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The shuttle was entering the planet's atmosphere, having to come in away from the radar range of the massive ship on the colony's edge. The team inside, waiting for their moment to take the fight to the buggy bastards, was Naruto as ground commander, as usual, leading Garrus and Grunt alongside his old friend Jacob and their newest recruit and the one they knew least about in the field, Jack.

The half-naked biotic criminal stared at the blonde with a lot to say behind those rage-fueled eyes. "Tell me why my first fight with you guys is against the bug bastards known for abducting colonies?"

"Because we need the biotic strength. None of us know exactly what kind of fight these guys will put up, and as I understand, no one's ever got a look at their biology either." Holding onto the roof, Naruto began their briefing and planning. "Out of everyone here, you're the unknown in terms of combat, so keep the friendly fire to a minimum. See anything that seems like an insect? You crush it how you like. Otherwise, our mission is to stop them from taking the colonists to the best of our ability and test the waters."

Giving her that order was enough to make Jack grin. "And here I thought you wanted me leashed like a good doggy. As long as I only kill the freaks with bug heads and play nice with everyone else, I can let loose? Fine by me."

"Not the best idea, in my opinion. You sure about this, Naruto?" Jacob questioned.

Their resident Krogan just scoffed aloud at that. "Who cares how we fight as long as we win? No mercy to our enemies."

Turning his gaze to his friend, he shrugged in a manner that suggested that this wasn't ideal, but it was for the best. Still, he continued his debrief. "Mordin's countermeasure is in place; as long as the doctor came through for us, we can operate without fear of being their next victims. He mentioned not knowing how effective it is on a large group, so we have as big a team as he suggests we can handle with skills in all areas. As I said before, we have no way of knowing what kind of race these Collectors are beside their appearance and that anyone who tried fighting them got hit by weaponry that's still highly advanced enough to rip through shields and armor. We don't even know if Biotics will be enough, no matter how powerful Jack or myself are. I'd ideally bring a tech expert on the level of my sister, but besides her, we have Kasumi, who wouldn't be ideal in a sustained combat scenario. And Mordin, who might be needed if we fail here to make the mission successful down the line."

"Which is why you brought me in, right? Don't worry; I haven't slacked in my technical expertise." The blue-armored sniper mentioned as his mandibles twitched. "Still, you're not a slouch yourself."

"Thanks for the confidence. High-powered weaponry, combat-effective fighters, with strength in all fields to test what hurts these bastards the best. We will hit the colony, stop the abductions, and see just how much damage we can cause these guys.

Jack inspected her shotgun and pistol, "Then let's play fucking heroes."

"Nearing the drop zone, sir." The pilot called back to the team, "This is as secluded as I can get."

Walking up beside the man, Naruto saw it was just outside the residential area of Horizon. "Alright, Drop us off and head right back."

"Yes, sir."

Hitting the dropzone was a piece of cake. Leading the team out and into the hillside picnic area, the shuttle returned the way it came in so it wasn't detected. It wasn't a minute before they saw their first seeker swarm get close, flying overhead and swirling around. Stopping, the team kept an eye on it. As it flew off away from them, the dark-skinned soldier relaxed his trigger finger. "I think the countermeasure's working its magic."

"Let's not push our luck finding more swarms, though." The buzzing around them was mostly from the swarms flying around, but Naruto picked up a louder one coming in. "Push in, eyes front." Just in time, too, because they got to the dead-end road leading to the picnic area just as Collectors flew in from above and saw them. "Let loose!"

"Gladly!" With a glowing fist, Jack enveloped a field around one of the flying ones and threw them down to the ground, the impact breaking one of the barrier walls and killing the Collector outright.

Seeing how easily one of them was dispatched surprised the team for a second. Garrus pulled the trigger on one of the landing enemies and found that this one had a barrier and one strong enough to absorb a shot from his sniper. "They've got Biotics, too; watch it!"

"Of course they do, but they don't seem to all have them." Hitting cover with Garrus and Jacob, Naruto took his rifle and gave the one Garrus shot an additional hit just as the other four fired at them. With barriers down, Garrus finished it off, but not before they saw two of the buggers place down gadgets of some kind to create weird webbed light.

Grunt and Jack went berserk, rushing into the fray with shotguns handy. The human was enveloped in roaring biotic energy, and the tank-bred wonder activated his armored circuits to toughen his defensive power. "RAHHHH!"

The defensive capabilities of their charged powers were enough to protect them against some of the fire from the Collector's weapons as Grunt bashed into one of the shielded barriers. What surprised even him was that it absorbed his force and bounced it right back at him, causing him to be flung back. Jack was undeterred as she blasted it with her shotgun afterward, and that seemed to do the trick, but not without having the Collector grab her by the throat and fly her up.

"JACK!" Trying to get a shot, Naruto saw the enemy bug alien keep her at an angle to stop him from a clean shot.

Thankfully Jack was a beast herself as she built up her biotic energy and erupted it from her body, causing the Collector to fly back and let her go.

Landing roughly on her feet, the tattooed powerhouse threw an impressively sized warp blast that knocked the Collector so high into the sky it just disappeared. As amazing as her power was, she couldn't handle a sustained barrier simultaneously, which was to her detriment when two Collectors flew around to surround her and started firing.

There would have been a third, but as it grabbed a large weapon, Grunt tackled it to the ground, and its head stomped in. Krogan fury on full display, he grabbed the weapon himself and threw it like a spear at one of the flying Collectors. Smacking into it at full force, the weapon flung to the side as the Collector's barrier dropped, just in time for Garrus to take the final shot.

The Turian sniper, however, missed when the thing tried to fly up into the air, so his kill shot was ruined. Though his shot connected interestingly, tearing off one of the wings at the joints and making the Collector flail in the air before smacking into a wall and dropping.

Both the human soldiers had different ideas on their approach forward, with the enemy numbers weakening. Naruto saw his opportunity to get Jack out of danger, seeing her kneeling and trying to hold up a biotic barrier around her from the constant weapon fire. Jacob routed to go after the downed enemy, who had landed nearby the weapon that was thrown at it. "Garrus, cover us!"

"On it!" Shooting at the enemy, still trying to kill Jack, Garrus damaged its barrier with the first shot and went to take it out with the next. This was folly, as it suddenly started to glow and generate a ball in its hand. "It's making something! Watch it!"

That gave Naruto all the incentive he needed as he focused his power and shot forth at blinding speed, suddenly appearing in front of the creature in a flash. "Game OVER!" Generating a condensed biotic ball in his hand, he ground the spinning energy straight against the monster's chest and through it, killing it before the strange energy it created could be used against them.

Turning, he saw Jack drop her barrier and aim for the last of the foes. Jacob had it handled, however. With a shot at point-blank range, the head of the Collector exploded, and the battle was over. As he collected the weapons for research, they heard their dextro friend call an all-clear. "Not seeing any flying reinforcement! I think we've handled it!"

Garrus reloaded his rifle, "At least for this area. But we still keep sharp."

"When was the last time you got laid," Jack droned, earning a dry glare from the Turian.

Jacob looked around as he knelt to inspect a Collector's body. His eyes focused on the energy-based rifle, "We take a few of these for tinkering." A low groan made his head shift upwards while the others turned with their guns ready.

It was a few seconds of hearing the obvious groans of their next enemy, and both of the snipers had memories of these sounds. "Husks. Move up, don't get cornered! They attack in groups if you aren't careful!" Leading forward into the residential area, the blonde leader had them get past where the Husks started climbing over the walls and dropping from the top-story floors of the pre-fab buildings.

With a significant number behind them, Naruto took the Grenade Launcher from his back and fired into the coming horde. The resulting blast tore through over half of them but launched one right at Grunt with a still intact half an upper torso. As it grabbed the Krogan, it went in for its meal but found its head yanked right off by the three-fingered fist and crushed, leaving Grunt to fling the bodily fluids off before he could grab hold of his shotgun to fire into the incoming force.

"I got this one!" Jack yelled as she flared her biotic field, sending a pulsing wave of biotic power into the three Husks running at them with wild abandon. It worked for the most part, as two were thrown into the air. What she didn't see from her vantage point, as she biotically grabbed and pulled one Husk nearby, was another flinging itself from the wall next to her. Before she could turn to react, too late as it would have been, the Husk was sent flying back after getting hit with a sniper shot. She couldn't respond in time to the Husk she pulled towards her either, but Jacob gave her breathing room by hitting it with a Warp projectile, causing it to blast into pieces and back.

"Keep moving back! They can pop up from anywhere!" Was the advice from Garrus as he popped the second flying Husk, still floating from the shockwave of biotic energy, moving back with Naruto in tow, who was busy using his SMG to tear the Husk that tried getting behind him apart.

Grunt roared, charging through several husks while firing his shotgun at some running to his side. Their bodies were torn apart like paper against the mighty Krogan, who boomed with laughter.

It was a fast but swift takedown of the blue half cybernetic and flesh creatures that were once people. Once the final one fell, they were quickly inspected. "There weren't any reports of Dragon's Teeth with the abductions," Jacob spoke up, glaring.

"The collectors brought them along," Garrus guessed out loud.

Jack kicked one of the husk's heads, "If these fucks have husks. Doesn't that mean they are with the Reapers?"

"That was the assumption, given the limited evidence before." With a hefty sigh, Naruto took a closer look. "Though these are a bit more advanced than the ones we fought two years ago. Harder skin weave, more muscle, and even heavier cybernetic augmentation."

Having been with the team since the Saren days, Garrus had to admit the truth. "Cerberus was right, then. I doubt the Council can wave this evidence off as 'Geth technology' anymore."

"Fuck the Council; I heard they tore everything this bastard said about the attack on the Citadel to the grounds and spat on it." Their foul-mouthed biotic berserker colorfully presented as she pointed at Naruto.

Doing some recon, Jacob looked around further until he noticed something. "Guys, come over here. We've got pods."

Weaving around homes, they stopped at large pods made of what looked like Chitin of the Collectors with a yellow glass window. Naruto was quick to activate his omni-tool, "Nobody in here."

"Then they haven't gotten all the colonists," Garrus sighed in relief.

Grunt sniffed the air before growling, "Uzumaki... I smell more bugs coming our way."

Likely the noise of the fight had gotten someone's attention, "Let's keep going then. This colony isn't safe yet."

Making their way further in, the squad found a good defensible position inside one of the buildings, getting ready for the fight. "When they touch down, give them hell." SMG in hand, Naruto prepared his Omni-tool to support his next attack. "We know that Biotics are most effective, and our weapons do some damage. Garrus, you and I will use our combat tech skills to see if they are affected at all. If not, I want Jack and Jacob to cause biotic blasts to take them out."

"Let loose with explosions? Roger that, blondie!" Jack grinned and geared up for her signal.

As soon as they heard the chittering of whatever the Collectors were saying, Naruto came up from cover under a window to send an overload signal, hoping they had any technical parts like amps or implants. The surprise that the signal did utterly nothing was short-lived, as Garrus tried to fry their weapons. The effect was immediate and lackluster as the firearm cracked open from the top and sides to jettison the sudden rapid heating up of whatever the core energy source of the weapon had. "Nothing!? Are you telling me they've got little to no tech on them, not even a barrier generator in their armor?!" He didn't have time to think about it, as the Collectors all turned to him, except the one fixing its weapon, which grew its wings to fly off to find cover as the weapon fixed itself. "BIOTICS! NOW!"

Both hands glowing brightly, Jack generated two large SIngularity fields right in front of them, above the Collectors. "Eat THIS, shitheads!" All but two of them were caught in the gravitational pull, which was extremely strong even for the team inside the building. Holding onto the window, Naruto started firing his SMG into the Collector, who was unaffected by the gravitation area; its barriers were strong as it clawed into the pre-fab curb of the wall and fired at them in the building, having trouble trying to hit them at all.

Grunt, mostly unaffected due to his large size and weight, leaped from the window to follow the flying bugger who had flown to the next building's living room. "I got this one!"

Just as he entered the building, the two SIngularities merged into one giant black hole, even against Jack's power to hold them separately. Garrus had kept his head down as not to be pulled in, with their Cerberus soldier trying to keep his footing with his buildup of a biotic ability, holding an unstable biotic energy in his hand. The bald biotic woman screamed for him to toss it. "FUCKING BLOW THIS SHIT!"

"Like I got a choice!" Grunting with effort, he finished making the force-multiplying ball and chucked it, the energy swirling from the gravity alone as the singularities almost became a singular event. The combined biotic energy erupted as planned but in an unexpected way.

What was imagined as a large-scale biotic blast was an eruption of pressure, much more like a balloon being let go of in a very powerful way as the wind picked up and the pressure release caused a few of them to hear nothing but ringing afterward, blowing Jacob and Naruto especially back into the wall, with Jack skidding along the floor once she fell to her hands and knees.

Getting up on her feet, Jack held her head and ears. "Hell! My ears fucking hurt!" Seeing the damage not being very major, she was torn from her painful ear ringing when her shoulder got hit by enemy fire, causing her to back off and generate her barriers before launching out again and landing with a shockwave to the ground.

Her side was peppered by fire; still, she flared her biotics to shove the enemy from that direction as hard backward as she could. It worked when the Collector was launched back into the far wall so hard it went like a bug and splattered its guts along the metal walling.

The rest of the team made their way to her, the Krogan groaning as his armor was coated in similar guts, mainly on his pauldron. "What just happened?"

"A Biotic counter-reaction?" Naruto groaned along with Jacob, who both got up slowly. The blond spoke again, "They don't use tech. Or at least tech vastly different than our own."

A slow growl came from Garrus, "So much for hacking and sabotage. We're doing this the old fashion way. Explosives and bullets."

"Fine by me," Jack mumbled as the ringing faded in her ears. She glanced at Naruto's outstretched hand to help her up but got up herself, walking away. "Biotics work just fine on these bug bastards."

Not wasting time, the team pressed forward through the civilian sector of Horizon before coming to a sight that even unnerved Jack, "What the fuck..." People, dozens of them, from adults to even children, frozen in place with an orange energy field around their bodies. "The fuck did they do to these people!?"

Garrus quickly scanned the people with his omni-tool, "They are alive, thank the spirits." Before cocking his head, "They are in some sort of stasis."

Jacob recoiled, getting near one of the people as their eyes moved to look at him, "What kind of fucked up stasis is this? They are all conscious."

Kneeling to a frozen child held by her mother, both looked at Naruto, "Blink once if you can hear me." He perked as parent and child did so, "My name is Naruto Uzumaki. We will do everything to get you all out of this and safe. I swear on my life."

He could see relief in the woman's eyes despite not being unable to move. Standing and deciding to waste a clip on an early reload for his weapons, the squad commander entered the street. "Form up. We're heading in."

As the team followed the blonde sniper, his fellow rival marksman chimed in. "Been wondering. Did anyone else see the cannons we passed entering the colony?"

"Yeah, but I doubt they've been fully prepped." Getting a look from Naruto, Jacob continued. "Most colonies out here getting the protection treatment? Usually, their power needs for the defense cannons capable of defending against dropships, and small frigates can barely fire a shot a week. So they have to dig out a power station with enough energy output to do any damage at all, let alone in a sustained fight against pirates or slavers in big ships. Not sure how long Horizon's been getting set up with the cannons, but if they're cold, they didn't get everything ready in time."

Making a mental note to ask Anderson and Hackett later, Naruto tried a signal to the Normandy, low ping and undetectable to the collector ship. Sadly, it didn't even clear the atmosphere. "Well, no way we're asking EDI for an idea unless we want to be found out. Collectors jam comms. It seems they keep the jamming up until they are long gone. Does anyone know how to stop these guys and fast?"

Before they could even start thinking, they heard more buzzing as they neared what looked like an offloading area for supplies. The team got behind cover and quickly, and just as several Collectors same, and landed. Just as they all were settled on solid ground, one started to convulse for a second and then erupt in bright light.

When the light died down, the Collector had changed slightly. Glowing still from the eyes to the ripples of energy spreading throughout the carapace of its body, the thing finally spoke. "Assuming direct control." It voices alien and, surprisingly, in a language the translators could pick up and decipher.

Its body crackled with energy. Bursting by the looks of the cracks in the carapace. Its four eyes glowed toward Naruto, who grunted, "Enemy..." A feminine voice spoke in his mind. Standing on one of the buildings stood the red Asari, who glared at the one Collector with rage. The blinked as the Asari vanished and shook his head to focus.

The Collector pointed a clawed hand as more of its kind appeared in the skies, "This colony and yourself, Uzumaki. Shall be ours."

"Great to have goals, but that one's never going to happen!" Firing quickly, Naruto managed to clip the wings of one of the fliers coming in, who crashed into a wall. As the Collectors started firing at them, the red flare of energy around the blonde warped into the familiar fox-like shape that Garrus knew.

But it had shocked the others that they had little time to comprehend, even though now the fox-like biotic cloak sported two tails as he tossed out a large biotic wave. It was much like Jack's shockwave but weaker to stumble into the large enemy force ahead. Getting into gear, Jack helped by forming a Singularity again, one in the air to pull some of the fliers out of being a nuisance.

Grunt knew better than to charge eight rifles trained on him but didn't stand still. The tough-as-nails tank-bred muscle mass sported an ingenious idea of run and gun tactics, charging to the side of the area where he noticed a long-range weapon wielder setting up to take them down. As they tried to shoot him, his enhanced armor took the brunt for him so he could close the distance and fire. A few close-range blasts of his shotgun took the chest cavity out, killing the Collector and fleeing from the hail of fire coming his way, ducking behind the cover the corpse had once occupied.

The glowing Collector formed a barrier in front of it with one hand, dropping its weapon as it formed a large energy source in the other. With the assault rifle and sniper fire from Garrus and Naruto trying to rip the energy apart, it did not falter as it tossed its attack, which flared and arched quickly at their main target.

Seeing it coming for him, Naruto quickly threw an unstable Warp energy to try and cancel it out, and thankfully, it did without a massive burst of biotic energy, which acted as a flashbang.

The blond moved with great speed while covering his eyes. The Collector kept its gaze on him before raising his hand. "There is no escape."

A bullet bounced off its shield from the sniper rifle of Garrus, who glared, "Will be a cold day in hell before you take my friend."

Grunt let out a roar, charging at the Collectors.

Jack was generating a few different Singularities in the sky, trying to trap and crush the flying buggers above, but was also trying not to let her last attempt happen again. Groaning as her head started to throb, she needed a way to end this without overdoing it. "Can one of you use your damn biotics for me!? Can't hold them off long!"

Jacob was putting his guerilla training from the Corsairs to work. He was flaring a biotic barrier around him to sustain fire, much like Grunt's enhanced fortification of his armor and running interference against the rear of the platoon of these things. Already tossing out a plasma-infused grenade to destroy cover and blast the rest with his shotgun, all three he first caught in that move, he was pinning himself in cover to recover his barrier when he heard Jack scream for a biotic help.

Sadly, their leader wasn't faring too well as the surprisingly overpowered protection of this glowing one was not faltering even with sustained fire from Garrus at long range, and Naruto having to pepper incoming Collectors with SMG fire and others that were coming for him with biotic defense. One of which was a lift field that he turned into a gravity field that crushed them to the ground. As the next target of Collectors was firing upon him, he wasn't in a prime position to help. "Get these guys off me, and I'll handle it!"

Answering his prayers, Grunt bull-rushed in once more, tackling one of the Collectors targeting Jacob into a wall, and then grabbing one by the head and forcing it to the ground to stomp on as he blasted another in the chest with two shotgun blasts for good measure. He wasn't safe from the fourth, who swooped in and grabbed the large berserker fighter and tried to lift and drag him off, but the weight was giving it trouble.

"First things first!" Running out, the biotic soldier tossed several warping energy orbs into the singularities, all as he ran for Grunt and the Collector, dragging him across the field. The biotic attacks connected into their dark energy space and erupted, the concussive force of the explosions wasn't like before, thankfully, but it was enough to rid them of a vast majority of the flying enemies that hadn't landed yet.

With only a dozen left in the air, all landing and half a dozen still on the ground, their efforts were bearing a victory in sight. Getting his sights ready, the dextro sniper took the flying enemy carrying their Krogan companion down, with Jacob there to help the large fighter up and both of them getting to cover from the three landing enemies giving chase.

Roaring in barely sustained conscious rage, Naruto pulled two Collectors in and tore their bodies to parts with a massive shockwave, their limbs coming off with the massive shockwave of energy he released. Lifting another couple of Collectors in the back, he changed targets. "You're NEXT!" With a large energy ball in hand, he threw it at the glowing enemy Collector, who seemed to be the commander of this platoon. It didn't work very well, as it also three out an energy orb that canceled it out and then a swarm of energy that mimicked the bugs that put the colonists into stasis.

Coming to join Naruto, the barely clothed woman sent an eruption of energy that displaced the swarm ball and barely affected the enemy commander. It still gave Garrus another shot, this time using a concussive round that finally burst the biotic barrier around him.

When that burst of biotics flashed, Naruto was quick to overheat his SMG right for the Collector's head, but to their surprise, the less powerful burst weapon's entire thermal clip wasn't enough to dent its head, or arm as it protected itself after the first half of the rapid-fire bullets to its face.

Another sniper round struck, causing the Collector to take a step back when it struck the chest, but it still hadn't penetrated enough to do any damage. Something in Naruto's memory clicked, and he remembered the fight with Saren. Or, more specifically, with the robotic shell of Saren's mutilated and cybernetically enhanced body. "It's like... With Sovereign!"

Since the long-range fire was not working, Jack roared as she raced in with a glowing fist and shotgun in hand. Just as she was about to throw her punch, Naruto pulled her back quickly with his biotics, and with good reason, the Collector's arm extended with a blade that erupted from its carapace. Landing behind the blonde, the woman was furious. "I was going to kill him! What's the big idea, asshole?!"

"It's not just a Collector... It's being controlled and strengthened by a fucking Reaper! Stay back!" He started marching forward on it, one hand condensing energy like his signature technique and the other glowing with power as his head started to sting. Throwing energy at the glowing Reaper-controlled Collector, he got ready to end it.

In his mind was the voice again and again. It was telling him clearly this was the enemy. "Kill the Enemy!" And he planned to.

As he took his next step, his biotics flared, and he was suddenly in front of the Collector, and without a seconds hesitation, he grabbed the thing by the throat and lifted it overhead, slamming it to the ground before jamming the rotating biotic energy sphere into the chest cavity. The grinding of the armored carapace was almost sickening but satisfying when the orb finally forced its way into the heart of the creature, but the combining energies within the body caused an unstable reaction that spontaneously exploded, the body erupting into atoms as Naruto was thrown back onto his ass nearby.

The blond huffed, returning to his feet, "You alright, Uzumaki?" Jacob called out.

Naruto stared at the remnants of the Collector, "As if we need any more info to say the Reapers control the Collectors." His Biotic cloak flared as he returned to the battle of the remaining enemies.

The remaining enemies were swarming around now, separating to better flank or reposition. With another head with a hole in it, Garrus saw in his visor that he would have to reload a thermal clip. Instead, he switched to his assault rifle and went to give frontline support, especially since in front of him was Jack, who had just knelt to the ground after tossing a Collector into the nearby wall and then throwing a shockwave that flattened them against it.

Her head pounding, she felt Garrus grab her and get her behind cover just as her self-sustained barrier fell from weapon fire, two shots catching her in the leg. One being a scratch was nice, but the other got just in her thigh. "Shit! Damn, bugs are cockroaches, just no end to them!"

Pouring a couple of bursts of rifle fire, the Turian marksman downed another Collector that tried jumping up to get a shot at her again. "Almost, only a few left! Can you get a barrier up again?"

"I need some fucking booze after all this!" A few deep breaths and she shot to her feet, ignoring the pain in her leg, as she biotically projected her barriers again and sent a Collector into the air with a lift field.

With Grunt protecting him, the former alliance Corsair took out a Collector trying to avoid the bulk of charging armored death that was the Krogan. Two Shotguns were more than enough to tear through the thing as they mopped up next to what seemed like a bunker.

As his cloak diminished, two tails becoming one, Naruto pulled two Collectors in from either side and slammed them into each other with such force their limbs impaled each other. Still alive, he used the biotic energy inversely to generate a Singularity between them that crushed them instantly before he let it go. The last two saw their fight lost and started to zoom off. They did not get far, as Jacob pulled one back, and luckily Jack had tossed a Warp sphere that detonated the biotic energy and ended the thing's life.

The last one didn't make it either, with Naruto firing a shot that tore through its heart, and it fell in the distance dead. Nothing else around the immediate sight lines, he called the squad for a last check. "Status!?"

"Clear here, Commander!"

"Buggers are dead, blondie!"

"Coast is clear!"

"That was a good fight!"

A huff came from the blond, "Okay, so another Reaper is around."

"Maybe a backup in case the other was damaged or destroyed," Jacob offered some words which logically made sense.

Garrus checked his rifle rounds, "Then we need to pick up the pace. If a Reaper can control one Collector, we're in for much more trouble coming our way."

"Understatement of the fucking year Vakarian," Jack grunted

Having a look around, Garrus made an interesting observation. "Is it me, or is the buzzing gone?" He was right. The skies looked to be clearing or cleared out of the roaming bugs.

"Let's assume that's a bad sign until we know more. Over here, guys, I think I saw a locked bunker during the fight." The weapons specialist motioned for them as he started to the bunker; sure enough, it was locked tight.

With his Omni-tool active, Garrus started hacking the lock. It wasn't complicated, so he had it open relatively easily. Heading inside, the team found a small number of supplies like food and a generator that wasn't running for the moment, it looked like a bunker for a dozen people, but no one seemed to make it. "Anyone in here? We're here to save the colony!"

Grunt's blue eye sharply focused on a corner as a cap-covered head popped out from behind several large machines, "We have someone."

"The hell are you guys doing," The man hissed in a whisper, "You want those bug things coming back!"

"Relax," Garrus raised a calming hand, "He cleaned the area behind us."

However, the man was still panicked, "Cleared my ass! These things swarmed like locusts. There have to be thousands of them!"

Naruto approached the man, "Regardless, we will ensure everyone survives here, sir. What's your name?"

"...Dəlán, chief mechanic of Horizon. And you sound like that Alliance girl Williams."

"So she is here." Looking at Garrus, the marksman rivals nodded to one another. Turning back to the mechanic, the leader tried clarifying some things. "Whatever you think about the Alliance, that's your business. Your colony is under a raid and abduction attack by a race called the Collectors. If you want the people here to stay on the planet, we need those cannons surrounding the colony." He hoped he was clear without the man feeling attacked. "Terminus colonies hate alliance protocol with a passion. No doubt why he does not like the idea of her being here."

Though the man was pretty rattled by the information suddenly. "Wait, Collectors? That's just Alliance propaganda. Boogeyman stories to keep us under the Alliance's thumb near their space?"

Jack didn't have his shitty attitude cause them to get caught. Walking up to Dəlán, she grabbed his top by the chest. "Listen here, dumbass; you just saw the things flying around outside yourself, so you can play idiot all day long after we're gone. But we're here to kick their asses and be goddamn heroes before returning to our ship. Tell us why those huge guns aren't working, or I'll rip one of your balls off."

What resembled a deadpan came from the former C-Sec officer, "A fountain of compassion, I see."

"Fuck off, Vakarian. Do we have time to dick around here while those colonists are in danger?"

She wasn't wrong, but Naruto bit back his tongue, coming close to Dəlán, "Which direction are the remaining Collectors?"

"O-other side passed that door," He muttered fearfully, being glared at the tiny female. "They are swarmed around those orbital guns the Alliance gave us that don't even work. Their ship is right by it."

The blond looked to Jack, who let the man go. Behind them, Grunt looked ready for more fighting, "Shall we keep going? this is getting boring." The tank-bred muttered.

"Okay," Naruto nodded before looking at Dəlán, "Safer if you stay in here."

"Yeah, I'm not going anywhere."

XXX xxx XXX

With the bunker locked behind them, the team walked forward, seeing a few Collectors flying extremely high in the sky and mostly back towards the ship. Coming up to a housing area, Naruto had to check in with EDI on something. "Get ready, guys. We'll probably be noticed after I start this call-up." Powering the signal to reach the Normandy, he got through the jamming. If only just. "EDI, we've already been made, and the Collectors are finishing their abductions here. Not sure how many we've stopped from being put into pods, but we need them not to take a single colonist more. Can you run a software sweep and general diagnostics on the colony's defenses? I want to know if those guns can fire."

Though only a bit of static, the AI responded. "Of course. One moment. I would also like to inform you that Shepard is preparing the extraction shuttle for when the area is clear."

"Thanks, EDI." Just about near the door through to the next district, they heard the familiar buzzing of Collectors flying in. "Find cover!"

From the corner of Jacob's eye, he saw one Collector looking different than others, "The Reaper is controlling another one!" He took cover as rifle fire began.

"We are Harbinger," The possessed Collector spoke, "The cycle will not be stopped."

As the swarm of another dozen or so landed on the roofs of the tall buildings overlooking the supply depot, the team had little else for cover besides under it, or inside the surrounding first-floor boxes. In their position, long-range was out of the question.

But it was not too bad a chance for Grunt, who ran for the depot platform ahead, where some of the enemies had landed. Joined by Jacob, both enhancing their protective abilities with biotics and hardened armor tech alike, they stormed together into the fray as rifle fire pelted them to no end.

In a dead sprint, the Turian marksman jumped into the window of one of the buildings and started climbing up, followed by a flying Collector who tried to flank them and chose to target him specifically. "Not today!" Learning a trick from his partner all these years, he adjusted the mass effect field of his rifle and fired a flaming over-juiced slug right into the thing's chest. Replacing the thermal clip quickly, he got behind a wall and grabbed ahold of a grenade. "Go left, you two! Grenade out!" After tossing it to the right, he fell on his ass when the entire building shook.

The two Biotic powerhouses were keeping busy when the others ran for their respective positions, with Naruto generating a Singularity above the overhanging building where some of the Collectors had landed. Two had been sucked in, but the others were causing him trouble. Not for long, thanks to Jack using her biotic powers to launch herself into the air and punt her heel into one's face, causing them to fly back. "Just die, you damned cockroaches!" Firing into the kicked Collector, its barriers vanished and caused them to fly into the SIngularity. As she fell, she launched a biotic power flare into the gravity field and caused it to erupt. With the power killing those inside and knocking a few off the roof. All but the talking one, who had other plans.

Jack's reckless behavior aside, the glowing one was generating a biotic field around itself in its weird power again, and launching another swarm field or something at Naruto, only for the blonde sniper to blow it apart from within by causing a rapid expansion field where the warp energy he threw at it collided with it, making the energy inert. Once the Singularity exploded, he saw Jack falling to the ground. And the Reaper-controlled Collector jumped and raced towards her, claw extending a blade again.

No time to think, flaring with his cloak generating again, Naruto's slit eyes focused on the Collector, and suddenly he was upon them, grabbing the arm and its throat as he tackled it to the ground. With an enormous amount of power, he generated forceful biotic energy right into the neck of the Collector, and with the amount of force applied, the head ripped off gruesomely. And like the other, the body erupted into energy that dissolved it. Causing the cloaked fighter to be launched back up on his feet and a little wobbly from the sudden action bringing him back to his feet.

A loud shriek caught their attention as they saw a towering Husk with a bulbous upper body fused with three husks together. Its head is hunched to the side with several arms together like a canon. "What the fuck is that!?" It was Jacob, not Jack, who exclaimed in shock.

"Fun," Grunt smiled savagely before roaring a charge. But to his and everyone's surprise, the giant Husk released a power shriek that unleashed a biotic shockwave of immense size that struck the Krogan and sent him flying back.

The wailing it made was unnerving but not as unnerving as more of the same from three more that showed up. One from over the walls to the right, another two dropped in with four more Collectors. The landing in the supply depot was cleared easily when the grenade went off, and the Krogan and Human soldiers cleaned up the mess with close-quarters combat. Switching to his sniper, Garrus took a clean shot to one of the lesser Collectors, having gathered data about their energy fluctuations from constant scanning on his headpiece.

Hefting their large ally with redundant nerves, Jacob cringed from another shriek as two of them fired shockwaves again at him and Grunt this time. Naruto cleared them of danger by pulling them back with his biotics. "Don't even try getting close!"

"Good thing I can change to slugs!" Doing so on his shotgun, Jacob popped up and found some cover to fire from. Firing on the nearest monstrosity, the thing barely flinched, its outer shell cracking slightly. "They're heavily armored! Watch it!"

"It's not looking good!" Garrus shouted as he took out a second Collector, ducking as the remaining two tried flying up to kill him, having managed to break through his shields and nick his fringe. "Little help over here!?"

Having the same initial idea as their near-naked biotic outlaw, Naruto leaped up to the top of the building and ran right over the edge, and with both hands holding his special technique of spiraling biotic energy, he ripped through them on the way down until their insides were soup and his power grew. "These agents of the Reapers are making abominations now? Husks weren't enough? We can't let any more be turned into these things!"

The Shrieking grew louder as all four tried to kill him with shockwaves capable of blowing walls down, but Naruto kept himself in place with a biotic field that surrounded him, strengthened by his immense power. His head starting to pound, he grabbed his launcher and tossed it behind him. "JACOB! Use this!"

Biotically pulling it towards him, the dark-skinned soldier shoved the stock to his shoulder and fired; two launched projectiles took the first down, and another two finished a second. Seeing explosives were doing the trick, Garrus switched back to the Carnage mode for his rifle and fired into another, quickly ejecting and reloading a clip to cause another.

Not to be outdone, Jack turned to Grunt. "Hey! Fling me at the bastard over there!"

Looking at her, their Krogan teammate grinned. "Sounds like a fun idea! Let's do it!" Grabbing her, Grunt lifted her feet into his arm and, like a pitch for baseball, shot his arm out with amazing force, making the psychotic biotic woman fly into the air above the last standing creature.

As the red biotic energy started fading, the roaring migraine affecting Naruto to no end, Jacob told the team that the launcher had run out of ammo. Jack flared her biotic energy and powered her fist with it as she fell upon the fourth monstrosity. "Time to END THIS!" Every pound of crushing force from her biotic fist, the force she used with the highly pressured small surface area shockwave, was enough to rip through one head of the creature and blow out the back of its chest cavity, killing it as one head ripped off and the other was half sunken into the body now.

"Clear!" Jacob shouted as the others spoke the same.

The blond rubbed his head as the headache faded. "I'm going to be sore for a day or two."

"Getting worn down, blondie?" Jack remarked, reloading her shotgun.

He could tell that was a baited question, but he took it, "Only catching my breath. You sound more winded than me."

He wasn't kidding. Jack was wondering how to increase her chest size to fit more air at the moment but kept her calm regardless. "Smartass..." Going to take a slight breather on some nearby stairs, she saw the others heading for the door through to the next area. "What's our plan, now?"

"Our plan is this." Contacting the Normandy again, the leader had heard his comms go off during the fight a few times. "Firefight took our attention. What's the situation on the guns?"

"The underground power sector is fully operational and has not been damaged. The guns can fire at any time, provided they appropriately build the charge from the power station." The AI confirmed.

"So what's keeping them from effectively destroying the ship?"

"The combat software and firmware are incomplete, with no IFF protocols or automatic targeting system. Their alignment algorithms are also shockingly atrocious compared to the Alliance's standard systems from a year ago."

Being the resident expert on large weaponry calibrations, Garrus wondered how bad it was. "Any way we can get it to fire at the ship in the next few minutes?"

"I don't see that being possible without an entire software suite installed," Jacob answered. "That could take a few days, minimum."

"Normally, that is true. However, if one can link their systems with the forward operations terminal for the guns themselves, I can bypass the need for new software and link their systems to my algorithms. It would take a few minutes to power the guns, and during the power-up sequence, I can link their systems to my own to fire upon the Collector's vessel." EDI spoke, "The estimated time for the bypass is five minutes."

"You can bet your ass more bugs will be coming for us. Along with whatever else they have in that giant dildo."

"We set up a perimeter. And get ready for a fight." Naruto came to Grunt, "Outside of not destroying the gun, just go nuts."

An evil chuckle came from the tank-bred Krogan.

Garrus checked his rifle, "While our ammo is still good, don't waste a shot. Make every mark a kill."

"Form up!" Naruto got the team to the door and gave EDI the open signal. "I'll patch you in; get ready to fire."

"We'll see if the next ten minutes get the colony out of harm's way or if we're out of luck." Jacob followed as Garrus cracked the security door.

Heading in, the team found nothing. No swarms, Collectors, or human-reaper enemies like Husks or those Abominations. It was a quiet reprieve. They all felt one was the opposite of a safe area in the colony now. Seeing the courtyard, their dark-skinned soldier hummed. "Seems they placed the central network here. They were trying to build the facility out of the way of residential but close enough to be useful to anyone in an emergency. Standard protocol out here, building on top of the placement rather than building where the placement would be."

"Has its advantages, like not pissing off the colonists like the guy who wanted nothing to do with these defenses." Their turian friend answered.

As the team set up around it, covering Naruto as he started activating the guns, the air began to feel even more tense. They knew the final holdout was near. EDI patched in quickly. "I have access. Stay near the transmission antenna. I project a force of Collectors heading your way."

"Can the AI tell us something we don't know? Like, oh, I don't know, the types of monsters about to rip our asses into next week if we DON'T protect the thing? Much better than telling us we're about to get fucked by random ass bugs."

Naruto did not look up at Jack's comment as he readied himself with his biotics aglow, "Then why are you smiling?"

"...Because I haven't had this much fun in years."

A booming laugh came from Grunt, "You would make a good Krogan!"

The familiar buzzing sound came to their ears as Jacob pumped his shotgun, "Let's get ready to rumble."

"Five minutes... That's all we need to protect this thing. Please be enough to get these guys to retreat and not take everyone else who is frozen." He didn't have time to think about how much time they would need after that, as the swarm of Collectors that came in was heavy, several dozen, with one being controlled by that damned reaper again.

The threat of the guns was apparent when they also brought in a few of those Abominations to try and take them out as well. Not for long, as Jack and Jacob took to using their biotics on the commands of Naruto. "You two, warp their armor and blow it with shockwaves or concentrated biotic pulses! Garrus, you and I take on anything with shields! Call your shots, and I follow! I got a barrier to keep up!"

As a team, Jack flared her barrier to toughen her defenses as she generated biotic energy in her hands. Tossing them out, she weakened the armored Abominations with a rapidly decaying field that only got stronger the more it decayed. It had to be strong enough to finish the job in a single attack; thankfully, her biotic partner threw out small but potent spheres of biotic force multipliers that tore through one Abomination entirely, the others being knocked back but still functioning. One had a charged weapon ready to fire when it recoiled, causing its blast to destroy two Collectors to the side that were behind some building materials for cover.

Already having his orders from earlier, the Krogan juggernaut of destruction was diving between the cover and running through multiple enemy Collectors, even Husks that managed to crawl from the weirdest places around the area that was now they were a moment ago. Not caring about that as he stomped the head of one in the dirt, and his shotgun blew right through the chest of a Collector he had the throat of after they tried to tackle him and fly him off again, the laughter of this manic warrior was heard throughout the shooting. "I! AM! KROGAN!"

Holding his barrier, even though the multitude of enemy guns were firing to tear him down, Naruto was entering a mind-state he didn't think he had access to. Something inside him as his aura began to cloak him like a fox once more, cried out for more power to prove victorious, and his head was warm but pleasantly pulsing as his barrier started to shine as if crystalizing. Watching his sniping rival take out a barrier for one Collector in the air, he fired his sniper in succession to end the aerial assault of another enemy, and one by one the duo managed to halve the flying buggers and force a few to land to try and rush them another way.

The possessed Collector observed its forces being shot down before keeping its focus solely on Naruto, "There is no escape from the cycle."

"We will just see about that," Naruto calls out as his irises slit. He feels more than just his biotics glowing about him, like something long and in a dormant sleep beginning to awaken.

Within the depth of his soul opened two crimson-slit eyes. The blond heard a deep masculine chuckle within his mind.

"I had better not be losing it or something."

"...Not even close..." The blond stood frozen, hearing a voice within his mind, "These biotics of yours took a bit of my residual essence for its boost. Now time to show them all what true power is!"

With the battle continuing to rage, Grunt's efforts in running interference by rushing into any group trying to get close to the biotic barrier brought up by the blonde commander. Said leader began wondering what the hell was going on, with a voice that was both clear in his mind but as if buried under waves of water in an ocean. Still, as his power continued to pulsate and strengthen his shield against the now constant barrage of biotic energy the Collector's glowing reaper-controlled leader was throwing at him, he kept his end of the duet of sniper fire from his friend Garrus to thin out the rest of the tougher enemies.

Thankfully their efforts combined with the area holding much cover and also a lot of things to fling about, the biotic powerhouse of a woman was crushing Collectors under crates and flinging more into each other, where Jacob handled firing his shotgun and taking out any downed enemy to make sure they never got back up. The team was winning, and the time was counting down.

As the last minute came around, EDI called down, and all the guns activated around the colony. "I have finished the software suite; all the guns will now accurately fire on your command. When the screen shows the power is at maximum output, they are ready to fire."

"Copy that, EDI! Everyone, just a little longer! Finish them off!" The flash of the Asari behind the Reaper puppet was calling in his blood to end it, and the deeper voice in his head was shouting to use his power. It was a strange feeling to him, where the headache was brought upon by what he could only worry was a schizophrenic meltdown in his mind and not from his biotic overload.

Still, he did as his gut told him and shot a hand out with biotic energy, and the energy wrapped around the glowing bug as he crushed them in an intense gravitational force that was not the same as the usual singularity technique most used for trapping and crushing their enemies. And like a bug, the carapace creature crunched into a pile of unidentifiable mulch of flesh and organic armor. As the body vanished again, the team finished the last of the enemy around them.

Thirty seconds reaming on the charge, the team was just about to call victory when something dropped heavily on the biotic shield created by Naruto, and all turned to see a horror they never thought could be real, as it failed to pop the shell of the biotic commander.

They could see dozens of Husk's heads wrapped around a bug-like body with a large bug-like head at the top with four long appendages. "THE FUCK IS THAT!?" Jack yelled out as the giant monstrosity kept hitting Naruto's barrier.

Instead of strain, he felt immense anger boiling inside him. His teeth gnash as they become sharpened incisors. "Well, isn't this creature ugly as hell," The voice in his mind muttered

"Who are you!?"

"Considering your life or death moment here, we can speak later. For now, wipe this creature out."

"Not in a position to!" It was taken all his concentration to keep the barrier up, given the giant bug-like corpse pile was smashing into him, appendages and all. The team also attempted to take it down, but even their biotics and high-powered weapons were bouncing off a rather fearsome barrier.

It sensed the threats nearby and turned itself, floating into the air and landing its bladed limbs on the barrier, stomping on it as it built up energy, some biotic force shooting out from it and causing the entire team besides Naruto to be pushed back by the brute force of it. The first to get up and behind some cover was Jacob, who noticed the shimmering barrier enclosing the thing again. "It just remade its barrier! Whatever we do, we have to take it down and fast!"

"Just throw everything you got! Keep your distance, fire, hit it with biotics, whatever! Just hammer it until those barriers are gone! I'll handle the rest!" What was surprising to everyone was it was Naruto's voice, but it was enhanced by some reverberation of some kind, not robotic at all.

The sound resembled that of Turian sub-harmonics, making Garrus pick up on it, and not only that, but the feelings of rage and determination to destroy the new behemoth of an enemy. He had little time to wonder what was happening because the giant enemy unit suddenly charged a weapon from its helmet that shot plasma arcs out at them, frying through some of the weaker crates and heating others to almost melt. "You heard the man! Stick to cover, fire, whatever you can throw at it! Hit and run!"

Launching herself at the back end of the thing, Jack slammed a fist into its shell, only for it to sting her instead from the harshly strong armor. It was like armor from a ship. The thing spun and flung her off, though thankfully, Grunt caught her and got her behind cover. "Fuck! What kind of metal is that thing made from!?"

"Just ATTACK!" Building a large force of biotic power, Jacob sent a wave of unstable biotics at the thing, making it tilt a little before turning to fire on him. As he jumped out of the way, the ground he was standing on was aflame and burnt through at the same time by the plasma cannon it fired.

The team's attacks were becoming coordinated relentlessly in no time, all as the power of the guns finally finished charging. Turning its attention on Naruto and the tower, the bug-like behemoth flew to the ground and tried to stop them once and for all, using all its power in a constant barrage of plasma energy from its helmet. This gave the team room to move and fire everything, thermal clips overheating and biotic amps overheating.

Growling in determined anger, Naruto kept his barrier up through it all as a third tail sprouted from his biotic aura. The deep rumbling voice sounded excited as well as enraged. "Now, kill the thing! Make it regret ever challenging you!"

The moment the thing's barriers popped, it recoiled from the discharge. Suddenly he hit the button to fire the cannons at the ship and released his barrier. "GET THE FUCK OFF THIS COLONY, YOU COLLECTOR TRASH!" The biotic energy from the crystalized barrier began to absorb and condense in front of him, generating a sphere that spun at an incredible speed.

The sheer power was enough to stumble the enemy behemoth as Naruto pushed with all his might, dropping the sphere right on top of it and grinding it into nothing but paste by the time the new biotic power dissipated into nothing. The only thing left in the crater made was good; that was once its armor and a vague impression of its shape.

What just happened in front of the team was more impressive and more of an attention grabber than the guns that were firing on the rapidly launching ship that was taking off, the Collectors fleeing from the planet at high speed to survive another day.

Naruto hunched forward as he felt the power fading. "...What the hell…"

The deep masculine voice chuckled, "We can speak later. Well done, boy."

At that, the voice went silent as the blond stood up and saw the others run to him, "What the fuck was that?" Jack questioned

"I kinda wish I knew," Naruto retorted, collecting his breathing.

"You sounded like a Turian," Said Turian addressed in confusion.

Grunt smirked at the wreckage, "Impressive for a pile of meat."

In a slight daze still, Naruto didn't realize that someone was running around the destroyed battlefield of a courtyard, but Garrus took care of seeing what was going on. "I thought you said you weren't leaving that bunker?"

"The bugs are leaving with half the colony!" Pacing around, he was aggravated. For a good reason, though, he didn't know the full extent of this colony's luck.

"Be happy there's even half left, the way I hear it the Collectors wouldn't even leave a fucking soul left to blab about their attacks." Of course, the biotic criminal was quite the conversationalist.

Still, the man was not accepting it. "If the Alliance never gave us those cannons, they wouldn't even think of attacking us!"

"They'd have attacked anyway!" That got their attention, with Naruto finally cleared his head enough to focus on the aftermath. "They don't care. They've abducted several colonies no matter how defenseless or defended they were. This colony would have been hit, Alliance or not. Be thankful the cannons were even able to be fired, or we'd all be dead."

"Now that sounds like the commander I know." Heads turn to the sight of Ashely entering the area. Her movements were still, like she was walking off a strong sedative, and her body was trying to get itself back to order.

A glare came from Dəlán, eyeing the woman, "Of course, she survives." The man stormed away without another word to the others. Ash paid the man no mind, making her way toward Naruto and Garrus.

Her almond eyes practically radiated countless emotions. She sent a look to Jacob and Jack, a sideways glance to Grunt, who was sizing her up. Her gaze went back to Uzumaki. "I... Having a hard time trying to think of something to say."

"Ash, you always spoke with your heart. Do or say whatever you need to get it out of your system."

At those words, the brunette nodded before rearing her arm and slamming her fist into the blond's mouth. The punch was strong enough to stagger the man back a little rubbing his jaw, "Stronger than I remember."

"Wouldn't have asked me to join N7 if I wasn't. Didn't accept it, but that's not a known fact." The woman bit back a growl.

"Of course."

Ashley grabbed Naruto's collar to glare into his eyes, "I thought you died!"

"I was..."

"Then how in the fuck are we having this conversation!?"

Turning his head and pointing to the still-healing scars, he hoped they were open enough to see some of the cybernetics at work still. "Someone didn't want me dead enough to return me from the other side."

"And what 'someone' was that?" The passionate soldier asked, seeing enough of the scars to know he was being sincere. "Because the rumors are making little sense, so it better not be who they say they are."

"I thought you took rumors with a grain of sand, Chief." Coming alongside them, Garrus looked her way.

Ash glared his way, "Why the hell would you even be helping them, Vakarian!?"

"What is that old human expression, 'The enemy of my enemy is my friend?' Well, wouldn't call 'them' friends. Associates with a common goal. Stopping the Collectors, who we discovered are working with the Reapers with one controlling them as we saw."

"And 'they' were the only ones who brought me back after dying." Naruto clarified.

The operation's chief leaned in, glaring, "So, what? They bring you back and you feel you owe them? After all the shit we've seen them do across the goddamn galaxy! Cerberus are nothing but monsters!"

"Preaching to the choir sister," Jack put her two credits in.

Jacob was the only one looking uncomfortable about the conversation.

Before much else could be said, a shuttle landed next to them, opening to find Shepard climbing out along with Mordin, who was eager to get the data from their sensors about his countermeasure. This took Ash even more off guard. "Shepard?! Ma'am, what the hell is going on?!"

The Captain looked at the team, most of them looking annoyed at various levels. "Chief. Giving my brother a hard time?"

"Your damn right I am, he just confirmed he's working with Cerberus, and you're helping them too? This has got to be some cruel joke."

"Stow it!" That got Ashley to jolt in shock. "Your behavior isn't yours alone. Everyone who would ever help my brother out of his current situation with Cerberus has told him off because of those damned rumors. Spitting in his face because someone told them he was with them."

Before she could say more, Naruto stopped his sister. "That's enough. Whatever they want to believe won't stop the truth. And it won't stop the Reapers from using the Collectors to harvest humanity and the rest of the galaxy's advanced races in time. Defending myself every time someone refuses to believe my side of the story isn't going to stop them from seeing the worst of the situation."

The blond looked back to Ashley, "Go back to the Alliance. They need you there."

Running her hand over her face, the brunette looked to the ground and back to Naruto, "Don't die again, skipper. That's an order."

"Yes, ma'am."

Without another word, Williams walked away from the others. Jacob came beside his old partner, "You want to leave it like this?"

"Ash's emotions are running on high right now. She'll cool off and figure out what she wants to do from there. I have faith in her."

"Still, damn sorry about all that, man."

Naruto patted his old partner's shoulder before turning, "Not on you."

Dryly looking up at the tank-born Krogan, Emily quipped, "Have fun?" Grunt smiled with an evil chuckle.

Gathering his calculations, the Salarian scientist hummed in interest. "Very good, the countermeasure worked flawlessly. It can be tweaked to increase its effectiveness, bringing more help next time."

"Let's hope there isn't a next time for that one." Groaning and holding his head, the blonde could feel his Biotics wanting to flare up with his nerves being as active as they were from his ordeal. "Say, did my biometric readings come back weird at all?"

"What's this about?" His sister asked out of worry. "You look like you overloaded your biotics again."

"More like he completely bypassed his limits and shouldn't be standing, let alone feeling no ill effects. About right?" Garrus reported. He was used to giving all details of a situation to his partner before he vanished to Omega, and this was her brother, so he wasn't about to let any tough guy act cause issues down the line.

The glare he got was enough to wave his three-fingered hand, but the blonde biotic let it go. "I need some testing done. I'll tell you everything when we get back to Normandy."

XXX xxx XXX

Naruto glanced over at his sleeping mother while he sat in the medbay while Sakura, Mordin, and Chakwas went over him as he took off his armor. Now in his dress blues, all three were doing something around him. Also in the medbay was Miranda going over a data pad. "What exactly went on down there?" The buxom brunette questioned, glancing up.

"A lot."

Sakura deadpans, "A little more clarification would be nice."

"Yeah, I'd like some too." He thought. Taking a deep breath to calm his nerves and to prepare for the lengthy discussion ahead, the blue eyes of the CO on the ship looked at his hands as they cupped together in his lap. "We hit the LZ and moved through the colony from the outskirts, as planned. After a fight or two against Husks and some of the Collectors later and finding the civilians they hadn't put into pods yet, we came to a loading area. That's when it started... My sister knows my near-death experience, both she and Ino know what I thought I saw that day on Akuze when I freed myself moments from death to finish off those Batarian bastards and call in for a rescue. The day I started to believe in the Goddess."

Perking up at that, Sakura turned from the scans on his nervous system to hear this. She hadn't heard in detail why he became a Siari. All attention was on him, and Emily was trying to figure out what he was getting at. "You mean when you saw her, the womanly figure that looked like an Asari but different?"

"Except her skin is red. The deepest red shade you could ever imagine, along with amber-colored eyes with slit irises. I saw her again at the Lazarus station. Again when finding Mom, and now at Horizon. Hell, she even started speaking now."

"Traumatic events can cause such hallucinations," Miranda spoke in a clinical explanation.

Chakwas nodded, "It would be the logical explanation for such a thing."

Going over to the desks, Sakura grabbed one of her drawing pads and brought it to the blond, "Think you can draw her?"

It took fifteen minutes as the blond put down every detail of this Asari onto the pad. He turned it around to show everyone there. Mordin rubbed his chin, "Remarkable portrayal."

"The Asari taught me more than just Biotics." He handed the pad over to Chakwas, who looked at it alongside Miranda, "Maybe my mind is playing tricks on me. But everything in me says that is Athame." The Spectre shakes his head.

Knowing the medical and psychological evaluation would go nowhere, the one-armed Spectre tried to move the debriefing along. "This red asari who is speaking to you in your head, what caused this? I don't think you were trapped like that day on Akuze. Most PTSD triggers are familiar experiences. What happened next?"

"That's just it, you're right. There wasn't anything to give me the traumatic trigger. The next patrol of Collectors came to investigate after we caused a biotic eruption of some magnitude, but one changed from normal." As if there was normal, he thought.

After explaining the changes, why they were significant, and why they mirrored the time he fought the mechanical endoskeleton of Saren on the Citadel years ago, he told them what the figure said. "It was the strongest feeling I ever felt. She pointed at the glowing one and said, 'Enemy'. She wanted it dead, and then my biotics went into overdrive. The cloak everyone said I had when I fought Saren? It was like it was a second skin. Hell, it was even more pronounced."

Garrus walked in without a word as he spoke, knowing everyone was listening intently. "More than that." Taking the attention, he crossed his arms. "I saw more than just some biotic aura in the shape of a fox. Tail? More like two or three of them. With each tail, your biotics were even more potent."

"Hmm," Mordin looked curious, "So many variables. Will need to run tests. All ethical and non-evasive, of course."

"Long as they don't get in the way of the mission," Naruto remarked before glancing at his mother. "How is she doing?"

Sakura walked beside the slumbering redhead, "She might be ready to wake up without possible mental stress. But this will be slow. For her, she leap-frogged through decades. Everything will be a shock to her."

"Then take it one day at a time then," Emily instructed, "No doubt even she has so many questions after so long."

"We'll run a few more diagnostics before easing her out of her slumber." The elder doctor confirmed. "When she does wake up, I think it would be best to keep things clinical and professional. Most patients who come out of a coma that lasts ten years or more tend to respond better when they can process their questions and the answers they are given."

Turning to her big brother, the pinkette looked apologetic. "What she means is, when she wakes up you should stay off the crew level until she's gotten her bearings."

"Got it." A hefty sigh came from his lips. He trusted Chakwas enough to accept that, but no one could blame how eager he was to talk to his mother, someone who was considered dead since he was a toddler. Taking to his command, he looked to the ceiling. "EDI, get me, Joker."

"Channel open, Commander."

"Everything alright down there? How was meeting up with Williams again?" Joker never let things settle, but his intentions were good.

Shaking his head, Naruto didn't feel like getting into it at the moment. "As you might expect, but let's hold off on how she ripped my head off until I get up there. Fly near a comm buoy and put the ship on standby. Get some sleep if you need it. We've been running hot since this all started; the crew needs a breather."

"Aye, aye, Commander. I'll wait to catch my Z's until after our chat. Moving to the nearest buoy." With the comms off, the ship started flying away from Horizon.

"The Illusive Man will be waiting for you to debrief him on the mission as well." Bringing it to his attention, the Cerberus scientist walked towards the exit. "I'll let him know you need a little while to collect yourself, but don't keep him waiting too long."

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The Illusive Man took a slow drag from his cigarette; his cybernetic sapphires glanced up when Naruto appeared for the debrief. "Uzumaki, good work on Horizon. Now we have confirmation of the Collectors and their allegiance to the Reapers."

"Half the colony was still taken. I don't call it a victory."

"It is far better than all of the colonists being taken. Moreover, do you have a confirmation of the Reaper that possessed Collectors?"

Naruto nodded, "Harbinger. If I had to guess, Sovereign wasn't the only Reaper here. Perhaps a backup in case the first was destroyed."

"That does make the logical sense."

"Given your information network, you should be able to find it better than the Council or the Alliance since they are busy with other efforts." And since they already got a ton of information and knew practically everything about the mission and what people they probably needed, Naruto gave them a chance to show they weren't hypocrites.

Though it seems that things weren't so simple. "Sovereign moved around the Terminus systems, only coming into the Traverse or attacking the Citadel when convenient. In truth, it stayed relatively out of the relay networks until required to make its move. If I had to guess, Harbinger is doing the same thing. Or, doing what we are doing." Seeing the blonde raise a brow, he elaborated. "There was no Reaper signature in the system, so whatever it did, it did so from a long enough distance that it wasn't even in the cluster. EDI did manage to catch a signal, but it was untraceable. Thanks to Quantum Computing, EDI theorizes that it is much like the QEC we are using to talk right this moment. If that's the case, the Reaper could be anywhere in the galaxy, and we'd never know where because it wouldn't be moving in a traceable manner."

That was not good to hear, "That's cheerful news."

"Indeed, but not something we need to focus on for now."

Naruto had to agree, "What is next?"

The Illusive Man sipped his alcohol, "I will have feelers out to look for any signs of the Collector ship. In the meantime, I have several new Portfolios for you to go over to build your crew. Two of them will get your attention."

"Not sure we need many more members of a fire team. Collectors aren't using any tech we can hack into or sabotage through normal means. Even their weapons are resistant to overheating virus signals."

That didn't stop the Illusive Man from giving him direction. "Exactly. From EDI's report from your experience, you'll need a crew with high combat or biotic potential, preferably both. If you'd prefer only those with both of those characteristics, then that leaves just the two I mentioned you'd be interested in. One of which you might find surprising, I might add.."

"Fine. Send them over." Naruto sighed a little but remembered his condition from Freedom's Progress. "Any news on Tali?"

Taking another drag of his cigarette, the glowing-eyed man thought about how to respond."Tech experts, in your own words, are going to fall short. But, our network is monitoring for any signals from Quarians operating in Geth space. Whether we are hailed by her directly, or there is an emergency, I will let EDI forward the information to you, immediate priority."

With his conditions being accepted, Naruto thanked the man. "Appreciated. I'll look over the files after my team rests. Thirty-hour rest and rotate."

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Garrus looks over the specs on his datapad while sitting in the armor, "Oh, these will work lovely for the forward cannons of the Normandy."

Beside him, Jacob and Emily looked at each other, "Oh shit, I've heard about those. They cost a small fortune too."

Garrus smirks, "I just need the schematics. With the rare material we have gathered, it will be more than enough for me to build them myself."

Having an idea of his own, Jacob pulled some information on his Omni-tool. "Shit, if we have the time to build new guns, we can find time to fortify our armor."

"What, Cerberus did not think to give us the best of the best already against the Collectors?" The Turian teased.

"It wasn't easy just to get the thing up to snuff as is, and by the time the hull was complete, we were only a little last-generation integrity for the armor. Besides, what I have in mind isn't even public knowledge yet. Silaris tech, I had some Asari contacts talk about it a few months back." He showed the specs to the rest of them and noted how it'd be most effective. "We're still a frigate, so our best bet is to adopt a layered system along key structures. Keeps our systems protected without sacrificing the maneuverability of the ship. We'd need to land at a big enough port to allow us to modify the ship, but I can get the manpower wherever we go."

Shepard noticed during the talk that her brother made it into the room and waved him over. As he heard Jacob explain, he agreed. "We'll find the time and space. Any other ideas on getting us prepared? If the orbital guns scratched the paint of that thing, and the last Normandy got cleaved in a single blow, we'll need every advantage."

The thoughts were halted by an inability to think of anything else. Shepard crossed her arm over her mechanical limb under her bust. "Given this Normandy is still a frigate, double its former size, there's not much more we can do. The Thanix is our best bet against that cruiser-class ship they have, and as long as the armor is as advanced as Jacob says, we'll be able to take a few direct hits or skid through an asteroid belt if we want better cover."

"Right. We have time to think about where a good stop will be. We're holding our position for the time being." Sitting with them, all of which were in the armory room with Jacob, the blue-eyed leader relaxed.

"So, how is your mom?" Jacob wondered.

Naruto heaved out a long sigh, "Chakwas and Mordin will do a natural wake for her. Get her steady and up-to-date on things slowly. But I will also have to stay out of that deck for a while. Kelly offered to get my meals for me."

"It will be so much for her to take in. But she will pull through," Garrus spoke with some optimism, "Look how so damn stubborn you are. Reapers killed you, and that only pissed you off."

"My brother tends to attract lethal situations and still manages to get the job done and keep going. This is nothing new." Chuckling playfully, Emily Shepard remembered a lot of different times it happened. "Besides the Normandy going down and even ignoring Akuze, he has been a hairs breath away from death multiple times. A mission out into the Traverse with some Turians, something about a pirate raid on a colony. Half the squad gets taken out, and nearly everyone else is wounded. Half of those wounded Naruto saved himself. He was so wounded that when he got to a safe location for treatment, the Salarian doctors thought he wasn't even a mortal to survive such blood loss, two broken bones in his arm, and a leg broken in five different places they were shocked he could even sit down, let alone carry two Turians on their back."

Recognition of that tale hit Garrus instantly. "I know that one. Didn't he also have a hand with fingers like jigsaw puzzles he still used to fire his weapon?"

"Exaggeration on both ends." Naruto groaned aloud, first softly from his sister telling it and now hearing what the Turians gossiped about. "It was one bone in the arm and three in the leg. My fingers were just fine. And I saved who I could, but I doubt I saved THAT many. I was blacked out after the first three."

Jacob had only one thing to add to the story, given it was widely known. "Still, that mission firmly placed you as 'Son of Mercy' in every Turian mind out there. Your mom did similarly when saving the Turians, with the Turians as enemies instead of allies back then."

Garrus agreed with that, and he didn't know a single Turian who hadn't heard the story. "First Mercy before her death, then her son before his. And now both of them are alive, and well, my people will shit themselves."

All three laughed as Naruto bowed his head in defeat at their continued teasing of the situation. Still, he smiled and knew they meant well. "Wouldn't go through this without them. Together, we can pull anything off."

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