This Chapter is self-beta, and finished when about to go to sleep, sorry for inconvenience.
Chapter 11: Meeting in person
Tali'zorah hummed happily while checking over heavy-duty scanner-research machine that the ground team managed to acquire from Feros and installed on the Normandy – much to the bafflement of Navigator Pressley who wondered how they could've cleared enough space for such large object in their cargo bay at all. Her Omni-Tool shines brightly, illuminating the hatch she's using to check over the inside to make sure that everything was in working order…
…that, and make sure that no potentially dangerous items – organic or otherwise, has been sneaked on board… especially consider what they've found down there under Zhu's Hope and what ExoGeni was doing.
But then again, it's because of that stunt of ExoGeni that they could get their hand on this fine tool as spoils of war in the first place, thus she shouldn't look a gift horse in the mouth.
The Quarian glanced expectedly at certain white drone hovering innocently to the side, seemingly oblivious to what she had in store for it. While this made her sound like a mad scientist salivating at a chance to experimenting on live specimen, Tali's isn't going to do such thing to this drone.
After all, Remy was ancient – about the same time when Prothean civilization still ruled the galaxy if her preliminary scans were to be believed, and she studied enough history to know that finding a working technology of ancient, millennia old civilization was borderline impossible – the flak that Shepard got from Citadel Council for letting the still functioning Prothean Beacon blew up could attest to that.
Doing something that risk damaging the drone was forbidden, Tali doubt the universe will be merciful enough to let them come across another similar artifact again in centuries to come.
Thus, all she could do now is getting a powerful scanner to look at the drone, if nothing else, it may shed some light to what material they used to make the drone, and could she – and the rest of the galaxy – could replicate it.
Once the check was completed, Tali turned toward the drone in question – which Commander Shepard lent her – and begin giving instruction "Get into that scanning chamber."
The drone hovered in place for a moment, its 'eyes' looked directly at Tali as if disapproved of her tone before quietly complied and get inside the scanning chamber – which is large enough for even Eclor to get inside comfortably.
Again, Tali wondered if this drone is just a simple 'VI' as Shepard and everyone else claimed it to be; though they're not stupid, they're not the most tech-savvy people, nor did they have their history blighted by the menace of machine's intelligence growing out of control like her people. Thus it's understandable that she'd be the only one aboard the Normandy to be wary of any intelligent shown by the machine, however innocent it may be.
Shaking out unnecessary thought, the young Quarian switched on the research machine which hummed lightly; yellow, bright light illuminated the scanning chamber as it began diagnosis the drone sitting in its chamber, several wireframe pictures of the object projecting on the screen as the scan continue, each showing numbers, graphs, or texts for user to gather and interpret the data.
However, what it found surprised the young Quarian, baffled her even; as underneath the energy field surrounding the drone was not made from exotic unknown element as she first thought. On one hand; its metallic skin composed of composite metals, the composition itself weren't any of note as they are in use even today. But on the other hand; the atomic and sub-atomic bonds of the material itself were conditioned to the strength impossible to replicate by any known method and scientific theory! This effectively made the drone have many times better protection than any vehicle using the same composite metal!
'Whoever made this thing were metallurgy and atomic physic experts at minimum!' Thought Tali as she deactivate the scanner and let the drone out – which it decided to bobbed its head at her as if question what she's going to do next.
Somehow, that action made Tali wished she could get biological analysis machine from Zhu's Hope to complete the machine set, but alas, considered what happened down there, Tali knows that Zhu's Hope needed it more than anywhere; what with the unresolved infection that – while inert for now after she and Shepard pumped the Thorian full of lead before send it down to abyss below the Feros surface – still linger in all victim's bodies and there're no guarantee that it'll remain that way forever.
Not only those Thorian spores stuck in place impossible to surgically remove without threatening victims' lives, they also resisted any drugs and antibiotics known to the galaxy, if anyone was in dire need for biologic scanner machine it'd be them, not Tali or anyone aboard this ship.
Still, even if Remy's mysteries remains at large, Tali could see this research machine being useful on analyzing something less exotic - particularly Geth, not only it'd useful for their missions, this could help the Quarian find a weakness in the mechanical menace their ancestors created and perhaps open up a solution to finally take back her homeworld! After all, the Migrant Fleet couldn't afford this kind of expensive machinery as it had to devoted most resources for survival of their people, and that's what slowing down their technological advancement to this day.
Communication beeped, stopping Tali from stray thought and answers to her Omni-Tool "Tali's speaking… Commander Shepard?"
"-How're you doing Tali?-"
"Do you contact me just to chitchat?" The Quarian sarcastically quipped before answering "I'm fine, the machine we've got just made a small discovery regarding your mysterious drone, though we still couldn't replicate its construction method but…"
"-Calm down Tali,-" Shepard quickly calmed the young Quarian down as she's about to launched into enthusiastic tirade – which appear whenever she's excited about new technology "-A situation came up and I just want to call for a meeting of ground team in fifteen minutes.-"
Tali winced, even Commander wasn't there in person before hastily replies in embarrassment "Sorry, commander, I got carried away. I'll be right there as soon as possible."
John Shepard glanced around the meeting room as his ground crews flies in one by one over the past five minutes; each find their own seats and wait for others in silent.
It was the young Quarian engineer who showed up last, followed closely by the white rounded drone; Remy, as she took the seat she apologizes "Sorry for being late, Shepard."
Everyone is the room shared small smiles to each other, while Shepard checked his Omni-Tool and inform Tali as she takes her seat "There still three minutes left, so you're not late anyway." Then he asks "Something wrong with the machine we acquired?"
"Just slight software error when I tried to import the scanning result of Remy." Tali replied while her glowing eyes watched said drone making its way toward the first human SPECTRE "Nothing serious." She adds.
Shepard nodded in acknowledgement, but before he could start the meeting, the young Asari questioned the Quarian excitedly "I heard from Shepard that you discovered new information from this ancient drone?"
"Nothing much I'm afraid…" Tali replied modestly "It just open more questions than answer. And confirm that the creator has better grasps of material science than us. Its composition was that we already know of, yet it was much stronger than we could possibly produce! It's the method, not material that give it this properties!"
Liara tried to ask more, but a cough from Shepard put a stop to that "So, it wasn't some exotic materials and energy shielding as we first thought?"
Tali nodded and elaborate "Positive; the energy field is likely the side effect of whatever technique they used to make the material as strong as it is… but I still unable to determine what it is."
Shepard sighed "As much as I want to find the secret of this drone…" his glare landed firmly at the white drone whose behavior would scream feigning innocence if weren't for the fact that he doubted whether it's sentience or not "…we have to put it on hold, as the colonists of Feros are still concern of the infection and the Council – and – Ambassador Udina wanted us to cure it if possible."
"Another political bullshit is it, Commander?" Kaidan Alenko spoke up while twirling a teaspoon in his hand – which Shepard wondered if the young Biotic forget to put it back in the ship's cantina while hurried to finished his meal for this meeting or not.
Yet his comment really nailed the issue and thus Shepard continues – scowl on his face "Yes, just as Kaidan said; the Ambassador feels that while this won't bring the colonists under System Alliance's jurisdiction, at the very least they'll owed a debt to the Alliance. While the Council concerned about the threat this 'Thorian' poses to our civilizations and don't want to leave anything to chance…"
He grimaced when he remembered that Turian Councilor still took a jab that he killed the sole member of a newly discovered sentient species, seemingly turning blind eye to the fact that given the circumstance and the magnitude of threat of this species to everyone, there wasn't any better way. [1]
"So they basically wanted us to develop a cure on top of hunting Saren huh?" Garrus said and chuckles rather sardonically "Since when did we become doctors and scientists? No offence to you, Miss T'soni."
The young archeologist shook her head, yet she was frowning "None taken Garrus. But Shepard…" and then she asks worriedly "…we have only Dr. Chakwas as a qualified doctor aboard Normandy. Tali is a tech expert, and I'm specialized in Prothean archeology, not medical science, the rest of you are soldiers first and foremost. How the Council expected us to do that?"
Shepard looked around the table, and judging from everyone's expression; they were thinking the same as Liara.
Knowing that he shouldn't keep them worried any longer; he tapped his Omni-Tool a few times, ordered the holo-projector in the center of the room to bring out a galaxy map before zooming in on one sector of the galaxy – their next destination "As intelligence regarding Saren's whereabouts still in the dark with no clues nor leads to pursuit, the Council saw it fit to have us do some chore work in the meantime..." he snorted at the last bit.
"They really make the most out of your promotion weren't they, Shepard." Wrex sent a grin from his seat while his hands cradling absent-mindedly an old piece of armor that they recovered by chance from one of the colonist on Feros. [2]
Ashley who seated next to Kaidan pinched her nose at the sight yet didn't comment anything, as she and everyone know how significance that piece of junk to Wrex – and it is something that she could related to a little consider her past.
Notice the awkwardness in the room, Shepard continues with slightly louder voice "Anyway, here's the colony of human that broke away from Alliance – Horizon…" the holographic image shifted to an earth-like planet "The Councilors just received a report from one of their SPECTRE who stumbled across mysterious pandemic there..."
The human SPECTRE didn't need to speak further as everyone has the 'I knew it' look on their faces as they puzzled two and two together, which he decided to confirm it "There was an illegal research facility on that planet - hidden within private company recreation complex called 'Sanctuary' under ownership of the billionaire Henry Lawsonwho was suspected to be Cerberus associate few years ago. And their subject of research was the spore of Thorian and how to utilize it for mind control purpose."
"This SPECTRE guy busted them up and finds the cure there?" Ashley asked with disbelief in her voice; something which everyone else agreed with as it was too much of a coincidence to be true.
To that question, Shepard continues his briefing "It was a volunteer doctor who stranded on the colony after quarantine that developed a cure…" he then looked at Gunnery Chief and nods "But William wasn't that far from the truth; actually, the doctor used data gathered from those in Sanctuary, combined with – as in SPECTRE's word 'her experience in dealing with closely similar type of symptoms before', to produce a functional cure. [3]"
He then summarized "There're more to the event that led to the destruction of Sanctuary and its hidden lab, but it was irrelevant as the SPECTRE had already solved the incident. So, our job is to get there, pick up the cure and then get it back here to Feros. No need to develop a cure ourselves."
"Why won't they just upload the formula on the Extranet so everyone could get it, Commander?" It was Kaidan who have trouble with what they heard and raised a question.
Shepard palmed his face and sigh tiredly "Because the SPECTRE in question afraid that it could spread mistrust and chaos across the galaxy should anyone know exactly why the cure is necessary."
As they all experienced what happened on Zhu's Hope first-hand; everyone in the meeting room realized the implication of galactic community at large knowing the existence of mind-controlling, brain-washing life form and that one of the largest terrorist organization – or their associate – find a way to apply it to people. The chaos that ensure will undermine the authority is unimaginable.
Blood drained from all faces, and then, Liara shakily raised her hand, her face grim while she asks another question "Did the Cerberus managed to reproduce the mind control ability?"
The occupants look grimly at Shepard, who shook his head "From what Council told me; the SPECTRE on Horizon made sure that no data regarding mind control could be recovered. And that said SPECTRE doubted that Cerberus knows the full scope of what transpired given that they tried to break into Sanctuary in the first place. It seems likely that those in Sanctuary splintered from Cerberus to keep the research for themselves. And they all now turned to dust by reactor meltdown in their lab."
"Are you sure that the Citadel Council don't just hide a copy of research notes somewhere so they can continue this in secret?" Wrex voiced his suspicion almost immediately, his eyes practically screamed 'bullshit' at what he just heard.
Yet Shepard couldn't deny the Krogan's suspicion either and tell them as such "We can't be sure until we met said SPECTRE in person. Though given the look of Councilors when I contacted with them, it seems the Salarian was the most disappointed." He smiled wryly, recalling the Salarian Councilor's grimace face when telling him that piece of information. "And I think that they want us to get there to see if this doctor who made the cure will be any threat to Council. Considering that now his or her cure is the best lead to the Thorian's 'unique properties'"
Of course, if come down to it; Shepard may have to do some 'dirty work' to silence the good doctor to prevent this knowledge falling into wrong hands, but he hope it wouldn't come to that.
But just as he said, until he could assert the honesty of the SPECTRE and the doctor who solved the Horizon pandemic incident, he has to err on the caution side "Make sure to check everyone hard suits and weapons." He instructed "Even Horizon has breathable atmosphere, until we can ascertain that the cure work, all spores eliminated and that everything matched with what we found here on Feros we'll have to be caution… any question?"
As no one raised any more fuss, Shepard concluded the meeting and went to the bridge to prepare for departure.
It took 6 hours before they could finally leave the port of Zhu's Hope, thanks to no small part in overprotectiveness of Joker and Pressley toward the Normandy – insisted to check every nook and cranny for damage in the aftermath of what they dubbed 'Zombie apocalypse' despite said 'Zombie' could only scratching the paintjob with their hands and claws that did no real damage.
The delay didn't cause any issue though, and before Shepard know it, the Normandy finally emerged from the Mass Relay of Iera System where the colony Horizon lies, and not a moment after, the sight of the blue planet can be seen from the windows on the bridge.
"Approaching Horizon, Commander… We're being hailed by the local starport asking for our intent… what should we tell them?"
There, on the pilot seat just few paces away from Shepard, his trusted pilot Joker turned his head around, looking at him expectedly for answer.
Shepard wondered if this question from Joker necessary, but he concluded that Joker just want to be sure that he should flaunt his SPECTRE authority in an attempt to smooth thing up or not, seeing that one other SPECTRE was already down there. So it's not like he's dumb or anything.
Weighing pros and cons as the Normandy hovering over the colony world in wait, Shepard grimaced at the lack of information – or history for reference; most SPECTREs were lone wolf and almost never interact with each other – let alone being on the same planet.
As to not waste any more time; Shepard decided to be honest and instructs Joker "Tell them that I'm aboard and request permission for landing…"
Soon enough, his choice proved to be effective; they allowed him to dock with their rather run-down spaceport under the morning sunlight without much fanfare – if you discounted the armed guards that came flocking around Normandy's exit ramp that is.
Shepard stepped down first, followed by Kaidan and Ashley, then the rest of ground team – all in their hard suits with weapons attached to the back. The presences of aliens among his crews seem to tip the guards' alarm as they trained their weapons at his team. And Shepard has to quickly intervene
"They're with me gentlemen…" he said to the guard with straight face, trying hard to be as convincing as possible without too intimidating "We just come here to pick up the cure to mysterious disease. There's another colony in need of the same cure. Life is at stake here."
"How can we sure that what you said is true?" One of the guard retorted, with some of his companions nodded in agreement "You could've lying through your ass to strike us when your slavers friends comes to raid our colony!"
As luck would've it; it seems the news of his promotion to SPECTRE didn't travel fast enough despite the advancement in galaxy-wide communication network. And the paranoid of the local – stemming from constant threat of pirates and slaver gangs in Terminus – did little to alleviate the problem.
And just like on Noveria; it take a timely intervention from colonial management official to figured out the news from Extranet to confirm his identity and tell these guards to let them through.
'At least this's an improvement compared to that accursed Noveria' Shepard thought ruefully while being escorted to see the colonial management official along with everyone on the ground team.
However, all optimism was grounded to a halt when he met the officials themselves at the administrative building a few blocks away from spaceport; these locals were less than pleased to know that they've to receive another SPECTRE walking around and wanted nothing to do with the recently solved pandemic at the outskirt of the colony.
"We don't even know what happened in there." One of them – the old man seated at the round table waiting for Shepard and his entourage in the reception hall - claimed and shrugged "We can't risk the infection to spread to the spaceport do we? So anyone ventured there cannot get away from the village for more than a day. It's a rule to protect others Shepard."
Shepard just stood there, narrowed his eyes at the bureaucrat and crossed his arms "I don't recall any standard protocol that make civilian expendable sacrifice. You don't even send any doctors."
"Please, SPECTRE, we're lack of doctors here. And who'll look after the main colony if we send them to the pandemic site?" another administrative attempted to reason - with half-assed excuse in Shepard's opinion.
It was Wrex who dryly remark "Why not just simply burned the whole village down – people and all – then call it a day if you're going to do what you did?"
Shepard's team didn't react to Wrex's sarcasm because he was right to an extent. However, faced with insult, one of the local administrators retorted heatedly "Listen here, giant lizard! We human are not barbarian! Everything has procedures and protocols to follow for the safety and wellbeing of the colony!"
Even Ashley – who was slightly pro-human – couldn't find it in her to support this course of action; not only has it condemned a section of population to slow, agonizing death should the disease proved fatal, but also inefficient in containing a serious outbreak as no one send any personnel to check what's going on there at all.
And the reason it end quite well with few fatalities was because of actions of a passing by SPECTRE… if not… who could imagine what Cerberus would do with the mind control research? But the local didn't need to know that.
However, that doesn't mean that Shepard wouldn't chew them out to have them get priority straight.
"It would be more effective to simply send in qualified doctors to control the pandemic while quarantining the area…" Shepard noted with displeased tone "Instead you send in volunteers and locked them up there, are you expecting them to cure the thing or are you expect to kill everyone there and sweep everything under a rug, thinking that the pandemic has been quelled by the death of those infected?"
"We provided food and water regularly, so they'd better do their job!" the same man countered with no sympathy "You're just soldiers! Council's lap dog! What could you possibly know about administration?"
Shepard really wanted to punch this bureaucrat now, if not for the fact that it'd complicate the situation and make those on Feros wait longer for the cure he would. But now he has works to do.
"Anyway, SPECTRE who came here sent message about successful cure and asked us to come and pick it up so other colony suffered from the same disease could get cure." Shepard returned to the original topic, yet his glare told the colony official that he hasn't forget what they've done yet, and intend to leverage it for what it worth "If you'll lift the quarantine as soon as we confirmed the cure works and send all volunteers home, then I'll let it slide this time. What do you say?"
Suffice to say; they agreed with him immediately... that improve his mood a little while they flies out of the office back to the Normandy and that's when he suggests "So, let's unload the Mako. I wish we could get this over with as soon as possible."
His entire ground team froze on their tracks and staring at him with horrified gaze, each shuddered at the memory of their Commander behind that thing's wheels.
Noticing the reaction, Shepard sighed "Come on, how we supposed to get there if not by Mako?"
"With all due respect sir; not with YOU driving it…" Ashley spoke first with crisp, formal tone indicating the seriousness with horror yet to fade from her eyes "…I understand that in combat situation it's what kept us alive, but now that there're no danger, there's no need to cause panic by driving a tank up their doorstep."
At this, other members nodded vehemently, agreeing with the Gunnery Chief's assessment… all except certain Krogan that is…
"Really, after all those missions so far, I thought that you all would get used to it by now…" Wrex snickered, earning ire of Ashley who shifted her glare at him to which prompt the Krogan to hold up his hands and chuckled "…easy there, your opinion has merit. We're not here to fight. Why waste fuel on a tank when we can ask local for a vehicle, I think we have some credits to burn do we?"
Shepard entertained that idea for a moment before decide against it and make up his mind "We'll fly Normandy there. I'm confident that they'll agree."
He didn't notice the sigh of relieve from his team at all…
Ten minutes later, Shepard found himself strolling down from the Normandy's cargo bay. In front of him lies a temporary settlement with many volunteer doctors busy at work. Some locals glanced warily at the Normandy and people who came out of it while other shrugged it off and go about their business preparing for another busy day.
Looking through the street led to the market square, Shepard noticed that most still has somber look on their faces as if they recently struck with tragedy – which to the SPECTRE - shouldn't that far from the truth if what happened at Feros was any indication.
Shepard broke out of his thought when he noticed the oddity among the human; namely a single Salarian approaching his group with posture that did little to hide his identity of a man with military training.
"SPECTRE John Shepard I presume?"
…and his greeting basically sealed it – this's the SPECTRE he was looking for.
Shepard steps forth, his hand hold out at the Salarian "it's been a pleasure to meet you in person, Mr. Jondum Bau…" he glanced at his ground team and begin introducing each and every one of them to the SPECTRE.
"A pleasure to meet you all as well…" Jondum shook hand with Shepard, his large eyes watched the human's entourage momentarily before nodded "We should discuss this in in your craft. Just to make sure no one bugged it…"
Shepard looked at his team, before they all return to the Normandy. Once in the meeting room, the Salarian pulled out his Omni-Tool and begins scanning the entire place. This irritated Ashley William - the one in charge of security of the ship, but held her tongue out of respect that this's Citadel Special Agent with years of experience more than her.
It took ten minutes until the Salarian SPECTRE was satisfied, so Shepard asked everyone to have a seat first before further discussion.
Then beep sounded from Shepard's Omni-Tool with message asking for permission to transfer file from the SPECTRE seated opposite of him. Shepard looked questioningly at the Salarian who nodded at him, before accepted it. The transfer takes only seconds, and once he opened the file, he find himself staring down list of plants and fruits with instruction how to prepare each ingredient, how to mix it, and how to apply it.
Shepard quietly shared it among his ground team; though they're not biology expert they should understand the strangeness of this cure. And soon enough, Kaidan spoke up "Is that it? I thought it'd be synthesize chemical compound or antibiotic or something, but just plants and fruits juice?"
As if knowing what he was thinking, Jondum replies "If you're asking if it could eliminate Thorian spore, then yes, I already tested it and it worked, take 90 hours to kill the spore and break it down to harmless nutrients."
"But surely, extracting all the essential chemicals to make a drug should speed up the healing process instead of waiting for 90 hours like this." Tali opined with suspicion.
"The one who came up with the cure told me that it's to counteract any side effects of the chemicals..." Jondum explained "…and after observation thus far, I have to agree with her. Good news is that local flora was enough to make the cure, too."
"You mean the doctor who created the cure?" Shepard inquired "Speaking of which, where is she?"
The Salarian SPECTRE suddenly looks nervous for no apparent reason at the mention of wanting to meet with the doctor. He stared at Shepard for full minute before he spoke up "That's another reason why I want to meet you in person…"
In woodland far to the west of the village where the Sanctuary secretly released Thorian spore to the population in an attempt to emulate mind control ability of the creature stood a small grass field among the green and yellow of trees. Dozens of crosses made from steel pipes tied together dotted this grassland. Some rusted, showing its age, but there're many new one atop small mound of brown dirt indicating their recent addition.
Near the outermost row of crosses there're two figures in civilian cloth; a young black haired woman in late teen kneels as if praying for those buried below. Next to her stood an older woman with almost identical feature to the kneeling one, she looked impassively at the sight of new graves while awaiting her sister to finished praying.
"It's strange that I still pray for them despite being atheist…." Murmured the younger woman as she stood up and dusting off her ankle-length skirt, then she turned to ask her older twin. "What do you think, Miranda?"
Said 'sister' take a looking at graveyard with stoic face before somberly replies "I… don't have time for such thing Oriana… not in the past… not even now…"
"It must be hard out there…" Oriana commented while stretching her back, but the next word made Miranda's eyes widen "…I mean, I won't have this happy family and childhood if not because of you watching my back, sister…"
The older woman unconsciously stumbled back, her stoic mask crumbled; give way for surprised one "H-how did you know?"
She stuttered, all but confirmed her younger sister's suspicion in front of her.
Oriana smiled coyly "I always feel like being watched since I remembered, sis. I didn't know who or why until that man…" she scowled as face of Mr. Lawson popped up in her mind "…unintentionally hint at it. And remember when Eve and Anchor took your blood sample to check for infection 3 days ago?"
That's enough for Miranda to pieced things together; she reasoned to herself that sticking here for a few days should throw off the SPECTRE's suspicion of her involvement with certain organization and having some conversation with her sister wouldn't hurt.
But now… it seems like a bad idea already.
"I… I just…"
"Don't want me to get hurt?" Oriana cut her sister off cheerfully, yet her eyes shows tints of concern "…as much as I'd like to tell you that I'm fine and that this is the first time something like this happened, I think that it was as peaceful as it is because of you, sis…"
Flashes of guilt showed up on Mirada's face for brief second before she looked away.
Oriana smiled and pats her 'long lost sibling' on shoulder to comfort her "I'm grateful, sis, for you to look out for me and my family. But you shouldn't hide away from us like that. At least we should have a yearly get-together or something?"
The older twin still not looking back until Oriana waved her hand in front of her that she couldn't take this pestering any longer, yet she reigned in her temper and answered, make sure to conveyed her worry to her sister "My line of job isn't that stellar, Oriana, I don't want to endanger you."
"Was this job involved Cerberus?"
Somehow, Miranda started to feel that her sister's bubbly and cheerful personality made it easy to forget that she's smarter than what her behavior might suggest – as if figured out that that little girl in red and her family were synthetics when Miranda was none of the wiser not a clue enough already.
Speaking of which, Miranda quickly dodged the question by stating "I think we have to check on that robot girl – Anchor is it? Shouldn't leave her messing around those mechs…"
"Miranda…" Oriana glowered and addressed Miranda by name, indication that she noticed her attempt to divert the topic "…you haven't answered me yet…"
Minrada kept silent, unsure what to answer. But that made the situation worse as her younger sibling edged closer to the truth – if she knows what she sprouted is the truth that is.
"Why you have to work with Cerberus sis? Haven't you seen what they've done over the past decades?"
She kept silent, hoping against all hope that her sister will draw different conclusion, but all was in vain.
"I believe that you're doing so to keep me out of… that man's grasp and that their action was for human, but after 'that day', I don't think they're any better than terrorist…"
"They're doing it for the sake of humanity!" Miranda finally snapped, care not if she spills the beans out to her sister as she turned around and look into Oriana's eyes "And they're keeping promise of protecting you…"
"You are the one who protected me, sister, not Cerberus!" Oriana countered with eerily calm voice, her arms crossed and didn't budged from the stare her sister give "They'd happily gunned me down back at Sanctuary, had not those kidnappers shoved me out of the way first…"
"Those operative you saw are…"
"Are what? False flag operation to discredit the organization?" Oriana smirked as she caught on what excuse Miranda trying to use, then she pointed at her twin's face triumphantly "…your face, it's telling me that you don't believe what you're trying to say either!"
"…"
Miranda couldn't object her sister, not because of bias, but because she got irrefutable evidences from corpses of those operatives that they're under Cerberus's employment. Yet part of her mind still unable to admit that The Illusive man might have a deal with her late father behind her back, and on human experiment too.
Perhaps she should ask The Illusive man when she got back…
"Miss Oriana, Miss Miranda!"
Ophelia's voice snapped her out of thought; she looked to the other side of the graveyard and saw the maid steadily approaching them, her unnerving gaze locked onto the two siblings without blinking, as if preparing to scold them for lingering here far too long.
Miranda turned back and squeezes her sister's hand on her shoulder a bit, prompting the girl to let go and muttered "I'll think about it." Then she turned to address the maid while crossing her arms "What's the matter? Your master already allows us to look after the mechs had she not?"
The maid stopped few steps away from Miranda and gives her a blank stare "We detected a spacecraft landing outside of the village, we're not certain if they're those coming to pick you volunteers up or not, thus Eve think that we should inform you first."
It was Oriana who waved her hand dismissively "Nah, my fellows contacted the main colony a while back; they won't show up until next week, so whoever come here today isn't coming to pick us up."
Miranda nodded in tandem with her sister.
Ophelia looked at the twin and nod slightly "Understood. Then please follow me. We just finished unloading the mechs."
The three of them left the graveyard and walk deeper into the wood until they reached another small clearing; one cargo truck parked just at the edge opposite to where they approach with five white compressed metallic construct in shape roughly resemble a box almost three meters tall. Next to them were Eve, Oberon and Anchor, with the last one kneeling at small sprout on the ground.
As Miranda got closer though, the masked butler quickly barred her way while gesturing at the kneeling robot-child. (She still trying to wrap her head around what Oriana has told her; they look and acted so human, not even the current best robotic technology could do that!)
Though the twin did stopped as Oberon asked, the two still wonder what's wrong, and Mirada impatiently toss out sarcastic remarks first "So, are you seriously telling me that you don't want the sprout to get trample?"
The little robot-girl in red silently sprang out multiple blue holographic rings with her eyes closed. Her right metallic hand outstretched toward the sprout emitting faint green glow.
Miranda's eyes widen when said sprout enlarged into a trunk and shoot toward the sky; green stem slowly turned brown as bark formed around the surface, roots expanded and slithered through the soil, branches exploded outward from the main trunk, budding tumors dotted their surface which expanded into leaves!
It's just like watching documentary film, except that it's not photograph technique and all of this happened in the span of five minutes!
The blue rings around Anchor dissipated as the girl stood up shakily, prompting Oberon to help steady her on her feet. The girl looked at Eve in anticipation as the regal woman in white examines the now fully grown pine with her golden, piercing gaze.
Few seconds passed and the woman gives the child a small smile and a pat on the head "Good job…" She said while looking up the tree "…you've improved a lot since last time, my child. But…"
As Eve abruptly stopped her compliment, Oriana seems miffed about that and blurt out "What? That is amazing you know? Instant fabrication is one thing, but no one can grow a tree like you just did!"
Eve glanced at Oriana before explains "It's hard to see on the tree, but this accelerated growth still has side effect…"
"Anchor's work shortened the tree's lifespan…" Anchor admitted the flaw of her work herself "This technique theoretically can apply to regrow or replace major organs too, but with the way it is, the one receiving treatment may have their lifespan cut by 5% at the very least, 10% at worst. Anchor has to solve it before Anchor healing technique able to cure anything more than a broken bone."
"It's not that grim…" Oriana pointed out "I mean, yeah, Salarian may have issue with it, but for most of us who lived at least 100 years, 5 to 10 years isn't that much. And by the way…" she realized something as she looked at the woman in white "…isn't this programmed into you from the beginning? I mean, Anchor is a synthetic isn't she?"
The twins looked at Eve for answer, and so she obliged "We don't have such thing. Although I already had that ability when I created Anchor, I won't just copy the program, equipment, and hand it to her like how you think I had."
"Then how can Anchor do… that?" Miranda pointed at the tree right next to them, her eyes made it easy to read that she didn't believe what Eve said at all.
"Learn how to apply your basic abilities to solve the current problem, and then practice it."
Miranda make a look that could easily reads "Are you bullshitting me?" at that claim. She wondered why synthetic - creature who value logic and efficiency above all - will use such impractical and inefficient method to accomplish anything at all.
Just one look and, Eve know what the elder sibling was thinking thanks to experiences accumulated over millennia; Miranda is somewhat perfectionist and has certain belief of something created to be efficient servants. So it's understandable that she'd think like that.
"Miranda…" Eve called Miranda, who looks questioningly back in response "I ask you this; why no one want to invent another method of faster than light travel? Why everyone uses Element Zero as the basis of space travel?"
Miranda crossed her arms and answers with a huff "Why would one want to develop something that may or may not yield result, when we have Mass Relay and Eezo technology left behind from Prothean for us to improve u… pon?..." then she realized "oh… oh…"
Eve nodded and returned the conversation back to original topic "I want Anchor to gain some experience by solving the problem with her idea. It's all that matter for now…" she then nodded at the inactive white mechs near the truck "For now, let's deal with this thing; you said the chief want us to see if we can reprogram these mechs to serve as village security, Oriana?"
Oriana looked at the giant white mechs, and then glanced at her elder sibling before replies cheerily "Yep, they dug them out from one maintenance bunker near Sanctuary yesterday, some wanted to just salvage them, but the chief and some militias want to use it as guards. Yet no one really has any expertise in dealing with these stuffs so..."
"She asked me to do it…" Miranda continues while glaring accusingly at her sister, and since the older twin try to omit the fact that she's working for Cerberus from as many people as possible, she decide to sidestep the inevitable question – her own sister knowing it was bad enough already "My… line of work has me do something similar sometime. So I'm confident enough that it should work."
Unexpectedly, Anchor shot an armor-piercing question at Miranda while tilting her head innocently "Then why are we doing this out in the wood? Shouldn't we take these mechs to the machine shop in the village, Miss Miranda? Also, shouldn't Mr. Robert be of help in this?"
Miranda seems to not take that question well; she glared at Anchor in annoyance and promptly ignore worrying look from Eve "I… It's just to not disturb anyone in the village that's all! And that man is CAT6; I don't trust him, no one in the village did."
Anchor tilted her head to the other side with index on her chin, before straighten up and nodded, which Miranda couldn't tell whether the robot-girl buy her excuse or not, but judging from the glint in her ruby red eyes, she probably won't – not unlike how her so-called 'mother' having the same worrying glint on hers, but didn't comment upon.
Anyway, competency with technology aside; the brunette will be damned if she let any harm befall her sister so she have to do her best reprogramming this thing and test it out for safety, no matter what! Or if it comes to the worst… protect her…
Without any further ado; Miranda gets her Omni-Tool up and accessing the mech software – which is of Ymir Series' [4] – remotely. The first part was easy enough, the firewall weren't that difficult, and the second part is reprogramming it to protect the village, when the first mech was done, she move on to the next and the next… and after half an hour, it was all done.
"There…" Miranda sighed, wiping off sweats on her forehead as the holographic interface of her Omni-Tool fade away from sight. Backing away two steps from five Ymir Mechs that still in their 'cargo form' before addressing Oriana and the rest of their group who seem to backed away without her noticing some time when she was busy with the mechs.
Miranda couldn't help but snort – even toward her sister, ignorant to the fact that she ignored their worries earlier "…so much for trusting me huh?"
Oriana rubbed the back of her head sheepishly as the older twins jogged toward her. Oberon and Ophelia remains stoic (it's not like she could see what behind his mask after all), but Eve and Anchor still eyed the mechs warily as if it'll spontaneously explode the second she turn them on.
However, before she could turn on the mechs, the woman glanced at the group of synthetics and another realization dawn on her "wait a minute, couldn't all of you just simply access those mechs with your own communication unit?"
Eve shrugged, calling out the familiar holographic interface of Omni-Tool, showing it to Miranda and answers "If we can do that, then we wouldn't have to get this thing in the first place. Beside…" she paused a bit while giving Miranda a blank look "…I believe that even you do not want anyone to tamper with your mind too."
Miranda grumbled under her breath before turning her attention back to the Ymir mechs and then activates them…
Slowly, the box-shape white robots transform. Pair of vertically aligned eyes flared red before their boxy heads stretch up on their bulky torso. The upper half of their side split up, turning into arms with rocket launcher and autocannons instead of hands, while lower half turned into short – stumpy back-bent legs which the entire frame balance themselves upon.
Once they rose up to standing position, all Ymir mechs' head turned in unison toward Miranda who smiled at the response they were giving; it seems reprogramming these mechs was a success and she could transfer the control to Oriana, who could in turn pass it on to the local once the transport arrived.
That's basically what Miranda was planning; after all, she didn't trust these local to not harm her sister given their not-so-friendly attitude toward fellow human volunteers from other colonies coming to help them fighting pandemic. So the best bet is to convince her sister to agree to keep these pseudo-bodyguards bound to her until time to leave.
However, the robotic voice from the mechs dispelled any thought immediately…
"-Intruders detected, you must leave this area immediately. You have 40 seconds to comply…-"
Ymir mechs acted in unison; they spread out and half circling the group with their arm cannons raised and aimed at them threateningly. To which made Miranda stumbled backward, furiously tapping on her Omni-Tool trying to access the mechs to no avail.
"The firewall is up, I can't hack it!" Miranda begins to panic. She couldn't keep her cool when all she had now is a pistol, which - against the heavy weapon equipped mechs - might as well equal to throwing rocks. And with five of them barreling down on them together, her Biotic Barrier might as well not exist.
"-Unauthorized entry detected, you're in direct violation of colonial law 113 section 9. You now have 15 seconds to comply.-"
Miranda yelped as Ophelia scooped her up in a bridal carry and begin running away from the approaching mechs at inhuman speed with Oberon did the same to her sister, Eve and Anchor rushing by her side.
Faint robotic, dog-like growl sounded from behind them, followed by another warning.
"-You now have 10 seconds to complies…-"
As much as it's tempting to berate Miranda for not consider that those CAT6 didn't activate these mechs to defend Sanctuary for a reason, Eve didn't have the mind to do it as she has to deal with the matter at hand first.
"Anchor…" Eve called her daughter, causing the tiny brunette to look at the Empress as she instruct "Disable the mechs, use everything at your discretion…"
"What!?" Oriana exclaimed while Anchor suddenly pulled a longsword out of nowhere, her eyes fixated on her mother as if hypnotized.
"-You now have 5 seconds to comply-"
However, they were just conversing through their unique Nasod communication network to avoid anyone eavesdropping as Eve told her silently "There're more people approaching us, I have to make sure they're not a threat."
"-4-"
Anchor nodded without question, as she feels those presences too, but since she cannot turn invisible like her mother, she has to do what she can instead.
"-3-"
Thus, the petite synthetic extended her right hand to the right while running, caught the tree and swung herself around the makeshift pole to face the incoming Ymir mechs.
"-2-"
The mechs responded by zero in on Anchor due to being the closest target, and armed with a sword, giving Oberon and Ophelia opportunity to run to safety.
"-Subject possess weapon, I am now authorized to use lethal force!-" [5]
"Give them a good show, Anchor… and be safe…" was Eve's last word as she faded into mist of blue particles with deafening sound of automatic weapons filled the air...
"I told all of you that we should've bring Mako!" Shepard spoke through his communication in low voice as he duck low to the ground, avoiding automatic guns fire from a formation of Ymir mechs that strayed dangerously close to his position from almost 200 meters away in the wood. All around him, his ground team was forced to crawl on the ground least those mechs notice them. And since the only cover in their vicinity was just small bushes and tall grass here and there, they couldn't advance without getting swiss-cheese by hail of autocannons fire first.
Sure, there're plenty of trees – both standing and logs on ground - around here, but no one is stupid enough to use them as cover though; the unfortunate trunks some couple of meters away in front of them shredded into pieces of splintered wood already get the point across.
"We should retreat…" his fellow SPECTRE, Salarian Jondum Bau, whispered from his position nearby with his pistol drawn "…You said you have a tank on Normandy right?"
What the senior SPECTRE suggested was sounds given that they're dealing with five heavy-weapons equipped mechs with just small arms here. With no useable cover in sight, they cannot get close enough to use grenades or hacking the mech without getting killed by combined firepower first. Thus getting a Mako here would be their best bet to kill these mechs without casualties.
Even so, Shepard didn't want to take this as a sign to retreat, he saw few civilians running away from the mechs in the distance earlier before the mechs open fire. So he tried calculating and planning the best way to approach the mechs and stop their rampage, as there's nothing preventing them from venture into the village and slaughter everyone, waiting out for their battery to run dry isn't an option; these are heavy-duty security robots for a reason.
However, before he could formulate a plan, a shout of surprise from Ashley grab his attention first.
"Wait, those mechs are shooting at something… wait… is that a girl!?"
Shepard activated the visor of his hardsuit, magnifying his sight toward the group of Ymir mechs – which now looking to their right shooting their arm cannons – and horrified when he saw a small, probably preadolescent girl in red and white dress running among the trees in the distance. Her tiny frame keep ducking, rolling, sliding or running in zigzag to dodge the ordinance the Ymir mechs keep throwing at her non-stop!
"That's Anchor; the girl I was talking about earlier…"
Jondum voice echoed nearby, which snapped Shepard from his thought and ask back. "One in the group of supposed 'synthetics' that aided you back at the Sanctuary?"
"Yes."
As if on cue; the red blur which until now has been keeping distance and circling around the mech formation suddenly charged toward the first Ymir mech who stick further out of its formation during the pursuit and unintentionally blocking its companions' line of fire. The girl drew her longsword while she weaved her way through barrage of autocannon, closing a distance of hundred meters in seconds before she slides through between the mech's legs!
The rest of the mechs – caught sight of the girl emerged from under its forward brethren – trained their autocannons at her and prepare to shoot. But the girl twisted her body, using her free hand as a coiled spring launching herself upward at the last second, autocannon rounds slam repeatedly on the ground. And in the process of tracking the target, its cannons also hit the first Ymir mech's backside as well!
The Kinetic Barrier does its work - absorbed all the shots and leave the giant mech unharmed. But as the four Ymir's autocannon cease firing due to accidentally hitting friendly and programming to avoid the incident and the forward Ymir turned to look at shooters behind, the girl – which is now in mid-air directly above – do a backflip when gravity took hold. The little red descended down toward the first mech with unnatural speed, silver tip of her sword point straight at the center of mech…
A Second later and the girl slammed down on the mech like a red comet, its eyes broken off from its face as its overhead plating caved in from impact. Its legs buckled due to momentum and the mech leaned forward while its arm cannons went limp to the sides due to its central processing unit no longer function. Sparks flew from its head as the brunette pulled her sword out of its head and then kicked it toward other Ymir, jumping away.
The mech fell down with a loud thump, yet this didn't deterred other remaining Ymir mechs from their mission; they stride forward with arm cannons raised, aiming at the red blur dashing between the trees trying to circle them...
None of the four remaining mechs notice the beeping sound coming from its fallen comrade – which just a second later, when all mechs stood by its corpses - the self-destruct mechanism kicks in, and the fallen one exploded in a massive fireball and mushroom cloud, throwing all four mechs off their feet and down to the ground!
Shepard didn't let this chance slips, he stood up with gun raised while yelling "Everyone, split in pairs and engage the Ymir mechs! Tali see if you can hack one of them, the rest cover each other and try to get grenades in! Go, go, go!"
Like well-oiled machine, all his ground team rose up as one, with Wrex - the bulkiest of the lot, covering for the frailest – Tali, as they rushed toward the downed mechs. Shepard breaks off with Kaidan and Ashley in tow, the trio starts shooting at the closest mech that still struggle to get on its feet. While Liara and Garrus standing far away, peppering another mech with their weapons along with the Salarian SPECTRE.
Though their bullets just get absorbed by Kinetic Barrier, it did gain attention from the four Ymir. Once they regained their footing, each of them pointed their respective arm cannons toward the shooters, the red swordswoman temporarily forgotten.
It's a major mistake… as the mech that tried to attack Wrex and Tali suddenly found its head impaled from behind, a blade pierced through its lower eyes as it stopped moving abruptly, then went limp, dropped to the ground like a puppet whose strings being cut, with beeping sound coming from its torso.
"Wrex, Tali, hit the dirt! The mech's going to explode!" Shepard yelled on top of his lung while jumped to the right, barely avoiding another autocannon barrage from the other before Kaidan can use his Biotic to push away the mech's arm cannon while the sound of exploding mech fill the air for the second time.
However, that action seem to triggered something in the mech's coordination logarithm, as while other three mechs keep their autocannons trained and fire at respective group facing them, they ready another arm – all three of them aimed squarely in Shepard's general direction, monotonous voice echoed from their speakers in rather broken English "-Rawket Lawnchair...-"
Flame shot out from below their left elbows, and three rockets sour toward Shepard! The human SPECTRE emptied his pistol in general direction of the first rocket, a lucky hit cause it to explode just as it exit the launcher, instantly destroyed the mech's arm. Yet leaving the rest to continue on its course.
However, the other two missiles were intercepted by barrage of hundred ball-shaped projectiles detonating them mid-flight, much to surprise of everyone.
"That was reckless Mr. Shepard…" familiar melodious voice rang from Shepard's right side before ripples formed in the air and the white-haired woman / synthetic Shepard saw in his 'dream' appeared along with a single black drone whose shape identical to the white one he left on Normandy "…still, it seem these mechs has limited intelligence to identify enemy leader and put priority on them… intriguing…"
At this, the woman focused her gaze at another mech, lifting her right hand upward, blue holographic rings projects surrounding her body while another dozen smaller rings the size of football form up behind. Air ripples and wireframe emerged for a fraction of second before they filled up to become white ball-shaped projectiles, along with one two-pronged spearhead-like projectile, all pointing at the group of mech – which now reduced to two thanks to Tali's combat drone – Chiktikka vas Paus if Shepard's memory is correct - blowing its eye along with its head off when its Kinetic Barrier dropped.
The last two Ymir mechs, instead of attacking Shepard's team, busy themselves trying to keep the little brunette in red from reaching sword range with their autocannons, seeing her as the biggest, imminent threat, which isn't surprising, as it took sustained firepower from Shepard's team to deplete its barrier while the girl can simply stab a sword into their large head and instantly destroy them.
Not that Shepard complained though; realized now that the girl could handle herself, he's glad that his team won't be in as much risk as he first thought and so he happily blasting away with his pistol, focusing on the same mech his team has been trying to kill while ignore another one temporarily.
Then Eve's right hand fell down – as if issuing ultimatum, all hovering objects behind her launched themselves simultaneously toward the unsuspecting Ymir mech that just dropped its barrier thanks to Shepard's and his team's effort; the ball projectiles struck into the mech's right side, forming craters on its white armor plating while the spear one penetrated deep into its torso. The mech itself stumbled to the left by the impact and fall down with a loud thump. Blue sparks enveloped the fallen mech, before it exploded to pieces.
At the same time, the final mech met its end at the little girl's sword slicing down, bisecting its head and its upper torso before the girl glowed blue and vanished before reappearing at Eve's side almost at the same moment that the Ymir mech's self-destruct mechanism kicked in, painting the background with flame and debris.
Shepard stared, wide eyes, at the pair of mysterious 'synthetics' as the rest of his team slowly regroup around him. Eve and Anchor noticed his gaze, turned to face him, and curtsy as the woman in white greets him with cryptic speech. "Finally, we meet in person, Commander Shepard…"
Author's Note
[1] If I remember correctly, that Councilor in ME1 will berates you for pretty much every decision you made, Paragon or Renegade did not matter as long as he can chew you out.
[2] Not sure I remembered correctly where it was, but who care.
[3] I'm sorry for not being clear in the last chapter for those who know the lore of both universes of this crossover; Alterasia and Thorian is not the same thing, they just share some key characteristics and that's it.
[4] Though they first appeared in Mass Effect 2, some of the side-quest suggested that they've been around for at least 10 years before this series begin.
[5]All Ymir mech's dialogues are direct reference to ED-209 in Robocop; let's face it; apart from their physical appearance, the two are extremely similar, with the same weapon load-out and hard-points to boot!
Sorry if Ymir mechs made Shepard looks a little wimp, but to be fair; you never face 5 of them simultaneously on a relatively flat ground with no reliable cover and no heavy weapons support in the main game either. (Jack's case was justified as Kuril didn't authorize using lethal force when she got loose thus those mechs tried to 'pistol whip' her... with predictable result…)
Constructive criticism is welcome as always. Until next time