Chapter 168

After saluting to Shepard, Durand then called out to her men "You heard the man! Everyone pool magazines and grenades, take a leak and a drink, and if anyone wants a smoke, it's as good a time as any!".

Wrex chuckled in amusement, meanwhile, Harry took out some magazines and grenades he had in his inventory that the girls had bought and gave them to Valerie so she could hand them to those who are short on ammo.

Shepard, Garrus, and Wrex then went around and fixed any turrets that might be down, well as much as possible, there weren't spare parts or too many tools, but they made do.

Harry spread his senses and scanned underground, to keep an eye on the rachni, he quickly found them and frowned at the number, still, he knew the squad will be able to handle this army of rachni, though they will have to keep an eye on the marines.

A few minutes passed by like this until Harry saw the rachni begin to make their way up from underground, so he yelled at everyone to let them know "Get ready! They're coming!".

The marines immediately got behind cover and began to look around for any Rachni, Shepard, Garrus, and Wrex got ready as well, while Valerie jumped on a crate and summoned her handguns.

Harry summoned Oblivion and Oathkeeper, and when rachni began to burst out of the ground, gunshots echoed through the area as the marines immediately fired their weapons, Shepard suddenly yelled "'Ammo Swap! Wind Bullets!'".

Shepard's pistol shifted and began to glow green, he quickly began to shoot at any rachni he saw pop out of the ground, meanwhile, Wrex charged into the group of rachni and began to shoot his shotgun while cackling like a madman.

Garrus just got behind cover and then took a knee, once in position he began to snipe rachni at a fast pace, though he had a grin on his face as he did so.

Valerie just unleashed a storm of bullets from her spot on top of the crate, while Harry rushed forward and began to cut down rachni with his keyblades, though as he did so, he kept an eye on all the marines, to make sure no one would get jumped by surprise.

It was alarming for the marines, to see just how many rachni were popping out of the ground, but their morale just rose higher and higher as they watched Shepard and the rest of his squad kill rachni by the dozens.

Harry began to glow as he ran towards a group of rachni, he soon reached them and blurred from sight while swinging his keyblades at high speed, the rachni froze and when Harry reappeared behind the group, they exploded in green gore.

However, he suddenly sensed a second wave of rachni coming "Here comes a second wave!" Harry once again yelled to inform everyone.

The marines quickly reloaded while throwing grenades to make some time, Shepard, Garrus, and Wrex charged their weapons in preparation, and a few seconds later, even more rachni popped out of the ground and immediately went on the attack.

Shepard shot the charge shot he was charging and watched it fly through the air until it crashed against a rachni and explode, blades of wind spread out of the place of impact and tearing apart all the rachni close by.

Garrus let go of the trigger and fired a purple orb of energy, the orb split into beams of energy as it flew through the air and homed into multiple rachni, easily going through them, killing them.

Wrex just laughed like a maniac and let go of the trigger, there was a really loud boom, so loud it shook the air, but Wrex didn't care as he was too busy watching anything in front of him turn into mist or dust.

Rocks, sand, rachni, anything was completely destroyed and turned into dust or mist from the charge shot of Wrex's Harry-made shotgun, the krogan couldn't stop from actually giggling in glee "Awesome...".

Valerie suddenly waved her hand and unleashed a wave of crimson red energy, the wave hit a group of rachni approaching the marines and send them flying backward and away from the area.

She then shot them dead in mid-air, the rachni were already dead by the time they landed on the ground, Harry threw both of his keyblades and watched as they buzzsaw their way through all the rachni in his way.

He then made them fly around him as they buzzsaw rachni into pieces, while all of this was going on, the marines tried to keep up and kill as many rachni as they could, not that they got to kill many, not when Shepard and the squad were there.

Not that they cared, they were in fact very grateful for the help, especially with how long they've been fighting on this planet against the rachni, but eventually, the wave of rachni began to slow down and then finally stop.

Though everyone remained on high alert for about a minute, until Shepard sighed and then began walking back to Durand, seeing this Garrus and Wrex relaxed while Valerie jumped down the crate she was using as a platform.

Harry just made his way towards Shepard and Durand, as soon as he got close to the two, he heard Durand suddenly speak to Shepard "Holy hell, sir...talk about a sea of enemies, are you alright?".

Shepard sighed and then nodded "Never mind me, are you alright?".

Durand nodded and then shook her head "Still on my feet, but we've been fighting for almost 26 hours straight, none of us will be standing for long.

There's one other thing I should mention, one of our other listening posts, went offline three days ago, I don't know if it's a coincidence, a pirate raid, or what, but if you want to check on them...".

Shepard nodded, he wasn't about to just ignore something like this, hopefully, nothing happened to the marines posted there, though he knew that the chances of that being the situation, were really low "We'll check on them, I don't know why there are rachni loose out here, but I intend to find out".

Suddenly, a soldier walked over to Durand "Ma'am? We're getting a signal from one of the ground scan UAVs, a big hollow space about five hundred meters under the surface".

Durand nodded to the soldier who quickly left, the lieutenant then sighed and said "Right, that must be it... that must be where they're coming from, my people aren't in any condition for a clearing operation, though".

Shepard looked over to Harry, the dragon god nodded to him, letting him know that he had sensed the hole the soldier just mentioned, so now that he confirmed that, Shepard turned his head towards Durand and then told her "Just point us in the right direction".

Durand suddenly shook her head and then said "You don't have to do that Commander, we've bled them, we can probably hold out until a bigger ship arrives to get us off-world, but if you want to take a throw at it, we'll give you the coordinates, but it's your call".

Durand then saluted to Shepard "You saved our asses, Commander, thanks".

With that, the group said their goodbyes to the marines and Duran, then they quickly got into the Mako and drove off towards the coordinates, Shepard decided to take care of the rachni and see if he can find out what was going here.

-----

It didn't take long for the group to reach the location on the coordinates they received, to their surprise they found some sort of mine entrance, so everyone got off the Mako and then approached the platform leading to the mine.

Once in front of the entrance, the group headed inside and found a long concrete tunnel leading to another door, a cavern awaited them on the other side of the door and there was a second door.

They quickly approached the door, headed inside, and walked through the tunnel on the other side to another door, this time they found some sort of warehouse filled with all kinds of crates.

Everyone walked inside only to be attacked by rachni, but the group quickly killed them all and continued moving forward, there weren't many in the warehouse anyways, so they didn't even have to slow down.

At the end of the warehouse, they found a door and behind it, another long concrete tunnel, at the end of it, was another cavern, which was also filled with rachni, Harry just waved his hand and sent the rachni flying at high speed towards the cavern walls, where they died from the force they crashed into the wall with.

The group continued forward and then went up a tunnel leading up, they reached another cavern and walked over to the other door at the end of it, another room awaited the group after another long tunnel, this one filled with rachni too.

But Shepard, Wrex, and Garrus gunned them down, before they could even get close to the group, Harry looked around and tried to sense the area "Looks like we got them all, that must have been all the rachni on this planet".

Shepard turned his head towards Harry and asked "How do you know?".

Harry quickly answered the question "Because all of these rachni were males, so they couldn't breed".

Garrus raised an eyebrow "And how do you know how to tell the genders of a rachni?".

Harry just shrugged "We asked Bugsy for details of her race, that way I know what kind of environment is better for them to live and I can make the perfect pocket dimension for them".

Garrus nodded, satisfied by that answer, Shepard then nodded and said "Looks like we also didn't find a clue as to how these rachni got here, but mission accomplished, Harry, can you take us out here".

Harry nodded "Sure, I bet you guys rather not walk all those caverns and tunnels to get to the Mako huh".

Garrus, Shepard, and Wrex nodded at the same time, which made Harry smirk at them, though while he did so, he opened a Dark Corridor, the group then immediately walked through and the pillar of darkness dissipated soon after.

-----

Once outside, the group walked to the Mako and got on, Shepard then drove it to the next location to investigate this planet, it didn't take long for the groups to get there though, and soon arrived at an outpost.

Though there was no one around, in fact, everything was eerily quiet, there was no trace of anyone here, so the group got down and began to investigate the area, but they found nothing but a few weapons, medical gels, and ammo.

With that done and with no clue about what happened in this area, Shepard decided that it was time to leave, so he called Joker and asked him to pick them up at their current location.

Joker wasted no time in arriving and picking up the group into the Normandy, the Normandy then left the Planet, while Shepard headed to the galaxy map to choose their next mission.

-----

Once in front of the galaxy map, Shepard began to see where to go next and what mission to do, he then had Joker take them to the Acheron System and then a planet named Altahe, Joker immediately took the Commander to where he chose to go.

Once on Altahe, Joker dropped the Mako, there was a sandstorm raging on in Altahe, so Harry and Valerie raised a ward around their bodies, so they wouldn't get sandblasted, no one likes getting sand in their eyes after all, even supernatural beings

After that, Harry and Valerie sat on top of the Mako and looked around, Harry frowned as he saw the extreme environment of this planet "What a hostile planet".

Valerie nodded "Yeah, you can't even see very far with this sandstorm going on, I wonder if this is a constant thing?".

Harry looked over to some rock cliffs nearby and narrowed his eyes as he inspected them, he then nodded "It seems that it's either a constant thing or it happens often, the rocky cliffs look smooth".

Valerie took a look as well and then frowned "Your right, a planet where sandstorms are a common occurrence, yeah, this planet is awful".

With that said, Shepard drove the Mako towards their destination on this planet, it took Shepard about an hour and some, to reach their destination, the sandstorm just made driving very difficult, he even crashed a few times, causing Wrex and Garrus to bounce around the Mako while cursing in their native languages.

The commander even drove it off a cliff which had them all screaming in fear -except Harry and Valerie of course- but the dragon god made sure to stop the Mako and safely land it on the ground.

Shepard officially hated this planet now, but at least they reached their destination okay, only to frown when they found rachni on this planet as well, Wrex wasted no time in blasting the damn things with the Mako's cannon.

But then they noticed some sort of ant hill-looking things on the ground, from these ant hills, more and more rachni began to pop out and head towards the Mako.

Harry seeing this, decided to do something about it, so he clapped his hands and gathered his mana, red hot lava suddenly raised from the ground, and with a wave of his hand, Harry guided it, towards the ant hills, where he then pour it down the holes.

The area was then filled with the agonizing screeching of the rachni that had red hot lava poured down on them by Harry, once all the rachni were turned into charcoal, the group got out the Mako and headed to the construct in the middle of the area.

Though Wrex grunted as he saw the still-hot lava on the ground "Lava huh? Isn't that a bit dangerous?".

Garrus sighed "Great, if Wrex says it's too dangerous, then it really is dangerous".

Harry just grinned at both Wrex and Garrus "Your armor can protect from even lava guys, in fact, you can take a dip in a volcano and be perfectly fine".

Wrex nodded "Neat".

Garrus nervously laughed "Is it okay for me to get used to this? Cause I'm starting to wonder if it's okay to get used to this much insanity".

Shepard chuckled finding the whole thing funny, though he himself wondered if it was okay to get used to this kind of thing, Valerie just giggled and shrugged "Well, might as well get used to it, there's nothing you can do about it anyway~".

Garrus sighed and nodded "Right...".

Shepard shook his head in amusement and then walked over to the construct in the middle of the area, it seems to be some sort of low building leading somewhere underground, curious about it, Shepard and the group walked around it until they found an entrance.

Once the entrance to the building was found, the group then immediately headed inside, once inside the underground facility, they walked through a hallway into a room and there, they found dead bodies on the ground.

Shepard frowned and approached one, a male "He's been dead for a while...".

The group looked around the room but only found more dead bodies and a door, not finding anything of interest, they opened the door and walked through the long hallways behind it until they reached another room.

This one was bigger and seemed to be a storehouse, however, as soon as the group stepped inside, a swarm of rachni attacked the group, looks like Harry's lava attack didn't reach all the rachni.

Shepard, Garrus, and Wrex immediately gun them down, Harry used magic to send the rachni flying back and slam against the walls behind them, their bodies exploded and sent green blood everywhere.

Valerie walked around and shot any rachni that got close to her, right in the head, the rachni that attacked her dropped dead right away, soon the storehouse was clear and the group moved on.

They quickly walked over through the hallways and rooms, but only found more dead bodies, eventually, they made it to another room, a very big one too, Shepard looked around and then noticed a terminal at the end of the room.

He quickly walked over to it to investigate, Shepard quickly checked the terminal for any information that might help them, Garrus noticed something "Shepard, you see this? They just received a supply run two days ago, the rachni worked fast".

Shepard nodded and moved away from the terminal so Garrus can take a closer look, he seemed seems to understand all the information shown better than him anyways "Tell me about that supply ship, this planet is supposed to be uninhabited, the rachni didn't come from nowhere".

Garrus immediately began to check the terminal for information "Checking, this base is supplied by drone freighters, dispatched at irregular intervals from different depots, to reduce the likelihood of tracking... I have it, this one came from Argos Rho".

Shepard frowned "Wherever it is, there's probably more rachni there, let's get to the bottom of this".

The group nodded in agreement with Shepard, Harry quickly opened a Dark Corridor and said "Then let's go".

The group quickly walked through the Dark Corridor and left this underground facility, once they arrived at the Mako, everyone boarded it and Shepard called Joker to pick them up.

-----

Joker didn't waste any time picking up the group and as soon as he did, Shepard immediately headed for the galaxy map and ordered Joker to take the Normandy to Argos Rho and then the Gorgon system.

Once there, the Normandy's scanners picked up an unidentified space station and Shepard had a feeling that it looked too suspicious, he immediately had Joker take them there to investigate.

He then walked back to the Mako, where Wrex and Garrus were already waiting for him, Harry and Valerie were also ready to continue, so Shepard told them to get ready to board a space station and to get ready for anything.

-----

Joker immediately docked inside the space station and let Shepard and the squad inside, everyone immediately walked deeper into the space station.

Harry frowned as he looked around "It's too quiet here...".

Shepard nodded "Yeah, can you sense anything?".

Harry focused his senses but quickly picked up something "... There's rachni in here, I can recognize that muted energy signature anywhere".

Shepard clicked his tongue "Alright, let's move out, and everyone, watch every corner as we moved".

Everyone nodded and then, the group moved forwards, a few hallways later, they eventually reached a warehouse, and rachni immediately attacked them, the moment they got inside.

But the squad reacted right away and killed all the rachni instantly and continued moving forward, they found a room filled with all sorts of supplies, which Valerie took and put away, things like ammo, weapons, and chips.

The rest was given to Shepard and the squad to use, after that they continued moving and investigating the space station until they found a terminal in one of the rooms.

Shepard quickly walked over to it and immediately turned it on, a personal recording suddenly began to play "Personal data recorder for Major Elena Flores".

Shepard looked intrigued and quickly checked the entries in the terminal, he only found three, and curious to see if they held any information that they can use, he decided to have the first one play "Play the first entry".

The terminal immediately began to play the first recording "Sigma 23 is almost fully operational, the barracks and storage lockers are complete, and we've begun stocking the munitions.

It's highly unlikely the Alliance will patrol in the Nebula, I expect our only risk will be from pirates, and who'll believe them? Looks like we'll have space for two reinforced platoons of Cerberus Commandos".

Everyone narrowed their eyes at the mention of Cerberus, Wrex grunted in annoyance and then said "Cerberus, I've about had it with those guys".

Harry frowned and nodded "Me too Wrex, me too...".

Shepard inwardly agreed with both Wrex and Harry, he then decided to check the next entry in the terminal "Play the second entry".

The terminal quickly began to play the second entry recorded "The package arrived today for field testing, I'm told they're fundamentally similar to the units being developed on Noveria.

They promise this batch will be stable, something about them developing in the proximity to the master control unit, we detected some pirates setting up an Anchorage in a neighboring system, I think we'll try to deploy them there first".

Garrus huffed and shook his head "So they were using pirates as test subjects for the rachni".

Valerie nodded "Yeah, and those rachni they deployed then attacked the listening posts".

Shepard and the crew were beginning to understand the bigger picture here, but there was still one more entry to listen to, so Shepard decided to check it out "Play the last entry".

The terminal played the last entry right away "They escaped containment, clever bastards, we treated them like animals, we should've treated them like P.O.W.s, they're spreading, boarding supply ships and sending them to random destinations, they'll be all over the cluster in a week.

General, if you recover this message, my advice is: screw the rachni, they're too smart, use one of the other projects, Flores, signing off... for the last time".

Wrex just huffed in annoyance and shook his head "This is a familiar story, a failed experiment with the rachni, nice to see humans are consistently stupid".

Harry nodded "Yeah, looks like Karma bit these assholes in the ass, though Cerberus' motives in this are vague... I really would like to know more about these guys, the day I get my hands on them...".

Shepard couldn't defend humanity from Wrex but agreed with Harry about Cerberus having gotten what they deserve.

Shepard turned his head towards Harry and then asked him "Can you destroy this place, I rather Cerberus doesn't get anything out of this, plus losing a whole space station is bound to hurt them".

Harry nodded "Sure, let's get out here then I'll blow it up once the Normandy is far away".

Shepard nodded and quite liked the idea, Harry then quickly opened a Dark Corridor connected to the Normandy, and the group left through it right away.

Once in the Normandy, Joker piloted the ship away from the space station, Harry teleported on top of the Normandy and pointed his open palm towards the space station "'Big Bang Attack!'".

A massive orb of blue ki shot from his palm and flew through open space at an incredible speed, it quickly reached the space station and crashed against it, Harry then made the ki orb detonate.

The explosion lit up space and made the Normandy wobble a bit, but the wards around it, soon activated and protected the ship from the pressure and shockwave from Harry's Big Bang Attack exploding.

Harry stayed on top of the Normandy staring at the explosion while the Normandy began to leave the area "... I hope this hurts Cerberus, they're starting to really get on my nerves".

-----

Once the Normandy left the Gorgon system, Shepard decided to take a break, eat some lunch and relax a bit, meanwhile, Harry walked over to his workshop, he still had a few things to work on and he wanted to get them done soon.

The mission to Virmire is soon approaching and he wanted to have everything ready for everyone, so, while everyone went to rest he went to get to work.

-----

~Meanwhile in the Citadel~

The chaos of the released slaves began to calm down, and many of the former slaves used the money they received from their benefactor to move to planets settlements all-around the galaxy, most wanted to start a new life and move on.

Others wanted to help, so they moved to these settlements to study and learn a profession and help these settlements thrive, Others stayed in the Citadel and rented apartments and such, their plan was to study to become doctors, scientists, and even politicians.

They wanted to make a change, to take advantage of the second chance they received by becoming someone that could make changes to the galaxy.

The panic of their arrival calm down as well and the many governments helped them find families and friends, though having been enslaved for many years caused many former slaves to not be able to remember their families, most were happily accepted back home though.

Others were pushed away, but they weren't affected, other former slaves, helped these people and even gave them a home and family, while other former slaves found out that their families were all gone or dead.

Still, none of them let despair take them, not when someone was making sure they had everything they could ever need, someone caring and taking care of them.

The former slaves of the batarians were now beginning to step forward and live their lives to the fullest, while also keeping the unknown person who not only saved them but also gave them hope, hope for a better life and future, in their minds and hearts.

-----

Unfortunately, not everyone was happy about the return of the former slaves nor everything was fine, the many governments were scrambling to help the new additions to their communities, but having to prepare documentation for so many people, was proving to be a challenge.

People who had been missing for years, some were even declared dead and those who went missing when they were small children, were very difficult to provide with an identity.

With no documents or even names, it was hard to know who was who, most of the former slaves didn't even know their names, and this led to a lot of difficulties for the government of each homeworld, eventually they had to ask for aid from other governments.

A network consisting of all races was created, one that would focus on helping and supporting the former slaves, things will slowly begin to get better and move forward this way.

-----

The entire galaxy was stilled in shock about everything that happened though, everyone was affected in some way or the other, everything was changing really fast for the people of the galaxy after all, but the happiness and confusion of the return of the former slaves brought was enough for everyone to help as much as possible.

Fear also filled the hearts of many, and who couldn't blame them? After all, the news of the destruction of the batarian's home planet and the damage caused to their system was made known two days after the event.

No one really knew and it only became known when the news hit the Citadel, a few batarians suddenly appeared in the Citadel, mostly children and some adults, but when interrogated, they all confirm the same thing.

Something had attacked Khar'shan, no one knew what or who did it, after all, the batarian survivors were somehow teleported to the Citadel and didn't see anything other than the Batarian Fleet being blasted to smithereens above the planet.

Anecdotes of how the sky lit up with explosions, how loud booms and bangs filled the planet, and how a massive drill of pitch-black darkness came down from the stars and stopped before it hit Khar'shan, were what every batarian informed the Citadel.

The last thing the batarian survivors remember, is a bright blue light and then, they were in the Citadel, this information made all militaries of every race rather nervous and tense.

After, all there's something out there capable of destroying planets and damaging systems, many began to scan for information and data, but nothing was found.

That just made them feel worse, only the Alliance was calm in all of this, high officials know of only one person capable of doing this thanks to Shepard explaining things, and Anderson knew who had done it as well.

But the fact that the dragon god known as Harry Potter was on Shepard's side, let everyone relax, after all, Harry is a friend and an ally to the Alliance.

The only one not happy, nor feeling good about all of this was Udina, he was scared and nervous, he had heard of some of what Harry could do, but to have evidence of his power?

That was a whole different ballpark, Udina now knew that Harry Potter is capable of destroying planets and single-handedly eradicating fleets as big and powerful as the Hegemony's Fleet and that made him afraid of what else Harry could do.

-----

The Citadel Council was trying to mitigate all chaos and panic, trying to control information from getting out and help the few batarian survivors, since unlike the former slaves, no one was helping them.

No one really cared about the batarians, they had done so many horrible things in the galaxy, that no one batted an eye at the fact that so little of them survived.

Some were even glad that this had happened to them, Tevos, Salern, and Sparatus were shocked about this, people of all races were showing pure unadulterated hate and indifference to the batarian's situation.

It showed the Citadel Council just how bad things had gotten between the galaxy and the batarians, needless to say, that the batarian survivors will be having a hard time from now on, is an understatement.

But the Council couldn't really focus on this issue, Harry's actions and the destruction of Khar'shan brought fear and uncertainty to the galaxy, the Citadel Council couldn't really do anything about it though.

After all, what does everyone suppose the governments of every race should say, 'that a dragon god decided to end batarian slavery, the Hegemony, and the race itself for whatever reason?' not only are people going to think they're insane but they have no proof.

They knew it was Harry who did all of this, but how could they prove it? So instead they tried to minimize information and control what was being said, but even then, the galaxy will be in a fear-filled situation for some time.

Tevos and Valern could only pray that Harry wouldn't do anything this drastic anytime soon, they were already feeling a lot of pressure from everyone and everything.

Sparatus was the only one being openly angry and frustrated, he complained aloud as well, to the point where Tevos and Valern would just ignore him and go about their business.

If Sparatus wanted to go throw a tantrum to feel better he could do so, they were too busy to care about his complaints, though they wondered what the cause of all their headaches was doing right now.

-----

Harry was heating some gold and silver on a small forge he has in his workshop, he was already working on the rings that will protect the squad members' minds from mental attacks, just in case Saren tries to pull that off on them.

Though as he reached with his tongs into the forge he suddenly sneezed, Bugsy, the Rachni Queen -who was somehow inside Harry's workshop and watching him work- suddenly made a soft screeching sound.

Harry sniffed and shook his head, he then turned to look at Bugsy "No, I don't get sick, I bet someone is either talking about me, thinking about me, or cursing me out, one of those for sure".

Bugsy let out a few soft screeches and Harry shrugged "Who knows, just about anyone in the galaxy could be talking about me right now, but meh, that isn't important right now."

Harry then went back to pulling out the gold and silver he was heating in his forge, both precious metals were red hot and then Harry made them float in front of him with telekinesis.

He quickly split the silver and gold into small pieces and used his telekinesis to shape them into strings, he then began to twist the silver strings and gold strings into a single one.

The twisted gold and silver strings were then made into rings, after that Harry quickly cool them down with magic and watched them cool, Bugsy watched all of this in awe.

She had never seen anything like it and wondered if she could move things with her song just like Harry can, she would have to try singing this song on her own sometimes later, but for now, she wanted to keep watching Harry work and learn.

Though she did wonder what the little loops Harry was making were for, they looked very sparkly but not very useful, Harry just continued to work on the rings while being in the company of the rachni queen.

Both would be in Harry's workshop for hours and throughout that time, both Bugsy and Harry would talk about all sorts of things, it was a very interesting learning experience for both the rachni queen and dragon god.