Chapter 25 – Disturbing Mission
Shepard was working in the engineering deck on the team's armor. She was beginning to refit them with stronger shields and she was working with Wrex on his. "So why did you become a mercenary?"
"Lots of reasons," he rumbled.
"Such as?" Shepard pressed.
"Such as…I needed to get out of our system. I needed to eat. I needed to survive."
"Before it seemed like you had an understanding that your people needed help," Shepard said. "Why not stay and help them?"
"I tried to help. That's why I had to leave," he said, his voice lower. Regretful.
She looked up from her work, "What happened?"
"I was betrayed," he said. "I was head of a small tribe. We were trying to restore order after the war, but the other tribes were against us. They followed Jarrod, one of the few warlords who survived the war with the turians. But he was old, and so were his ideas. He wanted to continue the war. He wanted us to fight turians, salarians, each other. It didn't matter who as long as we were fighting."
"What did you want?" Shepard asked.
"I just wanted Jarrod to shut up. To stop his ranting. I wanted him to stop leading the tribes astray. But he couldn't understand how much things had changed. We didn't have the numbers to go to war. Even if we did, the genophage made sure we couldn't replenish our numbers fast enough. I told them all to forget about war. We needed to focus on breeding. At least for one generation. And for a while, we were getting through. Some of the tribes started coming around."
"I assume Jarrod didn't appreciate that?" Shepard said.
"No. He didn't. He arranged a Crush with the tribes. A meeting on neutral ground. He wanted to talk. We met at the Hollows, near the graves of our ancestors. The skulls of our dead laid bare to remind us where we come from and where we all go. It's as sacred as any krogan place can be. Violence is forbidden."
Shepard finished Wrex's armor and leaned back so he could take it, it weighed three times as much as her and she didn't want to attempt lifting it again. "Sounds like a trap to me."
"I suspected as much," Wrex rumbled, lifting the armor easily and inspecting it. "But when your father invites you to a Crush…well, there are some laws even we hold sacred."
"Wait, Jarrod was your father?"
"He was. Until that day. We talked. But we didn't get anywhere. When it was clear that I wouldn't join him, he gave the signal. His men leapt from the graves of our ancestors like krogan undead!" he said, and for the first time Shepard detected his rage. He was furious with the memory. A controlled anger, which only made her more aware of just how strong willed her teammate was. "The few that were loyal to me died quickly. I escaped with my life. But not before I sank my dagger deep into my father's chest. That…is why I left. And that's why I'll never go back."
"That's…unbelievable," she muttered. "But I suppose when you live as long as a krogan it must be nearly impossible to change your ways. Even when what you were saying was the smart way to go."
Wrex chuckled, any anger he had before gone, "Krogan and smarts."
Shepard smirked, "What about other family, other than Jarrod. Don't you miss them?"
"You trying to make me cry, Shepard?" Wrex said, his toad-like mouth turning in a bit of a smile.
Shepard was surprised though, "Krogan can cry?"
Wrex chuckled, but didn't answer her question. "I've got some unfinished business with my family. But that's all."
"What kind of business?" Shepard asked, half expecting that he had a sister or uncle he wanted to kill if he got the chance.
And Wrex sighed, an uncommon gesture for him. In fact, before then, she thought impossible for him. "Before I left, I made an oath to my father's father. I swore to recover my family's battle armor. It was taken from him after the uprising. It's a relic, useless, really. But it was worn by five generations of my family before the war. It's rightfully mine. It was originally taken by the turian military. We weren't allowed armor or weapons after the war. Now, it's in the hands of Tonn Actus. A turian scum who collects relics from the war. He's made millions selling krogan artifacts that were stolen from my people. I was tracking him down in my spare time before I met you."
"Were you getting close?" Shepard asked.
"I think so, yeah. After I finished Fist I was going to check something out. Uncharted planet, mercenary base."
"If we get close to it, let us know. If we don't come across any geth we can drop down and check it out."
He looked her over, "What's your angle in all of this?"
"I don't have one," Shepard said. "You are giving me your services at no cost, you've followed my orders…if I can help you out with this, I will. The mission is still going to come first, but we are finding a lot more nothing than something."
Wrex was quiet as he thought about it, "Alright. I'll give you the information I've found so far."
Wrex believed the base to be in Argos Rho cluster, Phoenix system. They weren't close to it now, but if Saren kept his head down they may get that far searching for more geth outposts.
Shepard didn't have much time to look at their route to see when they would be moving on to that cluster, when she got to the CIC to examine the galaxy map Joker called her on the intercom, "Commander, we've got an Alliance distress beacon activated on Edolus."
"We're practically on top of that planet, why didn't we get it sooner?" Shepard asked.
"My guess, must be damaged. We would have missed it ourselves if we weren't looking for geth outposts," Joker said.
"Williams and Alenko, we're dropping down," Shepard ordered.
"Sure you don't want us to come with you, Shepard?" Garrus asked, meaning the aliens.
"This is Alliance business," Shepard said.
Alenko took them slowly to the distress beacon, Shepard looking through the weapon's systems sights. "I see a rover, it's been turned over, destroyed. Bodies, no movement," she said quietly.
"We're too late," Williams said.
"We need to move in, disable that beacon and find out what unit they are, we'll get someone from the fifth fleet out here to claim the bodies," Shepard said.
Shepard watched out the windshield as they got closer, and gripped her seat as the earth began to rumble below them. "Stop!"
Alenko hit the breaks, "Earthquake?"
Before Shepard could say anything a thresher maw burst through the ground. Thresher maws are subterranean carnivores, enormous and violent creatures, and very territorial. This one was about twenty meters out of the ground, and two times that was anchoring it underground.
"BACK!" Shepard ordered, and Alenko began moving the Mako in reverse.
Thresher maws were one of the most dangerous life forms in the galaxy. Mindless, living only to eat. But they could survive on otherwise uninhabitable planets. They were monsters, but reproduced by tiny spores. Galactic travel and exploration has led to them being found all across the Milky Way. They spit viscous acid at a distance, and at close range they had strong and powerful claws for teeth.
Shepard took aim with the weapon system, shooting at the maw with a mix of grenades and bullets.
"We're hit!" Williams shouted as acid splashed the Mako. "Shields are up but our hull integrity is weakening.
The maw disappeared underground, and Williams let out a breath.
"Drive," Shepard ordered. "Floor it, now."
Alenko did as he was told, and no sooner had they gained some distance from the nest the thresher maw emerged where the Mako had been just seconds ago. Shepard sent three more grenades at it, and there was a horrible screech and the thresher fell.
"Is it dead?" Williams asked.
"It's not smart enough to pretend," Alenko said.
They got back to the distress beacon. Shepard deactivated the beacon while Alenko and Williams checked the wreckage.
"These men were under Rear Admiral Kahoku," Alenko said.
Shepard examined the beacon, "This thing was here long before them. Someone planted it. Luring them right into this damn nest."
"You think mercenaries or pirates?" Williams asked.
"I don't know," Shepard said. "Let's get out of here."
She had some crewmembers working on repairing the Mako while she made a secure call to the Citadel.
"Admiral Kahoku, this is Commander Shepard of the Normandy. I'm afraid that I found your men," she said, and let him know the situation they were found in.
"I knew they were dead," he said in a low voice, "But…I can't believe it was like that. Thank you, Commander."