Previously...
Joker and EDI outfox the turian fleet in a test to show the effectiveness of AI's on warships. Milar gives Kolyat access to his history and he finds out more than he wanted to know.
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Shepard banged her head against her desk. "Kill me now," she moaned pitifully.
Thane chuckled as he walked up the steps and massaged her neck. "Can it really be that bad?"
"I never knew I would miss Miranda so much," she said with her forehead still on the desk. "Who knew there could be so much paperwork with half a crew and out in the middle of nowhere."
Thane's fingers felt heavenly on her neck. "You were the one who sent her away with Legion and Tali," he reminded her. "She wanted to stay."
"I know," she moaned sadly. "Can't I admit I was wrong? Don't stop," she added as she melted under his fingers.
"Perhaps I can help," he offered as his fingers slipped down under her shirt to caress her spine.
"How? Are you offering to do the paperwork?"
"I feel the need to continue to be of service," he said. There was only the slightest hint of regret in his voice. Shepard had removed him from the team roster for missions, a decision that hurt both of them, but they recognized as necessary. Unfortunately, that left her with only Jacob and Kasumi as squad mates.
"Deal," she mumbled. "I'll even give you Miranda's office if you want."
She could hear the smile in his voice as he answered. "Life Support will be sufficient. I find I miss the hum of the drive core at times."
She turned her head so she could glance up at him. "I hope you don't miss it that much. I find the bed up here much more comfortable than your old cot."
"I don't know. I rather liked having you pressed up so closely against me."
She waggled her eyebrows at him. "We could do that now."
He dropped a data pad in front of her nose. "Business first," he said, ignoring her groan.
He was sincere in his offer, and they spent the next hour teaching him everything he needed to know to deal with the various species of paperwork that seemed to plague humanity no matter where they went.
EDI's hologram pulsed brightly. "Shepard, I believe we have found the system we have been looking for."
"Really?" Shepard practically jumped out of her chair and ran to the lift. They had been searching this section of space for nearly two months. It was getting to the point that they were going to have to go back and resupply soon. Shepard and EDI had been scanning for the mysterious prothean weapon archive, the location of which had been so crudely shoved into Shepard's mind. But even with that information, searching through unmapped space was tedious and time consuming.
When Shepard looked down at the galaxy map, EDI displayed the star system layout. It looked promising. A young yellow star on the main sequence with six planets, one of them in the habitable zone. A shiver zipped down her spine as she looked at the system. "This is it, EDI," she said as she smacked her palm on the railing. "Take us in to the second planet and start scanning."
She was practically vibrating as she waited for Joker to bring the Normandy into orbit. The unnamed planet resembled Earth during the late Carboniferous period with an oxygen content of thirty one percent and massive blue-green jungles covering most of the landmasses. "What are you looking for, Shepard?" EDI asked.
"Not sure yet," she replied absently as she looked over the planetary scans. "A volcanic range near a coast, but that was fifty thousand years ago. Things might have changed."
"Calculating," EDI said. "I have highlighted all the relevant areas for you, Shepard."
Finally, Shepard pulled up one area. "This one."
"You don't sound positive, Shepard."
She sighed. "I'm not, but it's the closest to the one in my memories. We'll take the Kodiak and do some surface level flights. Maybe it'll clear up closer down. EDI, ask Jacob and Kasumi to meet me in the hangar in thirty."
In her cabin, Thane helped her dress in her armor. "Stay safe, siha," he whispered into her hair.
She hugged him gently, careful not to put too much pressure against his chest. "Always," she promised. She walked out, pretending not to notice the yearning and sadness in him at being left behind. They both wanted him at her side, and yet his illness made it impossible for him to continue to fight.
The Kodiak cruised slowly over the dense jungle that crept up the volcanic slopes. Suddenly Jacob pointed to one of the scanners. "Commander, look at this."
Even after two months, he couldn't, or wouldn't shake the habit of calling her by her rank. She ignored it as she looked over his shoulder. The scanner had picked up a structure that showed rectilinear outlines, something definitely out of place on this uninhabited world. "Good work, Jacob. Set us down."
The jungle was odd, even given that this was an alien world. It was full of plant life, huge towering palm-like trees with smooth blue trunks and blue-green fronds, but there were no other colors to relieve the blue-green monotony. There were very few sounds, as well. Only the sounds of the wind rustling the fronds and the loud incessant droning of insects. "Jesus jumping Christ!" Shepard exclaimed as a winged insect with a meter-plus wingspan suddenly darted out of the tree canopy at her. It pulled up at the last second as she reflexively brought her pistol up to bear.
Slimy leaf litter mixed with jagged volcanic rocks for a treacherous climb up the volcano's flank. They came into an opening in the tree canopy where the sun shined down brightly, illuminating a multitude of tiny winged insects that gleamed like jewels in the sunlight. "That way," Jacob pointed across the clearing. As usual, Shepard took point. They were halfway across before Kasumi started swearing softly. Her curses became more extreme before she broke and ran for the cover of the trees ahead of them.
"Kasumi!" Shepard chased after her and found her doubled over at the far side of the clearing. "What is it?"
"The insects. They've got a nasty sting," she gasped as she stripped off a glove. Her hand and forearm were starting to swell with numerous tiny bumps. Shepard pushed back Kasumi's hood to see the thief's face starting to swell, too.
Jacob ran a quick scan over her. "The insects are venomous. Looks like their stingers are strong enough to penetrate her light armor weave, too."
Shepard and Jacob were both wearing complete suits of heavy armor and hadn't suffered at all from the insects, but as Shepard watched, Kasumi's face and arm were visibly swelling and turning red. "Come on, we're getting you back to the shuttle," she announced.
They detoured around any insect swarms to get Kasumi back into the shuttle. Shepard consulted with Chakwas over the radio, and they decided to send Kasumi back to the Normandy in case her allergic reaction became serious.
"Just you and me, Jacob. You up for this?" Shepard asked as they watched the Kodiak lift off.
"Hell, yeah, Commander. I got your back."
The trek through the quietly humming jungle was long and steep, and in a few places, required some arduous rock scrambling, which wasn't easy in armor. Finally they saw it. An obviously manufactured roadway leading to a square-cut entrance into the mountainside.
They crept up cautiously on the entrance. Having no idea what they'd find, they'd come loaded for bear. Shepard pulled out her Locust while Jacob readied his shotgun. The doors hung askew, letting only one bright shaft of light into the gloomy cavernous room behind them. As their eyes adjusted to the low light, Shepard was amazed to see bioluminescent lichen lighting up the walls. She switched off her flashlight, and the lichen grew brighter. It was dim, but they could see well enough.
"Any ideas, Commander?" Jacob asked.
Shepard shrugged. "Down."
They cautiously explored the ruins. As on Ilos, there were gigantic pillars covered in incomprehensible glyphs. Shepard stopped at one wall that glistened an iridescent pink and green and pulsed softly in the light. "What in the world...?" She reached out her Locust, and as soon as the tip of her gun touched the wall, it exploded into an airborne swarm of pink, green, and black flying insects. Shepard fell back, and Jacob yelled and cursed. "Curiosity killed the cat, Commander!"
Shepard frowned and kept heading deeper in with Jacob close behind. The silence was oppressive, and the dim lighting had them both on edge. Everywhere they looked was evidence of the mighty civilization of the protheans, now fallen into wreck and ruin. Shepard only hoped there was something still left that could help them in their fight.
She'd lost track of how long they'd walked cautiously down and through the ruins until they finally saw something different. Shepard pointed at a console that still hummed and blinked with life. Jacob knew to let her approach first, in case it was another beacon, and he also knew not to interfere no matter what happened. Her stomach started knotting itself up at the thought of facing another prothean relic.
Cautiously, she went forward until she apparently triggered a proximity alert. A hologram rippled into existence in front of the console. It was a prothean, almost exactly like Vigil on Ilos.
It spoke, but it was a jumble of strange syllables that made no sense to her translator.
"I'm Shepard. I found your counterpart, Vigil, at Ilos. I've been looking for you," she said.
She was half expecting the beam of light that came from the console, but that didn't make the contact any less of an impact. It grabbed her and caused her back to arch painfully. "Commander!" Jacob yelled. She managed to hold up a hand to keep him back. Either she was getting used to this, or this one wasn't as bad as the others. She could still retain some freedom of thought and movement. There was a brief flickering through her mind, triggering a strong revulsion as it reminded her of the prothean relic that had nearly scrambled her brains on Liara's ship. As she thought of it, she could feel this beam following those thoughts, seeing it lead her to this planet. Strangely, she felt like it was caressing her mind, trying to mend the broken threads in her memory that the last relic had stomped through.
The beam released her, letting her drop to her knees on the cold stone floor. She wrenched her helmet off and vomited the contents of her stomach in front of the console. "Fucking protheans," she muttered as she spat to clear her mouth.
"I apologize for your previous experience, Shepard," the VI intoned. "The relic you interacted with was damaged. I have attempted to repair the damage."
"How about you stay the fuck out of my head," she snarled as she stood up.
"I had no way to contact Vigil. Reading you is the only way I can communicate with your species."
"So you know about Vigil?"
"Affirmative. I was the last of my kind to be created and hidden. I have knowledge of all the other bases. The protheans created and spread the relics around the galaxy as a way to point the next cycle to this location should they be unsuccessful at fending off the Reapers. You are the first to reach me." It paused. "I see that it has been nearly fifty thousand years. I take it the next cycle of harvesting is about to begin?"
"Correct. The Reapers are on their way. We've got a year. Maybe less."
Jacob came up alongside her, his weapon still out, but pointing down at the ground. "What are you?" he asked. He'd heard stories about Vigil on the Normandy, but this was his first time seeing such a thing.
"I am the protheans' final weapon. I am Retribution," it said.
"You are the weapon?" Shepard breathed. "They really finished it? Then why didn't they use it?"
The VI shook its head. "I am incomplete," it said, and she could have sworn its voice was tinged with sadness. "The best minds in the prothean empire worked on me for decades. I am an electronic weapon, but they never found a translation device. I do not know how to communicate myself to the Reapers."
She shook her head. "I don't understand. What translation device?"
"The Reapers, when they deigned to speak to us, used the language of the protheans. But among themselves, they have their own language. A heavily encrypted, complex machine language they built over eons. I lack the ability to translate myself into their native language. My designers had a goal to capture a Reaper, disarm it and bring it back for me to study. My wait was in vain. If they ever managed to capture a Reaper, they were unable to bring it here. Without knowing their language, I will remain ineffective."
Shepard's mind was going a million miles a minute. She pursed her lips and stared up at the cavern ceiling. Jacob asked, "What are you thinking, Commander?"
"You...Retribution? Did the protheans ever create a synthetic intelligence?"
She got the impression of a frown. "Why would we do that? We were trying to destroy the Reapers, not emulate them."
"The heretics, Jacob. They joined with Nazara, they spoke with the Old Machines. Legion said that part of the reason they wanted to save the heretics was to understand why they sided with the Reapers. Maybe they can help translate the language of the Reapers," she ended with her voice rising in excitement.
Her excitement was catching. "Maybe. But how do we get this VI to the geth?" he asked.
"Retribution, are you tied to this place? I guess we can bring the geth here."
"This facility is designed with a transmission antenna. However, my sensors indicate that the mechanism failed approximately three thousand years ago. You need to remove the obstruction so that I can extend the transmission antenna. However, you will need significant storage space," it warned.
"I'm not so sure EDI's going to be okay with sharing space with this thing, Shepard," Jacob commented.
She shrugged. "I hate to leave it here now that we've found it. Anyway, we have to get out of this place in order to communicate with the Normandy. Might as well fix the antenna while we're at it. Where do we need to go?" she asked the VI.
In answer, a series of overhead lights flickered on, illuminating a tunnel headed up. "My sensors indicate that a simple rockfall is blocking the antenna."
Shepard huffed out a breath. "When's the last time you remember anything being simple, Jacob?"
A sarcastic laugh was his only answer as he followed her up the tunnel. They climbed for what seemed an eternity, until she was sure they were high above the original entrance they had used. The tunnel was straight and clear and well lit, occasionally switchbacking as it climbed upward. Shepard's thighs were starting to ache when they finally came to the rockfall. Jacob scanned the area with his omni tool, looking for the best way to attack the problem.
After a few minutes studying, they decided on a course of action and started shifting rocks and boulders around. The ceiling and walls occasionally rumbled threateningly, but otherwise, it was quiet.
"I see sunlight, Commander," Jacob commented as they rolled an exceptionally large boulder out of the way. "I think we can get through soon."
Soon Shepard was able to squeeze through a gap in the tunnel. Jacob pushed a few more rocks out of the way and followed. "Here," he said. "Simple enough fix." He pushed some rocks out of the way and fiddled with the control systems while Shepard talked with EDI about finding space for the prothean weapon in her data banks. EDI thought she'd be able to firewall off sufficient space for their digital passenger, but she wouldn't know until she could communicate directly with it.
Soon enough, the antenna rose through the floor and Shepard smiled. "Hey, whaddya know. Simple for once. EDI, you ready?"
"Affirmative, Shepard. I have sufficient data storage, although it's not enough to allow Retribution to travel uncompressed. It will have to remain inactive until we find more data storage for it."
"Will it affect your ability to run the Normandy?"
"Negative, Shepard, although I am unable to take on any new responsibilities until I have my data storage back."
Shepard grimaced as she rolled a boulder out of the way to head back down. "Well, just do the best you can. We'll contact Legion when we get back to Citadel space and see if the geth can..."
"Commander, watch out!" Jacob yelled as he fired his Carnifax.
She spun in place with her SMG already in her hand. The last boulder she had moved had uncovered a writhing nest of gigantic centipede-like creatures. They hissed menacingly and scuttled along the floor toward her and Jacob. "Shit!" she muttered as she opened fire. "What the hell are these?" She and Jacob both danced backward away from the nest, but the creatures kept pouring out. There must have been dozens in there, and each one was well over a meter long.
Shepard flipped to full auto and unloaded into the mouth of the nest. The creatures popped in a nasty explosion of green ichor, but that didn't seem to deter the rest of the nest from swarming them. They were coming out faster than the two humans could shoot them.
"Fuck!" Jacob yelled as one of them twined up his leg and tried to either eat him or stab him, Shepard wasn't sure which. She wasn't even sure which end was the head, or if it even had one. She reached out and pulled, but its myriad legs had hooked around his armor plates and it was difficult to pull off. She finally settled for squashing it in her gauntlet, but more were swarming toward them.
"Up!" she yelled and gestured toward the hole in the ceiling. It was a hands breadth higher than either of them could reach so Shepard made a stirrup with her hands and nodded for Jacob to jump up. He widened the hole, showering her with clods of dirt and alien vegetation before he pulled himself out. As quickly as possible, he reached down to pull her out. She grabbed on, but the centipedes were already crawling up her legs. She pulled one off, but before she grab the others, she felt a hot sting in her inner thigh where her only protection was the compression suit.
Jacob hauled her up and pulled the creatures off her legs, but not before she got another sting. "Damn, that hurts!" she hissed under her breath. Her leg was already throbbing painfully.
"You alright, Commander?" he asked as he kicked the last centipede back into the hole.
She rubbed her inner thigh where the cuisse rounded off, but had to stop due to the pain radiating from the site. "I'll live," she muttered. "Let's just head back to the LZ. EDI, how's it going?"
"I am negotiating with the prothean VI, and it is uploading now. However, this is not a viable solution for any length of time. You must acquire more storage space for it."
"Understood," she said curtly as she led the way back through the blue-green jungle. They had to pick their way carefully around jagged rocks and dense undergrowth. Shepard didn't say anything, but she was starting to worry. She could feel the venom crawling through her body, and she was starting to flash between hot and cold. She only hoped her cybernetics were sophisticated enough to keep her upright until they got back to the shuttle.
She soon lost track of which way she was going except for the imperative to keep going down. Every time she set her foot down, the shock seemed to translate all the way up to her head, which was throbbing painfully in time with her thigh. The scenery was a never-ending collage of green, blue and brown, and flashes of sunlight through the canopy were rare. So the sudden flash of red and black provided a welcome variation, and she dragged her attention away from her misery and out in front of her.
It was a rachni brood warrior! Her hand scrambled for the Locust, but slipped off. She vaguely sensed Jacob drawing his weapon beside her. All around her was a soft crooning sound that promised peace and relaxation. She struggled to put her memories in place. For a moment, she couldn't decide if she should shoot the rachni or talk to it. Talk, she decided, as she suddenly recalled the asari on Illium who represented the queen.
She knocked Jacob's arm up in the air. "Wait!" she told him. The brood warrior didn't move, but she tensed up nonetheless, remembering numerous attacks by the rachni in the past. "Can you hear me?" she said to it.
"I hear you." The voice seemed to come from everywhere. The brood warrior still didn't move. "You are the one who freed me."
"You're the queen," she said, still looking at the brood warrior.
It suddenly scuttled to the side and positioned itself protectively in front of the massive queen as she appeared in a small clearing. "Jesus," Jacob whispered as he took a step backward.
"Put your weapon away, Jacob," she ordered as she stepped up to talk to the queen.
"The ones who sour my song are coming closer," the queen said. "Is that why you have come?"
Shepard dialed up a dose of painkiller to deal with the headache that was closer to a migraine. She needed a clear head to talk to the queen. "In part. We were searching for a weapon left behind by those from the last cycle. I didn't expect to find you here."
"We are still few in number, but we have been watching the relay into this sector. We followed your ship, but it wasn't until you landed here that we were able to determine that you were our savior from the place of frozen water."
"They're coming. The Reapers. We have to stop them." She cursed her impaired mental state. It was all she could do to find the words, let alone make them eloquent. "Will you help?" There was a note of pleading in her voice that shocked her. She didn't mean for her need to be so naked, but the pain was making it easier for her desperation to come to the fore.
"I will not allow my children to again be taken from me," the queen said.
Shepard frowned. Was that a threat or a promise? "Then we have to fight them. Otherwise, they'll kill everyone." It seemed like she had been saying that phrase over and over. Death for everyone. "An empty galaxy. No singing," she added, remembering that the queen communicated in song.
"They try to corrupt my song, but I will not allow it. My children listen to me. They sing the song of the rachni. They sing to the stars. We do not want our song to fall silent, and we do not want to sing to an empty galaxy. We will help you, Shepard." The queen paused and a much smaller rachni appeared at her side. It waggled its front legs at the queen then scurried over to Shepard and reached out a foreleg to touch her. She was too bemused to be worried and simply watched the creature, feeling as if she were watching a vid.
"Your thoughts are disconnected, Shepard," the queen sang. "I feared you had been taken over by the dark singers, but you are still free of their influence. You are ill."
"What influence?" she asked.
"The others, the ones who held me in the room of machines and who took my children to raise in silence. Their thoughts were held by the ones you call Reapers. Everyone's thoughts sing when they communicate. I harmonize in my children's song, and each of us can hear it in the others. When the Reapers hold influence over another's thoughts, we can hear that as well."
Shepard blinked slowly. "You can tell when someone is indoctrinated? Benezia?"
"Benezia," the queen repeated slowly. "Yes, that was her self-name. Her self-song was almost completely submerged by the sour song of the others."
Shepard felt like she should be grasping something important, but instead everything seemed to be pressing in on her and muddling her thoughts. Was the sun setting? It looked so dim in the jungle now. "Help. You said you would help." She hung onto that thought.
"Yes, Shepard. I and my children are ready to assist you. We have ships, I have many brood warriors, and I have a daughter now. Return to this place in six months, and we will be ready to fight with you."
The queen's crooning was becoming louder, or perhaps it was the swish of blood through her veins, or maybe even the humming of the insects on this jungle planet. It was becoming harder to focus on the queen's words. "Six months? I'm not sure we have six months. I need you now. Need to...integrate. Calm fears." History lessons on the krogan-rachni wars rose up in her mind. Grunt considered her his battlemaster, but she wasn't sure how he'd feel about being asked to fight alongside rachni instead of killing them. Heaven only knew how Wrex would react.
The queen hummed a melodic tune that seemed to emulate a sine wave, moving slowly up and down in pitch. "I hear your concern, Shepard. Bring your krogan here, and we will sing together."
Now it wasn't just the song that was moving up and down. So was the ground. It was becoming harder to stay on her feet when the earth kept shifting underneath her. The queen said something else, but she didn't hear it. She hit the stimulant button on her suit. She couldn't let this opportunity go by. She had to know what the queen could do and how to integrate it into her overall strategy. She opened her mouth, but forgot what she was going to say as the stimulant triggered a wave of pain through her chest that felt like it was squeezing her heart into pulp. Jacob was saying something, or was he shouting? She couldn't hear it over the beat in her head. She saw the ground looming larger, and she realized in surprise that she had fallen down. Her last thought was that she couldn't show weakness in front of the queen, but then the pain squeezed her head so hard that it chased coherent thoughts away.
Special thanks to Orchidellia, my beta reader who gives me great ideas, advice and feedback.