[Rec: 2(of individual 2)]

[Sub: G. Vakarian (vas Rannoch)]

[Interview Sub: Perseus Microswarm Incident]

[Timestamp: Sep 20th, 2188, 010:24AM, Standard Earth Time]

[Investigators Ryan Shepply, Bellanora Lysander]

[Interview Timestamp: 24:27]

[Audio Logs Accessed]

[Auido Logs Retrieved]

[Playing]

G.V: Thanks for the re-fill.

R.S: No problem. So, that was how it started?

G.V: To the best of my knowledge. The signs were all there that something was wrong. If I had paid better attention...

B.L: If you had paid better attention, you might have been the one who opened Liara T'soni's door that night.

G.V: ...

B.L: We do have some... very corrupt images from data sent by EDI before she went offline. We saw what happened to Specter Alenko.

G.V: Anything from Legion?

B.L: A little footage, yes. We know a few details, but hearing the story from the survivors will have the greatest impact on the council.

G.V: ... Alright. I was still calibrating, had my music on. If I hadn't, I might have heard him screaming. But as it was... I didn't notice the Crew Deck had been taken until half of everyone was either dead, screaming, or running.


Kaiden was kept up late by his headaches. He was prone to wander. So when a scream came from Liara's room, he was the only one up to hear it, the hour being as late as it was. He ran to the door, but it refused to open. He pounded on it, his biotics flaring up around him.

"Liara!" he shouted. "Liara, are you okay down there? Liara!"

He stood back, ready to blast the doors open with his biotics, but they opened before he could get the chance. His jaw dropped with horror at what lay inside.

Red cables and black nodes stretched and strung throughout the room, red and black like from the gates of hell. A dark pool of blood spread across the thresholds, and a hand stuck out from beneath the pile of wires, the young Asari's face just barely visible.

"Liara!" he rushed forwards, grabbing her hand and trying to pull her loose. Her eyes were glassy and-

Her eyes.

Wires burst from her mouth, trailing blood, snaking around her hear, digging into both eyes. More red blooms covered in dark blue blossomed across what little of her body he could see. He jerked back with a retch of horror, feeling dizzy.

But a wire growing from her hand had wrapped around his wrist. he jerked at it, trying free himself as panic blossomed like SIVA's cables. He saw more red, like veins, burst from the tendril around his wrist, and pain exploded as the cables dug under his skin. He screamed, trying to pull backwards, but the cables were a part of him now, and pulling just made it hurt more.

Kaiden had never experienced a pain like this in his entire life. The wires dug under his skin, under his muscle, punctured bone as they spread up his arm, distorting it in a manner both grotesque and fascinating. Wire burst out of his skin, red blood from red wire spurting everywhere.

The wire beneath his skin reach his torso, as he writhed on the ground screaming. How could nobody hear this?! Why would nobody help him? Why couldn't somebody just shoot him in the head and end it?

People did hear. Doors were opening. Pajama-clad crewmen rushing to arms. But it would do them no good. Kaiden's screams cut off with a vicious gurgling was the wires reached his throat, violent spasms shaking his body as it invaded his nervous system. As Kaiden Alenko died, and confused, horrified crew members watched his body twitch...

The remnant of Liara T'soni rose, one hand twisted into a gun fabricated by SIVA, her body now no more than a puppet.

And the massacre of the Crew Deck began.


His fourth loop of "Die for a Cause" ended just as he finished with his final set of work. He stood, brushing his talons off, mandibles parted in a smile as he nodded, satisfied at his work. he looked at the clock. 3:00 in the morning? Shepard's going to kill me for being a hypocrite. He reached up to his visor and turned his music off.

He turned his music off, and finally heard the screams. The lights flickered violently, and the sound of the Crew Deck systems powering down filled the air. He grabbed his Incisor off his desk, dread rising in him as he listened to the panic outside. What could be happening? What could possibly be going on that he hadn't noticed? Curse my stupid habit of blaring my music!

He opened the door, and nearly dropped his gun in horror.

Red swarms streaked through the area in swift clouds, red tendrils, cables, wires, spreading along the floor, spreading over and through the bodies, black, sharp nodes blooming from them. Red light, and the red blood of his human crewmates staining, pooling, splattering along and across the ground as some writhed on the floor, screaming in agony, and others tried to fight in a lost cause.

His muscles seized in fear and horror's grip. It was a nightmare. it had to be a nightmare. He had to have fallen asleep while working, he would wake up any moment now, he had to! This can't be happening! he felt like he might be sick, the world swaying beneath him. It just can't be happening! This can't be real!

"Garrus!" Chakwas' scream cut him out of his daze. She was backing towards him, eyes wide with terror, one of the flamethrowers from the weapons inventory in her hands, looking out of place as she used it to fend off the cloud of red particles that was flowing through the air towards them. "Garrus, get to the elevator! Run!"

he opened his jaws to argue, but had long since learned better than that; one never won an argument with Karin Chakwas. So he ran, and she followed, shooting bursts of flames at the nanites, and, to his horror, seemingly possessed bodies of those he'd known and cared for. He activated his omnitool, and created several overload bursts, scattering and destroying more red in their wake.

It was funny; he had almost held out hope that they both would make it. They were in front of the elevator. The door was opening. he'd thought they would both get away, safe and sound.

And then Chakwas screamed.

"NO!" he whirled, tried to grab her arm and pull her in, away from the red tendril that had sunk itself into her arm. She shoved him away with the most almighty kick her aging body could manage, and, eyes full of sadness, hit the button on the elevator.

"CHAKWAS!" he leapt to his feet and threw himself at the door, but hit only metal as the elevator made it's way up. Shaking, Garrus fell back, mandibles parted, unable to process what had just happened. He tried to breath, but found it nearly impossible. Because this reality was impossible. Why? What is this?

It couldn't exist.


"We've lost contact with the Crew Deck!" Joker told the Commander, who was still staring at the screen that had gone out.

The screen that had shown him the body of the woman he loved, used as a puppet to slaughter his best friend, and the crew that had stood with him. Joker's voice was cracked with grief was well. They had had to shut EDI down; she had tried to strangle the pilot. SIVA had used Liara's body to breach the AI Core.

Kaiden had stood up and started killing his crewmates.

"We can't contact Engineering, and shipside alert has been damaged. SIVA's blocking us! I've never seen anything like it, sir." the pilot continued. Shepard, eyes blank, turned to Legion, who was standing right behind him.

"Can you cut through the interference?" he asked. Several silent moments passed, the geth's head flaps flickering up and down, before he bowed his head.

"Negative, Shepard-Commander." he apologized.

"Sir, the elevator's coming up!" one crewman shouted. Carlton drew his assault rifle. SIVA would pay, for using Liara in such a fashion. He and many others rushed to the elevator, guns drawn, crouching, ready to fire at whatever came out. Shepard's eyes narrowed as the ping sounded, the elevator coming to a stop. The door opened, and weapons clicked.

And weapons lowered as Garrus Vakarian was revealed. The turian was sitting with his back pressed against the wall, eyes blank, body shaking. He looked up at them briefly before turning his gaze to the ground once more.

"Garrus?" Shepard approached, concerned, crouching down to bring himself to his friend's level.

"Shoot anything else that comes up from the Crew Deck, Commander." the sniper told him, voice shaking and angry. "I'm the only one that made it out."

Shepard blinked, clasping Garrus' shoulder with one hand. He knew too well what that was like, from Akuze. But he'd seen the footage from the CD, and that had been bad enough. He couldn't even imagine what it must have been like for his old friend, to be right there, among it, as it happened.

"Come on, buddy. Before they summon back the elevator."


And the Crew Deck is DOOOWN!

redcollector: Sorry, but I can't really understand your review, other than "SIVA is scary". Your grammar is a bit... unreadable. Sorry. *hopeless shrug*

jsm1978: Yeah, it's kind of hard switching to this from my normal insane, bombtastic, humor dispenser.

DarkRising32: This isn't so much about discover where SIVA came from, as it is about surviving the stuff and preventing a repeat incident.

Furious Titan: I kind of binge read it all.

Well, For those of you who haven't noticed, I posted the Sierra and Padfoot intermission oneshot. the next chapter of 15 Seconds is an ongoing and increasingly lengthy operation, due to school pressure. With this fic I just kind of throw it onto paper as a creative outlet whenever a freaking feel like it.

Next Time: The chaos reaches Engineering, and poor Tali's day gets worse.

Cheers!^^