Talana continued to give them video feeds of what they had seen while the four made their way towards the mine shaft. The video clips looked like something out of a very bad horror movie or the writings of the apocalypse. It seemed as if the angels of judgment had visited Jartar and decided to leave none to bury the dead. It wasn't as if anyone else was going to do it now either. Jima had even been able to figure out that the minimal wildlife had been decimated as well.

Lucas still was not able to figure out what was going on in the mine shaft. It appeared that whatever had been moving there was no longer popping back up. They also started to realize what had happened to the Geth troopers as well. Some had been maimed by gunfire. Others, the majority, were very much intact, the victims of Apollyon. The four gave those troopers a wide berth.

The four approached the shaft coming from the side of the ridge. They had taken a pathway back down to the foot of the ridge. It was apparent that the Geth dropship was probably devoid of life, there certainly wasn't any apparent activity going on in or outside of it. Meanwhile, Nalia insisited on having a constant feed of information coming from the Shiloh.

"Jima, what have you found out so far about Apollyon S2?" Nalia asked.

"Extremely similar to the S1 strain. However, there is only a slight variation in the structure and I'm thinking the behavior is a little different as well."

"Why do you think that?"

"Lets be honest. This planet is devoid of life now. How does a virus tear through the planet that quickly without anyone being able to radio for help or set off an alarm? We haven't been able to pick out any clues of either of those happening. The Shiloh has been able to isolate only a handful of settlements that are untouched. Settlements either were liquidated or not impacted and it seems like the ones that were not destroyed were spared because they are extremely isolated from the others. We have told them to immediately evacuate the planet. There is also one last clue we have. It is the following video feed we managed to salvage from a city's surveillance system.."

The patch streamed into their HUDs. It showed two Geth dropships touching down on a barren city. Jima explained that this invasion must have occurred several hours after the virus killed off the population. They could see troopers forming up on different sides of the city, one that walked right through the city's main street and another that marched through a covered roadway. Unexpectedly, the troopers that walked through the main street, despite the gore and bodies that littered the area and the obvious viral contamination, managed to walk out of the city alive. The troopers that marched into the covered roadway were never seen exiting.

"I don't understand. Why did the troopers that walked through the city survive but those who took the road didn't? Both had similar levels of contamination, or so it would seem." Julland speculated.

"It does seem like a mystery, until you figure out what is different between the two areas they walked through." Jima explained.

"What's the difference?" Nalia asked.

"Sunlight. It seems like S2 denatures after several hours of being exposed to the direct Dis sunlight. The covered road did not get any of that and so the virus was still viable. S2 is smarter than S1 in that it has a slightly longer incubation period, allowing an infected host to remain alive longer and therefore give it a greater opportunity to infect more people. The symptoms also are postponed longer despite the infection. However, it is less environmentally stable than S1, so at least it has a weakness. When the virus does go active, it still kills quickly, however." Jima observed.

"Well that's a slight relief." Nalia murmured.

"Yes, it's so weak it annihilated the population of a whole planet!" Dalora cried.

"That is a paradox of pathology, unfortunately." Jima commented.

"Wait a minute, if a column of Geth troopers did not get infected, then where are they now?" Julland asked. Dolphos the Hanar information wizard decided to answer that.

"This one has been able to figure out that that column is in fact the destroyed Geth troopers you are walking through now. The troopers that are intact were destroyed from an earlier time, perhaps infected during the time the planet was facing away from the star." Dolphos suggested.

"Considering the two hour daylight, it probably takes an hour or so to denature the virus." Jima added.

"So who shot up these troopers then?" Dalora asked.

"Batarians." Lucas interrupted. They all looked at him.

"I spotted a few peaking out from the mine shaft. They haven't noticed us yet." Lucas stated.

"So what do we do? Shoot them or try to negotiate?" Dalora asked.

"Lets shoot them." Nalia said flatly.

"There's a virus out there, possibly hiding in that mine, and you want to go setting off rounds in there?" Lucas asked incredulously.

"Hmm...all right, but do you have any better ideas?" Nalia retorted.

"Hey, just a question, but why are those Batarians still alive? There's no sunlight down that shaft, so how did they not get infected?" Julland asked curiously.

"See, there's a lot of questions here. We might as well try to keep them alive so we can get some answers." Dalora suggested. Nalia looked at her.

"You've been hanging out too long with the Lieutenant, you're starting to sound like each other." the Asari chided. Lucas and Dalora did not seem amused.

"All right...let's come up with a plan then..." Nalia sighed.


The plan turned out to be simple, so long as everything went right. If something went wrong, they would be in a rather sticky situation. Otherwise, the scheme plainly was contact the mine through radio, appeal to the fact that Geth were still in the area and that the Shiloh needed to be repaired, and offer the assistance of the Quarian doctor on board as well as her "bodyguards." The Batarians took it, hook, line and sinker.

A group of Batarians waited with Dalora, Lucas, Nalia and Julland at the edge of the shaft's external structures. The two different parties kept a healthy distance from each other and did not say anything at all. Overhead, the Shiloh slowly pulled into view and landed several meters away from the waiting groups. Immediately, several Salarians, including Merjj, appeared and started to tend to the carbonized holes in the hull. Later, Dr. Jima appeared carrying a small case that was probably more medical equipment. This time, she wore the yellow and white pattern of a Liberator armor, presumably bought during the short time they were on the Citadel. Jima greeted them first.

"It is good to see you all again." she stated to her four comrades.

"Good to have you around, especially with the current situation at hand." Lucas answered.

"All right, all right, get up and inside. We don't want to be out here if more Geth arrive." a Batarian growled.

"Before I do that, I need to make sure none of you are infected." Jima stated.

"We don't have time for that." the Batarian snapped. Before Nalia could do something rash, Jima intervened.

"It will only take a quick scan with my omni-tool. I programmed an application on it to scan for the basic signature for Apollyon and the specific known strains. Just give me a few seconds." Jima stated, letting her omni-tool run through the diagnostics on the personnel present. There were a couple moments of silence. Julland, Dalora and Lucas were keenly aware of how close they had been to some of the dead Geth back there, not to mention being on the wrong side of the wind. Jima looked up.

"You're all clear." Everyone, including the Batarians, breathed a sigh of relief.

"Is that what they're calling it, Apollyon?" a thoughtful looking Batarian asked. Jima simply nodded, the first Batarian meanwhile acted up.

"Shut up, Peon."

"I figured we might as well know, Duke."

"It doesn't matter, now lets all get inside." "Duke" growled.

"Before I do that, I also need to make sure that the inside of the mine isn't contaminated as well." Jima cautioned. Duke was clearly agitated by this but reason trumped impatience.

The four kept a wide berth from the entrance while Jima scanned the immediate area as well. That too got the all clear from the Quarian doctor and they filed inside. As they walked in, Nalia decided to start asking questions.

"So how did the infection get out in the first place?"

"A better question is how you all avoided getting sick. Did you hide in this mine to avoid it?" Julland asked. Duke only chuckled.

"You wouldn't believe me, even if I told you."

"Just tell us." Dalora asserted.

"This is where the virus came from." Duke stated simply. Jima glanced at him in shock.

"You mean to tell me that this is the epicenter of the original outbreak?" Jima asked.

"I have no clue what that means. I don't know where the virus first started killing people, all I know is that this is where it came from." Duke answered.

"How do you know?" the Turian inquired.

"Because this is where the vials were found."

"Vials? As in plural? How many are there?" Jima asked in disbelief.

"As in enough that I never bothered counting."