War of the Old Ones

by Ian the Mechanic

In forgotten ages past, two near eldritch forces vied for the very life essence of the Galaxy. Unknown to the young races, that war is still ongoing. how can the UNSC, the Citadel Council or the Covenant hope to stand against such forces, when they are still embroiled in their own petty squabbling? How could they hope to survive the War of the Old Ones?

16. Chapter 15

"Arrival in Utopia system in ten seconds, standby for transition," Jo-Kar's laconic voice announced over the intercom as Jane stepped into the CIC.

She felt uncertain about the current mission. Not the actual orders, those she understood entirely; humanity hadn't succeeded and survived solely by scavenging the secrets of ancient dead races, so turning over the Prothean Beacon, or Bacon, or whatever, made perfect sense.

It was something deeper, like she could feel the turning of the age.

She shook her head. She wasn't living in one of the fantasy stories her ubaba used to tell her before-

The ship shuddered a little as it dropped down below the Light-speed barrier.

"With alarm, Captain, something's wrong. The comm channels are all silent."

Jane lurched towards the cockpit, making sure not to cut off Nihlus or Garrus.

"What's the situation?"

"Confused, Just as I said Captain, there are no transmissions from the colony.

"That's almost four light-hours away," Garrus mumbled aloud. "Can we turn one of our telescopes on the planet, so we at least know what happened?"

"We can do one better," Jane pulled out a small tablet and brought up a list. "Scan around the relay itself for a UTSG satellite; it'll show up as a small version of your Comm Buoys."

Garrus moved to one of the stations in the 'throat' and began working. "Okay, got it. Now what."

"Move over," Jane slipped into the seat as Garrus stood up. "Alright, Laser comm is-'' she looked around the alien controls until Garrus tapped an icon. "Thanks, alright, just have to tune the laser frequency, input Spartan authorization, aaannnd, got it!"

A picture came up on the monitor, showing the planet Eden Prime.

"We do have telescopes on this ship, you know."

"Yeah, but yours aren't in real time. Let's focus in, see what's what."

"Whoa-whoa-whoa-whoa, hold up, 'in real time?!"

Jane gave Garrus an aside glance. "We learned this from your tech. This is how your Comm Buoys work, after all."

Whatever argument Garrus was about to make, died in his mandibles as the image focused in. The orbit of Eden Prime was cluttered in space wreckage: a mixture of human civilian and military ships, as well as several unfamiliar designs.

"Can this satellite receive EM, or is it-"

"Just enter the frequency you need; as long as it's not EUV or higher, the transceiver will pick it up," she shifted over so Garrus could reach the controls.

A moment later, a series of warbling tones accompanied a list of ship names.

"This can't be right, that's half the Illuminated Primacy's Second Fleet! What are they doing here?!"

Nihlus growled from behind, "Starting a war, apparently. Spartan Jane, we need to let your High Command know-"

"They already do," she brought up a sub menu. "As soon as I entered my Spartan Authorization Code, the satellite began transmitting to High-Com. We can append a message if you want," she glanced over her shoulder, "let them know what you intend to do, so the Matterhorn doesn't come in and nuke us for being here."

The Specter typed a quick update onto his Omni, then transmitted it through the terminal. "Jo-Kar, bring us in as close as you can."

"Crazy idea, Captain, Jane," both looked over to Garrus, "can we take the satellite with us? I mean, depressurize the cargo bay, open the front loading ramp, and clamp the thing down so it's doing its real-time scanning thing while we fly?"

Jane was about to complain when Nihlus spoke up. "That would block the MACO from deployment, and we-"

"Done!" Jane barked out as she typed in a set of commands. "I just wiped all the secure protocols from the sat's memory cache. High-Com can replace it when they get here." She looked up at the two surprised Turians. "I fucking hate that Doom-buggy."

Garrus gave a half hearted buzz. "The MACO isn't that bad."

Jane stared him down. "It is, and you know it. If treason and espionage are the price I pay to never ride that thing again, then so be it!"

Nihlus clicked his mandibles for a moment before typing in a set of orders. "It should take no more than five minutes to secure the satellite, if you would lend a talon; then we can advance into the system at flank and find out what the hell happened here."

Once Jane was armored up, and the satellite secured, the Nierra jumped into Eden Prime's orbit. Jo-Kar showed off a bit by having them emerge directly between the wrecks of two Paris Frigates.

Jane looked at the wreckage in concern. "That looks like a run-of-the-mill Hyper-V impact, but that," she pointed to a melted scar in one of the hulks, "looks more like a Covenant Plasma Beam strike."

"Our own Thanix system couldn't do that," Nihlus buzzed over the radio. "It's a precision pulse weapon meant to disable specific systems. That was a continuous beam that cut through the armor and hull while the ship was moving."

Jane saved the technical detail for review and transmission later, as she scanned the orbital graveyard. "There," Jane pointed to a shape rolling in the distance, "it's one of the Yard Pelicans. Unarmed, but as long as it's intact, you can keep the Nierra up here and continue monitoring."

"Jo-Kar," Garrus called the bridge, "can you scan the Peli-can, to make sure it's space worthy?"

"Already done," Jo-Kar replied, as a detailed image came up on everyone's HUD.

Once the shuttle had been checked over, Jo-Kar moved the ship close enough for Jane, Garrus, Nihlus and Theris to safely board. He then moved to a slightly higher orbit to continue monitoring.

Jane frowned slightly at the stripped down cockpit. "Suddenly, this doesn't seem like a good idea."

"Problem?" Theris siddled into the second seat. "Nihlus shooed me up front so he could teach Garrus the secret Specter handshake or something. Turians love their ceremonies."

"I thought that was all done but the formalities?" The Asari gave a diffident shrug. "Huh. I just dislike these civy Pelicans; it's like flying naked."

"Aw, no guns?"

"No ECM or missile countermeasures. We're lucky this thing has Doppler Radar and collision warning systems." Jane smirked as the smug grin faded from Theris' face. Jane turned her head slightly and yelled, "Strap in, we're starting our descent."

Jane was morbidly thankful for the copious wreckage in low orbit, as she could use it to mask their descent. Once in low altitude, she cruised to the site the Specter indicated. There were signs of orbital bombardment at multiple locations, as well as what looked like crashed Hanar shuttles.

"Did they not get the memo that we were handing the Prothean Gizmo over to you guys?"

Nihlus openly growled. "No, they didn't; nobody did. Nobody even knew it was here, because the Council wanted to avoid something like this."

Jane bit down a bitter remark. It would be easy to blame the Citadel races as a whole, if she hadn't gotten to know the Nierra's crew over the last few months. They wanted, needed answers as badly as Jane did.

They crested a range of hills approaching the spaceport, when they saw it.

Theris latched onto the co-pilot's controls and nearly crashed them into a copse of trees.

"Report!" Nihlus all but hauled the Asari out of the seat as Jane landed them.

"I can feel it looking for us! It, grah!"

-BLAAAAANNNNGGGGGG-

The entire shuttle shook at the trumpeting sound, while Theris cowered on the cabin floor covering her ears.

"We're down and secure, Captain," Jane powered the shuttle down, then turned to look at her friend.

Garrus knelt beside the stricken Asari and rested a hand on her back. "Theris, what did you mean, 'looking for us'?"

Theris shifted until she was sitting in the hatch. "There was a, a wave, like a Biotic probe or an amateurish melding, but it was everywhere!"

"What," Jane asked as she looked out the canopy, "like a scanning beam?"

"No, this had intent, and malice." She looked up at the rest. "I had a close call with an Ardat Yakshi once; it felt like that, but infinitely more powerful."

"Maybe the Hanar built an AI," Jane looked over at the two Turians. "I mean, it does sort of look like a giant cuttlefish, so it fits with the Hanar's aquatic theme."

"Not a chance that's a Hanar ship," Garrus shook his head. "It may look like a Hanar, but it doesn't look like any of their designs. Besides, they'd drive themselves into a recession just buying the Eezo to make a Dreadnaught that could land on a planet, and everyone would notice that kind of expense."

"Maybe," Nihlus buzzed while he scratched a note on a small pad. "Here, Garrus; hold onto this." He headed into the shuttle's troop bay and collected his weapon. "We won't get any answers here. Garrus, Jane and Threris: I want you to head into the main dig site. I'll maintain overwatch."

Jane could see the tension in Garrus' face at letting his mentor go alone, but he dutifully saluted.

"Maybe we can get an edge," Jane commented as she headed back to the cockpit. "This jalopy might have nothing to defend itself, but it's got top notch comm gear, like a site-to-site Laser-Com."

She fiddled with the communications console for a moment. "Nierra, this is Away, how copy?"

With relief, Away this is Normandy; all signals cut out once you dropped below ten thousand meters. Adjusting to... shocked, What, is that? With growing alarm, How did we miss that?

Jane gave a bitter laugh. "I see you saw our new neighbor. We're about to scout the area; can you keep the telescope pointed at us? If it looks like we're about to trip over a trap, send a burst transmission; the Sat-Com should cut through whatever jamming that, that is putting out."

Hesitantly, with your permission, Captain.

Nihlus stepped forward. "Under Specter authorization, proceed as recommended."

He turned and looked everyone in the eye. "Let's get out there and find out what happened."

...

Jane, as always, was on point. She swept her Striker back and forth as they followed the ridge overlooking the main colony, silently wishing she'd grabbed her Brute Hammer on the way. The entire colony was eerily quiet. Every rustle of leaves made the three twitch. It wasn't just the nature of the situation; something was off.

-crack-CRACK-CRACK-

The three broke into a run at the sound of approaching rifle fire. They saw a pair of Spartans running out of a gorge towards them, one of whom looked very familiar. A pack of mutated cyborgs were close on their heels. Some of the creatures looked like the 'varren' creatures that Batarian's liked to use. Others looked like skeletal humans.

"Suppressing Fire!" Jane dropped to a knee and poured explosive rounds into the cyborg-zombie horde. Theris and Garrus broke left and right and began attacking the horde's flanks.

When Theris Warped a cluster of cyber-dogs, one of the Spartans hit the gravity well with a Biotic pulse of their own, blasting the gorge clear of targets.

"Friendlies, coming up," Jane called out as she walked towards the two.

"Copy," the second Spartan called, aiming down the ravine but eyeing the aliens.

Once they were close enough, Jane was sure of it. "Kaiden!"

The Biotic Spartan collapsed his Doru and shook her hand. "Jane, what are you doing here, and what the hell are you wearing?! I thought the Corps burned the last SPI armor in effigy."

Jane shifted her shoulders in the now familiar armor. "My exchange posting was assigned to pick up the Big-Dumb-Alien-Object you guys dug up."

"Then these two are..." the familiar sounding Spartan nodded to Jane's compatriots.

"Lieutenant Vakarian and Specialist Theris, of the CDS Nierra," Jane pointed to each of the aliens in turn. "Somewhere out here is a Council Specter named Kryik. Hopefully nobody will shoot him, since we can't exactly call him in."

"That won't be a problem," the second Spartan took off her helmet, confirming Jane's suspicions. "We're all that's left of the defenses in this area." Spartan Ashley Williams scowled at nothing in particular.

"What about local forces," Garrus asked.

Kaiden pointed to the ruined cyborgs. "You're looking at them."

Ashley sat on one of the rocks and glared at the shadow of the collosal cuttlefish ship. "Once that thing broke through the Battle Cluster, its allies started crashing on the surface. No attempts to land, just crashing. Then the monsters started coming out."

Theris looked towards the ravine. "You mean those?"

Ash started to stand while glaring at the Asari, when Kaiden put a hand on her shoulder. "No, but they were similar. Jane, you remember those floating things from the asteroid?"

Jane nodded, then brought up a hologram on her Omni. "The ships in orbit are apparently from the Hanar Illuminated Primacy; these guys."

Ash stopped glaring at Theris long enough to look at the image. "Similar, but there was more hardware on the one we saw. There were others with it: some kind of reptilian Sleestack looking bastards."

"Drell," Theris sighed. "They are a client race of the Hanar."

"More like slave race now," Kaiden looked at Garrus. "They were dragging these big spike-things with them. Once they got somewhere they could plant them, the floater started spraying darts everywhere. If you were hit, you were paralyzed."

Ash picked up the story. "Then the Sleestacks would run up, grab you and stick you on a spike Vlad Dracul style."

"We thought it was purely psychological at first, but ten minutes later," he pointed to where they came from.

"Did any of them try to communicate at all?" Garrus looked desperate for anything to work with at that point.

Ash shook her head. "With us, no. There was a big Sleestack the Floater would land on occasionally, and when it floated off the Sleestack would glow, then all the others would glow and start acting smarter."

"Thing was damn near impervious when joined," Kaiden looked at his Doru. "Once lifted off, the horde was, I don't know, smarter? Stronger? It fades after a little while, then it would do the whole 'Join-Glow-Separate' thing, and we'd start the whole process all over again."

Ashley stood up abruptly and began pacing. "They pushed us from the Tram station, all the way here past the dig site that way. Thirty soldiers, and any civilians they found along the way."

She rounded on Garrus, and Jane moved between them. "What the hell is your peoples' problem with us, huh?! You can't conquer us or enslave us, so you do this instead?!"

Jane was about to tackle the irate Spartan, when Garrus stepped around her.

"We, the Citadel Council, didn't do this; for the simple fact that we can't." He swept all three Spartans in his gaze. "Your people have taken cybernetics to a level some of our scientists still think is impossible, despite the evidence. We're decades behind you in that regard, to say nothing of doing full conversions in minutes."

"Then why-"

"We don't know," Garrus interrupted Ash. "Tensions have been growing between the Illuminated Primacy and the Council over the UTSG's very existence for the last decade. This mission was a secret both to prevent this," he gestured around them, "and to serve as a diplomatic 'in', to try and restore some semblance of amicable relations with the Hanar."

He pointed to the dreadnought. "The Primacy wasn't supposed to know about this, and they sure as hell weren't supposed to have a Super-Dreadnought.

"So my mission is clear: find the Beacon, find some clues as to what happened here, and try to prevent our two peoples from going to war. You can hate me all you want for the unforgivable crime of not being human," he stepped right up to Ash, "but don't even think about trying to stop me. You aren't nearly Spartan enough for that."

He spun on his heel and readied his rifle. "Are you coming, or am I going to save this planet by myself?"

Theris shook herself, shouldered her weapon and moved to Garrus' side. "Damn Ell-Tee, where were you hiding that Quad?"

Jane cocked her head, then nodded. "Spartans, weapons check!"

Kaiden extended his Doru, while Ashley put on her helmet and checked over her BR-55.

"Ash, on point, Kaiden, rearguard with me. Let's move!"

Passage down the ravine was relatively unremarkable, until nearly to the dig site. Ash ducked behind a fallen boulder, with most of the squad stacking behind her. Garrus scoped the site itself.

"No sign of the Beacon," he whispered, "but plenty more of those cyborgs... and two of those spikes you described." He sat behind the rock and faced the team. "It looks like three fists of your former comrades, and about half that many cyber-varen. I didn't see the other's you described, so they must have taken the Beacon. You said there was a tram station nearby?"

Ashley glanced back from the rock. "About half a klick west, but it's more like two klicks due to the terrain."

Garrus nodded. "Alright, Kaiden was it? You and Theris set up another Singularity/Warp combo over the densest group of cyborgs. The rest of us will clear the flanks. Good? Go!"

For all their differences, the two groups melded perfectly in combat, and the cluster of cyborgs were cleared in a matter of seconds. The spikes were thankfully clear of bodies, though there were plenty of signs of struggling.

"Goddess, were they impaled while still alive?!"

Ash paused in her salvaging of gear and dog tags to shiver and nod.

"Drag marks," Garrus called from a nearby path. "They can't have gotten far. Let's move!"

They encountered two more spikes on their ascent; these were in use, though the cyborgs fared no better than the last group. They were about to examine a small outbuilding when Jo-Kar sent a burst transmission.

Horrified, Nihlus has been shot. With great urgency, Lieutenant Vakarian, you must hurry. They were all bombarded with a HUD image of the area just over the rise.

"Who," Garrus barked, "who shot him? Titans damn you, answer me!"

-BLAAAAANNNNGGGGGG-

The squad was driven to their knees as the alien Dreadnought began to rise, then race out of the atmosphere.

"It must have detected the burst transmission," Jane wheezed out as she stood up. "Jo'Kar will see it coming. Come on, we need to move!"

The squad crested the hill and saw the freight loading area. The handful of straggling cyborgs were obliterated by Garrus and Theris, as they rushed down the hill.

Jane's helmet radio crackled to life for the first time since arriving on the planet. "Spirits, he's alive!"

The three Spartans covered the distance at a controlled stalk, none willing to risk an ambush. They arrived to find Garrus and Theris huddled over the body of Specter Nihlus Kryik.

"Chief," Ashley called, "the freight yard's been dealing with smuggling in the last year. I'll see if the surveillance gear survived."

Jane nodded, then turned to Kaiden. "Overwatch." The Biotic Spartan nodded, then leapt onto the building's roof, as Jane headed to Garrus.

"Lieutenant," she tapped Garrus on the shoulder.

"He's still breathing, but-" He gestured to the injury to the Specter: two gunshot wounds, one through the upper jaw, and one to the chest. The Specter's weapon was held loosely in his hand, with tiny specks of blue dotting it.

"Lieutenant," Jane said in a firm voice, "is he stable?"

Garrus shuddered. "Barely." He seemed to gather himself and realize the predicament he had placed himself in. "That was very unprofessional of me, wasn't it?"

Jane shifted her gaze to Theris. "Both of you, yes." The Matron looked even more chagrinned than Garrus, though Jane suspected she was still dealing with whatever the Dreadnought had been doing. "You need to keep better situational awareness in-"

Kaiden cut in. "Multiple contacts! It's the Floater Team!"

"Ash, Front," Jane barked as she and Garrus moved to the rail overlooking the Tram terminal. They could see the new horde below. Almost a dozen cyborgs were hunkered behind various pieces of detritus, while at the end of the platform was a huge glowing form. Jane could barely see legs under the bulbous undulating mass. Several tentacles flailed out for a moment, and both hers and Garrus' Barriers sparked at the impacts.

Ash stacked up behind them. "You need to be careful; that crap'll burn through active Panoply in a few hits, and the darts are probably monofilament cause they cut through armor like it's nothing!"

Garrus peaked over the rail, then ducked back to avoid a fresh spray of darts. "How do they handle Biotics?"

"When they're bunkerd like this, nothing we have can touch them," Kaiden came over the radio. "Once they separate, they're as vulnerable as any other troop, but we'll have our hands full."

"Did you have any Biotic specialists besides yourself?"

"No," Kaiden's tone was uncertain, but hopeful, "no we didn't!"

Garrus planted his back to the railing and looked at everyone. "When they separate, we," he nodded to Ashley and Jane, "concentrate on the mob. You two," he looked at Theris and Kaiden, "keep the Hanar busy and distracted. When they try to join, you pull them apart however you can, so we can mop up the Drell horde; then everyone pours it into the controller. Got it?"

"Yessir!"

"Move out!"

Garrus, Ash and Jane all hunkered behind the wall, while Theris snuck further towards the ledge overhanging the Controller Hanar/Drell pair.

"Now," was all Kaiden had to say, and the squad acted. Kaiden launched a warp that pulled the Drell Controller over its own mob, while Theris blasted the Hanar Controller with a throw that sent it fifty meters down the tramway.

The Drell mob reacted to the perceived threat by trying to scale the bluff towards Theris, when Garraus, Ashley, and Jane popped up and began hammering into the climbers.

Theris maintained a continuous biotic barrier that deflected the Hanar darts away from the squad, while Kaiden blasted shot after shot into it. The levitative nature of the Hanar meant that it was launched farther and farther down the tramway.

The mob was whittled down by half, when Kaiden's warp finally faded. Once on the ground again, the Drell Controler roared and leapt up to the Gun line; its phenomenal biotic barrier shrugged off all but a few bullets as it landed on Jane, toppling her over backwards. It slammed its mutated hook-arms into her chest and helmet, before it leapt again; this time towards Kaiden.

The Biotic Spartan was more than ready, as he smashed the creature with the butt of his Doru, sending it flying back towards Theris. The Asari in turn Threw the Drell back into the tramway, and onto the electrified rails. There was a flash of light and a crack as the cyborg burst into flame.

All of this distraction allowed the Hanar Controller to rush back and snatch up one of the remaining Drell Horde. The remainder of the mob retreated to surround the controller as they began to glow with Biotic power again.

"Well, that sort of worked," Garrus checked his equipment as Jane picked herself off the ground and retrieved her Stryker. "One more time I guess."

"Uh, Lieutenant," Theris called while backing towards the group. Everyone looked to the Horde, to see that it was now a single fused mass of limbs and tentacles.

Ashley stood up and fired a burst into the monster. "Well you know what they say: the bigger they are, th-whoa!" She barely ducked under a storage container hurled by the creature. "The harder they hit!"

"And the harder a hit it can take," Kaiden ran up to the rest of the squad. "There was barely any change in emissions in that Homunculus when you shot it just now."

"You said 'barely'," Theris joined the group, "not none?"

"What are you thinking," Kaiden looked over.

"Opposing asymmetric gravity shear, like a Disruptor Torpedo; you and I hit it with warps from two sides to rip it's barriers appart, and you three," she swept her gaze over the rest of the squad, "do what you do best: shoot it until it gets the hint and dies!"

The platform shook as a Cyber-Drell hooked its arms over the railing like fingers, and the Homunculus began lifting itself off the platform.

Garrus barked out, "Great plan, make it happen. Move!"

Everyone scattered for new cover, with Theris and Kaiden on the flanks, and the three rifles to the platform where Nihlus' body was laying. Everyone's shields sparked as the Hanar 'head' spat poison darts in every direction, though its advance was halted when the two Biotics started Warping it. It screeched a dissonant roar from a half dozen mouths as its Barriers and flesh began to shear.

The three rifles popped up and unloaded into the creature: Jane's explosive shots obliterating armor and pseudo-limbs, Ashley's BR tearing deep holes in dense flesh, and Garrus' precision fire burying deep into exposed tissue and organs.

The Homunculus roared and pulsed out a biotic blast. The rifles all ducked behind cover, while the Biotics weathered the storm.

"This is taking too damn long," Jane yelled as she activated an Incendiary Mod on her Stryker. "Kaiden?"

"Little busy Jane," he grunted. "This bastard's throwing everything it can at us!"

"It's all we can do to keep it pinned," Theris gritted out.

Jane looked around desperately, until her eyes settled on the fallen Specter.

"Ell-Tee, how good are you at improvised explosives?"

He glanced to where Jane was looking, and saw Nihlus' still collapsed Specter Master Model VII HMWSR Rifle.

"You owe me; keep that thing busy!" He low crawled over to the rifle. "This, what I'm about to do to this rifle, this is a crime!"

It took a minute to rig the gun's Thermal Decay Battery into a capacitance feedback loop through the barrel's magnetic coils and Micro-Eezo core.

He scuttled back to the firing line as Jane popped up to cover Ash reloading. "We'll have five seconds once I collapse this thing back down, then duck and pray!"

There was a whirring and a clack, followed by an ever increasing ear-piercing whine.

He stood up and threw. "Bomb out!"

The device smacked into the chest of the Homunculus, and magnetically adhered to some vestigial piece of metal on the creature.

Both Kaidan and Theris dropped their warps and dove for cover, while Jane activated a Phalanx Barrier on top of her, Ash, Garrus, and Nihlus just to be sure.

BOOM

Everyone stayed under cover until the Phalanx shut off. They all peeked over their respective cover to see a scorched crater, and scattered, swiftly decaying matter that might have been the Homunculus.

"Fuck yeah!"

Everyone jumped at Ash's cheer.

"Damn it Ash," Kaiden stumbled over to his comrade.

Jane shook her head, and finally noticed the large crack in her VISR. "No time to rest up. Ash, did you get that security footage?" Ashley nodded. "Good. I'm giving you the coordinates for our Pelican. Bring it back here and pick up the Specter and Commando Theris.

She held up a hand when Ash looked like she would argue. "This is Garrus' mission, so he has to keep moving. That leaves Theris to perform any triage that Nihlus might need. If we run into any more of those," she nodded to the crater, "then he'll need a Biotic with him, and that means Kaidan. That leaves you and me, and I have more experience fighting with both Garrus and Kaidan than you do."

Jane could see the scowl in the junior Spartan's posture, but also the acceptance. "Watch your ass out there. Fuck up and die, and I'll be the one writing your eulegy, and I won't be kind."

Jane walked over and shook Ash's hand, then nodded to both Garrus and Kaidan to follow her down to the tram.

...

"Bullshit," Kaidan shook his head. "There's no way someone made a worse truck than the Warthog."

"On ONI's grave, the thing is an ergonomic disaster held together by force of habit and spite."

"Your debate's going to have to wait," Garrus buzzed with nervous energy. "We're coming up on the next terminal, and I'm picking up a bunch of readings."

"What kind of readings," Jane asked as she shouldered her rifle.

"Active Prothean transmissions, and Gamma Rays and Neutrinos."

Both Jane and Kaidan winced as they checked their armor systems. It was good to know the Beacon was still nearby, but there was no good reason to be detecting Antimatter Beta-Decay at a shuttle port.

The tram was just coming to a stop when several Drell-borgs leapt from the upper mezzanine, while several of the converted human variety crawled down to the boarding level. Kaidan threw up a dome barrier, and all but one Drell glanced harmlessly to the side, and onto the electrified track. The lone survivor hunched down and began glowing brighter and brighter.

Jane and Garrus cleared the platform, and all three jumped before the Drel-Borg exploded in an EMP. The tram magnets lost power and crashed onto the rails, taking several cyborgs with it.

"I'm getting Gamma and Neutrinos from all over the place, so check your fire," Garrus cautioned as he began sniping cyborgs on the far mezzanine.

Without the Drell-borgs, the remaining cyborgs were simple enough to destroy. Once they had secured the platform and mezzanine, the three began looking for the source of the anti-matter readings.

"Found it," Kaidan called from the far walkway, standing next to a large cylinder.

"Yeah, uh... Garrus," Jane called from the far end of the opposite side of the mezzanine from Kaidan.

"Of course," Garrus buzzed in annoyance as he looked between a third and fourth cylinders. He gave the closest one a quick scan. "Don't try to disarm them yet; I'm picking up a short-ranged transmission." He swept his omnitool back and forth. "They're all synched and on a timer. If we don't deactivate them all at the same time, the remaining ones will detonate."

Kaidan gave a bitter laugh. "I wasn't planning on messing with the alien anti-matter bomb."

"So how are we supposed to do this," Jane growled, "there's four bombs and three of us!"

Garrus typed madly on his omni for a moment. "Okay, Kaidan, do you have an Omni-tool?"

"My armor includes a lot of the functions you guys use Omni-tools for; what do you need?"

Garrus huffed. "I need a microframe computer that can interface with Citadel tech."

Kaidan cocked his head for a second. "Bubo says to send whatever program you have; we've... encountered Citadel tech enough times for her to parse it out."

Garrus frowned and looked at Jane. "Bubo?" She tapped her helmet. Garrus nodded and fought down a grimace. "Right, a paired AI. Alright, I'm sending you both a program that should disable the devices. I just have to spoof the transmission before you start."

Once he had the programs written and sent out, he readied the signal jammer. "Once I trigger this, we'll have about thirty seconds before last bomb corrects. Everyone ready?"

Both Spatans signaled ready.

"Now!"

It took a few seconds for his disarm program to take effect, and then he was sprinting for the last bomb, when-

"Contact Rear!"

"GRAWEEAH!"

"We've got this; go!"

Garrus skidded on his belly right up to the last bomb and triggered his disarm. He got the all clear from his Omni-tool and rolled over while drawing his sniper rifle.

"Pull!" Kaidan biotically threw the last cyborg over the tramway, and both Garrus and Jane unloaded into it.

"Clear rear!"

"Clear front!"

Garrus swept his scope across the area. "All clear." They all looked up at the sound of the Pelican approaching them.

With concern, Nierra to ground team, please respond.

Garrus heaved a sigh and put his rifle away. "This is the ground team, go ahead Nierra."

With relief, It is so good to hear your voice Lieutenant. We barely evaded the Hanar Superdreadnought, when it broke off and jumped. How are things down there? Everyone could hear the unasked question, 'how was the Specter'.

"Just mopping up now. Ping Theris, she should be in the Pelican with Nihlus and the second Spartan."

Once he had confirmation that Jo'Kar would be landing nearby, he turned to Jane and Kaidan. "Alright, let's secure the Beacon for transport."

They moved off the platform to a freight transfer area dotted by crates and boxes, and a single alien spire glowing with green energy.

"It, uh, wasn't doing that earlier," Kaidan hung back while Jane and Garrus edged closer.

"You ever see this before, El-Tee?"

Garrus chuffed a buzzing laugh. "I've never seen a Beacon in person before."

Kaidan came up to the other two. "Maybe the Hanar did something to it?"

"And left it here with you 'infidels'? Unlikely." Garrus buzzed with uncertainty. "This makes no sense; why risk war by coming here and attacking, then just leave the Beacon behind?"

Jane put her weapon away and walked up to the beacon as Ash and the Pelican moved overhead. "Well, whatever their reasoning, they left it here and it's our job to retrieve it. Let's-WHOA!"

Jane was lifted off the ground by a tendril of green energy. She felt a headache start to form, when she was knocked to the side. She rolled to her feet to see Garrus, writhing and screaming in the Beacon's verdant grasp. Kaidan was glowing with biotic power as he tried to pull Garrus loose.

Jane had just gotten back on her feet, when the Beacon exploded.

...

Shipmaster Thel Vadamee walked through the halls of the sacred Forerunner facility on the edge of the system. The Luminary aboard his flagship had flagged the seemingly innocuous rock as he sought a method to penetrate the system. He'd immediately deployed a Corvette to recon the site. The commander had in turn liberated the station from human 'occupation'.

He glanced around, and saw many signs of conflict, but nothing he'd call a fight. The few humans aboard had seemed to be more akin to the Hugarok, than to any warrior race. While the Pious Covenant in him recoiled at the thought of Humans pawing at the secrets of the blessed Forerunners, the Warrior in him was dismayed at the carnage he saw. He had only seen one human weapon since arriving, yet dozens of dead were scattered around.

He shook his head in dismay at the needless waste. This is not the Warriors way.

"Fleetmaster," one of his guards jogged up to him, "Shipmaster Barutamee reports that the humans managed to send a transmission towards the human world."

Thel tensed as he considered the words. "You say 'towards', not 'to'."

"Yes Fleetmaster: a site to site unaugmented laser transmission. The computer equipment was destroyed, but the physical gear is still intact."

"Have all relevant information sent to the Seeker of Truth." Thel didn't bother waiting for a response.

Once back aboard his Flagship, he brought up all the maps and data. There were no signs of the Dark Matter the Humans had taken to using recently, so it was as his subordinate had said. He mapped the trajectory of the laser transceiver, and identified the exact location on the world the transmission had been sent to.

Some quick calculations showed that, if he acted now, he could deploy a force to prevent the transmission from being received. The Huragok modifications to the Needful Suplication's navigational systems meant the ship could make a precision jump directly to the world, while her stealth systems would blind even the most advanced human sensors.

He activated his communications, and called up the Suplication's Shipmaster.

"Shipmaster 'Hurumee, you are to deploy immediately to these coordinates, and deploy your Zealots. There is a human transmission that must not be heard. Once that is done, you will begin an in depth reconnaissance of the human defenses; transmit everything you find back to me, but do not act rashly. The humans are not yet aware of our presence in this system. Let us keep it that way until we can identify the source of their Forbiddence, and destroy it!"