JULIANNE ENGELBREKTSSON, you have FIVE new extranent messages. Which message would you like to see first?

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Message ONE. Video message received MARCH 7th, 2683 at 01:30 PM CITADEL STANDARD TIME…

Hey Jules…you still go by Jules, right? It's Kaidan. I promised I'd keep in touch and, well, I'm a man of my word.

Where should I start? Details about my assignment are 'need to know,' but I can say that it has been a hell of a ride. The Chief's unlike any soldier I've ever seen. It's one thing to hear about a Spartan, but then seeing one in action…let's just say that taking down a Geth Juggernaut with his bare hands was the least impressive thing he's done since he woke up.

But enough about the Chief. Honestly…I never thought I'd see anyone from the Grunt Hole again. It's not that I didn't want to talk to. I've tried to reach out to people from the program, but I just… I don't know. I wouldn't know where to begin. Not after all these years.

Maybe that's why I seemed doubtful when you said no one blames me for Vyrnnus. You weren't there when I talked to Rahna. The last thing she ever said to me was…was that she would never forgive me. That I 'couldn't kill a problem' just because he hurt us. That bastard broke her arm and somehow I was the bad guy? So much for justice…

…have you talked to Rahna recently? I know it's none of your business, but I wanted to tell her I'm sorry. All the time we lost because I couldn't control myself…

Sorry. I didn't mean for this to be a confession, but…I feel like I can trust you. It's weird saying that after THAT prank you and Desirae pulled at the barracks, but the moment I saw you at Flux, I had a feeling. We're a small group in this galaxy and coincidences don't just happen. Not like this...

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End of message. Reply?

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Recording reply.

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Kaidan,

Not many people have called me that lately, but it's nice to hear you say it again. Also, I was only a pawn in Desirae's master scheme, so blame her!

Anyway, 'need to know,' huh? All I can legally say is I don't even know what 'needs to be known' with my assignment. I'm sure this message is being tracked too, so I'll just say everything's good. Resolme apologizes again for almost blowing that sting operation. You know how greenhorns are.

And look…I love Rahna, but you know how I feel about that whole thing. We can't kill every problem, but sometimes they need to die. All you did was speed up Vyrnnus's trip to hell by a few more years. I'm only sorry I didn't help.

But enough of that. We have a good decade and change to catch up on, so I don't want to waste another second opening old wounds. When did you join the Alliance? What hobbies are you into? And tell me some cool non-classified details about your missions. Even the ones without the Chief. I'm all ears. Get a holo with the Chief for me too!

…ok, one last thing about Rahna and then I'm done, I swear. I found an extranet support group that ole 'Braveheart' himself started and, well…I'm going to leave this attachment below. The ball's in your court.

Rahna's Extranet Address

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March 8th, 2683

SSV Mare Erythraeum

Orbiting Feros

Attican Beta Cluster

…

"Approaching Zhu's Hope in t-minus seven minutes," the voice of the Mare Erythraeum's VI Samuel echoed through the ship. "All shore parties proceed to the loading bay."

"You heard the thing," Kyle said to his team folding his Mattock rifle and carrying his helmet as they left the barracks. "Let's move."

The squad following behind as they marched alongside other fully armored ONI marines heading to the loading bay. Ackerson was very clear about being punctual for this mission, especially given the current state of the colony. Every second they waited was a second the colonists were deprived necessities.

Ackerson had briefed the entire ship of the situation shortly before they plotted out the course. A Geth army had assaulted the colony several days ago, forcing the colonists to hunker down to fend them off until support arrived. They got more than support though, as the Master Chief was the one sent to their aid. His squad did so much damage to the Geth that they actually retreated after only a couple hours of fighting! Once again, the Chief had barely awoken from his century long nap and he was already making waves across the galaxy.

This meant, however, that Kyle and his team were more or less the clean-up for the operation. The Chief had been whisked away to some other important task that required his immediate attention, leaving the Mare Erythraeum to assist in the colony's recovery by themselves. Why the Brass would send ONI to offer assistance instead of an Alliance fleet or a third-party relief force was beyond Kyle though.

The ship shook slightly as they passed through the atmosphere. The group marched through the hangar and spotted other marines assembling nearby. Ackerson was not messing around with this operation. Not only had she assembled most of the serviceman on the ship for this mission, but she would be leading them herself. The fallout of what happened on Zhu's Hope must be damn serious for her to get off her perch.

Kyle slipped on his helmet and let the HUD activate while he heard his team chatting on their TEAMCOM channel.

"Hard to believe they held out for so long," Beckett said. "Even before the Chief got there."

"When survival is on the line, people are capable of a lot of things," Tangilanu added.

"What about those other colonies the Geth and pirates wiped out?" La Rosa said. "Were they not desperate enough to succeed?"

"They didn't have ExoGeni or the Chief helping them," Resolme noted.

"Well, these guys don't have ExoGeni anymore," Engelbrektsson said. "The bastards dumped them as soon as the Geth retreated."

"They've cut losses on bigger operations," La Rosa replied. "A backwater hellhole like Zhu's Hope would be the least of their concerns."

Kyle nodded as the ship shook less, completing its re-entry phase. Ackerson had mentioned about ExoGeni abandoning the colony despite the Chief's miraculous intervention. Trading the lives of the survivors to save a few million credits on reconstruction? How predictable…

As La Rosa alluded to though, Zhu's Hope was far from the largest human colony in the galaxy. So ONI becoming unusually philanthropic towards the colonists' plight raised a red flag in Kyle's mind. Everything about that debriefing screamed ulterior motives, from Admiral McCallister himself authorizing the transportation of relief supplies from a nearby Alliance outpost to the news about the angel investment they had secured for the colony. Apparently, a currently unnamed, and probably fictional, billionaire was going to put five million credits into a fund exclusively for Zhu's Hope reconstruction. If Kyle had to guess, this was a media ploy to cover up that ONI was personally ponying up the money. Granted, five million credits was chump change given the Alliance's military spending budget, but giving it to a colony like this? That and the fact that they didn't want to raise suspicion of ONI military presence on the colony meant there was something else going on. He prepared himself to be ready for anything.

The shaking came to a complete stop and the main hangar doors opened, flooding wind and bright sunlight onto everyone inside. Kyle raised his hand above his visor while it adjusted for the influx of light. After it did, he noticed several pilots, including Longley, entering their fighters while other mechanics finished their works and scurried away. They must be the escort for the ship while they landed.

"All assigned wings," Samuel's voice spoke again over the speakers. "You are cleared for launch."

Kyle saw Longley put on his flight helmet and give a thumbs up to a nearby pilot as their Broadsword cockpits closed. Their engines roared to life, gently lifting the ships off the ground while their landing gear retracted. As Kyle and the group of soldiers exited the hangar, he managed to catch a glimpse of several Broadswords and a couple Longswords dramatically fly out the doors. For a moment, Kyle wished he had considered joining the Navy or Air Force rather than the ODST. Just the idea of flying one of those bad boys was entertaining enough.

"What exactly are we doing for this mission?" Resolme asked the team.

"Like the general 'we' or we 'we?'" Tangilanu asked before turning to La Rosa, who was suppressing a smirk. "That's not at all what I meant."

"You said it," La Rosa said with a chuckle.

"Ackerson is splitting everyone into teams," Kyle then said answering the question. "We're following Falana's orders as usual, but what specifically I have no clue."

"Guess we'll soon find out," Beckett said as they arrived at the loading bay doors.

Ackerson was of course there before everyone else tapping away at her omni-tool. To Kyle's surprise though, she was fully decked out in customized ONI officer armor. It was one thing having her on the mission, but he figured she wouldn't need full armor to present a bunch of weary colonists with a charitable donation. However, they did say there might still be Geth stragglers hidden within the area and who knows what else was out there. He figured it was a 'better safe than sorry' pre-emptive measure.

Ackerson looked up and clearly took mental note of all the soldiers entering the bay. By Kyle's estimates, there were about fifty soldiers there total. Apparently it took that many people to present some credits…

"Syncing comm. links," Ackerson said putting on her own helmet. Kyle noticed his HUD flicker as a new FIELDCOM channel was opened off to the side with an ONI logo above it. The major then put two fingers to the side of her helmet to open the channel. "Longley, what's the situation?"

"Clear skies, ma'am," Longley replied over the gentle but persistent hum of his Broadsword's engine. "Not a Geth fighter or cruiser in sight. We're patching topographical read-outs to you now."

The Major's omni-tool flashed green, prompting her to press another button. A 3D projection of the colony emitted from the center of the tool, continually updating as the fighters' onboard computers and Samuel's readings from the Mare Erythraeum's radar scanned the area. The colony was bigger than Kyle anticipated, stretching out from a small cluster of buildings and ships to a highway nearby to other buildings.

"No sign of the colonists yet, ma'am," Longley continued. "The Geth pounded the hell out of this place. I'm seeing some pretty nasty holes in—"

"Wing leader," a female pilot then chimed in. "Do you read?"

"Wing leader here," Longley replied. "Sound off."

"I'm picking up movements from the heart of the colony. Do you copy?"

"…yeah, I see them. Samuel, what's your take?"

"Scanning," Samuel's synthesized voice replied leading to a brief pause while it processed the information. "Crewman Granger's readings confirm a hundred plus civilians at Zhu's Hope center, both human and alien."

"Good job, Kailey," Longley then said as Kyle saw small blips manifest on the Major's map.

"Any Geth readings, Samuel?" Ackerson then asked.

"…no inorganic energy emissions detected," Samuel replied.

"Doesn't mean they aren't hiding," Longley replied. "They could be in a 'sleep mode' or something."

"Acknowledged," Ackerson replied. "Samuel, keep the long-range sensors active and refresh readouts from the pilots every few seconds."

"Confirmed," Samuel replied.

"Longley, take your squadron and circle around the colony. You're clear to engage any Geth you see, but avoid civilian casualties at all cost."

"Affirmative, ma'am," Longley replied as everyone heard the thrusters on his fighter intensify. "All wings, follow my lead."

Longley's channel closed and Ackerson turned to face the soldiers while holding up the updated map. "We'll arrive at the colony's dock shortly. Follow my lead and keep on your guard. Stick close to your squad leaders until further orders."

Kyle looked to see Falana give him a cryptic glare before checking her own equipment. They've had to be around each other a lot more because of those breach exercises, which Falana clearly didn't enjoy. Kyle took some pleasure in making her uncomfortable, but he still had to wonder what she had against him. He knew how to lead his team better than she did and they were supposed to work as partners during these operations. Was it something he said or did? Still, she hadn't done anything outwardly contentious while around him the last few days, likely out of fear that it would invoke the Major's wrath once again. That debacle with Xawin and that Sorkin guy hadn't completely passed over yet.

Lights and shadows raced across the loading bay's windows as the Mare Erythraeum descended into the dock. The hinges around the door hissed in anticipation while all of the soldiers prepared their weapons.

"Time to clean up the Chief's mess," Engelbrektsson quipped as the ship came to a stop and some whirring of machinery was heard around them.

"Docking sequence complete," Samuel said opening the loading bay's door, light flooding on the soldiers once again. "The Major is ashore. XO Jiang has the deck."

"Pile out!" Ackerson barked leading the soldiers out into the docking bay, unfolding her own M8B officer's pistol from its side holster while she walked.

Kyle and his team walked ahead of some of the nearby soldiers to survey the area. He had wondered how well the colony held up to a Geth assault, only for the answer to be a resounding 'not well.' The walls in the dock that hadn't been smashed were covered with scorch marks, while rubble and Geth body parts were strewn across the floor. This prompted several people to watch their steps while walking, especially as they moved to the more covered areas of the dock where some of the lights flickered on and off.

La Rosa whistled looking at the wreckage. "Those little robots did a number on this place."

"They sent an army," Engelbrektsson replied. "They were bound to turn over a few stones."

Kyle nodded while nonchalantly kicking a nearby Geth headlamp out of the way. The walls were covered in scorch marks from the gunfire coming from both directions, including a few heavy blasts. Unfortunately, there were also a few colonist corpses on the floor along with the Geth, some more intact than the others. Those poor people…

The group continued their march up the main staircase until they spotted an exit leading into the colony. During the march, however, some rubble collapsed nearby and caused everyone to stop to point at the noise. They held their weapons out like that for several seconds, scanning to see if anything would jump out at them.

"…we're clear," Ackerson said lowering her pistol and leading the march. Everyone followed on her tail until they reached the top stair.

What Kyle saw as he arrived at the colony was not very impressive. Most of the major buildings had been reduced to rubble and blasted out metal walls. Only a few hastily assembled tents, a basic metal pre-fab building and a partially disassembled freighter in the middle of the courtyard remained. La Rosa wasn't kidding. The Geth really did do a number on this place.

Which made the people nervously exiting from the buildings a welcomed surprise. Most of them were human, but he also spotted several Yanme and a Salarian too. They looked hungry, tired and exhausted, but they were alive. Still, he didn't blame them for looking nervous. Even if they were Alliance, seeing fifty marines bearing ONI logos march into a colony would be intimidating for anyone.

Ackerson then opened the FIELDCOM once again and laid out a laundry list of orders. "Fireteam Alpha-One, guard the stairs behind us. Alpha-Two, head up the tower and secure it. Bravo-One, secure the elevator, Bravo-Two, secure the garage that the elevator leads up to. Charlie-Squad, head down into the tunnels and make sure it's squeaky clean. I don't want so much as a stray pyjak poking around down there. Everyone else, head down to the stairwell leading beneath the colony. Captain Falana, you're in charge of overseeing sample retrievals. Acknowledge"

Kyle and his squad winked green along with all the other soldiers. If Falana was on 'sample retrieval,' that meant his team was too. Though Kyle wondered what the hell they were retrieving samples of…

"Good," The Major replied. "Now move it."

"On me," Falana said to her squad as all of the soldiers scurried like worker ants to their assignments. They certainly moved with the precision that Kyle expected from mindless drones of a clandestine organization. As long as they helped the colonists though, that was fine by him.

The group approached the stairway entrance under a raised section of the disassembled freighter. It looked like it had been moved recently, possibly as a place for the colonists to retreat from an assault. He had to hand it to the civvies. Sometimes they were surprisingly resourceful.

Though that seemed to not actually be the case as they entered the stairwell and noted the walls around them. If Kyle didn't know better, and admittedly he really didn't, he would have said there were the remnants of an overgrown plant across the stairwell and leading down into wherever the exit transitioned to.

"Gardening problems?" La Rosa asked while they ran.

"In a place with no direct sunlight?" Beckett retorted.

Kyle would have replied back before they reached the exit and entered the main part of the underground area. It was a large, cavernous place with multiple ringed platforms along the walls and an opening in the center leading into a dark abyss. He figured it must have been for excavating and mining, but he then noticed that there was even more of those plant growths all around the place. Some of them had withered into dried piles, but there were a few clumps of vines and some large tendril looking things too. A few of them looked to be as big as tree trunks!

There were also a bunch of corpses scattered across the floors, but not Geth or colonist corpses. Most of them were…he didn't even have the words to describe it. They appeared to be humanoid for as much as he could put it in layman terms, but they were incredibly gaunt, had grey skin, long claws for fingers, exposed teeth and no eyes in their sockets. They almost looked like walking skeletons with some kind of fake skin that had sort of plant like texture in spots.

In the center of the area, more tendrils hung off the ceiling connecting to larger nodes on the ringed floors. The ends of the tendrils in the center, however, looked like they had been severed or pulled off something. And not just any something, but something huge.

"Like I said," La Rosa continued with more amazement. "Gardening problems."

Some of the ONI marines seemed equally surprised, though Falana moved with determination towards the center of the area. There was a small jutting platform that she walked onto and looked over into the abyss.

"Gimme a rock," she said to no one in particular holding a hand out behind her. One of the marines complied, following which she chucked the rock over and listened for a while. If it landed anywhere, Kyle couldn't hear it.

"Samuel," Falana then asked over her comm. "Estimated distance?"

"Calculating," the synthesized voice spoke followed by a short pause. "…inconclusive. Sound distortion registers an estimation error in the hundreds of meters. Caution is advised."

"Understood," Falana replied looking to Pavel. "Pavel, the rappels."

Pavel handed a rappel to the Captain before handing additional ones to other soldiers, including some of Kyle's team. Unsurprisingly, he was not given one.

"Nolan, take Beckett and Resolme to survey the area," Falana ordered.

Kyle raised an eyebrow under his helmet while looking around for comedic effect.

"Everything looks pretty dead, ma'am," he quipped.

"That's an order," Falana reaffirmed hooking her rappel to his suit as the other soldiers approached. "Collect samples from the corpses and report anything suspicious to me immediately. Keep the line open for further instruction."

"…yes, ma'am," Kyle said masking his protest.

Falana and the soldiers hooked the end of their rappels to the edge. She gave one more look down to double check before raising her hand to give a silent countdown. Well…Kyle figured that at least Tangilanu, La Rosa and Engelbrektsson would have some fun this mission.

The Captain reached zero and the soldiers raced off the ledge, disappearing from view to begin their climb down.

"…did we get benched, sir?" Resolme asked on their TEAMCOM channel.

"Yeah…" Beckett replied for Kyle. "Yeah, we did."

Kyle sighed and unfolded his rifle. If Falana wanted him to rifle through a bunch of plant crap and corpses, he might as well do it so well that no one would question his work ethic. Though if he did discover something cool or suspicious, he would be the one to claim credit for it. Not her…

La Rosa smiled giddily once he heard they were going to rappel down into the giant abyss. His sniper wouldn't be terribly useful at the bottom of this giant pit, but who cared? They were going to go full action vid and rappel down a giant pit! What self-respecting person wouldn't jump at the opportunity to re-enact a favorite action hero trope like this?

Of course, the pit they were descending into might not have any Geth at the bottom, but it certainly was ominously spooky. All the creepy plant stuff was giving him a case of the escalofrios. Unless the Geth were suddenly expanding into gardening work, this didn't seem to be within their expected mission parameters.

Falana didn't appear phased though. He couldn't tell if it was her being a cold bitch as usual or if she actually knew what they were doing beforehand, but hopefully that meant his worries were over nothing.

As he set his anchor point for his rappel, he looked back to the Captain. They hadn't had a chance to talk one-on-one before and his curiosity was getting the better of him. He had figured out where he recognized her from and it was eating away at him. She was that Greenwood woman from the training arena on Earth. He had also recognized some of the other ONI marines as the people whose asses he kicked there too, confirming his conspiracy theory. He wanted to ask about it, but she never seemed to be in a mood to chit chat casually. However, he was out of patience and he wanted answers.

He mentally prepared his method of approach as he watched the Captain countdown to their drop. His hands gripped and he could feel his heartbeat in anticipation. One of his childhood dreams was about to be experienced. He could hear that old tune from the Mission: Impossible vids ringing in his ears right as Falana's fingers completely dropped to zero.

She led the jump over the edge with La Rosa and two ONI marines following right behind. His feet kicked off the ground as he leapt and spun himself around, gripping onto his rappel line while swinging towards the wall. He raised his knees close to his chest to cushion the impact, his feet planting against the wall. A few pebbles chipped off as he landed, but otherwise his line held firmly.

He looked to see Tangilanu and Engelbrektsson jump over as well. Tangilanu's landing was a little less graceful, as he slipped once his feet touched the wall. His line still held though. Engelbrektsson was somewhere in the middle of them, but she managed to have a secure jump too.

"Everyone good?" Falana then asked over the TEAMCOM.

La Rosa winked green along with all of the other soldiers dangling off the edge…

…then he noticed Engelbrektsson's line jerk a little and knew that was not a good sign. She looked to Tangilanu and him with a clear 'oh shit!' that he could read from her body language alone. He immediately wall ran over and grabbed Engelbrektsson's line as it jerked again and she fell a few feet. She shrieked before La Rosa firmed his grip, gagging from her weight until she stopped falling. To be honest, once they were stable, she didn't seem as heavy. Maybe he was stronger than he thought!

"What the hell happened, Nolan?" Falana then asked over the TEAMCOM.

"Freak accident…" Kyle strained as he, Beckett and Resolme grit their teeth while gripping the line to keep the attached soldier from falling. He was glad he spotted the shift in the anchor point before they left for their pointless search, though it required some lightning reflexes to not only grab the line but also plant his feet against that piece of metal jutting from the ground. Beckett and Resolme then dogpiled on him to keep the weight on the line before repositioning themselves. Of course this person picked the one spot that ended up being the most unstable to set their anchor point on. It wouldn't be a good mission if everything went smoothly!

"Any..day now…green horn," Beckett said with difficulty helping Kyle hold the soldier's weight.

"Hold on…" Resolme wheezed forcing the anchor point a few feet to a more secure spot. With an extra groan, he set it down and the automatic latches screwed into the ground. "Now!"

The three of them let go all at once and scurried to their feet. The line jerked a little as it reset, but otherwise the anchor held. They let out a collective sigh as Kyle opened up TEAMCOM again. "We're good…"

La Rosa stumbled a little as the lieutenant reset Engelbrektsson's line and her full weight pulled against him, but their rappels held. Engelbrektsson let out a small 'eep' as her line tensed again, her feet planting back onto the wall while she hyperventilated some. After a few more seconds, they heard the lieutenant give the all-clear.

"Come on!" Falana said satisfied with the results as she and the ONI marines began the descent.

La Rosa started to walk as well, passing by a shook up Engelbrektsson. He placed a hand on her shoulder and nodded. "Now we're even," he said recalling their little bomb mishap on Klensal.

The three of them followed the Captain down into the spooky hellhole, a tense silence lingering among everyone as the light from above grew dimmer and dimmer. Though his helmet filtered out extreme smells, La Rosa saw the humidity inside the hole increase on the HUD display and figured that whatever plants were at the bottom were giving off a foul stench. The temperature was also dropping with each meter they descended, sending even more of those escalofrios down his spine.

"What the hell is down here, ma'am?" He then decided to ask Falana.

"…something big, corporal," she replied.

"Yeah, I figured. How big?"

"You know only slightly less than I do," Falana said. "Needless to say, it's not Geth."

"I figured that too, but I also assumed you and Ackerson had the answers for what we were doing down here."

"I only pretend to know everything, La Rosa," Falana then said with a little more bounce in her next step to account for a hole she came across. "I know as much as the Major tells me."

"Hm…'need to know' isn't just a grunt thing, huh?"

"Did you see me tell Nolan anything?" She said motioning to the other soldiers. "Lights on!"

Everyone activated their helmet and gun lights before continuing their descent. Even La Rosa's HUD was having some difficulty accounting for the lack of light the further down they went. To make things worse, once they crossed a certain point, a strange off-white mist substance started to surround the group. It only continued to intensify with every step they took too.

After several minutes of wall walking, La Rosa felt fatigued. He wasn't one for long stretches of climbing…or any stretches to be honest. His tactic was more 'run and gun,' so even this assisted climb made him feel out of his element. Nonetheless, he continued descending into the darkness with everyone else hoping to reach the ground at some point.

Right as he thought that, one of the marines called out from below them.

"Made it!" Pavel shouted. "Watch your step. It's a little soggy."

La Rosa picked up the pace hearing that. Finally! It was still just as dark and spooky as before, but now there was an end in sight. Tangilanu and Engelbrektsson were similarly excited as they took a few leaps to beat La Rosa down. Not on his watch! With a running start, La Rosa bounced even further to reach the bottom first…

…only to land on something firm and not ground like that caused him to trip. He fell onto the floor with a squishy thud, a murky green substance now covering him. At least none of it could get in his mouth, but it still grossed him out.

Though not as much as what he spotted once he used his hands to lift himself up. Turning to his right, he saw an Asari body that had burst open like a pumpkin nearby. It must have been knocked into the hole during the fight with the Chief, evidenced by the shotgun holes in its sternum, though the decaying process seemed to have slowed some with that green liquid coating it. On top of that, the Asari's insides seemed to be very green and plant like as well, with not even a hint of dried blood. It did have all the other features though, as its dismembered head then lolled onto its side facing La Rosa with bulging eyes and half its jaw dislocated.

"Gah!" La Rosa yelped scrambling to his feet and taking a few steps back until he bumped into Tangilanu. "Hijo de puta! Tu'uta, you see this sh—"

La Rosa was interrupted as Tangilanu immediately spun him around to face something in the distance. He almost protested until he looked at what caused Tangilanu and Engelbrektsson to freeze up. His mouth went agape and his eyes widened as multiple lights now shone on something in front of them. Whatever it was, it was huge. No, not just huge. Gigantic!

He took a few steps closer to get a better look at this…freaking humongous pile of plant mass. Even that failed to explain what he saw though. It was a massive plant shell with what looked like multiple set of eyes, hundreds of vine-like tendrils coming out of its 'stomach,' a tendril filled mouth-like orifice and large holes on its back from where he assumed it had been disconnected from those giant tendrils above. The green substance leaked out from its body from several holes, along with some sticky saliva-like material from its mouth, and it just lay there motionless. Whatever it was, it was definitely dead.

"Wha…what the hell is that?" Tangilanu asked in shock.

"This…" Falana said adding some slack onto her rappel line. "…ladies and gentlemen, is Species 37: the Thorian."

Kyle opened another door as he walked further into the first ringed floor. He grumbled to himself the entire time while searching for something worth his time to justify being benched. While everyone else was 'sample retrieving' in the big spooky hole, he was scraping crap off the corpses strewn about the area. Admittedly, whatever the hell these humanoid things were, it intrigued him immensely. Still, whatever was left of his inner child would rather rappel down with everyone else. At least that sounded like an adventure. What he was doing was work.

As he walked through the room, he noticed one of the corpses looked much more intact than the others. Upon further inspection, he saw that it was an Asari. What was weird about that though, other than not looking as decomposed as the other bodies, was that it was green skinned. Asari came in lots of skin pigmentations, but green was not one of them. It also didn't have any blood coming out of the body, dried or otherwise. Whoever this person was, they certainly weren't like any Asari he had met.

He decided to check later as he approached one of the corpses of the humanoid creatures and pulled out a small container from his belt. Thank god for smell filters on the helmet, because he was sure all these bodies stunk like hell. The holes from the Chief's weapons had chewed them up nicely, with firm green liquid hardening around them. It was even freakier seeing one of these things up close, as he could get a better view of how inhuman they were. There were no reproductive organs, no hair, no nipples or any other distinguishable features that accounted for a living being. They seemed a lot like those Geth husks he had seen on that video weeks ago. Just shells of a human being.

"What should we collect?" Resolme then asked over their TEAMCOM from across the way.

"I dunno," Kyle replied scooping some of the green liquid into the container. "Skin. Blood. Brain tissue. Whatever the people in police procedurals do."

"Hold on," he heard Beckett then say as she helped Resolme open up something on their corpse. Wherever on the body they were opening, it made a sickening squishy sound while they did it.

"Oh god…" Resolme gagged.

"Suck it up," Beckett said more to reassure herself. "It's just a body…made of plants and stuff. You get used to it. The body, not the plant…ok, what the hell are these things, Kyle?"

"How should I know?" Kyle said reaching into one of the bullet holes with his synthetic hand and pulling the skin-like membrane back. "Anatomy's not my strong suit."

"It's not mine either…but I'm pretty sure these things need brains to function, right?"

"Huh?"

"They don't have brains, Kyle."

Kyle looked into the open eye socket of the corpse to see if he could confirm that. "How can you tell?"

"Because she opened one of their skulls like a coconut," Resolme answered.

"A little tougher than that, but yes," Beckett confirmed. "There's just some kind of weird…organ-like thing inside."

Kyle opened the membrane of his corpse even deeper to check out the rest of its internal organs. Sure enough, it seemed to be missing some other components of a normal body.

"You see that too?" Beckett asked hearing the noises his actions made.

"No, but I opened its torso," he replied examining the innards. "They don't have hearts or lungs either. There's a stomach looking thing though…"

Kyle noticed that one of the slugs hit the stomach and it was leaking some other kind of substance that appeared to be causing a chemical burn around the hole. He grabbed a nearby vine from one of the rotting tendrils and stuck it in the liquid. Sure enough, the membrane around the vine burned and contracted upon contact

"Don't touch the stomach fluid," Kyle replied. "It's still acidic."

"Thanks," Beckett said. "So…no vital organs for life or locomotion? How do these things move?"

"They're plants," Resolme said picking up something squishy. "They don't need brains or lungs."

"Sure, but when was the last time you saw a plant moving around?"

Before Kyle could chime in, he heard something shuffle. He stopped moving and listened carefully, his hand reaching instinctively for his Razor pistol. Something was near him.

"Have you seen any Asari on your side too?" Beckett asked Kyle.

"…yeah," he replied still on alert. "Why?"

"We found another one here…and it has green skin."

"Mine does too," Kyle said distracted hearing more shuffling and unfolding his pistol.

"That's weird. Never seen a green skin expression. Think there's a connection?"

Kyle then spotted what was making that noise. A few yards ahead of him, he saw three of those plant monster things. Except these ones weren't dead! They had been curled up in weird positions when he first arrived, but now they were standing upright with a creepy slinking motion. They hadn't noticed him yet, prompting Kyle to start standing upright and take a few steps backwards.

"Kyle…?" Beckett asked noticing his silence. "What's wrong?"

Before he had taken even three steps, the creatures spotted him. Kyle pulled out his M7SR-5 submachine gun and dual wielded his weapons as they charged at him. He unloaded into the closest one, which soaked up rounds like a sponge before he managed to sever its leg from its body. The creature collapsed onto the ground, the holes from the rounds exiting its chest squirting that acidic liquid.

One of the creatures got close enough to Kyle where it stopped in place, convulsed a bit and then vomited out some of that acidic liquid towards him. He managed to dodge the bulk of the liquid, though his shield shimmered from a few scattered splashes. He then fired several rounds at its head. The creature soaked up some of the rounds before one shot entered through its eye socket and blew out the back of its head, causing it to collapse.

The third creature got close enough to Kyle for it to try swiping at him with those giant claws. He managed to avoid the first swipe, but the second one took down his shields completely. Kyle fired at its head again, but it managed to knock his submachine gun out of his hand with another swipe. He rolled out of the way and aimed to fire, but the creature attempted to pounce on him. Reacting quickly, Kyle dropped his pistol and grabbed hold of the creature's wrists. It screeched at him with some ungodly sound, struggling against his grip. A few of its claws nicked against the armor around his forearms.

Focusing his strength, Kyle intensified the grip on his synthetic hand and crushed one of the creature's wrist. No bone cracking was heard though. It was like he had simply crushed a bamboo shoot.

Then its torso swelled up and its jaw opened wide. It was going to vomit on him again! Kyle kicked the creature backwards into a wall, with it vomiting more of that acid. His shields took a hit again, though the rest simply fell on the floor. Unfortunately, that meant the vomit also got all over his submachine gun and dissolved through its firing mechanism. But his pistol was still right next to him! Kyle picked up the weapon as the creature's stomach swelled again and fired repeatedly into its stomach.

Whatever Kyle struck while firing must have been intense, as the creature's torso then exploded into goopy chunks. The top part of the body collapsed onto the ground while its legs fell backwards against the wall. Kyle exhaled deeply taking a knee after the fight. He looked down on his armor to see bits of those chunky pieces all over him. Great…now he had to get this suit cleaned.

The door then hissed opened and Beckett barreled inside to assist, her weapon at the ready. She scanned the area quickly before spotting the freshly dead bodies of the creatures on the ground and Kyle's still smoking pistol. Resolme entered shortly after panting from the sprint and unfolding his own weapon in anticipation.

"What the hell happened here?" Beckett asked looking at the bodies.

Just then, that first creature Kyle shot at lifted its head up and screeched! Beckett and Resolme jumped, unloading their guns into the creature until it too exploded into gooey chunks that splattered onto Kyle. The remainder of its body then rested limply onto the floor.

Kyle slowly stood up, wiping some of the chunks off the visor, and looked at Beckett with an annoyed glance.

"Sorry," she said with a sheepish shrug.

"…Nolan…" Falana's voice then crackled over the TEAMCOM.

"…yeah?" Nolan said still recovering from the attack.

"If you're done sitting on your ass, we need some help," the Captain seemed to say begrudgingly.

Kyle and Beckett rolled their eyes at each other before he replied. "What's up?"

"We got something that needs burning here, but it's too tough for incendiaries. I told Jiang to bring some thermite and flame throwers from the ship. Meet Crewman Willimon by the stairway and bring the stuff with you. He'll have some additional rappels too."

She needed them that bad, huh? Well, after what just occurred, Kyle could use the change of scenery.

"We'll be right down," he replied as the three of them left for the entrance. Before they exited the door to the hallway though, he looked back at the three fresh corpses. The Chief fought a horde of those things? It must have been a hell of a skirmish…

La Rosa watched as Falana took a bag one of the ONI marines had carried down into the pit and handed out a variety of scientific equipment to people.

"Let's make this quick, everyone," she ordered handing La Rosa a couple jars as she went from person to person. "Pavel, take your men to collect skin and fluid samples from the main body. La Rosa and Tangilanu, gather a tendril from each cluster and anything else you can fit in those jars. Engelbrektsson, use your helmet camera to film every inch of this thing. Make sure to get close-ups on its main features. Get moving!"

The soldiers scattered to their assignments, splashing in that gooey green liquid as they walked. La Rosa and Tangilanu approached the 'mouth,' or what La Rosa figured was the mouth, as the Falana received a call on her omni-tool.

"Just started, boss," Falana replied to the other person on the line, whom La Rosa figured was Ackerson. "Turns out the Thorian fell a long way down…"

While Falana continued to speak, Tangilanu redirected La Rosa's attention to the task at hand.

"Gimme a hand," he said pulling out a knife from his belt.

La Rosa grabbed one of the tendrils from the 'mouth' and gagged as he held it out towards Tangilanu. The Tongan proceeded to cut into the tendril with some difficulty, with a little bit of that liquid squirting onto his visor while he cut.

"What do you think they'll do with this stuff?" Tangilanu asked.

"Build another one?" La Rose joked. "I don't know. What else do secret black op groups do with this kind of stuff?"

Tangilanu shrugged as he continued, getting to about halfway through the cut when they saw Engelbrektsson slowly walk to their position. Her precise and stable steps made La Rosa chuckle.

"Are you…doing a dolly shot?" He teased.

"I don't know what I'm doing," she said getting up close to the scene. "I'm not a camerawoman."

"Well, make sure to get my good side," Tangilanu teased as he made the last few cuts, tearing off the severed tendril and dangling the end. "I'd hate to get grabbed by this ghoulie…"

Just then, Engelbrektsson pointed to something within the rest of the tendrils. "What's that?"

La Rosa and Engelbrektsson looked closer, pushing aside some tendrils to reveal…a hand?

"Oh god…" Engelbrektsson said taking a step back.

La Rosa reached in and tried pulling the hand out, only to not have it budge an inch. Either it was stuck within this weave of tentacles really firmly…or it was still connected to something. Or both. It could be a lot of things honestly!

"Gimme a hand," La Rosa said to Tangilanu, who paused communicating a body language expression of 'really?' "…fine, yeah. The pun was intentional. Come on!"

The two of them reached into the tendrils and grabbed the hand. With a few hard tugs, they revealed more of the hand and an arm connected to it. There was someone inside!

"Julianne!" La Rosa said. "Can you use a biotic pull on this?"

"Yeah…" Engelbrektsson said with some disgust. "Sure."

"It's just a hand, Jules," he said as both he and Tangilanu backed up. "The person's dead already."

Engelbrektsson sighed before a blue biotic field shimmered around her hands and she launched it at the arm. Once it was engulfed, she proceeded to use the energy to pull. Whatever was inside this thing, it was in there tight.

"What's going on?" Falana then said noticing the scene.

"We found something," La Rosa replied motioning to the 'mouth.'

Falana walked over from whatever she was doing to see what was going on. As if on cue, Engelbrektsson gave a stronger yank on the arm and revealed the top of an Asari's body from inside at that moment. Or at least it looked enough like an Asari. It had the form, but its eyes were missing and the skin looked like it would tear at the slightest cut.

"What the hell?" Falana said seeing the body. "Pull it out!"

Engelbrektsson complied, expanding the biotic field around the top half and giving it a pull. The good news was that this pull dislodged the body from inside the Thorian. The bad news was that was all there was to the body! The top half tumbled onto the ground with several splashes before coming to a rest.

Falana approached the body cautiously, motioning for the ODST to follow behind. They did so cautiously. It was then La Rosa got a good look at the body's face and skin color…before realizing he recognized it. He turned around to see the smashed body of the other Asari still where he left it.

"La Rosa!" Falana whispered sharply as she knelt up to the body. "We need the light."

"Hold on," La Rosa said rushing over to the smashed corpse from earlier and checking out its features. "That body's green too, right?"

"…yeah," Falana replied.

"Green's not a naturally occurring Asari skin color."

"And?"

"Check out its facial features and marking pattern."

Falana and the other two knelt down to inspect the body to the best of their ability while La Rosa opened his omni-tool and snapped a holo of the smashed body's face. He then walked over to the group and projected the holo next to the body they pulled out.

"Notice the similarities?" He said pointing to the features on the face.

"…they're…practically identical," Engebrektsson said.

"Not 'practically,'" Tangilanu added seeing La Rosa's logic. "They're 'exactly' identical. Or at least they were becoming identical."

"The Thorian was creating Asari clones?" Falana asked.

"How could it generate such a specific Asari without a source?" Engelbrektsson then added. "Hell, how can it create a clone to begin with?"

"Well…" Falana then added. "There's an Asari here at the colony. Perhaps it used her tissue."

"'Perhaps' or 'definitely?'" La Rosa clarified.

"…fine. Definitely," Falana replied. "But I have no idea how it's able to replicate a whole Asari. That's the truth."

"Well, it looks like it didn't finish with this one," Tangilanu said inspecting the hand. "The Chief must have killed the Thorian before it—"

"…Captain," They then heard the lieutenant's voice say over the TEAMCOM.

"What's your status?" Falana asked.

"On our way down. How freaking deep is this hole?"

"…very," she replied. "It'll be a while."

"God…" They heard Beckett sigh. "Whatever's down there better be important."

"We'll explain when you get here," Falana said before turning her attention to Engelbrektsson. "Open it up."

"…sorry?" Engelbrektsson asked.

"If this thing can clone organic tissue, we need to know how. Go through the soft tissue around the tendrils and open it up with your biotics. Pavel, what's your status?"

"We're good here, ma'am," the marine replied over TEAMCOM.

"Get over here. We've got some dissecting to do…"

Kyle, Beckett and Resolme descended their way into the pit one cautious step at a time. It had been a while since Kyle used a rappel and he wasn't exactly a pro with it. That and the bag full of thermite on his shoulder made it a more perilous climb than usual. To be fair, Beckett and Resolme were carrying flame throwers on their backs, so it wasn't exactly an easy climb for them either.

They continued like that for several minutes until Kyle spotted Resolme slip and hit against the wall. It was right around that time that he saw some weird white misty substance around them. Fog this far down into the hole?

"Come on, private," Kyle said trying to motivate as he turned up the brightness on his helmet light. "It can't be much farther."

"You said that three minutes ago," Resolme complained getting back to his feet.

After another minute, they saw some small lights darting around below. That must be the team!

"Up above!" Beckett shouted as they made their final descent down.

"Watch your step, amigos," La Rosa replied. "Whole lotta bullshit down here."

Kyle crinkled his brow at the thought while they made it to the floor, with loud squishes accompanying their landing. He looked down to see thick green goo on his shoes. Great…as if he wasn't covered in enough muck.

"See anything in that gland, Tangilanu?" Falana asked.

"Just more goop," he replied.

"Hold that fold, Jules," La Rosa then said.

"This isn't exactly light," she replied.

Kyle and the other two looked up to see what the group was talking about…only to pause as he processed the thing in front of him. Not only was it a giant freaking monster that looked like a pink and brown mutant potato with tentacles and a Cthulu face, but the team had cut it open and were pulling out all kinds of disgusting parts from inside.

"What the bloody hell is that?" Beckett exclaimed.

"Ah right, where's our manners?" La Rosa joked pointing to the group and then to the monster. "Guys, the Thorian. Thorian, the guys."

Kyle took a step to check out the…Thorian, when he found himself stepping into something else that crunched under his foot. He backed up to see that it was an Asari that had splatted onto the floor from an incredibly long fall. What's more, the features that weren't destroyed looked just like the Asari he saw at the top.

"How many green skinned Asari are there?" Kyle asked.

"You saw some too?" Falana asked.

"Two or three. They looked almost exactly like this one too."

"We might have an answer," La Rosa said motioning for the team to approach the giant corpse.

Kyle, Beckett and Resolme took cautious steps while they watched the ONI marines collect jars and bags full of things dissected from the corpse. Apparently they hit a gold mine with their 'sample retrieval.' It was still incredibly gross though.

The three of them approached the body, which allowed Falana and the others to notice the muck covering Kyle.

"Where'd that come from?" Tangilanu asked.

"We got attacked while searching the area," Kyle replied.

"Attacked by what?" Falana asked.

"Those weird creatures we saw on our way in. The Chief missed a few."

"…and I'm only learning about this now because…?"

Kyle rolled his eyes. "Because we had to do a little double time to kill them and then bring the gear down."

"Did you even try to take them alive?"

"I was a little busy not being dissolved by acid and sliced into pieces to—"

"Can we…can we not do this now?" Beckett interrupted looking into the corpse. "We can assign blame later."

After a short pause, the two leaders nodded. They could squabble on their own time. Not that Kyle cared much about who did what in this case. If he had felt like telling Falana about the creatures, he would have.

Engelbrektsson pushed open the thick carapace flaps to show everyone the insides of the Thorian.

"This thing is…just…wow," Tangilanu said unable to find the words. "I mean, I'm no biologist, but this thing looks ancient."

"It is," Falana added. "The ExoGeni records estimate it to be at least a couple thousand years old."

"ExoGeni knew about this?" Kyle asked.

"They discovered it. They thought they could study this thing without anyone noticing."

"And then the Chief killed it because it was spewing out monsters and Asari clones?" La Rosa asked.

"That…and because of these," Falana said pointing to a gland that has been cut open. The squad looked inside to see tons of tiny dead spores laying in a clump inside.

"…spores?" Resolme asked.

"ExoGeni found out that the Thorian was spewing spores into the air and infecting the colonists. They began displaying mind control symptoms after that."

"…mind control?" Engelbrektsson asked.

"Once the Chief severed the Thorian from its life support, the colonists seemed to revert back to their old selves. Still, we'll need to examine some of the people killed by the Geth for further analysis."

"Not the live people?" Beckett asked.

"Even if we have their cooperation to keep this whole thing quiet, the news will freak out if they hear we abducted living colonists for experiments."

Not that ONI hasn't done that before, Kyle thought to himself.

Right as he thought that, a couple of the ONI marines arrived to take more stuff from inside the Thorian.

"We can inform the families of the deceased that we need to examine them as part of our Geth investigation. It's a convincing enough truth," Falana added before giving out more orders to the marines. "Collect some of those spores. And get that sac compressed for travel."

The marines went about their work while the rest of the squad, except for Engelbrektsson and Tangilanu, backed away.

"Ok," Kyle said to La Rosa. "Just to summarize…this thing was mind controlling people in the colony?"

"Yup," La Rosa replied.

"And creating monsters and clones out of…something?"

"From that sac inside its body…we think."

"…and we're eviscerating it and gathering samples because…?"

"If Saren wanted access to this so badly he sent a Geth army to find it," Falana joined in. "Then we have to know why. And since the thing is dead, we might as well study it piece by piece."

"…god, I'm not eating lunch today," Resolme said watching the ONI marines pull out that sac they mentioned and thinning it out as much as possible.

"Now it goes without saying—" Falana started to say.

"Yeah yeah," Kyle interrupted still looking at the Thorian. "None of this ever happened and we have no idea what a Thorian is."

"…good," Falana replied. "And now we're going to make sure no one else does either. Set the thermite on the carapace."

Kyle opened up his bag and handed his troopers a couple of thermite packs apiece. That stuff was hot enough to melt through most metals given the right amount and the bag Willimon gave them had enough thermite to completely melt a Mantis with little difficulty. So they must be pretty serious about leaving no trace of the Thorian.

He walked to the Thorian's…face, if it could be called that, and set a thermite pack between the sets of eyes. Part of him hoped that Resolme was capturing this on his closed circuit camera, but the other part wanted to melt this thing as quickly as possible. It was already going to linger in his nightmares for a while!

Once he set his second thermite pack on its back, he pressed his fingers against his comm piece. "Everyone set?"

His squad winked green.

"Grab the samples and get to my position," Falana said hooking a bag full of samples to her line and beginning her climb up. "Beckett. Resolme. Get those throwers ready."

Kyle tensed up his line as the rest of the group started to ascend. He took a moment to get one last look at the Thorian. This creature that mind controlled an entire colony, cloned Asari and created those creepers was now an eviscerated shell of itself. It was almost a sorry sight if that thing didn't gross the hell out of him. And now there would be no other proof it even existed.

Once he secured the samples he was collecting, he pressed a button to tense his line and began ascending. Thankfully it would be a much shorter climb back up once the lines started automatically retracting, but the Captain wanted them to finish the task at hand. He turned around to face the bottom of the pit once more, looking around to see everyone else standing off the walls while Resolme and Beckett prepped their throwers.

"Flames ready?" Falana asked, to which the two ODST nodded pointing the thrower nozzles downwards. The Thorian's corpse was slightly obscured by that mist, though not for long. Falana gave one last look around to see everyone was out of range of the incoming bonfire and then pointed to the corpse. "Light it up!"

Hot, shining blasts of napalm spat out from the flamethrowers, cooking the tendrils and igniting the thermite. Bright white flames spread across the carapace, flooding the bottom of the pit with intense light as they melted through the Thorian's outer layer. Once again, he thanked God for helmet filters because he knew the smell of cooked corpse would be overwhelming right now. The green goop boiled and shriveled as Beckett and Resolme threw napalm down on every square inch of the pit.

"Make sure to get it all," Falana said watching the scene intently before putting her hand to her earpiece to answer an incoming call. "Ma'am?"

"You better have some good news, Kya," Kyle heard Ackerson say.

"We're cooking it now and bringing more samples than expected. We had some…interesting developments come to light."

"Bring everything to the medbay immediately. Kyle?"

"Yes, ma'am," he answered watching the Thorian's body melt like a wax candle and disappear into the growing flames.

"I want both of you in my office as soon as you're done decontaminating. Something's come up…"

Kyle leaned against the wall with his arms crossed while he waited outside the Major's office. Zhu's Hope was fading into the distance as the Mare Erythraeum left the planet. The colonists had been given their money, the colony was given the all-clear from Geth activity and the Thorian ceased to exist outside of a bunch of body parts in the medbay. What ONI wanted to do with the body parts was still unclear, but better someone else take care of that stuff than him.

He looked over to see Falana arrive from a hallway nearby. She was dressed in her officer blues just like him and her hair had been pulled back. If it was anyone else, Kyle would complement that she looked nice in a uniform. She leaned against the wall on the other side of the door just like him, not acknowledging his presence.

Kyle sighed. This was getting old. They managed to play nice while on the colony, so if they had to work with each other, it might serve Kyle's interests to be the bigger man. He shifted himself slightly thinking his approach.

"We did good work back there," he said as an ice breaker.

Falana didn't reply. Ok…try again.

"What do you think they'll do with those samples? I guess learning about cloning and mind control is a big deal, but why is ONI interested?"

She still didn't budge.

"…I mean, we only have so many pieces. If we wanted to fully understand the Thorian, we would have—"

"You're not my friend," Falana then said curtly.

Silence lingered for a few seconds. Falana continued to not look at Kyle before she continued.

"There's nothing remarkable about you. There's nothing I need from you. And there's no reason for us to be friendly when we're not doing our jobs. You're just a 'lifer' trying to relive the glory days before being snuffed out like a flame. I have no time for that."

Kyle could feel the air being sucked out of the room with every word she said. He did his best to hold his tongue as she continued to speak, apparently not done making her point.

"What do you think you're trying to do staying out in the field? You barely follow orders and you just slow everyone else down. I'm sorry about Shanxi, but it would do your squad a universe of good if you just got out of their way. Go teach recruits. Get a desk job. Do something else with your life." She then finally looked over at Kyle with a sharp stare. "I've never lost a soldier under my command before you showed up. And I'm not going to get blamed again if someone else dies around you."

"…come back to me in twenty years," Kyle shot back. "Then maybe you'll learn how grown-ups deal with losing soldiers."

"Goddamn ODST…" She grumbled looking away.

"Spook," Kyle said, knowing it would draw her attention and cutting her off before she could react. "I've worked with every race of soldier possible and I know when to distinguish a racial slur from a deserved nickname! You goddamn ONI are all the same! You terrify anyone who doesn't submit to you, you destroy anyone who poses even a mild threat from within and you use everyone for your own goals! I'm surprised you give a rat's ass about anyone dying under your command! Maybe if you weren't such a frigid bitch, your soldiers might respect you more! Because I'm pretty sure you'd be nothing without Ackerson behind you!"

Falana walked up to Kyle and gripped his collar fiercely, the two of them meeting each other's glares. "…you better hope that I never have to decide on saving your life again."

"Good thing we'll never have to worry about that," Kyle replied back. "I intend to live forever."

Falana pushed Kyle back with a huff. He wasn't done though.

"You know why I'll never quit?" He said getting his balance. "Because I get things done. You've looked at my records. You think there's nothing remarkable about me? I accomplish more in a year than you have in your entire career. Yeah, I'm a 'goddamn ODST.' Because goddamn ODST get the job done and everybody knows it. Even Ackerson."

"Ackerson wanted La Rosa," Falana said. "She doesn't care about a xenophobic shithead like you."

"Yeah, I know she wanted him more," Kyle said crossing his arms. "And yet here I am."

The Major's door hissed open right then, with Ackerson looking back and forth between the two officers.

"Are you two done?" She then asked.

Of course she was watching us, Kyle thought to himself. He held another tense stare with Falana until she caved and turned to face the Major.

"Yeah," she murmured. "We're done."

"Good," Ackerson said motioning them to follow her inside. "We have more important things to discuss."

The officers followed her inside and the door hissed closed behind them. The Major's office was surprisingly modest for a woman of her acclaim. Aside from that ugly bust nearby, she had only the barest of living essentials around her. The two officers sat at the chairs at the other side of her desk while she sat in her own specialized chair.

"Now that we've aired our grievances," the Major began. "We've been ordered to resupply at Terra Nova before our next assignment. Collecting the Thorian samples is a huge win on our end, but the Geth are still on a warpath against human colonies. However, knowing that their assault on Zhu's Hope wasn't simply to wipe out the colonists changes how we counterattack them."

Kyle leaned back in his chair as the Major continued. "We've been receiving reports of the Geth establishing forward bases on several planets nearby - ones with human colonies. They haven't attacked yet, which is…concerning. Those colonies are even less capable than Zhu's Hope in repelling an attack, so why would the Geth bide their time?"

"We're worried about the Geth NOT attacking colonies?" Kyle asked.

"They're clearly planning something bigger," Falana replied. "What does McCallister suggest we do?"

"Funny enough, this came from Admiral Hackett," Ackerson said. "The Chief is on a priority mission that requires his undivided attention, so the admiral forwarded the mission to whoever was available, and capable, of dealing with the problem." She leaned forward and looked at the officers. "Are either of you familiar with the Geth?"

"Just what I've seen on the extranet," Kyle admitted.

"…same," Falana reluctantly admitted too.

"I wouldn't expect you to be," Ackerson replied. "I've forwarded some schematics and intel about the Geth that we've gathered since their crusade began. I want you both to prepare the marines on how to fight the Geth once we receive further orders. This will be our first incursion with them. I don't want to take any chances."

Kyle and Falana nodded in reply.

"Good," Ackerson said. "Falana, that's all for now. You're dismissed."

Falana seemed surprised that she wasn't staying in the office, but she offered no protest. "Yes, ma'am," she said standing up and leaving, but not without giving Kyle a stealthy glare on her way to the door.

"…you said you'd play nice," Ackerson said to Kyle once the doors closed behind Falana.

"Am I not?" Kyle said crossing his arms.

"Falana is your superior. I don't care if she spits at you, yells at you or asks you to clean her boots. You will respect the chain of command."

"I didn't hit her," Kyle noted. "And I will keep working with her as long as I'm here. If she'd stop trying to belittle me…"

"That'll be addressed, but not by you," Ackerson noted. "Know your rank, lieutenant. Am I clear?"

Kyle huffed. Pulling rank on him, huh? Maybe if Falana knew how to keep her thoughts to herself, this wouldn't have happened.

"…yes, ma'am," he murmured.

"Good. Dismissed."

La Rosa peeled an orange he picked up from the mess hall and chewed on one of the slices. Today was surreal. Plant monsters, robot invasions, mind control. Did he suddenly stumble into a fantasy timeline?

As he rounded a corner, someone bumped into him from the other side and charged past him without saying a word.

"Hey!" He shouted to the person, realizing too late he shouted at Falana.

"What?!" She snapped back before realizing it was him…which shouldn't have softened her tone, but it did. "Oh, hey. Sorry."

La Rosa raised an eyebrow. The captain seemed unusually distraught. He had hoped to ask her a question about that match on Earth, but he decided to shift gears. "Um…permission to speak freely, ma'am?"

"Yeah," Falana said trying to relax. "I was hoping to speak with you, actually."

She did? He thought to himself. "Uh…sure. Is everything ok?"

"…no," Falana answered leaning against a wall. "It really isn't."

La Rosa leaned nearby, looked at his orange and offered a slice. She silently took a piece as he started talking. "That Thorian thing…that was some serious meirda, huh?"

Falana nodded chewing on her orange before going off on something completely different. "You remember that arena match on Earth?"

La Rosa was wide eyed. Well, that saved him the trouble of awkwardly trying to bring it up. "Y-yeah."

"…you were really good."

"Oh, uh, thank you."

"Did the Grey Wardens teach you all of that?"

"Well…the basics. ODST and the lieutenant taught me the rest."

That last part seemed to bristle her, but she continued. "It's funny…ONI marines should be trained to handle any situation. Even a practice arena. But the way you fought…I couldn't even take you down with several soldiers backing me up."

"And cheating," La Rosa noted.

"That wasn't my call."

"Sure it wasn't,' La Rosa said taking another piece of orange.

"…you ever thought about having more of a leadership position in the ODST?" Falana asked.

"I dunno," La Rosa shrugged.

"Why would you join if you weren't hoping to progress further?"

"…to make sure no one else's family deals with what I did."

Falana paused before realizing. "Right...the terrorist attack."

That clammed La Rosa right up.

"Sorry. I…we did some digging. It's kind of what we do."

"I know," La Rosa said eating another piece.

"…if it was me," Falana said. "I'd hunt them down to the last man and make them feel every bit of pain they inflicted on me."

La Rosa nodded. He had certainly entertained the thought of hurting those people ever since that day. Watching them beg for their lives as they hear him name every single person who died that day. It wasn't a pleasant thing to dwell on, but it wasn't a pleasant situation to begin with.

"Do you know the name of the group who did it?" Falana asked.

La Rosa shook his head. "Why? Do you?"

Falana smirked before standing up from the wall. "Even better. If we can agree to…hm, 'play nice' with each other from now on, I get you the name of the man who pulled the trigger."

La Rosa's ears twitched hearing that, but he tempered his excitement. "'Play nice?'"

"I want to know that I can trust the people on my team. You've proven yourself to be an exceptional marksman and you did well during the sample retrieval. Hell, you jumped to your friend's aid without hesitation over your own safety. I want to ensure that we can establish that kind of trust since I feel I've…neglected that. So, what do you say?"

La Rosa knew better than to trust ONI and he should say no. His curiosity got the better of him though.

"…fine," he said. "What's their name…?

Hey! It's the first chapter update in a while. You may have noticed some other changes to the story too, but in case you haven't, the story has been re-edited for tighter grammar, better cohesion and some minor story changes to affect further plot details. Feel free to catch up on the changes and offer your thoughts through reviews. This story only works if you, the reader, are enjoying it.