A/N: And here I am, back with another update just in time for the weekends! I'm going to keep the notes mercifully short this time. Thanks for still sticking with me and for the continued support, fellow readers!
Well, hope you enjoy this chapter after the unfolding of events in the previous one!
MASS EFFECT: REMNANTS
Chapter 29 – A Dangerous Game
Wilkins has his foot full down on the throttle of the Mako. The vehicle barrels along the skybridge, kicking up dirt and debris. He peers out the driver's seat viewport and locks his gaze on his current target: a geth dropship perched onto the side of one of the towers. With its location memorized, Wilkins guns the engine and steers the vehicle towards said tower.
"Sir? I wouldn't exactly advise an engagement with the geth at this point," Tara points out, her voice steady but with an edge of anxiety to it.
Wilkins stares straight ahead as his mind works on fabricating an excuse to justify his actions. "I found a huge cache of untouched Prothean archives down in those ruins, just like the Broker said," he lies. "The cache's also pinpointed me to the one remaining archive all across this goddamned planet." He sets his eyes on the tower ahead. "And that's where it's located. I'll be damned if I let the geth get their hands on it."
"Sir, how can you be so sure that they're after the archive in the first place?"
"Don't you remember Eden Prime? The moment a working Prothean beacon's discovered, the geth, who have not been seen beyond the Perseus Veil for hundreds of years, attack the colony. Do you think it's all just one giant coincidence?"
Her silence tells him that she has also reluctantly come to the conclusion. "Might I remind you that we're grossly outnumbered and outgunned by the geth? How do you even plan on breaking through their ranks to get to the archives?" Although her professionalism and loyalty refrains her from explicitly stating it, Wilkins knows full well that charging in there is going to be a suicide mission.
"I'll think of something," he mutters.
After several minutes of tense silence in the vehicle, Wilkins brings the Mako skidding to a stop at the tower's entryway. He heads into the back compartment and grabs the gear that he's brought along. He's taken the lesson learnt back on Eden Prime to heart – always prepare for the absolute worst. Which is why he's thankful he's brought a full set of combat armor on board as well as several military-grade firearms.
"If things start getting too hot out here or if I give the orders, you take the Mako and head right back to the outpost," Wilkins orders. He hastily fumbles with the boots and gauntlets, followed by the chest plates. "And for fuck's sakes, try getting Tobias on the comm. channel! There's a war going on out here and he's yet to report in!" He clips on the Devlon Industries Firestorm shotgun on his back and takes a Kassa Fabrication Breaker assault rifle with him.
"Roger that, sir."
He's already poised to exit the Mako when he settles on bringing a couple of grenades for good measure. "Our communications module should be able to cut through the geth's jammer frequencies, so get Tobias on the comm. ASAP."
"Should I tell him to get the ship ready in the event that we need to bug out, sir?" Tara inquires, already one step ahead of him.
"That, and let him know that I'd like to personally renegotiate his terms of employment."
"And sir?"
"What?" He turns back to Tara, annoyed. His entire body is on edge; both from the threat of the geth and of the anxiety of another possible confrontation with Saren.
"Good luck."
The words just ring hollow to him – luck never factored into his line of work. With that, Wilkins hops out of the Mako and starts off at a run towards the structure. He slides up towards the archway leading inside, back pressed firmly against the wall. He opens up the combat scanner mod on his rifle, surveying his immediate surroundings.
Clear. Looks like Saren and his pals are a couple of levels below me.
Wilkins advances into the entryway, assault rifle drawn. True enough, there's nothing in sight. He slowly inches his way through the rubble as he descends to where the geth are concentrated in the subterranean levels below, all the while making good use of the shadows and cover.
He swings his assault rifle into another dilapidated room. It's empty. Another furtive glance at his combat scanner indicates that he's still a floor or two above the geth. Wilkins takes another deep breath, steadying his fraying nerves. He keeps a white-knuckled grip on his rifle as if his life depended upon it.
Wilkins, just what the fuck do you think you're doing?
A little voice of reason starts echoing in his head. It's barely able to push through the pounding in his ears and his own elevated heart rate. The facts don't lie – it's just him against a highly-trained Spectre who came close to ending his life in their first encounter, backed by a whole squad of synthetic assault troopers. By all accounts, this form of engagement would only amount to suicide on his part.
Yet, here he is on a wild goose chase to find that very same Spectre. It's not even a guarantee that Saren will be with this particular squadron of geth, or even if he's on the planet in the first place. However, Wilkins's gut feeling tells him that Saren's the kind of person who doesn't mind getting his own hands dirty. Even after he's found Saren, what would Wilkins possibly do next to get the answers that he needs from the turian? He inwardly curses himself at not having planned this far ahead. But this is exactly what's worrying him most – he's been behaving somewhat erratically in the past few weeks after the incident on Eden Prime. It's uncharacteristic of him to walk into anything without a fully-formed plan. Even if mission parameters change, he's always prided himself on his ability to think on his feet and improvise a brand new plan. Unfortunately, he can't say the same for this time. The differences have been subtle – but there's no denying it, it's there. Wilkins chalked it up to the trauma of his sustained injuries but now, he's not so sure anymore.
The falling of loose rubble causes him to whirl around to face the source of the noise, his finger already on the trigger. After seeing yet another empty room behind him, he lets out a small sigh of relief and lowers the rifle. He inspects his surroundings for the umpteenth time and deeming it clear of hostiles, he advances further down below.
Almost there.
Another minute of sneaking around finally brings him down to the base of the tower where more rubble and dilapidated walls lie. The stairwell brings him down to a largely square room where two rows of large pillar-like columns line the room. On the other side is a large crevice in the ground that leads to the subterranean levels below.
"Shit," he silently mutters after another glance at his scanner mod. The geth are on the move.
He treads as lightly as possible and hides behind one of the ruined pillars. He crouches low within the pillar's shadows and sets his gaze on the opening. Soon enough, he starts to hear the shuffling of multiple feet. Assault rifle still tightly clutched in his hands, Wilkins waits with bated breath as he observes the party emerging from the opening.
No fucking way.
A familiar fringe comes into sight followed by the rest of the turian that it belongs to. Saren Arterius walks out of the opening, striking an imposing figure against the squadron of geth troopers that surround him. He takes the lead and strides towards the stairwell, resolve and purpose punctuating each of his strides.
"It's a shame that I had to give up one of Benezia's underlings to that…monstrosity," Saren casually remarks to the troopers. "At least she made for good company while she was around." The troopers remain eerily stoic.
In a flash, something leaps out of the opening behind Saren's party and clings onto the wall directly above Wilkins. He sets his gaze on this new arrival and sees that it's another geth unit – but unlike the others, this one looks awfully different. Instead of the metallic plating and joints of its peers, its entire body is made up of some sort of synthetic and sinewy material that almost mimics the musculature system of a human. Its ubiquitous flashlight-like head instantly distinguishes itself as a geth.
"Now let's return to the dropship and report back in to Sovereign. Our business here is done," Saren continues, his flanging voice echoing in the room. "Now that we have the Cipher, it's only a matter of time before we find the Conduit. And when we finally get the Citadel relay working again, let's just hope the Reapers will keep their end of our bargain," the turian mutters grimly.
Reapers.
Wilkins tosses the word inside his head. The term sounded so foreign to his ears yet so familiar. The visions that occurred to him in the ruins below come back to the forefront of his mind. His eyes widen in acknowledgement as he finally associates a hazy image to the word. Even then, Wilkins remains unsure of himself. The Reapers and the Protheans are somehow connected; but there's just something that he's not seeing here. The convoluted and distorted images of the vision did nothing but further muddle his train of thought.
However, there's one thing that he's willing to stake his life on. There's no longer any shred of doubt about it. Saren, Sovereign and the Reapers are definitely plotting something huge together. And Wilkins's an unwilling pawn in the thick of it all.
An artificially-synthesized growl snaps Wilkins out of his reverie and he notices the geth hopper sweeping the perimeter. He retreats further into the shadows that shroud the pillar. The geth's gaze lingers on his position for a fraction of second too long. It takes Wilkins all of his willpower to convince himself not to do anything rash. His combat armor is built from the ground up for stealth operations. The built-in infiltration VI suite masks all bodily signatures and bends light-waves to camouflage their user into their surroundings. Essentially, he's all but invisible right now.
The geth hopper's behavior doesn't escape Saren's attention as he orders for the geth squadron to halt. From the corner of his eyes, Wilkins sees Saren advancing into the center of the room, the turian already training his sidearm on the general vicinity of Wilkins hiding spot behind the pillar. Wilkins holds his breath and silently readies his assault rifle to fire.
Saren stops in front of the pillar and sweeps his pistol around. For the briefest moment, Wilkins could swear that Saren's gaze meet his; the turian's glowing blue eyes piercing into his own. Every fiber of his being is screaming at Wilkins to seize upon the element of surprise and mow down the turian before he even sees it coming. Thankfully, self-preservation takes precedence and roots Wilkins to the spot.
"Nothing here," the Spectre holsters his pistol and turns back to his geth squadron. "Exterminate the colony, the outpost, everything. Leave no traces behind. I don't want another repeat of Eden Prime." Saren takes one last look back into the room and gives a small but knowing smile over his shoulder. The geth squadron, including the hopper finally depart the room and make their way up the stairwell.
Wilkins breathes a sigh of relief and clips the grenades back onto his utility belt. Chills run down his spine. The close shave with the geth bothered him less than the gesture of that unsettling smile.
Just what the hell is that damned turian playing at?
A full minute is all he can give himself before he emerges from his hiding spot and gives chase. Wilkins scrambles frantically up the stairwell in hot pursuit of Saren. He can feel his own adrenaline levels reaching a frenzy, causing everything in his vision to take on a distorted, tunnel-like quality.
"Prepare the dropship for take-off," Saren's authoritative voice resonates from somewhere above Wilkins. "I will not tolerate any further delays."
They're leaving the planet.
Realization in mind, Wilkins makes a mad sprint for the entryway where his Mako is parked. Willing his aching legs to go as fast as possible, he takes the stairs two at a time and finally bursts out of the tower. The Mako is exactly where he left it and Tara, sensing the urgency of his plight, already has its engines running.
"No time to waste, we're headed back to the spaceport and getting off this damned planet right now!" Wilkins clambers aboard and steers the Mako out of the tower.
"I've tried securing a comm. channel but Tobias isn't picking up on his end, sir," Tara's grim expression suggests that she's already fearing the worse for the fate of the outpost.
"Damn it!" Wilkins slams his fist against the hull of the vehicle. He takes several deep breaths. "You see that dropship up above the tower there? Get a lock-on its heat signature, vehicle profile – anything! I want you to keep it in sight at all times, understood?"
Tara nods without question. "On it, sir!" She pulls up the Mako's detection array and starts honing in on the geth dropship's signal. "Not to overstep my line here, sir, but why exactly are we going after a geth dropship?"
He fixes a manic glare at Tara which instantly causes her to gulp. "They've got the archives, why else?"
Wilkins guns the throttle and sends the Mako hurtling back towards Zhu's Hope. The moment the vehicle pulls out onto the skyway, Wilkins realizes that the ride back isn't going to be as smooth as he'd hoped. Several Geth Armatures are already on the skyway, keeping a vigilant watch over any intruders.
"Tara, once you're done with the scans, get on the main cannon," Wilkins orders, his dangerously calm voice teetering on the brink of a full-blown outburst.
"But sir, I'm not trained to –"
"Just do it!"
"Y-yes sir!" Tara gulps.
The nearest Armature is approaching fast and Wilkins is neither in the mood nor situation to engage them head-on; not when he's already working against the clock to catch up to Saren. He just hopes that the shields and armor plating on the Mako will last long enough under fire to make it back to the outpost in one piece.
"Any time now, Tara!" he snaps.
"Scans complete. I'm on it, sir!" she scrambles back into the rear compartment and clambers up into the gunner's seat. "Initiating firing sequence…charging mass accelerator fields…the cannon's live!"
"Let them have it!"
The Armature finally takes notice of Wilkins's Mako barreling down the skyway. It turns to face the vehicle and charges up its siege cannon – as evinced by a pulsing blue orb forming at its head.
"Firing!" Tara exclaims.
The 135mm cannon roars and clips the mechanical beast in one of its front legs, causing it to stagger. The siege round flies wide and manages to hit the ground in front of the Mako.
"Shit!" Wilkins makes a hard right, swerving the vehicle to avoid the pot hole and the starggered Armature to the left of him. He regains control of the vehicle and steps on the throttle, hoping to put enough distance between him and the Armature. A few moments later, the hull shakes violently, causing Wilkins to slam his head against the hull.
"Sir, we've been hit!" Tara yells out in alarm.
He curses. Gritting his teeth against the pain, he inspects the vehicle's read-out display. The kinetic barriers have absorbed the brunt of the shot but their shields are now at 20% capacity. Another hit will strip the shield entirely and blow a huge chunk out of the Mako's hull.
"Keep up the suppressive fire and let me concentrate on the driving!" he yells back.
Another Armature and a whole squadron of geth lie in wait in front of him. He activates the coaxial machine gun controls and fires away, raining down lead on the squadron. The high-caliber rounds cuts some of the infantry down but a majority of them are still left standing. Another thunderous boom from the main cannon takes care of the problem, but not the Armature. Small arms fire whittles the Mako's shields down to little more than 2% so Wilkins knows that another hit from the siege cannon would completely destroy the vehicle.
"Incoming!" Tara warns.
Wilkins sees the siege round headed straight for the Mako. Operating on blind reflex and muscle-memory conditioned through years of training, he pushes down on the thruster controls. The element-zero core kicks into effect, instantaneously reducing the weight of the vehicle. He fires up the thrusters next, sending the Mako shooting skywards and barely clearing the projectile. The vehicle comes crashing down as Wilkins wrestles with the analog steering controls to keep the Mako from skidding off the side of the skyway.
"Hold fire until we come alongside the Armature! I want the cannon to fire point-blank into that fucking thing!"
"Affirmative, sir!"
It takes the Armature a while to recharge its main cannon so Wilkins seizes upon the delay to close the gap between him and the mechanical beast. Tara has already angled the cannon to face the Armature, so the moment the Mako rolls up alongside it….
"FIRE!"
The cannon lets out another mighty roar, sending the explosive shell right into the Armature's head. The shell detonates on impact, reducing its entire neck area to nothing more than a collection of twisted circuitry and metal.
"Yes!" Wilkins hears Tara jubilantly cheer.
He looks back at the malfunctioning Armature on the rear view display and derisively snorts. The path ahead is finally clear of geth and it's now a straight shot to the outpost. That is, if the outpost's still standing.
Tara and Wilkins disembark from the Mako at the outpost's entryway and rush down the stairwell to the colony's main settlement. There aren't any geth in sight which doesn't make for a telling sign. It could either mean that the geth have yet to arrive or the geth could have already moved on after wiping out the colony. For Wilkins's sake, he hopes it's the former since it'll mean that his starship – his ticket out of here – is still in one piece.
They round the corner, hoping to find nothing more than the settlement's charred remains and plenty of dead bodies. Thankfully, it's neither. Both breath out of a small sigh of relief.
"Thank god the colony's still safe," Tara pants.
"Looks like they're gearing up to fend off another attack," Wilkins rushes off towards the spaceport. "What's the situation on the dropship?"
Tara opens up her omni-tool, having already calibrated it from the Mako's detection arrays to lock onto the dropship's signature. "They've already entered the stratosphere, sir. I'll lose track of them if I don't sync it up to the long-range radars on the ship. I'm already having trouble maintaining connection!"
"Move it!" Wilkins rounds a corner and finally emerges into the docking bay. His starship's still there, exactly the way he left it and yet, Tobias is nowhere to be found. "When this is over, Operative Tobias is going to have a lot of explaining to do," he mutters through gritted teeth.
Wilkins is so caught up in his chase after Saren that he doesn't pay a very familiar-looking ship in the adjacent docking bay much mind.
"45 seconds before I completely lose the signal, sir!"
He waits impatiently in front of the airlock doors as it unlocks. Once a large enough gap has been opened, he squeezes his way through and storms into the hull of the ship. Wilkins heads right for the cockpit and begins initiating the take-off sequence. Tara slides into the co-pilot seat seconds later and syncs her omni-tool data to the onboard radar array.
"Done!"
The holographic map display pops up on the cockpit controls and highlights the geth dropship as a lone dot breaking away from Feros's atmosphere. Tara leaves her seat and begins searching for Tobias.
"Come on, come on!" Wilkins curses. No matter how fast he tries initiating the sequence, the powering up of the drive core and the ship's other functions still take time – time that he doesn't have.
Tara pokes her head back into the cockpit. "Sir, Tobias isn't on the ship! I've looked everywhere!"
"Then we leave without him," Wilkins replies, disengaging the docking clamps and mass effect field that secure the ship in place.
"Sir?" For a brief moment, an incredulous look flashes across her face but she's quick enough to rein it in.
"I won't let a simple operation like this be jeopardized by his ineptitude!" he snaps. "After our repeated failures with the kid, I do not intend to disappoint the Broker any further!"
"U-understood, sir." Tara finally relents.
Wilkins pulls out of the docking bay and sets a straight course to intercept the dropship based on the trajectory data that Tara's pulled up on her omni-tool.
The ship soars through the air, ascending above the lonely spires of the Prothean ruins. The skies are quiet and only a lone starship hurtles past them towards the outpost during their ascent. Soon enough, the billowing clouds and blue skies of the planet's surface melt away into the darkness of space. Wilkins pushes the drive core to its absolute limit as he desperately tries to catch up with the dropship. He double checks the map display and sees that they're gaining on Saren.
Soon enough, the rear of the dropship comes into sight. A faint silhouette against the infinite night of space slowly materializes into being to reveal a starship of such immense size and proportion that it could easily dwarf a dreadnought. The fact that the vessel doesn't resemble the ship profiles of any known species in the galaxy only added to the foreboding aura that just oozed off its hull….and the geth's dropship is making its approach on it.
Tara inches forward to the edge of her seat and blinks to actually confirm the sight before her. "What the hell is that thing?"
The holographic map beeps intensely as it struggles to quantify and display the gigantic energy readings emanating off of the new ship. Unfortunately, Wilkins knows full well what the dreadnought is. He brings his own starship to a complete stop and immediately kills the engine. The squid-like dreadnought's 'eye' slowly glows red and energy starts snaking along the veins of its outer hull. The dropship has already disappeared somewhere between its appendages and the colossal dreadnought starts to pull away from Feros.
"Sir, you're not thinking of pursuing that thing, are you?" Tara asks, fear creeping into her voice.
Wilkins remains silent and allows an indeterminate amount of time to pass in order to put some distance between them. Instead of having his resolve faltered by fear, the sight of Sovereign only fuels his determination to get the answers that he needs. Once they're out of the dreadnought's effective firing range, he re-engages the engine and starts tailing after it. Its current flight path indicates that it's headed for the system's mass relay, which appears on the horizon of space as a pulsing blue orb of energy.
"Sir, I don't think the pursuit of those archives is worth the risk."
The dreadnought readies itself for a jump
"Sir?"
Blue streaks of lightning arc off from the relay and onto the hull of the dreadnought.
"Sir?!"
In a dizzying flash of light, the dreadnought disappears from sight as the relay propels it into another quadrant of the galaxy, millions of light-years away. Wilkins pulls up the relay's most recent jump trajectory and programs his drive core to perform the exact same jump. Within moments, his own starship is sent hurtling along a mass-free, space-time corridor.
This mission just got a whole lot more complicated.
A/N: Sorry if you guys were expecting a chapter focused on Nate but after much deliberation, I've decided to rewrite this chapter to focus on the exploits of the antagonist instead. Rather than having a single chapter dedicated to two disparate narratives, I felt it was better to just have it focusing on one. Don't worry though; Nate's gang will make a return appearance in the following chapter.
Thanks for tuning in to read this chapter, and I hope you enjoyed seeing things play out from the view of the bad guys. A nice change of perspective never hurt anyone. Well, I'll see you guys and gals next time!
