The huge Collector carrier barreled towards them as Shepard thought through his options. If they just evaded the carrier, the giant ship would shoot the shit out of the Normandy as it tried to land on the base. They couldn't leave such a formidable enemy at their rear, but he couldn't take the time to trade blows with it either.

"Twenty thousand klicks until intercept," said Pat.

Joker sighed. "I kinda wish old TIMmy had been able to score some disruptor torpedoes. Those would be handy right about now."

"Yeah," replied Shepard. "Or it would be nice to have some way to deliver that PNA that Zaeed's got stashed in his quarters."

Miranda raised one eyebrow. "You knew about that, and you didn't say anything?"

Shepard shrugged. "Well, he was storing it properly. And he bought it with his own money. I figured I'd let him think he was putting one over on us." He gave her an amused look. "More to the point, if you knew about it why didn't you tell me?"

"It was a...clerical issue, sir," she replied. "I didn't want to waste your time with it." Then she smiled. "But I agree, it would be useful right now. That's why I, heh, 'asked' Zaeed to cram all of his PNA into the damaged shuttle which Jacob and I arrived in. I was expecting to use it at the base, but we might be able to use it here."

The Commander smiled in return. "We can work with that, Ms. Lawson. That's some good thinking."

"Fifteen thousand klicks until intercept." Pat was calm, but her eyes were worried.

Miranda's face fell. "No, sorry, I wasn't thinking. It will still take too long. We'll have to send both shuttles, fight our way into the carrier, park the damaged one next to their drive core, then get the strike team from that shuttle back to the other one and fly everybody back while they shoot at us the entire time." She shook her head. "It will take even longer than a ship-to-ship battle."

Shepard's smile just got wider. "Why would we need to use a strike team at all?"

Miranda's eyes met his, and her face froze. "Really? Do you think that would work?"

Joker waggled his fingers like a pianist getting ready to launch into a epic recital. "I'm up for it."

Pat looked at them all in confusion, then her eyes got wide as the penny dropped. "Holy shit. Oh, I mean, ten thousand klicks to intercept."

Shepard didn't give her time to panic. "Pat, you contact the ground team in the hangar. Coordinate the drop with them, and time it to hit the carrier's drive core. EDI, you run point defense and knock out anything that gets too close. Joker, you do your thing. Miranda, you and I just hang on." He took a breath. "XO Vakarian, do you have a firing solution for the Collector carrier?"

"I do, Commander," replied the gunnery officer over the comm. His voice was icy calm.

The Normandy sideslipped a ravening energy beam from the carrier and continued its charge towards the enemy ship.

"Ground team reports ready, Commander," said Pat. She sounded as if she was still in disbelief that this was really happening.

Shepard crossed his arms. "Garrus, would you kindly please make us a hole."

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Zaeed placed the last brick of black PNA explosive on top of the stack which filled the interior of the second shuttle. "Ah, my girls." he said softly. "What a lovely bunch of music I woulda made with you all." He stuck a detonator into one brick and set its timer, then hopped out of the shuttle. He slid the door shut, and the movement made the craft rock a little bit. The shuttle had its lift field on, which made it float slightly above the deck.

"Yer still gonna make a lovely noise, I figure," he muttered to himself, and his pale mismatched eye gleamed as he smiled with evil intent. The mercenary jogged off to join the others at the shuttle's rear just as the Normandy's main guns rumbled.

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Twin streams of relativistic metal slammed into the rocky hull of the Collector carrier. No mere physical material could withstand such force, and the carrier's skin simply vaporized under the impact. The resulting explosion tore a huge hole in the front of the Collector ship. The Normandy was charging close behind its own cannon fire, and it sped through the entrance wound which it had just made.

The interior of the carrier was hollow, and the rocky walls of that vast chamber were covered with a forest of human-sized transport pods. The pods rocked a little in the gale of wind created as the frigate sped through the carrier's interior. Small laser craft began flying out from the walls and firing at the intruder, only to be quickly picked off by responding laser fire from the Normandy itself.

The sleek delta shape continued its charge towards the rear of the Collector carrier. There was a large 'cross' of sculpted black metal that spanned the rear of the alien craft. In the center of that cross was a cylindrical structure oriented along the carrier's main axis. And coming from within the open mouth of that structure was the blue glow of a massive drive core.

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"Seven seconds," said Pat's amplified voice throughout the hangar. Zaeed set his shoulder at the rear of the shuttle and looked up at Grunt, who was similarly ready to push. The krogan grinned at him, showing an alarming number of teeth.

Zaeed nodded back. It was far too noisy to speak and be heard. The wind in the hangar was pretty fierce, what with the hangar door being open. Samara was on the other side of Grunt. Zaeed knew that the asari was really damn strong, even when she wasn't using biotics. And for this they needed sheer brute force.

"Five seconds," said Pat's voice.

"Four." Zaeed wondered if they'd be able to hear the explosion when it went off.

"Three." Actually, that would be a bad thing.

"Two." They didn't want to be anywhere near this shuttle in the next few minutes.

"One." Zaeed planted his feet and grinned just as fiercely as Grunt.

"NOW!"

As one, the trio pushed on the shuttle and ran towards the main door. The craft slid easily on its lift field and rapidly picked up speed. The three stopped pushing just short of the door. The explosives-laden shuttle sailed out of the hangar.

"Hold on, folks!" yelled Pat. "This is gonna be rough!"

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"Thanix cannon recharged," said Garrus over the comm.

Joker dodged the Normandy around the 'cross' which held up the carrier's drive core cylinder. The back end of the Collector carrier was suddenly in view and also very, very close. Pat gripped her seat and tried not to cry out in panic.

"Fire!" Almost simultaneous with Shepard's shout, a huge burst of glowing vapor appeared in front of them and they flew right into it. The whole ship shook as it struck the edge of their exit hole, and Pat finally gave out a little 'eep' as her jangled nerves registered the hit.

The orange-hued sky was now again in front of them. "No damage reported," said EDI. "The new armor held just fine."

Pat blew out a shaky breath, and then called up the rear view and put it onto the tactical display overhead.

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The UT-47 Kodiak shuttle is a marvel of modern engineering, capable of landing and taking off in any type of environment short of the depths of a gas giant. Its official nickname in the Alliance is 'The Combat Cockroach'. Unofficially (and more affectionately) the grunts refer to the Kodiak as the TLF; the Tough Little Fucker.

This particular TLF was living up to its name.

After dropping in a graceful arc from the fleeing Normandy, the shuttle sailed into the mouth of the cylindrical structure that contained the carrier's drive core. The shuttle's blunt nose smashed into the floor of the cylinder and then the entire vehicle bounced back up into the air. Its rear end flipped over its nose in a somersault and then in turn the shuttle's rear smashed into the floor. The shuttle began to tumble like a pinwheel along the floor of the cylinder, smashing organic-looking equipment and crushing Collectors in its careening path towards the heart of the carrier. Chunks of gore and metal flung out on both sides of the cartwheeling vehicle until it gave one final bounce and then slid to rest on its side, just short of the pulsing blue glow of the core.

Collector soldiers cautiously swooped in on buzzing wings towards the dented and smoking wreck. One of them clicked in puzzlement as it hopped up and tugged on the edge of the shuttle's door. It trained its gun into the interior as the door slid open.

The vast intellect known to the Normandy's crew as Harbinger looked through the drone's eyes. It saw a huge pile of black bricks along with a small metal box. The box had a little red light that was flashing faster and faster...

Harbinger had just enough time to realize what it was looking at...right before half a metric ton of ultra-high explosive went off right next to the carrier's drive core.

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On the tactical screen, the Collector carrier shuddered as a long gout of flame shot from the Normandy's exit hole. The huge ship lurched and then broke in half along its long axis as a huge pulse of blue light exploded out of its center.

"Oh, that's not good," said Miranda. "I think we were a little too successful..."

"Hold on!" Shepard's shout came just before the wave of blue light slammed into the Normandy.

The frigate rocked like it had been slapped with a giant hand, and Shepard nearly lost his grip on Pat's chair.

"ALERT!" yelled EDI. "Multiple system failures! Circuit breakers overloaded! Loss of maneuvering power!" The view outside the cockpit spun as they tumbled away from the wrecked carrier.

In the middle of one of their tumbles, Shepard saw the wave of blue light also hit the Collector base ahead of them. The lights on the giant structure flickered and then went out.

"Report, Joker!" he snapped.

"I got nothin'!" cried the pilot. "We're heading for the base and not into empty space, so there's that at least. But this ain't gonna be a soft landing."

Shepard activated the ship-wide comm. "All hands, all hands, brace for impact. Repeat, brace for impact."

The base whirled closer as Shepard gripped Pat's chair. There was a low-pitched clang as the ship knocked against a protruding tower, and the frigate slewed to the right. The hull of the base sped beneath them as they kept dropping.

"This is gonna suck," muttered EDI.

The Normandy smacked into the side of the Collector base with a huge crunch and then bounced like a skipped stone. Shepard felt Miranda's body hit against his and they both tumbled to the deck, where they bounced around for a few more agonizing seconds. The ship itself finally stopped bouncing and then there was a long, drawn-out screech as they scraped along the rocky surface of the structure until finally, mercifully, everything stopped moving.

There was a moment of silence.

Shepard picked himself up and then helped Miranda to her feet. He looked out the windows and saw the rocky hull of the Collector base stretching beneath them. There were no lights visible anywhere in the base; the pulse that had taken them out must have had an equally bad effect on the Collectors.

Joker's hands trembled as he unlatched himself from the pilot's chair. "Well hey, it's like they say. Any landing you can walk away from is a good one, right?"

"Is anyone hurt?" asked Shepard. "Sound off." He rolled one of his shoulders. He'd taken a good bang on it when they had hit, but it didn't seem to be damaged.

"I'm okay," replied Pat in a small voice.

"As am I, Shepard," said Miranda in a much firmer voice.

"I got nothing busted Commander," said Joker in an almost manic tone. "For once."

"Owwww," moaned EDI.

----------------------------------------

Donnelly jerked a little. He was once more aware of his real surroundings, cramped though they were. The welter of foreign memories and thoughts running through his mind seemed to have stopped.

-Hey, can any of you hear me?- he 'called' out. There was no reply from any of his comrades. He seemed to be alone in his skull for the moment. The engineer felt a little relief from the strain of literally having to keep himself together.

He tried to open his eyes and found that he could see, just a little bit. Outside of his tube was still a blur, but he could now see much more movement. The glowing eyes of the Collectors darted back and forth across his field of view, much more quickly than before. It reminded him of the insectoid scurrying that happens after kicking open an anthill.

And then he realized what had happened.

Shepard had happened. The Normandy had come to reclaim her own.

Donnelly felt a little life returning to his hands. He slowly brought them up towards the translucent door of the tube that held him. If he could get at least a little of his strength back, he just might be able to get out of here.

----------------------------------------

"Pretty much all of the ship's fusible links blew," said Tali. She called up the Normandy's schematics on the display above the conference table. Many of the interior sections of the ship were red and flashing. "That pulse from the carrier's destruction, on top of the high radiation environment, was too much for the control circuitry. We have basic life support and EDI, and right now that's it."

"How soon until we can be back up and running?" asked Shepard. The other members of the ground team were also crowded into the conference room, along with Mordin and Oriana. The lighting was harsh; only emergency lights were operational at the moment, and the group crowded around the table cast expressionistic shadows on the walls as they held their council.

A case of theft: this story is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.

Oriana spoke up. "It will take at least two hours. We're resetting the breakers and replacing fuses, that'll take a little over one hour. Then we have to power it all back up in sections without blowing everything again."

The Commander nodded. "Okay. EDI, how long do you estimate we have before the Collectors attack us?"

"I do not have a precise estimate," replied the AI. "But I would say at least four hours. In a way, the pulse that hurt us also helped us. The base's systems were just as damaged as ours, and will also take longer to repair due to the sheer size of the structure. The Collectors will not be searching the station's exterior for us, as they will be too busy repairing the base. The best they could do will be to launch a probing cyberattack in the next hour or so to determine our location. I should be able to easily handle such an attack."

"Good," said Shepard. "That gives us a chance to properly plan our rescue attempt. EDI, please bring up your scans of the base."

The Normandy schematic was replaced with a wireframe map of the Collector structure. A small room near the top of the structure was highlighted. From the scale, Tali realized that 'small' control room could easily hold the Normandy ten times over.

EDI spoke again. "You should be able to overload their systems and destroy the base if you reach the main control center here at the top."

Garrus peered closer at the hologram. "Let's see, so if we're here on the outside...that means going through the heart of the station, past this massive energy signature below the control room."

"That's the central chamber," said Shepard. "It's the largest single open space in the base. The Collectors are probably holding our crew and the colonists in there. It certainly has the room to house all of the captives they've taken."

"It looks like there are two main routes," said Zaeed. "We should send a team up each path. That'll keep the Collectors off-balance. We can then regroup in the central chamber."

Miranda shook her head and pointed into the hologram. "No good. There's this antechamber below the big main chamber. That's where the two paths meet. But the paths are blocked by these big blast doors into the antechamber. The only way to get them open is to get someone on the other side."

"So we use the, whaddyacall, access tunnels instead," said Jack. "Just like I'm not allowed to."

Miranda gestured in the middle of the hologram, and the map zoomed in. She traced a finger along a small tunnel that was now visible. "Good thinking, Jack. There's a ventilation shaft here that goes right into the antechamber." She tapped a finger on her chin. "The problem is, it's only big enough for us to go single file. We can't send the whole team through there. If we get discovered, we'd be massacred in such tight quarters. Plus I don't know if we could fit Grunt through there."

"I could always hold my breath," said Grunt. "I can hold my breath for a very long time. Krogans have redundant lung capacity."

Now Jack reached into the map and zoomed the view back out. "We don't all need to go, cheerleader. If we send the teams down each path like Zaeed said, they can keep the Collectors busy while somebody small and wriggly goes through the ventilation shaft." She leaned back. "Somebody like me, for example. I volunteer. And by 'volunteer', I mean I'm fucking going whether you cunts want me to or not."

Legion now spoke up. "Proposed route has multiple locks requiring bypassing. Significant technical skill required to proceed through ventilation shaft. Not to mention such an effort will be very hazardous."

Jack gave the geth a glare. "Right now, I don't give one single shit about danger." She held up a fist as it became sheathed in a blue aura. "And there's more than one way through a lock, Scrappy."

The synthetic's hood-flaps pivoted in its version of a shrug. "Did not mean to question ability of Human-Biotic-Jack. But if force used to bypass locks, that breach will spread alarm. Collectors will probably flood the ventilation shaft with superheated plasma."

"Oh," said Jack. "Shit." She dropped her blue-wreathed fist.

Legion tapped its chest, right next to the gaping hole in its torso. "This platform is most suited for proposed infiltration. Can bypass locks as well as open antechamber doors at far end."

Shepard rubbed the back of his neck. "I don't like the idea of just one person going through there. If anything happens to you, Legion, you'll be dead and then we'll be dead right after that."

Tali looked again at the map. "Then I should go as well. I have similar expertise to Legion, and I'm good in tight spaces."

"That is logical, Creator-Tali'Zorah," said Legion. It nodded its hood towards Tali.

"Are you sure, Tali?" asked Shepard. "What about the repairs to the Normandy?"

Tali knew that Shepard was also worried about putting her in harm's way, even though he would never admit it out loud.

"I can oversee that," said Oriana. "We've already got the rest of the crew working on fuse replacement." She gave a little smile. "And besides, you're going to get Marcus back soon anyway, right?"

"Fuckin' A-Right, Ennesby," said Jack with a grin.

Mordin spoke up. "Would prefer to accompany one of the teams. Highly likely that crew and colonists will be injured and in need of immediate medical attention."

"I agree," said Shepard. "Mordin, stick with Jack. Jack, your main job is to watch Mordin's ass."

The salarian drew himself up pridefully. "Not entirely helpless, Shepard. Was in STG for many years, have seen combat. Have killed with many methods. Gunfire, knives, drugs, tech attacks, sometimes with farming equipment."

Jack gave Mordin a sidelong glance. "Okay, Doc, then how about we watch each other's ass?"

Mordin smiled and nodded.

Tali crossed her arms and looked at Shepard. "So are we settled?" she asked.

He gave her a sheepish little smile. "We are, if you're okay with it." Then he straightened up. "I guess that's our plan. Tali and Legion get through the ventilation shaft while the A and B teams distract the Collectors along each path. Then we regroup in the antechamber, head up to the main chamber, rescue everyone, blow the place up. Should be a piece of cake, right?"

"And not get blown up in the process," added Miranda. "No doomed heroics, remember?"

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The Collector base's skin was rocky but also clearly 'made', almost like concrete. The latter crunched under Jack's boots as she jumped down and out of the Normandy. She looked around at the other A-team members. Shepard stood like an armored wall, the 'N7' on his breast shining in the harsh orange glow that surrounded them. He held his rifle and had his particle beam weapon slung over his back. Garrus was making a few last-minute checks on his sniper rifle. Grunt looked like a two-legged tank in his armor, and held the crude brick of his OMFG at the ready. The krogan now had two big-ass knives, one in each boot. Mordin stood next to Jack in a lightly-armored pressure suit. The salarian had a machine pistol but nothing else. Jack had offered him a spare shotgun of hers, but Mordin had just smiled, shook his head, and tapped his omni-tool as if to indicate that he had all he needed.

Over to her right, the B-team was making its way towards their own entrance. Jack shook her head a little as she regarded Miranda's departing armored form. There was a time, not too long ago, when she would have quite cheerfully pulled out the Cerberus officer's spine and then laughed in her dead face.

But now? Now she could appreciate that Miranda had been just as misled as the other Cerberus people on board the Normandy. She'd put her own ass on the line to help them. And now the cheerleader's boy-toy was buried somewhere deep in this alien fort, along with Jack's own Honey-Boo. Jack made a promise to herself right then and there. If Marcus got out safe, then that would be an end of it. She wouldn't seek any retribution against Miranda...or against Cerberus itself, for that matter. The notion was actually kind of liberating, now that she thought about it.

Jack and the rest of the A-team approached the door that marked the beginning of their own path into the base. The biotic made another promise to herself. Namely, that at the end of this mission the fucking base would be a smoldering pile of scrap.

She drew her shotgun and crouched close to Shepard's right flank as the Commander reached the door. Mordin was on her right and behind her. Grunt protected Shepard's left, and Garrus stayed behind them all to provide long-distance cover.

"Ready here, Shepard," said Zaeed over the comm.

"Infiltration team ready," added the Buckethead.

"Hit it," replied the Commander.

The door opened and the A-team surged forward. Jack saw an organic-looking tunnel stretching into the distance. They jogged into the corridor, which sloped down and into the alien structure. Mordin easily kept the pace with her and the rest of the team, which made her feel better about having to babysit the Doc. His protests aside, he hadn't been in the middle of combat as much as the rest of them. There was no way he was going to be able to be effective in combat...

Her musings were cut short by a familiar buzzing from ahead. They dove for cover as multiple Collectors swarmed into the larger space in front of them. By now the team acted as a single unit, and the incoming enemy was quickly whittled down to one enemy.

The remaining Collector burst into flame, and a familiar and ancient voice reverberated through the corridor. "DIRECT INTERVENTION IS NECESSARY."

"Aw, shit," muttered Jack. "Not this fuckwit again."

Mordin peered curiously around the corner at Harbinger's manifestation, only for Jack to roughly jerk him back as a plasma bolt sailed past. "Watch it, dude. Harby is a tough motherfucker."

"Understood. Hmm. Flame. Let's see if this is effective..." Mordin tapped a few controls into his omni-tool and then quick as a snake leaned out again and fired something blue and glowing at Harbinger. There was a sudden choked-off scream. Jack, in spite of her own warning, leaned out as well.

The formerly flaming form was now a statue encased in ice. Jack didn't say a word, just blinked in astonishment.

Garrus gave the frozen Collector a concussive shot that blew it into icy splinters.

"Bose-Einstein condensate," said Mordin happily. "Instant supercooling."

Jack looked over at Shepard. "And you wanted me to watch his ass?"

They moved forward. The corridor expanded out into a large chamber where the floor seemed to be made up of large hexagonal tiles. The tiles were at different elevations, forcing them to jump down and then vault up as they progressed deeper into the base.

Another squad of Collectors popped up when they were midway through the chamber. Jack's shockwave scattered some of them, and as she made ready to throw one at the others a bright red ball flew from behind her and towards those still standing. The ball actually swerved and homed in on one of the Collectors still in cover. Upon impact, the Collector gave a clacking scream and was covered in flame.

"Ah, wonderful!" exclaimed Mordin. "Collectors are flammable! Or inflammable! Can't remember which...doesn't matter!" The flaming Collector continued to writhe in pain before Jack hit it with a shotgun blast.

Another of the Collectors was abruptly wreathed in whiter flame. "SHEPARD-" it began, before the Commander switched on his super-speed and pulverized the transformed alien with a long rolling burst of fire before Harbinger could say any more. The other Collectors were quickly dispatched.

They reached the far end of the chamber. Jack tapped Shepard on the shoulder. "Seriously, Boss, why haven't we taken the Doc with us before?"

"Happier in lab," said Mordin before Shepard could reply. "Though must confess, being in real combat again is quite exhilarating."

"It's gettin' ya horny, eh Doc?" said Jack, and waggled her eyebrows at him. "It gets me in the mood too."

The salarian shook his head inside his bubble helmet. "No, simple adrenaline. Salarian reproduction different. Very little sex drive. Are you proposing a sexual liaison?"

Jack was caught completely flat-footed by Mordin's matter-of-fact tone. "I, er, what?"

"No offense taken, happens all the time," continued Mordin cheerfully. "Regard you as valued comrade, not to mention very interesting person. If ever intended to try Human, would try you. But not anytime soon."

"I, um, okay..."

Shepard chuckled. "As much as I like to see Jack get a taste of her own medicine, we should keep moving."

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Tali had debated if she should go first, or if Legion should lead the way. The geth had left it up to her. She'd finally decided to go first. At least she didn't have to worry about the synthetic ogling her ass. She just had to worry if Legion was going to shoot her in the ass. In spite of their recent conversation, she still harbored some deep-seated suspicions about the geth's true motives. Tali kept wondering if Legion was just waiting for the opportune moment to dish out some payback for what her father had done.

She wriggled further along the narrow tunnel. Legion's eye-lamp shone from behind her, creating shadow-puppet images on the gray walls of the shaft in front of her. Tali's comm crackled with the noise of the two strike teams as the pair of infiltrators pushed further into the alien base. The two of them were keeping radio silence; there was no point in unnecessarily alerting the Collectors as to what was really going on.

"Dammit, Jack, keep in cover!" snapped Shepard's voice.

"Relax, Boss...there, no problemo. Hey Doc, you wanna light that other guy up?"

"With pleasure!"

The other team seemed to be similarly engaged. Zaeed's rasp was unmistakable. "Listen up, mates. Shepard tells me that Harby fella is vulnerable for the second or so it takes for 'im to form. Hit 'im hard before then."

"Got it," said Miranda's icy voice. "Contact right!"

"I see them," rumbled Thane. There was the muffled sound of multiple shots. "Targets down," said the drell.

"Damn me, Thane," said Zaeed. "I'm glad I never had to tangle with ya."

Tali came to an elbow in the shaft. She glanced below her and saw that Legion was right on her heels. "Are you doing okay?"

"This platform is well, Creator-Tali'Zorah."

She pushed herself up over the elbow and kept wriggling forward. Quarians are by nature and by upbringing immune to claustrophobia. In fact, there is a competition among the younger quarians in the Migrant Fleet to see who can maneuver the fastest through a particularly long and narrow path inside one of the main Fleet liveships, the Rayya. Prior to her departure on her Pilgrimage, Tali'Zorah nar Rayya had been the undisputed Fleet-wide champion of that competition. She smiled a little bit behind her visor as she thought about what Jack would have made of this path. In spite of the biotic's bluster, Tali knew that Jack would have found the tiny tunnel intolerable.

A mottled orange wall blocked the way ahead. "Another valve," said Tali. "Hang on, Legion. Let me get this." She scanned the wall with her omni-tool and found the valve's corresponding logic junction. Tali's fingers flew almost without her thinking as she set up a bypass that would open the valve without alerting any prying eyes to the fact.

The valve obediently slid aside, and they moved on.

"It is me, or is it getting warmer in here?" asked Tali.

"Correct," replied Legion. "Temperature now five degrees above that observed previously. Suspect we are near either power generator or life support system."

"I hope it doesn't get too hot." Her suit could keep her cool in most normal environments, but if the whole shaft was getting warmer then there really wasn't anywhere for her suit to dump the excess heat.

The next section of shaft had a different look to it, a dirty white rather than gray. She hesitated a little and then moved forward. There was only the barest warning creak before the shaft wall below her simply tore open. Tali pitched out into open space. She made a desperate grab for the hole's edge, but her fingers slipped off of the edge as she continued to fall.

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"WE ARE THE HARBINGER OF-"

Samara's glowing-blue fist smashed right through Harbinger's head before the creature could finish manifesting. The flaming body dispersed into glowing embers.

"KILL ONE, AND ONE HUNDRED SHALL TAKE ITS PLACE," said Harbinger's voice as the corpse dissipated.

"Then bring them, you bastard!" yelled the asari, and thrust her glowing fists into the air. "Just bring them! BRING THEM ALL TO ME!" Her final scream echoed through the chamber.

Zaeed was now very, very glad he'd gone with the flow and given up that explosive. When it came to pissed-off ex-justicars, there was a good side and a bad side. Right now he was on the good side, namely behind her. In front of her was most certainly the bad side at the moment.

A Collector drone made a run at Samara, and Zaeed took its head off almost casually with a single rifle shot. "Fall back and regroup, Samara," he said through the comm. In spite of his inner musings, his voice was all business. "Good job, by the way."

"I thank you." Samara's face had lost its manic look, and she seemed to be back in control.

The next chamber was even bigger. The hexagonal floor-tiles at different heights made it a real pain in the arse to move through, although the resulting walls did give some cover. It was quiet. The standard cliche, Zaeed thought. Make the intruders drop their guard before dumping everything on them.

"Hang on," he said. "Thane, you got any contacts in sight?" The drell was nowhere to be seen; ordinarily, it would have irritated Zaeed to not know the precise location of one of his team. However, through training as well as combat he'd learned to simply let Thane do his thing. The assassin always seemed to be in the right place when needed.

"None so far," came the rumbling response. "I have oversight of the chamber. You may proceed."

The three others in B-team spread out and cautiously picked their way through the uneven terrain. One side of the chamber opened out into a huge cavernous space that seemed to stretch for kilometers below them. Zaeed kept an eye on that side of the chamber. He remembered the vids he'd seen of the Mnemosyne mission, where the husks had been hiding just under the lip of the walkways.

Miranda was drifting a little too close to that edge for his comfort. "Miranda, come my way a bit," he said. "I'm worried that there might be-"

Harbinger's avatar exploded up from behind one of the walls in the center of the chamber, and this time it didn't waste time in any pronouncements. It just started firing. Zaeed just barely had time to throw himself to the side before a bolt of plasma flew by him. "Dammit! Focus fire on-"

More Collectors swooped in from over the lip of the chasm beyond, near Samara's location.

Harbinger's head rocked with a shot from Thane, but by now the being was fully formed and the attack didn't seem to do much damage.

Zaeed rolled himself down behind a wall and took stock of the situation. Samara was caught in the middle of the group of Collectors. Miranda was down on one knee for improved stability and was firing her pistol at the Collectors attacking the asari.

Zaeed didn't dare follow Miranda's example. Samara was moving around fast enough that he was afraid he'd hit the asari. Instead, he shifted his attention back to Harbinger and gave the glowing bastard a concussive shot. The creature jerked but otherwise showed no pain, and it began throwing plasma bolts towards Zaeed with a will.

He ducked back into cover. "That's right, asshole, keep shooting at the obvious target..." There was a crack from Thane's rifle.

"WE ARE YOUR EVOLUTIONARY DESTINY," said Harbinger. "YOU DO NOT YET COMPREHEND YOUR PLACE IN THINGS-"

Zaeed popped his head up again and gave Harby another really sweet concussive shot in the chest. It coincided with another sniper shot from Thane, and now the creature doubled over. It was clearly hurt. Zaeed bared his teeth in a fierce grin. "Thane, take care of that talky bastard if you please."

"Of course." Thane's rifle gave another crack that blew the transformed Collector into ashes.

The mercenary switched his attention back to Samara. She had just done some kind of biotic pull to bring one of her assailants into melee range, and was in the middle of stomping the thing's head into paste against the floor. The only other Collector standing then went down with a shot from Miranda.

And then the ululating moans of husks filled the chamber. They pulled themselves up over the edge of the floor, right next to the former Cerberus officer. It was a huge swarm, at least twenty of them. And Miranda was trapped right in the middle.