AN:- I know I said last time that this chapter would be a predominantly Liara and Shep chapter, but then I changed my mind. I'm not sure whether this is verging on parody, or just is straight parody, but certainly a lot of the cliche conventions of Mass Effect are made aware of in this chapter.
Chapter Six: Commander Shepard, Galactic Cop
Shepard sighed and decided to let Liara in on the big secret, "They were wiped out by a race of sentient machines, the Reapers."
"The Reapers? But I have never heard of... how do you know this? What evidence do you have?" There was something cute about the way the asari got flustered at the new information.
"There was a damaged Prothean beacon on Eden Prime, it burned a vision into my brain. I'm still trying to sort out what it all means."
"Visions? Yes that makes sense, the beacons were designed to transmit information directly into the mind of the user, finding one that still works is extremely rare No wonder the geth attacked Eden Prime. The chance to acquire a working Prothean beacon, even a badly damaged one, is worth almost any risk." She frowned, suddenly looking very human, albeit blue, "But the beacons were only programmed to interact with Prothean physiology, whatever information you received would have been confused, unclear."
Seeing the scientist trying to work out the problem was fascinating, her nose crinkled up and the frown came and went depending on whether she had found a problem or a probable solution, "I am amazed you were able to make sense of it at all, a lesser mind would have been utterly destroyed by the process you must be remarkably strong willed commander."
Shepard was a little surprised at the last comment, looking Liara in the eyes. There was something there she liked the look of, something in the determined young scientist. Not the time Shepard, She chided herself, Time to save the galaxy now.
Alenko agreed, "This isn't help us find Saren or the conduit."
"Of course you're right, I am sorry my scientific curiosity got the better of me, unfortunately I do not have any information that could help you find the conduit or Saren."
Shepard wasn't perturbed; Saren didn't strike her as the type to throw his geth away on random attacks. "I don't know Saren wanted you out of the picture, but I think we'll be a lot better off if we bring you along"
The relief was clear on her face, She really is very young. Shepard realised. It was odd to think of the alien in front of her as being both a century old but equally about as mature as an older teenager, "Thank you commander. Saren might come after me again, I cannot think of anywhere safer than here on your ship, and my knowledge of the Protheans might be useful later on."
Wrex cut in, sitting next to Liara, and everyone looked a little shocked that he had spoken, "Her biotics will come in handy when the fighting starts as well."
"Welcome aboard," Shepard said, hoping Joker was already appending the data to the report, and to the Normandy's crew logs.
"Thank you commander, I am very grateful," She stood, and seemed about sai more when she suddenly put a hand to her head, "Ooh, I am afraid I am feeling a bit light headed."
"When was the last time you ate, or slept?" Alenko asked, "Doctor Chakwas should take a look at you."
"It is probably just mental exhaustion coupled with the shock of discovering the Protheans true fate, I need some time to process all this. Still it could not hurt to be examined by a medical professional it will give me a chance to think things over, are we finished here commander?"
Shepard nodded, "We can talk again after you've seen the doctor, the rest of you dismissed."
As they filed away Joker came back over the intercom. "Mission reports are filed commander, want me to patch you through to the council?"
"Patch them through Joker." She at least wanted to present the image of a good SPECTRE to them."
"Setting up the link now commander."
The asari councillor was the first to speak once their holograms had materialised, "We've received your report commander, I understand Doctor T'Soni is on the Normandy?"
The turian butted in before she could reply, "I assume you're taking the necessary security precautions?"
"Liara is on our side, the geth were trying to kill her."
"Benezia would never allow Saren to kill her daughter!" The asari protested.
"Maybe she doesn't know." The salarian said.
"Or maybe we don't know her." The turian councillor seemed determined to put a negative spin on everything. "We never expected she could become a traitor."
"At least the mission was a success."
"Apart from the utter destruction of a major Prothean ruin, was that really necessary Shepard?"
She rolled her eyes, grateful that the holograms weren't quite able to translate that expression in realtime, "The geth were crawling all over those ruins, we were lucky to make it out alive."
"Of course commander, the mission must always take priority."
"Good luck commander, remember, we are all counting on you."
She shut down the link and breathed deeply, the turian councillor still on her mind. She had a deep suspicion nothing she ever did would be good enough for that one.
She checked her journal during the walk to the Galaxy Map, trying to choose between the two other destinations she had been given. Feros sounded like it was little more than a backwater, and she couldn't quite figure out what Saren would want with it, but wading around in red tape on Noveria didn't sound like fun either.
When she reached the map Joker linked himself in, "I know we've got other destinations commander, but I'm picking up a distress signal on the Alliance military channel, it's coming from in this cluster."
"What's the signal?"
"Just an automatic repeater, nothing specific."
She frowned, her mission to track down Saren was important, but on the other hand she had a duty to help people, not only as a SPECTRE but also as an Alliance Commander. "I'm plotting a course for the distress beacon, tell everyone to get ready, we don't know what we're facing just yet."
The in-system jump didn't take long, but even as they were moving a channel opened from one Nassana Dantius, who wanted them to return to the Citadel. Shepard sighed and added the note to her journal. She wanted to return to the Citadel anyway, checking in with Udina and Anderson was probably a good idea, and it wouldn't hurt to talk to this diplomat while she was there.
She gave her crew a quick briefing in the cargo hold, "Okay, we don't know what we're facing down there, so I'm playing it safe. We're picking up an Alliance distress beacon, and that isn't good. Williams and Alenko are in the ground crew, same with Garrus. Tali and Wrex are staying here, and Liara is still too weak to join us."
"And I take it you're driving again?" Garrus asked.
"Yes, but I'd appreciate it if all snide comments were prefaced with, 'ma'am,' just for future reference."
He performed his head-tilt smile, "Of course ma'am."
"Saddle up and move out."
Edolus wasn't much to look at, wind-swept plains and dull yellow rock everywhere. The most exciting view was staring at the constant meteor storm, but even that was little more than an endlessly repeated fireworks display after a while. The beacon was easy to trace, and the mako made short work of the rough terrain.
A mako lay abandoned next to a transmitter in the middle of a wide plain in the desert, the bodies of marines spread all around it. There were track marks from the mako in the dirt, but little other disturbance. "I don't like this," Williams said.
"Disembark and look for anything," Shepard kept her own discomfort hidden, "Survivors, or some clue about what did this."
They pulled the mako to a stop a few metres away and got out, double-timing it over to the bodies. While Garrus started digging through the mako's logs, and Williams and Alenko policed the bodies. Shepard went to the transmitter and shut it down. "Anything?" She asked as she turned back to look at her people.
"This wasn't a geth attack," Alenko reported, still crouched next to one of the bodies, "In fact I don't think it was weapons fire at all."
"Then what did it?" She asked, marching over. She stopped in her tracks when she got a good look at one of the bodies. "Everyone, back to the mako, on the double."
She was already in motion, Williams and Alenko behind her. Garrus poked his head out from the other vehicle, "What's going on?" He yelled.
"Thresher Maw!" Shepard called back, "Get to the mako!"
That was when a gigantic head burst from the ground a dozen feet away, jaws opening to spit a glob of acidic venom at them. The globule landed between the humans and Garrus' mako, forcing the turian to duck for cover. Shepard threw herself behind the controls of her own mako, barely waiting until Alenko had dived in before starting the vehicle forwards in a curving motion away from the Thresher. She heard Williams and Alenko taking the gunnery positions behind her and pulled the tank into a sharp turn.
"Aim for the head!" She roared at Williams, who responded by pumping a shell into the Thresher's gaping mouth. It barely fazed the beast, which vomited another ball of venom at them. Alenko opened up with the assault gun, peppering slugs up and down its entire length, having even less effect than the munitions.
"Why won't it die!" Williams all but screamed as she launched another shell.
They don't die, they never die, they only kill. Shepard would have liked very much to shut down her own panicked thoughts, but at least if she concentrated on moving the mako she wouldn't remember the raw terror of facing the things on foot. Too late. The Thresher retreated, and she was struck with a vivid memory of Akuze, how just when it had seemed safe the ground had opened up underneath Toombs' feet and he had been swallowed hole.
The mako bucked forward and crashed down heavily onto its roof, the Thresher erupting from the ground behind them and swinging to stare at the tank. Shepard had ignored the safety harness and as a result was splayed across the mako, staring blearily at the viewscreen as the Thresher dove in for the kill. A scream echoed in her ears that she wasn't sure was a memory or reality when the Thresher jerked to one side, ichor gushing from its body.
Shepard gazed down at her hands, wondering why she could see blood on them. She hadn't been hit, but Torres had been torn in half, it was her blood that coated Shepard now, her blood that coated the inside of Shepard's mouth with a bitter copper taste. Vaguely she watched the Thresher jerk again as a slug tore off the top third of its head, then another opened a hole under the jaw.
"Get yourself in gear Shepard, I think I'm just making it mad."
That was Garrus. Garrus? Oh.
Shepard rolled onto her front and shook her head, the images of blood clearing from her hands and the bitter aftertaste leaving her mouth. Right, Garrus, Thresher Maw now, Edolus, not Akuze. She crawled back to the gun, ignoring the unconscious Williams, and pulled herself into the upside down gunner's seat, strapping the harness safely across her chest.
The motors whined as she tried to bring the gun round, pushing against the dirt the main turret was now embedded in, but she saw the reticule blink red as it centred on the Thresher's head, one wildly waving tentacle trying to throw off her aim. "On the count of three Garrus," She said, and heard him grunt a response.
"One, two, THREE!" The entire world seemed to shake as Shepard fired, the mako groaning in protest but still firing true, a slug the size of a tangerine on its merry way to the Thresher. At the same time the gun on the marines' mako roared as Garrus fired another heavy ordinance blast.
Whether by luck or skill, the slugs met in the centre of the Thresher's head, and the resulting explosion as the two hunks of metal met at near-light velocity was enough to send shockwaves rippling down through the Thresher's body, blowing it apart and raining sickly green innards over both vehicles and the bodies of the marines.
Shepard drooped in the harness, then gripped the edge of the seat and slapped the release buckle, letting herself drop down onto the ceiling, narrowly missing Alenko and Williams. She lay there and tried to breathe deeply, but her body wouldn't relax, her heart thundering so hard she thought her chest would split open. Her lungs worked overtime, and despite her best efforts her vision was going dark.
Torres, Toombs, Postle, Baldwin, I'm sorry. She blacked out with their faces still screaming at her, their mouths still contorted in the final agony of their last seconds.
"Shepard?" Garrus' calm voice woke her, and she opened her eyes to find herself propped against the inside of the mako, Wililams and Alenko next to her, with the turian crouched next to her. "Good," He said when she focused on him, "I was afraid of brain damage, and I'm no expert on human biology."
"Status report?"
"The Thresher's good and dead, the body's out there if you want to look. The Normandy's on its way down. I came in here to find you three sprawled all over the inside of the mako. I'd only just got you sitting when you woke up."
"How long was I out?"
"Well it's been about two minutes since you fired the gun. I assume that the shock of it must have knocked you unconscious."
"Must be," She lied, "I just remember firing, then nothing." An echo of a scream was still ringing in her ears. "What's the ETA?"
"Another four minutes."
"Right, well I think it'd be best if we just hang tight 'til then."
"Good idea Commander."
Back on board she spent the better part of an hour convincing Chakwas that she was in fact perfectly capable of leaving the infirmary, though she did insist on Williams and Alenko staying in bed. They really had been knocked unconscious, she only had some bad memories to deal with. She spent the next hour writing up her report, and trying to get in touch with Admiral Kahoku. Apparently he was on the Citadel, another job she would have to get done when she was over there.
She took a quick four hours of rest and headed out to the command centre, stopping in to make sure Alenko and Williams were progressing well. As she reached the galaxy map Joker patched through again, "I'm sorry to do this commander, but I've got another signal in this sector. I'm not sure what it is, but it's been pinging my systems for the last half hour."
Shepard resisted the urge to sigh, "Take us in Joker. I'll scout it out, but I'm not spending more than a half hour on this one."
AN:- To those who know, the other signal from Artemis Tau is of course the pirate base which has Nassana Dantius' sister. The next chapter (which really will be a Shep/Liara chapter) opens with the meal after that mission, which I think is going to be quite a common theme when I don't want to go through another fight scene. One of my many, many problems novelising this is the number of times you just storm into a random pirate base and kill everyone, and that would very quickly get old. The major action of this chapter was of course the Thresher Maw, which for my Shepard would be a fairly traumatic experience, and I didn't want to cheapen it.
I seem to be always complaining about my problems writing this, when I'm actually having an absolute blast with it. Seriously, this game is awesome, and I really can't wait to get to ME2, I've already got some really good ideas for that one. COMING UP: Liara and Shep fluffy goodness, a trip to the Citadel, Conrad Verner, Major Kyle, some soul-searching Kaidan, and a whole lotta gunfights.
Please read and review.
