Liara? Is everything okay with you?" Since they were alone now, the Commander switched to a more familiar tone, while she looked at the Asari, who seemed exhausted. "Hm?" Lira looked after the guards and she was a little lost in her own thoughts.
She considered that one Asari commando unit would have been enough and that she now had to pay both that she sent after the Quarian. Tali had been disarmed. The second command was a waste of credits. She ran her hand across her forehead at the thought, but at least it would finally solve this problem. "You look tired, what do you think, shall we get a drink while we are waiting?" Since the Asari had not objected, she stayed in the familiar voice. Liara nodded. That way she didn´t need to suggest it and the more the Commander would be distracted, the better it was. Shepard looked around and decided for a direction.
"Could you get information about your mothers work?" Liara start to walk next to her. "Yes, partly. Nobody knows what goes on at peak 15, and I did not even know that Benezia maintains a laboratory there." She was very annoyed about that. Shepard looked at her rumpled clothes and furrowed worried her brow. "Was the survey difficult, there were any problems," she asked, but Liara smiled and shook her head. "Nothing I could not handle with by my biotics."
They reached the elevator and went to the bar. Liara longed for an ice-cold glass of Noveria rum, but remained with fruity Asari-tea. Shepard ordered herself a coffee. Liara closed her eyes wearily. The tea was not that bad. Above all, it was pretty sweet and would fill her energy again, which was – thanks to Aria – a little low.
Tali walked for the fourth time in five minutes through her two by two meter cell. All her weapons and Omni tool were taken away and without them, she felt naked and defenseless. In addition, the guards watched her constantly. When the power supply suddenly flickered and the guards of SAFE withdrew she steeled herself ruefully. This was it. Tali wondered what the Shadow Broker had prepared for her.
She should not have come to Noveria. Everyone in the fleet knew that Noveria as well as the Citadel and a few other places belonged to the broker. Had she really been so naive that she thought Shepard could be a source of protection so that she could look around here? The risk for some information had been too high and now the fleet would lose her, after her father, as it´s leader. She hoped that her aunt Ran could hold the Quarian's together.
"Night, night," came a cheerful female voice and pulled her out of her thoughts, as an Asari flew dead past across the room. Tali tried to see something, but she could only see a human woman. In a tight white dress, with long black hair, which sent one Asari after the other to the ground.
"Now you see me," came a second voice and Tali suddenly jumped back, startled. The second human was wearing a black suit with a hood deeply drawn over her face. They blocked all attacks in front of the barrier. "Somebody really doesn´t like you." Tali was surprised, mainly because both sounded so amused, even as the Asari gave them a fierce battle. "We do not have much time," said the woman with the hood. She stood with her back to Tali and the Quarian had to listen carefully to understand her. "We unfortunately can't take you with us. Our client would like you to remain on board of the Normandy."
Tali tried to interrupt her, but the woman continued. "In less than ten days, there will be a major assault to the Citadel. If your fleet could help it would pay off for all sides." The woman had to crouch short and Tali took her chance to interrupt with a question. "Who is your client?" Kasumi shook her head in denial and grinned. "Oh, and if you get the opportunity to kill Dr. T'Soni you´ll receive an extra award." The two humans killed the last guards and Asari commandos before they disappeared.
Tali was pondering, surrounded by a good dozen dead Asari and tried to figure out what the woman wanted to tell her. She had to find a way to contact Ran. It could be a trap, but on the other hand, the two human just rescued her. She wondered if there was someone out there who wanted to fight on their side.
Shepard was startled as a shrill alarm sounded and several guards ran toward the cells. "Tali," she cursed, jumped up and run in that direction too. Liara looked after her and sighed. It did not look like her plan for Tali was accomplished. She pulled out a data pad from her pocket and watched the pictures of the surveillance camera and what she saw did not please her. Both commando units and the guards were dead and lay in front of the cell. Shepard burst into the room and talked with Captain Matsuo, who released Tali and returned her things.
Liara let the images from the surveillance cameras run back until she got a good picture of a human woman. She looked up for a moment and her face was clearly visible in the camera. Liara stopped at the image enlarged the face as much as possible on her pad. Liara's expression was furious. Miranda Lawson, and then the other person could only be Kasumi Goto. She could not believe that her mother had these two women brought into play. She allowed herself a hiss before she pocketed the pad and got up to go after Shepard. The only good thing was that there was no need to pay the two commando units.
Liara noticed the suspicious looks, which the Quarian gave her, but ignored them as much as possible. Unfortunately, there was a snowstorm. Nothing new on Noveria, but that meant they would have to take the Mako. Liara still wondered how Shepard could ever have received an authorization to drive any vehicle and sat in the back seat. To peak 15, it would take them two hours, with Shepard's driving style three hours. Enough time to take a closer look at Benezia's records.
This sounded like a good plan, but something created a feedback loop and she threw her Omnitool away as it began to smoke, with a startled cry. "Problems Doctor?" Tali sounded amused. Shepard did not respond because the Mako made some dangerous movements. As the Mako was stable again Liara grabbed her Omnitool. It was completely destroyed. She removed the data core and put it to the side. She would soon find a replacement, but she was annoyed that she had not thought about sabotaging Tali's first and she was quite sure that the Quarian was responsible. Now she had about two hours and nothing to distract her from the driving.
When they finally reached their destination, Liara went through in her mind all torture methods that were familiar to her for Shepard. Some favorites had crystallized, like bungee jumping over the mouth of a Treshermaw, vivisection or the variant where she burned Shepard from inside using only her mind. She shook herself, cleared her mind and put on the helmet of her battle suit.
Peak 15 was directly in front of them. Two large turrets showed inward instead against an outside threat. "They fired on their own people!" Tali muttered indignantly. Liara was stooping over a dead person and pulled off his Omni tool. Not as good as her old one, but a good substitute. "What," she asked as she noticed the indignant look from Shepard. "He needs it no more and the device and thus the inventory belonged to my mother." Shepard's look turned into surprise, but she just shook her head.
They followed the path through the device. Everywhere were strewn corpses, people who had tried to escape. They followed the corpses and reached an internal station, but the power supply was turned off.
"Tali, do you have an idea?" Shepard stood before a pop-up interface that called itself MIRA and looked questioningly to the Quarian. Tali nodded and scanned the area. We need to start the generator again, but that should go quickly. Liara can you go up the roof and connect the power lines? "Shepard looked from one team member to another. "We should split up?," she mused aloud, and Tali nodded. "It has to happen almost simultaneously. Shepard stays at here and closely watches the interface. "
Liara looked at Tali and then in the direction of the elevator, which she would take to the roof. Unfortunately, the Quarian was right, but she did not like. Nevertheless, she agreed and went on her way. When she had found on the roof of the port for the power lines, she had to wait for Tali's command. Liara looked around, the roof was too open. She scanned the area and then she smelled it, a slight static in the air. She activated the switch and sprinted back into the elevator. Not too late, the starting thunder was crackling her suit, but luckily her shields hold. That bitch, she thought as the elevator went back down.
Shepard greeted her with a nod. "Was there any trouble that caused you to needed that much time?" But the Asari just shook her head. Tali also joined them again. Liara could not tell if the Quarian had acted on purpose. Through this helmet one could not see anything and what was one reason why she could not like Quarian. A being whose eyes could not been seen, could not be trusted.
They took the train and were greeted on the other side by some human, an Elcor and an Asari. They gave the new arrivals a venomous look. Liara looked at her and then took off helmet, whose eyes widened and she stepped back. "You powered up the energy again?" Shepard nodded. "Thank You," said the local security chief. "Then we will hurry to disappear." He gestured to the others to follow him. "Wait," shouted Jane after him. "Did you have seen an Asari matriarch here?" The man nodded. "She's down in the labs, for three days now." Shepard looked to Liara, but that kept an eye on the Asari. "Do they have any idea what's down there?" The human denied. "We are responsible for the safety and they are," he pointed to the Asari and two human women, "researchers. None of us had the required security level for the lab´s down there. "
Shepard looked at the Asari, who slowly but surely brought more and more distant between them, instead following the other. "Alestia, are you coming?" Liaras head snapped around as she heard the name. The Asari pulled a gun and yelled, "Die bitch," but Liara was faster and pulled the trigger. It was a clean shot right between the eyes. The Asari fell backward before Tali and Shepard could even react. Liara put her gun back in and She examined the bags and found an access card, "so much about not having access to the labs," she said, more to herself. She did not look after the leaving train, but pointed toward the elevator. "Down there, we should find the matriarch." Then she went to the door and disabled the security code.
The elevator door opened and Shepard looked around, with her gun ready. Liara and Tali followed her closely. It was an almost pure white dipped, square-scale laboratory. In the center was a control platform and above that a strange being that painful shrill screeching noise was coming from. They also saw quickly why, for two acid tanks on both sides emptied their contents and killed it. On the platform stood an impressive Asari. She wore a long yellow dress and seemed to glow almost warm, if not an icy smile would have played around her lips. Shepard could not continue to focus on her as slowly from the other three doors Asari and Geth were coming towards them.
"Mother," shouted Liara beside her. No one moved, as Liara walked to her mother. No one dared to move, until she stood before her mother, the Asari closed the gap between Tali and Shepard and the rest. Liara was cut off from the other two. "Liara," the icy smile didn't change. Benezia began to circle her daughter. "You have interesting accompaniment," she noted with amusement and glanced at Shepard and Tali Zorah, which were pushed into a corner. Yet no one took out the weapon, but it seemed that the Asari and Geth were just waiting for the order to attack or for a provocation. "A Quarian? And a human?" Benezia laughed in amusement. "And the way you look ..." Benezia finished the round around her daughter and looked at her with a long her up and down. Liara wore a typical white and pink battle suit and her cheeks grew warm under the gaze of her mother.
The young Asari felt anger began to rise in her. "Give me the data, mother," she said coolly. At that moment, it doesn´t matter to her whether Tali or Shepard could hear her words and the tone. She was sick of the charade and it bothered her that she had to look up in these boots to her mother. But her two companions could not hear her from their current position; they were focused on the threat in front of them. A very deadly threat.
Benezia laughed. "That simply? You come and command me? "Liara slightly tilted her head and folded her arms across her chest. "Oh, I shall to ask you nicely? Maybe in the way I asked you for your position some years ago?" She purred, amused and now it was Benezia´s turn to get angry. Liara followed the glance to her companions. "Kill them, you'd be doing me a favor," she added with a shrug.
Benezia did not hesitate, but whipped her daughter with a heavy warp field, which caught her cold and send her flying across the room. She bounced off the far wall and slid to the floor. "I now realize that I should have been stricter with you," Benezia gave their commandos a sign to kill the two others. She would take care about Liara - who stood up painfully - by herself.
Liara came about not paying attention to Shepard and Tali and she wasn´t even interested. She had a lot to do to build up her barriers and to fight against her mother. "You're like your father," Benezia snapped. Liara had to retreat, meter for meter, but she looked that she had an outlet in her back. Her mother let out the frustration of the past six years on her. Liara didn´t fought back immediately, she just concentrated to hold her shields up and waited. Suddenly a shot hit her in her back. She buckled and Benezia gave her a resounding, biotically enhanced slap that made Liara nearly faint.
It was Shepard who rescued Liara´s life at the moment by shooing Benezia´s barriers away with a targeted shot. The Asari looked up and swept the human with a shock wave to the floor, but this time was enough for Liara to return to her feat, to concentrate and launch an attack. Now it was Benezia's turn, to pull back, but she did not plan to stay to long and to see how the fight would end. She had a shuttle outside the lab and wanted to get to it.
She held her daughter with Warp detonations at bay, but had to admit that she had rarely seen such good singularities like that they were Liaras specialty. Her daughter saw the shuttle and understood the plan emerged when her next Tali Zorah and Shepard appear. "We have to catch her," she shouted out to them and created a shield, as a further shock wave came to them. She cursed silently, as from behind them an Asari fired. But it hit Tali who went down. Liara ignored her. She only saw how her mother got into the shuttle. Their eyes met and her anger rose at the amused look that Benezia gave her. She grabbed Tali's gun roughly and started running at the shuttle as it launched. Liara jumped biotically enhanced on a near cargo container and with a tremendous second jump onto the shuttle. She fired the gun, but that was completely overheated and useless. Her mother performed a turn and then accelerated so that Liara lost her footing and fell to the ground. Without her biotics, she would probably have been torn apart by the impact, but she landed elegant on her feet.
She scanned Tali as she went pass her and was disappointed when she realized that the Quarian would survive. "Stay here and contact Joker, Shepard," she struggled to adjust her voice. "I'll see if I can find something inside the lab." Shepard said nothing, but gave her a strange look before she called the Normandy for evac.
Liara entered the lab and looked around. Not all Asari were dead yet, so maybe she would have a chance to get some information. She looked to Shepard that was distracted by the Quarian. Liara went to the first Asari which was lying on the ground and knelt beside her. Her eyes were wide with pain and she could not move. Liaras eyes dumped into the black, but the Asari did not know anything. She cried out as her brain was destroyed and died painfully. Liara stepped through the ranks, but none of the commandos didn't know anything and Liaras methods were violent with each kill. The last living started to crawl away from her anxious. "Please Mistress, I ... I do not know what Lady Benezia has sought here." Liara put one foot on the Asari´s chest and leaned on her knee. The Asari gasped as the air was forced out of her lungs. "I hear," Liara just said smiling softly. "I know where she wanted to go," wheezed the Asari and Liara took a bit of the pressure off. Rattling she took a breath and coughed up blood, before she continued. "She wanted to talk on the Citadel with the Council's mistress." Liara took her foot off her, knelt beside her and looked into her eyes. "Thank you," she smiled. "And now find peace in the embrace of the Goddess," she said, a ritual prayer, as she pulled the trigger of her gun and killed the Asari.
Liara looked around, but could find no further information. She felt how the disappointment started to grow in her. Benezia escaped again. Only she knew the coordinates of the Mu Relay and should she find it before Liara, she would be superior. "Liara," asked a worried voice beside her. "I know that the whole situation must be hard for you, but the shuttle is waiting." Liara nodded. She felt tired and drained. The biotic fight had deprived her of residual energy. "We need to go to Citadel, Shepard," she said softly, before everything went black around her.