Author's note: I will reveal next chapter who Logan's love interest is. Thanks to everyone that has followed and made it a favorite so far, reviews are always welcome, let me know what you want to see.
Chapter 29: Gardening on Feros
Logan and the rest of the ExoGeni team drove back to Zhu's hope with Lizbeth riding along. When one set of doors opened they could see three geth juggernauts and two armatures, Wrex opened fire with the cannon at one juggernaut sending skyward in a blaze of fire before focusing on the other right beside it. The machine gun cut though the geth's barriers in seconds and a blast from the cannon finished it off. The Mako was taking hits but not enough to do damage, with the machine gun firing on one armature and two blasts from the cannon and it was dead, the remaining juggernaut and armature were taken care of just as quickly.
After driving along the skyway they could pick up more chatter.
"...Is anyone picking this up?" one voice said as the Mako headed down the ramp.
"Get away from that radio" Jeong could be heard saying.
"What was that about?" Lizbeth asked.
Logan rolled his eyes "Jeong trying to control the situation I am guessing"
Radio chatter "...this is Juliana Baynham of the Feros colony. Please help us..."
"That's my mom. Stop. Stop the rover" Lizbeth called out as they neared the spot where they had seen Jeong and the others.
As the Mako stopped Lizbeth jumped out and ran inside.
Logan sighed, and got out of the Mako "Sure let's just run in without knowing what is going on" he said to himself.
As they followed her in being careful to stay hidden, they could see a agreement taking place between Juliana and Jeong.
"You can't do this Jeong" Juliana said.
"Everyone shut up! Let me think!" Jeong yelled.
Lizbeth looked over at Logan and the others and asked "What's going on?"
Logan shrugged and kept watching.
"You won't get away with this Jeong" Juliana said and went to walk closer to him when another man grabbed her from behind.
"Get her out of here!" Jeong ordered.
Lizbeth had seen enough at that point and stood up "Get away from her you son of a bitch!"
"Lizbeth" Juliana called out.
Jeong looked up and saw Lizbeth and guessed that there were others near-by as well "Damn it! Come out where i can see you! All of you!"
Logan stood up and motioned for Tali and Wrex to do the same and walked down the ramp and into the open.
"Hah. Shepard. Damn it! I should have known it was too much to hope the geth would kill you" Jeong said looking back at his guards making sure they were keeping close "I found out some interesting facts about you in the ExoGeni data base. I know what you did on Torfan. There's no reason for this to get bloody"
Logan looked at him with a dangerous look in his eyes "Not this time, Jeong. You need to back down and let them go"
Jeong shook his head "You don't understand. It's not that easy. Communications are back up. ExoGeni wants this place purged"
Lizbeth shook her head "This is a human colony, Jeong. You can't just re-purpose us"
Jeong scoffed at that "It's not just you. There is something here more valuable than a few colonists"
Logan cleared his throat "Are you going to tell them about the Thorian? Or should I?"
"The what?" Juliana asked
"It's a telepathic life-form living under Zhu's Hope. It's taken control of the colonists there. ExoGeni knew all along" Lizbeth explained.
"You won't get away with this, Jeong" Juliana warned.
"So you keep saying. But nobody is going to miss a few colonists" Jeong said smugly.
"They won't miss you either. This ends now!" Logan said pulling his pistol out.
"If that's the way it has to be, then come on!" Jeong said taking a step forward.
He only took one step before Logan had shot him in the face. The near-by guards looked like they wanted to get involved but Wrex and Tali pointing their weapons at them made them change their minds.
"As if we don't have enough problems. Now we're shooting each other in the back" Juliana said shaking her head.
"That was in the face, not the back" Logan calmly explained.
Juliana shook her head but before she could say anything more Lizbeth interrupted her "It's my fault. I knew what was going on and I didn't do anything"
"Don't you start. You do good work and you know it" Juliana told her daughter before turning back to Logan "So what now Commander?"
"I do my job" Logan said simply before adding "I need to find out why the geth are after the Thorian"
"The colonists won't let you near the Thorian. They'd die first. They're under its control" Juliana said with discomfort in her voice.
"Can't be helped" Logan said simply.
"There has got to be another way" Lizbeth said hopefully.
Juliana thought for a moment "I think there is. You could safely use a nerve agent to neutralize the colonists"
Lizbeth clicked her fingers "Like a gas grenade"
Logan thought for a moment "I am not going to stop and ask them to breathe deeply"
Juliana pleaded with him "How can it hurt to try? Please these people are friends"
Logan looked at the two of them "Fine, give me the agent"
Logan took the nerve agent and made his way back out, after handing in the data to Gavin Hossle, the man who had asked him to collect the data from ExoGeni and after getting paid for it the team made their way to the Mako.
Logan started to drive back towards Zhu's Hope and told Tali to get a hold of Joker for him.
"Joker, we have a plan to take down the colonists without loss of life. Tell the team to suit up with flash bangs and get ready; I want you to bring the Normandy in once we have the colonist's attention. I want them to use non-lethal force, the colonists are not responsible for what they are doing" Logan said.
"You got it Commander" Joker replied.
The Mako rumbled along the broken skyway and after a few fights with geth juggernauts and armatures they had reached the doors leading into the colony where they could see a strange humanoid being standing there, getting out, having a closer look, the creeper for lack of a better word ran at them and was quickly put down and even exploded when it died.
"That doesn't look human" Wrex said simply looking down at it.
"What is going on here?" Tali asked.
Logan looked at the creeper "Thorian must have its own bodyguards as well as the colonists" Logan said looking at his grenades and equipping the nerve agent to it before handing a couple to Tali and Wrex "No hitting the colonists, that's what the gas grenades are for"
Wrex looked at Logan "You sure? They are going to put up one hell of a fight"
Logan chuckled "What? Is the big bad krogan battlemaster worried about a few colonists? They aren't commando's Wrex, they would have poor shields and armour and they haven't had food and water for who knows how long" Logan said looking at the krogan "besides I don't want you to kill them, but if you need to, you can wound them" he explained.
Wrex nodded at that point "Then let's get going then"
Once they opened the doors they could see a large number of creepers seemingly waiting for them "These you can kill" Logan told them "Moving into the colony now" Logan told Joker.
"Copy that" Joker replied.
As they made their way into Zhu's Hope that had to fight their way through creepers before they came upon the first colonists, one grenade later and three of them were down before they took the elevator back up to Zhu's Hope.
Once the doors opened more creepers ran at them, the creepers had no self-preservation instinct and just ran into weapons fire, the creepers near the elevator were dead very quickly because of this.
Walking into the stairwell the saw more colonists, this time to save grenades, Logan used biotics to pull the weapons away from them, before he slammed his shotgun into the jaw of one of them and grabbed the back of the head of the other and ran it into the wall knocking them out.
Down the stairway, more creepers ran towards them, dozens of them, blocking the stairway. Wrex used biotics to push them back, some of them splatted against the wall. Logan threw three of the creepers of the side of the stair well and more just kept coming.
Wrex tore one creeper in half with his bare hands while Logan and Tali finished the rest of them off. Looking into the colony now they could see more colonists shooting at them as well as more creepers running towards them.
"Tali sabotage their weapons" Logan ordered while throwing one creeper backwards with biotics.
The colonist's guns stopped firing but the creepers kept coming, Logan and Wrex tore the creepers apart using biotics and muscle. Once the creepers were down the colonists were put to sleep with a gas grenade.
"They are protecting the Thorian, we need to move the cargo blocks" Wrex said.
A sound like children screaming could be heard, not screaming in fear though and a large group of human children could be seen carrying sharp sticks and throwing rocks as they ran towards them.
"This is horrible" Tali said in horror as she threw a grenade at the children knocking them out.
Logan broke the skull of a creeper with a stomp before agreeing "Good thing about those gas grenades"
Wrex nodded "I am just glad they worked" he said looking down at the small human children "I may work for monsters once and a while but I am not one"
Logan agreed and kept moving deeper into the colony, using gas grenades to limit the causalities and gunning down creepers.
"Commander, we are back on Zhu's Hope, where are you?" Kaidan asked.
"Centre of the colony, use flash bangs and non-lethal force if you come across any colonists, we have gas grenades that can put them to sleep" Logan answered as he broke both the arms of one colonist that got too close and left him screaming on the ground.
"Copy that" Kaidan answered.
"There is strange humanoid creatures too, those you can kill" Logan told him.
"Aye, aye" Kaidan said.
As Logan and the others made their way deeper into the colony, Kaidan and the rest of the crew attacked from behind forcing the colonists to defend on two fronts, they were no match for the combined assault from both sides.
As Logan met with Kaidan and the others in the middle of the colony after they had killed the large number of creepers and knocked out the colonists or immobilized them so they were no longer a threat, they could see the controls for the crane and once they activated it they could hear Fai Dan speaking behind them.
Turning around they saw Fai Dan walking towards them with a gun "I tried to fight it, but it gets in your head. You can't imagine the pain. I was supposed to be a leader. These people trusted me. It wants me to stop you...but I won't. I WON'T!" Fai Dan screamed as he put the gun to his head and pulled the trigger before anything could be done.
Logan looked down at Fai Dan before turning back to the others "Let's go see what this Thorian is exactly"
Garrus looked at Logan "Thorian? I have never heard of that"
Wrex chuckled "It is a plant apparently, a smart one"
Liara frowned at that "So first contact?"
Logan shook his head "For us, not for it. It already knows about us, it's the reason the colonists were trying to stop us"
Ashley shook her head "Ever get the feeling aliens don't like us much?"
Logan shook his head at that but said nothing, as they made their way down the stairs the smell of compost and dirt was almost overpowering. Once they reached the bottom they could see a large open area.
"All right, we just need to find this creature and determine what it…what it…" Tali said before she saw a giant plant "Keelah, what is that?"
"This wasn't covered in my training manuals." Garrus said dryly.
"And they call me ugly..." Wrex chuckles to himself.
Logan looks up at the giant plant "Nothing is ever simple is it?" he deadpans.
As they step forward the Thorian begins to move and spits out a green skinned asari.
"Invaders! Your every step is a transgression. A thousand feelers appraise you as meat, good to only dig or decompose. I speak for the Old Growth, as I did for Saren. You are within and before the Thorian. It commands you be in awe!" The green asari said.
Logan stepped forward "You enslaved the colonists! You destroyed their minds! I don't know what Saren wanted with you, but I just want you dead!"
The green asari looked at him with her eyes narrowed "The Thorian is a piece of this world, extending across the land and back through the ages. You can no more kill it then cut the sky" she said as she got a weapon ready "Your blood will feed the ground and the new growth"
Logan had got his shotgun free and opened fire as the others followed his lead. The asari threw Liara, Garrus and Ashley back with one biotic throw before she ran to cover behind Logan and the others. More creepers appeared at that point and the asari took cover behind them as she used her assault rifle firing at Wrex. Logan had just been attacked by a creeper and as soon as he threw it backwards, he too was thrown by biotics.
Sliding across the floor Logan could feel his shoulder dislocate "Tali over here, rest of you keep them off us" Logan ordered.
Tali ran to Shepard's side, as dozens of creepers surrounded the rest of the team 'What do you need me to do?" Tali asked.
Logan groaned in pain before he looked at Tali "My right shoulder is dislocated"
Tali put her hands up in nervousness "I don't know anything about human anatomy"
Logan chuckled "Then you are about to get a crash course" he said as he took one of her hands and placed it underneath his arm "push there while pulling on my wrist, you need to keep my arm straight, a small jolt should do it"
Tali breathed inwards and did as she was told and she heard a slight crunch followed by Logan swearing in pain "I'm sorry I…"
Logan held up a hand to stop her "No that did it, it was meant to hurt" he told her.
Tali nodded and helped him back up to his feet. The green asari had just been shot in the head and the last of the creepers were being dealt with. Logan moved closer to where the creepers were coming from and saw a strange tendril with a large bulb near it and as soon as he shot at it more creepers tried swarming them.
Logan threw a grenade and after fighting off the creepers he ordered them all to target the bulb, once it was blown off the wall with a sickening stench coming from it. A loud screech could be hear coming from the Thorian. The fighting got more intense as dozens of creepers rushed out to greet them and the green asari was back, the team fought though them taking hits from the creepers, but the real danger was from the green asari. The team had destroyed two of those bulbs by now and still fighting though the muck.
Wrex was knocked down to his knees by the creepers and the asari and he had thought he was going to die, until he felt a human foot on his back and he turned his head just enough to see Logan using Wrex as a springboard, diving on the asari, Logan snapped one of her arms before he picked her up over his head and bought her back down snapping her back over one knee.
While Logan helped keep the creepers off Wrex, Tali gave Wrex some medi-gel to get him back on his feet. After taking all of them taking a beating they destroyed another tendril bulb.
"Should be nearly dead now" Wrex said as he looked at the rest of them, all covered in a mixture of blood, dirt and Thorian…slime.
"Hope so" Logan said.
The last bulb was the hardest, as creepers filled the hallways and that asari was back again, Tali took a bad hit to her mask and had to preform emergency repairs, Garrus was thrown against a wall with biotics, Wrex was covered in creepers as he tried to throw them off him, Ashley had a bad cut over one eye and Kaidan was walking with a limp while Liara was nursing her left arm while shooting with her right.
After minutes of intense fighting the last creeper was down and the asari had been torn apart by biotics from Liara and Wrex. The bulb was destroyed and with it sent the Thorian falling hundreds of feet to the bottom of the pit underneath Zhu's Hope.
An asari with the same markings as the green asari could be seen emerging from a part of the dead plant, only this asari was purple not green.
"I'm free. I'm free" the asari said still unsteady on her feet "I...I suppose I should thank you for releasing me"
Logan looked at her "How do I know this isn't a trick? I had killed you more than once today"
'It is no trick. The Thorian is dead and I am myself again" The asari explained "my name is Shiala. I serve…I served Matriarch Benezia. When she sided with Saren, so did I. Benezia foresaw the influence Saren would have. She joined him to guide him down a gentler path. But Saren is compelling. Benezia lost her way" Shiala explained.
Logan raised an eyebrow "He tricked her? How exactly did he manage that?"
"Benezia underestimated Saren. As did I. We came to believe in his cause and goals. The strength of his influence is troubling" Shiala told him.
"Benezia hoped to turn the river but instead was swept away" Liara explained sounding slightly happier about the fact her mother did not join Saren for the wrong reasons.
Wrex shook his head and scoffed "About time asari meddling bit them in the ass"
"Asari Matriarchs are among the most intelligent and powerful beings in the galaxy. How could one fall under Saren's control?" Logan asked not quite convinced.
"Saren has a vessel. An enormous warship unlike anything I have ever seen. He calls it Sovereign. It can dominate the minds of his followers. They become indoctrinated to Saren's will. The process is subtle. It can take days, weeks. But in the end, it is absolute" Shiala explained as she paced back and forth before stopping to look at Logan and the others "I was a willing slave when Saren bought me to this world. He needed my biotics to communicate with the Thorian, to learn its secrets" Shiala said looking almost ashamed "Saren offered me in trade. I was sacrificed to secure an alliance between Saren and the Thorian"
Logan didn't seem to care much "That's what you get for trusting Saren"
Shiala looked down at her feet "Saren is quick to betray his followers and his allies. Once he had what he needed, he ordered the geth to destroy the Thorian. Saren knows you are searching for the Conduit. He knows you are following his steps. He attacked the Thorian so you could not get the Cipher"
Logan took a glance at Liara who merely shook her head telling him she didn't know what it was either "What is the Cipher. And why does Saren need it?"
Shiala sighed but answered "The beacon on Eden Prime gave you visions. But the visions are unclear, confusing. They were meant for a Prothean mind. To truly comprehend them, you must think like a Prothean. You must understand their history, their culture, their very existence" Shiala explained taking her time to study the rest of them "The Thorian was here long before the Protheans built this city. It watched and studied them. When they died, it consumed them. They became a part of it"
Logan looked like he was getting annoyed "Enough mystic shit. Where is the Cipher?"
Shiala kept her composure but only because she had been a commando for hundreds of years by this point "The Cipher is the very existence of being a Prothean. It cannot be described or explained. It would be like explaining colour to a creature without eyes" Shiala calmly explained "To understand, you must have access to endemic ancestral memory. A viewpoint spanning thousands of Prothean generations. I sensed this ancestral memory - the Cipher - when I melded with the Thorian. Our identities merged, our minds intertwined. Such knowledge cannot be taught; it simply exists"
Logan stepped forward "You taught Saren. You can teach me" he said ignoring his own memory of the last time an asari was in his mind.
Shiala could almost sense his uneasiness with what he just suggested to make sure she explained in clear details what it would take "There is a way. I can transfer the knowledge from my mind into yours, as I did with Saren"
Logan nodded "Do it" he said simply.
Liara had wanted to meld with Logan and it upset her slightly, it would not be her in his mind but Shiala. She ignored the feeling though as she knew they had to have this Cipher. She just hoped it wouldn't make him relive painful memories.
Shiala nodded and walked closer, she could almost feel the tension coming off him "Try to relax Commander. Slow, deep breathes. Let go of your physical shell. Reach out to grasp the threads that bind us, one to another" Shiala said walking closer to him, she could tell her words were calmed him "Every action sends ripples across the galaxy. Every idea must touch another's mind to live. Each emotion must mark another's spirit" Shiala said as she was now close to the human "We are all connected. Every living being united in a single, glorious existence. Open yourself to the universe, Commander"
Shiala said as she was now close enough to hear his heartbeat "Embrace eternity!"
Once inside his mind she saw a brief flash of another asari causing him pain as she violated his mind. Shiala understood why he was so nervous but used her connection with him to calm him down, as she saw the vision from Eden Prime and she gave him the Cipher, she understood that Saren had to be stopped, not matter the cost and she also realized that she had helped him, despite what she had done to this colony, her greatest crime was helping Saren. Shiala could feel Logan's mind opening up to her just enough for her to implant the Cipher, he couldn't keep his whole mind from her though and as a result she could see parts of his life and the slight massage she got from his mind, it was not unpleasant, she could tell he had never spent any time in allowing another into his mind but he was only focused on the Cipher, to Shiala's slight disappointment.
The vision from Eden Prime played in both of their minds; well in Logan's mind but Shiala saw it as well. The vision was clearer now, but that didn't make it any more pleasant to see. Images of Protheans being torn apart by synthetics, the feeling of pain and loss was sickening, in fact if the two commandos' had not seen so much death and combat, their minds would not have been able to take it. At the end of the vision, a new image, one of a… bug or synthetic creature before they saw nothing.
Once it was over Shiala stepped back her mind still processing what she had seen. Logan opened his eyes as well, the two of them shared a look that they knew what was coming.
"I have given you the Cipher, just as it was given to Saren. The ancestral memories of the Protheans are a part of you now" Shiala explained.
Liara looked at Logan "Are you ok Commander you look….pale"
Logan nodded "I saw…I'm not sure what I saw, it didn't make a lot of sense"
Shiala nodded "You have been given a great gift: the experience of an entire people. It will take time for your mind to process the information"
Garrus looked at the Commander; he didn't look that good "We should get Chakwas to have a look at you"
Shiala didn't know what would happen to her at this point but she would face whatever punishment was coming, she did not wish however to hurt the human "I am sorry if you have suffered, but there was no other way. You needed the Cipher. In time, it will help you understand the vision from the beacon"
"What should I do with you?" Logan asked removing his pistol.
Shiala took a deep breath "If you would allow it I wish to stay here, these colonists have suffered greatly, and I played a hand in their suffering. I wish to make a amends"
Logan looked at her "You sided with Saren, as far as I know you still are. It would be a huge risk for me to just leave you here"
Shiala understood what he was saying but if he expected her to beg for her life or for forgiveness, he wouldn't get it. Instead she would face her punishment whether that would be quick and end with a bullet to her head or her helping Zhu's Hope in every way she could it didn't matter "Your suspicions are understandable. But you freed me from the Thorian, and from Saren. I am on your side now"
Logan studied her for a moment before turning to walk away "You can stay; I will expect you to keep your word. If I have to come back here because of you, I will scalp you" he warned.
Both asari took notice of his warning, to an asari there would be no worse way to die then being scalped, but while Liara shuddered from the idea of it Shiala simply bowed her head. After melding with him, she knew he would do exactly that and it was not an empty threat but Shiala did not make an empty promise.
"Thank you, I will not break my word" Shiala said.
As Logan and the others made their way out of the Thorian pit, Logan was drinking his water while the others stayed silent, unsure of what to say. Once back in Zhu's Hope, they could see the colonists walking around; some of them were being treated to. As they were leaving a kid walked up to Tali, the young boy was holding a toy ship.
"Excuse me" he called out and when Tali looked down at him he handed her the ship "thank you for helping us, I wanted to give you this, mummy says that quarians like ships"
Tali was confused and shook her head "That's all right you keep it"
The boy shook his head and looked upset "No. I want you to have it" he said placing it into her hand and running off before she could say anything else.
Logan smiled "Looks like you just got your pilgrimage gift" he joked.
Tali looked at the ship and placed it into her pocket "Well the fleet always did want new ships. But in all seriousness, it will be a good memento of what we did here"
Logan nodded "You did good work, all of you did"
Normandy briefing room
Logan had yet to see Dr Chakwas, he just needed to discuss what they had encountered at Zhu's Hope. After talking about the mission in general and the new fact of how Benezia joined Saren, the subject then turned towards the Cipher and if Logan could make any sense out of it and when he couldn't Liara offered to meld with him to help try and make sense of it.
"Do it, we don't have much time" Logan told her.
Liara stood up and walked closer to him "Embrace eternity" her eyes went black.
Liara like Shiala before her saw images of the asari who tortured him, but unlike Shiala, Logan never really closed his mind off almost as if he trusted Liara. She could also feel Logan getting excited at her touching his mind. She also saw why Logan had trouble sleeping; the images were intense and very graphic. Liara thought she was going to be sick.
Logan had thought he would know what to expect after Shiala had shown him that an asari mind meld did not have to be painful and even felt Shiala calm him down, he was not prepared for the meld with Liara to feel so….good, he even started to get hard from her touch. After a few moments Liara stepped back and looked sick.
After saying that the images were intense and sounding a little impressed with him, but sadly nothing new yet. After dismissing everyone, Logan called the Council.
"Commander. ExoGeni should have told us about the Thorian. It would have saved you a lot of trouble, shame you had to kill it though, it would have been interesting to study" Councillor Valern said. Logan had recently made sure to remember their names.
"The only reason to study something like that is to work out the best way of killing it" Logan said simply.
'Yes. Kill it. That's what humans do to things that don't understand isn't it?" Sparatus interjected.
Logan looked up at the turian councillor "Are for forgetting how your people met mine? Seems to me you have selective memory" Logan replied back. He really didn't like him "besides the Thorian wasn't complex, it enslaved the colonists and forced them to fight and even send their own children into combat. It would have done the same to any species that came in contact with it"
Valern nodded 'Well, perhaps it was for the best then. At least you saved the colony…"
Sparatus scoffed at that point "Of course he did. Shepard would do anything to save a human colony"
Logan shook his head "So you would of rather I gunned down civilians when I had a way around it? They had no training, no hard suits and were no match for a N7 or anyone for that matter with combat experience, they were barely holding against the geth. But point taken councillor if I ever have to go to a turian colony, I will keep that in mind. I can't believe this shit; I saved a colony AND completed my mission and you're bitching about it? Wake up and smell what you are shovelling. Joker end transmission"
Joker chuckled "Looks like we had a bad connection"
