Desperate Times Call for Desperate Measures: Chapter Five – Favors and Frightening Revelations

Lord Admiral Thalia Parrington

"Dropping out of the warp, ma'am," called Captain Mojaro, the bridge bathed in the red lighting of a full-ship alert.

Thalia glanced up and out of the bridge view port at the system that lay ahead of them as the ship glided into real space. She drew her gaze away from the main view port, back to the auger array reading on her console; six Geth Cruisers and a Geth Dreadnought. The Geth were building up for an attack for sure, and part of her was thankful that the Alliance didn't have to waste any lives on countering this threat.

"Bring the ship up to full combat alert!" ordered Thalia. "Give me a firing solution on those ships."

An affirmative response crackled in her ear.

The Geth began launching fighters almost immediately, and the Geth fleet were most certainly charging their weapons. Damnable abominable intelligences were networked, as far as she could understand, and she supposed that was the reason behind the Geth's coordination skills.

The mass accelerator weapons of the Geth and the other races were faster to charge, and in the next minute a hail of mass accelerator rounds—a barrage in excess of a hundred megatons of kinetic force—thundered into the void shields that protected the Lord Admiral's ship. However, despite the commendable effort of the Geth and their weapons, the void shields on the Fist of Judgement were rated to stop barrages far more deadly barrages.

"Void shields holding steady, Lord Admiral, enemy barrage completely ineffectual," Tech-Priest Majoris Severin reported.

Thalia couldn't help but smile in response. 'My turn, xenos,' she thought as she waited for word from the Master Gunner that the weapons were charged.

"Lance batteries charged, Lord Admiral," the Master Gunner said. Thalia looked at the firing solution, and it focused on taking out the smaller Geth cruisers first, there were three guns per battery, and four batteries in total.

"Fire, Master Gunner, send them to hell," she said, watching on the tactical display as her orders were carried out. Six beams bisected four cruisers and glanced two, who barely managed to move out of the way as they detected the weapons batteries turning to track them. The view port magnified the view of the two glanced Geth cruisers. They were listing, debris floating free from the glowing breaches in their hulls. Barely a heartbeat later, two more angry red lance beams gutted the Geth ships from bow to stern.

All that remained of the Geth Cruisers were shattered and broken hulls, spewing debris as they disintegrated further, and the fighters that were now making straight for them. Anyone with an understanding of Naval tactics knew what they were doing—quite simply they were attempting to buy time for their dreadnought to escape.

"Helm, come about, new heading," she said, re-orienting the representation of the ship on her screen so that the cogitator could compute the new heading. It could calculate the information faster than she ever could, and so even though she was quite abreast of how it worked as all naval officers were, she preferred to allow the cogitator to do so. "Master Gunner, broadside batteries, give our friend a parting gift."

Both the helmsman and the Master Gunner gave her an affirmative response, and she could feel the deck plate vibrate beneath her with a gentle hum as the ship's augmented retro thrusters and engine baffle system working to turn the massive battleship. "Plasma batteries primed, and laser capacitors charged, Lord Admiral," reported the Master Gunner.

"Let's finish this," said Thalia, taking a moment to regard the Geth Dreadnought a final time in the view port before turning back to her tactical display. The Geth fighters were fast, but they weren't going to be able cross the distance between the dreadnought and The Fist of Judgement before they were able to fire. The Sunsear Las-Broadside punched a new constellation in the side of the dreadnought, and it was finished.

Admiral Parrington intended to leave nothing of the foul thing, and so the Saturnyne-pattern Starfire Heavy Plasma Cannon Broadside right of the laser-based battery fired, sending brilliant blue bolts of plasma spiraling toward the remains of the Geth Dreadnought, where they detonated against the hull and flash vaporized what was left of it. Now little more than scrap metal floating in space, Admiral Parrington surmised that the Geth fighters would shut down, as did the rest of the crew.

That was apparently not the case. The Geth fighters continued, undeterred by the fact that the Dreadnought and Cruisers had been destroyed. "Lord Admiral, the Geth fighters are on an intercept vector. Point defense targeting cogitators are targeting them, however they were never designed for ships this small, fast and agile. It will take some time to calibrate them," informed Severin.

Thalia let out a sigh. She had hoped to do this without risking her pilots, but she trusted them enough to handle this and come back home in one piece. Transferring flight control vox privileges to her station, she cleared her throat and then clicked on her mic, "This is Lord Admiral Parrington to Venator and Raptor squadrons, I need you to deploy and engage incoming Geth fighters. I don't want any heroes, come home in one piece. Lord Admiral Parrington, out."

Once the Geth fighters were in point defense range, she watched as long barreled las-talons and quad heavy lascannon turrets fired at the incoming fighters, but as she'd been informed, while a few stray shots glanced a few of the fighters, the Geth were largely in one piece. The Geth were remarkably intelligent, and they showed it by shooting at the point defense turrets first.

As one Geth fighter flew past the bridge, blast doors began to slide up over the view ports to keep it safe from a potential suicide attack. Not a moment too soon either, as the bridge shook from a sudden impact. "That was cutting it a little too close," said Thalia, sharing a look of relief with Captain Mojaro, who was holding onto her own station for support.

"On that we can agree, ma'am," said the Captain.

The bridge crew were all concerned now. If the Geth were taking to suicide attacks, then they could actually end up doing some pretty serious damage. The Fist of Judgment was a well defended ship, but death by a thousand cuts was still possible, even for a vessel such as this. The tactical map showed the Geth fighters swarming around them like insects, very appropriate given their design, and things were starting to look not quite as sure as they had about five minutes ago.

Then their Saturnyne-pattern Raptor Interceptors advanced, appearing on the tactical map in hololithic form as they streaked out of the hangar bay on the starboard side.

"Venator lead here, Lord Admiral, we'll get your bug problem sorted out in no time, ma'am."

External vid-relays showed a Raptor put a quartet of lascannon shots into a Geth fighter it was hot on the tail of before the latter exploded in a dazzling display of ignited fuel and debris.

There was a cheer from the bridge as the fighters flew past the external vid-relays, chasing and annihilating Geth fighters. Then, Tech-Priest Severin delivered what was quite possibly the best news she'd heard all day, "Targeting cogitators recalibrated, Lord Admiral. The targeting data from our fighters greatly reduced calibration time."

Thalia nodded gratefully, "Thank you, Severin." She then turned toward the Master Gunner and said, "Well, Master Gunner, what are we waiting for?"

In all her time on this ship, Thalia had almost never seen the man smile, but right now she could have sworn that she did.

"To give our pilots a chance to accrue kills, Lord Admiral."

Through the external vid-relays she could see las-talon and quad heavy lascannons pick Geth fighters out of the void with ease, and between the Raptor Interceptors and the point defense guns, the Geth fighters were reduced to nothing more than floating chunks of debris.

Everyone on the bridge glanced at the tactical display, glad that the momentary threat that the Geth fighters had presented was now dealt with. Even if at their worst it was damage that could be repaired, the lack of shipyard and their severely limited supply of spares meant they couldn't afford to have the ship damaged.

"Helm, put us into geosynchronous orbit with Solcrum. Flight control, recall our interceptors and tell them to prepare for escort operations and patrol. Captain Mojaro, tell the crew to prepare for a planetary invasion, and tell my husband I'll see him off in the deployment bay."

With that, the Lord Admiral moved from her command throne and began walking to the blast doors at the entrance to the bridge, her protective detail moving with her.

Lord Marshall Bertie Lissie

Bertie was no stranger to death, but what had happened here was beyond his understanding. He wouldn't be surprised if indeed some operative of the traitor Warmaster had managed to stow away aboard the flagship, given the carnage, despite how impossible that might've been.

Even so, it would not have explained how what he was looking at was even possible.

This had all started when several of their voidsmen had gone missing. Such a thing was very unusual, because crewmen didn't just go missing, and when they did, their remains were usually not found splattered across an entire spare parts storage area.

"I sent in two teams after whatever's there, they barely even managed to make it…whatever's down there…bleed," said Lieutenant Dardashti, expression tight as he looked over the footage of what had been captured on the vid feeds, before they were destroyed in the wake of the slaughter. "Thing's smart too, took the vid-relays out, but it's too damned fast to be human. Nothing can move that quickly…not even an Astartes, which whatever that thing is sure as hell wasn't big enough to be."

"I suppose then being surprised that whatever it is wiped out the Ogryn is perhaps…a tad silly," said Bertie, before sighing slightly. The Ogryn Charonites had been sent in afterward as an emergency response with the intention of in the very least wounding this thing. Unfortunately, in line with possibility and against all hopes, the Ogryn were dead the moment they entered the quarantined section. The blast doors were keeping the thing down there, but they all knew it was only a matter of time before it found its way into the rest of the ship.

He turned and looked at Thalia, who had been silent this entire time. She was massaging her temples, no doubt trying to get the strain out, so she could think of something.

"Do we not even have a glimpse of what this thing is?" she asked, turning to Severus. The Tech-Priest nodded and stepped back through the vid till it settled on a frame during its engagement with Lieutenant Dardashti's men.

The frame where it was paused was incredibly blurry, seeing as the vid feed could barely keep up with whatever it was they were fighting. In one hand it wielded a massive power sword, that much, unfortunately, was clear, given the sort of distortion that came with capturing a power weapon in vid or pict. What was most horrifying, though, was not the sword. It was the leering skull it had for a face and what appeared to be knife-long claws on its left hand.

"What in the rings of Saturn is that thing?" breathed Lieutenant Dardashti.

Thalia frowned at the image. Honestly, it sent more than one shiver down her spine and took quite a measure of resolve for her to not react outwardly. She craned her head slightly to get a better look at what served as this thing's face. "I don't know, Lieutenant, but I believe we may know someone who does. I'll be on the bridge."

Clade Vindicare Operative Meyek Maksimov

"Dropping out of FTL now, Shepard," said Joker. He added under his breath, but not low enough that the Vindicare some feet behind his pilot's chair couldn't hear him, "Going to be next to impossible to miss a ship like that."

Meyek couldn't help but smile, even through the Normandy's canopy, it was easy to identify the massive flagship of the 21st Expeditionary Fleet. Though, Meyek knew that whatever it was that had prompted Lord Admiral Parrington to recall them back to the ship with such urgency couldn't be very good for any of them at all.

Meyek had enough information crammed into his head during training to know that the Fist of Judgment was maintaining geosynchronous orbit around the moon of Solcrum. Debris from a recent battle was picked up by the Normandy's sensors, chunks of what had presumably once been part of a ship were floating 'near' the ship.

"Looks like they've been busy," said Joker, as he looked at the scanner.

"Geth ships," said Shepard, nodding as she glanced at the ships on the display. "Looks like they were getting ready for an attack against the Alliance." She turned toward the two combat-kitted Assassins. "You two didn't know anything about this, did you?" Her tone lacked hostility, and her question seemed to come out of simple curiosity rather than anything else. It might've been a probe, Meyek considered, to know if they were able to communicate with the Imperium without letting on.

"We barely know about the Geth, let alone have intelligence about their positions, Shepard," he said, nodding at the debris field of Geth ships. "I don't think the Lord Admiral decided to take her ship on a joyride to look for trouble. More likely, I think your commanding officers decided to ask for a little bit of help."

He turned his head slightly to see if Meghann agreed, and she gave a short nod of confirmation. Turning back, he looked at Shepard to see her reaction. Shepard nodded, clearly placing a measure of credence in his theory.

"Hackett probably didn't want to pull you off the hunt for Saren," reasoned Navigator Presley who was attending to one of the stations to Meyek's left and looking quite uncomfortable about having to stand so close to him. "In any case, I suppose we have to thank him for that. Six Geth Cruisers and a Geth Dreadnought are a little above this ship's capabilities."

Meyek hadn't actually seen the Normandy in a combat situation, but he was going to agree with the assessment of one of the ship's higher ranked naval officers.

A thought instantly struck him, and he realized that with all their sense of urgency they hadn't realized that Dr. T'Soni hadn't seen this ship earlier, and Meyek was now concerned about what she would do if she did. "Uh…there's something we forgot to think about," he let out awkwardly. All eyes immediately fell on him. "Did we all forget that Dr. T'Soni hasn't seen this ship before, or that Shepard can't use her super-secret special agent status to make this a 'don't talk about this to anyone' thing?"

"How about we use the 'we saved your life so shut up' thing instead?" offered Meghann, poking fun at him by using his own words. Meyek knew that she was dead serious, however. Meghann turned and looked at the others on the bridge, "It's not an ideal solution, but what choice do we really have in this case? We can't really allow the complications of the 'Council' learning of our existence, not at this time. Your own commanding officers said so."

Shepard nodded, but before she could say anything they were hailed by the Fist of Judgment, Joker's piloting having speedily brought them close enough to the ship to receive landing instructions.

"SSV Normandy, this is Flight Control on the Fist of Judgment, port hangar is ready to receive you. Over," came the voice of one of the bridge crew on the Fist of Judgment.

"Understood, adjusting heading," said Joker, adding almost immediately after, "Is the starboard hangar experiencing rush hour?" Joker at this point, became distinctly aware of the fact that there were several pairs of eyes staring directly at him. He turned his head slightly, toward Shepard who was giving him a quizzical look, her silence saying exactly what she thought about his remark. "What? I'm sure it was the most entertaining comment that he got all day."

Thankfully for Joker, the comms channel was no longer open.

"Just…never mind," sighed Shepard. "Get us on board, and try not to piss off anyone else while you're at it, would you?" She then turned toward the others present and said, "I'm going to talk to Liara about what we discussed."

Meyek watched as Shepard left the bridge, and then turned back to the ship. A pair of Saturnyne-pattern Raptor Interceptors were moving off aft of the ships' bow, keeping pace and formation with them as they made for the hangar.

"SSV Normandy, this is Void Eagle lead, we'll provide escort back to the Fist of Judgment, we ran into Geth fighters earlier, can never be too sure with these damned things," came the voice of the lead Raptor's pilot.

"Roger that, Void Eagle lead, we appreciate it," said Joker, closing the line before adding, "What the hell kinda callsign is 'Void Eagle' anyway?" asked Joker, to no one in particular in any case. Meyek liked Joker, he was a funny guy, and they shared the same kind of sense of humor. Sometimes though, he said the stupidest things.

"I mean, that's something a civilization that's been out in space longer would understand," teased Meyek, getting a frown from Joker. "Oh, come on, it's easy! Eagles are birds of prey, and adding void before that means they're predatory birds of the void…you get it, right? Do I need to fetch Garrus to explain it to you?"

"I get it," argued Joker, "I still say it sounds stupid. Callsigns should sound cool, strike fear into the hearts of the enemy, and inspire your allies."

The silence that his rambling had brought on was palpable, and Joker finally yielded as the cavernous hangar ahead came into view. Saturnyne-pattern Stormbirds could be seen off to their aft, being launched out of the ship through honeycombed launch rails on the side of the ship that had been dedicated to the massive complex that was the port hangar bay.

The rest of the trip was carried out in silence, as the Normandy followed the landing telemetry relayed to it via the ship's automated flight control cogitators and servitors. While orders were relayed by an officer in charge of flight control or the ship's commanding officer themselves, landing and takeoff itself was a complicated process that was handled by a flight control cogitator and servitor that talked the pilot through the process.

The Normandy's bow broke through the atmospheric containment field, and Joker expertly guided the one hundred fifty-five-meter warship like it was just an overly large fighter. Meyek had trained to fly system defense gunboats with a rudimentary level of competency, and he knew how hard it was to accomplish what Joker was seemingly effortlessly pulling off.

As the Normandy glided inside, Shepard returned to the bridge. "Talked to Liara, she's agreed to keep quiet about anything she sees. Surprisingly easy," said Shepard.

"People just tend to agree with you, Shepard," said Meyek, looking over at the woman with a sense of confused respect. He couldn't for the life of him understand just how Shepard did it.

"Wish you were there at the council meeting, Meyek, you wouldn't have thought that then," said Shepard, scoffing at his compliment. She then looked straight at him and then added, "But thanks."

"I tend to shoot people I don't agree with, so probably not, Shepard," said Meyek, shrugging. "Anytime though, feeling down and need a cheesy compliment, I'm your Vindicare."

"Touching down, Shepard," interrupted Joker, thankfully before the conversation could take a turn toward the truly awkward. "Good luck down there, y'know, whatever it is they want you to do. Hopefully it's not window cleaning, this tub probably has a lot of those."

"Viewports," corrected Meghann, giving Joker an apprehensive look, clearly confused as to why a navy helmsman like him would call a viewport a window.

A smile appeared on both Shepard and Meyek's faces, and Meyek's enhanced hearing picked up a barely uttered, 'Whatever' from Joker. Meghann almost certainly heard it, too, but said nothing.

"Come on, let's get this over with," said Shepard as she walked off of the bridge. Meyek flicked his mask back down and he followed behind Shepard, as did Meghann after she slipped her mask back on. As they walked into the cargo bay, he could see Ray checking and re-checking his bolt pistol, looking concerned as ever.

"What's the matter Ray, did one of your rats get loose?" Meyek asked, looking at the Vanus with some degree of concern. He hadn't seen Ray this concerned…well, ever. He hadn't known Ray very long, but as long as he had, Ray had always been a paragon of calm and collected, even cold calculative behavior. None of them were 'emotional' in that manner, even if he came across that way to many people. Ray was even more deliberate in every action than either of them.

"Not in the mood," he said at last, holstering the bolt pistol and pulling the brown cloak that he always wore over the weapon. He let out a sigh, "Just…I'm not big on dealing with whatever we've been called back for, especially if it can't be said over even a secured line."

Meyek nodded, the possibility that they were being called back to deal with one of the Warmaster's agents was quite high.

Shepard looked concerned now, but she said nothing, instead nodding as well before she turned toward the slowly lowering ramp. The three assassins followed behind her, down to where the Lord Marshall and Lord Admiral, and both of their respective protective details, were waiting for them. Given the stance of each of the Veletaris present, Meyek had a strong feeling that the reason for their vigilance was the same as his reason for being there.

"Thank you for coming on such short notice," said Lord Admiral Parrington, smiling politely if unnecessarily. "As I mentioned to Operative Arold, the matter was too sensitive to speak of over even an encrypted communications channel." She took a breath before she spoke again, "Unfortunately, time is of the essence and I'm going to be quick. A team of voidsmen went missing near a maintenance store close to the drop pod deployment deck. We sent in Ogryn Charonite units and two units of armsmen, and none of them have returned." She held out a dataslate, "The footage captured before the vid-relays were disabled. I suggest you all take a look at it."

Ray was the first to step forward, a look of concern and suspicion forming across his features as he took the dataslate from Lord Admiral Parrington. Ray frowned at the footage at first, but then his eyes widened and his grip on the dataslate weakened, almost to the point of dropping it.

"How the hell did one of them get aboard…" breathed Ray, and even though Meyek wasn't quite sure what it was he was talking about, he had a feeling Ray already knew the answer to the that question. He immediately returned his gaze to both the Lord Admiral and Lord Marshall, "Please tell me you sealed that section off."

"I think we both know that whatever's down there isn't going to be stopped by a few bulkheads for long," said Bertie, "Which begs the next question—what exactly is that monstrosity, Operative Arold?"

Ray ignored him and turned back to Meyek, "Get Shepard back on the ship, now!" Meyek was suddenly filled with concern as well, what was it that Ray had seen that prompted that sort of a reaction? One of the Warmaster's infiltrators, perhaps? A traitor Astartes squad?

"I'm not going anywhere until you tell me what's going on," said Shepard, putting her hand out in front of him, and stopping him from taking another step. He could quite easily incapacitate Shepard and take her back aboard the ship, but he wasn't going to if he didn't have to.

Ray turned the dataslate so that he, Meghann and Shepard could see it. "See for yourselves," he said, and played the footage. Each Clade was familiar with the wargear that the other Clades used, that's how he'd recognized Meghann as a Callidus when he saw her, and so when he saw the footage Meyek's heart almost stopped. Each Clade had its specializations, and the wargear of the blur on the screen clearly belonged to one Clade; Clade Eversor.

"For what fugging reason didn't you tell us about a fugging time bomb on the ship, Ray?" accused Meyek, pointing at the Eversor on the display. That Eversor wasn't always free, they were almost always in cryopods waiting to be thawed or directly deployed in via drop pod. That thing somehow got free and was now wreaking havoc in that section. If they didn't stop it, it wouldn't stop until someone put it down or it killed everyone on the ship.

"Because I didn't know," hissed Ray, handing the dataslate back to the Lord Admiral. "That thing's going to kill everyone on this ship if we don't do something about it, so I suggest you start thinking about how we're going to achieve the impossible, Maksimov."

"What is it, Operative Arold?" persisted Thalia, refusing to yield on that line of questioning.

Five pairs of eyes were on him now, Ray could feel them all boring into his skull, or Meyek certainly would be able to if he was Ray. Ray let out a sigh, "What's down there, is one of us…" he said, gesturing to himself, Meyek and Meghann. "Clade Eversor. Experts at wrecking everything between them and their objective, and then achieving whatever that objective might be. I'd prefer not to kill him, but he's not going to give us that option, and when that happens, he's going to detonate."

"Like a failsafe?" asked Shepard, clearly still trying to process what Ray had said. "In case something like this happens?"

"No, Shepard... Eversors are loaded with highly volatile battle stimulants, the regulators of which are designed to deliberately shut down when the Eversor dies. It's meant to take as many of their attackers with them as possible," explained Ray. "Eversor operatives are kept in cryo between missions and are programmed with their objective when they're under. The one down there is probably trying to kill his way through the drop pod bay, and then the bridge once he finds out he isn't where he's supposed to be."

"And you're certain there's no way to stop this Eversor without killing him?" asked Lord Admiral Parrington. "I'd rather not have an explosion on my ship and losing an asset like that would be quite the waste."

Ray thought for a second, and he looked like he was about to protest when he stopped. Tapping at his gauntlet, he brought up the schematics of the ship and focused on the section where the Eversor was presumed to be isolated to. Given that there was neither a drop pod launch nor any frantic calls for support over the vox, it was a safe bet that it remained to be the case. "Maybe, but I'm not even sure it's going to work," said Ray as he brought up one of the storage rooms. "This one's relatively empty. If we can get him in there I can increase the room's local gravity high enough that he can't move. Once the drugs are flushed from his system, he should be 'sane' enough for us to talk down."

"Why am I sensing a big 'but', though?" Meyek asked, a strong feeling that there was more to this plan than Ray was letting on lurking in the back of his head.

"Because, we're going to need bait, and one of us is just not going to be enough. I'm going to need the both of you," said Ray, looking over at Meyek and Meghann.

"I was afraid you were going to say that," said Meyek, not feeling particularly enthused about the idea of facing an Eversor in close quarters. Particularly the close quarters of a void ship.

"What about us?" asked Shepard. "You guys are going to need some serious backup down there." There was a pause as the three assassins turned to face her, "If all that's true, then you guys will need all the help to make sure that this doesn't blow up in our faces, literally."

That made Meyek smile. Gallows humor was a skill, and Shepard certainly proved that she had it with that. "No aliens," conceded Ray. "He sees any, and we're going to have a hard time talking to him. Don't even think about trying to pass off Liara or Tali in a sealed suit as either."

"No aliens," repeated Shepard, nodding. "Got it. What about Kaidan and Ashley? You think he'll have a problem with the biotics?"

"No more than with the warp borne powers of a psyker," said Ray, shrugging. "Bring them, you're right, the biotics could certainly help, so will another gun."

"You know that old Terran saying?" Meyek joked. "The more the merrier, am I right?"

Twenty minutes later

"So, what are we supposed to do if that thing gets up close and personal? I never thought I'd catch myself saying this, but that sword and those claws look like they can do some serious damage," said Gunnery Chief Williams as they approached the sealed bulkhead that led into the section where the Eversor had been closed in for now.

"Make sure he doesn't," Ray said over their shared frequency. Meyek glanced over at Williams and Alenko, and he couldn't blame them. Eversors were frightening and devastatingly fast, with the combat drugs, such that they were too fast for even an Astartes to track—not that he needed to say or explain that to Williams and Alenko. Meyek had seen it himself, and the memory of the encounter on his previous assignment was uncomfortably fresh.

"Comforting," said Alenko, looking at the blast door warily as Meyek typed the code in, almost as if he wondered if they were really enough to hold the Eversor in.

"Relax, Staff Lieutenant," said Meghann, the ghostly green phase sword sliding out of its housing. "If he gets close enough, just leave him to me." If anyone had a hope of holding their own in close quarter combat with an Eversor, it was a Clade Callidus operative. She could match his brute strength with a dexterity and grace that other Clade operatives only wished they had. The joke between the other clades was that they were the 'Eldar' of the clades, but Meyek had seen Eldar, and they had nothing on Clade Callidus.

Alenko nodded, and it was about then that Meyek finished keying in the pass code to override the lockdown on this sector.

"Override code accepted," intoned the ghostly disembodied voice from the console as the blast doors began to recede into their housing.

The first thing that Meyek noticed was just how dark it was, even with the emergency lighting on. The Eversor was smart, and even though he couldn't prevent the emergency lighting from kicking in, he had turned out the other lighting in the sector, which didn't exactly make tracking him any easier.

Of course, he probably didn't think he'd have three operatives from the Officio Assassinorum hunting him.

Meyek and Meghann could see fine, the low-light enhancing technology in his spy mask and in her mask let them see as though the ship's regular lighting was active. "Everyone in, quick," he said as he stepped inside, waiting for them. He surmised that their helmets didn't quite have the low light vision for them to be comfortable enough to do so, and so he added, "Lumina—sorry, flashlights, are fine. He can see us all just fine either way."

Shepard, Williams and Alenko stepped in after turning on their luminators, bathing the corridor in warm off-white light as well. Meyek smacked the door controls with one hand once everyone was in, the other hand still holding onto his Exitus Pistol, the rifle slung across his back. In the close quarters of the corridors of this ship, fighting a foe as agile as an Eversor, he'd happily use his pistol instead.

The magazine in the weapon was loaded with bio-electric stun rounds, not that he thought that they'd have even the slightest effect on the Eversor, but they'd certainly get his attention. Just in case, he had another loaded with shredder rounds ready to go and within reach. The five of them continued to carefully advance through the corridor, and that was when the stench hit them, or rather it hit the three Alliance soldiers.

Ahead of them, were the corpses of the Ogryn Charonites. Chemical infused blood coated the walls, the red hue of the light giving them an almost alien appearance. One of the heads of the Charonites was detached from his body, dead eyes looking through a shattered helmet in their direction. "I think I'm going to be sick," said Williams, retching.

Meyek saw the entrails of one sprayed across one of the walls. Attempting comfort, he said, "Just keep looking forward, Williams." He glanced over at Meghann, who didn't seem particularly pleased about the discovery, either.

"Don't have to tell me twice," replied Williams, shouldering her rifle and staring down the corridor, almost as if she looked hard enough the Eversor was just going to appear at the end of the corridor.

"Come on, that room we're looking for should be just up ahead," said Shepard, focusing her crew's attention away from the massacre that had occurred here.

"What about the uh, 'Eversor'? Don't we need to lure it in there?" asked Alenko, checking the area for any more unpleasant surprises.

"Something tells me that it's going to come to us," said Shepard as she stepped over the severed arm of one of the Charonites, the massive power claw still mostly attached to the hand. Meyek agreed with her on that, it sure as hell wasn't going to take much looking, but the Eversor wasn't going to walk into an obvious trap. They were going to have to give it a target that was too easy to refuse, and none of the Alliance members could do that without dying very messily.

Tentatively, the group advanced past the carnage and death that was the Eversor's encounter with the Ogryn Charonites, advancing up to the T-Junction on their map. At the center of which was a sparking quad heavy bolter turret, the servo controller ripped right out of it. The four vid-relays that'd normally provide a perfect view of each corridor were all blown right off their mountings, the telltale shrapnel pattern of a bolt round quite evident.

"Mass reactive semi-armor piercing," said Meyek, looking at the mark left in the ceiling by the bolt round after it detonated inside each vid-relay, then glancing at the pattern on the wall the shrapnel made. "Standard .70 caliber rounds," he added once his Spy Mask had confirmed his own conclusion.

"You know, if this whole assassin thing doesn't work out, you sure could make it as a detective," said Williams. Meyek chuckled uneasily, not because of William's joke, but because his highly attuned auspex suite picked up a faint return.

"You see it too, then?" asked Meghann, hers not being nearly as advanced as his own, but whatever their units picked up, was close enough. Another return was picked up, and now it indicated that the return was coming from behind them.

"It's coming from behind us," breathed Meyek as he swung around, shouldering his rifle and desperately searching for a target that he knew he'd never find until it was too late.

Shepard, Williams and Alenko followed his lead, their rifles snapping up and in the same direction.

"Behind us?" asked Alenko, the sheer confusion at how that had happened coming through in his voice quite clearly. "But how?"

Another auspex return, this time stronger, and coming from the same direction. Without even turning to look at the three Alliance personnel, not daring to, Meyek told them to do what he was sure they were thinking, "Run." The three of them hadn't fled yet, and so he turned his head as much as he dared and added, "now!"

Just as the three Alliance personnel decided that they weren't going to argue with him, a blood curdling cry came from the relative darkness ahead. Still nothing, and Meyek cursed everything under his breath. The sound of the withdrawing Alliance personnel was the only sound, and the only indication that there was something there was the blur of motion and the barely perceptible whoosh and hum of the Eversor's neurogauntlet and power sword.

Meyek tossed himself backward, having no option to do so with much grace at all. Landing on his back, he kicked himself to his feet, slinging his rifle and drawing his pistol in one fluid motion. His spy mask still had the Eversor marked as friendly, and cursing, Meyek then began muttering the rites of override. A moment later and the outline around the Eversor changed from green to red. His delay however cost him greatly and given the proximity of Meghann and the Eversor he didn't want to risk hitting her by using manual targeting alone.

They were moving at speeds that most could barely track, however for as dexterous and agile Meghann was, the Eversor was just persistent and vicious. He matched her acrobatic and deft dodges with brutal follow up strikes. Taking a breath, Meyek took aim and fired a single bio-electric stun round into the top of the Eversor's shoulder, where his suit's armor was the thinnest. A burst of red and the hiss of acid eating through metal accompanied the sound of the round impacting into the Eversor's back.

The Eversor took an angry stab at Meghann with his Neurogauntlet, the Clade Callidus operative barely dodged it, and the Eversor's weapon instead impacted the wall, slicing through the hull plating in a shower of sparks before becoming embedded in it. The Eversor snarled as he tried to pull it free, the delay brought them some time, and Meyek put another bio-electric stun round into the Eversor.

The stun rounds could generate a charge strong enough to put an Ogryn down, but the Eversor merely snarled at him in response, even with both rounds jolting him with more energy than he should have been able to take. Their capacitors would fry before they could generate enough collective charge to put him down at this rate. Meyek put another shot into the Eversor, who still had his back turned to him.

Meghann took this opportunity to deliver a powerful roundhouse kick to the Eversor's midsection. This staggered the Eversor, if only for a moment. She then attempted to use her Phase Sword to slice the still embedded Neurogauntlet when what looked like a Volkite Charger popped up from the Eversor's pack. She was barely able to throw herself out of the way when a Volkite beam cut through where she'd been standing a moment ago.

The beam glanced her side, and Meyek cursed everything. They'd barely made a dent against this bastard and he was already breaking out the integrated weapon systems? Meyek emptied the rest of the magazine into the Eversor, hoping that it would do something, because it was slowly getting more and more impossible to try and keep this maniac alive.

Meghann staggered back against the wall for the briefest fraction of a second, probably from the shear pain of being glanced by a Volkite weapon. The Exitus pistol clicked empty, a red warning glyph flashing in his HUD advising him to both switch to a different ammunition type and another informing him that the weapon was now empty. The Eversor, saw the opportunity and swung his power sword to bisect the Callidus operative.

The weapon barely glanced Meghann when it should have gutted her, the Eversor dropping the sword. His roar drowned Meghann's cry of pain out, and the cause of it was revealed to be Meyek, who'd embedded one of his power daggers in the Eversor's arm.

The other dagger in his hand, Meyek charged forward and threw himself at the Eversor, leaping onto his back. The Eversor was just barely caught off guard, but in the time it took Meyek to sever the power cables to the Volkite Charger on his back, the Eversor was able to reach up and grab the offending Vindicare by the arm.

He threw Meyek into the wall, hard. Everything hurt, and it took Meyek a moment to realize that it wasn't his spy mask that was malfunctioning, it was his own vision that was blurring. He could see Meghann stagger away from the wall, putting pressure on her wound. The Eversor struggled to free himself. Meyek watched the Eversor, he seemed focused enough that Meyek was sure that he could withdraw. No way he could reload his pistol without the Eversor noticing and eviscerating him. He'd dropped his knife when he'd hit the wall, and the other knife was still embedded in the Eversor's arm, corrosive blood still dripping down onto the deck from the wound, the knife's power field the only thing keeping it safe.

Meyek took a breath and tensed his muscles to make a break for it. Meyek was barely a whisker off the ground when he reflexively howled in pain, a sharp pain in his side. Looking down, he saw the Eversor's boot pressed up against him, three matte black claw like blades embedded in him. For a moment, he thought that they were pinning him against the wall, when he realized, horribly, as he tried to push the other assassin's leg away, that it was the Eversor's crushing brute strength doing that.

The Eversor didn't say anything, but instead glared at him with that leering skull helmet. Then he twisted his foot, and Meyek let out another agonized cry. "We're trying to keep you alive, you, dumb bastard," rasped Meyek, looking up at the Eversor with a mix of frustration and pain in his voice. The Eversor didn't respond, and Meyek thought he saw a hint confusion in the Eversor's movements.

Blood flowing from the three wounds in his side, Meyek had a strong feeling that this was where he was going to die. He leaned back, knowing that no matter what he did this Eversor was going to kill him. "Just fugging get it over with," he rasped, looking away and letting his arms go slack. He'd already stared death in the face, and he had no intention to do so any longer.

The sound of weapons fire filled the corridors, particularly mass effect weapons. Two assault rifles chattered before they were drowned out by a louder sounding boom from what could only be Shepard's sniper rifle. He felt the three blades withdraw as the Eversor was knocked backward from the kinetic impact of the rounds. Where they'd managed to score wounds, corrosive blood oozed out, hitting the deck with a hiss.

It was barely a perceptible fraction of a second later that the Eversor was already up and charging at the offenders who thankfully ran for their lives, though Meyek was almost sure that wouldn't be enough. Knowing there just simply wasn't enough time to patch himself up, he jabbed a stim injector into his thigh before drawing his pistol and loading a magazine with kinetic impact rounds into the weapon with instinctual familiarity.

Meghann was already up and moving after the runaway time bomb, and Meyek stumbled after her. As they rounded the corner, they were greeted by the sight of Alenko struggling to hold it in a stasis field. Along the way, the Eversor had clearly picked up his power sword, if not for Alenko, the others would surely have been eviscerated by now.

Meyek fired a single shot, it hit the Eversor like a ton of bricks, forcing him back. The recoil of the round fired from his pistol was far stronger than when fired from a larger weapon like his rifle, and it bucked in his hands. The Eversor, staggered, but not out of the fight by any means, turned and charged. Meyek's second round staggered him again, and this time, Meghann sliced his power sword off at the hilt, disarming him of that weapon.

The kinetic impact round was designed to punch through engine block of a hover truck or reduce an unarmored man to nothing but meat, the Eversor however, was still coming. Deprived of his power weapon, he began reaching for his pistol. Meyek should have aimed for center mass, and the shot probably would have put him down long enough for them to toss him in the room.

Acidic, combat drug laced blood flowed freely from the Eversor's wound where the first round had hit, enough that he should be on the floor from blood loss before long. Problem was, the Eversor didn't need long to kill them. Whether it was panic, or because he was already injured himself and losing blood fast, the round didn't hit the pistol like he was intending. Instead it barely clipped the pistol, luckily enough for them all, the energy transfer from the collision was enough to knock the weapon right out of the Eversor's hands.

Meyek didn't even have enough time to get another shot off, and it wasn't that the Eversor was faster than he was, it was that the Eversor was just as fast as he was. The only hope that he had was to put more distance between the two of them. The Eversor's hand closed around his throat and lifted him up, and barely a second went by as it became distinctly difficult to breathe. "Vindicare," snarled the Eversor, Meyek assumed that realization had hit him at last, though the death grip around his throat didn't loosen.

"Took. You. Fugging. Long. Enough," coughed out Meyek, enunciating each word taking great effort and using precious oxygen. Meyek was between the Eversor and Shepard and her unit, they couldn't fire if they wanted to, or they could, and he'd become a lovely bullet sponge for the Eversor before he killed them. Thankfully, they didn't.

For the second time in less than a minute, Meyek was sure that he was going to die. That was until a ghostly green blade slid through the Eversor's torso. The Eversor snarled with the pain, and his death grip on Meyek's neck loosened enough for him to be able to breathe again. The Eversor spun to face Meghann, which took his attention off Meyek just enough for him to bring his pistol up again.

At this range, the Eversor was knocked back several feet from the force, and the impact of the round forced him to drop Meyek. Heaving breath into his oxygen starved lungs, Meyek's vision was far too blurry to see the Eversor clearly, but he could see that the Eversor was standing in front of the open door to the room that they were trying to trap him in. He heard Meghann's voice over the vox, "Kaidan, now!"

A blur of biotic energy flew over him and slammed into the Eversor, sending him flying into the room behind him. "Ray," he rasped, unable to say much more as he continued to struggle to breathe, hoping that the Vanus took that as a cue to execute his part of the plan.

Thankfully, he did.

The doors shut and sealed with a hiss of hydraulics, and he could only assume that Ray had increased the local gravity in the room. "Sealed and going to be sleeping off the drugs pretty soon. Damn, you guys got your asses kicked." Meyek tried to summon the energy to tell him what he thought of that, but he simply couldn't. As he leaned back against the wall, he heard Ray add, "Lockdown's been lifted, medics are on their way."

Meghann slumped down beside him, and he could hear Shepard and squad's boots on the deck. He was still bleeding from the stab wounds in his side, and it'd certainly sliced through more than a few internal organs than was great for him, but at least the really important ones were still intact.

Meghann was hardly better off. The Volkite weapon had charred flesh where it had glanced Meghann, the suit where it had impacted was flash vaporized, showing the burned skin underneath. The power sword had done another number, there was a diagonal slash that would have her guts spilling out if it was any deeper.

Whatever dark age tech they'd been stuffed with was keeping them alive. Something in their blood as far as he understood, it was stitching them back together as they sat here. It had kept their systems flooded with hormones, so they could stay fighting when they should have collapsed long ago. With shaking hands, he flipped up his Vindicare Spy Mask.

Turning, he could see Meghann had her mask off too, and taking a few more breaths to stabilize his breathing as much as was possible and steady his words, he said, "Can we…never do that again?" She barely managed a short laugh in response. He coughed, then added, "Fugging seriously…try and take…an Eversor alive. What kind of dumb fuggers are we?"

"The dumbest," said Shepard as she walked over, removing her helmet and looking down at the two of them. "How are the two of you even alive? Much less conscious?" The sheer bewilderment was evident in Shepard's voice, and Meyek couldn't blame her. He'd almost died twice in the same five—no, less-than-five-minute span, and almost definitely looked it.

"That sounds accurate," agreed Meghann, looking down at her hand, and seeing it covered in fresh blood nodded to herself. "It's…a long story," she breathed, not able to give much more energy to her words.

"Fuck that," said Williams as she bent down and moved Meghann's hand off, before applying some sort of strange gel from her gauntlet. Meyek was curious enough to glance over, and immediately the bleeding began to slow. She looked up from what she was doing and asked what she was intending to before she decided to tend to their wounds, "How the fuck is he alive? I mean, you put what, three rounds into him?"

"And then some. Ten stun rounds, three kinetic impact rounds," corrected Meyek, watching as Shepard mirrored what Williams did for his own wounds. "I mean, at least he isn't dead."

"Are we sure he isn't dead?" asked Alenko, looking at the door with what was clearly poorly hidden worry.

"We're not blown up yet," Meyek managed, a bit more annoyed than he'd intended. Alenko would probably forgive the tone, a less pain-fuzzy part of his brain decided.

The clanging of mag boots against the deck heralded the arrival of the medical team, along with the whirring of tracked servitors. Meyek closed his eyes, he could get a couple hours of rest before they had to deal with the problem. After all, they were not going to be able to keep that particular problem locked away forever. He just hoped it wasn't going to be as painful as this go around.

Several Hours Later

Intensive surgery was something that Meyek had only experienced a few times in his life. Yes, whatever dark age tech that was in his blood would eventually stitch him back together, but there was no point in not helping it along. Truth was, that he hadn't been this badly hurt in a while, and he hadn't lost this much blood in a while. It was certainly a humbling experience, and one that he'd likely never forget. Where he'd normally be overflowing with quips and wise remarks, he was completely silent, and that wasn't only because he barely had the energy to speak. He had a lot to think about.

Part of what was bothering him was why he'd leapt onto the Eversor's back. Yes, he'd done plenty of stupid things in his life before, but this was a little much even for him. In the time he'd taken to do that, he could have easily switched mags and destroyed the power line of the Volkite Charger on the Eversor's back. Maybe not before he got a follow-up shot on Meghann, but certainly before the Eversor turned in his direction. She'd certainly been returning the favor later, right? Right? He let out a sigh as his mind swam with those thoughts. It had been bothering him ever since he'd got out of surgery.

Transferred from the automated surgical table to rest, dressed in a Medicae gown, he waited undisturbed on the bed until the Magos Biologis who had conducted the surgery opened the curtain and stepped in. She wasn't a Saturnyne Tech Adept, her red robes identifying her as a Martian native, and clearly part of the Ordo Reductor detachment attached to this force. Apparently, having heard that the two of them were injured, she had insisted she be the one to treat them.

"Operative Maksimov," she started, her voice free of the distortions of most Mechanicus personnel, due to her eschewing the use of the full-face covering helmets or various augments used by her fellows. "It would appear that you have a visitor. I've instructed him to not rile you up," she added, looking at someone behind her.

Meyek already had a feeling that he knew who this was, and his suspicions were confirmed when Ray stepped past her. "I'll do my best, Magos," said Ray as he looked from her to Meyek. "Do you feel as shit as you look?"

"What are you talking about, Ray? I'm great, never been better," he replied as he tried to move his hands to lock them behind his head, when a searing pain down his side stopped him. "Ahh, okay, maybe not that okay." Frustrated with his current state of affairs, some of that frustration transferred into the look that he gave Ray, "What do you want?"

Ray looked him over, then pulled one of the nearby chairs over and sat himself down on it. The room was largely bare save for a few chairs for visitors, and a pair of side tables, one for the patient and the other's surface a data-slate with a readout of the patient's vitals. So Meyek didn't really have anywhere else to direct his attention to but the Vanus operative sitting beside him. "I found some interesting information about our new friend, the Eversor."

"My favorite person in the universe. Just who I wanted to talk about, oh boy," sighed Meyek, looking less than happy about the conversation topic, and for good reason too.

"It'll explain what happened, so just try and pay attention," snapped Ray, pausing for a moment, probably to collect his thoughts. "Our Eversor isn't your average everyday explosive death monster. He's part of an attempt by Clade Eversor to increase the long-term viability of their operatives."

Meyek nodded, he'd heard something about the Eversors needing to be stored in cryo because of how their combat drugs eat away at their organs, killing them slowly. It was no wonder they were such angry people, really.

Presumably because he hadn't interrupted Ray yet, Ray continued, "According to what information I downloaded before we…you know…his batch of Eversors received additional glands that counteracted the effect of their combat drugs. The only problem is that they don't take to the effects of hypnoconditioning quite so well, and there's a high margin of error, wherein the Eversor, if released without any instructions whatsoever, tries to murder literally everything in sight."

Meyek wasn't known for his restraint, and so he let Ray know exactly what he felt on this matter, "No fugging shit it's a high margin of error! Murder everything in sight? You. Don't. Fugging. Say, Ray. You. Don't. Say." Meyek was breathing heavily at this point, and Ray was still reeling from his outburst. "We nearly fugging died in there, and that's what you find?"

Ray had an admonished look on his face, "I-I thought you'd be happy to know that we don't have to worry about him dying of eventual organ failure a couple years down the line, and then exploding."

"Yeah, well, I'm not," spat Meyek, taking a breath to steady his thoughts. "I'm kinda still processing nearly dying twice trying to put that guy down so we could have a conversation with him. I mean, what if we can't reason with him, who's going to have to go right back in there and deal with him, you?"

If Ray was insulted, he didn't show it, in fact, he said nothing for a solid minute. "You done?" he asked, an impassive expression on his face. Meyek reluctantly nodded. "Good, because I wasn't," said Ray, irritation edging through. "I was going to tell you that I scanned his ident chip. His name's Skall Modrak, ranked at Epsilon-Dan, just like the three of us. They call him, 'The Binary Murderer', because of the events on his home world of Meraxis Binary that got him recruited in the first place."

Meyek had calmed down enough at this point that he was admittedly interested just how someone had earned such a moniker from a group of people that were famed for their ability to kill vast numbers of people. "I knew that'd catch your interest," said Ray, a smirk flickering across his features. "Modrak was born to a forge worker and his wife. There was an incident, local gangers came to intimidate his father for money, he didn't have any to give. Mechanicus aren't known for paying their workers well, even if they do keep them well fed and healthy. They decided they were going to make an example of him." Ray frowned and then quickly added, "I'll skip the gory details—no pun intended—of what happened with his family, but I will tell you that for a kid barely fourteen to kill twelve armed gangers with nothing more than a kitchen knife. It was impressive enough."

Ray continued with the story, Meyek listening silently and intently, "Now, I know you think this is where he got picked up and put into the system, right? Well, wrong. Those hab blocks are huge, and so these gangers are usually smart enough to hide when the Skitarii-Provosts come looking for who caused the trouble. Most of the time they get caught, but there's enough gangers that it usually doesn't matter. This guy—kid—decides he's going to go on a killing spree. He's got their guns now, and when you live in these sorts of places you get good at looking after yourself. Records of what happened are sparse, all that's stated is that Skitarii-Provosts found him drenched in blood still clicking the trigger of an empty stub-automatic."

There's another long pause as Ray waited for Meyek to process the information. The way Ray spoke about a hab block like this led Meyek to believe that Ray was born in one. Meyek himself was born in the radioactive waste of Ursh, he'd known nothing of how that sort of life was beyond the instruction he'd received during his training.

"Since then, he's been a very busy bee," explained Ray. "The military academy on the human-xenos allied world of Selob II, the xenos fighter hive on Xeraxian Prime, the leadership of that attempted rebellion in the Merican Hives on Terra itself. The list goes on."

"Well shit…" was all Meyek could manage.

This Eversor was more than impressive. It was no bloody wonder they were struggling against him. Killing an Eversor was one thing, incapacitating one was near impossible enough. An Eversor with this sort of record? Now it was Meyek's turn to wonder how it was that they were alive.

"Have you told Meghann this, yet?" he asked, wondering what his fellow assassin had to say on the matter.

"She's still out, that glancing Volkite shot really did a number, flash incinerated some internals. She's going to be just fine, I'm told," said Ray. He patted Meyek's side, thankfully not where he'd been injured and added, "Luckily for you, yours were just lacerated."

"'Just lacerated', that's not something I ever thought I'd hear," said a familiar voice, a voice belonging to none other than Commander Riley Shepard. Shepard was still in her armor, and she looked over Meyek with poorly hidden concern.

"Hopefully for us all you won't have to again," said Meyek, a lot softer than he normally spoke. "So, what's the news, Shepard? Didn't come in here to see how we were doing, did you?"

Shepard looked impressed, or in the very least caught off guard. "Not much slips past you, does it Meyek?"

Meyek shrugged, "Wouldn't be a Vindicare if I wasn't really, really good at watching people, would I, Shepard?"

Shepard tilted her head as if to say she understood. "I talked to…the Eversor," said Shepard. "We reached an agreement, him and I." Shepard probably saw the look on his face, because she quickly stopped herself and said, "Don't worry, the Lord Admiral, Lord Marshall and the… Arch…Magos, were there."

Meyek was relieved, if only a little. "You didn't bring him here, did you?" Meyek glanced at Ray, hoping it would stimulate remembrance of the Eversor's name. "Skall, right? He's not waiting around the corner or something."

"Unless he's done getting himself and his gear fixed and then moved on board, then I'd say no, he isn't," said Shepard. She could probably tell that he wasn't exactly happy about the arrangement, he wasn't trying to hide what he was thinking. "It's better he's helping us that sitting around here going crazy. Well…crazier."

"We're going to have to agree to disagree on that, Shepard, but it's your ship and your call," said Meyek, letting out a sigh. "Are we getting back to things once we're done here?"

"You two aren't," said Shepard, firmly, but politely. "I'm sorry Meyek, but it's the doc's orders. Chakwas and the docs here. Enhanced healing or not, you're not to be in the field unless absolutely necessary."

"Shepard, with most of the things you guys fight, it's absolutely necessary to have someone like me around most of the time," protested Meyek, perfectly serious. He quickly added, "No offence of course."

"You'll get no argument from me, you guys are really making the job a lot easier," said Shepard, and she was being perfectly serious as well, at least as far as Meyek was concerned. "That's why I'm taking Skall with me on this one."

Meyek sighed again and turning to his right to see if Ray was enjoying this moment, he was slightly taken aback by what he presumed was a look of sympathy. "Can I at least know what the mission is that I'm missing?"

Shepard nodded, "I was talking to Garrus about what we were doing here, he mentioned a Salarian 'doctor' who was doing all sorts of vile experiments. He got away. Garrus thinks he's found him again. So, we'll be dealing with that before we head off to the Citadel."

"Garrus knows the most charming people," said Meyek, taking a quick moment to process what Shepard had said. "Maybe it's a good thing we're staying behind, not exactly in the mood to deal with something like that after this."

A smile flickered across Shepard's features, "Looks like that's worked out then." She turned to Ray, "You'll bring them aboard in an hour, right?" Ray nodded. "Good, I'll see you three aboard then."

Commander Riley Shepard

Ray had been right. Skall, as Shepard had recently discovered the Eversor was called, was actually fully capable of being a sensible, functioning person after his system was cleared of the combat drugs which turned him into a murder-machine easily capable of mass slaughter. Of course, Shepard also considered that the presence of the Lord Marshall, Lord General and the Archmagos had probably helped his receptiveness.

The Fist of Judgement's hangar was the only area of the Imperium's gargantuan flagship that Shepard was in the slightest bit familiar with. It was similar enough to an Alliance hangar, even if the scale and the interiors were still very different. There were still fighters returning from patrol to waiting maintenance crews, pilots gathering to discuss their flights and presumably coordinate their use of downtime.

The crew was as different as the ship they served aboard, too. Shepard had thought she'd seen mean weapons, mean armor, mean sailors and soldiers, but these people brought that to a whole new level. Then there were the servitors. They were creepy enough. Most of them were in sealed armor, but those that weren't had a dead expression on their face, and what genuinely horrified her was the fact that they were identifiably human, or humanoid, in most cases.

The names were another thing, some of them were normal enough, but then the others sounded like someone deliberately went around and changed the pronunciations and spellings just enough to make it different. It wasn't isolated to weapons, or armor, but people and locations too. A few examples crossed her mind; the engine room became the enginarium and the medbay was the medicae.

She hadn't talked to Meyek, Meghann or even Ray about them. They had enough on their minds adjusting to the galaxy she called home, and its intricacies. Maybe she should, since she didn't really know who else to ask or even where to begin with questions. Of course, she couldn't really ask the Lord Admiral or Lord Marshall, and she was even more hesitant to ask Skall.

"It's a good view of the main launch deck," said a voice from behind her, a voice she recognized as Lord Admiral Parrington's. Shepard was caught up in her own thoughts enough that she didn't quite notice the Lord Admiral approach. "I recognize that look," she said, a smile now flickering across her own features. "First time on a ship of this pattern and I couldn't quite get used to the scale either."

"It's certainly something," admitted Shepard. "I grew up on Alliance warships and stations, so this is actually kind of oddly…familiar."

"And at the same time very different," said the Lord Admiral, getting a nod of agreement from Shepard. The Lord Admiral was standing perfectly straight with the grace of a woman who had spent decades observing protocol. Apparently, she was over a century old, even though she didn't look it. Shepard didn't really understand how, even though Ray had explained the concept of 'rejuvenat treatments'. Shepard just hoped she looked that good at her age. "Not just the ship, though, is it, Commander? There's a lot we do here that's different from how you do things," she added, presumably having seen the look on Shepard's face.

"It's…all a very different," admitted Shepard, with a sigh. "All this – on top of the whole thing with the, um, Eversor. Just more reminders of how different we are, even though…"

"Alright, Commander, let me propose something. You can ask me a question which I will do my best to answer accurately and honestly, but in return for every answer I give that satisfies you, you must let me ask one of you. This is not in any official capacity at all, of course, just two officers speaking candidly," said the Lord Admiral, relaxing her posture and leaning against the wall now, her hands folded in her lap.

Shepard gave it a thought. The Lord Admiral had been nothing but honest with them at every occasion, brutally so during their first meeting. She appreciated that honesty. Even though they were both human, the Admiral had sent three of what seemed like her best intelligence gathering assets on what was an alien ship with a commander she was barely familiar with. Shepard knew she was desperate for any help, and the help being offered by the Imperium was just far too good to refuse, even if it made no sense to her. Clearly, the both of them were desperate. Now that they had a little room to breathe, or really because the incident with the Eversor had forced them to come up for air, they could both afford to familiarize themselves with the situation and each other. Lord Admiral Parrington had clearly made the first move.

Shepard smiled, "Alright then, Lord Admiral, that sounds fair." She paused for a moment in thought, and then asked, "I'm going to be honest; those servitor things creep me out, are those…you know, human?"

"The servitors you see on this ship and with our allies in the Ordo Reductor, Commander Shepard, are vat grown clones," said the Lord Admiral. She paused for a moment to take a breath and compose her thoughts before she added, "It is also a form of capital punishment in the Imperium. The guilty are lobotomized and put to work as servitors. It's harsh, yes, but only the worst offenders are ever really punished in this manner. None of those, however, are in use here."

Shepard didn't really want to ask what 'worst offender' meant in the Imperium entailed. She found the whole concept of 'servitorization' to be, well, extreme. If the crime justified the punishment, then she wanted to know as little of the crime as was possible.

What was it that Meyek had said? That this whole thing with Saren was a typical Tuesday for them? That they faced threats like this on a semi-regular basis and dealt with them? "I can't say I understand, or that I approve, but you answered the question."

"Well you know that old Terran saying, Commander, curiosity killed that cat," laughed Lord Admiral Parrington. "Alright, Commander, my turn," she said, bringing her hand up to her face and stroking her chin in thought. "I've heard much about this Council and the first contact war even, but I can't understand what with humanity's rising naval power why they continue to marginalize our species."

"They don't think we're ready," admitted Shepard. "As much as I hate to admit it, I kind of agree." Shepard hesitated for a moment, thinking about how she was going to word what she said next, "If I'm being honest though, I don't think they are either, they just happen to make the rules on who gets to make the rules." She scoffed, "I really hope they're right and I'm wrong, that Saren's working on his own and that I am just going crazy."

"Whatever's out there in the void, Commander, we'll face it together as a species, and the council won't be able to deny humanity's might for long," said the Lord Admiral, looking genuinely annoyed to Shepard about humanity's current lack of military might.

"People remember the First Contact War, Lord Admiral, the politicians are scared, and the people are scared too. Besides, there are several treaties we've signed with them prohibiting the production of dreadnoughts," said Shepard.

"Yes, the Treaty of Farixen, I did read about that," said the Lord Admiral. "Though, the Alliance seems to have somewhat overcome the limiting nature of the treaty with the construction of Carrier warships, if I'm to believe what Admiral Hackett has told me." She paused for a moment, presumably in thought, "It's very clever."

"Still a few tricks up our sleeve," said Shepard, smiling. She was impressed the Lord Admiral had done her reading. "Though I suppose they'd have a heart attack if they saw this ship."

"Oh, I'm sure they'd do more than that," said the Lord Admiral, a smile flickering across her features. It wasn't a warm smile at all. It was cold and predatory, and that told Shepard all she needed to know about what the Lord Admiral thought of the Council.

"Fair enough," said Shepard, nodding. She frankly didn't think that the council races even had a ship that could touch the shielding on this vessel. She'd been on the Citadel before too, and when you took this ship into consideration, the Citadel didn't seem so much like its namesake anymore. "So, how'd you end up in command of a ship like this? There has to be a story involved."

The smile on the Lord Admiral's face faltered for barely a perceptible moment before returning, enough for Shepard to have noticed. If she had to guess, something about what she was about to say wasn't entirely pleasant to remember. "Remember when we talked about the reunification of the galaxy, Commander?" asked the Lord Admiral. Shepard nodded. "Well, when the Great Crusade set out, my home system of Saturn was still fighting off a brutal invasion by a xenos species. If you want to know what we called them…well, we didn't. There was enough of them that everyone knew what you were talking about. We were allies with the Imperium at the time, still are, but they hadn't arrived yet and we couldn't seem to force anything more than a stalemate.

The Lord Admiral paused, and the pleasant expression had entirely faded from his face at this point, "I was determined to follow in my father's footsteps, so I joined him in the Saturnyne Fleet. Which wasn't easy, I'm not entirely high born, but that isn't entirely relevant here." There was another pause as she presumably collected her thoughts, "We gave them our best fight, but it soon became a game of who would act first. They did, and they took Iapetus from us. We launched a major offensive to breakthrough their blockade and get aid down to our beleaguered defenders."

"We couldn't get close, their blockade was far too effective, and they'd captured the orbital defenses," she continued, sighing. "The only hope was to get in under the guns' firing arcs. Of course, then we'd need someone crazy enough to launch an assault on the control complex, only man who was willing was my husband. Of course, then we were still only friends. Close friends, but friends nonetheless," that was the only time Shepard saw her smile during the retelling of events, and she had a strong feeling it had to do with what was probably the only happy memory during that string of events.

The smile faded once more, and she continued, "My father led a diversionary assault to get their attention. His ship was one just like this, a mighty warship built by the shipwrights of Saturn's moons, but even it couldn't stand up to the sort of punishment meted out to it. He got me on the comms when critical systems started to fail on his ship. Told me he was proud, of what I'd done, of the officer I'd become…"

She sighed exasperatedly, "Thankfully for the entire fleet, Bertie and his men had taken the surface to orbit gun command complex and had turned them on the enemy ships. Despite opposition from the Admiralty board, I was promoted and given a seat on it, which was in part a necessity, given the losses we had sustained. In a few months, our mutual acquaintance Archmagos Hypax had returned, and he'd brought with him Imperial reinforcements. With their support, the moons were ours once more. Despite the fact that we were indebted to the Imperium, we set out on the Great Crusade with them with great conviction, filled with a burning desire to prevent what happened to us from happening to any of the other lost colonies of man. Eager to get rid of me, I suppose, they gave me a new Jovian-pattern Gloriana-class Battleship and sent me out with the rest of the 21st Expeditionary Fleet."

Somehow, it didn't surprise Shepard to learn how far back the Lord Marshall, Lord Admiral and the Archmagos went. The story reminded Shepard of her own experiences in many ways. Her stand on Elysium against the Batarians was remembered to this day. Many said it was the reason that she was chosen to serve on the Normandy. "A hard-earned command if I ever heard of one," said Shepard.

Lord Admiral Parrington nodded, "We all have our scars, Commander. That brings me to my next question, there's a story that your actions during what Admiral Hackett called the Skylian Blitz was what led you to be chosen as the Normandy's XO. Of course, if I'm to assume correctly, your appointment as the first human Spectre making you it's commanding officer. Is that correct?"

Shepard had to think, had to think about how to talk about the mess of events that led to both of those things. Once more, the Lord Admiral had proven that she had access to a vast array of information. She had assumed that Ray was responsible for that. "Correct on both counts, Lord Admiral. Just doing my job is all."

Lord Admiral Parrington shook her head slowly, "I'd have to disagree there, Commander. I read the accounts of what happened that day. You and your squad almost singlehandedly stopped the enemy advance. They had you outnumbered and outgunned. You went above and beyond the call of duty, Commander." There was a definite pause, after which she added, "I recognized the look in your eyes when you talked about Saren when we first met."

"Are you saying that you trusted me because of that?" asked Shepard, not quite sure where she was going with this.

"No, Commander, I'm saying that I trust you now," replied the Lord Admiral, and it was then that Shepard understood. This was the tentatively extended hand, all of what had happened so far had been sizing her and hers up. Perhaps to see what the Alliance would do. Shepard didn't know if she felt relieved, or as if a lot more pressure had been placed on her.

Clade Vindicare Operative Meyek Maksimov

One hour, a long conversation and an exasperated Vanus later

The Normandy's medbay was a lot smaller than the one on the Fist of Judgement, he had to admit that it looked a lot…neater. There were less servitor controlled surgical apparatus, and far fewer medical personnel. In fact, to Meyek it looked like a doctor's office and medbay in one. On the list of good things that had happened, he was out of that stupid medicae gown, Ray had to deal with Meghann's equally confused and angry reaction to his news and probably best of all, the Eversor hadn't come around yet.

"You're oddly calm, Mr. Maksimov," said Dr. Chakwas, who was inspecting the fresh scars and bruises on his torso. "From our last meeting I was expecting a remark about my hands being too cold."

"I don't know, Doc. What can I say, eh? That nearly dying is a very sobering experience?" asked Meyek, staring up at the ceiling, his eyes having adjusted to the bright light almost immediately. For some reason, Meyek didn't like watching doctors work. He had a general idea of what they were doing but didn't like watching directly. He couldn't for the life of him figure out why that was.

"Perhaps next time something not quite as morbid?" asked Chakwas as she looked up from what she was doing. She half-shrugged, "As accurate as that statement was." There was a slightly awkward pause in the conversation, before Chakwas piped up again, "I saw him walking around, and I can't say I'm looking forward to his first checkup."

Meyek didn't really want to talk about the Eversor, and as such he quickly tried to end that topic then and there. Flatly, "I'm sure he's a great guy and we're all giving him shit for no reason."

Chakwas took the dubious cue from the assassin and moved back a step back from Meyek, "Mr. Maksimov, it looks like you are healing well. Your organs are holding well, and the scar tissue is healing. It's nothing short of miraculous." She looked down at the dataslate in her hand, and then looked back up at him, "With what information they gave me about what is in the both of you, I'd say it's a miracle of science."

"Don't feel so miraculous, Doc," complained Meyek, shifting in the bed, "scientifically or otherwise."

"Please don't make me laugh," groaned Meghann from the bed next to his, a genuine look of discomfort on her face. She was Clade Callidus, so either the pain was bad enough that she couldn't quite control her own reflexive emotions, or she trusted him enough that she was letting what she really felt show. For Clade Callidus, that was something.

"Well, sorry we had to have the same sense of humor," he replied, staring back up at the ceiling. He could see Chakwas walking over to check her over, and waited for a minute before he spoke again, "Thanks, by the way, for having my back in the end."

"If it wasn't for you, Meyek, I'd be flash vaporized," said Meghann, matter of fact. He turned to look at her now. He could see that Dr. Chakwas was clearly doing her best to not react. "I was returning the favor is all," she replied.

"The only question I have at this point is whether I'm going to get used to both of your very casual mention of a grisly death," breathed Chakwas as she continued her check-up.

"Probably, Doc, if we're around long enough," said Meyek, a cheeky grin forming on his face.

"In that case, Mr. Maksimov, I will just have to do my best to keep the two of you alive, despite your best efforts," said Dr. Chakwas. Meyek couldn't help but laugh. It hurt, naturally, but he was glad that Chakwas' sense of humor was similar to his own, too.

Clade Eversor Operative Skall Modrak

Skall was in the hangar bay waiting for Ray to finish calibrating his suit's systems to be able to communicate seamlessly with the people of this…place. Humans and xenos working together all united for one purpose. It was…impressive, and the cause was noble too. Of course, there would be cracks. There are always cracks in alliances like this.

He could see them assembling now, the Krogan, most immediate threat in the room. Biotics, resilience, strength and high focus on close range stopping power. A shot to the head, disable the limbs to be safe. Use Volkite to bypass 'kinetic barriers'. The Turian, the marksman among them. Keep suppressed with bolt pistol, either eliminate with Volkite or close the gap and eviscerate. Then there was Shepard. She was human. Armor was light. Limited stealth capabilities. She's augmented, faster than normal reflexes. Not as fast as he was. Same method, close gap and eviscerate.

Only, he wasn't here for that. He wasn't made for cooperation; he was made to kill. No, he was born that way. They say that the best Eversors are the ones that are lucid when the drugs kick in. He disagreed. He believed that the best Eversors were the ones who stayed lucid and were able to still able to reign in their blood lust. Efficiency was the key. That is why he always hated the hypnoconditioning, especially after the procedure. It always clouded his mind. Made it hard for him to think.

Perhaps that is why they'd sent him here, to get rid of him, a failed experiment doomed to die. He wasn't going to die; he was going to kill everyone and everything that got in his way to his objective. The objective? Ensure mankind's survival, and its dominance in these strange yet familiar stars.

The translation suite let him seamlessly understand their alien tongues, and as far as he understood it, helped them understand each other. He wasn't actively listening, but he could tell they were talking about him. The whole ship was, apparently. The other assassins had set a precedence, and what he had done to them was apparently enough to impress and terrify the crew. Good.

He noticed the Krogan kept looking in his direction, before laughing heartily, seemingly at odds with his companions. He turned his skull helmet in the direction of the three, one, the Quarian seemed to visibly recoil. The Turian didn't look ecstatic either, unfortunately he was still learning Turian body language.

The Krogan let out a dark and throaty chuckle, "I was just telling these two that anyone that kicked Meyek's ass can't be too bad, even if it only shut him up for a couple hours."

Skall narrowed his eyes at that, cocking his head just slightly. He didn't know the Vindicare very well, and Ray hadn't mentioned this to him as of yet. Even so, he'd reserve his judgement till he met them. First, Commander Shepard apparently had an assignment for him.

"A compliment," said Skall, now fully turning the leering skull helm toward them. "Reserve them for after we've completed our current assignment." He punctuated his statement by racking the slide on his bolt pistol.

The Krogan seemed to approve of this action, and he gestured toward him as though he further proved his point, "See?"

Skall turned to Ray, who nodded to signify that he was done. Wordlessly, Skall rebooted his helmet's vox suite.

"Communications check," he whispered into his mic, even though his HUD told him that the link was both secure and strong. Their encryption standards were a little lax, though Ray had assured him that he was working on a new standard for this…joint operation.

It was Shepard's arrival and her response over the comms that restored Skall's confidence in this team. "We're dropping out of FTL in five. Transponder code checks out, Garrus. Looks like it's our man." She then turned in his direction, and said, "Comms are clear, Skall. It'll be good to have you with us."

He knew it was a lie, but she was trying to make him feel welcome, nonetheless.

"I've been waiting years for this," replied the Turian, who then cast what Skall thought was an uncomfortable glance in his direction. His enhanced hearing picked up what the Turian must have thought was normal volume, "Commander, are we sure it's the best idea to uh…doesn't this perhaps warrant a little subtlety?"

"I am an operative of the Officio Assassinorum. Ask your commander about my mastery of subtlety," he said, trying to hold back the venom, and failing.

"Skall's right. I didn't even hear him coming," said Shepard, managing not to react to the memories his statement no doubt triggered. They had to be fresh on her mind, he knew the effect he had on people, and there was nothing like him here. The others were no less capable, but he was a true weapon of terror and dread. "This is your operation, Garrus, but Skall's going to be showing us how he can work in a team today," she said, then turning to face him. "Even though Ray's assured me your record says you can, you might understand how after our first meeting that I need a little proof of it."

"Perfectly," said Skall, murky memories of fighting the other two assassins flashing through his mind. The memories felt like they were a lot older, but they weren't, he knew that. Shepard had been taking a huge risk when she'd let him aboard her ship, and he knew that she knew it. She was just trying to see if it was worth it. Skall had nothing to prove. The only thing he was doing was making amends to the two people in the medicae above decks. That, and there was finally something for him to do.

"Good," said Shepard, once more proving to Skall that she was a good commander, able to keep her personal feelings well out of the matter at hand. He remembered the agreement that they'd made. He'd keep killing whatever enemies to humanity presented themselves, as long as she didn't question him about his methods. "Skall, Garrus and Wrex, meet me at the upstairs airlock," she said, looking over at them, before her eyes settled on him once more. "And Skall?"

"Yes?" he asked, his grip tightening around his Executioner pistol, his Sentinel Array initialized, filling his HUD with data streams he was all too familiar with processing. It was the calm before the storm, and Skall relished every moment of it.

"Try not to frighten the crew," she said, apparently sensing the anticipation in him.

Under his Skull Helmet, a thin smile pulled on his weathered features, "No promises."

On board the Fedele

"They're still not responding, ma'am," came the voice of the Alliance Officer called Navigator Presley. "I don't like the sound of this."

Skall knew this was the case. If something had gone wrong and everyone was dead, the ship would be in a far worse shape. The scans had shown the ship to be fitted with medical research modules, from what information Ray had left him, he was sure that this 'Dr. Saleon' was continuing to practice his pseudo-science from in here.

As she stepped in through the inner door of the airlock, Shepard delivered her response, "That makes two of us, Presley." Garrus followed her through, his HMWA assault rifle shouldered and at the ready.

Wrex followed through next, a HMWSG shotgun held in his. Wrex sniffed at the air before visibly recoiling. "It smells wrong in here, Shepard. Like a bad wound," growled the Krogan.

Skall's sentinel array picked up a host of contacts, easily able to penetrate the ship's internal bulkheads and hull plating. "Wrex is right," he said. "Multiple contacts, humanoid, abnormal blood temperature and pressure." This only proved his theory regarding what was going on in this ship.

"Does that thing tell their cholesterol too?" asked Shepard, attempting humor, he supposed, as she fixed the Sentinel Array on his back with an appreciative glance. His silence told her enough. "Alright, then. Skall, you and Wrex check that out. Garrus and I will check engineering."

Skall didn't need telling twice. With only a cursory glance to see that the Krogan Battlemaster was following him, he was on the move. He found himself begrudgingly admitting that the Krogan was faster on his feet than he'd initially surmised. The trudging of feet snapped him out of his thoughts, the very rhythm of the movement was so obviously inhuman. With practiced ease, the Clade Eversor operative blinked at the rune on his HUD that controlled his pistol's safety controls.

No sooner than the first shambling discolored mess had rounded the first crate in the bay, did its head explode as a bolt round detonated in it. The sound of the round detonating was drowned out by the inhuman sounds that announced the arrival of the others, a shrill grating noise that wheedled its way through his helmet's sensors. "And people question why Krogan hate Salarian doctors…" deadpanned Wrex.

The sentinel array picked up Wrex charging up a biotic attack, if Skall remembered the dossier of biotic powers Ray had talked him through, he'd surmise it was a powerful biotic throw. Similar to what Alenko had used on him. There were plenty of the shambling creatures, who were now charging at them with abandon. Seven rounds left, more than enough to buy the Krogan time. His bolt pistol continued to discharge rounds, splattering sickening green vitae onto the ground with the detonation of each explosive bolt round.

Wrex grunted with the exertion of channeling the biotic energy which rushed outward from him. It struck the next tide of shambling creatures, tossing them into the hull with a satisfying crunch-splat. Skall and Wrex shared a look, both of them clearly unconvinced that the Biotic Throw had done it. Both charged. Skall lunged, moving with a speed that probably reduced him to a large blur of deadly motion for Wrex, hacking and slashing with his new power sword. Wrex settled for blasting them in the face with several point-blank shotgun blasts.

Skall swung his power sword to get the bits of flesh and fluid off. Most of the gore had been flash vaporized on contact with the power field, but some of it remained on parts of the weapon that the power field didn't cover. He gave it a brief examination to ensure he'd cleared the gore. His old weapon—the one destroyed by the Callidus—had fashioned in the style of ancient Terran Longswords and sometimes needed an extra swipe to clear off entirely. This weapon was a Shashka. Not a weapon used by the Rams, but popular with the Alpha Legion, he recalled. The weapon's balance was different, it was a far lighter blade, designed for swift thrusts or swings. Skall liked it, combined with the weapon's matter disruption field and his own strength and agility it was quickly becoming his new favorite weapon. Though it didn't need it, he flicked the power sword again.

"Not bad, Krogan," he said, admiring their joint handiwork. The Krogan had proved he could fight, and not only that but fight well alongside someone whose capabilities he knew precious little about.

"Heh," grunted Wrex. "You weren't so bad yourself. I guess you stopped shooting only because you ran out of bullets."

"I was buying you time, Krogan," Skall drawled, as he removed the spent magazine and placed it on his webbing, loading a new one with practiced ease.

Before Wrex could respond, Skall picked up Shepard and Garrus' entrance into the cargo bay. "Engineering was empty, but it looks like you two found something."

"Looks like Saleon is doing more than cloning organs," observed Garrus, looking at corpses in the main cargo bay.

"Not anymore, he isn't," said Wrex, putting another shotgun blast into one of the corpses. He then turned off in the direction of the cockpit. Skall fell in step with the Krogan, humming power sword in hand. "Come on, you Pyjacks. We've got a Salarian to kill."

Garrus and Shepard fell in behind them. The four of them moved relatively coherently, by Skall's standards in any case. He took point, with Wrex immediately behind him. Garrus watched their rear, putting Shepard in the 'middle'.

The cockpit doors had one of those hololithic interfaces that he'd been briefed on. Skall didn't use it. Shock and awe was a far more preferable tactic. He blinked at the Volkite Charger's activation rune, and before any of the others could complain, the weapon extracted itself from its housing and was ready to fire. With practiced ease, Skall cut an Eversor sized cutout in the door and kicked it in before the edges could even begin to cool. He was in, power sword and neurogauntlet at the ready, but both his enhanced senses and the sentinel array already told him that it was empty. "Empty," he snarled, in disappointment.

"Only one door we haven't checked," said Wrex, standing in front of the door behind Skall to the right. Skall immediately turned around with interest stacking up on the other side of the door. He could see Shepard roll her eyes behind her unpolarized visor before moving behind the door and opening it.

Behind it, was the Salarian doctor. Shepard lowered her pistol, if only momentarily, based on her stance. He could tell that Shepard didn't trust the Salarian, but she was clearly waiting for Garrus' confirmation. Garrus provided that immediately, "Commander, that's him, that's Dr. Saleon."

The Salarian protested pathetically, like the depraved, weak and cowardly thing it was, "What? My name is Heart. Dr. Heart. Please, get me out of here."

From where he was, he could see Shepard hesitate, if only for a moment. "Are you sure it's him?"

"Positive. There's no escape this time. It's time someone put an end to your monstrous ways," said Garrus. Skall recalled a conversation Shepard had with Garrus as they were entering about ensuring that they didn't take the law into their hands, as it made them no better than him. Skall could see the Salarian reaching for a weapon. He immediately stepped in front of Shepard and advanced on the Salarian.

The Salarian must've been watching the security footage because he stopped reaching for his weapon. All he let out before Skall grabbed him by his throat was a whimpered, "No, you brought the monster."

Skall brought him up to eye level, "It is rude to attempt to draw a weapon on those who offer to spare your pathetic existence." The Salarian didn't—couldn't—respond, instead he just gurgled as his lungs struggled for a breath of recycled air. Skall snapped his neck, discarding the body to the side. Turning around, he faced the others.

"Good catch," was all Shepard said for a moment. "We're done here. I don't want anyone picking up his work, so Skall, want to do me a favor?"

"Burn it all?" asked Skall, blink clicking the activation rune for his integrated flamer, which extricated itself from its on his back.

Shepard nodded, "Burn it all." As Shepard, Garrus and Wrex turned to leave, they left behind the silhouette of an Eversor and the blazing lab of a madman.

Clade Vindicare Operative Meyek Maksimov

Real, deep sleep, was something that Meyek hadn't had the pleasure of experiencing in quite a while.

He was tempted, laying here on this bed in the Normandy's med bay. But his training didn't let him. His heart rate was slowed to the rate of one beat per solar day, and so his body for the most part rested, but his mind did not. It was because of that however, that the moment his enhanced hearing picked up footsteps outside the door, that he snapped awake, his hand instinctively reaching for his pistol on the foldout table.

His Exitus Pistol was in his hands before the door started opening, time had slowed to a crawl for him. It took him precious few microseconds to look around the room. Chakwas wasn't here. The room was empty save for Meghann and himself. She was up too, her Ikanos Bolt Pistol was in her hands as well. The two of them shared the briefest of acknowledging looks before they both returned their attention to the door.

The door opened to reveal Gunnery Chief Ashley Williams, who was extremely shocked to find two massive pistols pointed at her. "Whoa, I didn't know I was target practice." Both weapons were lowered as soon as they'd gone up. Lieutenant Alenko stepped in behind her. "The LT just cooked something up for the two of you, and I thought I'd drop in with him to see how you were doing."

"You didn't have to," said Meghann, putting her pistol back down on the fold-out side table.

"No, no," insisted Alenko stepping into the medbay after Williams. "I wanted to, really. Besides, with the commander helping Garrus with that Salarian mad scientist problem of his, I had some free time."

"You need a hobby, Alenko," said Meyek, giving the Lieutenant an odd look, then putting his pistol down as well.

"Actually, this is my hobby," said Alenko, extending the bed's fold-out tray over him and putting the plate down on it, before doing the same for Meghann. Meyek looked down at the plate. It was long strings of something, piled up in a small pile and covered in some sort of red meat sauce. "It's whole wheat spaghetti Bolognese. I checked with Dr. Chakwas on portions, should be just as much as you guys are allowed."

Meyek prodded at the food with his utensil. "Uh, just one question. What the hell is spaghetti Bolognese?" Meyek lacked the training on the galaxy's cultures that Meghann had, and this was one place where it showed. He couldn't lie, it smelled good, but he had no idea how to approach eating it.

"Just follow my lead, Meyek," said Meghann from beside him, and he glanced over and after watching her shovel food into her mouth expertly, Meyek coped the motion successfully. "It's very good, Lieutenant," said Meghann.

Meyek watched Alenko nod his thanks in the corner of his vision. "Just watching you teach Mr. Master Sniper here to eat spaghetti is all the thanks I need, but I appreciate it." Alenko had a big grin on his face, one that slowly faded before he said his next words. "You guys are…something else, you know that?"

Williams nodded, "You move so quick, you heal so quick. Do you…feel human?" Alenko immediately gave Williams an admonishing look, and she immediately backpedaled, "I'm sorry, it just sorta fell out. Please don't answer that."

"Sure," said Meyek, soon as his mouth was cleared of food. "I've known a couple Astartes in my time. They make me feel plenty human."

"Astartes?" asked Alenko, as if trying to remember something. "You mean the armored giants that the Lord Admiral and Marshall showed us images of when we first encountered you? They're human?"

Meyek and Meghann exchanged a look before Meyek nodded. "At one point, yeah. They don't start out like that. You should try having a conversation with one too. Few can hold one for long."

"It's an issue we learn to deal with, Gunnery Chief, Lieutenant. No different from your biotics," she said gesturing to Alenko.

Alenko nodded solemnly. He paused for a moment, as if he was in thought, "Do you guys ever have…problems, with what's in you?"

"Those that have problems don't make it this far. They make very sure each operative is compatible first, the tests to ensure you're good enough weed out those who aren't," said Meyek. "We're a big investment, each of us, they take a lot of care to ensure that we're the best we can be. Anything less is a waste."

Alenko nodded slowly, "I wish that's how they looked at biotics. It's getting better, though. Anyway, I not going to waste your time moping."

Meghann flashed him what Meyek thought was a comforting smile, "We've had a long time to get where we are, Lieutenant, it'll happen."

That seemed to improve his mood, and he nodded, "Fair point. Anyways, I hope you two get better, it's kinda sad to see you two cooped up in here." He looked at the dishes and then added, "I'll swing by and pick up the dishes when you're done." With that, he and Williams left.

Silence filled the medbay once the doors closed behind the departing Alliance personnel. Meyek began silently shoveling the last of the bowl's contents into his mouth when he heard Meghann speak, "Artan Valerius." Meyek turned to see what she was talking about. "An Ultramarines sergeant I had served with a while ago. I was reminded of him when you'd mentioned the difficulty of dealing with the Astartes." She looked off into the distance before scoffing, "We didn't get along so well."

"What? You? Not get along with someone?" he asked with mock sincerity, and in typical Meyek fashion, laying it on thick. Meghann actually laughed. A smile crawled onto his face as well, weak and awkward. "Who would have trouble working with you?"

"I'll admit, I can be abrasive at times," said Meghann, looking somewhat apologetic. Meyek was taken aback by her sincerity. Had he struck a chord? Or was this just a result of their shared near-death experience?

"Hey, I've seen you be nice when you want to," replied Meyek, about to furnish several examples but then stopping himself. That might have been taking it a little too far.

"This is…different, for me. All of it. I've never worked with my fellow assassins before, and this place…" said Meghann, her voice trailed off and she looked up at him with an apologetic look on her face. "I'm sorry." Meyek had only a moment to appreciate her apology until they both heard the door begin to hiss open.

Standing in the doorway, leering at them through his skull mask, was Skall Modrak. "As am I," he said, completely unfazed by the two guns pointed at him. He probably knew that he was at no risk of being killed by his fellow assassins, especially after the lengths they'd gone through to keep him alive. Both Meyek and Meghann slowly, and begrudgingly lowered their weapons.

Skall's free hand slowly and deliberately removed his helmet, which came free with the hiss of releasing seals. The Eversor had grey eyes, his head was shaved, and his olive-toned face was as adorned with scars as it was with heavy stubble.

"I was a fool, clouded by my own failure. My inability to process the hypnoconditioning blinded me to friend or foe. What you both did was admirable. Eliminating me was the safer option, accounting for bio-meltdown, of course," he said, with what passed barely as a casual tone.

There was silence for a moment after he spoke. Meyek naturally, was the one to break it, voice lower and weaker than he would've liked, but not unsure, "And risk you literally blowing up in our faces? Consider it a favor, big guy. From all of us."

Skall snorted, and then the slightest hint of a smile flickered across his weathered features, "That is…acceptable."

Lord Marshall Bertie Lissie

A good old-fashioned ground invasion was just what they needed. Being cooped up on the ship was starting to drive everyone a little stir crazy. After that incident with the Clade Eversor Operative, he was more than a little glad to be off the ship for a little while. Luckily, the Geth left plenty on the surface of Solcrum for them to deal with.

Planetary scans had indicated that they'd landed one of their Frigates and had centered the defenses of their main outpost on the planet around this Frigate. Bertie had no idea how the Alliance, let alone Shepard herself would have dealt with this particular problem. He had more than a few ideas regarding this.

The one he'd went with in the end was a diversionary armored assault to draw the Geth's attention away from the outpost. Now, a Geth Frigate could do some serious damage if it was allowed to, but the Geth had parked theirs to be used as a mobile strongpoint. According to power signature scans cross-referenced with data given to them by the Alliance, it wasn't going to be taking off any time soon. That made their job all the easier.

The Sunflare-class Super-Heavy Tank Destroyer was the Saturnyne Ordo's equivalent of the Falchion-class Super-Heavy Tank Destroyer used by select elements of the Imperial Army and the Legiones Astartes. It featured a pair of Sunflare-class Plasma Lances, weapons capable of stripping the void shields of mighty Titans and laying them low. While slightly slower firing than a Volcano cannon, they offered a more consistent damage potential. Given the after-action report of one Lieutenant Galan Maxim, the pilot of the bomber they'd deployed to destroy the outposts on the planet Maji, he was sure that his tank would be up to the task of destroying the Geth ship on the ground.

Naturally, drawing them away from the outpost was only part of the plan. The other part of the plan was to land a team to enter the outpost, neutralize any resistance and await arrival of an Enginseer to download the data that the Geth had been transmitting from the other outposts. He'd left that part of the plan in Major Thule's capable hands.

Thule had naturally come through with a fantastic plan. With the Geth distracted, they were perfectly poised to infiltrate the base via a Prowler gunship. Thule had served with distinction for more than a hundred years now, Bertie was confident that he could pull it off. A quick look at the hololithic table behind him told him that it was enough time for musing, they would be in weapons range any moment now.

Escorting his tank was a pair of Ballista-class Super Heavy Tanks, and their escorts. These escorts consisted of a pair of Lykaon Cascades and a trio of Lykaon Carronades per tank, the perfect blend of anti-tank and anti-infantry support. Usually they'd have anti-aircraft support as well, but given that the Geth airpower was effectively non-existent, he'd elected to leave their AAA on board the ship.

They'd landed some ways off from the outpost, advancing towards it at a steady pace. So far, the Geth seemed none the wiser. He watched in silence as the tank moved into 'position' on the tactical map. "We're in position, sir. Should just be a few moments to range it in. Waiting on your word, sir."

"Well, don't wait on my account," said Bertie, giving the targeting data and their positions one last look over with his experienced eyes. "Fire at will," he said over the intercom. His tank's gunners didn't need a second invitation. Perched atop an incline, Bertie's Sunflare fired two bright lances of energy that hit the Geth ship and passed through the other end. It was barely a perceptible second later that an explosion mushroomed out of the disabled Geth vessel. "That must've got their attention," muttered Bertie as he waited for signs of the Geth response.

Predictably, Geth walkers began advancing toward their position. Firing solutions from the other tanks were represented on the tactical map by white lines from the tanks' hololithic representation with a data readout to tell him which weapons the tank's commander intended to use. Carronade-class Plasma Exterminator from the nine Lykaon Carronades were set to vaporize the advance Geth Armatures, while quad lascannon fire from the two Ballista Super-Heavy Tanks and his own tank were set to neutralize the Geth Colossi advancing behind them.

Bertie's previous orders meant that the tanks would fire when they could, he just waited to enjoy the show. Brilliant blue energy discharged from the smaller main battle tanks, two shots each. Like that, the Geth advance almost ground to a halt, the explosive detonations of plasma consumed the Geth constructs, leaving only charred scrap. Bertie didn't know if the Geth felt fear, but the Armatures slowing their pace told Bertie they suddenly didn't feel very confident about their chances. It was too late for them now. Lascannon fire punched through the Geth Colossi with ease. It wasn't as spectacular as the plasma, but the what was left of the lascannon ravaged chassis of the Armatures dropped.

Geth turret defenses turned to engage them, rockets detonating harmlessly against the front armor of the Super Heavy tanks. The turrets didn't' survive long enough to realize their mistake. Twin bright lances of energy from the Ballista-class Magma Cannons on the tanks of the same namesake made short work of them. One moment they were there, and the next they were flash vaporized. "Well that was a jolly good show, chaps," said Bertie over their shared frequency. "Jobs out of our hands now, but I gather that's got their attention."

"If fighting the Geth is going to be this easy, I think we should ask the Alliance to point us in the direction of more," said Antarius Maedke, tank commander of the Ballista on his right.

"Come now, we don't want to make the Alliance look too bad, we're trying to be friendly after all. In any case, it's only sporting we leave some Geth for them," replied Bertie, chuckling to himself, and eliciting the chuckles of many of the other tank commanders and his own command crew.

Major Valerian Thule

Major Thule was confident that even if he was on the other hemisphere of the planet, he would have been able to see Lord Marshall Lissie's signal. The destruction of the Geth Frigate was spectacular, and the morale boost it gave his men was tremendous. The cabin lights turned from red to green, the rear ramp lowered down. "Green light. Geth haven't noticed us yet," came Squadron Leader Haakinson's voice over the vox.

"Best we don't disappoint," he said as his men activated their armor's cloaking systems. The cameleoline coating made them flicker before vanishing into nothing. They hadn't used it during their boarding operations for the simple reason that the extreme close quarters nature of the fight made it ineffective. Once you fired with an energy weapon, you gave your position away. It did however ensure that you had first strike capability and could move without your enemy knowing just quite where you were.

Perhaps, if they'd attempted to use the cloaking systems, the xenos would have not detected them, but it was not the time to think on that now. In short order, his Veletaris were out and in position outside the gunship. Squadron Leader Haakinson's Prowler took off and moved away, waiting for word of mission completion. His wife's skill in piloting never disappointed him, she'd flown him and his into and out of the fire more times than he could remember.

He'd brought his command squad with him. The Reavers had been his command since before the start of the Great Crusade, and new blood refreshed the old from time to time. He personally made sure that he knew that every man and woman in each squad was at their best.

As they moved up toward the base, they picked up Geth outside the base. Three Geth troops armed with missile launchers. Everyone in the Reavers was a marksman, that went double for their designated marksmen. "Romanos, Hallas, you know what to do," he said. Both marksmen dropped to a knee and brought their Saturnyne-pattern Blacklight Heavy Las Snipers to bear. The Blacklight's whisper fire mode worked like a whisper bolt discharger, and though the damage was ever so slightly reduced, the Geth never heard or saw the las bolt that blew their heads clean off.

High powered las bolts took the head off of the two Geth on the outer guard towers, and before the third came to the realization that they were under attack it took a pair of bolts to the head and torso respectively. "Good work. Stavros, get that door open. Darius, cover him," he said. He couldn't tell if the door was unlocked or not, but it never paid to be too careful.

"On it, sir," came Stavros's reply as he and Darius moved up to the door. Stavros checked the door, and lo and behold it was unlocked. It seemed the Geth weren't on full alert yet. Once this door opened, that was going to change for sure. Darius led the way, his Jovian-pattern Phased Plasma Rifle shouldered. Stavros checked his Inferno-class Volkite Charger, and then followed behind him.

The rest of the two squads moved in to follow behind them when he heard Darius' voice over the vox, "Boss, auspex is acting funny. Ghost readings. Advise?"

"Let's take this one step at a time, Corporal. If the Geth are jamming our auspexes, we'll just have to keep shooting until none of them are left," said Thule as he entered. Thule made sure his Veletaris knew that an over reliance on their gear was a quick way to die. There were three Geth on the ground floor, Destroyer models if he remembered his briefing packet correctly. The damned things were huge, easily eleven feet tall. That old Terran saying came to mind, the bigger they were, the harder they fell. Those shotguns were deadly according to reports, they just needed to ensure that they stayed out of its range.

Up on the roof was what concerned Thule the most, a Geth Juggernaut. They could take quite a beating, even from their weapons. The Geth Pulse rifle that they carried wasn't particularly deadly, but it sure hit hard. He'd taken a few glancing shots from one when they'd went down to assist the crew of the downed bomber. He wasn't looking forward to reliving that experience. He took up position with his command squad, their targets appearing on his HUD.

"Execute," he breathed into his helmet mic, and immediately his squad went into action around him. Two high powered las bolts smacked into the Geth Juggernaut, staggering it backward away from the balcony's edge above. Two Volkite beams sizzled into the Geth Destroyer to his right, eating into the plating and incinerating the electronics underneath. A hail of plasma bolts flash boiled the torso of the one to his left. The one in the center was all but shredded by a withering barrage of armor-piercing manstopper rounds from Corporal Petro's Heavy Rotor Cannon before he flash vaporized its head with a burst of plasma bolts from his phased plasma rifle.

It was the Geth's turn to respond. The Juggernaut leapt down from the balcony, denting the floor plating where he landed with a dull resonating thud. A hail of fire from its Pulse Rifle glanced off of Petro's armor's side plating, causing his camouflage to flicker and the Corporal to take cover. A Geth Stalker knocked Darius down with a single shot from its head mounted weapon and its companion was all set to finish the job if Darius wasn't dragged back into cover just in time. This cost the Geth their lives, Romanos and Hallas immediately put a high powered bolt into their heads. The Geth fell from their perches on the ceiling like puppets who had their strings cut.

The charging Geth Juggernaut lost its left arm and weapon to a shot from Corporal Vitalis's Volkite Caliver. Their anti-tank gunner traded out his suspensor equipped Man-Portable Lascannon for the weapon before he'd left for this mission. Only a last-minute pivot from the Geth had saved it from destruction. The only problem was now it was in the Corporal's face and attempting to bash it in with its working hand. The Corporal dropped the heavy weapon and drew his mono-knife with commendable alacrity. He swung the blade and severed one of the many cables on the Geth's back, spraying him with white fluid.

Thule immediately slung his rifle and drew his power sword. The blade crackled to life and stepping forward, he disengaged his cloak. When he got to Vitalis, he was ducking under a swing from the construct. With an upward arcing swing of his sword, he removed the limb at the shoulder. He turned and put his weight behind a diagonal decapitating strike. For good measure, he waited till the headless chassis hit the floor before impaling the weapon into its 'torso' and twisting for good measure.

Slowly sheathing his weapon, he glanced over at Vitalis to see if he was okay. Vitalis gave him a reassuring nod. "Sitrep?" he asked, turning toward where Darius was being tended to by Specialist Galanos.

"I'm fine, sir," insisted Darius. "It's just a scratch." The round had punched through the armor just above his waist on the extreme right. It was a lucky shot, or just a good one. The Geth were living machines, they probably made the calculations to take a shot like that with ease.

Thule shifted his gaze to Specialist Galanos. "He's fine, sir. He'll make a full recovery once I can patch him up," she said, administering a dose of stim to the wounded Veletaris.

Thule nodded, "Good." He'd already lost one of his men in this place, he didn't need any more dying. Switching to the Lord Marshall's command frequency, he informed him of their success, "Reaver 6 to Command, objective complete, Geth presence neutralized. One injured. Over."

"Excellent work old chap," came Lord Marshall Lissie's response. "I'll send the Enginseers over to grab that data. Just hang around, yes? Over."

"Understood sir, we'll hold position here. Reaver 6, out," he said, cutting the line and letting out a sigh. Their job was finally done. The auspex finally gave them a clear report, there were no more contacts in the base. Looking over the destroyed Geth in the base, Thule decided it was prudent to make one final sweep and took Private Petrakis and Raptis and did a quick sweep of the base. There was nothing left of the Geth. Just dust and echoes.

Commander Riley Shepard

With her HMWSR stored in the locker, Riley pulled off her helmet and ran her hand through her hair, then letting out a sigh. That business with the Salarian doctor was something else. If there's one thing she'd learned so far, and that this whole Saren situation confirmed, was that civilization didn't need help in creating its own monsters.

On that subject, she'd been pleasantly surprised by Skall so far. When he wasn't trying to take their head off, he wasn't all that bad. So far in any case, she hadn't talked to him all that much, but when she saw him going to the med bay…Well, there were no explosions yet, so she assumed that things were going well between the three of them.

"Shepard," said a voice from behind her, Riley hadn't even heard them approach, but she recognized the voice as Ray's. "Do you have a moment, there's something we need to talk about." For a moment she wondered what the assassin had to talk about, in her experience he didn't really come around to talk to her unless it was something important.

"Sure, Ray, what's going on?" she said, turning around and tucking her helmet into the crook of her arm.

"Got word from the Lord Marshall," started Ray. Immediately, Riley was worried. The last time they'd heard from the Imperium, they'd been called back to deal with Skall. Ray must've picked up on this, because he immediately commented on it, "Relax, Shepard, it's good news. They sent us some data that they recovered from a Geth outpost in the Solcrum system. They've sent a copy to Admiral Hackett, but they felt like you could use one."

Riley immediately realized that there was something on board their ship who could put that information to very good use. "I can think of someone who might have some use for that," she said, a smile forming on her face.

Ray nodded, "As can I. I'm sure data like this will help with her pilgrimage." Ray handed her a data storage unit, presumably with the data on it.

"I'm sure she'll appreciate it," said Riley, nodding as she took the data storage unit from him. She began walking toward the reactor bay and then paused, "You want to come with? I don't plan on taking credit for this." Ray hesitated for a moment, but he nodded and followed behind her.

Returning the salute from Engineer Adams, she walked over to Tali, who turned around when she heard them approach. "Shepard, I er-, what can I do for you?"

"Actually Tali, we got you a little something," said Riley, holding out the data storage unit to her. "On that storage unit is data captured from a Geth outpost. I hope that will help with your pilgrimage."

Tali took the storage unit from her, holding it with great reverence and care, almost as if it would break if someone looked at it wrong. She immediately began copying the data, tapping away at her Omnitool for a moment before she looked up at her, "I…thank you, Shepard. I don't know what to say. This will definitely help our people against the Geth, not immediately of course, we'll have to study it. But it will give us new insight into how the Geth have evolved and changed over the past years."

Riley was smiling now, and out of the corner of her eye, she could see that Ray was too. "Well, don't just thank me. Ray got a copy of the data; he just gave it to me. We decided that it was best to leave it with you."

Tali was at a loss for words, she looked at both of them, "I…really don't know what to say. Except thank you, both of you. My people, I, owe you a great debt. One I can never repay. The only thing I can offer you is what you already have; my solemn promise to stay with you until Saren and his Geth armies are defeated."

"I never wanted anything more," said Riley, truly touched by Tali's words. She knew how important it was to Tali, but she also knew that the data was the only real reason she had to stay on the Normandy. Riley was glad that she was here to stay, the young Quarian was growing on her, and on someone else if she was reading into things right. Tali thanked her, and Riley nodded her acknowledgement and flashed Tali a smile before stepping back and turning back to head toward the locker rooms.

Shepard was about to remove her armor when she heard the sound of Krogan footfalls, and turning she saw Wrex approach her. He had an uneasy air about him. She hadn't seen a Krogan that looked as uneasy as Wrex did now in a long time. "Wrex, is something wrong?" she asked, the concern in her voice clear and evident.

"Shepard," said Wrex, standing there for a moment, almost as if he was thinking about what to say. "I've got a favor to ask you."

Archmagos Hypax

Conjecture was a fool's errand. It led to decisions that had little base in reality. These decisions led to mistakes. Mistakes led to loss of valuable material and personnel. Hypax had learned very young the price of making a decision based on incomplete information. It had cost him his mortal form. Data was the only surety in Hypax's experience.

The Throne Agent had provided with him just that. Data. Hard evidence that could scarcely be ignored. It's implications, however, were perplexing to say the least. Translation of the data proved one thing, and one thing only; they were not alone. The message was a standard interrogative from an Agrimensor Cadre, the message's checksum verified this without a doubt.

The truth, the data, raised more questions than it answered. However, to ponder such questions, would lead to conjecture. There was only one way to solve this, and that was to venture down to the planet's surface himself while his friends performed their favor for the Alliance. They did not need his help, not with this matter, and the matter he was investigating took precedence over whatever the Alliance wanted.

His Tempestavex-pattern Stormbird passed through Ferrous Prime's atmosphere. He allowed himself a moment's amusement regarding the planet's name. It was very fitting, the planet had extremely high concentrations of metal deposits beneath its surface of almost unyielding tropical rainforests. The presence of an oxygen rich atmosphere enabled the craft to switch over to its airbreathing turbo ramjets.

The flight continued toward the location of the signal without event. Hypax was connected to the craft and its crew, its scanners were an extension of his very own senses. His escorts, a trio of Hyperax Interceptor Automata, were also networked into his personal transport, the wonders of Adept Zeth's creation really made coordinating his forces so much easier.

The auger arrays were constantly scanning the horizon as the Tempestavex-pattern Stormbird and its escorts continued toward the signal source. At first, faint auger returns picked up a massive object in the distance. The interference was significant, enough to dismiss it as atmospherics playing hell with the craft's sensors. The Ordo Reductor Archmagos however, was not so easily dissuaded.

Hypax 'listened' to the interference carefully. Once more, careful examination of data rather than resorting to conjecture bore fruit. The interference had a pattern to it, one that repeated itself ever so subtly. In fact, it wasn't atmospheric noise or false returns, it was something that was trying very hard to appear like it. Perhaps a little too hard.

Hypax attempted to filter out the 'interference' from the auger return data, fresh data providing a large enough sample size to ease the process. His neural cogitator array and bio-electric brain powered through the calculations at a frightening rate. An approximation of the true auger returns was yielded, and as proximity to the signal location and the object that was bouncing their auger scans, a more detailed picture was created.

Data didn't lie. It couldn't. The only falsehoods came from those interpreting it. There was no mistaking this. The auger returns matched a Perspeculorax-class Ark Mechanicus, an old pattern used by the early Explorators of Mars. This particular vessel was bearing no transponder beacon, and at this range auger scans indicated that the vessel was in a low power state, enough to keep sensor suites active such that the crew could be raised from stasis should the vessel come under attack.

Hypax was on the cusp of making the incorrect assumption that they would have to approach the ship and wake the crew, when the ship's auger detected six contacts moving fast on an intercept vector. The contacts were resolved as Silphar Ornithopters. Immediately, a schematic of the insectoid craft was pulled up. Its midsection of the craft resembled an insect's thorax, the craft's main anti-grav engines, turbofan drives and flapping insect like wings were attached to the top. A pair of Setheno pattern havoc launchers and photon thrusters along with three pairs of legs were attached to the underside of the craft. The head, containing the craft's servitor-brain and main sensor cluster bore a pair of tri-optic targeters. The abdomen contained rudimentary rocket engines to allow it to enter a planet's atmosphere from a waiting ship in orbit. The Silphar was a favorite of the Explorators, but the three craft were no threat to him.

The ship's systems warned that they'd been target locked. Hypax quickly issued an order for his escorts to stand down. The 'lead' Ornithopter issued a standard interrogative. The required counter response was an older one, but one still in use. It was transmitted immediately over the data-link between his craft and the Ornithopters. The change was immediate, the Ornithopters altered their course, and his ship was hailed.

The incoming message bore the transponder code of the ship, identifying it as The Truth-seeker, an Explorator vessel declared missing mere days before the Triumph at Ullanor. The message was in Lingua-Technis, naturally. Hypax's augmented brain understood Lingua-Technis natively, and to hear it in this strange place was a comfort to him. "Praise be to the Omnissiah, at long last we have been located, by his servants no less! I am Magos Explorator Varaxian, to whom do I speak?"

Hypax had heard of Varaxian. He had a history of recovering many lost automation technologies. Many were in use by his own forces, in the fighters that escorted him and in the crew of his Tempestavex-pattern Stormbird. Hypax had been wanting to meet with him, but the Crusade had kept him occupied. What Varaxian had been investigating when he went missing, no one could say for sure, he left for parts with little word to others. Whatever Varaxian had been investigating had somehow brought him here. Perhaps, he had more answers than they did, answers that would be welcome.

"Praise be to the Omnissiah indeed. I am Archmagos Reductor Hypax of Ordo Reductor War Covenant D-07. There is much to speak about, Magos Varaxian. Perhaps we might have this discussion in person?" asked Hypax over the secured vox link.

"Of course, I will transmit navigational data to your ship. I eagerly await our conversation, by the Machine God, we have much to discuss," replied Varaxian. Hypax, being connected to the ship's systems, immediately received the coordinates as well. As he perceived their progress through the ship's forward vid array, the path taken by the pilot was overlaid to show their path to their destination.

While the details of the approach were irrelevant, the site in which the ancient vessel was nestled was nothing short of extraordinary. The massive eighteen-kilometer-long vessel had crashed beside a vast lake that looked far smaller in comparison with the grand craft. The vegetation had regrown on the scar in the earth created by the craft's landing, creating a natural camouflage of sorts for the downed craft. If Hypax didn't have the benefit of some of the best sensor technology available to the Mechanicus and the added benefit of already knowing what he was looking for, he would have surely disregarded what he was seeing as unimportant. Former attempts at civilizing the world reclaimed by nature, not a fully functioning self-sustaining marvel of the Omnissiah's bounty hiding in plain sight.

Almost unsurprisingly, it was a hive of activity. The fusion of the created and the natural was genuinely impressive. Ornithopters buzzed around like giant mechanical insects, clinging to towering trees, the recharging stations built into aforementioned trees were almost invisible. He recognized the Formidax Artillery Tanks that tracked his craft from atop the canopy as it made its approach to the hangar. The Formidax were used by many Ordo Reductor War Covenants, his own being no exception. It showed the extent of the cooperation between the Ordo Reductor and Magos Varaxian. Each Explorator had varied relationships with the various factions of the Mechanicus. Varaxian's outlook made him unpopular with many of the traditionalists, but those within the Ordo Reductor could scarcely ignore his results. The crucible of war cared little for tradition, after all, and the Ordo Reductor's primary purpose was to wage war against the enemies of the Omnissiah.

A sense of familiarity returned as the Stormbird touched down inside the hangar. The three Hyperax Interceptor Automata touched down on a pair of heavy clawed feet like giant metal raptors, their forward swept wings folding to create more space for other craft. Varaxian it seemed, was waiting for him. An Agrimensor cadre waited beside him. Varaxian was by no means defenseless. He stood tall on backwards multiple joined armored augmentic legs. Auger scans picked up a pair of deactivated retracted power blades in his arms. A pair of servo-mounted Eradication Beamers extended from the back of his Dragon Scale armor, over which he wore the red robes of the Martian priesthood.

Hypax disengaged from the ship's systems and switched his focus back to the shared data-link between his bodyguards and himself. Taking position at the ramp, he waited till the pilot lowered it. Once the ramp had descended amongst the hiss of hydraulics and the cloud of escaping gasses, so too did he. The first steps on the deck plating sent a shiver up what was left of his spine, it felt too good to be true. Data, however, didn't lie.

Immediately, his bodyguards, the two Conqueror-pattern Battle Automata and four Thallax transmitted a host of targets and firing solutions to him, ranked in order of that which posed the highest threat to them. It was of course, merely a precaution. "Archmagos Hypax, we meet at last." If Varaxian thought anything of the modified Conqueror-pattern Automata chassis which he now resided in, he said nothing.

"Magos Varaxian, you are a sight for sore optical receptors in a strange realm," responded Hypax.

Varaxian seemed to hesitate for a moment, his delay in response signifying this. "Forgive me, Archmagos, your words have failed to correctly parse. Do you mean to say that you are not here as part of a recovery effort?"

Hypax had hoped to have this conversation in person. How else could he explain the sheer lunacy of their situation, and in turn hear the explanation for what he was witnessing? "No, Magos Varaxian, we have arrived here through currently inexplicable means."

There was another delay, as Varaxian no doubt processed this information, "You did not follow our work then? I left information with Archmagos Explorator Vulpine on Stygies VII, he was to tell Mars of the relic in the event that we did not report in at the pre-arranged time."

It was Hypax's turn to be confused now. He knew Stygies VII had the unfortunate habit of dabbling with perhaps more xenos technology than was good for them, but what was this relic? Was it xenos, or a relic of humanity's past? More importantly, what did it have to do with their current predicament? "It is my turn to seek forgiveness, Magos, but did you say relic? What does this relic have to do with this situation we have found ourselves in?"

Varaxian suddenly became very still, "My dear Archmagos Hypax, that relic is the reason we have been stranded here for the last half century."

Leaves more questions than it answers, doesn't it? All will be revealed in due course. Till next time, my readers.