*Pluto Orbit, Anomaly Perimeter*

…

A sudden flash of light bursted out from The Anomaly, lighting up the cold reaches of space with its otherworldly radiance. Out from the light flew a large ship.

The Normandy.

The stealth vessel flew unevenly across the vacuum at top speed like a projectile lobbed by a catapult, hurling through the air with essentially no clear target in mind. The Normandy shot across the void for some time before its four thrusters burst between on and off in intervals, eventually powering down completely and bringing the ship to a complete halt in the middle of space. A more accurate term being, "dead in the water".

From inside the ship, systems crashed all around. Computers going offline, wires exploding out of the walls, guidance systems sent out of whack, even the appliances in the crew deck shorted.

Up on the combat deck, Joker sat up in his seat and gasped for air breathlessly. Blood trickled down his nose and he suffered a splitting headache. From how there was also blood drop on his lap, it was likely that he fell unconscious.

"Holy shit!" He yelled. "That was intense!"

Joker then groaned in pain from his progressing migraine headache. He clutched his head in one hand, trying to ease the pain even slightly as he attempted to recall what had happened before everything went black.

Garrus and Shepard had passed through The Anomaly and vanished completely. With the Salvatore done to the Normandy's weapons systems and drive core, the ship had no way of pursuing Fireteam November and rescuing their turian commander.

At first, everyone argued over whether or not they all died upon flying towards The Anomaly. However, Liara stated that there was no way the mysterious soldier would just recklessly fly towards it without reason, as their powers were already questionable enough to begin with. That led the asari scientist to come to the conclusion that there was more to The Anomaly than meets the eye.

And so she came up with the idea of flying into it as well.

There was some arguing, considering what a ludicrous idea it was. Liara mentioned that the team has done more insane feats before when the Reapers were still around. Eventually, after much debate, they decided to give T'Soni's plan a try… and pray that nobody dies as a result.

Tali and Miranda worked tirelessly to bring the ship's engines back online. It was difficult, especially with the advanced encryption Garrus had left behind, but they had managed to break through and systems were operational once again.

After that, Joker instructed everyone to meet in the combat deck and strap in tight before the Normandy made a beeline for The Anomaly. Tali however decided to remain in engineering to ensure the drive core didn't short circuit upon entry and explode on them. Once everyone was fastened, Joker put the pedal to the metal.

The ride was rough. The entire ship shook violently. The gravity within was so strong that they were worried the Normandy would be ripped in half. Had it not been for the ship's up to date armor and kinetic barrier, it may as well have. Not only that, but whatever energy was produced by The Anomaly seemed to have reacted with the drive core and caused the ship's mass effect fields to malfunction and shut down. This in turn caused the crew to feel the full effects of The Anomaly's gravitational force.

According to Alliance guidelines, if a vessel is to travel at FTL speeds and is not protected by mass effect fields, then they will suffer a condition known as FTL Sickness. Side effects include, but are not limited to:

Partial facial paralysis.

Loss of consciousness.

Temporary blindness.

Nausea and vomiting.

Acute Aphasia

Nose bleeds.

And, in some cases involving krogan, extreme testicular discomfort.

Joker believed he he got knocked out within the first twenty seconds of flying into The Anomaly, and by the fact that he could feel a headache, that would mean they survived the trip. So that's progress.

"Hello? Is anybody alive up there? Say something!"

The voice of Tali could be heard from the internal comm systems. Joker snapped out of his pained trance and turned on the comms from his end.

"Tali..? Y-yeah. I'm good. Feel like I got hit by a truck, but I'm good. How about you?"

"I've been better. Oh Keelah, my head…" Groaned the quarian. "I wish I could say the same about the drive core. It wasn't able to handle the trip and it's been completely decimated. Faster-than-light jumping is impossible now."

The drive core is fried? Wonderful. As if this day couldn't get any worse. The Normandy's engines still had fuel, but without FTL capabilities, the journey back to the Citadel would be days, and considering all the food they had on the ship was dextro… You get the idea.

"Copy that… I'm gonna check on the others."

Signing off the comms, Joker carefully lifted himself out from his pilot's seat. Not because of the FTL Sickness, but because of his condition.

Joker has what was called Vrolik Syndrome, a severe form of brittle bone disease. When he was brown, Jeff had several serious fractures in his legs and, even with advanced medicine of the Alliance, walking for him was a difficult task. He nearly broke every bone in his legs that time he helped Shepard fight off a squad of Collectors during the Suicide Mission, but it was better that then letting any of his comrades get killed.

There was a cane by his seat. Joker grabbed hold of it and proceeded down the bridge to the combat deck, where everyone else resided.

"Everybody holding up good back… here..?"

They were not.

Javik was seen hurling over the railing of the Galaxy Map, while everyone else was suffering from different effects of the FTL Sickness.

Javik: "Ugh… I have not regurgitated that much since Commander Shepard's house party… URP!"

Cortez: "I can't veel my vace. Can anyody else feel eir vace?"

Grunt: "Fine feel I. Hell the what? Arrow the of because it is?"

Liara: "Guys, I think I'm blind..!"

Well, it seems he just answered his own question. Joker looked around the deck for Miranda, as she appeared to be nowhere in sight. That was when Miranda walked out from the elevator at the end of the deck. Oddly enough, she seemed, unlike the rest of her crew mates, perfectly fine.

"I see you're all back on your feet." She said with a smug smile.

"How come you're not affected?" Asked Joker.

To respond, the scientist pulled out a small bottle of pills from her pocket. Cosmodozol, a medicine used to treat FTL Sickness. Miranda was clearly there first to wake up and made her way down to the med-bay to grab the bottle. Miranda went around and passed a pill to everyone present. The effects took hold quickly and the crew were back up to full strength.

Though Grunt still had that arrow in his head…

The moment everyone was feeling better was when Joker told them the situation about the drive core. Tali was already getting to work to see if she could try and fix it, but being the only engineer on the ship right now, that would… prove to be a hurdle.

"Any idea where we are, Joker?" Asked Cortez.

Joker was in front of a computer connected to the Galaxy Map. He was using it to pinpoint their exact location in the galaxy, but the monitor didn't seem to be picking up anything.

"No. The map can't find our location." He replied, slightly dumbfounded. "In fact, the map can't seem to connect to any Alliance networks."

"That can't be right. You're sure it's not damaged?" Questioned Liara.

"The map is fine. The problem is the connection. We're flying totally blind here."

"Maybe The Anomaly fired more of the ship's systems than we thought." Cortez assumed.

"*munch* *munch* Regardless, how are we supposed to go after Garrus and Shepard with navigation or FTL speeds? *crunch*"

Miranda was snacking on something as she spoke. A can of potato chips. She took a handful of the salted delights and stuffed her face with them. Grunt turned his head to Lawson while she was still chewing with a somewhat angry look.

"Hey! Where the hell did you get those?!" He asked aggressively.

She swallowed before giving her response. "Snagged them from a busted vending machine back at C-Sec while Jacob, Bailey, and I were going after Shepard."

Grunt growled like a feral animal. Miranda knew how hungry he was and she didn't even bother to offer him one back when the krogan had first come up to the deck. The audacity of it!

"You're gonna give me one right now, Lawson!" Grunt ordered.

"Sorry, all done"

"GIMMIEACHIPRIGHTNOW!"

A hatch opened up in the side of the drive core. Tali was able to squeeze her way inside to get a closer inspection of the internal makeup. Wires and circuit boards were all but completely torched. Almost nothing was salvageable. If Tali had some help from Adams, then maybe, MAYBE, she could try to weld some circuits together to make things work. Too bad Adams wasn't on board. Heck, Tali had barely any tools she could use due to how much of a hurry they were in to chase Fireteam November.

The core was pretty much a massive paperweight now. Tali let out a frustrated groan. There was nothing that could be done to restore the drive core at this time, so she pulled herself out of the hatch and rubbed the visor of her mask exhaustedly.

Tali looked down at herself. There were several makeshift patches in her suit from her tussle with Ur and Royal. She knew first hand how dangerous Earth tigers can be from what she had heard from her crew mates. Powerful, and their claws were riddled with bacteria, which was extremely dangerous for Tali because of her weak immune system. She was sure that oversized house cat was going to kill her, had Grunt not been there.

"Damnit…" Tali cursed.

*clang*

As she wallowed in her uselessness, she picked up on a sound echoing through the engineering deck. Tali raised her head. What in the world was that sound?

*clang*

There it was again. She was positive that she was the only one down here. So what could that be? Could that tiger still be here? It couldn't… Could it?

Tali decided to investigate. She drew her Arc Pistol from her hip and exited the core chamber. Slowly, Tali proceeded down the hallway of the deck, keeping an eye on her radar to make sure she wouldn't get caught off guard. So far, there was nothing too out of the ordinary.

*clang*

That noise again. It sounded like it was coming from the starboard cargo. Tali moved towards the cargo hold with caution. As the door slid open, the young quarian slipped inside and quickly surveyed the room. It was empty. Not a soul in sight.

How odd…

Though it appeared barren, Tali could tell that she wasn't alone in there. Her radar was picking up movement, but where it was coming from left her a bit confused.

The trash chute. How did it get in there? She would think about that later. Tali krept over to the trash chute as slowly and quietly as she could. If that tiger really was hiding in there, she needed to be careful.

"Here kitty, kitty, kitty." She muttered. "Come on out and let me zap you, you big white hairball of death."

Once she had reached the chute's hatch, Zorah grabbed hold of the handle and just whipped it open, aiming her pistol down the chute immediately after opening it. She wasn't seeing any tiger. It was empty. But then what was causing that noise? The chute was pretty dark, so Tali decided to turn on the light attached to her weapon.

It was then that an inhuman scream filled her audiotories and a nightmarish figure lunged at her.

"Mayday, mayday. This is Flight Lieutenant Moreau of the SSV Normandy, reaching out to any Alliance forces in the vicinity. We are stranded and our vessel is without navigation and a drive core. Requesting immediate assistance. Over."

Back up on the combat deck, Joker and the rest of the crew were assembled in the cockpit. Joker was attempting to send out an SOS to Alliance personnel for a rescue, as without their map and core, and the lack of food, chasing after their targets had become an impossibility. They were ill prepared to try and follow Shepard and Garrus without properly preparing and they were now suffering the consequences of their actions.

Joker had been trying to send out a message over the galaxy wide communications system for some time now, yet it didn't seem to be getting anywhere as there was no signal. He couldn't even log onto the extranet. Joker sighed in defeat and swerved his chair towards the others behind him.

"It's no good. I can't hail anyone. Not even an email's gonna go through." He told his team.

"How can there be no signal at all? That makes no sense." Stated Liara.

Turning back to his screen, Joker activated the only function left operational. A distress signal. Hopefully, a passing ship will pick up on it.

"I don't know. Starting to think we may not even be in the Milky Way anymore."

"That's pretty far fetched, Jeff." Miranda argued with that assumption.

"Well, we just flew into a wormhole. Who knows where we are." Joker replied.

As the crew discussed their current whereabouts, Grunt decided to stray and walk back down the bridge to the combat deck. That was when the krogan noticed something out of place on the floor. A glowing green ring. It looked almost mystical, and had strange symbols around it. Grunt tilted his head questioningly. Was that always there?

His curiosity got the better of him and Grunt decided to get a closer look. The ring didn't seem to be generated by LED, and there were now projectors around. Where did it come from? Maybe Liara or Miranda knew.

"Hey, you guys-"

Suddenly, the ring pulsed to life and something was summoned within its borders. The flash of light blinded Grunt momentarily and when he opened his eyes, something charged at him. It collided with his large form and knocked Urdnot onto his back. Grunt quickly recovered from the sudden tackle and jumped back onto his feet. Upon seeing his attacker, Grunt nearly yelped in terror.

The attacker was some sort of hulking, undead looking creature. All across its pale body was thick red chitin. Its face was more nightmarish than its body, with the mouth of a corpse, rotten teeth, and three glowing green eyes above. The monster exhaled a breath as danced as decayed flesh. In its hand, a large sword-like clever made up of pure bone, dripping with some kind of sickly dark ooze.

"What the hell?"

The monster looked up at Grunt. It snarled like a rabid beast and raised its disgusting sword.

"DIE!"

It lunged at Grunt with great speed. Its arm cocked back, ready to bring its blade down on the krogan. Grunt summoned his Omni-Blade and used it to block the strike. The sheer force of the monster's attack was as great as a fellow krogan. Maybe even greater. It almost dislocated his shoulder on impact. Grunt, well, grunted in response and planted his feet against the floor for support.

"Damn!" He cursed.

"Grunt? What's going on?"

That was Liara's voice. The crew must have heard the commotion as they were now running down the bridge to see what was going on. Once they all reached him, they all gasped in shock at what they saw in front of them.

"What is that thing?!" Exclaimed Cortez frightfully.

"I don't know! Just help me kill it!"

Grunt raised his forward leg and smashed it into the monster's gut, pushing it away. The creature let out a blood thirsty howl as the ring behind it lit up again and two more monsters spawned behind it. These ones were smaller and had tattered robes wrapped around their mid-sections. They were armed with guns made up of bone and metal.

"ACOLYTES, BRING ME THEIR HEADS!" The larger monster commanded.

The smaller ones obliged. They raised their weapons and they hummed to life, ready to fire.

"Scatter!" Liara urged.

The group broke apart and ran for any available cover as the Acolytes formed their weapons. Purple blasts of energy flew through the air, slicing into the metal walls of the ship like butter. The team all crouched behind the chairs spread across the deck for the shiphands. Their tough materials made excellent shielding against gunfire.

"Jeff, you alright?" Asked Miranda.

"Oof… My pancreas…" Groaned Joker in pain. "Why are these things shooting at us?"

Mirnada reached down to her hips and grasped two firearms attached to her. "Let me ask them!"

Once the Acolytes ceased their fire, Mirnada took this opportunity to strike. She stood up from behind the chair and aimed two M-358 Talons at them. Lawson fired them off and two powerful shots tore into the monsters, killing them instantly. However, Grunt was still preoccupied with the larger creature. It was swinging its sword down on his Omni-Blade continuously with the force of a speeding car. The blade wouldn't last much longer against this level of punishment.

"FIGHT ME, BEAST!" Screamed the monster as it kept up its ruthless assault. "PROVE YOUR RIGHT TO EXIST! THE SWORD LOGIC DEMANDS IT!"

The sword rose once again, but a powerful biotic blast knocked it clean out of its hands. The blast came from Miranda, who fired off a Warp attack to assist her krogan companion. "Grunt, heads up!" She yelled.

Miranda tossed one of her shotgun pistols over to Grunt, who grabbed hold of it and pulled back the hammer. He charged at the creature, shouting at the top of his lungs. Grunt activated his armor's Fortification ability and focused it into a single point; his fist. This would increase the impact force five fold. Once Grunt was close, his fist rocketed into the creature's jaw and it was sent flying into the wall, dazed from the blow. Grunt then pinned it against the wall and rammed the pistol into its mouth.

"How's this for proof?!"

*BALM!*

With one shot, the monster's head exploded, spewing a disgusting black substance all over the wall and Grunt's face. The creature's body went limp and fell to the floor lifelessly. Grunt stepped back. He let out a heavy sigh and wiped his face of the slime.

"That doesn't mean you're off the hook about the chips." The krogan told Mirnada, who rolled her eyes exhaustedly.

The crew finally came out of cover. Grunt handed Miranda back her weapon while still wiping himself clean of the substance. Whatever it was, it wasn't blood, and it smelled worse than thresher maw dung.

"Is everyone alright?" Asked Urdnot.

They all gave a confirming nod. The crew all gathered around the corpses of the Acolytes, looking down at them in curiosity. They looked like something out of a nightmare. Never had they seen such a grotesque creature before. Not since Reaper Husks.

"What are they?" Wondered Cortez.

"You got me. It kinda reminds me of a Collector." Grunt commented.

Javik stepped closer to the creature's body to inspect it. Being part of the ancient Prothean race, he had seen many different races in his lifetime prior to his freezing. He visually scanned its form from top to bottom, searching for any clue that could help him identify this monstrosity. Sadly, nothing seemed to ring a bell for him.

"Whatever this thing is, I do not recognize it. Though I must agree with the tank-bread. It bears some resemblance to the Collectors."

That was when Miranda activated her Omni-Tool and activated its scanning function. This feature helps identify species of alien, animal, or plant that was unknown to the user. This function was primarily created for the voyagers of the Alliance's Andromeda Initiative, but she knew somebody in the program and that was how she managed to get her hands on a download file for it. After a few seconds of scanning, the results loaded up on her display and Lawson was surprised.

"I'll be damned. My scanner says it's a Krill."

Liara turned to Miranda with a look of shock and disbelief. "That can't be." She disagreed.

"Uh, what's a Krill?" Asked Joker.

So Liara began to explain to the group. The krill were a macabre pre-space flight race originating from Fundament, a desolate planet located in the Far Rim star cluster of the Terminus Systems. According to the research logs left behind by the previous Shadow Broker, the krill were a very sickly and isolated race who kept to themselves on their home planet. Despite their horrifying and gruesome appearance, they were a rather passive species, not prone to violence at all. Their planet, Fundament, was an extremely inhospitable world, deemed too dangerous for scouting parties by the Alliance.

But there was something odd about these krill. Their bodies are supposed to be frail and weak, but these ones look as though they had undergone serious gene mutation. Weak limbs now packed with muscle, and they appeared to be giving off some kind of lingering energy, from what Liara was picking up.

"Something happened to them… I don't know what, but something transformed them into… Whatever they've become." Said the asari.

Cortez crouched down to the Acolyte. He carefully picked up its arm, absolutely grossed out by its features.

"How did they even get on the ship?" The pilot wondered.

"I don't know. It's like they teleported here or something." Grunt replied, just as clueless. "I saw this green circle on the ground and it just appeared!"

Their conversation was interrupted however by a loud crashing sound thundering through the halls of the ship. Everyone jolted in response to the noise. It sounded as though it was coming from the elevator behind the Galaxy Map's platform. A feeling of dread now looming over them.

"You all heard that too, right?" Liara asked.

Suddenly, one of the Acolytes sprung back to life and grabbed hold of Cortez by his throat. It let out a blood curdling scream while attempting to tear out Steve's throat. Javik used his biotics to grab hold of the Acolyte. He forced it to release Cortez and lifted it up into the air. The Acolyte struggled against the dark energy surrounding it as it thrashed and struggled to break free, but the prothean's hold was just too powerful.

"Abomination!"

A deafening scream erupted from the creature's throat. Everyone winced in response to it. Javik was unbothered by it though as his hold was still going strong.

"Who are you? Why have you boarded our ship?" The prothean questioned.

The Acolyte glared down at Javik with its sickly glowing green eyes.

"WE ARE THE HIVE OF THE HIDDEN SWARM, BOUND TO THE COMMAND OF OUR WAR GOD, XIVU ARATH." It spoke in a raspy, ungodly voice. "WE ARE IMMORTALITY GIVEN FORM. VIOLENCE PERSONIFIED. WE WILL CONSUME YOUR CORPSES AND PARADE THE HEAD OF THE BIG ONE ACROSS THE SCARLET KEEP AS A SYMBOL OF OUR VICTORY OVER YOU!"

Despite its threats, Javik was not intimidated in the slightest. He had seen and experienced worse during his cycle, so this Acolyte's threats were nothing to flinch at.

"None of that explains WHY you're attacking us. What did we ever do to you?" Questioned Liara.

The Acolyte turned to the asari.

"THERE NEED BE NO REASON, CREATURE! IF YOU ARE SO DESERVING OF YOUR LIVES, THEN PROVE IT IN COMBAT! THAT IS OUR WAY! FIGHT US! SHOW NO MERCY AS WE REFUSE TO SHOW YOU-"

*SNAP*

A quick twist of his Javik's wrist severed the Acolyte's spinal cord from its brain by the neck. The body fell to the floor like a sack of meat. Javik snorted in disgust.

"Repulsive beast." He spat.

"Javik! We weren't done interrogating it!" Liara objected to the prothean's decision of execution.

Before he could speak, the crew were caught off guard by a crashing sound coming from the elevator. There was a sizable dent in the door, like something had just slammed into it from the other side. Another dent appeared on the door, and then another. There must have been more of those "Hive" behind the door, and they were very anxious to get through.

"Somehow, I don't think that's the rest of the deckhands." Joker said rhetorically.

The crew backed away. They weren't equipped for a fight. Not right now anyway. They needed to get to the armory, where their weapons were stored. That way, they at least have a fighting chance.

Though that chance had now grown significantly smaller however as the elevator door burst open and out came dozens more of the unholy creatures. These beasts were smaller than the Acolytes were as well as much skinnier, but had razor sharp claws and appeared to be highly agile. They had no eyes and let out shrieks that could turn one's blood to ice. These creatures, these Thralls, rushed towards the crew in massive droves. Their mouths were drooling, craving the taste of blood as they charged at their prey head on.

"By the Goddess! Miranda! Javik!"

Liara stepped forward with her fellow biotics. Together, they pooled their power together and conjured a massive barrier in front of them. The Thrall were stopped dead in their tracks, unable to get through the large wall of biotic energy. They began to pile onto one another, their continuously growing weight making it increasingly difficult to keep the shielding up.

"We need to get to the armory!" Urged Cortez.

"And how do you suppose we do that?" Questioned Joker.

The Thrall just kept up their assault. They did not care about the barrier in front of them. The monsters would just keep piling up on top of one another until it would fall. Somebody needed to do something, and fast.

Liara broke one of her hands free from holding up the barrier so that she could use another power. The asari focused on the area within the Galaxy Map and snapped her fingers. Out of nowhere, a Singularity of dark energy formed. It generated a powerful gravitational force that grabbed hold of the piling Thrall. Numerous of them were pulled towards the Singularity and rendered unable to escape its grasp. With their numbers reduced, this was the team's chance.

"GO!" Shouted Liara.

Javik and Miranda dropped the barrier and the crew made a break for the door to the armory. Some Thrall were still able to move and they charged straight at them. Miranda shot them down with her pistols, unfortunately they were only able to fire a single shell each, so Lawson could only take out a few. Some made a break for Grunt, but the krogan knocked them out of his way as though they were nothing. Cortez drew a knife and stabbed one in the head, killing it instantaneously.

Finally, they had reached the door. It slid open and they all ran inside as quickly as they could. Liara hit the manual controls for the door and it closed behind them right away, but one Thrall managed to slip into the doorway before it could close. It was now stuck in between. If that Thrall stays where it is, the others will follow and pry their only protection open. Grunt stepped forward with his Omni-Blade activated. He rammed the energy blade right into the Thrall's skull and pushed it out of the armory. The door, at last, closed shut.

The team could finally breathe again. Joker leaned against the wall, his hand to his chest and panting heavily.

"What is this, The Walking Dead?!" He exclaimed.

But as they all thought they were safe, the whole crew jumped up in fright as they heard the sound of something banging against metal nearby. It was coming from a hatch in the corner of the armory. At first, they assumed it was more Thrall, but that was when they heard something that said otherwise. Normal knocking.

Those things seemed far too feral to know how to knock on doors. That was when Liara realized that they were missing one more person in their group.

"I think that's Tali!"

She approached the hatch, but she was stopped by her krogan companion.

"Hold on!" Grunt urged. "How do we know it's not the smarter ones, trying to trick us?"

"IT'S ME!!!"

Tali shook off Grunt and marched to the maintenance hatch. She opened it up and a familiar quarian quickly climbed up in a frantic hurry.

The sounds of high pitched shrieking echoed through the maintenance tunnel. Hive were inside, and they were closing in fast. Tali must have been running from them all the way from engineering. Joker quickly limped over to the weapons locker and grabbed hold of two frag grenades before tossing them over to Liara. She pulled out the pins and tossed the ordinances down into the shaft, just as three Thrall were made visible within the shaft. She quickly closed the hatch and locked it shut. An explosion rocked the inside of the shaft. The shrieks ceased and smoke seeped out from the edges of the hatch.

Tali let out a relieved sigh and wiped her visor. "Keelah se'lai, that was too close!"

She turned to her crew mates. They saw in shock that there was a hole in the visor of her helmet, making her left eye totally visible.

"Tali, your helmet's been breached!" Miranda exclaimed.

"I'll be alright. I'm still swimming in antibiotics, so I'll be good to go for some time." Tali assured.

After reuniting with their mechanic, the crew wasted no time in gearing up for combat. Each one of them armed themselves with the best and most lethal weapons they had in their possession. From pistols and SMGs, to rifles, shotguns, and grenade launchers. Liara had suited up in her white Alliance armor she wore back in the Reaper War, while Tali swapped her clear visor for a metal lined one for extra defense.

"What even are these things?" Tali asked her comrades while strapping stun grenades onto the belt around her torso.

"They're krill, but something altered them. They call themselves "The Hive"." Liara responded, loading her SMG.

Tali paused momentarily. She remembers hearing a story about the krill from father many years ago. He said that their original homework was destroyed and fragments of the planet crashed down on Fundament thousands of years ago. With no technology, space travel was impossible for them. Tali was surprised to know that it was them who were attacking the Normandy.

"Alright, but why are they attacking us? From what I've heard, they're nonviolent." Asked the quarian.

"No idea. One said that they want us to "prove ourselves" or some weird fantasy shit like that." Said Joker, clutching his side. He must have cracked a bone while he was running.

"It is likely they had picked up on our distress signal, and that is why they came to us." Javik hypothesized as he activated his Particle Rifle.

Joker reached for the weapon on the work table. An M-5 Phalanx. He may have been a cripple, but he wasn't helpless. "Well, I don't really care. All that matters to me is getting these things off my ship!"

In the corner, Miranda was accessing the security cameras via a console in the back corner of the room. It could show live feeds from each of the Normandy's five decks. Originally, it was installed by the Illusive Man to keep an eye on Shepard and her crew during their conflict with the Collectors, until Jacob had managed to reprogram it so Cerberus couldn't spy on them anymore.

As Miranda loaded up a split screen, her eyes went wide in terror

"Uh, guys? We have a problem."

The crew assembled around Miranda to see what she was talking about. That was when they saw it on screen. Across every floor of the ship, Hive forces, ranging from Thrall to Acolytes, ripping apart and sabotaging what remained of the Normandy's internal systems. Thrall were chewing at the wirings inside the walls while the Acolytes were engraving strange symbols onto the floor that started glowing.

Suddenly, the entire vessel shook and the armory went dark. The room then let back up with red lights a few seconds later. Emergency lights. The Hive must have cut the Normandy's power, causing a ship-wide system outage.

"This just gets better and better." Said Cortez sarcastically.

"They're all over the ship! How did they even get inside?" Wondered Tali."

"We're not sure. They must possess teleportation technology. It's the only explanation." Liara assumed.

Joker let out a frustrated groan. "Who cares! We need a plan here, people!"

The pilot was correct. They couldn't stay in the armory forever. Sooner or later, the doors would give and the Hive would flood in in droves. Not to mention, now that they had knowledge of how many of these creatures were in the ship, a straight up firefight would be suicide.

Liara looked down at the maintenance hatch from earlier. She crouched down and opened the door up again. Looking inside with a biotic light, the shaft appeared to be clear of Thrall. That was good. This meant that they had a means to escape the armory now.

"I think I may have an idea…" Liara turned to her comrades. "The maintenance tunnels connect to all the floors of the ship, and they're big enough for Grunt to fit into. We just need to get down to the crew deck. That's where the escape pods are. If we can get to them-"

"Escape pods?!" Joker interrupted. "You just want to abandon the ship?! Not gonna happen, Liara! We gotta fight!"

Liara stood back up and looked at Joker with a sad expression.

"Jeff, there are too many of them, and they're spread all across the ship. There's no way we can fight them all with the weapons we have."

"So you just want to turn tail and run?"

Joker's objections to this plan were understandable. Had this been any other ship, he would be the first to the escape pods. But this was the Normandy. HIS ship. HIS home. Joker couldn't just leave it, especially after he failed to save its predecessor, the SR1, when the Collectors attacked them. When Cerberus rebuilt it as the SR2, Joker thought he was dreaming. Now it's happening again?

"We don't have any options. You know that." Cortex stated, trying to convince his fellow pilot that their lives were more important than their ship.

"No way! I'm not losing another Normandy! There has to be another way!" Argued Joker.

"Jeff!"

The sound of Miranda raising her voice caught the lieutenant's attention. Lawson walked over to Jim and looked the man straight in the eyes.

"The Normandy was lost the moment the drive core was fried and we lost navigation. There was no way we could save it with the little man power we have right now. We weren't prepared to just dive into The Anomaly so suddenly, and now the ship is toast because of it. We can't stay here."

"But we can't just..! I can't just…"

Joker was at a loss for words. His gaze shifted to a device in the corner of the room. A holographic projector, blanketed in dust. So much as looking at it caused his heart to ache.

"This is our ship… It's all that's left of…"

A hand was gently placed over the pilot's shoulder. It belonged to Liara. She looked at her friend with sympathetic eyes.

"Jeff… We know…" She softly said. "But she wouldn't want you to throw your life away."

Silence overcame Joker. He turned his view down to his feet. His fists tightened in frustration and sorrow.

"Damnit…"

The doors to the AI core slid open with a quiet hissing sound. Grunt was the first to walk through, aiming his Striker Assault Rifle while scanning the surrounding of the medical bay for any hostiles. It seemed clear. Grunt turned back to the rest of his group in the room behind him and gave the 'OK' signal.

The rest of the crew followed the krogan through, weapons in hand. Joker however remained in the AI core. He was busy trying to access a console linked to the massive server along the wall. Something ejected from a slot in the server. It looked like some kind of data drive which he immediately took hold of, then finally followed his friends.

Upon exiting medical, the crew couldn't believe the sheer damage done to the crew deck. Wires hung from the ceiling, scratch marks littered the floor and walls, and there was some kind of organic growth forming in the corners of the deck. The Hive seemed to be making themselves at home here.

Cortez looked over to a small hallway over in the deck's left corner. It was the pathway that led to the escape pods. The cost seemed clear, which meant that they could just make a break for it and be home free. It was easy… Too easy…

"Guys, something doesn't feel right." Steve mentioned.

"The shuttle pilot is right. Where are those creatures?" Javik agreed. And wondered.

*CRUNCH*

The prothean stopped dead. He looked down and noticed that he had stepped over some kind of bone. The brittle piece of cartilage made a loud crunching sound as Javik stepped onto it. Anyone who's watched monster thrillers knows what follows after that.

In the blink of an eye, the deck was flooded with ear piercing shrieks of bloodlust as dozens of Thrall appeared out of the blue and all lunged for the crew of the Normandy.

"Move it! Go! Go! Go!" Liara urged.

The crew made a beeline for the escape pods. Grunt and Tali fired off several shots from their weapons to try and thin the numbers of the swarm, but it was like trying to fight off a swarm of locusts. Grunt's rifle worked more like a grenade launcher as the shells it fired off exploded on impact with the Thrall around him. Leave it to the Krogan to come up with a weapon like this.

As they fled, one of the Thrall had managed to slash its claws down Tali's back, tearing through her suit and ripping into her back. Blue blood splattered across the Thrall's face and Tali fumbled.

The team turned the corner, all along the walls were circular openings into confined spaces. The escape pods. Each one was big enough to hold up to four people. Miranda, Javik, Grunt, and Joker all got into one, while Liara and Cortez dove into the one beside it. They shut the hatches to the pods immediately upon entering them. Thrall swarmed their pods, scratching and clawing at the glass windows to try and get in so that they could devour their prey. Luckily, the pods were reinforced, so it wouldn't be easy to get inside.

Miranda and Cortez hit the eject buttons on the side of the wall. A loud buzzing sound blared and in seconds, the pods launched from their chambers into the space outside. The crew both watched from the windows of their pods, the Normandy's exterior coming into view, as well as an enormous, eldridge looking ship just above it. Perhaps the vessel the Hive came from.

Joker looked on at the Alliance vessel slipping further and further away from his field of view. He felt as though he had just lost a piece of himself. Yet another Normandy, lost right in front of him. As if he couldn't lose anything else.

"Everybody make it out?" Asked Miranda through the comms.

"All clear here." Liara replied. "Is Tali with you?"

Wait. Tali? Mirnada looked around the interior of the pod. No signs of the quirky little quarian.

"Isn't she with you?" She switched her comms to Tali's channel to try and get a hold of her. "Tali, come in!"

…

Silence.

"Tali..?"

Hey everybody! Sorry if this chapter felt a bit rushed. I'm going over to my Nonna's for Xmas Eve tonight. I helped her load the car earlier with all the food she's bringing. So many lobster tails and crab legs… Oh man… Grunt, I know how you feel right now, buddy… I'm starving…

"Nonna" is what we call oir grandmothers in Italy.

*ahem* Anyway, I hope you guys enjoy your nights! And hopefully, Tali's okay.

Merry Christmas, Happy Hanukkah, Kwanzaa, Festivus, Dawning, and Sinsmas! (Saw that episode. Poor Stolas…)