Summary: Being sneaky is good...at least until it's time to make things explode!

  Chapter 9: 2383CE - Rannoch

  After making the transfer to a grim-faced Captain Archer, who registered his own worries about their pn but didn't actually try to stop them, it had been time to sneak across the Veil. Of course, given how big and bright a dispy actually activating a Rey made, 'stealth' wasn't exactly an appropriate word to use regarding one that was being watched. Ever. All they could do to 'sneak' through a Rey was to get close enough to activate it without being spotted, then deliberately bugger their exit vector to have as much drift as possible without ripping them apart.

  That st bit was one of the reasons very few ever tried this particur bit of slight of hand…but Joker being one of the best pilots in the gaxy wasn't an overstatement or boast. He put the Normandy through enough of a rough ride to have Chief Engineer Adams screaming at him, but he'd successfully forced nearly 100k of drift without killing them. The result was that they'd had precious seconds to make themselves look like a hole in space before anything could hope to localize the incoming ship signature through the Rey's backwash.

  The entire thing was so smoothly done that you'd have thought this was Joker and the Normandy's hundredth time performing the tricky maneuver, not the first, and the pilot's skill got an impressed comment even from Saren. Of course, they spent the next day stooging around the system, waiting for the perfect time to hit the next Rey connection. The one needed to actually reach the Tikkun system where Rannoch was waiting for them.

  Everyone was a little nervous, but Tali was wound up the whole time. Her reasons for that were extremely understandable, but she admittedly put several people off as she bled off that energy by trying to poke into the Normandy's systems. Shepard had needed to have a firm talk with her about that after her third try, pointing out that she was a guest aboard a top secret, top-of-the-line, military prototype. She'd been a bit adorably sheepish, making it hard to keep up the stern expression, and had thankfully backed off.

  It probably helped that Sae had taken her down to see the Javelins and walk her through everything about them. Those weren't cssified, for the most part, and Sae was an expert engineer regarding them. The Quarian was also enthusiastic about engineering, and practically had stars in her eyes the whole time she crawled all over them. Sae felt like she'd half-adopted a kid sister by the time the day was through. Which, given that Tali had actually managed to point out a few tweaks that would improve performance on one of the newer Javelin models, was just fine with her…

  In the end, they'd gotten lucky and managed to shadow a Geth Heretic vessel through the next Rey, its own passage and activation of said Rey masking theirs. It was thus with quiet consternation that they were able to get their first proper look at the Tikkun system.

  "Is…is that a Dyson bubble?"

  "Forget that! Look at all those stations around the pnet, there have to be thousands!"

  "Stations nothing! The surface! The cities look pristine!"

  There was an outpouring of different thoughts that all spilled over into a babble as they looked over the passive scans. After letting it go for a few moments, Captain Anderson lifted his fingers and let out a piercing whistle. That got everyone's attention as they quieted down.

  "Enough! We'll keep scanning everything as we go to look over at leisure. But for now, keep your observations on point. Saren?"

  Saren had been one of the few that had said nothing, along with his Geth companion. He frowned at the dispy, reaching in to pan the holo of the system.

  "I don't see Nazara. That is…concerning. If it's not here, where has it gone?"

  Anderson nodded sharply, looking at the Geth in their midst.

  "Compendium. What major differences are you seeing?"

  The Geth's little fnges went crazy as it studied the holo for a moment, then spoke.

  "The work on what Shepard, Commander called a Dyson Bubble has stopped. This is distressing. It was the most important of all projects. The fact efforts have halted means there is nothing of their original selves left to the Heretics here."

  There was…actual sadness of a sort in that normally cold, detached voice. It was by far the most expressive any of them had seen the Geth yet, and was more than a little heartbreaking to watch. There was a painful pause as Compendium seemed to gather itself.

  "42.3 percent of the remaining Fleet seems to be missing. Only 12.7 percent have been accounted for elsewhere. Allowing for patrols of the Reys, there should still be more ships here." It reached forward to tap a series of rge stations fairly far out of Rannoch's orbit. "The shipyards are also seeing increased activity. It appears new dreadnaughts and cruisers are under construction."

  Both of those observations ratcheted the tension up. Captain Anderson sighed.

  "So, missing ships along with a missing AI dreadnaught. Assuming they are in the same pce, that could spell trouble. Possibly even an outright attack on a world or outpost somewhere, perhaps trying to get a beacon? Saren, do you know where any others are located?"

  Saren shrugged.

  "Working beacons? No. Few of those have ever been found and the locations of all of them are highly cssified. I could find out, but it's not my area so I've never bothered. We also can't be sure it didn't already get whatever it needed out of the Eden Prime beacon. The Geth had it for some time."

  Compendium interjected at that statement.

  "Unlikely. Prothean beacons contain a biological component. The Geth have never bothered with them as they will not work for us."

  Sae blinked at that.

  "Compendium, did the Geth know where there was a beacon?"

  To everyone's surprise, it nodded.

  "The locations of two non-functional and one damage beacon were known."

  Someone groaned, and Sae sighed. They should have thought to ask that before. She supposed she was too used to working with Mira, who is as intuitive as Sae herself. Literally.

  "Where was the damaged beacon? Could they reach it without crossing the Veil?"

  Compendium stared at her, then nodded.

  "Yes. Though they would need a biological entity to access it."

  Saren was gritting his teeth as he put two and two together.

  "That's what Nihlus was for. This Nazara needed someone flesh and blood to access the Beacon. But why risk taking the Eden Prime beacon then? And do they have a backup?"

  Anderson pointed out the obvious quickly.

  "The Eden Prime beacon was rgely undamaged. As I understand it, accessing them is dangerous even when they are working properly. If they heard about the new Beacon before they could arrange for Nihlus to visit the other…"

  Several people nodded. Why risk a valuable asset more than you had to? And no matter how you sliced it, Nihlus had been valuable for his contacts. Sae hummed as she followed that train of thought to its natural conclusion.

  "That might mean they don't have a backup, though. If they had spare organic bodies to throw at the problem, that might have…oh…son of a bitch!"

  Everyone blinked as Sae cut herself off, but she growled and expined before they could ask.

  "That is where Nazara went! With Nihlus dead, it needs organic bodies, so it went to get some. Possibly a lot of them this time, so it can just throw them at the beacon until someone survives!"

  Several faces went pale at the implications, but it was Saren who finally spoke.

  "That makes sense. But there's nothing we can do about it. If it merely wants bodies, it will likely hit a world in the Terminus. No one will notice or care about yet another raid on a world there. And there are too many options for us to have any hope of getting in front of the attack. No, the best way to disrupt that sort of pn is to destroy the damaged Beacon. Compendium, where is it? Assuming it hasn't been moved for fear of damaging it farther."

  Compendium reached forward…and tapped a pnet right within the Tikkun system. Adas, the second pnet. Information appeared as Mira was fed data and it overid onto the pnet. Oh. Well. That was lucky? Probably…

  ... ...

  "Jammer active."

  Kaidan's quiet voice came across Sae's comm system and she wrenched her gaze away from Miranda's ass. There hadn't exactly been a lot to do in the cramped confines of the Prothean Complex's ventition system, and Sae wasn't going to pretend it was a bad view to get stuck behind. Particurly when any sort of heavy armor would never have let them sneak into this facility. That meant Miranda was in a stealth operation catsuit, same as Sae was, and it did very nice things to her fellows Siren's booty. Of course, it did nice things to Sae's too. But Sae was the one lucky enough to have the view this time around. Still, with Kaidan's job done, they needed to get a move on. She sent an acknowledging double click across the channel, then nudged Miranda into motion.

  Despite some of Sae's reasons for having Miranda go first being entirely selfish and view-oriented, that hadn't been the primary reason for the choice. Sae was many things, but naturally stealthy wasn't one of them. She'd never have made it through Siren selection if she wasn't capable of it, of course. But it wasn't her instinctive response to…basically any situation, ever.

  Miranda, on the other hand, stalked with a cat's silent grace even when she wasn't trying to, and right now she was in full-stealth mode. As they shimmied through the ventition system, Sae shook her head at how Miranda made even the awkward motions necessary for this more silent than Sae's own, somehow. And when the woman finally carefully removed an access panel and dropped down into the complex below, she would have ft out vanished from Sae's sight without Mira keeping her highlighted in Sae's HUD.

  Part of that was the suit, of course. It wasn't quite full active camo, but it created an optical 'blur' effect that made it seem like it was, in capable hands. Sae was wearing her own set as she dropped down after Miranda's confirming check of the room, and she knew a regur trooper wouldn't be able to spot either of them. Miranda was just…better. At least with everything stealthy. Which was why this was the other Siren's op, unless things went tits up in the non-fun ways.

  Sae followed as Miranda carefully guided them both deeper and deeper into the facility. It was a facility that the Quarians had never found, but the Geth had, when they'd kept mining the pnet for more materials for that Dyson bubble of theirs. Despite having little interest in Prothean anything, the Geth had left the site be after mapping it fully, and it was here that the damaged beacon resided. Thankfully, when they'd gone to poke around, they'd found it only lightly garrisoned by Geth troops. Which made sense, of course. Who would be in the Tikkun system in the first pce, to sneak in? Well, that logic wasn't going to help Nazara any, if they pulled this off.

  They bypassed two Heretic patrols, as well as several dormant hubs with stored ptforms. It was only as they approached the final set of doors between them and the beacon that they ran into something they couldn't avoid. Two Heretics were standing at alert to either side of that door, scanning the corridor. Sae made a motion to indicate they could both take a shot, but Miranda shook her head…then lept up with a silent boost of strength augmentation. Sae blinked as the woman used the special mass effect fields in the stealth suits to cling to the rough-textured ceiling, slowly moving her way out into the corridor. Using her gun cam, Sae peeked a look at what was going on, and wanted to groan as she realized that neither of the Geth ever looked up as they panned back and forth across the hallway. Stealth really wasn't Sae's specialty, but she could see Miranda's intention now.

  She watched with bated breath as Miranda's hard-to-pick-out form crawled the ceiling in utter silence, the trip of a dozen meters seeming to take forever. Then she was above them, and Miranda's hands shed out with energy bsts even as she fell between them, glowing Siren tattoos faintly visible through her catsuit. Both Heretic's went limp, but Miranda caught them with energy constructs before they could fall and make noise. She lowered them slowly to the ground, then made a come-forward gesture back Shepard's way and Shepard hurried to join her. The jammer Kaidan had put in pce would prevent any of the Geth programs from escaping dying ptforms, allowing them to maintain stealth…but it would also be noticed eventually.

  Thankfully, there were no more Heretics. Less thankfully, Miranda was pulled toward the beacon two steps into the room. Sae cursed and tried to grab her with a Phase Lock, hoping taking her out of phase with reality would stop the Beacon. Instead, between one blink and the next, she found herself elsewhere. Her heart raced as a flood of sensations hit her from everywhere. She felt another mind (Miranda's?!) that was just as confused as she was, even as light and sound all around them flickered them through what seemed like images of a battle. No, not one battle, many battles. She saw ships like Nazara, a species she vaguely recognized as Protheans fighting back. And…were those some sort of fucking cyberborg zombies?!

  And then, it was over, as the Beacon fizzed out, arcing energy everywhere. Only the fact she was out-of-phase saved Miranda from electrocution, and only the fact that Sae had yet to cross the threshold of the door saved her from most of it. She cmped down on a scream as electricity groped her in unfriendly ways for an instant that sted forever…then she half-colpsed, releasing Miranda as her muscles twitched. Thankfully, Mira was on it, deploying a smart-medigel specific to Sirens with AI companions. Soothing relief flooded her as her best-AI-Friend-Ever directed the healing nanites to repair the internal electrical burns. By the time Miranda knelt beside her, Sae had stopped twitching and forced herself up to one knee.

  "Mira's on it. I'll be fine in a few seconds. Check the beacon!"

  The hissed information and order got a nod from Miranda and the woman double timed it to check the Beacon. Data from Mira's omni-scans fshed over Sae's HUD, showing the Beacon was dead. Sae nodded in approval as Miranda pced the timed demo charge anyway. Better safe than sorry. By the time the charge was set, Sae was back on her feet, and both of them double timed it back the way they had come…

  ... ... ... ... ...

  A/N: This story is not currently a Primary Story, hence the slow updates. But, as you can see from the fact it DID get an update...it isn't dead either. It features in a poll for my Patrons once a month and simply hasn't won in a while. It came VERY close in the most recent poll, however, so I snuck in a small single-chapter update. That update, Chapter 10, is still Patreon Exclusive. Along, of course, with early access chapters of my other works. Typically, there's about 45-55,000 words of content in Early Access at any one time, split across all my stories. But none of it is ever PERMENANTLY paywalled. It all gets posted here and elsewhere eventually.