MASS EFFECT: DARK SAGA
*Chapter Ten: Offerings of Blood*
Nihlus knew he did not have much time. He pushed himself harder over the broken terrain, skipping over a fallen tree with an agility that rarely came to those of his species. The land was hard; all steep, wooded hills but he persevered without a thought for taking an easier route. He'd heard the distant chatter of rifle fire immediately on disembarking the Normandy and knew there would be hostile patrols nearby. His best approach would naturally be the most difficult.
His suit radio crackled to life and he slowed at the sound of Shepard's voice, 'Shepard here. I've made contact with a group of locals.'
'I see,' Nihlus replied. He lifted up the barrel of his shotgun to vault over another fallen trunk, grunting as he hit the ground. 'Did they identify those responsible for this attack?'
'No. They claimed they didn't see anything. They were hiding scared when we found them, though they did say whoever hit this place moved fast and quiet. No rounding up of hostages, no looting. Whoever we're facing here, they're not pirates or slavers.'
'That doesn't leave many possibilities. Watch your back, Commander. If this is an organised assault by some kind of army, we'll need to gather intel before taking them on.'
Nihlus almost drew to a halt as the sickening thought of war crossed his mind. Only a few races in the galaxy could pull off a surprise attack of this magnitude with such speed and efficiency and they were the Council races. The implications of that made his chest feel tight against his armour. Surely not even his own kind, so disdainful of humanity, would go so far?
He picked up the pace, crashing through branches and dense undergrowth. The trees allowed only a little light through and his gaze drifted up to catch the dappled red shining between the leaves. The sky was still the colour of dried human blood, an omen of war and death. It was an unsettling sight and only fed his unease.
The trees thinned out and the tangles of knotted vines around Nihlus' feet turned into feathery green ferns. He slackened his stride, using the softer ground to move slowly and silently. The treeline emerged as stripes of green to his front. His eyes drifted to the left as they caught the slow movement of smoke drifting in a haze beyond.
He crept to the very edge of the forest and tensed at the sight of another collection of prefabs, similar to the ones Shepard had described. Again, fires consumed most of them and corpses were strewn across the ground.
'I'm seeing a lot of burned-out buildings here, Shepard,' he said quietly as he paced through the settlement, the roars and crackles of the fires his only company. 'A lot of bodies. It's like you said, no signs of abduction and all of the valuable equipment is still here.'
The turian stopped and knelt at the tiny body of a young girl laying face-down in the mud. Though Nihlus was not human, he still felt a pang of sadness for the young one, gunned down along with the rest. He wondered if her parents were among them. Rising, he gifted the murdered colonists one final look before turning back to the north. Beyond the gentle rises and falls of the road, he saw a pale blot on the landscape. It was a small complex but far more permanent than the prefabs and from the centre long, dark antennae jabbed into the sky, red lights blinking a warning.
'Continue on to the dig site,' he ordered. 'I've detected a small spaceport further to the north. I'm going to check it out.'
'Copy,' Shepard replied. 'We'll meet you there.'
Nihlus took a second to check over his pistol. It was an enormous, heavy Spectre-issue sidearm, painted black and etched with deep ridges for modifications. He took heart in its weight as he continued on, slinking back into the woods with barely a sound.
~~ME-DS~~
She had heard Nirali's screams. They had stopped Williams in her tracks, dragging her heels to a halt with such suddenness that they ripped lines in the black earth. She knew it was foolish to stop, that the geth drones were still there, following her tracks silently and yet the thought that Nirali could be alive...
Williams panted hard, until the bottom of her visor steamed up, obscuring her vision. Around her, the land was little more than empty hills dotted with the same, squared boulders of grey and brown rock. The stone had been cut and dug out from the ground, but not by the Alliance. Others had come to this world long ago but of them, there was no trace. Williams made for one of the boulders and rested her back against it, drawing in deep breaths.
The enemy was everywhere. She was exhausted and each gasp for air brought stabs of pain from her chest. To even contemplate going back was suicide. Her dark eyes swept across the white plates of her armour, checking for breaches or cracks, though mud stuck to them so thickly in places that she couldn't have known either way.
Looking up, Williams quaked as she closed her eyes and tried to control herself. There was no way it could be Nirali. Williams had seen her fall and these things, these...geth, they had slaughtered everyone else without thought or hesitation. Williams repeated the fact over in her head, until her lips moved in unison with her thoughts. It can't be her. It can't be her.
The screams came again, bringing her head snapping up. Whoever it was, they were close.
Williams took another long look around her, at the pall of smoke hanging over the distant fields and against it, the flashes of blue that spoke of battles still being fought. The knowledge that elsewhere, her fellow marines were fighting put steel back into her heart. Her thoughts cleared until there was a single goal in her head and with a final, deep breath, Williams shouldered her rifle and moved out of the boulder's shadow.
The screams echoed through the hills, growing more frenzied and desperate every time. An old riverbank traced the bottom of the hill and Williams followed it, sticking to the cover of the rocks as best she could. The middle of the riverbed was little more than a line of thick black mud that would swallow her feet if she strayed too far in, and she chose every step with care.
Another sound emerged, hanging beneath the woman's cries in a sinister undertone and Williams' finger curled apprehensively around her trigger. It was a same mix of deep hums and clicks she had heard as she avoided the geth earlier, before the Alliance ship appeared. The noise was exactly as she expected synthetics to sound, their language cold, mechanical and devoid of emotion.
She eased against a large chunk of rock and shuffled to the edge, poking her head around just enough to see.
The screams had indeed come from Nirali. Her armour had been stripped from her body, revealing a set of dark blue Alliance fatigues. She whimpered but did not - or could not - struggle against the two geth holding her by the arms.
Williams shuddered at the sight of them, now close enough for her to make out every detail. They were bipedal, with double-curved limbs that moved with unfaltering smoothness. Their bodies were roped with milky bands of sinewy muscle while their necks were long, sloping up to a single, glowing light. They chittered to one another while a third kept watch at their backs.
Gripping her rifle, Williams wrestled with the urge to open fire. They were in front of her, close enough for a certain kill but she could not risk hitting Nirali. The geth gripped her friend with three long, slender fingers in each hand but they did not carry her roughly. Instead, they bore her with care, almost reverence though Williams could not tell for certain which it was. Perhaps they were just moving with impeccable efficiency, just as their nature would suggest.
Certainly, there was no trace of organic mercy in the strange device that stood in front of them. Williams stared at it, puzzled. It was a tripod of sorts, in the same blue-grey metal as the geth themselves. Three pointed legs sat below a silver cylinder, propping it up. Before Williams could guess what it was, the geth had dragged Nirali over to it before easing her back carefully, until her spine arched over the top of the tripod.
The barrel of Williams' rifle dipped slowly. She stared open-mouthed in amazement as one of the machines began to stroke Nirali's brow, as if to comfort her. She wept gently, mouthing soft, pleading words but the geth did not seem to understand.
Suddenly, Nirali's eyes opened wide. Sensing her tension, the other geth placed its hands on her shoulders, weighing her down with a strength she couldn't hope to match. She struggled wildly before screaming again, with an agony that made Ashley jump and close her eyes in terror.
Nirali's torso exploded in a shower of blood and her body was lifted, higher and higher, impaled upon a long spike that rose from beneath her. Her eyes bulged in their sockets and her lips worked without sound, her arms and legs twitching as they dangled helplessly in the air.
With her last breath, Nirali let out a final, terrified cry.
Williams matched it unconsciously as she broke from cover. She was barely even thinking. Her arms moved independently of thought, bringing her Lancer up to rest on the geth.
Reacting to her voice, the synthetics spun around, their own weapons bared, only to shudder and fall as Williams pulled the trigger. She did not let go. She simply fired, her rifle tearing into the geth even as they lay dead on the ground.
Williams had stopped screaming long before her weapon overheated. It whined at her, the alarm slicing through her paralysis. Blinking, she looked down to see the warning light on the side of her Lancer pulse urgently and thumbed open the secondary vents.
She took a last look up at Nirali, the body still held aloft by the spike. She was too shocked for tears or at least, that was what she expected but Williams was surprised to feel nothing but anger. She held her rifle with new purpose and closed her eyes, summoning the last reserves of her courage.
She would not let Nirali die for nothing. She would find the Alliance ship and warn them of the geth. Not even death would slow her.
~~ME-DS~~
The air was still thick with the smell of violence and battle by the time Shepard's team reached the foot of the hill that overlooked the dig site. Although he could not yet see it, Shepard remembered the maps well enough to imagine the wooded summit and sudden, steep decline they would face when they reached the top.
The team came to the bottom of the hill, along the base of which ran the same stream Shepard had spotted on landing. The short grass was spotted with chunks of rock and debris and he jabbed a hand toward the top.
Jenkins started forward, his eyes swivelling to scan the the crest of the hill. A dark line of trees stood watching over them and Shepard tensed automatically at how exposed the ground was.
In answer to his thoughts, Kaidan whispered over the radio. 'I don't like this, Commander. It's too wide open.'
Shepard agreed but he said nothing. There was no reason to suspect an ambush. No one knew they were there beside the smugglers they had encountered back at the prefabs, and they were in no position to set anything up. His gaze swept the trees, narrowing as a new sound entered his ears. It was a mechanical whirring, a distant ship, perhaps? Shepard dismissed the idea with a quick shake of his head. There was no bass rumble to go with it, no whine of intakes. Whatever was making this noise, they were many and small.
Kaidan spotted them first. 'Commander, over there!'
Shepard saw them a heartbeat later, moving as metallic blue specks against the trees. Virtual Intelligence drones, sleek and fast, burst into the open ground with a whining hum. They were little more than curved, cycloptic ovals and beneath each a gun twitched in search of a target.
There was no time to alert Jenkins. The drones opened fire, their weapons flaring like blue stars. Shepard and Alenko took cover behind the nearest rock.
'Looks like a recon patrol!' Kaidan yelled, daring to tip his helmet into the open to try and get a better look. 'Half a dozen unmanned drones, maybe more. What the hell kind of weapons have they got?'
Shepard flinched at the heat of the rounds passing overhead and turned his head from the chips of stone shorn away only inches from his skin. They were the same weapons they'd seen used against the smugglers' settlement, of that he was certain.
'I don't know,' he said. 'Can you get around them?'
Again, Kaidan braved the fire to lean out slightly. The drones' response was instantaneous and he snapped back in almost immediately, mouthing a silent curse. 'There's more cover around to the left but it'll be close.'
'Can you make it?' Shepard repeated.
Kaidan looked back at him uncertainly, clearly wondering if the commander had noted his trepidation. When he knew Shepard wasn't going to accept no for an answer, he echoed his previous words, 'It'll be close.'
'Boost your barriers and draw their fire,' Shepard ordered, 'I'll run an overload program and fry their shields. Either way, we need to split their arcs of fire and isolate them if we're going to make it through this.'
Both soldiers had been under fire before and their movements were automatic. With a slight wave of his arm, Kaidan brought up another swirling blue biotic shield around his body and broke out from behind the boulder, sprinting with all his effort across the grass.
Shepard watched him go with a weight in his throat that made it difficult to breathe, so that he had to force himself to rise up and take aim at the hovering drones. He squeezed the trigger, placing each shot with precision. The rounds snapped out, thumping visibly into the drones' shields.
He sensed Alenko stagger at the corner of his vision and resisted every urge to look in his direction. Instead, he simply fired again and again, until his omni-tool chirped an alarm. He lowered his pistol and brought his right arm to bear on the drones, the omni-tool wrapping around it like a burning glove.
A moment later, the shields of the nearest drone popped in a flash of blue sparks. Tiny servos strained and buzzed as its propulsion system tried in vain to keep it level. It veered harshly as Shepard found it with a new volley of slugs, hammering its gleaming chassis to pieces in moments and the drone crashed into the ground in an explosion of dirt and electrical discharge.
The others took immediate notice and Shepard was forced to duck as scorching fire smashed into his cover once again. His gaze flickered to where Kaidan had managed to reach a new position and his omni-tool too flared upon his arm. He was following the Commander's lead by unleashing another tech attack on the enemy and again, the fizzing crack of failing shields filled Shepard's ears.
After bobbing his head up in a quick feint, Shepard turned and shuffled along a few feet. To stay in one place was death. Movement and unpredictability were key to surviving a fire fight when outnumbered.
Kaidan's assault had drawn the drones' attention and Shepard raised his weapon, snapping off several rounds. His aim was much better than the lieutenant's and another two of the machines spluttered and fell.
Three more remained and they abandoned their suppressing tactic, focusing instead on Shepard alone. They bobbed and weaved, moving towards him in swaying arcs that made them difficult to track. Shepard caught a final glimpse of them before they opened fire, shredding his cover.
He had no choice but to run. Taking a breath, he bounded across the open ground, his heart thumping with fear and adrenaline. He heard the guns of the drones behind him spit their deadly rounds, as well as the answering thuds as they met the dirt, alarmingly close.
'Commander!' he heard Kaidan yell but the voice was distant and faded.
Something hit him, sending him reeling. He stumbled behind another large rock and turned instantly to take aim as he crashed into the dirt. The first drone rounded the corner, its gun trained too high. It fired but hit nothing. Shepard was more precise. A volley of pistol rounds fried the drone's shields and it burst into flame moments later, thumping to the ground as a smoking husk.
As the last two zeroed in on him Shepard continued to fire, but it was clear he would not be able to bring them both down in time
A hollow whoosh sounded from Shepard's left and a rippling blue wave of energy slammed into the drones, sending them into a buzzing fury as they tried to correct themselves.
Kaidan emerged, firing desperately and Shepard joined him as they tried to capitalise on the advantage his biotic attack had bought. The drones splintered and fizzled under the weight of fire. The last of them lost control and smashed into the earth, dredging a deep line in the mud.
Shepard panted and kept his weapon on the fallen drones for several moments before daring to meet Kaidan's eyes.
'That was close,' he said breathlessly.
'Sorry, Commander,' Kaidan said, jerking a thumb back the way he'd come, 'I had to let my shields recharge before exposing myself again.'
Shepard shook his head as he clambered to his feet. 'Don't mention it, you did what you had to.' He gazed at the wrecked chassis of the nearest drone. The single blue lamp at its front flickered gently before dimming to nothing, though he gave it a nudge with his foot to be sure. 'I've never seen drone VIs this aggressive. And look at the weapon damage.'
'It matches what we saw at the smuggler settlement,' Kaidan confirmed. 'These aren't slugs. They're heat-based energy weapons.'
Pursing his lips in disbelief, Shepard retracted his visor and ran a hand over his face to clear it of sweat. 'No Council race has this kind of technology. What the hell are we dealing with here?'
'Whoever they are, they're dangerous,' Kaidan replied, 'Advanced VIs, pulse energy weapons. If they've come for the prothean beacon even the Normandy may not be enough to stop them.'
Shepard took his words in for a moment before releasing a deep breath. 'We have to stop them. No matter what it takes, that beacon is leaving with us.' Pausing, he raised his head. 'Where's Jenkins?'
Kaidan's lips twisted in a pained look and he gestured back to the hill. Shepard knew what he meant by it and strode past, his pistol held loosely at his side.
They found Jenkins sprawled where he had fallen, only seconds after the drones had appeared. Shepard felt dread rise as a weight on his chest as he approached the body, noting instantly the lack of breath on Jenkins' visor.
'They ripped right through his shields,' Kaidan said as they drew near, as if his explanation were needed. 'He never stood a chance.'
Shepard glanced at Jenkins' rifle. He had not even fired a shot. His death had been instantaneous and the thought gave Shepard some solace, though he kept his face deliberately blank as he spoke. 'Leave him for now. We have to stay on-mission.'
A look of visible hesitation passed over Kaidan's features before he swallowed any objections. Shepard understood. Alenko was soldier, and no one left a comrade behind, living or dead if they could help it.
Starting towards the hill, Shepard brought a barrier down on his emotions. They had to be more than soldiers at that moment. Jenkins would have to wait. The mission always came first.
~~ME-DS~~
Doctor Warren froze at the edge of the small research post, holding Manuel back with an outstretched hand. This had been where they had studied the artifact, running countless scans and material analyses over the course of many days out of a few small prefabs.
The team had been small but brilliant, a handful of the brightest minds in the Alliance. They had been rushed from Earth and Terra Nova to examine the beacon before the Council inevitably took it back and all had spent nights without sleep, working ceaseless hours to decode what they could of the mysterious alien device before it was lost for good.
Now the team lay scattered across the ground like dead leaves, their bodies charred to cinders. The smell made Warren want to vomit.
Manuel began to babble again and Warren shushed him. 'Quiet now, Manuel. Those creatures could still be out there.'
'A ship,' her colleague mumbled, his hands twitching and fidgeting in front of him, 'It was not one of the agents'. It was a doomed ship. Those on board are just like the others - damned, all damned!'
'Please, don't say another word!' Warren warned. She looked at the ground, feeling her exhaustion pull ruthlessly at her muscles.
They had been running for a long time now and only good fortune had shielded them from whatever had attacked the research site. That luck would not last forever and Warren eyed the prefabs needily.
'We must take shelter,' she said, 'Come now, let's hide in one of these. Those things already came by here once, I doubt they'll perform another search any time soon.'
Her sharp eyes spotted several objects that had not been there before. Odd silver tripods lay amongst the toppled crates and burning corpses, soft lights cycling around their rims.
A chill ran through her and she placed a hand on Manuel's back, urging him on. 'Please, Manuel, you have to hurry. Come on, into this cabin.'
They approached the furthest prefab and Warren took note of the way it sat in a deep shadow thrown off a nearby hill. It was the most inconspicuous one there to her eye and she immediately locked the door behind them as they shuffled inside. The furniture in the cabin had been overturned, with OSDs, datapads and paper files strewn across the floor. Warren lowered the window shutters and stared out, her face lined with stripes of red light.
'Do you feel it yet?' Manuel asked her in a hushed voice. 'The scratching? The whispers? They are the ones speaking, not these servants.'
He brought himself close and Warren flinched, her hand moving instinctively to the sedative injector on her belt. It had only been a short time since his previous dose but he had been growing steadily more erratic since fleeing the settlement. Warren panted lightly as her nerves got the better of her. She dared not make any sudden moves, not while Manuel's eyes held such a manic light.
'There are no voices,' she whispered. 'You just need to take your medication, that's all.' With utmost care, she reached to her medpack and pulled out an automated injector. It looked worse than it was; a pistol with a needle for a barrel but she did not envy Manuel having to endure its sting every day. 'Here, let's make this a double dosage. You'll feel much better.'
The injector hissed gently and Warren watched Manuel carefully. He seemed compliant though she knew it would take a while for the sedative to take effect. She could not let her guard down.
Manuel twitched, making her start but he was not looking at her. Instead he seemed to be focused on something outside, and his whispered remark made her shudder.
'They're here again.'
Warren peered through the shutters and saw several dark shapes moving through the outpost. They were not human, nor any alien race she recognised but it was more than just their appearance. They moved without sound, emitting only an odd series of clicks as they spoke to one another.
Two of them dragged a third, but it was struggling weakly against them. Warren gasped as she saw their burden was a human, one of the scientists she had worked with only hours before. They hauled the man up onto one of the strange tripod devices.
'They are here again,' Manuel repeated.
Warren barely heard him. She could not take her eyes from those strange beings as they laid out their captive upon the tripod. The scientist struggled momentarily but it was not long until his stomach burst into a spike of red metal, which carried him high upon it into the air.
Warren bit down on a scream, her eyes wide with uncontrollable terror.
~~ME-DS~~
The geth scanned the transit station one more time. Three of its brethren lingered near, the silver and blue curves of their bodies stark against the rigid lines of the station's structure. Everywhere the machine looked, there were inconsistencies, inefficiencies. Fires burned all across the monorail platform and on the line itself several cars had been overturned in an explosion, their piled remains now jutting from the ground like a collapsed tower.
It saw these things and felt nothing. It did not crave distraction like the weak organics. Its prophet had led it, led all of them here and commanded them, and now its task was clear. A lens within its head focused on the green hillside overlooking the station, constantly watching for signs of hated life.
The geth clicked and its head twisted slightly, remaining fixed on the hill. A thought ran like a tremor through it, a thought answered by its brethren who compelled it to act. It obeyed instantly and without question.
Their prophet - the one deemed worthy to lead - was nearby. It spoke to the geth in a growling voice, bitter with irritation.
'The report is accurate,' the prophet said, 'It can only be the Alliance - stragglers, perhaps or a patrol who happened to be in the area. They will not be alone. Remain hidden for now, until we have a better idea of whom we are facing.'
The geth responded with a question to which its brethren had agreed, a debate held within a microsecond and the prophet replied.
'It doesn't matter now. We have what we came for. They are too late.'