Artemis Tau Cluster Part 3 Geo-thermal is eh

"I just got here." Leo said simply. Not sparing a glancing look back. "I was aware of the situation for a while though. Made my way over after finding out the specifics. Glad the self-destruct took the other place out. Hell knows how many geth would have swarm this place. Or worse.."

"Self Destruct... that Explosion earlier?" Jane blinked in surprise a little.

"Yeah." Leo spread his spiritual sense out of finding what was needed. The structure of the area was very sturdy. Despite all the mining and excavation done in the area. "Zaed, take two others and head to this location. Nihlus found the target."

"What are you going to do?" Morinth asked. Seeing Leo work on his omni-tool making adjustments, she felt a rush pass through her. Anticipation as well as the change in his energy messed with her. "Are you about to do something stupid?"

"Will make sure it is handled." Zaed wanted to go with Leo, but he had enough excitement for one day. And he was about done with enclosed spaces with geth all over. "Try not to burn to death."

As the omni-tool updated with more information, Zaed was passed the specific instructions about what Leo hoped to accomplish by himself. "Smelting" of the body using the Geothermal energy available. Which would not look pretty at all if done wrong.

"Burn to death?" Tali blinked at Leo who gave a wave before jumping down. "Keel'ah!" Leo went straight at the large Armature down below. Heavy pistol in one hand, smg in the other. Oddly enough she was not worried about the landing, only the battle conditions. "Think he can win?"

"He better." Jack blinked amazed for once. "Shield better hold up. Armor to..."

"We need to move." Zaed ordered. "You two are with me. The others meet with Sha'ira at the shuttle. A friendly is supposed to be in the area now. Go and pay them a greeting."

"Fine." Morinth grumbled.

"We need to finish our own mission." Jane cut in. "Wrex, we need to find Kaiden and the doctor. And double time it at that. Ashley, Jenkins, and Tali head back to the Mako. I really hate to loose it due to it falling in a lava crevice."

"Right." Ashley followed them, and they left. Not missing the sounds of rampant gunfire at all. 'Both of them were in different N7 programs but the way they do things is crazy. Jane is definitely the way things are usually done but Leo acts like this is all one big experiment. Hate to pull some strings but I need to find out his background.'

Jenkins was just feeling the excitement of the mission and said nothing while moving. But the questions from Tali made him think twice about things. Made her decision to follow Wrex's advice really soon.

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Fight-

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The shots caused the armature to look towards its new guest. The overcharged rounds from the smg disabled the shields as the rounds from the pistol scratched against the exterior a little.

"Hardy bugger." Leo planted his feet against the neck of the Geth. The Omniblade program was active in an instant. With a stab, he fixed himself as the omni-tool program tried to interface a little. So far no luck with the heat causing additional problems. "Good practice at least."

The Geth Armature did not stand idle. It thrashed about trying to dislodge Leo without success. With the shield momentarily disabled, it was vulnerable but not to gunfire. Which was really odd.

*Sccrrrhh!* Another stab with the blade proved the quality of the Geth Armature's body was way tougher than he thought. Without effort, serious effort, Leo couldn't stab into it. Even with his physical increase in power.

"I will be damned if I can not pierce the chassis!" Fitting his foot in to get a better position, then forcefully pushing down allowed for penetration finally. "Gonna.."

A part of the side fell near the two. A wave of lava splashed into the air landing on both Leo and the Armature. His shield holding for the moment. Pushing it off with a biotic wave, Leo went back to attacking the Armature.

The Geth was not faring well. The exposed area received magma directly inside it. The feedback from the machine actually caused him to wince in pain.

"Shit!" Leo slid down the body and hit the surface hard. His shield instantly giving way. The armor holding only for a few moments. Not to be put down easily the damage Geth turned to him almost scowling.

If a machine like this could scowl that is.

The Siege Cannon opened fire! The first blast since Leo deeper into the lava. The second blast blew the lava away burying him under. The third blast shorted out and the armature stopped moving for a bit.

Just enough to allow him to get out. With the use of Fling, Leo hurled more pieces of the falling sides at the Geth. Anytime he ran low, he would just smash into a side pushing his physical might up a little each time.

Gauging the different strains on his body with the heat. For a moment he wanted to pull out his gun to fire when an opening was visible but the gun was mostly scrapped metal. The protection was not enough for the current temperatures, unfortunately.

A mental note was made to increase that for the future. Memory served Andromeda had all sorts of volatile environments.

"Alright, experimenting time is over." Leo armor was done for. His flesh boosted by his spiritual energy held on under the constant temperature. Enough data had been collected for now. Hands extended as he swallowed the bulk of the lava into his Internal Space then charged. "Raaah!"

*Fwoosh!* The biotic energy built around him for the charge was violent and created a bunch bigger cone at the front. Smashing through the get should have been the end of it.

*Bzzzt!* The Geth armature shook violently then it actually zoomed in on him as if committing him to memory. For a brief moment, Leo saw the main lens turn a reddish gold. The armature then exploded destroying the unstable ground they already fought on.

Falling down deeper, Leo was not upset in the least. In fact, it was for the better as more lava was underneath. But by the feel of it, it was most likely a mixture of molten metal.

'The others should be fine. I wonder if I can breakthrough with all of this available or will my body give out first?' Focusing on cultivating his body, Leo ignores the overall damage to his body while absorbing the geothermal energy production and refine his flesh that kept burning up.

A.I.- 15 minutes more in to change in Fleshy Body. Recommend holding on breakthrough to prevent interrogation upon returning to ship. Focusing your spiritual energy on closing the tear in space.

The A.I. had a point but Leo really didn't care about the questions. Without real methods to studying the tears the way he wanted, it was better to take care of them for now.

If Jane made a stink about matters, it would make it easier for him to leave. His closer advancement in his Cultivation reaffirms how he did things.

If Gaia wanted him to save the Andromeda Galaxy he would do things his way or not at all. The stopgap employed by the A.I. was blasted away by the physical might of his soul repeatedly.

The lava and geothermal energy produced circled around his body and was absorbed into his very being. His breakthrough pushed through from the Initiative and into the Soul Extension. More ways to use spirit energy became available to him.

"Come." Leo muttered. What could only be described as Ghost appeared in the surroundings. Mostly that of Quarians with a few Geth appearing as well. 'I will need to come back here at a better time. Not recovered enough to get everything I need.'

As the Ghosts were sucked away turning into energy for him, Leo broke the seal employed by the A.I. and almost crushed it entirely. He left just enough of it to be able to reform the thing.

The Geth ghost were just residual energy anyway. Electrical discharges that moved in sequence like a human brain. On the surface of Leo's skin, a brief synthetic pattern appeared before vanishing.

'Interesting.' Running his spiritual sense over himself gave new insights to check in later. 'Let me finish fixing this technique to deal with the Ardat Yakshi though.'

Cannibalizing techniques were easy if you didn't care if things were lost. The A.I. was just to much of a security risk as it was before.

40 minutes later and a new armor was placed on. The damages to it happen pretty fast and deliberately to him sell that it was a terrible fight. Thus him taking longer to get back. The Geo-Thermal device would have to be a better method than actually jumping into it. Raw was not the way to go if practicality was needed.

The energy was purer, however. The talks on the shuttle were not that great. Maya found out what Morinth was hiding. The argument back helped since Leo was now very aware of all the metal pieces of Geth in his body.

Due to his body cultivation, a lot was getting pushed out.

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Shuttle-

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"You are being foolish," Morinth said to Maya. "They are not permanently gone. They live through me."

"But you are like a space vampire!" Maya would have liked it better if this was not something that had to do with Asari at all. Let alone having one on the ship and in close proximity of her. "Just devouring the souls through intimacy... such dangerous seductive monsters."

"Awww, you think they are seductive." Leo teased as he worked. "Cerebrus knows about their particular mutation in the modified race, so not that big of a deal."

"Then why has the Illusive Man not done anything about it?" Jack found it odd. "Not like he would ever miss the chance to help humanity by bringing down another race." That chip on her shoulder was just to huge to deal with right now.

"He has done it before." Leo answered. Separating another piece of the fused metal from his body and setting it down. Zaed checking it over before dropping it in a tank with the other pieces. "I have seen it myself.. well kinda. Cerebrus is really not that bad currently. Still have done worse acts to other humans than to Xenos."

"Really starting to think you like Cerebrus..." Jack commented lowly.

"I do Jennifer. I am "human" after all." Leo ran a scalpel down his left arm an stopped. A piece of foreign material was lodged inside. Nothing like the pieces of the Geth Armature or metal in the factory. "Unusual but no real benefit leaving it there. Also need to see if any foreign bacteria left from out of it."

"The Krogan were already screwed over by themselves after the Turian, Salarian, and others really." Maya eyed Leo over trying to figure how much he really knew about the organization. "Study from cadavers gave all that was needed. A lot of those around considering...."

"Gonna be a lot more if we don't do that mission." Zaed mumbled. He moved to Leo's back pulling out a long piece of metal out. "Not fused.. so after you fought the thing?" Leo gave him a shrug. Not really sure himself. "Krogan kids were never picked up after that one botched mission. Damn things look like adults. Word got out quick not to confuse them."

*Doop!* The foreign material was dropped in a different jar. Fizzing in moments as parts of it broke down revealing a smooth piece of pottery on first look.

"Yeah like me." Jack grumbled. "But I have heard a lot of things while I travelled. Like the encounter with the Quarian fleet and.." Seeing Tali was a little uncomfortable she switched back to talking about the other races. "But not the Asari much. Why is that?

"He didnt to them because he has an Asari woman. Funny people like to say mistress when he does not have another in his life. Not a wife considering what happened and girlfriends are really odd..." Leo ran his spiritual sense over his arm finding a little of the foreign material had indeed broken off inside. Circulating his energy it was flushed out to the surface of his arm. ".. probably has a few kids around after that mishap with Saren. I know their is a human one. Quite a looker."

To those in the shuttle, it looked mostly like biotics at work. Just calmer and more malleable.