Who Saves the Hero by Kudara

Chapter 6

Normandy Briefing Room, on the way to Horizon

Shepard stood in the briefing room for a long moment after giving the order to Joker to head with all possible speed to the colony on Horizon. The Illusive Man had lied to her, or at least he had not told her the entire truth. There wasn't any one thing that tipped her off, but several; things that were off in his expression, in his tone, and in his body language. He was very good at lying and pretending, she would give him that, but he wasn't perfect at it. Most people would have probably missed it, but she had been taught to be a discerning observer of human behavior as a very young teen, and though she had left her childhood dreams behind with the dead on Mindor, Amanda had always found that particular skill to be a very useful one and had kept it honed.

The fact that he wouldn't contact the Alliance until Cerberus got the information they wanted, only reinforced both Shepard's low opinion of him and her concerns about his true motives. He didn't care about human lives, no matter how practiced the lies that fell from his lips. All the Illusive Man cared about was the furtherance of his own personal agenda, but what his specific agenda was concerning her and the Collectors Shepard had only nebulous guesses based upon what she knew of Cerberus and their past actions.

The Illusive Man pretended to want to stop the Collectors and Reaper threat, but he was doing nothing to get either the Council or Alliance ready to meet it. If she was right about him being behind the Council's chilly reception of her, the Illusive Man had been able to leak precisely the right misinformation to manipulate the Council to do exactly what he wanted, which had been boxing her into accepting Cerberus' help if she wanted to stop the Collectors and find out what their connection was with the Reapers. She was supposed to believe that with all the contacts and intelligence he had, that he couldn't leak exactly the right information that would lead the Council to reconsidering whether the Reapers were real and an actual threat?

Still this was not the right time to dwell on it; she needed to go talk to Mordin. They had met up with another Cerberus ship several days ago which had transferred over some supplies and one live Collector seeker for Mordin to study. She suspected it had been captured at Ferris Fields, the last colony to be abducted by the Collectors. Crewman Hadley had a brother who lived there, and she knew he still held out hope that they would be able to rescue him alive. Shepard carefully had avoided saying anything about it one way or another; they still had no idea what the Collectors were doing with those they abducted, and until she had some idea she didn't want to either unnecessarily discourage him or give him false hope. Shepard had no idea how the Cerberus agents had managed to capture the Collector seeker without being affected themselves. She just hoped the live specimen had helped Mordin develop a countermeasure because they needed one for them to even have a chance of stopping the Collectors on Horizon.

Six hours later, Shepard took a good long look at the Collector ship looming above the colony as she stepped off the shuttle; this was the same type of vessel which had destroyed the original Normandy and killed her. Turning her attention back to the colony, she examined what she could see of it. Unsurprisingly it reminded her of Mindor. Colony building hadn't changed much in the past twenty years, these prefab buildings were probably easier to put together and had better built in technology, but on the outside they looked almost the same as those she remembered from her youth. And right now their ship was this colonies sole hope of rescue, damn Cerberus and the Illusive Man, these people deserved better.

"We're groundside," she informed the ship, she eyed the small clouds of seekers swarming around warily, "Mordin are you sure these armor upgrades will protect us from the seeker swarms?"

"Certainty impossible, but in limited numbers should confuse detection systems, make us invisible to swarms. In theory," the salarian tacked onto the end.

"In theory?" Garrus grumbled back.

"Experimental technology, only test is contact with seeker swarms. Look forward to seeing if you survive," Mordin finished, sounding damned cheerful.

"I wouldn't mind the shuttle making another trip if you'd like to join us, Mordin," she broke into the discussion to offer, "Just so you can keep a close, personal eye on the field test results," she managed to keep her tone serious even though she was trading smirks with Garrus.

"Unnecessary, can monitor results as effectively from here," they both chuckled at the salarian's quick reply. Shepard might have teased Mordin more, but there were more important things she needed to address before the Collectors noticed they were here and the shooting began.

She let Grunt pull a little ahead of them, before reaching out and pulling Garrus closer to her. "You do the scans to turn in for our mission report, I'm making ones for Ashley to take with her," she whispered to him. Shepard didn't want to think about the possibility that they might already be too late to save their former teammate.

"Your omni-tool?" He hissed back, pointing out the flaw in her plan. There should be a record of data being recorded, transferred and deleted on the omni-tool; EDI would certainly detect it when they uploaded the data to her.

"I've already changed the settings on my omni-tool to allow me to wipe the recordkeeping data," Garrus's mandibles flared in silent amusement, immediately understanding what she meant. It was something she had learned about omni-tools during their search for Saren. Omni-tools always kept record of the time and their geospatial location, and there were times when Shepard hadn't been interested in any councilmember keeping track of the fact that she had allowed the ship several hours of shore time while they were docked somewhere, nor interested in them knowing how she had personally spent that shore time.

The turian councilor, Metellus, had been the impetus behind her learning how to delete that type of tracking data on her omni-tool. Early on, the turian councilor had annotated one of her mission reports with a snide comment about her having better luck tracking down Saren if she put more time into it rather than spending three hours in a club, before sending the report back to both her and Ambassador Udina. That comment had led her having to suffer through thirty minutes of being ranted at by Udina for taking a damn break to get a drink and unwind a little in addition to getting to know Wrex and Garrus a little better away from the ship. Rat bastard stick-up-his-ass turian. That had been the last time the Council received unsanatized mission reports from her.

Obviously neither one realized that a ship as small as a frigate had no opportunity for downtime while they were in space. There were very few places to find some privacy, and little opportunity to get away from one's duties. Four to eight hours of shore time a week, or at most every two weeks, was not something that was optional; it was what was minimally required to maintain the crew's mental health. Ideally you pulled in for a half day to full day's shore leave every two weeks with shorter ones in between. The crew needed time away from the ship, time to rest in beds that weren't sleeper pods with company of their choice if that's what they wanted, and time away from each other and the demands of their duties.

Changing a few of the settings of her omni-tool from the default settings allowed her to wipe all the record keeping data between any two time points. That you had removed sections of data out of the a longer section of data was easy to detect if you had the omni-tool in question, it was even possible if you looked closely at the data recorded from an omni-tool and carefully examined the timestamps. In this case, however, she was wiping the entire memory, it would simply look as if she hadn't used it this mission. It wouldn't be unusual for her to assign another member of the team to scanning duties while she kept her attention on their surroundings, so that shouldn't raise any red flags either.

Shepard had already stored a few things in her omni-tools memory for Ashley, information about the armor modification to confuse the seekers detection systems, a scan of the Collector based assault rifle Cerberus had provided to the team, and, on the off chance it might be useful, Mordin's information on the plague the Collectors had released on Omega Station. Pretty much every piece of information she thought Anderson might be able to use to persuade the Council to take these abductions more seriously.

Grunt ducking for cover behind a low wall brought Shepard abruptly out of her thoughts, and all of her attention became focused on her surroundings as she sprinted to take cover beside the krogan. Collectors, she had counted four of them. She brought her pistol up, aimed at the thickest part of the Collector's sweeping, elongated head and began firing.

They fought their way through the colony, first killing Collectors as they came upon them and then killing the Collector squads that had been mobilized to stop them. Rounding a corner and jumping down off a short retainer wall, Shepard's squad took cover as they spotted a fresh squad of Collectors flying in. No sooner had the Collectors landed and began firing at them, than several husk appeared from deeper within the colony, running through the Collector positions to attack Shepard's squad. That confirmed it then, the Collectors were involved somehow with the Reapers. After the shooting stopped, Shepard paused by one of the husks, examining it closely, comparing it with her memory of them. It didn't look quite the same, but what was different?

"Sorta looks human," Grunt observed, "this one of the colonists?"

"No," Shepard replied, still staring intently at the husk, "On Eden Prime the geth impaled people on spikes. The spikes were what turned them into husks and were provided to the geth by Sovereign, but we haven't seen any spikes here so the Collectors must have brought these husks with them. Also they don't look quite the same as the one's we fought before," she turned to the turian standing beside her. "What do you think Garrus? Do these look more...advanced to you?"

The turian examined the husk carefully for several seconds before nodding, "I think your right, and they were moving a bit faster than I remember them being able to before as well."

Shepard grimaced, Garrus was right the husks had had moved quicker and seemed more coordinated. Wonderful, just wonderful, the things had been a big enough pain in the ass to kill before.

"They still die when you shoot them," Grunt commented, looking around restlessly and obviously eager to quit talking and start fighting again.

Shepard chuckled, "True enough," trust a krogan to point out the most important thing for a soldier to remember. "Garrus scan this and then let's move out," she waited until she was last and then paused by the husk for a moment to quickly scan it herself. She scanned a few of the dead Collectors as they passed by them as well. Hopefully the fact that the Collectors were attacking human colonies and that they had husks with them would get the Council to realize there was more happening here than just typical hit and run raider attacks. Even if the Council decided the Collectors were working with the geth, it might get them to do something. Maybe...but she knew she wouldn't be holding her breath waiting for them to act on this information alone.

Finally they saw their first colonists, a man leaning over a fallen woman, reaching down and grasping her hand as if to help her stand. Some type of stasis field, swirling like a dark miasma around them, held them rigid. The two looked for the entire world like some type of statuary until they walked up to them. That's when Shepard noticed the man's pupils widening as she stood between him and the afternoon sunlight. She scanned him and then the woman, looking at the readings. They were both conscious and slightly dehydrated; they had been here for several hours.

She knelt down; placing herself where they could both could see her. She didn't dare reach out and touch them; she had no idea if she would be affected by the stasis field as well. "I'm Commander Shepard. We came here to investigate when your communications were interrupted, suspecting that another colony abduction was taking place. I promise you I'll do my best to stop the Collectors and find a way to free both of you as well as the other colonists. Just hold on for awhile longer and don't lose hope." That was all she could do for them, let them know she knew they could hear her and she was trying to help. She didn't have time to reassure everyone though, they had to move on.

They walked into the broad open area between rows of prefab living quarters, and Shepard's eyes widened as she sighted two GARDIAN (General ARea Defence Integration Anti-spacecraft Network) defense towers rising up into the sky over by the spaceport. Why hadn't they fired on the Collector ship? More importantly, could they find a way to activate or repair them? She pointed them out to Garrus and Grunt, pulling up a map of the colony and figuring out a way through to the colonies communications center, which should be where the GARDIAN control systems were located.

"That down that way, and through this bunker," she pointed out the direction she wanted to go. "The colonies main communications center and spaceport are just a short distance past it." They continued down the open lawn in between the buildings. Shepard's eye was drawn to a Collector weapon propped up against one of the storage containers, its previous owner nowhere to be seen; perhaps one of the Collectors had left it there while rushing off to attack them earlier. She went over to it, drawing both Garrus and Grunts attention, knelt beside it and examined it closely. From the size of it, it was some type of heavy weapon. She picked it up, it definitely had some heft to it.

"Interesting," commented Grunt examining it.

"You've got space for it on your weapons pack, take it," Shepard handed it to Grunt, "We'll examine it in the armory when we get back aboard, figure out how it works." She eyed the weapon as Grunt stored it away; it was unfortunate that she hadn't had the opportunity to sneak in a scan of it, oh well.

They ran into more Collectors flying in to attack them just before they reached the bunker. Shepard's eye was caught by one Collector in particular, as it stumbled, jerked, and then bent over as if something was wrong with it. Then it suddenly snapped to full height its arms going out wide as if someone had put a powerful electrical current through it. As if in furtherance of that impression, its hard exoskeleton cracked, orange glowing light spilling through from the inside of it which grew brighter and brighter as if it was burning away an outer shell. Finally it stood upright again, bringing its weapon up into the ready position and almost looking as if it were on fire as it began advancing upon their position. Its glowing orange form drew most of her attention, even though she kept a wary awareness of where the other four Collectors who had arrived with it were located. What had just happened to it, and why?

"Our power is unmatched," it announced in Galactic Standard, "nothing stands against us." It was the first time they had heard a Collector speak in anything but its own language. The orange glowing Collectors tone was all sheer raw arrogance, but underneath that its voice sounded mechanical and had an odd echoing quality to it. Shepard's eyes widened in shock, she knew that voice...or rather one very like it.

She was standing in Sarens's private laboratory, a glowing red holographic image of the Reaper ship before her. It was speaking to them, "Rudimentary creatures of blood and flesh. You touch my mind, fumbling in ignorance, incapable of understanding."

"I don't think this is a VI," Tali, standing behind her said, sounding frightened.

"There is a realm of existence so far beyond your own that you cannot even imagine it. I am beyond your comprehension. I am Sovereign."

Suddenly she was on the ground, Garrus on top of her, "Shepard, Shepard!" He yelled into her face.

"I'm here," Shepard gasped out, her suit insistently informing her that her shields were completely gone, "Sorry." Damn it, her memories had taken her back to that moment, back to Virmire, and right in the middle of a battle. Not good, not good at all.

"What just happened?" he demanded, not moving to let her up yet. There was gunfire and the sound of projectiles whizzing above them. "You just stood there after that glowing Collector knocked you out of cover and didn't move. Another shot and it would have killed you."

"Later, let's take care of the Collectors trying to kill us first," Shepard commanded, pushing on him and lifting him a little off her. This was not the time for an extended discussion. Garrus stared down at the space between them looking a little shocked at her ability to lift him before his expression calmed. It wasn't as if they hadn't discussed something of what had happened to her. He knew Cerberus had used biosynthetics and cybernetics to rebuild her damaged body; this was just the first time he had really gotten a direct demonstration of them. He nodded, and rolled off her. Shepard took cover behind a retainer wall, coming up, acquiring a target, firing, and then ducking back down when her suit warned her that her shields were getting low.

Whatever the glowing Collectors were, they were damn tough, much harder to kill than the others. As soon as they managed to take the glowing Collector down, she spotted another one going through the same process which had created the first. Shepard was fairly certain she knew what they were facing now. These Collectors were like Saren at the end, they had cybernetics in them that allowed a Reaper to remotely take over their bodies and control them.

Damn it, Shepard thought when she realized she hadn't gotten a scan of one of the possessed Collectors yet. With their need for evidence and their dismissal of the existence of the Reapers as anything other than myth, the Council would never take her word on this.

"Shift to suppressive fire, keep them pinned down," she ordered the team though the comms in their helmets, "Garrus as soon as you see one of them start glowing get a scan of it, then unload on the other three and take out the changed one last. We need to figure out what's going on here." She didn't mention, of course, that she would be doing the same thing.

"Will do, Commander," Garrus acknowledged.

They started firing to keep the four remaining Collectors pinned down rather than killing them, it wasn't long before she saw one of them bend over, "There, the one on the far left." Shepard paused just a moment to set her omni-tool to record both audio and video. She went up to one knee, sighted and fired twice taking down one of the remaining Collectors. Then she vaulted the retainer wall she had been taking cover behind, sprinted up the nearby stairs and hurried in a low crouch along the walkway to take up a new flanking position. This position was also much closer to the glowing Collector than her previous one. She poked her head up; it was currently firing on Grunt and Garrus's position. Glancing around she noticed that while she had moved the two of them had taken out the second Collector, now all that was remaining was the glowing one.

She lifted her omni-tool and made sure it had a good line of sight to the strangely glowing Collector. "What are you?" She shouted at it.

The glowing Collector paused, turned toward her, "We are the Harbinger of your destiny, Shepard." It didn't give her a chance to ask anything else; it raised its weapon and began firing. She wasn't sure what type of weapon it was, but it was some type of energy weapon and very powerful. The dark energy pulse slammed into the metal side of the walkway, making a great dent in it and knocking her almost sprawling. "Your form is fragile; I sense your weakness Shepard."

She grimaced; she needed better cover against a weapon like that. She sprang forward, sprinted to the end of the walkway, vaulting over the low divider without breaking stride and let her knees take the impact of the six foot drop to the ground. Then it was only a few steps forward and a duck behind a sturdy looking storage container.

"Why do you continue to resist Shepard? We cannot be stopped."

"Funny, Sovereign told me that too and we both know what happened to it," she couldn't help but taunt. She could just imagine Councilor Metellus rolling his eyes and dismissing this as a desperate hoax about now, and doing the air quote 'Reapers' again. "You can be stopped, we've done it before and we will again," she grimaced that hadn't sounded quite as strong as she would have liked, she needed to stop thinking of that damn turian councilor. There was a loud thump and container she was hiding behind shook as the Collector fired at her.

"You only delayed the inevitable Shepard. We are the pinnacle of evolution. We are your end."

Enough of this, she'd probably just blown any chance of the Council believing this right there. They would hear Sovereign and think Reaper and their brains would promptly shut down. Maybe they would believe a scan, but she would have to be quick, these controlled Collectors super-heated and burnt away when they died. She rose to her knee, fired off several rounds at the Collector before ducking again, quickly holstering her pistol and reaching over her shoulder for her M-22 Eviscerator shotgun. She paused a moment to concentrate, gathering a powerful mass effect field around her, shaping it and controlling it to behave as she wished.

Like her memories, Shepard's biotic abilities were something else that had changed in a very noticeable and disconcerting way. She wasn't sure if it was the new L5n implant vice her old L3 implant or something else Cerberus had done, but her biotic abilities were much, much stronger than before and her conscious control over the mass effect field she generated easier and more precise than it had ever been. She was also using her biotics in ways she never had before and had no idea how she was doing some of the things she was doing. It was almost as if she had learned entirely new muscle mnemonics while she was dead. Shepard had been taught to use her biotics to hasten her movement speed in a manner similar to the way krogan biotics added speed and force to their charges. Her biotics' trainers at the Academy had called what they taught her charging, and she had used it, as most biotic vanguards did, to move from one firing position to another more swiftly or close with the enemy faster. The charge she was preparing to do now however, bore almost no resemblance to the charge she had learned and it wasn't like a krogan's biotic charge either.

A dark blue mass effect field swirling noticeably around her, Shepard rose and charged, closing the distance between her and the glowing Collector in what seemed an instant. She impacted against her target, the mass effect field cushioning and protecting her while channeling all the force of both the impact and the residual mass effect energy into the Collector, sending it flying through the air to land heavily several feet from where it had originally been standing. Shepard wasted no time, taking a few steps forward while initiating a scan with the twist of her hand and bringing the shotgun to bear on her enemy who was just now struggling to rise, probably having been stunned by the force of the impact. Her omni-tool made a soft beep, signaling that its task was completed. Shepard smiled grimly and then fired off several rounds into the glowing Collector's head at point blank range. It was messy, but very effective.

"Destroying this body gains you nothing. We are eternal," the still corpse uttered malevolently, startling Shepard who had been certain it was dead. She prepared to fire on it again, but then had to quickly backpedal away from it as the Collector burned itself to ashes that drifted away on the slight wind. Grunt and Garrus ran up, to her staring down at the blackened ground where the Collector had burnt itself up. She turned toward the bunker, using the movement to hide the fact that she was shutting off her omni-tools record mode.

"Sorry Shepard," she turned curiously toward Garrus, who held up his omni-tool, "I wasn't able to get a good scan of it."

She nodded, "Its ok I have a feeling we'll be seeing more of them," she suspected he was letting her know that his omni-tool hadn't picked up the activity of hers, which was a good thing.

"So what happened back there?" the turian asked her quietly.

Shepard hesitated for a moment before admitting, "Flashback. I'll speak to Chakwas about it when we get done here I promise."

"Flashback to what?" Garrus asked, sounding confused.

"Speaking to Sovereign, that Collector sounded a lot like it," she admitted.

His mandibles flared in shock for a moment, "Harbinger is a Reaper." Shepard was surprised that he hadn't already figured that out already just from her mentioning Sovereign when she was talking to it. "Do you think it's here or in dark space?"

"Dark space hopefully," she didn't hesitate to admit, "Otherwise things are going to be a lot more difficult than we thought."

Garrus considered that, "I'd say," His words carried a wealth of meaning and Shepard gave him a grim smile in acknowledgement.

"Alright let's get moving, those towers aren't going to come online by themselves," she commented loud enough for Grunt to hear before turning toward the bunker. It was locked, that was intriguing. None of the other doors had been locked; the colonists hadn't had the time to find shelter before the seeker swarms found them. Perhaps a few had though, but she wouldn't know until she bypassed the lock.

They did find someone inside, one surly mechanic, Delan, who had been working when everything began and managed to seal the bunker before the swarms arrived. He blamed the Alliance and the fact they had given them towers for the attack instead of seeing the situation for what it was, the Collectors picking off those human colonies who were unable to defend themselves. At least he was able to confirm that Ashley was at the colony and tell them the reason the GARDIAN system wasn't operational, as well as where exactly the controls for it were located. Pretty much were Shepard had guessed they would be, the colonies communications center. Specifically they were at the base of the colony's main transmission tower.

Shepard hoped EDI could help them get the GARDIAN's targeting systems calibrated and online once they regained communication with the ship, which they should be able to at the transmission tower.

"How come we don't see any more frozen people around?" Grunt asked as they approached the main doors to the communications center after fighting their way through several husks, Collectors, and a new type of husk that seemed to be made of several husks all fused together and which used a powerful biotic shockwave attack against them. It was not a pretty sight to look at with its multiple heads, and bulbous swelling on its back, especially not as shot up as it had been with whitish fluids leaking everywhere. Both she and Garrus paused to scan it while Grunt kept a lookout, sharing a grim look as they did so.

"Probably already loaded onto the Collector ship," Garrus answered the krogan, voicing Shepard's own thoughts, "We should hurry."

More Collectors, husks and the new type of husk they had seen earlier attacked them as soon as they entered the communications area; it seemed as if Harbinger was finally taking them seriously. Shepard suspected it might have finally figured out they were trying to activate the GARDIAN system, the transmission tower was in the center of the area where they were currently fighting. As soon as all of the attacking Collectors and husks had fallen, Shepard hastened to the transmission tower, hacked into it and contacted the Normandy.

Shepard activated her helmets com system, "Normandy, do you copy," she wasn't one hundred percent sure that the tower would boost their signal enough to get through the Collector ship's interference.

"Joker here, signal's weak Commander, but we got you."

"EDI, can you get the colonies defense towers online," Shepard wasted no time in asking. The GARDIAN turrets were their only hope of driving off the Collector ship.

The AI responded promptly, "Errors in the calibration software are easily rectified, 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 increased generator output."

"Understood EDI, go ahead and start," she gave her authorization. "It's our only chance of stopping them."

"Enemy reinforcements are closing in on your position Commander," the AI warned her.

"Copy that," Shepard acknowledged, scanning the skyline above the buildings. She suspected they would be coming from the Collector ship but she could be wrong. There, she spotted several flying figures in the sky, she had been right they were coming from the direction of the Collector ship. They hadn't even managed to kill the entire initial wave of attackers when the husks came running from the nearby buildings, forcing them to divert their attention to their flanks as well as the few remaining Collector snipers hiding among the crates at the far end of the area. The Collectors were definitely trying to prevent them from activating the defense turrets.

"Bypassing fail safes and attempting emergency power up. Please hold the transmission tower," EDI updated them. Fire, cover, fire, move to a new position, steadily the attackers were whittled away even as more arrived to press the attack. "Sequential power up initialized, GARDIAN anti-ship batteries at forty percent." By now her brain just acknowledged the information, even as her body picked out a new target and she fired. "GARDIAN anti-ship batteries at sixty percent, synching targeting protocols to Normandy's systems."

There was a lull in the wave of attackers, giving them a chance to catch their breaths. Shepard kept her eyes on the skyline; surely they hadn't killed all the Collectors or husks that huge ship carried. Her eye caught a dark shape in the sky moving toward them; it didn't look like anything she recognized. As it got closer she realized it looked like some type of flying crab that had glowing blue eyes. What the fuck was that? "Garrus, Grunt, look toward the Collector ship, something's headed this way."

The thing landed; close up it looked even more like a giant walking crab, though it was clear it was also some type of husk. You could tell by the way the armor looked and by the bluely glowing technology visible underneath the armor plating. Shepard quickly activated her omni-tool and got a quick image of it, as well as what little information her tool could detect at this range. It was large, standing at least eight foot tall. It opened its mouth? And screeched at them revealing multiple husk heads inside, it was another type of husk amalgamation. Then it fired a blue beam at her from what she had thought were its eyes. The beam barely clipped her and it had her suit warning that she had no shields within two seconds. Shepard bolted for cover, and as soon as she was behind the crate glanced down at her omni-tool to see what the hell it had hit her with, a particle beam. Whatever that thing was, it had a seriously nasty weapon and it was heavily armored as well.

"A new one, whatever that is, don't get to close," Garrus warned. He was a bit late with it as far as Shepard was concerned.

She peered around the crate between her and the crab husk, first throwing a biotic attack at it and then taking as many shots as she could before she saw it charging up for another attack. Knocking this thing down would be tricky, but they had to keep it from the transmission tower. The thing slammed itself against the ground, sending out a wave of biotic energy that smashed into her, actually picking her up slightly and throwing her away from it. She recovered in time to notice the blue glow of a biotic barrier light up around it. Damn it, as if killing it hadn't looked difficult enough before. "EDI we need that system online very soon," she informed the AI, urgently.

"GARDIAN batteries at 100%, I have control." The turrets began moving, and to Shepard's satisfaction began firing upon the Collector ship. Her feeling of victory only lasted a second, a blue beam cutting across the ground toward her quickly reminding the Shepard that the GARDIAN turrets were not taking care of their little problem here, and she couldn't afford to have her attention divided right now.

She sprinted to her right, getting some distance away from the new type of husk as she dove behind a crate, popping up when it stopped firing and then cussing softly underneath her breath as she had to wear away its newly reformed biotic barrier before trying to chip through more of its armor. This was the third round of this; it was getting old real quick. Grunt and Garrus stood up as well, adding their firepower to hers in a steady stream of projectiles. The crab looking husk was looking definitely worse for wear now, the chitinous looking armored carapace dented and gashed in several places. It screeched again, revealing the husk heads inside its mouth. She knew that regular husks were vulnerable there, so she shifted her fire to the heads, watching as they were torn apart by the projectiles. Suddenly the crab looking husk started glowing blue, heat radiating from it, and it disintegrated into ash. Shepard stared bemusedly at where it had been for a moment, surprised that after so long a battle it had ended so quickly. She would have to remember that weakness.

"Multiple impacts, Collector vessel is taking damage," EDI's communication drew her attention away from where the crab like husk has been to the turrets and the Collector ship.

They were winning, Shepard watched as the GARDIAN lasers fired upon the ship in a constant bombardment. The roar of the Collector ships engines staring was not exactly a surprise; she ducked for cover behind a crate as grit laden wind rushed toward and past them from the blast of the ships engines. As soon as it past she stepped back out and watched in mixed relief and grim regret as the Collectors ship lifted off. How many of the colonists were in there, the ones they had been too late to save, and was Ashley in that ship or one of the lucky ones still here?

"No, don't let them get away!" the mechanic from the bunker came running up, staring after the Collector ship.

"There's nothing we can do," Shepard responded grimly, "they're gone."

"Half the colonies in there, they took Eagan, Sam and...and Lilith," he protested pacing back and forth while staring upward, "Do something!"

She sighed, "I did what I could, I didn't want it to end this way," just like she hadn't wanted to die when the Normandy was attacked, "But sometimes you can't save everyone."

Grunt, who was standing beside her spoke up, "It was a good fight, Shepard."

"Shepard," the mechanic turned around, "Wait I know that name. Sure I remember you; you're some type of big Alliance hero."

"Commander Shepard," it was Ashley's voice, "Captain of the Normandy, first Human Spectre, Savior of the Citadel." Shepard watched with relief and growing happiness as Williams stepped out from between two of the buildings and walked toward them. The chief stopped a few feet away and regarded the mechanic coolly, "You're in the presence of a ghost Delan," the marine turned toward Shepard, "back from the dead." Shepard could see the same anger and confusion in Ashley's dark eyes as she heard in the other woman's voice.

"All the good people we lost and you got left behind, figures," the mechanic grumbled. "Screw this; I'm done with you Alliance types." Shepard glared at him as he took a wide berth around her and the krogan standing beside her. He had no business even complaining; he hadn't done anything to help them save the colony except tell them why the GARDIAN turrets weren't operational.

Ashley closed the distance between them, staring at her and then finally stuck out her hand with a lopsided smile, "I thought you were dead Commander. We all did."

Shepard reached out as well, shook Ashley's hand, and then held up one finger to stop her from saying anything more. She turned toward Garrus, "You two keep an eye out for stray Collectors or husks that might have been left behind, that Collector ship left in a hurry," she ordered, wanting some privacy for this conversation.

"Will do Commander," Garrus promptly assured her, motioning to Grunt to take a position to the left of the transmission tower while he went to keep watch on the right.

Shepard turned back to Williams who was staring at her with a confused frown. "I was dead, Ashley," she finally answered her. "Cerberus only managed to put me back together enough to bring me back to life two to three months ago," she stuck to the basic facts, wanting to get them out of the way first. She had made a critical mistake with the Council, dancing around this subject because she had been so uncomfortable with it at the time. It had, however, been over a month now, and the fact that she had died and been dead for almost two years didn't send her into a tailspin the way it had just a week out of waking up in a medical bay with gunfire and explosions going on around her. "I have no idea exactly how I wound up in their hands, I guess they must have found my body at the crash site."

"What?" Williams said, staring at her, the soldier's disbelief painfully obvious.

Shepard sighed; she suspected she didn't have time for twenty questions. "Ashley what information did the Illusive Man put out there about my involvement with Cerberus? Why does the news that I was dead for almost two years surprise you?"

"Nobody said anything about..." Williams looked as confused as she sounded, "I mean they just said you had been seen again."

Ashley's voice trailed off and she just stared at Shepard, almost as if she had never seen the Commander before. After a few seconds Shepard prompted, "Ash, the intel?"

That seemed to shake Williams out of wherever she had gone in her thoughts. Shepard should have guessed that Ashley, more so than any of her other former crewmates, would have issues with the idea of her actually having been dead and then brought back to life. Shepard just preferred to not think about the theological implications of what Cerberus had done to her.

"Alliance Intel said that Cerberus could be behind our missing colonies," Ashley finally responded, "We got a tip that this one could be the next to get hit. I went to Anderson but he wouldn't talk. But there were rumors that you weren't dead, and worse that you were working for the enemy."

"Cerberus you mean," Shepard replied calmly. She ran one knuckle back and forth across her lips thoughtfully, her light grey eyes narrowed as she thought about this information, trying to fit it in with the rest. How could Cerberus have known before the fact that...her eyes widened, she lifted her head and stared incredulously at Ashley. Ashley was the key.

"That bastard," Shepard snarled, just managing to keep her voice down. She barely noticed Ashley flinching away from her anger, "of course he wouldn't hesitate at sacrificing a human colony to get his precious info. The Collector's, their interested in me and the rest of the crew that brought down Sovereign, the Illusive Man used you as bait to draw them here."

"What?" Williams asked looking around at the dead Collectors littering the ground, "Are you saying the Collectors attacked this colony because I was here?" she could hear the disbelief in Ashley's voice.

"Yes," Shepard confirmed tersely. "How long ago was this, the intel that I was working for Cerberus that is, when did it first surface?"

"About three months ago," Ashley responded, her dark eyes returning to the Commanders light grey one's, the confusion within them obvious to Shepard.

Her suspicions were confirmed, "So as soon as he knew it was going to work. That must have been the first time I woke up, I remember all the machines going off and them yelling about my stats going into the red, and taking about me not being ready to wake up yet. They had to give me two doses of sedative to make me go under again," Shepard commented thoughtfully. Her eyes focused on the woman standing in front of her, who stared at her with eyes as wide as Shepard thought she'd ever seen them. She frowned, "Ashley, the extent of my working for Cerberus before I went to the Council was me going to Freedom's Progress with them the next day after I woke up in a medical facility." Shepard decided for brevity's sake to leave out the gunfire and explosions part of that experience. "The Illusive Man wanted me to see what was happening, the extent of the abductions and who was responsible. I agreed, but as soon as they gave me a ship I went to the Citadel before doing anything else."

Shepard paused for a second, her expression hardening, a bitter note entering her voice, "Now, of course, I realize that the Illusive Man set all of this up months ahead. He would have hardly provided the star map to, or been so unconcerned about me going to the Citadel, had he not been absolutely certain that neither the Alliance nor Council would raise one finger to help me. And that's exactly what happened, which left only him and Cerberus as my sole option if I wanted to stop the Collectors."

"But by working with Cerberus, you're turning your back on everything we stood for," Ashley protested angrily, "How can you forget what they did?"

"I have forgotten nothing!" damn it, her memories made fucking sure of that. She was only barely aware of Ashley's wide eyed stare. "Are you listening to yourself?" Shepard asked at less of a volume, fighting to get her emotions back under her control. Why couldn't Ashley see the bigger picture here? This was about more than just her personal pride, or even her honor. "What am I supposed to say to the mothers and fathers of these colonists? I'm sorry that your son or daughter went missing along with a nearly a million other colonists, but hey that's fine because I didn't compromise my principles. I turned down Cerberus' offer of a ship and sat at the Citadel and twiddled my thumbs while they told me I was crazy and easily misled by Saren for believing that the Reapers exist in the first place?"

Williams flushed, "You could go back to the Council and try again with this new information, instead of continuing to work with them," she insisted.

"Or they could pull another Ilos on me," Shepard responded, knowing which possibility she thought was more likely. "Decide I'm crazy and a danger, impound the new Normandy and arrest my crew. I don't have enough information yet to persuade them. I know that already, I'm just hoping there will be enough to get them to start thinking things aren't as simple as deciding Saren was responsible for everything." Shepard shook her head, "I can't take that risk right now Ashley. With the colonists they just took there are now over a million colonists missing, and I still have no idea what the Collectors intend to do with them or why their taking them alive or how exactly the Reapers are involved. If the cost of finding out those answers is for me to have to deal with Cerberus, to have to get down in the swamp with the snakes and leaches, then I will do it, but that doesn't mean that I trust them."

Shepard paused, took in a deep breath, forcing herself to calm before continuing in a quieter voice, "And it doesn't mean that I'm not looking for the actual reason why Cerberus is doing this." She stared intently into Ashley's dark eyes, willing the other woman to pay attention to this and to believe her, "It's not altruism, despite the Illusive Man's best efforts to persuade me that he's just doing what's necessary to protect humanity, I don't believe him. If he were then he would find a way to share his information with the Alliance and Council but he's not. As a matter of fact I bet once your ship and the Normandy leave there were be Cerberus personnel here picking up everything they can get their hands on for research. And none of it will ever get back to the Alliance or Council. He's got another motive behind getting me to go after the Collectors and I need to figure out what that is and why he's worked so hard to make sure that neither the Council nor Alliance will either believe me or help me."

That was something that had just recently occurred to her, that the Illusive Man didn't do anything that didn't further his ultimate goals. And while the Reapers defeat and humanities survival did indeed lead to Cerberus' survival as well, something about the effort he was making to keep her separated from the Council and Alliance made her suspicious. There was just no shape to those suspicions yet, just the realization that the Illusive Man probably had enough information on the Collectors and Reapers to persuade the Council that there was a threat. There was the seeker they had captured, the Collector technology based assault rifle, all of it pointed toward Cerberus having a lot of intel on the Collectors. Yet the Illusive Man didn't share it, he kept it to himself, making sure the Council and Alliance remained ignorant of the danger. There had to be a reason why and she was certain she needed to figure out that reason before she did something to help Cerberus that she would bitterly regret for a very long time.

"Now we've talked too long as it is, my Cerberus watchdogs up there will get very suspicious if I take much longer. I've got information for the Council," Shepard brought up her omni-tool, and activated it, "Class five-C security classification, Council eyes only, 24.67 terabytes of information."

Now looking rather bewildered, Williams tapped on her omni-tool as well, activating it and examining it for a moment, "Yea, I've got enough free memory for that," she taped in several more commands and Shepard waited for her tool to pick up the connection request from William's omni-tool. As soon as she saw it and the notification that the connection was of the requested encryption level, Shepard started the data transfer.

They had a few minutes before the transfer was complete and she had more things to tell Ashley, "In addition to this information, I want you to find a way to take two Collectors and two husks with you for the Council to examine. I might be wrong about Cerberus trying to take all of them, but better to be safe and take them now rather than empty handed later."

"Ok," Ashley agreed, "I can put them in stasis tubes."

Shepard nodded, before continuing, "Harbinger controlled the Collectors the same way Sovereign did Saren after he blew his brains out, so there's got to be cybernetics in them which allows a remote entity to take control of their bodies. If the Council has their researchers examine them then at least they will have to realize that the Collectors are being controlled by some other entity than themselves. The reason I want you to take husks with you as well is because the husks the Collectors brought with them are different, more advanced than the ones we fought before. We fought two new types of husks, one used a powerful biotic shockwave attack against us and the other had a particle beam, very heavy armor and could create a mass effect barrier, I took scans of both of them, it's in the data I'm giving you. I know the Council thinks the husks were created by the geth, but their presence here indicates otherwise or they may just decide the geth are involved. I don't really care what they decide just so long as they take this situation with the Collectors and their abductions more seriously than they have been."

She reached out, grabbing the other woman's armored forearm, "Ashley, you need to always remember one thing about the Illusive Man, if life was a chess game then he would be rated a Grandmaster and he's made several moves before anyone even realized there was a chess match in progress. He's treating us all like pawns and that includes the Council and Alliance. Cerberus is big, and they've got a budget of several billions of credits a year. They've got deep ties into the Alliance and the Alliance defense industry. Don't trust the Alliance with the specimens your taking back with you, find a way to make sure they get directly into the Council's hands, preferably salarian or asari one's since there's little chance they would either be working for or pass information to Cerberus."

"Alright," Ashley responded after a startled second, "I will, that shouldn't be too hard to do."

"And He can't know I suspect him. I'm supposed to be so busy with the Collectors and trying to make sure my crew doesn't kill each other that I'm just treading water and not noticing I'm getting further and further away from shore. He poured a lot money into bringing me back, but he's completely ruthless and my ever so helpful second in command has already told me she would have put a control chip in my brain if it had been left up to her to make sure their investment," Shepard paused, then added dryly, "which is me by the way, doesn't turn on them. If he suspects I'm acting against him, he'll take steps to neutralize me." Ashley's dark eyes widened, it seemed as if it were finally sinking in that this wasn't some simple game Shepard was playing here.

"Oh, he probably wouldn't kill me," Shepard reassured her, "not after sinking four billion credits into bringing me back," she noticed Ashley's jaw dropping at that figure, "but I'd bet he would keep such a close eye on me I couldn't get anymore intel to the Council." Her jaw firmed, and her light grey eyes narrowed, "Or, more likely that control chip would probably become a reality," Shepard added grimly, before focusing once again on Ashley. Shepard met the other woman's eyes directly, trying to convey how deadly serious she was about what she said next, "I don't even know how to suggest you manage this, but the fact that I gave you this information, and the fact that you're taking those Collectors and husks, has to stay away from his notice or he'll immediately guess that this conversation took place."

"If you're in so much danger then forget this, and come with me," Ashley urged her, reaching out finally to touch her arm and shake it slightly as if to underline her seriousness.

"No Ashley," Shepard laid her hand over the other woman's, stilling it, "I can't do that for all the reason's I already mentioned. I'm a Spectre and it's my duty to protect the galactic peace. Cerberus is up to something big, and I need to stay right where I am to figure out what the Illusive Man is planning. The best thing you can do to help me is make sure this information and those specimens get to the Council and only the Council safely."

Williams stared at her for a few moments before her shoulders slumped in resignation, "Alright Commander."

"Now what I need you to do next is to have an argument with me over my working with Cerberus and then storm off. Garrus will make it sound like we had a shorter talk than we did, and I'll just growl at anyone that asks and let them make up their minds that I'm smarting over you giving me grief just like the Council about working with them."

"Wait," Ashley interrupted her urgently, "if what you're saying is true then let me take a scan of you that should prove that what you're saying about you being clinically dead for so long might actually be true."

Ok...that was one way of dealing with it, Shepard decided after a moment as Williams ran her omni-tool up and down her body, just completely ignore the part where she had said that she had died and out of thin air make up a more palatable truth to believe. Ashley's eyes widened and the soldier paled as she looked at the information her omni-tool was displaying for her, information about Shepard's own body. Her body which constantly reminded her in ways both large and small that it was not the same as it had been before her death.

Silently the other woman turned it so she could read the information. "No," Shepard growled, she turned her head, pushed away Ashley's omni-tool with its damning information. "I don't want to see how much of me they had to replace. Not..." she paused, feeling sick and shaky, "I can't, not yet, it's too much... too much right now. I've got enough to deal with without that."

Ashley immediately shut it off, "I'm sorry," she whispered.

Ashley sounded almost as lost and distressed as she felt Shepard realized. This wasn't doing either of them any good. Shepard drew in a breath, turned back toward the other woman, "Time to go."

Williams nodded, looked at her, the soldiers expression solemn and serious, "I promise you I'll figure out a way to get everything to them without Cerberus knowing," it was almost a vow.

Shepard took a step backward, nodded her acknowledgement of the promise. She closed her eyes, pushing away her emotions and centering herself into what she needed to portray for this next bit. A few breaths, she opened her eyes once again only the Commander, "Ash, you know me, and you know I'd only be working with Cerberus for the right reason," she declared in a strong voice. "You saw it for yourself; the Collectors are targeting human colonies and their working with the Reapers. Someone has to stop them."

It took Ashley a moment to find her voice but that was really ok, it fit into the scene they were playing, "I'd like to believe you Shepard, but I don't trust Cerberus and it worries me that you do. What did they do to you, what if their behind it. What if they're the ones working with the Collectors?"

Doubtful, but Shepard would keep it in mind as a possibility, "You're letting how you feel about their history get in the way of facts," she responded, now the scene was flowing more easily.

"Or maybe you feel that you owe Cerberus because they saved you," As if they fucking asked for her permission, Shepard thought bitterly. She didn't know what expression crossed her face at those words but Ashley actually faltered for a few seconds before the soldier managed to continue, "Maybe it's you. Doesn't matter I still know where my loyalties lie, I'm an Alliance soldier. It's in my blood." Shepard must have tensed slightly at that, because Williams quickly continued, "I'm reporting back to the Council I'll let them decide if they believe your story." The Ashley turned and started walking away from her.

That had went better than she had thought it would, Williams was actually a better actress than Shepard had given her credit for. "So long Ashley," she called out after the woman.

Ashley stopped, turned around long enough to say, "So long Commander, and good luck," before walking in between two of the buildings and turning out of sight behind them.

She activated her com, "Garrus, Grunt, we're done here," then to the ship, "Joker, send a shuttle to pick us up. I've had enough of this colony."

Continued...