeant Williams to install on Horizon had stubbornly refused to function properly, suffering from a bewildering assortment of glitches since they were offloaded. It made him wish that Tali, or Rocket were here. Both of them had a knack for tech, though Rocket's tendencies leaned more towards destructive ends.

Williams joined him near the center of the colony, her frustration surpassing even his own. Kaidan looked up from the pad, and caught a glimpse of a handful of colonists glaring at the two of them. The Alliance wasn't looked upon favorably this far from the core worlds, and Kaidan constantly felt angry eyes watching him as he and Ashley worked.

She turned, and scowled at the colonists as they left. "Pricks, don't they know we're here to help?"

Kaidan shrugged. "Place was nice and quiet until we came along, you can't really blame them for being upset when a bunch of strangers with guns showed up."

"We're the Alliance. This far out from the core, we're the only protection they have."

Kaidan sighed, and was about to turn his attention back to the datapad, when a deafening buzz filled the air. He and Ashley turned towards the source of the sound, and saw a black cloud of what looked like insects approaching. Ashley raised her rifle, while Kaidan simply stared at the encroaching cloud as it descended on the colony.


When the Normandy passed through the Mass Relay near Horizon, Shepard quickly took the elevator to the cargo bay where the Kodiak shuttle was waiting to take them to Horizon, and saw that her assembled team, consisting of Rocket, Jack, Kara, and Garrus and Mordin were already waiting. "Are you sure that the tech you came up with will work?"

Mordin blinked. "As sure as can be, given limited testing opportunities, but theory is sound."

"Well that's reassuring." Garrus sighed.

"Relax." Shepard said. "We'll be fine, now everybody pile in."


As the shuttle sailed towards Horizon, Garrus stared at the void surrounding the planet, before turning to look at Kara. "Why isn't your battle-group here?"

"The more ordnance that gets involved here, the more likely and worse the collateral damage will be. Besides, I'd rather hit them on their way out."

As the shuttle was about to breach the atmosphere, it angled into an approach vector to the colony, and roared to a stop nearly a minute later.

The doors opened, and Kara, with Rocket atop her shoulder, followed by Jack, took position at two and four respectively, and swept their weapons across the LZ. Once she was satisfied it was clear, Kara motioned for the rest of the team to exit the Kodiak.

As Shepard moved to follow Garrus on his way out, she was struck by an oppressive buzzing that permeated the air. She glanced up, and saw dark brown clouds swarming over her, and the colony. But none had approached the newcomers. It looked like Mordin's tech was working. The Kodiak lifted off after the Salarian stepped out, and proceeded to a stand-by position.

Kara's gaze followed it as it left, and she noticed the buildings nearby, realizing they'd provide excellent sight lines. "Rocket? Post up on the rooftops, give us some covering fire as we advance."

"On it." He said as he leapt off Kara's shoulder, and activated his aero-rig, as the others moved onward.

Even with Mordin's work paying off, nobody was eager to spend any more time surrounded by the Collector's drones than they had too, the team moved as quickly as possible through the outer edges of the colony. "So what's the plan?" Garrus asked as they advanced.

"I saw AA batteries on our way in. If we activate those, it should send the Collectors packing." Shepard said.

Rocket came to a rest atop the building with the best sight lines over the rest of the colony, and settled in. "What do you see?" He heard Kara whisper in his ear over the comms, her signal crackling with static due to the Collectors interference. Their close proximity, coupled with the signal strength of their comms still allowed for communication between the two.

"There's a lot of bugs down there, and there's still a bunch of colonists they haven't moved yet. Take a look for yourself." Rocket said, before connecting his HUD to Kara's, allowing her to see what he was looking at. Nearly two dozen hostiles, mostly Collectors, but there was one larger… thing, that looked like several Humans had been snapped apart and put back together all wrong.

Rocket heard a pause as Kara relayed the information to the rest of the team. "You all focus on the Collectors, but check your fire, don't hit any of the colonists. I'll take care of that thing; we'll move on your mark Rocket." Kara whispered over the comms.

"Got it." Rocket muttered as he adjusted his aim, focusing on the Collector that seemed to be in charge, judging by the way it moved through the platoon. He brought the targeting reticule to rest on the insect's head, and slowly squeezed the trigger.

A ball of plasma hissed as it sailed through the air towards it's target, striking the Collector in the center of its skull. Rather than simply fall to the ground as it should have, the insect's body disintegrated before it hit the ground.

Kara burst from cover as soon as Rocket pulled the trigger, drawing fire away from the rest of the team, and he heard her fire three rounds into the misshapen former human creature, turning the chitinous armor on its chest into molten slag. The thing didn't register the hits however, and it lurched towards Kara, raising its malformed arm. A series of biotic explosions detonated in sequence towards Kara. She dug her right foot into the dirt, turned, and dove out of the way, rolling back onto her feet, leveling her rifle at the creature as she did, aiming at its weapon. She fired, and the bolt struck the barrel of the weapon, melting it, rendering it useless. She lunged forward, clenching her fist, activating her ancilla's plasma blade, and impaled the creature, then yanked her arm upwards, bisecting it.

While Kara dealt with the Collectors monster, Rocket adjusted his aim, and began firing on the rest of the Collectors as Shepard's team advanced to cover before they too engaged the enemy.

He managed to take out four of them before the rest of the team got into position.

Shepard practically slammed into the wall of one of the colony's prefab structures she was running so fast, and yelled. "Jack, Singularity!"

Jack obliged, and her body flashed with biotic energy as she followed the order, pulling six more Collectors from out of cover and into the air, where they were quickly riddled with rounds.

Rocket adjusted his aim, focusing on the Collectors furthest from Shepard and her team, taking them out before they could get them sighted.

Shepard leaned out from cover, sending a burst into the chest of another Collector, blowing its rib cage open as its comrades began to retreat. "They're pulling back, keep up the pressure! Jack, hit 'em with a shockwave." She barked as she advanced, Garrus and Mordin close behind.

J ack growled, and began another biotic assault, throwing the retreating Collectors to the ground, where they were quickly torn apart.

While Shepard's team regrouped, Rocket remained atop the roof, scanning the area for more hostiles. Shepard spotted a terminal nearby, and gestured for Mordin to check it out.

The Salarian holstered his weapon as he approached the console, and tapped in several commands. "What is it?" Shepard asked.

"Terminal controls local AA batteries, there appears to be numerous glitches preventing batteries from functioning."

Shepad looked at Kara as the Hunter stepped closer. "Can you have Serina try to fix this?"

Kara nodded, and Mordian stepped aside as Kara removed Serina's chip, and inserted it into the terminal.

"Oh wow.. They really screwed things up here. Give me two minutes, and I'll have those batteries operational. But get ready, I don't think the Collectors will just stand around while I work."

"Got it. Everyone, dig in."

Rocket shifted, grumbling at the discomfort in his legs from crouching so long. He rolled his neck, and felt a slight sense of satisfaction as it popped, before he settled back into his firing position as the rest of the team took cover.

No sooner had the team gotten in position, than Rocket spotted a group of Collectors bearing down on their position, and with them was a massive four legged creature that, like the two legged thing Kara dealt with earlier, looked like it was an amalgamation of Human corpses.

Rocket and the rest of the team opened fire as the Collectors came in range, the combined fire killing the lot of them. But as the monstrosity drew closer, it raised its "mouth" and spat forth two searing beams aimed at Kara. She dashed to the side, trying to avoid the attack, but her shields were still clipped, and her HUD flashed red as her shields were drained to twenty five percent strength. She snarled, if just getting clipped did that much damage to her shields, the rest of her team would be ripped apart.

Rocket winced as he saw Kara's shield display in his hud, if she took another hit, she'd be out of the fight, and the rest of them would be in big trouble. He fired a five round burst at the creature, but its armor was too thick, and it turned to look at him. "Flark!" Rocket barked as the creature fired at him. He leapt backwards, breaking line of sight. The thing turned its attention to the rest of the team as he took cover.

Rocket snarled, trying to think of a way to take it out. It's armor was too thick, and its weapons would rip apart anybody that tried to get a shot off. Unless… Rocket scowled, unless Kara gave them an opening. He immediately opened a channel with the rest of the team. "I have an idea. Draw the things fire, then Kara, you knock it on its ass, that should give us a chance to take it out."

"Wilco Rocket. You heard him, get that thing's attention!" Shepard barked. Everyone began to throw everything they had at the creature while Kara moved to flank it.

The thing raised itself again, and everyone ducked back behind cover as its beams lanced towards them. Shepard felt the air around her reverberate as she narrowly avoided the attack.

The ground began to shudder as Kara completed the flanking maneuver, and charged the monster. It spun, faster than Rocket thought it should have been able too, and raised its front two legs, intending to impale Kara. She raised her hands as the creature brought its legs down, and it skewered her palms.

She growled in pain, but pushed forward, using her weight and height to push the creature onto its back. She pinned it in place, and the rest of the team began to open fire on the creature's unprotected belly.

It shrieked, and attempted to free itself, but Kara shifted her weight as it struggled, keeping it vulnerable as the rest tore it to pieces. Once the thing finally stopped struggling, Kara snarled and grit her teeth, and yanked her hands downward, splitting her hands open between her middle and ring fingers.

She snarled as she felt the flesh knitting back together, and moved to regroup with the rest of the squad by the terminal. Her sensors confirmed that there were no further contacts headed their way as Serina confirmed the AA batteries were now operational.

As the batteries began to swivel to target the Collector vessel, Kara felt the ground shudder beneath her as the ship began to lift off, and the comm interference cleared.

She tapped a command into her Ancilla. "Bring in the fleet now, disable the engines and focus on eliminating the crew."

She sent the order, and looked skyward, watching as the Collector vessel disappeared beyond the clouds. Seconds passed, then she received a communique confirming Battlegroup Artemis had arrived in system, and was engaging the vessel.

Many of the civilians around them began to move again, as the Collectors paralytic agent began to wear off, some looking for family, while others still stood frozen, processing what had happened.

Jack turned to Shepard, adjusting her grip on her shotgun to ease the weight. "We should get outta' here, there's nothin' left to do."

"I disagree." Kara said once she was in earshot. "We should see if any of the remaining civilians need our help."

"You really think that's a good idea?" Shepard whirled around in surprise as she heard a familiar voice.

Ashley Williams rounded a corner, followed closely by Kaidan. "We thought you were dead Commander."

"I was. Cerberus brought me back."

"So the reports are true? You are working for Cerberus." Ashley scowled.

"With, not for." Shepard countered.

"Is there really a meaningful difference? You know what they're like Shepard, what they've done."

"I know, but no-one else is doing anything about the Reapers, and I have to do something, and if that means working with Cerberus, that's what I'll do."

Kara placed a hand on Shepard's shoulder. "We should go. The Alliance can handle this."

Shepard was about to reply, but her shoulders fell, and she nodded. "Yeah… Let's get out of here."