The QEC disconnected and the projector sank back into its housing leaving both Shepard and Revan alone.

The Sith turned to leave but a halting hand from Shepard had her remain in place.

It took a few seconds for Shepard to say anything and even then it was halting. “Look Revan, I, I wanted to apologise for earlier…”

Revan raised an eyebrow while the Spectre mentally smacked herself. “About what I said earlier, not the hugging you thing...Although I’m sorry about that too! I just, well…” she took a deep breath and refocused. “I wanted to apologise for calling you evil for looking at the big picture. It was unprofessional and out of line.”

Revan scoffed and for a second Shepard was worried she was going to have to worry about personal grudges affecting teamwork in the field.

Then Revan gave her a bitter smile and she wasn’t sure that was the case.

“Shepard, I was the leader of a galactic empire that conquered over a third of my galaxy. I was a hero to my own forces and the devil itself for anyone who opposed me. ‘Evil’ is one of the milder things I’ve been called in my life.”

Shepard winced. “Still, I-”

“Enough.” Revan interrupted. “I honestly didn’t think much of it. If you hadn’t clarified I would’ve thought you were referring to how you behaved half-asleep,” the commander flushed at that reminder. “But we can talk about this later if you absolutely feel you need to. We have more important things to worry about right now.”

“Right, okay.” Shepard nodded and then put on her ‘game face’. “So I don’t need to worry about you following orders?”

“Same deal as always, Shepard. You have tactical command and I move as I see fit.”

She was glad Revan was being reasonable. This could be the most important mission yet, she definitely didn’t want to deal with someone as powerful as Revan running rogue at the moment.

Now she just needed to worry about the adolescent Krogan, the kleptomaniac thief, and the psychotic criminal convict…

-o-

The entire ground team was assembled in the hanger bay waiting on the final briefing before they headed down to Horizon. All of them were making final adjustments to armor, checking weapons, and making sure they were good to go.

Mordin was off to one side, checking over his omnitool and what little data he could after installing the Seeker Swarm countermeasure upgrade to everyone’s armor just a few minutes after the Normandy dropped out of FTL on approach to the colony.

The elevator doors opened, allowing Shepard, Revan, and Miranda to step into the hangar. All eyes turned to them and the rest of the team settled down.

“Alright people,” Shepard said loud enough for everyone to hear. “Listen up! We’re a couple minutes out from the colony; here’s what we know. First, communications are down everywhere. If anyone planetside is trying to talk with us, something or someone is blocking it. Second, according to the intel we got from Cerberus this might be because of the Collectors. Third, there is supposedly Alliance personnel down there so make sure to check fire. I don’t want to have to explain to the people we’re saving why we shot them.”

Shepard looked around for questions, seeing none she continued on.

“We’re splitting into three squads for this one to cover as much ground as possible. I’ll be taking Garrus and Kasumi, Jack and Mordin are with Revan, and Jacob and Grunt are with Miranda. We aren’t exactly sure what kind of opposition we might run into so keep an eye on each other and stay with your squadmates. Any questions?”

Jacob stepped forward. “Ma’am, what’s our objective on the ground?”

“For now the main goal is to make contact with the colonists and find out how we can help. Both my and Miranda’s squads will also be investigating for signs of foul play. A whole colony doesn't just go silent without even attempting to call for help. Revan’s squad will be looking for hostiles and taking them out.”

“Fuck yeah! None of that snooping around bullshit!” Jack cheered in the back.

“Anything else?”

Kasumi raised her hand. “How sure are we that these armor upgrades are going to work?”

“Mordin?”

“Certainty impossible. But in limited numbers, should confuse detection, make us invisible to swarms.” the Salarian cheerfully explained. “In theory.”

Heads turned to the scientist.

“In theory?” Garrus asked.

“Experimental technology. Only test is contact with seeker swarms.” Mordin explained. “Look forward to seeing if we survive!”

No one looked thrilled that they were betting everything on completely untested gear. Even Revan had a slight frown on her face.

Not that they had a better option. So the team shelved their complaints for the most part, and focused on finishing their pre-mission checks.

-o-

Revan’s team was the last one out of the dropship.

In an effort to ensure they got the most coverage of the colony, each three man team was dropped off a slight distance away from each other and would converge in the center if possible.

That wasn’t what was on Revan’s mind at the moment.

No, she was much more concerned with the amount of Dark Side energy surrounding the Collector ship visible in the distance.

To Revan the Force felt weird in this galaxy. It was almost unnaturally still.

If back home could be compared to an ocean; where even if the surface was calm there would be something moving underneath, this galaxy felt more like a small lake. There were ripples of activity but it was always just on the surface. Even places like Omega, where the Dark Side should be extremely prevalent or at least obvious to people like Revan felt shallow.

Revan figured after Shepard explained what the Reapers were doing this stillness was the result of the starships culling any species that evolved to the point of Force sensitivity and had the sapience to do anything with it.

Now for the first time since coming to this galaxy, Revan felt the Force calling out to her without her needing to focus on it.

Even then it felt...off. Artificial even. Something like an echo than a true call.

Revan had often felt similar things when she had to explore old battlefields or tomb worlds where Sith had caused the Dark Side to stain the surroundings but she had never felt it coming from a ship that was clearly still in use.

It was concerning but not something she could do much about at the moment.

“So we doing this or just going on a fucking picnic?”

Jack’s complaint pulled Revan out of her contemplation and the Sith looked at her and their Salarian companion.

“Eager for a fight Jack? Fair enough, let’s get going.” Revan began walking towards the colony. “Keep an eye out for movement.”

“Looking forward to kicking your ass, Ice Queen. You promised we could go at it once we made it planetside.”

Revan’s smile was hidden underneath her helmet but she didn’t say anything. She actually found Jack’s attitude fairly refreshing compared to many crewmembers of the Normandy who tended to avoid her entirely after the cameras caught her fight with the Purgatory's guards.

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The convict had a very simple view on authority. You were either strong enough to make her listen, or you weren’t and she would put you through a wall if you thought position was enough to make her do anything. An attitude Revan was very familiar with when dealing with Sith Acolytes and her way of dealing with it worked just as well on Jack as it did on them.

Jack followed Shepard easily enough due to the skill and power the Spectre showed during her heist at the Hock mansion. The sheer amount of destruction was enough to convince the convict Shepard knew what she was doing. The fact Shepard followed through on her promise to allow Jack full access to Cerberus databases also helped.

Revan was a different issue though.

Shepard had a different skill set than Jack despite them both being biotics. It made it easier for Jack to follow along knowing she was at least the stronger biotic. She didn’t have that for Revan and the risk of the two of them destroying the Normandy in a fight made spars unrealistic. So to both get ahead of dealing with a surly Jack and not have to deal with any property damage on the ship Revan promised to duel Jack on the first planet they stopped on after any missions were done.

Of course Jack hadn’t been thrilled to take orders even with that promise so Revan did the same thing she did to uppity acolytes back home. She crushed Jack with a liberal use of Force Presence, a fairly impractical technique that pressed down on a person both physically and mentally to make Revan seem much more intimidating.

It wouldn’t get Jack to toe the line forever, but it would do until Revan could properly put her in her place after the mission.

As the three of them reached the outskirts of Horizon they could see clouds of Seeker Drones flying in the distance. Thankfully Mordin’s upgrades seemed to do the trick and none of the flying insects attempted to attack them.

“Seeker Swarms showing no signs of detection. Upgrades functioning as expected. How exciting, countermeasure successful.” Mordin commented.

“Seems so. Excellent work Doctor.” Revan praised before trying to reach out to the other squads. “Shepard, Miranda, we’ve made contact with the Swarms. Mordin’s upgrade looks like it does the trick. Anything new on your end?”

"Reva...king up…-unning into...llectors. Repeat Coll…-ces all over…” the signal died suddenly and Revan couldn’t reestablish contact with the other leaders but she recognised that Shepard had run into Collector forces already.

“Heavy interference. Collectors must be jamming communications.” Mordin observed.

“Fucking great. Now what?”

Revan unclipped her lightsabers. “Now we head into the colony and kill anything that looks like a Collector.”

“Oh fuck yeah!”

-o-

“Oh fuck off!”

Shepard cursed and threw herself into cover as another group of Collectors turned a corner and opened fire.

The insectile aliens’ weapons slowly chewed through the concrete barrier while Shepard returned fire. Annoyingly, the Collectors were covered in a biotic barrier that absorbed a lot of the damage she could dish out so Shepard focused on chipping away at their shields and having Garrus or Kasumi finish them off.

Shepard’s shotgun boomed and one of the Collector’s barriers failed. Barely a second later the creature’s head exploded as Garrus shot it. Another two were stunned briefly as they were tripped up by a Shockwave. One was killed by another blast of Shepard’s Katana, the second died when Kasumi uncloaked to the side and unleashed a storm of bullets from her SMG into the defenseless alien.

“That all of them?” Kasumi called out.

A shuffling movement caught Shepard’s eye. She turned, shotgun up, expecting to see another Collector but what she actually saw was worse.

“Husks!” She cried, firing into the swarm of techno-zombies as quickly as she could.

“Oh god, what are those things?!” Kasumi threw a flashbang into the middle of the horde and Garrus knocked over the front ranks with a Concussive shot.

“Bad news!” the Turian called back. “Don’t let them get close!”

After the initial shock wore off Shepard began to coordinate her squad better. She and Kasumi thinned out the horde with a mix of biotics, grenades, and a lot of gunfire while Shepard had Garrus pick off any stragglers or Husks sneaking around their flanks.

A couple minutes later Shepard ejected her spent heatsink as the last husk died under gunfire from everyone on the squad.

“I’m not the only one who sees this right?” Shepard asked rhetorically. “These look like the husks the Geth used back on Eden Prime.”

“The Geth got that technology from Sovereign.” Garrus pointed out.

“Guess that means the Illusive Man was right. The Collectors are working for the Reapers.” Kasumi said.

Shepard scowled. It was the proof they needed, but only if everyone recognised what a Reaper actually was. Since the Council insisted Sovereign was Geth technology, all the presence of the Husks would mean to those unaware of the Reaper threat was that the Geth had either sold or lost the technology to the Collectors.

“Hey, these things look really human. Is this one of the colonists?” Kasumi asked, tentatively poking at one of the dead husks with a toe.

“No, everywhere we’ve seen husks victims were turned by impaling them on spikes.” Garrus answered the thief. “I haven’t seen any here. The Collectors must’ve brought the Husks and are using the colonists for something else.”

“What the hell could the Collectors want with them?”

“Probably nothing good. We’ll find out when we stop them.”

Shepard turned back to the Husk and took a good look at it.

“These aren’t the same ones we faced before...” She noted with some dread. “They’re more advanced. Evolved.”

“Still die when you shoot them.” Garrus said helplessly. The Spectre didn’t blame him for the callous words. They had long since known that there was no coming back from changing into a Husk. Once the organic unfortunate enough to undergo the process was finished they were little more than a puppet or a feral animal. No matter what changed about them it was still best to kill them all as quickly as they could.

“The Collectors aren’t getting away with more victims. Let’s move out.”

-o-

The fireteam moved deeper into the colony, eliminating groups of collectors as they went. Every once in a while they would check the buildings for any of the colonists but every time there was no sign of anyone.

“It’s like the whole colony is just...gone.”

Shepard could tell the weirdness was starting to get to the thief. Unlike her and Garrus, Kasumi wasn’t quite used to missions like this but the master thief was holding up remarkably well for someone who mainly snuck around rather than fighting through to her target.

“Not quite everyone.” Shepard said, spotting another group of Collectors. “Looks like they haven’t spotted us yet. Kasumi, sneak as close as you can. Garrus, get ready. I’m going to give them a bit of shock and awe.”

Her teammates nodded and rushed to get in position. Once they were ready, Shepard rounded the corner and Charged straight into the middle of the Drones. The one she collided with was knocked to the ground as biotic energy slammed into it. Ignoring the fallen enemy, Shepard sent a shockwave at one Drone and a Pull at another. She could feel her amp heating up under the sudden heavy use but it was worth it for the effect it had on the enemy. Kasumi unloaded into the Drone near her and Garrus picked the other out of the sky. Shepard herself simply lowered her Katana to the face of the fallen Collector and pulled the trigger. Another group of Collectors eliminated.

“Hey Shep, you might wanna look at this.” Kasumi waved towards the building the Collectors had been milling around in front of. Inside was the first human the group had seen since entering the colony and it was clear why. The poor man was frozen in place with a look of panic on his face, the only thing he was able to move was his eyes.

Shepard reached out to try and help him, but the man might as well have been made of metal for all she was able to move him. The Collectors probably had a way to transport the colonists after they were paralized but that didn’t exactly help Shepard right now.

“Looks like some kind of stasis field. Keeps you conscious, but completely helpless.” She reported to the other two.

“Man, if I had tech like this I can only imagine how much easier my job would be.” Kasumi muttered absently. Shepard shot the thief a look that this was not the time and Kasumi raised her hands in chastisement.

“Looks like they’ve been like this for a while.” Garrus said as he looked over another colonist he had found nearby.

Shepard shouldered her shotgun and started heading for the door.

“Then we better hurry up and find a way to fix this...”

-o-

*hzzzts*

Revan watched dispassionately as the Collector Drone fell in two pieces after she struck it with her lightsaber.

This was the eighth group that her team had destroyed on their way through Horizon and the second largest as well. Clearly whoever was in charge of the Collectors was determined to find out who was killing their minions. Unfortunately for that person, Revan was happy to keep killing them as they trickled in seven or eight at a time. Even worse for them, Jack had decided to make a competition out of it and was doing her best to slaughter the Drones before Revan in an effort to have a higher kill count. She was actually very close to Revan’s number but the Sith managed to maintain a lead simply because Jack was forced to lay off her biotics every now and then once her amp started overheating and stamina became an issue.

Thankfully Mordin was more interested in poking around the Collector after a fight, taking samples and muttering to himself so quickly Revan was sure only he had any clue what he was saying, that the Sith didn’t need to keep a constant eye on him in case he ran off and tried to take on an entire group of Collectors by himself.

“These things are fucking creepy.” Jack scowled as she kicked one of the fallen Drones.

“Jack, stop playing and get over here.” Revan ordered. “There’s another group on the way.”

“So fucking what? I’ll take care of them when they get here.”

Revan flared her Force Presence.

“Are you saying you can’t follow basic directions Jack?” Revan asked in a deceptively calm voice. “Scared to get in a fight before I’ve cut through half of them?”

Jack flushed an angry red at Revan’s taunt. Not that the Sith cared much. As long as Jack did what Revan needed her to do, she could be as mad as she wanted.

The Force cried as that hollow echo focused on one of the drones in the distance. The strange creature’s force signature ballooned even as it warped. There was some really weird force technique at play here and Revan was not thrilled about it. It meant at the very least the Collectors and by extension the Reapers could use the Force and had created this unnatural stillness in the galaxy on purpose.

In the distance more Collectors flew over the buildings on their insectile wings. As soon as they were in range they opened fire, forcing Jack and Mordin into cover. Revan simply stands in the open making sure that most of the attention is off her allies and giving them time to retaliate.

A warning in the Force blared at the Sith Lord and Revan snapped a lightsaber into the path she felt the attack coming from. To her surprise it is a continuous pale yellow beam different from any of the weapons deployed by the Collectors so far. Even more surprising was that the beam was reflected back at the drone. A first for the weapons Revan had encountered so far and a move done more out of muscle memory than conscious thought.

The beam quickly ate through the Drone’s barrier before the creature even had time to react and it fell to the ground, head smoking where the beam had scoured it.

Another one of the Drones turned and aimed a similar looking weapon, it smartly chose to move the beam a bit to not allow Revan the opportunity to repeat her actions but Revan had been on battlefields where she had to track hundreds of blaster bolts coming at her. A single beam moving around a bit was not much of a challenge.

A couple more Drones fell as Revan and her team took advantage of the enemy’s weapon. Revan used the beam to quickly crack the Drones’ barriers and the other two worked together to kill the vulnerable ones quickly.

Then that weird echo arrived and Revan felt she couldn’t be so relaxed about this fight.

It was larger than a normal Drone, but the glowing orange cracks covering it’s entire body gave the impression that was because something had taken a normal Drone and pumped it so full of energy it was only barely able to contain that power rather than its normal state.

Now that it was closer, Revan could sense the mind of the Drone screaming in animalistic torment but none of that showed in its movements or behaviour. A possession technique then. Powerful too.

“Focus on the glowing one. I don’t want to find out what makes it special.” Revan ordered.

Mordin opened fire with his SMG while Revan bathed the creature in Force Lightning. The combined assault meant it’s barriers were quickly overcome but whatever was possessing the Drone also made it tougher at the same time. The SMG couldn’t do much against the enhanced Drone’s armor and the possessor was practically forcibly animating it at this point so the effects of Revans lightning were reduced.

Mordin had to duck into one of the empty buildings to avoid the explosive attacks used by the creature. The mind behind the Drone was also smart enough to target Revan whenever she looked like she would close the distance. Something the Sith Lord was not pleased with.

Looking at the surroundings, she spotted some shipping containers and a plan started to form.

“Jack! Can you lift that?” Revan shouted, pointing at one of the containers.

“Probably?! Why the fuck does it matter, we’re kinda busy if you hadn’t noticed!”

Revan dodged another explosion and reached out into the Force and lifted the container further off. She quickly started to position it right behind the enhanced Drone.

“I have a plan to squish this bug. Think you can do it?”

Jack was many things. Violent, crass, disrespectful. Stupid was not one of those.

As soon as she saw the floating container, a feral grin formed on her face. “Oh fuck, this is going to rock!”

A bright coronea of biotic energy covered the human as she Lifted her own container, drawing the Drone’s attention. It raised it’s weapon to fire but was unprepared for Revan to hit it in the back with a mass of metal. At the same time Jack let out a roar of effort and Pushed her own container into Revan’s, slamming them together and crushing the enhanced Drone in between.

Revan scanned the battlefield for any more threats but the only things still alive were her, Mordin, and a heavily panting Jack.

“Alright, we’re going to wait here and recover for a bit. Then we are going to try and meet up with the other squads. There’s something more going on here that I don’t like.”

Tellingly, not even Jack had something to say about that order.