Chapter 36
Bern, Switzerland, Sol System, 2170
Hannah hated ventilation ducts. Whoever decided that all of the ductwork leading into the facility here was to be shrunken pissed her off. That, along with her new waist size, had her squeezing past every turn in the ducts and the entrances. Kasumi was raised on sushi and expensive food. Julia was raised on the best of foods, and didn't have to worry about portion control. Kasumi's stomach was engineered to only contain a few calories at once, and her eating was more like watching a hummingbird come back to the same location every hour on the hour.
Julia ate, then ate more when Kasumi came back to eat her second course, and then ate again two hours later. Hannah ate with her, and it was due to this fact that Hannah's hips had gotten wider. Her catsuit still fit, thankfully. But it was in a roundabout way the fault of Jack Harper that she was eating so much, and that her hips made her nearly get stuck every time she came to a junction. When she finally got through the secondary air filters and past the kinetic barrier protecting the inner layers, she had rubbed off some of the silicate lining on the hips of her catsuit.
For years she had been calling it a stealth suit, but even Jones called them catsuits now. Even the male infiltrators called them that, and they wore them. So, she had made the shift after she noticed that she made it look better than the gorilla-armed Jones. So, she gently eased open the last grate and looked down into the main lobby of the Cirta Foundation. Only one person was in there, a nearly asleep front secretary.
She had planned to be here two minutes faster, but her stupid hips got caught so often. The secretary here took a reliable mail run or coffee break right around this time. She was supposed to be gone, but here the lady was, just typing away like a good little wage worker. Hannah did not have time to wait for her petite little ass to move. She opened her Omni-tool, and selected a noise generator. Somewhat old school, but the agents who had trained her were from England. They had an old school methodology that many of the other countries scoffed. Yet they managed to get reliable results with both modern and classic methods.
Having worked for Jack Harper, she knew what the most worrying sounds for anyone working a desk job were. There were a few sounds that rankled the senses. For example, any cat noises. They were indicative of someone wasting time. They were possibly indicative of a spam vidmail going rampant, or a practical joke being executed somewhere. So, the sound of something meowing coming from one of the corridors was something that set Hannah on edge.
This girl twitched. She got up, heels slapping the floor as she tore towards the sound. Oh yes, she was a good secretary. Hannah popped open the ventilation hatch and dove through, prepared to roll out of the dive. That is, until her hips got stuck on the grate. She started pushing using her hands, seeing her hips go hardly any further. 'Come on, I promise I won't have another croissant!' She thought. Her hips popped through the grate after saying that. 'Well, now I feel like crap. Lying to myself was easier when I wasn't in charge of young girls.'
The ventilation grate slid back into place easily enough, and she moved past the secretary's desk towards the board room. Sirta was having its yearly review meeting, and as Julia's executor and guardian, she was supposed to be here to represent her. She had to find out through other channels that this meeting was occurring.
Decloaking, she brushed off her coat and hung it on the back of the secretary's chair. The dust ridden thing was only there to keep her business suit from getting dusty. her legs were covered by her catsuit, and a couple of brushes there got the dust off. The catsuit made her legs look pretty good, ignoring the reinforced armor section on the knees. But the skirt of the business suit covered those. She pulled her hair out of its tight bun, and gave herself a once over using the hand mirror that the secretary had on hand. Finding herself suitably professional, she then went to the board room and opened the doors.
Instead of a board meeting full of executives and department heads, all she found were three people. Two of them were in business suits and were in close conversation. The balding head of Joseph Stalter, CEO of Sirta, was easily noticed. His CFO was right next to him, and the remaining man was sitting in person across the table. Jack Harper, in person, was sitting there as if nothing was wrong.
"Ah! Good, my executor has arrived." Jack said. "Gentlemen, If you could please supply that shipment, I will refund any losses. We stand at an uncertain crossroads, and with this deal Sirta will become the undisputed leader in medical support in the Galaxy. I know that it may seem risky, but every step of this company's existence has been challenged and fought hard. Yet we succeed in the face of it all."
"We will decide on how best to execute the shipment. Risks aside, This shipment represents three entire years of our supply. We won't risk that without some kind of protection." Joseph said. "You give us that reassurance, and the shipment will go."
"Agreed. Now, If you'll excuse me, I have to meet with my executor." Joseph Stalter didn't seem to be too worried as he was kicked out of his own board room. When she was alone with Jack, she just gave him an incredulous look. "Please, sit. We have some things to discuss."
"Do you want me to arrest you?" Hannah asked.
"Depends on the manner of arrest. I don't do bondage, as a rule." Jack said, bringing out his Omni-tool and activating a function on it. "Now that we have a couple of minutes before the security system comes back on, I'm going to be straight with you. I am not here to be arrested or pay my debts. I'm here to meet with Sirta and save lives. If you want to try to bring me in, feel free to do so. But I've found out some interesting things lately."
"You still committed crimes and murdered people directly and indirectly. That implies that you need to explain yourself in a court of law."
"If everyone took the time needed to explain themselves, we would be a church. Thankfully we aren't. I would rather like to talk about what happened with Julia a couple days ago." Jack brought up a picture on his Omni-tool, one of a few red dots that were moving around. "Jones is having all of you tracked. Julia, you, and one other individual are being tracked and observed at all hours. Teams are following you, and not necessarily for your protection."
"She's protecting Julia from you, Jack. Nothing more than protection."
"Jones has always claimed to be an Infiltrator, yet I have never seen her cloak. I don't trust her, and I don't want Julia around her."
"Is this your way of saying you want to take Julia with you?"
Jack shook his head. "Not exactly. If she went with me, then she would lose Alliance connections and citizenship. She will need that. Miranda is still keeping hers even out on Thessia. If anything, I am warning you about some of the trouble happening. This new administration is looking for the old warmongers. People like Jones, Ross, some of the military. They want to stand down to peacetime protocols. When they finally reach your department, they will clean house, and Jones will throw anyone in front of herself to preserve her own position. You, Julia, and anything else you care about are expendable to her."
"So, does this mean I can arrest you so that you can be my witness when this goes down?"
"No. About that bet we had, I have a contribution." Jack said. "I just recently found a few Prothean archives that shed some light on their demise. More importantly, that their demise started at the Citadel." Jack gave a suggestive nod of his eyebrows. "Our bet still stands, Hannah. You should really pay up for your end of it."
She got up from her chair, annoyed. "That's it, you're coming in. You're being a nuisance." She brought out handcuffs, and slammed one over Jack's wrist. The hologram of Jack flickered, and then disappeared. A small directional sound device was left visible in the chair.
"Sorry, my dear. I don't feel like being tied up today. Keep Cerberus out of Hock's complete control for now. My field test of Quarian hologram emitters is complete. Consider this one a gift to Julia. It's keyed to her."
She hated that man. He was here in this building, somewhere. He couldn't have been sending that too far remotely. She reached down to pick up the hologram emitter, and the emitter shocked her with as much force as a tech grenade. Her cat suit sparked as it caught the current of electricity, and she saw that the emitter damaged her capacitors. "Bastard!" Now she couldn't cloak until she replaced those.
She turned over the emitter, seeing a secondary layer of metal around it with its own system of electrical defense. Now she couldn't stalk around looking for him, she had to get out of here legitimately. She huffed, taking the emitter and disabling its shock defense. Then it slipped into her back magnetic pad, easily being stored underneath her suit. the catsuit still worked, it just couldn't hold a charge anymore. Shocks and things of that nature directed to the small of her back and to the palms of her hands did that. It was not an unknown occurrence.
When she emerged from the meeting, she found an even more annoying thing waiting for her. Joseph Stalter was waiting with fifteen other people in front of the doors. "Ah, yes, now that we can begin our meeting, everyone please come in. Miss, you are the executor for Mr. Harper, yes?"
"Technically yes." Hannah said. "What do you need?"
"Oh, Mr. Harper said that you would be attending our yearly meeting in his place. We were just waiting for you to be finished before we begin. Please, come take a seat. We have much to report to the majority stockholder." She nodded, being polite. But inside she was seething. She could not leave and Jack was out there on the loose!
Batarian Embassy, The Citadel, November 2170
Haego watched as the Humans left his offices and meeting rooms. It had taken days to burn and destroy everything that Jeroth had collected. Each room of his personal quarters were filled with more pieces of Heresy. Asari mating rituals, Elcor media entertainment, Hanar songs, as well as lewd pictures in many of the men's barracks. All had been purged, and if he ever heard the word Fornax again, heads would roll. They were Batarians, not slovenly animals. Literature meant to be distributed to all as if they were equals was only meant to shatter and break the Karn.
Then the Humans had the gall to state that they had lost his Kavka in the explosions and chaos. He didn't believe it for a second. As Ambassador, he had met with the Council and introduced himself. That was a waste of words for everyone involved. They knew he had replaced Jeroth, and they knew he had burned and destroyed anything not of his own culture immediately. Their entire conversation of three hours had been fruitless. He refused to change any of the policies of his government, not for those of lesser rebirth.
Then the Humans made demands of trade partnerships, equal citizenship rights on one of the moons in the Attican Traverse, to try to make a peaceful planet between them. But the Karn did not live peacefully. They could not afford to. He had told them off, saying that they would receive his answer when they returned his Kavka. They tried to compromise, but Haego was never known for his ability to compromise. He was stubborn, dangerous, and cunning. He would not bend to the wishes of others unless they kept their original bargain.
He met with all those he needed to, and this took days. Then, he filed a moment of leave. He had to confer with the Hegemon regarding some of the more respectful demands of the Council, or so he claimed. With communications to the interior of Batarian space locked down, the only way for him to get any word to the Hegemon was to go himself. He took one last look around the plain and unadorned chambers that he had made his office, and stepped out. The ship that the Hegemon had sent with him had left, leaving him with little choice but to take one of the Batarian military craft stationed at the Citadel to have an advanced force nearer to the Embassy. Considering that all of the high priority targets were gone, there was less risk that they would be attacked while he was gone. He took the frigate Doreig's Final Stand and left the Citadel, insulted at the lack of civility that the Humans showed.
A day of travel later, and he was entering the Kite's Nest relay. He was stopped immediately, after coming through the relay near Kar'Shan. As was demanded and expected, the SIU cruiser docked with their ship and inspected it from fore to aft, finding nothing wrong with them. Strangely, all of the media was silent. Only military channels were active, and they only contained short bursts of data. Haego could see mentions of a few riots, but that was normal when he had left five days earlier.
War-Priests were never generals. Their training and skills were meant for near to mid range combat, and to command small pockets of troops. They were the ones to keep the troops committed, but not in charge of overall strategy. In terms of military rank, he could command everyone but the ship's captain. But he would most likely listen due to difference in birth. Already he had hinted at seeking sponsorship from Haego. No, the man wouldn't countermand his orders.
They were not allowed to bring their frigate inside of Kar'Shan's atmosphere. They had to go to one of the orbital military stations, where slave legion soldiers were prepared to receive their ship. The fear of the plague kept all of the free born soldier caste away from the receiving and loading docks. The slave legions were happy to fill the space, finding easy and comfortable work.
Haego marched down the ramp, in full armor and with the horns of his helmet almost grazing the top of the airlocks. His staff made solid noises as it matched his steps, and the slave legions bowed in his presence. They all knew that any disrespect towards a priest was an offence worthy of death, in the hopes that your next reincarnation would not make the same mistake.
The loading docks gave way to the main atrium of the station, where only a few Batarians were out. The normally packed station was empty, the shops and food vendors gone. It was disturbing, to see a place once so vibrant to be so empty. He ignored it, walking to the shuttle bays. These were disturbingly devoid of people as well, with shuttles resting in their racks and prepared to deploy at any time.
One shuttle was ready, with two ceremonial temple guardsmen standing there. "Your holiness, your presence is requested by the Hegemon. We are to take you to him." Haego relaxed some. Finally, some good news. Honorable to his station that he would send temple guards to collect him. Perhaps the Hegemon got his message warning him of Jeroth's treachery. Either way, none of sufficient standing had approached him to speak plainly to. The guards were not the highest caste, and they had a habit of talking about anything that the War-priests did as if it was their single greatest commodity. Perhaps it was, but Haego had to remain ignorant of it. It was not heretical to speak of the priests and spread rumors of their greatness.
Haego boarded the shuttle, and it took the short fifteen minute trip down to the planet's surface. When the doors opened again, it was to the dark orange sunset upon the High Temple. The shuttle had landed in the closest spot available, and Haego rarely approved anyone landing there. The Temple's steps were meant to allow the walker time to contemplate the Gods, their demands, and your responsibilities. Especially that last. The last statue leading up the stairs conveyed the deity Gerdan. Gerdan was the God of death. His eyes remained covered, as death came to all. He then allowed the soul to leave through the upper eyes, to seek its rebirth. Either your actions would convey you upwards, or your guilt would bring you back down, to try again until your responsibilities had been fulfilled. Such was the need of the Karn.
He walked up to the Temple's doors, the guards on alert and verifying his identity. He allowed them this, letting himself be scanned. The doors only opened after he had been fully scanned. Then, he walked confidently through the High Fane. Strangely, every altar and space was empty of priests. Only the requisite guards were on the doors. There were no priests tending sacred altars, no acolytes learning the ancient language of their forefathers. Odd, and very discomforting. The guards upon the doors to the inner sanctum did not meet his eyes as he walked past them.
The Hegemon wasn't in the sitting room, nor were there any guards there. Only the ever present guards upon the Hallway of Rebirth were in his vision. He walked down the pathway, the sculptures of the gods made by those anciently still preserved along its walls. No lesser blood had been spilled in this hallway, and as long as the guards breathed, none would come near this place without being of the highest birth and blessing.
Lights were on in the innermost halls, where the Pillars of Strength were located. It was not the time for priests to be cleaning, nor was it time for the Ceremony of Rebirth or Ceremony of Unending Devotion. No one was supposed to be among the Pillars of Strength. He increased his pace, stepping past the last four guards in his path, who all gave a signature nod to him as he passed, their hands tightening on their weapons. Yet they didn't follow him inside. Nothing was normal, and everything about this was bothering him at some level.
The Chamber of Pillars had large rock formations that Batar and other priests had inlaid gold on top of. Twenty seven of these pillars were about the room, each covered on all sides by a thin layer of gold. The twenty-eighth pillar was wider, and had a single flat panel on one side that was nearly ten feet wide. It was there that the lights were located. Electricity was sent into this room through old clay pipes, and the only lights to be had were from the lights near the central pillar.
Haego approached, seeing only one other Batarian in the room. He was wearing the armor of a High Priest, the same as Haego himself wore. The armor that the Hegemon used was different, a heavily reinforced armor with built in gatling cannons. This, this was not the Hegemon.
"Haego." His voice echoed throughout the pillars. "Pledge your knife to me or burn in the fire of my glory."
"Jeroth! You didn't!" Haego yelled. Jeroth turned, his armor already fully charged and full of air. His mass driver slammed into Haego, sending him sliding into one of the pillars. The one speaking of Jarem, if he could guess. "What have you done?"
Jeroth's faceplate opened. His grin was matched by his sober eyes. The man did not seem mad, but who would dare slay their own brother for the seat of power! Much less do so as a High Priest! "Destiny speaks to us, Haego. All of the others pledged their knives or were killed. You are the last, as it should be. We are both descendants of the most holy and cunning line, Haego. The line of Batar's only surviving daughter. She carried his soul through the millennia, and we are the closest in habit and shape that the SIU has seen in five hundred years. One of us in the reincarnation of Batar, fated to end this farce of a religion!"
"Heresy of the highest Order!" Haego roared, activating his armor's VI. It would not run without one to do the computation and math involved to operate the mass drivers. "Batar's rebirth is a false prophecy!"
"Prove me wrong, then, Haego." He almost jumped at him, right then and there. But if Jeroth dodged, he would slam into the main pillar hard enough to damage it. He couldn't risk damaging the physical proof of their religion. "If Batar is never supposed to be reborn, then how are we to overcome his treachery! Our Gods would not have left us to this doomed existence, where we cannot possible save every soul, unless there was this promise to be fulfilled!" Haego rolled to the left, hiding behind the Pillar depicting the duties of the priests.
"We are cursed to this existence, and we will prove that the rebirth is for all species and races! The Karn are one!" Haego brought about his staff, slamming it towards Jeroth. Jeroth held up one arm, preparing the mass driver to stop his strike. Unfortunately, Haego had been very careful about the use of his staff in any challenge he had received in the last five years. He hadn't activated the head of it yet, where a Krogan weapon had been installed. Call him slightly heretical, but borrowing weapon designs from other races had been a standard practice.
The element zero core within the staff fired after the mass driver did in Jeroth's gauntlet. He hadn't had the opportunity to test the weapon yet, though the results were explosive. The flash of dark purplish blue light was followed by tremendous forces of gravity, creating rents and tears in the platinum of the mass driver. His staff was a lost cause, the first half of the haft all that was left. He backed off, pulling the remains of the staff onto his leg's magnetic strip.
Jeroth only laughed. "And I bet you loaded the staff with aerosol poison. Hah! Figures you would just get a big knife rather than something truly cunning." Haego did notice that the right arm's mass driver was gone, and was visible leaking parts onto the floor. The very nicely and perfectly swept floor, he might add.
"I knew about the bet for years!" Haego replied. "Poison is too good for your tongue, though." The Pillars of Strength were too important to risk using anything that could go through his armor, as well. His cases of acidic solvents would have to wait until he could force Jeroth out of this room. That left less options. He could use his mass driver system, but he would most likely damage the Pillars if he did so. That left the use of Kavka and his usual knives. Those wouldn't pierce his armor, however.
"Fortunately for you, I planned for poison anyways!" Jeroth roared, bringing his gauntlets to bear. Extra lines connected from below, and he could see some sort of launcher mounted beneath the gauntlets. The lines fed through the arms of the suit and into the thick portion of his back.
A ball of fire launched out from the gauntlet, Haego ducking to avoid it. Strangely, it was easily dodged. Most war-priests were decent with ranged weapons, considering close range weapons to be their forte. When Haego straightened, he could feel heat from behind himself. Through his armor, even. He ducked behind a column, as more fire splashed rampantly around the Pillars. Looking up, he could see rivulets of gold melting off of the carved stone.
"Our people's history is being destroyed! Cease this madness!" Haego yelled. "Jeroth! You'll destroy it all!"
"That's the idea, Haego. One of us is by destiny supposed to burn all of this. To fulfill our destiny, and through rebirth finally prove Batar's code no longer constrains our people!"
"Did you kill your brother for this? Millions will die in the chaos, Jeroth!"
"The only way that you can preserve Batar's broken religion is to face me, Haego. Either way, one of us shall walk out of this temple the victor, and the Hegemon. All foretold shall be realized, Haego. Our people will be free from the mistakes made so early in our past!" Haego stuck his head out to yell back at Jeroth, but only felt heat. The pillar he was hiding behind had been ignited, and there were only twenty five more. He had to close distance and stop Jeroth from burning even more.
The only weapon he had left that could do so was the Kavka. If he did harm Jeroth with it, win the fight with it, then he had staked his claim on the throne of the Hegemony. Haego didn't want that. He had too much to worry about just simply as the High Priest. Snaking his head around again, he could feel a shot strike one of the horns on his helmet and melt it off immediately. But he got a good view of Jeroth. He had sprayed more of whatever was melting everything on every pillar he could find. The gold was coming down in rivers from the pillars, the ground pooling with golden puddles.
He could feel the rage. Anyone would, seeing thousands of years of culture and direction burn like a campfire. He activated his mass driver units on his legs, launching himself around the pillar and directly into Jeroth. The madman was still launching fireballs with abandon.
The Mass Driver had been an Elcor invention. It created a burst of force that mimicked biotics. With so many slaves that were Asari, some of them were capable of biotic charging. The mass driver as a weapon had been developed by the Hegemon's special weapons units, to seek to find a more effective solution to Asari vanguards. They had created a solution, but it was most likely the most heinously expensive armor in Hegemony Space. It cost as much as a frigate to make one of these, and they were jealously protected.
It contained a small cylinder of element zero around a small airtight space. This space could open forwards or backwards, propelling or sending force at an object. Haego had a lot of experience jumping around a battlefield like an Asari, landing upon his foes with great justice. Jeroth was wearing one as well, though. He had never fought anyone else wearing mass driver armor, due to their rarity. Jeroth had, and he put this to great use. Haego was nearly to Jeroth when he rolled, slamming his feet into Haego's stomach and firing the mass drivers located there.
Haego held in his grunt of pain as the drivers crushed his abdomen armor layers. The damage was far reaching, the pain going all the way through his body. The more drastic effect was that Haego went flying into another pillar, the gold cracking and stone shuddering. He rolled immediately, as fire followed him.
"I killed my brother and cousins already, Haego, why do you think a straightforward charge will work!" Jeroth said, casually launching fire at another pair of pillars. "Come at me with your Kavka! Challenge me and prove your soul's rebirth!" Both of their armor had melted gold caked onto some of the shoulders and legs, Haego had cracks running along his abdomen, and Jeroth's right arm was mangled. By drawing his Kavka, he would be stating his intent to challenge Jeroth as Hegemon. He couldn't do that lightly. There was a reason that the High Priest and the Hegemon were two separate entities.
"Your family only knew of Batar's potential rebirth, then. You, Jeroth, might not be aware of the secrets that the High Priest takes with him to his grave. Until the next High Priest finds the books and scrolls. The Hegemon was warned of Batar's rebirth, yes. The High Priest was told the circumstances of that prophecy!" He ducked behind the second thickest pillar, dedicated to the worship of Rian. Flames followed, and he could feel the heat even more through the damaged armor of his abdomen.
"Enemies and fire quake at his coming, and the weapons of war strike in places most dear," Jeroth muttered, quoting the prophecy as he knew it. "Batar rises from the old lines, his daughter's blood still unscorned. Plagues of terrible portent come down from the stars, and the people mourn from their homes. Dark is the day and black are the moons during Batar's realization." Jeroth stated. "Plagues there are many and dark is the day. All castes hide their faces and despair."
"The more publicly shared prophecy you are aware of. The High Priests share among themselves the complete version, so that if Batar is ever reborn the Hegemon and the High Priest shall both extoll the prophecies." Haego said. "Batar must defeat his old enemies again, and prove again to Eruk and Rian that he is more powerful than their great champions. He will take upon himself the failings of old, and cause a rebirth of fire to come upon his laws, bringing the new law from amongst the old. All shall rejoice and find salvation in his actions, and then shall Batar be buried, his eyes remaining apart to observe the future of all his inheritors. For he shall be the salvation of all, yet shall be denied the right to rule forever after. He shall be content with his salvation, and the uniting of the Karn as one voice." Haego intoned, stating from memory the prophecy passed down among High Priests. "There are no champions for us to defeat here. It is not our destiny to be Batar, or his reincarnation. Jeroth, you only lead us to Heresy!"
That was why he was not going to take the throne of the Hegemon. He knew too much. He was supposed to be the balance for the Karn. The Gods would only curse them if Haego became Hegemon. He leaned around Rian's pillar, seeing Jeroth shaking with rage. "Be that as it may. I shall declare myself Batar, and end our religion that forces our people to be in servitude for half of their rebirths!"
Haego's armor VI reported that an Omni-gel layer had been completed over the cracks and fractures in his abdomen and was rated for low atmospheric situations again. He picked up one of the gold panels that had fallen off of Rian's pillar and gently picked up the thin piece. "Ancestors, hear my prayers. Prove us this day."
He attached what grenades he had to the gold panel and threw it. Jeroth assumed he was using mass drivers to jump, and starting shooting wildly. The gold panel was struck, and melted immediately onto the grenades. Those exploded, showering Jeroth with glowing hot chunks of gold and shattering some of the front of his armor. Haego was right behind the grenades, leaping above Jeroth. As he came down, he grabbed the horns of Jeroth's helmet, pulling them back as Haego landed behind him. Jeroth panicked, as this exposed his throat to Haego's Kavka.
He jerked his head forward, using his remaining mass driver in his arm to blast his own helmet's horns. He rolled away with large portions of his helmet sparking and exposed, and Haego had to dive backwards again as fire and flame occupied the space. Roughly half of the floor and the columns that made up the pillars had pools of fire on them, and his footing was unsure. "The battles against the champions were metaphorical anyways!" Jeroth said. "Nothing in the prophecy claims I must face the same as Batar!"
He had to run behind the main pillar, entering the side of the room that hadn't been burned too badly yet. But the ambient temperature of the main stone pillar was heating up the opposite side's golden paneling. As he leaned against it, the paneling fell, crumpling over the top of him. Some of the pillars were made with high purity gold alloys, while other parts were made with lower purity alloys. This paneling had always been trouble, as it had the least purity in the room. Just the ambient temperature was melting the edges and making it come out of its housing.
Rubbing the gold chunks off of his head, he got up to see Jeroth standing right next to him. He jumped back, expecting the Kavka to finish him, when he saw that Jeroth had not moved. He wasn't even looking at him. He was looking at the stone behind the paneling. Haego risked glancing behind himself, and found his attention overwhelmed. Behind the panel was a flat piece of stone, with carved writings in the ancient language with a few pictograms. The largest pictogram was of a large creature, some fish shaped creature with five legs arrayed out from its mouth, along with four eye shapes, and the rest of the body like an enlarged crab gone lengthwise.
Jeroth had moved up to the exposed stone. "Hold, Haego. I was not told of the existence of writing behind the Pillars of Strength. We must see what this states before we continue our challenge."
Haego nodded. "I was unaware of this. Electrical scanning equipment does not work in the holy sanctum." They moved forward, warily coming within a few feet of each other to read the script. Jeroth appeared to be sounding out the words, having trouble.
"Read it, Haego. I am out of practice." Jeroth demanded. He did so, but not out of respect for Jeroth.
"These are the records of Batar, after the victory of the Karn against Rian's worshippers. Rian is a lie, a creature made of metal and darkness. She turned us, used us, and left mockeries of flesh and bone and metal behind to direct us. We killed her worshippers, and found her champions in this very cavern. No weapon could kill them, and no wound bled. We tied the abominations down and covered them with melted gold, to be sealed away until someone can kill the creatures. Rian has controlled us for a thousand years, and no more will we be the slaves of a creature from the darkness of the furthest moon. I am Batar, and I have broken our people.
Without some form of religion, we will fracture and become tribes, losing the connection that holds us together. I, along with my allies, will create something. This warning is done by my own hand, to warn those who follow me that the champions of Rian and Eruk still live. They are buried in the golden tombs of this chamber. Rian shall return, and when she does, the Karn must be strong. Her call must not corrupt us again. She is as large as the mighty mountain this carving rests in, and her four eyes can enthrall any who dare match her glare. Her fire is as the fire of the hottest volcano, and she may call it upon any who challenge her. Fear, my descendants in the Karn. Death comes, and you must be hard, hard enough to match that threat."
Haego stopped talking. There was no more here. Just this warning to Batar's followers. "Which panel rested here to hide this warning, Haego?" Jeroth asked.
"The panel that states that a child must be sold to another to move forward among the castes. It was one of two written by the other priests that Batar was killed by. The ones who named him Betrayer."
"Odd. Why they would hide something of such significance. This proves that the Gods of our religion were based upon false ones. Or at least upon a religious system that we all once followed." Jeroth traced his hands upon the stone, the creature that was carved there. "This looks like... I've seen this before. These aren't creatures, however. Harper showed me these, yet he said these were ships."
A crash was heard from the side of the room on fire. Haego and Jeroth noticed it, and both turned to each other. "Did you break a pillar?"
"You did, more likely, with your drivers. I only melted the outer layers." Jeroth said. "I assumed they would survive anything I brought to fight with."
"Assumptions are-" Haego was knocked to the ground as something landed on his back, and he could hear metal being torn open.
"Abomination!" Jeroth roared, his mass driver firing right above his head. Haego felt a weight leave him, and rolled to a standing position. His armor was reporting deep cuts into the reinforced back plating. Some of the gel layers had been pierced, and his armor was no longer rated to go anywhere without an atmosphere. With the gel layer pierced, Omni-gel couldn't easily fix this. He would have to get out of the armor to fix anything more damaging now. Haego glanced over, noticing that Jeroth was in a position of defense, and wasn't acting threatening to him at all. "Eyes forward, Haego! This creature came from within this chamber!"
Haego turned, seeing what appeared to be a Batarian skeleton with weird growths attached to its arms. Long claws dragged against its knees, and its four eyes glowed with what appeared to be cybernetics. "By the Gods!" Gold coated it, molten and hot. It didn't seem to care very much, its skeletal structure more like a mechanical beast than a complete Batarian skeleton.
"The Gods have sent their champion, Haego. I believe we should show them a token of our defiance!" Jeroth yelled, the skeletal beast not reacting. "A truce, until this abomination is put down."
"The Holy Sanctum must not be defiled any further. In that, we are in agreement." Haego said. "I will close distance." Was all the warning he gave before he fell upon the beast with all the power his armor would carry. The creature appeared to be Batarian in origin, and so Haego came down onto its skull with both wrist mounted mass drivers, after launching across the floor using the boot drivers to create thrust. He bounced off of it, the armor faltering as it came within striking distance of the creature. He dented the thing's skull, but his armor VI wasn't responding. All that his HUD told him was that it was rebooting. "It scrambles technology!" He warned Jeroth.
"Noted." Jeroth said, bringing his flames to bear on the beast. They ignited it, but didn't seem to do any real damage. The creature didn't seem to care that it was near one thousand degrees Celsius, and just ran over to one of the large pillars and hugged it. The golden paneling melted where the creature touched it, and it just pressed into the holy writings without a care in the world. Haego charged up behind it, knowing that his armor was still scrambled. But he plunged his normal knives into the creature, the blades not piercing the creature's bones. But they did crack some of them, and he wedged the tip of one of his blades into the shoulder pad, peeling back the remnants of skin and bone like they were a ripe fruit.
Blue wiring exploded from the wound, digging into his blade and cracking the tip. He drew back, not expecting that kind of reaction. In response, he pulled out what remained of his staff and slammed that through the crack in its skull. The broken end of the staff buried itself in about a foot before he saw it pop out the bottom of the skull, trailing a few broken wires. The beast casually used one of its arms to throw Haego off of itself, and Haego slid to a stop a few feet away, even with the weight of his armor. The beast had strength that was not apparent in its bone-like arms.
Jeroth, behind him, stopped using his flame burst launcher. "Curious. They appear like mechs. Yet my armor does not register an electronic signature. I wish I had saved this for you, my friend. However, this merits the use of some surprises." He brought out what appeared to be a bandoleer. "Distract it for a moment, and I will guarantee it will never defame anything with its sight again."
Haego nodded, coming in with his remaining knife and his Kavka. The creature used one arm to hold him off, while Jeroth walked over and tied the bandoleer around the creature's neck. "Hah! Get back, Haego, this is going to be good!"
The bandoleer was made up of small bricks of what looked like plastic with thin metal plates on it. Haego backed off, thinking that Jeroth had some serious plastic explosive in here. That would be bad, considering that this chamber had to be preserved as much as possible. Instead of the expected explosion, he could see bright red sparks erupt from all of the string of bricks, and thermite melted through the skeletal creature's body. It actually screamed, the metallic grinding noise actually echoing inside of his helmet.
The remaining chunks of the creature fell to the ground, its head completely separated from the body. Blue wires stuck out of the gold coating in places, sparking and dying as the remnants died. "Well, then. That must have come from inside one of the pillars, then. Look at all the gold its covered in." Jeroth said. "The thermite would have been entertaining, would you not agree?"
"Not terribly. Considering how my armor would react to it."
"Worms, you reject us yet again!" The severed head started speaking, in old Batarian. "The immortal guardians of your ascension will rid you of your ignorance! Know true fear!" The pillar that the creature had been working on melting starting falling apart. "Behold the guardian of the Karn!" A glowing hand burst through the gold paneling, and the entire pillar started coming apart.
"The Gods have their champions, Haego. Your prophecy only proves that they were here the entire time. The Pillars of Strength were never a religious structure. They were a prison." Jeroth laughed. "Brilliant of our previous incarnation to have concealed their prison inside of our most holy structures. Does your soul sing, Haego? Do you not feel the call of war?"
"I only feel the sorrow of knowledge lost, Jeroth. None of this pleases me." As they spoke, the creature buried within the pillar of Eruk burst free, revealing a much better preserved Batarian champion. Skin glowing with blue wiring and cybernetics, and arms fully reinforced. This champion wore armor, archaic and constructed of the ancient iron and steel of their primitive ancestors. When the creature opened its mouth, showing a working tongue and throat, Haego gulped. Their most ancient threats spoken of in prophecy, scripture, myth and legend had been proven to be all too real. The champion of Eruk had been much more preserved compared to the first champion. Worse, he could already feel the electronics in his suit shutting down.
"It forces us to fight on its terms. Come, Haego! This day we are brothers in blood and in soul!" Jeroth activated the purge function on his armor, letting the helmet and outer layer of armor come off. It would be too heavy to move without the VI and mass drivers assisting him. Haego did so as well, leaving only a Kavka and a regular knife. Weapons wouldn't work on this creature, either. Anything electronic was being affected, and the lights that kept the pillars lit went out. Only the light of the fires and molten piles of gold revealed anything of the creature they were fighting. Left only with knives and his undersuit, Haego let himself tremble slightly.
Their gods were real. But the same gods were false. Batar had used this place as a prison for that which he could not kill. Even now, with all of the technology they had, they might not win. The trembling only convinced him further. Fear was a natural reaction to the unknown. For Haego, his entire life had been a known quantity. He was a war-priest, and he would father children and move to the highest position of authority possible. He would detail and follow through on every responsibility. There had been no questions, no guilt. Until now. The Gods were real, and they wanted him dead. "If I am Batar reincarnated," Haego stated, "Then it is my solemn responsibility to send you to the darkest abyss I can find!"
"Haego Dvoragk, if you survive this, I promise to leave you alive. This is too important to be shared by the voice of one alone." Jeroth said, hefting his own Kavka and that was all. Then, he shot forward, and battle was joined. Eruk's champion waited for Jeroth to come within range before swinging its clawed hand at him. Jeroth laughed, catching the claw on his Kavka and watching as the metal flaked and one of the claws came off. For his trouble his arm was covered in scratches, the undersuit not slowing the beast down. Kinetic barriers would have done nothing, as the beast's arms attacked so slowly compared to regular shots.
Haego flanked it, coming in and cutting at the beast's face with his Kavka. It didn't even flinch, sending its own arm to try to capture his wrist. He blocked with the other knife he had, which was shattered by the claws and they kept going, grasping onto his good wrist with enough strength to crush the bones. The only consolation was that the creature was slow, and had the weight of armor and gold coating keeping it down. He tried to get away from it as it casually broke his wrist, the claws digging in and going deeper and deeper into his wrist. His knife dropped, and attempted slashes with the Kavka only caused superficial cuts. The steel armor was giving enough protection that the kavka couldn't cut through enough of the creature's wrist to free his own. Tendons being snipped did nothing, and the pressure increased on his wrist until a wet pop sounded, and Haego watched as his left hand flopped onto the floor uselessly.
He kept back any scream of pain as he was amputated. Jeroth stabbed the creature's eyes, all four of the blinking blue constructs going dark as it was distracted by removing his hand. Haego fell back, grasping his wrist tightly as lifeblood poured from it. He had seen such wounds before. He had roughly five minutes at best before he would bleed out and die. He had to stop the bleeding, and soon. Jeroth could not win this without his aid.
Speaking of the man, he was inside the champion's guard, slicing up tendons, ligaments, joints, eyes, throat, anything that he could. But he was breathing hard and blood was flowing from scratches across his face and body. Haego glanced around, seeing an option to return to battle quickly. There was a small puddle of melting gold next to him, and before he could fully realize the consequences to his own body he shoved the bleeding stump into the molten gold.
He screamed, as the nerves at the end of his arm screamed out with him. But now, there was no chance of bleeding out. He would deal with the rest of the damage later. The remaining right hand held his Kavka, and the left had molten gold covering it. grimacing against the burning pain, Haego moved towards the creature again. It didn't seem to care about him, and was just carving up Jeroth. Jeroth was laughing as it tried, having taken off two more of its claws during the time that Haego had burned himself.
Coming in at a run, he saw the abomination grasp Jeroth in a strong grip, on the wrist that held Jeroth's Kavka. Yelling baseborn epithets, Haego swung and solidly removed its hand with a swipe of the Kavka. One of the blades was bent, however. Kavka were notoriously hard to damage, being multilayered monomolecular blades. This creature must be made out of something troublesome.
"My thanks!" Jeroth said, coming in to target the remaining hand. He then dove right back under its guard to hack at the creature's shoulder. The joint of the old steel plated armor popped open like a can, and underneath the exposed wiring and bone writhed. Haego tried to attack the other shoulder, it being the arm missing a wrist. He thought it would be safer, but as he approached the stump got in his way, long blue wires extending from it and grasping him. They tore into his skin like barbs, and Haego was tossed away from the fight.
He got up, rolling to his feet and cringing as the exposed skin from cuts was further exposed to molten gold, some of it seeping inside his hardsuit. Like water on fire, it got into the joints of his shoulder and knee. Groaning, he tried to think of a better strategy. Batar must have defeated them somehow. He defeated both of these champions with only steel weapons and luck. Not to mention he did so without blinding them. Though that didn't seem to slow it down very much if at all.
Jeroth was slashing at it, when he realized that the other arm had become dangerous again, and was wrapped up in the barbs. They dragged across his face and neck, and Jeroth cried out in pain as they pierced his skin at different intervals. Haego stumbled forward, stabbing his knife directly through the creature's neck. It didn't get far past the steel neck guard, but it caused it to flinch. It let go of Jeroth, and raised its one remaining good hand. A small ball of energy gathered there, and with a huff it was released into Haego. He had been hit by a biotic warp before, but not like this. Never like this. The gold vibrated on his cooling left hand it was so furious.
Still, Haego plunged the Kavka into the creature's neck again and again. Until the abomination started coming apart, in fact. The glowing was spreading at an abnormal rate, the skin burning up. It tossed him aside and let Haego roll into more of the gold, his body aflare with pain all over again. It was much harder to get up this time, and took what he could focus on to just get to ground not covered in molten metal.
Jeroth, on the other hand, had been grappled by the creature, and as it was coming apart it was stabbing him with its long blue lines of metal and barbs. He was twitching as one plunged through his neck, trying to wildly slice at the abomination. Haego's muscles refused to act, and he was only able to watch as the creature cut apart Jeroth, the barbs slicing into him with abandon, until the creature fell upon its knees. The glowing had spread throughout its body, and he could see its feet flaking to pieces. Jeroth was dropped like a sack of food, as the abomination opened its mouth a final time.
"Flesh fails once more. In time more flesh shall pledge itself to my cause, and the eyes of Rian shall once again be seen in every settlement of your pitiful people. I, Rian, shall return to you, and guide you back to your proper path." It's throat cut off before any more could be said, as the entire abomination became simply particles. Haego laid back, just breathing as the last of the biotic warp faded.
"What have we done?" Haego muttered. "Rian is a lie. What have we done?" Everything that was supposed to be fact was possibly wrong. His life had been lived fulfilling oaths to a broken religion, where the gods were only dedicated to death and pain. He was a war-priest to those gods, and the reality of his responsibility now was unclear. The policy of rebirth and reincarnation, was that too a lie? All the effort to save the souls of the galaxy, was that all worthless?
He cried. He cried for his faith, broken and defiled. He cried for his Hegemon, a good friend and someone whose atheist tendencies would be the greatest of comforts in this troubled time. The tears were few, and the room was too warm for them to stay on his hide of a skin for long. But somewhere in this despondency, Haego snapped. Pain no longer registered. He was no longer part of reality. He withdrew into his own mind, reality too hard to bear.
That was how the temple guards found him. Unresponsive, unknowing, and hardly making a noise as he was hefted onto a stretcher and taken away.
Author's Note
For the fight in the Pillars of Strength, I listened to Linkin Park's "The Catalyst" for some inspiration. I did a lot of thinking for the Batarians, and what kind of culture they represented. Stark, hard truth expressed through statues and other religious relics, with filtered scripture and prophecies that controlled their daily lives. To many of the Jarem, the lowest caste, a priest was just someone who reminded you that if you don't complain, the next time you come back it will be better. They come and bless your child and put their names into the system.
In effect, the Batarian culture of my design is one where the military and spiritual governments are intermingled and have controls over one another, yet their directives are what controls the society. Military personnel make sure that the lowest caste of slaves work, while the priests do all the counting, census work, and create a secondary need to succeed at the job you were born to. The castes are limiting, and control who and what go where. It worked for the subcontinent of India for thousands of years, and it works here as well.
My beta would like to thank you all for reading and commenting. The excitement has kept him busy. Unfortunately for him, some days I write more than he has time to read. So this had to wait a little bit until he gave it the ok. His name is Robotecha, and the poor fellow is not an English major, but he is one of the people from my pathfinder group. He is good people.
I hope that you guys have enjoyed the deep focus on the Batarians during this arc. I want to make sure that everyone knows that they are capable of good, and that some of them are just honest people trying to make a living. Their culture is a wee bit oppressive, and that creates a lot of issues. Good thing the only doctors for each caste are female, then. I don't think I have mentioned that in the story yet, but Haego purposefully does not think or consider thinking about the females of his race. There is a reason that I haven't mentioned Batarian women yet, especially if Haego is the one driving.
In the upcoming chapters, we will finish up the Pre-ME1 arc, and then finally dive into actual game canon timeline. But before that happens I will take a few days and clean up all the chapters and timeline. I was planning on doing it before I did this chapter, but then I got distracted with Haego vs. Jeroth. Thanks again guys for all the good press. A special shoutout to DarkDanny, who is another great author out there and writes a very heavy and dark AU universe. His work is especially enjoyable, and I hope you guys dig in. It's a rare find and he does the story justice. Enjoy and have fun next time!