chapter 7

Therum was a volcanic world with ungodly humid temperatures, pools of molten lava scattered across the surface the planet and from orbit it looked like a glowing hellhole.

How little that description actually did it some justice as he looked out the rear cargo bay door of the Normandy that was currently in orbit over the planet before he climbed into the side hatch of the Mako and grabbed a seat.

Sitting to his left was Wrex and while Garrus and Jackson sat across from him, apparently John was sitting behind the wheel as Jane operated the turret, bringing a total of six people on the ground team. Apparently it was split up, Garrus and Jackson with Jane as Jason was stuck working with Wrex under John's command as he fastened his safety harness and donned his helmet. The idea of dropping into the atmosphere of the planet from orbit inside of a tank sounded insane, but the propulsion jets and the mass effect core working together would easily allow the vehicle to land safely, not that Jason was actually worried or anything about the landing, he had a reason to believe that the Mako would handle exactly like it did in the game.

From what he also remembered, Therum would be where a whole bunch of Geth could be found as well, a good thing he had a few spare ammo mods to combat synthetics along with his usual mix of fire, ice and armor piercing, that and the half dozen grenades he had along as well would be saved for the uber Geth and that ambush later on.

Prior to the current ground team getting into the Mako, where they were patiently waiting for Joker to kindly move the Normandy into position to make the drop, everyone had demonstrated a series of skills they were proficient with.

Garrus showed off his Overload, Concussive Shot, Drop Shot (fancy way of saying he upped the power on his rifle and made a well-timed shot) and Covering Fire skills without any hesitation whatsoever. Wrex demonstrated that he wasn't a thousand year old Krogan battlemaster for nothing, Warp, Barrier, Carnage and Throw were his specialties, making him a close range heavy hitter for John. Jackson thought that his skills with Covering Fire, Assault Charge, Carnage and Overload would also be a really big help, that and the fact his Revenant Mk 0 had four times the damage output compared to most assault rifles.

Jason had his batch of biotic tricks, Overload, AI Hacking, Proximity Mine, Assault Charge and First Aid that would benefit the squad as well, making him to the go-to support role that would provide aid in the event things got dicey.

"Approaching the drop point, dropping on my mark," Joker's voice cut through his thoughts as everyone finished strapping in and securing any loose items, "dropping in five…four….three…two…one…mark."

"YYYYYYEEEEEEEEEEEHHHHHHHAAAAAAAWWWWWW!" Jason was sure that his ears were bleeding as Jackson on the other hand was too busy having the time of his life, "COME ON PUT YOUR HANDS UP! WWWWIIIIIIIIIEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!"

The ride lasted a lot longer than he thought it would, but by the time the ground loomed up and brought the nail biting ride to an end, finally, Jackson stopped cheering and looked really put out.

"So who's up for round two?" The glares he received from the non-human occupants of the Mako shut him up real quick as Jason's worst fears came to light as the Mako began moving.

In a very uncomfortable manner.

"Uh Shepard, isn't the idea to avoid hitting all the potholes, ditches, rocks and pools of molten lava?" Jackson asked after about fifteen minutes of getting slammed around in the back of the Mako like it was a pinball machine as Garrus started looking a little green and Wrex was busy looking around for something to barf into for now.

"I am," the reply was tinged with sarcasm, "just got a call from Joker about some strange readings."

"Geth dropship inbound," John said as a dull humming could be heard, Jason could just imagine the distinctive shape flying overhead before he heard the dreaded words of, "they just dropped some kind of ground walker in our path."

"Hang on, I got this." Jason glanced around the compartment noticing that Jackson was busy preparing his eulogy, Garrus was praying to some deity and Wrex looked very close to vomiting as he braced himself.

"Wait Jane, don't run them," whatever else John was about to say over the sounds of cannon fire, missiles firing and the roar of the engine, not to mention the mass accelerator rounds pinging off the sides of the armored vehicle before the Mako jolted violently and crashed into something, "over."

"Spirits, are we going to die?" Garrus asked as he frantically looked around after a series of crashes signifying that Jane had just run something over again as the Mako lurched and bounced on its chassis.

The exhilarating ride continued for several minutes, the reports of the main cannon and missiles firing from the turret and rounds bouncing off the armor told the story of how well things were going out there after Jane discovered that using short jumps from the stabilizers could be used to jump over incoming fire and other obstacles as the Mako began performing maneuvers it was never clearly rated to do.

"Got some kind of encampment ahead, couple of heavy turrets," John continued to narrate as the turret kept firing, "make us a hard to hit target while I mop them up, keep us at this distance so you have room to maneuver."

XXX

"Well that clearly didn't work," Jane commented as she crawled through the side hatch on the Mako before turning back to look at it, "I could've made it if I gave it one more try."

"NO!" The force of the yell from four different people surprised her as she watched everyone else pile out of the Mako faster than she'd ever seen anyone move, one of them moving with the assistance of a biotic Charge and another diving clear of the vehicle like it was about to explode. The Mako was currently trapped between two very large boulders on its side where she couldn't get the vehicle to right itself or move for that matter, in fact it had held together much longer than she had originally thought as she turned to face her husband, who was too busy scouting the narrow canyon ahead of them.

She still couldn't understand that when they had stopped at the first Geth encampment after destroying the heavy turrets, later discovering the alternate route leading behind that locked gate into a swarm of Geth troopers and larger ground units where everyone had piled out of the Mako in a hurry to search the nearby buildings and unlock both gates. Along the way they had gathered up a pretty hefty collection of salvage, credits and loot from locked storage containers, lockers, crates and such that was stashed in the Mako before they had headed out again.

"Alright team, the signal is coming from that direction clearly, expect heavy Geth resistance," John said as everyone got into a huddle, "I'll take the direct approach while Jane covers us from the ridgeline with sniper and biotic support, any questions?"

Jackson was the first to raise his hand as Jane continued to tinker with her pistol mod, "Have either one of you actually been certified to drive a Mako?"

The pregnant silence was enough to make Jane look up from what she was doing and found herself looking the rest of the ground team in the face as she found herself put on the spot.

"Uh, well you see," a sideways glance at her husband revealed that she wasn't getting any help whatsoever in that category as everyone leaned in closer to catch everything she was trying to say even though they all wore headsets with built in microphones that could register her breathing.

BANG!

"We have to move," John shouted as incoming fire began pouring in their direction, "we got Geth throwing everything at us!"

Jackson abruptly turned and sprinted back to the Mako at full speed while Jason simply launched some kind of biotic shield wall that stopped all incoming fire in its tracks, now Jane really had to learn some background on this kid as Wrex turned back to roar at Jackson, "Where are you going whelp?"

"I've got an idea!"

XXX

"I totally called it," Jackson gloated over the team chat net after yet another Geth trooper exploded in a spectacular display of sparks, servos and cabling resulting from a direct hit, "told you that I could get the Mako out and through without blowing it up."

Sure enough Jackson had utilized the cheat method of sneaking the Mako through the gap in the rocks and was currently driving it at a slow rate of speed through the narrow corridor created by natural elements as Garrus happily operated the turret while Jason took up refuge behind the tank with the rest of the team providing whatever cover fire they could, even though Jackson had everything under control.

"Alright we get it," Jane pouted over the net while she Pulled a trooper towards her so she could blast it with her magnum, "you'll be driving from now on."

"You hear that Garrus? She put us professionals in charge of driving the Mako!"

"Oh I can't wait to know how that will end up," Jason commented as they finally reached the top of the hill after taking out six sniper towers, a dozen rocket launcher wielding robots and two armatures as Jason tensed and kept moving.

"There's the dig site entrance," John pointed as the ramp and obvious door leading underground appeared, "looks like the coast is…"

WHAMUP!

Cue the Geth Colossus, all around irritating Geth platform armed with a siege cannon and a pair of heavy pulse turrets that dropped from orbit and it brought some friends along for the ride.

Like three other Colossus, a dozen Primes, six Hoppers and roughly thirty rocket troopers with the usual fifty troopers.

"You have got to be shitting me!" Jason yelled as he rolled behind the nearest piece of cover that hadn't become the single target of every single Geth platform in the area, "Can anything ever go according to plan?"

"No plan ever survives against first contact with the enemy," John replied as he dove behind a crate for cover, "we need to fall back!"

"Trying!" The reply from Jackson was short and to the point as the Mako began hopping all over the place as rocket, missile, siege pulse rounds and large hails of mass accelerator fire was aimed at it, "Would someone do something?"

Jason sighed as he stepped out from behind the boulder he was taking cover behind and executed a biotic Charge towards the nearest Colossus as everyone either yelled at him to come back or opened fire as the advancing wave of Geth made cover imperative, least they ended up sporting six dozen new holes as a fatal fashion statement.

Skidding to halt beneath the first Colossus, Jason pulled out one of his homemade explosive shape charges from his belt, slapping the magnetic clamp onto the bottom of the armored underbelly near a leg joint, keying the buttons for a ten second detonation and then performed a second Charge across the battlefield, towards the metal wall with the tower looking thing for cover. Along the way he tagged four Geth Prime's with a grenade stuffed into either a neck or shoulder joint and blasted two Hoppers before the first bomb exploded in a spectacular fashion.

"The fuck was that?" Jane shouted over the net, "I don't remember having heavy munitions along on this op."

Jackson commented as he tore back down the ramp with a smoldering Mako, "That would be Jason, he can make bombs out of anything, trust me."

By then the Geth had set up shop around the entrance to the tunnel, only a dozen regular troopers and the surviving Prime's heading down the tunnel while the remaining three Colossus formed up around the entrance and began firing, during this time the remaining Geth platforms were moving towards the locations of the ground team, laying down thick covering fire as the Mako reappeared again.

"Goodbye!"

Garrus got three rounds off from the main gun before Jackson threw the Mako in reverse, just in time as a trio of siege pulses impacted right where the Mako had been sitting seconds earlier, however it provided enough of a distraction for Wrex, Jane and John to slip back out of sight from the Colossus.

"We need air support!" Jackson yelled as he hit the jets to avoid a rocket coming their way, "Think Joker can drop by long enough to shot something Bossman? That or else we can kiss our collective butts goodbye!"

"Where is Jason?" John shouted as Garrus swung out of the Mako with his rifle in hand with Jackson right behind him brandishing his assault rifle.

"If I know my own brother as well as I do, no doubt he is either plotting to blow something up or ripping it apart at the molecular level," Jackson commented as he gave the Mako a swift kick, "damn tank is dead where it sits, punched right through the drive block."

"Shit, that was our only ticket at having a fair fight." John ducked in time to avoid a sniper round meant for his head as they found themselves under intense fire.

An explosion not too far away diverted their attention back towards the tunnel, more smoke could be seen as Jane caught a Hopper in a biotic Warp field that had been jamming their sensors.

"Whelp seems to be still alive," Wrex said as he blasted a trooper in the optical unit, "we should save him before he does anything stupid."

"Like charge singlehandedly into the largest concentration of Geth we've encountered?" Jane shot back as Jackson led the way back towards the tunnel entrance where a third explosion could be heard.

"Sounds like he is really laying on the hurt," Jackson sighed as he tossed a grenade before letting loose with a long burst from his assault rifle, "we better go save his ass."

XXX

The one good bit of news about having so many Geth dropped into one area, was that for every explosion that went off, it not only took out a Colossus, but at least a dozen smaller platforms crowded around the Colossus that decided to spontaneously combust with a little help from a carefully pre-packaged token of appreciation that contained just the right amount of explosives that could easily destroy a Mako.

Or a Geth Colossus.

Jason however, only had three such devices and he had just thrown the last one, leaving the remaining Colossus and just under twenty remaining combat platforms crowded around the tunnel entrance as he found half his cover getting slagged by that siege cannon. Given the fact that the Geth seemed to have wised up and declared him to be the larger threat rather than the concentrated fire coming from where the others had pulled a quick retreat, that told him he was just special or something. One particular annoying thing was that his motion tracker and com unit was on the fritz because there was still a Hopper bouncing around somewhere, mobile jamming platform that was incredibly irritating and if he so much as stuck his nose out from behind cover, he'd get shredded.

What to do, what to do, it was then Jason dropped his hand to his belt to feel how many grenades he had left on his person.

Five. That would have to be enough.

A glance towards the nearest smoldering Colossus revealed yet another surprise as Jason felt another trademark smile that would've made Hannibal Lector shudder in fear.

Things were finally starting to look up.

At least he hoped his plan would work, because no doubt either John or Jane would call in Joker for a strafing run and he was already too close to ground zero, so he figured it was either do or die.

Eh, he'd done crazier things before.

XXX

"Wait," Jackson said as he finished taking down yet another rocket trooper, "I sense a disturbance in the force."

"What?!" Several people gave him a WTF look as he crouched down behind something solid before motioning for everyone else to join him.

"Are you hit? Head injury?" Jane asked as she activated her omni-tool and ran a scan over him, "last thing we need is for you to lose your shit out here Juggernaut, so keep it together!"

"Troopers incoming!" Garrus called out as a series of rifle shots and pistol fire placated them as another siege pulse sailed overhead, "Do we have a plan?"

"Working on it!" John shouted before activating his com unit in hopes of raising the Normandy to get either support or a fast evac before they all ended up in body bags, "We need to hold out a little longer!"

"What about Jason!" Jane shouted back as she ducked to avoid a sniper round meant for her head this time, "We can't leave him there to die!"

"Incoming!" Wrex pitched in as well as everyone scattered before the rock they were hiding behind became a pile of molten slag before something unexpected happened.

One second it was like Star Wars Episode IV and the next nothing as they found themselves no longer under fire, like the faucet in the shower had just been turned off, but they could hear plenty of gunfire, explosions and that electronic warbling from the Geth.

"What the," John asked out loud before sticking his head out from behind cover to get a decent look before ducking back behind cover again.

"I WILL TEAR YOU WORTHLESS SCRAP HEAPS APART WITH MY BARE HANDS IF I HAVE TOO!"

"Is that," Garrus tilted his head while his mandibles twitched in a questioning manner, "Jason?"

"Who else would it be, Santa Claus?" Jackson scoffed as the obvious sound of heavy Geth machine gun could be heard, "Oh crap, he found another one."

"COME BACK HERE YOU BUCKET OF BOLTS!"

"Should we do something?" Jane asked as everyone stepped out from behind cover to watch the scene unfold as Jackson simply raised his omni-tool and took a picture.

"That is about all we can do Boss Lady, except watch of course."

"I WILL DRAG YOUR CORPSES TO THE DARKEST DEPTHS OF HELL!"

"Hmm," Wrex grunted before turning to face Jackson, "the whelp might survive this fight after all, he fights like a Krogan in the midst of a blood rage."

Garrus ducked in time to avoid a severed Geth arm still clutching onto an assault rifle hitting him in the head after a rather nasty explosion obliterated a small group of them, "Where did he learn to fight like that?"

"Eh, taught him everything I knew," Jackson commented offhandedly as he reached into his rear belt pouch and tossed a candy in his mouth, "though this is actually pretty mellow for him."

"What are you eating?" Jane asked as she glanced back and forth between the spectacle going on in front of them and Jackson, who was busy munching away on something.

"Glorified combat ration snack bar thingy," Jackson shrugged before he offered it to everyone, "want a bite?"

"I'll pass."

"No."

"Rain check?"

"I'd rather not die from food poisoning."

"YOU SHALL FALL BEFORE ME AS I KILL ALL OF YOU!"

"Wow, he really gets into it," John remarked as he watched the Colossus explode in a display of fireworks and smoke, "remind me to give him the bonus when we get back to the ship."

"Wait, what bonus?" Jackson asked as yet another mutilated Geth Hopper went crashing into a stone wall as Wrex and Garrus listened on intently as John shrugged.

"Any member of the ground team who has a higher kill count than me or Jane gets a bonus for a job well done," John said as everyone watched Jason calmly walk over to where they were standing with a smoking Geth weapon in his hands, though his armor might have been the actual source of the smoke come to think of it.

XXX

"You guys could have helped you know." Jason snapped as he finished applied liberal amounts of medi-gel onto what few injuries he had while everyone gathered around the tunnel entrance.

"It looked like you had everything under control," Jackson laughed as he patted another smoldering patch of armor in an attempt to smother the flames flickering into view before he glanced around, "though on second thought, you get the prize for having a higher kill count."

"Sweet," Jason snorted as he picked up another Spitfire and began fiddling with it, "taking one of these back to Tali for some serious dismantling and diagnostics work, so pick one of them up will you?"

"Ah, that is so sweet," Jason rolled his eyes as he felt an uber douchebag comment coming on, "you pick the nicest things for your girlfriend you know that?"

Catching the smirk from Jane and the bewildered look from Garrus as he finished his hasty job of allowing an organic user, namely himself and Jackson, to pick up and fire said weapons for a short while, as well as implementing an audio warning feature when it was time to drop said weapon, least it exploded. From there he wandered around for a few minutes picking up random bits and bobs from assorted platforms that were scattered around in abundance, taking a few dozen scans and things of that nature before John and Wrex came back from the Mako looking upset.

"Our coms are still not able to reach the Normandy," John gestured towards the tunnel entrance, "seems that those jammers can still work while underground, so we'll proceed as planned and locate Dr. T'Soni, sooner rather than later."

"One second," Jackson said before he took the offered Spitfire from Jason and walked towards the tunnel, "okay, now I'm ready."

No one else said a word, Wrex wordlessly taking another unmodified Spitfire and some larger pieces of Geth wreckage for later as Jason found himself bringing up the rear as Jackson led the way with his new toy, very eager to use it too. The tunnel was a downward slope of thirty degrees that went for a good hundred meters, Jason could only wonder if they could manage the sprint back up with the whole damn thing collapsing on them later on after the mining laser caused the ruins to become unstable, he wasn't going to be the one who programed it either.

They didn't run into anything until they reached the bottom of the tunnel where a Geth Prime reared its flashlight head and stepped into full view of six heavily armed individuals less than fifteen meters away.

"I hate elevators," Jackson said as he managed to squeeze out of the first one as he followed Garrus towards the second infamous falling one, "you would think that there would be more of a welcoming committee waiting for us."

"Maybe the jammers act both ways," Jane answered as Jason noticed his motion tracker was picking up traces of movement around them, but he waited for now, "they must think that their friends upstairs are just mopping up the rest of us."

"Or it could be a trap," John supplied offhandedly as half a dozen Drones soared up out of the darkness on either side of the catwalk, "didn't see that ambush coming."

"Less talk, more killing." Wrex grunted as he blasted the first Drone into a million pieces as everyone else opened fire with a combination of weapons fire, tech attacks and biotics that whittled the overwhelming number of pesky flyers down to zero in a very short time.

"Oh boy, my favorite pass time." Jackson laughed as he crammed himself into the elevator next to Wrex as Garrus poked his head up.

"Riding in elevators?"

"No, shoving my seven foot frame into small places somehow getting myself to fit." Jackson laughed up until the elevator control panel sparked for a few seconds before the elevator plummeted downwards at a high rate of speed.

XXX

Unit JG887HGR4 had to pause in its attempts to locate Unit A11KV6903 on the server network because it had been eighty-four seconds since the last digital handshake had been confirmed when its audio sensors picked up a series of sounds on the high frequency spectrum as well as confirming the possibility of organic life within the vicinity.

One point four seconds after the collective consensus from six hundred thirty-two separate Geth within that platform was made, the optical unit raised sixty-seven point five degrees upward to investigate the source of the sound the internal processors were still attempting to decipher the sound into binary code as the magnification and visual input feed was widened in order to allow Unit JG887HGR4 to fully gather the proper amount of data to confirm the presence of organic life inside the established zone of operations.

Zero point six seconds after the optical unit was able to process the findings, Unit JG887HGR4 had a unanimous confirmation from every single program operating within the platform.

The platform should not have oriented itself directly underneath a faulty lift platform.

One point three seconds after the consensus was reached, Unit JG887HGR4 went offline, terminating any outside link with other Geth programs in the immediate vicinity, permanently.

Unit LLO520N7 acknowledged the binary query from the surviving programs from Unit JG887HGR4 and was presented with an audio log that it's one thousand two hundred fifty-eight programs couldn't reach a consensus on at this time as to why it was the only thing reported.

"SONOFABITCH! I FUCKING HATE ELEVATORS!"

XXX

"I swear, one more thing goes wrong and I will lose it for sure," Jackson groaned as he warily crawled out of the demolished wreckage of the elevator after Garrus, holding his head, "who landed on me anyway, that hurt like Hell."

"Are you calling me fat?" The loaded question came from none other than Jane Shepard as she helped Jason out of the elevator as they joined up with John.

"Of course not Boss Lady," Jackson recovered quickly, "I was just pointing out that plummeting down a certain distance at a particularly unsafe speed with an abrupt stop at the end has the effect of greatly increasing the weight of an object, that is all."

"Uh huh," Jane scowled at him before turning to her husband, "any idea where we are?"

"Underground, near a functioning Prothean ruin, located somewhere on Therum," John deadpanned before turning around to point at something just out of sight, "and less than ten meters from our objective."

"Really?" Jackson asked as he took point and hopped down the broken section of catwalk as everyone filed after him.

Sure enough, suspended in midair was none other than one Asari Prothean archeologist inside of a working Prothean containment chamber, the one and only Dr. Liara T'Soni.

"Um hello?" Jason felt a smile coming on as he followed closely behind Wrex, "Is anyone out there? Oh of course not, you are imaging things again."

"Dr. Liara T'Soni I presume?" Jane said as she stepped into view in plain sight of her, "I'm Commander Shepard, Council Spectre, we're here to save you."

"Oh, conjuring heroic figures from my imagination, a sure sign of my mental facilities failing," Liara sighed as John shook his head and step forward, "oh another one, this is terrible."

"The more the merrier I'd say," Jackson smiled as he stepped into view with Garrus right behind him as Wrex and Jason finally appeared in her line of vision, "that way you don't get lonely all by yourself."

The confused look on her face spoke volumes as she shook her head, "I must have lost my mind, with the dehydration, malnutrition and discomfort putting a strain on my sanity, it has all finally fallen apart, is this to be the end of me?"

"Melodramatic much?" Jason said as he stepped forward and tried to push on the glowing wall made of pure energy with no success before turning back John, "No good, can't force our way in because I'm out of explosives and I doubt anyone has the kind of time to hack into a Prothean system remotely."

"Going to have to find an alternate route to get inside and her out," John said as he stepped closer to glowing wall, "we'll be right back, we're here to save you."

"Please hurry," the pleading look practically screamed I have to go to the bathroom as she shook her head again, "I won't be going anywhere."

BANG!

"Scoped and dropped!" Garrus sang out as everyone turned around and engaged the remaining Geth that had decided to wait until now to attack, how considerate of them as Jason vaulted off the side of the catwalk and sought immediate cover.

In short order the remaining Geth were taken out, whatever items of loot, salvage and assorted parts from the Geth that Jason wanted, a few interesting components from a couple destroyed Drones and some kind of advanced optic on a Geth Sniper for now before they all reconvened at the massive mining laser that was literally impossible to miss.

Jane was already hard at work inputting the proper hacking algorithms by the time Jason stepped up next to John and glanced between the laser and the ground it was pointing at.

"Are we sure this is a good idea?"

"Nope, don't have a choice."

"Great."

"Yup."

"Eureka!" Jane shouted as the laser started up and let loose with a massive bolt of superheated plasma energy concentrated until it could literally melt away rock, "Momma likes it a lot like that!"

"Jane has offspring?" Garrus questioned as he turned to John, "is it normal for humans to bring their children into a combat zone?"

"Oh boy," Jackson sighed dramatically as Jason simply took the easier route and performed a quick facepalm at the antics of the cross species team while Wrex simply stood there waiting for the laser to finish its work, "how do we even start explaining this?"

"Don't," John replied as Jane shut down the laser and all but skipped over from where the console stood, "just leave it at that."

"We ready?" Jane asked before she set off with her pistol drawn as everyone followed after her, "Because here we go!"

"Why do I get the feeling that she secretly loves to demolish things in an overkill manner?" Jackson asked as they followed after her.

Wrex harrumphed, "Humans are crazy."

XXX

"Kill them, spare the Asari."

"Well, turns out Wrex was right," Jackson sighed as he dragged Liara behind cover and laid down a withering stream of covering fire at the advancing Geth units, "looks like I owe him ten credits."

"As the aforementioned figment of my imagination that has proven to be real, is now a time to be discussing payment of wagers?" Liara squeaked as she launched out a hasty biotic Warp at a nearby Geth before Jackson laughed.

Jason on the other hand had gone to the biggest threat, the other Krogan and tackled the much larger reptile before shoving a knife under its head crest twice to make sure it was dead before shooting the sole rocket trooper at point blank range while everyone else mopped up the rest of the Geth in short order.

No sooner had the last Geth fallen with an electronic warble, did the entire place start shaking violently.

"The mining laser must have made the ruins unstable!" Liara yelped as Jason snatched yet another souvenir and sprinted towards the exit with everyone else right behind him.

"RUN!"

(And so, with the threat of imminent death looming over their heads in the form of being crushed, the now completed team that would take Saren down made its way towards the exit to begin their perilous journey.)

At this Jackson turns around and presents the bird, "Fuck off narrator!"