When the ground team arrived at the marines’ last known location they had the unexpected pleasure of running headlong into a Geth Colossus. The massive synthetic weapon spotted them immediately and opened fire with its main gun, a siege pulse mass accelerator cannon that lobbed rounds explosive enough to tear chunks out of the stonework around them.

Shepard quickly led her team out of the Geth’s line of sight, hoping to find some cover, and quickly came across a lone Quarian in a bright red environmental suit occasionally poking out and hitting the Geth with a shoulder mounted rocket launcher.

The marine must have been a good shot, because the Geth hosed down his position with absolutely no signs of stopping and each time he managed a shot the incoming fire decreased just a little.

He had good battlefield awareness too, because he showed no signs of surprise when Shepard took cover next to him.

“Commander Shepard of the Normandy. What’s the situation?” She introduced herself.

“Squad Leader Kal’Reegar, Migrant Fleet Marines. We talked over the radio before that dropship arrived.” Kal’Reegar returned. “Still got no idea why you’re here, but this ain’t the time to be picky.”

Both of them ducked as a particularly powerful round cracked into the stone just over their heads. A half thought went through Shepard’s mind that it might have hit Kal’Reegar if he had been standing to fire. Were the Geth trying to predict when they left cover?

“We’re friends of Tali’s. We were supposed to meet up after your mission, but when you all missed the check back date with no message I decided to come make sure she was okay. She is okay right?”

Thankfully, Kal’Reegar nodded and pointed out a locked down door the Geth were trying to swarm around. “Tali’s inside over there. The Geth killed the rest of my squad, and they’re trying to get to her. Best I’ve been able to do is draw their attention.”

“And she’s safe in there?”

“Observatory is reinforced. The Geth will need some time to get through it. And it’s hard to hack a door when someone is firing rockets at you.” he joked with a pained chuckle. Shepard looked down and saw deep purple blood staining part of Reegar’s environmental suit.

“You’re hit! How bad?” She demanded already pulling up some medigel for the wound.

“Combat seals clamped down to isolate contamination, and I’m swimming in antibiotics. The Geth might get me, but I’m not going to die from an infection in the middle of a battle. That’s just insulting!”

Shepard smiled grimly. Marines really were the same no matter the species.

“You’re no good to us bleeding out then.” She checked him over. Just like he said his suit had sealed up and with medigel should stop any bleeding. “You have a plan to deal with the colossus?”

“Appreciate it ma’am. Standard protocol with armature-class units is to sabotage the shields and whittle it down, you know. Kill it with bug bites.” Reegar paused as Garrus’s rifle barked, leaving all their ears ringing a bit from the powerful rifle. “That's not going to work with this one. It’s got a repair protocol, just huddles down and fixes itself. So whatever we do has to scrap that bastard fast. Probably means getting up close, past the rest of the Geth.”

If only Shepard knew someone capable of close-up mass destruction.

“Hey, Revan! If we get close enough can you handle the colossus?”

“Not if all the others are focused on me, but by itself yes!”

The Spectre turned back to Reegar. “Okay the plan is to get Revan close and keep the Geth off her. I need you on overwatch and keeping our six clear.”

“I’m not going to stand here while you run into enemy fire! They killed my whole squad!”

“And if you want to honor your squad, watch my back! I need you here in case they bring reinforcements!” Shepard shouted back. The last thing she needed was an emotionally compromised marine with a rocket launcher shooting at the wrong time.

The two of them ended up in a staring contest, but with the only part of Reegar’s face visible being his bioluminescent eyes, Shepard had no issues making him back off.

“Alright, Shepard. We’ll do it your way.” The wounded quarian finally gave in. “Hit them for me. Keelah se’lai!”

Shepard nodded and turned back to her team.

They were doing pretty well on their own while she was busy with Kal’Reegar. Samara was pulling Geth out from behind cover for Garus to put down while Revan covered them both by deflecting away incoming fire. They likely would have managed to deal with all of they Geth by themselves if it wasn’t for the big one in the back. That being said, the colossus was slowly burning through the bridge that prevented it from getting a clear shot at their current location. It was time to move.

“Alright boy and girls, we’re going to flank around the right side and try to hit the Geth from up there. Samara, you are with me! Garrus, you pick off anything in our way and then follow after. Revan, can you make sure he stays alive?” Shepard started barking orders.

“You want us fighting the Geth while dealing with the sun? Shepard, are you crazy?” Garrus objected immediately.

“If you have a better way to deal with an assload of Geth while making sure we don’t get pinned by that colossus, I’m all ears Vakarian. But that's the only path that gives us some cover that doesn’t leave us open to getting flanked ourselves!”

“I will follow your lead, Shepard.” Samara said serenely, despite the gunfire streaking overhead.

“Good, on three then! One...two...three!”

Garrus leaned over the metal railing they were using as cover and almost instantly dropped one of the Geth.

“That’s one down! Better get moving, Shepard!”

The Commander shook her head even as she began sprinting towards the ramp leading to the platform overlooking the courtyard in front of the Observatory with the Justicar hot on her heels, but even Garrus’s attitude couldn’t diminish the thrill of the adrenaline pumping through her veins.

-o-

Despite the artificial nature of the Geth making it much harder to track every threat on the battlefield, Revan was enjoying this mission far more than most for one simple reason. She could actually properly reflect the Geth’s weapons back at them instead of constantly disintegrating the rounds because this galaxy refused to use energy based ammunition like a bunch of barbarians!

She was fairly confident she had made Shepard a firm convert to blasters though, going by the enthusiastic shouting the redhead was making every time she dropped one of the droids.

Revan could still hear her despite splitting off from the other three once they managed to find a position with decent cover and good angle on the rest of the courtyard. They would keep the Geth focused on them while Revan made her way to the larger unit and dealt with it. And the rain of red blaster bolts was certainly eye-catching.

Four Geth troopers rounded the corner and spotted the Sith. While they opened fire, Revan ducked back around a corner. She could have gone straight on the attack but she wanted to see how open the Geth were to a dialogue.

“I don’t suppose you would be willing to open negotiations?” She called out. “I imagine we have much to offer each other.”

*No, Geth have no need for cooperation. When the gods return, Geth will have access to all knowledge regardless.* the units screeched in their electronic language. Only Revan’s extensive history with similar languages and cheating by pulling on the Force let her understand what they said.

“Unfortunate. Seems I’ll have to try later.”

Revan wasn’t really expecting much to come from a discussion on a battlefield, she just wanted to judge how open to cooperation the Geth were.

Not very, it seemed. Which might be an issue in the future, but that was for later.

The Sith drew deeply from the Force and burst back around the corner as little more than a blur. The Geth were barely able to track her as she dashed into the middle of their formation and lashed out with her sabers. The one furthest away still had a decent line of fire so it was the first to go. After a barely perceptible delay, her blue saber chewed through the synthetic’s shield before cutting off its hands just below the elbows. The red blade followed swiftly behind and removed the unit’s head just as easily.

Following the momentum of her initial attack, Revan stabbed the red saber in her right hand through the head of one of the Troopers while throwing the blue one so it split another Geth in half. At the same time she thrust her now empty left hand forward to Force Push the final unit that had just managed to turn around and confront her into a wall hard enough cracks formed from the impact.

“Maybe next time we can have a civilized discussion.” Revan continued, recalling her lightsaber with a simple mental tug.

”Revan, whatever you just did attracted a lot of attention from the Geth. It looks like they are getting ready to try overrunning our position and are ready for you exiting the structure. If you’re going to make a move, you better do it fast.” Shepard’s voice crackled over her helmet’s radio.

Revan had been preparing to do a similar maneuver out the door in order to take the colossus by surprise, but with Shepard’s warning alongside her own now growing feeling in the Force, she decided that a little more caution was warranted.

She closed her eyes and expanded her senses.

While Revan was fairly terrible at future-sight, simply perceiving her surroundings was easy enough. Looking out past the corridor she was about to enter she could see a few more Geth watching the doorway. The bigger threat was the fact the colossus had also turned to focus where the Sith planned to exit.

So they planned to hit her with the siege weapon as soon as she exited? That was...very thorough.

Still, this wasn’t the first time this had happened so she would need to see if her old counter worked on new droids. It better...she liked this cloak.

-o-

“The units heading towards the right flank have been dealt with, Shepard.” Samara reported as she rejoined the Commander.

Shepard was silent for a few seconds before she pulled the trigger on her blaster rifle and scrapped the Geth trooper that had just poked its head out of cover, only then did she turn back to the Justicar.

“Good job, any sign of Revan? She hasn’t answered her comm.”

“I didn’t see her. Which means she likely is still going after the colossus…”

“Shepard, look there!” Garrus suddenly called out.

Shepard followed his line of sight to where a group of Geth had suddenly opened fire on a doorway. Not long after, a dark blur burst out of the passage and quickly angled towards one of the troopers.

She had a second to wonder how Revan had even managed to move that fast before her eyes widened in horror. A large blue-white projectile was headed right for her...no!...right for the trooper Revan was running at! They targeted the smaller units since they couldn’t hit Revan directly!

The ground team could only watch helplessly as the siege-grade weapon the colossus used practically vaporised its target and the following explosion washed over the form of their teammate.

“Oh my god, I’m going to kill her for pulling a stunt like that.” Shepard snapped when the cloaked figure was revealed to be another Geth simply wrapped in the Sith’s garment.

Barely half a second later the woman in question burst out of the corridor and this time there was no mistaking her for a fake. The Sith made a beeline for the colossus, dual lightsabers in hand, and actually started climbing on the massive synthetic in a show of almost unnatural athletics and balance as the Geth tried to shake her off.

Unfortunately for it, it wasn’t exactly designed to be flexible and it only got more clumsy as Revan started to carve it to pieces.

“I suppose the Sith wouldn’t be so feared in my order if they were so easily destroyed.” Samara commented as she focused on the surrounding units, making sure none of them had the opportunity to dislodge their elven teammate. Garrus had slightly different concerns even as he moved to do the same.

“We recorded that right? Because I need to see the look on Wrex’s face when we show him someone took down an armature-class by hand.”

-o-

With the threat of the colossus removed, Shepard and her team were able to move down and join Revan in dealing with the remaining Geth. Needless to say, those remaining didn’t last long under the four’s undivided attention.

Once the area was secure, Shepard wasted no time reuniting with her friend; the entire reason the Normandy had even come to this system in the first place. But Revan had a different goal.

The object calling to her was closer than ever and the Elven woman was fairly unsurprised to discover it was coming from the same room Tali’Zorah had ended up taking refuge in. These things either tended to be locked away as far as possible or in commonly utilised areas where anyone could find them with a small effort.

This one happened to be in the heart of the computer system used by the Observatory and Revan didn’t wait any longer than it took confirming the quarian no longer needed the system before she started ripping it apart.

“What is this device you are looking for?”

Revan stopped and looked back to see Samara hovering over her shoulder. The Justicar seemed determined to stick her nose into anything the Sith did. It was starting to get annoying. Just because the Sith had a bad reputation - rightly earned in most cases - that didn’t mean Revan was trying to sabotage the Normandy crew at every turn.

“I don’t actually know yet.” She admitted. “There are several different types of devices capable of causing Force disturbances. Very rarely can you figure it out before you find it.”

“Yet you are confident it will not pose a threat to the rest of us.”

“I’m confident I can deal with whatever threat it might be.” Revan replied. “Are you normally this curious?”

Samara actually looked slightly taken aback by the question.

“Not normally, no. When you live by a code that demands harsh action, you learn the dangers of curiosity quickly.”

Revan scoffed. “You mean you risk learning life cannot fit into neat little boxes that-”

She trailed off as she pulled back a final panel that revealed the object of her hunt. A small blue box covered in geometric shapes that Revan had no trouble identifying.

“Huh, now what is a holocron doing here?” She asked no one in particular. Going by the wiring, it looked like the quarians had somehow been using it as both a CPU and a recording device for the observatory. A massive misuse of the device but how were they supposed to know?

“It looks like a Saint’s Stone, the design is different though. I did not expect to see one of those outside of Asari space.”

Revan gave Samara her full attention. “What do you mean by Saint’s Stone? You’ve seen more of these?”

“It is an old story. One deeply tied to Asari religious groups. According to them a saint was sent by the Goddess to teach people the proper ways they should live. To promote peace and prosperity. But the Saint was still mortal, so before she died she imbued several cubes just like this one with her presence so she could continue teaching. Of course these are just stories, no one has ever managed to activate the stones and now they are more of an icon. I’ve never heard of one being discovered elsewhere though.”

“You said this saint was a teacher though. What happened to her students?” Revan feigned mild interest when in actuality she wanted to grab the Justicar by the collar and demand answers. Another person had found their way to this galaxy. Not just echoes in the Force, but an actual traveler - a jedi, going by the limited description - had made the same journey Revan had and survived long enough to create her own order.

Which meant there was a possibility this unknown jedi had recorded the method she used and Revan might have a way to return to her home...

“The teachings were still passed down of course. They became the foundations for the Code and preserved by what would eventually be known as the Justicars.” Samara said calmly. “Though by your reaction perhaps these were not simple stories after all.”

“They are not.” Revan agreed. “These are tools used by Force users for recording and passing down all sorts of knowledge. But for your people to have one for years without being able to activate it once… That either means your species has a naturally weak connection to the Force, something I can sense isn’t the case, or…”

“Or?” Samara prodded.

“Or, there was an organized effort to make sure no one activated a holocron. An effort that would have to have been dedicated for hundreds of years at least.”

Revan was certain of it now.

Something in this galaxy was intentionally preventing the establishment of Force-users. Something that had a reach across an enormous amount of space and into multiple species. It didn’t require a large leap in logic to guess this was somehow tied to the Reapers, although it wasn’t clear if it was them directly or by some puppet.

Revan glanced down at the holocron in her hand.

Hopefully the innocuous blue box would hold some answers…