Shepard Noveria
After what seemed like a lifetime, me and the squad were back at the makeshift clinic where Dr. Cohen gave us medi gel, credits, and a key card that would get us through the maintenance area without everything going to hell. We wasted no time getting back to maintenance and to the locked door. "Alright let's hope this doesn't backfire. Literally." The group turned to the turrets that now faced them as they stood at the door. I put the key up to the door, waiting for the click and hiss, and when it finally came, we were greeted by a fresh wave of flashing cold air. "Shepard, you know turians hate the cold right?"
"Well that's all the more incentive to make this quick." We pushed forward, observing the building sculpted around the ice cavern disappearing behind us, opening up to another building. Before we made it to the entrance however, a group of the corrupted rachni, flooded in from in front and behind us, slipping through the crevices in the cracked ice. "Keelah how many of these things are there?" Tali cursed as she traded her pistol for her shotgun. "We can count later, Wrex, cover our six. Garrus, go with Wrex. Liara, Tali cover the flanks. I'll take point." Everyone moved into their positions; a bit sloppy but never hesitant. As more rachni came pouring in, the sound of gunfire was replaced with biotic slams and singularities, Liara looking over her shoulder when she caught a break in enemies to aid Garrus and Wrex. I had to note how much better she had gotten in just a few hours, her fighting style morphing into something similar to my own.
Once the rachni barrage had lulled to a stop, we regrouped, heading to the door and back to our main objective. I stopped everyone in their tracks before the door opened. I could fill a sense of a big fight waiting to come, and the hairs on my neck and back were beginning to stand up underneath my armor. "Why does it feel like it has gotten even colder. How is that possible?" Liara looked around at the others who obviously didn't feel it. They just chocked it up to her nerves and the fact that they would have to fight her mother. They offered their reassurance, but when she turned to me, I gave her a knowing look and nod. She was feeling the exact sensations I felt.
"Okay here's my plan. There is no doubt going to be more than just the Matriarch in there. From the looks of it we can expect a variety of geth units, some asari commandos, and possibly more rachni. I want Garrus, Tali, and Wrex to focus on any enemies that might be in the room. Me and Liara are going to confront Benezia and see if we can get through to her, but only us two. We still don't have a full understanding from indoctrination, but whatever was contained in the beacon and the cipher probably has fortified our mind ." After we had come back from Feros, I had Chakwas take a full scan of both of us which showed new pathways being created in our brains that made it more resistant. I could only assume that's what the point of it was; to prevent indoctrination. I didn't tell the rest of the team that though, deciding it was better to leave between me and Liara until we had a better grasp on it. "Everybody understand their roles?" Everybody nodded in agreement as I looked around at them. I looked directly into cerulean blues as I spoke the next words. "Is everybody okay with the mission parameters?" She nodded back, understanding my sentiment.
I opened the door, to the wide room. A bunch of crates were scattered around the four corners of the room with a metal and glass tank centered. A few steps into the open room had me on high alert. I could vaguely make out the figure of an asari woman and immediately knew it was Benezia. She was dressed in a long flowing, lace dress with a headdress to match, and I saw Liara with a slightly disgusted look on her face. She was barely containing her voice, the edge of emotion starting to show clearly through the facade she was putting on. "My mother hated wearing black. She said it reminded her too much of darkness and sadness."
We walked around, exposing ourselves to the woman standing higher than us on a platform. She looked off somewhere far into the distance as she spoke to us. "You do not know the challenges of raising your own. To turn them to good or bad, to ensure they are greatness. Bringing Liara here won't sway me." I saw a glint in her eye as she spoke the words, almost as if they didn't quite reach her own mind. "Why would you do this mother, what has Saren done to you?" Liara cried the words, and I felt a pain in my heart unlike any other, one i'm sure was present in the entire crew. "We must make great sacrifices for our people, I wouldn't expect you to understand that Liara. You never did listen to the lessons I tried in vain to teach you. I should have been stricter." It was like a gut punch to the young asari, and you could see it on her face. I couldn't take another minute of listening to this, and was just barely controlling the boiling anger directed towards Benezia.
"Hey you can't talk to her like that. That's enough." I pointed my finger at her to emphasize the words and she let out a high pitched, manic laugh. 'Maybe she can't be saved.' I thought to myself and could tell Liara was thinking the same. In a snap, she raised her hands and the doors opened up, allowing a group of commandos to come in from one side, and a group of geth through the other. In the other hand a ball of biotics was being sent straight towards me as I quickly called out to my crew to get to cover, pushing Liara out the way before I could save my own self. I felt my muscles tighten in an agonizing pinch as my entire body froze up, causing me to fall to the floor. Liara dragged me to cover, making sure I was fully hidden before hopping up and casting the biggest biotic throw I had seen her make. She shifted over to her mother quickly, charging into her with lethal force. I tried to form words, but couldn't manage a sound. My muscles had began to loosen up and I knew the stasis would end soon. I surveyed the area as best I could. Garrus and Wrex were struggling to hold off the commandos and geth, but with Tali's tech and the occasional AI hack, they were managing to take them down slowly, but surely.
Liara on the other hand, was in a losing battle. Benezia was beginning to overpower her, and with a few moments I was free of my biotic freeze. I sprinted up to the platform, reaching into my armors compartment, retrieving two syringes. As I made it up the stairs I angled myself slightly over to the side, leaping and crashing into the pair as I plunged the syringes into the Matriarch's neck. She went limp as I helped Liara to her feet. "Shepard we're clear over here. "Garrus and Wrex were trotting over towards me while Tali scanned the geth for information, something I had got pretty used to her doing. Before I could speak to them, there was a slam on the glass encasement behind us and I spun on my heels as a dead commando shook and waivered in front of us.
" We sing for the queen. Your notes are colorless and distasteful. I was brought here along with my children, where they tried to turn us into monsters. They poisoned my children with sour notes. We are no longer under control by the them thanks to you."
"Sour notes must be the reapers Shepard." I nodded at Garrus' realization as I went up closer to the grass, completely ignoring the commando, the oversized rachni queen spoke through. I felt the now familiar feeling of a tingling on my brain. Not like with one of Liara's melds, but from the beacon and cipher. It didn't speak, instead it just sent a powerful wave of sympathy over me. "What should I do with you?" I spoke the words plainly, but I made sure that she understood what I meant by the question.
"We come in peace. We were brought here against our will. We wish to return home where we live out our days in quiet solitude."
"You said you beat the sour notes? How did you do that?" The queen paused, carefully calculating her words. "From the songs of our ancestors. They encountered the sour notes before we were fully intelligent, they were spared but still weary. The ancestors worked to create notes to block out their sour ones."
"I see. Is there anyway you could pass that on to me?" She focused on me for a moment. "Your notes... are different than the others that are like you. Your notes feel ancient. I can pass them on to you, if you open this cage and free me. This structure makes it hard for notes to pass through to one another. I strain now communicating through this one." I thought for a moment looking back to the crew in an uncharacteristic moment. "Thoughts?" They were each taken back. Except for Liara who lay next to her mother, clutching at her shirt sobbing lightly as Tali split her attention between her and the scene of the queen. Wrex was the first to speak. "I think you should kill it. Rachni are always no good. put a few bullets in its head and call it a day." Wrex shrugged his shoulders, and I could see he wasn't exactly as unfazed as he gave off. I knew of a few stories he had told about his time in the rachni wars. It was usually the only thing he talked about on my after mission rounds/wellness checks I had started doing.
"I don't know Shepard, sending a whole race into extinction is a bit hypocritical considering our mission. Don't you think so?" Garrus spoke up, stepping next to me as he stared at the creature. I thought on both their words for a moment, giving my own thoughts and voices a chance to speak. I couldn't help but to look down at Liara in that moment, she had started to become more of my moral compass than I would have led on. In the same moment, she looked up at me. I got captured in the blue as tears ran down her face. Instinctively, I took the back of my gloved hand and gently wiped the stream of tears away. We didn't speak words in the moment, but something in me felt connected beyond words at that time.
"The rachni goes free. We need to get Matriarch Benezia to the rendezvous point quick." I pressed a few buttons on my omni tool before the case hissed, opening up and exposing the rachni queen to the cold. She dropped the commando and placed a sticky tentacle on my shoulder. I felt a sudden, powerful surge of energy rush through me, much like the meld, only this time it felt more refined and harmonious. Even ancient; it was as if the rachni queen were speaking directly to the beacons lasting afterthoughts that rattled my brain. Wrex started for his weapon, Tali just barely managed to get him to drop it. Before anyone else could aim, she let me go and parted ways. Instead of the usual fogginess and time it took to figure out what I had felt or heard through the beacons, I felt a sense of clarity and strengthening in my own mind akin to webbing on armor.
"Alright let's move. Get Benezia to the transport and into the stasis. I need to speak with the councilor."