Title: Protoculture Effect (21/?)
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 do not know the privilege of being a mother," the asari matriarch declared, gazing at the creature held within the transparent tank before her. "There is power in creation. To shape a life. Turn it toward happiness or despair. Her children were to be ours. Raised to hunt and slay Saren's enemies." Benezia finally turned her attention to the squad, taking a few regal steps toward them. "I won't be moved by sympathy. No matter who you bring into this confrontation."
Jane looked at her in confusion, then looked around, finally focusing on Liara. "Oh. Right. I, um, actually hadn't thought of that," she admitted. "I brought Liara along because she was small enough to fit with me and Tali in Kaidan's veritech."
"Indeed? What have you told them about me, Liara?"
"What could I say, mother?" Liara retorted. "That you're insane? Evil? Should I explain how to kill you? What could I say?"
"Have you faced an asari commando unit before?" Benezia asked rhetorically, ignoring her daughter's outburst. "Few humans have."
Jane met Benezia's gaze. "I can't believe you'd kill your own daughter."
"I now realize I should have been stricter with her," she said as she began to glow. Her arm swept out, and the squad found themselves flying across the room and into the far wall as doors slid open to reveal asari commandos.
Coruscating beams of glowing blue-green light stabbed out of the smoke, crackling with energy, lightly scoring the wall behind them as the team dove for cover behind some crates.
"What is that?" Liara wondered.
"Judging by the sound, appearance, and scoring," Kaidan said, "I'd say it's a particle beam."
"I don't remember any green particle beam rifles out there, Alenko," Jane pointed out.
"Different frequency," he said. "That's not from the black market."
"Great," Jane grumbled. "So the asari have managed to build their own p-beams." Letting her Defiant hang from its sling, she leaned out of cover and reached out with her left hand, then yanked it back, clenching her fist. One of the asari commandos was enveloped by biotic energy and suddenly flew toward her. Jane smirked as she brought her right hand into play, swinging it forward in a biotically-charged haymaker that collided with the asari's chin with a distinctive "crack!" The asari collapsed bonelessly to the floor.
Another asari commando vaulted up on top of the crates they were using for cover, aiming her particle rifle down at them.
"Eat this!" Tali snarled as she stood up out of cover, shoving her shotgun into the commando's belly and pulling the trigger. The asari staggered back, blood and gore spilling out from a gaping hole through her torso.
"Frag out!" Kaidan warned before tossing a cobalt grenade into the fray, only for the powerful anti-mecha explosive to glow a faint blue, slow and then reverse course with a wave of Benezia's hand.
"No!" Liara called, throwing up both arms and halting the grenade in mid-air, but after a moment, it then continued inexorably floating back toward them.
Jane shifted and threw her own biotics in support of Liara's efforts, and Kaidan followed suit a moment later. Finally, the grenade halted... and detonated.
Ears ringing, Jane shook her head to clear it and quickly scanned her surroundings to reassess the situation. Had it reached its intended destination, the cobalt grenade would have mulched Benezia - matriarch or no, she didn't think anyone's barriers could stand up to that - while leaving the team unharmed. As it was, it left both sides reeling from the explosion.
Still, at least Benezia didn't escape unscathed. Her robes were a mess of burning tatters, which she discarded with a wave of her hand, revealing... Jane wasn't sure what to make of what the asari matriarch was wearing underneath. It was primarily a black bodysuit highlighted by glowing blue lines that traced her body and coalesced into a few larger nodules. It took Jane a moment to recognize the blue glow as eezo. The rest of the bodysuit was clearly no ordinary fabric either, as Benezia seemed supremely unconcerned with the flames that had moments ago engulfed her.
"Do you know what this is?" Benezia asked. "This is but a part of our answer to your Cyclones, human, the Apostle." She waved her hand negligently, throwing a powerful shockwave that scattered the meter-wide crates they had been using for cover. "It enhances biotics, giving a maiden the strength of a matriarch, and a matriarch," she held up a hand and clenched it into a fist, "the strength of ten."
The team scattered as the very floor beneath them, made from hardened alloys, tore free and curled up, nearly wrapping them within.
"You cannot win this battle," she declared, raising a hand. Behind her, pipes and beams tore free from the rafters above, and with a flick of her wrist, she sent them flying at lethal velocity.
Jane's eyes narrowed as she glared at Benezia. "To hell with this," she hissed as she went through another mnemonic.
"Jane, wait!" Liara warned, but she was too late, as the human biotic suddenly suddenly flew across the room like a miniature blue meteor...
...only to stop abruptly, Benezia's hand wrapped around her throat.
"You are a thousand years too young to defeat me, human," she sneered. Jane gurgled an unintelligible response, and Benezia pulled her closer. "I'm sorry," she said mockingly. "What did you say?"
"I said..." Jane whispered as she reached up and dropped something behind the matriarch, "'Screw you, bitch.'" Scrunching her legs up to her chest, she kicked off, breaking free from Benezia's grip and tucking into a roll as the grenade detonated at the matriarch's feet.
The woman nonchalantly made her way through Port Hanshan. She easily blended into the crowd of people as she headed for the docking bays, despite the rarity of her species on Noveria. Nothing to see here, move along. Just another office lady going about her business.
She allowed herself a sigh of relief as she slipped into the docking bay, the icy cold air biting into her face.
"Hi, there."
She froze mid-step, her back stiffening, then plastered an eager smile on her face as she turned. "Oh, my. Commander Shepard," she gushed. "I'd heard you were around, but I never thought I'd get the chance to actually meet you!"
Yes, it was definitely Shepard. The Spacy commander was leaning against the wall next the door, arms crossed, an easy smile on his face. "Color me impressed," he said.
This didn't look good.
"Impressed by what?" she asked innocently.
He straightened up and shrugged. "Well, see, once I realized Qui'in was being framed, I asked myself, 'Self, why would someone try to frame him with such flimsy evidence?' Then I realized it was to get a clear shot at the Synthetic Insights offices. You couldn't get in with either his security or Anoleis's goons crawling all over the place."
She was unable to suppress the wince.
"But not only did you frame Qui'in juuust enough to clear out his offices for a bit, but you also somehow managed to sabotage a volus freighter and force it to make a very suspicious stop here for emergency repairs. So, yeah, impressive."
She sighed, defeated. "So, how'd you find me?" she asked finally.
"A human tramp freighter making a stop here?" he pointed out. "This planet isn't exactly human-friendly."
Her eyes narrowed. "It's registered under a turian name."
"The registered owner's name might be turian, but 'Heavenly Mist' is not a turian name for a ship."
Damn, she thought. Keiji's never going to let me hear the end of this. Her sentimentality had tripped her up again, just like with the roses. "So. You going to arrest me?"
"Haven't decided yet," he replied. "What exactly were you here to steal?"
"Not steal," she corrected, seizing the opening. "Rescue."
He leaned forward. "Now I'm intrigued."
Jane stared through the reinforced polycarbonate at the rachni queen held within. Let her go or kill her? Place her trust in a species that had spent the last few hours trying to kill her and her team or deliver the final blow to a species thought exterminated centuries ago?
She was a Hunter. More than that, she was human. This choice was no choice at all.
John and Jane stood ready to answer the Citadel Council's questions, but it was clear their focus was on John.
"This is highly irregular, Commander Shepard," Councilor Valern declared. "The Council named you Spectre, not Commander Hunter."
"A fact I am well aware of, Councilor," John replied.
"You miss the point," Councilor Sparatus said. "She does not have Spectre authority. Many of her actions on Noveria are clear violations of Citadel law, and as she was unsupervised, your Spectre status cannot shield her from the consequences."
"Representatives of the Noveria Development Corporation made it abundantly clear that Citadel laws don't apply on Noveria," John countered, his voice frosty. "She was, however, acting in accordance with Alliance regulations, standard rules of engagement, and first contact protocols. If the NDC has a problem with this, they can take it up with the Alliance. I trust Commander Hunter and fully support her decisions."
"Perhaps," Sparatus's mandibles twitched, then he gave Jane a sidelong glance. "You may trust her, but I still question her judgment. According to this report, after finding rachni on Noveria, she then released the queen. Do you two realize what you've done? How many generations until they overrun the galaxy?"
"Three," John offered cheekily. "No, wait. Four!"
"This is hardly a time for humor, Commander," Sparatus growled.
"If I may, Councilors?" Jane spoke up.
"Speak," Councilor Tevos said. "This is not a trial."
John snorted. It sure felt like one.
"I will not commit genocide, Councilors," Jane declared, meeting each of the councilors' gazes without flinching, practically daring them to argue. "It would be a betrayal of everything the Alliance has ever stood for, a human tradition over a hundred years old, and my own family's legacy.
"I won't let fear compromise who I am."
With the debrief over, John looked at Jane. "So, what was that gear you were hauling in?"
"Something new for Liara," she answered, "once she gets over what happened. Until then, it's something for our resident spook to play with. Some kind of advanced asari prototype armor." She paused. "You probably should have mentioned it to the Council."
"Mention what?" he said. "I've not seen this armor, and I have no idea where you got it."
She snorted. "So, what's next?"
"Don't know," he admitted. "The Mu relay could link to dozens of systems. For now, we'll be making another resupply stop on Terra Nova. We burned through a lot of ordnance clearing out the geth from the Armstrong Nebula, and I want to be ready the moment we get a lead on Saren."
"I see," she said, nodding in agreement with the plan, and the two old friends lapsed into a companionable silence. After a few minutes, she broke it. "You should talk to her."
"Who?"
"Liara," she clarified. "She just lost her mother."
"You've always been better with that kind of thing than I am, Jane. You know that."
"It'll mean more coming from you," she countered, "and besides, I'm the one who killed her. I'm not the right person for this."
He grunted, wordlessly acknowledging her point.
"Don't worry," she added as she started to walk off. "I'll keep Tali busy so you two won't be interrupted."
"If you are here to talk about Benezia's death, you need not bother," Liara said, pre-empting John as he ducked into the lab behind medical where she had holed up. "She brought it upon herself."
"Don't pretend it doesn't bother you," he said, crossing his arms skeptically. "She was your mother." And, he added silently, from Jane's report, she was as much a victim as any of us.
"She was... but she was not," the asari archaeologist hedged, looking away. "I prefer to remember Benezia as she used to be, before she was corrupted by Sovereign's power."
John mentally scrambled for something to say, finally settling on, "The best of your mother lives on in you," as he reached over and placed a hand on her shoulder. "Her determination, her intelligence, her strength."
"That is kind of you to say," Liara said, meeting his gaze with a shy smile on her face as she placed a hand on his. "I appreciate your concern, but I am fine." She raised her head and looked him in the eye. "Benezia chose her path, just as I have chosen mine. I am with you until the end, Shepard."
John floundered and let his hand drop. He could tell she wasn't really confronting her grief, but he had no idea how to call her out on it without hurting her.
"Liara..." he trailed off, unsure what to say.
She squeezed her eyes shut. "How did it feel, Shepard?" she asked quietly. "When your family died on Mindoir? How did you feel? Did you grieve, or were you angry?"
John winced and looked away, pondering how to answer that. He decided on honesty. "I was just a kid, Liara. Sixteen. Yeah, I was pissed. Until the funeral. After that, I just... felt empty. If it hadn't been for the Alliance and Captain Anderson... I don't know what I would have done."
"And just what do you think I'm going to do?" she asked gently.
"I don't know," he admitted, looking back at her. "I guess I just want you to know, you're part of my crew. Whatever happens, I'm here."
"Thank you, Shepard," she said, reaching forward and taking his hands in hers. "That means a lot."
Earth Intelligence Agency
Top Secret
Code Word Access Only
Subject: Apostle Biotic Amplifying Combat Armor
To: m (-at-) eia . gov
From: d . belmont1 (-at-) eia . gov
I can now confirm the existence of the Apostle. Attached is the data from the scans, but in summary, the Apostle consists of two layers. The inner layer is a bodysuit made of a material that can absorb tremendous amounts of heat, blunting the effects of lasers and plasma and incendiary weapons. This layer is also interwoven with eezo tracings and nodes, amplifying the wearer's biotic abilities exponentially. The outer layer consists of sectional hard armor segments lightened by mass effect fields. Preliminary analysis of the hard armor suggests it is made of carbon nanotube sheets woven with some form of diamond and then compressed, likely with mass effect fields. There are also signs that the outer layer is designed to interact with its wearer's biotics in some manner, but the specifics will require more analysis.
Earth Intelligence Agency
Top Secret
Code Word Access Only
Subject: Asari Particle Rifle
To: m (-at-) eia . gov
From: d . belmont1 (-at-) eia . gov
Per LtCmdr Hunter's report (attached), we have confirmation that Saren Arterius has access to particle beam weapons of unknown origins, likely developed by the Asari Republics, given the aesthetics of the weapon's design. Despite the inherent similarities, the asari particle rifle does not appear to be based on Alliance designs. The asari particle rifle incorporates mass effect technology from the ground up, using mass effect fields instead of electromagnetics to accelerate the particles. Additionally, the particle rifle operates on a different frequency from Alliance particle beam weapons - one more suited to ablating armor rather than piercing it - and fires a continuous beam instead of pulse beams. The continuous beam appears to be necessary due to the power generator, which takes several seconds to cycle up to full power each time the weapon is engaged. Recommend priority tasking toward identifying the origin of this technology.
Codex: D-30 Cobalt Grenade
Dating back to the Second Robotech War, the D-30 cobalt grenade is a versatile and powerful hand grenade used for both anti-personnel and light anti-armor duties. Its design is much like its larger cousin, the D-40 cobalt limpet mine, which is used for combat demolitions. In addition to an advanced high explosive charge, the cobalt grenade contains pressurized, powdered metal cobalt, which is pulverized on detonation and flash sublimates to plasma. The plasma rapidly expands, creating a powerful but localized concussion wave in addition to the heat of the plasma. As a grenade, the D-30 is optimized for throwing, and despite its power, it has an atypically small casualty radius, making it an effective offensive grenade and a practical - if not recommended - last ditch weapon against mecha.