Chapter 18
The next two hours were filled with frenzied preparation. Everyone was off prepping their gear and loading up on ammo mods. Kirrahe and Kaidan spent their time ironing out comm frequencies, coded phrases and other minutiae to ensure they wouldn't get killed in the first thirty-eight minutes. Ashley spent part of her time getting a crash course in improvised ship-core-turned-nuke, and apparently impressed Kirrahe with some insightful suggestions on how to increase its yield and where to place it.
Then, with a final goodbye, Kaidan left to join Kirrahe and his men, leaving us to circle round the facility to our designated ingress points. That took another forty minutes or so.
"Comm check," Kirrahe's voice broke in. Right on time. "Do you read me, Commander?"
"Loud and clear," I replied.
"Good. We'll start our push. We'll try to make it towards the AA guns, but it might be up to you to finish the job." He paused before adding "And Commander? If you see any way to undermine their defences, we could definitely use the help."
We both knew what he meant. At some point, Kirrahe handed me an OSD with a detailed map of the facility's perimeter, based on the extensive recon that his team had managed to conduct. There were three points that were highlighted: an outpost configured for communications, a second outpost with a satellite uplink, and a re-fuelling platform for geth drones. Taking out any of these three targets, which were located between our point of insertion and the rear entrances of the facility, would make Kirrahe's job a hell of a lot easier.
Technically, I didn't have to do that. Going out of my way to tackle these secondary targets would jeopardize my own mission, and he knew that. Hence the way he phrased it as a suggestion. On the other hand, it would look bad if I didn't. So we headed off to the nearest outpost.
We kept our comms on Kirrahe's channel, so we could keep apprised on their progress. Something that came into play a minute later. "Shadow is on the ground," we heard Kirrahe say. "Repeat: Shadow is on the ground. Lt. Alenko, with Aeghor team. Mannovai and Jaeto teams, move! Time to get their attention!"
Shortly after that, we arrived at the first outpost. Basically a platform on stilts, with a catwalk leading down to the ground, guarded by a smattering of snipers and shock troopers. As they started firing, we quickly took cover behind some nearby boulders and started shooting back.
"Fire is coordinated on Mannovai team," Kaidan's voice broke in. "We can't reach the geth turrets. They're out of range!"
"Guess it's up to us," Garrus murmured, taking out a sniper with a sniper shot of his own. Not to be outdone, I did the same. A second later, Ashley took out the last geth. Well, last geth that we could see—judging by the JAMMED signal our HUDs were giving us, there was still one more geth lying about.
I motioned for Team Two to scout around the base of the outpost while I led Team One up the catwalk. We were halfway up the catwalk when a destroyer stomped into sight. Weapon at the ready. Shields fully charged. Close enough to reach out and pound us to a pile of pulp.
Aw, crap.
The destroyer let loose a shot, which we all managed to duck. In return, Wrex created a biotic field around it, lifting it up in the air. The effect only lasted for a minute, but that was more than enough time for us to destroy the destroyer.
I know: bad pun. Couldn't help it.
By that point, Team Two had joined us, having secured the immediate perimeter. Together, we took out the last geth—a sniper as it turned out—and found a control panel to a comm system. From what we could gather, the geth were using it to triangulate enemy positions. Naturally we shut it down before we departed.
The impact of our little good deed came very quickly. "Something scrambled their targeting," Kirrahe reported. "We've got a shot! Lt. Alenko, take the heat off Mannovai!"
"Roger," we heard Kaidan reply.
We stopped a moment to get our bearings. The terrain was a bit confusing, what with the canyons forking all over the place like a giant maze. It looked like there was a fork in the road up ahead, which merged back together into the large clearing that held the second outpost. On a whim, I motioned for Team Two to go left, while we took the other route. I figured they were both the same.
Turns out I was wrong.
It started out innocuously enough. Meet a couple geth troopers, blow off their flashlight heads, move on. Bump into another trooper, accompanied by a pair of assault drones. Riddle them with holes.
Then we went round a corner and merrily entered the line of sight of a rocket drone.
Cursing, we scattered, just in time to avoid a rocket.
"Tali," I called out, "take out its shields before it reloads!"
"On it," she hollered back, hurling her tech mine like a miniature discus. I was quick to follow with a mine of my own, one that would temporarily disable that pesky rocket launcher. Now that it was vulnerable, we had a bit of breathing room with which to take it out.
My heart was still pounding, though.
Thankfully, there wasn't any more excitement until we saw the second outpost. Kirrahe's men weren't so lucky, judging from his comments: "They're calling sat-strikes! Jaeto, watch out for comm stations! Lt. Alenko, can you see anything?"
"Garrus," I radioed. "You there?"
"Affirmative," Garrus said. "I've been sweeping the outpost with my sniper rifle, and I've located the satellite uplink."
I pulled out my sniper rifle and did a sweep of my own. "I confirm the uplink," I reported. I frowned as my scope found something else. "And a geth. Shock trooper, by the looks of it. Can you see it?"
"Negative," Garrus said after a pause. "No visual on the trooper. Recommend you take it out while I deal with the uplink."
"Agreed," I said, zooming in on the trooper. "Take out your target on three: one, two, three."
Presumably, our rifles went off in unison. I couldn't say for sure, what with the built-in silencers muffling the shots. All I know is, the shock trooper collapsed in a heap, a hole drilled right through its flashlight head. When I lifted my head from the scope, I saw bits of equipment and scaffolding tumbling down from the crumpled remains of the satellite uplink.
Over the comm, I heard Garrus snort. "That must have been the flimsiest satellite I've ever seen."
"Probably could've taken it out with a pistol," Ashley agreed. "Or a sneeze."
"Okay, that's enough chatter," I broke in. "Let's move in on the outpost."
"Right. Sorry," Garrus and Ashley said in unison, sounding chagrined.
We met up at the bottom of the outpost. "Finally some action," Ashley grinned.
"All we came across were a pair of troopers," Garrus explained.
"We got three troopers, plus a bunch of drones," Wrex bragged. "Some of them had rockets."
Tali just looked at Team Two, then looked at me. Probably wondering why I had such lousy luck, and why she had the bad luck to get stuck with me. I was wondering the same thing, myself.
Rather than saying anything, I turned my attention to the outpost. Like the previous one, a catwalk provided access to the ground. And, just like the previous one, there was another hostile lurking nearby. A krogan, as it turned out.
This time, we detected him before he started charging at us. Heck, he didn't even know we were there until I fired a sniper round at his head.
To my surprise, the krogan fell to his knees, but he didn't go down for the count. If my sensors were functioning properly, and they usually were when giving me bad news, he was actually regenerating. Fast. Thankfully, my sniper rifle cooled down before his regeneration was complete, and the second shot put him down permanently.
We took a minute to consult the maps again at the top of the outpost. In retrospect, that may have been a misnomer—unlike the previous outpost, this one wasn't a standalone platform. Instead, it connected to a series of walkways and platforms that meandered back and forth before reaching the facility itself.
"This is the refuelling tower that Kirrahe's intel found," Garrus said, pointing a talon at a platform situated a kilometre from our current location. "Looks like it connects to the main walkway leading to the facility here," he added, pointing at another section of the map.
I nodded absently, more focused on scanning the rest of the map. "Check this out," I said, pointing to a short dead-end that forked off one of the walkways. "If I'm reading this right, this dead-end is a perch that overlooks the rear entrances to the facility. You'd get plenty of cover, while still having a clear line-of-sight to any guards."
"Yeah, but we'd need to clear the other sections first to make sure we don't have geth or krogan crawling up our backsides," Ashley frowned.
"Team One will go take out the refuelling towers, and deal with any opposition along the way, then circle round to the main walkway," I decided. "Garrus, clear the rest of the area, then bunker up at that perch. When everyone's in position, we'll hit them from both sides. Sniper rifles first, with additional firepower and support as needed."
I felt quite pleased with myself. Hopefully, Wrex, Tali and I could take out our target, then spend a nice and peaceful time waiting for Team Two to complete their objectives.
Of course, things didn't go according to plan.
We'd barely taken ten steps before we saw two destroyers up ahead. As my sniper rifle was still in my hot little hands, I fired it at the lead destroyer. My shot took out its shields and did a heck of a lot of damage, but not enough to bring it down, apparently. It could've fired back, but apparently it wanted to get a bit closer first. Fine by me: gave me enough time to let off another shot. After that one went down, I turned my attention to the second destroyer. Thankfully, Wrex and Tali had spent the time filling it with holes, so it didn't take long before it joined its partner.
After that, our little jaunt to the refuelling station was remarkably uneventful. I found myself getting increasingly anxious, despite the general tranquility. Nothing dampens any enjoyment one might get from warm tropical breezes, sunny skies and lush landscapes quite like the thought of certain ambush and possible death around the next corner. As it turned enough, we did get a brush with possible death around the next corner.
But I'm getting ahead of myself.
We hadn't been hearing from Kirrahe or Kaidan for a while. Didn't really think about it at the time, focused as I was on my keeping my head firmly attached to my shoulders. So one might forgive me for almost jumping when I heard Kirrahe's voice over the comm channel: "Aircraft heading to perimeter stations to recharge. Bunker up before they come back!"
A minute later, we started to round another corner. We could glimpse part of a large fuel tank and a bunch of geth drones hovering over it.
"Looks like it's refuelling," Wrex observed.
"Let's take it out before it can go back and harass the other teams," Tali recommended.
"Too late," Wrex barked. "We got incoming!"
Three of the drones had noticed us and were starting to swoop our way. Naturally, one of them was packing a rocket launcher, which it fired our way.
Diving to the ground, I cursed my bad luck. Ducking rockets and other incoming fire while trying to shoot ridiculously agile targets out of the sky is not my idea of fun. I found myself wondering why they couldn't be nice and docile, sitting still like that fuel tank that was right in front of me...
And that's when another desperate idea came to me. "Team One, cover me," I ordered, whipping out my sniper rifle.
I found myself in a situation that was simultaneously ideal and disastrous for sniping. On the one hand, lying prone is just about the best way to centre your rifle without it swaying all over the place. Also, it's refreshingly easy to take out a shuttle-sized fuel tank within ninety metres of your position when you're used to sniping at head-sized targets hundreds of metres away. On the other hand, I've never sniped under fire. Not before this mission, anyways.
Gritting my teeth, I peered through my scope. My finger was just about to pull on the trigger when I glimpsed something closing from the corner of my eye. Cursing, I yanked on the trigger and rolled out of the way. Just in time too, as a drone crashed to the ground and exploded, right where I was lying down.
That explosion seemed to echo for a while. For a second, I thought my ears were ringing.
"Nice shot," Wrex complimented me.
I turned around to look at him, a look of confusion on my face.
"You hit the tank while rolling around on the ground like a varren scratching an itch," he replied.
I turned around to see the conflagration billowing up in front of us. Apparently I managed to hit the blind side of the proverbial barn after all, taking out most of the drones in the process. The only survivor barely had any shields left, and was weaving like a marine who'd just gone on shore leave. Needless to say, we managed to take it, and the second fuel tank, out without much difficulty.
As that last drone bit the dust, we heard Kirrahe again: "Air strike has not materialized! We may be getting some help from Shadow!" Good to know our detour was worth risking my neck. And that someone actually appreciated it this time.
The trip to our designated attack point was remarkably peaceful. I guess the firefight and explosions bled most of the tension for me. Whatever the reason, my heart wasn't beating too fast when we arrived.
Crouching down, I grabbed my sniper rifle and peered through the scope. Not much resistance: two krogan and two geth snipers. Either they were confident no one would make it this far or Kirrahe's teams were doing a really good job at drawing away the opposition.
"Team Two, we are in position," I radioed.
"Likewise," Garrus reported. "Awaiting your orders, Shepard."
"Snipers, take out the geth first then switch to the krogan," I said, deciding to deal with the guys who could deal death from a distance. Or take out our shields, which amounted to the same thing. "Everyone else, target the krogan first. We go on three: one, two, three!"
The geth didn't know what hit them. The krogan were busy looking between wherever they thought the gunfire was coming from and the sight of their geth allies splayed out on the ground. It didn't take long before they met the geth's fate.
After meeting up and doing some quick scrounging, we passed through a nearby door. In front of us lay a few walkways that led to the actual facility itself. Tali quickly moved towards a security console that was stationed outside one of the doors and hacked her way in.
"We've got access to base security," she reported. "We should be able to cut the alarms from here." She tapped the console some more before adding: "Might even be able to trigger alarms on the far side of the base. It'll clear the guards out for us, but they might be too much for the salarian teams to handle."
Again, I made my decision based on the need to preserve that stupid reputation of mine: "Just disable the alarms. We can handle any guards inside."
Tali nodded and entered the appropriate commands. Then we readied our weapons and entered on my order. I was expecting some opposition, and I wasn't disappointed. What surprised me was the nature of our opposition: I was expecting geth and krogan.
As it turned out, I was half right: we found ourselves facing geth—two destroyers and two shock troopers—accompanied by six or seven salarians. Armed with nothing more than staff uniforms—and I have no idea why they were wearing that instead of barrier-equipped combat hardsuits or where Saren got them from—minimal shielding and pistols. They came at us one or two at a time, so it was easy to take them out. So easy, in fact, we concentrated on the geth first, even with salarian pistol shots pinging off our shields.
"Salarians?" Garrus murmured when the last salarian went down. "Right: the captain said he had lost some men."
"Perhaps they were indoctrinated," Liara suggested.
Ashley scratched her head. "What the hell's going on in this place?"
Shrugging, I motioned the squad to continue. For once, I did a cursory sweep for loot. Probably because it was a big room and most of the obvious spots were empty. And because our scanners were telling us there was one more hostile in our immediate vicinity. There was nothing on our level, so we headed up the stairs.
Peering around a bunch of crates that were inconveniently blocking our view, I quickly ducked back. "Juggernaut," I hissed.
That was enough to make everyone grip their weapon a little bit tighter.
"Liara, lift it up," I ordered quietly. "Garrus, take out its shields; Tali, disable its weapons; Wrex, warp its armour."
With that barrage of biotics and tech, it was pathetically easy to kill. Probably overkill, but it's nice to have the chance to set that up.
Once the juggernaut was down, we looted a nearby crate and moved through an adjoining door and started to creep over a catwalk.
"Hello?" a voice called out from below. "Is someone out there?"
"Hang on," I called back quickly. Somehow, this didn't strike me as the time or the place for a prolonged chat. "We'll be down as soon as we can." We crept the rest of the way over the catwalk and entered another room. It was guarded by two salarians who were just as easy to take down as their partners. Then we looked around. Two crates to loot. And two doors to go through, one on either side of an elevator. So many choices. In the end, I picked the right door. It led us outside, down some stairs, and into an underground room lined with cells. Above us was the catwalk we just crept over.
Many of the salarians were just... standing there. Drooling. Or babbling nonsense. Stuff about how "It never sleeps" and "It calls, and I must follow." One of them, though, followed our movements with a clear look of intelligence and sanity in his eyes.
"Well you're not a geth," he said dryly. "And you're not wearing a lab coat. I guess I'm glad to see you."
"Commander Shepard, Spectre," I quickly introduced myself. I refrained from introducing the others. Partly to give myself sometime in the limelight; partly because we couldn't really spare the time for extended introductions.
"Lietuenant Ganto Imness of the Third Infiltration Regiment, captured during recon. I assume the fleet was called in to destroy the base?"
I shook my head. "The transmission wasn't clear, so they sent us to investigate. The fleet's not coming."
Lt. Imness was as professional as his captain, absorbing this bad news without a flurry of panic. "I see," he said simply. "Then you must be the infiltration team. I know my captain: he will want this facility destroyed."
"Because of the indoctrination," I surmised.
"Exactly," Imness nodded. "The captain knew about the breeding grounds. But the indoctrination is a greater threat, and far more horrifying." He shuddered before continuing. "I saw good people reduced to mindless husks. There wasn't anything left. Others died during the experiments. I envy them."
"So they were running experiments on indoctrination?" I asked. "What were they looking for, exactly?"
"Symptoms, progress, that sort of thing," Imness replied. "Their leader, Saren, uses it to control his people, but he doesn't fully understand it. At least, I don't think he does. I don't know much else. I just saw what it did to the others. Turned them into empty husks."
He started looking agitated. Can't blame him, I guess. "They haven't gotten to me yet. 'Not my turn,' they said. I can't end up like that. Please—let me out!"
"I'm letting you out," I said after a minute's thought, "but then you're on your own." I know it was a risk. For all I knew, this guy was indoctrinated as well, just not as far as the others. But he did provide a fair bit of intel, and he seemed sane. All the same, I made a mental note to inform Kirrahe that he might want to keep a close eye on him. Just in case.
For the first time, Imness smiled. "Don't look back and hope to outrun the blast, hmm? A better chance than I had before you showed up." As we walked out, he called back over his shoulder: "Thank you, Commander. And good luck. You'll need it."
Before we left, I took another look at the other salarians.
"No threat here, Commander," Garrus said professionally. "Are they even aware of us?" he added, on a more personal note.
"What drove Saren to do this?" Liara whispered. "It is cruel beyond measure."
"Open the doors," I decided. "Give them a chance to outrun the blast."
"You sure, Commander?" Tali asked. "They might hurt themselves."
"Or us," Ashley muttered darkly.
"We can't do anything if they harm themselves, and I doubt they're any real threat to us. Let them out," I repeated.
With a sigh, Wrex reached over and keyed the door controls. The salarians didn't respond at all. They just stood there, staring and babbling. We turned and left the room, and its insane inhabitants, behind.
After returning to the room with the doors and the elevator, we took the left door. It led us up some stairs and into another room of cells, each holding a salarian. I started tapping on cells, trying to get a response. The salarian in the first cell just mumbled some gibberish. The second was more responsive, to say the least.
"What do you want?" he asked quickly. "I told you everything! I—Who are you? Alliance, right? I knew someone would come. It tried to break me, but it couldn't! I shut it out!"
"Slow down," I told him. Even for a salarian, this guy was talking a mile a minute. "Let's start with who you are and where you came from."
The salarian stood to attention. "Private Menos Avot of the Third Infiltration STG, sir! Captured while on reconnaissance six days ago. Glad to answer, sir! Never any questions from these bastards," he muttered. "Just whispers and poking and cutting. I'd have said anything to get out and get some payback. That's not much to ask, is it? A little payback?"
"What did they do to you, soldier?" I asked, channelling a little drill sergeant into my voice. This non-com was either severely traumatized or seriously loopy. I couldn't tell which, but I hoped that a lil military discipline would snap him out of it.
"Experiments, but I don't know what for. The effect of incessant whispering on my shortening temper? Who knows? I just need out," the private babbled.
"Something's not right here, Commander," Garrus warned me.
No kidding. "Agreed, but if we don't let him out, he's as good as dead." Plus, I hate leaving loose ends behind. "We have to do something."
"Yes, leaving me here would be bad," Avot added, still yammering away at a rapid-fire pace. "Very bad. It's too small and the noise just won't go away. Whispering is loud, you know? I need to get out. Let me out."
Okay, my paranoid streak was definitely freaking out at this point. But there was only one way to be sure. Besides, there were only three salarians versus the seven of us.
"Fine, we'll set you free. But you have to follow my orders. Understood?"
"Yes sir," he babbled as we unlocked the cell doors. "You'll find that I am very good at following orders. I should be. I hear them over and over. Why are they repeated when they are so simple?"
I motioned for everyone to pull out their weapons. This was it, I sensed.
"So damn simple!" Avot yelled before pulling out a pistol of his own.
We mowed them down before they could let off a shot. Not exactly a fair fight, but at least my reputation for doing my damndest to help others remained untarnished. And they wouldn't be nipping at our heels at potentially inconvenient moments, which was the main goal as far as I was concerned. (1)
Moving on, we found a set of stairs on the side that led down to another level. We killed the five indoctrinated salarians that were guarding it—how many salarians were in this STG anyways?—and searched the rooms. We found about four or five crates, each one loaded with goodies.
It was like Christmas or something.
After looting all the crates, we went back to that first room and entered the elevator. It took us to a large lab filled with beds, diagnostic equipment, computers, strange machinery that was housing husks, an asari in a lab coat...
...and a krogan in a lab coat that seemed to be made out of a burlap sack.
Just when I thought I'd seen everything.
The asari looked up and saw us. "Intruders!" she yelled. "Get the guards!" She probably would've said more, had I not put a bullet through her eye.
The krogan turned around. "What's going on here?" he growled. "Where are the guards? Where's Saren?"
Not waiting for an answer, he stabbed a button on his omni-tool. The things holding the husks—stasis cells of some sort, I'd later find out—shut down and the husks started to stir.
"Weapons free," I barked, setting an example by firing off a couple rounds into the nearest husk.
"No!" the krogan scientist yelled as we shot down husk after husk. "Stay back! This is important work! This is the glorious salvation of my species!"
We knew this damn well, Wrex especially. Probably why he biotically slammed the doc against a nearby wall and blew his brains out with his shotgun, all with a bitter look on his face.
"Clear," Garrus called out after a moment.
"Clear." That was Ashley.
While most of us cased the room for loot, I had Tali go through the computers. See what they were doing. Unfortunately, all it held was statistics. This many krogan came out following this procedure, this many came out with that procedure and so on. What little information there was suggested it was more of a mass-cloning procedure than an actual cure.
This made Wrex even more peeved, if that was even possible. So no one objected when I put him on point. He led us out of the lab and the facility, along a catwalk that led to another door a hundred metres away. There were three geth troopers guarding it, who opened fire as soon as we came in range. In response, Wrex charged them; shooting one in the head, stomping another into a crumpled heap, and shoving the third over the rail.
I decided to wait a minute, just to let Wrex calm down a bit. Once it looked like he wouldn't go berserk at the drop of a hat, we went through the door into an office of some sort. Standard configuration, really. Large windows with an amazing view. Encrypted container in the corner. Asari cowering under the desk. That sort of thing.
"Don't shoot!" the asari cried out, slowly getting to her feet. "Please, I just want to get out of here before it's too late."
"I'm not going to hurt you," I soothed. Yet. "Who are you?"
"Dr. Rana Thanoptis, neurospecialist for this facility. Or I was, anyways. This job isn't worth dying over. Or worse."
"You're talking about indoctrination," I surmised. "We saw what it's done to the prisoners."
"You think indoctrination only affects prisoners," Rana sniffed. "Sooner or later, Saren will want to dissect my brain, too!"
"Yeah, about that," I scratched my head. "I thought this was supposed to be a breeding facility. But all we've been seeing are indoctrinated salarians."
"That's because this level studies Sovereign's effect on organic minds," Thanoptis explained. "At least, that's what I assumed. Saren kept us in the dark as much as possible."
"You helped him and you don't even know why?" Ashley asked incredulously.
"I didn't have the option of negotiating," Thanoptis said defensively. "This position is a little more... permanent than I'd expected. But I can help you," she added, possibly sensing that she wasn't getting a lot of sympathy from us and hoping to bribe us into sparing her life. "This elevator behind me goes to Saren's private lab. I can get you in."
To demonstrate, she walked over to a door at the end of the room and unlocked it. "See? Full access. All of Saren's private files. Are we good? Can I go?"
"One moment," I said, raising a hand. "What exactly was Saren studying here?"
"Sovereign emits some kind of... signal. It's undetectable, but it's definitely there. I've seen the effects. Saren uses it to influence his followers, to control them. Direct exposure to the signal turns you into a mindless slave, like the salarian test subjects. But there's collateral damage, too."
"Define 'collateral damage,'" I said.
"Sovereign's signal is too strong. Spend too much time near the ship and you feel it. Like a tingle at the back of the skull. It's like a whisper you can't quite hear. You're compelled to do things but you don't know why. You just obey. Eventually, you just stop thinking for yourself. It happens to everyone at the facility. My first test subject was the man I replaced. Now I just want to get out of here before it happens to me."
"Tell me more about this signal," I urged.
"The signal..." Thanoptis started before pausing. "'Signal' isn't really the right word, come to think of it. It's more like some sort of energy field emanating from the ship. It changes thought patterns. Over time—days, maybe a week—it weakens your will. You become easier to manipulate and control. But it's a degenerative condition. There's a balance between control and usefulness. The less freedom a subject maintains, the less capable it becomes."
"Why is Saren researching this?" I asked. "Isn't he the one controlling Sovereign?"
Thanoptis pursed her lips. "The signal or field comes from Sovereign and makes us obey Saren, but I don't think he controls it. Not exactly. I think... he's scared it might be affecting him. Indoctrination is subtle. By the time the effects become noticeable, it's usually too late."
"I see." I paused a minute to let the suspense build, then let the bombshell drop. "Thanks for your help. You're free to go.
As she started to leave, I added "By the way, I'm going to blow this place to hell and back. If you want to make it out alive, you might wanna start running."
I think Thanoptis came this close to a heart attack, judging by the panicked look that came over her face. "What?" she stammered. "You can't... but I'll never... ahh!"
She broke off her incoherent reply to run from the room.
Ashley took a deep breath and smiled. "I enjoyed that," she admitted.
The door that Thanoptis unlocked led outside (again), along a catwalk (again) to a door (again) which housed an elevator (again). I was starting to detect a theme with the architecture of this facility. Anyways, the elevator led us to a large split-level chamber. The upper level boasted a set of large windows and a ramp that extended out, almost to the other end of the chamber, with a console at the end. On either side of the chamber, a catwalk sloped down to the lower level.
"Commander, look down there," Ashley pointed. "It's another beacon. Like the one on Eden Prime."
I led the squad down to look at the beacon. She was right. Situated in the middle, flush against the wall, it was a dead ringer for the doodad that sparked all this grief.
"It appears intact," Liara marvelled. "Perhaps this can help provide some more information."
Stifling a groan, I motioned for the rest of the squad to step back. I stood forward and braced myself for another round of fun. Sure enough, I felt myself lift off the floor, and got... lots of flashes. It looked like bits and pieces of the original vision. Glimpses of Protheans in agony, dying, at the hands of...
...something.
On the bright side, I didn't faint this time. Didn't even have a headache.
I turned around to reassure the squad that I was okay, only to see them staring upwards. Following their gaze, I saw an enormous red hologram overhead. It was situated right in front of the ramp on the upper level, so that's where we headed.
"This is not good," Garrus said uneasily as we approached.
"You are not Saren," the hologram spoke. Its voice was like a whisper, while simultaneously possessing a deep timbre that vibrated through our bones. It was cold and metallic, yet oddly musical.
It scared the shit out of me. Got my paranoid streak up and running too.
"What is that?" Liara asked. "Some kind of VI interface?"
"Rudimentary creatures of blood and flesh. You touch my mind, fumbling in ignorance, incapable of understanding."
Tali shifted uncomfortably. "I don't think this is a VI."
"There is a realm of existence so far beyond your own, you cannot even imagine it. I am beyond your comprehension. I am Sovereign."
That was when it hit me. The information from the beacons and the Cipher finally spat out the name for the... thing at the end of my vision. The name for the thing that we saw lift off from Eden Prime.
The name for the thing that was hovering right in front of us.
Reaper.
"Sovereign isn't just some ship Saren found," I whispered.
"It's an actual Reaper."
None of my squad responded. Instead, they just stood there. Frozen. Some even had their jaws wide open. Can't blame them: IDing Sovereign as one of the Big Bads that wiped out the Protheans would scare the bejesus out of anyone. (2)
Sovereign reacted to that designation indifferently. "Reaper. A label created by the Protheans to give voice to their destruction. In the end, what they choose to call us is irrelevant. We simply are."
"The Protheans vanished 50 000 years ago," Liara objected. "You could not have been there. It's impossible!"
"Organic life is nothing but a genetic mutation," Sovereign stated, "an accident. Your lives are measured in years and decades. You wither and die. We are eternal. The pinnacle of evolution and existence. Before us, you are nothing. Your extinction is inevitable. We are the end of everything."
"Maybe you don't realize this," I said, trying to be defiant, "but there's an entire galaxy of races united and ready to face you." Okay, they weren't united, and they sure as hell weren't ready. But if Sovereign didn't know that already, I wasn't going to burst the bubble.
"Confidence born of ignorance," Sovereign dismissed. "The cycle cannot be broken."
"Cycle?" Garrus asked. "What cycle?"
"The pattern has repeated itself more times than you can fathom. Organic civilizations rise, evolve, advance. And at the apex of their glory, they are extinguished."
"Wait a moment," I interrupted. "You're talking about civilizations that arose before the Protheans?"
"The Protheans were not the first," Sovereign confirmed. "They did not create the Citadel. They did not forge the mass relays. They merely found them, the legacy of my kind."
"So you built the mass relays? And then, what, just left them behind for someone else to find? Why?"
"Your civilization is based on the technology of the mass relays. Our technology. By using it, your society, develops along the paths we desire. We impose order on the chaos of organic evolution. You exist because we allow it. And you will end because we demand it." (3)
"They are harvesting us!" Tali realized. "Letting us advance to the level they need, then wiping us out!"
"What do you want from us?" I asked. "Slaves? Resources?"
"My kind transcends your very understanding. We are each a nation. Independent, free of all weakness. You cannot even grasp the nature of our existence."
Not willing to take its word for it, I tried to do some more probing. "Where did you come from? Who built you?"
Instead of answering, Sovereign settled for more riddles, grandstanding and belittling remarks: "We have no beginning. We have no end. We are infinite. Millions of years after your civilization has been eradicated and forgotten, we will endure."
"Where are the rest of the Reapers? Are they off taking a nap, or are you the last of your kind?"
"We are legion. The time of our return is coming. Our numbers will darken the sky of every world. You cannot escape your doom."
Throughout this entire conversation, Sovereign had maintained an air of cold, absolute confidence. Probably why it kept insisting that the end is nigh, and all that. Clearly, I wouldn't be getting anything useful from it. "You're not even alive," I declared defiantly. "Not really. You're just a machine. And machines can be broken."
"Your words are as empty as your future. I am the vanguard of your destruction. This exchange is over."
With that, the windows behind us shattered. We ducked to avoid the glass shards that were flying everywhere. When I looked up, Sovereign's hologram was gone.
What a drama queen.
"Commander," Joker came in over the comm. "We've got trouble."
Of course we did. "Lay it on me, Joker," I sighed. "I love bad news."
"That ship, Sovereign? We just picked it up, and boy is it moving. I don't know what you did down there, but that thing just pulled a turn that would shear any of our ships in half. It's coming your way, and it's coming hard! You need to wrap up whatever you're doing—fast!"
While I'd been talking to Joker, Tali had been tapping at the console. Shaking her head, she gave up and turned to me. "This console's been disabled. Orders, Commander?"
"Let's head to the breeding facility. Joker can pick us up after we've set the nuke."
Having given that order, I led the squad out the door, down the elevator and out the door. A destroyer was there to greet us.
I immediately kneeled down and grabbed my sniper rifle. Through my peripheral vision, I glimpsed Garrus and Ashley doing the same. "Everyone know their job," I called out. Receiving affirmatives from everyone, I continued: "Snipers on three; everyone else on two.
"One." Garrus, Ashley and I focused our scopes.
"Two." Tali knocked out its shields while Liara and Wrex attacked it with their biotics.
"Three." Three sniper shots rang out. The destroyer went down like a rock.
As we moved through Dr. Thanoptis's office, we heard Kirrahe talking to his teams: "The geth are turning from your position, Jaeto. Looks like Shadow kicked a sensitive spot! Alenko, head them off! Hold them out here!"
We exited the office in time to see a bridge lower into place. Conveniently, it provided access to the complex of buildings that led to the AA guns we were trying to disable. Inconveniently, it also allowed a trio of krogan to start creeping our way.
"Same drill, Commander," Garrus asked, kneeling down.
"You know it," I confirmed. Ashley joined me while the others prepared to unleash biotic and tech hell on our adversaries. About five minutes later, the path was clear for us to head through another room into another outdoor path. This time, it led directly to the AA gun (and its controls).
Ashley whistled when she saw it. "That turret could definitely punch a hole in the Normandy."
I nodded absently, more interested in the immediate terrain. The path we were on hugged its way around a tall cylindrical building—presumably the one we just went through—towards the AA gun. There were some stairs on the right that led down to a ledge, which also wrapped around the building.
"Garrus; take Team Two and go down to the ledge," I ordered. "Team One will stay up here." That would force the guards to split their fire. I was also hoping that Team Two would be able to see and take out any targets before I blundered blindly in.
Sure enough, Garrus contacted me over the comm a minute later: "Shepard, we see rocket drones! Th—damnit!" He was interrupted as a volley of rockets flew by. "Three drones! Plus some hoppers and a krogan!"
"We can't see the drones," I reported back, simultaneously using my HUD to select the hoppers for my team. The krogan weren't a priority target yet, given how far away they were. The hoppers though, with their ECM jamming and shield disabling capabilities, were the greater threat. "Concentrate on them, Team Two. We'll take out the rest."
On a hunch, I took out my sniper rifle. The hoppers seemed to be moving around based on a predetermined route, so if I lined up on a particular spot and waited long enough...
...YEP! Scratch one hopper!
"Scoped and dropped!" I heard Garrus cheer over the comm. I wasn't sure whether he was talking about my shot or whether he took out a drone with his sniper rifle. Didn't matter, I suppose. Still plenty of targets.
Then I saw some rockets fly by, accompanied by Garrus yelling "Ashley, get down!"
"Team Two, report," I said, trying to repeat my success with the second hopper. No luck so far.
"Ashley took a glancing hit from a rocket," Garrus said. "Shields down, hardsuit at 50% or so. Otherwise, she's fine."
"I'm fine, Shepard," Ashley broke in. "Just got sloppy. Won't happen again."
"Plenty of targets, people," I warned. Pausing, I fired another shot with my sniper rifle. Missed again. "No need to go looking." I gave up and switched to the krogan, leaving the hopper to Wrex and Tali.
As it turned out, we took out our targets around the same time. "Team Two, we are clear," I radioed, scanning ahead with my sniper rifle's scope. "How 'bout you?"
"Clear," Garrus reported back. "Go ahead and advance. We'll cover you."
I led Team One around the corner and up a set of stairs to a small foyer. There was a large generator spinning around, next to a console. An elevator sat on the other end. And a few crates. I quickly looted the latter before turning my attention to the console. After looking it over, I opened the comm again. "Team Two, I've found the turret controls. Recommend you come up here and establish firing positions."
"Roger," Garrus reported. A second later, we saw his team moving forward. They stopped about halfway up the stairs, to my approval. That would establish an excellent field of view to take out anyone following behind us and quickly move to back us up should things go south. While the area near the elevator provided a better vantage point, it was extremely vulnerable to an attack from anyone stepping out of the elevator. Under the circumstances, it was probably the best compromise.
"Shutting down the turrets," I warned before tapping the controls. We heard a whine as the generator shut down.
"Geth approaching," Liara warned. She was on the left-hand side of the stairs, and had the best vantage point. "They must have followed us."
"Team Two, open fire," Garrus ordered, grabbing his assault rifle. I was about to order Team One to do the same when I took a look at my HUD. There were two groups of signals: one in the direction Team Two was firing, one in the general direction of the elevator.
"Team One, looks like we have hostiles coming down the elevator," I said, grabbing my pistol. "Let's give them a warm welcome."
Sure enough, the elevator doors popped open, to reveal half a dozen shock troopers. While they outnumbered our team two to one, we fired first. By the time they lifted their weapons, two of them were already down. Wrex reached out and knocked them over with a burst of biotics while Tali tossed a tech mine to knock out their shields, which made things even easier.
"Clear," I called out. Once Garrus confirmed, I opened the comm to contact Kirrahe. "This is Shadow team. AA guns are down," I reported.
"Good work on the gun, Shadow team," Kirrahe responded. "Now it's our turn."
I waited a moment, but Kirrahe didn't have anything more to say, so we headed up the elevator.
When we popped out, the first thing I saw was a nearby aid station. Probably with a pack or two of medi-gel. We had all the medi-gel we needed, and we couldn't carry any more, but it was worth noting nonetheless. Just in case. Since we didn't need it though, we headed for the exit.
"That's it," Kirrahe said as we exited onto the roof. "We need to clear the geth and set those charges." Looking around, I saw we were in some kind of artificial canyon-like structure. On either side lay a rack of large machinery, with a stream of water down the middle and a large gate at the end.
And a pair of stalkers. Hopping around, trying to zap our shields. We shot them to bits and moved on.
Just as we got to the gate, we heard Kirrahe again: "Charges set! Everybody bunker down. Bunker down!"
I motioned for everybody to be alert before opening the gates. We moved in, sweeping the area. Lots of fuel tanks. A big exhaust pipe connected to an enormous power core of some sort. No geth, krogan or wacky salarians.
"Joker, this is Shadow team," I reported. "Insertion site is clear for the package. Repeat: insertion site is clear."
"All right!" Joker crowed. "Nice work, Commander. That's one less thing to worry about."
He had a point. Now all we had to do was set the bomb and get out before we got vaporized.
"Commander, I'm bringing us in," he continued. "I'll get as close to the site as I can."
As it turned out 'as close to the site' turned out to be 'right on top'. We saw the Normandy swoop in and gently touch down on the roof. It was pretty tight: a couple metres to either side, and the Normandy would be scraping paint off the fuselage. A testament to Joker's piloting skills, I guess.
Ashley went aboard as soon as the Normandy landed. After a couple minutes, she emerged from the hangar bay with a couple non-coms, lugging the drive-core-turned-bomb. (4) It was very small, much to my surprise. Looked like a mushroom, albeit one the size of an overstuffed chair. Ashley and the non-coms lugged it over to the designated point and gently lowered it to the ground.
I think we all breathed a sigh of relief once that was done. Kirrahe said the core was really robust, but none of us could shake that nagging feeling. Ashley walked over to me to report.
"Bomb is in position," she started. "We just need to—"
"Commander," Kaidan interrupted. "Can you read me?"
"The nuke is almost ready," I replied. "Get to the rendezvous point, Lieutenant."
"Negative, Commander. The geth have us pinned down on the AA tower. We've taken heavy casualties." He paused a moment before continuing: "We'll never make the rendezvous point in time."
"Hold tight," I said. "We're coming to get you."
Kaidan's response was immediate. "Negative! Just make sure that nuke is set. We'll hold them off as long as we can!"
"It's okay, Commander," Ashley reassured me immediately. "I need a couple minutes to finish arming the nuke. Go get them and meet me back here."
I gave her a quick nod before turning to the rest of the squad. "Up to the AA tower," I ordered. "Move!"
As the Normandy lifted off to pick up Kaidan and the salarians, the squad headed off. There was a brief moment of confusion when we went the wrong way. Turned out that, to get to the other AA tower, we had to head through the other weird gate/canyon structure. When we opened the gates, we found a welcoming party. Mixture of geth ghosts and krogan.
"Team One, tackle the krogan; Team Two has the geth," I quickly decided. Way I figured it, my team could use its greater combat capacity to deal with the krogan. Meanwhile, Liara's biotics and Garrus's tech skills should allow them to disable the geth before backing us up. "Weapons free!"
For once, everything went according to plan. The geth went down, followed shortly after by the krogan. Then we raced across to the elevator on the far side and took it up to the connecting overpass between the AA towers. I made a brief stop to loot some weapons and a hardsuit from a nearby crate before moving on.
That's when things went to hell.
The first sign was when we saw a geth dropship swoop overhead.
"Damn," Wrex swore. "Geth are sending in reinforcements."
We braced ourselves, expecting it to start raining geth. Instead it went right past us...
...straight for the bomb site.
Aw, crap.
"Chief," Kaidan called out over the comm. "We just spotted a dropship inbound to your location."
"It's already here," Ashley yelled back. I could hear gunfire in the background, the implications of which were confirmed when she added: "And it's bleeding geth all over the bomb site."
"Can you hold them off?" I asked.
To my alarm, Ashley responded immediately, with a tone of panic in her voice: "There's too many! I don't think we can hold them." There was a pause before she said four fateful words.
"I'm activating the nuke."
"What are you doing, Chief?" I said sharply.
"Making sure this bomb goes off, no matter what," Ashley replied simply. She paused another moment before continuing. "It's done, Commander. Go get the lieutenant and get the hell out of here."
Kaidan must have been listening in on the conversation, because he immediately broke in. "Belay that. We can handle ourselves. Go back and get Williams."
Aw, crap.
Between the packs of geth at both points, and the nuke already activated and ticking away, there was no way we could rescue one group, pick them up in the Normandy, rinse and repeat at the other site and get out.
So what the hell was I supposed to do?
(1): Tactically, it might be more sound to leave the salarians where they were. The fact that Shepard rationalizes an explanation for his actions, knowing full well how risky it is, speaks volumes about his true character.
(2): An obscure term from late twentieth century and early twenty-first century popular culture, used to describe a great adversary or nemesis.
(3): This explanation does much to explain why technologies like the mass relays and the Citadel were so readily available to help civilizations. Far from "discovering new technologies" to revolutionize societies, they were actually a trap designed to lure in civilizations like the Protheans.
(4): Non-commissioned officer.