No matter how well she hid it, Nikki would be lying if she claimed she wasn't nervous as the shuttle flew over carefully cultivated farmland towards Discovery, Horizon's main settlement. If Mordin's countermeasures didn't work she'd have no chance against the seeker swarms and no possible action on her part could change the outcome.
Garrus had offered for his squad to take point but that wouldn't solve anything, at least she was the only human in her team, the other units had two each. None of the records for the colonies attacked so far listed any aliens as citizens and while statistically it seemed unlikely that Veetor was the first non-human visitor present during an attack, they had no way of knowing for sure.
On the off chance aliens really weren't affected by the seeker swarms then Grunt could carry her paralysed body back to the shuttle while Torma lay down covering fire. She'd like to see Garrus manage the same on his own while carrying both Jacob and Kasumi.
Figure of speech. She really wouldn't want to have to watch that.
Of course if the seeker swarms targeted aliens as well then they'd be screwed and nothing could save them, but she wouldn't make her crew take a risk she wasn't willing to take herself. Ergo her team was on point, end of discussion. She just had to hope Mordin's armour upgrades worked.
She double checked the two auto-injectors of antidote in her pouch before unclipping her assault rifle from the miniature armoury attached to her hardsuit. She left the safety on as she made her way to the shuttle door, Torma and Grunt mirroring her. Garrus made the turian gesture for good luck and she nodded back at him.
The shuttle landed, she flicked the rifle's safety switch off, hit the door open and exited the vehicle. As soon as her squad were out the door closed, protecting the other two ground teams in it's vacuum sealed environment. She took a knee, setting up security as soon as she was outside the blow back area for lift off but the shuttle didn't leave, waiting incase she needed an immediate evac.
They remained crouched for a full minute, tense and alert, senses straining for any sign their presence had been detected.
"So far so good." Shepard muttered, mouth dry and heart pounding. She rose to her feet, eyes and gun always pointing in the same direction as she carefully and continuously swept the area in her advance towards the settlement.
The same oppressive atmosphere as Freedom's Progress settled over them, no one wanting to talk. There was no sign that over 650,000 humans lived on this planet except for the empty generic prefab buildings, an eerie silence hanging over them.
There were some differences to Freedom's Progress though and Nikki held up a hand to halt her squad as she saw the dark cloud of a seeker swarm flying above them. The teeming mass looped around them once, less than a metre from their heads, before turning and moving on. The commander resumed breathing, a knot of tension lessening slightly as she activated her comms:
"Looks like it works. Mission's a go. Repeat mission's a go." Finally noise permeated the air, the sound of the shuttle lifting off to take the other two teams to their own insertion points. A short while later they found their first collector. It wasn't alone.
The urge to immediately open fire was strong but Shepard resisted. Not out of reverence to any rules of engagement but simple prudence. There were no manuals on fighting collectors. No advice on vulnerable spots or insights into their tactics. Silent hand signals instructed her squad into flanking positions, the element of surprise was a single use commodity and she planned on making the most of it.
She unholstered her sniper rifle, taking a moment to observe the enemy through the scope. Noting the hard chitin plate, the strange, smooth, rounded weaponry they carried; unlike anything she'd encountered before. Then she lined up a headshot.
Any previous nerves were gone as she calmly focused on the task before her. Wind and distance were calculated and adjusted for. As always the planet's gravity had been taken into consideration and the rifle's settings modified long before her boots touched the ground. She breathed in and out. Inhale... and exhale. Inhale... Exha-... a gentle squeeze of the trigger and her bullet flew true, impacting on the collector's skull. Her shot was the signal to unleash chaos, Torma and Grunt instantly opening fire on their own targets.
She automatically ejected the disposable heatsink and input another with a speed and precision that would make an observer think she'd been doing it her whole life and not only recently making the adjustment to reloading instead of simply allowing time for weapons to cool down.
Shepard sighted through the scope once more and cursed when she saw her initial target stagger back to its feet. Tough bastard, she thought as she put another round through it.
Three high calibre rounds it took to end the miserable creature's existence. By that point her team was nearly overwhelmed, the rest of the collectors being equally hard to kill. Just fucking die already!
Chitin plate was merely the last of their defences. Powerful but practically invisible biotic barriers and portable energy shields also in play. Grunt discovered concussive rounds worked well against the barriers and she was pleased to report that once they were gone her omni-tool's incinerate was relatively effective against the chitin plate. Unfortunately there was nothing for the yellow honeycomb patterned shields except to expend a shit-ton of ammo into them or manoeuvre to a better firing position.
They were finally making progress when she heard a familiar groaning sound, a flash of blue and silver in her peripheral vision had her turning. Husks, this day just gets better and better.
At least she knew how to deal with husks and she switched to her assault rifle, laying down a steady stream of bullets that ripped the grotesque techno zombies to shreds. A dismembered torso kept on coming, pulling itself towards her with its single remaining hand. It might have been funny if it wasn't trying to kill them.
A husk got too close to Grunt, he ended it with a shotgun blast to the chest but wasn't quick enough to avoid the electrical discharge that pulsed through him, overloading his shields.
The final collector aimed its weapon at the krogan, without shields the deadly energy beam would melt through his armour like an omni-blade through butter but it never got the chance. A concussive shot from Torma staggered it just long enough to upset its aim before it was obliterated by the combined weapons fire of all three squad mates.
"Anybody hurt?" Negative responses greeted her query.
Taking advantage of the temporary calm, Shepard grasped the water reservoir hose inside her helmet with her teeth and took a swig, swirling the lukewarm water around her mouth before swallowing it down. All the while she swept their surroundings for any sign of more hostiles but saw only corpses and a large... something...
Approximately knee high, the same distance wide and seven foot long, she couldn't even begin to guess what the large object was made of as she approached cautiously. There was a hole in the top, running about halfway down the length, and peering in revealed a hollow chamber.
Lacking a scientific advisor in her current squad she resorted to marine level science experiments, poking it with the butt of her rifle. The outside was as solid as ceramic armour plating but the inside had a very slight give when subjected to pressure, almost like a kiwi fruit. Looking around she spotted more of them leant vertically against a nearby wall, this time with lids made of a different material that for some reason reminded her of nectarine stones.
"Commander!" Torma's grim tone caught her attention from further up, he pointed at his eyes before gesturing towards another of the almost cocoon like pods he was crouched beside. The message was clear and she hurried towards him to look inside.
It was occupied.
However instead of some strange collector larvae, the inhabitant was a human colonist. A quick scan with her omni-tool informed her they were still alive.
"Mark the position, we'll come back later."
"But-"
"I know." She cut off the protest before it could be voiced, laying a brief supportive hand on the batarian's shoulder before moving on. The first few times always felt messed up to just walk past the people that it was your objective to save, but they didn't have the time or resources to go around saving them all individually. It was the same when liberating slaves, no matter how much you wanted to get them out the cages and end their suffering, you had to secure the facility first. The last thing you needed was traumatised civilians stumbling round the battlefield.
Not to mention if she woke the colonists up now they'd just get stung by the seeker swarms again. Mordin had been adamant that they should avoid giving anyone multiple applications of the antidote he'd developed, one of the active ingredients apparently causing neurological decay in high doses.
Nikki had almost vetoed use of the drug then and there but the professor insisted there was only trace amounts in the antidote. One dose, he assured, was perfectly safe. Three doses however should not be taken unless at least a week apart. It was the reason the auto-injectors had been issued for emergency use only and not administered as a preventative measure before they left the shuttle.
If the colonist in the pod had been bad, the sight that greeted them as they turned the next corner was even worse. Dozens of humans frozen mid-movement, fear etched onto their faces as they tried to escape the seeker swarms.
"Do you think they can see us?" Grunt asked as they weaved their way through the street.
"I don't know." Shepard admitted. It was the kind of question better suited to Mordin and a ghost of a smile flickered briefly across her lips as she wondered how Miranda was getting on with the salarian on her team. At least Zaeed had the survival instincts to keep them covered if the two scientists got distracted along the way. She was just debating whether to check in again with the other teams when an angry buzzing filled the air.
"Contact!" Her squad scrambled into cover behind walls and empty pods as several collectors flew into view and another firefight broke out.
...
Conversation was mostly limited to orders, observations and occasionally obscene words as they focused on the fight. It was therefore a surprise when one of the enemy started taunting them in a language they could understand.
"These things can talk?"
"Unless they want to surrender and give back the colonists I don't give a damn." Shepard declared breathlessly, ducking behind a crate to reload. A collector particle beam struck her cover, causing the metal to buckle and warp and she threw herself out to a new location with a curse.
"You will know pain Shepard." Came the voice.
"Huh, it knows your name." Grunt stated the obvious and Nikki had to fight not to roll her eyes, instead leaning out to resume firing. "I AM KROGAN!" The youngster declared with a charge forward and she lost the battle against her eyes.
"Our power is unmatched, my attacks will-" The trash talking bastard was cut off as its head was decapitated from its body thanks to a particularly overpowered shotgun carnage blast.
Bright light caught her attention, one of the collectors jerking back slightly before seemingly morphing into something taller, a scene eerily similar to the final battle against Saren on the Citadel two years earlier.
"You only damage the vessel, you cannot hurt me." The same voice as before declared.
"You have got to be shitting me!" The spectre threw a grenade in its direction and activated her comms. "Lima and Victor teams, are any of your tangos talking to you and then possessing others when you kill it?"
"Uh... No?" Came the confused reply.
"Great, just me then." Another talker went down, another showy display and another started speaking to her, spider like eyes aflame with an unnatural glow.
The 'jabberwocks' (she needed a way of identifying them in her brain and she'd really had enough of their jibber jabber) were even harder to kill than their comrades so she tried to concentrate on taking the others out first so it wouldn't have a host to jump to. As an added bonus the tactic would rapidly reduce the number of weapons aimed at her squad. Unfortunately the regular swarms of reinforcements limited the effectiveness of her plan.
She hissed, lefthand suddenly losing its grip on her rifle as a searing pain flashed across her arm, it was swiftly chased by the cooling numbness of medigel automatically deployed by the built in systems of her hard suit.
A quick fist clench test assured her the appendage was still functional and she didn't have time to worry about it beyond that, the combination of medigel and the adrenaline pumping through her veins allowing her to ignore it for the most part.
She was so focussed on the fight that she didn't stop to consider the ramifications that any injury to her body must have first penetrated her armour.
That said armour being damaged meant it was no longer fully sealed.
That her skin, her flesh, her very being, was now exposed.
Even if only a small amount.
The dark seething mass of an approaching seeker swarm was dully noted, previous experience of their flypasts allowing them to be mentally categorised as a non-threat. It wasn't until the ominous cloud had halved the distance, their trajectory a straight line towards her, that realisation hit with the force of a bloodraging krogan. The exact moment of epiphany marked by a loud expletive.
The commander sought cover, calling for suppressive fire as she fumbled in her pouch for an auto-injector, lining it up with her suit's injection port and depressing the trigger just in time.
A sharp stabbing sensation signalled the arrival of the first seeker. Her right hand instinctively reaching across to tear the giant bug off her arm, noting her blood on its stinger before she slammed it into the nearest available solid surface.
"Shepard!" Grunt's panicked call informed her he was aware of her dire situation, several seekers skittering over her armour as more flew around her head. She could just picture the inexperienced krogan coming to her well intentioned rescue with a carnage blast, knocking out the entire swarm and taking half her armour with it.
"Focus on the collectors, I can handle this." Despite her declaration she wasn't entirely sure how she was going to achieve that, although at least the exposed area was only big enough for one bug to occupy at a time. Winding back her fist she punched the current transgressor several times as her brain whirled for a more efficient solution. A feral grin taking over her features when the answer clicked.
Ceasing fighting, she reached for her omni-tool, allowing more and more bugs to land on her before manually detonating her tech armour. The resulting explosion turned the swarm to ashes and wiped out her shields but left her hardsuit undamaged. Minus the existing hole of course.
"Shepard, you've got more inbound on your position." Garrus warned over comms. "I don't get it, they flew right past us."
"Yeah well, their leader seems to have a hard on for me." As if to prove her words a familiar burst of light heralded yet another jabberwock possession. There weren't many left though and if reinforcements were en-route then now was their best chance to move.
A quick glance at a map of the colony on her 'tool revealed a nearby armoury with a secondary exit that would act as a slight shortcut to their objective. Sharing her plan, they fought their way to the door, the commander breathing a sigh of relief as the squad tumbled through and quickly resealed it behind them.
A ring of metal, the sound of something knocking into something else, indicated they weren't alone. Shepard's pistol swung in that direction, instructing whoever was hiding to reveal themselves. Everyone relaxed slightly when it turned out to be an unarmed human.
"What are you doing here? You'll lead them right here!" The moustached man looked worriedly between them all, his gaze coming to rest on Torma. "You... you're batarian."
"Good eye." Grunt contributed to the conversation, hefting his shotgun restlessly.
"Enough! Restock ammo and medigel then guard the doors." Pulling off her helmet she gestured for the civilian to join her as the others jumped to obey. "What's your name?"
Shepard quickly moved from questions designed to put him at ease onto questions about the attack, not that Declan was able to tell her much she didn't already know. She took the opportunity to check on her throbbing arm as he spoke.
Fortunately the collector beam had only caught her a glancing blow and the heat from the weapon had self-cauterised the wound. It still left three inches of ugly raised burn in a straight horizontal line though and she was certain it would scar.
She slathered the entire exposed area with medi-gel before searching around for a replacement hardsuit arm, eventually finding some titan armour that was compatible. The urban camo paint job didn't really match the rest of her armour but protection was more important than aesthetics. She wasn't sure how many stings worth of poison Mordin's antidote was capable of counteracting or how long it remained active in the bloodstream before needing another dose and wasn't eager to find out.
...
It didn't take long for the collectors to find them again after leaving Declan in the hopefully safe armoury and progress slowed to a near stop. Each metre gained earned through sweat and heatsinks. Comm chatter kept her in the loop regarding the other two fireteams but there was no way in hell she'd be able to move in to support them.
Not that it sounded like they needed it. Lawson and Vakarian were at least making regular advances in between assaults, while the chitinous foes seemed intent to keep her pinned down at any cost. Utilising their wings to secure the high ground and attempt to outflank her.
Speaking of being flanked, she twisted to the side just in time as the latest jabberwock appeared behind her, weapons fire impacting on the spot she'd just been. She was unable to avoid the follow up biotic attack, hitting the ground with a pained groan. Her armour's integrity held but she'd have some nasty bruises later.
"Your form is fragile." The jabberwock mocked as it closed the distance between them, intent on finishing her off. She didn't bother trying to get to her feet or scoot further away, instead pulling the trigger of her assault rifle and expending an entire heatsink into it's torso at close range.
She grimaced as her shots bounced harmlessly off the creature's biotic barrier, the field finally flickering and failing right as her rifle clicked empty.
"Your attack is an insult." It declared, bringing its own weapon to bear but she wasn't finished yet, unleashing an incinerate with her omni-tool. It stepped out the way but the temporary distraction was all she needed to push herself onto her knees, staggering forward and plunging her omni-blade deep into its body, ripping the blade out only to keep on stabbing, through and through, over and over until the bloody corpse stopped twitching.
She rocked back onto her heels, sucking in great gulps of oxygen. Her body ached with exhaustion as she glanced around to appraise the battle situation. Grunt and Torma were holding their own despite scorched and dented armour. The krogan had picked up a collector gun and was laughing joyfully as he turned their own weapon against them.
Whatever technology it used was certainly more effective than their own, the beam tearing through the collectors' barriers like a varren through a pyjack. Pulling herself back to her feet Shepard decided to follow Grunt's example, minus the maniacal laughter of course.
Their advance picked up pace although there still seemed no end to the collector reinforcements. They were never allowed time to search the bodies for ammo, or the chance to wait and see if the new guns would cooldown and resume firing on their own, instead dropping their looted weapons as soon as they stopped working and returning to their own guns until they could pick up another from the nearest enemy corpse.
Despite the increase in their destructive capabilities, it was a major surprise when the enemy suddenly withdrew. An explanation came with EDI's voice on the comms; Victor team had made it to the planetary defence canons and the collector's had finally noticed that Shepard wasn't the only threat on the playing field.
It would have been so easy to give in to exhaustion and rest for a moment, but the colony wasn't safe yet and the other teams would need help defending the control towers while the Guardian laser's were powered up. With nothing but Grunt's slight limp from a minor wound slowing them down they made good progress. Arriving at the defence centre just as a giant monstrosity airdropped into their midst.
It looked like somebody had been given a ton of metal and husk parts along with the instruction: 'you see this seeker bug? I want you to use these to make that, but at least ten foot tall. Oh, and make sure it's armed.'
"Spirits, what is that?"
"Kill it first, name it later." Shepard ordered even as Professor Solus' mouth started running with various observations and hypotheses. "Mordin! Kill it first, science later."
Of course killing it was easier said than done. It had strong, regenerating barriers and armour that even their pilfered collector beam weapons struggled to cut through. It struck the ground with an earsplitting screech, knocking Kasumi over. A quick thinking biotic pull from Jacob had the dazed thief flying unceremoniously through the air, undoubtedly saving her life.
Their combined attacks finally wore the monster down and the collector vessel pulled out moments later, EDI having finished charging the Guardian lasers and opening fire on the ship while the ground teams were busy.
The sudden lack of fighting was jarring but the mission wasn't over yet, they still had paralysed colonists in need of an antidote and that took precedence over the team's various desires for food, sleep or a shower.
...
To say Lieutenant Ashley Williams was having a bad day was something of an understatement. It was her job to protect civilians even if they didn't want her on their planet, but when a large spacefaring vessel of unknown class and origin entered orbit there was nothing she could do to help them.
Sure she'd unshipped her assault rifle and started firing at the dark maelstrom that poured from the sky in an attempt to cover the civilians' retreat to the safehouse, but her efforts were for naught. The individual components of the swarm too small and fast for her to hit.
A sharp sting at the back of her neck had her reaching round, pulling off an oversized bug and throwing it away, she'd barely taken another step when her muscles locked and she found herself unable to move.
The paralysis was awful. It would have been so much kinder if she'd just lost consciousness, finding out what happened later when she reawakened. Instead she had no choice but to watch.
First as humans fled past her, chased by the swarm and doomed to the same fate that befell her. Then as everything fell silent and there was a long stretch of nothingness. The slight swaying of grass the only movement, the changing shadows on the dreary prefab building in front of her the only indicator of the passage of time.
Eventually this too changed. Bipedal creatures the like of which she'd never seen or heard of before walked through her vision. The objects in their arms were clearly weapons but they were held loose and carefree, like they knew there would be no resistance and no need to use them. Their surety of success enraged her further still.
Pods were brought forth, filled with colonists and removed. Her brain screaming at her all the while. Wanting her to move, to stop them, protect the colonists. She couldn't lift a finger. She couldn't even blink as she waited, knowing eventually it would be her turn.
Distant gunfire caught her attention. She wanted to turn and face the noise, find out what was happening, but that too was impossible.
The sound of combat seemed to go on forever before a louder boom rang out, the anti-air turrets her team had spent weeks working on finally coming to life, pounding the sky. She wondered if anything would have been different if they'd been able to finish the defences before the attack.
Silence blanketed the area once more, with no way of knowing who had won or even who had been fighting. Every minute that passed further ratcheted up the tension, uneasy apprehension coursing through her immobile body. Whatever she expected to happen next it wasn't for a salarian to enter her line of sight. The alien was followed by a human with almost as many scars as Wrex, carrying an assault rifle. Unlike the unknown species earlier his grip wasn't loose. Eyes constantly searching for danger and ready to respond in an instant. The salarian stepped up to her, deliberately securing eye contact before unveiling an injector pen.
"Doctor Solus. Here to help. Will release you but must remain calm. No punching." He reached up to her neck, she hated how vulnerable she was right now, he could slit her throat and she wouldn't be able to do a thing about it.
Next thing she knew Ash was collapsed on the ground, legs giving out as the paralysis ended. Muscles aching in protest at being locked in one position for so long.
"Easy. Deep breathes." The salarian, Solus, instructed. She twisted her head to look around, recognising a couple of doctors from the colony, each accompanied by an unknown soldier as they helped revive other colonists nearby.
One of the soldiers was a batarian and her skin itched, desperate for the reassuring grip of her rifle but she didn't want to spook her rescuers. After all they outnumbered her and so far hadn't showed signs of hostile intent.
She needed to find out what was going on. Who these people were and what their help would cost. Enquiries as to their leader had her pointed towards the main square in search of 'the commander', wondering vaguely how she'd recognise them.
She needn't have worried.
Even from behind, the red and white stripe of N-Forces personnel was easily identifiable on her right arm. Why the salarian hadn't just mentioned that little detail Ash didn't know.
"Commander, I was told you're the one in charge of-..." She trailed off, halting her approach as the black haired woman turned to face her, revealing familiar brown eyes, the exact same shape of nose and jaw and of course, that trademark smirk. "... Shepard?!"
It was impossible. She knew it was impossible. The N7 who had given her a chance when no other officer in the Alliance would touch her file with a bayonet had died. Spaced above Alchera while the rest of the crew evacuated an exploding Normandy.
There was no surviving that.
Shepard was dead and, if there was any justice in the world, resting easy by God's side in heaven.
Any moment now Commander N would tell her she'd made a mistake, she was some other name, the lieutenant would apologise, introduce herself and they'd move on. Awkwardness hopefully forgotten. She braced herself as the N7 opened her mouth.
"Hi Ash," The not Shepard said. "How's things?"
Not possible. Not Possible. NOT possible! Her brain screamed. Maybe whatever had paralysed her also caused hallucinations. The spectre simply stood there, smiling like it was all some joke. Some great elaborate prank. 'Surprise I'm alive!'
"That's it? You show up after two years and act like nothing happened? I thought you were gone. I..." God knows she wanted it to be true, for Shepard to be standing alive before her. But dead was dead. Only the Lord Jesus ever came back from that. Shepard had been many impossible things but she was not the son of God.
There were only two logical explanations: 1) This was not Shepard. Or 2) Shepard faked her own death and inflicted pain and heartache on her friends and family. She couldn't imagine the woman she'd known putting everybody through that. At least, not through choice.
"Why didn't you try to contact me? Why didn't you let me know you were alive?" So many emotions pelted her as she tried to process the sight before her eyes. Hope, disbelief, anger, confusion.
"I wasn't even conscious until a couple of months back, Ash. I spent the last two years in some kind of coma while Cerberus rebuilt me. When I woke up I was told your whereabouts were classified, then I jumped straight back to work." The N7 gestured generally around them, encompassing the battle damaged colony.
"You're working with Cerberus now?" Williams didn't even attempt to keep the accusation out her voice. She wasn't sure why she sounded so betrayed, after all this wasn't Shepard. It couldn't be.
"We both want the same thing," mismatched armoured shoulders shrugged defensively. "To save the colonists. I'm using their resources, that doesn't mean I answer to them." Ashley just scoffed.
"Do you really believe that? Or is that just what Cerberus wants you to believe? Hell, how do I even know it's really you?" Originally she'd just thought it might be a lookalike, but with Cerberus involved the thing standing in front of her wearing her old commander's face could literally be anything. A clone. A robot. Looking closely she wondered if she was imagining a faint glowing light through the fine cracks in the skin. That wasn't natural. "Would you even know if they were controlling you?"
"Ash..."
"No! The Shepard I knew would never work with those terrorists. Or have you forgotten Commander? Forgotten about Admiral Kahoku? Forgotten about Chasca, about Binthu, about the listening posts in the Styx Theta. Did you forget about Akuze?"
"I haven't forgotten." The commander's voice was soft, pained, but Ash hadn't finished twisting the knife in yet.
"Corporal Toombes would be ashamed. You've turned your back on everything we stood for!" The spectre's eyes turned steely and for a moment Williams thought she saw a flash of red in them.
"Ash you know me. You know I'd only do this for the right reason. Look around you. You saw it yourself. The collectors are targeting human colonies and I'm what? Supposed to stand around and do nothing?"
"I'd like to believe you Shepard but I don't trust Cerberus. And it worries me that apparently you do."
"Believe me, I don't." It was the spectre's turn to scoff. "But they're not the enemy here. The collectors are working with the reapers and you're so focused on Cerberus that you're ignoring the real threat!"
"Maybe. Or maybe you feel like you owe Cerberus because somehow they saved you. If you're you. Doesn't matter... I still know where my loyalties lie. I'm an Alliance soldier. It's in my blood. I'm reporting back to the Citadel. I'll let them decide if they believe your story."
"Ash!" She'd already turned to leave but paused at the loud call of her name. Half forceful order, half desperate plea. She refused to face whatever was behind her again though and heard a despondent sigh. "You always were stubborn Williams... Just... be careful out there. And if you get a chance try and talk to Anderson. Please."
A lump in her throat prevented her from speaking as she nodded and walked away.
...
Author's note: Sorry, that took longer to write than I was planning. Made a few changes, hopefully you like them. It always seemed a bit silly to me that the collector's paralysis wears off in a shorter timeframe than it would've taken for them to finish kidnapping everybody if they hadn't been interrupted.
I also gave Ash an early promotion because the reaper war is only a year away, it's impossible for her to jump from an NCO rank to Lieutenant Commander that quickly. Attending Officer candidate school at some point in the past two years, either on Anderson's recommendation or from Shepard filing the paperwork before she died, is much more believable.
Originally Nikki was going to nickname the possessed collectors 'Conrad' because they were stalking her, but I was struggling to come up with synonyms for talk and speak that didn't imply a specific volume or emotion like 'whisper' or 'yell' and Mr. T popped into my head with "quit your jibber jabber fool!" Next thing I know Nikki's insisting on calling them jabberwocks.
Many thanks for all the follows, favs and especially the reviews, I read and appreciate every one.