PROPHECY
CHAPTER THIRTY-THREE:
INSECT HIVE
September 9, 2185
1021 hours.
Dock, Business District, Nos Astra, Illium.
First Lieutenant Miranda Lawson, Second Lieutenant Jacob Taylor, Soldier Grunt, Mercenary Veteran Zaeed Massani, Justicar Samara, Professor Mordin Solus.
It had been a day. A day too long. The Normandy should have returned from the Constantinople mission a day ago, and yet it hadn't. So for two days, they had slept in Liara's apartment and just visited the nearby shops. Jacob had bought a smart choke for his shotgun, Mordin had bought an upgraded omni-tool and Zaeed a Vindicator Mk X. Overall, the entire team was happy, Miranda most of all.
The mission to save her sister had been extremely successful, and still lay heavily on her mind. Jacob encouraging her to talk to Oriana had been the best thing he had done for her since the end of their relationship years ago. Oriana had welcomed Miranda with open arms and now she knew who her sister was. Miranda looked forward to a point in time where she'd be able to visit Oriana on Earth, but she knew this wouldn't be for awhile, or at least not until the collectors were defeated. Maybe Shepard would let her...
She had been warming up to Shepard's command and now she knew her loyalty to him was absolute. She knew she was still loyal to the Illusive Man, but Shepard had earned her respect, trust and loyalty. The thing he had just allowed her to do...a terrorist attack and he took a small portion of the team just to let her have a chance at saving her sister. And if there hadn't been a attack, Shepard would have accompanied them. She owed him for this.
Before her thoughts could continue, the roaring thunder of the Normandy's engines could be heard. She turned and at that moment, the stealth frigate swooped in, moving to dock. Her team moved backwards, the force of the vessel's landing causing a gust so powerful it was moving them from their standing positions. Standing back, they watched as the Normandy docked, only moving towards the airlock when the Normandy's hover thrusters were the only thing still operating.
They quickly approached the airlock, entering it and awaiting the decontamination cycle's conclusion state. When EDI finally spoke up to inform them that the sequence had finished, the door shot open and they were greeted by the cross-armed form of Commander Shepard. He smiled warmly, but pain was evident on his face.
"Commander?" Miranda asked in concern as her team filed back into the ship, moving to the armoury to drop off their weapons and armor, "Did something go wrong?"
"Nothing we didn't handle," Marcus informed her, "The mission was successful; we talked down Rahna and her group and got them the reparations they deserved. Kaidan seems alot happier for it. How went your mission?"
Miranda nodded with a smile, "Oriana's safe and the Eclipse taken care of. My father doesn't even know where my sister is. Niket..." Her smile suddenly melted from her face, tears building up. She bit her lip, choking back a sob as best she could before meeting Marcus' eyes once more, "Niket betrayed me. Father didn't know and Niket was happy to resolve the situation, but Enyala killed him. I should have seen it coming. How couldn't I see the obvious?"
He put a hand on her shoulder, "Don't blame yourself. All that matters now is that your sister is safe and your father is none the wiser. Also makes my life easier, somewhat."
Miranda laughed at that, "My very purpose here is to make your life easier, as I recall."
"True that," he smiled.
"I wanted to thank you," the operative stated, shrugging her shoulders, "Allowing me to do that...I never thought you'd let me. I thought your vision of Cerberus would have clouded your judgment on the matter and you'd turn a blind eye to it, but...you helped. Split up the team to allow me to save my sister. This is a debt forever unpaid."
"Forever must last five seconds then," Marcus snarkily commented, "You owe me nothing. I don't do this so that everyone an rush me with promises of oaths and help in the future. I do it because I care about those under my command. Tell me Miranda; who would win? The man with a massive army? Or the one with a small, but loyal army? One willing to die for him and never betray him?"
"The man with the loyalty," Miranda responded, as if it was obvious.
"Indeed," The spectre complimented, "That's why I'm so successful. Its not because I can kill better than everyone else, its because of the loyalty I inspire. Now I better get to my cabin before my ego gets ahold of me."
Miranda allowed herself a bigger smirk, "We'd never get it under chains again."
With a final chuckle, both of them parted ways, Marcus heading into the elevator while Miranda headed into the armoury to unburden herself of her weapons. Marcus quickly punched the button for Deck One, impatiently waiting for it to arrive. When it finally did, and the doors opened, he quickly vacated the ascendable box, moving into his cabin and immediately inside, to find Tali at her table, on her terminal, looking at engineering readouts. He moved down into the cabin, falling into the sofa next to her, wrapping an arm around her waist.
"What you working on?" He asked.
"Engineering readouts," he had guessed that answer already. He was amused to find he was right, "But I'm not anymore." Closing the terminal she turned to him, smiling. Suddenly, he found her hands moving to his pants, and unbuckling them. Really Tali? The Tali he remembered had always been nervous or stuttery when it came to the mention of sexual activities with Marcus. Now she did it like it was a casual thing. She's still adorable and cute though. That'll never change.
His thoughts were interrupted when a three-fingered hand wrapped around his manhood. Before she could begin stroking it though, his terminal beeped. They ignored it, and Tali continued her fluid motions. The second beep arrived when Marcus was about to hit his climax and EDI spoke this time, "Sorry to interrupt commander, but there is an urgent call coming in from the Illusive Man. He has marked it as a priority one."
He sighed in irritation, as did his quarian engineer, as Tali let go of his manhood and allowed him to pull his pants back up, buckling it up once more, "I'll be there in a minute." He then turned back to Tali, smiling sadly, "I'll be back, and we'll continue this. If you want." He kissed her on the top of the hood.
The quarian shook her head, "I'm going to run some diagnostics in engineering, then I'm coming back here to get some rest. I have a feeling the Illusive Man will have another dangerous mission in store for us. Since I know I'm coming, I want to be ready."
Marcus shook his head as he moved to the door, Tali right next to him, "Oh, do you now?"
"Of course," Tali replied, smiling, "You don't want to wake the dragon."
As they entered the elevator, there was a moment of silence before they both burst out laughing. "You've been catching up on that Game of Thrones."
"Watched all nine seasons," Tali beamed behind her mask, "Don't you fault me. Kasumi's watched them all, five times."
"And I'll be on my eleventh soon," he chuckled. Before long, to their misfortune, the elevator quickly arrived at the CIC. He turned to Tali and smiled, kissing her on the visor once more time, "See you later."
Moving out into the CIC, he heard the elevator door close behind him as he moved through the armoury, everyone except Zaeed and Jacob now gone, and went into the conference room, waiting for the call to connect. He sighed once more. He better have something worth interrupting my time. The call, as usual, didn't take long to connect, with the darkened room of Cerberus HQ quickly appearing, the Illusive Man being in his usual seat.
"Shepard. You got here quickly," TIM stated, taking a wiff of his cigar.
"Whatever. Just get to the point," Marcus hurriedly announced in frustration. The Illusive Man looked barely fazed, but continued.
"We've caught a break," he quickly declared, "Cerberus just intercepted a distress call from a turian patrol. Take a wild guess as to what they stumbled upon."
"Oh, I don't know, the collector homeworld?" Marcus asked dryly.
"Sarcasm isn't necessary," TIM deadpanned, "They stumbled upon a collector cruiser in the Relic System of the Eagle Nebula."
The same nebula we recruited Grunt. Marcus noted, but the Illusive Man's statement had his attention, "So...what? Are we going to save these turians? Why do you care?"
He took a sip of his whiskey before answering, "Despite the majority of my organization being racist, that is not my intent. I have no interest in superiority over others in terms of race, merely human evolution. As for the turians, they were wiped out, but they managed to cripple the collector vessel."
Marcus' eyes widened, "Bullshit. How the hell did they manage to cripple that monster?"
"The people with the answers are spaced or inside the hull of a dead ship. Ask them," TIM responded dryly, "I need you to board that ship and get some hard data on the Collectors. Find us their homeworld. We already know it lies beyond the Omega 4 Relay, but we need to know just where the relay leads. The data on that collector cruiser will do more to help our cause against them. I'm not asking you to destroy it, its crippled already, I just need you to clean up and steal some intel."
Marcus still wasn't buying the crippled theory, "I still don't see how a turian patrol could even scratch a collector ship, not with the weapons on that beast."
"Reports indicate the hull is intact but all its systems are offline," TIM responded cooly, but this only reinforced Marcus' opinion of it.
"Sounds like a trap," The spectre stated.
"That it may be," TIM responded, "But we still need that info, and I'm sure your team can handle another trap. You escaped the one on Constantinople pretty well."
"How did you know about that?"
"Everything on the Normandy, I know about."
"And what about the turians? If the patrol is destroyed, wouldn't the hierarchy be sending a recon team to investigate?"
"They would, if they even knew the patrol was in trouble," TIM grinned smugly. It was small, but you could see it, "I intercepted the distress call and for now we're feeding them false reports. We don't need the turians getting involved yet. We need the data first. As soon as the hierarchy saw that warship, they'd stake claim to it and we'd never get near it."
"True," Marcus conceded, remembering just how much of a cynical asshole Councilor Sparatus was, "Send EDI the exact coordinates and I'll set a course immediately. If this is a trap, I'm going to be ready for it."
"I wouldn't have brought you back if you were incompetent. Good luck, Shepard," The Illusive Man quickly cut the connection, the holographic connection vanishing instantly, simple particles in the area as the spectre stood off the platform and the table rose back into place. Before he could speak, EDI had beaten him to it.
"Coordinates sent and set commander," the AI informed him, "ETA is twenty hours from current position. Recommend you get some rest, as I do the rest of the crew."
"Noted EDI. Inform the crew they are to get at least four hours of sleep before the mission. I'm not sending in a zombie team," with that, Marcus exited the conference room and headed back up to his cabin. Their cabin, he corrected in his mind. When he moved through the cabin door, he noticed Tali already asleep and he simply smiled, quickly getting a change of clothing before sliding in with her, arms tightening around her form. She appeared to hum and her arms tightened around him, sensing his presence.
He fell a asleep with a grin on his face.
{Loading...}
September 10, 2185
0610 hours.
Access Hatch, Collector Cruiser, Relic System, Eagle Nebula.
Commander Marcus Lee Shepard, Chief Engineer Tali'Zorah vas Neema, Gunnery Master Garrus Vakarian, Staff Commander Kaidan Alenko, Second Lieutenant Jacob Taylor, First Lieutenant Miranda Lawson, Professor Mordin Solus, Master Thief Kasumi Goto, Justicar Samara, Assassin Thane Krios, Mercenary Veteran Zaeed Massani, Subject Zero Jack, Soldier Grunt.
The shuttle landed with a thud and the hatch slid open, Marcus moving forward, pulse rifle raised. He stepped from the vehicle, already smelling the foul stench of rotting corpses and that of alien smells entering his nostrils. His feet made contact with the organic, yet artificially created, ground of the colossal warship. As he looked around in awe, the rest of his squad rolled out of the shuttle, assuming positions around him, weapons raised. The collector ship's interior was like nothing he had ever seen; networked tunnels of honeycomb and organic layers of an unknown substance covering the walls. It was like...
"It's like a giant insect hive," Tali's voice stated off to his side and he nodded. Considering how much the collectors had in common with insects, he shouldn't have been surprising. But it had been anyway. The only thing not organic was the dull, grey titantium blast doors that covered each tunnel. The other thing that unnerved him was the dead silence; not a sound could be heard except them and the silent humming of emergency ship power. It made him feel uneasy. The collectors hadn't even come to fight off the boarders.
He quickly turned to his team, "Someone needs to stay here and guard the shuttle while we march off to investigate the giant bug dreadnought. Jacob and Miranda, you'll stay here and protect it. The rest of you are with me. We'll find what we came for and get out; we're not here to destroy this ship. If we can, we might, but no guarantees. EDI, you'll guide us to the necessary console."
"Affirmative commander," EDI replied.
"The Normandy will sit right here waiting for you," Joker spoke up, "...in this exact spot."
With a roll of his eyes, his team moved forward and towards the leftward tunnel; considering there was two; one leading up, and one down. They headed through the downward tunnel, which was currently locked by a sealed blast door. He reached it, motioning for his squad to halt before comming the Normandy, "EDI, get this door open."
The door slid open without a response and the team pushed forward. They were greeted by a long corridor, the walls covered in the same organic material that the rest of the cruiser was formed around. Whether actual bulkheads were situated behind the material, he didn't know, but it was highly likely. The Reapers weren't ones to make mistakes, especially if they were controlling the Collectors. And just like before; there was nothing but silence. Not a single collector body or greeting party. Just dead silence.
That silence was quickly broken by EDI, "Shepard, I've uncovered something while scanning the vessel."
"What is it EDI? Is there a Reaper inside?" Marcus asked dryly. He honestly wouldn't be surprised if there wasn't.
"Positive," EDI replied and the whole team froze. Then the AI's voice spoke up once more.
"That was a joke."
"The AI...making jokes?" Tali asked, confused, "I must be dreaming."
"Keep the jokes till later EDI," Marcus ordered, "What do you have?"
"I shall work on my humor processes," EDI declared before continuing, "I have compared the EM signature of the cruiser to all known collector ship profiles. It is the exact same vessel responsible for the abduction of Horizon."
Marcus froze once more. Coincidence? Possibly. The Reapers might be numerous, but I doubt the collectors could construct many ships of this size. But what if the colonists are still onboard? Could I save the rest of them? Then what EDI said really hit him, and it wasn't the Horizon part, "Wait, known collector ship profiles? Do you mean to tell me the collectors have a fleet?" Fuck. One of these behemoths was enough.
"A fleet would be an exaggeration," the AI stated firmly, "The Collector possess a minor naval group of approximately four ships in total, all out beyond the relay, based on ships monitoring the relay itself. All four are cruisers, confirming our suspicions that the collectors possess only one classification of warship."
"Four?" Marcus asked, "And where are the other three?"
"Beyond the relay, most likely performing the same task that this ship has been set out to do. Abduct human colonies," the AI explained, "And according to further data derived from the ship's databanks, this vessel has not returned to the Omega 4 Relay for two years. To be precise, it began its abductions on December 25, 2183. The same most likely goes for the other three. It is possible to suggest that this cruiser was to gather a full cargo of human captives before retreating beyond the relay to drop them off before leaving to collect more. This ship must be close to capacity."
"Can you find out more?" Marcus asked.
"Not without more elaborate access to collector systems," EDI stated, "I'm being blocked. Collector firewalls aren't advanced enough to keep me out, but there are enough that I would be severely hampered in my efforts. Reaching the central command console for the ship would break down all firewalls and allow me full access."
"Very well," with that they pressed on.
"Maybe those defense towers on Horizon softened it up for the turians," Zaeed grumbled.
"It's been too long since the Horizon attack for those wounds to still be dragging it," Garrus added, "Besides, those cannons barely scratched the kinetic barriers of this monster. The GARDIANs barely slowed it down. I don't think the turrets did much help in helping to cripple it."
Marcus remained silent as they moved through the seemingly empty ghost vessel. Turning left, they came across a line of pods, exactly like the ones the collectors used to transport the colonists on Horizon, all empty and opened.
"The Collectors must use these to transport the colonists to the ship, then transfer them to proper holding cells," Tali theoried.
"That's a horrible place to be trapped in. Unable to move...," Kasumi shivered.
"The Collectors are truly ones to be feared," Samara added.
"Come on. We can't save them standing around here," Marcus implied and they continued, leaving the 'room' they had stumbled across, if it could even be called that. For a while, the same annoying stench wuffed up his nostrils. But just as he rounded a corner and was about to lead his team down another corridor into the bowels of the ship, an overwhelming smell threatened to gag him into unconsciousness. It was a terrible smell, one that even forced Samara to cover her nostrils. It was a familiar smell.
It was the stench of death.
Turning to the source, they found a massive pile of human bodies, all skinned and left to rot. It was an ugly site; some of the corpses were melded together while others were mutilated or mangled; almost to the point of gender differentiation being rendered unrecognizable. It was just a pile; rotting, smelling, left for...nothing. Is this what the collectors did to the colonists? Is this what they did to those they captured? Marcus cringed when he saw one of the corpses with a dogtag around its neck. Even Alliance marines. That's bastards...
"Keelah...," Tali exclaimed, eyes scanning over the pile, "How could the collectors do this. Its so...its disgusting! Horrible!"
"Possibly failed test subjects," Mordin piped in, "Collectors possibly abducting for this purpose. Reapers studying humans. Possible experimentation. Failures left to rot. Horrible fate. Battlefield death much cleaner."
From behind him, he heard someone vomit. Turning around, he saw Kasumi, bending over, away from the pile, vomiting out onto the ground. Mordin went to check on her, but she waved him off, "I'll be fine. Just...that's horrible. I just can't look at that." The thief vomitted once more, unable to keep her breakfast down.
"Well if I have anything to say about it, their tests will be stopping, and soon," Marcus boomed, furious at what he saw, "My people. Kidnapped; men, women and children. And used for some sick experiment that the Reapers ordered upon them. Then their corpses left to rot like some kind of example of their power. This is repulsive. I've seen the dogs of war; and none of them were even capable of doing this. This ends."
"I can't imagine what you're going through," Tali sympathized, rubbing his shoulder with her left hand.
"I've known the collectors to be ruthless, but never cruel," Thane stated.
"All the more reason to wipe out these bastards," Garrus added.
"Come on, let's go," Marcus ordered, moving away from the dead pile of human flesh and pushing forward, his team close behind and Tali at his side, giving him concerned looks. He smiled weakly for her, but it was simply to reassure her. He was in no way recovering. That dead pile would probably haunt him for a week. Even the Akuze incident hadn't been as...nightmarish as what he had just seen. What other horrors lay in wait within the heart of the collector warship?
The deeper and deeper into the cruiser they got, the more paranoid Marcus became, even going to the point of having to check every corner to make sure a seeker swarm wouldn't pop out of the vents or Harbinger wouldn't leap out at him, or worse, a Praetorian. The ship just felt unnaturally dead. Where the hell were the crew? After a few more minutes of exploring, they reached what passed as a collector laboratory. Three pods lay on steel grey tables, the pods all closed except a middle one, each with a organic looking terminal next to it. He ordered Kasumi to check it and she moved forward.
When she reached it, the thief let out a gasp and waved them over. As Marcus peeked over the pod, he saw the one thing he didn't expect to be inside it. He had expected a colonist, but not this. Inside the pod, was a collector, eyes wide open but not awake. A matter of fact, according to the terminal, the collector was dead. Wait, how the hell could he read the terminal? It wasn't in english or any known language.
"Fuck," Jack exclaimed looking over the pod at the creature, "Why the shit would they be experimenting on their own?"
"EDI, I'm giving you a data uplink to this terminal via my omni-tool," Tali informed the AI, opening her omni-tool and creating the connection in a few short seconds, EDI's blue sphere hologram appearing on the console. Tali deactivated her omni-tool, looking down on the collector with awe.
"EDI, tell us what they were up to," Marcus ordered.
"Analyzing," EDI declared and a few moments passed before the AI spoke once more, "The Collectors were running basic genetic comparisons between their species and humanity."
He frowned, "What are they looking for? Similiarities?"
"I have no hypothesis for their motivations," EDI replied simply, "All I have are preliminary results. They reveal something remarkable. A quad-strand genetic structure, identical to traces collected from ancient ruins. Only one race is known to have this structure..."
"What EDI, what is it?" A sense of forboding washed over the group.
"Commander," EDI hesitated, "The Collectors...the collectors are the Protheans."
Silence fell over them, but everyone wore similiar expressions; shock, horror and fear. Marcus knew the Reapers had wiped out the protheans during the last cycle; so how were the collectors possible? Then he realized it. Now he understood why he could understand the collector terminals and why, when he initially encountered them, why he recognized them. The truth shocked him to the core.
"My god...," Marcus exclaimed, "The Protheans weren't wiped out...the collectors are just the last of the Reaper's indoctrinated protheans."
But EDI disagreed, "These are no longer protheans, Shepard. Their genes show distinct signs of genetic rewrite. Your body has alot of Reaper cybernetics holding it together, while the collector bodies are completely formed around it. Without it, the prothean aging cycle would have killed them off 50,000 years ago. Because of this, the collectors are more synthetic than they are organic, although they are still considered a hybrid of the two. All intelligence structure is gone, leaving most of them as mindless drones with a hive mind. Whatever was left of the protheans was purged when the Reapers repurposed them. The Protheans are truly gone, Shepard."
"Collectors just walking corpses," Mordin finished.
"And to think nobody knew about this," Zaeed quipped.
"Noone has had a chance to study a collector's genetic code in detail," EDI shot back. Marcus was sure he heard some annoyance in the AI's tone, but he quickly dismissed it. The AI continued, "I have already matched two thousand alleles to recorded fragments. This collector likely descends from a prothean colony in the Styx Theta Cluster. But there are signs of extreme alteration. Three fewer chromosomes. Reduced heterochromatin structure. Elimination of superfluous 'junk' sequences."
"The Protheans weren't wiped out but turned into a race of mindless servants for the Reapers to play around with," Garrus stated grimly, "Give me extinction any day of the week. I'd rather die than be a Reaper's plaything."
"We still have to stop them," Zaeed stated firmly, "It's a mercy anyway. We'd be doing them a favor, even if they don't have the brains to realize it anymore."
"And if these Reapers try the same fucking thing to me," Jack glowed with biotics, "I'll rip 'em to fucking shreds."
"The krogan will die before they suffer such a fate," Grunt declared.
With a nod, they continued out of the room, door sealing behind them. So, the ship was from Horizon, colonists still onboard, collectors use humans for test subjects, collectors turn out to be prothean zombies. This day just got better and better. At least they had even more motivation to wipe them out now. So they continued down the dead halls, still not encountering any collector resistance or even a collector itself. Not even a single husk or the sound of Harbinger's booming voice. Just nothing.
And as they moved through, more of the rooms became aligned with pods.
"Look at those pods on the ceiling," Garrus pointed out.
"There must be hundreds. How many do you think are full?" Kasumi pondered.
Marcus' answer was simple, "Too many."
More empty halls, more empty corridors, and no signs of life.
Finally, after what seemed an eternity, they finally reached a huge ramp leading upwards and into the main bowels of the ship. His team clumbered up it, not even bothering to check the corners anymore as their were no collectors to be found. Suddenly, his comm crackled again, and Joker's voice came through instead of EDI's.
"Commander," Joker whispered worriedly, "You gotta hear this. On a hunch, I asked EDI to run an analysis on this ship."
EDI's voice broke in, "I compared the EM signature against data recorded by the original Normandy two years ago. Commander, they are an exact match."
Garrus, Kaidan, Tali and Marcus all froze for a second before continuing. That was creepy, "We're infiltrating the same cruiser responsible for destroying the SR-1? Now I really want to find the reactor to this thing and blow it up, but this seems beyond coincidence. This has to be a trap."
"I was thinking the same," Joker answered, "Be careful, Shepard."
When they finally came to the top of the ramp and moved right to the outside, they were greeted by a jaw-dropping sight of both shock and horror. The belly of the beast was enormous. The room ran the length of the ship and was circular in manner, them being situated in the middle of the ship. The ceiling must have been thousands of feet above them; the room could fit the entirety of Vancouver City and still have enough room for a few towns. And all along those walls; were pods. Hundreds. Thousands. Millions. Probably even trillions.
"Sweet mother of shit," Zaeed exclaimed.
"They could take every human in the Terminus Systems and still not have enough to fill this ship," Kaidan added before hitting his own realization, turning to Marcus in terror, "Marcus, they're going to target Earth."
A new film of determination crossed the spectre's face, "Not if we stop them." And so they continued along the...whatever they were on, towards the ship's command console. According to EDI's waypoint marker, it should be located at the center of this massive complex. Actually, it reminded Shepard more and more of a Mausoleum, now that he thought about it. The thought didn't make him smile.
Marcus' could hear their footsteps echoing through the mausoleum as they move down a ramp and into a secure area. According to the marker, this was the ship's 'bridge'. It was a hexagonal like platform, with many barricades set up around it and a central command console. Moving forward, he motioned for Tali to begin hacking it for EDI and for Kasumi to back her up as they watched their backs and stepped onto the platform. It wasn't made of organic material; but more of a black metal.
Tali didn't take long hacking into it, quickly opening her omni-tool, "EDI, I'm opening a bridge between you and the collector ship. See if you can get anything useful from the databanks."
Marcus could hear EDI's response, "Data-mine in process. This will not take long."
Sighing, he prepared to turn back around when a screeching static sound entered the team's comm systems before abruptly stopping replaced by foreboding, booming voice he easily remembered, "Welcome to your new home, Shepard." Harbinger.
Tali gave a squeak as the console infront of her suddenly switched off, the sound of power turning off. But while that happened, power everywhere else was humming back to the life. Marcus knew it. This had been a trap.
He immediately tapped his comm, "What's going on!? EDI! Give me a damn sitrep!"
"EDI?" He heard Joker ask as well. Just as it seemed lost, EDI responded.
"I'm sorry for the delay in my response," the AI apologized, "The collectors attempted to seize control of the Normandy and I was forced to force them out of my systems. In retaliation, they attempted a power surge of the ship, which I rerouted to non-critical systems. It was not a malfunction, this was a trap."
Suddenly, out of nowhere, the platform they stood on disconnected from the ground and shot up into the air, taking them with it. It began to hover, gliding across the room. They were being directed further into the ship, and to their deaths. His team managed to regain their balance, having been taken off guard by the sudden departure.
"We need help, EDI," Garrus demanded.
"One moment," the AI replied. A moment later, "I have gained control of your platform. I am directing you to another part of the vessel. You must extract from this vessel with best possible speed. This ship was never crippled commander, the collectors simply faked the distress call to lure us here; power is being restored and it won't be long before the cruiser will be able to power up weapons. I recommend haste."
Just as their platform was gliding towards their destination, a similiar platform appeared and connected with theirs, and it was not empty. Four collector drones and two husks, all lead by a single captain, charged onto their platform, weapons firing sporadically. And there was their missing crew.
"Take them down!" Marcus barked as his own rifle barked to life, ripping apart the skull of one of the unlucky drones. Just as he was about to move to another target, one husk tackled him, and it wasn't a normal husk. This one had glowing eyes that were alight with a blood red glow. Now that he looked, actually, it's entire body was alight with fire, eerily familiar to how Harbinger controlled collectors. The husk screamed, and the light intensified. By instinct, he kicked the husk off of him, sending it tumbling into the captain whose beam had been ripping into Kaidan's cover. The husk's demise was followed by a terrific explosion, the creature exploding into a red inferno that consumed itself and the captain.
"Exploding husks. That's new," Garrus quipped, his rifle barking once more and taking down the other red husk before reloading. A single shotgun blast echoed through the room as Jack took down the last drone, reloading herself. Peering over, he saw that it wasn't it. Another platform approached, this time with a scion, more drones, two captains and alot more exploding husks. A joy, he thought to himself.
Seven minutes later, they arrived. They had fought four waves of collector troops to get there. As they landed, EDI spoke up once more.
"I have found information on how to safety navigate the Omega 4 Relay, along with the official location of the collector homeworld or base of operations," the AI informed them.
"Anything else?" He asked as they continued down the corridor, EDI unlocking doors for them as they moved.
"I have discovered something unusual," EDI added, "The collectors were the source of the distress signal, yet the Illusive Man could not have believed it genuine."
"Why?"
"The Illusive Man knows that turian communications contain secondary encryption. It is corrupted in the message. The Illusive Man knows this."
"How can you be sure of that?" Marcus asked. He didn't exactly trust TIM either, but why would he send them into a trap knowingly?
"I found the anomaly with Cerberus detection protocols," EDI supplied, "He wrote those himself."
Marcus felt fury pent up in him. He knew the Illusive Man was extreme, but that was over the limit. He sent them into a trap willingly and endangered his life and the lives of his crew. The life of Tali. He put her in danger because he didn't know this was officially a trap...
"That son of a bitch sent us right into collector hands!" Marcus slammed his fist against a wall in anger, "I'll give him a nice good lecture when we get back! Let's move people! Double time it!" He quickly contacted Miranda.
"Commander!"
"Miranda, what's the situation?"
"I don't know, husks just started coming out of nowhere! One minute the door's closed and the next, husks are streaming through it in an endless swarm. Jacob and I are holding them off, but we don't know for how much longer we can!"
"It was a trap Miranda, the collectors lured us here! The Illusive Man knew it was a trap, and he sent us in anyway!"
"I'm sure he-"
"Now's not the time for fucking optimism! We'll be there in five! That shuttle better be ready to leave when I get there or I'll be using my arms to fucking throw it. Shepard out." And with that, the fight for their lives began as they plowed through collector forces to get to the shuttle. Drone after drone fell, with numerous husks, including the exploding ones, along with scions, also blocking their path. Just as they were about to reach the shuttle however, a Praetorian decided to make its appearence.
"Oh, fuck me!" Zaeed cursed.
"By the goddess..." Samara exclaimed.
"Move! I'll take care of this! Get to the damn shuttle, all of you!"
His team seemed to hesitate a second before rushing forward, Marcus drawing the Praetorian's attention as his team snuck past. But two other pairs of fire joined his and he turned to see Garrus and Tali firing with him. Of course, "Go! I'll deal with this!"
"But Shepard-"
"Garrus, get your ass on that fucking shuttle! This isn't up for debate!" Marcus shouted at the turian and Garrus finally acknowledged, moving past and grabbing Tali, who wasn't budging, "No! I need to stay with Marcus! I won't leave him!"
But despite his best attempts to move her, Tali wasn't budging. Wiggling out of his old, he rejoined the fight.
"Tali, get out of here now!" Marcus barked, peppering the praetorian with fire. He couldn't keep that monster distracted forever. He tackled Tali to the ground as twin crackles of purple energy wizzed past, narrowly missing them. He stood up, helping the quarian up, "Leave. That's a damn order."
"I outrank you!" Tali shot back.
"Then as your unionmate, I order you, my love, to get the flying fuck out of here!"
"Not without you," Tali stated, tearing up, "I won't lose you again."
His features softened and he kissed her on the visor, "You know I have no intention of dying again. It sucked the first time and with a lack of you there, it'd get boring, quickly. Go, I'll be right behind you, I promise."
Hesitantly, she nodded, tapping her visor against his face and leaving with Garrus while Marcus renewed his assault against the monstrosity he faced. It finally leaped, managing to catch him off guard as he turned to retaliate. But just as it rose a leg to cut him in two, he easily grabbed it and snapped it, breaking it off as he grabbed a grenade and wedged it inside the praetorian's hanging jaw.
Leaping back just in time, he watched as the praetorian exploded in a shower of black gore, allowing him to run forward to the shuttle. But before he could reach the ramp, he heard a deep, monotone behind him, "Shepard. You cannot deny your destiny." With an exasperated sigh, he turned to see a Harbinger controlled drone charging at him, wreathing with glowing orange biotic power.
"Bite me," he said simply as he unlatched his missile launcher and lowered it over the charging drone. Before Harbinger realized this and tried to break off, the missle took off, ripping the drone apart. Harbinger's words were nothing but wind as Marcus dumped the launcher and ran down the ramp, seeing the shuttle in sight and his team waiting as they held off the collector hordes, "You cannot deny me forever, Shepard. You will submit."
He noticed Tali looking at him and he gave her his best smile, nodding to reassure her, "Everyone in! Move!" He keyed his comm, "Joker, bring up those engines! I want us to hit FTL as we land!"
"Got it, just hurry commander!" Joker said with concern, "The collector crusier's weapons are almost charged!"
Everyone swarmed into the shuttle, Marcus noticing that Miranda had claw marks on her face and a bullet wound to her side, and Jacob was coughing, Miranda explaining that a husk had stuffed it's hand into his mouth and tried to choke him. When everyone was onboard and the hatch closed, the kodiak sped off the ground, shooting outside and into the Normandy's awaiting shuttle bay. When it closed, Marcus could feel the Normandy learching as it began its escape. He rushed out of the shuttle and into the elevator, hitting the CIC deck.
Upon reaching the deck, he rushed across, Kelly gripping the railing with fear. Alarms sounded all over the ship, bracing the crew for a narrow escape. He rushed up the flight deck and stood right next to Joker's seat as the cruiser disappearing from sight. Just as they became ready for FTL, Joker learched the ship to the right, narrowly avoiding a bright, molten hot particle beam from the collector vessel. EDI's voice peaked up.
"Which destination would you like commander?"
Joker and Marcus spoke at the same time, "Anywhere that's not here!"
EDI acknowledged immediately, and the space around them distorted as they entered FTL. Marcus let out a sigh of relief, leaning back. No ship could track a ship in FTL and its destination, not even the collectors. They had only just narrowly escaped that trap and Tali had almost died trying to help him. Then he remembered who had sent them there in the first place.
"Joker...set a course for the Citadel," Marcus ordered before turning and leaving, "I've got a talk with the Illusive Man to handle."
"Tell him that I value my life and hated trapdoor spiders as a kid," Joker shouted after him. Entering through the tech lab, Marcus entered the conference room and waited for the call to connect. It took longer than usual, but eventually he connected, the Illusive Man appearing before him.
"Ah, Shepard, glad to see you-"
"You bosh'tet!"
Marcus immediately turned to see Tali, Garrus, and, to his surprise, Miranda and Jacob, entering the conference call, all with angry looks on their faces; Tali with just an angry pose and fury evident in her tone.
"Ah, Miss Zorah, Mister Vakarian, and unexpected pleasure," The Illusive Man greeted, with his shit-eating smile.
"Piss on your greetings," Garrus growled.
"Look, I understand why you're angry-"
"No you don't! If you did, you wouldn't have sent us into a trap, you bosh'tet det kazuat!" Tali hissed, staying close to Marcus. It was evident that it wasn't the sending into a trap that made her angry; it was that the life of her mate had been put in danger.
"It was necessary to get the information we needed."
"You could have told us," Marcus added.
"Telling you would only have alerted the collectors to our plan," The Illusive Man said.
"Your plan," Garrus quipped, "Our plan wouldn't involve waltzing into a known trap."
"You endangered the lives of my crew-" Marcus began, but was interrupted by TIM before he could rant.
"...and your mate, Tali'Zorah. Do not think I'm not aware of this. But this is war Shepard. Sacrifices might need to be made if we're going to win. Besides, noone was hurt."
"The potential was there," Marcus angrily snapped, "And I will not have my crew sacrificed because you need some information. I will not lose my friends because you wanted to obtain intel based on god knows what. What if the info had been useless? Would the sacrifices be useful then? Would have losing my friends...Tali...been worth it then? I don't think so. Do not think that because I fly under a Cerberus banner that you can command me. That you control me."
"Miranda, please tell Shepard that I did not risk the lives of his crew unnecessarily."
"No."
"Excuse me?" Marcus smiled at the genuine look of shock on TIM's face.
"You heard me."
"What's wrong with you?"
"Wrong with me?" Miranda repeated incredulously, "You almost got me and Jacob killed! If this is how you're going to treat me, then you can consider this my resignation. I trust you, sir. I basically herald you. But to put my life on the line as well? Are you insane? We could have died. What use are we then?"
Marcus quickly backed her up, "You claimed you brought me back so I could stop the Reapers. But how can I do that when I've been killed in a trap you knowingly sent me into. How can Cerberus help me then? How can we work together if I can't even trust you?"
"Trust was never in question," TIM snapped back cooly, "There was no love lost between us, was there? You said yourself; you'd never trust us. I'll never trust you. Trust is something you earn; you know that more than anyone. That's why I brought you back. To use that trust to build armies, fleets and defenses to prepare for the Reaper invasion and to destroy the collectors and the geth."
"How about we start that alliance without getting me killed?" Marcus deadpanned, "I can work miracles, but doing it from the grave is pushing the limit."
Miranda nodded in agreement. TIM shook his head, "I expected better from you, Miranda. You of all people."
"Funny, I thought the same of you. Don't worry, I won't resign, for now. But if you pull a stunt like that again."
"I don't regret doing it, and if I had to, I would do it again, but I'll make sure not to do it again unless the galaxy is falling apart and its absolutely necessary."
"See that you do," Garrus stated with finality.
"And you, bosh'tet," Tali pointed a finger accusingly at him, "If you ever endanger or threaten the life of my Yish'kla again, I will personally pilot a liveship and drive it so far up your ass, you'll be shitting grass. And then, I'll grab my shotgun, and give you a mouth full of grenades, one of which I'll loan to Shepard so he can blow up Cerberus while I use the rest on you. Are we clear? You don't want to wake this dragon."
"Abundantly," TIM stated, "Despite the predicament, I recommend you-" He never got to finish as the connection was severed, Marcus having ordered EDI to do so. He was surprised when it complied, but he shrugged it off and turned towards Tali, "Remind me never to piss you off."
"She's a fiesty woman," Zaeed piped up as the door opened and the squad piled in, "Remind me never to get on her bad side either. My memory is worser than yours."
"She is worthy of being my battlemaster's mate," Grunt declared.
He shook his head, moving to the end of the table, which had risen back up, "Cut the chatter people. I know you're still pissed about what the Illusive Man pulled on us and believe me, I am too, but we need to push that aside and think of the mission now. We've already ranted to him about it, so the matter ends there. We'll be heading to the Citadel so I can inform the Council of what we've learned. They need to be told. We'll also hold another temporary shore leave. These last few days have been hectic, and we all deserve some rest."
Everyone nodded before Marcus turned to the center of the console, "The show's all yours EDI."
"Thank you Shepard," the AI didn't waste a second before continuing, "I have found the approximate location of the collector homeworld based on navigational data on their vessel." With that, the galactic map popped up and a homing beacon began tracking the location. It immediately landed in the one place noone expected, and once again let everyone in bewildered shock; it landed directly on the galactic core.
"That can't be right," Kaidan questioned, "The AI must be broken or something."
"This information is genuine and has been ripped directly from the collector databanks."
"It just...can't be," Jacob pointed at the location, "The galactic core is just black holes and exploding suns. There are no habitable planets there."
Mordin shook his head, "Assuming its a planet. Could be a artificial construction. A space station protected by powerful mass effect fields and radiation shields."
Samara shook her head, "Even the collectors don't have that kind of technology."
Tali quickly added her own part, "No, but the Reapers do. They built the mass relays and the Citadel. I think something like this would be child's play for them."
"And now we know why people never return," Garrus added, "If the exploding suns don't vaporize them, then they'll be crushed by black holes."
"Its likely a safe zone exists beyond the relay," Thane added his own voice, "One that, with certain Reaper identification, the collectors can access, but other ships cannot."
"So we know where they live but we can't reach them without dying," Jack deadpanned, funnily enough, without a single curse word used.
"Its better than what we had before," Marcus assured them, "And in time, we will find out how the collectors use it. EDI, did you find anything else on those four collector ships?"
"I did," EDI supplied, "One of them has already been destroyed."
Garrus whistled, "Who the hell managed it?"
"An alliance marine by the name of James Vega," EDI explained, "He was stationed on Fehl Prime when it came under attack from the collectors and their cruiser landed. They captured all the colonists but his squad. They tried to retaliate, but this team was picked off quickly. Eventually, he was forced to choose between valuable data to stop the collectors and saving the colonists trapped on the collector cruiser, who's mass effect fields were disabled somehow and was plummeting towards the planet. He chose the intel. The ship subsequently fell to the planet and the resulting crash and explosion let a massive crater."
"And the other two?"
"One is not being used and is still docked at the collector base," the AI explained, "The other is currently performing abductions, much like the one we encountered, although it is unknown where in the galaxy it is now."
"Very well," he turned to the crew, "You are all dismissed."
"Commander," Jacob asked as the crew filed out and he was surprised when only Tali and Jacob were left in the room, "Yes, what is it?"
"Something to help with the mission," Jacob handed him a datapad, "Before we left for the collector cruiser, I discovered a way to thicken our armor so it can withstand more punishment. Not only would it, in theory, be able to withstand an assault from a collector ship's particle cannon, but it might just withstand a thanix blast from a Reaper. Eggheads are calling it Silaris Armor. It's prototype technology, but my agent says Cerberus can attain it for the Normandy. We can have it equipped when we get the thanix cannon."
"Sounds good," Marcus complimented before Jacob saluted and left.
"I have something similiar," Tali supplied, handing him her own datapad, "Remember in our cabin, when I said I was working on engineering readouts? I lied. Its not armor or a fancy cannon, but its something to strengthen our shields. I'll save you the technological details, but it will basically fortify our shields to withstand more punishment and allow us to impact other objects without taking too much damage. I've called it Cyclonic Barrier Technology. I came up with it myself. Took me two years to finalize the plans for it though. I've already sent it to Daro'Xen so it can be constructed and once finalized, the Moreh will install it on the Normandy. What do you think?"
"I think you're the most intelligent and brilliant woman I've ever met," Marcus embraced her and kissed the top of her hood before letting go, "Let's go get some rest."
Tali pushed him away playfully, "No can do. Work in engineering to be done. Meet you in a few hours though." She winked at him and left, and Marcus could only imagine the smug grin behind that opaque visor of hers.
"That's where it all went downhill for 'ol llusive, wasn't it?"
- Garrus Vakarian.
"Started there, for sure, but wasn't where it ended."
- Marcus Shepard.
"So next?"
- Tali'Shepard pav Rannoch.
"Sorry to bore you, but this is just nice fluff my friends. But hey, your my wife, and your my brother, so I'm sure you'll listen."
- Marcus Shepard.
A/N:
REVIEWS! THEY HAVE INCREASED, BUT I NEED MORE! YES GUESTS, EVEN YOU ARE NEEDED! REVIEW! DON'T JUST READ. REVIEW!
Oh, oops, I seem to have left caps lock on. Anyhow, this story is getting closer to the end. Won't be for a while yet, but the end is in sight, I promise you that. Even if you have to look through binoculars to make it out. Hope you enjoyed this chapter! I always wanted Tali to put the Illusive Man in his place. I LOVE FANFICTION!
I'm also writing my first fiction called 'Earth Schism' on FictionPress, mostly inspired by Game of Thrones. Won't be released for a while (Soon, I might release the basic backstory/story introductory credits, much like the mass effect summary at the start of each game) but I still need support for it. I'm looking forward to it, and I hope you guys do to, if you're into the whole...fantasy, type...thing.
Anyway, Prophecy Chapter 34 will be around soon! For now, Taliho!
Ha! Get it? Tali...ho? AHAHAHAHAHA I'M FUNNY!