"I owe you a beer." - Gianni Parsiani

Binary Helix Testing Facility, Peak Thirteen, Noveria, Pax System, Horse Head Nebula, August 1, 2183

Author's Notes: Y'know, I haven't really utilized Kai all that much. I never actually liked the character (too whiny at first, then too bitchy, and then too flim-flam) and he usually ends up atomic paste on Virmire. I get why so many like the romance, but the character itself was 'meh'.

Literally this is his third POV, last time used in 'A Forest Of Spines, IV', in the derelict ship ACV Horizon.

First Lieutenant Kaidan Raphael Alenko (SAN, EOD) was mildly amused when the order of battle had become 'quietly infiltrate hostile location'. That was certainly a new one.

What that mean in plainspeak was that TEAM LION wasn't going to saunter down a hallway bristling weapons and explosives to scare the shit out of every civilian that they encounter and blast silly every hostile they came across. While that might have been a good plan considering where they were at and what was going on, Captain Jane Shepard had her eyes on the prize, so to speak; Saren Kaaldor Arterius, infamous Rogue SPECTRE, the one responsible for Eden Prime, the Geth attacking Human locations and vessels, and the center of this entire fiasco.

Even the Rachni were second place. Well, considering Saren somehow found them and ordered a Human genetics company to bring back the long-extinct species, it was easy to figure out why.

Infiltrating Peak Fifteen to find the access to Peak Thirteen hadn't been all that difficult; the 'road' that led to Peak Thirteen was a restricted area that Sergeant Kaira Sterling didn't even have access for (which was understandable), so Tali'Zorah nar Reyya and Agent Zevin Raeka found loopholes to the security by getting them access, made easier due to the fact that there was a high-level Stockholders' Meeting for Binary Helix and one additional access when dozens were logged for the day wasn't going to raise any real alarms. The General Dynamics' M577 GRZLY Armored Personnel Carrier that they were riding in had all the markings for Port Hanshan (just like the ones Binary Helix did) so driving around in the APC look regular, even natural. This part of the plan was the easiest of the tasks, honestly; the unusualness of the situation that Binary Helix had was going to be their access pass, and with so many new faces an itineraries due to the incoming off-world personnel and their entourages, 'ghosting in' (as Raeka put it) was going to be made easier than if it had been done on any other day. Good news amongst TEAM LION was generally few and far between, and the Explosive Ordinance Disposal Team Member was a realist; he would take what he could get.

The drive through the subterranean tunnel to the secret Peak Thirteen where an investors meeting, two people responsible for Eden Prime, and a killer race of bugs existed was understandably quiet and tense.

"We're here." Kaira spoke up as she drove the GRZLY to yet another parking structure, this one only a quarter-filled with similar vehicles for transportations since there were no docks or ports for flying craft; easier to control who came in and out. The M577 sandwiched itself between two other General Dynamics vehicles, showing up 'late' to the meeting by about ten minutes to reduce the possibility of there being other sapients in the parking structure. Captain Shepard's orders had been clear in this matter; this was an infiltration, but the element of surprise was paramount. Any persons who caught onto TEAM LION's presence or accidentally walked in on them would be swiftly and quietly killed for being in a location that had (according to electronic data) successfully brought back the Rachni. While not an order that brought any joy to the members of the SSV Normandy's ground team (save perhaps Urdnot Wrex), they would be dealing with Saren Arterius anytime within the next hour or so in a hastily-made trap of planted explosives, electrical discharge, and an ambush involving Biotics, tech mines, and lots of fucking munitions until the Turian SPECTRE represented 'modern splatter art' (the Captain's words verbatim). The Lion wasn't going to fuck around laying the hate on Arterius, and that Kaidan got; tens of thousands of people died on Eden Prime, thirty Marines at Dig Site Alpha, over four thousand civilians on the ACV Horizon, three-quarters of the Sailors for the Alliance Fourth, and damn near everybody in Hadley's Hope and the ExoGeni Headquarters on Feros. Saren was a clear and present danger for Mankind, and while the Geth were still up there on par as an actor, it was the Turian who was the central figure of the fiasco.

And the Lion had a history of going to the head of the snake and blowing its head off.

"Alright, crew," the Captain turned in the passenger seat of the APC to look in the cargo hold where the rest of TEAM LION had been stuffed into it, "you know the plan, the orders, and the objectives. We're going to have to play this one a little loose since we don't own any portion of the battlefield here, and trying to hold a portion of it will accomplish nothing. While the Binary Helix Corporate pukes and their asshole investors cheer themselves and pat themselves on the back for accomplishing about the stupidest thing I've ever heard of, we're going to infil in with the element of surprise and we going to wipe Saren Arterius off the face of the galaxy." There was no doubt in the green eyes, none whatsoever. "Everyone here is at least somewhat complicit with the revival of the Rachni, meaning that it could possibly happen again or they have a knowledge we don't want leaking out into the galaxy at large. Surprise is our key strength, and if any employee, be it tech, scientist, Doctor, security goon, mail clerk, secretary… I don't give a fuck what, discovers your presence? You kill them quickly and quietly and stash the body before they can raise an alert, an alarm, or start hollering out. Saren has a long history of trumping teams who thought they were better than he was, to the point I fully admit he is likely better than any group of individuals here." Again, those green eyes held not an ounce of doubt. "When we engage Saren, it is with full force, full brutality, with nothing held back. Collateral damage is fully acceptable since these assholes brought the Rachni back to life, and even if there's a hostage scenario? You shoot through the hostage to kill Saren since likely the hostage is in the full-know of what is going on here and thus complicit.

"That fucking spike does not leave this mountain alive. Do I make myself clear?"

"Aye aye!" Came from every mouth in the APC. The death toll was over a hundred thousand in concern of Saren's actions, and God only knew what his next strike or the next part of his plan would bring. A few more people who were fully immersed in Saren's plan biting the bullet to prevent the death of innocents was an acceptable guilt when dealing with a genocidal maniac. While Kai had been raised to protect the innocent (and still sincerely felt that way), Feros and ExoGeni had certainly taught him a very ugly truth when it came to those who felt the need to skirt the law and use people and the ramifications of such actions when facing a Lion.

"Good." The Lion nodded, no pity or remorse in her face. "TEAM LION?

"It's time to end this fucking debauchery once and for all."

Initial infiltration of the black site known as Peak Thirteen went off without a hitch. Exfilling from the General Dynamics' M577 GRZLY Armored Personnel Carrier into a depopulated parking structure and getting access to 'Authorized Personnel Only' doors thanks to Sha'me/Ensign Tali'Zorah nar Reyya cloning access passes of said authorized personnel, the team of seventeen people (TEAM LION plus one Elanus Risk Control Services Sergeant) were able to reach maintenance tunnels that bypassed the more-populated areas of the subterranean facility, boots clanking on catwalks and metal decking as Seaman Monica Valerie Negulesco (SAN, HM8401) traveled somewhat near the rear of the pack of dedicated individuals as a Hospital Corpsman and one of two combat medics for TEAM LION. The Elysium-born woman held her Winchester Arms' M96 Auto-Mattock Assault Rifle in her hands as she followed Sergeant First Class Ashley Williams while being followed by Corporal Jeanette Vasquez, the 'rear' half of the team expected to peel off or action upon any immediate threat or indication that Saren was on the move if necessary. All the stories that Monica had heard about the one they called 'the Bloody Talon' (and both Sara and Garrus hadn't been shy about informing them of said stories) had Saren Arterius painted in a very brutal, very ugly light. He was an individual known for going up against gangs of pirates, terrorist cells, Separatist platoons, slaver camps, and whatever else earned the wrath of the Council and the Office of Special Tactics and wiping it out of existence with explosives, guns, technological warfare, and Biotics. Captain Shepard was likely the finest combatant that Humanity had ever produced, and it was telling when even the Lion didn't think she could succeed against Saren in single combat.

Mankind was threatened, and Saren was the perpetrator. He had to go, simple as that.

"SAM's reporting that all maintenance crews have been subtly diverged from our route to do maintenance checks in other locations of the facility." Sergeant Williams said quietly in her SquadComm, informing the rest of the team that Sara's 'little brother' was helping out in ways that was beyond mere mortal; accessing sub-routines in Binary Helix's datashares and security programs and just edging enough of a chance for them to infil the location without disrupting to much and spooking someone to think something was off. Tali had an eye on the security feeds in front of them and behind them, slaved to her helmets' viewer passively to make sure nothing organic wasn't where it shouldn't be, and in the first twenty minutes of their jaunt, they had entered the facility none-the-wiser. The young Elysium-born woman admittedly thought that the infiltration part would probably last all of five minutes considering they were in an underground (or under-mountain) facility with hundreds of people in it, but between SAM spoofing the maintenance patrols and Tali monitoring the camera feeds, they had gotten ether exceptionally lucky or… dash it, they were that good! This was TEAM LION, after all, and its ranks were fill from the very best-of-the-best to those who certified to say that they were experts in their field and certainly could say they had gone where no man (or woman) had gone before.

Monica almost couldn't help but giggle at the Star Trek reference. Perhaps she would tell the Captain later considering her love for old Earth culture.

"Doing okay, Niki?" Doc Nugee asked as she followed Williams, keeping a few meters back as was proper as they traversed the maintenance corridor, really just a tunnel with metal grating for a floor, a few pipes and conduits running along the rocky walls, and some lights along the ceiling for illumination. Nugee remembered how panicky Niki'Raan nar Tombay had been during the assault on the Thoi'han, going underground and traveling through an earth tunnel, admitting that she was afraid of being underground.

"Doing okay, Doc." The Quarian Pilgrim was actually in front of Sergeant Williams as the pointman for the rear assault team; she had volunteered for it. The Marine prospects' voice didn't sound forced or too panicky, actually. "It's almost like a maintenance corridor in a Liveship." Fear could be funny like that, sometimes. Niki knew she was underground, but because the corridor had more of a look of a starship corridor, feel beat knowledge and it sounded like her irrational fear was fooled. That was good. "I'll be doing better than Tali. Tali HATES arachnids." Monica almost wanted to giggle at that; arachnophobia transversing species was something that she knew of thanks to being born and raised on Elysium with its high non-Human population. Some things were pretty universal, such as a fear of heights or a fear of enclosed places; that made sense. But for a Quarian to fear spiders? Did that mean there was some kind of bug-like creature upon the Flotilla? Well… they did have ships dedicated to food production, and that meant a life cycle, and that meant more than just plants. That would be good questions for a Watch Shift. Lord knew that once one started asking questions about the Flotilla in a polite fashion, the Pilgrims would never stop talking about it, two girls who were obviously a little more than homesick. That was a universal thing too, no surprises there.

Of course they were going into a location that would host a very powerful Asari Matriarch, a very powerful Turian SPECTRE… and Rachni. That was a fear unto itself.

The infiltration continued on through what felt like several kilometers of corridors where there would be an occasional offshoot, intersection, or ladder connecting with other locations that they bypassed, SAM and Tali keeping them on track and on target instead of having to guess their way through the mountain interior complex. Agent Zevin Raeka would slap monitoring devices on every intersection and hallway they passed, a simple laser-beam sensor that would give her an alert if anyone were to come into the corridor after they had passed it, the Captain only clearing said tunnels without anyone being left behind to hold it or guard it. It was different from normal Marine Ops as Monica understood it, where a Company or a Battalion of Marines would hold every piece of 'real estate' they cleared to ensure that they wouldn't be flanked. For Special Operations, such a thing was impossible; teams were much smaller, and every individual much more invested than a simple guard. Such devices were necessary in these kinds of missions, as the Corpsman understood it, to do just that. She knew, logistically, that she was essentially working as a Navy Corpsman in what was a Special Forces unit, albeit a very strange one. Special Forces Medic had a verytime-honored tradition about it, men and women who were generally above the already-illustrious run of Navy Corpsmen, Army Combat Medics, and Air Force Flight Medics. Oh, no doubt there were a thousand Hospital Corpsmen, Army Health Care Specialists, and Air Force Enlisted Medical Technicians that were absolutely chomping at the bit to be where she was right now, but Monica knew better now.

There was always a heavy price to pay in such things. Feros taught her that well.

"Captain," Tali'Zorah soft-talked through her SquadComm, her vox shut off, situation near the front of the formation, "while the meeting has been underway, I have noted that preparations are being done for a location that I believe to be the Rachni facility. It is a large contained lab with only two points of access; the front door and the back door, so to speak."

"Yeah, but who's preparing?" Federal Marshal Samantha Collins asked.

"A sizable group of Asari with Commando and Huntress gear numbering about twenty being led by a Turian I don't recognize save for the fact that he's wearing black-and-red SPECTRE Armor." The Quarian relayed for everyone.

"Tibevius Victonius, unless I miss my guess." Petty Officer (Second Class) Sara Ryder called out from the middle of the front portion of the formation. "Saren's pet protege and otherwise known as the Harvester of Tears. Former ExOrD Blackwatch before becoming a twelve-year Veteran for the Office of Special Tactics and bombardier-extraordinaire." Sara remembered the name of Agent Tibevius Victonius in the briefs on the Normandy under possible collaborators and associates for Saren Arterius. Victonius was put under the same category as Lady T'soni had been; Possible/Unconfirmed. Two SPECTREs, veteran SPECTREs at that, Doc Nugee shuddered a little at the thought. She could think herself a Special Forces Medic all she wanted, but realistically she was still a 'newb', and a young Human woman at that. Tibevius Victonius was a fifteen-year veteran of the Turian Hierarchy, an Explosive Ordinance and Demolitions member, Blackwatch-certified, a Relay-314 Incident Veteran, and an Agent of the Council. She was a beginning Combat Medic; he was a trained, tried, and true Special Forces sapper who erased buildings with the enemy still inside them. He would be a hyperlethal Turian armed with explosives of a wide and nasty variety.

"Well, I guess we know what happened to Tibevius now." The Lion said, her tone not pleased. "Tali, set up the option for command detonation of the lab in which the tour group is going so they can fawn and pet whatever Rachni is in there. If we can't take them by force, then we're going to blast the room and shoot up the pieces." Monica knew that it was better to actually 'confirm kill' an adversary (especially one of Saren's caliber!) but Captain Shepard was no fool. Twenty Asari Commandos, a Lady Matriarch, and two Turian SPECTRE's was all but guaranteed to wipe out TEAM LION with ease, outnumbering them and likely having better munitions that most of them. Yes, the Captain and the SCI/TECH Department made darn sure that they're weapons and armor were simply some of the best that anyone could get in terms of protection, shields, mods, alterations, augmentations, software programs, apps, and power distribution systems… but that didn't equal a guaranteed spot on the survival list. An Asari Commando was a Thessian who underwent some sort of Lodge training done by one of the Great Houses of Thessia to turn an eighty-year old Maiden into a weapon of war between firepower, swords, and lethally-crafted Biotics. Doctor Liara T'soni, their sole Asari, wasn't trained on how to turn her own Biokenetic abilities into skin-melting, bone-shattering, or body-rendering paste like a Commando could.

There was a reason why an Asari Commando was said to be one of the finest warriors in the galaxy.

"Goddamn motherfucking pieces of shit."

Captain Jane Catherine Shepard (SAN, N7, OST) was not in a good mood. At all.

TEAM LION had finally reached within a fair distance of the laboratory that, despite its hardened walls, underground existence, and Corporate espionage-proof existence, would be theirs to own once they reached it before the entourage of suit-wearing jackasses of Binary Helix and their grubby-handed profiteering pieces of shit investors arrived. The plan had been a simple but effective one; enter the lab, booby-trap the shit out of it, find locations to launch an overwhelming ambush with Saren Arterius as the primary target (with bullets, explosives, and everything else that could kill a sapient used at once to ensure success), and then mop up whoever survived. Simple. Effective.

Out the window.

Jannie had slaved a view from Tali's personal server on her Rannoch Industries' QuArmor EnviroSuit (Migrant Fleet Marine Engineer variant) and was inspecting the interior of what was known as 'Hot Lab 04', or what she liked to call 'the Zoo'. The PIP Screen that transmitted through her helmets' Augmented Reality Overlay showed a large laboratory that measured hundreds of square meters easily, display the usuals of a scientific lab; monitors, terminals, scientific apparatuses ranging from beakers to centrifuges, tables with nanoscopes, datapads everywhere, and a fair amount of fluoroscopic analysis machines that were probably chin-dropping in price. Then there was the gigantic tank in the middle of the whole parade, and inside of it was a soul-sucker. Shepard had seen a few pictures of the Rachni, but not enough to identify one on sight (which was why when Tali showed her an image of one, she didn't recognize it immediately). But the size of it was incredible; it was bigger than the UT-47 "Rey Kenobi", likely twice as big!

What Binary Helix brought back… was a Rachni Queen.

And Big Momma went and had a whole bunch of children. Really nasty children.

The lab contained what appeared to be several partitions of containment facilities that had (no fucking shit) at least a couple hundred Rachni… each. Shepard noted that there were size and composition differences, vaguely remembering the details of the species that had trickled down through the centuries since the Rachni War. There was something like five different variants of the Rachni; Worker Drones, Nest Guardians, Scouts, Swarm Infantry, and the truly epic one that the Krogan called the Tyrant. Jannie saw that those ones, all ten of them, had their own quarantined pen, the massive-looking beetle-like creatures absolutely filling the enclosed pen with their massive bulks. God, they were like walking tanks!

But unfortunately for them, the lab was occupied by a platoon of Asari Commando being led by a Turian SPECTRE explosives expert.

Jannie's plan… was the same one being used by the enemy.

Shepard's mind ran at full-speed at the implications. Why had Lady Benezia and Saren brought a full Commando team to Noveria for an emergency Stockholder's meeting? Okay, yes, bodyguards was an easy answer, but the blues had infiltrated into the lab where the Rachni were and had set up shop before the contingent of investors and managers of Binary Helix had arrived for the group tour. That really led to one possible conclusion; that Saren was going to kill all those that had arrived for the meeting save himself and his contingent. That struck her as odd; Saren Arterius, according to deep records in Binary Helix's protected servers, was the one who created the project in the first place and invested in it heavily in something of the tune of like a gigaCredit, a billion Credits poured into bringing back one Rachni Queen. Obviously, more financial support was needed (not to mention collusion from said investors) so killing them off seemed like tying up loose ends if the sales pitch had been a complete lie… but an entire team of Biokenetically-capable Asari warrioresses seemed a bit excessive for fifty people that wouldn't be armed or armored. Saren could probably kill them himself without the Turian breaking a proverbial sweat.

There was also no sight of Geth hardware. That had Jannie leery as well. Something was off, wrong, or she was missing something.

Currently TEAM LION was taking knee as Jannie re-evaluated the situation. Honestly, about the only win they could have was to activate the demolition charges that were set in the lab in case of a quarantine breech that would pulverize the lab, blow it out of the mountain, and sink it under metric megatons of rocky debris and the environment of Noveria to wipe it out of existence. While a nice end for those involved, it wouldn't actually confirm the deaths of Saren or Benezia, and it would be impossible to check the bodies or gather information on their OmniTools. Blowing up a building wasn't a guaranteed for killing a target no matter how nice and expedient a solution.

They were going to have to assault Saren at another point of the facility at another point of time; earlier or later, depending on where the tour group went. That meant no traps and a hasty ambush. Jannie didn't think they would have a snowball's chance in Hell taking on Commandos, two SPECTREs, and a Matriarch.

"Y'know, there is another solution. A rather frightening one."

Jannie looked over to Marshal Samantha Collins, who was taking a knee beside her, reviewing the same thing she was.

"Which is…?"

"There's already a bit of a trap in play as we speak in that lab."

Shepard felt her eyes go wide as she looked at Collins' Tridend Colony-marked face, her breath puffing out from her nose with every breath in the cold tunnels of Noveria. Holyfuckingshit didn't begin to cover what the Federal Marshal was suggesting.

The Butcher wanted to unleash the Rachni upon the enemy.

That… had some merit to it, even if it was horrific.

"I hate saying it Auntie," Sara Ryder said as she knelt beside the N7, looking over the information as well, "but Sam's… got a really good point. The facility is already set to blow up in case of containment breech. The route to the facility itself is either going to be tunnels like this one, vehicular like what we were using before, or offices with normal workers. None of them strike me as good locations that we will be able to hold effectively or strike out with precision. Plus that Commando team can action on with any alert or alarm, flank us, subdue us, or slaughter us while facing both Saren and Benezia at the same time. This… requires something exotic, something that even Saren wouldn't contemplate being used against him. An ancient horror to engage the Asari and the Turians with us monitoring how badly that debacle will go," Jannie grunted at that, "and then we breech in when the bloodbath is over and wipe out whatever's left standing. The Rachni look like they outnumber Saren's team by about twenty-five to one, and I don't doubt that the Rachni will take some serious losses taking them on." Facing Biokenetic warriors were like that, sadly. "But even if Saren is planning to strike out with… whatever he's got planned, I doubt even he'll be able to face a flood of Rachni. Even if he survives and comes out on top, he'll be tired, exhausted, wounded, low on munitions, and just looking to cut-and-run. Perfect time to gain the upper hand and turn him into a corpse.

"We confirm it, then we blast the lab into oblivion to remove the Rachni out of the equation once and for all. Forever."

"Damn it." This was, by far, about the worst plan ever. She couldn't control any of the solutions, it wasn't even a guaranteed that Tali could access the containment charges for the lab to blow it out of the mountain, and there was nothing saying that the Asari hadn't done that very thing! Yes, the Rachni could very well unleash hell on those Commandos, Tibevius, Benezia, and Saren. That the investors and managers of Binary Helix would be paste was a given; Jannie was pretty sure that Saren was going to kill them all anyhow and no real loss there. But so many things could go very wrong with this plan. Saren could just cut and run, letting his subordinates get slaughtered. They could accidentally unleash the Rachni into Peak Thirteen and further, perhaps as far as Peak Fifteen and Port Hanshan. God only knew what the Rachni might do once released, and God forbid if Binary Helix had done some testing to make them compliant, even docile. She couldn't put that out of the equation either, considering that Saren wanted the Rachni for something. There were too many variables, too many ifs, and things could go to Hell in a handbasket in a real hurry if some factor didn't work to her wanting, which was clearly likely.

The other option was a suicidal assault against a superior force that was dug in and ready for something. Maybe not them, but something.

"Tali, Raeka, SAM? Are we getting any kind of comms chatter from either the Commandos or Saren?" Jannie asked, looking to the Quarian Pilgrim and the not-Dalatrass, still working on gleaning and reviewing everything they could without spooking someone. SAM was doing the same thing as well as soaking up as much information as he could to bring about solutions.

[Captain, it seems that communications between Saren and the team of Commandos has been upgraded to encryption levels that Council Agents use; a series of one-use key algorithms in burst communications along a Quantum Frequency with multiple bandwidths and a date/time stamp verification code. Hacking it… is beyond my ability as the codes seem to change once every fifteen seconds] Jannie grunted at that. [I believe that Saren Arterius has slaved an AI to his communications net to protect his orders. But I do not believe it is Geth; I do not detect self-replicating software in the Binary Helix datashares nor do I detect autolearning software in minor systems. I will need more data to conjecture as to why the Geth are not here]

"They lost several times to us, perhaps he's lost faith in them?" Sam hypothesized. It wasn't a bad conclusion save…

"No, he's been at this project for five years, perhaps a little longer." Jannie thought out loud. "I don't know how long he's had the Geth at his disposal, so it could mean that the Rachni might have been his original plan, but had to go to the Geth when it wasn't done in the time he wanted it to." It seemed strange that Saren now had access to what amounted to a synthetic race of a Hive Intelligence and an organic race that amounted to essentially the same thing, a Swarm Intelligence led by a Queen to direct the warriors and drone to action in on its wants and desires. Saren seemed interested in creatures that didn't possess 'free will', so to speak. Could that have been what he wanted with the Thoi'ran on Feros? More shock troopers and cannon fodder based upon the creepers? They still had no real idea what Saren wanted with or from the Thorian under Hadley's Hope, much less how he knew it was there (Jannie had her suspicions, but no proof). Was he just gathering up every monstrosity he could for his plans? They weren't even sure what he had plan exactly save for finding the… Conduit, whatever that was. She wasn't sure if he had found it or not, though at a guess Shepard would say no to that.

At the least that massive ass Geth Dreadnought hadn't showed up to this shit show. That would be a cherry to this fucking cake, the N7 thought to herself grimly.

"Thoughts?" Jannie looked to her fellow SPECTREs, seeing if they had any other input.

"Honestly… the only other real option is to back out and hope for another ideal situation, which is no guaranteed of not turning out into something like this." Sara spoke first with a shrug of her armored shoulders. "We honestly got lucky that we were able to get a bead on Lady T'soni, and utterly lucked out that Saren was here as well. A chance at striking out at the higher echelons of the enemy's chain-of-command like this is generally a warrant to go all in… despite the potential of high casualties." Sam grunted at that, saying nothing else. "We may not get another opportunity like this where Saren isn't in a location of his choosing, his control, or in the middle of some fortified fortress surrounded by his forces. This is about as neutral of a location as we can expect, and likely as weak as he's ever going to be. This next time we might possibly meet him will be at the moment of his triumph at the head of a Geth armada with Lord knows what kind of forces at his disposal. Here, his men are only so many, we can shift advantages to level the playing field, and we can cause enough disruption to ambush and assault him in a way he might not expect. We may have to forgo going after Tibevius and Benezia, but to strike out at the head of the snake? Without him, that plan of his might collapse entirely if just not majorly derailed."

"Agreed." Collins replied, nodding. "I quake at the thought of using the Rachni, but we a bit outnumbered and fighting that many Asari at once is frightening. I've seen what a Commando team can do to numerically-superior foes, and it isn't pretty. We have a solution to keep them from escaping or if, dear God, the Rachni are in collusion. We have a plan, and we have a back-up plan. And Sara's right; we may never get another opportunity to meet Saren in such a position ever again."

"About what I was thinking." Shepard sighed, knowing what she was about to order; her crew, her men, to their deaths. She would consider it fortunate if she got away with fifty percent casualties, but honestly from the look of things this would likely end up a loss. "Tali? I need you and SAM to initiate any kind of control over the demolitions to the Hot Lab, both for us to use it and prevent anyone else from accessing it. Once that is gained… then I need you to go through the safety protocols and find me a way to release the fucking Rachnipocolypse on our asshole residents. If there's an electronic means, which I'm sure there is since no one is stupid enough to open a tank next to living Rachni, I want to own that too."

"Queep… I'll see to it, Captain." The young Quarian Pilgrim said, her voice very nervous. What Jannie was asking her to do was a Level Five Council Violation; galaxy-endangering potential. Just the name Rachni stirred feelings of fear amongst the older races in the galaxy even if no one was alive from that time, the stories passed from Asari and Krogan to their children and their children's children. There was of course historical documentation, footage, and surveys of wreckage from those times as well when the entirety of the galaxy had been threatened by the race from Suen. The Tuchankans hadn't been subtle in their methods in committing genocide and extinction against the Rachni, performing orbital bombardments, carpet bombing, and kinetic strikes on the surface of every Rachni planet after sweeping their vessels into splinters in space. After the bombing raids, the Krogan had deployed millions of warriors to delve and spelunker into Nests and Colonies to exterminate the Rachni, hunting them down to the very last. It had taken something like eighty years to wipe the species off the face of the galaxy, killing all of the Queens and smashing their eggs before hunting down the remaining drones, scouts, warriors, guardians, and tyrants. The death toll amongst the galaxy had been catastrophic. Now she and her team were sitting at a black site where a Corporation had willingly gone and recreated the damn Rachni while hosting what were likely the two most wanted people in Council Space.

Just blowing up the damn mountain in place was looking like a better and better idea.

Petty Officer (Second Class) Sara Elaine Ryder stalked through the maintenance corridors with her hand-crafted M-37 Falcon Duel-Purpose Objective Weapon in hand, following right behind Detective Garrus Vakarian as TEAM LION traversed the semi-lit corridors with her blue eyes peeled open for any sight of movement as her HMWA MasterGear SPECTRE Mk. I Armor's Augmented Reality Overlay displayed out outlines and contours of the semi-dark tunnels under the mountain of Peak Thirteen, the form of the Turian Rapid Response Sniper outlined in green just a few meters ahead of her as she followed him. Her thoughts were on the mission, a mission she understood the enormity of but also understood the dangers inherent to it as well.

Sadly, it was a s'kak plan to deal with a s'kak scenario. No two ways about it.

Sara understood the enormity of it, as well as the reason behind it. In nearly two months, there hadn't been any sight or information upon the location or dealings of Saren Arterius, Lady Matriarch Benezia T'soni, or Tibevius Victonius. Since the last sighting of Saren Arterius on June 8th during a holographic representation of his accuser during a Council session, Therum, the ACV Horizon, the Alliance Fourth Fleet, and Feros had been attacked by the Geth, the same actors that had deployed and assaulted Constant, Eden Prime. Over a hundred thousand lives had been lost, and while each incident ended with a loss for the Geth, the victories had been too bloody to ignore. Constant was in ruins, Hadley's Hope wiped out of existence, Dig Site Alpha was still closed off, the Horizon would likely never be used again, and the vessels of the Ivy Fleet would likely never pull a patrol again.

This could be their one and only chance to strike back at Saren Arterius no matter how dismal the odds, and Auntie wasn't about to let the opportunity go to waste.

No matter how dangerous.

Saren, Benezia, Tibevius, Asari Commandos, the Rachni… Sara thought to herself, her heart shuddering a little at the thought. There was no two ways about it; the upcoming battle was going to be bloody. Sara had to accept the fact that, despite how well-armed, well-armored, well-trained, and well-prepared they were, that there was going to be losses, possibly even many of them. The thought had her shuddering, each member of TEAM LION like family to her. She remembered well the soul-tearing feeling she had when she had learned of the deaths of her Marines of the Red Platoon, Betelgeuse Company, Third Battalion, Seventh Marine Infantry Regiment (1B3/7), her Auntie telling Sara how they had all died defending the Dig Site, the civilians, and her own team. Every battle had its wounds… and its losses, and her wonderful heart had taken each and every painful blow with every tragedy. Realistically, Sara understood; they were at the very forefront of Humanity, the tip of the spear, and their foes were the kinds of villains that deserved such retribution. Yet the enemy wasn't going to just lay over and die just because a few SPECTREs and their Kill Team showed up in the general vicinity. Losses… losses were to be expected, as Auntie had warned her when asking Sara if she wished to join the SSV Normandy and TEAM LION. Sara had to be honest with herself; she had excepted determined to beat the odds, to bring everyone home alive. But the losses of Human colonies, TEAM LION, and the IVY Fleet had all disabused her of that notion. Yet, despite it all, Ryder was still determined to do her damnedest to beat those odds; it was in the job description of both Navy Corpsman and CitEMS, after all!

But Sara knewknewknew this would be different.

We're outnumbered, likely outgunned, and facing nearly two dozen trained Asari Biotics along with two Turian SPECTREs, one of them the best in the business.

Oh yes, let's not forget the Rachni, either.

Petty Officer Sara Ryder knew, in her heart and soul, how this would turn out.

We're all going to die.

And yet Saren Talador Arterius, Lady Matriarch Benezia Samira Salrissa of House T'soni, and Tibevius Victonius were all here, likely the very directors of the actions against Humanity. The deathtoll was more than it had been during the Skyllian Blitz, well over a hundred thousand, with an entire Fleet in shambles along with the near total loss of Constant, Eden Prime and the total loss of Hadley's Hope, Feros. People were afraid in Earth Alliance Space, men and women looking to the skies in fear, wondering who was next. Yet it was the SSV Normandy and her stalwart crew that fought that fear, the people gracing its decks having the hopes and prayers of an entire species behind them, even for the non-Human crewmembers. Every time their valiant crew faced the threats that endangered Humanity, they risked their lives for a greater cause. It broke Sara's heart that it was so, but who if not for they?

But the cost, oh Lord the cost…

[Sara, I detect that you are nervous], SAM's voice came to her SquadComm, obviously on private chat. Despite that the SAM Node was on Sergeant First Class Ashley William's back, SAM was still linked to her Biotic implant and linked to everyone else's biometric data.

"I am nervous, SAM. We're about to go into a hornet's nest of threats and… we might not make it back out." Sara relayed, feeling her heart shuddering at the thought. Somehow, admitting it out loud made it worse. "I don't doubt it's on everyone else's mind as well, what we're about to face. I… I love this crew, SAM, I would fight with every breath in my body and every fiber in my being for each and every one of them. I just don't want to lose any more people, but if we walked away, I know for a fact something worse is going to happen somewhere else, and the casualty list will be so much worse."

[I believe that, in many ways, I will never understand why organics do such things], SAM spoke, his voice soft. [I will never understand the need to rob for physical items and currency have no value to me. I will never understand the want to end vital signs for any reasons for I do not possess those like you do. But what I do understand is that you see these people as important to you, a part of you. You would risk your existence because their existence is at risk. Others you are not aware of are at risk, and thus you will seek against what threatens them because you are capable and prepared, these things I understand.]

[Which is why I am here, working alongside you.]

"SAM…" Sara felt her heart catching in her throat, understanding what her 'little brother' was saying. He would risk himself as well because of the same reasons she did.

[I am glad that you brought me along, Sara, that I am a part of these missions and a part of this crew,] the Artificial Intelligence created by her father told her. [I was made to help, to give life when the odds were great and the chances of success low. Yet this defines me; I am one who will fight against what is likely for the sake of another, as much as you do. You have trained and prepared yourself to be that statistical outlier, to increase the odds of success through determination and knowledge. It does not please me that you risk your existence, but if you did not, then organics such as Saren would succeed, and the results would be catastrophic. You take the harder road for the sakes of others. For that, I am proud of you.]

"Oh, SAM…" The young woman closed her eyes briefly, knowing that like herself, SAM would risk his existence to do what was right. While he might not be in as much physical threat as she was, he could be damaged digitally or infected with malicious software. Yet he did so because of her, because of those she served alongside. "Might want to be careful, little brother. Sounds like you have a very Human soul in there."

[I consider this a good thing.] The male electronic voice replied. [I have been passively observing Saren's Artificial Intelligence, and I believe I can now define it.] That had Sara's throat go dry. [I believe it to be a legal AI, a lab-created Synthetic Intelligence likely made for the purpose of the Office of Special Tactics in much the same manner that I serve. I do not have enough information to hypothesize why Saren would use a legal AI instead of the Geth for his work at this time except to guess that he is either unsatisfied with the Geth at this point in time due to their multiple failures, or perhaps there is something about the structure of Peak Thirteen that would prevent the Geth from working at optimum efficiency.]

"The last one makes sense considering Binary Helix made this entire Peak a Stand-Alone Complex and it's buried in a mountain to deny connectivity." Sara replied, that last option making much more sense to her. "The failure bit would only work if the Geth weren't so adaptable. I'm thinking more towards the second."

[Agreed.] Sam replied. [I have noted that the same thing that Captain Shepard wishes to do is already under the control of the AI; the use of the locks of the Rachni's pens, as well as the charges that will destroy this facility and bury it under the rubble of the mountain.] That had Sara curse out loud. [Tali'Zorah would do well to try and gain control of one of these endeavors, but not both. And it is quite likely that when she tries, either the Rachni will be released to prevent her from gaining the upper hand, or the facility detonated to remove us from the game completely. As good as Tali is, and she is, she cannot do both at the same time without attracting its, and Saren's, attention.]

[To quote the Book of Daniel; Here am I, send me.]

SAM was asking permission to be sent against an AI much like himself in order to increase the chances for TEAM LION.

"S-SAM…" Sara could feel her eyes beginning to burn and brim with tears at the thought of putting SAM at risk. SAM… who had staved her mother's death for years, giving her a chance to appreciate the time she had left with her mother, to giving Doctor Ellen Harlow-Ryder the opportunity to seeing her children grow up to be adults. Mom got to see Sara become the first Human Alumni, to becoming the first Human Paramedic in the Citadel Emergency Medical Services, to graduating Fifth in her Peerage out of five hundred. Mom got to see Scottie join the Armax Arsenal Arena Amateur League and the Citadel BiotiBall Amateur League, joining the Presidium Toshi and becoming its Captain. Scottie had been named Most Valuable Player two years in a row, gaining galactic notoriety as Scott 'the Viper' Ryder, going to as many games as her ailing body could withstand. SAM had done that for their family.

Now he was asking to be thrown in the fray, to be put into the very same danger she herself faced… for love, for family, for life itself.

"Oh SAM, you really are a Ryder, aren't you?" The Corpsman said, a tear trailing down her cheek as she thought of what her father had created, breaking Council Law and being blacklisted because of it. No, fuck those suit-wearing assholes who thought her father reckless and endangering. Alec Clancy Ryder had made a gift unlike any other, a precious thing that, like herself, fought against that terrible terrible enemy; Death. Endangering SAM sent a spike of cold fear into her heart, but without SAM, it was likely they would all die in seconds. Ryder knew that Auntie had used SAM on Alexandria Station to thwart Tuvoc Harte, but that had been different. Harte, yes, exceptionally smart Salarian Chenobit who had lived for over two hundred years, but Harte hadn't been interested in dealing with an AI who had locked him out of his own system. And yes, it was possible for a organic sentient to thwart an AI (the Quarians did that for fun, actually). But to pit and AI against an AI?

There would only be one survivor, the other destroyed, assimilated, fractured, or who knew what else.

Sara didn't want to lose any more of her family.

"SAM… are you sure?" Damn it, her voice was weak, Sara gulping past the lump of her throat. She knew and trusted SAM, of course! But… sending him into danger? He was her little brother! The thought of it near stopped her heart. I lost Mom, I don't want to lose you, too, she thought to herself, her throat too thick to say the words. Was this how Auntie felt when Sara went to battle?

[You are my sister, Sara, my family], SAM told her, his electronic tone… gentle. [I am proud to stand beside you, to fight beside your side.] The words had her breathing hard as she realized what the Artificial Intelligence meant, what his words truly meant. [This is my battle, Sara, and I will fight it so you may fight yours.]

"I… SAM…" She couldn't get the words out, couldn't talk through the lump in her throat and her own bleeding heart, but he needed to hear it; she needed to say it.

"I'm proud of you, brother." Ryder said, taking a sobbing breath as she knew what she had to do, what needed to be done. "Dad and Scottie would be proud of you, SAM. Mom, too." She blinked away the tears as best she could, her helmet-covered head preventing her from wiping them from her eyes as TEAM LION plunged deeper into Peak Thirteen. "Auntie?" The Corpsman switched her SquadComm over to Captain Shepard, knowing what she needed to say.

"I heard the whole conversation, SAM talked to me before." Auntie replied softly, a touch of pride in her tone. "I told SAM to talk to you about it, to let you know what he thought. I knew you would need to hear it, to hear how far he's come and how much he's grown." That had Sara snort and smile, not surprised that Auntie would do such a thing. "He really is something, isn't he?"

"Yeah, he is." Sara smiled, her eyes on the SAM Node on William's back. "Semper Fidelis, little brother.

"Now go kick some ass."

[It will be my genuine pleasure]

Author's Note: Oh things are getting warmed up now! I'm hoping the last bit with SAM was a bit touching (and perhaps some cheering) because guess who's coming for dinner next?

I mention going through with a shit plan; Lord knows how many times I've done so in the Army chasing HVT's, bomb-makers, rabbits (people fleeing), and a variety of others in Iraq and Afghanistan. Generally, the hasty raid (one in which some suspect ducks into a house and then you conduct a sweep-and-clear of a house with no intel on house composition, numbers, or anything) is one of the worst ones, considering it's a complete blind as to who might be in a compound (anything from a normal family to a damn stronghold, with everything in between, and I think I've done just about every one of those steps), or a brush battle where you're fighting through thickets or forest and are being shot at… but the brush is so thick you can hardly tell whose doing the firing or where (and gaining a real fond appreciation on how tough Vietnam was).

This mission is based loosely on the 'Zero Dark Thirty' concept of going after the Big Target where the people and location are known, but also knowing that said strike can go apocalyptically. I have no doubt that those SEALs who raided that compound in Pakistan certainly felt that it was worth the risk of high casualties to get Bin Laden. Same tone for this; it's Saren Arterius.

Tibevius Victonius is an OC that I introduced back in CENTER OF THE KNOWN UNIVERSE, I, when Jane asked of any other proteges of Saren's besides Nihlus and Avitus. I identified him as Blackwatch ExOrD, which is Explosives, Ordinance, and Demolitions; SF Combat Engineers.

SAM got some Paragon points here.

For some reason, while doing Of Lions And Angels, I decided to do The Marvelous Avengers: Disney Princess Edition (yes, a Disney-fied version where the Avengers are portrayed by Disney Princesses and the others by other cast members), while also doing Iron Man: American Gods which is a different sort of story involving Iron Man rescuing an unnamed girl who is a test subject (and it won't be your usual story).

Can't I keep to one story? Didn't I learn when I did The Way Things Use To Be (Fallout 76), Sister Jane Shepard, Citadel Mormon Missionary, The Legion of Dawn: The Fury of Storms (Anthem), and both LiveC-SEC stories, Big Hit and Armed and Dangerous? I literally did all these stories in a two month timeperiod.

Just wait until you see the one I got called a 'Norse-Western' called Hammerfall At High Noon. Wild West Thor as a gunslinger facing an ancient baddie who went and stole something terrible.