Zenna sighed as she leaned back in her chair with a defeated. The past few weeks drained her of all energy. Mordin and Grunt had problems on Tuchanka. Mordin was looking for an old college who, as it turned out, was experimenting on Korgan and humans in order to cure the Genophage. While the Salarian spoke about his morality and the necessity of the Genopahge, it seemed to the minotaur that he had changed that outlook seeing the desperation of the Korgan. While she wasn't completely sure what Mordin was going to do, what was clear was that he wasn't going to discard it.

Grunt's rite, however was fun leading her being named as his Krant and a member of Clan Urdnot. Thanes mission however was more emotionally taxing as his son was trying to follow his steps. It was hard for her to see that, especially since she had no family of her own. Samar's mission however was a major headache as the ardat yakshi, turned out to be her own daughter, who was no fool. It turned into a big change across the Omega highways before Samara got her and snapped her own daughter's neck.

"Why do I feel I've aged 30 years?" she asked no one in particular.

"Commander, I'm picking up a Qurrian distress signal," EDI chimed in but Zenna didn't react. "It would appear that it is for us. By someone named Tali,"

That got the minotaur's attention making her turn and look toward the AI. "Tali?" she asked. "Where?"

OOOOO

Garrus, Miranda and Zenna sat inside the shuttle as they entered Haestrom's atmosphere. Zenna looked out at the window at the planet. Initial scans show the planet reaching the end of its life and thus a higher temperature and UV radiation. But something about this seemed off. Soon the shuttle touched down and the side door opened allowing the three to step out. The planet was extremely warm. Miranda and Garrus where sweating as well as her. But her skin was used to the heat.

"Come on," She urged the group.

It was made clear just how volatile the sun's radiation was. Upon stepping into the sunlight, the shields of Shepard's squadmates squealed in alarm.

"I'm having problems with my shields," Garrus said.

"It would appear that we need to stay out of the sun," Miranda said matter of factly.

Down the slope they saw several Geth lying a window into a room next to a gate. Shepard signalled her to squad move up as they came up a dead Quarian who was hanging out from the small hut window. Kira walked up to him and noticed his glass on his visor was gone. But he also had several bullet holes in the back of his suit.

"Poor bastard," she muttered as she reached over and pressed the button to open the gate.

All three walked through and saw a dropship fly overhead and drop half a dozen Geth.

"Incoming dropship!" Garrus announced.

As it passed overhead, it dropped off more geth troopers. The team moved into over and take pot shots at the machines. But the machines had a better position and weapons. They had the place well-fortified.

As he began to take another shot, Garrus noticed the catwalk to the right. "Everyone to the catwalk! We'll flank them!"

They all ran up the ramp and took cover in the shade. There were Geth waiting up there for them. But it didn't take long for Shepard's squad to take the waiting Get, down mov, forward and fired rounds at the Geth that were on the ground. The catwalk led to the left flank of the Geth in the back of the area. The overlook gave them an excellent high-ground advantage. The Geth happen to take cover around some explosive crates. They wasted several thermal clips before the area was clear.

"The way looks clear," Garrus said.

The group moved through the building and found some dead Geth and Quarians. Two Geth were firing out of the building at a location down below. Shepard nodded to Miranda and Garrus who shot down the two Geth before they were noticed. At that moment gunfire quieted a little a voice could be heard.

"Break, break. OP 1. This is squad leader: Kal'Reegar. Do you copy? The Geth sent a dropship towards OP 2. Tali'Zorah is secure, but we need back-up," the voice said.

Zenna walked over to one of the dead Quarians. There was a radio next to his body, which she picked it up and said into it, "Reegar? This is Zenna Shepard. I'm sorry, but your team here didn't make it,"

"Patch in at 061 Theta," the voice responded

Shepard made the adjustments to her comm as did her team. "I don't know why you're here, but frankly I don't care. I could use all the help I can get. We were sent here to research the sun. The Geth happen to find us. Lost a lot of my people here,"

The fact that the Quarians where still holding out meant that Tali could still be alive. "How are you holding? I can be there in a few minutes,"

"Be careful, there are a lot of Geth between you and- Look out! Dropship incoming!"

Shepard's group saw the dropship fly in, fire at a pillar which fell down in front of the entrance to a bunker and dropped off a few more Geth. The team took cover and picked off the rest of the Geth before looking around for charges to blow the pillar that blocked them. Once the pillar was blown, they entered inside and found many dead Geth and Qurrians in the room. One Geth was crawling towards the door to which Zenna just killed.

"A lot of Geth," she muttered looking around to see a holographic image of Tali which appeared at the other side of the room.

"Tali'Zorah to base camp. Do you read?" Zenna walked over to the console and answered while the other two scavenged the area.

"Tali'Zorah. This is Jane Shepard we're here to get you," she said.

"Shepard? Tell me I'm not dreaming," she exclaimed.

"You're not, now could you let us through the door's locked."

"Um, yes. I should be able to open it from here. There! Be careful, Shepard. Oh, and you should run into Reegar on your way. Try to keep him alive,"

"I'll do my best." The image flickered out. "On me, let's move,"

The three went through the door and down the stairs. There were two pathways to the other building. Two drones appeared briefly before the group and then vanished.

"They're still here," Miranda said.

Shepard pulled out her rifle and fired few rounds in random directions. The drones reappeared with a large hole in each of them. They fell to the ground and blew it apart.

"They still make sounds and smell," she quipped.

"Look out there's more!" Garrus called out.

Half a dozen Geth drones flew into the area along with a Geth Prime came walking down the left walkway while it fired its revenant assault rifle. Shepard looked to Miranda. "Use suppressing fire down the left walkway! Garrus take them out with your rifle. I'll take them out at close range,"

Miranda nodded before dving into cover and used both her pistol and SMG for suppressing fire on the Geth Prime. The large Geth soldier moved into cover. Shepard moved down the right to take its flank. Garrus used a mix overload and rifle fire on the swarm of drones.

The Geth Prime moved into the right walkway to see Shepard pull out her axe and charged. It fired off a couple dozen rounds at her but she just shrugged the rounds off her shield which only weaken it. She ran as fast as he could before jumping on the prime and beheaded the prime with one quick strike.

Without the worry of the Prime, the other three were able to focus on the drones flying into the area. Shepard heard another familiar stutter and saw a second Prime enter the area and sighed. She sighed and brought her grenade launcher up before firing it at the mechanical beast. The multiple blasts on its armour caused the Prime to explode allowing the three to move on.

They continued into the building. The shutters were closed. Shepard approached the control panel and activated it to open. It revealed the area in front of the observatory... Along with a Geth Colossus. The giant turned around and charged up its cannon.

"Ahhh shit Colossus!" She yelled. "Get down!"

The Colossus fired a blast at their position. After shaking their heads and recovering, they got to their feet and rushed through the door on the left.

"Over here!" a voice called out.

Shepard spotted another Quarian soldier taking cover and firing rockets at the Geth on the field. She took cover next to him while the rest stayed behind the wall.

"Squad leader Kal'Reegar. Migrant Fleet Marines. We talked on the radio before that dropship arrived. Still got no idea why you're here, but this isn't a time to get picky," The Colossus fired a round at their position creating a loud boom. "Tali's inside over there. The Geth killed the rest of my squad, and they're trying to get to her. The Geth are trying to get tot Tali. The best I've been able to do is draw their attention,"

"What's the situation with the Geth?" Zenna asked.

"The Geth are near platoon strength, but the Colossus is the worse part. It's got a repair protocol. Huddles up and fixes itself. I can't get a clear shot when it's down like that. I tried to move in closer, and one of the bastards punched a shot clean through my suit,"

"How's bad is your suit damaged?"

"Combat seals have clamped down to isolate contamination, and I'm swimming in antibiotics. The Geth might get me, but I'm not going to die from an infection in the middle of a battle. That's just insulting,"

"We need to get to Tali, any ideas?"

"Just one," Reeger answered. "I'm not moving so well, but I can still pull a trigger, and I still have one rocket launcher that the sun hasn't fried yet. You move in close. I'll keep the Colossus busy, maybe even drop its shields. With luck you'll be able to finish it off,"

Zenna, however just shook her head. "You've done enough Reegar. Now it's not the time for heroics,"

"Wasn't asking your permission," the qurrian shot back. "My job is to keep Tali safe. This is our best shot," he was about to stand, but Zenna bushed him back.

It was in time too as a sniper shot whizzed past the two forcing them back into cover. "We don't have enough people to pull something like that off. Stand down,"

"I'm not going to stand there while you run into enemy fire!" he countered. "That thing killed my whole squad!"

"And if you want to honour your squad, you'll stay here. I need you here in case the geth send reinforcements,"

Reeger nodded. "Ok Shepard, we'll try it your way. Keela sel'ai!"

Zenna smiled and looked over her cover. "I have an idea, give me all of your grenades," the others looked to each other for a moment before handing her the requested items.

The minotaur then took her grenade launcher off her back before opening it. After removing a few pieces, a little rewiring, she then slid the grenades into the magazine. With the last one slid in she then looked up.

"Let's get it to repair itself," she smiled grabbing her rifle.

All four of them fired at the four-legged machine. Occationally ducking from incoming fire. It did take a while, but the colossus soon folded up to repair irself. That's when the minotaur moved. Zenna jumped over her cover and ran towards the machine before throwing her grenade launcher at it. The device landed and slid next to the colossus, she then turned.

"NOW GARRUS!" she yelled.

The turrian fired a single shot which detonated the pack taking out the colossus. Reeger yelled as the rest of the team moved around finishing the Geth off. With the last one down, Zenna walked up to the observatory.

"Just a sec," Tali said over the comm. "I sealed the door to prevent any Geth from getting in,"

The hologram panel on the door turned green allowing them to enter. There were a lot of Geth corpses skewed around the room.

"Impressive," Miranda said as she looked at the Geth corpses.

"I just need to finish this download," Tali said. "Thank you for coming, Zenna. I don't think we would've made it out of here without your help," she said turning to face Shepard.

"What were you all doing here?" Zenna asked.

"Haestrom's sun is destabilizing." A holographic image of the sun appeared over Tali's omni-tool. "Thing is though, it's happening way too fast,"

"Any idea why it's destabilizing?" Miranda asked.

"It's probably dark energy. Though without further analysis this is just theory,"

"Well think you can join my crew again?" Zenna asked.

"I made a promise and I kept it," Tali said as she nodded. "Sure but the admiralty board will have problems about it. But if they have a problem with me joining the crew, they can go to hell. I just watched the rest of my team die,"

"Maybe not the whole rest of your team, m'am," Kal said as he entered.

"Reegar! You're okay,"

"Your old Captain is as good as you said she was. That Colossus didn't stand a chance. Also, thanks to your Captain,"

Tali looked to Kira with a smile. "You protected him..."

"I did what I could.," Zenna shrugged

"Of course,"