Thanks to Blue Marlin for the review.
Feros. The name of the planet that held the thorian, and the cipher. Strange that humanity had planted so many colonies down on planets with immense amounts of data important to the reapers. And all within the last twenty years. "Attack the colony immediately." Saren said. "Leave no one alive"
Qael walked up and said, "Saren, what of the thorian? Don't we need it alive?"
"Yes, but the colonists must be eradicated. Leave no sign that we were here." Saren said.
Shiala jogged to Saren's side and said, "We have just received some information that indicates there is a particular human on this planet whom it would be wise to spare."
"And why should we spare one of them, Shiala?" Sovereign asked.
"The human who interrupted our attempt to eliminate T'soni, and our operations on Noveria is close to a relative of this colonist. If we took her hostage it would prove beneficial."
"Who is this human that we can use against Shepard?" Saren inquired.
"We do not have a name, but there are several photos of her." Shiala said, as she handed Saren a datapad.
"Captain Anderson. I need you to do something." said the Illusive Man.
"What is it?" asked the captain
"In Tuus Mundus malus est."
"Right, who is it?"
"Not who, what. We've received information of a rogue AI on the Citadel that is hacking into Cerberus accounts. I want you to find it and shut it down."
"Where is it located?" Anderson inquired.
"All we know is that it is on the Citadel, but the Presidium would be a good place to start." TIM stated.
"Got it, anything else?"
"Find and kill whoever set it up."
"That won't look good to the council." Sighed Anderson, "But it will prevent it from happening again."
Feros.
Oriana was walking home when a massive ship descended from the sky and destroyed the defense turrets with a single shot from each of its 'fingers'. Then when it neared the surface dozens of geth jumped out of the monstrous machine. The other colonists were gunned down with cold efficiency. Oriana screamed and started running to her parents' house. When she had reached the door, she was knocked down by another colonist. He looked down at her with silver eyes and said, "Wow, Saren will be pleased that you were caught so quickly."
"Who the hell is Saren!?" Oriana screamed.
"Shut up, filthy human." he sneered.
She kicked him in the chest, but he didn't even stagger back. He did; however, grab her by her shirt and say, "If you do that again bitch, I don't care what Saren and Sovereign say. I. Will. Kill. You."
"What do you want from me?" she asked.
"From you personally? Just a hostage."
"Why me? There are hundreds of other people in this colony." the man didn't reply, instead opting to knock her out. He then dragged her into his fighter, got in and flew back towards Sovereign.
SSV Normandy: Bridge.
"Joker, what's the situation on Feros?" Jessica asked.
"I'm not sure," Joker said, "But I think Saren's hit it."
Miranda looked terrified "They're going to kill her." she whispered. Jessica wrapped an arm over Miranda's shoulders and said, "Not while I'm still alive."
"Don't say that! I can't lose both of you so close together."
"I'm not going to die Miri. We'll find her, I promise."
"Shepard, what's going on?" Garrus asked.
"Saren hit Feros." She replied.
"It was attacked by Saren, why?" Ashley asked.
"I don't know, but we have to get down there asap. I'm not going to let him do whatever the hell he wants and get away with it." Jessica said, pure hate for the former Spectre clear in her voice.
Joker closed his eyes for a moment, then said, "We're landing now. Be careful down there."
"Where's Tali?" Jessica asked.
"She got a minor infection when doing regular suit maintenance. Said to go on ahead without her." Garrus replied.
"Got it," Jessica replied as she hit the PA button, "Wrex head up to the bridge. You're coming on this op."
"Got it." Was the krogan's reply.
"The attack went well. We have recovered the Cipher, but now I will need time to determine where the Conduit is." Saren said.
Qael walked towards Saren and asked, "Where's Shiala?" She went with you to see the thorian, but we haven't heard from her since?"
"Ms. Thanoptis sacrificed herself so that I could receive the cipher."
"We lost someone to that creature?" Qael asked, struck dumb by the realization that they didn't matter to the turian.
"She chose to give herself up so that the reapers might return." Saren replied. "You will return to Feros alone, to prevent anyone from saving the colony.
"This is terrible!" the old woman said. "Little Oriana, taken by that bastard with three fingers!"
"Wait, three, fingers?" Miranda asked.
The older man looked at her and said, "Yes he had three fingers. Also, his eyes were silver with a faint glow to them."
Jessica said, "Qael'Tharn."
"Who?" Miranda asked.
"Qael'Tharn vas Qwib Qwib nar Neema kidnapped Oriana."
"Who is this quarian?" Wrex asked.
"One of Saren's people. He's a fanatic. Serves under Admiral Zal Koris of the Qwib Qwib."
"Great, so we have a crazy quarian on our hands." Ashley said.
"Worse, he has Oriana. To think it was all for naught." Shepard said, closing her eyes and shaking her head.
"Jessica, there was nothing you could have done." the mother said.
"I should have come here sooner, Samantha, Ben, I'm sorry." she replied.
"Please, don't blame yourself. It is not your fault that there's a turian going around terrorizing colonies." Ben said.
"Really, Mr. Croshaw? I was days too late."
"Yeah, but you will find Oriana. You've never let her down before."
Virmire.
"Captain, we have confirmation that this is Saren's facility. It looks like it may also be his main base." Padon Wiks. said.
Captain Kirrahe looked at the operative and said, "Are you certain? We can't afford to communicate with the council unless we are certain."
"I am captain. Saren is here, and we have to stop him, here and now."
"All right, I'll make the call."
"Stupid! You thought Saren cared about us! Thought he would protect us! Well done Qael, get Rana's sister killed, or worse, because you trusted some turian!" the quarian said. "But, I will do what I can to save her. Rana's willing to quit if she can find a way out, but Shiala is at the mercy of the thorian."
Shepard, Miranda, Garrus, Ashley, and Wrex were in the mako, driving down the skyway. Heading to the exogeni hq. When they entered the building, they were greeted by a group of krogan attacking them. Wrex blasted them with the mako's weapons while Ash got out and opened fire on foot. When the last krogan died, the rest of the team exited the mako and began moving towards the entrance, but it was blocked by a force field. There, they saw a note, "One of the collapsed stair cases is still open enough to pass through." Jessica took it and quickly found the proper stair case. "Wrex, you go first." she said.
"Got it!" the krogan said, jumping down the hole.
"I have to be quick." Qael said, as he went into the thorian's lair. He sneaked up to the highest point, and waited. Hoping to find a way to free Shiala.
"Stupid computer!" a krogan battlemaster said.
"That is not a proper command." the vi replied.
"Just give me everything you have on species 341, or I will blow your virtual ass into actual dust!" the krogan growled.
"Please give a proper command quickly and move on. A line is forming."
"Shit!" Shepard said as she incinerated the armor of the krogan, and Wrex shot him in the head. This just angered it; however, and it charged Wrex. Nearly sending them both through a window before Shepard, Ashley, Miranda, and Garrus could shoot it 'til it looked like swiss cheese. Shepard walked up to the vi interface and asked, "What information do you have on the mental control capabilities of species 341." while inserting Lizbeth's key card.
"Species 341, commonly called the thorian, is an intelligent form of plant life that has been alive for over fifty thousand years. It's mind control abilities have been called, monstrous, but the executive board found it to have potential beneficial effects. It was decided that it would be studied, using the central are of the Zhu's Hope colony as a test group." the vi said, "However, contact was lost three days ago." it finished.
"Time to leave. We have to stop the unethical experiments that have been done on the people of Zhu's Hope." Shepard said.
"First we have to destroy the ship blocking the exit and jamming communications." Ashley said.
"You're right. Follow me." Shepard replied. When they reached the next area, they saw several geth worshiping a ball of light between three tentacles. Shepard lobbed an arc grenade into the middle of the group, while Garrus fired a concussive shot. The tech explosion killed the geth and opened a hole they could go through to close the door quickly enough to sever the claw holding the ship up. When they reached the next room; however, they were ambushed by geth hunters. Miranda, Garrus and Ashley were instantly knocked out, while Shepard hit the hunters with an overload and energy drain and Wrex shot them with his HMWSGX. As the last one fell dead, Shepard gave Miranda, Ash, and Garrus some medigel. When they got to the controls for the door, Shepard quickly got it within the desired range, and sent the ship down to its demise.
"Captain Anderson. I thought you would show up." said Deranus.
"Deranus," Anderson said to the salarian, "What are you doing?"
"Cerberus promised me a considerable amount of money. Of which only a small amount they were willing to part with. So I am taking what is mine, with interest."
"This is idiotic." Anderson said, as he shot Deranus in the head and detonated the AI.