Revenge - Part 2

Emi had explained to Bei about what had happened. The Reapers, Cerberus, the lot. Sparing no details, either. Thomson checked his watch. Only a few minutes until they'd reach Tuchanka.
The journey had been somewhat interesting, especially since he and Emi had disappeared into his quarters for an hour or so when they had left the Citadel. Luckily it was one room he insisted on keeping 100% clean.
Bei and Humin had repaired the weapon systems when they returned. Back to full functionality. They only had the armour and the shield generator left to repair.
Thomson's mind skipped back to the events concerning the Human-Reaper and Renswick. It almost seemed like a dream. Renswick had caused considerable damage to the ship, and he knew that the Falcon would continue feeling the effects of the fight for years to come.
And so was he. He had barely slept since the events of the two years previously. Nightmares haunted him. Plagued him. Always the same one.
In his dreams, he was walking through the Cerberus laboratory. White equipment dotted the walls. As he walked, a trooper would pop up from behind cover and shoot him repeatedly in the arms, legs and stomach. And as he would lay dying, the trooper would take off his helmet, revealing a face like that of the Human-Reaper. Big orange eyes and the mouth cannon. Then he'd wake up.
Emi on the other hand, seemed unfazed. In some respects, she was stronger than him when it came to recovery. She just seemed truly happy to be in a relationship with him, as if nothing else mattered.
He loved her so much.
There was a high pitched whine on board the ship which grew in both pitch and loudness, before it suddenly turned off.
"Armour and shields are online," Bei said through the intercom system, "We're back at full battle capacity, though there still might be some glitches. I'm not used to repairing a ship that is this damaged."
"Thanks, Bei," Thomson responded into his communicator, "Just in time, too."
Srateris was up in the cockpit flying the ship. Before they left, he had enquired about the location and status of the crew of the Falcon before it had been nearly destroyed, but they were all in different corners of the galaxy doing different things. It seemed Aquila Felis and her drone Butterfly were on the planet Rannoch helping the Quarians who had retaken their planet from the Geth. They were trying to increase their immune system so they could permanently live without their suits on their home world. The Geth meanwhile were sharing the planet with the Quarians after a war spanning hundreds of years. The fight with the Reapers had completely united the galaxy.
No matter how much Thomson thought about it, he was truly glad for the Reapers. Yes, a lot of people had died, but because the galaxy was now working together - tonnes more would be able to live without war.
Not only was there no war, but the entire galaxy was pooling their resources together to make sure that what happened with the Reapers could never be repeated. So no one would starve. No one would be without a roof over their head. No one would be without protection.
What had happened, in a way, was the best thing that had happened to the galaxy for thousands of years.
His old pilot, Max, was running a flight school for Alliance ships.
"Commencing landing procedures," Srateris said through Thomson's radio, "We'll be landing in about a minute."
Emi held his hand tightly as the Falcon passed easily through Tuchanka's barely-habitable atmosphere. There was a soft bump as the ship levelled out and touched down on the surface.
They had arrived.

The Falcon's cargo ramp opened and the team stepped out into the middle of a sandstorm. All but Bei and Emi were wearing breather helmets to protect them from the harmful atmosphere. They had all calibrated their shield generators to protect them from harmful radiation that the planet contained in its nuclear wastelands and radioactive ruins. It was a wreck of a planet.
The view that greeted them of the planet Tuchanka was an endless mass of sand, most of it in the air. There were no plants, no animals. Only sand and a blistering sun.
But it had not been created by the Reapers. Tuchanka was still feeling the effects of a previous war. A war that had been finished by a genetically modified disease to make all Krogan - the natives of Tuchanka - completely infertile.
The Genophage, as it was called, had been cured in a diplomatic attempt to get all the galaxy's forces together to attack the Reapers. But it didn't prevent the fact that Tuchanka was barely inhabitable. The only creatures, plants and animals alike, that still existed, were predatory.
It was a world where you'd eat or be eaten.
The team moved down the ramp in a "V" formation with Srateris, the most experienced out of the lot of them, in the centre. Those with guns - Thomson, who had the M-8, Bei who had the Reegar Carbine, Humin who had a Geth Plasma sub-machine gun, and Srateris who was armed with the Black Widow sniper rifle, swept their weapons back and forth and desperately searched for movement in the sandstorm.
Even under his armour, Thomson was starting to sweat. He had no heat regulators like the Quarians, which led to him feeling extremely warm.
"How far to the Reaper?" Bei asked. They had all disabled the audio filters in their helmets so no one could hear them from outside. They were communicating via the radios they had set where their ears would go.
"Not long. Now we're sure everything's fine we need to go and get the equipment," the Turian answered, "Humin, see to it as we set up camp. Night is falling already. Just tread lightly. You don't know when a Thresher Maw will pop up and drag you under ground."
Emi sighed, "... Why can't we just take the Falcon to the Reaper?"
"Because we're not strong enough to fight it in the ship. And we'd show up on its sensors. So far we are outside of its scanning area. And we're too small to show up anyway."
"So what will we do tomorrow?" Bei asked as Humin ran back up the cargo ramp and went inside the Falcon.
"I think we should do a quick recon operation. Go and see what we're up against. The Reaper will be alone. Damaged, most probably," Thomson said, "So let's go see it. Scout the area. It'll give us every advantage if things go bad."

Foolish creatures. They completely underestimated it. Victory had blinded them against the true power of the Reapers. They were by far in scanning range. Military formation was hard to miss in thermal vision, and the radio signals they were broadcasting was almost like giant lettering above them saying "We are open to attack."
But no. It would be patient. Take some time to get to know them first. Find their strengths and their weaknesses, their combat ability and how effective they were as a team. It would analyse them as they foolishly attempted to destroy it. Just to make revenge more personal.
They would have plenty of time to get to know each other.
As for being alone, it could change that easily. Get its own army ready to fight the small team.
It let out an invisible energy pulse. The pulse swept past Krogan by the dozen, a Thresher Maw, a carnivorous plant and a single Asari.
Despite the lack of people, when its sensors indicated that the pulse had been successful, a satisfying status update flickered across its mind.
[Indoctrination Device Active]