After taking out a wave of drones, Tali's voice comes over Gabriels radio.
"Shepard, Prazza and most of his unit went ahead of me. I told him to wait but he didn't listen. He's trying to get to Veetor before you."
Miranda scoffs. "I knew this would happen."
Gabriel understood why Prazza did it. If human colonies weren't vanishing, Gabriel would have already killed Miranda and Jacob and took their shuttle to find The Illusive Man and take him out too, but since Cerberus had been truthful with him so far, evident from the ghost colony he was standing in at that moment, and since The Alliance or The Council wasn't doing anything about it, Gabriel wanted to know what was going on and he figured he would probably need allies if the Reapers were behind it, even if those allies were a known terrorist group and enemies of everything he believed in.
"Come on. We can still get to Veetor if we hurry." Jacob said with a rushed tone.
Veetor, a young Quarian who was on Freedom's Progress for his pilgrimage, was their only chance to find out what happened. Tali, a Quarian woman who was part of the Normandys crew before it was destroyed, was also trying to get to Veetor. "Damn it was nice to see a friendly face…well…figuratively that is." Gabriel thought to himself as he thought about Tali while he and his squad ran for Veetors location. "I wonder what she's been up to. Leading her own mission…I'm happy to see the Admiralty Board saw what I saw in her."
Suddenly, another squad of rocket drones appears. Gabriel pulls out his M-6 Carnifex, the only weapon he brought with him, and shoots two drones out of the air. One fires a rocket but Shepard quickly grabs the rocket with his mind and sends it flying at one of the other drones. Miranda used overload on one and Jacob shot another out of the sky.
Once they were done with the drones, they ventured further into the colony until they reached an empty lot. The way forward was obstructed by a massive door and it was locked. Gabriel pulled up his map and saw that Veetor, as well as Tali, was on the other side. Tali's voice breaks the silence.
"Shepard, Veetor has reprogrammed a heavy mech and it's going to tear Prazzas squad apart."
"They did want to get to Veetor first." Miranda says with a snobby tone that made Gabriel angry.
"We're at the loading docks. Please hurry!" Tali continues.
"We're on the other side of the door leading to you but it's locked." Gabriel explained to Tali over the radio. After a moment, as if Tali knew what Shepard was going to ask, the red light in the middle of the massive door turns green and opens. "I hope we're not too late."
He sees Tali run into a building before he sees Prazza and his companions running. Gabriel looks to his right to see the heavy mech. The Quarians are still trying to hold it off but the mech had shields and armor plating. Their weapons weren't going to be any use against that thing and it was only a matter of time before it returned fire.
Gabriel prepared to charge in as a distraction to give the mech something else to shoot at and give the Quarians a chance to find cover, but he didn't act fast enough and the mech opened fire on them.
As the mech commenced its slaughter of the Quarians, images started to appear in Gabriels mind. Every time a Quarian body fell dead, Gabriel saw a friend die. Every time a rocket exploded, he would see a house on fire. Every time a Quarian let out a scream of anguish, he would hear the screams of the people suffering on Mindoir.
The anger within him came to a boil before the pain came. The electricity filled his brain every time an image or sound appeared that reminded him of Mindoir. He falls to his knees in anguish, grabbing at his hair trying to make the pain go away. He slams his fists to the ground trying to cancel out the electricity with something…anything different. He even goes as far as slamming his own head into the ground to try to stop it. He lets out a scream of pain and anger as he watches images of suffering, chaos, and torture fly by in his mind. Then the images stop on one…
The long metal chair…
And a whisper that crawled into Gabriels brain, words that he had forgotten but knew exactly what they meant, accompany the image…
"The pain…will not stop…until you give in…"
Gabriel looks up to the mech…
The mech transforms into the four eyed alien that murdered his parents…
And his mind goes blank…