Author's Note:
Just finished the Citadel DLC and it was amazing. To celebrate what has to be the funniest, most nostalgic and fantastically epic DLC in Mass Effect history (the music STILL doesn't beat LOTSB, but what the hell...) the first section will be dedicated to a location in that DLC. Enjoy. (Warning: The location of section one can be considered a spoiler alert if you haven't played the DLC. Read at own discretion)
ENIGMA
CHAPTER ELEVEN
SKYFALL PART TWO
June 20, 2183
0621 hours.
Main Bedroom, Anderson's Apartment, Tiberius Towers, Romulus Ward, The Citadel.
Eden Prime War.
Captain David Edward Anderson.
Note to self; whenever waking up, remember that the world is a very groggy place and try not to move until you can clear that up. But for Anderson? Waking up instantly incase of trouble was part of his N7 job description, he was ready for anything, everything and the unexpected. His sleep had mostly been dreamless, as all he could think about was this supposed Reaper threat. Should he worry more about the geth or the reapers?
Right now none of that mattered. What mattered right now was getting out of this damn bed.
Slowly but groggily, Anderson pushed the bed sheets off of him and moved into a seated position on the edge of the bed, moving his hands up to rub his eyes of the groggy moisture that had made his eyes witness a very blurry world. With the moisture now mostly gone, he stood up and approached his wardrobe, pulling a basic dressing gown and slippers. It wasn't long before he arrived in the kitchen and had some breakfast while watching the ANN, Alliance News Network.
After having a shower, the Alliance soldier finally got back into his Alliance uniform and left the apartment, taking the elevator down to the Silversun Strip. It had come to his attention that a man named Sergeant Bailey had recently challenged him to a battle in the Armax Combat Arena and Anderson rarely passed up such oppurtunities. Of course, he didn't even know who Bailey was or how he got his extranet address, but it was a challenge and he never forfeited those.
The Silversun was the usual, the streets brisling with asari, turians, hanar, volus and all the other the Citadel races, all moving around and executing their daily business. The Silver Coast Casino was throbbing with hardcore players of all classes, while the Castle Arcade had gamers of every style playing. Games like Shattered Eezo and Alliance Corsairs were among the most popular.
Any other time he'd mingle with the crowd and have fun, but right now he had a battle to win.
Entering the Armax Arsenal Arena, he had a large set of stairs, three way leading up into the main atrium. The main atrium was quite a large facility, with a single rotating advertisement booth situated in the middle, the words 'Armax Arsenal Combat Arena' slowly rotating around its upper half. To his left was a terminal where the facility's VI, taking the model of a female turian, which was the assitant and to his right was the leaderboards.
He gave a weak smile at the place; it was large and stylish, he'd give them that, but it felt over extravagant. If there was a war coming, and there definitely was, this place would be an excellent training facility for Alliance and multiracial trainees. Program it with geth enemies and then send them in.
"Anderson, over here." A man's voice called out, one he recognized as Bailey's from the recording, and he turned to its source to see a man in C-Sec uniform, Bailey, walking towards him.
"You must be my anonymous challenger, Sergeant." Anderson said, smiling as he took the man's preoffered hand and shook it. Bailey simply gave a half-hearted laugh.
"Oh shit, right, introductions. Sergeant Armando Owen Bailey, Citadel Security Services. I'm off duty so I thought, why not challenge Captain Anderson, the supposed best N7 in existence. Used to be a N5 myself, but I retired long before I reached N6; I had family and I had to choose between them and my military career."
"I can understand that. I used to have this woman in my life once, but then...well, I was presented with the decision you had. I've sworn an oath to protect humanity against all foreign threats." Anderson sighed, remembering Kahlee and how she'd feel right now. Last time he'd seen her had been during the days of working with Saren, back when he wasn't a rogue spectre, and how he'd fallen in love with the woman. Now she worked at Jon Grissom Academy, named after the founder of the Elysium colony and the man who took humanity to Mars where they discovered the Mass Relay.
"Choosing duty over love. Shit, don't know if I could make that kind of a sacrifce." Bailey admitted, looking grimly at the ground.
"I did it so people like you don't have to," Anderson replied, nodding solemnly before changing the subject, "Anyway, you had a challenge to offer me. I'm still a little suspicious over how you managed to acquire my extranet address."
Bailey chuckled in response, crossing his arms as he shook his head left and right, "It wasn't exactly hard. I mean you've made a big name for yourself on the Citadel. Finding you was kid's games. I mean they had posters all over the place with your address flashing in bright, bold letters."
"I'll have to have a word with Udina about that. So, who are we versing?" Anderson asked, motioning for Bailey to follow him past the 'Athletes Only' checkpoint and down the stairs into the control room.
"Think you can handle Eclipse mercenaries?" Bailey asked, a big grin on his face.
"Handle? I've handled drill instructors that were tougher than goddamn krogan. I think I can handle a bunch of paid thugs." Anderson smirked, watching as Bailey punched in the commands into the command interface before leading him behind the entrance stairs and into a preparation room.
"Highest score wins, old man." Bailey said, pulling out a tiny spherical device before activating it, a M-7 Lancer assault rifle materializing in his hand. Holographic technology at its best.
"Watch out Bailey, I might have to charge you for insubordination." Anderson explained as they stepped into the elevator. Bailey simply gave him a raised eyebrow as the doors closed and the elevator descended to admit them into the holographic stadium.
Down below, all that could be heard was a certain C-Sec officer shouting.
"Son of a bitch, you wouldn't!"
{Loading...}
June 20, 2183
0758 hours.
R&D Labs, ExoGeni Headquarters, Prothean Skyline, Feros.
Eden Prime War, Battle of Feros.
Lieutenant Commander Marcus Lee Shepard, Gunnery Chief Ashley Williams, Battlemaster Urdnot Wrex, Machinist Tali'Zorah nar Rayya, Prothean Researcher Liara T'Soni.
"Tali, get this door open. Liara, cover her back. Wrex, Ashley, your with me, scout the area." Marcus ordered, and everyone moved to execute their assigned tasks. So far, traversing the building had been a chore, with either debris block their way or insane amounts of geth troops blocking leeway. Progress was tedious at best.
Now they found themselves in the Research and Development Labs, aka R&D labs, which was just as ruined as the rest of the building. Nonexistent lighting, brown, dusty, rusted corridors, destroyed ceilings were just part of a long list of things the geth had done to the place. The place looked more like a refined hell then it did a corporate building.
He watched as Ashley and Wrex disappeared into two seperate rooms before approaching a section of wall that showed medical reports on what looked like the Zhu's Hope colonists. It was quite obvious that the ExoGeni eggheads up here had been studying them for scientific purposes, but for what he wasn't sure. The data was all corrupted or erased by the geth attack.
It wasn't long before Ashley and Wrex returned to report all rooms were clear, and they were just in time to hear Tali open the door and step inside. Marcus took point, as he always did while on ground missions, his spectre shotgun seated neatly against his shoulder as he motioned for his squad to follow. The corridor was as foul-smelling and debris filled as the last, just with more lighting, but even that flickered on and off.
Five minutes turned into thirty minutes of mindlessly chasing around poor clues and trails, and it took them a large amount of time to finally find a stairway that took them up and to the forty-fifth story, where they found the large hulking form of a krogan's back waiting for them. He turned to his team, speaking in a whisper.
"Get down, krogan up ahead. His back is turned, I'll deal with this." Marcus ordered silently, motioning for his team to crouch.
"Oh no you don't, I'm coming with." Wrex declared, following behind Marcus.
"Very well, but stay silent. Don't alert him to our presence..." Marcus ordered, moving into the room in a crouch, followed closely by his krogan comrade.
"I'm sorry, but access to classified data is restricted to ExoGeni Executive Employee Access, Level Three. You do not have sufficient authorization to enable use of this console. Please see your supervisor for further assistance." Informed the ExoGeni VI, modelled after a human male, said to the krogan, who was apparently trying to access ExoGeni research information.
"Damn it, tell me what I want to know or I'll blow your virtual ass into actual dust!" the krogan boomed, stepping forward to emphasize the VI, but it wasn't going to work.
"There is nothing I can do for you. Please report to your supervisor for further assistance as directed." the VI repeated.
"Stupid machine!" The krogan shouted in pure rage, moving to slam a fist into the console. Wrex, decidedly having enough, got out of his cover and fired a blast from his Solokov into the approaching krogan, staggering the huge beast so much that he collapsed into the wall. The krogan commander, his features bubbling in rage, turned and glowed with biotics as the krogan fired a ball of biotic energy directly at Wrex. Wrex also brought his biotics up, bringing a barrier up just in time to shake off the krogan's attack.
"ExoGeni security must remind you that gunfire is not tolerated on the premises." the VI informed them.
"Oh shut up." Marcus spat at the VI, which for its part didn't respond.
With his attack deflected, the krogan decided to charge Wrex, which turned out to be his biggest mistake. Wrex reacted with the speed of a veteran, his barriers disappearing as he brought his Solokov up in a uppercut. The krogan had to much momentum to change course, and his chin shot upward as Wrex's Solokov slammed into it, the krogan battlemaster pulling the trigger as he did so. A shower of gore poured onto Wrex's features, the krogan commander's head now nothing but a bloody hole.
Without so much as missing a beat, Wrex slid his shotgun back onto the magnetic clamp on his waist and turned towards Marcus, motioing for him to come out. Marcus did so and approached the VI, followed by his team who examined the dead krogan with wide eyes, glancing between the dead corpse and the gore-decorated face of Wrex.
"A real krogan wouldn't have been so reckless. Saren's krogan are pathetic. They are not real krogan." Wrex stated simply, and Marcus merely raised a brow as he turned towards the VI.
"Welcome back Executive Elizabeth Baynham, what inquiry might you have?" the VI asked.
Marcus was taken by surprise. Not by the the VI's sudden response, but by being addressed by that name.
"Uh...how do you know I'm Lizbeth?" Marcus asked.
"Your ID card registers you as Miss Baynham. Do you have a formal inquiry?" the VI asked again.
"Tell me everything you can about the Thorian." Marcus ordered. This Thorian creature was occupying his mind. What was it exactly? What was the extent of its mind control? Why would Saren have a need for that? Why did the geth try and destroy it instead? So many questions he needed answered. He felt like Lizbeth hadn't told him the whole story.
"Species 37, species designation the 'Thorian', is an advanced sentient plant lifeform that exists under the Zhu's Hope outpost. Discovered in 2179 by ExoGeni pioneer group primary, the ExoGeni board of directors ordered a direct examination of the being by using the Zhu's Hope colonists as control subjects. Here, ExoGeni was able to study the being's mind control capabilities. It can take control of the mind directly and of any species, including humans."
"Why is when scientist do something, it always turns out they have some kind of ulterior motive? Why are the scientists always the bad guys?" Ashley asked dryly.
"Lizbeth lied to us. ExoGeni was just studying the Thorian, they were actively letting it take control of the colonists!" Marcus exclaimed before turning back to the VI, "Why would the geth want the Thorian?"
"Unknown. Synthetic presence suggests that a deal couldn't be made with the creature and therefore they decided to destroy it." the VI responded in its monotone voice.
"How long has this creature existed? How old is it?" Tali quipped in.
"It has existed for millions for years, therefore outliving even the Protheans. It is possible the Thorian may hold the secrets as to why the Protheans vanished fifty thousand years ago." the VI explained.
"The Reapers..." Marcus muttered.
"Reapers. This information is not found in known databanks." the VI responded to his non-question.
"Of course it isn't. Come on, we've got to destroy this frigate and get back to Zhu's Hope. Looks like this mission just turned sideways." Marcus quickly motioned for his team to follow him into the next room, which was, unsurprisingly, just like the rest of the place.
"Logging you out." the VI said, its voice distant as the damaged door closed behind them.
Marcus shook his head in amusement as he brought his shotgun back up and continued to lead his team into the depths of the ExoGeni base. Liara's voice rose up.
"What the VI said adds up now. Why those colonists were acting strange. Every time they were about to tell us something important, they always stopped and went on to something else, headaches they said." the asari pointed out.
"While in retrospect they were actually brainwashed by the Thorian. Arcelia, Fai Dan, everyone. Great. For all we know, Ethan and Juliana could be among them as well. We need to find this Thorian and deal with it. But I like I said, that geth frigate comes first." Marcus declared, motioning for his team to raise weapons and prepare for forced entry.
"Let's send these geth bastards straight to yeeshra." Tali said with pure hatred in the young quarian's voice, something that even scared Marcus a little. But he couldn't blame her, these synthetics had exiled her people from their homeworld, even if the quarians did attack first. With a raised hand he motioned for Tali to take his rear while Wrex, Ashley and Liara took the other side of the door.
"Tali, use your shotgun and cover my flank, I'll cut a path straight to that claw. The rest of you, take the rear. Tali may be a good engineer, but one shot to her suit and she's a goner. Keep her protected." Marcus barked, swapping his shotgun for his Diamond Back rifle.
"I'm tougher then I look, but I appreciate the gesture," Tali smiled behind her mask and brought her omnitool to bear, shooting what looked like a small device into the room, "Let's see what Chiktika can do."
"Chiktika?" Marcus asked, confused.
"Chiktika vas Paus, she's my...combat drone." Tali finished, and the orange, spherical holographic projection of a drone appeared in the open space.
"Nice. How much does it cost to get one?" Marcus asked.
"I, uh...wouldn't know. I built this one myself. Programming, systems and everything." Tali explained, still smiling behind her mask.
"You built it? From scratch? Tali, you're. A. Genius." Marcus said, patting her shoulder with his free hand before resting it back on the trigger of his rifle, leaving a very embarassed and blushing Tali.
Without further banter, Marcus rushed in, Tali behind him. The first thing he saw was that they were on a large balcony overlooking another lab, where a giant claw from the geth frigate had wedged itself inside, leaving the balcony a destroyed wreck and the lab below a mess. What was odd about it was the bright white light glowing at the end of the claw, and the two shock troopers that sat, knees on the ground, facing the light, both of their optics lowered at the ground in what looked like a place of worship.
"The geth...are religious?" Marcus only just got out as the two shock trooper's optics snapped towards them and they equipped their pulse rifles with machine like accuracy. This accuracy wasn't enough though for them to stop the speeding, incendiary projectiles that hit the platforms dead center, both of them falling to the ground destroyed before they could even raise kinetic barriers.
Turning, Marcus saw it was Chiktika that had fired the shots. He looked at Tali and laughed.
"Anything else that drone doesn't have?" Marcus asked.
"It hasn't got mass acellerator weapons or kinetic barriers. It does have a basic hacking algorithm though, followed by numerous incendiary weapons and a built in overload program to deal with shields. Its...efficient." Tali explained.
"Well, I'd say Chiktika's proving to be very useful. Come on, I don't see anything we can use to destroy this claw so we might as well continue. Liara, can you bring up a map of this place?" Marcus asked.
Liara simply nodded, bringing up her omnitool to show a hologram of their level, "Yes, there is another claw in the shuttle bay. Its where they offload supplies. Hopefully we can find something of use there." Liara explained, letting the map disappear as her omnitool deactivated.
"Right. Let's move. The faster we get rid of this frigate, the better." Marcus decided, motioning for the team to keep moving through the numerous corridors. They encountered the occassional geth platform and a few krogan but apart from that, the amount of resistance was below standard and pretty much unexpected.
"I can bet you anything that they're conserving forces for the shuttle bay. They must know we're close." Wrex pointed out.
"That or they're disorganized. They probably didn't expect anyone to attack a heavily armed geth frigate head on." Ashley suggested.
"Geth are never disorganized. They're machines, they process missions and operations in milliseconds. They can't make mistakes. They know we're here and are probably formulating a trap. Making us losen our defenses and then spring it. For all we know the whole place could be sealed off." Tali retorted.
"We don't know until we find out. But Tali's right, be ready for anything. If the geth get the jump on us, you know where to hit them; straight for the optics or processing unit." Marcus concluded, the team finally arriving at their destination, the words 'Shuttle Bay' in capital white letters appearing of the doors, albeit barely. The doors were jammed halfway and fires raged to their right.
"Wrex, get this door open." Marcus ordered.
"Easier done then said." Wrex stated, a large crocidilian grin appearing on his features as he unleashed a ball of dark energy hurling at the door, sending it right off its control circuits and slamming immediately into the geth frigate's claw. He could hear the mehanical clicking of numerous geth, their optics spinning to face the intrusion.
"Not exactly subtle, but I'd take that any time of the day over subtle. Look alive people, we've got geth incoming. I count twelve foot mobiles." Marcus ran immediately and slid into cover just as the geth pulse rifles unleashed a horde of gunfire over his head, hitting Wrex. Initially he was going to yell for the krogan to take cover, but when he saw the krogan take a shot in the shoulder and immediately heal it, he smiled. Wrex noticed his worried expression and dropped into cover next to him, smiling.
"What? You didn't think a few geth were going to drop me did you? Remember, krogan can regenerate!" With that, Wrex lifted up and unleashd numerous biotic attacks before following them with concentrated fire from his Solokov.
"I'll remember that for future reference. Tali! Get Chiktika up there and get it to pester the hell out of those bastards! Liara, Ashley, pepper their flank and give Tali room to work her magic! I'm moving up, Wrex you're with me!" With that, Marcus rushed out, watching as the staccato beat of Ashley's assault rifle and Liara's pistol began hitting the geth's flanks like a swarm of bees, giving him enough time to slide into cover just as his shields imploded.
"You got a better idea Shepard? I like your style, but for a human its suicidal. You simply don't have the regenerative capabilities." Wrex pointed out a he joined Shepard in cover, the krogan waiting for his Solokov to cooldown.
"That's why I've got you Wrex. I need you to create a distraction while I deal with that juggernaut on the stairs. There's also..." Marcus began, but like precision timing, Tali's voice answered.
"Chiktika's up and shooting! Tell me where you want her!" Tali shouted over the sound of the geth pulse rifles. Marcus heard Liara's warning just in time to use his biotics to throw a overly curious geth rocket trooper into another geth platform, leaving both of them vulnerable as Liara finished both off with a warp shot.
"Tali, keep that juggernaut distracted. Wrex, do what you do best! I'm going to give that juggernaut a new asshole!" With that, Marcus leapt out of cover and ran towards the geth units without giving his squad time to object. They didn't bother as Wrex already had a unlucky shock trooper pinned up against a wall while Tali's drone began pestering the twelve foot juggernaut with overload attacks that the geth platform quickly overrid.
Ignoring the other platforms, Marcus used his biotics to allow him to biotically jump onto the juggernaut's back. Rearing his feet back, he leapt and felt his arms wrap around cold metal, his hands wrapped around the towering form of the juggernaut. It gave a mechanical whirring of surprise, but quickly responded by slamming its back into the wall, knocking the breath out of Marcus' lungs but not weakening his grip.
Another geth trooper down below was rearing its pulse rifle down on him, but Tali suddenly entered the scene with a posture that looked purely murderous, the quarian's shotgun ripping the geth's armor open like a can of tupari. But the quarian didn't stop, she continued to shoot shot after shot into the destroyed geth, leaving it a utter mess of broken chasising.
He was forced to watch as a geth rocket trooper prepared to fire a rocket on the quarian's back, Tali being angrily oblivious. He meant to shout out a warning, but he was brought back to the present and realized he was still on the juggernaut. With a huge, booming war cry, Marcus drew out his spectre shotgun and shoved it into the back of the 'hood' of the geth's optics, pressing the trigger. It was ripped apart like the force of a pressurized cannon on a watermelon, causing the destroyed juggernaut to fall forward into the ground.
Marcus suddenly remembered after that what had happened to Tali. To his relief and shock, he saw that she was helping Wrex clean up the geth. Turning, he saw Tali's wannabe killer and found the geth wedged neatly inside the claw, its torso completely ripped apart. He could see the telltale aftermath of a biotic throw. Wrex, Liara, whoever did it, you bloody hero.
Chuckling, he helped his friends clean up the geth units, including their poor excuse for reinforcements, and then finally turned to look at the claw.
"Great, nothing here either. What a waste of time." Marcus cursed under his breath, hands on his hips in a irritated posture.
"Wait, look at the claw." Tali said, obviously having an epiphany.
"I've been look at it for the past five minutes. Its not like I'm going to develop laser eyes Tali." Marcus pointed out sarcastically.
"No, I mean look where it's situated," Tali responded with a roll of her eyes, pointing at the claw, "Its right inside the shuttle bay entrance. If we could find a way to shut those doors..." Tali began, but trailed off to let Marcus figured it out. Figure it out he did.
"...we can use the doors to crush the claw and cut it off. Tali, you are my little genius. Spread out, find a control panel." Marcus barked, and his team spread out, but Tali seemed to follow him instead. He took his chance to talk to her. Tali herself however was still blushing over how she had addressed her. MY little genius. He called me his little genius. Keelah, he probably meant nothing by it. No! Remember what Kaidan said!
"Tali, what you did before was reckless. You could have gotten yourself killed." Marcus chasitised her. It wasn't really the recklessness he was worried about, it was her. He had almost gotten her killed and that worried him alot.
"I'm so-sorry. I just saw it about to kill you and I-I just reacted." Tali responded, and he put a comforting hand on her shoulder.
"It's okay. Just...next time you do something like that, remember to bring backup" he said, smiling before moving off to find a control panel.
"I will..." Tali trailed off, cutting herself off before she said it. Go ahead, say it. Call him your Yol'tiya. You know its what you want. Tali shut herself up and continued to follow Shepard. Its what I way, but not what HE wants. Keep silent for now. Plenty of time for this after Feros. It wasn't long before they found what they were looking for, but Tali had to hack into it as for some reason some ExoGeni genius had decided to lock it.
"Okay, here goes nothing..." Tali muttered before pressing the initiation sequence, the quarian, followed by the rest of the team, turning to have the claw as the doors slammed shut on the claw, the sound of snapping and screeching metal could be heard. Finally, as if hours had gone by, the claw snapped in half, the half on their side laying useless. They ran to the windows just in time to watch as the other claws were ripped out of the building as the geth frigate plummetted into the clouds below.
Then all they heard was a resounding boom, a huge explosion reaching up and above the clouds. They had destroyed the frigate.
"I hope that ship was full with those geth bastards." Tali said venomously, still watching the plume of smoke and flame rising up and above the clouds like a mushroom cloud.
"Okay people, let's clear out. We've got to pick up Lizbeth, get to Juliana and then get to Zhu's Hope. We've got one last objective to complete." With that, Marcus and his team headed for the stairs, watching as power began to be restored to the building.
"Interesting. It seems all this cabling and claws were more than to keep the frigate attached, but they were usurping all the energy to keep the frigate powered. Now that we've cut the frigate off, the building's regaining power." Liara stated.
"So I guess this time the elevators are totally available?" Ashley asked skeptically.
"Yes, Gunnery Chief, we don't have to walk up long stairs anymore." Marcus responded with a chuckle.
"Good to know. Always hated walking. I was paid to shoot, not stroll." Ashley responded with a smile, the odd pair of squaddies entering the nearest elevator as they hit the button for the ground floor.
Now we've just got to take out a mind-controlling plant. How hard could it be?
{Loading...}
June 20, 2183
0803 hours.
Lower Parking Levels, ExoGeni Headquarters, Prothean Skyline, Feros.
Eden Prime War, Battle of Feros.
Lieutenant Commander Marcus Lee Shepard, Gunnery Chief Ashley Williams, Battlemaster Urdnot Wrex, Machinist Tali'Zorah nar Rayya, Prothean Researcher Liara T'Soni, ExoGeni Executive Elizabeth Jari Baynham.
"Commander, the power's backup! I guess I have you to thank for that!"
Marcus sighed in annoyance at the sound of Lizbeth's voice coming from in front of him. The woman run up to them, smiling broadly.
"Yeah, we did. But its time to come clean, Lizbeth. You've been lying to us." Marcus stated, crossing his arms at the woman, as did the rest of his team. Well, he couldn't say they didn't act the part very well. Lizbeth, for her part, simply froze in place and looked at him quizzically, glancing at Wrex nervously.
"What? What are you talking-" Lizbeth began, but Tali's angry voice forestalled her.
"Don't lie to us! ExoGeni was using the colonists as test subjects and you knew this entire time! You brainwashed innocent civilians!" The female quarian shouted angrily, Marcus giving her a nod which caused her to backdown, muttering apology at getting worked up.
Lizbeth simply let her arms sag, "It's all my fault. I tried to warn the colonial authority about the Thorian as well as the attack. I was the only executive, as well as Tom to actually openly speak out against it. I tried to talk them out of it, but ExoGeni put both of us on probation and said that if we continued to complain we'd become one of the test subjects. I didn't want to become brainwashed so I kept my mouth shut." Lizbeth finished explaining with a long, overdone sigh, "I didn't mean for any of this to happen!"
Marcus shook his head slowly and tiredly before moving up and putting a hand on the young woman's shoulder.
"Look, I'm not going to say what you did was okay, but I'm telling you that you don't have to take the blame for this. You became involved in something you weren't paid for. If anyone should pay for this, its ExoGeni. Time to pay Jeong a visit." Marcus said with malice in his voice, motioning for his team to approach the Mako.
"Shepard, we're not going to do anything...harmful, to Jeong are we?" Tali asked scaredly.
"Depends on how cooperative he is." Marcus said with less malice, but it still chilled Tali to the bone. This wasn't Shepard. He was better than this. She shook it off for now, letting her thoughts slip away as she moved into the Mako, seating her armageddon shotgun on her lap.
"Excuse me, Commander but...have you seen my mother anywhere?" Lizbeth asked just as Marcus was about to finish entering the Mako. He turned to answer her question.
"Funny you should ask that, we came across your mother and some other survivors along the way here. She's with Jeong and a few other colonists and executives. We'll take you there now. Juliana was worried about you." Marcus informed the woman, and she practically squeled in joy as she leapt into the Mako, and Marcus simply entered, shaking his head with a grin.
The ride back was relatively uneventful, with most of the geth forces in full retreat, taking their krogan vanguard troops with them. If there was another geth ship somewhere, it was long gone. No dropships, armatures, juggernauts, nothing. Just the plain morning skies of Feros and the decimated road of the skyline. His comm crackled with activity.
"Shepard, Garrus here. We've got a problem, like FUBAR kind of problem." Garrus stated.
"Let me guess, the colonists are acting weird?" Marcus asked, getting the rising suspicion that the Thorian might know they're coming.
"Not just that, but Arcelia just tried to put a bullet in the back of my head, I had to knock her out! Fai Dan and the colonists are going wild and firing at us. We're vacating the premises and heading for the skyline. We'll-holy crap, what the hell is that!? Kaidan, twelve-" All Marcus could hear after that was static.
"Garrus! Garrus! Shit! Ashley, double time it! Get us to Juliana so we can get to Zhu's Hope! They just became top priority. I'll deal with Jeong later." Ashley simply responded with a nod, hitting the acelleration pedals and speeding off at high speed done the skyline. Within minutes they were back at the checkpoint and heading up the loading ramp when they heard the sounds of pistol fire.
"What was that?" Lizbeth asked from the back of the cabin.
"That sounded like it came from...," the gunfire continued, cutting Marcus off, "Shit, everybody out once we're up top! I think the Thorian's not the only one aware of what we've found out! If Jeong tries to kill you, kill him, understand?" Marcus barked, and everyone nodded as the Mako came to a stop outside the checkpoint room, and they hopped out, one behind, Lizbeth running ahead of them recklessly.
"Damn it Lizbeth, wait!" Marcus said at a whisper, but Lizbeth either didn't listen or couldn't, continuing her sprint into the room. Cursing under his breath, he ran into the room himself, witnessing the scene unfold. Jeong had his pistol up in the air, firing into the ceiling to intimidate the colonists as his ExoGeni bodyguards began to drag them into a corner. One particular one had Juliana in his grip, and Jeong was approaching steadily. Lizbeth's reaction was immediate.
"Get away from her, you son of a bitch!" the woman shouted, charging straight at Jeong. Jeong immediately raised his pistol but lowered it when Juliana broke her captor's grip and hugged her daughter tightly. Marcus continued to approach is weapon bared, while the rest of his team poured in.
"Found out, did you?" Jeong asked, the answer pretty obvious on both of their minds.
"What you did was monstrous, Jeong. All those people, just to study the Thorian?" Marcus shot back.
"Thorian? Monstrous? What's going on?" Juliana asked, breaking her daughter's embrace to watch the exchange. Lizbeth answered instead, her voice regretful and ashamed.
"ExoGeni was studying the people there. Allowing the colony to fall under the Thorian's thrall. As for the thorian itself, its an intelligent plant based lifeform living under Zhu's Hope, ExoGeni knew all along!" Lizbeth finished with hateful conviction. Juliana's voice and look were like daggers.
"You'll never get away with this, Jeong." Juliana stated angrily.
"So you keep saying, but noone's going to miss a few colonists." Jeong shot back, pistol at his side. Marcus had decidedly had enough, holstering his assault rifle and then pulling out his raikou. Slowly, but with conviction, Marcus raised it to aim at Jeong's head.
"No Jeong, that's where your wrong. You see, noone's going to miss you." With that, all they heard was a loud bang as Marcus pulled the trigger and the shot impacted Jeong's skull, sending a spray of blood out his sideways head wound and coating the ground in glistening red blood. Jeong's eyes became unfocused as his grip went numb and his pistol fell to the ground, the man's limp form falling to the ground, dead. His team looked on in shock, apart from Wrex, but noone looked as shocked as Tali, although noone could see it.
However, Tali could see the ExoGeni guards moving to respond, and she quickly whipped out her omnitool, Chiktika moving to hover beside her as she held it up threateningly. The rest of the team also raised weapons, as the colonists quickly took the guards by surprise and knocked them out.
"We've got enough problems without killing each other." Juliana said in exasperation. Marcus followed suit, his sigh full of the exasperation given as he holstered his pistol.
"That guy had committed an attrocity. He violated a human's most sacred right and conducted unethical experiments without hesitation. The bastard deserved it." Marcus said, and now Tali was truly scared. He's never acted like this until now. Before he always gave the benefit of the doubt, now I just watched him kill a man in cold-blood, no matter how justified it is.
"I guess your right. But what about the colonists? If this Thorian is controlling them, then we need to reach it and kill it." Juliana explained, her hand under her chin in a pensive posture.
"I don't want to harm the colonists unless they become too hostile to save. There has to be a way of getting around them and reaching that Thorian." Marcus suggested.
"Definitely out of the question, the Thorian will have the colonists protecting it from all sides. No way we'll get through except by going straight through them." Lizbeth countered, and they reentered their pensive position until Kaidan's voice entered his comm.
"Shepard! Please respond! We've just escaped Zhu's Hope and we're headed across the skyline, how copy?" The soldier's voice sounded hurried and rushed, as if he'd just won a marathon.
"Solid copy, Alenko. There is a small checkpoint like building across from Zhu's Hope, that's the RV point. We'll meet you there, Shepard out." With that, Marcus turned off his comms and was about to return to planning out the attack on the colony but Juliana's voice interrupted his musings.
"Wait...what if we rigged one of the grenades with a nerve agent?"
"Yes! If we rigged them with some kind of gas that isn't poisonous, you can use them to knock out the colonists without killing them. This should allow you to disable the colonists long enough for you to get in, destroy the Thorian and release them of its control!" Lizbeth followed up excitedly, a large smile on her face.
Marcus nodded and turned to Ashley, "Do we happen to have any gas grenades, Williams?"
"All I've got is tech and smoke grenades sir. Tali's got a few flashbangs, but that's the extent sir. Gas grenades haven't been implemented since the First Contact War, they said chemical warfare was too...unethical." Ashley finished with disdain she could barely hide, but Marcus let it slip, turning back to Juliana.
"Give us those tech grenades and I think our tech specialist here can rig them to release gas instead of explosive residue." Juliana said, and Ashley, Marcus and Wrex passed over their tech grenades to Lizbeth, and both of the women went over to a ExoGeni scientist who looked to be working deeply in something.
At that exact moment, he could hear familiar hurried breaths coming from outside, and turning, saw Garrus, followed by Kaidan, running into the room only to stop infront of Marcus.
"Are all you humans this slow?" Garrus teased, barely missing a breath.
"Not...all...of them. Some of us...are...pretty damn...fast." Kaidan responded, that able to hold his breathing as well as the turian.
"I need a sitrep. What exactly happened out there?" Marcus ordered and Garrus spoke up.
"Simple. We finished fighting off a wave of geth rocket troopers that this dropship had dropped off. Then Arcelia walked up behind me and said, 'We don't need your help anymore.' I'd heard that tone of voice before and knew what followed, so out of instinct, I spun around, grabbed her wrist and snapped it, and while she was in pain, me and Kaidan made our escape. Most of the colonists pursued us, but we simply ran. Do you know what's going on here, Shepard?"
"Certainly do. A creature named the Thorian, or Species 37 as ExoGeni calls it, lives under Zhu's Hope and has been for millions of years. It has mind-control capabilities that ExoGeni wanted to exploit for scientific gain so they used the colonists as test subjects. I guess when Arcelia tried to kill you, the Thorian must have figured out that we were on to it." Marcus finished explaining.
"And I guess he paid for it?" Kaidan pointed out, pointing at the dead form of the late Ethan Jeong.
"He did." Marcus said with a solemn tone, as if ashamed with his actions, but all melancholy was gone when Juliana returned with her daughter.
"It's done. Those grenades are triggered to release gas five seconds after the button is pressed. I recommend switching your olfactory filters to on so the gas doesn't affect you." Juliana informed the group, handing the grenades out to his team.
"Already done. We'll try and save as many colonists as possible, but this gas isn't limitless." Marcus explained, before moving towards the Mako, his team following.
"I know. But commander..." Juliana added, causing Marcus to stop and turn around.
"Please do everything you can to save Fai Dan. Please." Juliana continued, and he saw Lizbeth nod.
"Is he your brother?" Marcus asked. The woman simply shook her head.
"He's my husband." Juliana said with sheer helplessness, and he turned back to head up the ramp, the Mako waiting for them.
Marcus sighed as he entered the Mako and assumed the gunner's position. His drill instructor's words came back to him in an instant.
No matter how hard you try, you ain't saints or superheros.
There's no way you can save them all.
Sometimes, sacrifices are nessacary for victory.
{Loading...}
June 20, 2183
0820 hours.
Northern Uplink, ExoGeni Special Access, Prothean Skyline, Feros.
Eden Prime War, Battle of Feros.
Lieutenant Commander Marcus Lee Shepard, Gunnery Chief Ashley Williams, Battlemaster Urdnot Wrex, Machinist Tali'Zorah nar Rayya, Prothean Researcher Liara T'Soni, Marksman Garrus Vakarian, Staff Lieutenant Kaidan Alenko.
The drive felt longer than before. It felt like an eternity. Yet again, the absence of the geth forces was painfully evident by the fact that none of them came to oppose their return, none of them returned to give one last bout of defiance. They were simply not there, either in full retreat, or completely wiped out when the geth frigate was destroyed.
Either way it didn't matter, for the Thorian was a much more lethal threat.
Slowly, painfully, the Mako made its way down the northern uplink until it finally reached the doors to the Zhu's Hope settlement. Outside, he could see the forms of humans in a fetal positions.
"Careful people, we've got colonists outside, looks like they're waiting for us. Everybody out of the Mako, double time it. Prep weapons with stun rounds." Marcus ordered, unstrapping his gunnery harness and pulling out his shotgun, prepping it with stun rounds and hitting the panel to leap out of the hatch. He was soon followed by the rest of his team.
Ashley was preparing to leave the Mako when Marcus turned to face her.
"Williams, stay here and watch the Mako. Noone lays a finger on it, understood?" He barked.
Ashley looked less than pleased, but she saluted and followed his orders anyway, "Yes, skipper." With that, Ashley exited the Mako, but did not follow the team as they headed towards Zhu's Hope; and the fetal humans on the ground. As they approached they watched the forms begin to move, and Marcus motioned for his team to stop, moving forward, diamond back rifle in his firm grip.
It was only once he had closed the distance completely that he saw the inhumane color of the skin. The human was obviously not human anymore; it had no clothing, allowing its sickly lime skin to show clearly in the morning light. The non-human creature slowly rose up, its hands curved like talons, held out like it was some kind of zombie. When it turned around, Marcus felt bile build up in his throat. Where the human's eyes should have been were now gaping, black holes, with the beast's teeth gone and nose shaved off.
Whatever creature was looking into his eyes now wasn't human at all.
The unknown animal let out a guttural groan, followed by more as the door to the Zhu's Hope garage slid open and more of the creatures appeared. There was a massive horde.
"Dear god..." Kaidan exclaimed.
Marcus could hear the telltale sounds of someone preparing to vomit, and he immediately straffed to his left, just missing the fountain of acid vomit that flew past him to hit the ground. Without hesitation, he spun on the creature and brought his weapon to bare. If this was the colonist's fates, then there was no saving them. Flicking off the stun rounds, he pulled the trigger, feeling the weapon unleash round after round into it.
But that's just it, all the rounds hit, but did nothing. Not enough firepower. Before the creature could counterattack, Marcus wipped out his biotics and engulfed the animal in dark energy, barreling it off straight off the skyline and into the abyss below.
Whipping around, he barked at his squad to open fire, while at the same time he swapped his assault rifle for his shotgun, turning off the stun rounds and glowing in biotics once again as he unleashed a cascade of dark energy in a massive shockwave, the attack moving like a freight train as it blew a path of destruction until hitting the opposite wall.
Of course, all this did was wreck the cohesion of the horde, and they were soon getting up. Of course, Marcus had planned for this as he charged forward, followed by Tali and Wrex with their shotguns, guns blazing. Kaidan activated his tech armor and backed them up, a steady beat of staccato fire ripping into the beasts while Liara used her biotics to disuade them from moving forward. Garrus simply didn't know what to do with himself, resulting to peppering the enemy with concussive rounds.
The creatures had even changed blood color, with the liquid being the same sickly green as their repulsive exterior. Green blood stained his armor as he barrelled through the animals, just killing one that had attempted to spew its disgusting payload onto Tali's oblivious back.
By the time they had dealt with the massive horde of creatures, which had to have been at least a company size of them, he was caked to the kneecaps in green blood, as was Wrex. Tali's purple veil hadn't been saved from the ghastly substance either, the quarian looking like she had swapped it for a green one. And the color didn't suit her either.
"Keelah, this stuff is revolting. My suit is clogged with the stuff and it'll take a clean room for me to clean it all. Yuck!" Tali exclaimed, trying desperately to wipe the liquid off her hood, but only managed to cover her gloved hand in it, causing her to growl in frustration.
"Welcome to the green club. Oddly fitting seeing that my favourite color is green." Marcus stated.
"Really? Mine's purple, hence the veil." Tali responded.
"No, not really. I hate green actually. My favourite color's actually red and black." Marcus revealed, chuckling.
"Are you guys done chatting? Because we still have a colony of brainless zombies and more zombies that look human to deal with." Garrus deadpanned, walking past them and towards the elevator. Marcus simply continued to chuckle as he motioned for the squad to follow the turian, moving up towards the elevator that would take them back to the main colony.
"It's just through-" Garrus began, but was cut off as the elevator door opened.
"Us? I know right! Isn't it just thrilling!" Came the lead colonist as the door opened to reveal five of them, including the lead one who was named 'Ian Newstead' due to his nametag. The man was obviously insane and was holding what looked like a judgment pistol, while his fellow colonists were holding lancer assault rifles. Ian was visibly insane, not having the level of control the colonists possessed.
"Look, we only want to help you-" Marcus began.
"Help? Why help? Why not death? I'd rather you die! Much more fun! Requires less words and more bangs!" Ian practically jumped in anticipation, looking so excited that he could have probably snapped his arm in the way he was throwing it.
Slowly, he turned to Liara and whispered, "Prep a gas grenade. I'll stall him." Liara's nod was the only response he needed as he turned back to the increasingly hostile group of colonists.
"The Thorian has you under its thrall! You have no-" Marcus tried to say, but was interrupted once again.
"AND IT'S FANTASTIC! It says it'll let go of our minds if we kill you. Kill you we must! Only way to gain freedom! We must fight for it! FOR FREEDOM!" Ian shouted in a mock reenactment of Mel Gibson's act in the Brave Heart, which was still a popular movie in these times. He even chuckled.
"You think you're fighting for freedom?" Garrus asked.
"Pretty much," Ian responded deadpan, "Now enough talk! Let's-"
"Enough talk indeed. Do it Liara." Marcus ordered.
Before the gravity of the situation could fully register, the gas grenade was in the midst of their bulk and spread everywhere, causing the colonists to quickly fall to the ground unconscious like flies. Ian was the last to fall, still muttering words of defiance under his breath as he lost his battle to stay conscious and the team stepped into the elevator, hitting the button for the upper level. Zhu's Hope.
{Loading...}
June 20, 2183
0838 hours.
Skyline Main Entrance, Settlement Perimeter, Zhu's Hope, Feros.
Eden Prime War, Battle of Feros.
Lieutenant Commander Marcus Lee Shepard, Gunnery Chief Ashley Williams, Battlemaster Urdnot Wrex, Machinist Tali'Zorah nar Rayya, Prothean Researcher Liara T'Soni, Marksman Garrus Vakarian, Staff Lieutenant Kaidan Alenko.
It wasn't long before the two colonists succumbed to the gas and fell unconscious, followed by the destruction of four more of the repulsive creatures he had come to nickname 'creepers' from their creepy nature. He moved up the stairs, followed by his team, as he felt his sights lowering over every nook and cranny; practically scanning for any sign of a hostile presence. So far only two colonists had greeted them, and they had gone down before they could let off a shot, so he surmised that the rest were in Zhu's Hope itself.
He felt his comm crackle as he answered it, "Shepard" he said as quietly as possible, continuing to move at a steady pace up the stairs.
"Commander, finally, I thought I'd never get through this comm chatter. Thank god for this ship's VI interface. Right now we've got a horde of angry, pissed off looking colonists who look like their protesting against lunch time 're banging on the hull, firing at us...they're going completely crazy!" came Joker's voice.
"Copy that, we're entering the colony now. We've got a nerve agent ready for use against them. Right now I need you to get the Normandy away from this colony. There's a mind controlling hostile in this area and I don't want it corrupting the crew. Just go and we'll radio when the coast's clear!" Marcus shouted.
"Copy that, Normandy out." Joker stated, and the comms went silent as the group finally arrived back at the colony.
It was eerily silent; the only sound being that of running water and the steady, rthymic hum of the bunker's electronic generators. There wasn't a colonist in sight, not even the salarian from before was present. Multiple gunshots looked like they had gone off, but no blood was to be found.
He slowly and steadily edged inside the colony, making sure he didn't miss a single corner of the empty settlement before moving on. It was quiet, too quiet. Where were all the colonists? You would have thought they'd have left a few to protect the Thorian itself from suffering harm. Yet there was nothing. Just deadly silence.
That silence was finally pierced by the pounding thrum of the Normandy's engines as it the small alliance frigate flew over them at full speed, shooting into Feros' atmosphere. He was about to continue when he heard a familiar, feminine voice.
"Don't move any closer to the bunker unless you want her to die." Arcelia's voice was too recognizable to miss. He turned around, lowering his weapon as he saw Arcelia holding Liara around the throat in a headlock, a gun pointed at the asari's sidehead. Without missing a beat, Marcus reared his hand back and unleashed a biotic push, sending Arcelia hurling into a wall before falling back down. Then absolute chaos abrupted as colonists dropped out of hiding spots and attacked, gunfire streaking the area as creepers also joined the fray.
Arcelia was back up and had her rifle trained on Marcus, but his N7 reflexes easily kicked in faster. Arcelia's shots merely bounced off his kinetic barrier as he grabbed the lancer rifle from her hands biotically, using his powers to slam the weapon into her face, sending her crashing into a wall unconscious, her nose broken and bleeding intensely. Dropping the weapon she had been using from his biotic grip, Marcus spun around just in time to whack a charging colonist across the head with his shotgun butt. Looking down, he found it was the salarian.
Gunfire continued until the gas clouds erupted, the colonists standing no chance as they were overwhelmed by the green gas, allowing Marcus' team to focus on the creepers alone, which didn't last long under their sustained fire. Finally, as if after hours of fighting, the gas cloud cleared to show all the colonists in a long, hourly slumber, and all the creeper's just dead corpses on the ground.
"Shepard, I think I've found the entrance to the Thorian's lair." Kaidan called out, causing Marcus and team to arrive quickly at his position, the sentinel playing with the crane controls. Finally, the crane lifted the bunker off the ground and into the air, revealing the entrance to what looked like a holding pen. As they approached, a disgusting gurgling sound, much like the one creeper's made except much louder, boomed through the chamber.
Looking at his team with a questioning gaze, they all nodded, all wanting to follow Shepard into what could possibly be hell itself. Without a bit of hesitation, he walked into the dark chamber that was the Thorian's lair, a place covered in vines and aging stone walls that looked so incredibly ancient, they can't have possibly have been from this period. They looked like they were tens of thousands of years old.
Old enough for a sentient plant to live in.
After minutes trying to navigate the maze of chambers they finally entered a spherical spire like structure, with levels going on downwards for a long while. The place was ripe for age, vines encased in a honeycomb network down the walls of the ancient structure. That wasn't the thing that gained his disgusted look; what was in the middle of the room did.
The Thorian.
"Keelah...what is that? Is that the Thorian?" Tali asked in both awe and disgust.
"We're definitely going to need a bigger gun." Garrus said dryly.
"This could get...problematic." Marcus issued, moving forward to address the creature. Immediately upon doing so, he could hear the creature begin to wreath its body, making squelching sounds that sounded like super glue being squeezed out of a tube. Finally, the tentacles that served as the beast's mouth erupted with green liquid, presumably saliva, and the form of a asari popped out, landing in a crouched position.
That's just fucked up. First zombie minions, now it can vomit out asari? What the fuck kind of a plant is this?
Before he could continue his musings, the crouched asari stood up, the pale light of the room revealing her features. Nothing was different about this asari apart from the fact that it was the same sickly green color of the Thorian instead of the asari's natural blue color. Add on that the asari looked pissed and you had the perfect angry minion.
"Invaders! Your every step is a transgression. A thousand feelers praise you as meat, good only to dig or decompose. I speak for the old growth as I did with Saren, you are within and before the Thorian, it commands that you be in awe." The asari spoke, its tone zombie like and demanding.
"You gave something to Saren. Something we need." Kaidan answered first, Marcus crossing his arms.
"Saren sought knowledge of those who are gone. It was the first time the old growth had listened to flesh since the old cycle. Trades were made. Then cold machines began killing the flesh would tend the next cycle. Flesh fairly given. The Old Growth sees the air you push as lies. It will listen no more." The asari stated once again in its demanding dialect.
From behind him, Marcus could hear the sound of a compacted pistol being released, and he spun around, shotgun raised to see Fai Dan, judgment pistol pointed at Marcus' head, walking into the chamber. The asari spoke once more.
"Kill the trespassers. Stop their transgression and protect the Old Growth as he bids it."
"The Thorian...wants me...to...kill you." Fai Dan tried to speak desperately, while also trying to lower his pistol, only to have it rise once again like his arms were on puppet strings. Fai Dan continued to edge closer against his will.
"But it can't make me. I won't do it. I can't..." Fai Dan said through gritted teeth, trying desperately to raise the pistol higher. But it wasn't to shoot Marcus...it was to shoot himself.
"Must...do this...I won't kill you..." Fai Dan continued, the pistol only at the side of his head. The asari let out a roar of vehemence while Marcus' pleading for Fai Dan to save himself went unheard by Fai Dan's booming scream.
"I WON'T!" With that, Fai Dan pulled the trigger and a spray of gore coated the walls as the round entered his skull and exited on the other side. Fai Dan's body went limp and fell to the ground; he was dead. Marcus cursed under his breath as he turned to the thorian in anger, the beast that had just forced Juliana's husband to kill himself so they might destroy the creature.
His sacrifice won't be in vain, that's for sure.
"You've gone too far! I will destroy you!" Marcus boomed at the asari, raising his shotgun at the asari, followed by the rest of his team. Before he could pull the trigger however, he felt weight pressed against him and fell to the ground, shotgun sliding out of his reach as he tackled with a creeper. He tried desperately to roll it off him, but it was too late. The creepe reared up and let loose its payload, the acidic vomit spreading all over his armor plates. Marcus gritted his teeth and held in a scream of pain as the acid burnt through his armor and burnt the skin underneath. The medi-gel quickly moved in to seal the breach, but it didn't stop the immense pain.
Summoning what he could, he used his biotics to fling the thing off of him and into the ceiling, where, when it landed, the thing met Wrex's boot in the face, crushing its head. The krogan offered Marcus a hand up and retrieved his shotgun. Marcus turned to see that his squad were hunting down the tentacles that held the Thorian in place, while numerous creepers rushed to the defense of their creator.
"Come on Shepard, we've got a Thorian to kill." Wrex shouted over the sounds of the Thorian's agonized cries of pain when its tentacles were blown to pieces. Marcus nodded and ran despite the throbbing pain in his shoulder from the acid, but he kept going, hoping the medi-gel would do its job until he reached the Normandy.
The battle was long and extremely tedious, with creepers seemingly appearing out of nowhere to attack them. The asari that had been the messenger had been thrown into a wall by Wrex and her torso torn open by his shotgun, and the Thorian had eventually been completely cut off from the structure's walls. The creature let out a final scream of defiance before falling 60 stories into the abyss below, dead.
Upon destruction of their leader, the creepers simply exploded, green blood all that remained off the horrible abominations. Even the dead corpses simply melted into the ground. Marcus gave a sigh of relief upon their victory, but the sound of armored feet behind caused him to spin around once more. It was the asari from before, but she still had her natural blue skin tone instead of the green and she looked more confused than she did angry.
"Where...the Thorian...how am I alive? Is this really what human hell looks like?" The asari asked, visibly confused at her turn of events. Motioning for his squad to lower their weapons, he approached the troubled asari.
"No, your very much alive. The Thorian's prisoner, I'm guessing?" Marcus asked. The asari turned to look at him, and he could tell this one was military by her medium armor. From what Liara had told him, this one looked like an asari commando, some of the deadliest combatants in the known galaxy, especially since all asari were natural biotics.
"Yes...I...I...my name is...R'Ness...Shiala R'Ness. I once served as Matriarch Benezia's escort and one of her many followers. Then...then Saren sacrificed me to the Thorian so he could...could understand the cipher that the Thorian possessed. But you have destroyed the Thorian, the creature that had consumed me whole, and I'm grateful for that. I will answer what any questions you see fit to ask." Shiala answered.
"Well, Shiala, what exactly is the Cipher?" Marcus asked, soon followed by Liara, "And why is Benezia working for Saren?" the young asari asked, and Marcus nodded.
"The cipher cannot be defined, it simply exists. As for Benezia, it was not her will to join Saren, and neither was it ours." Shiala explained cryptically, leaving them very confused. Noticing their confused expressions, the commando took it upon herself to elaborate.
"The cipher isn't something tangible, it's knowledge itself. The knowledge of the protheans, in this case. Benezia was a strong willed individual, but Saren's influence is of a power I've never seen before. His power is...troubling. Benezia took us and attempted to make Saren see the error of his ways and stray off that path, but in the end Saren won us over...voices in our head told us it was the right thing to do. So here I was, Saren's errand-servant." Shiala said ashamedly, looking at the ground in solemnity.
"Wait...are you saying Saren can control minds? Like the Thorian can?" Marcus asked, terrified that Saren might possess such abilities and take control of his squad whenever they encountered the rogue turian spectre.
"It would appear so, although I don't believe Saren is behind it. I believe it's his flagship; a ship of immense power and size that it simply cannot have been developed by any of the known races. It's...unbelievably powerful and it makes the Destiny Ascension seem like a child's toy." Shiala explained.
"His flagship? Are you saying the geth flagship has the ability to control people's minds?" Kaidan asked rather skeptically.
"He calls it Sovereign. It's impossible to believe Saren himself is possible of mind control, which does leave his flagship. The geth appear to worship the vessel. It utilizes weapons that I've seen just absolutely annilhate everything in its path. I saw it take down a corvette before it could even retaliate. The geth ships simply circle around it, so I guess calling it the geth's flagship would be accurate, and it possesses weaponry far beyond any dreadnought. I believe you humans would call it a 'Super-dreadnought.' It's shields are something as well. It shrugs off MAC cannon attacks like their simply machine gun shots. I've even seen it simply ram through cruisers without sustaining damage of any kind! Its predicted size is something like two kilometers."
Marcus completey froze. Most of the asari's words were nothing but numb noise after she had said 'the geth worship it.' Everything became immediately clear. Everything was explained; the enigmatic design, the legs and how it appeared to stand, how the ship was able to land on the ground, the unbelievably powerful firepower and the inpenetrable shields. Only one race could have made such a ship...and that knowledge alone froze him to the core. He uttered the words before he knew what he was saying.
"Its a Reaper ship."
His entire team looked at him with raised eyebrows, most of the looks being terrified while Liara appeared shocked. Shiala wasn't surprised at all, which didn't surprise Marcus at all.
"Are you sure, Shepard?" Tali asked the human spectre, and he turned to the quarian, nodding as he did so.
"It all adds up. Remember how you said the geth worship the Reapers Tali? Shiala just said they worship Sovereign. The weaponry, the shielding, the technology the ship uses is just beyond the capabilities of any of the races, even the asari and geth. It's a Reaper vessel, I'm certain of it, and if Saren has it under his control, then it might be the key he needs to look for the Conduit. For all we know, this conduit could be the one way for the reapers to return. Now we REALLY need to stop Saren. If that thing really can plow through even cruisers without so much as twitching, then the galaxy is severe danger."
"Someone like to fill me in? What in the goddess' name is a Reaper?" Liara asked, and suddenly Marcus remembered that he hadn't filled the asari in. Tali answered him instead.
"They're a hyper-advanced machine race that existed, as far as we know, fifty thousand years ago and were the ones responsible for wiping out the protheans and wiping all evidence out. We believe that Saren is trying to bring the Reapers back so they'll cleanse the galaxy of all life again," Tali finished and added her own opinion, "It could be that the Reapers were the Prothean's versions of my people's geth and the Protheans were simply not given the mercy of being exiled from their world and were wiped out when the Reapers rebelled."
"By the goddess...all my life I've never dreamed of...then that must mean the Reapers are responsible for the cycle." Liara exclaimed, and the team turned to look at her with a odd expression on their faces. Liara noticed this and continued, "The Protheans weren't the first to mysteriously vanish. Their were many other civilizations that disappeared long before them, all of them advancing off the technology off the race that died before them. In our case, we evolved off the technology left by the Protheans. Everytime, close to no trace has been left of that race's existence. This cycle has repeated itself for billions of years, and the extinctions always take place fifty thousand years inbetween each other."
"So your saying that every fifty thousand years, the Reapers enter the galaxy, wipe out all life, no evidence of their presence, and then vanish only to rinse and repeat? But why? What's the logic behind it?" Kaidan asked.
"Does it matter why the enemy wants to kill us? Like Admiral Kumbari said at the battle of Shanxi, 'Don't question the enemy's reasons for killing you, question their way of killing you.' If th Reapers want us gone, then we'll show them that they messed with the wrong cycle. But I need this cipher. Its obvious Saren needed it for something, so that means we must have it." Marcus stated firmly, turning back to Shiala who had remained silent throughout the banter, finally speaking now that she felt the conversation draw back to herself.
"Yes, the cipher I gave to Saren is the knowledge of the Protheans; the way they think, speak and trade information. The Protheans possessed abilities akin to my people's mind-melding, and traded personal information between each other through the beacons, kind've what we call comm buoys but more advanced. When the protheans were killed by the Reapers here, the Thorian absorbed their dead bodies and in doing so, gave birth to the cipher in its brain, the knowledge of the Protheans. Not only will you understand their language, but you will have their memories as well."
"I can't see how that aids Saren in any way shape or form. The Reapers wiped out the Protheans. How can the knowledge of a dead race help you bring back a race still alive?" Marcus asked.
"Because the Protheans knew where the Conduit was, and with that information Saren has, he now knows as well. With the Thorian dead, the cipher died with it. I'm sorry." Shiala said apologetically, Marcus cursing under his breath. Then Shiala seemed to light up with an epiphany.
"Wait, there may be one way. I still have the cipher locked in my mind. If I mind-meld with you, I may be able to transfer the cipher into your mind. It will be a short process, but I can't guarantee it will be painless." Shiala explained, but Marcus simply nodded.
"If this cipher helps me find the Conduit before Saren and understand this damn vision, then it's something that needs to be done." Marcus stated.
"Vision?" Shiala asked as he rose her hands to touch the side of Marcus' face.
"I got it from the beacon. Its a vision that details somekind of reaper attack, although I'm not quite sure what it all means." Marcus explained, and he saw Shiala nod before they continued, "Close your eyes...?"
"Shepard. Lieutenant Commander Shepard, Alliance Navy, Human Spectre." Marcus stated.
"Close your eyes, Commander. Let go of your physical shell, the shell that makes you individual," Shiala asked, and Marcus obligded, his eyes closing until darkness enveloped his vision; all he could hear was Shiala's voice, "Reach out to grasp the threads that bind us, one to another."
"Every action sends ripples across the galaxy, every idea must touch another's mind to live. Each emotion must mark another's spirit. We are all connected; every organic being united in a single, glorious existence. Open yourself to the universe, Commander. EMBRACE ETERNITY!" Shiala's were a pure, night black as she entered his mind.
The visions came flooding back. The agonized screaming, the sound of children crying as entire cities burned around them. Blood soaked visions of entire burning worlds erupted in his mind, coupled with the sound of synthetic horns. He could see the fleeing shadows as the the reaper fleets lay waste to their planet. He watched as the screaming continued, the vision travelling through entire systems, giving witness to the utter destruction of the galaxy.
Then it did it. The vision reared behind a dark moon as the sun glared down upon it, and he soon found himself staring at the wreathing form of the geth flagship; Sovereign.
WE ARE THE END OF EVERYTHING.
His eyes shot open just in time to see Shiala's eyes return to normal and the asari released her grip, staggering backwards in shock, looking at Marcus as if he was some kind of monster. His acidic burn on his right shoulder also took the stage and began shooting a blinding pain up his forearm. Marcus only just managed to ignore the feeling.
"May the goddess have mercy on your mind, Commander Shepard. The things you have seen are truly horrifying. Unfortunately the vision was incomplete, you're missing a key component. You need to find a second beacon and link with it to complete the vision and understand it. Somewhere in that vision contains the exact location of the Conduit. You just need to complete it, which is what I think Saren is trying to achieve." Shiala explained.
"Then we won't let him. We'll stop him." Marcus said with a determined tone.
"I wish you luck. Do not try and save Benezia, she's too far gone. I was only released of Sovereign's influence due to the Thorian, something about its mind-control abilities overriding Sovereign's control. But Sovereign has complete control over Saren, and I fear Benezia maybe as well. Once under Sovereign's control, there is no saving them. The only relief from the control is...death." Shiala said with sorrow.
"No! I refuse to believe that! My mother can still be saved, I know she can!" Liara stated with clear defiance before storming off, probably going to check on the colonists who would probably be very confused. Marcus remembered that he also had to inform a certain now-widow of her husband's death. He was turning to leave when Wrex spoke up.
"What about the asari? She worked for Saren and as far as I'm concerned, she's an enemy. We should just kill her where she stands." The krogan announced.
Shiala seemed unfazed by the krogan's threats, "If you would allow it I'd like to stay here. I have caused these colonist's great suffering while under Sovereign's influence. I'd like to make amends. However, if you so wish it, then kill me. I will not resist. As I said, I've caused great suffering, and if my death is required to amend that, then so be it."
Marcus didn't even hesitate in his decision, "No, we won't kill you. If you wish to help repair this colony then by all means, do so. I won't stop you." With that, he ordered his team to lower their weapons and moved out of the holding pen, Shiala close behind. Marcus sighed as he radioed the Normandy to redock, assuring Joker that the Thorian was indeed dead.
He looked at the ground almost the entire time, and he took to talking with Tali to set his mind at rest.
It should have felt like a victory.
All he felt was defeat.
"I still don't understand. Where does it mention that something significant happens between Tali and Shepard?"
- Carter Dielheart.
"I see the standard for patient interrogators is running dangerous low these days. I'm getting to it, although I think the proper term would be a 'love triangle' rather than just Tali and Shepard at this stage. Liara, Tali and Shepard."
- Interrogation Subject 001.
"So who won out in the end? Obviously Tali did, but at what was the turning point?"
- Carter Dielheart.
"The heart was the turning point."
- Interrogation Subject 001.
MEKA'LISH: BROTHER OF DIFFERENT KINSHIP/SPECIES. IN HUMAN TERMS IT MEANS 'BROTHER FROM ANOTHER MOTHER.' KHELISH.
BOSH'TET: UNKNOWN. DATA UNAVAILABLE. KHELISH.
KEELAH SE'LAI: UNKNOWN. DATA UNAVAILABLE. KHELISH.
UHRARNIZ: PIECE OF EXCREMENT. IN HUMAN TERMS IT MEANS 'FUCKING PIECE OF SHIT.' KHELISH.
REIST: BAG OF WASTE. IT HAS NO PROPER MEANING IN THE HUMAN ENGLISH VOCAB, BUT CAN OFTEN BE TRANSLATED AS 'FUCK' OR 'SHIT'. KHELISH.
WUMBRI: A DEXTRO ANIMAL NATIVE TO RANNOCH. SIMILIAR TO AN EARTH RHINOCEROS. KHELISH.
IKILISH'VARSI: UNKNOWN. DATA CORRUPTED. KHELISH.
I'NASH'TOLO'PAH: UNKNOWN. DATA CORRUPTED. KHELISH.
AILIST'KIL'TRA'GRO: UNKNOWN. DATA UNAVAILABLE. KHELISH.
U'LAI: MALE GENITALIA. IN HUMAN TERMS IT MEANS 'DICK'. KHELISH.
GETH: SERVANT OF THE PEOPLE. KHELISH.
YEESHRA: THE QUARIAN AFTERLIFE FOR ALL SINNERS. IN HUMAN TERMS IT MEANS 'HELL.' KHELISH.
YOL'TIYA: UNKNOWN. DATA UNAVAILABLE. KHELISH.