"Please proceed carefully," Horatio announced as Kolyat, Siu, Aggie and Karl entered the Archive. It was a surreal place, though Kolyat couldn't say why. Maybe it was just that this was where alternate station controls were kept, which meant there were probably a lot of other things kept here, too. Sensitive ones.
Kolyat was glad the asari got the Ward arms open, and was exceptionally glad to hear that there were krogan on the station. If the Reapers tried to flood the Presidium through the beam they'd run into more trouble than they bargained for. At least, that was why he assumed Horatio wanted them here.
Meanwhile, there was one Reaper asset down here, the one who had murdered everyone on the Presidium, who had stolen the station and given it over to the Reapers, knowing that it was the only way anyone could ever be free of them. That one man could do so much without being caught made him queasy.
"Alert: Reaper asset detected," Aggie announced as Kolyat and Siu peered around another blind turn.
This place was way too full of them, even with Horatio periodically adjusting their heading, and Aggie's various scans of the area.
In one of the alcoves, which were painfully blue-lit, was a human figure, huddled on the ground. At this distance, Kolyat couldn't see details, only that unlike most husks this asset hadn't lost its clothing yet. There was also, if he listened closely, a low gurgling, warbling, rattling sound, as if the thing was talking to itself without realizing that its language was complete gibberish.
Kolyat swapped out his rifle for his pistol. "Let's go see what's up."
Siu nodded, looking uneasy, switching to his pistol as well.
Aggie also leveled his weapon, Karl at his knee, growling warningly.
"Horatio, does this asset have a name?" Kolyat asked.
"…affirmative. Asset has been identified as Jack Harper."
It was a name Kolyat knew, because Sheffler had known that Jack Harper was the last name the Illusive Man used before becoming the Illusive Man. He'd heard the stories about him though, from Sheffler and from his father.
And it cause him a peculiar sense of heartburn to think about the Illusive Man and his own father on close proximity, because it was the Illusive Man's asset that had killed his father. For a moment, Kolyat thought he might throw up from the sudden onset of anxiety, but the feeling was momentary. He already knew from Sheffler, who sat him down to explain it, and from a short note from Shepard, that the man who'd actually done the killing was dead. He didn't know how he felt about that, either. On the one hand, he was glad. On the other, it didn't bring his father back.
"Kolyat? Are you okay?" Siu asked softly.
"I—don't really know. Ask me later." This was true enough. If nothing else, he had to focus on the matter at hand: that there was a Reaper asset at the end of this aisle, it was in the way of the allied galaxy, and had to be handled. Specifically, it had to be handled by Siu and himself because they were the only ones there to do it. he gave himself a mental shake to settle all the important things back into place, then proceeded cautiously up the aisle.
"Jack Harper?" Kolyat demanded, pleased with how cold and impersonal the words sounded.
Up close, he could see that this thing was partway between being a person and being a husk. There were remains of a face, but not all of it. Some of the hair was still there, but again not all of it. It was like the husk was slowly burning its way out of the human. The stink of burnt hair and singed flesh hung on the air, as well as the smell of overheated electronics.
"I don't think it knows who it is anymore," Siu observed with detached interest…or that's what Kolyat thought he was going for.
The husk of Jack Harper continued to mumble, the occasional word—perfect, apex, humanity—barely distinguishable, like a broken recording of what had mattered in the last few seconds before he lost himself and became a Reaper creature.
Siu leveled his pistol, then shook his head, glancing at Aggie. "I don't…can we just…work around him?"
Kolyat didn't think so, but he understood why Siu was asking. It wasn't as if the thing posed a direct threat at the moment. 'At the moment' being the operative condition. "I don't think so." He leveled his own pistol, finger curling around the trigger.
The husk suddenly stiffened, then clawed its way to its feet. Burning blue cybernetics peered out of eaten-away holes of eye sockets. "You…don't…belong…here…" The words, although broken, contained a kind of menace Kolyat didn't know how to describe, except that it was as if some intelligence had suddenly picked up the husk to use as a hand puppet.
The husk suddenly let out a gurgling scream and threw itself forward.
Kolyat looked the thing in the eyes as his finger squeezed the trigger, releasing three rounds. One in the head, two in the chest. The husk hit the ground, several bullets from Siu's pistol and Aggies' rifle embedding themselves in the body.
Siu automatically brought up his omnitool. "It's dead," he announced.
"Good. But let's err on the side of caution." Kolyat grabbed the husk by one foot; Siu cottoning on grabbed the other foot. While Aggie interfaced with the console, they dragged the corpse away. It could be seen from the alcove, but couldn't get the drop on them if they remained vigilant. Just in case it wasn't as dead as they wanted it to be.
He still didn't know how he felt about any of this, then decided it didn't matter. None of it mattered; only holding this objective so that the galaxy might be saved mattered.
He thought his father would agree. Saving lives was what mattered.