Title: Protoculture Effect (14/?)
Author: Cyclone
Feedback: Please be gentle.
Distribution: Gimme credit and a link.
Rating: Harsh language, violence, that's about it.
Spoilers: Just about anything.
Disclaimer: The characters depicted herein belong to a bunch of other people. I'm just borrowing them for a while.
Summary: Just as robotechnology altered the course of human history, so also did another discovery hidden within Charon.
Author's Note: It was inevitable, I suppose, that I'd try crossing over these two of my favorite science fiction universes. I'm not exactly sure what possessed me to do this beyond just wanting to.
"You're going to put that damn gun down, tell me everything you know about the Thorian, and then convince ExoGeni to change its mind about 'repurposing' Zhu's Hope," Shepard said evenly, the expression on his face brooking no argument.
"I... I don't know what you're talking about!" Jeong denied unconvincingly, waving the pistol toward Shepard's squad. Two men dressed in security uniforms stepped forward. They were also armed, their belts packing kinetic barrier generators.
John cocked an eyebrow. "You're not serious. I'm a Spectre; you're a bureaucrat. I've got three Marines with me, and we're all in Cyclones; you've got two security guards with nothing but pistols and kinetic barriers. How exactly do you think this is going to end?"
Jeong visibly swallowed, but before he could gather his nerve, John raised his right arm and tapped the twin tubes mounted there. "Ahem. Missile launcher."
Jeong wilted.
"Don't you think that was a bit... excessive, Commander?"
"No kill like overkill, Kaidan," he assured him. "Right, Jenkins?"
"Yes, sir!" the heavy weapons specialist agreed enthusiastically.
John turned his attention back to Jeong, his blue eyes glittering dangerously. "Now, how do we deal with this... Thorian?"
John was lost in thought as they walked back to the skyway, absent-mindedly toying with the cylindrical grenade in his hand. The mild nerve agent inside was theoretically able to disable someone infected with the Thorian's spores without permanent damage while leaving an uninfected person unharmed.
They'd keep their CVRs sealed anyway, just in case, as much to protect themselves from the gas as from the Thorian's spores.
"So, skipper, how are we going to handle that armature?"
I knew I was forgetting something.
"I've got the firepower to take it out," Jenkins pointed out. "I just need to get closer."
John thought about it, then shook his head. "This is ridiculous. It's sitting right out in the open. Jenkins, think you can lase it from here?"
"Yes, sir."
"Good," John said, then clicked on his radio. "Shepard to Normandy, got a fire mission for you, anti-armor. We will be lasing."
"Copy that, Commander," Jane replied. "Will have assets in the air in approximately five mikes."
"Understood, Normandy. Shepard out. Jenkins?"
"On it, Commander," the young Marine said with a firm nod, dropping to one knee for greater stability as he deployed his Cyclone's targeting system and its integral laser designator.
Minutes later, Kaidan frowned as a familiar shape flew overhead, looping around and launching a CASM "Chasm" close air support munition. The Chasm was a mediumweight laser-guided air-to-surface missile with a kinetic penetrator and high explosive warhead. It punched clean through the geth armature's armor, then detonated within, shredding the armature's guts.
Kaidan frowned.
"Hey, Kaidan," Ashley said, "isn't that your-?"
"It damned well is, Gunny, and when I get my hands on whoever's in the cockpit, I'm going to-"
"What, Lieutenant?" a familiar voice crackled over the radio. "Just what are you going to do to me?"
Kaidan nearly swallowed his tongue. "Go over the personal setting adjustments to ensure optimum efficiency for my combat flight, of course, ma'am."
"Nice save, Lieutenant." John smirked slightly, then clicked on his own radio. "Jane, I'm pretty sure we're well within range of the Normandy's launchers. Brushing up for your flight recert?"
"Just needed to stretch my legs a bit," she replied playfully. "Any other targets you need taken out?"
"I think we can handle it from here," John said. "Shepard out." He turned to the ground team, his expression grim. "Let's move, Marines."
"What I wanna know," Ashley muttered as the ancient stone block they were crouched behind trembled, "is who the hell gave these colonists rocket launchers?"
As they approached the end of the skyway, the team found themselves under assault by the mind-controlled colonists of Zhu's Hope. The small arms weren't a concern, but they also had some heavy weapons, including what appeared to be a pair of RL-6G missile throwers with an apparently... generous... supply of high-explosive RPGs.
"That stranded trader ship is probably running weapons," Kaidan offered. "When the crew got infected..." he trailed off meaningfully.
"Now is not the time to be speculating," John snapped. They were too far away to deploy the anti-Thorian gas, leaving them at an impasse, at least unless the brainwashed colonists suddenly and fortuitously ran out of missiles. Considering how liberally they were firing, that didn't seem likely.
"Everyone, I'll need covering fire," he said as he transformed his Cyclone into hovercycle mode.
"Skipper..."
"Not now, Gunnery Sergeant," came the curt reply as he palmed one of the anti-Thorian gas grenades. "On three." He took a breath to center himself. "Three!"
This is insane, he realized a few seconds later, as he swerved to avoid another missile and nearly lost control. Riding a hovercycle at high speed was dangerous enough. One-handed, over rough terrain, in a relatively enclosed space, while people were shooting at him with missile launchers?
All in all, not one of his better ideas.
He slewed the Cyclone to the right, laying it on its side and plowing into the heavy crates the colonists had been using for cover as he lobbed the gas grenade over.
"Commander, that has got to the craziest stunt I've ever seen anyone pull," Kaidan commented, shaking his head, as the three Marines rejoined the commander.
"Shaddup," John muttered as he picked himself up and then transformed the Cyclone back into battloid mode. "Let's get moving."
Ashley brushed past the apparently abandoned Cyclone as she ducked into the Borealis. Her armor-clad feet thudded down the corridor of the grounded freighter as she hurried to catch up to the commander. They had run into another surprise from the Thorian, some kind of zombie-like plant creatures, but that had barely slowed them down as they cleared out the colony and disabled the colonists, but before they headed down to take care of the Thorian, they had to find the rest of the ground team. She caught sight of him at the grounded freighter's sickbay, just as he sealed the hatch and turned away.
She tried to go around him, but he sidestepped and blocked her path. "Commander-!" she protested, raising her arms to... she didn't know what.
He caught her wrists in his hands and met her gaze, his face grim, shaking his head. "Don't, Ash. Not now."
Her gaze drifted to the hatch and the blood pooling on the floor just outside it, and she shook her head. "N-no. She's... skipper, I..." She's the last one! was the thought reverberating in her mind.
"I need your head in the game, Gunny," he said, his voice quiet and gentle. "This isn't going to help."
You don't understand! she wanted to scream. There was no way he could. He was the great hero of the Skyllian Blitz, but she was the Butcher of Torfan. Her orders had gotten her men killed at Torfan, and then, again at Eden Prime. She was a failure, a shame to the Williams name.
Nirali... she thought, closing her eyes. I'm sorry.
They found the three non-human ground team members in a tunnel below the colony, apparently paralyzed. The diagnostic program in Shepard's omni-tool was hardly comprehensive, but it appeared they were all right. He only hoped it was accurate. There was no way he was going to risk Dr. Chakwas in a hot zone, and Bhatia...
Well, she wasn't available anymore.
The tunnel opened up into massive chamber, the remains of some incredibly huge, multi-level atrium. The four humans looked up and stared at the gigantic plant before them. Part of it seemed to be looking at them, meeting Shepard's gaze directly.
"It's... beautiful..." he murmured.
"Sir?" Jenkins's voice snapped him out of his sudden reverie.
John blinked and shook his head clear. "Something's wrong. I'm not sure. It- it's... calling me."
"Commander," Kaidan said, "you sure we can't just bring one of our veritechs down here? I'm sure we can pull it off in battloid mode somehow."
The apparent... "face," for lack of a better word, drew back, and something stretched and leaned above the floor. An orifice opened up and disgorged a figure covered in a viscous fluid. At first, John thought it was another one of the plant zombies, but no. As the figure stood up, the fluid sliding off, it was clear this was something different. It looked like an asari.
Except she was green.
"Invaders!" she snarled. "Your every step is a transgression. A thousand feelers appraise you as meat, good only to dig or decompose. I speak for the Old Growth, as I did for Saren. You are within and before the Thorian. It commands that you be in awe!"
"You gave something to Saren," John said, unflinching. "Something I need."
"Saren sought knowledge of those who are gone," the asari-like creature answered. "The Old Growth listened to flesh for the first time in the Long Cycle. Trades were made. Then cold ones began killing the flesh that would tend the next cycle. Flesh fairly given!"
"And we drove off the 'cold ones,'" Shepard pointed out.
"No more will the Thorian listen to those that scurry!" she declared. "It sees the air they push as lies!" Her head tilted, and she studied John for a long moment. Her voice softened. "But you are different, seed of the Old Growth's seed."
John blinked. "What did you call me?"
"I think... I think she's saying the invid are descended from this thing somehow," Kaidan said slowly. "I mean, it fits with what we learned from the ExoGeni VI."
"Yeah." John nodded.
"A bargain was struck and broken," she said. "Mend the bargain, and you shall have what you seek."
"You can't seriously be considering this, Commander," Ashley hissed, hatred filling her voice. "After what it's done?"
"We've got no leads, Commander," Kaidan reminded them. "This could be our best chance to pick up Saren's trail."
"And what about the colonists, huh, Lieutenant?" she snapped. "Just write them off as collateral damage?"
"We can make a trade," Kaidan argued. "We can call the Spacy, have them clone up a bunch of blanks and trade them for the colonists."
John looked at the two Marines, then glanced over at Jenkins. "Don't want to put your two cents in, Jenkins?"
"I'm good," the lance corporal squeaked.
John shook his head and wandered past the Thorian's spokeswoman, looking down at the creature itself, thinking deeply. He looked across the Thorian, his Cyclone's scanners taking in the sight before him, noting the Thorian's enormous size and the tendrils holding it in place.
"It's a very good offer," he said finally, looking down at the Thorian directly, rather than the bizarre, green-skinned asari clone it was speaking to them through. "Blood does run thicker than water, after all, and Kaidan's right about the clone blanks."
"Commander-!" Ashley's protest stuttered to a halt as he held up a hand, commanding her silence.
"The thing is," John said, once his scanners had passed the crucial data to Jenkins's Cyclone, "blood runs even thicker once spilled." He rammed an armored gauntlet into the clone, the hydraulics of his Cyclone driving it with enough force to punch through her chest and out her back. "And you killed one of my people. I will find another way. Jenkins, fire."
Recluse-D and Scorpion Mk IV micro-missiles swarmed out from Jenkins's Cyclone, pairing off and seeking their targets. Within seconds, half the tendrils that anchored the Thorian in place were severed by high explosive and plasma warheads. At first, it seemed the remaining tendrils, shielded from the assault by the Thorian's own body, would hold, but after a few, tense seconds, they too tore free, allowing the gigantic creature to plummet into the darkness below.
Shiala blinked. The fact that she could blink surprised her. She was still alive, and she was... free. The asari commando shook her head, trying to clear it of the webs of influence that had clouded it for far too long, then looked up and swallowed hard at sight of the faceless giants towering over her. She knew they couldn't be all that tall - perhaps a head or two taller than herself at most - but the battle-scarred armor and weapons aimed at her told she wasn't free yet, and the light glinting off their visors kept her from seeing their faces.
"Who are you?" the leader demanded.
"I am... Shiala," she said, picking herself up. From this angle, she could see their faces through the tinted visors. "I... I suppose I should thank you for releasing me."
"How did you end up inside that... thing?"
She looked back at the pod that had held her. "I served Matriarch Benezia," she answered. "When she allied herself with Saren, so did I." She noted the looks the humans exchanged. They didn't know... she realized.
"Who's Benezia?"
John was in Anderson's quarters. Well, technically, they were his quarters now, but it still didn't feel right to him, not with the way Anderson had been summarily beached for the sake of expediency.
For once, he had willingly submitted himself to Dr. Chakwas's post-mission physical, as getting the Cipher shoved into his brain had given him the mother of all migraines. There was too much to be done, and he couldn't do it with special forces demolitions team setting off micro-charges in his skull. He wasn't sure allowing Shiala to stay in Zhu's Hope was the right move, considering her actions there, despite how genuine her guilt seemed, but Fai Dan was apparently convinced, so he'd let it go. Bhatia's remains had been secured for transport, something he simply had had to do personally, and Belmont was working on the intel request on one Matriarch Benezia. He still needed to talk to Ashley - the look in the gunnery sergeant's eyes were... haunted - but he doubted she'd listen yet. The wounds were too fresh; that would have to be done later.
Now, however, the painkillers had worn off, and he was trying very hard to not simply curl up and die.
Chime rang three times before he recognized it. "Enter," he barked, his voice low and harsh.
"Commander?"
He squinted. "Doctor T'Soni? Can I help you?"
"I... yes. Maybe," she said hesitantly as the hatch sealed behind her. "I... I overheard you talking to Mister Belmont about... about Matriarch Benezia?"
"Yeah," he confirmed. "Why? Do you know her?"
"Not as well as I'd like," she admitted, looking away for a moment. Turning to meet his gaze again, she said, "Matriarch Benezia..." she paused to take a deep breath, "...is my mother."
Oh.
Author's Postscript:
Yes, I did, in fact, just kill Nirali after all, and no, I didn't wait until Virmire to do it. I've got plans for Virmire.