Chapter 7 – Feros, part 1

"Alright, listen up everybody. We have another target and possible lead on Saren's whereabouts."

The CIC/communication center of the Normandy was not a big room, and currently Shepard was being reminded of that fact. Sure, it was meant as a briefing room for even a quite large group of human-sized individuals. A trait that Krogan or genetically-enhanced super-soldier cyborgs ( God, that's a mouthful) certainly did not posses. That, and her merry band of 'specialists' was already nearing the number of people which the Normandy's designers had in mind when designing the room.

"The planet's called Feros, Attican Beta cluster. Skirting the edge between Systems Alliance space and the Attican. It's covered in Prothean ruins, though they're not much more than rubble. A corporation, ExoGeni, has set up an outpost on it, for whatever reason. And, as our luck would have it, Geth forces had recently been spotted in the system. We're to go there, and find out what's so important for Saren to bother an unimportant Human colony. I'm sending you all the details on the atmosphere, gravity and whatnot. We are once again three days out, so, for now, you're all free. Any questions?"

Finished with her monologue, Shepard sweeped her gaze over the room, looking over each of the team. Almost all had nothing to ask her about, with only Garrus raising a clawed hand while Seven put up his own armored gauntlet.

She motioned to the Turian, indicating he speak first

"Where's the colony located? Inside one of the ruins?"

Jane nodded. "Yes, the main settlement is built inside a skyscraper. There's bridges connecting it to others, so we probably won't even touch the surface of the planet itself. I'd expect either extreme close-quarters or long range fights – from building to building even."

"Understood."

Turning to Seven, she took a moment to look at him. As was by now the usual, he was in his armor, which, while the man was onboard, was lacking the multitude of pouches holsters and sheathes the Spartan almost literally plastered it with when going into combat.

Breaking the norm, however, was the lack of a helmet covering his features. After the 'operation' conducted by Avei with Tali's help, he had become less reclusive, even ever-so-slowly beginning to hold conversations with people other than his Titan and AI.

Now, she nodded, signaling he speak.

"There are two people I would like you all to meet. Properly, for some of you." gesturing to the center of the room, Seven said.

The moment he did so, a feminine figure appeared, next to which a block of geometric shapes hovered in the air.

" Hey there, everyone! I'm Avei, the personal caretaker of this dumbass here and this is my friend, Cray."

To no-one's surprise, the resulting talk took much longer than a standard pre-deployment briefing.

After the revelation-filled talk in the Communications room of the Normandy, Seven had offered to share his weaponry with the team, should any of them be interested in such a thing.

This meant that now, Ashley, Kaiden and Garrus were now gathered around a workbench Seven was also standing over, a R-6P grenade launcher, affectionately nicknamed 'Softball' by Militia Pilots, laying on the table.

Picking up two shells for the weapon, Seven held them up for the trio standing next to him to see.

"This is an anti-armor shell. The front most part of the projectile is a soft, and, importantly, adhesive plastic explosive. When it hits, it's squashed flat on the target, and explodes after a short delay. The resulting shockwave does not cause the armor to rupture, but rather rips out chunks on the inside, creating shrapnel. All-in-all, this is a miniaturized HESH warhead."

The feral grin that was forming on the Gunnery Chief's face did not go unnoticed by the rest of the small group.

" Also, I believe the projectile might be slow enough to actually not trigger kinetic barriers. So, even a shielded vehicle will be hit." Avei added, her avatar springing to life from a projector Seven had placed on the table beforehand.

While her sudden entrance had, understandably startled them, the two humans and Turian were surprisingly at ease, considering the rather harsh enforcement of the AI ban throughout Citadel space.

"Now, of course, there are many more different types of ammunition for this launcher, including anti-infantry, incendiary, smoke, EMP among others."

Seven said after a moment, looking at Williams.

"I can provide you with bandoliers for carrying the necessary ammunition, and Avei can help integrate what little electronics are there into your HUD."

Reassembling the revolving launcher and snapping its cylinder closed with a resounding CLACK and engaging the safety, he handed the weapon to the woman, who took it with a eager smile.

"Oh, these damn clankers don't know what's comin' for 'em." she muttered as she went to her locker to store her new toy.

Looking at the remaining two before him, Seven tilted his head in question.

"Now, what can I interest you in?"

God, Cooper's humor really was infectious, he thought.

"I still don't know if my wrist won't just break from this much recoil."

"You can always try with the submachinegun. Though I have no idea how you would carry enough ammunition for it to last more than a few engagements."

As she waited for her pre-packaged meal to heat up, Shepard found herself listening in to the conversation between Alenko and Garrus, the biotic quite eagerly wolfing down a rather large portion of some stew while the Turian sat opposite, a tube of dextro-safe nutrient paste in his taloned hand. Jane reminded herself again to source some normal rations for him. It wouldn't do to leave him and Tali (even if she couldn't really eat anything else due to her enviro-suit) to resort to only nutrient paste when others had the at least passable MRE packets available.

Then her mind finally registered what Vakarian had said. Ammunition? she thought. What in the name of all that's holy would they need to carry ammunition for?

When her meal at last announced itself ready for consumption with small clouds of steam billowing out from underneath the packet's cover, she grabbed it and went to sit with the two, who were now engaged with in a discussion about some sort of electrical system.

Sliding into a chair beside Garrus, Shepard took out the spork that came with the MRE and began to dig into her own meal, though not before asking the two what they were talking about.

"Well, Seven has given us some of his weapons for when we get down on Feros." Kaiden was the first to answer. "Gunny was especially happy. Got herself a grenade launcher." he said, taking a sip from the mug he now had in hand.

"I got some sort of rifle. It had an odd name, Hemlok, I think? Our resident giant said it fires in bursts, and is rather accurate. Honestly, if I can use anything but the cheap crap I had to get when we left the Citadel, I won't complain. Rapid-fire Mass Effect weapons really have crap accuracy, from my experience." Garrus threw in, crushing the now empty tube of nutrient paste in between his talons.

"Not my rifle, of course, she's as accurate as a mass accelerator can get." the Turian finished with no small amount of pride in his voice.

"Right…" Shepard scrunched her face up in thought. "You guys think he could get me a shotgun?"

"Most likely. We all still have to figure out how to carry enough reserve ammunition to last us a whole deployment though." Alenko added, setting his empty mug down on the table. "I was thinking some form of carrier rigs, you know, like the ones you can see in some older museums from the 21st century. Maybe make them out of ceramic or polymer, so they don't melt or something on a non-garden world."

"Hm. It might be a good idea. I'll look up some examples on the extranet. If we make a design, the fabricator down in the hangar can make it for us." Vakarian mused, his mandibles clacking as he thought.

"Okay." standing up, Shepard threw the plate of her MRE into a recycler chute, and went to the elevator. "I suggest you both go get some sleep, two days and we'll be on Feros."

The duo at the table nodded, both getting up. Garrus joined the N7 in the elevator, seeing as his cot was down in the hangar, while Kaiden went to one of the small quarters that were scattered throughout the Crew deck, in which his bunk was located.

After a minute of riding the elevator, its doors opened with a 'ding', admitting both Jaane and Garrus to the Normandy's lowest deck. Giving the Commander a quick nod, the Turian went to his fold-out bed that was set behind the Mako, between the six-wheeled IFV/tank hybrid and the wall. Shepard, meanwhile, went to where the workbench and the team's lockers were mounted, and also where Seven was currently standing.

Where one would've had to clean their weapons after use, the two energy weapons the Spartan had used during the boarding of the Kowloon in the Farinata system had protective field closing off the ends of their barrels, making it almost impossible for dust and dirt to get inside. As such, basic after-action maintenance for them was reduced to cleaning their exteriors, checking the alignments of the electromagnets lining their barrels, and clearing any dust from the ports that allowed their magazine-shaped batteries to connect to the weapon.

And, the man was in the process of doing just that, or rather, finishing it. With one last swipe of a rag through the 'magazine' well of the Volt SMG, he let out a quiet grunt of satisfaction, switching the safety of the weapon on and letting it disappear in a flash of blue.

"Anything you need, Commander?" he said, turning to the N7 as she stood behind him.

"Well, nothin' much. I've just heard some stories about guns you've been giving out to some of the crew." the woman paused for a moment, before going to her locker and taking out her shotgun, setting it down on the workbench.

"Was kind of hoping you'd have something better than this or any idea on how to improve it. Mass accelerators are great and all, but the cooling times and the manual operation of these is a bit of a step back from what I heard about old gunpowder-based weapons."

Humming quietly in thought, Seven brought out three weapons on the table, all appearing in a moment's notice in a small flurry of glowing blue flakes of light.

"Mastiff, EVA-8, Boomstick." he said, pointing to each one in turn. "This one-" he brought up the double-barrel, dwarven-made sawed off shotgun. "-fires 6 gauge shells, 8 pellets each. The force behind each one equates to about a large-caliber revolver cartridge."

He opened the breach, showing the two now-empty barrels, and closed them with a pronounced CLACK. Setting the weapon down again, the Spartan picked up another.

"Mastiff energy shotgun. Tube-fed, fires pellets coated with plasma. Flat spread, with almost no falloff, and the choke and compensator can be used to customize the shape which the pellets form upon leaving the barrel. Limited magazine capacity however, only 4 rounds plus one in the chamber." cycling the rather long gun, the Spartan pulled the trigger, resulting in a flat click as the firing pin hit nothing but air.

"Very good against personnel, can pierce most if not all body armor that was widely available where the gun was made. Here it should perform similarly, and the shot most likely won't trigger kinetic barriers. Semi-auto, and we can most likely modify it to have more tubes that you can rotate into place. The reload would be rather long, however."

He set the weapon down as well, but before he could pick up the next one, Shepard interrupted.

"Okay, that's nice." the Commander's slight, yet eager smile already spoke volumes of what she thought of the guns.

"Can't help but wonder if you've got something more compact however. I do a whole lot of jumpin' around with my biotics, long-barreled guns kinda get in the way. That's why I usually don't carry a sniper rifle."

Seven gave her a slow, thoughtful nod. He had a weapon in mind, and with Shepard's aggressive style of combat, it would be perfect for the N7.

"I do, in fact, have a more compact weapon, Commander. A large pistol, in fact."

Bringing his hand up, the weapon was in his grasp in the blink of an eye.

"SA-3 Mozambique. sCombination of pistol, energy weapon and shotgun. Fires three pellets, which at roughly ten meters' distance are spread apart just enough to hit a man twice in the chest and one in the head."

He pulled back the small slide that kept the weapon's magazine/battery in place, which made it pop out with a click.

"6 shot capacity, though we can probably extend it with some work. Heavy, but that makes the recoil quite manageable. I have seen some Pilots wield two at the same time, with some Simulacrums even using more. Is it to your liking, Commander?"

The smile that had previously slowly crept its way onto the woman's face had now become a full-on grin, as she eyed the bulky handgun.

"Oh hell yes, it is. Can you give me two? One for each hand, just so I can switch."

Without a word, the Spartan brought out another and slid it across the workbench to the redhead.

"Seven, I don't care what number you call yourself, you're in the top 5 of all people I've met."

As the Normandy made its way ever-closer to Feros, the preparations for what the team believed would be a fierce battle in the Prothean ruins covering the planet continued. Equipment checks were repeated ad nauseam, each and every piece of armor and armament cleaned, disassembled, looked through, and reassembled again and again, calibrated countless times. The Mako, though it would most likely not see much use, considering the rather cramped environments of Feros, was nonetheless prepared as well, its notoriously finicky suspension receiving much of the attention.

With help from Avei, who's existence was almost an open secret to the ground team, Garrus and Kaiden had designed webbing to attach spare ammunition to their armor, with the former also remaking the grip of his Hemlok rifle to better fit his differing physiology.

Alenko had accepted the 'Stubby' SMG from Seven, the weapon's tendency to electrocute its target complimenting his heavy usage of tech attacks in conjunction with his biotics, making it an obvious choice over the heavy-looking pistol the Spartan had offered to him at first.

Ashley had not trouble with her 'new toy' as she called it, the bandoliers that she had integrated into her armor holding a good dozen or so rounds in her chest rig alone, with additional stored in hardcase pouches the Gunnery Chief eagerly plastered wherever they could fit on her armor. All in all, going into battle she could carry over twenty shells for the R-6P, with six in the grenade launcher's drum itself.

Shepard had taken to incorporating her newfound armaments into her kit with similar eagerness, her black N7 armor now sporting a web of magazine holsters not dissimilar from ones Vakarian or Alenko had plastered across theirs, if in differing quantities.

Seven had no such preparations to see to, but had instead quickly demonstrated the capabilities of his equipment to the whole team, with particular emphasis on the A-Wall and Holo-Pilot, which would allow for A: shooting at the enemy without fear of counter-fire, or B, baiting the enemy's own fire before replying.

With time, such capabilities could be added to the hardsuits that they all, apart from the Spartan, sported, but there would be no time for that now, as the Normandy entered the atmosphere surrounding the barren clump of rock and ruins that bore the name of Feros.

"Commander, we've breached atmo, closing in on the colony now. Aaaand… Yep, that's Geth signatures. Better be ready, I think they might be inside the colony itself." Joker's voice echoed throughout the ship, as the team started to board the elevator, going up to the Crew deck and then up the stairs, to finally gather at the ship's airlock, a rather dense and weapon-laden crowd forming behind the pilot's seat.

"Any Geth ships you picked up, Joker?" Shepard asked, coming up behind the man and grabbing onto the back of his seat as the gray-brown skyscrapers covering Feros' surface loomed closer and closer in the front viewport.

"None so far. Space around the planet is clear, though with the amount of ground clutter and the emissions of the colony itself the readings are all junk, can't say if there's anything here."

"Hm. Once we get off, wait two minutes, then undock and go to low orbit. Hide in the upper atmosphere maybe, run the stealth systems on low-power so you all don't fry yourselves."

"Got it, Commander. I'll keep an eye out. If anything shows up, I'll let you know."

With a nod of thanks (even though the man couldn't see it), Shepard went back, barking a series of quick orders as the ground team took positions.

"Alright, y'all know the drill, Seven, Wrex, go first, the rest file in behind them. The airlock ain't big enough for all of us, so me and Garrus are going with them, the rest of you come out after us."

She received nods and grunts in confirmation, the two heaviest members of the group moving forward, weapons at the ready, followed by the Turian, his newly acquired rifle clutched in his hands, the grip modified slightly to fir his three-fingered hands rather than a human's.

With a hiss of air, the four were sealed inside the small room that was the Normandy's airlock, the sloping door in front of them soon parting to the side as they set foot onto Feros. With weapons trained on the opening, they moved forward, Shepard and Garrus peeking out from behind Wrex and Seven as they advanced.

There was an eerie silence in the air, broken only by their footfalls on the aged and cracked surface of a Prothean ruin. The hatch in the Normandy's hull slid shut behind them, leaving the four alone in the dust-filled room that served as the colony's dock.

"You would think there'd be somebody here, no?" Garrus muttered, as they settled near a stack of crates, many similar ones scattered, seemingly haphazardly, around the space.

As if on queue, a contact appeared on everyone's motion trackers, approaching rather quickly from the direction of the stairway that supposedly led to the colony itself.

"Contact, front, approaching fast. Hold your fire, it might be one of the colonists." barked Shepard, herself already aiming at the darkened passageway from which a man soon revealed himself. Wheezing for air, he ran out from behind a corner, stumbling as he did so. He was almost at the bottom of the stairs when a Geth Trooper appeared from behind the same corner the man had passed moment before, its weapon out and aiming at his back.

Before it could fully line up the shot, its kinetic barriers were pelted by shots from Shepard and Garrus, the Hemlok in the Turian's hands barking loudly in the enclosed space as the heavy projectiles slammed into the Geth's weapon, shattering its plastic-ceramic frame with a loud CRACK.

Before more damage could be done to the synthetic, a Throw, courtesy of Wrex, sent it flying into the wall beside it, leaving it nothing more than a pile of scrap and fizzling electronics. Right at that moment, the hatch leading to the Normandy's airlock opened, allowing the remaining four members of the ground team to surge forward, weapons at the ready.

They had heard the shots from the inside of the frigate's hull, emerging ready for battle, weapons out and fingers resting on the triggers.

"Liara, Kaiden, get the civvie! Everyone else, take cover and hold all angles, we might have more incoming!"

Spurred on by Shepard's clipped shout, the newly arrived members of the team dropped into positions behind stacks of cargo containers, each with a finger on the trigger of their weapon and ready to fire at a moment's notice. Liara, being both a biotic and the team's medic, wrapped the fleeing man in a mass effect field and yanked him into cover, where Kaiden had already taken position and was waiting with his omnitool ready. Giving the terrified civilian a quick scan to make sure he wasn't injured, he began questioning the man.

After a minute of tense waiting, Jane opened the communications channel.

"Lieutenant, what's the situation?"

"All in all, a clusterfuck, Commander. We've got Geth assaulting the colony, Zhu's Hope from multiple directions. The guy's also telling me that last he knew the water and power supply had been cut, and the food was running low. No shipment's come in for a good while."

"Well, we've got our work cut out for us then." the N7 said. "Everyone, we're moving. Standard formation. Wrex, Seven, go."

Giving short nods, the Krogan and Spartan stepped forward, with Garrus and Ashley moving soon thereafter, following about a meter behind the two, using them as cover. Tali and Shepard went next, with the civilian between them and the last two of the group, Liara and Kaiden, who closed off the formation, often checking their backs as they advanced.

"Joker, cast off and keep on standby. We'll give you a call if we need support."

Acknowledging the Commander's order, the man steered the frigate out of the large room housing the colony's dock as the team left it behind. With the comm line silent, it left the group in an eerie ambience, broken only by their steps on the cracked and dusty concrete of the Prothean skyscraper they were in.

Zhu's Hope was further up the building's height, the path to it leading the team to a staircase, its side passages blocked off by rubble, the only clear way forward being up the steps. It was at its entrance they stopped, having been walking for a couple of minutes, with no Geth trying to stop them.

"It's too quiet, smells like a trap to me." rumbled Wrex, the scarred Krogan's hands absentmindedly fiddling with his shotgun, making sure the weapon was ready for battle one more time.

"Yeah, I don't like this place either." muttered Ashley "Anyone got something on motion trackers? I don't see anything."

Most turned toward Alenko and Tali, the two having more robust omnitools with more powerful sensors. The biotic looked at his for a short moment before shaking his head. Tali, however, kept working hers, something clearly having grabbed her attention.

"I think I have something. It may be just background noise, but I'm picking up something that looks a bit like Geth chatter. It's much less prominent than what I thought it'd be though." the Quarian said, her eyes still on the orange interface of her omnitool.

" I have detected something similar." Avei's voice joined in " The signals are faint, almost as if the Geth are trying to mask them as background noise. My guess is that there's a trap somewhere close, and they don't want to tip us off."

"Well, I don't see any other paths but forward, so we're waling into that trap either way." Garrus threw in, scratching one of the plates on his face.

Humming in thought, Shepard looked at Tali for a moment.

"Can any of you tell how close we are to where that trap might be?"

"I don't think I can, Shepard. The signals are too faint."

" Yeah, same here." The Quarian and AI replied.

"It's in the stairwell."

The last statement drew the group's attention, all heads turning to the front of the formation, where Seven and Wrex stood. The first was looking out into the stairwell, slowly twirling a Pulse Blade in his hand, having thrown one out moments before. The red-crested Krogan was carefully peeking out from the corner that the group would have to pass to get onto the first flight of stairs.

Turning back to the team, the two spoke.

"These picked up small anomalies on the walls." the Spartan said first, holding up the kunai-shaped device in his hand.

"And there are patches of grey in those same spots. The walls in here are yellow-brown." Wrex added, pointing at the crumbling length of concrete that was the wall of the corridor the group stood in.

"Discoloration like that can mean someone's using optical camo." he said.

"And the pulse showed that beyond the stairs there's an elevator. This is the best spot for an ambush before we reach the colony." Seven finished, sheathing the Pulse Blade he had been holding during the short explanation.

For a moment, Jane stayed silent as her mind absorbed the information, before coming to a decision.

"Alright, we're moving in. Liara, Kaiden, throw up barriers on Tali and Williams. You-" she turned to the, frankly, terrified colonist that had been walking along with them "-stay here until we tell you it's safe to move."

Spotting a movement in the corner of her vision, she turned to see Seven offer her a small device with a rod sticking out from one end. Upon her questioning look, the Spartan motioned to the man that Shepard had been speaking to.

"Short-wavelength radio. No need to compromise our squad channel."

With a nod, she took the black-colored device and gave it to the man, before turning to back to the team.

"Okay people, you know the drill. Get into formation, keep your eyes peeled. Seven, ping where the hostiles are. Each of you pick a target, we nail them one my signal. Understood?"

Upon receiving nods of confirmation, Jane motioned forward.

"Good, move forward, everyone."

Entering the stairwell, nothing seemed out of place at first. The group slowly went up the first flight of stairs, weapons at the ready and scanning the walls and support columns that stretched up and down as far as one could see.

"Got eyes on the first one." Williams said, the grenade launcher she was holding trained on a gray patch of stone, its edges fuzzy and smeared.

"Another here." Garrus spoke up next, his rifle's muzzle square tracking another of the cloaked Geth platforms.

" Counting ten Geth platforms in total. All cloaked, and with minimal to non-existent connections to the local mainframe. They're trying very hard to stay hidden."

"Damn. Two more than us. Anyone got an idea on what to do with 'em?" Shepard said, her eyes scanning from left to right as the group held position.

" I can infiltrate one and have it fire on another." Avei replied, the EW suite that was embedded in the MJOLNIR covering Seven coming online and reaching out to one of the Geth platforms.

"Good. Do that. On my mark, open fire on your target." Jane stated, her own rifle trained on one of the cloaked synthetics.

"Three, two, one… Mark!"

At the command, each of them let loose a hail of rounds at their target, the rather thin and frail platforms shredded to pieces in but a few shots. Their lighting-fast reflexes, however, allowed a couple of them to fire single scarlet beams in their final moments, hitting a few of the group and disabling their shields. Curses flew from the ones unlucky enough to get hit, but, luckily, not one of them was injured.

After a sound-off to confirm that everyone was indeed unharmed, Shepard gestured them forward. The group, after what felt like an hour to some but was, in reality, barely more than a minute, had finally made it past the seconds flight of stairs. At the end of the last set of steps they were, of course, immediately greeted by a projectile from a Geth Rocket Trooper, the missile's contrail lit an incredible orange in the dim lighting as it shot past Wrex, who ducked out of the way at the last moment, exploding on the wall, sending bits of shrapnel and shattered concrete pinging of the scarred Krogan's shields. At this point, not having to cover a defenseless civilian, Kaiden had moved forward in the group, now being in the second pair behind Wrex and Seven, with Williams next to him.

Right after the explosion, the biotic quickly popped out from the two living shields in front of him, sending a Throw at the offending synthetic. The shockwave was followed by a burst of heavy, armor-piercing rounds from the SMG in Seven's hands. Fired following a sufficient delay, they reached their target right after the swirling purple mass effect field smashed into the launcher-toting Geth, slamming into and through its armored carapace.

Naturally, a wall of mass-accelerated balls of plasma was the response, forcing the two men back into cover. They did not really need to specify to the team what was ahead, the blue-white glow of the fire that was being sent their way a pretty obvious explanation as to what the group would have to face.

"Alright, you know what's the plan. Garrus, Tali, flash 'em." Jane called out, the Turian and Quarian dutifully pulling out said devices and chucking them around the corner. Though one would perhaps doubt the effectiveness of flashbangs on synthetics, as they couldn't really be stunned or dazed, their optical sensors (which is a fancy name for cameras) could still be overwhelmed with a sufficiently bright and sudden light, with their audio receptors (again, merely a fancy name for microphones), also being vulnerable to being overwhelmed by powerful pressure waves caused by loud sounds.

It just so happens that stun grenades are very good at doing just that.

Right after the two disc-shaped devices detonated, releasing a bright flash of light and a loud band, thus confirming the correctness of their name, another disc was thrown out from behind the corner, this time by Seven, only larger, around the size of a small plate, if a bit thicker than one.

Upon landing on the ground, it glowed orange for a short moment, before a translucent orange barrier, its shape similar to a honeycomb lattice of hexagons, sprung to life in front of it. The A-Wall, for that was its most common name to those who used it, rippled and sparked as the first Geth to recover from the stun grenades began to fire at it, trying to hit the now advancing group behind it.

Said group responded in kind, only their shots sailed right through the one-way shield, their speed further boosted by the device. Mass accelerator slugs, old-fashioned bullets and grenades from Williams' launcher slammed into the kinetic barriers of the platforms, with the weakest among the first line faltering soon after. Their shutdown was then followed by the explosion of the first of many explosive shells that Ashley was lobbing at the hostiles, sending shrapnel and bits of debris flying through the air around the impacts. Loading a HESH round into the cylinder of her weapon, this one marked with a bright yellow stripe, she took aim at the tallest, and, appropriately, most dangerous of the Geth.

The red-painted Juggernaut, its back-mounted antennas almost brushing the ceiling of the short hallway the synthetics had sprung their trap in, did not have the time to both notice and do anything to stop the round from hitting it square in the chest, its relatively low velocity causing its kinetic barriers to ignore it. A millisecond later, the soft plastic explosive went off, the generated shockwave shattering the armored plating of the heavy unit and sending shrapnel zipping through its insides, leaving its main processor nothing more than splinters of plastic and shattered bits of metal.

Taking notice of the situation, the Geth put up additional shielding in front of themselves, the glowing hexagons springing to life, rippling as the firepower of Shepard's team slammed into them. Each lasted only a second, the sheer amount of shots that they were sending downrange overwhelming anything the synthetics threw at them.

Within 60 seconds, the last platform fell, bursting with sparks as it was hit with three Overloads from Tali, Garrus and Kaiden.

Calls of 'All clear!' sounded, as the group took up positions around the elevator doors at the end of the hallway, its walls now pockmarked with bullet holes and chipped bits of concrete from the impacts. After calling up the colonist they had left before the stairwell, the first half of the group took the elevator up to the floor of the giant skyscraper the colony itself was in, being quickly joined by the rest.

They had, at last, made it to Zhu's Hope.

Far from both Feros and the Normandy, another ship was floating in the cold void of the Theseus system.

It was small, its entire 15-meter length occupied by stealth systems and its only passenger. The silence that reined in the void permeated the vessel itself as well, with only the short sounds of metal scraping against a whetstone sounding in the small interior.

"Soon, you will taste their blood." with a cruel grin, the black-haired swordsman put away his blade and went back to looking at the sensor screens in front of him.

[]

Author's Note:

Well, that took longer than it could have.

I'm gonna shut up real soon, got only two things to say:

Laziness.

Can't write people for shit.

Have a nice day.