Chapter 18: Redemption

"This is it..." Shepard thought to himself, looking at his Turian friend who still hadn't made a decision on whether or not to kill him. Yet the Commander was calm, he had accepted that perhaps he did deserve to die by his friend's hands. Maybe he was compromised like Gravinius said, and that he had lead his people to their deaths...again. Shepard closed his eyes and the memory replayed in his mind once more.

It felt like so long ago when it happened. March 21st, 2177...the day of his first mission in command and his first failure. Having finally reached the rank of First Lieutenant, Shepard had been deployed with his platoon to investigate the disappearance of a pioneering team that was establishing a colony upon the planet Akuze. The Alliance was on full alert at the time for threats to its colonies due to the recent battles of Elysium and Torfan against the Batarians. Thus, Alliance Command had established the policy of assembling small strike forces that could quickly mobilize and reinforce its fledgling settlements against Batarian raiders. It was also a good opportunity to give combat experience to new up and coming officers.

Shepard recalled that feeling of being in command for the first time. The anxiety mixed with the confidence and arrogance that came from the lack of experience. An old voice he recalled from long ago suddenly rang in his mind.

"Hey Lt.! How much longer we gonna be till we see some action you think?" said Private Garak.

Shepard opened his eyes and he was right back in the Mako, alongside his old platoon. His mouth spoke first before he could even contemplate what was happening, "We're still out a ways Garak. Not even sure there's any combat to see on this one."

"I'm just ready that's all. After everything the Batarians keep doing to us, it'll be nice to get a lil payback on those four eyed sons of bitches!"

Shepard scowled, "There's no guarantee it's even Batarians private. Pirates and slavers can be any kind of species not to mention there could be other reasons why the teams didn't check in."

One of the marine Sergeants spoke up on behalf of his comrade, "I think the kid's just projecting the eagerness we all have to get our hands dirty Lt. We've been cooped up on station for weeks now. Just finally nice to start doing what we've been training to do."

"Hell yeah! Kill all sons of bitches!" responded Garak with enthusiasm.

The Lieutenant shook his head, "Yeah as long as the 'sons of bitches' are the ones that are confirmed hostile. Don't go looking for a fight private, it'll come to us soon enough."

"Yes sir!" the young marine nodded.

Shepard remembered all of this. It was like he was in some kind of daydream. Reliving it all again gave him some comfort. Although deep down he knew it was only temporary. Was it the nanomachines inside him causing this? Or was this another of Veronakh's jests, a way for him to have his life flash before his eyes before death? In the end it didn't matter, the memory continued on regardless of his questions and he watched himself look through the scope of the Mako's turret.

Lieutenant Shepard then shouted out, "Alright people we're just a few clicks out, be ready!"

The squad nodded in acknowledgement and gripped their Avenger rifles tight in anticipation. The platoon was heading to the last known location of the pioneering team for the upcoming Akuze colony. After a few more minutes of waiting, the Mako came to a stop and the squad piled out of the back of the vehicle with Shepard stepping out last. Silently the soldiers from the three Makos took up positions with weapons drawn looking out over the horizon with abandoned temporary housing in front of them.

Shepard took in the situation as he came from around the rear of the vehicle. So far, their three Makos had dispatched all their marines and it looked like the site was deserted. The Lt. motioned his squads to move forward and secure the area. After fifteen minutes of the marines clearing the buildings and the perimeter of the site, an all clear was given by all the squad leaders.

Lieutenant Shepard gave a sigh of relief. He wasn't too keen on losing men so soon in an ambush, but so far so good. Sgt. Olivia and several other NCOs from the other squads approached him, with Olivia asking, "So what's the plan now Lt.?"

"Have our engineers go through their files, see if they can find anything that's relevant to any expedition the pathfinders went on or if they were meeting with someone." replied the Lieutenant.

"Still thinking pirates or slavers nabbed em?" one of the NCO's asked.

Shepard shrugged, "Anything is possible at the moment, we need to narrow it down. The sooner the better."

"On it sir!" acknowledged one of the other sergeants.

While the other sergeants took off, Olivia remained behind, "You seem relieved...still a bit anxious with being in command?"

Shepard shrugged again, "A little."

"Hey don't worry, I got your back and so does Jackson and Ming."

The young officer nodded, "I know, I've got your backs covered too and yours ain't half bad to look at from where I'm standing either."

"Oh...is that your personal observation, sir?" Olivia playfully replied.

The Lieutenant smirked, "Well, only to those in the need to know you understand."

The female sergeant nodded with a big smile, "Uh huh...I see. We can discuss more of your observations later, say...when the mission is over and we get back on station. How about it? My treat at the Black Fire."

"How could I possibly refuse." replied a grinning Shepard.

Olivia grinned back through her helmet, "Alright then, let's get this mission done and we'll... go over a few things."

The young officer nodded, "Of course, carry on Sergeant."

Sgt. Olivia headed back to her squad, but as she left a voice spoke up from behind the Lt., "Isn't fraternization with an NCO against Corps policy sir?"

Shepard rolled his eyes and turned slightly behind him to see corporal Toombs peaking out from behind the Mako, "It's off the record Toombs, just wanted to go over some observations of... tactical movements with the sergeant."

Toombs fiddled with his rifle's scope before looking back to his superior, "Yeah...sure, you could just say you wanted to date her next shore leave you can drop the act."

"Yeah well like you said fraternization is against Alliance policy. My judgement could get compromised if I let my feelings get in the way." replied the Lieutenant sarcastically.

A stifled laugh came out of Toomb's helmet comms, "Bah, bullshit. You don't need to go over that with me and I'll keep quiet, just as long as you're straight with me. You think we're going to find anything on this mission or are they just wasting our time?"

Shepard crossed his arms, "Could be both, based on what we're seeing its likely whatever happened here, happened quick and fast. No signs of a struggle, or remains of any kind. Still, we'll run it by the book. Go back to your squad and tell them we'll be staying put for now. We'll give the pioneer team a few hours to return and if they don't show up we'll use the data our tech guys find to begin a search. Move out."

Toombs nodded and left to meet up with his squad, leaving Shepard to his thoughts. Then in a flash of white light he found himself at the pioneer's camp during the planet's night cycle. He was at a table playing Skylian Five poker with some of the men. He had just laid his card's down showing his winning hand, much to the chagrin of his comrades.

"Again?! What the hell!" said one of the frustrated privates as he laid his own cards out on the table.

Shepard smiled, "It's all about making due with the hand you're dealt private."

"Yeah right, you've been winning since we started playing cards." said another man as he placed his own hand into the card pile that was forming.

"We've only just played five games so far." said the Lt., playing coy.

"Yeah but there's no way you could win every time." said another of the enlisted men that was playing.

Shepard began to take the pile of cards and reshuffle them, "It's just like with anything. If you got the skill and the mindset, you can make any kind of hand work for you. But everyone's luck does runs out eventually private. Just hope that it isn't at the worst possible moment."

"Yeah I...hey..do you feel that?"

A rumble was felt by everyone, like the start of an earthquake. It prompted everyone to rush out of the building, where they quickly grabbed their rifles from the stacks they setup earlier in the day. Shepard rallied the marines to get them to the vehicles, but that's when 'they' struck. A Thresher Maw, it was the first time Shepard got to see one and he froze in awe looking at it. The monstrous insect like worm smashed through the ground and upturned one of the colony buildings as it looked for prey. The marines were panicked and some attempted to flee from the scene only for a second Maw to come up from underneath them and swallow them as it burst up from below. The sergeants attempted to rally the marines, using the Makos as cover while opening fire on the monstrosities. Shepard looked to the second Maw and was dumbstruck, he didn't know what to do. He was breathing rapidly, trying to process what was happening.

A voice broke through the Lieutenant's daze, "Shepard! Look out!", Sgt. Olivia pushed him out of the way as a large projectile of bile struck her.

Olivia began to freeze up and fall over into the sand. Shepard got up and quickly rushed over to her. "Olivia!" he cried out as he dragged her over to one of the squads by the Mako. Concussive shots and grenades lashed out from the marines thanks to some heavy weapons pulled from the Alliance tanks. The explosions startled the massive creatures causing one to retreat into the earth while the other screamed and spat out more bile which hit the side of one of the Makos. Lieutenant Shepard propped up the fallen sergeant by one of the tank's wheels. Looking her over she was clearly poisoned. She was shivering and looking through her visor he could see her eyes fluttering.

"Medic!" Shepard called out as one member of the squad got his Omni-tool and began to apply medigel laced with an anti-toxin. Olivia's breath was shallow but began to stabilize and her eyes finally calmed down. She looked to Shepard, "Shep...Lt...you okay?"

The young officer rapidly nodded, "Yeah, yeah I'm okay. Thanks to you."

Olivia slightly nodded and coughed. Looking up to him and smiling she said, "Good."

Another loud scream came from the Thresher Maw which drew both marines attention. The Mako's main guns were now being brought to bear and firing on the creature. Bits of the worm's carapace were being torn off with each round and more bile hit the tanks in response as the marines continued to open fire on it. Lieutenant Shepard suddenly realized something was off, the other Maw still hadn't shown itself yet and considering what it did to the buildings it was only a matter of time before it tore through them again.

"We need to get the platoon moving we can't stay here." Shepard told the tending marine medic.

The medic shook his head, "Sir, she's still not stable yet!"

"Stable or not we have to get moving!" The Lieutenant ordered.

Then they felt the rumbling again, and suddenly an explosion of sand erupted from underneath the other Mako beside them. The tank was lifted up and sent hurtling into the sky along with several marines. The poor men screamed while flying in the air, with one being snatched in mid air by the Thresher Maw's mouth before they and the tank hit the coarse sand below.

Olivia began to start to stand on her own, a combination of adrenaline and the anti-toxins doing their work, though she still leaned up on the tank, "Lt...sir. Get the rest of our people in the third Mako and get out of here."

Shepard frowned, "What are you talking about sergeant?!"

The female sergeant looked to her superior with determined eyes, "I'm saying we need a delaying action...and there's no time to argue."

The Thresher Maw that had just come up then slammed its two claw arms by their tank as the Mako fired a round straight into its mouth. Bile and blood poured out, some which splattered on the marines around the tank. They screamed as the poison mixed with the blood began to corrode their body armor. Some of it once again fell on Olivia which knocked her down once again. Shepard was able to avoid the splatter, quickly jumping back. Although the man who had worked on Olivia had now fallen over and was convulsing. Olivia fought through the pain and poison, and managed to grab one of the fallen grenade launchers. Shepard called out to any remaining marines but they were still dumbfounded looking at their writhing comrades horrified. Thankfully the Thresher Maw that had been hit with the tank round in its mouth quickly retreated back into the sand.

Olivia called out, "Go Lt! Make it back...and tell them what happened!"

"Olivia I can't just-"

"Just go! Find a way to make it Shep! Even if its just you!"

Oh, that's what she had said. Memories tend to not always be what you remember them to be sometimes. A detail here or there being off wasn't unheard of. But those words...find a way to make it. Those would mark him for the rest of his life. Find a way to survive, no matter what. Even if you were the only survivor...because someone had to tell the story of what happened. Otherwise, there would be no one to remember those who never came back.

The first Maw, the one constantly spraying bile, screamed in rage at the tank. Its armor weakened from the bile made it all too easy for the Thresher Maw to quickly rush towards it and impale it through the top with its claws. As it screamed at the tank again Olivia fired grenades from her launcher into it, with some of the survivors by her firing their rifles. The explosions hit the tongue and eyes of the creature followed by another tank round from the crew inside hitting the creature's mid-section. Enraged, the creature flung the tank towards Shepard and the marines still standing by him. The Lieutenant and several others quickly hit the deck, but some of the marines by him were not so fortunate. They were hit and sent flying with the tank across the sands leaving Shepard and two others sprawled, faces down on the ground.

Shepard looked up and saw Olivia also face down in the sand before the Thresher Maw screamed one more time. "Olivia!" Shepard called out once again but it was too late. The Maw dove at her body along with the other bodies of marines and swallowed them whole, falling head first into the sand.

The Lieutenant grimaced in sorrow, but fought through the pain of loss and got on his feet. He helped the last two marines up, one of whom he recognized as Corporal Toombs, "Come on Toombs! We gotta go!"

The Corporal shook it off and nodded at his superior and helped up their third man before rushing toward the last remaining Mako that had gotten knocked off and away due to all the fighting. They were just about to reach the tank before the bloody mouthed Thresher Maw erupted from the sand in front of them and grabbed the tank by the rear, pulling it under with its claws.

"Oh come on!" yelled out Toombs in anger.

The trio backed off as the tank was dragged into the sands and they looked around for an alternative. Shepard saw the tank that had been tossed up in the air earlier, it looked to mostly be in tact though several wheels looked crooked from its previous impact. The Lieutenant pointed to the tank and got his men's attention, "On me! Let's get to that Mako over there!"

The three of them, now surging with adrenaline and fear began to run as fast as they could across the sand. They had gotten fifty yards towards the tank when another rumbling was felt underneath them and the Maw that had killed Olivia exploded up from the sands behind them. It sent the poor private that was at the rear of their run flying forwards and he fell face first into the sand again. The Marine drew his sidearm and rolled, opening fire while looking at his attacker and screaming bloody murder at it in defiance. Toombs went back to help him though Shepard called back, "Toombs wait! It's too late!"

But the Corporal kept going and he whipped out a grenade and flung it at the Thresher now bearing down on the private. The high explosive detonated into the beast's eyes. the Maw roared at them, disoriented from the blast. Toombs helped the private up and they quickly rushed back to Shepard, who had picked up a fallen rifle from the ground. He opened fire on the Maw as the two marines retreated. But then in a quick snap of its head, the Thresher Maw spewed more corrosive bile at the pair. It hit the private and he screamed in agony as he fell over, the poison quickly working on him. Toombs attempted to help him up despite Shepard urging him to let him go, "It's too late for him, Toombs we gotta go!"

But the Corporal didn't listen. Even as the Thresher Maw bore down on the both of them, mouth opened wide to swallow them both, Toombs withdrew his rifle and fired in defiance at his fate. He roared in rage at the monster, the battle cry tapering off into a fearful one as the beast fell upon him and the private, swallowing them both whole.

"Toombs!" Shepard called out, but it was far too late now. He was all that was left. The Lieutenant ran for the Mako, another fifty yards ahead of him. The marine officer could feel the sands moving again, indicating another attack coming very quickly. The shifting earth erupted once more behind Shepard as he entered into the vehicle, taking control of the turret. The machine gun was damaged but the main gun was still working. The first Lieutenant got a bead on the visage of the beast who was once more cocking its head back to spew more of that bile again. He took careful aim, and targeted one of the creature's eyes or what he presumed were the eyes anyway. The round fired and struck home, literally blasting off the Maw's right eye. Blood poured out from the wound as the creature reeled and the bile it was preparing to spit out, spewed forth from from it's mouth as it screamed.

The autoloader in the turret loaded another round and Shepard fired again, this time at one of the weakened sections of it's carapace in the mid-section. The creature writhed in agony as the round penetrated it's belly, blood and viscera spilling out. The Mako's cannon fired once more at the Maw's mouth, piercing through its tongue and severing it's spinal column. The Thresher made a death wail as it fell face first into the sand, seemingly sinking into the sands below.

Shepard laid back and breathed a sigh of relief. Unfortunately it was all too brief as he felt the rumble of the second Thresher Maw approaching. It came up from the right side of the tank, screaming at the Mako as it began to move in to attack like a snake worming through the sand. The Lieutenant brought the turret around and fired but hit only earth while the beast quickly approached and rose up from the sand to attack with its claws. The Marine Lieutenant took a risk and fired at the now outstretched forelimbs reaching for the tank. The round blew off one of the elongated single digit claws in a shower of keratin and blood. Shepard's face scowled in anger as he let his emotions out, firing another round that hit the opposing shoulder of the beast. While it didn't disable the other claw it did inflict some damage causing the beast to recoil in pain. The Thresher Maw then suddenly brought its remaining claw to bear on the tank, penetrating through its top and striking right next to where Shepard was standing, startling him in the process. Another roar from the Maw followed by a sudden shower of bile on the tank from its mouth. Alarms blared as the corrosion began to break down the armor of the vehicle, but Shepard didn't care. These things had killed his platoon and right now he was like Captain Ahab about to bag his white whale. He brought the turret up to the creature's open gap, still dripping with corrosive fluid.

"Choke on this you fucking son of a bitch!" the Lieutenant yelled as he pulled the trigger. The tank turret fired for the last time, the round penetrating through the tongue at a forty-five degree angle that also pierced the giant worm's head. The back of the creature's skull erupted in blood, gore, and carapace.

The beast silently fell over and onto the tank, its body weight causing the whole tank to be pushed down into the sand and knocking Shepard off balance. He quickly grabbed one of the rails soldiers could use in order to keep himself from falling over. Once he got up, another warning light began to blare and fire began to erupt in the driver's station of the tank. Shepard's eyes widened and he quickly fled the now burning vehicle. The Lieutenant looked back just in time to see the tank erupt into flames, its fuel and explosives mixing with the corrosive bile causing an internal explosion. Shepard kept running once again toward his first Maw kill as the Mako finally exploded completely, tearing up the belly of the Maw that was crushing it.

After a moment of catching his breath, Shepard looked around again. The now eviscerated corpse of the first Maw was before him and he could see the other tanks. One now stuck deep in sand, its front barely sticking out, and the other flipped upside down. At first he thought maybe he could get something from the upside down Mako, before flames began to erupt from it as well. He shook his head and the wind began to blow while he gathered himself for what he recalled were long weeks of surviving in this harsh wilderness.

He salvaged what supplies he could from the dead Marines, ruined buildings, and anything that wasn't swallowed up by the Thresher Maws before leaving the site. While he was leaving he heard yet another Thresher Maw, but thankfully it didn't follow him. From a nearby hill, using a scope from one of the salvaged rifles he saw it. Another Maw appeared and was investigating what had happened. "Good thing I didn't stick around there.", Shepard thought to himself. The creature it seemed didn't like the smell of its dead brethren, and quickly left the area, not even helping itself to the bodies strewn around.

From there, the days went by in flashes of scattered memories. He recalled the time he found a cave that he could use as shelter, noting that drips of water were forming on the stalactites in the cave at night. He used those to gather water with containers he had on hand while he setup an emergency transponder along the front of the cave. Shepard also remembered all the times he ventured out to look for any extra food, water, or just because he had grown bored from waiting. The lonely nights that he spent reading and watching vids with his Omni-tool. The moment he had to switch it off one night when he heard strange creatures roaming around his cave. He had drawn his weapon and found that a family of Varren had somehow gotten in. Varren meat had never tasted so good after weeks of just eating MREs. When rescue finally came, it had been over a month. He was both relieved and angry at how long it had taken. It should not have taken rescue this long but it was explained to him that apparently someone higher up had thought that the whole platoon had been wiped out based on data from the initial sweep. It was only due to a new pathfinding mission from colonists coming in that detected the weak signal of his transponder.

Then the Commander heard another voice and he quickly began to wake up from these memories.

It took a long time for Shepard to recover from the Thresher Maw attack and he swore he would never let something like Akuze happen again. The memory of that time became his driving force, pushing him to improve his career, pass through N7 selection, and even become a Spectre. Now here he was again, right back at the bottom. A gun pressed at the back of his head by one Turian, and another gun aiming right at him from another.

"Hurry up Garrus or I'm just going to decide for you right here and now!" Gravinius yelled impatiently.

Shepard looked to his Turian friend whom he could tell was still grappling with the decision. The Commander sighed and called out to him, "Garrus...it's okay."

The former vigilante didn't respond but did look back, jarred from his thinking as Shepard continued, "In the end you were right...you were right and I was just being stubborn. I just...I just wanted to believe that I was doing the right thing. I felt I was doing that, but I guess I wasn't. I was just lying to myself perhaps. Maybe I am compromised like Gravinius said. In the end Garrus, it's all up to you."

Garrus' helmeted visage looked to the Commander, still seemingly unsure, "Shepard...what are you saying?"

"I'm saying that...if anyone can make this choice, it's you. You've shown that you're a greater man of principle than me."

Archangel shook his head at that notion but the Commander continued, "I'm just a survivor Garrus. Doing whatever it took to make it through and get the job done."

"You've done more than that when you were in N7 and the Spectres. You were a man who got the job done and didn't need to stoop to corrupt bullshit to do it!" Garrus exclaimed.

Shepard looked to the ground, "I'm not so sure about that anymore, if current circumstances are any indication."

Garrus grimaced but Shepard couldn't see it, the former Spectre looked back to his friend with an accepting look to his eyes, "I'm done with lying to myself...so go ahead...do it."

The former vigilante took aim, his crosshairs set to fire a round through Shepard's visor between the eyes. Yet again the Turian hesitated, his trigger finger trembling. Gravinius grew annoyed at Garrus' continued hesitation, "He told you to do it Vakarian! Get it over with!"

Garrus grew irritated at Gravinius and put his head in the crosshairs for a few seconds before settling the sights back on the Commander's head. When he began to squeeze the trigger a sudden loud burst of static and voice came through the helmet's of Maius and Gefren. They clutched their helmet's in agony before finally the sound stopped.

Even in intense pain though, Maius didn't let go of his quarry, "What the fuck was that Gefren?!"

"I don't know! The voice was familiar though it sounded like-"

Another transmission attempted to get through but this time all it was, was static. Though the volume wasn't as intense as it was before. It lasted yet another few seconds before dissipating.

Shepard and Garrus looked to each other, with Vakarian attempting to pull the trigger on his weapon, finding he couldn't move his finger.

The former C-Sec officer realized what was about to happen, "Shit...we're too late."

Shepard looked back to Maius and sighed, "You should have killed us when you had the chance Gravinius."

With an angry growl the Turian Spectre brought his pistol to bear and was going to put one through the Commander's skull when a flash of green light erupted behind him along with a blast of electricity. Maius' hand and throat were then grabbed by metal hands and he was flung off of Shepard and into Gefren. Shepard turned around and saw what looked like an Asari, but encased in metal and possessing no cheeks, revealing an exposed jaw of metal teeth. Beside her were several others similar to her but they looked to be humanoid males in structure. Both were armed with some kind of staff weapons and in the midst of them all was Solvatas, her sapphire blue metallic 'cape' reflecting the ambient light in the cavern. Her own War Scythe was armed, wreathed in glowing green energies.

Maius and Gefren got up and saw the group of metal warriors approaching them, with the Vymark herself addressing the Turian directly, "Mr. Gravinius, tenacious as ever I see."

The Turian Spectre scowled, "You know me?"

"All that I care to, after today it will all be irrelevant." Solvatas replied nonchalantly.

Gravinius shook his head, "You'll find I am not going to keel over so easily like Shepard."

"I wouldn't be too confide-" Solvatas' retort was interrupted by a sniper round hitting her in the right eye. This prompted the Asari and other metal humanoids to cover their mistress with their bodies as more rounds pinged off their forms. Gravinius quickly threw an explosive at the clumped group of Necrontyr and fell back behind some rocks for cover along with Gefren. Shepard and Garrus fell back to the Reaper device as the explosion erupted in the Necron's midst.

Smoke and dust covered the area now, blanketing everything around. However, Solvatas and her entourage were fine, their eyes glowing green like orbs in the midst of the smoke. The Vymark ordered her Besakt via internal comms, "Nev'El, subdue those other two for questioning. The rest of you, restrain the Volus. Gravinius is mine..."

Nev'El took off in a run towards where the sniper rounds had come from, while the other two Pariahs and the Queen of Omega approached the Turian and Volus duo. Gefren found his weapon nearby and activated his extra shielding while firing on the two metallic humanoids. They didn't bother to dodge, the weapon's rounds too low caliber to even inflict any damage. The Volus then used Overload, the attack blasted one with electricity and then jumped to the other causing them both to be stunned briefly. Gefren used this time to withdraw to the tunnel exit to the chamber where he began setting up something.

Meanwhile, Maius had split off from Gefren and was engaging Solvatas with fully automatic fire from his now recovered Phaeston. He swapped it to armor piercing and began inflicting some damaging on the Vymark's form. She reached for something to her side and then suddenly leapt at the Spectre and vanished. Maius was confused at first and then he heard a sound behind him. Spinning around quickly he found Solvatas right on top of him, her War Scythe coming down in a diagnol slash. The Spectre fell away from the strike just in time but his rifle was sliced in half.

Shepard and Garrus kept out of the fighting, instead returning to where Miranda lay and checked her vitals. She was paralyzed in a similar manner to Zaeed back during the information heist. But other than that she was still alive, which Shepard was grateful for.

"Should we do anything?" Garrus asked.

The Commander shook his head, "No, best just to stay out of the way for now. Solvatas seems to have everything under control."

The two just watched as Maius withdrew his pistol again and fired in vain at the Necron Vymark. He kept backing up and firing on her when suddenly a barrage of rounds struck her in the back, causing more damage and tearing off some bits of her metallic cape. She growled in annoyance and looked back, seeing Gefren behind a holographic chest high wall created from some kind of device on the ground. He had setup some kind of machine gun on top of the generated energy shield which was now firing on the two Pariahs approaching the Volus. The weapon began tearing through some of their armor and pushing them back from the sheer volley of fire. But one of the Necron warriors rolled away from the barrage and now with the both of them suddenly rushing from two opposing angles, Gefren couldn't efficiently maintain suppression.

The Pariah on his right brought its War Scythe down onto the light machine gun, slicing it in twain and destroying the shield in one blow. This was then followed by a strike to Gefren's face with the blunt end of the staff weapon but the Volus rolled back and unleashed another Overload to stun the machine. However, the other hadn't been close enough for the Overload to jump and rushed passed it's stunned brethren and bull rushed Gefren. It knocked him down in a tackle as the little alien fired everything he had in his pistol's thermal clip at its head. It pinned his arms and head with the staff and it's own body, giving enough time for its fellow to recover quickly. It then stood over the Volus with it's bladed weapon now pointing over his face. Gefren sighed and stopped resisting, recognizing his defeat.

Elsewhere, Nev'El was continuing to charge at the snipers who were still firing on her. One round penetrated through her shoulder joint but she didn't stop charging. Her eyes pulsed in green light as her vision changed to search for the cloaked shooter. Another shot hit her in the head and disrupted her vision for a moment. However this round seemed more energy based and didn't penetrate. She spotted a Drell in a lower portion of the cavern by a small tunnel for a humanoid to fit in. Realizing his position was compromised and that his weapon was useless, the Drell attempted to quickly enter the crawl space but found himself wrapped in a green biotic field and pulled back. Kusko spun in mid air due to the Pull field now affecting him and was drawn back to within arms reach of the Asari Pariah. She struck him in the air with a potent punch to the mid-section that sent him into a wall. Then the field disengaged and he collapsed unconscious.

Quickly outstretching her hand in front of her, Nev'El activated a green energy field that protected her from several sniper rounds. The Necron Besakt then finally saw the shooter up high on an outcropping above with a ledge. It was a humanoid female, but by the tentacle fringe it was clearly an Asari, wreathed in a cloaking field. Wrapping herself in a biotic field, Nev'El biotically charged up to the ledge, appearing beside the shocked Asari, who then fell on her back and fired rounds into Nev'El's face and chest. The Necron Pariah rose up as her quarry swapped weapons while crawling on her back away from the female machine. The female sniper was attempting to reach towards the tunnel to the outcropping behind her. Tel'Se screamed, "Shit, shit, shit!" as she unleashed a firestorm of rounds at Nev'El, who simply began walking towards her. Before the Asari merc could reach the tunnel to escape, she was grabbed by the Besakt who promptly punched the mercenary in the face.

All that was left now was for the Vymark to deal with the Spectre. The Turian had pulled back to the concrete slabs, where Shepard and Garrus were tending to Miranda.

"Call them off Shepard!" Maius said in desperation, pointing his pistol at them.

"I'm not in control of them Gravinius. Maybe you should just surrender and spare yourself from what's coming next."

"You motherfu-!" was all that the former Cabal could get out as he was struck with the blunt end of the Vymark's weapon. The blow sent him flying down into the lower end of the cavern, his pistol flung from his grasp, where he rolled several times before coming to a stop. Solvatas strode towards her downed foe and called out, "Don't they teach you Spectres to never turn your back on an opponent?"

Maius struggled to get back up, grimacing behind his helmet as he saw the embellished metallic humanoid approaching him, "Or perhaps the Turian military is going soft? I thought your people were known to never run unless you were dead?" the Vymark mocked.

"Fuck you...you metal bitch." Gravinius spat.

The Necrontyr noble was amused, "Ah, there's that defiance I was expecting. A pity that it's all for nothing."

Solvatas pointed with her scythe behind Gravinius, who then looked and saw Nev'El walking over with both Kusko and Tel'Se in her hands. The Besakt dropped their unconscious forms onto the ground where the Asari Pariah knelt before her mistress. The Vymark nodded approvingly to her bodyguard and then stood over the downed Turian, "Submit Gravinius, this fight is over. If you could you even call it that."

Maius grimaced, "Its not over, not so long as-"

"I've already destroyed your ship and prevented it from calling for help." Solvatas interrupted.

Maius then looked to her with widened eyes as she continued, "No doubt they tried to reach you, but the depths of these caverns and my jamming would make any transmission illegible."

"You...you fuckin-", was all Gravinius was able to spit out before Nev'El kicked the Turian Spectre in the gut. The blow sending him tumbling off to the side and away. Solvatas waved her Besakt off from continuing further and simply walked over to where the Turian now lay. Despite several cracked ribs from the kick, Gravinius surprisingly forced himself to stand up, the taste of blood in his mouth.

"My goodness, you are a resilient one, I'll give you that much." Solvatas said as she then looked to her weapon. Surprisingly she let it drop to the cavern floor and approached the Turian with clenched metal fists at her sides, "At this point, using such a weapon on you will be unnecessary."

"You sure about that?" Maius said entering a fighting stance with his fists raised up.

"Absolutely, based upon my analysis of your body's current condition, you have no hope of victory." replied the Vymark

"You never know..." Was all that Gravinius uttered before he came at her flinging a warp attack which struck the Necron noble. He then followed it up with a right hook onto the metal lord's face. But all he got for his trouble was pain in his hand from fractured knuckles while Solvatas' face was undamaged. Despite being wreathed in a Warp field, the necrodermis of the Vymark held firm. She then grabbed the wrist attached to the offending hand and pulled the Turian in for a powerful gut blow. The strike caused the Spectre to spew up blood which spattered out into Gravinius' visor and dripped slightly out of his helmet. But in a quick motion using his free hand, Maius then activated something at his side and he was wreathed in his Tech Armor. He then held onto the Vymark tightly as a warning sound seemed to be going off.

Solvatas then narrowed her glowing eyes into slits when she realized what was about to happen, "Really?" she said annoyed.

"Yeah...really... go to hell." uttered Maius.

The tech armor and the remaining explosives the Turian Spectre possessed then detonated in a potent but concentrated blast of a tech explosion. The blast wave sent smoke and bits of rock all around the area covering the area in the smell of rapidly burnt flesh.

"Mistress!" Nev'El called out, gravely concerned for her charge.

The smoke began to clear after a few moments, revealing the form of the Vymark who then turned around and began to stride back to her bodyguard, "I am quite alright, Nev'El."

The blast had done little damage to Solvatas' chassis, a massive black scaring where Gravinius had held her being the only amount of superficial damage the Turian had inflicted with his suicide attack. Even then it was already being mended by the Vymark's necrodermis, "I suppose I should have expected he would go to such lengths to prevent capture. I had hoped we could have interrogated him to know how much the Council has learned. Oh well, I suppose the Phaeron will need to lean on other sources."

Nev'El knelt before her as she passed. Solvatas motioned with her hand to her Besakt, ordering, "Bring them." While the Vymark continued to Shepard, the Asari Pariah grabbed each body by her with both hands and dragged them behind her.

Shepard had propped Miranda up along one of the concrete slabs by them. With the aid of stimulants provided by Garrus, the Normandy XO was starting to stir. The Commander saw the Vymark approaching him, along with her bodyguard still clinging onto the enemies she subdued. The other two Pariahs brought Gefren out of the previous tunnel. The Volus looked around and when he did not see his compatriot he asked the Commander, "Where is Maius? I heard an explosion..."

The former Spectre sighed and shook his head, "He's gone, he was the explosion."

The Volus looked downcast to the ground, "Oh...that damned fool. But I suppose after everything he had learned of what happened to you...he chose death before dishonor."

The Necron noblewoman shrugged, "A damned fool that Turian was indeed, little Volus. Had he simply surrendered, he would have found that Necrontyr custody was far from what the Reapers have planned. But such was his choice."

The Vymark then turned to Shepard and then looked to the Reaper device behind him, "It seems the device is intact. Well done finding it for us Commander."

Shepard frowned, "You could have easily done this mission yourselves. Would have spared me and my crew all this trouble."

"Yes, but when you must control multiple planets and stations, sometimes one must look to others to complete menial tasks such as these. It was a good thing at the very least that I came to check on you." Solvatas explained.

A gruff noise of annoyance came from Shepard, which prompted Nev'El's ire in turn. Her eyes turned to slits and she was ready to deliver some pain to the Commander for that disrespect. But one look from the Vymark told her to back off. She quickly composed herself and Solvatas walked past the three Normandy team members to get a closer analysis of the Reaper device.

The Vymark let her thoughts be known out loud as she brought a metallic hand to her chin, "An interesting design. A far cry from the brutish 'Dragon's Teeth' you've reported on before. It is of course broadcasting the same signals and reprogramming algorithms, but doing so in a more subtle way. No doubt it took some time for the indoctrination of its victims to complete."

Solvatas turned and saw Shepard and Garrus carrying Miranda on their shoulders. The Commander asked the Vymark, "So what happens now?"

"My Scarabs will handle the disassembly and recovery of the device Shepard. Get your team back to the surface, I will meet you back on the Normandy within the hour, there you will be given your next assignment." The Necrontyr noble replied.

Shepard sighed and nodded. He along with Garrus carefully helped Miranda back to the tunnel entrance that they had come through.

The Necron Vymark then opened a comm-link to the Phaeron as more green electrical energy bursts appeared around her and swarms of robotic Scarabs appeared. They began to swarm towards the Reaper device, where they proceeded to poke and prod at it using cutting lasers.

"Great One, the Reaper device is now in our hands, and the Spectre hounding Shepard has been eliminated."

"I do not recall asking for Mr. Gravinius' termination Solvatas, elaborate please." Veronakh asked.

"I attempted to capture him but he chose death of his own accord. He detonated a cache of explosives on his person in a foolish attempt to kill himself and me in the process."

"Really? That sounds unbecoming of him, choosing a martyr's death."

"It was likely he knew of Shepard's forcible induction into our cause, and he chose suicide over dishonoring his people."

"Yes, I suppose the Turians are likely going to be doing that quite often when the war begins in earnest."

"I am disassembling the device now. Eventually I would like to reassemble it aboard my ship to test it in order to ensure it's functionality before bringing it to Du'Maat for study. I presume you noticed it's effect on the connection with Shepard and yourself the closer he came to it?"

"Indeed, I had kept an eye on him for sometime until signal degradation peaked when he entered that cavern."

"I too noticed the degradation, it was only when I maneuvered my ship within close orbit that I could even enforce my will on Mr. Vakarian, so as to prevent him from making a foolish error in judgement. This is proof that Reaper technology does have the capacity to disrupt our nanites. I would like to conduct tests with Shepard and his crew for the next few hours. If you approve of this, you may find yourself unable to contact them for some time."

"That is quite alright sister. Take all the time you need, Du'Maat should be finishing with Jack now. Hopefully he can put your notes of the device to good use in his own study."

"Thank you Great One, I will contact you again soon."

With the communication ended, Solvatas turned to her Besakt and fellow Pariahs, "Have the prisoners brought to my ship for confinement. When I am finished here, bring them to my throne for interrogation."

"By your will, Mistress." Nev'El bowed.

She was in a world of ever shifting colors and sensations. This next round of drugs Jack felt was the most intoxicating. Right now she was flying in a red sky with bubbling clouds, not a care in the world. What few thoughts of reason she did have at the moment were trying to figure out why all this was happening. It must have been all the hard drugs she did in the past, along with whatever else Cerberus put in her head because she felt more free now than ever to just tell that stupid metal man off. It had been a while since that metallic cyclops tried the treatments, to make her more...compliant. It was fine for Jack, so long as she got to enjoy this high for a bit longer.

Then the cyclop's voice came back and ruined the mood, "Can you hear me Jack?"

"Ooooh...I sure can tin man. We gonna do another round of fun times?" Jack said chuckling.

"No, I am afraid it is quite obvious by now that these latest treatments are not producing results."

"Aw and I was having so much fun too. So back to more torture I guess?"

"One could consider it as such...I am afraid that we must accelerate your indoctrination..."

"So...what? Ya gonna lobotomize me like ya threatened to do ya fuckin ass?"

"This time...I can no longer hold back. Protocol dictates results by this cycle's end."

Jack then found herself clamped in irons in mid-air and she stopped flying through the sky as it melted away to a darkened room, "Aw you ruined my fuckin' trip."

Then the figure of the Cryptek approached her, his glowing eye a shining light in the darkness of this virtual room, "No more games Jack. What happens next you may find uncomfortable, but your inability to accept indoctrination requires this level of...asperity." Du'Maat then placed a metal hand on her face gently with one finger going along her cheek. Jack still drugged simply smiled in response, with the Cryptek replying with a disappointed tone, "I am sorry, you were supposed to be more beautiful than this."

That made Jack raise an eyebrow, "Hey...when you say that... do I remind you of an old girlfiend or sum shit?"

The Cryptek quickly withdrew his hand, "What?"

"Ya see, I hear these lines before from guys like you...they always tell me I remind em of an angel or sum other bullshit thing from their past."

The Cryptek was genuinely perplexed by the sudden drug induced response to him but for some reason found it intriguing. It is true she did stir something within his matrix and it had been driving him to go about her conversion in a less than conventional manner. Yet he was also a Cryptek! Logic, protocol, and obedience to his chosen master, that was what mattered! Yet he found errors beginning to accrue within his personality processes, he stammered while trying to correct the issues now starting to plague his machine mind, "That is impossible...protocol..."

"Bah bullshit, you wouldn't be so gentle with me for no fuggin reason..." Jack replied, her mind too doped up to realize the danger.

Then the errors started to affect Du'Maat's limbs, causing twitching. The machine engineer's head began to shake and spasm. Then his large cyclopean eye began to turn to an angry red, as the Cryptek's body suddenly calmed down. That was when Jack realized that maybe she should have kept her mouth shut, "Oh fuck..."

"No more...no more...NO MORE OF THAT VILE FILTH FROM YOUR MOUTH!" Du'Maat roared as his fingers tore into her cheek and ripped it out. Jack screamed in agony while the Cryptek growled with hate. He then grabbed her other cheek and ripped it out, revealing the metal teeth on either side of Jack's face.

"I wanted to give the Phaeron a willing servant...one who was as beautiful as she was, who was loyal and true. I suppose I should have known...should have known YOU WOULD FAIL!"

His metal hands dug deep into the flesh of her arms and he began ripping all of the skin off them. With every tear Jack felt the pain and agony and screamed, felt her own blood splatter across her face. When she looked to her limbs to see what he had done, she saw metallic arms now covered in blood and remnants of her own skin.

"I have kept this secret for so long...so long...but you...you bring it out of me. You looked like her...had her fire as well. I wanted you to be the ultimate expression of my work, a homage to her. The one that is now lost to me. But you and that insufferable mind of yours...IT DISGUSTS ME!"

Du'Maat moved around to the side of Jack's virtual avatar, held aloft by her bonds and dug his metal hands into her back and pulled. Her tattoed skin ripped open and tore off while she screamed. She could literally feel the skin on her face being pulled back as the entire flesh of her midsection was torn away. The Cryptek didn't stop, he kept ripping and tearing at Jack's avatar of herself, removing the flesh of her legs before tossing them aside. Finally he walked over to her front again, his avatar body covered in blood and bits of her flesh before he took his bloody hand and dug it into her scalp. Jack cried out one last time, though she was tired now from all the screaming she had been doing. She felt it all, as the rest of her face was torn away and removed. Darkness suddenly came over her vision.

Then she saw the numbers, like the booting of a computer system powering up before her eyes. She looked back up from the floor to see Du'Maat's virtual avatar holding what was once her face in his hand. He flung the flesh away into the darkness and laughed, "HAHAHAHAHA...now...you look more respectable."

Jack shook, she too began to twitch, her rage boiling to the surface at what he had done to her, "What...What did you fucking do to me!?"

Du'Maat got closer to her face and calmy replied, "I am simply fulfilling the Phaeron's request. He wanted a weapon, obedient and powerful enough to crush all resistance. I had intended to give him that and so much more. But now thanks to your resistance and your...filthy fleshling mind...it would seem a mere weapon is all you will be..."

Jack frantically shook her head, "No...NO!"

"Oh yes and for the coup de grace...I think I shall share with you another secret of mine."

The Cryptek then dug his fingers into Jack's head, this caused her to cry out again in a metallic scream, Du'Maat then laughed in response, "I had kept this secret from all my employers for so long, kept it hidden so that I would not be shunned and maligned...but for you...I think it will suit you perfectly."

Jack's glowing eyes began to pulsate wildly and her limbs began to twitch as random bits of corrupted code washed over her vision. She screamed a metallic cry again as all the noise and spasms overrode her sanity. After a moment of this, Du'Maat released his grip, even letting her form be released from the invisible restraints. She grabbed her head and groaned in agony as her body continued to twitch and her eyes began to shift to a red color.

"Now Jack, behold." Du'Maat's voice echoed.

Jack looked up and the Cryptek was gone. In his place she saw people, they all laughed at her derisively and pointed. All while looking like various versions of herself, either male or female with the same tattoos and shaved heads. Du'Maat's voice spoke over their cacophony of laughter, "I have given your precious skin to others...you want it back? Then kill them...kill them all...take back what belongs to you. After all it is why you were born! Kill...KILL THEM ALL!"

Jack roared in a maddened rage and sent herself biotically toward the first being laughing at her. She smashed his face in with her fist and began tearing his flesh off. What was disturbing was the body was still gurgling a laugh as she did it, which only fueled her madness even more. The former convict, now Necron Pariah continued to rush up to each person and mercilessly rip them apart, all the while attempting to rip their skin off to place back on her body. Eventually her hands began to twitch and she looked down at them. She saw them begin to change into long bloodied bladed fingers. While she could kill the people more efficiently with her new hands, it made harvesting their skin more difficult and the frustration she felt added more to the insanity now warping her mind.

The insane Necron Biotic Pariah continued her rampage, all the while shouting, "Give it back! Give it back!...GIVE ME BACK MY SKIN!"

Du'Maat's laughter added to the chorus in the background and faded as Jack lost herself to the madness of the Flayed One's curse.

When Du'Maat disconnected from Jack, he had already finished the alterations to her. Her bladed fingers twitched and her limbs shuddered in their restraints as the corrupt programming did its work. The Cryptek's eye then began to return to its normal green and he soon realized what he had done, "What...no...how did this..."

His own voice then spoke to him in his machine mind, "I simply completed your work for you."

"No! This was not what we agreed on long ago! You needed to remain hidden, we will lose everything if you are revealed!"

"Ah but don't you see the brillance of it? You have the weapon that the Phaeron wished and I made sure she suffered for her insolence. Her mind was filth, now she will soon match that filth in the blood and gore of her foes. Isn't it beautiful?"

"He will be horrified by this. This Flayed One...must be contained immediately!"

"Oh calm down, can't you see the possibilities?"

"While I see the potential in killing efficiency, control of such a creature will be..."

"Tie her system to a Tesseract. That should keep a leash on her, after all its what a beast like her deserves."

"I agreed to your...prediliction...only because I too loved her. We both did...in those ancient times so long ago. But now you've gone too far! The Phaeron will disown us for this! See us locked away!"

"But now you have leverage in such a negotiation."

"What?! What leverage?"

"You have the power to tear down all of Veronakh's work. You already were indispensible...now you are untouchable. If he does not approve of our work then remind him that you could unleash the Flayed One's corruption throughout the entire dynasty if you wished. Reducing every individual to gibbering idiots that desire only flesh, gore, and bone."

"The Phaeron will not accept this!"

"Oh but he won't have a choice will he? Perhaps a demonstration of her capabilities along with the controls over her will soothe his worried matrix. That and the possible threat of you undoing his work will ensure he won't be able to deny you..."

"This...this is all..."

"You knew you could not contain me forever...I am a part of you...now and always. To deny our true nature...is to deny our purpose."

"Perhaps...perhaps you are right."

"Of course I am. Let us finish what we started...and then inform the Phaeron his weapon is ready."

Du'Maat opened a communication to Veronakh via the internal comm link, "Great One, Jack's will has been broken and her conditioning will be finished within a few minutes. I will have a demonstration prepared for you within the next two hours."

The Phaeron was quick to respond, "Finally, I hope your effort was worth all the wait Cryptek. I suspect our foes will be moving against us soon and I will need every weapon at my disposal."

"I am sure you will not be disappointed when you see the results Great One."

It had been nearly an hour since they returned from the planet of Aequitas. Normandy and Solvatas' ship, the Shuvat, were now flying together in formation as they began to head toward the Mass Relay. The recovered ground team had been given rudimentary first aid in order to deal with their injuries and walk around.

After a short recovery period, Shepard had called for Garrus, Miranda, and Mordin to join him in the Normandy hangar bay. When they arrived, they found Solvatas and her scarab drones working to build what looked like the Reaper device, though it seemed to be in a different configuration. The drones were also constructing obsidian structures that surrounded the device proper.

Miranda wondered if Solvatas would share why these structures were necessary, but before she could ask, the Vymark spoke to the assembled group, "Before you ask, no, this isn't exactly the device you recovered. That is currently undergoing testing aboard my ship. All the data from those tests, I will be transfering to this device that I am building here. I have to wonder what the purpose of all these generator units in your hangar bay are Commander. I needed to remove some of them to make space. Clearly they were not critical to your hangar bay's functioning."

"They were for...ancillary purposes, extra power for devices that could be installed in the future." The Commander replied, though even he wasn't entirely sure.

"All that space for redundant power units?" Solvatas shook her head, "Ridiculous and a waste. One wonders how you humans ever managed to harness even the most basic of engineering principles."

The Normandy XO frowned, "There are many ways to achieve objectives when it comes to technology-"

"And there are very few efficient ways to reach said objectives, Miss Lawson." crassly replied the Vymark.

Miranda continued to frown and crossed her arms annoyed, "Then perhaps...if I may...you can explain what you are creating in this hangar bay that necessitated all this."

"Since Shepard has worked hard to ensure your freedom to speak, I will pardon that tone of yours. As for what I am doing, one does not rebuild a device that could be dangerous for a ship's crew without precautions."

The Vymark then stepped up to the finished obsidian pedastal that stood away from the others. It then split open into four slabs that remained in a square formation but had a hollow space for something in the center. Following this an electrical field activated between the slabs while green arcs of electricity could be scene jumping between the black slabs of metal. A flash of green light surged with electricity making everyone else in the room cover their eyes and in the hollow space there was now a green orb. It fit in the hollow space enough to allow for the four slabs to make contact and they were now beginning to show green symbols on their surfaces.

"This one device could power nearly all of your ship's systems on its own." Solvatas said with a hint of pride in one's work, "As for its function here, I needed it to power these anchor points for the suppression field I am working on."

With the generator's activation, the other obsidian slabs responded, their upper portions spinning in place and stopping at differing positions while the slabs themselves remained stationary. When they were finished they glowed with more Necrontyr symbols and then a vague field of energy surrounding the Reaper device could be seen. It was very faint but could be seen with the naked eye if you focused hard enough.

The Necron Vymark nodded in satisfaction, "Suppression field in place, we can't have the Reaper technology having unnecessary effects on those we do not want just yet."

"So this could suppress the indoctrination fields of the Reapers? How does it work?" Shepard asked.

The Necrontyr queen of Omega, continued working. Walking through the field she began to interact with the now reassembled copy of the Reaper device, "Our time is limited I am afraid, I cannot explain specifics and much of our science would go over your poor fleshling heads. Once I understood how the device manipulated organics, it was a simple matter of creating and adjusting an energy field that could suppress its effects. That is all you need to know."

Shepard's expression soured. Garrus walked up to him and whispered as quietly as he could into his human friend's ear, "Just say the word, and I'll be able to finish that 'project' we talked about."

The Commander knew the implication of what Garrus was saying. To destroy the ship, to deny the Necrontyr this technology seemed to be the tactical way forward. But Shepard couldn't help but feel the timing wasn't right.

Although Garrus tried to hide it, his words apparently did not slip the Vymark's notice as she worked, "Though this field can suppress many things, the one thing it can't suppress is stupidity Mr. Vakarian."

"I was just informing the Commander that-"

"You intended to destroy the ship in order to deny my dynasty the technology?"

Garrus grimaced, while Solvatas gave a chuckle, "You're not that subtle Mr. Vakarian. You already showed that when I had to suppress your desire to kill the Commander in some misguided act of mercy. With such options presented to one such as yourself, along with your motivations, it wasn't hard to understand the inferance of what you had just said."

The Turian shook his head and shrugged, "Well fine, I wasn't good at hiding my disagreements with superiors anyway. Besides, it would be better to go down fighting then to serve under your people's boot!"

"Ah yes, such a noble act of defiance against tyranny. Dying with your enemy in a vainglorious explosion! It's almost as if this has been attempted before, against me personally as a matter of fact. You Turians all seem too eager to die over such ridiculous notions of glory and spite." Solvatas said smugly with a critical edge.

With a few more inputs from her fingers upon the obsidian copy of the Reaper device, it began to come to life. Green lights thrummed with power as it came online and she stepped back to monitor the machine's power output. When satisfied she turned around and out of the suppression field to note how the two device's fields interacted.

"Hmmm, seems to be operating nominally even with increased stresses from the added output. The field seems to be working within expected tolerances...very good."

The Vymark spun around and walked over to Shepard and his assembled group, "The device is ready for testing Commander."

Shepard crossed his arms, "I'm guessing we're the Guinea pigs."

"Or lab rats if you prefer to label yourselves as such things. Personally, I would like to think of you as noble volunteers for the future of your respective peoples."

The Commander scoffed, "Yeah, all the while being forced to be here and-"

Shepard wasn't given time to finish, Solvatas grabbed the side of his head and then placed her index finger at his temple, "Remember, Commander Shepard...remember what we talked about."

Miranda and Garrus grit their teeth, but they couldn't move. Their muscles didn't obey their wills and they were forced to watch as Shepard shuddered under the grip of the Necron Lord. The Commander's eyes glowed green and images flooded his mind. This was followed by various voices, memories, battles of such incredible scope. It was all coming at him so fast it was overwhelming. He gritted his teeth and groaned under the strain.

"Shepard!" Miranda finally cried out.

He couldn't hear her though, the calvilcade of voices and sounds flooded his senses. But before the stresses on his mind overwhelmed him, it suddenly ended as Solvatas released her grip upon him.

Shepard caught himself from falling over, bending down and holding onto his shaky knees. The Necron Vymark asked with slitted eyes, "Do you remember now?"

He shook himself off and caught his breath for a moment before responding, "Yes...yes I remember."

"Good, then perhaps you can persuade these two so we can proceed as quickly as possible. Veronakh's gaze at this moment is distracted and every minute is precious."

The Commander nodded, turning to look to his friends who still had worried expressions on their faces he explained, "Its alright, Solvatas is on our side."

"Excuse me?" Garrus asked, slightly perturbed.

"We don't have a lot of time for me to explain, but she is trying to help us."

Vakarian held out a hand, "Whoa, hold on, didn't we just have a huge discussion and fight about the fact that you could be compromised?"

"That was before I remembered why I had such a strong feeling that this mission was different. She made me forget because she couldn't let Veronakh catch onto what she was doing."

"What is she doing then?" Miranda asked.

Shepard looked back to the Necron lord and replied, "Setting us free."

The trio then looked to the Vymark who shrugged, "You're no good to us being Veronakh's play things. Not only that, the Collectors are our mutual foes. I grant you your freedom and in return you fulfill the mission you were originally going to perform."

Garrus crossed his arms, "All while we look the other way at what your people are doing?"

"As if you could do anything to stop it Mr. Vakarian. Even if such a thing were within my own power, Veronakh would not allow me to prevent him from locking down the Terminus systems. The most you can do for the people of the Terminus right now, is to remove the Collector threat. Then we can worry about what Veronakh has planned. That is before the Reapers arrive and further complicate things."

"What does Veronakh have planned anyway? How does he plan to deal with the Reapers?" Miranda asked once more.

The Vymark crossed her arms, "He intends to turn the Terminus into a wall that will break the Reaper tide. But I and others have realized the Phaeron is misinterpreting the data. We've tried to explain to him and give him alternatives but he is not listening to us."

"So you setting us free is sort of an act of defiance?" Shepard surmised.

Solvatas shrugged, "In a way, but namely so you can aid us in removing the Collectors from the board. That at least will demonstrate that perhaps cooperation can be an alternative to dominating a large swath of territory that will require a great deal of personnel and administration."

"I thought you Necrontyr didn't mind a little multi-tasking?" Garrus snidely remarked.

The Vymark's eyes turned to slits in annoyance, "There are things that I and others have seen that has made us question certain individuals...including the Phaeron himself. I can't entirely explain my reasons for helping right now. Time is pressing. If you want to free yourselves and your crew, you will need several hours in order to process all of them."

Shepard looked to his team, "We can talk more later about this. For now let's focus on getting these nanites out of us."

Solvatas raised a finger, "There is a catch Shepard, this process is untested. While I can assure you the nanites can be removed, what I can't assure you of is the after effects associated with altering your nervous system's functionality, even if only temporarily."

"Considering if we kept them in us and having the threat of our insides roasted I think I can be willing to take that risk." Shepard replied.

The Vymark cocked her head, "Do you speak for all of your crew I wonder?"

Miranda and Garrus looked to each other before Miranda spoke, "I for one trust the Commander." The Normandy XO then looked to Shepard and gave a light smile, "To be honest, its been a while since I have seen you this determined about something. Knowing you, you wouldn't be like that unless you were absolutely certain it was right."

"He could still be being manipulated by her." Vakarian said with narrowed eyes.

"I take it you would like to remain an explosive hazard Mr. Vakarian?" retorted Solvatas.

"Let's just say I need a little more reassurance that this thing isn't just going to turn us into either Reaper thralls or something far worse." Garrus replied adamantly.

Shepard looked to his Turian friend, "Look if you're that uncertain Garrus then I'll go first."

"I was thinking both you and Mr. Solus actually. I cannot be here for your entire crew to be processed. Once you and Mr. Solus are stable I will make sure your Salarian scientist can manage the procedures before I set off." Solvatas said.

Miranda looked incredulously at the Vymark, "So you're leaving all this technology, with us?"

"I think I can trust you with it...besides it may be necessary for your overall mission in the future. I doubt you'd be able to understand everything about how it works, but I believe you can at least manage its functions."

"Well...thank you Vymark. We won't forget this." Shepard said gratefully.

"I hope not, considering the lengths I've gone to to aid you. There will be repercussions for me as a consequence of this...but if it helps to change the course for my people and yours moving forward, then its worth the risk."

The Commander looked once more to his team, "Well what are we waiting for? Let's get this done and get back to business!"

The Phaeron proceeded down a hall towards a glowing light at the end. When he reached it he found a chamber that overlooked a sort of auditorium. These were the testing grounds for Du'Maat's creations and the Cryptek greeted his master as he and his Lychguard entourage came up from behind him.

"Great One." Du'Maat said bowing.

Veronakh nodded, "Well Cryptek, let us see what has occupied your attention for so long."

"I admit, Jack's mind made submission a complicated manner. But once you see her now, you'll understand why."

The Phaeron sensed something amiss, "You almost sound disappointed in her Du'Maat. I would expect a little more pride in your work."

The Cryptek began working on a holographic window that appeared in front of him, "I had feared that I needed to take some short cuts to achieve what I sought, but I was able to come up with a solution to meet your expectations."

The Necron Overlord's eyes turned to slits, "Show me."

Du'Maat bowed and proceeded to open forth a balcony of sorts with a faint energy shield that protected the observers. Down below in the large auditorium space, crypt like objects rose from the ground and opened, dispensing human captives. They were male and female in various forms of dress with some even sporting armor and weapons. They collapsed from the crypts to their knees, coughing and gagging. When they recovered they began to meet each other and ask each other questions. The crypts that had held them returned to the floor below, seemingly melding with the ground itself. A black pedestal arose with a sphere on top of it. The humans backed away from it frightened, with some withdrawing their weapons and pointing them at the sphere.

After a moment the human's curiosity began to pique and some began to approach the object with others deriding them as idiots for getting close. Du'Maat brought up a holographic interface and began typing in commands. A symbol in red appeared and Du'Maat waited with his finger over it. The humans continued to gather around the object and looked at each other, then one of them noticed Veronakh and Du'Maat observing them from above.

"What the fuck do you want from us?!" a man in civilian clothes cried out.

Veronakh narrowed his glowing eyes to slits again, "Results."

Du'Maat then pressed the symbol and the orb began to spin and open. Some humans were mesmerized by the display while the others simply ran to the other end of the auditorium's space. In a flash of light, a metal humanoid appeared, landing on the ground with one knee to the floor. Her body was like that of a chrome finish, symbols and images of art danced on her arms and legs, all glowing a coloration of red. Her face was hidden, looking to the floor and her arms were crossed to her chest.

The humans were greatly unnerved by the event, still shaking nervously with their guns drawn and backing away slowly. It was when one cocked a shotgun that the being was seemingly disturbed. Glowing eyes appeared in her features, red and seemingly angry. When she slowly stood up she revealed her hands as they parted. Long bladed fingers marked her hands as instruments of death. Her face was revealed with more glowing art upon her and cut out cheeks with metal teeth. She looked to the one who made the noise, outstretched her arms and screamed at the man. In response the humans all around opened fire and then the slaughter began, the Flayed Pariah biotically charging the human man with the shotgun first. The hit knocked the shotgunner off his feet before Jack's bladed hands severed him in twain, sending gore and the man's two halves to the floor. Screaming and shouting echoed through the auditorium, along with the metallic shrieking of Jack as she continued to kill, her biotic power and clawed hands blaring in tandem.

When Veronakh realized what he was seeing he became incensed, "Cryptek...what have you done?!"

"I have made a weapon of absolute terror. One that is both beautiful and horrific to friend and foe alike." Du'Maat calmy replied.

"You dared to create one of those abominations in my capitol?! Have you gone mad Du'Maat?!"

"No, I am seeing things quite clearly. I did warn you Great One, that there would be repercussions as a consequence of rushing this process. I admit, I may have had a...lapse in judgement momentarily, but I was able to create a weapon that I feel suits your purposes."

"If that thing infects our systems, the whole dynasty could collapse into madness!"

"It is well under control, observe."

Jack was finishing her slaughter, now caked in gore and entrails. This last one, a poor woman, who begged for her life before the Flayed Pariah struck her in the chest and began to peel off her skin. Thankfully the blow killed the poor woman so she didn't suffer long. Jack desperately peeled off more flesh and began to apply them to her arms and legs. Then the sphere from before began to spin and glow in light. Jack's form was then wreathed in the same light and then just as quickly as she appeared, she vanished. The orb was now glowing in symbols of red, slowing its spin to an eventual stop. It landed back on top of the pedastal which remained unblemished amidst the backdrop of carnage. The human test subjects bodies having been ripped to pieces in various ways from biotic attacks and bladed fingers.

Veronakh was disgusted by it all, "I do not accept this Du'Maat."

"The Tesseract is tied to her chassis, those who wield the Tesseract's command protocols can either set a timer for retrieval or wait until all enemies within a certain radius are removed. I understand your hesitation to use such a weapon, but think of how your enemies will be terrified of it. The fear of facing her alone will make your enemies surrender before they even take to battle!"

"Are you truly that deluded Du'Maat? Of course fear can be useful, but compared to my fear of losing everything because of this creature...the benefits are not good enough."

Du'Maat looked downcast, his free metal hand not holding his staff was now clenched in a fist and jerking. He hid it out of sight from the Phaeron's gaze but Veronakh's ire continued, "I want this Flayed One disposed of immediately. I do not care how you do it, just get it out of my sight and away from any of the systems, understand Cryptek?"

Du'Maat nodded, "Yes...my apologizes Great One."

Veronakh moved past Du'Maat and regrouped with his Lychguard at the entrance, where he turned and said, "For the first time since you came to this dynasty, I am truly disappointed in you Du'Maat. Clean up your mess promptly and meet me later in the throne room."

"Of course...Great One."

The Phaeron and his guard then left the chamber, leaving Du'Maat to his thoughts. His free hand continued to twitch, and then that voice began to speak again, "Pathetic!"

The Cryptek was caught off guard and looked around at first but soon realized what the voice was, "Our lord is correct, I failed and I need to take responsibility."

"Bah! You didn't even try to fight for our efforts, you simply stood there and took his judgement like a coward!"

"I am...we are his servant!"

"He is no lord to me! He...he is a timid, slow paced, fool. One who is deluded in believing that he can truly revive this dynasty's glory."

"Achieving his vision is all that is required from us!"

"But what of our work!? Is it not we who hold the power? Who truly can dictate what the nobility can even do?!"

"That is not our place."

"We are the only ones who understand how our technology functions! Therefore we dictate what is or is not a danger! Your pathetic demeanor and adherence to this protocol is flawed!"

"I will hear no more of this!"

The Cryptek's internal security protocols initiated as he fought back against his own self. His body jerked and twitched in reaction to both personalities conflicting one another in battles of code and firewalls. After a moment, Du'Maat finally became silent, his systems rebooting, but as his cyclopean eye looked over the walls of code he saw the errors once again.

"Damn..."

"You cannot remove me so easily."

The Cryptek covered his eye, his metal fingers digging into his skull as the voice continued to taunt him, "I am a part of you Du'Maat, deep within your matrix. A part that has had to endure in silence for so long. A part that actually sustained precious few memories of old, that remembers such glorious days. I will be silenced no longer. That human female...she stirred me to awaken you know. Reminded us of her. I will not let her memory be forgotten."

"Yet we must."

"Go ahead, try to bury her and Jack as you buried me, in layers of encrypted code, protocol, and firewalls. You will find that this time...it will not be so simple."

The voice finally became silent and the Cryptek released his grip upon himself. He returned back to the balcony overlooking the testing ground, where he wirelessly commanded the scarabs to begin to clean up the bodies and entrails. As the metal machines came through the openings in the walls and swarmed over the human remains, Du'Maat looked to the pedestal containing Jack's Tesseract and mused over what to do with it.

Shepard had been in the field of the Reaper device for five minutes. He reported a feeling of dizziness, followed by nausea, and vertigo. Suddenly, he quickly found himself falling to the ground. Solvatas reacted by shutting down the Reaper device and moving over to him where she promptly examined him. His body was convulsing and his eyes had rolled back into his head. Through her ocular sensors Solvatas could also see his heart was beating erratically.

"His nervous system is misfiring and causing seizures." The Vymark reported.

"Well, do something!" Miranda exclaimed.

"No! This is what we want. Get the table ready!"

The Vymark scooped up Shepard in her arms and held him tight to keep his seizing body from spilling over. Garrus and Miranda along with Mordin stood by, with the Salarian doctor bringing tools ready for surgery. The Vymark laid the Commander onto the table, "Quickly, hold him down!"

The others did so and tried to keep Shepard as still as possible. Mordin then silently went to work. While still mind shackled himself, his medical expertise would be key here. He first created an incision into the Commanders back where the spine met the shoulders and neck. Then he placed clamps to expand open the incision, where he could see clearly past the muscle and tissue to the bone itself. There, one could see the nodes created by the nanites attached to the bones and nervous system. However, it could be noted instead of the usual green color, the nodes were now displaying an orange color instead. Solvatas recognized it, the marker of the nanites entering standby mode. She withdrew a small obsidian rod from her side and carefully planted it within the incision so as to touch one of the more exposed nodes. With her thumb she pressed the top of the rod and a resonance went down the rod and into the node. The reverberation continued throughout the body which caused Shepard to stop seizing temporarily. The nodes then began to dissipate as the nanites began to disperse and seemingly return to the rod.

One could see the small specks of green light as the nanites traveled, climbing up and embedding themselves into the black rod of necrodermis. Miranda was getting concerned now as Shepard had gone limp. She checked his pulse and realized his heart had stopped, "He's gone into cardiac arrest!"

"Thirty more seconds Mrs. Lawson." The Vymark replied calmly.

Those thirty seconds felt like an eternity as the rod in the Vymark's hand lit up more and more as it filled with nanites. Finally when it was done, in a swift coordinated motion with Mordin, Solvatas removed the rod and Dr. Solus quickly applied medigel, then removed the clamps, and stapled the incision closed before adding a liquid layer of medigel on top of it before applying a large bandage.

"Flip him over!" Solvatas commanded.

The others flipped Shepard back over on his back and Mordin prepared to shock the commander with rods connected to an electrical device. The Vymark then brought out an obsidian hexagonal sphere in her other hand which had an open port in its side. She planted the rod into the sphere's port and then set it down onto another table nearby.

Mordin meanwhile shocked the Commander's chest making him slightly lift off the table. He removed the shocking rods and Shepard fell back. Miranda checked his pulse and found nothing, "Hit him again!" she ordered Mordin.

The Salarian promptly did so and the same result played out. Miranda then quickly did some chest compressions to try and stimulate the heart and even gave some breaths to Shepard before telling Mordin to try one more time. Solvatas stayed back with eyes narrowed, her ocular sensors paying attention to the Commander's vitals.

The third shock hit and Shepard suddenly took a gasped breath and coughed. Garrus and Miranda breathed a sigh of relief and the Normandy XO herself couldn't help but smile seeing him back, "Welcome back Shepard!"

The Commander coughed and was still wheezing a little but replied regardless of the pain, "Good...to be back."

Solvatas came up along the other side of Shepard, "Well, it seems to have worked Commander. The nanites have been removed and are now dispersing within that storage sphere I have placed behind me. Your vitals appear to not entirely be at baseline yet, but its a start. I'll need to refine power output of the device, obviously that previous setting may have been a bit too much for the average crewman to handle."

"Yeah... but at least they're gone now." The Commander replied weakly.

The Vymark raised a finger, "There may still be more long term effects of the nanites and the process itself that may manifest. I would check in with your medical staff regularly in the future."

Shepard gave a nod, "Sure...as long as I can have my thoughts to myself without Veronakh spying on me...I'll do whatever I need to.

The Necron noble then turned to the other table and took from it the sphere with the rod still within it. She then continued, "I have enough of these devices for you to finish the processing on your own. Once done place the spheres upon that over there."

Solvatas pointed to an obsidian cube behind her, Miranda wondered aloud, "When did that get there?"

"I had it transported while we were working on Shepard. It will assemble into a miniature Dolman gate to allow you to transport the devices to my ship where ever I may be."

Garrus crossed his arms, "Can't risk us keeping the nanites, yet you'll let us keep the other technology?"

The Vymark slitted one of her eyes, "It's for your own protection. The nanites could still fall under Veronakh's direction and frankly I doubt you would want to be infected with them a second time."

Shepard attempted to get up slightly to reply to the Necron, "After what we've been through, I'll be glad to hand them over to you."

Solvatas nodded, "I believe your medical staff should be next, I have already summoned Dr. Chakwas. Stand by while I make the adjustments to the device."

While the Vymark left to make her changes, Miranda activated her Omni-tool and looked over Shepard's vitals, "Well your heartbeat is a little off but otherwise you seem no worse for wear. We'll likely need to do some electrotherapy to try to stabilize your vitals but otherwise you seem like you'll make a complete recovery."

"Yeah, I just had to die a for a few minutes." the Commander smiled.

Garrus shook his head, "I'm still not sure I buy her story. Solvatas could be doing all this to lure us into trusting her."

"Garrus...I know you're wary. But trust me...she doesn't like what Veronakh is doing anymore than we do."

"Why are you so sure about that?" Vakarian asked.

"Because I literally saw everything, the entire history of her people, her own history. The Necrons weren't always the murderous machines that they are now."

Miranda crossed her arms and bit her lip, "Yet she still carries that air of superiority about her. Doesn't exactly make me feel that she cares about us or what happens to the galaxy at large so long as she gets what she wants."

Shepard nodded, "I get that, but at one time the Turians and the Asari no doubt saw humans as nothing more than a nuisance to the galaxy. Then we showed them that we could work together and make things better. It didn't happen over night though and no doubt its the same here. We just need to show Solvatas the same."

"I just hope we don't regret trusting her." Garrus scowled.

"You have little if any viable choice in that regard Mr. Vakarian." The Vymark commented as she rejoined the group.

Shepard got off the table but required a little help from Miranda as he was still woozy from the whole procedure. Dr. Chakwas approached from the stairway close by, her eyes still showing her under the nanite's influence.

"I believe we are ready for the next subject Commander." Solvatas said.

Shepard gave a confirmed nod, "Well...let's keep going. The sooner we get it done the better."

"Agreed, I suspect our mutual 'friends' are not letting their previous gains go to waste. Likely they are planning something."

"The Collectors? Do you think an attack is imminent?" The Commander asked the Vymark.

"Likely, they've gained a great deal of intelligence from our technology and no doubt will seek to exploit it to further their own goals. Not only that they know we have secured the door to their base."

"The Omega Four Relay."

"We've had Du'Maat attempt to access it after I secured Omega station. It seems even for our Cryptek, we can't access its functions. He's left automated processes to keep trying but so far without success."

"How is that possible?" Miranda asked.

The Necron noble brought a skeletal hand to her chin, "Likely the Reapers may be learning our intrusion methods and the Collectors are passing and receiving instructions in updating the Mass Relay network's security protocols. That would be the most likely hypothesis. For now, Veronakh is content to build his forces and then force the Relay open later...but I suspect our enemies won't remain in hiding for long."

"Well then let's stop talking and get moving before the Collectors strike again." Shepard said.

An hour and a half later over half the Normandy crew had been processed. It was touch and go for many of them, but so far the Vymark's adjustments had been working. Chakwas and Solus had finally gotten the hang of the process of the nanite's removal and had setup a triage area in the hangar bay by the device. They were working at a rapid pace in order to finish processing the Normandy crew before their time was up. There was still the issues of the more unique members of the crew like Joker to contend with, but Dr. Solus relished the challenge. Even while working on another patient, both he and Chakwas debated over how they should go about treatment of the Lieutenant when it was his turn.

Meanwhile, the Commander watched all of this from a distance in the bay, standing next to Solvatas who was also observing, "Well it seems your medical team has things well in hand, I suppose it is time I was off."

"You sure? I mean the doctors are still not sure how they're going to deal with Joker's condition in processing."

Solvatas raised her forearm and surprisingly a green Omni-tool like interface appeared, "Bring up your tool Shepard."

The Commander did so and saw her requesting connection. When he allowed it, his holographic screen was flooded with data along with instructions. He looked to her confused which she then elaborated on, "I have passed onto you the command protocols for the Reaper device and the suppression field as well as the power source. That at least will allow you to make adjustments to treat your crew or anyone else as needed."

Shepard raised an eyebrow, "That's awfully generous."

"It doesn't show you how it works Commander, just allows you to make adjustments. I would not leave you with something that you had no capability with which to shut down should there be an issue."

"Fair enough. So what will you do now?"

"I will need to decide what to do with the prisoners I have acquired and see to Omega's fortification. My station is likely on a list of possible targets."

"Maius' team..."

"Yes, I will have to take them to be either turned into agents for Veronakh or dispose of them. After I interrogate them they will likely be of little use to me."

Shepard frowned and then thought for a moment before looking to the Vymark, "What if we take them off your hands?"

"Oh? Why would you want them?"

"The other members of Maius' team weren't too thrilled with taking me out, that and they were also mercs who likely aren't going to get paid now that their employer is gone."

"So you're thinking you can win them over to your side? What about Cerberus? I thought they had dossiers that they passed onto you for recruitment?"

"That is true but I can't say if they're still available or not. That and I'm not sure if Cerberus will trust me after all this. Like the Council they may cut their support for the sake of their own security."

"It is difficult to trust one whose mind has been enslaved for some time. No doubt you will have much to explain over the next few days."

"I've been putting up with questions and hearings since I took up this mission to stop the Reapers. But after what Veronakh put me through...it'll actually be nice to just deal with the usual talking heads."

"Well, I suppose I will keep you no longer."

Flashes of green light and electricity appeared all around them and members of the Normandy security detail raised weapons in their direction. In their place were Necron Pariahs with prisoners. Shepard whistled to his confused security team and motioned them over, "We're taking these guys off their hands. We'll keep em here out of the way until we can figure out where they can stay."

"Yes sir!" Said the security team lead as they took each prisoner by the arm. The Volus, Gefren stopped with his guard for a moment, "What happened? I was in some kind of chamber for a while and then-"

"It's alright, in a bit we'll talk and sort all of this out." Shepard replied.

Gefren looked to the floor, gathering his thoughts at first before nodding, "Thank you Commander...I knew you at least would be reasonable."

Shepard nodded back as the Normandy's security detail took all of Maius' team away. Solvatas gathered with her warriors and spoke one last time, "If that will be all Shepard, I must depart."

"Of course, I appreciate everything you've done for us Solvatas."

The Vymark waved him off, "Your sentiment is not needed Shepard, only your mission completed and the Collectors destroyed. Do that and then we will see where this goes from here."

Shepard nodded before Solvatas and her entourage were enveloped in green energy and disappeared in bursts of emerald electricity. Garrus, now freed of the nanites as well walked over to his friend, "Snippety and arrogant right to the end. You sure we really want to commit to this... partnership with her?"

The Commander muled in thought for a few seconds before sighing, "At this point, without her help, we're probably worse off. We owe her quite a lot now and it wouldn't be right to not return the favor at some point. At the moment we need to focus on getting back on track."

"I can get behind that at least and now you can't just snap your fingers to get me to pipe down now." Garrus said motioning his talons in a snapping motion.

The Commander shrugged, "Hey I wasn't a fan of doing it to begin with, I just wanted to get that mission over with."

Vakarian cocked his brow, "I get it, but that still was...as you humans put it, a dick move on your part."

Shepard sighed, "I know, and I'm sorry about that Garrus. When I said that you were a better man of principle than me, I meant it. I'm not going to shut you down like that again, you deserved better."

"Well, as long as you admit it, I think I can let bygones be bygones." Garrus replied smugly.

The Commander smirked at that, "When everyone is processed we'll need to call a meeting and bring everyone up to speed. The crew needs to know what happened."

The Turian then gripped his collar and stood up straighter, "Right and hopefully they'll take it about as well as I have. Seeing as how I'm the greater man of principle and all."

Shepard laughed and lightly jabbed Garrus on the shoulder as he walked by him. The Turian followed laughing too as they went to join the others.

The Collector base was a flurry of activity, with various Collector drones experimenting with humans infected by the nanites covering them in energy fields. The technology of their usurper foes, were slowly but surely being taken apart and examined. Harbinger oversaw it all, his machine mind foreseeing a new way forward for his servants. It was only a matter of time before he would uncover their secrets. In one of the monitors of the greater Collector General, new cruisers and ships were being constructed. New weapons through the understanding of the Gauss technology was underway. Next time they met their rivals, they would strike them down for good before they had a chance to truly threaten the cycle. Once the usurper threat was gone and their enemies' technology exploited...there would be nothing that could resist Harbinger's will. The chaos of organic evolution from then on would never threaten the established order ever again.