While Samael and Shepard went to confront the Reaper, LD, the crew, and the rest of the army were engaged with the Geth. Thanks to Veronica, Joker, and EDI holding back the Geth ships in the air, the troops that managed to bypass their defenses, hit the ground and suffered significant damage or were outright destroyed.
Still, the number of Geth on the ground was far from small, forcing LD and the others into a fierce battle. Thanks to the Shadow Broker 'selling' Illos location, as Samael requested, people started to arrive at the planet, either to watch things burn or to help. However, their numbers were too small to make a difference.
Deaths were inevitable, especially in a conflict of this scale. Although the med gel provided by LD was helping, casualties continued to rise.
In the midst of the conflict, two members of Samael's crew were particularly deadly: Thane and Kasumi.
Equipped with a cloaking device provided by Samael, which made them undetected by the Geth, and utilizing their assassination techniques, they were unstoppable.
They were working together, and Thane had nothing but praise, saying, "You are good."
Kasumi briefly uncloaked for a moment, killed a geth, and then cloaked herself once more before the other Geth around saw her. Then, an explosion occurred at the Geth carcass she just killed, resulting in damage to those nearby.
'' Thanks. I learned a lot from you.'' Kasumi said as she looked at Thane's feet. The ground around him was filled with Geth carcasses.
Since joining Samael's crew, Kasumi and occasionally Keiji had been training under Thane, which had improved their skills compared to the other assassins.
"Let's continue. We've dealt with a lot, but their numbers don't seem to diminish." Thane said, and Kasumi nodded in agreement.
The duo then returned to the battlefield to help wherever they could.
In another area of the battlefield, Tali, Liara, and RR were providing significant assistance. While the AI was initially meant to help against Sovereign, Samael asked her to support his loved ones, just in case. She not only helped them but also assisted everyone in need.
Without the jamming device functioning and the fact that the machines-creating-husks had been destroyed before they could even arrive at the ground, the enemy had lost momentum.
Compared to Thessia, RR was having a field day, and Grunt was too.
He had fought alongside Samael before, but now he found himself 'alone.' Well, not truly alone, as Wrex and Javik were with him, but it was his first battle without Samael.
Grunt showcased his might, dealing significant damage to the Geth forces.
Then the explosion of the Relay occurred, the Reaper survived and started to attack everyone with its beam, then finally, the Rods of God killed it for good, not leaving a single dust behind.
The battle continued after that, with the LD forces winning, as the Geth had lost their most significant support. The others who had been merely watching decided to join the fray, and soon the Geth were forced to retreat from the planet.
However, new problems emerged as the 'reinforcements' began eyeing the Geth carcasses as potential 'spoils of war,' unaware that some of them might be indoctrinated.
Samael chose to leave a few LD personnel, along with several Krogan and Prothean allies, to monitor the situation. Vigil would assist in this effort, as he was capable of detecting, even if in a basic way, if anyone had been indoctrinated.
Samael had even provided the same program that allowed Vigil to detect indoctrinated individuals to others, but its use still wasn't widespread. This needed to change in the future if they wanted to win this war.
Overall, Illos was set to receive a lot of attention in the near future, and a few dangers would emerge from it. LD had already warned everyone about the danger, they just needed to listen. That was the scary part, as everyone was looking out for themselves in this situation, which might cause a lot of trouble in the grand scheme of things.
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The battle of Illos concluded with a victory for the galaxy, but the war was far from over. The Reapers were advancing with full force, and time was not on their side.