A/N: Yeah... it took me longer than one month... (no shit, Sherlock). I know that I was keeping you waiting, but there were some things that influenced my ability to write. First of all, my PC has gone to hell and I had to reset it, deleting my 90% finished chapter in the process. Fortunately I had a backup on Fanfiction that was about 60% complete. Still it took me some time to bring back my PC to the state from before the reset. Second thing is I was preparing for the exam session. Then there was Christmas... then school again and I basically lost my inspiration a bit. I'm not trying to give excuses. I'm completely aware that I f**ked up, so yeah. You can judge me, I know this is my fault.

Alright, enough of this emotional bullshit. It's not like I'm leaving you forever... right? Anyway, let's get to the important stuff.

REVIEWS:

Shadowhorror: I really enjoyed this chapter keep up the good work :) hope Virox survives the mission.

Thank you very much... as for Virox's survival, don't worry. He'll only be insane for the rest of his life because of that metal thing :D

That being said,

Enjoy!

Collector Base, Shepard's POV

I really hoped we can finish this. After all I planned to tell about this to the Alliance. Everyone gathered around me, including the crew that we freed from the tanks. Even Lil' Anderson sat down next to me and started staring in my eyes. It was always up to me now.

"Joker? Can you get a fix on our position?" I spoke through the comms.

"Roger that, Commander. All those tubes lead into the main control room right above you." pilot replied quickly. "The route is blocked by a security door, but there's another chamber that runs parallel to the one you're in."

"I cannot recommend that." EDI joined the channel. "Thermal emmissions suggest the chamber is overrun with seeker swarms. Mordin's countermeasure cannot protect you against so many at once."

That was something but the seeker swarms were complicating everything. Kinetic barriers wouldn't protect them for long... but maybe the same principle would aid us.

"How about biotics?" I asked as no other ideas were popping up in my head. "Could we create a biotic field to keep them from getting near us?"

"Yes... I think it may be possible." Samara replied after a short while. "I wouldn't be able to protect everyone, but we might be able to get a small team through if they stayed close."

"I could do it too." Miranda added. "In theory every biotic could handle it. Who do you want to maintain the field?"

'In theory...' I repeated in my head and then analyzed every biotic we had in the team.

Miranda and Thane were defianetely off the list. They were using their biotics to enhance their abilities and manipulate the battlefield in their favour to gain the upper hand. How useful it was in battle, there was no guarantee that they would possess enough strength to maintain the field through the whole way.

Jack was completely opposite. She was a heavy hitter that possessed powerful biotic strength and used it in combat as a main source of damage. She would defianetely possess the strength to maintain the field, but from what I observed, her biotics are unpredictable and it would be 'unfortunate' if an incident occured during the way.

Jacob was the closest so far to the 'golden pattern' I was looking for. Quite balanced between the damage and support role, though still falling a bit to the latter. And he was a special operative rather than a front line soldier, similar to Miranda.

And there was finally Samara. In my opinion she was the best choice for this task. As a justicar she used her biotics to equally fight the criminals and protect the innocent, which would suggest that she is equally skilled in using them for both offense and defense.

"Samara and I will take a small team through the seeker swarms." I said. Then I turned to the others. "The rest of you will provide a diversion by going through the main passage. We'll open the security doors from the other side and meet you there." seeing the look on Miranda's face I quickly added "And before you ask Miranda, Garrus will lead the second team."

"Deal with it, cheerleader." I heard Virox from the back.

"I'll keep the defenders busy. You slip around the back." Garrus himself kept his tone moderately serious, though I could hear a bit of satisfaction in his voice. My suspicions were confirmed as he and Virox high-fived eachother and started preparing their weapons for combat.

"What about me and the rest of the crew, Shepard?" Doctor Chakwas asked suddenly. "We're in no shape to fight, and that girl that Virox saved can barely walk."

I cursed myself for forgetting about them. Of course they wouldn't do any good in the fight, but then they couldn't stay here either. Fortunately Joker came to the rescue as he always does.

"Commander? We have enough systems back online to do a pickup, but we'd have to land back from your position."

"We cannot afford to go back, Shepard. Not now." Miranda stated, and it really started to annoy me that she was stating the obvious. Strangely, I felt that I understand why Virox and Jack don't like her.

"I'll have someone escort you to the pickup zone." I calmed everyone down and started to debate who to send.

We needed our heavy-hitters on the field and it was not that the Collectors would bother to pursue this group if we were going to make big noise. All we needed was someone who could safely escort them to the Normandy without taking away too much destructive power from the other team. My choice was narrowed to Thane and Mordin. Then again Mordin was a doctor and giving the current state of the crew, it could be useful to have someone with some medical knowledge to make sure that no one stays behind.

My eyes landed on the salarian doctor and he immediately understood before I could say anything.

"Joker? Need location of landing zone. We'll meet you there." he said into the communicator.

The choices were made. Now I was going to either live with them, or die knowing that I've made the wrong ones. How positive.

"We've all got our assignments. Let's move." I said.

"Kill them all!" Virox shouted to surprise of everyone else and I started to think that this 'split personality' thing he's talking about is legit. Oh whatever, he was always kind of... mentally different.

Virox's POV

Seeing the hateful glare of Miranda just made the whole damn pain I've been through so far worth it. She got denied AGAIN and what's even funnier is that Shepard did it. Not me, not Garrus. Shepard...

'You glorious bastard.' I thought happily as Commander took Kasumi and Jacob with him and vanished behind the door. There was nothing left to do other than join my group as Garrus led us through another door. Oh there was going to be slaughter. I could smell it.

We entered another tight hallway... kinda familiar I must say, but maybe the Collectors are just really unoriginal. It was very quiet and apart from the steps of the squadmates, nothing made noise. I exposed my ears more to the sound so that I could hear better.

And it was a perfect decision. The sound of footsteps of the squad was bouncing off the walls of the hallway, but only to a certain point. And the farther we were walking, the shorter the echo was. Something was ahead.

"Guys..." I whispered as my ears were slowly returning to their normal hearing style. "There is a quite large room up ahead."

"How do you know that?" Miranda asked suspiciously.

"I used your footsteps as a sonar." I anwsered and after recieving a few surprised looks, I added "Similar to the thing that these... bats of yours do, humans."

"Surprised you even know that stuff." Zaeed grumbled.

"Hey, I'm trying to stay educated." I grinned, but Garrus silenced us with his raised hand.

"Stop talking!" he said sharply as the hallway turned left and we saw some crates at the sides of it. Now even without enhancing my hearing I could tell that there was a room up ahead. "Virox was right. Take positions on the flanks."

We did as he said and I looked triumphantly at Miranda, who just shrugged. Pure satisfaction just tickled my Ego.

"Wait for my signal, I'll inform Shepard we're ready." Garrus ordered as I peaked out of cover. Fortunately my visors were still working so I could see things easier.

The room was... well, not a room, but a chamber rather. And a huge one at that. Its walls were covered in these pods we encountered before and the small lights on the ceiling were giving only so much light and giving the whole place a grim look. The floor however was not floor, but dozens of hex-shaped platforms positioned at different heights. This battlefield was full of highgrounds and potential sniper nests, yet when facing the enemy on the same altitude, it gave a lot of different types of cover, from crates through plated wiring of the platforms, to metallic collumns that were present for seemingly unknown reason.

"Damn it." I've heard Garrus grumbling. "The signal is disrupted. Collectors have prepared themselves this time."

"Won't be prepared anymore when we fuck their shit up." Jack replied as she tightened her grip on the shotgun. Her skin flashed with purple for a moment, when she activated her barriers.

"Alright... this is it." my turian friend sighed as he was studying the battlefield too. He had a huge burden on his shoulders now. It was up to him to lead us through here. "When I say go, you run to these covers over there."

"Copy." I nodded and prepared myself mentally for what was about to happen. "On you."

Garrus took a deep breath and then exhaled slowly. There was pure determination in his eyes. I knew he was ready for this, even if others didn't. "GO!"

And then the mayhem has started.

All of us ran out of hiding and started shooting. Collectors who didn't die immediately attempted to take cover, yet some of them were still caught in the rain of fire we unleashed. I noticed two drones on the highground aiming at Grunt who just pumped a shell in some Collector's head. Without a second thought my rifle spewed two energy bolts as I aimed down my sights at the Collectors. They both dropped dead and fell off the ledge they were standing on.

However there were more Collectors on the way, now supported with husk cannon fodder. We couldn't focus on both of these threats simultaneously, yet if we ignored one, it would bite us in the ass sooner or later. Quite literally.

I've noticed a small highground with some cover that was on the left from my position. A perfect sniping spot. My eyes went to Garrus who just punched a thermal clip out of his sniper rifle. He had a hard time trying to keep all the husks away from himself, especially with a weapon he had.

"Garrus!" I opened the comm after hiding behind cover. "There is a decent sniping spot on your ten o'clock!"

"Got it!" turian turned around and moved towards the small hex-shaped platforms that were forming some kind of stairs. "On my way!"

He quickly climbed up as I was providing cover for him and looked through the scope of his rifle. I couldn't pay attention to him anymore, so I focused on taking out the nearest enemies.

The first husk I aimed for got its head completely smoked. Other two fell on the ground with smoking holes in their chests. I could see the heat indicator rising sharply on my HUD as I continued firing.

But then I saw a Scion emerging from the Collector horde. It aimed its "handcannon" at me.

*CRACK*

"In the worst possible moment." I grumbled as I realized how much I hate them right now. But before I could take an aim on the filthy monstrosity, a bullet flew through the air and hit the bags of liquid on the beast's back.

"Hostile engaged!" Garrus smirked to me from his sniping position. Then he looked through the scope again and while I killed another 3 Collector soldiers, he put a bullet right between the Scion's eyes.

*CRACK*

"Show off." I said through the comms but the rest started to move forward, so I couldn't do anything but join them.

As we were advancing and Garrus jumped down from his sniping spot after switching to assault rifle, we started to gain momentum. Most of us stayed behind one cover for no longer than five seconds and while the irregular terrain of the battlefield was slowing us down significantly.

Thane just kicked a husk in the chest so hard, it rolled down to the side of the platform to then fall down to its demise. Legion was picking off Collectors one by one with his sniper rifle, which was clearly annoying Garrus. However the latter stayed cold in the face of the enemy as he shredded through the Abominations and Collector Drones.

Meanwhile I switched to fully automatic mode. My rifle was spitting out energy in deadly volleys as I was happily shooting down enemies. I was about to kill another group of husks, but then my weapon beeped with a warning and my HUD flashed red, indicating that the gun was overheated.

'Shit.' I grumbled and moved forward to cover behind a big crate. From there I would be able to pick off husks one by one using my blades.

But when I was about to press my side to the crate, I've heard a noise behind me. I turned around to stand face to face with a Collector Assassin. It raised his weapon at me quickly. My body reacted instinctively as I pressed my rifle's side to its face and activated heat dispersion. The heat sink popped out and melted the poor bastard's face.

"Eat that you, son-of-a-maggot!" I yelled while still pressing my rifle on the already dead Collector.

After I burned a hole in the face of the Assassin, I've felt multiple weak floor vibrations from behind me (thank goodness for these high-quality military-grade cyber implants).

'Those husks probably.' I thought and my ears only confirmed my suspicions. As I pulled my weapon out of the scorched face on the ground and the first husk got close enough, I swung my cybernetic tail at it while turning around as well, knocking it back several meters. Two other husks walked towards me and I jumped towards the one that was closer. Then I grabbed its head and twisted it 180 degree to the left (my left). The second one had a longer death. It swung at me, which I easily blocked with my left arm and punched it backwards. The poor thing fell on the ground, but I wasn't done. As it tried to stand up, I put my leg on its chest. Husk started swinging its hands in attempt to break free, but I caught them both with ease and started pulling. After roughly one second I was holding the arms sepearated from the body, yet the husk was still screaming. I stomped on its head with a quick "Shut up.", ending its miserable life.

I ran towards the rest of the squad which already advanced around a dozen meters forward. Tali's drone... Chattika if I'm not mistaken, was flying around the battlefield, burning the Collectors behind covers with its flamethrower. Jack just blasted a bunch of husks out of existence, while Zaeed threw an incinerary grenade at the incoming Scion.

I joined the squad and immediately noticed a quite large squad of Collector Drones hiding behind cover dead ahead. Knowing that eliminating them quickly would let us keep the momentum that gave us strength and allowed us to advance faster, I pulled out one of my multi-purpose grenades. Then I set the explosion type to 'singularity' and threw it at the Collectors. As I never saw this new type of explosion, I was waiting impatiently for the results.

And they were beautiful.

When the grenade touched the ground, after a second it launched a tiny singularity next to the unlucky Collectors that just happened to be taking cover there. The mini black hole that was created by the grenade lifted them up, exposing them to the incoming fire. Thane and Legion immediately took the advantage from that fact and picked off the levitating soldiers one by one. Finally after about five seconds the singularity vanished and the dead bodies fell down with a loud 'THUMP'.

"Nice shooting!" Garrus shouted after he himself shot down two Collector soldiers.

'No thank you? Anything?' I thought to myself, but seeing as everyone else ignored me, I shrugged and ran towards the next cover. 'Bunch of assholes.'

Now our momentum wasn't letting us stop, even for cover. We moved so fast that we just ran past some of the husks crawling towards us from below. However... everything that is moving needs to stop at some point, whether it will hit a fluffy pillow (which Carvins DO use too, thank you very much), or a metal wall. Ours was more similar to the second one.

While it let us advance quickly and prevent the Collectors from forming any type of organized resistance, it made us leave the other 'unimportant' enemies alive. And now all of these 'unimportant' enemies piled up into one big horde (as if we haven't seen it before). Although this time I saw my unholy nemesis among them. The Praetorian. They were quite far behind us, but they could reduce distance quickly.

"Fuck! The door is still closed!" Jack grunted after trying to biotically open the door.

"Everyone, take cover!" Garrus shouted.

"There isn't much cover here." I pointed out. We were right in front of the door where the only cover was created by the curves of the walls. Aside from that we were exposed.

Garrus was sweating, either from exhaustion (which was doubtful, as I know him well) or stress. The life of the team depended equally on him, Shepard and Samara. He had no choice but to wait for Shepard with us.

"The least durable will take cover. The rest tries stay as far from others as possible. We need to hold on until Shepard arrives." he finally ordered. "Tali, Thane and Miranda! Go take cover!"

Surprisingly all of them obeyed. This was a good call. We could tank the damage, but they would quickly get themselves killed if exposed.

*CRACK*

Now it was time to let the Collectors experience some true pain. I set my rifle back to the semi-automatic mode. After these few personality swaps I realized that I'm more effective with semi-automatic while serious and more with automatic when being a giggly bitch. This time it was precision that would win the day.

I kneeled on one of my knees to stabilize my position and reduce the general exposure to fire, even if it was a small change. The screeching of Collector Drones and moans of the husks were getting louder and louder. Now we were just waiting for them to come.

Garrus' POV

'Damn it, Shepard! Where are you?' I thought as the seemingly never-ending horde of Collectors was pushing at us. Though at the beggining we could easily take out the incoming hostiles, their sheer amount made prioritizing targets even more important.

I shot one of the Collector Assassins that was just charging his particle rifle. The shrieks of the dead were filling our ears with the sound of our weapons firing. My barriers were now on 67% and didn't have time to regenerate as the wave of fire was constantly wearing it down. The status of others varied on their position, weapons... and biology. Thane, Tali and Miranda were quite fine, considering they were taking cover. Zaeed kept laying down fire with his M-8 Avenger insulting the Collectors in so many creative ways I couldn't understand most of it. Jack kept using her biotics to either tear the enemies apart or blast them into the air. Grunt was laughing like a child he is while unleashing devastating full auto from his rifle. Legion switched to his rifle too and kneeled down to make himself as small target as possible, since geth, while having extraordinary strong shields, were quite soft targets after these went down.

Only Virox was calm. He was precise now. Each of his shots landed perfectly hitting the incoming husks in the heads. He was his other self now. Heartless. Emotionless. Deadly. His shields were already down, but I was still amazed how he tanked a shot after shot, just flinching a bit every time he was hit. His armor was a wreck, his cybernetic limbs had multiple dents and cracks, yet he just stood there, doing what he was trained to do his whole life. Kill.

"Shepard, come in!" I called through the comms again. "Shepard, where are you!?"

And the voice of relief rang through my head as the reply came.

"We're coming!" Commander said with determination that I barely noticed through the overwhelming amount of fire directed at us. "Where are you?"

"We're pinned down by the door! Need immediate backup! " I screamed and immediately after that my shields failed. Multiple bullets hit me at the same time and I felt incredible pain in my side.

"Garrus wounded!" Virox shouted as he ran to stand in front of me. "Pull back! The door will be open soon!"

And as if he called it perfectly, the doors opened revealing Shepard, Samara, Jacob and Kasumi who started laying down cover fire for us to get in.

"GO!" Virox screamed through his shoulder as he was still shielding me with himself. I quickly turned around and ran through the door as the rest of the team was already there.

I quickly ran inside followed closely by my Carvin friend and the door got shut by Samara. I leaned against the wall, holding my side. It hurt, but I lived through worse. After all I took a missile to the face. Shepard approached me to check if everything was alright, but I already felt that pain was slowly becoming less noticable.

The others were moderately fine... except Virox of course. How was it that he always was 'not like everyone else' I had no idea. As others were still panting from exhaustion, but were mostly intact, Virox was bleeding from his torso, his cybernetic limbs were badly damaged, yet he was standing there as calmly as his current state was allowing him to. His physical endurance was continuing to amaze me like when he was taking these shots for me to escort me to the rest of the team.

"Holy shit, you sure can take a lot, man." Jack panted with exhaustion while leaning on a wall nearby.

Carvin didn't reply. His second personality was creeping me out, but I couldn't deny how powerful and deadly it made him. Still I liked him more when he was the happy-go-lucky alien that treated the battlefield like his own personal playground.

"Joker? Are you at the rendezvous point?" I've heard Shepard next to me. At least his team went out of this hell without major wounds.

"I'm here, Commander." we've heard a reply, since we were all connected to the same frequency at the moment. "Chakwas and the rest of the crew just showed up."

"Mordin's group just arrived, Shepard. No casualties." EDI added and I let out a sigh of relief. I didn't doubt doctor's combat abilities, but I also didn't doubt those of the Collectors. After all they had a drastic numerical advantage and the crew that Mordin was escorting was incapable of fighting.

"Excellent. Now let's make it count." Miranda said. "EDI, what's our next step?"

"There should be some nearby platforms that should take you to the main control console." AI replied. "From there you can overload the system and destroy the base."

An idea of flying through the giant corridors of the Collector Base wasn't very appealing to me, since the Collectors outnumbered us... a lot to one, had technological advantage, and would probably outflank us sooner or later.

"Uh, Commander? You've got a problem." Joker joined. I was tired of bad news but nobody said it was going to be easy. "Hostiles messing just outside the door. Won't be long 'till they bust through."

Shepard let out a sigh. I noticed that it was full of pain, but not surprise. Like if nothing would catch him off guard right now. Not after everything that we've gone through. He climbed up onto the platform that was to take the team to the main control console.

"A rear guard could defend this position and keep the Collectors from overwhelming us." he said with determination. It was not pleading or begging. He knew that we wouldn't abandon him, especially now. And he was not wrong. Not after what he did for all of us.

"Pick a team to go with you, Shepard. Everyone else can bunker down here and cover your back." Miranda said like if it was just another procedure. I kind of felt pity for her. She was raised by a very demanding father that expected her to obey without question. Yet despite her escape to Cerberus, the organization only strengthened this obedience and following of protocols.

Commander gazed upon the whole team. I was kind of wishing to be selected, but Shepard needed fast and elusive (no, not Illusive) companions on this one. They needed to get to the console fast to then blow up the station. Giving that, I wouldn't be fit for that task at all. Finally Shepard's eyes landed on Kasumi. She nodded slightly, while Commander turned his head towards... Miranda. She too understood the nonverbal message and both of them climbed on the platform. I was amazed how we all know Shepard so good that we can just look at eachother and understand. Virox was looking pretty satisfied with the Commander's choice. I could almost hear him saying 'Well, one less annoyance to worry about' and couldn't help but chuckle mentally. Shepard's dog, that was surprisingly quiet and hard to notice overall now jumped onto the platform to join the squad.

"Anything to say before we do this?" Miranda asked.

Shepard took off his helmet. It was again the speech time, yet again no one said anything. I swear I felt warmth emanating from him that made me feel hope. Hope that we will make it out of here alive.

"The Collectors, the Reapers - they aren't a threat to us. They are a threat to everything. Everyone. Those are the lives we're fighting for. That's the scale." he said with a strong voice that echoed through the chamber we were in. "It's been a long journey. And no one is coming out without scars. But it all comes down to this moment. Unity is the best weapon we have against them. We leave this place together, or we bury ourselves with it. We can depend on eachother. Together we will reach for the victory and take it. So make me proud. Make yourselves proud."

And for once, after a speech, nobody said a word. Even Virox's personality seemed to have switched to the dead serious one. The platform lifted off and headed towards the heart of the station. We looked at eachother. Each and every one of us. Yet no one showed any signs of fear. It was more like an acceptance of what was inevitable. We all knew that this could be a one-way trip. So if the Collectors wanted to bring us down, we'd pull them down with us.

We started to take anything lying around and forming barricades out of it. Crates, scrap, hell Virox even used his cybernetic implants to tear off the metal plating from the walls. We wouldn't be more ready. All of us took their positions. All of us were silent. Stone cold on the outside, but terrified on the inside. The Collectors were close to getting in. We tightened the grips on our weapons which were aimed at the door. I could hear the heartbeats of Zaeed and Jack next to me. Despite what Shepard said, we would never be deprived of fear. It would always be there. It's in our nature.

The doors were almost breached and the breaths of the whole squad could be heard echoing through the chamber. Did we have any doubts? Doubts of surviving this battle? Doubts of seeing our friends and families again? Doubts of our own loyalty to the team? Perhaps but no one said a word.

Not when the last battle for the Collector Base was about to begin.

Not when the sparks started to come from the doors.

And not when the Collectors have opened fire.

Not a word.

Normandy, No-one's POV

Despite the Collector forces being on high alert, the area around the ship was quiet. Not a single patrol passed near the Normandy, which calmed down the crew inside. Mordin, along with Doctor Chakwas, who was the fastest to recover from the shock, were now helping the other members of the crew and the colonist that Virox saved. The girl needed medical attention in particular as the nanobots from the pod started to dissolve her skin when she was rescued.

"Doctor Chakwas, we need more medi-gel." Mordin said as Lilith was lying in the infirmary. She was knocked out to not feel all the pain.

"Right away profesor." Chakwas replied, still having trouble with keeping balance. She administered the healing salve with her omni-tool. The girl's skin looked really bad. In some parts of her arms the meat was exposed and the whole body was generally under a high risk of infection.

Other members of the crew weren't much better, Joker included. He was sitting in the cockpit leaning on his arm and his hand scratching his face. He was no soldier. Heck, he could barely walk. The only thing he could do was flying. And he was damn good at it. But right now, when his only skill was close to useless, he felt frustrated. He desperately wanted to help in some way, but what could he do? If he tried to run at the Collectors, his legs would break halfway to his target IF he wasn't going to get shot.

"Jeff, something wrong?" EDI appeared on her terminal. She has become more... human after he unshackled her. He couldn't decide if that was a good thing or a bad thing. She was now more carrying, having almost "motherly" attitude at times.

"No." he lied, but then he realized that she KNOWS that something is wrong if she asks. "It's just... I feel useless now. I mean we're just sitting there waiting for Shepard to come back. And he needs every help he can get, yet we cannot do anything."

For once after such anwser EDI remained silent, which only made him more curious about the changes that occured in her. Maybe she was thinking about the anwser. Or mabye she thought the same way. It was impossible to tell.

Joker thought about everything that happened between him, Shepard and the crew in general. He remembered the time when the Eden Prime shitstorm was told to be just a routine mission, yet he knew better. The time when they chased Saren. The Battle of Citadel. The destruction of the first Normandy and the death of Shepard. His resurrection. The Carvins. And the formation of the suicide squad.

Virox once told him that all memories can and should be helpful in some way. And that they just had to look for the positivities in them. Now it was clear what he meant. All these memories showed that they were moving forward. They were giving them hope. And the death and resurrection of Shepard only proved that the Reapers wouldn't stop them. They were going to fight and win.

"You are correct, Jeff." EDI suddenly replied. "We are not of any help for the Commander now. However, if the plan succeeds, but Commander and the team die, we are the only ones left to tell what happened and prepare the galaxy for the Reaper invasion."

'Wow. That was deep for an AI.' Joker thought.

"Joker! Prep the engines! I'm about to overload this place and blow it sky high!" sudden voice of Shepard has thrown him out of his contemplations.

"Roger that, Commander." he immediately obeyed and started warming up the engines for the evacuation. But then something started glowing on the comm terminal in the cockpit. It was a request for a highly encrypted transmission. The source was obvious. "Uh, Commander? I've got an incoming signal from the Illusive Man. EDI's patching it through."

But the transmission wasn't shown to him and EDI apparently didn't bother to disrupt the privacy between Shepard and the Illusive Man. Joker didn't know what the Illusive Man wanted, but from past experiences he knew that such transmissions during missions meant that something isn't right.

"Normandy? Ground team to Normandy! Do you copy!?" turian voice asked through the comms.

"We hear you, ground team!" Joker immediately replied. "What's wrong?"

"We're moving towards your location, but there is a lot of Collector forces chasing us!" Garrus replied, while panting heavily. It was obvious that they were running towards the ship. "Just be ready for a quick pickup!"

"Roger." Joker quickly ended the transmission and turned on the speakers on the ship. "OK, everybody hold on! We're gonna pick up the ground team, so get ready for a bumpy ride!"

Ground team, Virox's POV

Holding the line by the door was easy at first. The Collectors just ran at us and increased the size of the pile of bodies that formed at the doorway, making it harder for them to get in. But when the heavy support came in, things started to get a bit interesting. I don't remember much from that moment. I only remember that my body wasn't just a walking shell for my brain and soul. It was a tool of death and destruction. It switched into an instinctive and almost automatic type of response. Fire a couple of shots, take cover, switch to automated fire, spray the doorway from behind cover, switch back to semi-automatic, repeat. But not all of us had infinite ammo, and I only had two weapons at my disposal. I gave my pistol to Thane after temporarily turning off the security measures after he ran out of ammo. But we were going to die sooner or later if we stayed there.

Fortunately Shepard ordered us to return to the Normandy and Joker was going to land the Normandy somewhere behind us so that we wouldn't need to go through the endless horde of Collectors that was flooding us. Garrus was coordinating the defense and when the time came to retreat, he, Grunt, Samara and I have stayed for a while to cover the retreat of the more vulnerable members of our team.

I told myself that I won't die. I told myself that I will get out of here alive with my friends. And that was probably one of the few things that was still keeping me alive. My armor was a mess. My shields couldn't regenerate under the constant volley of fire from the Collectors. My left arm had problems with responding to my commands at moments. I was bleeding and could feel at least three places in which my bones were broken. Yet in this hell, where I could die any second now, I felt alive. I felt alive in my natural element. Combat.

And my personality was a whole now. Maybe for a moment but it was one of the most precious moments in my life. Many soldiers in the army said to have had what humans call "Catharsis" in some very hopeless moments. They have accepted their fate and fought only to take as much enemies to the grave with them as possible. And I remember feeling something like that only once. During the Battle for Travalaan, where around 60 000 000 soldiers had died. I was ready to die. I would embrace it if I had to. If it meant saving my friends. I could feel that the will to sacrifice myself for the others was in my nature. My deep primitive nature. Nature that Carvins embrace, not flee from.

"Alright people, we gave them some time!" Garrus shouted through the noises of the firefight and explosions. "Time for us to leave now!"

"For once I won't argue with that!" Grunt... grunted.

We started running towards the rest of the team, while blindly shooting behind us. After a moment we saw the Normandy's side door opened with our teammates standing in it with their weapons ready. The Collectors were still chasing us, but nothing would keep us away from the ship. I felt like if I wasn't running. I was flying. And after jumping above a small gap between the cliff and the Normandy I landed on the metallic floor. In half a second I turned around, almost hitting Tali with my cybernetic tail. Samara was the second to reach the ship, but then the Collector forces have reached us and started shooting. We have welcomed them with our own wall of fire and destruction as Grunt jumped in as well. Garrus as the leader stayed at the back, but he too managed to reach the ship intact.

"All onboard! Joker, get us out!" he shouted and the Normandy soon lifted off, leaving the Collectors with empty hands.

We ran inside and into the cockpit, where Joker was maneuvering the ship.

"Where's Shepard?" someone shouted, I couldn't tell who, as felt dizzy suddenly.

"He's still in the heart of the station." pilot anwsered while moving his hands rapidly to control the ship. "He should be-"

But he was cut off as the ship got hit by a shockwave. The whole station just got hit by something big and heavy.

"The scans suggest that Commander and his team have sharply moved towards the lower levels of the station." EDI said. "I can pinpoint a pickup zone near their position."

"Whatever this shockwave was, probably knocked them down a few levels." I noted, while trying to maintain balance. The exhaustion was taking its toll on me.

"They are not moving from their current position." AI added. "The Collectors are about to overrun the area."

I then realized what happened. They were either dead, wounded, or unconcious. Joker seemed to understand too as he lifted the ship and headed towards the pickup zone.

"Commander? Commander are you there? Do you copy? Commander?" he shouted with a desperate voice. "Come on, Shepard, don't leave me hanging? Do you copy?"

We all waited for the reply. It felt like minutes, yet it was a mere second.

"I'm here, Joker." the reply came and everyone sighed with relief. "Did the ground team make it?"

"Yep, we're just waiting for you." I anwsered before Joker could even say a word.

EDI has displayed a map of the Collector Base and we saw that Shepard's team started to move towards us. Joker just moved the ship through a tight opening to then enter quite a big chamber.

"EDI, take the controls." he said then stood up right after that and took the M-8 Avenger from Grunt. "Give me that." Then he went to the Normandy's airlock.

I was quick to join him and finally noticed Shepard's team running towards the ship with the Collectors on their tail. Joker started firing at the incoming Drones and I did the same. First came the dog. It jumped on the metal floor of the ship then turned around towards Shepard and started whimper as if it was afraid that he won't make it. Then there was Kasumi that was actually invisible and just hit me by accident. Miranda was the third to get in, but then a platform fell from above, knocking some of the ground from the cliff that served as a ramp. Shepard was running towards us, but he would have to make a long jump. It was going to be hard, especially with the Collectors on his back.

When he was close enough, he jumped. It was a damn long jump but he managed to grab himself. I used my superior strength of implants to quickly pull him up. We quickly got in as EDI started the countdown.

"Detonation in 9, 8, 7, 6-"

"Yeah yeah I get it. Hold on!" Joker said as he limped towards the pilot seat.

The station was clearly not going to hold much longer. Normandy was some distance away from the base, but when the explosion erupted, the wave of destruction was right behind us. But as it was about to hit us, we jumped into FTL.

Everyone let out a sigh of relief and I felt that exhaustion was taking over. Shepard said something about having a chat with the Illusive Man, but I was so tired I barely even heard it. I somehow managed to reach the deck 3. Then I collapsed on the chair. The Reapers were coming, but if I was to fight them in such state, I'll say Thank you but no. And then a certain turian sat on the chair next to me and exhaled deeply. So I wasn't the only one completely exhausted. I let out a quiet chuckle before the sleep finally got me.

EPILOGUE

And as Normandy Sr-2 flew through the endless darkness of space, there was still light in the hearts of the whole crew. The Collectors were gone.

Although that didn't mean that it was time for celebration. The Reapers were going to find out about the destruction of their forces in the Milky Way and immediately begin their journey back to harvest all the advanced sentinent life in the galaxy. The end was coming.

As for the crew of the Normandy, some of them needed to leave just after the suicide mission. Virox was given an order to immediately report to the Carvin High Command and give all the available information on the Reapers and Collectors. Shepard was disappointed but left him on one of the outer colonies of the Carvin Empire. As he was leaving, Virox promised to keep in touch and exchange all the information that he will be allowed to, and then slowly walked away towards his fellow soldiers who escorted him to the shuttle that was going to take him back to Carvistorn.

Garrus also left earlier. A few days after Virox. He wanted to prepare the Turian Hierarchy for the inevitable return of the Reapers as well, or at least focus his efforts on improving the turian defenses.

Others left sooner or later. Tali went back to the Migrant Fleet, Legion vanished in the Perseus Veil, Grunt decided to stay on Tuchanka, Mordin returned to the STG and Samara left to spread justice in the Asari space. Thane after a lot of convincing decided to stay on the Citadel in the Huerta Memorial Hospital, Zaeed left to look for a new job, while Kasumi and Jack didn't return to the Normandy after one visit to the Citadel. Though it was likely that they went their separate ways after that.

Being alone on the ship felt boring for Shepard as the days have passed without much interesting things happening. Although that changed with the transmission from Admiral Hackett telling him about the Project Base. This immediately increased the morale of the whole crew as they had a mission again. A mission and a purpose.

However not everything was going well in the Milky Way. The galactic tension was rising and rising as Carvins started their massive fortification and armament program. The planets located closer to the Mass Relays were most heavily defended at the moment, while the massive Carvin shipyards were relentlessly working on finishing the Carvin Ark and building multiple ships each week, mostly cruisers and frigates. The conscription was increased and multiple obligatory training sessions were organized on multiple core and border worlds of the Carvin Empire. Many smaller colonies have been ordered to expand their garrisons and increase the number of soldiers on active duty. And after recieving a lot of eezo from the Elcor, the net comm buoys was created in the Carvin Empire as a second way of communicating, since it didn't exist before. Carvins started to temporarily transform their industry to fit their current war economy while the fleets have been put on high alert near the borders, yet not directly in the border systems.

The Council reacted immediately with outrage and took it as preparation for war, yet they only possessed information about some of the borders as not all of them were within the reach of Mass Relays. Besides, their military forces couldn't affect Carvins in any very impactful way as most of the colonies were positioned outside the range of Mass Relays. Carvin ambassador Zayan Te'Kraan replied to these accusations with the following words: "If you cannot see, or refuse to admit the inevitable threat that is to arrive in our galaxy, then we have no bussiness with you. We shall die together, yet it will be us who will die last." Surprisingly to all races, Human councilor David Anderson defended the Carvin actions, as he stated that the recent events, beggining from the Battle for Citadel, through abduction of Human colonists, to finally invasion on Carvin colony, are not coincidental. That was positively recieved by the Carvin Empire and Zayan Te'Kraan described the human councilor as "A politician who doesn't fear the truth. A man of action. These are the traits that we Carvins admire and traits that councilors of other races lack". Turian councilor's pride seemed to have been deeply hurt, but he remained silent after the statement.

Despite the political tension related to Carvins, they managed to find another comfortable zone for them in Citadel space. It was in the C-Sec and other security organizations. While Citadel usually remains a peaceful place, there are places even there that the police is scared to go to. A group of Carvins, freshly after a year of training in the Empire, volounteered to deal with a local Blue Suns gang. It was a gang large enough to make the security avoid the area. The officers of the C-Sec were unwilling to assist them at first, but when the Carvins convinced the fleet stationing over the Citadel to temporary grant the young Carvins weapons, they finally agreed. Although they warned them that if the granted weapons were to be used inappropriately, the whole Carvin Empire would be in trouble. After two hours of constant firefights Carvins managed to completely eliminate the Blue Suns by either subduing or killing its members. Only a few civilians recieved minor wounds, but there was no other casualties aside from the Blue Suns. The high-ranking turian C-Sec officer was so impressed by the effectiveness of the Carvin volounteers that he send a request to the Citadel Council to allow the Carvins to join the security. This was met with a bit of resistance as the Council was unwilling to approve, but in the face of a problem like gangs threatening the people of the Citadel, they ultimately had little choice. Carvins themselves reacted quite calmly, though they didn't hide their satisfaction and happiness as the C-Sec offices were flooded by the Carvins inhabiting the Citadel, each and every one of them wanted to sign up to the C-Sec. Multiple private Carvin security organizations were created shortly after

The rumors about the return of the Reapers started spreading across the galaxy, and while a great majority thinks of them as conspiracy theories only, some races started to take them seriously. Carvins were making the most visible changes, as most of their Empire has started 'early mobilization' in their space and the military was fully aware of what was now known about the Reapers, but the Salarian STG agents began their research in attempt of verifying if the rumors can have some truth in them. The Alliance, under Commander Shepard's constant pressure decided to slowly prepare for any potential offensive, though the human officers weren't quite convinced if what Shepard says is completely true. Other races didn't quite believe the rumors, but seeing their neighbours arming themselves, they couldn't do anything but join them and start their own armament projects.

As the Andromeda Initiative has been preparing to launch the Arks towards the Andromeda Galaxy, it came as completely unexpected surprise that Carvin Ark showed up on the ceremony right on time, under the command of Carvin High General Yuvaans Le'Ziin, the most skilled of all the High Generals when it came to expansion and colonization. Then Carvin Ark took its place besides its sisters and the Nexus, to then vanish into FTL in its long journey towards the Andromeda. Yet no one noticed that in the neighbouring system a small flotilla of ships slipped into FTL in pursuit of the Arks.

This was the beggining of a new era for the Milky Way, though it turned out to be not as positive as everyone would have thought.

Each and every member of Normandy crew, whether human or not, carried a burden now. A burden to help prepare the Galaxy for what was coming.

And it was Death that was coming.

A/N: So there it is. The end of first story. I must say I'm impressed that it actually was as popular as it was. Of course it wasn't perfect and I will re-write some of the first chapters, but overall I'm happy. I'll try to start the sequel ASAP, but after the recent... delay I don't want to make promises. Thank you again and see you in the next stories. Carry on!

Bonker out!