Chapter Nine

Garrus walked up to Ashley and Tali as they watched the dim orange sun drift over the sky. Beneath its glare, networks of buildings filled the ridges along the golden cliffs, as if unearthed from the rock. The turian could already hear busying shifts of gears and wheels as he walked, and as he stood at Ashley's side, he noticed a small army of man-shaped beings of metal and wire. With blinking lights for heads, they carried crates and plastered panels.

"I know it's odd," said Tali, as if she knew what her two friends were about to say. "It takes some getting used to."

Ashley shuddered, her dark eyes following an assembly line of geth-like machines as they marched through a row of near-completed buildings. "Sure," she said, "it's just... when we all met, going after Saren, I had always pictured them as mindless robots. Whether it was true or not, didn't really matter, we had to take them down, and it was just easier to see them that way."

Garrus nodded. "Those that followed Saren turned out to be heretics, but there were others, then things got a lot more complicated."

"But not anymore. Now it really is all they are. Just labor and maintenance drones. Walking machines."

"It's easy to forget the geth are... were software, not hardware."

"And now," Tali sighed, "after everything that's happened, hardware is all that's left of them. Simple artificial intelligence, if you can even call it that. These things are probably all that my ancestors wanted. What they originally intended the geth to be."

"Is there really no way to undo this? Or fix it? Most of the mass relays are back online."

"That's just it, though. There's really nothing to fix. Every machine that performs a basic function was just damaged, and that can always be repaired. But the geth had such a sophisticated and complex coding, a culmination of their own improvements and Reaper influence. It was completely wiped clean when Shepard destroyed the Reapers. Our people do have theories, and they are trying to get them as they once were, but it can't just be replicated."

"Almost like there's no heart anymore," said Ashley.

"And no soul..."

Ashley winced, watching her quarian friend slump and sigh. She put a comforting hand on her shoulder. "Are you okay, Tali?"

"I'm fine. I don't blame Shepard or anything for what happened."

"Nor should you," inserted Javik, "the Commander made the wise decision. The machines, the geth, the one you called 'EDI', they all would have turned on you eventually."

Ashley shot the prothean a dirty glare and shook her head. "Okay, well, aside from that... we're nearly there, right?"

"That's correct, Miss Ashley," said a quarian man, decked in red armor, as he approached them from the front, a gaping mouth of stone behind him. "We've had some geth missing in these parts. Found a few down there, but it's a mess."

Ashley squinted as she tried to place the quarian's features. His hood down, she saw a face, somewhat like a human's, but as though it were carved from copper. There was a more slender frame and longer neck, to match Tali's. Ridges crowned his brow and sharp white eyes looked back at her. "Well, well," she said with a smirk once her memory cleared, "if it isn't my second favorite marine to come back from the dead."

The quarian man chuckled. "Ah, I'm only second because you're not dating me."

"Oho, is that a challenge? Careful now, Reegar, I'm pretty sure your girlfriend is the jealous type."

"I'm still here, you know," huffed Tali as she sprinted to Reegar's side, clasping her arms around his chest.

"Aww, we're just teasing, Tali," said Kal'Reegar as he tenderly stroked the black, tendril-like hairs on the back of her head. "You sure you want to come?"

"Bosh'tet! I get a little headache and everyone wants to coddle me. I'm completely, totally fine."

"Then who am I to argue?" he said as he shifted his hands to her pale cheeks and brought his head down to kiss the ridged that made her nose, making her stubby nostrils flare.

"Reegar, you've met Garrus," said Ashley, "and Vega."

"Good to see you guys again," said Garrus.

"Hey, Red," said James, "you treating Sparks good?"

"I am," said the quarian marine matter-of-factly, "and I still don't like that nickname. Not like I always wear red. Just most of the time."

"Yeah," laughed Ashley, "he's not very good at nicknames, but his heart's in the right place."

"Dios mio," groaned James, "everyone's a critic."

"And over there's..." Ashley gestured a hand to Javik, only to see him scowl. "Yeah, this is Javik, that prothean we revived. Ball of sunshine. And there's... where's Neekos? I thought for sure he wanted to meet Reegar."

Garrus looked to his side and noticed a fleeting flicker, a transparent glimpse of the quarian boy's skinny frame. He gave it a smack on the back, knocking him back into visibility. "Be respectful, Parha."

"Oh, no, that's not. what I meant to do," Neekos squeaked, "I was just, um, testing the... the thing for... stuff."

"Hey," said Reegar, eyes wide as he spotted Neekos, "that's the Carbine you've got there, isn't it? The shotgun that was manufactured with my family's name? I didn't realize they still made them."

"They... they don't. Head Advisor Vakarian and I were getting rid of some mercs on Palaven and one of them was using it but he was really sloppy and I don't think he knew it's potential he wasn't respecting the weapon so I..."

"Parha," Garrus barked, "you're rambling. We talked about the rambling."

"I'm glad you liberated it from him, then," Reegar said with a hearty pat on the shoulder. "You use it well and respect it, okay?"

"I, I will! I promise!" the boy squealed, shuddering as he tried to hold in the internal screams.

"That's good. Now, since you haven't been living on Rannoch, and where we're going hasn't been cleaned, you're going to have to keep your helmet on."

"Everyone should keep their helmets and breathers on," added Tali, "it's... ugh, dusty down there."

The group reequipped their protective headgear as an elevator carried them through a tube of chipped stone. When they reached the bottom, a single hall branched into tunnels and stemmed into more tunnels. An intricate web of rooms spread before them, under rounded archways and along embellished walls. Carvings popped from the stone, as if trying to escape its clutches, and words of an alien tongue were composed throughout, marking every new corridor with its own intricate symbol.

Ashley heard the scuffing of boots and patting of hands as her and the group marched along the catacombs. "So what's the situation? You sent some of your... 'geth' down here and they never came back?"

"That's right," said Tali, "we were rebuilding and the crew overseeing the construction saw those batarian things wandering in here. They sent geth down here to check it out, but no sign of them."

"Reports of strange noises too," said Reegar, "some... humming sounds coming from here. People who work in this area start to feel uneasy. There's not supposed to be anything down here but the dead."

"I've been exchanging information with Shepard," said Ashley as her eyes trailed through all the detail in the walls, "we've both been finding clusters of Reaper soldiers in areas heavily damaged by the war, where broken Reaper parts have been found. They seem to be dropped off in pods, but we don't have any idea where they coming from, or why they're so disoriented."

"Disoriented, Miss Ashley?"

"They're not... normal. Husks wander aimlessly, Marauders try to control them, we found one that talked, even. In his last message to me, Bas said he's found Cannibals eating whatever they can find, and... two headed Banshees."

"There's only been sightings of Cannibals, and I hope that's the worst of it. Bad enough their disturbing this place, but it's not all that stable."

"You know, you say things like that," said Garrus, "and that guarantees things are going to get worse."

James chuckled. "Yeah, you might as well say, 'I've got a bad feeling about this,'."

"Or maybe, 'What could possibly go wrong?'."

The quarian marine just laughed. "Tali did tell me she worked with some... interesting folks."

"And by 'interesting', you mean, intelligent, cunning, a fantastic shot?"

"Hmm... I recall her saying something like that about Spectre Williams here, but for you two I think the word was... 'pigheaded', that there was no word in our own language that fit as well."

"Why, Tali, that hurts my feelings!"

Tali only murmured, "Bosh'tet," as the group continued. They reached a wide opening-a circular room with symbols marking each new hall and streams of surface light cracking through-when Ashley caught Neekos hopping.

"What wrong, kid?" she said.

"I heard something," he responded while pointing to one of the corridors, "over there."

"Wait," said Javik, his fingers traversing the walls. "There are more elsewhere. Festering."

Ashley could barely spit out, "Where?" as the ground beneath her trembled. The group dispersed, stepping backwards as the chamber shook. A shrill and violent shriek cut through the sound of crumbling stone. "Aww crap... be careful with your shots, people!"

A Banshee came drifting through one of the halls like a lost widow, back hunched, neck sewn to one shoulder, long claws scratching against the coffins as it came closer.

"Don't touch those!" snapped Tali, shotgun out, blasting a slug to its misaligned head. It recoiled in pain, and with a flick of its arm, sent a blurry wave of biotic energy through the air and towards the quarian machinist. Reegar tugged her out of the way, but the warp field hit a pillar and it began to crumble.

"Damn it," grunted Ashley, squeezing her rifle trigger as a flurry of slugs flew from her barrel to the asari shaped creature's sunken ribcage. The Banshee wailed, its body flaring with blue lights. It threw out fields of biotics like glowing spitballs, smacking against the walls and casings of coffins.

Ashley found herself pedaling backwards with the quarians, back through the corridor they came from, the floor cracking underneath their feet. They saw Cannibals and Husks pour from out of the halls, lunging at the backs of their teammates. Garrus squirmed as a Husk crawled on the curve of his back, where he could not reach, so he slammed himself into the wall until its head turned to mush, rattling the foundation in the process.

James had Cannibals crawling at his feet, gnawing on his armor. "Hey, hey!" he shouted as he kicked them away, "I am NOT on the menu!" He cocked his shotgun and hurled incendiary blasts, knocking them to the walls as pounds of enflamed meat.

"Wait, wait!" cried Tali as she tried to wriggle out of the oncoming horde's way, knocking a few Husks down with careful pistol shots. "This place is unstable! We need to be more careful!" The floor beneath her was already in pieces as she spoke. Javik slammed the twisted Banshee to the ground, and the force of its carcass against the brittle floor sent cracks all around. He, Garrus, and James backed away into separate corridors, outrunning the spreading cracks, but the gaping hole swallowed Ashley and the quarians.

"Ash, Tali!" Garrus's shout was muffled by growing distance, covered by the sound of their own cries as they fell. Their bodies quickly met a hard, unforgiving surface, a violent thud as it slammed against their armor.

"Ugh, damn it," groaned Ashley as she lay on her back. Her body gripped with pain, she bit her teeth and arced her back, but something was obstructing her chest. "What the…?" When the fuzz in her eyes cleared, she found Neekos sprawled against hert. "Kid, are you okay?"

"Nngh…" was all that the quarian boy said in response, his visor rubbing against her chest plate.

"Come on, kid, we have to get up. It wasn't that long a fall."

"Just need… a moment to… rest my head."

"I'm serious, get off," she said, the gentleness in her voice gone as she flung herself upward, knocking Neekos away. "Jeez, kid, you are not subtle."

"Tali, Tali!" said Reegar as he scrambled to his feet and sprinted to Tali's side. "Are you okay?" as he lifted her upwards and cradled her in his arms.

"I'm… I'm fine, Kal," she said, her head knocking about as she groaned, "but I've been better."

"Spectre Williams?"

"I'm okay," said Ashley as she stood up and dusted off her armor. "Nothing's broken, anyway."

"And the kid...?"

"He should be fine, too," she said as she watched Neekos lie still on the floor and kicked him on his side until he got up.

"Ash? Ashley!" Garrus's voice echoed. The Spectre cranked her head and found the turian's head poking out from the other side of the hole.

"We're fine," she answered with a wave.

"You're not that far down. Maybe Javik can lift you back up with his biotics."

"Wait!" cried Neekos, his voice cracked. With a few taps on his omni-tool, transparent little figures, in the shapes of Husks and Cannibals, flickered from his bright orange wrist. "I knew I heard them. See? There's more of them down here."

"If there's two levels, we'd need to check both anyway," said Ashley.

"And both floors meet at one exit," said Tali as she was hoisted up by Reegar.

"That settles it, then. Think you boys can handle things by yourselves up there?"

"Oh, we'll be at a terrible disadvantage, to be sure," sneered Garrus, "but we'll manage. Best case scenario, two of us make it out alive."

"Best case scenario," growled Javik, "is me dragging your lifeless bodies out of here instead of leaving you to be digested!"

"All right, try not to have too much fun," said Ashley as she began walking away from the crash site and into the bottom level. "Let's move out. Kid, are they close by?"

"Yes," Neekos answered, "and there's a lot of them."

"Just mind your shots, would you?" said Tali. "We've already done irreparable damage to this place..."

Ashley looked around as they walked. Their steps resounded and faded against the stone, their echoes lost in the wide and webbing halls. She watched Tali's drone, Chatika, as it bounced down staircases and along the walls, shining light upon on the details in the walls. Indentations were pressed amidst the embellishment, with coffins placed inside. The drone shed light on the rows of cases, all carefully stacked and spread throughout the walls. A vast library of encased corpses, with symbols marking each new wing. "So this is... a tomb for your people, right?"

"Yes," said Tali, "this is what we did with our dead before we were exiled. It's the resting place of our ancestors."

"We didn't have the resources or the space to reserve our dead in the flotilla," added Reegar, "but we didn't want to send their bodies into space, either. So we cremated them."

"Some humans do that," said Ashley, "but my dad is buried in the colony I was born in. Even though he's not there, I still like to visit him. Like there's some... piece of him there."

"That sounds nice," said Tali, "I like that."

"Head's up," said Neekos, his scanner blinking, little figures of light popping from his omni-tool. He pointed to one of the wings, marked with fat, rounded pillars."They're on the other side."

"Reegar, take point with me," Ashley said in a low voice. The quarian marine nodded, and the two of them went to each side of the entrance, rifles in hand. They stood in wait, only the rolling of dust and dripping of water off stalagmites resounding in the distance. Ashley reared her head, only the outermost corner of her eyes peeking through the hallway, as a faint crunching sound reached them. Seeing nothing but more shelves of coffins, she stepped into the hall, the quarian man beside her, the other two quarians behind. The sound persisted as they walked; a dry clenching of teeth against some unknown surface, a crumbling between fits of drooling and groaning.

They approached the inner sanctum and the tiles broke apart under their feet, water seeping through the cracks. The walls were fashioned with coffins and carvings, but the cases at the bottom were disheveled and broken apart. Tali peered her head out from behind Reegar, and her eyes popped at the sight of a group of Cannibals munching on dried corpses.

"Ahh!" she cried, indignation flaring her shout as she raised her pistol. "Get away from those!" With a wave of her omni-tool, her drone hovered over the Reaper troops, sending streaks of lightning that shook them in a grasp of flashing white pain, bursting the sacs of rotted pustules that hung from their flesh. She shot their howling heads and they flopped to the floor, as dead as the bodies they had been chewing on.

"Damn," said Reegar, "you're as effective as you are cute when you're mad."

"I manage," said Tali, proud of herself.

"That's great, Tali," said Ashley half-heartedly as the drone shone light on an oncoming pack of geth. They dropped scraps of metal and rock from their clutches to wield their rifles. "But I think it cost us the element of surprise."

"Wait, no one said they were hostile, maybe I can..." the quarian machinist's fingers danced on her omni-tool, but the geth continued to march towards them, weapons up. "No, their programming has been completely overridden! How could..."

As the vanguard of machines approached, their bodies fizzling with red lightning, a Marauder emerged, the streams of red dangling in its clutches. Ashley and the three quarians rolled and tumbled beside formations of rock as illuminated slugs flooded towards them.

"We have to take 'em out quick," said Reegar, "or else this place might fall on top of us!"

"Not to mention all the damage they're doing to our honored dead!" cried Tali with indignation.

"...Also that."

"How is a Marauder even doing this?" she said as she popped from out of her cover, her pistol ammunition pinging against the turian creature's plating. "How is this even possi... ugh..."

"Tali!" the quarian marine jerked in his stance, seeing Tali falter, her back sliding against the wall. "Damn it, you're not well," he said as he wrung one arm around hers and hoisted her back onto her feet. "You've been pushing yourself too hard."

"I'll be fine, Kal," she replied with a quick brush of her hand against his shoulder. "I've done too much to let a little aching stop me now."

"We got this, no problem," said Ashley, turning to Neekos, "you've got electric grenades, right?"

"Yes, ma'am," he chirped.

"And Garrus taught you about flanking, I trust?"

"Well, Head Advisor Vakarian likes to emphasize the importance of headshots, but yes, I can do that."

"Good. I want you to stun them, then use your cloak to work around them, take out a few from the side. We'll cover you, okay?"

"Okay... I can do this. No problem. Here we go."

"Kid. Just do it."

"Doing it!" The young quarian fidgeted a bit, straightened his shoulders and hopped in his stance, before his fingers found a grenade on his belt. Popping out of cover, he chucked the little shell at the horde of repurposed geth, and bolted from cover. Invisibility covered him as he zipped around the tomb. Tali waved her omni-tool as the machines staggered, and streaks of lightning from the bursting grenade became white hot sparks that broke apart the vanguard. Wires fizzled and popped, the smaller geth turned to scrap metal.

The Marauder howled in anguish, careening about against strings of heated pain worming into its body. It tightened a fist, streams of red energy still falling from its fingers, and reeled more geth from behind to march onward. Tali's drone spat out little bolts of electricity while Ashley and Reegar blasted slugs from their assault rifles, their fire storming against metal, ripping through their bodies like they were made of paper.

A hulking machine of faded red, what used to be a Prime unit, marched forward, clonking and clanking, the machine gun strapped to its arm sputtering. The three ducked back down as slugs flew towards them. Tali and Reegar had their omni-tools flashing, in an attempt to sabotage, but the huge geth only slowed its step, and only for a moment. The Marauder whipped the ribbons of red at the geth's back, and it made a gargling, winding shout, like gears twisting against oil and phlegm.

Ashley seized the pause in fire to rear out of cover and shoot again. She pushed back the Marauder and the giant geth back with a heavy rain of slugs. She spotted a flash of light, a ripple in transparency, from behind the geth Prime's leg. Smiling, she halted fire while white luminous sparks flooded into the mechanical body. The geth stammered into a spasm of snapping circuits. Neekos veered back into visibility as the machine crashed to its knees and toppled downward. Snarling at the sight of him, the Marauder raised his rifle at the young quarian, but a single slug flew through the back of its skull, and it fell with emptied eye sockets, skin boiling at the rim.

"Wow!" cheered Neekos as he hopped over the valley of destroyed geth and clasped his thin arms around Ashley. "You saved me again!"

"Uh, actually, that was Reegar."

"Oh," he said, arms still around her waist, but grip loosened. "...Then this hug shall be in his honor."

Ashley sighed and looked to the other two quarians, who began laughing. "Ah, fanboys, am I right? Some things never change. That was some nice shooting, by the way, Reegar."

The quarian marine chuckled, as if uncertain of how to take praise. "Ah, a quarian soldier's not much if not accurate."

"Looked pretty dead on to me. Is that an M-99 Saber, by the way?"

"Why yes, it is. Tali modified it for me. In return, I finished building her that house. Best anniversary we ever had."

"I'll bet. Looks like it's a good substitute, after they screwed the design of the Mattock."

"Tell me about it. Why Kassa Fabrications had to fix what wasn't broken..."

"It's a little slow for me, though."

"I take it that's why you've got an M-76 Revenant?"

She smirked. "A girls' best friend."

"Gets a little messy with the kickback, though, doesn't it?"

"Not an issue when you're as good a shot as me."

"I can appreciate that."

"You two are such nerds," groaned Tali. She spotted Neekos with his head stuck in his omni-tool screen projections. "And just what are you doing?"

"Taking notes!" he cheered. "This is good stuff."

"Ugh, well anyway, we're almost to the exit, so let's keep moving," she said as she began walking away from the site of battle, shaking her head at the damage it had done to the tomb. "That had better be the last of them."

Ashley took a few steps when her comm device buzzed beside her head. Garrus's voice resounded in her ear as she stood amidst the smoking rubble, spotted with blue blood. "Ash," he said, "how are things on your end?"

"Well, we're all still in one piece. Your sidekick did pretty well for himself. It's almost like he has a tutor that's not you."

"Oh how you wound me," he sneered, "I may never recover from that."

"Anyway, there was a handful of Cannibals. They were trying to eat the corpses buried here, like vultures. And there was a Marauder that took control over some geth."

"That's... not good. We only just fought a couple Cannibals up here, they were doing the same thing, trying to pick at the bones. Only got hostile when we came close."

"Did you see any pods?" she asked as she waved at Tali, who was sticking her head from the corner, motioning them to continue.

"No," his voice was stern in her ear as she bent down to examine the bodies. "We're at the exit now, I can see the doors."

"I just don't understand this... damn, what's that smell?" she said as her nostrils flared, the skin along her nose's bridge cringing, as the fumes of smoking machinery mixed with some other rotted substance wafted over her. "We're not any closer to figuring this out than when we started. Just one batch of weird acting, mutated Reaper soldiers after another."

"I don't know, Ash. Maybe there's nothing to figure out."

"Maybe," she said as the stench led her to the fallen geth Prime. She bent down, studying what was left of its fried mechanical corpse. "But the more I fight these things, the worse I feel about it. It's just... just..."

"Ash? Ashley?"

The Spectre pried open the geth's chest plate, unlocking a trove of synthetic and organic parts. A mesh of machines and meat; wires entwined into tendons, circuits embedded into muscle. "What the hell..."

"Ash!" Tali's voice boomed from outside the tomb, across the outer hallway. "Can you come over here?"

"Actually," shouted Ashley, "you guys might want to come back and see this."

"I don't know about that Miss Ashley," Reegar's voice boomed, "this seems pretty important!"

Ashley's eyes did not leave the corpse of the hybrid geth until she stepped farther backwards, into the next hallway. With an aching swallow, she turned her head and continued down the hall, where the tomb opened again into another stony chamber. The quarians were three little figures against a massive backdrop of metal and debris, basking in sunlight and floating dust particles. The roof of the chamber was but a few tiny corners of stone framing an opened gash. As the Spectre approached, the shadows dimmed, and light revealed a giant construct of coal black metal, scratched and scraped, with a wide wingspan and a bony, jagged form.

"What is this thing?" said Neekos as he barged inside its skeletal bridge.

"It kind of looks like... a ship?" said Ashley as she followed.

Tali was close beside her, eyes scouring every detail, omni-tool flashing. "Certainly not of quarian design... there's a drive core, but it's... broken. I think this has been here for a while."

"So a strange ship crashes here and nobody notices?"

"We're not exactly out in public. This is an old, forgotten relic, and the earth around here is hospitable. A land fit only for the dead."

"We only just got satellites and surveillance drones back up," added Reegar. "Everyone was in such a panic when the geth shut down. They'd done a lot for us in a short time, even our suit rewrites so we didn't get sick as easily. But we were left to pick up the pieces when the war was over. This could have happened just a few years ago and we never would have noticed."

The group marched down the bridge, weapons readied, until the ship opened up into a wide and spherical room. A faint dripping resounded in the background. The floor clung to the soles of their boots as they walked. The support beams were twisted, gnarled lines running the ship's interior, like veins in a corpse. The walls were encased in oozing black and towered above them. Only the tears above and the flashlights on their guns exposed their surroundings, shining on shelves of cracked and opened pods, layers of emptied casings.

Ashley took a hard swallow, a bitter chill gripping her head and clenching her throat. "Well, I guess now we know what's been dropping them off.."

"Keelah," Tali gasped as she broke off from the group to inspect the pods, "this looks like a Collector ship, but they're all empty."

"And they were filled with mutant Husks and Banshees, not humans."

"So this some kind of transport ship?" said Neekos. "They weren't... made here?"

"Reapers had separate ships for transport, and for processing," said Tali, "neither of which were sentient. If that's any indication..."

"But Reapers 'processed' people to make troops or more Reapers, right?" said Ashley, "these things have been acting like animals. And the smarter ones have been trying to gather broken Reaper parts, not that it's some magic puzzle that'll just spring to life once it's together."

"You think it's something else doing this?"

"Sure as hell can't be Reapers, they're dead, Shepard saw to that. What this is... is just craziness."

"There's also the question of how it crashed," said Reegar, "if it was controlled or had a pilot."

"No!" snapped voice, raspy and shaking, from out of the other side of the chamber. A grinding ripped through the eerie calm, the sound of metal and flesh torn. "I don't want it! Refuse!"

An arm, coated in metal, flew across the floor, smearing its path with blood. "They bring me... these parts." The voice continued as a chunk of black stone was chucked towards the wall like dice, banging against the rim. "Try to fix. There's no fixing them. No fixing us."

Ashley and the three quarians raised their weapons as a Marauder limped into view, dragging a dismembered geth along the floor like a rag doll. Bits of hardened flesh still clung to its metallic body, wires hung from its round, crestless head. As it came into the light, Ashley noticed it had a slimmer frame; it was likely a turian woman, at some point in the past. "You should not... be here."

"Neither should you," the Spectre said firmly as she aligned the end of her rifle barrel with the Marauder's head. "The Reapers have been destroyed. There shouldn't be any of you left."

"N-no," said the turian shaped creature, "no there shouldn't be."

"If it wants to stop existing," said Reegar, "I'd be happy to oblige."

"Hold on a second," said Ashley, "I want to know what the hell is going on. Why there's wandering Husks and Cannibals that eat whatever they see, geth with organs! And you! How is it that you can talk?"

"Supposed to... fit," the Marauder's voice fluctuated, from a rumbling whisper to high wailing. It trembled in its stance, as though ready to fall apart at any moment. "just... tests. Didn't work. Couldn't fit. Not the ri... the right vessel."

"Last talking Marauder I fought mentioned a vessel. So what, someone is trying to bring you back to life? Bring back the Reapers?"

"No, I don't... I don't..." the creature fell to its knees, elongated claws shaking, head batting about. "It hurts! It's wrong! It's... was... I don't fit! This doesn't fit, it hurts!"

"Tell me what you know, then, and I'll give you a quick death."

"It hurts!" she cried as she flailed about, throwing her hands against the floor, shaking violently. "Was someone. Watching over... waiting for... Someone's mother! I don't fit! Not a vessel! Couldn't do it! Couldn't bear to! It hurts!"

"Couldn't bear to what?"

"Children, crawling... lost. In pain. Couldn't bear it any longer, but... damage was done. Wanted the pain to end."

"What are you saying? You crashed this ship on purpose?"

The Marauder stumbled, chunky streams of black and blue sliding from the ends of its cracking jaw. "Wanted... the pain to stop. Damage was done. Children lost."

"I'm sorry, I can't watch this," said Tali, shuddering, "I don't think we can get anything out of it. We... could try and take it back, study it, but..."

"No!" the Marauder snapped, "get away! Shouldn't be here!"

The creature wound its bony body and made a feral pounce, lunging at Tali. Reegar stepped in front of her and fired his rifle. In mid-air, a slug batted it back the way it came, body tumbled across the bridge. "Sorry, Miss Ashley," he said, looking at Ashley.

"It went hostile," she replied, "You did the right thing. And it was... clearly broken."

"Tali, are you okay?"

"I'm fine, Kal," said Tali, "I just... oh..."

"Tali!" the quarian marine cradled her as she slumped backwards, digitigrades sliding against the bridge. "What's wrong?"

"Just a little... woozy."

"Aww, damn it, Tali, you've been pushing yourself too hard," he sighed as he gently scooped her up and walked out of the ship.

"Nooo, put me down," she pouted with weak shakes of her arms and legs.

"Not a chance, Miss Ashley."

"Ooh, you know I hate it when you call me that!"

"Easy now, Tali," said Ashley. She and Neekos followed Reegar as they veered around the crashed ship and towards the end of the tunneling hall, where wide stone doors began to crack open. "Let's just get you out of here, and leave the dead to rest for now."