The first thing that hit me was a rush of warm air. I felt cold and stiff, so it was very welcome. My eyes hurt, and I blinked repeatedly, trying to get the pain to stop. They almost felt dry. I had no idea where I was for a moment, everything was bright and blurry. Then it hit me, the collectors, the pod. I pushed and swung my arm wildly, but my legs decided they weren't in agreement with my chosen course of action. Instead of bolting out of wherever I was at full throttle, I merely leaned out and fell forward on my face. The only thing missing was someone yelling timbeeeeeeeer!

"Roy! Are you okay? You're safe. Roy!"

Small hands pushed me, forcing me to roll and lay on my back, then the same small hands slapped me lightly on the face.

"...sumi?" I mumbled, foggy and disoriented. "Oh hey, you're here."

There was a small pause, then a giggle before Kasumi spoke again. "This has so much potential, I'm going to hate myself for wasting the chance. But we can't wait."

I felt a small jolt of pain as something pricked my neck, and a moment later my heart damn near jumped out of my chest. I gasped as my vision sharpened and bolted upright, scrambling to get to my feet.

"Woah! Easy there," Kasumi said. "Looks like stims do the trick," she added with a laugh.

"Holy sh-" I stopped talking when I took in my surroundings. The inside of the Collector shuttle. There was a pod at the back of the cabin, and Kasumi was kneeling on the floor right where I had been. It looked like it was some sort of lab or science station, given the benches and locked-up bottles and flasks of chemicals. Everything was very... sleek, clean metal and glass, not really what I expected from a Collector ship. That prompted a whole other host of memories to flood into my brain.

"Tela!" I yelled. "That bit-"

"Part of the plan," Kasumi interrupted me, standing up and dusting herself.

"That wasn't the plan!" I snapped. "The plan was for us to take the Collectors while in the station!"

"You're a terrible actor, Roy, so we couldn't tell you." She tilted her head slightly and the smile almost disappeared from her face. "Sorry," she added, and it was the closest I had ever heard from her that sounded like she meant it, in a non-playful way.

"Bloody hell," I muttered. "They could have..."

"Hm?"

"I don't know, do whatever they do with people in pods!"

"It looked like they were preparing to do something, so that's when we sprang our little surprise on them." She walked in closer, put her hands on my cheeks, and pulled me closer. She looked me straight in the eye, then started to turn my head left and right. "I don't think they did anything bad. They didn't... probe you, did they?"

Somehow, Kasumi always knew how to make me laugh. As I did, I grabbed her wrists and pulled my face free with little resistance from her. "You really have a way to make everything funny, don't you?"

"I try," she said.

"So why the hell all this?" I gestured at myself, the pod, then all around me as I talked.

"We couldn't be sure that we'd have all the flight information if we just took the shuttle like we planned. We were supposed to wait until we arrived at our destination, but I wasn't going to let them do things to you," she said, and even dropped her voice when she said things to make it sound even more dramatic. "Now get your cute little butt to the front, we're getting close."

"What?" I looked at Kasumi, but she only gestured for me to follow, and I did just that. "Close to where? Where are we oh my fucking god."

My question took a left on Albuquerque when I walked past the lab door and saw the state the rest of the ship was in. There were clear signs of a firefight everywhere. Bullet holes, scorch marks that could only be small explosions, blood - collector blood - everywhere. But, I soon realized, no bodies anywhere.

"What the hell happened?" I said.

"Oh, you didn't think they just gave up, did you?" Kasumi said, heading for the cockpit.

"I'm amazed the ship is in one piece," I muttered.

"We know what we're doing kid," another voice replied. Deep, masculine voice. When I got to the cockpit I realized that Randall Ezno was at the helm. "We have a problem."

"What's that?" Kasumi said.

"The relay we're flying to? Yeah, it's not active."

"... what? Then how did they get past?"

"What do you mean?" I said.

"Nobody knows how to deactivate a relay," Kasumi said. "As best we know, they turn off if nobody uses them for a long time, but we don't know how long. So how come we are supposed to go through one?"

"Well the reapers made the relays, so I guess the Collectors know how to..." I trailed off looking at them. "What?"

They were both staring at me, Ezno with a flat look and Kasumi with her what-the-hell one I already knew well. And while she didn't say a word, Ezno seemed to recover rather quick.

"That would make sense," he said, taking the information, filing it away, and moving on with shocking alacrity. "We should tell your boss, see how she wants to play it."

"Eh, yeah, sure," Kasumi said, and nodded. She was still looking at me, and more than her expression, she actually threw her hands up while looking at me, mouthing what the heck. I just gave her a wink in response. It felt good when I put one past her like that.

"Lazarus, come in," Ezno called to his omni-tool. "Relay's cold, how do you want to proceed?"

While we waited, I leaned closer to Kasumi and whispered. "Where's the Hibiscus?"

"She's trailing us," she replied, also whispering. "Even if they can catch her stealth, she should look just like a sensor ghost. Joker is really good, even with the VI helping."

"He sure is."

Miranda's voice came back through the comms after a while, and while the Ice Queen sounded calm, I couldn't imagine she was, given the circumstances.

"Drop out of FTL," she said. "Our best bet will be to go through in force."

"I agree. But they might notice the delay," Ezno replied.

"Yes. Still our best option. I'll notify our reinforcements."

"Dropping out of FTL, on your mark," Ezno said.

With calm, calculated movements, Ezno brought up the ship controls, waited until Joker slowed the Hibiscus, and a moment later dropped us out of FTL, too. The world outside shifted, and the star field outside the front window changed right in front of my eyes. FTL travel was weird. After the drop we just waited until, almost two hours later, the proximity 3D map of outside space lit up with dozens of markers. The Eclipse ships.

At least they hadn't changed this part of the plan.

"All right, let's go," Miranda called. "Trojan, you're still leading."

"Copy that," Ezno replied.

There wasn't a moment's hesitation in Ezno's demeanor. We were about to jump through an unknown relay we needed to activate first, at the very front of the pack, after, apparently, altering our flight to stop for a few hours on the way. There was no way they wouldn't be suspicious. But there we were. The ship resumed flight, and when we were 10,000 km away from the relay, we dropped out of FTL again and began maneuvers. There was nothing to see out the window, the relay was dark and immobile, and we were so far that it merely blended into the vast darkness of space. Then there was a flash, and soon light could be seen. First on the core of the spinning disks, then spreading along the superstructure.

While all that happened, I was behind the cockpit, going through the gear Kasumi had brought for me. She really did think of everything. This time I did have my Predator M hardsuit, together with a full spread of guns. Brand new Armageddon shotgun, though lacking all the personalized mods and adjustments Serrus did for me, my trusty Striker, the angry Mattock, and a belt full of grenades too.

"Relay's hot," Ezno called. "Prepare for transit in five, four, three..."

I stepped up to the cockpit, looking out of the front window, and gripped the handhold straps as the ship approached the relay. I said a little prayer, took a deep breath, and waited for the transition, hoping we weren't blown out of the sky the second we made it through to the other side of the relay. The transition was exceedingly fast, and we dropped out of FTL to...

Nothing.

There was a moment where all we could see was an empty star system. The onboard map was quickly repositioning us and re-referencing all astrological waypoints, until a marker appeared on the nearest, unnamed planet, indicating our destination.

The Collector vessel.

It was a short lived moment of calm. The Hibiscus jumped right behind us, with Joker bringing up the rear at pursuit distance with absolutely incredible ease across a freaking relay jump, and all but a few seconds later, the Eclipse fleet jumped right through, illuminating the map with its dozens of small ship markers.

And not two heartbeats later, the Collector ship made its move. At first it looked, from our distance, like it was just lazily pulling away from the gravity well, but as soon as it started moving in earnest, it made a short but jaw-dropping fast FTL jump to land less than a thousand kilometers from us. Given the momentum all ships carried, that meant scrapping distance was achieved and shots started flying before I could even put a thought together.

"Holy shit!" I yelled. The beam weapon had passed so close to our shuttle that I actually saw it getting bigger. "Move us out!"

"They are not shooting at us," Ezno replied, his voice surprisingly calm.

"What the- Shit!" Another beam passed, and this one felt like it was even closer. On the map, two Eclipse markers had already disappeared, and the rest were spreading fast.

"Keep your head kid," Ezno said.

I looked at Kasumi, who hadn't said a word, and she looked at me with almost as much tension I was feeling. She had burrowed back into her seat, holding the console handle with both hands and visibly forcing herself to breathe deep and slow. The chatter on the comms, on the other hand, was frantic beyond words. There were simultaneous calls to break off the attack, pull back, pull forward to stop the beam from engaging, all of it. Finally, after two more markers disappeared, the small fleet seemed to finally come to a decision, and swarmed the collector vessel from all directions.

Our shuttle, in the meantime, had been skimming the surface of the collector ship, and came up to what seemed to be a kinetic barrier bulkhead, which had to be a landing bay. We had been moving slowly, giving the Eclipse ships time to try and board the Collector ship. There was always the danger that it might try to jump to FTL as soon as we were in, but seemed unlikely as long as it was swarmed by the Eclipse ships. Even if they were smaller, multiple ships in the way of the FTL jump was a sure way to stop any ship from escaping.

"Get ready kids," Ezno said.

Kasumi disentangled herself from the seat restraints and followed me towards the door, activating the stealth net as we walked along. The Hibiscus had finally broken off from our trail and had come to a landing position not far from our destination, but too far to be of immediate help if we got in trouble. It was up to us. From our position I could only make a bit of the front window of the shuttle, but it was enough to see us make it through the kinetic barrier and into the ship itself. What I could see was a large, open space with irregular stone-like walls carved deep into the ship. I pulled my shotgun, getting it ready, and felt Kasumi behind me grabbing the belt of my hardsuit, letting me know where she was.

The shuttle came to a stop, with a jolt of landing gear impacting the ground, and a jolt in my chest as my already fast beating heart decided to redouble its speed. Between the stims and the tension, it was going to be a miracle if I managed more than three shots in a straight line.

"Here we go," Ezno said, activating his own cloak and coming to the shuttle's airlock. "Three collectors approaching."

"Any swarms?"

"Not that I could see," he said, "but I might not know what to look for."

"Plan?"

"Make straight for eleven o'clock, there's cover there. We have the element of surprise. They don't look like they're on alert."

My HUD came to life with three hostile markers getting in range. I nodded towards where I thought Ezno was, readied my shotgun, and as soon as I did, the airlock was forced open from the inside, and I bolted out, shooting almost wildly with the shotgun and running as fast as I could. It occurred to me that there were three of us, but I was the only one without a tactical cloak. Shots were soon fired in my direction, pinging off my shield and finally hitting the cover as I dove for safety, with the kinetic barrier still showing a sliver of life left. Despite the surprise, the collectors had reacted pretty damn fast.

I took a very quick peek over the lip of the crate I was using for cover, and came down immediately as accurate shots found me with ease. Three collectors in my vicinity, but there were more at the back. And we weren't alone. The hangar might be empty, but the sound of battle coming from deeper in the ship was unmistakable.

As soon as the shields started to charge, I came out of cover again, ready to unload in the direction of the collectors, The three of them had spread out now, and while they returned fire, I managed to squeeze two shots out before I realized Kasumi was trying to stalk closer to them, and I really didn't want to hit her with the wide spread of the gun. I swapped targets to hit the one on my left, realized he was too far, and with a curse, dipped down to swap the shotgun for the Mattock as fast as I could. There was a loud report coming from somewhere close to the shuttle, then a bang so loud that it nearly made me fall on my ass in surprise despite being muffled by the helmet, accompanied by a bright flash of light somewhere behind the crate.

Flashbang.

Without any ado I jumped out of cover, Mattock in hand, and started unloading on the nearest collector. Kasumi's cloak had been deactivated, and she was firing at close range with what appeared to be a heavy pistol. Then, a thick beam crossed the battlefield from far behind, aimed straight for Kasumi.

"Shit! Kasumi get to cover!" I yelled, firing almost blindly towards the back of the hangar, as fast as the Mattock would let me. I saw the telltale blue flash of a kinetic barrier failing, and the beam then cut a swath of destruction to come straight at me. I jumped down into cover again, hitting the deck flat as the beam cut through the crate I was using for cover like it was made of paper, until another loud report suddenly silenced the gun.

"I have the ones at the back!" Enzo called. "Kid, get out and shoot! Thief, the doors! Fast!"

I cursed mentally, hoping that the fact that Ezno had called it meant Kasumi was fine, and jumped out of cover, Mattock in hand. Of the three near collectors, two had already been downed, and the last one made for easy pickings after being caught in a bad position thanks to Kasumi's flashbang. The others were too far for me, so I gritted my teeth and got out, rushing across the hangar as more and more bullets hit my kinetic barriers. Once again, the quality of the turian-made Predator armor shone through, and I got into cover before any serious damage registered. Another shot from Ezno, and another collector bit the dust. The last one tried to retreat, shooting wildly as he did, but sadly found himself with nowhere to go as every door in the hangar slammed shut before he could walk off.

He went down rather spectacularly.

"No more hostiles," Ezno called.

"What was that?" Kasumi said. "It totally ruined my clothes!"

She was out of stealth for the moment, and tearing at the burned lower half of her clothes. To my relief I saw that she was wearing some kind of hardsuit underneath, which was showing a scorched gash across her legs where the collector beam weapon had hit.

"Are you all right? Did it cut through?" I said.

"No, no, I'm fine," she said. She made her way to where the collectors had hunkered down, and saw her pick at the remains until she came up with a large weapon in her hands.

"Careful!" I yelled. "That's a beam weapon!"

She looked at me, grinned, folded the weapon and, once she got back to me, offered me the gun. "Souvenir," she said. "Can you carry it for me?"

"Seriously?"

"Yeah! Keiji will love this thing!"

I looked at it, looked at the grinning Kasumi, and after giving a shrug of resignation, grabbed the thing and hung it on my back. It was most definitely heavy, at least twenty pounds, which made for an awkward struggle to get it in place. While we were fooling around, Ezno had done one last sweep of the hangar, and came to meet us.

"We need to find a schematic of this ship, we could be a mile from the objective," he said.

"On it," Kasumi confirmed, disappearing as she walked off.

"Keep your eyes open," he said. He then brought up his omni-tool. "Lazarus, this is Trojan; we're secure. Where are you?"

For an answer there was a loud clanking noise, and a grate fell from the ceiling down to one of the platforms running along the top level of the hangar. Ezno and I both raised our guns, but immediately lowered them when we saw the rest of the team dropping through the opening onto the upper area.

Tela waved at me, and I could swear I heard a light chuckle through the comms. Maybe I imagined it.

"All right, what's our status?" Miranda said once we were all reunited. A quick assessment told me that everyone was in pretty much the same getup we were before, except for Jacob, who was carrying what clearly was a heavy weapon on his back, and Miranda, who, this time, was wearing a hardsuit. Jack, however, wasn't.

"One ruined dress," Kasumi said, appearing right next to Miranda, "and this." She activated her omni-tool, and what appeared to be a map of the inside of the ship popped to life.

"Damn, you work fast," I said, at the same time that Jacob whistled in appreciation.

"Our objective?"

"The system is very alien, so I'm not too sure, but there's different life signs over here," she added a marker on the map, next to some indistinct green markers, "and they seemed to be paying a lot of attention to this room. It's only two hundred meters out, so we're close."

"What about these?" Miranda said, pointing at two other highlighted sections.

"I'm pretty sure that's an armory," Kasumi replied. "Not so sure about the other one."

"What about-"

"We have incoming," Tela called. We all turned to look at her, and saw her standing next to one of the larger internal gates. She gestured at it with her head. "A whole heap of markers on the other side."

"Let's go," Miranda said, already moving towards the door. "Two teams, keep the biotic barriers up. Everyone else, protect the biotic keeping you safe." A mix of yes, ayes, and acknowledgements filled the air. Miranda opened her omni-tool, and after some fiddling, got the comms going. "Quandra, do you copy?"

"About time!" a female, possibly asari voice yelled.

"I'm sending you schematics. Prioritize the marked locations. Armory and Engineering." I looked at Miranda, she wasn't even flinching at making up at least half of that. "If there's anything good to be had, it will probably be there."

"Now we're talking. Riding high on Athame's ass!"

Miranda looked at her omni-tool with a mix of disgust and confusion, then shook her head and pulled her heavy pistol out. The angry red marker over the door lock blinked into green for a moment, jerking the door open and closed a fraction of an inch, and immediately both Tasha and Tela made biotic bubbles appear. Another moment, and the door flipped completely green, and opened to a veritable sea of seeker swarms rushing through the open space.

"Open fire!"

I don't know who called that. I didn't care. Shotgun up I started firing as well as I could, together with the rest of the team, and every collector on the other side of the door. It was brutal, I had to dive completely into cover barely a second after the fight broke out, which was followed by a scattering of biotic attacks rushing through the same damn opening. Caught in the middle, the seeker swarms were being literally shredded, and biomechanical insectoid parts were raining all over us at the front.

"Dive!" Jacob called.

I had no idea what he was about to do, but I complied, burrowing deeper into cover. There was a hum that rose in crescendo to a high pitched whine, then a flash of white as some sort of wide electrical discharge exploded through the door. Lightning bolts seemed to jump from seeker to seeker, frying everything they touched as the main electric ball rushed through, and immediately after the seeker population had been extremely reduced. I still had no idea what the hell that weapon was, but I liked it.

"Push now!" Zaeed grunted, coming up, assault rifle to his shoulder and firing.

Jacob fell onto step next to him, and the two of them pushed forward as Tasha followed, laying as low as she could. I peeked out of the door and tried to give covering fire, simultaneously wanting to follow them through and glad that I was with the back team instead. With a better position, and no longer constrained by the door choke point, the remaining collectors started to fall back, trying to give each other cover as they made it back towards the next choke point.

"Let's go," Ezno said, slapping me on the shoulder.

I obliged, pushing forward, and closing rank next to him to try and give Tela cover. Jacob and Zaeed mirrored our steps, staying ahead and moving shoulder to shoulder to keep Tasha in cover. And with more room to maneuver, Jack probably thought it was open season, because she just came forward, yelling in anger and throwing the bigegst shockwave I had seen to date.

Four collectors had unfortunate encounters with solid walls.

"Save your strength," Ezno said.

"Mind your own fucking business," Jack replied.

"It is my business if we end up stuck in place because you overexerted yourself," he retorted.

"I can handle it."

It was a meatgrinder. Two hundred meters doesn't sound like a long distance, but having to earn every inch of those two hundred meters was an absolutely exhausting exercise. Three times we swapped biotics. Tela gave way to Julia. Julia yielded to Jack. On the other team, Tasha and Miranda were tag-teaming their own bubbles, and Tasha was now on her second. I wondered whether Jacob would be able to put one up - I actually never asked him. They were going in heavy, with both Zaeed and Jacob pushing at the front, and in my team having Ezno put rounds at long distance helped too. It was a good split, I had to admit. As long as the biotics held. Kasumi, with the front team, was providing tech support, and more importantly, guiding our steps. At some point, both Zaeed and Tasha got themselves shot, nearly simultaneously, and it was only thanks to Miranda's quick reflexes that they weren't taken by the seeker swarms. On my end, Julia got the worst of it with not one, but two bullets finding her, although luckily hitting nothing vital. I had been lucky enough that even when shields failed, my Predator armor had kept me safe enough to seek cover.

Luckily, after a while, enemies started to come more slowly. We could hear more fighting in the distance, heavy fighting too. Eclipse clearly didn't want to mess around. Even if it looked good, I knew we were going against the clock. Keeping those barriers up was hard work. Eventually the biotics would be exhausted, and we'd be easy pickings for the swarms. We had to move fast.

"In here!" Kasumi called, slipping past the edge of the bubble through a door.

"Move, move!" Miranda yelled.

Mattock up, Ezno and I pushed forward, firing at the entrenched collectors firing at us from another choke point twenty meters across the bridge. We held position while Jack made it past us, taking bullet after bullet on the barriers until they broke, and then scrambling back as impacts hit my hardsuit. I fell back on my ass and the door closed right at my feet.

"Shit!" I yelled.

"Roy! Are you all right?" Jacob said, rushing to my side.

"I think so," I grunted. "Freaking hell..."

"Hold on." He put his hand on my chest and held me down, running his omni-tool over me. "Yeah, no holes. Told you these were good," he added, slapping the plates on my chest. He offered me a hand and pulled me to my feet.

"One of these days I'm going to run out of luck," I said.

"Just keep eating those bars," Zaeed said. He delivered the line with such a deadpan voice that I couldn't help but laugh at it, with half the team joining me.

"Well," Tasha's grating voice called from the back of the room, catching everyone's attention. "Guess this is the target."

I saw her standing next to what looked like a collector pod that was laying on the ground, only it had no cover, and a fine mist was cascading out of the open top. Miranda was standing next to Tasha, looking inside and saying nothing.

"Shepard!" I yelled, rushing to the pod.

"Roy, wait!" Miranda said.

She turned around and tried to grab me, but it was too late. I saw the inside of the pod and stopped dead on my tracks. Shepard was inside, laying down on the pod. I could see her face, ghostly pale, eyes and mouth both open, staring into nothingness. I could also see circuitry of cybernetics running all over her neck and half her face, where skin had been pulled back; dark, twisted lines like a macabre spiderweb. Then my eyes ventured lower, and saw the rest of her body. She had been cut open, organs removed while tubes and cables ran from the pod and disappeared inside her open flesh. Masses of cybernetics took the place of her missing parts, even under bone and muscle through her body and extremities.

I fell on one knee, hanging onto the edge of the pod and trying desperately to breathe. It was like my chest had seized up. I tried hard as my head swam.

Shepard is dead.

I can't breathe.

Shepard is dead.

I can't breathe.

Shepard is dead.

I can't breathe.

"Roy!" Someone pulled my helmet free, feminine hands grabbed my face and made me look up. Through the haze, I managed to identify Miranda. "Breathe, you have to breathe. Come on."

I couldn't. She was pushed aside and I saw blue skin, a face I recognized. Tela grabbed my face, dropped to one knee next to me, and put her forehead to mine. Mind touch. Meld.

Roy. Calm down. Breathe.

I felt my chest relax, and gasped for air, desperately taking big mouthfuls as fast as I could.

Slow down. Just breathe.

I... Shepard... She... I can't...

Don't think. Don't try. Put it behind you. Breathe. Calm down. We haven't finished the mission. We have to get out. Think later. You need to focus now.

It was different. Never felt anything like that. It was me, and not me, the lost feeling of not being able to think was gone, the thought that I had to focus on the here and now, everything. I didn't even need to really think about how Tela had dragged me out of the panic to thank her, and she didn't even need to tell me anything to convey the calm acknowledgement that came with her years of experience dealing with life and death. Weird. Very weird. I was too keyed up to realize how amazing it had been, too.

She let go of me, ending the meld, and I took another moment to get my bearings. I still was thinking about the fact that Shepard was dead. But now I was contemplating the consequences. The changes. What I had failed to accomplish.

"Roy?" Miranda prompted.

"Fuck," I muttered, pulling myself to my feet.

Miranda gave me a look and handed me my helmet, which I promptly put on again. It had all gone to shit. I looked around, making a point not to look inside the open pod, and saw looks of shock, confusion, and even indifference. Or maybe the latter was professional detachment.

"Find something to wrap the body, we're taking her with us," Miranda said.

Of course you are.

I made my way to the door again, picked up the Mattock, and tried to pull myself together. Jacob was giving me a look like he wanted to know what was back there, and was simultaneously perfectly content to never know. I just shook my head and took position on the opposite side of the door frame. Kasumi was still working on the door, keeping it closed, but she was cloaked so I had no idea how she was taking it. To be honest, she didn't know Shepard in person, so it probably wasn't as bad as us. Jacob didn't, either, but I knew that he had her up on a pretty high pedestal.

"You might want to hurry it up," Ezno said. "There's a lot of movement on the other side of that door."

"Maybe we shouldn't keep them waiting," I said. I was starting to feel a lot like going out there and shooting some assholes.

Miranda looked at us, down at the body, and nodded. "Don't get too excited. Keep them busy while we finish here."

I looked at Jacob. He looked at me. We exchanged a nod. "Do it Kasumi," I said.

The door opened at the same time as Tela put up a biotic bubble, and we stood aside as the first barrage just poured through the open door, hitting the opposite wall but completely missing us. Outside, the angry buzzing of the swarms hitting the biotic bubble was almost deafening.

"Fire in the hole!" Jacob yelled. Heavy weapon in hand, he charged the shot, bounced out of cover for a split second to fire another of those charged rounds, and dove in again, even as hordes of seekers popped, crackled, and died. Using the opening he gave us, both Zaeed and I peeked out of cover, assault rifles in hand and shooting everything that moved.

"Keep them busy!" Zaeed yelled.

I kept my rate of fire steady as the heat meter slowly climbed, trying to at least hit with every shot. The Mattock was definitely having an effect, both on myself and the collectors. The more I shot, the more fucked up my accuracy got. That thing was just too much rifle for me.

"Eat this you goddamn bug bastards!" Zaeed yelled. As he did, one, two, three rockets shot from his launcher, closing the distance to the collectors in the blink of an eye and pushing past the surviving swarm without trouble. Explosions rocked the collector line, and guns all around me spit angry hot pieces of ammo block at high speeds.

I took the chance to rack the overheated Mattock, pulled my shotgun out, and pushed forward, getting into cover behind one of the barriers along the curved path leading to the bridge. I couldn't push any further, since I was at the edge of the biotic bubble, and despite all our efforts, seekers were still on the prowl, testing every so often the barrier between them and my tasty flesh. I fired two shots at the nearest collector, and the rest hunkered down as their numbers depleted.

That was when I saw them. More pods. Not like I remembered from the games, lining every wall along the central structure of the ship. No, this was another lab of sorts, opposite side of the bridge, and I recognized the Mantis armor set the people I could see inside were wearing.

"I found the crew!" I yelled, the discovery giving me a new burst of energy. "Down there! They're in pods, they're alive!"

In response, Miranda's voice came through the comms. "We've secured Shepard. Don't-" A burst of static interrupted her, and I could hear some distant voices. After a moment, Miranda spoke again. "Eclipse are pulling back," she said, frustration oozing from her every word, "we need to leave."

"What?!"

"Now!" she yelled.

"No!" I yelled back. "The crew is there! We can't leave them!"

"We have no choice! We are losing our distraction!"

Then, the voice I least expected rose over our argument. Only needed two words. "Fucking Cerberus!" A new biotic barrier appeared, extending far beyond the existing one, and Jack landed at a crouch next to me. I looked at her in surprise, which she didn't like. "The fuck are you waiting for dumbass!" she snarled.

Didn't have to be told twice. I peeked out of cover, shotgun at the ready, and started unloading. The remaining collectors responded in kind, but I had both cover and height advantage. On the fifth shot, teetering on overheating, and with my shields now beeping at me to warn me of impeding doom, I dove into cover, dropped the gun, and started pulling grenades. One. Two. Three. Four. I left one in reserve, waited until the last explosion, and with renewed shields came out of cover, pushing forward towards the open door past the bridge. I was left with no cover as I tried to finish the last of the collectors, but while my shotgun did some work to keep it busy, it was a high powered shot that tore through its head and splattered its brains all over the wall.

I looked back to see Tela folding up her sniper rifle as she ran towards me.

"Hurry up!" she snapped, pushing me forward as she caught up. "This is not where I want to die!"

Jack followed us in, and soon we were in a lab surrounded by pods. No open pod with a cold corpse inside in the process of being defiled, nothing of the kind. Tela and I started trying to open the pods, but it was proving a real struggle. She took a step back to try and hack them with her omni-tool, all while Jack kept shouting imprecations at us to hurry up, and I decided drastic measures were needed.

I, too, took a step back, raised my omni-tool, and queued the automated overload program Gee had left ready for me. It was much too simplistic, all it did was launch the max charge after a three-second lead time, which also made the omni-tool dip down to power save mode for a whole thirty seconds before it could be used again. A proper tech expert who knew what they were doing would tailor the overload to the task at hand to minimize those inconveniences. But right now? The biggest overload I could muster sounded exactly like what the doctor ordered. I hit the go button, pointed at the console in between the pods, and looked away. A huge ball of energy shot from my omni-tool, with arcs of electricity jumping from it in all directions and hitting pod after pod as they jumped. Tela herself let out a yelp and jumped back, covering her eyes as she did.

"Athame's ass Roy!" Tela yelled.

Then, the entire room just plunged into darkness, and pods just cracked open. It was child's play now to push the lids to open completely, pouring their contents out almost on top of each other. There were groans and mumbles, and very poor attempts at movement.

"Get them stims!" I said, already administering them to the nearest Mantis-clad crewman. I couldn't recognize anyone in the hardsuits, but I sure as hell recognized the markings.

"I don't have that many!" Tela replied, complying anyway.

"Just hit the biggest people, they'll carry the rest!"

Overall, we managed to get twenty people on their feet, out of thirty-five total. They were hurting, confused, and in many cases, scared shitless.

"What is happening?"

"Where are we?"

"Morgan! What's going on?"

"No time!" I yelled, getting people's attention. "We're getting you out of here. Help each other. Stay inside the biotic barriers at all times, and cover the biotics. Move it!"

They complied, and given what they had gone through, they did so in a surprisingly orderly fashion. I led the way out with Tela, while Jack brought up the rear, and between the two of them managed to cover most of the crew. Shots started when we were halfway through the bridge, but with so many bodies, no bullets managed to hit either Tela or Jack. I pushed my way to the back, and fired at the collectors as more and more of them started to fly down towards our position.

"We need to hurry!" someone yelled.

"You fucking put the barrier up then!" Jack yelled back.

More and more bullets hit us. It was a target rich environment, and I was the only one armed. One of the Normandy marines pulled the Mattock out of my back, and soon there were two of us shooting back. I knew they were all wearing shitty Mantis hardsuits, so we didn't have time. It wasn't long before barriers started to fail, and bullets started to find targets.

"Move it!"

My own shields were starting to get low. It was grueling work, we were moving slow, and even though the crew were rotating in the confined space we had to try and bring fresh barriers between the attacks and the biotics, we were moving too slow. We reached the corridor, finally, on the other side of the bridge, and just a few steps in, Jacob came out of nowhere, heavy weapon in hand, and placed himself right at the edge of the barrier.

"Take cover!" he yelled. Once again, his heavy weapon shot a huge energy ball, this time aimed right at the floor at the end of the corridor, and the ensuing energy explosion pushed the collectors back, and took down untold numbers of seekers.

"Do it again!" I said.

"I'm out!" he replied. When I got up to start shooting again he raised his arm, and looked at me.

"What?"

"Listen," he said. "No buzzing."

We looked at each other. No seekers. We turned around, and yelled at the exact same time. "RUN!"

As one, with those who still could helping those who couldn't help themselves, the crew of the Normandy took off at a run. Jack stumbled for a moment, and I grabbed her arm to pull her along and let her regain her footing. Three steps later she shook herself free, and continued running on her own even on her unsteady feet. Behind, the collectors were coming in force again. Bullets rained on us every time the twisty corridor gave enough angle for a bullet to go through. Our pace slowed as more people got shot, helped up to their feet without a chance to check the severity of their wounds.

One hundred meters.

Someone yelped in pain as shots hit, falling down to the ground and almost left behind, forcing us to stop once again and give valuable distance. Some just kept running ahead, ignoring the wounded. Cursing mentally, I pulled the pin of my last grenade, and threw it with a fluid motion as we rushed out again. Last I did was catch a glimpse of the collectors skidding to a stop and trying to find cover where there was none. I didn't know if the grenade killed any of them. It didn't matter.

Fifty meters.

They were gaining again. Open space right before we hit the hangar. There could be more collectors coming from the other end of the corridor now.

Twenty meters.

The distinct buzzing sound of seeker swarms. The door was right there, I could see it. Jack put up a barrier and I turned around, shotgun ready and covering Jack with my body. More of the team were giving us cover now, shooting from behind a biotic barrier from inside the hangar. Just a little more. I didn't even dare speak, just mentally spurred Jack to move. I could see out of the corner of my eye how uneasy her steps were. She was reaching her limit, but we were close.

I caught a glimpse of something weird coming out of the corner. I was too distracted, couldn't quite recognize it. I saw a blue, slightly glowing blob on top of a shambling monster of some sort. My shields were almost gone, but I couldn't leave Jack. Just a little more.

That's when I realized what it was. Right as it pointed what looked like an arm cannon at us, and a biotic shockwave rushed through the space straight for us.

Scion.

"Take co-"

I didn't even finish my phrase. The shockwave hit like a freight train, throwing me back hard and sending me tumbling, shields gone and armor worse for wear. For a moment all I knew was pain.

"Roy! Are you okay? Roy!"

It was Kasumi yelling. I grunted in response and struggled to my feet, until a pair of small hands pulled me back. By some miracle the shockwave had pushed me towards the open hangar door, and I had landed past the biotic barrier.

"We have to go!" Miranda yelled. "Now!"

I looked behind and saw that Joker had actually pushed the nose of the Hibiscus past the kinetic barrier bulkhead inside the hangar, and people were pushing as best they could through the open airlock. That was risky as hell. If the collector ship changed momentum, attitude, anything at all, it could tear the Hibiscus in half. There was the distinct shimmer of a biotic barrier covering the airlock, too. Kasumi took off towards the ship as well. I saw Tela being dragged inside the ship, either wounded or exhausted. We were out of options, we had to run.

"Hurry up!" Tasha snarled. She was holding the last biotic bubble, covering the door as seeker swarms tried to push past her. I was about to do just that, then I realized something.

Where the hell is Jack?!

I poked my head out of cover, and my heart froze inside my chest. Jack was laying on the floor on the other side of the bubble. Outside the hangar. She was curled up on the ground with her right arm reaching out towards us, completely frozen and covered in seeker swarms. For a moment, the fact that my armor had almost been shredded and that my body felt like I had been put through a spin cycle were completely forgotten.

"Shit! Jack!" I yelled. "Tasha! Push forward, I need to get her!" I realized I had no gun. I reached back for the Mattock, and remembered I didn't have it either. My hand instead found the handle of the very heavy collector beam weapon, and without a second thought, I pulled it out and unfolded it in my hands. "Push!" I insisted.

"Like hell," Tasha said. "It's too late."

"No! It's- Tasha!" She was ignoring me, slowly walking back towards the ship. I turned around and pointed the beam weapon at her. "Stop!"

She didn't even blink. "Shoot me and we all die," she stated flatly.

I saw a collector reaching to grab Jack, and without even thinking, aimed the beam weapon in his general direction and pressed the trigger. Superheated metal rushed out of the gun instantly, cutting through the collector's defenses even as he scrambled back, and finally cutting him in half before he could get away.

"Tasha!" I yelled in frustration.

Out of nowhere, a second biotic bubble appeared. I looked back and saw Julia standing behind me, a trembling hand held high and projecting an unsteady barrier around us. Her eyes were open wide, and there was a trickle of blood coming out of her nose.

"Get... your... friend! Go!"

She stumbled forward as she walked, while I just rushed out at full speed towards the edge of her bubble. The collector beam weapon felt hot in my hands, and even hotter as I swept the corridor while I ran, carving a path of death and destruction as I did. It finally spluttered and died, so I racked it and slid down to a stop next to Jack.

Only her arm was inside the bubble. It was enough. I grabbed her wrist and tried to pull her in, but I only got as far as her head before more seekers landed on her and tried to drag her away. She had her eyes fixed on me, the only part of her body she could move. And even so, I saw fear behind those eyes. I was being dragged with her by the swarms, there were too many of them.

"No!" I yelled. "Not happening!"

Still holding onto her wrist for dear life, I pulled my omni-tool one handed and almost without aiming, shot another overload in the general direction of the swarms.

There was a barely audible shriek as dozens of bugs were literally fried, and I finally yanked Jack free, pulling her through the biotic barrier and right on top of me. I awkwardly grabbed her as best I could, thankful that she had curled up before being paralyzed, and under the renewed fire of the collectors, rushed towards the hangar. Another shockwave passed two steps behind me, this time only pushing me but not even dropping me off my feet.

"Go go go!" I spurred Julia.

The poor woman tried her best, but fell behind when a bullet hit her leg, and another one hit her back. She fell to the ground, still somehow managing to keep the barrier up, and in one last desperate effort, I grabbed her with one hand, and tried to drag the two of them as fast as I could towards the ship. Shots started hitting me, making me stumble and eating chunk after chunk of my barrier. I could see I wasn't going to make it.

Until Zaeed stepped out of the ship, rocket launcher in hand, and repeatedly unloaded rocket after rocket past me as he ran towards us. I didn't see where they hit, I didn't even see if they hit. All I knew was that he had bought me the time I needed. He managed to step inside the biotic barrier that Julia, miraculously, was still keeping up, without any of the seekers having had a chance to land on him, and with a very hearty "let's get the fuck out of here!" he picked up the wounded biotic and the two of us rushed to the Hibiscus.

Jumping inside, the airlock closing, and the ship pulling back and flying away as fast as Joker could manage happened so fast it might have all happened at the same time. I didn't know. All I knew was that there was a massive pileup of bodies in that airlock, I was laying on top, and somehow, we had managed to drag the Normandy crew to safety without leaving a single person behind.

Or so I had thought.

"Hey! Anyone seen Randall?" Jacob called.

He was nowhere to be found.

Author's Notes: I'm not sure if I should apologize, or if most readers already saw this coming.

Shepard... is dead.

I'm sorry my face is tired of everything.

*Cough*

Wait, that's not right. I put more emphasis in those two lines as I wrote them than the actual character did.

I tried to keep the tension in appropriate spots while not dragging the mission for too long. As pointed out, it was grueling work for a large team of consummate professionals plus Roy, so it could have been a very large chapter. I think as it is, it is long enough, had a decent balance of tension and excitement, and I leave myself the next chapter to go over the aftermath - which will consist of several scenes. It looks as if the hand of canon is still pulling the strings, after all that. Of course, it doesn't mean everything is going as expected.

About half of you suspected Tela's so-called betrayal was part of the plan, while the other half wanted to spank the Spectre. That's a pretty good distribution, sometimes you want twists not to be too twisty, and at 50/50 it has a good chance of being believable, so... woot!

So yeah, I had to put quite a bit of thought in this chapter trying to get the pacing right. As a result of this + Divergence, took a while longer to get the chapters out. I hope the fact that last chapter was a lot quicker made up for it. I probably won't be writing much in December, since I'm going to try and pick some extra holidays temp work, but I hope I can at least put a short update at some point. We'll see, because I don't think the aftermath will fit in a short update.

Review time!

Tahkaullus01, RIOSHO, bluemarlin: You're team Burn Tela.

Uemei, Rainsfere: You're team Saw It Coming.

:D

That said, Roy as Vegeta, I have to say I like it! Screw Kakarot, Vegeta redemption arc ftw. Hopefully Roy will eventually learn to duck and stop getting shot. I have something along those lines planned for him come ME3 time :)

metaltilldeath666: Heh, sorry! Turned out to be a bit of a red herring, I just couldn't resist the cliffhanger.

Bolondka: Loved the metal image LOL

Tom712, Seabo, Guest, thanks for the support, hope the wait was worth it!

So, next time, as I said, aftermath. Dealing with failure. And learning a bit more about someone you need to learn a bit more about. Until then, thanks so much for reading, following, favouriting, and all the lovely reviews! Be good boys and girls, and if you can drop a line, that'd be fab. Until next time, ta-ta!