Infestation

"Now burn them all".

Sid awoke with a sadness that reminded him of his wife, who died 11 years ago.

He had a nightmare but only remembered those words. He saw the time is almost the time of starting work and as security Chief could not be late, luckily that night was left asleep with her hardsuit, so only wiped his face and went to work.

P708 is the name of the mining planet, was discovered by the Turians in the year 2173, found at the limits of the galaxy. Although slow to start it, since on its surface there is a radiation that can kill any organic in a matter of seconds and a sun at a few millions of miles from distance. This does not stop them from creating a network of underground tunnels and bunkers for workers, there was no radiation. Everything was by the almost inexhaustible amount of valuable minerals that existed on the planet. Due to the existing radiation it was almost impossible to communicate with the outside so every day a ship verified that everything was in order, P708 also had a strong military if any smuggler or pirate that happens you to step on the planet, it also served to military practices. That's what was, until now.

Now is the year 2175 and in the recent months it has expanded, so a human company offered its services, offering the best staff and labor force at the "best price".

He had already done with the first turn so he went to the dining room. While it pulled its portion, the asari cook asked him:

"In all this time, you've always been depressed. When are going to say that it is what happens to you?"

He did not respond.

"I have enough years to know that I should not get into the lives of others, so I will not ask more and will leave you calm"

"Nothing's wrong, Eve, thanks for asking".

When sitting, he began to feel dizzy and walk as he could to the bathroom, on the way began to feel hot, every step was tortuous, until I get to the bathroom, road the last steps to the toilet and vomited. He felt chills, took some pills, poured 4 on her hand and then he swallowed them. At least began to feel better.

In that moment it enters Eve.

"Not sure if you should be here" Sid said.

"If you look at the non-presence of urinals and the poster of the door that says ladies only, I should have asked"

He looked around and headed for the door.

"Everyone is worried about you" Eve said.

"This is my last day Eve, tomorrow I go back to Pavelen" responded with indifference.

"I'll miss you" then, Eve gave him a hug.

After he leave the bathroom, he listen the announcer that say: "canceled all activities on the surface of the planet".

At only a few minutes for his shift to be ended, he had a lot of work, even though that is his last day, he wasn't hurried to finish.

At that moment the computer screen went off - at least saved - he thought. It was his reason for leaving the office. On leaving office, everyone outside were scared and wondering: "what going on?" So, he went to the lower floors by stairs, as if someone called.

Through the halls, the staff commented:

"What is happening here?"

"All electronic equipment have stopped working, we have no communication…"

At entering the elevator, he pressed the button to take him to the last floor, the elevator began to descend, when the lights went out. He heard an explosion, the elevator was ready to fall into the void.

The elevator fell. It was falling very fast and it could feel like he was about to die. Was the last thing he remembers.

He was still alive… Upon opening his eyes, tries to stand up, but he is very hurt.

A voice on his radio rang:

"Hello? Someone on this frequency, I repeat, there is someone alive".

It was the voice of the announcer, it's hard to believe.

"Here, security chief, what's going on outside?" Sid replied

"We are reporting hundreds of casualties and the number continues to grow"

"What is really happening?"

"I can keep talking, but first you have to get out".

When he finally got out, the radio sounded again.

"Are you going to say that's going on here?"

"Creatures have come from the depths and anyone that comes into contact with them, become mad and start attacking others. For a change, soldiers from Cerberus took the port and anyone who trying to escape, they shoot to kill"

"Damn, I have to go back and help the others!"

"No, first you must stop the plagues, must go to the depths of the mines, there is the only place where you can stop them"

"[Sighs] well, where do I start?"

"You have to get the train".

He walked to stumble upon a laboratory. Came in to see if there was something useful and among all the clutter, found a recorder, turn on but only static heard, then, she came back to calling:

"Is something wrong? you should already on the train"

"I found this recorder, but only I can hear static"

"Mmm ... let see what I can do"

"But, how you gonna fix it, where are you?"

"I locked myself in a control room, from here I can do wonders"

"Well, but, before you do that, could you tell me your name"

"My name is Beatrix, and I think I fixed it, play it again".

Sid kindles on again the recorder and the static began to become words, but it was a language he had never heard before.

"I do not understand this idiom"

"It looks like a dead language, let me translate, go to the train".

He walked up to an open area, apparently they were carrying out further excavations. It continued, but something stopped him, couldn't move his legs, he saw an asari that it retained him with its biotic, however the asari was injured and could not move. Then, screams.

Several workers came running up to him, all possessed, one of them came armed with a hammer, was the first to leap on Sid, when he get to block him, try to take off the hammer, when he finally got the hammer, began beating him until he stopped moving.

Is released by the asari, take advantage of eliminating the others possessed, and then ran.

After leaving the place, he found the train, went to the cabin and made it work. The train started moving. Beatrix returns to call:

"You will not believe this! Although there are moments which fail to recover… just listen!"

They succeeded to bring down our mother ship. We fell on this planet ... we are still in the mother ship ... is irreparable...radiation ... very dangerous outside, so meantime we must stay here…

... We found a cave ... no radiation down here, maybe we can live there.

"Who is she?" Sid asked.

"I do not know, but it seems that someone was already living here long before his planet was discovered by you".

The train reached its destination, upon leaving, the guards opened fire against him, they are all possessed. So he had to cover behind some boxes. He decided to return to the train, but the train was returning to the place of origin. He understood, in his travel had no return.

"Beatrix, there is a slider door on my right, but seem closed, can you open it" Sid said.

"No problem" Beatrix respomd.

Upon entering, the door returned to close, he find a shotgun on the floor, so he picked it up.

He kept going and opening the door. Then, he saw that the place was full of corpses and an abomination walked through the place, about 10 feet tall, a bone protrusions from its body like an armor. Seeing Sid started running towards him.

Shot a couple of times and had to dodge it, one of the corpses had a grenade in his hand, so he picked it up and threw it to the abomination. After that explosion, was not moving anymore.

Someone was still alive, but lay bleeding to death.

"What you gonna do?" Beatrix said.

"I cannot do much, it is better to continue with my way, wait..."

He had in his pocket another recording, when turned on, only can hear static.

"Can you fix this?"

"Removing static... translating, ready"

We have several months living here below...

It is a miracle... does not have followed us here, it is hard to believe

"Who was pursuing them?"

"We will know when we reach the end of this, now you have to go to the test room is located below levels. Go down the emergency stairs".

Before leaving the stairs, he observed at the corridors had several abominations.

"What now?"

"Lately you are asking many questions… well, this will happen, i turn out the lights and point you out where you need to go.

The lights went out, he could not see anything.

"First get out of stairs"

"I would never have imagined" Sid respond with irony.

When leaving. Beatrix returned to give instructions: "Take two steps ... you have one in front, wait for it to move ... walk to your left until I tell you ... now, your right ... one comes direct your position, you have the left and right wall, choose one ... and , wait a bit ... you can continue… stop it, got to the front door, now comes the problem, the door opens with a code, so I have to reconnect the electricity, the code is 134993454502212001, when energy will return, do it fast".

The lights came up and began to mark 13 ... 49 ... 9...

"What next after 13499?"

"3454502212"

"And after 5?"

"What five?"

"The last!" Sid said in low voice.

"2212001"

The door opened and another recorder was found into a desktop.

"I see that you've found another one... ready, you can use it" Beatrix said.

We can do nothing… can control everything... turn us against ourselves... at least know to stop them, the radiation... If this does not work, only we have the option of...!

"Let me guess, the radiation did not work right?" Sid asked with irony.

"But can stop them, this is how we will get us to into the bowels of the planet"

"Where?" Sid is shocked

"Maybe I exaggerated a little, but we need to keep going down"

"We? I'm alone right now".

"We are both alone, l go with you on spirit"

"I thought this was just a boring mining planet, nothing more"

"There's your mistake, thought"

"All this time I've been thought about her, died because of me ... but his death opened my eyes, made me realize all the mistakes I had made"

"So sorry" Beatrix felt guilty.

"Did I say something about that once I was married?"

"Sid, you've fought for long time, who is waiting for you out there?"

"My daughter ... can we change the topic?"

"You'll be back to see her, that I can assure you"

"We were talking about radiation?"

"See those lockers, there is what we are looking for"

Found some suits that said "NBC hardsuit", opening the second found a gun, it seemed heavy, and had a note "CRB (concentrated radiation beam), before using not forget: use the NBC, eat at least one bar of iodine and keep out of reach of the eyes".

"You will need all that ..." Beatrix said "are you ready?"

"I'm ready, now what?"

"Can you see something, like a… teleport?"

"Yes, here is something here, but are ruins, are Prothean?"

"Most ancient and we will activate..."

"Wait! Who are you? How is it possible you know all this?"

"There is no time, we have to get out of here!"

"I will not move from here until you tell me the truth"

At that moment the abominations began to break down the door.

"We gotta get out of here, go to the command console and type Enable teleport!"

"When I get out of here, you'll must to tell me everything!"

When activated, began to emit lights and a buzz.

"Where are you taking me?"

"Get in the teleport!" Beatrix exclaimed.

Upon entering, saw how the room began to deform my, until it becomes flashes, then the lights began to take shape, he found himself in a cave, had the appearance of having been installations long time ago.

The site was lighted, but could not see the source of light

"I need you to tell me everything".

"Well ... during excavations we found some old installations, reportedly classified, an old civilization arrived in this planet, also says it they found with an entity calling itself IM. Now we need to get to his ship. Come on.

"Wait... I need to know something more"

"Ask me"

"Who...? Forget about it" he did not dare ask.

"Well, now we have to get to what was once his ship, there is a bomb, which they called zerox"

"what does that mean zerox?"

"Have you ever multiplying by zerox?"

"What so powerful is this bomb?"

"It will cause an implosion that would erase this planet… but, you remember when I told you will leave of this planet? At the time of to return on the teleport, will leave you at the port. Now follow the light".

At the walk through the caves and leaving behind the teleport, he heard a buzzing, from the darkness, and then appears a spectrum formed by a "cloud of insects". At the shooting with the CRB, the spectrum disintegrated. At that moment start to appear a lot of those specters, he had only run and shoots.

When he lose the track of the specters and continues advancing along the caves he found the gate, seeing no way to open it, Beatrix called:

"Try saying open sesame".

"I do not think so ..."

"Good news! I have detected other survivors, I need to tell them to open this door, in the control center, them where they are, they have to enter a code, is 635 323, then Send them the coordinates for the teleport".

[Calling]

"Hello ... is there anybody in this frequency...?"

"Who the hell are you?"

"Security chief…"

"Here, reported security guard, Drake...!"

"That will not be necessary ... is there more survivors?"

"Yes, I am here with Matthew, Eve and Kate"

"Eve… i need to open this gate, the code is 635 323"

"Matt have an excess of fingers, he will do it… may be useful for something"

"…MUST get out of here, go to the port, this planet will disappear!"

"What the fuck?"

"I will send you the coordinates, there's a teleport, get in and…"

At that time the communication is cut off and the gate opens.

"Beatrix, how was it possible for them to open this gate from their position? Answer me ... Beatrix? ..."

She does not answer, he spent several minutes trying to communicate with her.

He understood. The question he's had, it had responded, Beatrix was not what she appeared to be. It never was. She was no longer beside him and the way was long.

Further on, he found a crater, looking down he found the remains of a ship, big enough to carry an entire population inside, there some stairs. There remained only enter the ship.

On entering the remains of what was once a ship, only he had to find the bomb, the ship was big enough and did not have much time left. While walking around the ship, began to hear whispers, which turned into screams, dropped the weapon and ran, trying to escape his past, but now his past was their guide. It became unbearable, until he saw a room, which was on fire, he knew it was not real, but he did not know the reason he would go there.

Upon entering, the screaming ended, found himself in the cargo area with the bomb in front of him and another recording, switched it on.

It's so sad, we escape the hell of the reaper to fall into this hell. It is an injustice! We had succeeded peace, and had no wars, no conflicts, no fights! ... with all other species we succeeded the peace and prosperity. Only development we cared, even we worked to travel to another galaxy...

Hopefully have a happy ending, but I could not get zerox.

I'm trapped in these endless caverns, has been a long time, here the sense of time is lost.

I finally found the room, from here I can transfer my mind, maybe I can open a few doors from here, and then return to my body and activate zerox.

This is my last recording, I want to remind our heroes...

My name is Beatrix Pax and this was our cycle.

The bomb contained a strange language, but as he approached could understand it, so the active to detonate in a enough time.

Before left the room, he felt something behind it, he try to turn around to see what it was, but it could not, could not move.

Something attracted him with biotic and he could see it, a being without eyes, a big mouth and long tentacles on its head, seemed to have minds of their own.

"You're not Beatrix!"

"What once was Beatrix, is now one of our missionaries to help us spread our "word". However, you can call me IM"

"What ... what are you?"

"I am who I think, therefore I am"

"What is your purpose? Why are you doing this?"

"We were created to control any machine, alive being, everything. Our creators fought and fought against the reaper, until they came to the conclusion that the only way to stop them was creating us. They created us, but we were never free, locked into this planet. Then, arrived the others. We offered to help, but they did not accept to be our missionaries, we would have been free, but were responsible to destroy all useful technology. Our longstanding wait is over. Now we will leave from this planet and all will be one"

"This place will be your doom!"

"How can you destroy that cannot be destroyed?"

Then comes the group of survivors but Eve is not with them. Drake shoots with the CRB to the missionary, shot until the gun heated and dropped, but still alive. Everyone ran to the exit.

"Where is Eve?" Sid asked.

"She sacrificed herself for us" Kate said sadly.

"Her death will not be for nothing, we must now return to the teleport, this planet will disappear" Sid respond

"How?" Matthew asked

"Have you ever multiplied by zero? Now let's go, we're wasting time".

Before they came to teleport, Sid observes that Matthew had a recording. He requested, but was told that they had already tried that worked, only can heard static. He needed back to hear to Beatrix, was going to turn on, but instead took the other recordings and left all on the floor.

When the group gets into the teleport, the place was distorted, but Sid saw something else, Beatrix walks towards him. Her guise like an asari, but with her "hair" more longer. They were only the two.

"How long you were waiting?"

"Do not feel bad for me, we can say it was a very long dream"

"Thank you for helping me"

"Thank you for helping us".

At that time appear in the port, Beatrix was gone, she is free.

Soldiers from Cerberus are charging ships with containers.

"They must not leave this planet with these containers, finish with them" Sid said.

They started a shooting and when Cerberus soldiers died, with explosives destroyed all the ships of area, just left one to escape.

When they left the planet and watched as the planet exploded, has completely disappeared. Suddenly the ship changes direction, they could not fix it, controlling from another place, cut off the supply of oxygen. Nothing could do, they fell one by one.

Sid awoke on a stretcher and could not move or even speak, at that moment someone enters.

"All this time searching for you and you only have to come to me, isn't it amazing?

You probably do not know me, but I know that other people know, Shanxi settlers used for experiment, do you sound?, But it turns out that your story does not end here, let me show you something, you cannot imagine what it took to get it, is on a vehicle chase, is fun.

Look, you are here and in this other… well, never mind, now looks the shock that occurs here, which was escaping crash against another vehicle, I guess you know who was there, she was pregnant. Isn't it sad?

One question: did you think you could escape your past, hiding on this planet?

A lot of talk, lets introduce myself, I'm Dr. Adam and we have a lot work to do".