Chapter 5

Mad God 42- Perhaps they are. Perhaps they're not. Who knows.

lazyguy90- It's not just them. They're also one more faction that's going to be introduced later on.

ATP- They're not working for Chaos. The Alpha legion is just using them.

Slaggedfire- I mean I did warn people ahead that other 40k factions were going to be added. And it really depends on how you're using them all. Although I've seen many fics that were ruined because of other races being added, so I see your point.

Bladerunner24k- Yeah, sucks the other races don't get use that much.

Tau first fleet

"So, this is a Collector ship." Said Brightsword as he, along with Torchstar and Farsight, were looking at a holographic image of a Collector ship on the bridge of Farsight's flagship, the Custodian class battleship, Defender. The rest of the fleet had surrounded the Collector ship to prevent it from escaping them.

It was a bit larger than a standard council heavy cruiser. At around eight hundred meters, one could mistake it to be a dreadnought in size, but to the Tau, it was merely the size of their smallest escort ships.

It was weirdly designed too. Organic-like material protruded all over the ship with most of it around what the Tau believed to be the nose of the ship, fusing seamlessly with the metal parts of the ship. To some of the Tau, it reminded them of a devastating race in their old galaxy called the Tyranids. Shuddering a bit at the thought of that hive mind race, the Tau focused on the Collector ship and it's surroundings. Around the Collector ship were the destroyed remains of Turian warships, mostly frigate class with only one cruiser class.

"Commander Farsight, the Collector ship is unresponsive." Said the tau admiral in charge of the first fleet. "We're detecting no power signals aboard. Not even basic life support and the like."

"It's a trap." Said Farsight, looking at the ship and what damages it sustained. From what they could tell, most of the damage was to the ship's engines. Or, at least, what the Tau thought were it's engines. Even if they weren't, the damage wasn't enough to damage the ship's FTL drive. As confirmed by the first scans they did. "Perform deeper scans. We need to see if the crew is still alive." The bridge did so and soon, the holographic image of the Collector ship teamed with multiple red dots all over it.

"Hmph. A poor trap." Said Brightsword, disappointed at the poor attempt at making a trap. The Collectors it seemed were poor ambushers.

If it was a Tau commander that was in charge of setting up an ambush against the Normandy, they would have done a far better job.

Using the arts of Kauyon, the Patient Hunter, a Tau tactic that is involves careful planning and luring enemies to prepared kill zones, a Tau commander would have given the Normandy something that it simply could not ignore. In this case, intel on an alien race it tried to fight against. However, he or she would not have done so where one could obviously see the bait. They would have had their bait more damaged, emitting a constant distress signal, as well as having damaged equipment all over the battlefield in order to make it more genuine.

The Collector did none of this and so left the trap useless if it was up against one that knew how to look at the clues around the ship and see the trap for what it is. Something the Tau, being experts in both ambushes and rapid strikes, were well adept in doing.

"If the Normandy fell for this, I would be shocked.' Said Torchstar as even she saw the poor attempt of a trap before her, despite her being the most inexperienced of the Eight. She then looked at Farsight, who was analyzing the Collector ship. "Should we begin boarding actions?" Farsight just stayed silent as he analyzed the ship further, wondering why the Collectors were not trying to leave or attack them. Were they hoping to acquire a few Tau before doing so? It's possible, the Collectors would definitely want them for study, even more so if they are indeed working with the Reapers. If that was the case, they needed to destroy the engines of the ship to prevent them from going into FTL speeds, thereby making it impossible for them to catch them again. After a minute of analyzing the ship for any weakness they can exploit, Farsight ordered the crew to aim for the ship's engines and fire.

Acting on the orders of Farsight, the crew of the Defender aimed scanned the ship for the area where their engines are. After determine where they were, the crew aimed a single railgun battery at the ship, judging a single railgun battery to be sufficient to cripple the ship, and fired.

The railgun batteries, almost thirty meters long barreled guns, let loose a series of massive metal slug. Normally the railgun batteries would be fired one barrel at a time, in order for the guns to both reload and cool down, but since it was just Collector ship and the ships of this galaxy were far weaker to the Tau's own, it was decided to just fire them all at the same time. The end result was devastating for the Collector ship. The hypervelocity slugs tore right through the Collector ship's engines, causing massive explosions that permeated through the engine area of the ship. The Tau watched as the explosions finally stopped, revealing massive holes in the area where the engines were. A testament to Tau firepower. What's even more devastating was that the railgun batteries were their standard weaponry. Their most powerful weapons were still untested and would be still until the Reapers come.

"Engine area is completely disabled, commander." Said a weapon analyst as they scanned the ship again. "The life signs near that sector have been snuffed out."

"Can the Collectors engage FTL speeds?" Asked Brightsword.

"Negative." Said another crew member. "The damage is too extensive. The Collectors will not be leaving." Brightsword nodded at that before looking at Farsight and asked if he should prepare several hunter cadres to board the enemy ship to clear out all the Collectors.

"No." Said Farsight, surprising Brightsword a bit. "It'll take us days, perhaps even weeks, before we can clear the ship of every single Collector in it. And any Collector remaining on that ship is a danger to the Earth caste analysts we send there. There is also the danger of the Collectors employing some weapon to neutralize our cadres the moment we step inside. According to the Geth, the Collectors took the entirety of human colonies without firing a single shot. I will not endanger Tau lives when a better alternative is with us." He then looked at the single Geth unit on the bridge. Another Geth platform able to speak called Vanguard. "Is the device ready?"

"Yes." Said Vanguard. "The Ion pulse bomb is ready for deployment. Strike teams are ready to deploy and guard the bomb until it detonates." Farsight nodded at that, satisfied that it was ready.

The Ion pulse bomb was a recent invention of the Earth Caste. Taking information that had been acquired by the recent expedition to Enclave space and their own knowledge of Tau Ion weaponry, they've developed a tactical weapon that was able to destroy the central nervous system of any advanced organic lifeform within the blast radius, leaving behind a blast zone with not evidence of battle aside from the initial explosion and the dead bodies of the deceased enemies of the Tau.

The weapon had been based on a canon that performed a similar way that had been created by the Fal'Shia Sept of the Tau empire. Known for their technological innovations and research, it had been the brainchild of a Tau commander of the Fal'Shia Sept called Shas'O Or'es'Ka, who used it in a new strategy he called the Great strength, Great strike. He had deployed it in a campaign for an Imperium of Man controlled system by the name of Kaurava. They didn't know the detail yet, but from what they knew, the Tau sent to the campaign suffered heavy losses with Or'es'Ka and the rest of the commanders, including an ethereal, amongst the slain. Despite the defeat of Or'es'Ka, his technology was still something to be looked into and the Earth Caste and Geth were looking into using this branch of Ion weaponry and looking into other implications that this weapon type can be used for.

"Good. One team of XV46 battle suits will cover the Geth planting the bomb with two teams of XV8 battle suits providing supports along with a platoon of Geth soldiers. Torchstar and myself will be leading them into battle. Brightsword, stay here and monitor the enemy ship. Just because we disabled the enemy ship, does not mean the Collector are not capable of attacking us." Said Farsight. Brightsword and Torchstar nodded at that. Just before they left for prepare their men, a bridge officer informed them that something had just arrived out of FTL speed.

"Commander, it's the Normandy!" Yelled the officer. That caused Farsight to stop and ponder on this new development.

Normandy

"Well, would you look at that." Said Joker as he saw the enormous Tau fleet that had surrounded their target. EDI had countered over thirty ships, one of them were the large super dreadnoughts that had been spotted back in Haestrom and in the Citadel, ten of were the smaller, but still large crescent-shaped ships that were the cruisers for the Tau it seemed. The rest of them were of similar size to Citadel heavy cruisers or dreadnoughts and they surrounded the larger Tau ships, acting akin to frigates for the Tau, protecting and supporting the large ships to prevent enemies from flanking them and hitting their vulnerable rears. "The newcomers are here to take what should be ours and make us look incompetent. Huh…so this is what it feels like to be useless."

Shepard, having been on the bridge with Joker when they exited FTL, just stayed silent as he looked at the Tau ships, surrounding the Collector ship as if it was a rabbit and they were the wolves, just stayed silent as he processed this.

This was entirely unexpected. He knew the Tau opposed the Reapers, they've made the perfectly clear when he meet Farsight and their other leaders, but he didn't expect them to follow a distress beacon that only they should have responded to.

According to the Illusive Man, a Turian patrol had managed to disable a Collector ship before being destroyed and that they sent a distress signal prior to their destruction. Cerberus, seeing the value of being there before the Turians, hacked into their distress signal and gave the Turian high command false signal of very thing being alright and that no assistance was needed. It was just a matter of time before the Turian high command figures out what was really going on, but the Illusive man was confidant that Shepard can acquire what they need from the Collector ship before the Turians figure out the ruse and send a response fleet as a result.

And that was the plan. Travel to the system where the Collector ship was located in, get inside, find a terminal to upload EDI in and rip whatever intel they can get before the Turians arrive. Simple enough, but the Tau came and threw that plan aside. At least, that's what it seems like at first.

"So, think the Tau are after what we're after, commander?" Asked Joker as he looked at his friend, caution all over his face. Shepard just stayed silent as he looked at the Tau ships still surrounding the Collector ship, but one was turning around to face the Normandy. So far, no weapons were being powered up. At least ones that they know of and the Tau haven't made a single aggressive move towards them, meaning they don't consider the Normandy a threat.

"It's possible." Said Shepard. "The Collectors are still an unknown to everyone, even the Tau. Taking an entire Collector ship is bound to give them an edge over everyone in that department, even the Shadow Broker." He then turned to the holographic emitter next to Joker. "EDI, can you contact the Tau?" EDI's avatar then showed up in the emitter once it powered up.

"No need, Shepard." Said EDI. "The Tau are currently hailing us. It appears they wish to talk to us." Nodding in thanks, Shepard ordered EDI to patch them threw. In a few seconds, Shepard could hear the voice of a Tau soldier.

"Normandy." Said the Tau soldier. "We've detected our approach in the solar system and we wish to know why you are here." Placing his hands behind his back, Shepard spoke.

"We're here to investigate the distress beacon emitted by the Turian patrol fleet sometime ago." Said Shepard. "Also, we're here to board the Collector ship and acquire any intel we can get that can help us stop their operations against human colonies." Both Joker and Shepard heard some chatter on the Tau side of the transmission before they heard another voice.

"Commander Shepard, this is commander Farsight." Said Farsight as his booming voice spoke through the transmission. "We are also here for the same thing. To take anything of value from the Collector ship that can assist us in combatting the Collectors should they come for us. Perhaps we can assist each other in our mutual tasks?" Shepard just hummed as he thought of this.

This was a golden opportunity to strengthen his knowledge on the Tau, get to know their strengths and weaknesses as well as getting to see how their military works. It also gives him a chance to apologize for them for being so aggressive towards them with working with the Citadel Council.

Having been considered crazy or a warmonger because of his insistence towards the existence of the Reapers before he got blasted by the Collectors two years ago, Shepard was a bit sensitive towards the topic of Reapers and the need to prepare for their inevitable invasion. He still warns people of power of it, as well as of his closets friends of the danger, but most of those people, aside from those that knew him as a person and fought with him many times in the past, didn't believe him and refused to do anything to prepare them for the incoming invasion. So when he encounters a race that not only believes the Reapers, but are also taking steps to prepare themselves for them, it frustrated him a bit that they refused to make the other races see the truth or work with the other races, potentially dooming billions of people to death by the Reapers. But after thinking about it for awhile, he could see why the Tau had refused to work with the citadel council initially.

Ever since they revealed themselves to the wider galaxy, there was been a lot of buzz regarding the Tau and their alliance with the Geth. None of it positive.

Since their reveal, news media outlets paint them as an evil, manipulative race that was simply bidding their time with the Geth to being their plan of galactic domination. Their exposure to the rest of the galaxy was simply to fool people into believing they were benevolent and kind, thereby giving them an easier time in the opening stages of their plans for galactic domination as well as giving them the chance to gleam on the council races defenses and fleets. Some insane media outlets even said that the Tau were an artificial race. Created by the Geth to fool the council races in order to put them into a false sense of security and to fool them that the Geth weren't the genocidal race they make them out to be. Ignoring all the implications and stupidity of that last one, it was clear to Shepard now that the Tau were in the right to hold off working with the Citadel council.

He hadn't been at the Citadel for awhile, but he did email Anderson what the situation was for the Tau on the Citadel, which was the only place they were conducting any sort of business at the moment. What he got wasn't exactly positive, furthering supporting the Tau decision to stave off first contact until they had no choice.

When their first shipment of goods, compromised mostly of some type of fabrics and foods, arrived, they had to deal with a long list of paperwork that list from the mundane as forcing them to apply for a permit that allowed them to dock or land within any legal docking bay in the citadel to the offensive such as imposing a new species tariff that had not even existed to random inspections on their ships and goods while they were in citadel space. Even worse, their workers and shipments of goods had suffered some initial attacks from bands of punks and angry Turians and humans assailed them. No Tau was killed as there were always Tau soldiers stationed to protect their goods and workers, the Tau having obviously foreseen such events occurring to them and their people. The same could not be said for those that attacked them.

Most of the ones that had attacked them, around ten or so Turians and humans, mostly young men or people that likely lost someone from the Geth attack two years ago, were killed by Tau retaliation fire. Anderson showed him a vid-fed that showed one such attack. A group of humans and Turians ganged up on two Tau workers, beating them up with sticks and plastic bats, when several Tau soldiers came and aimed their short-barreled guns at them. Shepard recognized them as the same gun he faced on Haestrom and, though he never saw it in action, he knew that it was a dangerous gun. The Tau warned them to stop and surrender themselves for judgement, but the Turians and humans just charged at them, anger and hatred in their eyes, forcing the Tau soldiers to open fire. What happened next was that the front human and Turians lit up in ghostly white before their entire upper bodies were blasted right off by the sheer power of the shots fired by the Tau weapons, the body parts burned significantly by the Tau weapons. The rest, upon seeing, quickly stopped and looked at the Tau soldiers in fear as they aimed their weapons at them before they scrambled away, their self-preservation nerves kicking in. The Tau soldiers, seeing that they were leaving, let them go and quickly went to the injured workers to stabilize their wounds. And this happened for the next few attacks. Punks come in, attack the workers or damage the goods, Tau soldiers come and kill some of them after they refused to listen to their warnings, forcing the survivors to flee, until C-Sec came and put a stop to it on the demands on the Tau diplomat Aun'shi, who threatened retaliation against the council if these attacks continued, by restricting access to Tau used docks to those with permits. The council also decreed that all Tau related goods were to be delivered to the few approved stores on the citadel presidium via heavy guard and air delivered.

When the news outlets got word of these assaults, they immediately spun it to make the Tau as the aggressors and the punks were just minding their own business when the soldiers attacked. Though both C-Sec and most diplomats knew the truth, most people took what the media's version of the incident as what really happened and thus anti-Tau sentiments were growing in Citadel Space. Wasn't enough for people to just attack any Tau on sight, but enough to cause protests to start near those stores as well as the embassies to get the Tau off the station. These protests were mostly humans and Turians, but a few Salarians and Asari were there as well.

So far, none of the stores have turned down the Tau goods due to these protests for, despite these protests, there were still people on the Citadel that wanted the Tau goods, either to be the very first to obtain an item from the very first race to refuse entry to the Citadel Council or to sell it on the black market for a very inflated price, Tau items were very rare right now and many people were willing to pay any price for them. And the ambassadors and council haven't bend their knees to the protestors, much to the protestor's frustration. Still it was only a matter of time before someone cracks and something bad happens because of it. Hopefully it doesn't lead to a war against the Tau and the council because that was the last thing anyone needed. Even without the coming Reaper invasion, a war with the Tau would no doubt be disastrous for both sides. The amount of death would be astronomical.

With all this in mind, Shepard realized the terrible position the Tau were in and he regretted his lack of hindsight. Hopefully they'll accept his apology when he meets Farsight again. It was the least he can do after pushing them to make contact with the council.

But back at the task at hand, the Tau had just given him an opportunity to see them in action. He asked Tali how they fought, but she, unfortunately, didn't tell him much. The Tau ambushed them when they had their guards down and they moved so fast that she couldn't see much of the Tau. What she did tell him was that they seemed to prefer carefully planned out tactics like Salarians, but they backed that up with heavy firepower like the Turians. She told Shepard they had some sort of tactical cloak suits that evaded all manners of scanners the Quarians that were equipped with large guns that broke through the kinetic barriers of the Quarians with ease and jetpacks. These were the ones that killed most of her team before the Geth and Tau reinforcements came and captured or killed the stragglers. She had no idea about the capabilities of their infantry and the massive mech suits the Tau had, but she was sure they were no less deadly, perhaps even deadlier than their stealth teams. So, this was a perfect opportunity to see more of their tactics and equipment in action. With that in mind, Shepard accepted the offer.

"I accept your proposal." Said Shepard. "However, I must warn you that the Collectors have a weapon that can freeze your soldiers in place. My team has a countermeasure for it, so I recommend for you to allow us to go in first to make sure it's safe for you."

"I see." Said Farsight, taking in this information. "What exactly is this weapon?"

"Some kind of miniaturized drone, around the size of a typical space beetle, that injects some sort of stasis field on it's victims. It's what the Collectors use to capture entire colonies without firing a single shot." Explained Shepard. "They travel in massive swarms, making it impossible to take them down. Our countermeasures prevent them from detecting us and immobilizing us as a result, but only in small numbers. So, I'm advising you to hold back until we checked the interior of the ship for any of these drones." Farsight pondered this information before speaking.

"Are these drones capable of penetrating heavy armor?" Asked Farsight. Shepard blinked at that before saying it's likely they can't. "Then we will be safe Shepard. The teams I'm sending over will be encased in thick heavy armor. There will be not chinks in it that these Collector drones will be able to use to immobilize my soldiers. Even if they do, we will only be inside for a brief voyage. You see, the Collector ship isn't actually dead in space. It's a trap." Upon hearing that, Shepard widened his eyes in shock.

"Are you sure?" Asked Shepard. If that was true, then they nearly fell for it.

"Indeed, we scanned the ship and have found multiple life signs on board. We've also detected evidence of corrupted data in the Turians emergency distress beacon. We're sending the data to you know." Said Farsight before he ordered someone to send them the data. A few seconds later, EDI's avatar showed up and she spoke.

"The Tau are correct Shepard." Said EDI. "The Turian distress beacon shows sign of heavy tampering and is missing crucial encryption algorithms in their secondary encryptions. This was a trap set by the Collectors." Shepard sighed at that. He couldn't believe he fell for this. It was too good to be true.

"And here I thought we would get an easy job for once." Said Shepard before thinking of something and frowning. "Did the Illusive man know this?"

"He had to." Said EDI. "I detected the false signal with standard Cerberus detection procedures. Procedures that the Illusive Man himself wrote for. It is thus unlikely he didn't knew of the deception." That caused Joker to look at EDI in shock.

"You mean…you mean he knew it was a trap? And he still sent in us." Asked Joker, shocked that the Illusive man would do this. That caused Shepard to narrow his eyes in hate.

"That son of a bitch was planning to luring us to Collector hands." Said Shepard in disgust. He couldn't believe that the Illusive Man would do something like this. Though he did something similar with the human colony Horizon, using it as a lure along with Shepard's old friend Kaiden Alenko, for the Collectors, he'd never thought that he would do something like this on Shepard and the Normandy crew. He claimed he was important, he goes and does something like this. He always knew that Cerberus was not to be trusted, yet he didn't think they would go and do something like this.

"It seems your choice of allies was poor." Said Farsight.

"I didn't have much of a choice." Said Shepard. "They're the only ones that were willing to give me the resources to fight the Collectors."

"Fair point, commander." Conceded Farsight. "Though now it might not be necessary anymore." Upon hearing that, Shepard raised an eyebrow.

"You want to help us?" Asked Shepard, getting what Farsight was planning.

"We'll discuss it more inside the Collector ship." Said Farsight. "For now, know that we are willing to fight with you, commander Shepard." With that Farsight ended the call, leaving Shepard alone with his thoughts.

If the Tau were willing to fund his mission instead of Cerberus, that might be a change of pace and something he can deal with. He knew Cerberus's motives and ideals. They claim to protect Humanity at all costs, and Shepard will admit they will do such things, but their actions leave much to be desired. The assassination of a System Alliance admiral, terrorists attacks on Citadel and Human colonies because they had either a pro Citadel stance or a anti-human stance. Even kidnaping of children for experiments. Shepard even had a feeling that the Illusive man didn't care about the people he sacrificed to beat the Collectors so long as he get something out of it, which must be the Collector's advance technology and perhaps even technology on the Reapers. It was only because Cerberus was the only one willing to fund his crusade against the Collectors and Reapers that Shepard was working with them. That and the fact they brought him back from the dead when the Collectors had destroyed his original ship two years ago. He was fully planning on ditching Cerberus after the Collectors are no more and so were most of his combat team. They were more loyal to him than Cerberus anyway, especially Jack, Garrus, and Tali.

But if the Tau were willing to fund his mission, then he'll choose them over Cerberus. Sure, they were still an unknown variable and Shepard had no idea what they're willing to do to achieve their goals, but what he's seen has painted a better picture on them over Cerberus.

The Tau were more than willing to conduct negotiations with people that had some rights to despise them and will not hesitate to spend years in the negotiation table to get something over getting it right away with military force. Despite having quite possibly the most advanced army and fleet in the galaxy, baring the Reapers perhaps, they only used it as a last resort and weren't using it to conquer the galaxy. With the Geth on their side, Shepard was certain they were capable of capturing a good portion of the known galaxy in just a year, yet they abstain from doing so and negotiate, both because they didn't wish to fight the council if peace was possible and because of the upcoming Reapers invasion, something they all believe is real, putting them above literally every other government in actual competence and understanding of the threat out there. All in all, he could see himself with working for the Tau and the Tau seemed to have no problem with working for him if this offer of cooperation was any indication.

Nodding his head, he ordered Joker to have everyone meet him in the shuttle bay so they can take off and meet up with the Tau forces.

"Okay." Said Joker. "We're just going to remain here. Surrounded by massive ships that can blast us with just one shot."

Few minutes later

Collector Ship

"I'm pleased to see you face to face again, commander Shepard. And in more friendlier terms as well." Said Farsight as he saw the Normandy ground team, all of them wearing rebreathers as their was no oxygen in the Collector ship, depart from their blocky shuttle that reminded him of the Tau Orca transport, if the Orca was significantly smaller and painted white. Looking at Shepard's team, they were truly an odd assortment of individuals. A wide variety of alien species with some humans dabbled in, including Shepard, all of them wearing differing attire that made it clear they weren't a military unit. More like a band of disorganized mercenaries if Farsight had to describe them.

"Same here." Said Shepard, eyeing Farsight's battlesuit. According to the recently introduced Tau codex on all non-classified material, Farsight typically came into battle piloting a massive mech suit called a battlesuit. It was the same one that he had first piloted since his youth and, given the codex stated he was over several hundred years old, that made the suit horribly outdated, especially compared to what few suits the codex was willing to give information on, including the new XV8 battlesuits and the more massive ballistic suits. He had seen a picture of the two ballistic suits the Tau field and he had to say, the Tau like making their mechs big. He then looked at the sword Farsight's suit held and frowned.

It didn't look anything special. Just a regular, single-edged, metal sword, which surprised them all. In an age of mass accelerators that gave a gun unlimited ammo, melee weapons were considered archaic and obsolete, only really used by criminals, Krogan, or poorly equipped colonial defense forces. And even then, they were so rare that most soldiers would laugh at the sight of someone wielding a sword in anything beyond ceremonies or military celebrations. Yet, Farsight was wielding it with confidence and complete faith in it. Around Farsight, were various battle suits and Geth soldiers. Most of the Tau battle suits were, according to the codex, the common XV8 crisis battlesuit, but three weren't as large as the crisis battlesuits, but still quite bulky. Based on Shepard's military knowledge, he had to guess this variant was designed for the tight corridors of space ships. Upon seeing the Geth, Tali glared at them and the Tau, but otherwise didn't do anything else. Noticing the massive bomb around the Tau and Geth, Shepard asked about it.

"It's called an Ion pulse bomb." Said Farsight. "It can wipe all advanced organic life in a large radius. We just need to plant it a bit deeper into the ship and it'll take care of any remaining Collectors that are still alive." Shepard, upon hearing that, nodded.

"Quite an efficient weapon." Said Shepard. "But are you sure there are just Collectors on the ship?"

"I'm afraid so, Commander Shepard." Said Farsight. "I had my ships scan the ship thoroughly with our most advanced scanners. I'm afraid the only lifeforms here are the Collectors and their husk servants." Shepard stayed silent at that, angry of such news. He was hoping, naively, that there were some colonists on board that his team can save, but it appears that was not meant to be.

"Okay." Said Shepard, controlled anger in his voice. "Then let's take that bomb and blow these sons of bitches to kingdom come." Not giving a response to that human phrase, Farsight ordered his men to move ahead and secure the area of the bomb. With that, four XV8 battle suits moved ahead of the group, brandishing weapons on their arms that seemed better for a vehicle, yet the mechs were walking around with them no problem, went ahead, clearing the way for the rest of them. With that, Farsight led his remaining troops to follow them after a minute with Shepard ordering his team to follow them. As they all walked, the Normandy team could see how the Tau operated their battlesuits as well as their unity with the Geth. The Geth troopers surrounded the Tau battle suits, covering their blind spots, and checking all nooks and crannies that the Tau battlesuits wouldn't be able to look themselves. They also constantly went ahead of them to ensure there weren't any enemies hidden that could attack and potentially take them out in one shot. The Geth also had at least one trooper providing overwatch while the rest went in and secured the area, searching for any hidden Collector troops. Though it seemed like the Geth were doing all the work, Shepard knew that, if a firefight broke out, the Collectors would be facing massive firepower from the Tau battlesuits.

"Shepard, I know you want to trust them, but don't you think this is a little too much." Said Miranda as they trailed behind the Tau and Geth forces. "You're putting our lives in the hands of the Tau and Geth, hoping they won't betray us." She as well wanted to trust them, but there was a difference between giving someone a chance and being naïve.

"Miranda, we already know they oppose the Reapers and Collectors." Said Shepard, looking at his XO. "They even saved us from a Collector trap that the Illusive man was willing to trap us and even offered to assist our venture against the Collectors. I know it all seems too good to be true, but I'm willing to give them the benefit of the doubt." He then tapped on his helmet to tell everyone to patch in a secured frequency. When they did, he spoke again. "That being said, if they try to betray us, then get ready for the toughest fight of your lives. I told Joker to get the Normandy ready for a quick exit once we come get back. The Tau will most certainly destroy it once they tell we're hostile."

"*Chuckles* And here I was thinking we won't be given a chance to fight these new aliens." Said Grunt as they ventured with the Tau forces, unable to hear them due to their conversation being limited to invited people in their own private frequency.

"Settle down, Grunt." Said Garrus, eyeing their surroundings for any Collector troops or Reaper Husks, especially the new ones that he's seen on Horizon. "Don't go looking for a fight that isn't there."

"Agreed. Though suspicion and caution is advised against a new race, especially one like the Tau, one should also not let that create enemies in those that might have been allies had you not let that suspicion overcome you." Said Thane as they passed through an open doorway, allowing them entry deeper into the Collector ship. Upon entry, everyone could see just how insectoid the entire Collector ships was. Everything they saw was either an amalgamation of metal and organic material or was completely organic in nature. Even the floor was either made out of glass or was made out of the same organic substance the rest of the ship was made out of. Stepping on the substance didn't leave much of a mark on their boots, so it was clearly some sort of hardened carapace of some sort.

"This is some weird shit." Commented Zaeed, a mercenary employed by Cerberus to help Shepard on his mission against the Collectors, as he stepped on the organic substance on the floor. "I've been on a lot of ships, but never have I been on a ship like this."

"Agreed." Said Mordin as he used his omnitool to scan the organic substance all around them. "Never before seen anything like this. Organic substance must be equal in tensile strength to typical material used in starship construction. Incredible resilience. Yes. Yes."

"Stay focused professor." Said Jacob. "Collectors are bound to attack sooner or later now that their trap is found out." Mordin was about to agree with him when the entire boarding team found some orange glow coming the room in front of them. Moving in, they all found that glow were pods hanging from the ceiling. All of which were glowing orange.

The Normandy team knew these pods were used by the Collectors to hold the human colonists they've captured in their harvests in place until they take them to the Omega 4 Relay, the only Mass Relay that led to their homeworld. From what they discerned of the pods from those they've captured on Horizon, they're simple storage units that are hardened to prevent people from breaking them out. Perfect for your typical civilian colonists.

"That's a lot of pods." Commented Garrus as he saw hundreds of pods in the ceilings.

"They're all empty." Said Farsight as he walked ahead of the group with the rest of his Tau and Geth soldiers. "My battlesuit has scanned them all and it's detected no lifesigns in any of them. The Collectors must have unloaded them all back to their vile nest."

"I'm afraid Farsight is correct, Shepard." Said EDI as she contacted the Normandy team. "The pods are all empty. Nothing is inside them."

"Guess that means this is just an extermination mission, huh?" Asked Jack. "Good. Rather avoid having to deal with idiotic colonists trying to sneak a peak on me or get in my way." Before anyone could rebuke her for that, Farsight spoke up.

"There is something up ahead." Said Farsight, stopping with his men. "Something rather grotesque. We've found some of your colonist's bodies." Upon hearing that, Shepard's team ran up to Farsight and saw what he was looking at. Ahead of them was a pile of decomposing human remains. They could tell it was human remains because the human bodies on top of the pile, somewhat fused to the pile and recognizable enough for them to recognize they were human.

"Oh my god." Said Kasumi, a master thief in Shepard's team, as she saw this pile, putting a hand to her mouth, feeling a bit queasy at seeing the sludge of human remains. "That is…so messed up."

"You're telling me." Said Garrus as this through his helmet. He's seen a lot of grotesque things during his time as an officer in C-Sec to being a member of Shepard's team. From a giant plant thing that brought anyone that came into contact with it's spores under it's control to human remains being used in the construction of Reaper husks, but no matter what he's seen there was always something that just left a bad taste in his mouth. Shepard, meanwhile, scanned the pile of organic matter, hoping to identify at least one of the bodies so they can bring closure to one family. After finding nothing from the scans, Shepard sighed and looked at Farsight, who just allowed this to happen.

"Sorry, I just needed to try. Give some people some closure." Said Shepard as he explained his actions. Farsight, however, just nodded in understanding.

"I understand your actions Shepard." Said Farsight. "Actions such as these separate us from the Collectors and other undesirables." He then motioned to the pile. "Remember these vile actions, Shepard. Use them to help you remember why you fight against your enemies and to steel your nerves to do what must be done for the betterment of your people." Shepard just nodded in agreement. He had done so in similar situations. Against both the Geth during the Eden Prime war and the Batarians that attacked Elysium. Both times it helped him fight against his enemies. Both times it helped him fight against unsurmountable odds and led his men to victory. He had a feeling that Farsight knew and had done similar experiences. Looking at the pile, Shepard asked if he'd seen things like this that made him hate his enemies. "I have, Shepard. Things that, I'm afraid, make things like this seem minuscule in depravity." Upon hearing that, Shepard and his team looked at Farsight in shock. Before they could ask him to explain, he left with his men, having received a transmission from the recon team.

"What the hell did he mean by things that made this look minuscule?" Asked Zaeed as he looked at the pile of goo and half-recognizable bodies. "Because I've seen a lot of shit in my time and this ranks among the worst."

"Something tells me that we'd rather not know." Said Garrus as Farsight beckoned them to follow him, telling them that the recon team has encountered the Collectors and are requesting aid. They soon followed Farsight, wondering what Farsight had seen to make his last comment a reality.

Few minutes later

Torchstar

"These are the fearsome Collectors?" Asked Torchstar as she landed her battlesuit in a squad of Collector drones before dosing them all with her duel flamethrowers, watching them as they flailed around as they tried desperately to dose the flames to no avail. She then flew towards another group and did the exact same thing. "These fools do not stack up to the legends that the people make for them." Her fellow battlesuit pilots didn't say anything as they let loose their weapons on the remaining Collector forces. They had just past through a small room filled with weapons and research equipment when they encountered a large group of Collector troopers. Fortunately, their weapons couldn't even scratch the paint on their armor, allowing them to let loose on them with complete abandonment. Unfortunately, one was equipped with missiles and they didn't know what else was in store for them, forcing him to stay behind while the other two battlesuits, one with burst cannons, weapons designed for high rate of fire and low armored targets, and another with plasma guns, weapons that fired bolts of plasma that were lethal against all manners of targets, but mainly used against heavily armored ones, went in with Torchstar and annihilated the Collectors.

Just as they finished off the last of the Collectors, another wave of the insectoid race came from a recently opened door. With them were several variants of Reaper husks, mainly the Scion, an amalgamation of three humans into one grotesque mobile weapons platform, and the Praetorian, a Collector made construct that was made with over thirty human husks armed with powerful particle cannons, armor and shields.

Upon seeing the new wave of enemies, Torchstar ordered her battlesuits equipped with plasma and missile pods to focus fire on the new husks as they might have the firepower needed to defeat the battlesuits while she and the burst cannon equipped battlesuit dealt with the Collectors and the husks that weren't Praetorians or Scions that got too close.

With that, the plasma and missile wielding battlesuits opened fire on the Scions and Praetorians. They watched as their plasma and missile fire wrecked apart the two Praetorians the Collectors brought with them. They then saw them disintegrate into blue particles when they've taken too much damage, but they didn't let that faze them from firing on the Scions, of which there were eight of them. They taken down half of them before the survivors fired their shoulder mounted cannons, concentrating fire on a single battlesuit, the plasma wielding one.

The first two shots barely made a dent on the heavily armored battlesuit, but the last two caused modest damage on it's armor. The battlesuit was still functioning and so fired at the remaining Scions as the other battle suits opened fire on the husks that tried to get in close. The missile battlesuit then fired all it's remaining missiles at the Scions to provide support, taking down one while the plasma wielding battlesuit took down the remaining Scions with it's duel plasma guns.

With the Scions and Praetorians gone, Torchstar and the burst cannon battlesuit moved forward to take out the remaining Collectors and Husks creatures. Seeing the advancing battlesuits, some of the Collectors summoned kinetic barriers to provide additional protection for them against the plasma and burst cannon firepower. Unfortunately for them, the plasma bolts just pierced right through the barriers and blasted off the upper torso of the Collectors it shot. The burst cannon, meanwhile, did the same, but instead of blasting torsos' off, it filled the husks and Collectors with holes while pushing the corpses back, demonstrating it's power. Torchstar, meanwhile, charged right in when the Collector reinforcements were in disarray from the Tau firepower and finished them off with her flamethrowers.

When the last of the Collector and husks troops were either pieces or burning corpses, Farsight and the Normandy crew arrived, rushing in to provide not needed assistance. Upon seeing the carnage before him, Farsight stood down.

"Well done, Torchstar." Said Farsight as he walked up to Torchstar as she also moved up to him. "Have you managed to find a suitable area to place the bomb?"

"Negative, commander." Said Torchstar. "However, scans show a large area just ahead of us. That may be the best place for us to place the bomb." Farsight nodded at that before asking the situation regarding her men. "Modest damage to one battlesuit and one is out of ammo. I recommend having them be escorted back to the ship." Farsight nodded at that and had them sent back to their ship with a Geth escort. He then ordered everyone else to keep moving forward. As they moved forward, the Normandy team examined the carnage the Tau forces did and were impressed. Four, granted in gigantic mech suits armed to the teeth in armor and weapons, Tau took down what they guessed to be around two platoons of Collector troops and husks in the time it took them to arrive to assist them, which was around three minutes. Impressive.

"Glad they're negotiable." Said Garrus as they walked past charred Collector corpses.

"You and me both." Said Zaeed, agreeing with the Turian. "Going to think twice of accepting any contract that puts me against these fuckers." The others, though they didn't voice it, nodded or grunted in agreement. The power of the Tau were a sight to behold and was a thing that none of them wanted to be on the receiving end of. They also liked to imagine the Reapers be on the receiving end of such firepower. No doubt, they'll be feeling something akin to fear when they start losing Reapers to Tau firepower without the Tau suffering any casualties.

Tali, however, was fearful of it all. This was because of her people's current growing hatred with the Tau. Many of the more militant Quarians, especially Han'Gerrel vas Neema, a friend to her father and a Quarian serving in the Quarian admiralty board, wanted to make the Tau regret the day they ever allied with the Geth in the first place. Radicals like admiral Zaal'Koris vas Qwib-Qwib, saw the Tau as a sign that the Geth were reasonable and a reason to not attacking the Geth to regain their old homeworld as they'll be dragging another, organic, race into the conflict. She didn't know about the others like her auntie Raan and her father's opinion on the Tau, so it seemed, to her, the admiralty board might either declare war on the Geth and Tau or make peace with them and try to colonize a new world for their people. If they choose peace and settle on a new world, it'll anger her a bit as she wanted her people to reclaim their original home world, something her father and many others wanted as well, but she'll understand wanting to avoid angering the Tau if what she saw of their military power was any indication of their strength.

But if they choose to fight both the Geth and Tau, then Tali, while happy they were fighting both those that took their homeworld and those that sided with them, she would be worried that they're dooming themselves to extinction by fighting the Tau and the Geth at the same time. Though she didn't see their warships in action, their sheer size left her terrified at their prowess in combat. The main guns of all warships relied on the length of their barrels for their firepower, which meant that, if the Tau weapons relied on the same principle, then they could one shot any ship in the Quarian Migrant fleet without much problem. So, as much as it left Tali bitter over it, the Quarians shouldn't fight the Tau and Geth. There was also the problem of the upcoming Reaper invasion and their need of both the Geth and Tau for them. So, they had to avoid fighting amongst each other, at least until the Reapers were gone.

Few minutes later

"My god." Said Garrus as he looked up, along with the Normandy team, at the ceiling of the large room the Tau had led them to. Right above them, in the ceiling, were thousands, maybe even millions, of prison pods, all of them glowing orange ominously at them. "The Collectors could take every human in the Terminus systems and still not have enough to fill all these pods."

"They're going to target Earth." Said Miranda in realization. Upon hearing that, Shepard retorted that they won't let that happen. Farsight, after the initial look, went ahead of the Normandy team with his men, the bomb with them. Flying above everyone, Farsight looked around for a suitable place to plant the bomb. Eventually he found it in a platform that was just ahead of the group. Motioning everyone to go there, he flew down to the platform just as everyone neared the platform.

"This will be the place where we place our bomb." Said Farsight as his men began placing the bomb and began to arm it. "Once it's armed, I'll link it to my suit and detonate once we're clear of the ship. When it detonates, it'll wipe out every single organic lifeform on the ship. Since the Collector would no doubt try to disarm it, so I'm leaving the Geth behind to guard it until it detonates." Shepard nodded at that as he watched this all happen. He then lifted his omnitool and went over to the console on the platform.

"I'm opening a connection between our AI with the Collector ship. Perhaps she can fish for the information we're all looking for. Hopefully she'll have it by the time we come back after the bomb goes off." Said Shepard. Farsight just nodded at that, finding it'll save time for them. "Once we clear the Collectors off this ship, you'll let us take what intel we need from the Collector ship?" Farsight just nodded again.

"I see no reason not to." Said Farsight. "However, we'll take the ship for ourselves as we did all the heavy lifting for this operation." Shepard just nodded as he didn't want the Collector ship to fall into Cerberus hands. No doubt they'll use it's technology to their own benefit and not to humanity as a whole. He then was about to ask about the offer Farsight offered him before they embarked on the Collector ship when Garrus yelled out.

"Got company!" Yelled Garrus as he pointed to several Praetorians coming towards them with several wings of Collector troops. Upon seeing them, everyone got ready for a fight. Farsight, seeing that the Praetorians will cause the most trouble if they land close to the bomb, decided to take care of them himself.

"I'll deal with those heavily armored monstrosities." Said Farsight as he lifted his sword. "Shepard, led the defense of the bomb until it's safe enough for us to make a mad dash for our ships." Before Shepard could comment on that, Farsight flew up and sped towards the Praetorians.

"Is he insane?" Asked Miranda as she watched this happen. "He's going to face all those Praetorians by himself. Does he really think he'll win against them all? If he dies, your government will face serious repercussions."

"Do not worry about commander Farsight." Said Torchstar as she watched her commander face off against the Collectors by himself. "This isn't the first time he's done this. Nor will this be the most difficult battle he's ever faced." Before anyone could even ask about that, Collector troops began opening fire on them, forcing them to fight them.

Farsight, meanwhile, was flying towards the five Praetorians that were trying to make their way towards the bomb when they spotted Farsight coming at them. Charging up their eye lasers, they fired on Farsight, who dodged them all while activating his shield generator, allowing him to survive the assault from the Praetorians should they hit him despite his attempts to dodge them.

Dodging another volley of beams, Farsight landed on top of one Praetorian and jabbed his sword at the plate on top of it's eyes before dragging it along the armored shell of the Praetorian, ripping and tearing the Praetorian in half as he dragged his sword to the tail end of the Praetorian. Sure it was dead, Farsight flew to another one and sliced another one in half with one swing of his Dawnblade. It was then that he sensed another coming at him, trying to tackle him to the ground, but Farsight simply flew up and fired his plasma gun, hidden behind his arm mounted shield generator, at it, blasting huge holes at it's frontal armor. Despite the armor of the Praetorian being rated at around an Alliance Mako IFV frontal armor, the plasma gun still punctured sizable holes in the Praetorian, causing enough damage for it to suddenly disintegrate into particles.

With two left, Farsight flew towards one as it tried to charge up it's head laser at him. Tossing his sword at the eyes of the Praetorian, Farsight watched as it screeched in pain somehow before going under the beast, grabbing his sword in the process. He then jabbed it under the Praetorians belly and sliced the thing in half, his battle suit giving him the strength to do so. As this was happening, the last Praetorian charged at him, blasting him with it's eye lasers.

His shields protecting him, Farsight flew up and, when the Praetorian was just about to pass him, stopped his thrusters and landed on top of the Praetorian. Before it could shake him off, Farsight jabbed his sword into it's head, it's tip jutting out of the Praetorian. Ignoring it's screams, Farsight directed the beast towards a group of Collectors firing at his men and the Normandy team. Directing it until the last minute, Farsight jumped off the second the Collectors noticed the Praetorian coming straight towards them, not even bothering watching as the Praetorian crashed into them, flattening the Collectors like mush, and focused on helping his men. Charging towards a group of Collectors that had the high ground on his men, Farsight jumped in amongst them and sliced their heads off. He then began firing his plasma rifle in support of his men at the remaining Collector troops that they haven't destroyed yet, which weren't that many anyway.

After another minute of fighting, the Normandy, Tau, and Geth forces cleared out the Collector troops. For the moment anyway.

"Pitiful. I had thought these things were akin to the Tyranids in strength." Said Torchstar as she contacted Farsight in their own private comms, so as to not reveal the Tyranids to the Normandy crew, if only to prevent them from needing to explain the Tyranids to them and the fact they're from another galaxy.

"Agreed." Said Farsight, finding the Collectors to be worthless and small fry compared to the things he had to deal with in his old galaxy, like the Space marines and the Orks. "Still, they're a threat to our people and must be dealt with accordingly." Torchstar agreed and ended the private call, allowing Farsight to land and walk to Shepard, who was checking his men for wounds.

"Your men fought well, Farsight." Said Shepard as he looked up to Farsight as he made his way to him. "So, did you. I've never actually seen someone pull those stunts off like you did. Not in real life anyway." Truth be told, he only caught glimpses of Farsight's fight, too focused on his own to see all but glimpses of it, but what he did see left him flabbergasted at Farsight's strength and skill with a blade. Most importantly at his sword.

If someone told him that a sword could rip apart an armored…whatever a Praetorian could be classified in real life, he would be skeptical. And now…well he was stunned into submission, which was rare for Shepard.

"You did well as well." Said Farsight, looking at his men and Shepards'. None of them baring much damage on their armor, or their clothing for some of Shepard's crew. "They barely touched our soldiers. Your ability to command is commendable."

"Thank you." Said Shepard, taking the compliment for what it was. "Now, let's arm that bomb and get out of here." Farsight nodded at that. The time for combat was over. Now was the time to leave and let the engineering of the Earth caste handle the rest.

Meanwhile

Terminus Systems

Sathur

Batarian Cruiser

"Major Cafcark reporting in." Said a Batarian solider as he reported to the leader of this entire slave run, a captain by the name of Kratok Drac'noh. "After the bombing of the planet's garrison, we've successfully landed and begin rounding up the colonists. They didn't even put up a fight against us. Guess we killed all the ones with some spine when we bombarded their garrison." Kratok just nodded at that. That was good. Less death for his men meant more prestige for him. More colonists also meant more prestige for him as well. Perhaps, if he acquired enough colonists in this slave run, it would get him enough prestige for him to get a promotion.

"Round up all the colonists that can fill our transports to the brim, major." Said Kratok as he responded to the major from the bridge of his cruiser, the Hammer of Trethcar. "I don't care if some of them will die on our way back to Batarian space. It'll just help us weed out the weakest of these apes and make them easier to break." The major just nodded before ending the call, saying he will not fail. Once the major was gone, Kratok pondered on recent events.

Truth be told, the recent attacks on human colonies in the Terminus systems was a stroke of bad luck for the Batarians, especially now. It left them with few easy targets for them to strike. Aside from the usual tour or cruise ship that was at the wrong place at the wrong time, Human colonies were the only ripe targets for them that gave them easy targets that they can make an easy score. It also helped the Batarians have a fierce hatred for humans for taking planets that belonged to them and butchering their kind in their so called planet Elysium, a planet that rightfully belonged to them. Kratok, himself, was always pleased to see human slaves, so broken and so weak, in their rightful place. As pets and slaves to their betters. Less capable and prized than Asari slaves, but more valued over Salarian and Hanar. At least the humans can do simple tasks without the risk of breaking. So, human slaves were common enough to be cheap slaves for most Batarian households, but capable enough to not require constant replacement. In a way, they were a middle ground between a Salarian and Asari. Both in terms of costs and rarity. Alas, however, recent days have changed that.

For the past few months, the Batarians have been suffering uprisings in their slave processing centers and other areas where slaves are being used in abundance. Most of these uprisings have been, paradoxically by humans that have been, until the uprising, complacent to their Batarian masters. Now uprisings and resistance organizations weren't unheard of by the Batarians, but most were squashed down before they could become a threat to the Batarian Hegemony. Those that survived were usually only system threats that are usually wiped out in a few months by the fearsome Batarian Special Intervention Unit, or SIU. No resistance organization or uprising has done permeant damage to the Hegemony and it was something that many Batarians were proud of.

But these recent uprisings were different. They caused massive destruction to slave processing centers, destroyed key military structures, and caused thousands of slaves to be freed and escape to hide from righteous Batarian retribution. From what Kratok pieced together, the survivors of these uprisings, before they were executed for their incompetence, claimed that giant human-shaped warriors freed the slaves, but only the human ones, and fought alongside them, tearing the Batarian forces apart with weapons that were all hand-held, but tore through anything the Batarians had. One claimed these giants wore silver armor with gold. Another claimed them to have blue armor with gold while a third claimed they wore black and gold armor. No matter the claim, they all told the same story. Giant human-shaped warriors freed the human slaves and fought to free them.

It was all rubbish to Kratok's mind, a pitiful excuse by weak Batarians that had no right to live for failing to keep slaves in line, but what wasn't rubbish was that these uprisings were causing human slaves to rise up in rarity and costs, forcing the Batarian government to up slave runs for humans. Which is why Kratok was here. To bring more humans back for the Hegemony to break. Truthfully, Kratok, along with most of his men, wanted to be part of the fleet assigned to deal with these uprisings, but this assignment was just as important. Slavery was an essential part of the Batarian economy. Without it, the economy will be destroyed and the Batarian way of life would be ruined. So, for now, Kratok was willing to do this essential part of Batarian life.

As he was pondering, a bridge officer told him that the first shipment of slaves were arriving to the fleet, making him smile.

Batarian transport

Erika Clark was scared. More scared than she had been for her entire five-year-old life. One moment she was happily sleeping in her cozy bed at home, the next her mother was running away with her and her brother in her arms. Erika wanted to know why they were running, but her mother told her to be quiet as they ran. Suddenly big explosions occurred next to them and a massive blocky ship landed near them, discouraging off men in scary armor.

They barked at her family and others around them in some weird language. When they didn't respond, they opened fire, killing many, but leaving her family safe. Her mother took something in her knee that made her fall to the ground. Erika begged her to get up, but to no avail. She just watched as the scary men came and separated her away from her family. She cried and kicked at them before one rammed his gun at her, knocking her out.

Now she was in a cramped box with multiple people, her head throbbing painfully. The box was so full of people that Erika could barely have enough room to breath and move. It made her very uncomfortable. She tried calling out for her mother, but all it did was cause the box to thumb loudly, a man's voice yelling at them to shut up. And so, she was here, crying for her mother and brother, wanting to go home and be with her family again.

A few minutes of cold silent passed before her stomach rumbled, indicating she was hungry. That caused a chain reaction where babies and little children began crying out for food. The adults in the box tried to shush them, either violently or caringly, but the children didn't understand the danger they were in. Eventually, the crying caused the box to open and reveal an angry monster with four eyes, brandishing a rifle.

"I warned you about making noise." Said the monster as he aimed his rifle at them all, causing all the adults to back away in fright, leaving most of the children to face the monster. "Not like the captain will miss a bunch of worthless humans like you. You're most trouble than you're worth anyway." He was about to pull the trigger when he suddenly stopped. Then, before everyone's eyes, the monster screamed out in pain as it suddenly began to spasm out of control. Fearful of this display, everyone began to back away, including the children, except for Erika, who just watched as the monster was lifted up in the air and began to spew out blood from his nose, mouth, and any other opening in his body. Then, before anyone's eyes, he suddenly zipped towards the right, where they all heard a massive squishing sound. As everyone tried to recover from this, a voice was heard.

"He will not harm you anymore." Said a calm, deep voice. Then, before their very eyes, a swirl of dark clouds appeared before them, in them was red energy that pulsed with electricity and power. Then out of the clouds came a massive figure.

This figure was massive, easily over eight feet tall. He wore dark blue armor with bronze highlight that surrounded the blue of his armor. With the armor came robes of similar color, hugging themselves tightly around his armor. His face was hidden from view by a helmet with three sets of horns. One where his cheeks would, these horns curving inwards. The other two were on the upper part of the helmet that pointed up, curving inward at first before curving outward at the last moment. In his hand was a black staff of similar height of the figure with an eye on the center of the staff. All in all, he was an intimidating figure and it wasn't just because of his height. If one stood next to him, they would be overcome with the sense of danger. The want to get away from him before he could do anything. They would get the feeling that all the man needed to do to kill someone was to look at them and, with a single passing thought, erase them from existence or turn them into an unrecognizable puddle of organic mass. Or anything of his choosing. And they would be right.

Looking at the scared mass of humans before him, the figure looked at them all, particularly the male children, before stopping to look at Erika, gauzing her with something close to interest. After a thirty second gauze, and seeing that she was just looking at him with curiosity and awe, the figure went over to her, ignoring the whispering from the humans. Looking down at the little girl, the figure spoke.

"You do not fear me as these humans do." Said the figure, motioning towards the others in the box as they tried to back away further from the figure, but couldn't. "Why is this? Tell me honestly and there may be a gift for you." Erika, gulping a bit, just spoke.

"I…I saw what happened to that monster and thought that you did it." Said Erika, looking at the figure with fear in her eyes, but also honesty. Motioning her to continue, the figure listened like a father would do for his child. "It was about to kill us when you stopped it. Why would I be afraid of something that just saved me?" The figure stayed silent at that, gauzing the child intently, before speaking.

"You should have much to fear child." Said the figure before kneeling before her. "But on this occasion, your ability to recognize a savior has given you a reward. Tell me, do you wish to be reunited with you family?" Upon hearing the question, Erika nodded in agreement, her eyes wide. "Good. Then you must do something for me. Something very important. Do this and you'll be reunited with your family and never have to worry about being separated from them again. Do you wish this?" Erika nodded again, causing the figure to bring out a book from his robes. It was an old, dusty book, but Erika could tell it was very important as he gave it to her. "Hold on to this. Read it's contents. Study them well. Do not let anyone take it from you. And when the time comes, use it. Do so, and you'll be reunited with you family again. Is that understood?" Upon seeing her nod, the figure nodded. "Good." With that the figure got up and left, leaving in a puff of red energy. Once the figure left, Erika looked at the old book and began to hold it like her life depended on it. This book was the key to getting her family back and she was going to keep it from anyone that would try to steal it from her. This she swears on her life.

Meanwhile

Unknown location

"*Laughs mockingly* A child?! You choose a child to bear the tomb! *Laughs* Tell me, Thousand son, have you gone soft during your time here?" Asked a figure that was similar to the one that encountered Erika in stature, but not in attire. Instead of a regular helmet, this figure wore some helmet that looked like an animal skull with three horns, one at the forehead, rather than a typical metal helmet with red glowing eyes that appeared from the skull's sockets. It's robes were also a part of it's armor rather then separate like the first figure. The colors were also just black with yellow highlights. On it's chest was an eye in the middle of a pointed star.

"No, I merely choose the most capable of that batch, Neroth." Said the figure that meet with Erika as he teleported inside the room where this figure spoke in. The room was dark, but bright enough for the two to see each other. "She will do her part or she will die. Simple as that."

"*Chuckles* If that is what you claim it to be, Ahriman, then so be it." Said Neroth. "As ordered, we've placed the seeds of hope and rage in the hearts of those these Xenos have seen fit to capture. When they arrive to another of their slave hubs, we'll once again spill the blood of Xenos and gain more souls to convert to space marines. Oh, and be somewhat useful cannon fodder in the process. *Laughs arrogantly* Come then, bloodshed is to be spilled soon." With that, the two figures left whatever room they were in. To do what must be done for their plans to succeed.