I don't own Mass Effect or its characters.

Author's Note: Made a few spelling, grammar, and spacing fixes on previous chapters. It shouldn't have affected the content of the story, so you don't have to go back and read them... unless you want to. Enjoy the new chapter, and please review!

Sorry about the lateness of this chapter. I got sidetracked on a different story, and couldn't focus on this again until I'd written a satisfactory amount on the new story. On the upside, I've written over 150 pages of material for a few other stories.

One of them is much lighter in tone than this work (especially this chapter). So if you like my writing style, but don't like where this story is going, you can find the other story I'm actively writing over on Spacebattles, under the same username.

Chapter 5: Control

The rush through Horizon was a gauntlet of alternating tension and chaos. Whole sections of the colony were simply empty, and devoid of any life. Running through those areas was a source of constant tension for the team. They didn't have the liberty to check all the houses and warehouses along the way, so everyone was on high alert for ambushes as they sped through the streets.

On occasion, that tension broke when Shepard's team came across a group of Collectors and husks transporting colonists in stasis pods. When that happened, the team would split up and dive for cover. Then the area would descend into the chaos of battle until the opposition was defeated, and Shepard's team could patch themselves up and move on.

The only enemies they encountered were the Collector drones and husks, so the team was able to quickly adapt to the tactics of their near-thoughtless enemies. Each encounter became easier for them, and they became more aggressive with their own tactics. They were desperate to reach the Collector ship and stop it before it could get away.

Their desperation mounted when they came across the first signs of people that weren't locked up in stasis pods. Unfortunately, these people were still locked in a strange form of Biotic Stasis. Regardless of where the person had been when they were attacked by the Collectors' seeker swarms, they were now frozen in that position. Even someone that had been leaping down a flight of steps was suspended in the air, several feet above the stairs he had been trying to bypass.

The Biotics of the group took a moment to marvel at the amount of power that the seekers were generating, to keep so many people in stasis for such a long time. Any admiration for the powers of their enemies quickly turned to horror when eye movement from one of the frozen civilians revealed that the captured people were still conscious. They were frozen in place and couldn't help but watch as, one by one, the people around them had been loaded into pods and carted away.

The vanguard team pushed on, despite the horrors behind them.

Finding a way to free the civilians would have to be left for Mordin. Their task still loomed ahead of them.

:break:

They quickened their pace as they moved into a large open area that separated the residential district from a number of warehouses and the beginning of the industrial district.

The group stopped when a loud buzzing filled the air.

Quickly, they all took cover and attempted to find the source of the noise.

They didn't have to wait long, as three Collectors flew into the area on dragonfly-like wings that extended from their backs.

The three creatures landed heavily in the middle of the clearing and raised their guns to sight towards where the team was taking cover.

Jack was about to dash across the ground to take one of the Collectors before it could move to cover, but held herself back when she heard one of the drones begin to emit a high pitched hum. The entire team ducked down as the drone in question grasped its head and its chest began to glow with a molten light.

"I am assuming direct control." A chilling voice echoed across the area, and Jack felt a shiver go down her back.

The glowing drone reared its head back and began to float off the ground, suspended by the same Biotic light that seemed to be burning its way through the creature's chest. Quickly, the molten light began to spread throughout the drone's body, appearing on the surface as cracks of fiery radiance that burned and blackened the skin around it.

A burst of glowing molten energy consumed the drone, before tapering off into blazing tendrils that quickly faded away. What was left behind was a charred husk of the drone, but one that was lit from within by whatever sinister energy had invaded its body.

The burnt husk slowly descended to the ground and turned its face towards where the team was taking cover. The formerly vacant eyes of the drone were now lit with the same molten energy that had reduced much of its body to cinders. The creature's eyes now scanned its surroundings until it spotted Shepard.

"You will know pain, Shepard." The creepy voice once again carried across the battlefield.

Then, disregarding cover, the glowing Collector began to walk towards the team as the other two Collectors began to take turns firing in the team's direction, forcing everyone to stay in cover.

"You cannot resist."

Jack snorted as the glowing creature made another proclamation as it meandered towards their position. She glanced over her cover and compared the locations of the Collectors on the field. The normal ones with guns hadn't moved from their initial locations at the far side of the area. If she moved now, she could get up close to the glowing one, and its body would block line of sight from the normal ones.

"The glowing blowhard is mine." She announced over the sound of the Collector gunfire. She got a few looks from the team, but no one moved to stop her.

Grinning, she primed her Barriers and jumped out from behind the low barricade she had been using for cover.

One of the normal Collectors noticed her and turned its sights onto her.

Before the enemy could squeeze off a shot, Jack had already compressed herself into a Biotic Charge, and was shooting across the battlefield.

Her trip was a short one, since the glowing Collector had already made slow progress towards where Shepard's team was bunkered down. When she came to a halt, the extra energy of her Charge slammed into her target, and splashed against its Barriers in an impressive display of lights.

Jack immediately followed up with a series of shallow slashes with her blade. Against an unshielded opponent, these cuts were intended to bleed an opponent. Against the Collector's strong Barriers though, Jack had learned that shallow cuts would tear away chunks of their Barriers without slowing her sword overmuch. It was a strategy Jack had figured out during her time on Horizon, and had allowed her to quickly dispatch a number of Collectors up to this point.

Unfortunately, whatever process the Collector went through that made it look like it had gone through a kiln also gave it a significant boost to its already ridiculous Barriers. Jack's cuts left visible trails of light in the air as if scoring marks into the Collector's Barrier, but there was no telltale flash of light to indicate the collapse of said Barriers.

In fact, the glowing Collector didn't seem to acknowledge her attack at all. It simply continued walking forwards, forcing Jack to step back quickly to stay in front of it.

For a second, the six insectoid eyes seemed to focus on her and the voice spoke again, this time clearly resonating from the glowing Collector before her.

"This feeble shell does not matter."

Immediately, the two normal Collectors began firing on her, heedless of the fact that most of the shots were hitting their glowing comrade.

Their lack of concern didn't help Jack, as each shot that managed to make it to her took a significant chunk out of her Barrier.

She couldn't retreat, since there was only open ground behind her, so she took the only option available and stepped up even closer to the Collector before her.

She was no longer being hit as much, but she was also far too close to make effective use of her sword. Not to mention that she was now acting as a shield for the Collector, and preventing her team from taking shots at the damn thing's big, glowing head.

"Take out the covering units!" Shepard's voice called out over their communicators.

The sounds of various mass accelerated weapons rang out behind her, and between one of Jack's steps and the next, the other Collectors fell. The wall of bullets that had been keeping her pinned in vanished, and Jack began to dance back away from the glowing Collector, hitting it with a weak Warp to keep it from recovering its Barriers.

"Pathetic." The Collector's cold voice echoed out from the charred frame before her. Suddenly, the creature generated a brilliant, glowing aura of golden light.

Jack barely had time to squint her eyes against the sudden brightness before the aura surged towards her and struck with an overwhelming Biotic Push.

The strike crushed her remaining Barriers and threw her back across the battlefield.

Her left shoulder smashed into a low cement wall before she tumbled over the obstruction and across the ground.

"Jack! Status!" She heard Shepard say through her comm. She started to push herself up, but quickly aborted that action when she felt pain wash over her left side. She ended up replying to Shepard's request with an eloquent string of curses over the team channel.

"That means she's fine." Kasumi translated for her, to which Jack cursed in agreement.

Her omnitool beeped once and she felt a surge of cool numbness spread through her body.

She moaned in relief as she felt her suit release Medigel into her body. "Whoever just activated my suit's Medigel, I owe you a drink." She said in a relaxed drawl as she carefully pushed herself up to her knees.

"I'll take you up on that when we're not being shot at." She heard Shepard reply.

Jack reactivated her Barriers, and slowly shuffled up to the concrete wall which had done terrible things to her shoulder, but was an excellent source of cover for the moment.

Glancing over the wall, she could see that the glowing Collector, still fine, and still making a beeline for where Shepard was in cover. The air around it flickered with blue light, indicating that her Warp was still in effect, for all that it was doing to the thing's Barriers.

Unfortunately, the thing was now throwing out orange Biotic orbs. Shaking Shepard's cover and keeping the team crouched down to avoid the crazy powerful Biotic techniques that were flying through the air.

"Miranda!" Shepard called out. "Detonate that Warp!"

Jack watched as Miranda ducked out of cover long enough to throw a Biotic orb at the approaching abomination. She then dove back into cover, barely avoiding an incredibly powerful Shockwave effect.

Her aim was true though, and her Biotic orb collided with the glowing Collector, causing a Biotic detonation, staggering the thing for a moment.

A moment which the team took full advantage of to step out of cover and unload mass accelerated rounds into their target.

Grunt abandoned cover entirely as he sprinted across the field, unloading his shotgun until it was empty.

With practiced grace, he dropped the spent cooling cell and loaded in a fresh one without breaking stride. He even managed to unleash a few more shots as he covered the ground between him and the Collector.

He then did the most krogan thing possible, and shoulder checked the bug creature.

The Collector's Barrier flashed once and vanished, surprising everyone in the field. The creature stumbled back a step and raised its hand to unleash a powerful Shockwave at Grunt.

The krogan shouted and seemed to resist being thrown back by sheer force of will as waves of force threatened to overwhelm him.

When the effect passed him, Grunt stepped forward, brought his gun up, and fired point blank into the creature's face, blowing out a good chunk of its skull.

The team watched from cover as the glow began to fade from the creature, and its extremities began to break down into flakes of ash.

"This shell is only a vehicle." The cold voice echoed from the dissolving body one more time before the burnt out shell collapsed into a pile of ash.

Grunt kicked the pile, scattering the ashes. He then holstered his weapon and walked over to where Jack was now standing, holding her left arm.

"That one counts as mine." He growled.

Jack breathed slowly as her adrenaline and Medigel addled brain registered his words.

"That's fair."

:break:

Jack hissed in pain as she peeled off the upper part of her suit, exposing her injured shoulder. She then cried out as Kasumi began prodding her in the back, directly on her wound, in a less than tender fashion.

"Well..." Kasumi said morosely. She then stuck her hand around in front of Jack to show that it was covered in Jack's blood. "It seems that you're going to die. I know you signed on with the idea that we would be going on dangerous missions, but I didn't expect you to go down on our first outing."

Jack reached over with her right hand and slapped away the bloody appendage.

"How does it look?" She asked, disregarding Kasumi's initial 'diagnosis'.

Kasumi reached into a nearby wall mounted medkit and retrieved a few disposable wet towels and began to wipe away the blood from Jack's back. She grabbed another one and used it to wipe the blood from her hands as she looked over Jack's back and shoulder.

"Bruised to all hell." Kasumi said in a sour voice. "The Medigel closed up the skin tear, so you're not bleeding anymore. No broken bones, which is lucky. More Medigel should have you patched up in a few minutes. Then it will just be an issue of cleaning the blood out of your suit, and getting your bodily fluids topped up when we get back to the ship."

Kasumi reached back to the medkit and retrieved a Medigel syringe before stabbing it into Jack's wounded shoulder.

Jack tensed at the prick of the syringe, but relaxed as the pain in her body was replaced by the numb feeling of the Medigel going to work. She languished in the feeling for a moment before she picked up her own set of medical towels and began to clean the blood out of her suit with her good arm.

While cleaning, she listened with half an ear as Shepard tried to gather information from the only non-petrified civilian they had managed to find so far. The civilian's fear was apparent to all as his voice wavered between quiet whispers and loud shouts that echoed around the warehouse they were resting in.

Jack would have preferred that the man didn't spend half his time blaming his problems on the Alliance, and instead got to the damn point in explaining what was going on.

She glanced over at Grunt, who was glaring at the back door of the warehouse. Clearly he was more interested in going outside and shooting things than listening to this civilian whine.

Finally, Shepard stepped away from the civilian, and the man huddled back behind the boxes where they found him. He was still muttering about the Alliance and taxes and the government taking his guns away, but Shepard was clearly ignoring him, so everyone else tuned him out as well.

Jack wiped up the last of the blood she could find and pulled her suit all the way back on.

She grimaced as she felt her skin rub up against slick or sticky sections of suit, clearly indicating that she hadn't caught everything. She resolved to get it cleaned back on the Normandy, but she would have to deal with the discomfort for now.

She began to stretch out her left arm as she walked over to meet Shepard and the rest of the team in the middle of the warehouse. The Medigel had done its work, and she only felt an occasional twinge as she tested the mobility of her arm, but she was sure the pain would pass shortly.

"Here's what we've got." Shepard said as the team circled up. "The Alliance recently set up an outpost here after the recent string of colonies being attacked. They even set up GARDIAN Laser Turrets for aerospace defense."

Garrus let out a low whistle. "That's a lot of firepower for a colony on the outskirts like this."

"We can consider the implications later. For now, those turrets may be our best bet for disabling the Collector ship and rescuing the colonists." Shepard frowned at the next bit of news he had to deliver. "The problem though, is that these turrets are brand new, and the Collectors attacked before they could be calibrated.

"Garrus." Shepard looked to the turian. "Do you have any experience with calibrating laser turrets?"

"No." Garrus replied solemnly. "But I have confidence in my ability to calibrate anything that shoots. I may not be able to get it perfectly aligned in a short timeframe though."

Shepard smirked at his reply. "I'll take whatever you can give me, Garrus. Besides, we need to hit a towering ship in the middle of the city, not pick mites off a varren two klicks away."

"If you ever need something to be that accurate, Shepard, just give me a sniper rifle."

Shepard snorted before turning back to the group and resuming a serious disposition.

"Mordin. I can see that you have picked up a few things." Shepard nodded towards the mesh sack containing tubes of many sizes, each of which probably contained something the scientist had picked up from fallen Collectors. "We need to make sure that gets back to the ship, but we can't have you fall back, in case we need your expertise. You'll be in a similar formation as when we came in.

"Kasumi. We'll be relying on you to pick up on the colonist side of things. We're out of the residential sector, and I want you to see if there's anything indicating why the Collectors chose this planet to attack. Do this, but without getting too far afield. You'll be on Mordin's team.

"Jacob. I want you keeping those two safe. I expect more resistance in front of us than anything coming from the rear, but I want you alert. Anything that Kasumi or Mordin find could mean a clue about future colony attacks, or a hint on how to fight the Collectors."

Jacob saluted professionally.

"Hmmm," Kasumi interrupted, "I think I'll feel real good knowing that Muscles here is watching my back." She then ran a hand down her hip, and over her ass, grinning lecherously the whole time.

"Hey!" Jack smacked her lightly on the arm. "What have I said about flirting during missions?"

"I think it was: 'Don't rile me up right now, it's hard to concentrate on Biotics when I'm horny'." Kasumi said with a completely straight face.

Jacob suddenly developed a severe coughing fit.

Jack punched Kasumi, not so lightly, on the arm again.

"What did I say about flirting with other people on missions?" She hissed.

"Ohhhh..." Kasumi paused to think. "Something about 'only doing it during down time, or to defuse a serious situation.'" Kasumi glanced around the warehouse. "I think this counts for both."

Jack went for another punch, but Kasumi nimbly evaded it. Jack was about to go for a follow up, but stopped when Shepard cleared his throat.

"Garrus." He continued as if nothing had happened. "You'll be up with the advanced force. As soon as we get to those turrets, break off and begin working on them. EDI should be able to assist you. Everyone else will work to defend and cover you." He glanced around at the faces of the people circled around him. "Any questions?"

There were none.

"Then we move. Full assault. They know we're here, and we can't let them take off with the colonists they've already captured."

:break:

Where the residential district had been a creepy ghost town, the industrial section of Horizon bore more resemblance to a horrifying wax museum. Every area that the team passed through was filled with people. Frozen, unmoving people. Their faces were locked into grimaces of pain and fear as they were trapped while trying to run from a foe that now calmly walked among the living statues, stealing them away.

The presence of the trapped civilians made the fights far more hectic. The Collectors felt no remorse about firing into areas that were full of captured people. And while the Stasis fields that held them were strong, the team had no idea about when the fields might suddenly drop.

Thus, Shepard's team had to be careful about every piece of cover they used, and make sure that no civilians were in the crossfire.

The Collectors had no such concerns. They would walk among the trapped civilians, forcing the team to pick their shots or fight in melee range.

Normally, Jack wouldn't complain about fighting in melee. But wading into a crowd of trapped civilians to fight groups of Collectors with no means of receiving ranged support was rather unpleasant. In addition, Jack was forced to get herself out from amongst the trapped people if she wanted to find cover and restore her Barriers.

Needless to say, the expected dash towards the spaceport turned into a slow slough through wave after wave of enemy soldiers.

They even occasionally lost ground when one of the Collector troops would suddenly start glowing, spouting semi-religious rhetoric, and making awkward comments about wanting Shepard's body.

These "Possessed" Collectors required the entire team to focus fire to bring them down, and they would then have to deal with any other reinforcements that had arrived while they were occupied.

When they finally made it to the spaceport, they were met with another unwanted surprise.

"What the hell are those things?" Garrus asked over the comm.

"Super husks?" Kasumi suggested back.

Jack leaned out from her cover to take another look at an example of the next challenge that awaited them.

The creature had clearly been a husk at some point, or perhaps it had merely been created with the intention of making a husk, and along the way, something had gone horribly wrong.

Its torso was replete with the blue and silver tubes that decorated all Husks. But around these pseudo-bones, the blue and grey flesh looked emaciated and torn. Entire sections of its abdomen appeared unnaturally hollowed out between tubes that dipped in and out of its skin.

But none of that compared to its left shoulder, which was swollen with tumorous looking flesh. So much so that it actually pushed its head to the side, forcing the creature to walk while hunched horrendously towards its right side. It was as if all the muscles and organs that should have been present in the creature's chest had been drained away and pushed into the swollen sack of blue skin that clung to its back.

From this bulging fixture of flesh, a strange open cylinder made of misshapen, blackened bone extruded harshly outwards. There was no arm on the left side, instead, thick pipes and wires hung limply from the misshapen cylinder and connected back to various parts of the abomination.

Three of the creatures toddled unnaturally on proportionally spindly legs among groups of Husks and Collectors stationed around the GARDIAN Laser controls.

"Everyone," Shepard's voice came over the comm, "focus on the Collectors. We'll be slowed down if any of them get 'possessed', so we need to clear them out as quickly as possible. When the Husks start to get close, Jack, switch to focus on them so that we don't get overrun.

"We should be wary of the blobby Husks, since we don't know what they can do, but we also can't be held up too much longer, or that ship could take off.

"Garrus, as soon as you feel like you can make it to those laser controls, make a break for it, and we'll cover you.

"Understood?"

A series of affirmative sounds rang through the comms and the members of the team tensed in preparation for the impending violence.

"Go!" Shepard shouted and the team burst into motion.

Jack leapt out from behind her cover and began to dash towards her target, a Collector conveniently standing in front of one of the cargo containers that littered the open space.

She pulled up biotic energy and threw an orb forward. It impacted in front of the Collector, and a Biotic Singularity formed.

Blue energy played over the Collector's body as the Singularity tried to Lift the creature, but couldn't get purchase past its Barriers.

Rocks and loose debris on the ground had no such protection though, and were Lifted up into a cloud of random objects around the Singularity.

When Jack slammed into the cloud with a Biotic Charge, two very interesting things happened.

The force of the Charge slammed into the debris cloud, driving it out of the Singularity and towards her Collector target.

Simultaneously, the Biotic discharge from her Charge caused a cascading Biotic Detonation in all of the aforementioned debris.

Her target was slammed with a wall of exploding shrapnel, collapsing its Barrier and pushing it back into the crate behind it.

In a flash of motion, Jack unsheathed her sword and beheaded the Collector in a single action.

Before its head even hit the ground, she had turned away; evaluating the battlefield and picking out a new target.

She took note of a group of Husks making their way towards where the rest of the team was bunkered down. She threw a Singularity into the middle of the group and watched them flail about for a moment before she finished the group off with a Shockwave that triggered Biotic Detonations.

She picked out her second target, a Collector hunkering down behind cover and taking potshots at the team.

She repeated her exploding debris tactic against this target and had it headless in a matter of seconds.

As she scanned the field for a new target, she took notice of the strange behavior of one of the blobby Husks.

It had tottered up towards the team, but had stopped, and was now awkwardly turning itself so that it was facing away from them.

It wasn't until she saw a blue glow building in the cylinder that jutted from its left arm that she understood what it was doing.

"Heavy Weapon!" She shouted into her comm. "Get down!"

The world narrowed down to a pin prick as she launched herself across the battlefield in a powerful Charge.

A moment before she impacted, the disfigured Husk fired the cannon that had replaced its left arm.

Jack slammed into the creature and whipped her sword through it in a blur of motion.

She stumbled a step, having expected the creature to have some form of shielding, she was unprepared for the lack of resistance encountered by her blade.

Quick stepping away to regain her balance, Jack took stock of what the strange Husk had unleashed.

The ground before her had been turned into a series of craters. The destruction was laid out as if consecutive grenades had gone off in a straight line. It was a path of demolition that was indicative of a Biotic Shockwave. And from the scale of the destruction, it was quite powerful.

Jack took note of the rest of the team. Some of them were slow to come to their feet, but none of them seemed to have taken any serious damage.

They were going to need to find new cover though, as the low walls that they had been using were now spread liberally across the battlefield.

Jack quickly appraised her latest kill. She had cut straight through the cannon-bearing Husk at the abdomen, leaving its top and bottom halves lying separately on the ground. A grey, sludge-like liquid was slowly oozing out of the bloated sac on the creature's back to mix with the black oily substance that passed for blood in Husks.

As Jack observed, the bloated sack slowly discharged a shriveled grey hand.

Carefully, Jack stepped up to the creature and cut open the rest of the sack.

The blue-grey mottled skin snapped back like a popped balloon, and sludge burst forth and spread out across the ground.

Jack's suit beeped, and her mask immediately switched to filtering the air.

It wasn't enough though. Even through the filtration, Jack could smell the sharp scent of the chemicals she had released.

Jack took a step back and examined what had burst forth from this Husk pustule.

It was another Husk, or at least the shriveled torso of one. This one was scrawnier than any other Husk so far, and it looked as though its existing appendages had been stunted and bound to its body, to more easily contain it within the other Husk.

Its face was almost indistinguishable along the mass of grey wires and tubes that plunged into its skull from every direction, tying it back to the host Husk.

From the construction of the chest and neck, Jack could guess where its face would have been. That, and the three huge tubes that stabbed into where she guessed the eye sockets and mouth should have been.

Then it twitched.

With a swing of her sword, Jack finished off the abomination that had at one point been another human.

The action sickened her. These weren't soldiers. These weren't Collectors. These were the people that they had already failed to save. Civilians from other colonies, captured, experimented on, and then turned into cannon fodder.

These weren't enemies, these were the corpses of men and women...

Jack glanced back down at the disfigured Husk she had just executed. As her mind followed this line of reasoning, the foreshortened arms and shriveled chest took on a new, horrible connotation.

... and children.

She heard blood pound in her ears, and felt the chemicals in the air burn their way down her throat.

In her mind she could see her childhood nightmare playing over and over. Strangers coming in the dark, taking her away, and putting her back on the examination table.

She couldn't take her eyes off of the child Husk on the ground before her. They wouldn't be having any such troublesome dreams, because they have lived those nightmarish events, and hadn't been lucky enough to survive.

She tore her eyes from the bodies in front of her and glanced around frantically, looking for anything else to focus on.

Her eyes found one of the Collectors. One of the ones responsible. One of the ones who had done this.

She Charged.

There was no plan. No tactics to employ.

She crashed into the Collector, and stopped it from falling over by wrapping her left hand around its throat.

Their Barriers clashed, preventing her from simply killing the thing with Biotic enhanced strength.

Her body reacted before her mind, falling back on techniques it had been drilling in hours before.

Blue energy coalesced in her hand, filling the fractional space where their Barriers prevented actual contact.

No time for steps. No time for theory.

She pushed more energy into the neophyte Phase Disruptor, and it exploded in her hand.

She didn't care. It was still effective at this range.

She charged another, with the same results.

And another.

And another.

After the fourth attempt, she felt her hand clench down on the Collector's throat as its Barriers failed.

She charged another Phase Disruptor. It failed, the resulting detonation destroying most of the Collector's head.

Still feeling a drain on her Barriers, she glanced down at her body and noticed that she was covered in grey, grasping hands, and gnawing mouths. Three separate Husks were attempting to chew and claw their way through her Biotic protections.

She dropped a Biotic Lift at her feet, watching as the creatures still tried to attack her, even as they floated upwards.

She detonated the effect and walked away from the heaps of grey flesh and black blood she had created.

She had already spotted her next prey. Another Collector, this one behind cover.

As she stalked across the few meters that separated them, it leapt out and tried to make for a more defensible position.

Jack reached out with her Biotics and tore the ground out from underneath it, causing it to faceplant.

Then she was on top of it.

She brought her sword down onto it.

She impacted its Barriers, but she didn't let up. She pressed harder, pushing her Biotics to do what she wanted.

Her blade took on a blue glow as she Pressed down on it, adding to the force it was exerting on the creature beneath her.

It barely lasted another second before her weapon tore through it and bit deeply into the ground beneath.

She looked around.

The enemies were dead.

There were voices, speaking in her ear. She picked one out as Garrus, sounding excited about something. Kasumi kept saying her name.

But they were just background noise. There were still Collectors on this planet, and she was going to kill all of them.