Author's Note: I wanted to take the opportunity to address a few questions that have come up.
First, I haven't finished Mass Effect 3. I don't even have it—thanks to concerns and issues with TPTB (EA, not the Council) and a certain little thing called Origin.
Second, I do have some thoughts on doing something for ME3, but nothing concrete. If BioWare doesn't create a more satisfying ending than the "options" they gave us, then I'll decide whether to tweak one of the choices into something more palatable or just revamp the whole thing. Having said that, I already have plans for a few fanfics/novelizations that will take place between ME2 and ME3, so I have time to figure something out.
Third, by the time The Hero We Deserve is over, Shepard will be involved with someone (hint: we've already met her). I'm sure we'll all agree that it's about damn time!
Now without further ado, let's throw Shepard into harm's way. Again.
Chapter 17: Anybody Home?
After helping Jack out with her personal demons, I thought I could have a little time to, I dunno, mine a planet or something. No such luck: TIMmy had once again used his influence—and command codes—to override the Normandy, locking her down until I deigned to chat with him. He wasn't exactly waiting for me with bated breath, though. Nope, when the holographic connection stabilized, I was greeted by silhouette lighting another cigarette.
Clearly he knew his priorities.
He inhaled. Then he exhaled. Repeat. Then he turned to me. "Shepard," he said without preamble, "we caught a break. I intercepted a distress call from a turian patrol. They stumbled onto a Collector ship beyond the Korlus system. The turians were wiped out, but not before they crippled the Collector vessel."
Say what?
"I need you to board that ship and get some hard data on the Collectors. Find us a way to get to their homeworld."
"Hard to imagine how a turian patrol could take out a Collector ship," I snorted.
"Reports indicate the hull's intact, but all systems seem to be offline," TIMmy explained. "They could be making repairs as we speak. I'm not saying it won't be dangerous, but we can't let an opportunity like this slip by."
"If the turians had a patrol out there, shouldn't we be worried about them sending a recon team in or something?" I asked.
"They will," TIMmy shrugged. "Eventually. But I intercepted the transmissions. In the meantime, we're feeding them false reports. You're close enough that you can be in and out before the turians learn the truth."
This seemed way too good to be true. "Are you sure this intel is good?"
"Information is my weapon, Shepard," TIMmy reminded me. "It's good."
Oh I feel so much better. Still, he had a point. If there was a chance we could score some intel, I had to at least try. "Send me the coordinates and I'll take care of it," I sighed.
"Already sent."
Of course.
"Once you're aboard the ship, establish an uplink with EDI," TIMmy told me. "She'll mine their data for information regarding the Omega 4 relay and the Collector homeworld."
'She?'
"Good luck, Shepard."
"Coordinates punched in," Joker reported as I left the comm room. "Let's go find us a Collector ship."
"Try not to sound so eager," I replied wryly.
Little did I know how true those words would be.
It didn't take us long to arrive at the coordinates TIMmy sent us. I arrived on the command deck just as we left the Korlus system.
"We have a visual on the Collector ship, Commander," Joker reported, hearing my approach. Sure enough, the Collector ship was there. It was just lying there in the middle of space, slowly twirling around.
"Very low emissions," EDI reported. "Passive infrared temperatures suggest most systems are offline. Thrusters are cold."
"That thing's massive," Joker gasped. He turned around and stared at me. "How the hell did the turians take it out?"
They didn't exactly take it out, but Joker had a point. The ship was huge. Most of the ship consisted of a set of large, slightly overlapping plates, faintly resembling a cross between organic chitin and the irregular surface of an asteroid. A more technological-looking superstructure radiated outward like a space station's framework—or a spider's web. It looked like someone had created a giant version of one of those particle beam weapons that I swiped back on Horizon and tacked on a set of engines. It definitely dwarfed the Normandy in size. Maybe the Collectors were compensating for something. All I knew for sure was that I was starting to feel that painfully familiar tingling feeling at the back of my neck.
I simply offered a wordless shrug. Joker turned back to his controls and steered the Normandy towards the Collector ship. We watched for the next few minutes as the ship loomed in the viewscreen.
"Ladar scans do not detect any hull breaches on the side currently facing us," EDI informed us. "I detect no mass effect field distortions. It appears the drive core is offline."
"Time to go," I said.
"We'll reach the drop-off point in three minutes, Commander," Joker told me. "Good luck."
I went down the elevator to the hangar, where I joined the rest of the squad in the shuttle. We left the Normandy and flew towards the Collector ship, searching for a place to dock. The 'docking bay' we settled on looked more like... well, a cave. Sensors indicated that there was no atmosphere, so we all donned our helmets and double-checked the seals before disembarking.
"Love what they've done with the place," Garrus said dryly.
Jacob looked around in confusion. "Weirdest looking ship I've ever seen," he finally said.
I had to agree with him. The corridor we were in looked more like a cavernous tunnel than the corridor of a proper starship. Harsh yellow light blazed from glowing recesses in the walls and bulbous structures in the ceiling that looked disturbingly like a membranous egg sac. The only thing that looked faintly familiar was the metallic-looking bulkheads and floor panels, which lined the corridor at irregular intervals. Still, the Collector ship seemed to resemble the Collectors and their weapons—a warped, yet seamless, blending of organic and technological elements. It wasn't so much built by the Collectors as it was grown. I found myself wondering how they did it. Did the Collectors construct a technological framework and somehow grew the rest over the 'bones'? Did they have some sort of egg that hatched and evolved into this giant hybrid? It was really weird and creepy and alien and other—just like the Collectors—and yet... I dunno... Part of me found it really cool.
I was the only one who thought that way, as it turned out. "Unusual ship design," Mordin observed. "Hard to track lines, angles. Disturbing."
Huh. So I wasn't the only one who found this ship unique. Now, that might not mean much coming from a grunt like me. But a genius with ties to the STG and the renowned salarian intelligence network? That counted for quite a bit more.
Miranda summed it up best: "Looks like a giant insect hive."
She was right. The irregular bumpy layers of the walls did look like something a bug might build. Or secrete.
"Am I the only one freaked out by this?" Kasumi asked.
"Oh, I am definitely past freaked out," Tali shuddered.
"Penetrating scans have detected an access node to uplink with Collector databanks," EDI broke in before anyone else could reply. "Marking location to your hardsuit computer."
"Got it," I acknowledged, getting down to business. "Anything else?"
"I have compared the Collector ship's EM signature to known profiles," EDI replied. "This ship is the same vessel you encountered on Horizon."
"Maybe the defence towers softened it up for the turians," I speculated.
"Then the missing colonists might still be aboard," Garrus said. "If they're still alive."
I caught a motion out of the corner of my eye. Swivelling in that direction, my sniper rifle was halfway up before I realized it was Miranda. She'd taken the initiative to scout a couple hundred metres ahead with Grunt and had evidently found something. As the rest of us joined her, we looked at what they'd found.
Pods. Lots of them.
"These are the same containers the Collectors used on Horizon," Miranda said. "Only these are empty."
"It must have been horrible," Tali gasped. "Trapped in these pods. Helpless."
Even Grunt shuddered. "Small, like my tank," he remembered. "Bet they begged for mercy."
We moved around a corner, sidestepping some oily liquid that was dripping from the ceiling, only to stumble across something even more disturbing: a pile of dead bodies. Now, dead bodies aren't new to me. I've seen plenty in my career—occupational hazard. But at least most people make an effort to bury the dead. Or cover them up. Or if they can't be bothered, at least they leave them on the ground. They didn't make the deliberate effort of dragging all the bodies to one place and dumping them one on top of the other. You could tell that the ones on the top were the freshest, simply because they were still more or less intact. As the eye scanned downwards, though, they became increasingly decomposed. At the bottom, it was hard to tell where clothing ended and skin began. Or how many corpses were lying there.
It was official: this ship and what was going on in it was no longer cool. It was just wrong. Wrong and screwed up on so many levels.
Thane bowed his head. "These poor souls," he whispered.
"Why the fuck would the Collectors just leave a pile of bodies lying here?" Jack asked.
"Must have been used for testing," Garrus guessed. "I'd say they didn't pass."
"Test subjects from control group," Mordin agreed. "Discarded after experiment was over."
"There are worse things than death," I realized, flashing back to when I got spaced. Seemed like another lifetime. "Like being some guinea pig for twisted aliens."
"It is important to seek whatever solace we can find in the face of such tragedy," Samara advised.
"Is that supposed to make me feel better?" Miranda asked, looking paler than usual. "Because it didn't."
"This galaxy never gets any brighter, does it?" Zaeed rasped.
I silently motioned for the squad to continue. We passed more empty pods as we crept through the dank tunnels of the ship, some with dead humans piled around them. There were odd structures scattered along the path, like trees with bulging growths erupting along its branches or webbing with...
Rather than follow that line of thought, I noticed that our surroundings were starting to change. The walls and floors were looking more like the gray stony layers of a cave than the yellow-brown hive we saw earlier. And there were more bits of machinery scattered around, including some sort of terminal. I headed towards it, automatically grabbing a few items of loot along the way.
I established a connection between the terminal and the Normandy using my omni-tool. "Done," I announced.
No one answered. They were too busy staring at the pod to my right. There was someone in it. But it wasn't human.
"That's a Collector," Miranda frowned. "Were they experimenting on one of their own?"
"EDI," I said. "I'm uploading the data from this terminal. See if you can figure out what they were up to."
"Data received," EDI replied. "Analyzing." There was a brief pause. "The Collectors were running baseline genetic comparisons between their species and humanity."
"Are they looking for similarities," I asked, peering at the Collector.
"I have no hypothesis on their motivations," EDI answered. "All I have are the preliminary results. They reveal something remarkable: a quad-strand genetic structure, identical to traces collected from ancient ruins."
Miranda gasped. I looked at her in confusion. "Care to fill us in?" I invited.
EDI answered before Miranda could recover. "Only one race is known to have this structure, Shepard."
"And that race is..." I prompted.
"The Protheans."
...
Holy shit.
"I thought the Protheans vanished 50 000 years ago!" I marvelled. "I can't believe they still exist."
"These are no longer Protheans, Shepard," EDI corrected. "Their genes show distinct signs of extensive genetic rewrite. The Reapers have repurposed them to suit their needs."
"This... this is kinda hard to swallow," I admitted.
"Given that no one has had an opportunity to study a Collector genome in this detail, your confusion is understandable," EDI said. "I have already matched two thousand alleles to recorded fragments. This Collector likely descends from a Prothean colony in the Styx Theta cluster."
That made sense. I dimly remembered finding some Prothean data disks on one of the planets in the Styx Theta cluster when I was wandering around looking for Saren.
"But there are signs of extreme alteration," EDI continued. "Three fewer chromosomes. Reduced heterochromatin structure. (1) Elimination of superfluous 'junk' sequences."
"So the Reapers didn't wipe out the Protheans," I summarized. "They just stripped out the genes that weren't being expressed, turned them into monsters and enslaved them."
"No species should have to suffer through that," Garrus said.
"Agreed," I nodded. "Just remember: as sad as that might be, they're working for the Reapers now. And we have to stop them."
"They're not doing to us what they did to the Protheans," Miranda vowed.
"Let's find what we need before the Collectors come to salvage this vessel," I said. "Move out... hello. What's this?"
There was a small cache of weapons next to the terminal. Most of them were broken, but there were a few intact guns. One in particular had caught my eye.
"M-98 Widow Anti-Materiel Rifle," Jacob identified. "39 kilograms of sheer killing power."
Mmm... killing power...
"Designed for use against military-grade armoured vehicles."
Mmm... vehicles...
"Or krogan."
Mmm... krogan...
"Looks like this one's been scaled down so a human can carry it."
"And fire it?" I asked hopefully.
"Doubt it," Jacob shook his head. "The recoil would be so strong, your bones would shatter."
Damn.
"An unmodified human, perhaps," Miranda frowned. "But Shepard... the process used to revive you involved extensive modification of your skeletal structure and muscles to make them significantly stronger and more durable. Furthermore, I understand you have been adding a few upgrades of your own."
"Yep," I simply confirmed, rather than going into details. I didn't want to bore everyone to tears at how freaky it was to die on the original Normandy, not to mention coming this close to pushing up daisies the last time we tangled with the Collectors. (2)
"Then your bones may be able to withstand the stresses that would come with firing the Widow," Miranda said.
Woohoo!
"Or they might crack anyway," Jacob added doubtfully.
"I'll think about it," I decided, replacing my Mantis sniper rifle on my back and scooping the Widow up. "Let's get going."
The next area we moved into looked more like the weird hive that we saw when we left the shuttle. Brown, bumpy textured walls and ceilings... Strange yellow lights... Pods scattered everywhere...
"Look—on the ceiling," Garrus suddenly said. "More pods."
He was right. There were more pods hanging from the ceiling, or jutting from the upper walls. Tons of them. I suppressed a shiver.
"There must be hundreds of them," Kasumi gasped.
"Agreed," Mordin nodded after a quick estimate. "Wonder how many are full."
"Too many," I muttered.
"I detect no signs of life in the pods, Shepard," EDI told me. "It is probably the victims inside died when the ship lost primary power."
Great. Trapped in a dark pod, dangling from the walls or the ceiling along with all the other captors, slowly getting sleepy as the air ran out. Boy was this a cheery mission or what?
I led the squad up a ramp or slope and into another meandering tunnel, picking up some salvage along the way. This place really did resemble a cave system or giant hive, so I was almost surprised when we came across a computer console at the base of another ramp. For the heck of it, I stepped towards it and started playing around. Most of what I found was gibberish, but I did come across something that might have been a useful upgrade... or a recipe for lamb stew. On the off chance that it was the former, I downloaded the specs.
Just as we started heading up the ramp, Joker contacted us. "Commander, you gotta hear this."
"Okay," I said. "Hit me."
"On a hunch, I asked EDI to run an analysis on this ship."
"I compared the EM profile against data recorded by the original Normandy two years ago," EDI explained. "They are an exact match."
My eyes widened. "The ship we're exploring just happens to be the same ship we encountered on Horizon and the same ship that attacked the original Normandy? That can't be a coincidence."
"Something about this doesn't add up, Commander," Joker agreed. "Watch your back."
After clambering up the ramp, we emerged into... well, let's call it a cavern. A huge cavern. Rock-like walls. Organic protrusions slithering over every surface. And...
Holy shit.
"Keelah," Tali breathed.
"Son of a bitch," Zaeed swore.
And I thought the room I saw earlier had lots of pods. This was lots. Of. Pods.
"They could take every human in the Terminus Systems and not have enough to fill these pods," Miranda whispered.
"They're gonna target Earth," Jacob concluded.
"Greatest concentration of humans in Citadel space. Most likely choice," Mordin nodded.
"Not if we stop them," I said. I turned around, trying to figure out where to go next. Something metallic caught my eye. It was a metal bulkhead jutting out of the organic walls, leading off to my right. Seemed as good a direction as any.
So why was the back of my neck starting to tingle?
As we followed it, we saw more technological elements. Bright blinking lights. Floor panels that actually looked artificial in construction. Tubes that ran down the walls. And some sort of hexagonal platform.
"There—on the platform. Looks like some kind of control panel." Garrus pointed to a set of chest-high walls. A set of holographic green hexagons hovered over the middle one. Looked like a control panel to me, I had to say.
Jack was looking around and around, even spinning on the spot. "Where the hell are the bodies from the crew?" she finally burst out.
"Lack of Collectors, alive or dead, seems odd," Mordin nodded.
"Careful, Shepard," Samara warned. "Something doesn't feel right about this."
No kidding, I thought uneasily. We slowly stepped onto the platform. Nothing happened. We walked over to the control panel. Still nothing. So while the squad covered me, I started working some computer magic. "EDI?" I said after a moment. "I'm setting up a link between you and the Collector ship. See if you can get anything useful from the data banks."
"Download commencing. Data mine in progress, Shepard," EDI replied after a moment. "Please stand by."
We waited.
"Uh... that can't be good," Joker said, just before we heard something powering down on the Normandy. A second later, one of the tubes made a loud clanking noise. We could see something inside it move up, as if a piston inside was retracting. Then another. And another. Tube after tube repeated the same process, each as noisy as the next.
Uh... that couldn't be good either. I activated the comm again, ignoring the tingling that was erupting along my neck. "Everyone's all right over here, Joker," I said. "What just happened?"
"Major power surge," he replied. "Everything went dark, but we're back up now."
"I managed to divert the majority of the overload to non-critical systems," EDI added. "Shepard, it was not a malfunction. This was a trap."
Aw, crap.
We heard another clank. This time, the platform shook under our feet.
Before any of us could think about getting off the platform, it started rising up in the air with a whirring noise. It slowly spun around as it ascended, which made it just a little hard to keep our balance. "We need a little help here, EDI..." I called out, trying not to fall on my ass.
"I am having trouble maintaining the connection," EDI said. "There is someone else in the system. Please stand by."
With a loud screech, the platform came to a halt, hovering in the air. Half the squad toppled over. While the other half helped them up, I looked off in the distance and saw two more hexagonal platforms approaching fast. For the first time, I could see that there was a column protruding from the base, making it look like some kind of synthetic mushroom. More importantly, I could see movement on that platform. Peering through my sniper rifle, I saw one of them had two scions, their bulbous blue sacs pulsing and throbbing. The other was carrying three or four Collectors, excitedly chittering at each other. Wonderful.
"Incoming!" I hollered.
"Connection re-established," EDI said as we scrambled for cover. "I need to finish the download before I can override any systems."
Great. "Then you'd better get it done fast, EDI," I replied grimly.
It looked like the platform carrying the Collectors was going to dock with us. Either that, or crash. Either way, I assigned each team to a Collector. Rather than join Team One in unleashing a world of hurt, I pulled out my new sniper rifle. Time to see what it could do—preferably to my enemies and not my bones. I cloaked, aimed, breathed out and fired.
To my delight, the bullet punched right through the Collector's barriers, drilled through its carapace and exploded its buggy little head.
"Oh baby, where have you been all my life?"
Judging by the quick looks everyone gave me, I said that out loud. Nobody actually said anything, though, concentrating more on drawing first blood before Harbinger or other reinforcements showed up.
"Forty-one percent complete," I heard EDI say over the din of fire.
"Come on, EDI," I urged. Off in the distance, I could see another platform swoop in. "Speed it up."
"We are Harbinger."
Aw, crap.
Harbinger's first attack somehow knocked me out of cover, collapsing my shields in the process. I stumbled around, trying not to trip over anyone, and found myself right in the middle of a biotic shockwave from one of the scions.
My vision blurred almost immediately, reducing events around me to a dim, blood-tinged haze. Through the mass of red that threatened to drag me into darkness, I could hear the pounding of my heartbeat and a faint din of gunfire. Somehow I managed to stumble back into cover without taking any more hits. Unfortunately, once I ducked back down, I realized my hands were empty. I must have dropped my sniper rifle in the middle of the platform. Even worse, Harbinger was on the move, sending the minion it possessed on a kamikaze run.
Engaging my cloak, I grabbed my submachine gun—figuring it was better for dealing with barriers than the sniper rifle anyway—and stood up. Sure enough, a couple bursts of gunfire drained its barriers and took a chunk out of its armour before my cloak shut down. Taking a chance, Mordin leaned out to fire off a bolt of plasma. He paid for his gamble—while it did reduce Harbinger to a pile of glowing cinders, it also exposed him to a scion's attack. I watched with alarm as it sent him careening into the floor of the platform, knocking him unconscious. It was then that I realized he wasn't the only one—Tali and Kasumi were also down for the count. Biting back a curse, I ordered the squad to start targeting the scions.
"Eight-four percent," EDI said as the first scion went down. My shields started to regenerate.
"EDI! Get us out of here!" I shouted.
"I am simultaneously fighting Collector firewalls in over 8000 nodes," EDI replied. "I am tasked to capacity."
Wonderful.
"Watch out!" Miranda called out.
I turned to my left in time to see another platform dock with ours. It had another trio of Collectors, one of whom was in the process of transforming into a certain glowing avatar we all were starting to hate and dread. Harbinger casually lifted an arm and launched a burst of energy into Jack, knocking her out in a heartbeat. The only good thing was that she wasn't sent flying off the platform.
Aw, crap.
"Everyone on Harbinger," I heard Garrus yell.
"Snipers, try to take out the other Collectors," Miranda added.
Snipers. That included me. I dove for my sniper rifle, grabbed it and rolled to my feet. Swivelling on the spot, I aimed at a Collector whose choice of cover inadvertently exposed itself to my line of sight, belatedly activating my cloak as weapons fire smacked against my shields. One down. Turning to see where the enemies were lurking, I saw the second Collector go down for the count. Then, out of the corner of my eye, I saw Harbinger on the warpath.
Miranda quickly turned on it with her biotics before spraying it with gunfire. It lifted an arm to return the favour. Thankfully, Miranda managed to jump out of the way before its attack hit her.
Unfortunately, that meant I got hit instead. My shields blinked out immediately, along with my hearing and most of my vision. As a gushing sound deafened my ears and a blood haze descended over my eyes, I dimly saw something in front of me. Instinctively, I flung my arm up, aimed it in the general direction of the figure I glimpsed and pressed a button. Hopefully, I didn't just fry one of my squad mates.
My hearing and vision came rushing back in time to see Harbinger collapse on the floor, flames enthusiastically burning through it. I staggered back behind cover, deciding to take a breather while the squad finished off the scion.
"Shepard, you must manually re-establish my link to the command console."
Good idea. Regain control before more company shows up. After making sure that everybody had regained consciousness and hadn't suffered any injuries that their hardsuits couldn't handle, I quickly swept through the platforms for thermal clips. I was surprised to see that three or four platforms had docked with the one we had initially found. In all the hustle, I hadn't realized that that many had showed up. After a minute, I gave in to my paranoia and jogged back to the command console. Using my omni-tool, I accessed the console.
EDI's avatar popped up above the green hexagonal holograms. "I have regained control of the platform, Shepard."
I've never been happier to see an AI than at that moment. "I knew you wouldn't let us down, EDI."
"I always perform at optimal capacity," EDI replied. I wasn't sure if it was speaking matter-of-factly or modestly. Before I could decide, I felt a shudder under my feet as EDI engaged whatever mechanism controlled the platform's flight capacity and got it moving again. "Did you get what we needed?" I asked.
"I found data that could help us successfully navigate the Omega 4 relay," EDI confirmed. "I have also found the turian distress call that served as the lure for this trap. The Collectors were the source. It is unusual."
"What do you mean," I said suspiciously, the tingling at the back of my neck suddenly coming back.
"Turian emergency channels have secondary encryption," EDI explained as the platform docked with some kind of tunnel. The AI brought up a bunch of graphs and data charts as it continued. "That encryption is present, but is corrupted in the message. It is not possible that the Illusive Man would believe the distress call was genuine."
My eyes narrowed. "Why are you so sure?"
"I found the anomaly with Cerberus detection protocols. He wrote them."
"He knew it was a trap?" Joker sputtered. "Why would he send us into a trap?"
"That son of a bitch sent us right into Collector hands," I spat, slamming my fist into my hand in frustration.
"And here I thought I'd had my betrayal and attempted murder for this year," Garrus sighed.
Most of the squad had looks of anger or resignation on their faces. Even Jacob, though his mouth had dropped. (3) As for Miranda... well, to say she looked shocked would be an understatement. "There has to be some other explanation," she insisted. "The Illusive Man wouldn't do this to us. He... he just wouldn't."
"Uh... Commander," Joker interrupted. "We've got another problem. The Collector ship is powering up."
Aw, crap. "I told you not to be so eager?" I sighed.
"I didn't mean it," Joker protested. "Honest! Look, you need to get out of there before their weapons come online. I'm not losing another Normandy!"
Hindsight's always 20-20. If I had known that things would have gone to hell in a hand basket, I would have dropped by the Citadel to see if the supplies needed for Garrus's big guns had arrived yet. (4) For now, all we could do was make a run for it and hope for the best. Even if that would never happen, judging by recent events.
"I do not have full control of the Collector ship's systems," EDI warned. "I will do what I can to render assistance. Sending coordinates for shuttle extraction."
"Come on," I told the squad. "Let's move."
We went down a tunnel, trying not to jump at every shadow. Even the sight of a med-kit didn't cheer me up, as I was busy watching for an ambush. Not that I didn't pick it up, mind you.
"Around the corner, take the door on your right," EDI directed. The indicated door hissed open a second later. Moving through it, we found ourselves jogging down another tunnel into a chamber cluttered with metallic bulkheads and consoles. I managed to snag some salvage just before my HUD lit up like a Christmas tree.
As Collectors started flying in, I quickly directed the squad to start disabling their barriers so we could yank them into the air, set them on fire or drill holes into their chitinous hides before Harbinger showed up. Almost worked too—we had whittled them down to two Collectors when one of them started glowing. Miranda had the presence of mind to focus on the other Collector and detonate its barriers, clearing the way for me to roast the sucker.
Then it was all twelve of us against Harbinger, who was still a fair ways away from us. It had time to retort that we were merely damaging its 'vessel,' before we shut it up.
Well, until we ran into another small swarm of Collectors.
"I will direct this personally," Harbinger declared as it manifested itself. Again.
Fine, I decided, but it would be directing things solo. "Target the others unless you don't have a choice," I quickly ordered.
The squad began dropping enemy barriers one by one, with the Collectors quickly following. Harbinger managed to get in a couple blows, and even tried to advance at one point, but we managed to drive it back. It didn't take long before its barriers were drained and its armour started to take some serious damage. We were just about to finish it off before reinforcements arrived.
If I wasn't keeping a paranoid eye on the HUD, I might've missed them. They were sneaking along an elevated walkway on our left, obviously attempting to flank us. "Company on our left," I called out. "Team Two, move forward and take down Harbinger while you're at it. Team One gets first dibs on the late arrivals."
While Team Two complied with my orders—which also got them out of harm's way—we started attacking the latest wave of Collectors. One of them had that fancy particle beam weapon and tried to blast Team Two, but failed. Thane sent a biotic blast at it, but only drained half of its barriers. Miranda finished off the rest so I could incinerate its ass, while Grunt collapsed another Collector's barriers with a concussive round. As soon as my omni-tool recharged, I set that one on fire too. Meanwhile, Team Two had found a new spot from which to attack the Collectors. It seemed both teams were doing well, despite the fact that our enemies had the advantage of height.
To my surprise, Grunt jumped to his feet and ran towards Team Two, roaring all the way. I thought at first that he'd finally lost it.
Then I saw a weird looking husk charging towards Team Two, a couple Collectors close on its heels. It bore a startling resemblance to all the husks I'd seen before, only it was glowing red. And it was on fire. (5) As I watched, Grunt ran right into the fiery husk, which promptly blew up in a fiery explosion. Grunt reeled back, steadied himself, then charged towards the Collectors. Shrugging, I let Grunt and Team Two have fun with those guys. We had our own Collectors to deal with.
"I am assuming direct control."
As if I needed another reminder of impending doom. Thankfully, Harbinger only had a pair of Collector flunkies backing it up. Kasumi and Samara used their weapons to chip away at its barriers, while Miranda, Thane and I took down the other Collectors with a combination of biotics and plasma. As the second Collector turned to ashes, Harbinger launched a barrage of biotic attacks. Most of them splashed harmlessly against the barricade we were hiding behind. One of them, however, had an extra power boost or something that somehow drained my shields to a sliver of energy and sent me staggering out into the open.
I immediately dove back into cover, tightly gripping my Widow anti-materiel rifle. My mind raced as I debated whether it would be worth delaying shield regeneration so I could engage my cloak and snipe a target. Perhaps it is fortunate that the squad finished off the last of the Collectors before I could come to a decision.
Breathing a sigh of relief, we quickly scrounged for loot. I suppose I could say that we were trying to find an exit, but that would be a flimsy excuse given that EDI was still sending directions to our hardsuit computers.
"I am opening a door on the far side of the room," EDI informed us as we hopped down to a ledge that overlooked a large chamber. On either side, there was a ramp that curved down to the floor below. I found myself on edge, though, as the back of my neck had suddenly started tingling again.
Sure enough, a pair of husks loped through that very door. To make matters worse, a giant praetorian—well, they're all giant, but you know what I mean—swooped in from some other part of the chamber.
Aw, crap.
"Team One on the praetorian," I snapped. Everyone jerked their heads up in unison, looked in the same direction and uttered a blistering stream of curses simultaneously. Some of them were quite inventive. I lifted my Widow rifle up, changed my mind and tried to swap it for another weapon. Then I remembered that I still had my Mantis rifle on my back, so I reached back, yanked the Mantis rifle, tossed it aside and shoved the Widow into my sniper rifle slot. Then I pulled out my Collector particle beam weapon, musing that I should really find a less wordy name for that weapon. "Everyone else keep the husks and everyone else off our backs," I added before pulling the trigger.
As my particle beam weapon sent a stream of energy to start carving away at the floating monstrosity, I glimpsed Mordin and Zaeed sending a bolt of plasma and an inferno grenade sailing towards the husks, with the rest of Team Two pouring gunfire into the moaning zombies. All I could do was stare and hope that the squad could deal with them—I had to concentrate on dealing as much damage to the praetorian as possible before it got close enough to start dealing a world of hurt. Thankfully, it didn't take long before both husks were destroyed and we could all concentrate on the praetorian. The giant floating super-husk was still way too far away for my sensors to get a bead on how it was faring. All I could do was hope that we could deal as much damage as possible.
Eventually, it got close enough for my sensors to start getting some readings. I was reasonably pleased to see that all our concentrated weapons fire had seriously weakened some of its front armour plates. I was less pleased to see it suddenly glow with biotic energy, slam down on the ground, send out a biotic shockwave and recharge its barriers.
I was definitely unpleased to see a pair of Collectors and another husk come charging in to join the fun.
Cursing to myself, I considered our options. Staying put was a no-go: if the Collectors and husk didn't flank us, the praetorian would soon fly over head and start blasting us with its particle beams. Moving towards the praetorian was suicide, as we'd never survive long enough before killing it. That left one option—and no, it wasn't curling up in a fetal position and rocking back and forth.
"We're moving down the right ramp to take on the Collectors and the husk," I yelled. "Team Two move first." As Garrus's team headed down, Miranda and Thane took out the Collectors' barriers while I melted off the husk's armour. By the time we ran down the ramp ourselves to escape the praetorian, the latest batch of newcomers had been dealt with.
Unfortunately, that came with a cost: the husk had gotten close enough to swipe at Mordin. He'd turned the husk into ashes, but not before getting hit. His vitals were all right, so I guessed that blow to the head just knocked him out.
Aw, crap.
I didn't have any more time to check on Mordin, as the praetorian was floating around the corner. Leaving him behind, as lugging his unconscious body around would slow us down too much, we quickly ran for the other ramp. Hopefully the praetorian would focus on the rest of us scampering around and ignore Mordin.
As we darted for the ramp, hugging the nearby wall as much as possible, we occasionally paused to hurl some biotics, let loose a concussive round or fire a quick burst of gunfire. Anything to whittle down the praetorian's barriers so we could get another crack at its armour. Maybe we'd be able to find a weak spot. Maybe we'd have a chance to hit the weak spot we'd created earlier. I really wasn't in a position to be picky.
By the time we had gotten to the other ramp, the barriers were down to a sliver. As I tightened my grip on my particle beam weapon, I noticed Kasumi leaning out to fire another shot from her submachine gun, which collapsed the praetorian's barriers. Unfortunately, she left herself vulnerable to an attack from the praetorian's particle beams, which blazed out from its eyes, smashed through her shields, smacked against her hardsuit and propelled her straight into the wall.
Aw, crap.
Then it turned towards me.
Aw, crap—
Its particle beams stabbed towards me, piercing through my shields and chewing through my hardsuit. All that energy, not to mention the sheer physical impact, was definitely wreaking havoc, judging from the blazing agony that coursed through my body and the blurred, hazy vision that I experienced within seconds.
It took me a second to realize that the scream of pain I was hearing was coming from my big fat mouth.
Instinctively, I activated my cloak. Apparently it couldn't detect me, as it turned away from me and opened fire at the next available target. Taking advantage of its distraction, I fired my particle beam at it. I only got six seconds of grace before my cloak shut down and the praetorian turned its attention back towards me, but the barrage of gunfire from the squad managed to make another notable dent in its armour. As it lifted off and started flying towards us, we ran up towards the ledge and partway down the other ramp—to keep it as far away from us as possible.
We passed Tali's slumped body as we ran for dear life. So she was the closest one to the praetorian, and became its next target when I cloaked. Sadly, I didn't even have time to feel any guilt, as I was too busy worrying about my vulnerable hide—my hardsuit was so busy administering medi-gel, it hadn't started regenerating my shields.
By this point, the praetorian was slowly making its way up the ramp, which meant that it was out of our line of sight. Using my HUD, I selected squad members in groups of two or three to attack it with whatever they had. "Hit-and-run attacks only," I warned as the first group—Miranda and Grunt—headed off. The last thing we needed was another member to get knocked out. At least, I hoped that was all that would happen.
We spent the next minute or so reducing its barriers bit by bit, and retreating down the ramp as it floated towards us. Just as it rounded the corner, we made a mad rush for the other ramp. I motioned for some of us to hold off on our attacks while everyone else focused on the praetorian and its barriers. Then I watched in anticipation as the barriers got weaker and weaker and...
...NOW!
Miranda and Thane sent their biotics detonating against the praetorian's armour in unison, milliseconds before my plasma blast and Zaeed's inferno grenade exploded across its face. I got a tight grip on my particle beam weapon and pulled the trigger, adding its energy to the barrage of bullets that were hammering at the giant floating ugly. A tight grin tugged at my face as my sensors finally picked up a weak point in the praetorian's armour. Didn't know whether it was a pre-existing weakness or one we'd created. Didn't care: I adjusted my aim, finger still pressed against the trigger of my particle beam weapon. Then I saw its eyes glow.
We ducked back into cover, narrowly missing the praetorian's particle beams. This really sucked. I mean, we were this close to destroying the sucker. And we were lucky in that no one else had come to take pot-shots at us while we were playing tag with the praetorian. That kinda good fortune couldn't last forever, could it?
It was time for desperate measures, I decided. Activating my cloak before I could talk myself out of it, I took a few steps back into the open, sighted on the praetorian and fired my particle beam. A yellow beam of energy blazed towards the giant amalgamation of husks, crackling as it cut into the armour. As I was focused on taking this sucker down once and for all, I ignored the shimmer as my cloak shut down, the twin blue streams of energy that stabbed at me and the status display on my HUD as my shields dropped like a rock.
Needless to say, we all cheered when the praetorian disintegrated in a conflagration of blue light. That included Mordin, Kasumi and Tali, who had recovered just in time to catch the fireworks.
We scrounged for thermal clips—during which I managed to find a spare set of power cells that slightly offset the amount of ammo I'd used up taking down the praetorian—before heading for the door EDI opened for us. Unfortunately, it slammed shut just as we were on our final approach.
I activated my comm. "EDI? We've got a problem here."
"A temporary setback in Firewall 3217," EDI explained helpfully. "Rerouting commands through Firewall 7164."
Um. Sure. Whatever.
A hissing sound caught our attention. Turning around, we saw another door open. EDI, no doubt. Sure enough, our AI updated us on the situation a second later: "I have successfully opened a door on the opposite wall. I will keep it open as long as I can."
We were sprinting for the door before she finished the first sentence.
The door led us along a narrow tunnel into a chamber that looked fairly familiar. I wasn't the only one who thought so.
"Down there," Garrus called out quietly, pointing to our right. "That's where we came in."
Looking over, I saw a bunch of consoles and pods down below. It looked like the room where we discovered that the Collectors were actually re-engineered Protheans. Unfortunately, we couldn't jump down without breaking something.
"We must be getting close to the end." I could swear that Miranda was breathing a sigh of relief as she said that.
Can't blame her: it was encouraging to recognize how close we were to the extraction point. It was even more encouraging to find some salvage that I could loot and a tech upgrade that was just asking to be swiped. Almost too good to be true, I started to think.
I guess I wasn't too surprised when another swarm of Collectors showed up as we entered another large chamber. Disappointed, sure. But not surprised. I think I was still a bit numb from surviving the tangle with the praetorian.
Miranda and I managed to take down a Collector before Harbinger popped up. I glimpsed Thane crushing the barriers of another Collector as Harbinger finished manifesting. Mordin raised his omni-tool to launch a volley of plasma fire, but abruptly switched targets to a pair of those red-glowing husk abominations, destroying the armour on one of them. Jacob immediately yanked that guy into the air. Apparently it didn't like that, because it promptly exploded, taking out the other abomination with it.
I was fine with that, to be honest. We really had to focus our attention back on Harbinger and the remaining Collectors. As I watched, two more of them bit the dust. That left one Collector, who was toting a particle beam weapon, and Harbinger. Garrus fired a concussive round into the former, which dealt a significant amount of damage to its barriers. I directed Zaeed and Mordin to finish the Collector off while everyone else hammered away at Harbinger's barriers. Silly guy was standing out in the open, just asking to be taken down. Given how much grief it had caused us, we were more than willing to oblige.
As soon as its barriers were down, I sent some plasma fire streaming towards Harbinger. A few more shots and another fireball from Mordin, and Harbinger was down for the count.
While the squad took a moment to catch their breath, I looked around. It looked like this entire chamber was split up into three levels, with ramps connecting each one. "Team One, we're going up the ramp to our right. Team Two; follow the ramp that Harbinger and his buddies tried to head down."
After the chorus of affirmatives, we all headed out. Team One ran into a trio of Collectors within a minute, one of whom was already in the process of transforming into Harbinger. Judging by the gunfire and explosions in the distance, Team Two had encountered similar obstacles. Miranda and Thane disabled the barriers on the other Collectors, allowing me to burn one to a crisp while Samara levitated the other. While Kasumi amused herself filling that Collector full of holes, the rest of us concentrated on Harbinger, who seemed content to lob biotic bombs at us from a distance. Guess it didn't see the need to get up close and personal. Not that I'm complaining—it meant dealing with him much easier. It wasn't long before we broke through its defences.
"We are not finished," Harbinger said defiantly before its latest body disintegrated.
Judging by the silence, Team Two was also in the clear. "Garrus? Sitrep," I called out over the comm, seeking confirmation.
"Hostiles all destroyed. No casualties or injuries."
"Looks like the chamber curves around to the left towards the exit," I said, consulting my HUD. "Team One will move that way along the uppermost level. Recommend you stay on your level and follow us."
Garrus knew what I was getting at. "Maximize our firing lanes while staying close enough to support each other," he replied. "Copy tha—watch out!"
Harbinger was swooping in, having already possessed one of the many Collectors that were suddenly buzzing around. Oddly enough, I found myself quite calm about the whole thing. Maybe the novelty of seeing Harbinger again and again and again was wearing off. Maybe I was numb from all the near-death encounters I'd experienced in the last hour, which was excessive even by my standards. (6) Whatever the reason, I found myself calmly directing the squad's use of biotics, concussive rounds, fireballs and other tricks. Barrier after barrier crumbled under our onslaught, causing Collectors to succumb one by one to death by plasma or mass gunfire. Even Harbinger, for all his retorts and threats, didn't last long.
That left one more threat in the immediate vicinity, according to my HUD. A scion, as it turned out. Thankfully, it was far, far away and didn't have any backup, so we had an easy time chipping away at its armour until the misshapen lumbering mass disintegrated. Then we headed out the exit and down a tunnel, which looked almost organic with its undulating, tubular walls. Reminded me of biology class back in the day. Oh, for the good old days when the most stressful thing was facing the dreaded Final Exam.
"Uh, Commander," Joker suddenly broke in. "Hate to rush you, but those weapons are about to come online."
Aw, crap.
"Might want to double-time it," he suggested. "You know, so we can leave before they blow the Normandy in half."
"Understood," I replied crisply. "You heard Joker," I said to the squad once Joker got off the comm.
"Speaking of hearing," Kasumi frowned. "Do you guys hear that?"
We all strained our ears. There was definitely something up ahead. Several somethings, judging by the way my HUD lit up like a Christmas tree. And we definitely heard something that sounded like...
...moaning?
Aw, crap.
A couple dozen husks charged around the corner and bore right down on us. We immediately started pelting them with biotics and fireballs, frantically backpedalling in the process. Anything to blast through their armour so we could start damaging them. Samara levitated the closest one into the air. It flailed its arms briefly, then stopped. As I watched, Samara's biotic field dissipated and the husk dropped to the ground. It didn't get up, however, and it quickly got trampled by its buddies. Grunt landed a concussive round on another, knocking it off its feet. That one didn't get up either.
"Knock them off their feet," I yelled, suddenly figuring it out. "Biotics, concussive rounds, anything."
It's a sign of their desperation that the squad automatically obeyed. (7) As it turned out, I was right: for whatever reason, the husks died or shut down or whatever as soon as they were knocked off their feet. We still had to retreat all the way back into the chamber where we'd last faced Harbinger and the other Collectors, but it meant that the mass of enemies we faced were reduced from a horde of moaning, drooling cybernetic zombies into a more manageable threat.
As soon as the last husk was down, we all sprinted back down the tunnel. Moans echoed through the air as more husks showed up. To our relief, they were all behind us and we only heard them after we rounded a corner and saw the shuttle—right where we parked it.
"We're out of time, Commander!" Joker piped up over the comm. "We have to go!"
"You heard the man—everybody onto the Normandy!" I barked, pausing long enough to snipe the closest husk. "Move!"
We all clambered back onto the shuttle, which lifted off before the doors even closed. Or before I could reach the cockpit—either EDI gave the shuttle VI some instructions or it simply took over. Of greater concern was that, as we flew back towards the Normandy's hangar bay, we could see lights turning on throughout the Collector ship's superstructure as it powered back up.
"Strap in, people," I heard Joker say as the shuttle landed in the hangar. "We're gonna make them work for it this time."
I forced my way past the others out of the shuttle and ran towards the elevators. By the time I got back to the command deck, I was sprinting. Gripping Joker's chair tightly, I watched as we flew away. The Collector ship was slowly turning towards our vector, a blazing light in its bow growing brighter and brighter. It fired a sizzling torrent of energy towards us, but Joker banked the Normandy just in the nick of time.
Yep, definitely resembled a giant particle beam weapon.
Joker dodged another blast. And another. And another. Each time, the beams came closer—and Joker knew it. "I can't dodge this guy forever, EDI," he cried out. "Get us the hell out of here!"
"Specify a destination, Mr. Moreau."
Oh for crying out loud.
The ship shook as the Collector ship's weapons grazed our shields. "Anywhere that's not here!" Joker yelled.
"Very well," EDI replied. "Engaging mass effect core."
I held my breath, half-suspecting that this might be it. Again. To my relief, we managed to jump to FTL, quickly outpacing the Collector ship's efforts to catch us.
Once again, we had evaded certain death.
No thanks to TIMmy.
"Call coming in from the Illusive Man, Commander," Joker told me an hour later. "Figure you've got a few words for him."
He was right. For once, I didn't waste time getting to the comm room.
"Shepard," TIMmy greeted me as soon as the link was established. He didn't seem fazed by the glare I levelled at him. "Looks like EDI extracted some interesting data before the Collector ship came back online."
"Cut the act," I snapped. "You set us up. And you better have a damn good reason for it."
"We needed information on the Omega 4 relay," TIMmy shrugged. "That required direct access to Collector data. It was too good an opportunity to pass up."
"Agreed," I replied tersely. "But I don't like surprises. Especially when my ass is on the line."
"I put you at risk, yes," TIMmy conceded, knocking some ashes off his latest cigarette. "But without that information, we don't reach the Collector homeworld. And you and every other human may as well be dead. It was a trap, but I was confident in your abilities.
"And don't forget EDI," TIMmy added, getting to his feet. "The Collectors couldn't have anticipated her." (8)
"You could have told me the entire plan," I said, glaring at him again. "Even with whatever advantages we might have had, your intel was incomplete—and that could've gotten us all killed. You say I'm important, but you sure have a funny way of showing it."
"I needed the Collectors to believe they had the upper hand," TIMmy explained calmly. "Telling you could've tipped them off in any number of ways. Besides, I wouldn't have sent you in if I didn't think you could succeed."
Oh I feel so much better. "I don't risk people like that," I said flatly, crossing my arms. "There are always alternatives."
"You may not like being on the receiving end—neither would I—but the facts are with me. As much as we try to avoid them, these decisions need to be made."
And TIMmy was all about making those decisions for other people, wasn't he?
"But more importantly... it paid off. EDI confirmed our suspicions."
TIMmy sat back down and took a puff before continuing. "The Reapers and Collector ships use an advanced Identify Friend/Foe system that the relays recognize. All we need to do is get our hands on one of those IFFs."
"I was just on the Collector ship!" I burst out. "Why didn't you say anything about the IFF? We could have kept an eye out for the damn thing!"
"As I said, we only had suspicions. Besides, you wouldn't have had time to find and extract it," he shrugged. "But we have another option."
"Go on," I sighed.
"An Alliance science team recently determined that the 'Great Rift' on the planet Klendagon is actually an impact crater from a mass accelerator weapon," TIMmy said. "A very old mass accelerator. I sent a team to find either the weapon or its target. They found both.
"The weapon was defunct, but it helped us plot the flight path of the intended target—a 37 million year old derelict Reaper."
Whoa.
"We found it damaged and trapped in the gravity of a brown dwarf."
"So this derelict Reaper's floating around a star that didn't quite make it?" I summarized.
"Simply put, but accurate," TIMmy nodded. "Brown dwarfs are gas giants that don't quite have the mass of stars. Expect gale-force winds and extremely high temperatures. The Reaper has a mass effect field that keeps it in orbit. Likely an automated response to the external threats. It's stable, but I won't call it safe."
Call me crazy, but I've never associated Reapers—sleeping or otherwise—with safety. "I saw what Sovereign did to the Citadel Fleet," I reminded TIMmy. "Hard to imagine anything could stop something that powerful."
"This vessel is a relic from a battle waged while mammals took their first steps on Earth," TIMmy replied. "There's no trace of the species that took the shot. Perhaps it was their one moment of defiance before being wiped out."
"I get the feeling this isn't going to be a simple 'swing by and pick up our package,'" I guessed.
"We lost contact with Dr. Chandana's team shortly after they boarded," TIMmy admitted.
Surprise, surprise.
"Initial reconnaissance revealed no clues and it was too risky to commit more resources—but now we need that IFF."
Yeah, I guess we do.
"I'll forward the coordinates to Joker," TIMmy said. "In the meantime, I suggest you tell your crew I didn't risk their lives unnecessarily. It will make things easier going forward."
Right. I'll just drink the Cerberus punch and say everything's right as rain.
Not.
I got on the comm and told the crew that TIMmy deliberately withheld information to lure the Collectors into a false sense of security because the intel's potential value outweighed our safety. Yeah, it wasn't exactly what TIMmy suggested, but it's not as if I was gonna lose any sleep over it.
At my request, EDI contacted the squad members and told them to assemble in the comm room so I could give a more detailed debriefing. Most of them couldn't be bothered. Only Miranda, Garrus, Jacob, Mordin and Tali showed up.
"So the Illusive Man didn't set us up," Jacob scowled as I finished my summary of my chat with TIMmy. "Could've fooled me."
"Lied to us. Used us," Mordin said, pacing back and forth. "Needed access to Collector data banks. Necessary risk."
"Keeping us in the dark was not 'necessary,'" Tali retorted.
Miranda and Garrus stayed quiet; the former because she was probably still reeling from the fact that TIMmy sent us into a trap, the latter because he didn't have anything new to contribute and figured someone needed to keep a cool head.
Speaking of which, I let out a heavy sigh. "Personally, I don't see why he couldn't have warned us beforehand," I agreed. "I'm sure we could have given a convincing performance." I was still a bit peeved at TIMmy, so I decided to change the subject before I said something I would regret. "But we've got other things to worry about for the time being. EDI, are you sure this IFF is going to work?"
EDI's avatar had been hovering in the middle of the table since the meeting began. "My analysis is accurate, Shepard," it replied. "I have also determined the approximate location of the Collector homeworld based on navigational data from their vessel."
EDI's avatar was replaced by a galactic map. A set of cross hairs swept across the galaxy, eventually stopping at...
...
The hell?
"Is that..." Garrus started.
"That can't be right," Miranda frowned.
"Better run the diagnostics, Joker," I called out. "Looks like our AI's got a bug in the software."
"My calculations are correct," EDI replied—somewhat stiffly, I thought. Guess I hurt its feelings. "The Collector homeworld is located within the galactic core."
"Can't be," Jacob objected. "The core is just black holes and exploding suns. There are no habitable planets there."
"Could be an artificial construction," Mordin suggested. "Space station protected by powerful mass effect fields and radiation shields."
"Do the Collectors have that kind of technology?" Miranda asked.
"The Collectors are just servants of our real enemy," I reminded everyone. "And we've all seen what their masters are capable of."
"They built the mass relays and the Citadel," Garrus nodded. "Who's to say they can't build a space station surrounded by black holes."
"That explains why nobody's ever returned from a trip through the Omega 4 mass relay," Tali realized.
"The logical conclusion is that a small safe zone exists on the far side of the relay," EDI agreed. "A region where ships can survive. Standard relay transit protocols would not allow safe transport. Drift of several thousand kilometres is common and would be fatal in the galactic core. The Reaper IFF must trigger the relay to use more advanced, encrypted protocols."
"At least we got something out of this mess," I said. "Still, just because we can follow the Collectors through the relay doesn't mean we can take them out. I don't want to go after them until I know we're ready."
"Sooner or later we need that IFF," Jacob protested. "I say, why wait?"
Miranda shook her head. "It's a derelict Reaper. What if the Collectors are waiting for us? We may want to build up our resources and strengthen the Normandy before we take that kind of risk."
"Granted, but there will always be another upgrade we can research or another person we can recruit," Garrus argued. "We'll never be 100% ready. Besides, I highly doubt the Reaper IFF will be a simple piece of 'plug-and-play' hardware. Even if we work around the clock, we'll probably need time to install it onboard the Normandy."
"And what about all the colonists that have been abducted?" Tali asked. "Who knows what the Collectors might be doing to them."
Her words would come back to haunt us. Having said that, if I had to redo this whole debacle, I probably would have made the same choice again. Even knowing what I knew now. Especially since it turned out that most of my squad had their own personal issues that needed addressing. "We won't be helping them or ourselves by rushing things," I said after a moment. "We'll check the derelict Reaper out soon, but not now."
"It's your call, Commander," Jacob nodded. "Whatever you decide, we're with you."
After that meeting, I made a quick round of the ship. Most people had the usual 'Good job' or 'Glad you made it.'
Others were pretty shocked at the truth behind the Collectors. Crewman Goldstein always pictured them as regal beings, not giant bugs. Hadley felt it was a sad end for such an influential species, to which Matthews speculated whether the keepers on the Citadel were once something different.
And then there was Kelly. "You had me so worried when you were trapped on the Collector ship," she said, running up to me when I came back from the cockpit. "Thank goodness for EDI."
"The Normandy crew delivered," I waved her comments off. "Including you."
"You're too kind," Kelly smiled. "We were there to help, but EDI gets the credit this time. The Illusive Man made sure EDI was installed for this mission. Now I see why."
I'll give her that: EDI really came through this time. Even if it was just a result of the programming. If it wasn't for EDI, we would never have gotten off that platform, we wouldn't have gotten through the Collector ship after the Collectors sprung their trap, and we certainly wouldn't have gotten any of the intel we needed. Much as I disliked the omnipresence of Big EDI, there was no denying that the AI saved my ass (and the asses of my squad).
So when I got back to my quarters and discovered that the surveillance feed from the camera I left behind had been restored yet again, I re-routed the signal to the live broadcast of the annual Ben Burtt Robotics Convention.
It was the least I could do.
(1): Heterochromatin is a form of DNA packaging associated with functions such as gene regulation and the protection of chromosome integrity. This is due in large part to its dense and compact packaging, which makes it less accessible to proteins that would normally bind DNA or associated factors, thereby rendering such regions inactive or repressed.
(2): Perhaps his willingness to undergo further modification was a combination of the fact that he had already received genetic enhancement upon enlistment into the Alliance, his determination to survive encounters with adversaries of a calibre similar to the Collectors, and his acceptance that accepting these changes did not compromise his self-identity.
(3): Shepard never explains whether Mr. Taylor looked angry or resigned to the revelation of his employer's betrayal.
(4): Readers may recall that Mr. Vakarian had acquired copies of the specifications for the Thanix Magnetic-Hydrodynamic Weapon, which would have significantly increased the Normandy's offensive capabilities. However, the Normandy's fabrication systems were unable to replicate the needed components. Shepard had ordered those components to be covertly shipped to the Citadel, so his crew could receive them and assemble the weapon system during the Normandy's next stop. Unbeknownst to Shepard, those supplies had not yet arrived. Small comfort at the time, I am sure.
(5): Shepard would subsequently classify this latest husk modification as an 'abomination,' for the simple reason that it 'sounded like a good name at the time.'
(6): Actually, according to the time-stamps on his hardsuit recordings, the various battles and firefights only lasted thirty-eight minutes.
(7): Naturally Shepard ignores the more likely possibility that he had earned the squad's trust, at least where battlefield matters were concerned.
(8): It is interesting to note how the Illusive Man anthropomorphizes the Normandy's AI, something that the crew would not do for several months to come.