Hey everyone! I'm so sorry for the huge gap between this chapter and the last. There were reasons, but it was not because I had ever given up on this story. Thanks for sticking with it through this long break!

The sun blazed brightly in the sky, enveloping the town in a pleasant heat that eased the muscles and warmed the soul. It was one of those days where everything seemed to move at a slower pace than usual. People meandered lazily down the grassy paths as they went about their business, and a gentle breeze made rippling, golden waves out of the miles of crops surrounding the small civilization. The picturesque scene could have been plucked straight out of a postcard.

A tiny cloud passed overhead, casting a brief second of shade before the light returned. Samantha Traynor shielded her eyes and looked about in an attempt to find it, but they only thing she saw was the endless blue of the summer sky. It was nice to get away from Earth for a while; London's dense population was exciting, but it wore on the nerves as the months turned into years. If only I could get a decent connection to the extranet, this place would be perfect. She hadn't played her favorite video game in far too long, and she was itching to return to the lab and tackle a new problem. She loved the fresh air, and she loved her parents, but she was more than ready for tomorrow's departure.

As she crested a small hill, she saw Chief Williams talking with the head of the diplomatic committee and sped up her leisurely pace. She knew their communication systems were experiencing some issues today, and she had a few ideas she wanted to run by the Chief on how to fix them. Her hip struck the edge of a large crate lying in the middle of the grass as she broke out into a light jog, causing her to wobble a bit to the side. "Bloody things," she muttered under her breath. There were dozens of crates and haphazard half-walls jutting out of buildings on this one avenue alone. This is why the job of "intercity transportation" shouldn't be given to a single farmer who couldn't care less how the city's streets were laid out. Traynor was not the biggest fan of the way the colony was run, to say the least.

"Chief Williams!" Traynor called out, waving with a smile when Williams glanced her way. Her darkly intensive stare sent a shiver of goosebumps down Traynor's back, partly from fear and partly from…something else.

"I'll talk to you later, Lilith," Williams said, turning to Traynor. "Hey there. You're Traynor's daughter, right?"

"Yes. Samantha Traynor, at your service." She started to bow before changing it into a clumsy salute at the last second. "I wanted to speak to you about the comms."

Williams sighed. "Yes, I know they're out. We're working on fixing them as soon as possible, okay?"

"Actually, I was hoping to provide some assistance. It's sort of my area of expertise within the Alliance, you see. I have some ideas that I'd like to run by the engineers, if I may."

Ashley shrugged. "I don't see the harm in it. I'm next to useless with that stuff anyway. There are some people looking into it right now, just over there in the comms center." She pointed at one of the taller structures found in the colony, a solid three story building.

"Yes, ma'am!" Traynor spun around and set off towards the center. Shit. She scurried back around and saluted Williams again.

The Chief awkwardly returned the gesture. "Go on, then. Let me know if you make any progress."

Traynor didn't respond. Her body was frozen, and her eyes were fixated on a dark, looming shape that had appeared behind Williams. Ashley whipped around and pulled out her rifle, aiming it up into the sky and looking through her scope at the massive entity.

She didn't understand how no one had noticed the monstrosity until now. It was close enough to take up a large portion of her field of vision and was hurtling straight down towards the ground at an alarming pace. Traynor assumed it must be a ship of some kind, but what kind of space vessel of that magnitude could withstand the heat of reentry into an atmosphere? "Oh my God. Is-is that a Reaper?"

The Chief shook her head brusquely. "No. It looks completely different from Sovereign. That is the source of whatever has been abducting colonies all over the Terminus Systems." She tried her radio, but the loud static was easily heard by Traynor standing a few feet away. "Damnit!"

Traynor gulped as the ship continued its eerily silent descent. A small, hardly discernable cloud separated itself from the main vessel and started drifting through the air in lazy circles. "What do we do? The gun is offline still, right?"

Williams gripped Traynor's shoulders firmly. "Listen to me. You have to fix the comms center, now. Do whatever it takes. We need to get a message to Alliance command. Tell them 'the fox is in the hen house'. Security code Lima-Bravo-Zulu-Seven-Delta. Got it?"

Traynor blinked in confusion. "I…wait, did you know this was going to happen?"

Williams audibly ground her teeth, and Traynor shrunk away from the ferocity in her face. "We don't have time to talk about this! That thing is about to land. We need support! Do you understand?!"

"Yes ma'am! Got it!" She took off towards the building, seeing the panic ensuing around her for the first time. Williams tried to organize the evacuation efforts, pulling people aside and directing the foot traffic away from the incoming ship. The little cloud stopped its seemingly aimless wandering and hovered in place for a few seconds, growing larger and larger as more dark mist seeped out of the ship and joined the main group. The cloud suddenly shot out in four different directions, streaking straight towards different parts of the colony. One of the lines was heading directly for them.

Traynor flinched and almost tripped over her own feet as Williams unloaded into the dark shape, her laughter booming out over the gunshots. "It's been too long since I've gotten to do this!"

Traynor reached the door and swiped herself in, looking back one last time to see how the Chief was doing. At their current distance, she was able to ascertain that the mass was actually made up of thousands of tiny insects. They converged on Williams' position, completely enveloping her as their wings buzzed angrily. A couple of seconds later, they parted, revealing Williams' frozen body.

She slammed the door shut, entering in a lockdown procedure for the access panel on the inside. The lights on the ceiling turned to red, and an alarm blared overhead as Traynor made her way further into the building.

"Okay, think think think think think," she said to herself as she ran. "The Chief was still standing after she froze. Looked like some sort of purple field around her. Stasis field, got to be; doubt that occurs naturally for these creatures. Maybe some sort of genetically enhanced bug? Robots?" She heard the sound of glass shattering, accompanied by a renewal of the bugs resonant droning. She skidded around a corner and pushed her way into the stair well, climbing as quickly as her slightly out of shape legs would allow.

"I can't let them touch me," she wheezed. "Regular guns won't really work. I have to stall them long enough to fix the comms. If they really are drones, someone must be controlling them. All I have to do is disrupt the signal."

She entered the control center to find it deserted. "Damn it," she muttered, stepping over some tools lying on the ground and seating herself at a computer. She quickly scanned through the log and easily determined how their comms were being jammed. The tricky part would be fixing it before she got frozen as well.

She determined the extremely broad range of signals that were currently being jammed as well as the approximate area that was being affected. "Wow. That's a little bit of overkill, don't you think? Still…if these are all of the frequencies they're targeting…"

By this point, she could hear the buzzing growing louder. "Sounds like the buggers got to the stairs. Well, here goes nothing."

Doing some quick finagling with her local router, some tin foil, a couple of wires, and a piece of chewing gum she pulled out of her pocket, she placed the makeshift contraption next to the exit and waited by the outlet. She stayed poised to plug the cord in until the small bangs on the door looked like they were about to cave the door down.

She thrust the cable into the wall and jumped back, half expecting the device to short out. However, nothing but silence greeted her. "Shit." She turned toward the door in trepidation, the fear rising in her throat as she imagined the insects swarming over her like they had over Chief Williams. That was when she realized she was actually hearing silence. The bangs had stopped.

She laughed to herself in relief and zipped over to the desk again. These machines appeared to be extremely advanced, so she doubted her gimmick would permanently disable them. Still, it would hopefully buy her enough time.

Five minutes of intense typing later, she found a way to bypass the jammer. "Child's play," she said, shaking her head to herself.

"This is Samantha Traynor. The fox is in the hen house, I repeat, the fox is in the hen house. Confirmation code Lima, Bravo, Seven…no wait, I mean, Lima, Bravo, Zulu, Seven…Delta! Over."

There was a slight pause before the radio crackled back to her. "Message received. Sending reinforcements now. ETA six hours, over."

"Six hours? We're under attack right now! Are there any units nearby that can assist, over?"

She didn't receive a response. Pounding the desk in frustration, she desperately searched though the nearby channels in an attempt to find anybody that might come to their aid. To her surprise, she found a ship approaching the colony at that very moment. The signature wasn't Alliance, but something seemed oddly familiar about it.

Even in the state of immediate peril she found herself in, it was hard for Ashley not to be bored. After the adrenaline subsided and she'd resigned herself to her invisible cage, there really wasn't much to do. Thankfully the stasis didn't affect her eyes, and she could look around freely in the area immediately in front of her. She would have gone insane without the ability to at least actively observe her surroundings.

Around half an hour passed with Ashley periodically straining with all her might to move as much as a pinky toe before something entered her field of vision. It was humanoid in figure, but the shape was nothing like she'd ever seen before. The outer skin appeared to be made out of a husk-like material, almost like an overgrown insect. The four eyes only enhanced this idea, as did the small set of extra arms and thin, translucent wings protruding from the back.

A few more of the creatures came into view toting a large container that hovered just above the ground. The box was suspiciously coffin shaped, and dread filled Ashley's stomach when the aliens hoisted one of the frozen colonists into it and sealed it shut. God, now would be a really great time for a miracle.

The creatures seemed to be going about their human collecting in a systematic manner. With their current pattern, it would take quite a while for them to reach her. If Traynor had gotten word to the Alliance, it might just be enough time for them to arrive.

One of the things locked eyes with her as it walked by. It pointed in her direction, and it barked something at its comrades in a strange, skittering language. She reflexively tried to shy away as they approached her, but of course the stasis field held her in place. The eyes that gazed into hers were empty and expressionless. More unintelligible clicks passed between them, but one extremely recognizable word was thrown around several times during their conversation: Shepard.

Suddenly, the one in front of her reeled in pain and clutched its head. Its feet left the ground as its body slowly hovered upwards, and an orange burst of light caused dark spots to cloud Ashley's vision. When it came back down to rest on the grass, the glow did not fade from its body. It sauntered over to her and reached out a hand, sliding a finger along the stasis field near her cheek. Its voice was much deeper when it spoke and seemed to reverberate inside her skull with every word. She heard Shepard's name again as well as her own while the fiery orbs burned unblinkingly into her soul. What the hell do they want with me?

Crack. She caught movement on her right as one of the entities collapsed to the ground next to her feet. A purple haze surrounded the monster in front of her, locking its limbs in place much like her own. It shot towards her at breakneck speed, causing her to close her eyes as the only method remaining to brace for the impact. She never felt the strike, but her stomach was left behind as she fell backwards onto the ground. The frozen insect spun into the sky after ricocheting off her trapped body. Flashes and gunfire flew overhead as she tried desperately to get a glimpse of anything from the corners of her eyes.

A heavily tattooed woman slammed down in front of her wreathed in biotic flames. Her fingers cracked, and one of the aliens sailed away into the side of a building with a resounding thud. The creature with the glowing eyes turned its attention on her, and the woman flew through the air after the other alien, colliding with the same wall.

"Damnit Jack!" a voice barked out. "That's why you shouldn't jump in everywhere!"

If it could, Ashley's mouth would have dropped to her feet. Her eyes confirmed what her ears couldn't quite process; Shepard slid into view behind a piece of cargo. A familiar quarian popped her head over the edge as well, throwing away any suspicion she might have that this wasn't actually Shepard. I guess the son of a bitch didn't die after all. Anderson had sent her a message stating as much, but she didn't quite believe it until this very moment.

Some salarian she didn't recognize sent a guided, synthetic fireball at the apparent leader, and the combined fire from Shepard's team brought it down. Shepard stood up and wiped his brow, glancing around as more people came in from the sides. His eyes wandered over to Ashley and met her frozen gaze for the first time. "Holy shit. Ashley?"