Chapter 28
Uncovering
Author's Note: I'm glad to see that people are all right with the Taylor/Tali paring. Someone asked if I would be doing anymore pairings...I dunno. Anyway, Someone mentioned that I was dragging this battle out, so I'm going to try to wrap this up, I'm estimating that this won't take more than three chapters. Also, I am sorry to say that Taylor and Tali will not be rescued this chapter. Ok, let's get going. By the way, if any of you want to play some Halo Reach, my gamertag is macdonald210, before you ask, MacDonald is my last name (I've got Irish ancestors) and 210 is my house number. Also, this one took awhile because, well I've been having a couple of family issues, and my family takes priority over this, please don't ask, telling more people about it will just make it worse, I just wanted to let you know.
"You certainly are a persistent one," Xeron said calmly as he sidestepped a ball of dark energy. He and Tela were still continuing their fight, with neither of them having gained an advantage so far.
"Just stay still and die!" Tela bellowed as she sent Warp after Warp at Xeron, who either sidestepped them, dodged them with a Dodge, or blocked them with his barrier.
"I will not die, my death would be a major loss to the Empire," Xeron deadpanned as he sent a Warp at Tela, hitting her head on and sending her flying, her barrier collapsed.
"Yes, and what a shame that would be," Tela hissed as she got to her feet, aiming her pistol at Xeron and firing five shots. All of them hit their mark head on and impacted Xeron's barrier, leaving him unharmed.
"Do you truly believe that we are waging this war for revenge? Do you think that we are doing it for power?" Xeron asked as he walked forward, throwing another attack at Tela, who rolled behind one of the lightning towers to dodge.
"You expect me to believe that you have good intentions?" she shouted as her barrier reformed. "I've read about what you people did in your war with the Humans, you wiped out the population of entire planets because your god damn religion told you too, how are you any different now?"
"We have been in self imposed exile for decades," Xeron replied as he sent a Warp at the tower, blowing it sky high and forced Tela out of hiding. "Circumstances have changed, as have our motivations."
"I don't care about your motivations!" Tela sent a Warp at Xeron that hit him directly in the chest, causing him to stager back. "You're invading our territory for your own needs, you're committing genocide, and you're my enemy, I don't give a crap ABOUT WHY YOU'RE DOING THIS!" she shouted, shrieking the last part as she threw two more Warps at Xeron, the seconds forcing him back even further, and the last causing his barrier to shatter. Raising her pistol, Tela fired three shots at Xeron, all of him hitting him in the chest.
She was beginning to smile in excitement when Xeron extended his hand and a glob of dark energy flew from it, hitting her head on. Xeron flexed his arm and Tela flew high up in the air, completely helpless as she floated in the sky like a rag doll. "We do this not out of spite or greed!" Xeron shouted at Tela, "We do this out of necessity!" he shouted as he flexed his arm again.
Tela came crashing down, right onto one of the lightening towers. She let out a scream of agony as the tower impaled her and electricity coursed through her body, writhing in pain as she did. Xeron watched the Spectre with a look of sadness on his face, apparently unaware of the three bleeding bullet holes in his chest as the Asari's body went limp.
"The world will be lesser without you," he muttered as he tore the right sleeve of his robe off and tied it around his chest, staunching the bleeding. Xeron let out a sigh as he looked at his now bare shoulder. Several syringes were strapped to it, all of them filled with a venomous looking black fluid. "Serum 16," he muttered, taking on of the syringes and looking at it closely. "For the briefest of moments, I thought that I would have to use it to win this battle, I am grateful that I did not have to." Xeron reattached the syringe to his arm.
"Xeron." Tritus' voice was speaking over the Empire Battle-Net into Xeron's ear piece. "Have you finished the Asari?"
"Yes...she is dead."
"Good, come below deck, I have uncovered some information that I think that you will find interesting."
XXXXX
Within the confines of the Empire HQ, a lone Jiralhanae Major holding a pair of spikers stood in front the entrance to a cell. He was looking rather bored when his communicator beeped. "What is it?" he asked.
"It is me," Sukron said over the Empire Battle-Net, "We have reached the bunker, we should breach it and take what is inside soon. I want you to take one of our guests and prepare them for my arrival. They have been in there for an hour, I do believe that they need some time out of their cells."
"I feel compelled to tell you commander, I gave them something to eat," the guard said.
"Oh, and what would that be?"
"A thorn beast...one of the ones that had begun to rot."
Sukron let out a bark of laughter, "Very good, now prepare one of them, I do believe I would like to see the Quarian again."
"It will be done," the Major said. The Major hit a button by the cell door, causing it too open with a grind. Taylor and Tali were sitting against against the far wall of the cell, their heads tilted towards the ground. A rotting carcass was lying in front of them, a horrible stench emitting from it.
"I hope that you enjoyed your meal," the Major said as he walked froward, "because Sukron wants to have a little-" without warning Taylor threw himself at the Jiralhanae, hitting him as hard as he could with his shoulder. Caught off guard, the Jiralhanae overbalanced and fell backwards as Tali dove forward. She landed next to the Jiralhanae, and brought her hand down on the Jiralhanae's throat. The Major was about to laugh, thinking how absurd it was that the Quarian thought it could hurt him with her minuscule strength, that is until he felt a sharp pain in his throat.
Glancing at his throat, the Major's eye's widened in horror. Tali was holding a sharpened bone from the thorn beast in her hand, the end of it buried in the the Major's throat. Tali drew the bone out and struck down again and again, killing him almost instantly.
Taylor quickly grabbed the Major's spikers and handed one to Tali. "Do you have any idea where they're keeping our gear?" Taylor hissed as they both bolted out of the cell, gripping their new weapons. "We won't last long without shields."
"I think I saw it in the room where Sukron tortured me," Tali muttered. "I didn't lose consciousness when he threw me in that cell, so I remember the way, stay close." The two of them dashed through the base, praying that they wouldn't run into any guards.
"The place seems empty," Tali whispered as they continued to run, "where are all the guards?"
"Sukron said something about looking for a bunker," Taylor replied. "All of his forces are probably out in the field or guarding the base from the outside." He smirked. "They probably didn't expect two helpless little prisoners to break themselves out now did they?"
Tali couldn't help but grin as they rounded a corner. "Hold on, this is it," she said, slowing down, Taylor following her move. Two Jiralhanae Minors were standing outside, deep in conversation. "You take the one on the right, I'll take the one on the left," she muttered. Taylor nodded as they slowly crept forward, holding their spikers.
"Now," she hissed, as they both opened fire. The spikes from their weapons slammed into the guards, killing them before they even knew what had happened. Taylor and Tali moved over the corpses of the guards, opened the door and stepped in.
The room was very similar to the room that Taylor had woken up in, a single operating table was at the far end of a room with a table at the other. It looked like an infirmary that had been stripped of most of it's interior.
"There!" Tali exclaimed, pointing at the table. The two of them quickly crossed the room and reached the table, dropping their spikers as they did. "Oh I'm so glad to have this back," Tali said as she took the upper section of her clothes from the table and slid them over the head. "While we have a minute, what did you mean back there?" She glanced at Taylor who was hastily slapping his armor on. "What is a bra?"
"A bra," Taylor said as he slipped his helmet on, "is something Human women wear to cover their breasts."
"To cover their...Oh Keelah." she said, her face turning a bright shade of violet. "I didn't even think about it...you saw my...oh Keelah."
"Relax," Taylor said as he slapped his pistol on his thigh, then grabbed his DMR. "I found the view to be very enjoyable."
"Bosh'tet," Tali muttered as she grabbed her shotgun. "How are we going to get out of here?"
"On foot is out of the question, we won't last thirty seconds once we get outside," he explained as he reached for his COM unit, only to find that it had been ripped out of his helmet. "Damn it. What we need to do is find the vehicle depot and steal a ride. We should try the far side of the base, that's where the RSN keep the vehicles. I just pray to god that this base uses the old Covenant design like RSN ones do. Let's go."
XXXXX
"This was everyone that could be spared?" Rebecca asked. She Falys and Jacob were still shadowing the Batarian soldiers, and had recently been joined by Jane, Garrus and Liara.
"I'm afraid so," Jane replied as they crept along. "Jiralhanae skirmishers keep launching attacks at the base of the skyscrapers, chipping away at the defenses. Major Williams has everyone, including your men, defending them, and even then they're barely holding on."
"Let's hope we actually get something useful out of this then," Jacob muttered as they continued to follow the Batarians, easily half a mile behind them.
"Hold on," Garrus said, as he gazed down the scope of his sniper rifle. "They're coming up on something... It looks like some sort of hatch. They're going in to it."
"Double time," Jane ordered, as the six of them abandoned their air of caution and began to sprint towards where the Batarians had disappeared. When they reached it, they found and metal door that looked like it had been forced open that slanted downward into a passage that led underground. The door was made out of a bright golden metal.
"What is this?" Fayls said, crouching down by the door and rubbing it. "I've never seen anything like it."
"It's...it's Forerunner metal," Liara said, looking at the door with shock in her eyes. "I've studied them, there's no mistaking it, there isn't another metal like this in the galaxy."
"What the Hell is a Forerunner bunker doing in the middle of nowhere?" Rebecca asked. "How come we didn't notice it when we cleared the rubble from here?"
"Look," Liara said, pointing to mounds of freshly dug earth that surrounded the entrance to the bunker. "Topsoil builds up over the years, often covering things as it does. 100,000 years is a long time for topsoil to build up, so unless you knew exactly where to look, finding a buried bunker would be next to impossible."
"That would explain why the Protheans just built over it," Jacob said. "This whole area was completely covered with rubble when we got here, there's no way that they could have known that it was here."
"Which begs the question," Rebecca interjected, "how did the Jiralhanae know that it was here?"
"The Covenant used to use a computer called a Luminary to scan for Forerunner artifacts," Jane explained, "it wouldn't surprise me if the Empire still had a couple of them lying around."
"So that's why they attacked Feros?" Falys asked, "To take this bunker? But what's in it?"
"They're probably hoping that whatever's in there can boost their technology forward decades or even centuries, either that or they're looking for something specific. In the end it doesn't matter, if they're willing to attack us to get it they must want if pretty bad, and nothing that the Jiralhanae want that bad can be good for us." Jane glanced at the others. "We're going in, any objections?"
"Normally I would suggest waiting for backup," Garrus interjected. "But seeing that there's no one avialable, I guess it's up to us. You do know that you probably dragging us to our deaths right Shepard?"
"If you don't want to go down there, I won't make you," Jane replied as she walked into the bunker, her rifle in her hands.
Garrus let out a sigh, "If it was anyone else I'd go get a drink," he muttered, "but there is something about that woman." As he spoke the he followed Jane into the bunker, the others right behind them.
The ground slowly slanted under their feet as the headed deeper underground. There was little to no visibility, the Forerunners lights were barley functioning, flickering as if they were about to go out at any seconds. After several minutes of walking, Liara spoke. "This is fascinating," she whispered, excitement present in her voice. "The length of this tunnel suggests that it leads to a much larger instillation. To think that such a marvelous piece of history was hidden underneath the Prothean city this whole-" Liara broke off as a noise tore through the air.
It was difficult to describe, it sounded like a cross between a scream and a roar, though it was impossible to say what had uttered it. It had come down from further in the tunnel, distant, yet extremely powerful. It had an ominous ring to it, as if something that should not have been disturbed. There was a clatter as Rebecca dropped her shotgun, a look of pure terror on her face.
XXXXX
"You wished to see me Tritus?" Tritus looked up from the terminal that he was typing at to see Xeron enter the room. "I take it that is the Shadow Broker?" Xeron asked, pointing to the corpse in the middle of the room.
"Yes, I went through his files and found some very interesting. Apparently he is a Yahg, a Tier-5 species native to the planet Pamack. The Council initiated contact with them fifty years ago, but they were denied entrance to the galatic community after they slaughtered the Council representatives. This might be for the better, from what I can see they are highly aggressive as well as intelligent. If they were to spread throughout the galaxy, they would behave the same way the Krogan did and conquer all around them."
"I take it that we will not be recruiting them as allies?"
"It's too likely that they will turn on us. You also might want to know that he wasn't the first Shadow Broker, the first Broker took him as a pet, and it didn't exactly end well for him."
"He killed the old Broker and took over his empire?"
"Exactly, you see the secrecy that the Broker thrives on turned against him, and he was able to assume control without any difficulty."
"Tritus, do you intend on taking over the Broker's empire?"
"Certainly not," Tritus said, causing Xeron to blink. "It is too risky," he explained, "The UNSC and RSN could just as easily assume control and use this network to spy on me as well, and from what I can gather the Broker was unsuccessful in infiltrating the UNSC and RSN with the exception of very low positions."
"Then what will you do?"
"What I already have done. I have sent messages to the UNSC, RSN and Council leaders that contain lists of who leaked information to the Shadow Broker." Tritus smiled. "I will let those traitors be punished by their own leaders, it matters very little to me, there is all ready a treasure trove of information for me to use here."
"But this isn't why I contacted you. I have found several files on Subject Zero." Xeron's eyes widened in shock as Tritus continued to speak. "The data matches, what we know, it directly states here that she went through a series of experiments at a Cerberus facility on Pragia, the same one we found and held the data the we used for our own biotic project."
"I know," Xeron said, smiling slightly, "I am the result aren't I?"
A small grin spread across Tritus' face. "Moving forward, eventually she broke out and destroyed half of the facility in the process." He let out a sigh, "I cannot help but wonder if the UNSC realizes that Cerberus as been running programs that they would never approve of decades before it defected. I suppose it does not matter. After her escape, Subject Zero adopted a life of crime, violence and the name Jack, leaving a trail of blood where ever she went. She is currently wanted for piracy, kidnapping, murder and...vandalism?"
Tritus looked at the terminal with a puzzled looked as he typed in a command. "Ah, I see, she defaced a moon. The Hanar certainly are strange. More importantly though, I have discovered where she is. She was captured not too long ago and is being held in a Blue Sun prison starship."
"What are you suggesting?" Xeron asked.
"You were the only candidate to survive receiving his implants, all of the others died a painful death that they did not deserve. The data that we do have is fractured, it was heavily corrupted when we found it. We must find her, take her alive and study her. Rason will be able to find a way to do so without us worrying about her killing us all."
"If we did that, we would be able to restart our biotics program," Xeron commented, looking interested.
"Exactly," Tritus said, "with luck, we will also be able to cure the condition that your implants gave you, we just need to-" Tritus trailed off as he glanced back at the terminal. "That is odd," he said as he looked more closely. "According to this the Broker recently sold information on Subject Zero to someone else."
"Is someone else looking for her?" Xeron asked.
"Hold on," Tritus said as he scrolled down, reading off of the terminal. As he did, his eyes widened in shock. "XERON, BACK TO THE SHIP!" he bellowed as he got to his feet. Xeron looked startled as he stared at Tritus, clearly confused. "We are not the only ones looking for Subject Zero," Tritus said darkly, "the Broker sold her location...to the Marauders."
"Spirits," Xeron muttered, "what could they want with her?"
"I don't know," Tritus growled, "maybe they plan to use her as a weapon, whatever they plan we must reach her first!"
Author's Mote: Hey I said that they wouldn't be rescued, I didn't say anything about them busting themselves out. Another thing you might have noticed is that the Jiralhanae have a motivation that I have yet to reveal, and I'm willing to bet that you can't guess it. Let's play a little game, if you can guess the Jiralhanae's motivation for waging this war, I will answer one question about this story, please only one guess per user, this contest will remain open until the posting of the next chapter. If someone wins, his answer, question and the answer to this question will be posted next chapter, if no one wins, then I'm going to pretend that this challenge never happened. Let's have some fun. Also who are the Marauders you might ask? Win the contest and I'll tell you if you want.
In other words, I just broke the 90k word mark...and I'm just getting warmed up.
