Surging back to her feet, Shepard all but tackled the computer console, trying to force it back over the vent. The rachni had got a firm hold on it, however, and pitched it to the side as easily as a human might toss a ball. Shepard sailed along with it, hitting the wall hard enough to bark her air out, even with the hard suit.
As both she and the console crashed to the ground the bug surged out of the vent, only to meet a slam of Liara's biotics. Gasping for breath, Shepard rolled onto her stomach, rifle in hand, and opened fire.
"T-minus three minutes and forty five seconds," MIRI informed cheerfully.
"Tali!" Shepard coughed, getting to her feet as the bug went down. Two more were struggling to escape the vent, their hisses of determination filling the room.
The quarian didn't pause in her work, not even to respond, still frantically trying to get the elevator to unlock.
More gunfire. Chunks of carapace and meat flew around the vent in a rain of ichor as both Shepard and Liara tried to keep the bugs back. Though it was clogging with shredded body parts the rachni that were still alive simply continued to try and push out, forcing the remains of their predecessors out before them.
The cracking of glass turned her head. The rachni in the breeding room, drawn by the gunfire or the screams of their dying brethren, had noticed the windows. Several smaller ones were crawling over them but a larger one had figured out the odd transparency. As Shepard looked, it hit the window again with one of its appendages, the glass crazing wildly.
"INCOMING!"
In an explosive shatter, the window gave way and the large rachni thumped to the ground, sweeping toward Liara, who was closer. The asari tried to dance back out of the way, only to slip in the ichor coating the floor. Crashing back to the ground, however, saved her life, as the sweeping spiked appendage cut through the air where her head had been. Shepard's gun ignited and the appendages thumped to the ground, their tenticular supports shredding under the fire. Liara scrambled away, black gore splashing over her as Shepard turned her fire on the bug's eyes.
"Tali!!"
"I cannot get it, Shepard! There is no way to bypass the lockdown from here!" The quarian called back, terror in her voice.
"Get away from the elevator!"
"T-Minus three minutes and ten seconds," MIRI supplied.
The quarian abandoned the console and joined her gunfire to Liara's as they tried to keep the rachni from swarming in the now broken windows. As soon as she was far enough away from the elevator, Shepard unclipped a grenade from her belt and tossed it into the open car, not daring to halt her own gunfire in the mean-time.
A belch of fire swelled out of the elevator car, shattering the wall holding it into place. The explosion was hard enough to knock all three women down, and Shepard instinctively covered her head with her arm as broken concrete slammed down around them. One particularly large chunk crushed one of the smaller bugs as it made it past the window. The remaining rachni seemed slightly startled by the blast and recoiled a little, back into the breeding room.
Getting to her feet, Shepard immediately gripped Liara, hauling her to her feet and shoving her toward the now ruined elevator car. "Go!"
Pulling Tali up similarly, the three women limped back toward the elevator just as the rachni regrouped, started trying to climb in again.
"Cover me!"
As Tali and Liara lay down cover fire, Shepard turned toward the car, climbing over the debris and peering upward.
As she had hoped, the explosion had peeled the top layers of the elevator like a tin can. Beyond it she could see the shaft rising upward to a set of shielded blast doors, not twenty feet above them. There was no access ladder, but the design of the shaft itself offered foot and hand holds.
Turning back to the other two she grabbed Liara's arm just as MIRI informed they had only two minutes and thirty seconds left.
"Go, up the elevator shaft," she shouted. "Tali! Up the shaft! Get started on those blast doors!"
As the pair scrambled over the debris and into the ruined elevator, Shepard opened fire again, gritting her teeth as she swept her rifle first to focus on the vent, where smaller ones were pushing through, then to the window. She could not keep this up long. The sheer number of them would soon overwhelm the room as they climbed over the bodies of their dead. She stepped backward, keeping up the fire as Tali boosted Liara up on top of the ruined car. The asari immediately turned and grabbed Tali's hands, pulling the young quarian up after her.
Shepard turned and scrambled over the debris as Liara and Tali began to climb toward the blast doors, Tali already lighting her omni-tool. Risking a pause in her fire, she shipped her rifle and leapt up, catching hold of the edge of the broken elevator and hauling herself up. The eager shrieks below her immediately grew louder, and just as she was about to pull her legs up, she felt something snatch on to her ankle, pulling backward.
Grabbing frantically she caught a broken piece of metal, just barely stopping herself from dropping into the car again. The thing on her ankle tightened and whipped her slightly, trying to break her loose.
Gritting her teeth, she used all her strength to pull herself upward again, getting her torso over the edge of the car again before snatching for her pistol.
"Bastard," she panted, twisting just far enough to plant a bullet in the mouth of the rachni that had a grip on her. It shrieked and recoiled, the appendage whipping loose. Immediately she hauled herself up onto the car, and started to climb.
Above Tali and Liara had reached the blast doors, Tali working quickly trying to hack them. Liara, having braced herself precariously, managed to turn her own gun downward, started to fire at the rachni who were now trying to climb through the car itself and up the shaft after them.
"Shepard! Shepard, I got it!" Tali shouted as the doors reluctantly popped loose. Gripping hold of their horizontal edge, Tali began to physically force them back, to open the shaft enough for them to climb through the gap. As she disappeared from sight, Shepard risked a glance back down. She could no longer hear MIRI but knew they didn't have that much time.
Dead and wounded rachni covered the top of the elevator car, but more were pouring through, starting to climb after her. Looking up at Liara she urged, "Go!"
The gunfire stopped as the asari shipped her gun and grabbed hold of the doors, disappearing past them with Tali's help. Hands reached down as Shepard reached them as well, and she grabbed hold, letting them pull her in.
They were not nearly safe yet.
As soon as she was through the doors Tali began to work on closing them again. Bracing herself Shepard joined her gunfire with Liara's as they continued to pour death down on top of the encroaching rachni.
Seconds. There had to be only seconds left.
The doors suddenly hissed and jolted, sliding halfway closed. Shepard and Liara scrambled back from the gap as a rachni appendage swept through, eagerly dancing. Tali slammed her fist into the control and the doors finally snapped shut, severing the waving tentacle as if it were made of butter. There was an audible click as the doors latched, small lights on their surface turning green.
Collapsing back against the shaft wall, Tali was panting for breath, shaking. Shepard slumped back as well, heart racing as she let her gun clatter to the side.
A moment later a rumble shook the shaft around them, a heavy low growl as if from the bowels of the beast itself. Shepard's hand went instinctively to her radiation gauge on the neck of her hard suit, gripping hold of it as if it were a good luck charm. Several breathless seconds passed before the rumble died away, and silence filled the air.
Slowly, Shepard removed her hand. There was no sound from the gauge, and certainly her face hadn't melted and fallen off. The shielded blast doors had done their job.
"Oh good," she gasped, slumping back in relief, glad to be alive.
"Captain," the private saluted the grim-faced Ventralis as he turned away from the console. "The neutron purge has been activated. The hot labs have been…sterilized."
Ventralis nodded grimly. "That's that, then," he murmured. "Rachni drones and Commander Shepard, all in one go…just as Benezia had hoped. Damn pity. Shepard was a good soldier."
"Also, sir…Allestia and her men are dead. Apparently they attempted to corner Shepard in the bathroom and she eliminated them. Han Olar…that dazed little volus? He claims she was unarmed and unarmored when she did so."
"What? Bullshit. Allestia was a trained commando. Even if she were alone, there's no way that an unarmed marine could have taken her out. That volus is crazy."
"That is just what he says, sir. According to him, she killed them all with a toilet seat."
Ventralis looked at the man as if he was trying to convince him he'd seen a goddamn unicorn, and the private shrugged. "Just passing on what I was told, sir."
"Sir?" Another of his men near the console interrupted, drawing his attention. "Sir, you're never going to believe this."
"What is it?" Ventralis asked as he strode over, peering at the display as the soldier pointed.
"The blast doors on the lower level in the elevator shaft were hacked. I'm showing three thermal signatures."
"Impossible! You told me it was impossible to hack the elevator lockdown from the hot labs."
"Yes, sir, it is sir. They did not hack the elevator lockdown. However the individual blast doors in the shaft itself are on their own separate systems. They can be directly hacked on site, though how they got past the elevator car and into the shaft is beyond me…there's no access hatch."
"She must have made her own," he scowled. "Shit. How long before she reaches this level again?"
"Well, given how fast they hacked the first doors, give it…a minute for each door plus climb time, not taking into account exhaustion or any wounds they might have- I'd say we got a minimum of about five minutes before they reach this level again."
"Pack up!" Ventralis barked at the room in general. "Fall back. I want those civilians cleared out, that room is far more defensible. Move it people! We got about five minutes before an Alliance Spectre is crawling up our asses…and chances are she's going to be in a really goddamn bad mood."
For a long while, the three women lay scattered on the blast doors like broken dolls, simply trying to catch their breath and come to terms with the fact they were still alive. Shepard sat, looking upward along the dim shaft above them, noting another set of blast doors a further twenty feet above.
"Shepard, I'm sorry," Tali sniffled, still trembling. "I-I couldn't get the elevator working, I tried, I did, but…"
"Hey, enough of that," Shepard said, not unkindly. Sitting up a bit she reached over, taking hold of the quarian's hand and squeezing it lightly. "Far as I'm concerned, you just saved our asses. I won't take apologies for that."
Another sniffle. "I-I guess…"
Shepard pat her hand, then bussed a hand briefly over the top of her helmet, before she looked over at Liara. The asari was sitting, knees drawn up, looking a bit pale. A dark wash of blue covered one cheek, spilling from her temple.
"Hey," Shepard murmured, rising enough to move over and crouch in front of her, taking her chin and scrutinizing the wound.
"It is nothing," Liara murmured. "Just a scratch."
"Yeah…it's not too bad," Shepard agreed. Tali passed her a scrap of gauze and a small pack of medi-gel, and Shepard began to mop up the blood, clearing it away as best she could before popping open the gel and applying it to the gash.
Noticing Liara's far away, fixed gaze, Shepard gently hooked her chin. "Hey, stay with me, T'Soni. You can't shut down on me now."
"I am…I am just tired, Shepard," Liara answered.
"You're exhausted, physically and emotionally," Shepard told her. "We all are. But…minds on recreation, and all that."
She was gratified to see the faint smile, to see the blue eyes come into slightly better focus. She grinned, finishing with the cut.
"There, you're all set."
Looking over she saw Tali was on her feet, looking upward as well. Shepard followed her gaze. "Think you can hack those doors too?"
"It should not be a problem," Tali replied. "It is just going to take time. It will be much easier without the instant threat of death making things interesting."
Shepard snorted her agreement, then helped Liara to her feet. "Might as well get started then. There's an ass up there that seriously needs my boot shoved up it."
Vision slowly swam back, dragging consciousness along with it. The room was a sickening, unfocused swirl of color and vague shapes. He became aware of the heavy weight in his chest, the burning pain, and coughed.
Blood. The taste of it filled his mouth. Rolling weakly to his side, Ventralis's eyes landed on one of his squad. Lifeless eyes stared back, half the man's skull missing.
Feeling consciousness want to leach away again he closed his eyes, trying to maintain his hold. He was a bit surprised to be alive. Shepard must have thought he was dead, else she'd have put a bullet in his brain to assure it.
He was right. The woman had been pissed when she reappeared…and after the mess she and her two companions had made of his well-armed and armored men, he was beginning to believe Han Olar's story about the toilet seat.
"Shit," he rasped out, struggling to open his eyes again. He was hurt, bad. She'd left him for dead but the way it felt, he was going to be dead in a few minutes if he didn't manage to get this bleeding stopped.
He heard footsteps, and lifted his head. A figure was approaching, little more than a blurred shape. As he struggled to focus it drew nearer.
His eyes widened in recognition as the human woman stopped at his feet. Graying blonde hair, a narrow, suspicious gaze. She had a pistol in her hand as she grimaced at him.
"O-Osco?" he rasped in shock. "How did you-"
Gellian aimed her pistol and pulled the trigger, watching dispassionately as the back of Ventralis's skull evacuated, the man falling still.
"You should have let me dock," she growled at the corpse. "Bastard."
The echo of gunfire faded in the corridor, the large rachni collapsing as Liara released the biotic field, allowing it to fall. Lifting the bugs with biotics and gutting them with gunfire while they were helpless in the air had become their stratagem of choice, but in all honesty, Shepard was sick up to her eyeballs of the damn things.
"I hope there are not too many more of them," Tali lamented, evidently sharing Shepard's sentiment.
"I do not think there will be," Liara said wearily. "I think that most that escaped through the vent system have been dealt with. And they would not have left the facility due to the blizzard."
"Keelah, may you be right. I never want to look at another bug again."
"I'm about fed up with this whole damn planet," Shepard grumbled, clearing the corridor ahead before jerking her chin toward the lock for the door at the end. "Tali, you're up."
The quarian stepped over to hack the door lock. She had it open in seconds, and the moment a gap appeared Shepard had her gun up, more than ready to put a bullet in the face of anything that dared show it.
When nothing immediate presented itself, she stepped in, clearing the corners as Liara and Tali followed.
The room was large, the floor grated metal. A large platform and some kind of enormous tank dominated the center of the space, and the dim lighting coupled with the easily dozens of places to hide put Shepard instantly on edge.
As they eased forward, there was motion on the platform. All three weapons snapped to focus on it.
The asari woman came down onto the steps with a casual grace, the hem of her scarlet dress long enough to brush the ground at her heels. She regarded them as a queen would her court, one hand resting on the railing of the stairs. Shepard did not need to hear Liara's sharp intake of breath to figure out that this was the matriarch herself.
"Commander Shepard," the woman greeted, before her gaze shifted to Liara. "I shall not be swayed, no matter who you have brought with you."
"Liara's here because she wants to be," Shepard retorted. The woman didn't seem to have any weapons but Shepard knew that Benezia was a biotic, and doubtless a immensely powerful one at that.
"Please…we just want to talk," Liara urged. Benezia's faint smile held no warmth or affection…she may as well have been addressing a complete stranger.
"You are a naïve fool if you think there's even a chance at diplomacy," she scoffed, then turned her gaze to Shepard again. "Have you faced an asari commando unit before, Commander? Few humans have."
Shepard's eyes narrowed beneath her helmet as she ratcheted a fresh heat sink into place. "Bring it."
A breath later and all hell had broken loose. The commandos seemed to come out of nowhere, a dozen fully armed and armored asari warriors that swept around the platform, weapons blazing.
More than once, both in boot and afterward, an old turian saying had been drilled into Shepard's head. The asari are the finest warriors in the galaxy, it went, then concluded, fortunately, there are not many of them.
Even so, the dozen that appeared seemed to her to be an immense amount, especially considering each one had probably been training at combat longer than Shepard had been alive.
"Find cover!" she barked at her two companions, and both leapt to find shade as Shepard opened fire. Her shields were flaring madly as bullets were reflected, and almost immediately the overload warning started to flash. A few more shots and she'd be as dead as disco.
She broke left, running as fast as she was able, skidding behind a stack of metal crates like a zero-g baller sliding in for home. Sparks spanked off the ground only inches away as the asari followed her with their gunfire, and almost the moment she was concealed from view, the crate shimmered with a blue aura, and began to lift.
Laying flat, Shepard flung her arm out along the ground, sending a grenade skipping and rolling toward them. The crate suddenly dropped as the startled asari lost her concentration, slamming back to the ground and missing her arm by mere millimeters. The room lit up with the loud, coughing bark as the grenade detonated, and instantly Shepard darted out from her cover, opening fire once again.
Liara tried to keep her cover fire going, as hard as it was to see in the smoke. She didn't know where her mother had gone, but she did not seem to be actively fighting.
Spotting one of the commandos she used her biotics to lift the woman in the air, flinging her against a wall. Armor and shields softened the impact, the commando barely dazed as she scrambled back up to her feet, aiming her weapon at Liara's hiding spot. The young archaeologist ducked back just in time to avoid losing her face.
Nearby, Tali was working her omni-tool frantically, not even bothering with her gun. Catching sight of her, Liara hissed, "What are you doing?"
"Trying to overload their shields," the quarian replied urgently. "I'm nearly there…"
Liara squeaked as she was suddenly grabbed by an unseen hand, lifted into the air. The commando she'd tossed had snagged her with biotics, and was now holding her helplessly suspended. With a smirk, the commando flung her arm and Liara sailed through the air before crashing into the wall herself.
Something else exploded nearby as Liara slammed into the ground, coughing and gasping in pain as she tried to reorient herself. She heard the firm tread of boots and then was grabbed again, shoved back into the wall. She saw the commando grin at her as she held her pinned, hand wreathing in blue as she drew back her fist, prepared to tear Liara apart.
Suddenly blood flashed from her throat, spraying over Liara's face-plate, making her gasp in surprise. The commando's grip went limp and her eyes rolled back as Shepard ripped the knife out of her neck.
As the commando dropped, Liara started to sag. Catching her, Shepard half-shoved her back the other way. "Let's go!"
Trying to run through her daze, every bone in her body aching from her slam into the wall, Liara could see only smoke and confusion through the smears of blue on her helmet. Something hissed past her head and she lifted her pistol, firing instinctively. A commando slammed dead to the ground, most of her forehead gone.
"Holy …nice shot!" Shepard lauded in surprise.
Though it had been pure chance, Liara coughed, "I'm a bad ass, remember?"
"Stay down," Shepard barked a moment later, urging Liara behind the solid railing near the stairs. Dropping near her, she fired up the stairs, each shot sounding like a cannon going off.
Get hold of yourself, Liara!
Shaking her head sharply, heart pounding, body aching, she struggled up into a crouch, putting her back to Shepard's in order to cover the exposure. The pistol in her hand felt like it weighed a hundred pounds, and she had no idea where Tali was…or how many commandos they still had to contend with.
Then there was a flare, and a half dozen snapping sounds echoed around them…far too high pitched to be gunfire.
"What the hell?" Shepard hissed quietly, a breath before Tali's voice lifted out of the gloom.
"I did it! Their shields are down, Shepard!"
"Tali, move!" Shepard barked in alarm.
Shouting out from cover was a rookie mistake, and sure to get you killed even when facing the stupidest of mercs…and these were hardly stupid mercs.
Spotting a flash of motion just before the commandos lit up the area with gunfire, Shepard pulled her rifle around, sweeping bullets over the asari. Two fell immediately; with no shields and wearing no helmets, nothing even slowed her shots to their skulls.
Drawing on her own reserves, Liara flung a crate at the others, sending one to the ground and jarring another as Tali darted away.
Rising, she ran toward the quarian, hearing the echo of more gunshots behind her, the sound of splashing wet and the heavy thump of something hitting the ground.
Then, all forward motion stopped. Once more Liara found herself held off the ground in a throb of biotics. She braced herself, expecting to be flung into the wall again but such an action did not occur. Staring in horror, she noticed Tali being similarly held, just as helpless, only feet away.
Turning her head, she saw her mother. The matriarch was standing on the platform again, hands uplifted as she kept the two young women suspended. From this vantage Liara could see the dead commandos scattered here and there, and one still moving figure in N7 armor as it advanced on the matriarch, rifle sites fixed on her head.
Shaking, Liara risked a glance directly downward. The room was tall enough that they were of a significant height above the floor…a height almost certain to be crippling, if not deadly if they were dropped.
"Lower them," Shepard snarled at the matriarch over her rifle. Up this close she could see the woman's face better. The similarities to Liara were there, but her features were harsher, sharper. She seemed haggard, eyes sunk in dark blue hollows, as if she suffered some kind of illness.
"Pull that trigger, and they fall to their deaths," Benezia warned.
"Damn it, that's your daughter," Shepard spat back. "Does that mean nothing to you?"
Motion behind the matriarch caught her attention, but Shepard didn't dare move her eyes away from the crazed bitch. Out of her peripheral vision she saw one of the commandos lurch to her feet, shuffling forward weakly.
The woman had to be nearly dead, judging by the gaping rent in her armor, the dark sheen of blue down her side. She was pale, unfocused, but seemed intent on the matriarch.
"All who stand in our way will die," Benezia intoned. "Lower your weapon, Commander. Surrender to this with some dignity, and I won't let them suffer."
"Fuck. You."
Behind Benezia, the lurching commando suddenly half fell into her, flailing her arms around the woman weakly. It almost looked like she was trying to attack the matriarch, though her strikes were ineffectual. It was enough, however, to startle the woman. As she whirled, pushing the commando off of her, the biotic bubbles holding Liara and Tali in the air vanished. Shepard spun in a panic, eyes wide as she watched the two plummet downward.
"NO!"
Drawing on all her energy, Liara's own biotics flared brightly. Thrusting out a hand toward the tumbling quarian, she enveloped her with blue energy even as she cushioned her own fall. Landing on her hands and knees sharply, but unharmed, Liara lowered Tali carefully to the ground beside her. Exhausted, she couldn't even manage to stand, but cried out in alarm toward the commander, who was staring at them.
"Shepard! Look-"
That was a damn fool thing to do, Shepard berated herself as she turned back toward Benezia in what seemed like slow motion. There are goddamn new grunts who know not to turn your back on a dangerous, active enemy, no matter what is going on behind you!
She should have planted the shot the moment Benezia had been distracted. Should have taken her out without hesitation, eliminated her threat instantly with one trigger pull. Instead, she'd spun around like a damn four year old toward her falling friends, leaving herself completely exposed.
She didn't even get her rifle back up before a wall of biotic energy hit her like a damn MAKO. She literally heard her armor crack under the blow, felt the shockwave pulse through her body with muscle-wrenching force. Pain, sharp and hot, immediately cut her breath short.
Railing bent as she struck it with her lower back, sending waves of pain like an electric shock radiating from the area as she flipped over it, crashed face-down on the ground.
For a blessed moment she lay there still, unable to move. Some clinical part of her was assessing the damage. Cracked ribs, if not broken. A hell of a lot of internal stress from the concussion wave. Possibly she'd fractured her pelvis a bit when she hit the railing.
Sensing her injuries, the emergency measures built into her suit drove thin needles into her arms. She barely felt them, like the distant sting of a biting fly. Slowly the pain began to fade as the injections took effect, and she found her breath again.
Weakly pushing herself up, she reached for her pistol just as Liara got to her side, grasping hold of her.
"Shepard!"
Half hunched, she focused on Benezia, lifting her weapon.
How were they not dead? The moment she'd hit her, Benezia should have finished them off. Shepard had been down for the count, Liara exhausted, Tali dazed…it would have hardly been an effort.
The woman wasn't even trying to attack them. She was, in fact, sitting on the platform in a crumpled, weary posture, the now limp commando at her feet. Head hung, shoulders curled, the matriarch made a faintly choking sound. Shepard's brows knit as she realized the woman was, in fact, crying.
"Mother?" Liara ventured, taking a step forward. Shepard immediately snatched hold of her arm, stopping her.
"Liara, I'm so…I'm so sorry," The matriarch looked up at her daughter and for the first time since they'd set eyes on her, there seemed to be a real person under her features. Where before her eyes had been cold, now there was no lack of love and misery swimming in her gaze.
"Mother…why?"
"I didn't…didn't have a choice," she answered. "Shepard, please…I do not have much time. You must listen. I am not myself. I managed to…to hide part of my mind from his will but it is small and I cannot hold out long."
"His will?" Shepard asked warily, not lowering her gun. She suddenly remembered what Tali had found from the geth data she'd examined in the CAT, something about mind control. "Are you saying Saren is controlling you?"
"I thought I could temper him, guide him on a gentler path…as I had Gellian," Benezia explained. "But…there is something wrong…with him, Sovereign…I began to lose myself, piece by piece. Instead of the ramblings of the mad his plans began to make sense, to even seem right…whispers in the dark, so many whispers…"
"You're not making sense. Just slow down and tell me what happened," Shepard urged.
"There's no time, Shepard. I can feel his claws, growing sharper…Saren is looking for the Conduit. He is trying to raise an army, but that is not why he funded the project with the rachni. The queen…she retains the memories of her species, going back before the rachni war. We know the Conduit lies beyond the Mu Mass Relay."
"The location of the Mu Relay was lost," Shepard snapped.
"Yes, but the rachni knew where it was," Benezia said in a hush. "I took the information from the queen's mind, I…I was not gentle."
Her trembling hand lifted, and pointed at small case sitting on a shelf nearby, a dead PDA resting atop it. "I sent him the coordinates just before you entered, wiped the PDA…but I have them saved on an OSD, I-I managed that much. You must find the Conduit before he does."
"What is the Conduit? What does it do? Why does Saren want it?"
But it was too late. Almost visibly, Shepard could see that flat, dead expression seep back into Benezia's eyes, watched that misery give way to a cold, calculating smirk.
Slowly extending her free arm, Shepard held it in front of Liara as her glove creaked faintly, other hand tightening on the grip of the pistol.
Suddenly Benezia surged forward, leaping to her feet with a snarled, "DIE!", hands igniting with blue fire, murderous intent.
Shepard fired, smoothly pulling the trigger five times, her lashes barely fluttering with each flat burst from her weapon. Benezia coughed and gasped as the bullets tore through the chest and stomach of her dress. She faltered and started to stumble forward, the light fading from her hands. As she collapsed Liara made a sound, a grief-stricken wail of agony that cut Shepard to the core.
She dropped her arm as Liara pushed past her, rushing up the steps onto the platform, shedding her helmet as she went. "Mother! No! No, Goddess…please no!"
Blood stained the ruined front of her red dress a deep purple as Liara threw her helmet aside and dropped to her knees, gathering the matriarch in her arms. Trying to focus, Benezia looked up into the miserable eyes of her little girl.
"Mother, please…we'll get you help," Liara sobbed, stroking her face. Reaching up a hand, Benezia managed to tangle her fingers in her daughter's.
"I'm so sorry," she breathed, her voice little more than a vague escape of air. "I was always proud of you, Little Wing."
"Don't go," the young asari begged, cheeks slick with tears. "Please…don't leave me."
"Never," Benezia smiled, before she was too weary to draw another breath, the pain fading away into black.
"No," Liara whimpered as she felt her mother's body grow limp, eyes glazing. Her lungs and chest ached with sobs as she clasped the woman to her, hugging her tightly. "Oh, no…no…"
She was vaguely aware of a form that came to her side. Lifting her head she sniffled, blinking. Shepard stood there, pistol in her right hand pointed at the ground, her helmet held in her left. Her brows were knit, eyes glossed as she stared down at the two. Liara felt anger flare up in her, unexpectedly hot.
"You killed her," she accused through hitching breaths, then grit her teeth as Shepard met her eyes. "I hate you, Shepard. I hate you for this."
Shepard's jaw tightened and she looked away, nodding ever so faintly before she shipped her pistol. The light on her belt was steady now, issuing a faintly annoying beep. That biotic blast from Benezia had finally finished overloading her shields. Tossing her helmet down, she switched the unit off, both light and beep fading away. Damn thing would have to be repaired before the shields would work again.
She walked over to the case and the PDA, fishing out the OSD that Benezia had indicated. As she did, Tali moved in and sat down at Liara's side, winding an arm around her shoulders, trying to comfort the grieving daughter.
Tucking the small disc away, Shepard's eyes fell on that dark, battered tank that dominated the platform. Unable to see inside, she stepped closer, wiping a hand over the glass and peering within. A vague shape, as large as a draft horse, moved in the gloom. Squinting, she noticed an HI nearby and stepped over, accessing it. Several control options scrolled by. She halted her finger on the one indicated 'lights' and selected it.
The tank illuminated, casting the creature within into view.
It was huge, no doubt…a massive insect that easily dwarfed the ones they had killed on the way here. Its black eyes glistened at Shepard with a frightening intelligence. Shepard peered back with a grimace.
This had to be the queen.
"Keelah!"
Tali's sudden gasp drew her attention, and Shepard whipped around, snatching out her pistol as she did so. The dying commando, the one that had tried to attack Benezia, was once again struggling to her feet. She was so pale she was almost white, eyes glazed as she limped forward, ignoring the quarian and asari girl nearby and focusing on Shepard.
Taking half a step back, Shepard grimaced in confusion, half lowering her gun. The commando was hardly a threat. She looked like she'd fall over if Shepard so much as tapped her on the shoulder.
The commando made no move to attack, her eyes sliding away from Shepard and fixing on the tank as she struggled forward, then stumbled to a halt. Turning her head, she looked at Shepard but did not truly seem to be seeing her.
"Please," she spoke, and Shepard jolted back another step. The voice was both a breathless whisper, and yet somehow strong and radiating inside of Shepard's head. From Tali and Liara's exclamations she knew they were hearing it the same way. "Please, let us out…"
"Who are you?" Shepard demanded.
"We are…the Mother…" the commando replied. Inside her head Shepard heard it again, sensed odd shimmers of color, bursts of shine that radiated outward with each syllable.
Glancing back at the tank, then at the dying woman, Shepard's gaze narrowed. "You're the Rachni Queen. You're controlling this woman, aren't you?"
"Yes…her song is fading…I cannot save her, but her voice sings with mine now, let's me sing to you."
"Is that what this is? In my head? Your singing?" Shepard demanded.
"Yes…our songs are of colors, of music. Our Mothers sang to each other across the stars. We heard the broken songs of the Children die under the fire."
"Yeah, I killed them," Shepard grumped. "They were slaughtering people, attacking us. And now you want me to let you out?"
"No, it is good that you stopped their singing. The Children were broken, taken away. They did not learn how to sing as they should. Their colors were tainted, their notes sour. There was no hope for them."
"It's glad we killed its children?" Tali asked, surprised.
"You're dangerous," Shepard retorted, shifting her gaze from the commando to the giant bug watching her from behind the glass. "Your people caused a war, slaughtered tens of thousands before the krogan put them down. And your 'children' didn't convince me that your extinction was a bad thing."
"The songs of our Mothers were pure, and then they were darkened by a sour yellow note. Their voices became discordant, their colors changed. Their song is done. We will teach our Children the pure song, we shall show them the true rainbow. We do not wish harm to any. We grieve our Children but it was right that you brought them to the fire. They were cursed to the darkness, the colorless and music-less land."
Tali had eased away from Liara and now came to Shepard's side, lightly touching her arm. "Shepard, look…that tank is designed to flood with acid. A single button push is all it would take."
Shepard peered where the quarian pointed, noting the hoses, the hazard stickers. Pursing her lips she tilted her head toward Tali. "What do you think?"
"I don't know Shepard. She could be lying. The rachni are extremely dangerous and as you said, nothing we saw here proves otherwise. But…her story could be true. History shows us that the rachni were advanced enough to have ships, space travel. Tell me…those rachni we fought to get this far. Did they strike you as capable of space travel?"
Shepard had to concede that. The bugs in the facility had seemed more or less mindless, bent on the attack. They had used obvious routes of travel such as the vents, ignoring doors. And they had continued to simply throw themselves on gunfire in mindless fury…even animals learned not to poke their noses where it hurt. That hardly jived with a race intelligent and cooperative enough to build a society, to reach the level of space flight.
Glancing past Tali Shepard looked at Liara, who still sat upon the platform, cradling her mother's dead body. Tears shone from her cheeks, her eyes darkened from her crying, but she was watching them in silence. Her eyes met Shepard's before her face seemed to crumple a little, and turn away.
It's one thing when they can fight back, Liara's earlier words returned to her, from when they watched the rachni drones die in the contamination chamber. It's another to watch them helpless and trapped.
You…do not think that you have a good heart?
I was right. I have seen too much death.
Tucking her pistol away she turned toward the controls again. The queen in the tank watched her closely, black eyes glimmering. Ever so faintly, Shepard could see the tiny feelers around her mouth trembling, and when the 'voice' came again, speaking both in her head and from the commando, Shepard could sense a tremor of fear, echoing through a burst of dark orange.
"Will you let us sing once more?" the queen asked. "Or is our song to fade away again?"
Shepard scrolled through the commands, finding the one she wanted and highlighting it. Her eyes lifted, meeting the inky black ones through the tempered glass.
"Don't make me regret this," she snarled in a low voice. "Or I will hunt you down and mount your head on my fucking wall."
She pushed the button. The door to the tank unlatched, swinging free, a tunnel extending from the far wall to join with the entry way.
The queen turned toward it, then turned back toward Shepard.
"The Children will sing of your greatness," it sent in joyful sprays of yellow and violet. "We shall remember your color always."
Turning, the enormous insectoid moved with a surprising grace as it hurried away down the tunnel, vanishing from sight. As it did, the commando suddenly wavered and then collapsed to the ground, lifeless eyes staring vacantly at the ceiling. Stepping back, Shepard looked down at her, then over at Liara again.
"I hope you did the right thing," Tali murmured, setting her hand on Shepard's shoulder before she turned and went back to Liara's side, crouching down.
"Yeah," Shepard grunted. "Me t-"
Something snapped through the air, a low drone like an angry wasp. The chest-plate of her hard suit ruptured in a blooming flower of reinforced metal, cutting off her sentence in a pained grunt. The low bang of a rifle-shot echoed through the room a millisecond later.
Her breath suddenly cut short, Shepard stumbled back, crashing against the tank console, then dropping into a sit hard on the metal grating.
"No!"
Liara's cry barely cut through the swimming gloom that threatened to overwhelm her. Tali, having spotted a form running for the door, bolted to her feet, drawing her gun as she ran at full speed in pursuit.
Struggling, Shepard managed to draw in an agonizing breath, the world seeming to clarify and solidify once again as she got oxygen.
Cursing hoarsely, she managed to get hold of her pistol, tried to get to her feet. Dizziness swarmed her and she dropped to one knee instead, even as Liara grabbed hold of her, trying to restrain her.
"Don't!" Liara sobbed, clinging to her. "Don't…d-don't move…"
"Tali," Shepard coughed, every breath feeling like it had been lit aflame. "She's gonna get herself killed."
"Don't move!" Liara ordered again, sounding both frantic and furious.
"Then go…help Tali!" Shepard snapped back, eyes swimming. Liara all but forced her down into a sit, then nodded her head.
"Yes, just don't move," she urged, then pulled her own weapon and rose, pelting out after the quarian.
Shepard coughed, leaning back against the console again as she fought to catch her breath. Grimacing, she gingerly began to work the connections for her breastplate.
Pain lanced at her in hot jabs and she growled through clenched teeth as she managed to work it off, letting it fall to the side.
Her hand quested up and found her uniform shirt was still intact. The shot hadn't penetrated all the way through the armor, but the concussion of it had hit her already cracked ribs like the blow from a sledgehammer. From the feel of each breath at least one rib had broken, probably two, and she was going to have a hell of a bruise.
Satisfied she wasn't bleeding, she struggled up to her feet. She could feel the ends of the broken ribs grate on each other, pinching against her lung and cutting her breath short again. Leaning on the rail, she closed her eyes and firmly set her mind against the pain, before she gingerly made her way down the stairs and started after Liara and Tali, gripping her pistol tightly.
Tali charged after the fleeing figure, lifting her gun to aim just as it vanished through the doorway, into the corridor. Cursing, she lowered the weapon again, putting on speed and bursting out into the hall only a few seconds later.
The long corridor was empty.
Blinking in shock, Tali slid to a halt and stared a moment. Her prey should be in plain sight…given their speed they could not have reached to the juncture in the distance that quickly, and there were no doorways here to duck into.
Stepping forward quickly, she lifted her gun again, edging around the dead rachni they had gutted earlier, moving toward the end of the hall. Just as she reached it, she heard Liara's voice, her quick footsteps.
"Tali! Where…did you see them?"
"Yes, I...I don't know where they've gone," Tali replied, reaching the end of the hall. Peeking out cautiously she looked down one juncture, then the other. Both were empty. "Bosh'tet!"
Liara reached her side, also looking up and down the juncture, panting for breath, before looking back down the hall, eyes seeking for any door they had missed, any vent even that might have provided a means of escape.
She saw neither, only the crumpled ruin of the rachni and…
"Shepard!"
Tali turned, lowering her gun. "Keelah," she breathed in relief. "She's alive."
Shepard limped into the doorway, pistol in hand and the other plastered against her chest, face pale as she leaned on the wall. "Did you find them?" she asked.
"No, they disappeared," Tali said regretfully as Liara strode back toward the commander.
"Disappeared? How?"
"You should not be moving," Liara snapped furiously. Shepard shook her head.
"Just some broken ribs, bullet didn't penetrate."
"Oh, well then…if that is all…" Liara retorted with a sniffle, striding past the human woman and back into the tank room.
Tali ducked her head a little, looking at Shepard. "Don't mind her," she said apologetically. "She's upset. Her mother…and you scared the eezo out of us."
"I know," Shepard mumbled, then shook her head. "Did you see who it was? Geth? One of Ventralis's we missed?"
"It was human, female," Tali replied matter-of-factly. "Yellow hair, I think…that is all I was really able to make out. She was not wearing armor…looked like a civilian."
"Civvie taking a pot-shot at me," Shepard snorted. "Wonder who I could have pissed off that bad."
"Commander, if I keep seeing you in my infirmary I'm going to start thinking you have a crush on me," Chakwas said dryly as Shepard finally limped into the medi-bay, followed by a solemn Tali. The blizzard had just cleared enough for the Normandy to make it to the peak facility and evacuate their people…once Parasini had ordered the anti-craft turrets to stand down and let them through, of course.
"Don't be ridiculous," Shepard snapped in irritation, then smirked. "I know you're out of my league."
Chakwas laughed. "Good to see your sense of humor is still intact, such as it is."
As she headed toward the commander, Shepard shook her head and pointed at the quarian. "Tali first."
"I'm fine, commander," the girl replied impatiently. "No suit breaches, no breaks, nothing but a few bruises. I'm not the one that got slammed around with biotics and then shot."
"Shot?" Chakwas blinked, then pointed firmly at the bio-bed. "Move it, Commander."
Glowering, Shepard limped over and gingerly lay down, grimacing as she did so. As Chakwas began her scan and examination, she half glanced at Tali.
"You may not be hurt but no doubt you are exhausted. You need to eat and rehydrate, then get some sleep. Where's Liara?"
"She's down…with her mother," Shepard said neutrally. "She'll be up shortly."
Chakwas didn't press, simply nodded grimly and regarded the scans.
"Well, you've certainly done a number on yourself," she stated as it completed. "Four fractured ribs, two outright broken, and you've sprained your sacroiliac joint. I'm not even going to ask how you managed that one. You've got a great deal of bruising, a lot of soft tissue trauma and you're damn lucky you don't have a punctured lung."
As she straightened Shepard looked at her. "Well, bind me up enough I can get back to work-"
"Back to work? Oh, no, Commander. I'm afraid you're going to be my guest for a couple of days. Those ribs need surgically repaired before you do end up puncturing your lung. You're not going anywhere. Pressley can take over your duties until I release you."
"Shit!"
"You say the sweetest things, but you're still staying put," the doctor ordered. "That's what happens when you get yourself shot, Commander."
Looking up at Tali, who was still lingering in the door, she said, "Make sure Liara comes up here when she's…when she's ready, and go get some rest. I'll make sure Pressley knows Shepard is out of commission for a few days-"
"A few? You said two!" Shepard barked, lifting her head. Chakwas lifted a brow and glared at her.
"Want to make it a week? Keep talking."
Shepard dropped her head back down with a growl. "You're so fucking fired."
"That's enough out of you," Chakwas said, going over to the bed controls. With a couple of taps, the IV lines slid home and sedative flooded the wounded woman's system. Smiling down at her, Chakwas added, "Goodnight, Commander. I'll see you when surgery is over."
"You-" Shepard began, but the rest of the sentence, whatever it might have been, was lost to darkness.