Hello everyone! First of all, sorry for the long delay! I hoped I could finish this earlier, but RL has a tendency of being a bitch. I've had tons of issues keeping me away from writing, like a throat infection and then the approaching item inventory in the store im working in (We'll have to count all the items we have left, which is like, over 2000 items just for MY sector, not the whole store) so... I've been kept awfully busy (or in the case of my throat infection, feeling like shit).
Either way, I finally found some time to finish writing this chapter, and the results are here, after 7 constant hours of writing, I finally finished this thing after a major writers block that plagued me for this afternoon. But... I finished it, and I'm immensely happy about it! As you probably found out by now, I loath the Noveria mission, mostly because of the length. it's the longest mission in the game and with the most amount of walking involved!
Anyway, enough of my ramblings, here is the new chapter! Enjoy! :D
"Get away get away get away!" I repeat the mantra to myself and I continue to shoot the charging rachi drone. The thing is bloody fast and it soaks up the bullets as if it doesn't care! Just several meters away from me it finally collapses and I turn my aim to another drone who keeps spitting acid projectile vomit at me from a distance. My rifle is getting awfully close to overheating and I reaaally don't like this place.
Yeah, I'm in a bad mood.
Wrex is more than fine handling himself, though I'm willing to bet he's rather frustrated by the horde of green bugs that keep trying to explode on him. I'm actually glad that they prefer the krogan. The last thing I need is exploding bugs to deal with. I have enough with the acid spitting giant bugs wanting a bite out of me.
Okay, I have the feeling these things have no vital organs or something, because it takes an awful lot of bullets to take one down, so I'll aim for something they actually need on the outside, like their mouths. The distant drone opens his mouth to spit at me again, and I in turn open fire. I'm not entirely sure if I did score a hit in the mouth, or if I hit the face – is it even a face? – but it did stop it from spitting at me again. It starts thrashing on the ground, letting out that awful high-pitched shriek and leaving it a perfectly easy target. The main problem with the rachni is that they constantly move, and most of the time rather erratically. Hard to hit something important that way, not to mention their actual heads are rather small in comparison with their body. With two bursts the bug finally stops moving.
At that moment another drone jumps out from who knows where and charges Wrex, probably feeling that the krogan was the bigger threat out of the two of us. I correct my aim and open fire, but just after a second my rifle stops firing, steam starts rising from it and the OH alarm starts blaring on my HUD. Goddammit! They're not giving me any time to cool down! "Wrex!" I yell out in warning, because Wrex is not looking at the thing.
To my relief, Wrex turns to look at me and sees the charging drone. His biotic barrier ripples, violent waves appearing on the surface, and with a short grunt and a blue pules, he sends the rachni drone flying back and off the roof. It's still shrieking as it disappears over the railing.
Sadly, I'm looking after the flying drone, so I'm taken entirely by surprise when something sweeps my legs right under me. I land on the floor with a surprised yelp and at that moment the reason I tripped jumped right on top of me with a high-pitched roar.. With a panicked yell – more than justified as far as I'm concerned, considering I have a gigantic bug on top of me – I raise my rifle and and jam it forward, to somehow push the thing away. By pure luck, or misfortune if you look at it in another way, I jam the rifle right into the drone's mouth. Not wasting the perfect opportunity presented, I pull the trigger... and nothing happens. Still overheated, as the HUD tells me. Damn, I really need to pay more attention to the friggin' thing. The drone apparently didn't like the piece of metal that I rammed down it's mouth and with a powerful tug, yanks the rifle out of my hand and spits it out to the side and turns to me.
Fuck. I'm weaponless and I won't reach my gun in time. I doubt my knife will do me any good here and I honestly don't think it will care that much if I punch it. I'm screwed. The drone rears back... and flies right off of me with a loud boom from a familiar shotgun.
"Get up and stop yelling!" He barks out, kicking my rifle over to me before turning to the remaining rachni on the roof.
What? I... oh, I guess I was screaming the whole time. Jesus fucking Christ. Hands down, this was the scariest experience I've had in this world yet. My heart is beating so fast it's almost painful. I'm out of breathe and my hands are shaking slightly, and I'm sure it has nothing to do with the cold. I hastily and shakily pick up my rifle and get back on my feet. I am never letting this thing leave my hands. It doesn't matter that it's coated with this icky rachni mouth slime, it's the most priceless thing I have at the moment. I never want to feel that way again.
Thankfully, Wrex takes care of whatever was left from the rachni. The whole place is littered with dead bugs all over the place and the only thing I can hear is the wind, Wrex's heavy footsteps and the pounding of my heart. I still don't lower my weapon though, considering the things have the tendency to jump out of fucking nowhere.
Okay... what are we supposed to do here? Let's see... ah! Here's the Mira terminal! I walk over to it, still looking around for anything with more than two legs, and inspect what's wrong with the thing. It seems that it's just... off. Huh, such a simple thing can cause the whole place to be shut down. I punch in the buttons that should turn it on and... nothing happens. "What's wrong with this thing?" Wrex asks me as he stops beside me.
"I have no idea," I say, more to myself than to Wrex, and try to turn on the thing again. Once more, the thing is unresponsive. Huh, well, I might as well try the Russian method.
I ball up my fist and bang it on top of the terminal and lo and behold, the terminal lights up like a Christmas tree and Mira's hologram pops up! "Connection restored!" she announces. Would you look at that. It actually worked! "Processing new data. User alert! Unable to connect to hot lab facilities.
"Well, that's Shepard's job to fix that, not mine," I say with a shrug. "I have no idea how to do that. Uh... see you later," I awkwardly say to the hologram. Why am I even talking to her?
"Logging you out," she responds and shuts down.
"Let's go back. I hope Shepard is done with the reactor," I say, turning to Wrex.
Wrex just turns around and starts walking back towards the elevator without saying anything. Then again, there isn't much to say here anyway. With a shrug, I wordlessly follow him. Just as we reach the door Wrex grunts out what sounds like a short chuckle. "Hmpf, you scream like a girl."
I turn my head at him, my helmet hiding my obviously indignant expression. "What? No I did not!"
Sadly, Shepard is not there when we arrive back to Mira's mainframe. On the way down I completely gave up trying to convince Wrex that I didn't scream like a girl. Because I didn't. My screams are manly. Or at least manly-ish. I don't exactly have a deep voice to begin with.
We walk into the main corridor, since waiting for Shepard there seems like a better idea, but sadly, my oddly failing memory once again betrays me. Not more than three steps into the room, a floor grate on the other side literally flies up to crash against the ceiling and a rachni, as I like to call it, 'pops out' into the open. With another panicked yelp I open fire at the thing before I could even turn to us. I'm not even bothering to shoot with short bursts. I'm going full auto on this motherfucker! This thing needs. to. Die!
The drone falls after two seconds of soaking bullets and silently drops down to the hole it entered through. I'm slightly out of breathe, mostly because I hate jump scares, and these assholes are master in it. I turn to Wrex and I see him staring at me like I'm an idiot. In fact, he didn't even fire his weapon! "See?" he says. "you screamed like a girl again."
What? Oh, fuck you Wrex. Fuck you. I'll be lucky to leave this place without a goddamned phobia! Exactly at that moment a door slides open and with a sharp intake of breath I turn around, my weapon already raised and ready to fire, and see Shepard and the others standing there, looking mildly surprised to see me aiming a weapon at them. "Are we interrupting something?" she asks with a raised eyebrow.
With a grunt I lower my weapon and sigh at the fact that we still have a crapload of rachni to go through. "I fucking abhor bugs!" I half growl half yell at the ceiling, balling up my free hand into a fist. I probably look a bit dramatic there, if I have to say it.
"You look like an idiot," Wrex remarks monotonously.
Oh, thanks Wrex. You're an ass.
"Fucking rachni," I say. If I didn't wear my helmet, I would spit on the ground just for emphasis.
"Wait... rachni?" Shepard asks, looking at me suspiciously.
Oh. Shit.
Fuck! I opened my mouth and said something I really shouldn't know! Fuck! Think think think! "Uh, yeah. I assume these are rachni. I've seen illustrations and pictures on the extranet," I say. I hope there really are pictures on the extranet, since it was here since... ever!. Otherwise I'm screwed.
"The rachni are extinct. The krogan wiped them out," Kaidan points out.
Yeah Kaidan, thanks for pointing out the obvious. "Well, I thought the same. At first I thought it was just some kind of bug that just looks the same, but all the information I've read about them matches these one..." I say, trailing off. Hopefully someone will pick off from where I left the conversation.
"Apparently, not all of them were wiped out," Shepard summarizes. Ah, thank you Shepard! My cover is still on, I hope. After all, there are probably millions of people who read about the rachni, so there's nothing suspicious about this, right? The Commander turns to Wrex, who oddly enough remained quiet. "Any input?"
"It's rachni. I hoped it was something else, but it's rachni alright. And I want to know who brought them back," he says, more like growl the last part and I see him pointedly looking at Liara. Yeah... it's pretty obvious who brought them back, and from Liara's expression, she knows it.
"Alright, the reactor is back online, so we can go and ask Benezia personally what the hell was she thinking," Shepard says, breaking the sudden tension between Liara and Wrex.
"Yeah," I join in. "the faster we get out of here, the less phobias I'll get!" I point out, earning amused looks from Shepard and Kaidan.
With that we move on, thankfully without any arguments or fights between our two alien teammates. The rest of the way is thankfully uneventful, other than a crowded elevator ride, until we reach a locked door. Since the door right beside it is open, we walk inside and find a small room with a glass window, showing a short corridor with several drones trapped inside. "Huh, they're locked in.
"The door could be finessed. It appears that the trams to the subsidiary stations are beyond it," Liara adds in.
A sudden racked behind us causes everyone to turn around. Again, I turn around with a loud yelp to see another drone popping out of a wall grate. As quickly it jumped out to scare me, even faster it was wrapped in a biotic field and sent flying into the wall, where everyone fires at it. "Goddammit!" I growl out. "Now they're coming through the goddamn walls!" I finish with an angry yell. "Fuck it. I want to get out of here. I quit. I don't want to play anymore."
"Uh, you're losing it," Shepard points out awkwardly, looking at me as if I grew a second head.
"Shepard, I really don't like bugs, and this place is making me like them even less!"
"Okay, okay! I'll handle the bugs, and you stay behind me. I'll protect you from the big nasty bugs," she assures me with utter seriousness.
Uhm... I'm not entirely sure if she's making fun of me, or if she's actually serious about it.
A snicker from Kaidan makes me suspect it's the former. I make sure to give him my biggest glare.
"Get on with it," Wrex interrupts with a huge roll of his eyes. "we don't have all day."
"Yeah," Shepard agrees, looking more amused than she should be. Damn team, laughing at the expense of my mental state. "Uh, Kaidan, see if you can do something about these guys."
Kaidan does exactly that. He checks out the terminals and after several seconds opens a panel on the large console and starts tinkering inside. After several minutes he closes it and stands up with a smile. "There, that should do it," he says, visibly pleased with himself, and pushes several buttons. Without warning whatsoever, white-hot fires fill the chamber behind the glass and high-pitches screams fill the place. The screams die out in no longer than a second but fires still rage on. Then, without warning again, the fires just stop, leaving a smoke filled room.
"Whoa..." I slowly say, looking into the room. The only thing that's left from the rachni are just some ashes scattered around the room. Shit, it's not even that much ashes! "That was awesome," I conclude.
"Indeed it was," Shepard agrees with a green. "And you say I'm the one who makes things explode."
"Ah, but this was intentional," Kaidan shoots back. "When you do something, explosions are unintentional, most of the time at least."
And here they go again...
Just like in the game, the tram ride is uneventful. Sadly, it took us five minutes to reach there and I'm unsure if I'd prefer a loading screen or the five minutes of listening to Wrex recount how I scream like a girl every time a rachni shows up. Thankfully, we arrive to our destination sooner than I expected and I'm the first one to get out.
We creep through the empty station, carefully inspecting every dark corner and every movable surface in our sight. The damn bugs could jump out of everywhere! Thankfully, that doesn't happen and we reach the end of the station without any further mental damage for me. Well, it look like we don't have much choice about where we gonna go, since only one door is open.
Hm... right about now we're going to meet the survivors if I remember correctly. We ignore the second locked door and go for the elevator. One elevator ride later we come upon a hastily constructed barricade, where a trio of security guards have their weapons aimed at us. "Stand down!" he orders his guys once they see we're not rachni, which should've taken him less than a second to figure out. "Sorry, we couldn't be sure what was on the tram," he apologizes. Great, bugs that can operate trams, just what I need.
"I'd be upset if they fired," Shepard replies with a shrug. Well, considering I aimed my weapon at her not ten minutes ago and she doesn't seem to mind at the slightest, I'd believe her.
"Even hopped up on stims, my people know the rule. Two legs good, four legs bad," the guy continues. "Look, you're human and that's enough that I won't shoot, but I'd like to know who you are."
"Reasonable," Shepard agrees. "I'm Commander Shepard. I'm a Spectre."
The captain's eyebrows shoot up. "Huh. I won't look a heavily-armed horse in the mouth," he says with a shrug. "The aliens overran the hot labs last week. Only Han Olar got out, and he ain't all there anymore. The first we knew, the bastards were clawing into my command post. We had a lot more staff then," he says solemnly.
If I'm right, Shepard looks slightly impressed, and her next word prove it. "You were taken by surprise and had civilians to look after. You did a good job, Captain."
"Yeah?" he snort. "Sure as hell doesn't feel like it. The board sent an asari to clean up the mess. She went to the hot labs yesterday. We haven't heard from her since."
"Benezia," Shepard concludes. "Is she still there?"
"I don't know," he shrugs. "I don't see what one person could do."
"A matriarch has the skill to keep herself alive for a long time," Liara points out helpfully. I don't doubt that, though it would've been awkward if we'd arrive and find Benezia dead. That would really screw up our plans.
"There's an emergency elevator out by the trams," he pulls out a small card from a pocket. "This card will let you activate it. It can take you down to the hot labs," he says, and at this moment I remember that he's actually trying to get us killed. "Oh, and if you need any first aid, Dr. Cohen is downstairs in the med bay."
"Alright, I'll get going. I got work to do."
"Yeah I hear th-" he stops and looks around, almost in panic. Everyone falls silent as we try to hear whatever the captain is hearing. And then I hear it too, and I don't like it one bit. To make my point, I raise my rifle and turn around, to make sure the little fuckers won't jump scare from behind me. "Hell, man the perimeter!" the captain yells and his men immediately take their positions.
And not a second too soon. A floor grate flying up and a pair of rachni soldiers jump out right into our fire. A biotic pulse from Liara and Wrex send them flying into the wall, which keeps the immobilized and easy targets. In just a few seconds the rachni have enough holes in them to finally die.
The captain sighs in relief. "Thanks for the help. Every few hours a group comes up the tram tunnels. It's actually better since we locked down the elevator."
"No problem," Shepard replies with a small smile.
"I don't know why they keep throwing themselves against our defenses. Even animals should learn not to stick their noses where it hurts."
Hm, technically, they don't have noses so this doesn't really apply, but I'll let it slide for now.
"Alright, let's see what we can do here," Shepard says to us and leads us into the facility.
Once we're inside we can see the survivors. Most of them are giving us suspicious looks, probably since we're new faces here, but the rest are more than comfortable ignoring us... at least those conscious enough to know that we're here. Shepard decides to be the good Samaritan again and asks around about what caused the whole incident. Since I already know the whole story, or at least remember enough of it, I don't really listen or pay attention. Eventually Shepard decides to go to the med bay, since, as she said, acid burns are a bitch, and I have to agree with her. I already used to medigel applications for a nasty burn on my left wrist and a couple of burns on my right leg from an acid spit that I narrowly dodged, but not completely.
I still have two more medigel applications left, but having more would be nice, considering we have geth and asari commandos to deal with, not to mention the rachni.
The med bay seems a bit busy though. All the beds are occupied, and the single healthy person in there looks like he's going to have a nervous breakdown soon. "What? What do you want?" he asks rudely when he sees us.
"Sorry, didn't mean to bother you," Shepard replies defensively.
The doctor sighs and shakes his head. "No, you did nothing wrong. I'm just... distracted."
"What happened to these people?" Shepard asks, looking at one of the beds, occupied by a moaning patient.
"They're suffering from a toxin. There was an accident. I... I have a non-disclosure agreement. I shouldn't discuss it with anyone outside the company."
"But you're going to, because I might be able to help," and here Shepard decides to help for no apparent reason. Ugh, and she even has the time to complain when people ask for her help?
Dr. Cohen thinks about it for a couple of seconds before he replies. "I'd like to think the company finds our lives more valuable than their secrets. You know Mira? The VI for Peak 15? She handles the safety protocols for our experiments here."
"We reactivated her on our way here," Shepard says with a nod.
"That was you?" he asks with a grateful smile. "I'm grateful. Until she came online the automatic equipment wouldn't work. We lost the connection to Mira in the middle of an experiment and the quarantine failed. These three were exposed to a toxin, something we were working on."
"Hey, I need more detail if you want me to help. What you say won't leave this room," Shepard says, crossing her arms in front of her. "You can trust me on that."
"It's a bio-weapon. Based on an exotic life-form discovered in the frontier. They wanted something that could kill the creature. But there was no profit in something that kill one species on the frontier. We kept working, adapting it to affect more species," he explains solemnly. Well, great job there. You bio-weapon works on humans too. "Thoros-B is highly infectious, but cant pass on from one person to another. Like a biowar attack without a pandemic spread."
"Do you imagine that distinction makes it ethical?" Liara snaps into the conversation like a whip. And Dr. Cohen looks like he was struck with a whip too. He jerks back at her words but then shakes his head.
"Militaries, Governments – they'll get this kind of weapon one way or another. We're trying to limit the damage. I know you can't see that."
"There's a reason the Citadel Conventions forbid bioweapons, Doctor," Shepard says, not looking impressed at the slightest.
I'm not sure what this says about me, but I can understand his reasoning. I don't believe that what they did here was right, but I can see what he means. Some groups wouldn't care about how it spreads. As long does it's job, its a success, even if they have to unleash a goddamned plague.
"I didn't expect you'd understand. Our equipment and notes are locked in the quarantine labs. Captain Ventralis doesn't want to risk more contamination."
"I'll talk to him. Maybe I'll convince him to let me help," Shepard suggests.
"I can't ask you to do anything officially, but if you can do anything... I'd appreciate it."
"Oh, and we'll grab some medigel, if that's alright with you," Shepard asks in an afterthought. I think she forgot about our original purpose in coming here...
"Go ahead, you'll need it more than me, if you're planning on stopping this mess from getting worse."
Okay, it seems that we're going back to the captain to ask permission to help. Just great. As if we didn't have enough 'walking around' by now. Well, at least this place isn't so big, so it shouldn't take so long.
"Something you need?" Ventralis asks when we approaching him again.
"I've heard about the problems in the quarantine labs. I want to recover the toxin cure," Shepard says, straight to the point as always.
"God, I wish we could help those guys. I really do, but we can't risk contamination now."
Oddly, Shepard smirks at that. "We're not part of your defense plans. We're consuming extra rations, extra medigel..." she trails off and Ventralis gets what Shepard is going for.
"Yeah, but you also have extra guns," he points out. Good point, actually. Ventralis sighs. "Alright. You want to gamble with your life, you're not under my command. I'll have the guard let you in, but he'll lock the door behind you. He'll run a full scan before he'll let you out. If there are any anomalies, you stay there," he says in a tone that leaves no room for arguments.
"that's reasonable," Shepard agrees with his conditions.
"I'll radio ahead to let the guard know. Good luck."
Well, that takes care of it. How nice of him. Let's cure those guys! However, Shepard is not heading back, for some reason. "Alex," She turns to me.
Oh no... I think I know what she's planning. "You're not splitting us up, are you?" I ask hopefully.
She gives me an apologetic smile. "Yep. I am," she confirms. "Take Liara with you and deal with the cure. I'll head down to the hot labs."
Ugh, at least I don't have to deal with the rachni... but Ventralis is going to ambush her on the way out. I have no idea how to warn her, especially when Ventralis is standing in the same room with us. "Okay... good luck, I guess," I say. She can deal with Ventralis, I'm sure.
And with that, Shepard and the rest of the team head to the hot labs, leaving me and Liara to deal with the toxin. Silently, we head back. We're quiet for a minute or so and eventually I decide to break the silence. "How are you holding up?" I ask.
"Hm?" she looks at me questioningly.
"How are you feeling?" I rephrase my question. "Your mother is... involved in this somehow."
"I want to believe that she isn't, but I can't deny it. I just want to know why is doing all this."
"Well, you remember what we were told on Feros," I try to cheer her up, or at least somehow make her feel better about the whole situation. "Saren has a mind-controlling ship. Perhaps she's simply... not in control of herself?" I suggest.
"Perhaps. But that changes nothing. She is still responsible, and still on Saren's side," she replies sadly.
Well, this just... sucks. "We'll... find out soon enough," I slowly say.
It doesn't take us long to reach our destination and the guard let's us in without any fuss. "Okay, I have no idea what we're doing," I admit.
"Don't worry about it," Liara says, inspecting the desk, more accurately, the computer. "As Dr. Cohen said, we just have to follow these notes," she says, opening the correct file, which happened to be the research notes.
I look over her shoulder to see what they say. "Four chemicals... maximum and minimum amounts," I mutter to myself. "Well, that's pretty straightforward."
"Yes," she agrees. "There are further instructions here. We just have to follow these notes and it should be simple enough," she walks over to the work station and begins pressing buttons... while I'm just standing here like a piece of decoration. Liara's doing all the work and... well, I'm not going to complain. She has less chances of screwing up than I do, since it seems she actually knows what she's doing. The console makes a gentle ping, breaking me out of my thoughts. "Done," Liara says.
Huh, and that's it? They were afraid of going into this place for just five minutes? That's pretty sad, considering lives were at stake here. The sound of the door being opened makes me whip around to see an asari and a couple of geth enter the room, their weapons already poised to shoot. Fuck! I totally forgot about her! Shit, shit shit! My rifle is holstered on my back and there's no way I can reach for it in time. My pistol on the other hand...
"Your mission ends here," she states with finality.
"Uh, I think you got the wrong person," I slowly point out. "Shepard's down in the hot labs."
"I know. I'll take care of her once I'm done with y-" she begins but I don't let her finish. Bad guys always love to talk, so I'll use this as a distraction. I reach down for my pistol and pull it free. Sadly, she's faster than me and I eat a bright blue biotic push to the face.
I hit the wall with a grunt – I really love my helmet, since otherwise my head would be paste on the wall by now – and I swear I felt something crack inside when I land on the floor. Thankfully, she launched me over the table, so I have some cover to protect me from gunfire. I hope Liara's doing better than me. The sound of metal being crushed let's me know that she's doing fine. I shake my head to clear my swimming vision and stand up, handgun ready to fire.
One of the geth was lying in the corner of the room, it's upper torso utterly crushed, while the other geth and the asari were trying to shoot down Liara, who took cover behind a second desk. Apparently, the asari commando thought that the biotic attack was enough to finish me, but I'm going to prove her wrong.
Sadly, my aim is shittier, probably from the way I hit the wall, so I don't score a headshot the way I planned to. The first shot misses the asari entirely and only serves to get her attention, but the second one hits her square in the neck, or would've if her shield didn't block it. But it still served an important role, because now Liara had an opening which she uses to launch a biotic attack, sending the second geth crashing against the wall. Considering the geth was nearly broken apart by the force of the impact, I'm very glad that I didn't get hit by Liara's attack and I can safely say that Liara is a much stronger biotic than this random asari commando.
Now left alone against the two of us, it probably occurred to her how utterly screwed she are. Judging by the startled expression on her face, I'd say she knows exactly how screwed she are. I continue pulling the trigger, letting my shields soak her return fire, and Liara quickly joined me. Against our combined firepower, her shields stood no chance. As soon as the shields winked out of existence, the mass accelerator rounds tore into her body and she falls to the floor with a pained yelp.
We stop firing at this point, but don't lower our weapons. I slowly walk around the table and nudge her with my foot. Well, she's definitely dead. I doubt anyone can play dead this convincingly. "Are you okay?" I ask, slightly out of breath.
"I should be asking you the same question," she replies, holstering her weapon and checking to see if the cure was damaged.
I move my body around and wince when I feel some pain from my left side. Yeah, I think I cracked something there. "Nothing serious," I say. "I'll be fine after a short rest."
"Good. I was worried when she threw you. Biotics are dangerous opponents."
"No shit," I mutter to myself with another wince. Yeah, definitely something damaged there. Can't lean to the left without feeling pain. "Let's go to Dr. Cohen. We'll give him the cure and I want to know if he had anything to do with this."
With a nod, Liara pick up the cure from the console and we head outside. Right outside of the door we see the guard, with a bullet hole in his forehead. Damn, what a way to go. He probably had no idea what was going on. Movement ahead of us cause me to reach for my gun but I quickly stop when I see that it's just a volus. He comes to a stop in front of us and points to a corridor on the other side of the room. "They came out of there," he says. Oh. That's rather... helpful. Never expected to encounter that on this planet.
I look at that corridor again and see the red glow of a locked door. "It's locked. How do I get inside?" I ask.
"A team lead would have access. Like Dr. Cohen," he supplies helpfully.
"That's where we're going. Thanks!" I say with a smile and turn to Liara. "Let's go."
The sad thing about the future is that everything is now mechanized. Why sad? Because I really wanted to kick the door open, but I can't. So I just push the button and the door slides open anticlimactically. "Dr. Cohen!" I call out as I enter inside. "Should I punch your face in or just shoot you now to save time?" I ask. I honestly don't remember much of this part of the mission, so I have no idea if he really did set me up or if it's just a coincidence. Either way, I get to be a threatening badass, so I might as well give it my best.
He looks utterly confused. Either he did nothing, or he's a very good actor, 'cause that confusion is almost genuine. "What? What are you talking about?"
"We were ambushed in the lab you sent us to," I say.
"You were attacked?" he asks in shock. "I – I don't know anything about that! I hate conflict! I never even fired anyone! I have my receptionist do it. Look, the guard. They've been more on edge since you got here. I think they were expecting you," he explains. Hm, that's actually some helpful information. Not for me, but for Liara, since I already knew this. "There are more labs in the back. The guards wont even let me back there. Just people with 'Clearance'."
"Thanks for the heads up then. Now I know who we need to talk with," I emphasize the word 'talk' by cracking my knuckles. I know I probably look silly, but I got the point across.
"I don't want to get involved in this. I'm just trying to save my friends," Dr. Cohen says tiredly.
"Speaking of that..." I say, motioning to Liara to hand him the cure.
"Let me see that phial," he inspects it for a couple of seconds, humming in thought. "An extension on Phelps' work? I thought he was on the right track..." he then breaks into the big smile. "I can't thank you enough. God, what a cliché. You saved their lives, you know that?"
I scratch my stubble sheepishly. Wow, I'm unused to being thanked like this. "Heh, you can thank me by getting me into the maintenance areas," I say with a pointed look.
He scrunches his brow at that. "You're not supposed to go back there... but I guess there's nothing to hurt. Here's my pass. Just... don't tell the guards," he says with a small smile, handing me his pass.
"Good, thank you very much, Doctor."
Now, we wait for Shepard and then go to have a little talk with Benezia.
"I'm starting to hate this planet," Shepard says as she spots us by the door to the maintenance area.
"You and me both, Shepard. You and me both," I reply. "What happened?"
"The hot labs were not as fun as I expected it to be. As soon as we got out Ventralis tried to kill us."
"Welcome to the club! An asari with some geth tried to kill us while we were in the quarantine labs," I say casually, getting a raised eyebrow from Shepard.
"I'm starting to miss Port Hanshan," Kaidan remarks while rubbing his temples. "Less assassination attempts back there."
"Ah, but here there are some helpful people," I say with a large grin, showing them Dr. Cohen's pass. "I know where the geth came from, and I have the means to open the door," I say, getting a surprised look from Shepard.
"Lovely!" she says, snatching the pass from my hand. "Good job. Now let's get this over with before anyone else tries to kill us."
And with that we head into the maintenance area. We move through the corridor until we reach an odd cave-like place. I have to wonder why the maintenance area is in a cave though. From around the bend a rachni soldier pops out but we quickly dispatch it before it could even spit at us. Other than that, nothing else stands in our way. The whole area is deserted, as far as I'm concerned.
Soon enough we reach our destination. Shepard opens the last door we enter the largest room yet. And there, on top of the stairs set in the middle of the room, stands a lone asari, wearing black clothes and a hat that would've looked funny if the situation was different. The thing that caught my attention though is the huge glass container holding the biggest bug in existence. I shudder just by looking at it.
"You do not know the privilege of being a mother. There is power in creation. To shape a life. Turn it towards happiness or despair," she speaks without looking at us. "Her children were to be ours. Raised to hunt and slay Saren's enemies," now she fully turns to us, glaring at Shepard. "I won't be moved by sympathy. No matter who you bring into this confrontation," she finishes, casting a short glace at Liara.
Shepard simply frowns. "Liara's here because she wanted to be here, not because I asked her to."
"Indeed?" she asks, looking at Liara now. "What have you told her about me, Liara?"
"What could I say, mother?" she asks back, stepping forward. "That you're insane? Evil? Should I explain how to kill you? What could I say?"
Benezia steps forward to the edge of the stairs. "Have you face an asari commando unit before? Few humans have."
"I can't believe you'd kill your own daughter," Shepard says with some amount of disgust.
"I now realize I should have been stricter with her," she says and without any warning, she launches her biotic attack. We all move out of the way, but there was no need since the matriarch was aiming solely at Shepard. Shepard froze in place, locked in a biotic stasis. As soon as that happens, the doors in each corner open and asari commando accompanied by geth units pour into the room.
With an angry growl, Shepard literally breaks through the stasis with a small shockwave – which honestly looked awesome – and glares at the matriarch, biotic energy wrapped around her form.
A bullet whizzes over my head and I'm forced to tear my eyes off the sight of Shepard and turn my attention to the asari commando that are attacking us. I raise my rifle and open fire. By sheer luck, Kaiden decided to send an overload on the same asari, so the first burst meets no resistance and easily takes her out. I'm kinda glad these asari prefer to wear these form-hugging suits, because they offer no protection whatsoever. Without their shields, it's easy to kill them.
Two more geth unit walk into the room to our right and I turn around to focus my fire on them. There's not much cover for me, or any of us for that matter, so I crouch near the floor behind Kaidan and try to make myself a smaller target. "Kaidan!" I bark out, loading an Overload with my omni-tool. He sends me a questioning glance from where he sat behind the small railing. "The right one!" I say and he gives me a nod of understanding. I stand up and send my overload at the right geth and a second later Kaidan stands form cover and nails the now-unshielded geth right in the flashlight.
Hah! Now that's teamwork! Now for the other one! I take my aim but a roar from behind me makes me pause, just enough for our relatively friendly krogan to come rushing past me. The geth tries to shoot him down, but with Wrex's biotic barrier protecting him, and the fact that Wrex was a krogan, Wrex could care less. Wrex slams the butt of his shotgun into the geth's head and with the krogan's considerable strength, not to mention he had a running start, it's enough to literally shatter the geth's head to pieces. At that moment, another geth comes running into the chamber... right into Wrex's shotgun barrel. A deafening boom later, the geth fell down to the floor in two pieces.
I risk to take a glance at how Shepard and Liara were doing and to my surprise, they somehow got themselves to the other side of the room, where they are biotically tearing apart several asari commando and a couple of geth units. I've never seen Shepard this pissed off before. She barely even uses her gun! She either sends them flying into the walls, or she literally breaks them apart with her biotic close combat skills, and whatever she leaves or misses, Liara finishes off.
Another asari and one more geth come at us through the door, forcing me to return my attention to our side. The asari gets the worse deal, as far as I'm concerned, since she got two biotic pushes at the same time from Wrex and Kaidan. She flies through the air and hits the wall with a smack, leaving a considerable-sized blood splatter after her. Yeah, she definitely didn't survive that, and if she did, she won't be getting up anytime soon. The two geth open fire but I'm ready for them. I load up another overload and launch it on the one I pick to die. It's stumbles as it starts emitting sparks and I pull the trigger for a longer-than-usual burst of fire, which nails the geth in the right places, bringing it down. The second geth didn't fare any better, getting crushed by the combined biotics of Kaidan and Wrex.
And just like that, suddenly no one else is coming to fight us. I look around and see that yes, all the geth and asari commando are dead, and it seems that there aren't going to be any reinforcements. It's just us, and Benezia. I try to find Shepard and Liara and I spot them on top of the elevated platform, already facing Benezia. Wrex and Kaidan see that too and we quickly run over to them.
"...Saren is unstoppable. My mind is filled with his light. Everything is clear," I hear her say as we approach.
I finally clear the last step and I see Shepard standing in front of Benezia, pistol raised and pointed at the matriarch. "The rachni didn't cooperate with you. Why should I?" she asks.
"I will not betray him. You will... you..." here she grimaces and groans, holding her head as if in pain. And then it just stops and she looks at Shepard with sudden urgency and clarity. "You must listen. Saren still whispers in my mind. I can fight his compulsions. Briefly. But the indoctrination is strong."
Shepard narrows her eyes. "Why are you able to break free of his control now?"
"I sealed a part of my mind away from the indoctrination. Saving it for a moment when I could help destroy him. It will not last long."
"So you could turn on me again," Shepard concludes.
"Yes. But it would not be my will, Shepard," she openly admits. "people are not themselves around Saren. You come to idolize him. Worship him. You would do anything for him. The key is Sovereign, his flagship. It is a dreadnought of incredible size and its power is extraordinary."
"Sovereign's not like other ships. Where did it come from?"
"I cannot say. The geth did not build it. It's technology is far more advanced than that of any known species. The longer you stay aboard, the more Saren's will seems correct. You sit at his feet and smile as his words pour into you. It is subtle at first. I thought I was strong enough to resist. Instead I became a willing tool, eager to serve. He sent me here to find the location of the Mu Relay. It's position was lost thousands of years ago."
"Someone on Noveria found it?" Shepard asks skeptically.
"Two-thousand years ago, the rachni inhabited that region of our galaxy. They discovered the relay. The rachni can share memories across generations. Queens inherit the knowledge of their mothers. I took the location of the relay from the queens mind. I was no gentle," she says regretfully.
"You can still make it right. Give me the information," Shepard says, finally lowering her gun, but I note that he finger is still on the trigger.
"I was not myself, but- I should've been stronger. I transcribed the data to an OSD. Take it. Please," she pleads, handing an OSD to Shepard.
"Knowing the relay's coordinates is not enough," Liara points out. "Do you know where he planned to go from there?"
Benezia shakes her head sadly. "Saren wouldn't tell me his destination. But you must find out quickly. I transmitted the coordinates to him before you arrived. You have to stop... me," she starts grimacing again, wincing with every word. "I cant- his teeth are at my ear. Fingers on my spine. You should- uh, you should-" Benezia struggles to say, stepping back away from us.
"Mother, I- Don't leave! Fight him!" Liara pleads desperately and Shepard raises her pistol again.
Benezia straightens herself and turns to look at Liara with tear-filled eyes. "You've always made me proud, Liara," she says and then falls quiet. But then biotic energies slowly wrap around the matriarch and she fully turns to us filled with rage. "Die!"
"I'm sorry," I hear Shepard say before she pulls the trigger.
Benezia jerks as the bullet pierces her and the biotic energy vanishes. The matriarch stumbles back until she comes to stop and lean on the console behind her, using it as support. "I... cannot go on," she wheezes out, holding to her bleeding wound. "You will have to stop him, Shepard."
"Just hold on," Shepard says with a grimace. "Maybe we can do something, maybe we can-"
"No," Benezia interrupts her. "He is still in my mind. I am not entirely myself. I never will be again."
"Mother..." Liara croaks out, tears openly streaming down her face.
"Good night Little Wing. I will see you again with the dawn," she breathes out, slowly sliding down the console to the floor. "No light? They always said there would be... ah..." she slowly gasps out and with final breath her eyes lose focus and she stops moving.
Matriarch Benezia was dead.
Shepard finally lowers her pistol and removes her finger from the trigger. She slowly approaches the matriarch, crouches in front of her and closes her eyes before turning her attention to the rachni queen. From behind us I hear some shuffling and I turn around to see one of the dead asari slowly and sluggishly approach the rachni queen. "Whoa," I say loudly, stepping out of the way.
Shepard whirls around, gun pointed at the undead commando but the asari completely ignores her. She moves past Shepard and stops in front of the queen's container and then turns around to face us. "This one. Serves as our voice. We cannot sing. Not in these low spaces. Your musics are colorless."
"Somehow, I think it's the queen speaking," I point out helpfully. "You know, for a universe governed by science and laws of physics, we're dealing with the undead quite often," well, technically the thorians are not undead, per-se, but as far as I'm concerned they're freaking zombies.
Shepard decides to ignore me, most likely because of a massive case of confusion. "Musics? What?"
"Your way of communicating is strange. Flat. It does not color the air. When we speak, one moves all.
"This is going to be a fun conversation," Wrex remarks flatly.
"No shit," I quietly agree, just enough for him to hear.
"We are the mother. We sing for those left behind. The children you thought silenced. We are rachni."
"Uh, how are you speaking?" Shepard asks awkwardly, probably as disturbed as I am about talking with a dead body.
"Our king sing through touching of thought. We pluck the strings and the other understands. She is weak to urging. She has colors we have no names for. But she is ending. Her music is bittersweet. It is beautiful. You are not in harmony with those who hoped to control us. What will you sing? Will you release us? Are we to fade once more?"
"There are acid tanks rigged up on that thing," Wrex points out heatedly. "Set them off. Millions of my ancestors died to put these things down. Don't let them come back!"
"They made a mistake. They let the krogan go too far. This is a chance for us to atone. She has done nothing to us," Liara adds her input.
Shepard looks awfully conflicted about this. I might as well put in my input if it'll help her decide. "As much as I don't like bugs, this is the rachni's only chance to come back. I honestly don't think I'd like to have a complete genocide under my belt," I finish with a weak shrug, deciding to ignore Wrex's glare.
"Whatever you decide, I'll support your decision," Kaidan says.
"Your companions speak the truth," the rachni queen speaks. "you have the power to free us, or return our people to the silence of memory."
Shepard thinks about her words for a full minute until she speaks again. "If I let you go, will you attack other races again?" she asks.
"No. We- I do not know what happened in the war. We only heard discordance, songs the colors of oily shadows. We would seek a hidden place to teach our children harmony. If they understand, perhaps, we would return."
Shepard falls silent again before she releases a heavy sigh. "I won't destroy your entire species. You'll go free," she finally made her choice.
"Are you stupid?" Wrex snaps, moving around us to stand in front of Shepard, practically shoving his own face in front of her. "Your people didn't fight these bastards, so maybe you don't get it!"
Shepard doesn't back down. In fact, she shoves her face right back to his, practically touching nose to... nostrils. "Are we any better if we kill them all?" she asks bluntly.
Wrex stares at her for a couple of very long seconds before he snorts and backs off. "Do what you want," he grunts dismissively. "My people will clean up this mess later. Just like we did for the salarians," he practically spits these words out like insults.
"You will give us a chance to compose anew?" the queen asks. "we will remember. We will sing of your forgiveness to our children."
"Great. Bugs are writing songs about you," Wrex mutters loudly. "Mark. my. words. You'll regret this," he finishes, jabbing a finger at Shepard's direction.
Shepard ignores him and instead walks over to the consoles and pushes some buttons. With the loud hum of machinery, the container is lifted higher into the room until it's connected to a pipe of sorts. The dead asari flops down to the floor like a puppet that got it's string cut, and in a sense it's actually what happened. The queen gives us one long look before she crawls into the tunnel-pipe and disappears from view.
Awesome. We overturned Port Hanshan's leadership, slaughtered dozens of geth, several dozens of previously-extinct bugs and a squad or two of asari commando and then gave said previously-extinct race of bugs another chance to expand. As far as I'm concerned, it's been a long day. A long, long day. Now I just want to go back to the Normandy, place my armor for repair, take a shower and crash on my bunk for a well-deserved rest. I've had enough robots, bugs and ass-freezing for one day.
Aaaaaand we're done with Noveria! Next is the most important mission in the game, or at least one of them. It should be interesting, with what I have in mind. Not that I'll tell you, of course. All will be revealed in time. Also, I just passed the 200K words mark! So yay for me! This is the longest story I ever wrote! Alright, it's 1AM right now and I really want to catch some illusive sleep (lame pun, yes, i know) so I'll be seeing you later!
Thanks for reading the story and faving it, putting it in your alert list, or leaving reviews. Doesnt matter! It makes me glad that you enjoyed the story! Feel free to point out any flaws you might spot, or just to tell me what you thought of this chapter and the whle story! Once again, thanks for reading!
Until next time, Delvaro out!