Shepard's hologram appeared in front of The Illusive Man as he took a puff on his cigarette "Shepard. I think we have them!" A hologram of the Milky Way appeared between the two. The image zoomed in on a green planet. "Horizon—one of our colonies in the Terminus systems—just went silent. If it isn't under attack, it will soon be. Has Mordin come up with the countermeasures for the seeker swarms?"

"Not yet, but I hope he's done soon," Zenna replied with a yawn. "Can we hurry, you woke me from a good sleep,"

TIM just ignored that last part with a wince and just continued. "Let's hope he works well under pressure. There's something else you should know. One of your former crew members Ashley Williams is stationed on Horizon,"

"Yawn, I have a good idea as to why she's there," she said before leaving.

TIM just gritted his teeth in annoyance as he turned to face the sun. "Damn her,"

Zenna entered the Lab where Mordian was looking at a captured seeker which bashed into the glass making him back away slightly.

"Please tell me you have something," she yawed again.

Mordian smiled. "Yes," was all she said as he moved to his console and started typing.

He stopped for a moment as he turned to see Zenna sleeping on one of his chairs. Smiling, he continued onwards.

OOOOO

The shuttle landed and Zenna, Miranda and Mordin exited while drew their weapons. As soon as her boots hit the ground Zenna began to sniff the air trying to get a sense of what was around. But just one whiff caused her to cover her nose in revulsion. She placed her hand on the panel of the Kodiak and reached throwing up her lunch. She then grabbed her helmet and fitted it onto her head.

"God, that's ugh…." she muttered as Miranda sniffed the air.

"Death, fear… something I cannot place. Must be the Collectors," she muttered.

"There's something else Zenna added. "There's something in the air that made me feel ill. It backed up my throat,"

"I cannot detect it," the XO replied.

"Must be due to your Golem DNA," she sighed before turning to the Salarian. "Mordin, will these countermeasures hold up?"

"Certainty impossible," Mordin replied. "But in limited numbers should confuse detection, make us invisible to detection. In theory..."

"In theory?" Miranda repeated. "That sounds promising,"

"Experimental technology. Only test is contact with seeker swarms. Can make adjustment in field," he said as they moved.

At that moment, they heard something fly towards them. Several Collectors flew into the area and took cover behind some crates. Miranda took the right flank while Shepard took the left and Mordin took centre throwing a turret up. it automatically picked out the nearest collector and began to fire at it. Miranda and Zenna also opened up firing their own weapons taking down the shields and the collectors themselves. It took a heat sink for them to be taken down fully and the team moved up. as they jumped down a familiar roar sounded and Zenna froze.

"Hold," she ordered as she looked around. "Take care, husks,"

The two nodded as they moved up slowly and carefully. As they reached the middle of the area, four lamia husks popped out of the ground and growled at them. Zenna and Miranda reacted quickly and they dived out of the way with Mordin. The explosives they placed detonated and cut to of the husks to pieces. The team turned and unloaded their weapons into the rest of the husks. But they were fast and tarted Zenna.

While she did back up, one managed to get its coils around her and screamed in her face. The other moved after Mordin, but was blocked by Miranda who punced into action and punched the husk in the face. But it was ineffective as it turned back at her only to be met with a face full of bullets from Mordin exploding the husk's head into pieces.

Zenna however just growled back as she fought back against the coils of her captor. She couldn't use her teeth to rip into the husk. So, she did was she did last time and headbutted the lamia using her horns to piece the skin. But she didn't manage to get the head, instead she ripped a part of the lamia's torso. The creature screamed while Miranda and Mordin jumped and cut parts of the lamia's forcing it to let go of Zenna who grabbed onto its neck and ripped it off.

It fell down, give the three some breathing room before the two headless lamia's began to move. Almost immediately, the team shoved grenades inside the holes they made before jumping back as they exploded covering the area in black liquid. But it wasn't over yet as more roared echoed in their ears. Zenna switched out her assault rifle in exchange for her shotgun.

A wolf like beast landed on one of the roofs of the pre-fabs. It looked human bust was on all fours with a tail that looked like it glowed. It also had fur on it's back. As it looked at the team, it roared and more appeared. These ones where slightly different with being smaller and lacked the fur on the back. They jumped at the team with the first one being shot down by a single shotgun shot that ripped it apart.

"Close quarters," Zenna yelled as she dropped her shotgun and grabbed her axe.

She cut down another one while wounding another. Mordin threw a charge on one of them that stuck to it's hide. He jumped away as a couple more landed near the best before he detonated the charge. It took out four and damaged a few others which Miranda finished off. But more kept coming which Zenna just cut down. Soon they stopped coming and the team finished them off leaving the team out of breath with a few scars, scrapes and out of breath.

"Those look like the Husks the Geth used on Eden Prime," Miranda commented.

"The Collectors really are working for the Reapers," Mordin added.

"Yeah," Zenna said. "And it looks like that they had more time to adapt to dmi-human DNA,"

As they went through a gate into the next neighbourhood they came face to face with the body of a husk. Zenna squatted down next to it giving it a good look over.

"These things used to be human," Miranda observed. "Speculation, is this what's left of the colonists?"

"No," Zenna answered. "The Geth turned their victims into Husks by impaling them on Dragon's teeth. We haven't seen any since we got here. The Collectors must have brought the Husks. They're taking the colonists alive for some other reason. Which begs the question, what are they doing with the colonists? Can't be because they want to make Husks,"

"Might be best not to think about that," Mordin replied.

Shepard rolled the body forward and back. "These Husks are different from what we've faced before. More evolved,"

"They still die if you shoot them," Miranda quipped.

"We won't let them take any more colonists," Shepard declared as she stood.

The next area was filled with containers for the unlucky colonists of Horizon with more Collectors greeting the squad. Still armed with her axe, Zenna charged in and cut one of the Collectors in half but one of them fired a particle beam at her that melted her shield quickly forcing her back. As she moved back Miranda moved up and fired her smg into the nearest collector taking them down quickly while Mordin moved.

Using his speed, he focused his overload on a couple of the collectors weaking them allowing Miranda and Zenna to finish them off. The team relaxed somewhat as they advanced. Around the building, they found their first colonist. It was a man helping up a woman, but they were frozen. There was a slight orange glow around them. A dark red mist moved around their body.

"They appear to be inside some stasis field," Mordin observed. "Keeps you conscious but completely helpless,"

"They've been like this for a while," Shepard said before she looked to the two frozen colonists he said, "I'm not sure you can hear me, but I'm not letting these monsters take you,"

They entered the alley way. There Shepard found a Collector weapon leaned up against a container. She walked up to it and picked it up, shrugging she placed it back down and placed a small salvage beacon on it so she could pick it up later. Just then several Collectors flew into the area. The team dived into cover reading themselves. As the Collectors landed on the ground, one of them started to glow bright yellow. A burst of energy came from it. There were cracks of light all over its body and its eyes glowed.

"I AM THE HARBINGER OF YOUR DESTRUCTION," it declared.

"What the FUCK?!" Zenna yelled. "Focus fire on the commander!"

They then fired on the glowing collector which according to Kira's headset the being only had shields and armour which was strange given that most beings had a heath monitor as well. But this thing didn't. But still all three of them opened fired on the being taking its shields down fast but before they could finish off several drones landed behind them and began to fire at the team. Zenna caused as she moved into one of the pre-fab buildings with the other two following.

Caught in a pincer move, there were few ways to get out of something like that. The team split up keeping low to the floor avoiding collector fire. There wasn't a way to get out without getting attacked, but there was a way to cause some chaos. The three got their high ex grenades before throwing them out of the building. A series of detonations sounded and the three exited to see several collectors on the ground with a few more struggling to stand up. The team cut them down with a burst of their weapons.

But the clear area didn't stay that long as more landed in front of a garage door. Both groups moved into cover as the began to take shots at them. Zenna looked over to Miranda, who took cover behind a wall to the left of Shepard, signalling to her her plan. Miranda nodded and Shepard signalled Mordin the same plan. He smiled and nodded. The two then moved off while Zenna forced the collectors to keep their eyes on her.

They didn't see the Golem and Salarian move to their flanks and target them. They fired forcing the collectors to register the threat. But they ignored the threat of the minotaur in front of them. Zenna moved up and finished the group off while they were distracted. With the area the three regrouped and approached the garage bay and opened the door. They entered inside.

There something fell to the ground. Shepard pulled out her pistol and said, "Company. Get out here. Now!"

A scared man slowly and cautiously walked out from around the generator. Shepard holstered her pistol sighing with seeing he was a Human.

"You're..." he said in surprise. "You're Human. What are you doing here? You'll lead them right here!"

"You had to have heard them trying to get in. It seems like no one can hide from the Collectors,"

"Those things are Collectors? You mean... they're real? I-I thought they were just made up. You know... propaganda to keep us in Alliance space. No! They got Lilith! I saw her go down. Sten, too. They got damn near everybody!"

"Calm down," Zenna said holding up her hands. "What happened?"

"Well, we lost our comm signal a few hours ago, so I went to check on the main grid. Then I heard screaming. I looked outside and saw swarms of bugs. They froze everyone they touched, so I sealed the doors." Anger flashed across his face. "Damn it! It's the Alliance's fault! They stationed that Chief Williams here and built those towers. It made us a target!"

"Setting up defences is standard practice, even for independent worlds. So why are you blaming the Alliance?"

"We're just a simple farming colony. We've gone unnoticed for this long... until the Alliance came in and built those towers. So of course, that grew attention to us!"

"Illogical, the Collectors have been abducting Human colonies all over the Terminus. The Alliance was trying to help," Miranda said.

"We didn't ask for their help. Too many strings attached," he waved his hand in annoyance.

"Tell me about this Alliance rep," Zenna sighed getting annoyed by the man's stubbornness.

"Chief Williams? Heard she was some kind of hero or something. Doesn't mean much to me. Didn't mean nothing to me, though. Would've rather she have stayed in Council space,"

Zenna's eyes twitched. "Any idea what she was doing here?" she said trying to keep her emotions in check.

"Supposed to be helping us get those defence towers up and running. I get the feeling she was here for something else. Spying on us, maybe,"

Shepard looked to her team mates. "We can use those defence towers against the Collector ship,"

"You would need to recalibrate the targeting system," the mechanic pointed out. "It's never worked right,"

"Because you didn't have a minotaur," Zenna shot. "Just tell us where to find it,"

"Head to the main transmitter on the other side of the colony. It's pretty hard to miss. The targeting controls are at the base,"

"Thanks, it's best you wait here," Shepard suggested.

"Yeah," the mechanic agreed. "I'll let you out, but I'm locking the door behind you. I'm not taking any chances. Good luck. I think you're going to need it," but he didn't sound like it was honest.

As they exited the garage, they could hear the insectoid chatter of the Collectors on the other side of the wall. The team surged over the wall taking the collectors by surprise and weaken their amour and shields down before they moved out of the firing line. But they did manage to take a few out before reinforcements arrived and one of them began to glow.

"Ahh shit," Zeena moaned as they fell back.

"YOUR GALAXY WILL BOW BEFORE US!" it declared firing its particle beam at them.

A large deformation of a Husk walked out from behind a building. The large Husk charged up its cannon and fired a shockwave towards Shepard's position. Zenna took cover as the shockwave blast the explosion took out her shields.

"YOU WILL SUBMIT!" the glowing collector roared before it came in with its claw.

"Damn it," Zenna cursed as she fired her rifle at the big husk.

One of the shots landed on the sac which exploded damaging the husk. Surprised, but acting quickly she threw a grenade in the hole. It detonated ripping the husk apart. One major threat down, another to go. But Miranda took care of that problem. She moved up quickly and slid along the floor cutting the glowing collector's legs. That sent it to its knees before she blew it's head off.

Mordin moved off and targeted the ones behind taking them out one by one while the other two forced on keeping their attention locked on them. Soon the last one fell and the team regrouped.

"Odd that we haven't seen any more humans in stasis," Zenna said

"Likely conclusion: they have been loaded onto the Collector ship," Miranda concluded.

Zenna sighed and nodded as the three of them made their way to the blast door which opened. As soon as it did several Husks came running at them. Reacting quickly, Zenna grabbed her axe and swung it cutting down several at once. The other two also reacted quickly moving to take on the others that Zenna missed. But as they pushed the husks back, a squad of collectors moved up. But it didn't too much good as Zenna cut down the rest of the husks.

Her eyes then focused on the small squad and charged in cutting them down with the other two backing her up by weakening the shields and armour of the collectors. It wasn't long before the squad was cut down into ribbons. The team then moved over to the laser controls. Getting down Zenna had a check on the insides, but everything looked good. Which meant that the problem was software related not mechanical.

"Joker, do you read me?" Shepard asked over the comm.

"Your signal is weak, but I read you Commander," Joker answered.

"EDI can you bring the towers online?"

"Errors in calibration software can be easily rectified," EDI answered, "but it will take time to bring the towers to full power. I recommend a defensive posture. I will not be able to mask the increase generator output,"

"Once the Collectors know this, they will try to stop it," Mordin commented.

"Any other helpful tips?" Shepard asked.

"Just one," EDI answered. "Enemy reinforcements closing in. I suggest you ready weapons,"

"Set up the turrets," Zenna said as she grabbed her deployable and set them up with Mordin.

A soon as they activated, the collectors flew in and were already getting picked off by the turrets and team. Though weakened, they pressed their attack while one collector began to glow.

"SHEPARD YOU WILL FALL BEFORE US," it declared

"Shut up!" she roared as she charged in and cut it down with her axe.

The team continued to hold out until the message that they had been waiting for came in.

"Cannons at 100 percent," EDI announced. The cannons roared to life and started firing at the Collector ship.

As they watched the Collector ship get attacked, an object flew over the building across the field. It was a Husk construct of sorts. It resembled a crab with a beak.

"Ahh hell. Take cover!" Shepard ordered.

The beast approached and started blasting them with dual particle beams taking out the turrets as it did so. They had to move quickly to avoid it. As soon as the beams died out, everyone popped out of cover and bombarded the creature.

The barrage weakened the creature's shield, but as soon as they were damaging its armoured shell, it slammed onto the ground and sent out a shockwave as it screamed. Zenna grabbed her grenade launcher and began to fire at it. Its armour began to crack and Mordin saw his change. he vaulted over the wall and moved in jumping onto the beast muttering to himself as he moved.

He landed on it and grabbed onto a section of armour and opened fire at the hole making it bigger until it was large enough for him to throw a grenade into it and jumping off. It detonated taking out half of the beast, but it still didn't kill it. Zenna moved and brought her axe down on the creature, but all the ended up happening was her axe braking into pieces.

"Oh shit," Miranda muttered her eyes widening as she saw the minotaur shake. "Mordin get over here,"

"You boke… my axe…." Zenna slowly said her eyes focused on the beast who was slowing moving over to her. "No one breaks my axe!"

She roared like a lion and pounced on the beast ripping it into bits with her bear hands while the other two just watched. Mordin muttering to himself as he saw the raw power of a minotaur in action. Zenna was done in a matter of moments and the creature disintegrated. She looked around for anything else to rip apart but a loud blast brought her back to her senses as the collector ship lifted off and quickly left the colony behind.

"No!" the mechanic yelled as he ran into the area. "Don't let them get away!"

"There's nothing we can do," Shepard said. "They're gone,"

"They've got half the colony in there! They took Egen and Sten... Do something!"

"I didn't want it to end like this," Shepard said remorsefully. "I did the best I could do"

"Better than most Shepard," Miranda pointed out.

"Shepard..." the mechanic repeated. The name caught his interest. "Wait. I know that name. Sure, I remember you. You're some kind of big Alliance hero,"

"Commander Shepard," Ashley said as she emerged from a side area. "Captain of the Normandy. First Human Spectre. Saviour of the Citadel," Ash scowled at the mechanic. "You're in the presence of a Goddess, Delan. Back from the dead,"

"All the good people we lost and you get left behind," Delan shook his head. "Figures. Screw this. I'm done with you Alliance types," he said walking away.

Ashley walked up to Zenna and was about to offer her hand, but the minotaur pulled her into a big hug making the hu-hound blush.

"Good to see you Ash how have you been?" Zenna asked as she let go.

"That's it? Dead for two year and that's all you can say?" Ashley asked.

"Well..." Zenna said rubbing the back of her neck for a moment. "Yeah, look Ash you know me too well what else am I supposed to say? I was effectively dead for two years, there's little for me to say outside of 'let's get back to work', "

"You... you have a point... look Zenna I may not like it but I'm here to join you. Hackett's and Anderson's orders,"

"Well come on then we have got a lot of catching up to do," Zenna said while wrapping her arm around Ash's shoulder making her blush.