Authors note: I blame Bazelgeuse for this chapters lateness.
"This doesn't make sense. No matter what answers I get, they don't add up!" Garrus declared while he tapped on his Omni tool as he leaned against a rough wall.
He and Tali had gone to speak to some of the colonists after the group had split, but most had been tight lipped, and those that were not simply did not give useful information, or outright contradictory information.
One colonist had even tried telling them there was no colony here of all things.
"They're hiding what is going on. Either by choice, or not," Tali said in agreement s she glanced to the side where she could see a pair of colonists tinkering with a water filter system that clearly could not be repaired in its current condition. "I'm thinking it's the latter."
"What about a ladder?"
"The latter, it's a human phrase, meaning the second option," Tali said with a sigh as their comms crackled to life. "Tali here,"
"It's Kaiden. Everyone might want to come down to the defended entryway to the colony. The Geth primes here just reported movement on the bridge."
"Yes, Adaaya, Desolas and-,"
"Not the lowest bridge, the tallest bridge, this one that I'm at!" Kaiden yelled over the comms, interrupting Tali as he did. "Wrex is here already, and Ashley isn't picking up. So get down here!"
"You heard him, let's move!" Tali said as she and Garrus began heading for the stairs to the entryway that was supposedly fortified.
Garrus said nothing in reply and focused on his movements, quickly passing Tali in her heavy Exo-suit. The entryway they found looked to be some kind of garage with no vehicles in it, a whole lot of boxes at the back, and a barricade at its entrance. Four Geth prime forms were standing at it, two to each side, while three Geth turrets were connected to either side. Behind the barricade sat Wrex and Kaiden, both of whom were checking over their weapons while the turrets were firing in bursts out into the distance. "What is the situation?" Garrus asked as he ran up to them.
"Haha, utterly perfect!" Wrex said with a grin as he loaded his, admittedly very large, shotgun.
"Batarians coming in force down the bridge. Take a look," Kaiden said more helpfully as he held out a pair of binoculars. Garrrus shook his head and pulled out his sniper rifle as he walked over to the barricade and looked over it through the scope.
The situation looked bad immediately. Down the bridge, about a kilometer and a half away, were four large Batarian IFV's with heavy accelerator cannons on their turrets. He could see feet around and past them; as well as a number of bodies, but it was hard with the distance. What was worse was that he could see the IFV's kinetic barriers flaring from the Geth turrets hitting them at range, but they were not breaking.
"This could be a problem. Does anyone have any anti vehicle weapons on them?" Garrus asked as she knelt down behind the barricade.
"Not unless they get close," Wrex said simply.
"Same, all of mine are short range," Tali said with a hint of annoyance in her voice as she came up to the barricade and squatted down behind it. "Ashley has her beam cannon, but she's not answering my calls at all!"
"Damn, my magic doesn't have that kind of power at range either," Kaiden swore as he looked over, his gaze suddenly locking on the Geth Prime's. "Uh, Geth prime units?"
"You have query?" one of the Prime's spoke up in an electronic tone as it turned to him and Wrex.
"Is that an Alliance beam cannon."
"Affirmative. Two units are outfitted with Alliance weapons. Courtesy of Kotchiya Sanae," It replied unemotionally.
"And the other two?"
"Geth ferrofluid ejection rifles capable of penetrating 100cm of armour. Query, do you have tactical suggestions for these units?"
Garrus, Wrex, Kaiden and Tali all stared at the Primes for a good few second before Kaiden simply smacked himself in the face. "Yes, yes I do. Take up positions behind the barricades and fire at enemies once in range. The beam cannons should focus on the IFV's."
"Affirmative," the Prime said as all four of them began moving and taking positions. The beam cannons two of them wielded firing in bare seconds.
"Keelah, this is what has kept us from the home world?" Tali muttered incredulously while shaking her head.
"Yeah, let's ignore that please," Garrus stated as he popped back over the barricade to see that the Batarians IFV's were picking up speed, someone who appeared to be a commander atop one of them yelling at the forces behind them. "They know we are here and coming fast!" Garrus yelled as he pulled the trigger, sending an accelerator round downrange, only to flash against the Batarian commanders kinetic barriers. He pulled the trigger again, breaking the commander's barrier, but before he could finish him off the commander intelligently dropped back into his IFV.
Luckily a second later both of the Geth beamers targeted that very IFV, puncturing its barrier in a bare second and carving molten swaths into the vehicle for many seconds before it began smoking and finally slowed to a stop.
Garrus moved his head away from his rifle and looked over to see the Primes now shooting as quickly as their weapons would allow, while Kaiden was behind muttering to himself as magic symbols floating in the air around him and were etched into sections of the barricades and the floor around them.
"He's making wards," Tali said as she lumbered up beside Garrus, her triple barrelled laser rifle spinning up slowly with a barely audible whir that was, admittedly, rather uncomfortable to hear.
"Is that so?" Garrus said as he shifted himself to the side a bit, both to give Tali some room, and to move away from her weapon. He had seen what it could do back on Therum, and combined with the horror stories he had heard of Shanxi survivors, did not want to be accidentally hit by it. "Well, as long as it helps," He added as he looked back down the scope of his Incisor and let a shot fly between two IFV's and into a Batarians throat.
"They will, just let him work, until they get closer it's all he can do with his magic at the moment," Tali explained as she lifted her blocky rifle and rested it on the barricade before unleashing her torrent of bright red lasers. "They are closing pretty quickly and, is that another IFV?!"
Garrus panned out his scopes zoom and felt his mouth drop open. He had watched the Geth destroy one of the IFV's and had seen two other destroyed, but there were now four as a new IFV forces its way past the wreckage of one of its predecessors. "Shit, they have more to send to the front it seems."
"How many could they have?" Wrex asked as he peeked over the rubble and threw out his arm, a bubble of purple blue energy flashing forward and slamming against one of the IFV's to noticeable effect as its front shredded into pieces.
"Uh, let me think, Batarian frigates can carry about. . . . .nine IFV's and a battalion of soldiers, up to three if they don't care about personal space," Garrus said, remembering the details best as he could while firing away as fast as his Incisors heat sink would allow.
"Damn. How's the range on those things guns?" Wrex asked as a small accelerator round glanced off his head plate, making him sink a bit lower behind the barricade." I try not to pick fights with vehicles normally."
"They've been in range for a while now knowing how accelerator cannons work," Tali joined in as her weapon's rotating heat sink popped out, spun and then popped back in, allowing her to restart her volley all over again. "They are probably diverting power to their kinetic barriers."
"I see," Garrus commented as he fired off two shots in quick succession into the frontal cameras of two IFV's, causing his Incisor to hiss and beep at him as the heat sink hit max capacity and entered its cooldown cycle. "Dammit. Are there Alliance laser rifles focused on marksmanship?"
"Most are beam rifles," Tali answered quickly as the Primes weapons shrieked o life and melted holes in two more IFV's. "Like those but smaller. There are a couple models of laser rifles focused on range, but the most respected marksman rifle is probably the Oranos, a pulse rifle focused on range."
"Pulse weapons, those ones that fire that ball of magnetically charged plasma?" Garrus asked nervously, knowing that the Council had tried convincing the Alliance to outlaw those particular weapons on multiple occasions. It never worked, though each time the number of council groups that would vote to outlaw them grew exponentially.
"The same," Tali said as she suddenly stopped firing. Then gasped. "Get down!" she cried right before the Batarian IFV's all stopped moving and fired their Accelerator cannons at once.
The barrage of shots impacted the surrounding structure of the tower, the barricade, and most importantly the shields that Kaidens's wards created to far less effect than they probably were hoping for. Shrapnel scattered in every direction, stone cracked, and smoke and dust were kicked into the air, but no one cried out in pain.
"Ugh, that's not nice," Kaiden grumbled as he crawled back behind a piece of barricade. "Anyone injured?"
"I'm fine!" Wrex said with a chuckle.
"Same!" Tali called out as her Exo-suits shields shimmered as they cycled and reset.
"Ugh, I'm not hurt, head rings a bit though," Garrus admitted as she got up off the stone floor.
"Geth Prime units one, three and four are undamaged," came a mechanical response from one of the Geth. "Prime unit two has suffered catastrophic failure from a direct cannon hit to the upper sections of its torso."
Kaiden looked around for a second and quickly found a pair of Geth legs lying on the ground sparking, as well as a large number of broken machine pieces scattered around. "Crap, that was one of the ones with a beam cannon."
"Then we'll just have to compensate!" Tali said as she got up and climbed the barricade to continue firing, only to suddenly jump back down. "Second volley!" She screamed just as said volley crashed into the barricades and shields.
One section of barricade beside Wrex tore itself apart from the barrage as more dust and stone chips filled the air and clattered onto peoples armour.
"Well damn, I think they plan to obliterate the barricade then charge in," Wrex said casually, his smirk slowly becoming a grin.
"Geth units suggest falling back away from the entrance," one Geth prime suddenly spoke up just as another barrage of shots crashed all around the doorway, blowing apart the last remaining Geth turrets and wrecking another section of barricade.
"I second that suggestion!" Garrus piped up as he heard a noise he could not place for a second, and then dared to look over the barricade for a second. "The IFV's are charging!"
"Oh damn, fall back!" Wrex yelled out as he, quicker than Garrus expected or thought possible for a Krogan, rushed away from the barricade and leapt over a nearby group of boxes and metal crates. Garrus ran a second later, behind Kaiden and Tali who, despite the size of her Exo-suit, was able to move surprisingly quickly, and just before he was fully away, the barricade behind him blew apart in an explosion that had to be part explosive and kinetic in nature.
A second later one of the IFV's floated into the garage accompanied by over a dozen Batarians, only for it to have a hole melted in its side from the remaining Prime with a bean cannon who was thrown to the side of the barricade. The Batarians all turned toward the Geth prime, and in that same second, Wrex, Tali and Kaiden burst out from behind the crate and boxes and closed in with their weapons firing.
The Melee had begun.
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Garrus let out a short grunt as he opened his eyes to find himself under a few pieces of sheered metal and stone. He could see the melee in front of him perfectly. Two IFV's were in wrecks, one right in the doorway stopping the other from entering the garage and limiting the number of Batarians that could enter. Wrex and the Geth prime appeared to be the center of attention, tearing through the Batarians like they were packaging plastic. Kaiden and Tali on the other hand, were sticking to the outskirts of the melee, striking in quickly, or gathering groups of Batarians around them as well. Kaiden's magic, which appeared to create blades of air, was painful to watch as it cut through the joints of the Batarian easily, while Tali's rifle, and a switchblade on her exosuit's other arm, was racking up quite a number of kills as well.
It appeared to be going well, until Garrus notice one thing. They were being pushed, slowly, deeper into the garage, away from the stairway that led up to the colony!
Garrus pushed against the rubble covering him and managed to get a single arm free, just in time to notice a blue biotic field wrap around the IFV wreckage blocking the door. With a shudder it lifted up, and was then pulled back and to the side until Garrus could see the one responsible.
An Asari in bold bright white armour, whose face was painted with white paint, and whose tendrils were rough around the edges. The skin of her neck and face was a very deep dark blue, darken than most Asari skin was, and her presence and looks intently told Garrus her name. How could it not, she was one of the oldest Asari Spectre's.
Kylyra Atana.
She walked with an arrogant grace that Asari Matriarchs were known for, amplified by her strength and her rank, and behind her came dozens upon dozens of more Batarians, all with weapons in hand, and hateful expressions on their faces. With a single motion of her hand the Batarians split into groups, one that charged straight toward the stairway, while the rest moved on Wrex and the rest. She was quick to head toward the stairs as well.
"Dammit!" Garrus grumbled as he grabbed his sidearm with his free hand and pulled it out of the rubble, aiming it at Kylyra. His sidearm was a well-known, and feared, Carnifex hand cannon that he had modified for accuracy, but even with its power there was no way one or two shots would pop a Spectre's kinetic barriers.
Luckily he knew of a little trick that would at the very least cripple her. Placing the bottom of the hand cannon on the ground he took aim, and at the last second tilted down as he fired. The projectile flew true and struck the underside of one of her feet as she took a step, to the one place where any kinetic barrier could not protect due to a simple design issue. The accelerator round impacted the underside of her boot and burrowed deep, blowing into and out the top side of her foot.
Kylyra fell forward in an instant, her foot unable to hold her weight as pain shot through her. She let out a scream as she fell, causing Wrex and the others to take note of her position.
"Kill them all!" she yelled as she forced herself to her knee's and then, much to Garrus' surprise, wrapped her foot in biotic energy and then forced herself to stand.
"Dammit, stop her!" Garrus yelled, revealing his position just as he let his sidearm fire shots into any Batarian nearby, its force popping their simple barriers in one shot before he finished them off.
"Too bad!" A Batarian yelled as he rushed at Garrus and kicked his carnifex out of his hand before pointing his rifle at Garrus's head. "You lose, Turian. Should have picked the winning side!"
Then a Warp slammed into the Batarian and began eating away at his flesh as he fell to the ground.
Garrus looked over to see Wrex smile at him for a bare second before he turned and pumped a Batarian full of holes.
"Spirits, I won't get another chance," Garrus grumble as he struggled against the rubble holding him and managed to free himself enough to crawl out. He glanced around for his incisor or carnifex to find neither of nearby, and with a scowl picked up the now dead Batarians rifle, checked its heat sink, and rushed toward the wreckage of the one remaining IFV, firing as he went.
Three Batarians went down before they noticed him, and the fourth and fifth had been doing something with the IFV's wreck, unable to draw weapons in time. Nearly crashing into the back of the IFV, Garrus took a second to calm his breathing and noticed one of the dead Batarians omnitoool's was flickering on and off. Showing a repair success code.
Garrus bent down and grabbed the Batarians arm, twisting it to see the code, before chuckling to himself. The Batarians had been trying to reactivate the wrecked IFV's gun, and had managed to do so. So now he had mass accelerator cannon!
As quickly as his aching body would allow Garrus pulled the Batarians omnitool off, broke the connection and then using the tool, connected his own omnitool to the IFV's main gun. Its targeting image was half broken and had a delay, but he made it turn and fired on a big group of Batarians preparing to all shoot at Wrex at once. The result was a cloud of red mist and gore.
"That you, Spiky?" came Tali's voice over the sounds of combat as a Batarian body was thrown across the room, blood fountaining out from a wound in his neck.
"Yes!" Garrus called back as an accelerator round pinged of the wreckage in front of him, turning his gaze around to see another IFV, and troops supporting it, heading down the bridge toward them. He glanced at his omnitool, seeing only one shell left in the IFV's gun, and glanced back at the doorway, noting that the arch itself seemed heavily damaged from the amount of punishment the barrages had done to it. He acted instantly. The turret spun, aimed, and fired, blowing apart the last bit of support that held up the ancient stone and collapsed the entire doorway.
"Why are you locking us in, Turian!?" came Wrex's loud and very clear annoyed tone.
"Reinforcements, had to stop them from getting to us!" Garrus said as he ran around the wreckage and swung the butt of his rifle into a Batarian who had his back turned, knocking him to the ground.
"That's good then! Let's clean up and go after that blue skinned bitch!" Tali yelled as she swung her weapon into the stomach of a Batarian who tried to use a shot gun on her. Then let it fire through him.
Garrus let himself smile as he rolled to the side to dodge a Batarian with a shotgun and then filled him with shots till his barrier broke. "Don't worry. I slowed her down a bit!"
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Kylyra Atana, Council Spectre, Asari Matriarch of almost 850 years, mother of four daughters, and member of Ragnarok, winced as she climbed the stairs among the Batarian mercenaries and soldiers that had joined their organization. Things had been going so well until that Alliance corvette appeared, now her attack had stalled, losing half her men, and she had been wounded without her barrier even being triggered by not the Alliances trickery called magic, but by a Turian with a pistol!
"Damn him. Shooting the bottom of my foot. Who does that?" she grumbled as she felt the pain shoot up her leg with each step. It hadn't hit bone, but instead had penetrated right through the muscle between the bones according to her omnitool. It left her two options, keep wrapping it in biotic energy to lessen the force on it and keep moving, or stop and take time to properly asses the injury.
An explosion echoed up the stairwell from the garage, making her scowl. Not only was there the Citadel investigations most well-known sharpshooter, but also a well-known Krogan battle master alongside the Alliance monsters. She could take the Turian easily enough, but with her wound, and a Krogan battlemaster with almost as much experience as she had, well, the mission came first.
"Hey boss, you good?"
Kylyra turned to the Batarian who spoke up, a captain named Makrak who she knew used to be part of the Hegemony's armed forces, but had kept her fingers perfectly clean. She liked her. She wanted revenge, but not for stopping her people's slavery, she wanted it for the destruction the Alliance wrought to Kar'shan, and for her children that had died.
"I'll be fine. We have to get to the objective. Let nothing stand in our way!" Kylyra declared after a slight pause.
"Alright," She said with a nod as the two of them came up out of the stairway into a short hall and out into the colony proper. Such as it was.
Calling it a colony was a disservice to real colonies and maybe only a few dozen people lived in the squalid conditions that the binary helix dropped them in. They were experiments, test subjects and nothing more. Most probably didn't even have their sanity left in their heads if the information on her target was accurate.
As if to prove it she noticed a couple colonists trying to hide behind the edges of buildings. They had been being attacked by them repeatedly, yet they were not fleeing, and instead one even pulled out a pistol.
Kylyra let out a sigh, part pain and part exhaustion. "Kill anyone who even reaches for a weapon!"
Immediately the bark of accelerator weapons echoed in the colony and a handful of bodies fell to the ground. Kylyra ignored it and raised her omnitool.
"Hey boss. I've been wondering. This thing, it's a plant right? Why would our target be in a tower this high away from the surface?" Makrak asked as she stood nearby with her weapon at the ready, ever vigilant.
"I do not know, but you can ask when we find it," Kylyra said with a grin as she pointed at a nearby crane that's position made no sense. Until you scanned the area and found the tunnel nearby under a small supply building. "Move that building with the crane. Our entry point is there."
Makrak nodded and looked at two of her subordinates, gesturing for them to get to work. Both did and went straight for the crane, and in seconds it started moving with a low growl as if it didn't want to move. It almost drowned out the sound of accelerator fire.
Almost.
"You cannot be, here."
Kylyra turned to the new voice, finding a human man, shuffling toward her lopsidedly. "I am a Spectre, I go where I please, human!" she said, almost spitting the word.
"Why do, you, wish to, meet?" He asked, words even more broken as his face contorted, as if trying to resist some sort of drug. It made Kylyra smile as realization dawned on her.
"I have need of information that I am told you may have. Information to protect the galaxy. Will you not speak to me, ancient one?"
Makrak looked at her but said nothing, then checked her omnitool and tensed. "Boss, we have reports of approaching Geth platforms from deeper in the colony heading this way. We've lost three men to them already."
Kylyra focused her senses to her ears and could hear the sound of Geth weaponry drawing closer and scowled. "Please, ancient one. I only wish to speak and propose a trade for the good of all!" she pressed.
The human in front of her squirmed a bit and gurgled as he began speaking, his voice distorted painfully. "You seek, the, end, of, the cold, ones? And the harvesters?"
"Yes. Yes I do."
"Very well. Kill them, and I shall, speak to you," the human thrall said as he suddenly turned around and pulled out his pistol, opening fire on a Geth patform as soon as it came into sight.
"Heh, kill all the Geth and do not kill the colonists! They are now, allies through association!" Kylyra declared with a snicker. Right before a Geth prime came around the building the crane was connected to, carrying a weapon that was clearly not Geth in make. "Shit, Geth prime with Alliance tech!"
All the nearby Batarians acted on both of her orders in an instant, rushing for cover of opening fire to provide cover for their allies. A number of regular Geth platforms fell under third fire, but the Prime seemed to be unconcerned, shots bouncing off of its armour, instead of its barriers.
"It has no barrier, use AP rounds!" Makrak called as the prime lifted its weapon up, an ominous blue green glow forming inside the barrel. "Oh fuck, pulse weapon!" She cried as it discharged, a blast of electrified energy and plasma bursting forth and slamming into a small piece of cover two Batarians were behind. They screamed in agony.
"Don't get in our way!" Kylyra yelled as she threw a warp at the Prime, only for her eyes to go wide when it collided with the Prime.
Normally a warp broke down molecular bonds, essentially warping the physical structure of things. Against a machine with no barriers of any kind, the armour would warp, twist, corrode, erode, and bend in on itself all at once. Or at least it should have. Instead nothing happened when the warp hit the Prime!
The prime's eye turned toward her and the plates around it shifted, as if mockingly creating an expression. "This Unit has been altered by the Alliance operative Sanae Kotchiya, and has been designated as Zaku," It stated in an electronic tone as a colonist came at it from behind and began shooting at it with a pistol. The Prime, apparently named Zaku, then lowered its weapon, took a hand off of it, pulled out a pistol and then shot the colonist without looking. "You endanger this position. Surrender, and you will be returned to council space. In one piece."
"The, cold ones, must, die. Or no, speech." The human thrall muttered from the ground where it lay, a stray round having damaged its leg.
"Any more thralls to bring to bear would help with that. I don't think this Geth is going to go down easily," Makrak muttered as she pulled out a grenade in one hand and rubbed it with a finger.
"You have thirty seconds to comply. If you shoot, that will be taken as noncompliance," Zaku stated as the sound of gunfire and screaming suddenly spike to a roar nearby.
"One, who, resists. Cannot control. Flee. Will, enrage," the human thrall said as it raised its pistol at the Geth and fired.
"Understood. Your deaths will be swift. But not painless," Zaku stated, its tone almost sounding like it looked forward to what it was about to do.
"Run for the entrance!" Kylyra called as she turned and dashed towards the now uncovered stairway, just before the Geth fired, obliterating the human thrall and the space she and Makrak had just been occupying.
She could feel her foot sting with pain as she slid to a stop by the entrance, taking a quick count of her forces as some ran past her. Three Geth platforms, the normal kind, were firing on and killing Batarians and the colonists who had turned on them, and as a number ran past her she saw Zaku's weapon charging up again and pointing her way. She also saw a human in armour come up behind Zaku with, what looked like massive vines or tendrils or something like that coming out of her back. One of her eyes was dull and clouded; while the other was wide and full of rage.
So that was what the ancient thing meant when it mentioned one who was resisting it that it would enrage. "Everyone down?" She asked as she dropped halfway down the stairs and peered back out, aiming her pistol at the cranes controls.
"All that could!" came Makrak's reply.
"Good enough," Kylyra stated as she shot the control panel once, twice, and then a third time, causing it to fry and its systems to go into shut down. She then rolled down the stairs away from the entrance, just in time for the supply building to land with a crash on the opening. Locking them in the stairway. "Give me a force count!"
"Yes, there are fourteen of us here right now," Makrak stated as she glanced over the Batarians further below. "All have basic gear, two have rocket launchers and grenades. We also have four demolitions charges and three incendiary bombs that had been planned to be used on the colony itself if needed."
"Good. It will do if things don't go as planned," Kylyra said as she stood up, only to wince and lean against a wall, finding that she had aggravated her already injured foot. "We'll let those above, and the berserk Alliance person deal with the Geth. We have an objective to talk to!"
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"What in the spirits was that!?" Garrus yelled as he, Wrex, Kaiden and Tali all ascended the stairs back up to the colony proper. It had taken a little longer than they had wanted to finish off the Batarians that had stayed back to block them from getting to the Spectre Kylyra, but now they were back on track. After all, she could not have gotten far with the injury he had given her.
"Sounded like a pulse cannon. High calibre," Tali said from the back of the group, her exosuit making her start to fall behind a bit due to its bulk and weight.
"Wait, who had a pulse cannon up in the colony? Ashley didn't, she won't touch them," Kaiden asked in confusion.
"Didn't that green haired operative mention upgrading the Geth?" Wrex said simply.
"Oh, well that's a good thing then, right?" Garrus asked as he came out of the stairs and rushed down the hall into the colony proper, pausing as the scene before him hit him with shocking clarity.
All over there were the bodies of Batarians and colonists as well as a number of Geth platforms. Accelerator rounds had pitted the buildings, as had lasers, and a nearby mechanical shed looked as if it had been dropped from the ceiling high above them. In the main open area of the colony, surrounded by bodies, was a Geth prime that was missing an arm, shoulder and a large chunk of its upper torso around where the shoulder would be. In its working hand was a damaged pulse cannon that was leaking plasma into a green acidic puddle on the ground by its feet.
Across from the Geth Prime was Ashley Williams. But instead of her usual garb and weapons, she held no mechanical weapon in her hands, in fact her arms had bulked to a disturbing degree, looking as if they were made of vines or plant matter. Her hands had turned into massive oil covered claws, and thick vine like tendrils hung down from her forearms, tipped and dotted by almost metallic looking thorns. Even her green hair was now filled with thorn covered vines, and her eyes were too wide and unfocused as they literally radiated energy.
"Ugh, I take it that is not normal?" Garrus asked carefully as he watched the Geth prime stare at Ashley for a second before she suddenly lunged at it. It swung its weapon around, attempting to splash her with plasma, but it did nothing as her claws raked its chest, tearing sections of metal right off, along with gashes of circuitry.
"No, its not. She's gone berserk!" Kaiden yelled as he began mutter something then shot what appeared to be a shotgun spray of glowing blue orbs toward Ashley. Only for her to back flip over them, and then look toward them, her insane eyes radiating nothing, like they were trying to imitate an abyss.
"So, we knock her out of it. Not so different from a Krogan," Wrex said with a chuckle as he rolled his shoulder and took a step toward Ashley. Stopping only when Tali suddenly placed a hand on his shoulder.
"No, it's not so simple. Look."
Wrex did, just in time to see Ashley move faster than a non biotically enhanced soldier, and slam both claws into the Geth prime. The vines coming out of her forearms and hair then all reared up and pierced it repeatedly before all whipping out of the sides, essentially tearing the Geth platform apart from the inside out.
"Exactly. When a Yalf Youkai goes mad, it's not so simple to deal with, Their Youkai side takes over with no moral code or recognition to guide it. And Ashley's mother is one of the strongest operatives in the Alliance. If we're not careful, we will die. Messily," Kaiden said as he very slowly began walking to the side.
"So, how do we stop her without killing her?" Garrus asked as he slowly began following Kaiden to the side as a dark thought crossed his mind. "Or, is that the only option?"
"It might be, but I want to try something," Kaiden said as he open a small case on his leg and pulled out a slip of very thin white and red paper. "I need the three of you to keep her off me in a second. As she'll be out to kill me with this."
"What is that supposed to-?" Wrex began to say, stopping when the slip of paper began to glow. "What in the?"
"Spellcard: Wind fire sign, Satan's Chimney!" Kaiden yelled as he slammed the paper to the ground in front of him. In that instant the paper burned away as a thin line of fire seared across the ground toward Ashley. She turned toward the sudden noise, and as the line of fire hit her, she looked down at it, then at Kaiden and shrieked. Right before a column of fire nearly five meters wide roared up from the ground, engulfing her completely and spreading out across the ceiling above them. The heat was so massive that Tali and Garrus both fell backwards and shielded their faces, and even Wrex was forced to raise and arm even as his mouth fell open agape. "Using someone's opposing element when they are enraged or maddened, WILL, focus their attention upon the one who did it. Me. Keep her off me for about a minute as soon as the spell ends!" Kaiden yelled, straining over the sound of the roaring flames.
"Why not just do that again?" Wrex asked as he slowly took out his shotgun and loaded a handful of concussive rounds in the chamber ahead of the ammo block. They wouldn't do a whole lot of damage, but they would knock almost anyone around easily.
"I can't. Spellcards are exorbitantly expensive to produce, and one can only make them for spells they are skilled at. That one took me almost two weeks to make because fire is not my specialty!" Kaiden said as he took out a small tool and began carving markings on the ground in front of him a laser. "Besides, I can only think of a handful of people that would be capable of, or willing to, put a mind blank spell onto a spell card!"
"A mind blank!?" Tali yelled in surprise before raising her laser rifle and scowling. "Dammit Kaiden, this better work!"
"Why wouldn't it?" Garus asked as he checked the Bataarian rifle in his hands and scowled. When was the last time it had been calibrated or even seen service!?
"Mind magic is regulated and very dangerous. Mind blank empties the mind of thoughts and emotions, causing a temporary coma," Tali said as the tower of flame began to sputter out at the top and lose some of its ferocity. "It has also wiped minds of every piece of information on rare occasions, turning people into mindless husks of flesh."
"Well then, here's, what is that phrase? Pleasing?" Garrus asked as the flames died down and ended, revealing Ashley on one knee, her clothing mostly burned off, her hair gone to reveal literal vines growing out of her skull, and her arms burned down to bone. All the while as her muscle began to regrow around the bone.
"Hoping. Here's hoping," Tali provided as her blade slid out of the one arm of her Exo-suit.
"Right. Here's hoping," Garrus said as he suddenly aimed his rifle low and fired a shot, the accelerator round going right through the knee of the leg Ashley was resting all of her weight on. She immediately fell forward onto her face, a scream coming out of her throat like a broken instrument of pure hate.
A second later she propped herself up and began crawling toward Kaiden, her arms only bone clacking against the stone, and then piercing the stone as muscle slid down them, reforming in second.
A single concussive round sent her rolling to the side and into a block of stone with a heavy crack, only pausing her for a second before she stood up on her legs and again looked at Kaiden and rushed toward him. "It would have been nice to know she can regenerate faster than a Vorcha!" Wrex yelled in annoyance as he fired off another two concussive round, the first hitting her in the side, but the second going wide as she twisted and rolled around it.
"She's normally good about not getting hit. We don't see it often," Tali said as she let her rifle spew, aiming at Ashley's legs, only for her to jump backwards and latch onto the crane, the muscles over her arms gaining skin, and her hair regrowing along with more thorn covered vines. "Undead and plant Youkai always have the most annoying traits I once heard. And it seems to be true!"
"More information to put into a report I guess," Garrus muttered as he tracked Ashley crawling down the crane, the vines hovering over her like an array of spines. With a single shot he took one of the vines off, earning no discernable reaction from Ashley as she began rushing at Kaiden again. He aimed lower and took another shot in her lower torso, a place that would hurt but would not, according to his knowledge of human biology, be instantly deadly. Of course, he wasn't sure what similarity there was between a Youkai and human. After all, anything that could regenerate that fast had to have some sort of negatives. Right?
The shot didn't even slow her as she suddenly lunged through the air, Tali getting in the way and catching Ashley on an arm of her exo-suit before, much to Garrus's surprise, flinging her off and cutting a deep gouge in her belly with the suits blade.
"This isn't working, she isn't even flinching!" Wrex yelled as he fired of his last few concussive rounds, and then promptly stopped caring and kept firing. "How much longer?"
Kaiden did not verbally answer, but instead raised a hand of five fingers, closed them, then opened them, then did it again.
Wrex looked to see Ashley just taking shots from both Garrus and Tali and let out a growl. "Screw this. I AM KROGAN!" He yelled before throwing his gun to the side and charging at Ashley, catching her in a tackle and slamming her into a wrecked control panel with a crash. She thrashed against him, and he could feel the vines stab into his legs and sides, right though his armour. Instead of letting go however, it only made him angrier, and drove him to lift Ashley into the air and slam her against the broken panel again and again and again. Then, for good measure, he loosen his grip, threw her up, grabbed her by the ankles, spun around, and slammed her body right into the stone with another heavy crack. A normal person, whether they be Asari, Batarian or Turian, would have been pulp long before that, but Ashley still continue to struggle and tried to crawl toward Kaiden, her broken and snapped limbs re-joining at a rate which startled even the old Krogan. "Stop struggling!" He said with a scowl as he dragged her closer, quickly grabbed her by the shoulders, and then bent over and began slamming his headplate into the back of her skull. Each strike actually caused her to stop moving for a second, and after the fourth she was moving far less, and barely groaning as a white aura of light suddenly surrounded her head. A second later she stopped moving, her expression one of complete disregard and calm. "That, took too long!"
"I'm sorry. That was not a spell I ever thought I would need to cast," Kaiden said as he still knelt on the ground, looking like he had just run a marathon. "Mind magic, is not my forte by any stretch."
"Right, ugh, she's not dead or horribly disfigured for life now, is she?" Garrus asked as he slowly walked over and offered Wrex a hand to get off of his knees. Wrex simply batted Garrus's hand out of the way and grunted as he stood up on his own.
"See for yourself. Girl regenerated like a dozen Vorcha."
True to his words, Ashley was looking almost like nothing happened, except for her armour and clothing being mostly ruined.
"That . . . . Spirits I need a drink," Garrus finally said as he shook his head and turned to look at Tali and Kaiden. "How is she still alive? She should be broken so badly she needs cybernetics up her whole spine, replacement limbs, a bath in medical gel, something! She looked perfectly fine, and even Krogan or Vorcha can't regenerate that fast or perfectly!"
"Plant Youkai have powerful regeneration, and it's greater considering her lineage," Kaiden said as he tried to stand up and almost fell over. "You are right though. Normally she would not regenerate that fast as she's never had need to. When a half Youkai's body is in overdrive, usually from going mad or becoming enraged, their regeneration spikes. She'll probably be down for a couple days, and unable to do a whole lot for at least a week if not more after that."
"Well, that almost sounds normal," Garrus said with a sarcastic chuckle as he took a second look at the area around them and began piecing things together. Colonists were killed by both laser and accelerator fire. Broken Geth forms surrounded by colonists. A smashed mechanical shed and a broken control panel. Droplets of blood and scuff marks on the ground coming away from the hall they came from, and going to the open and then to the mechanical shed. He walked over to the shed and forced open the ruined door. Finding nothing but regular tools and supplies within. "We need to move this shed, they went underneath it."
Wrex walked over and glanced around, even taking a few deep sniffs, before laughing. "Ha, not bad Turian!" He declares as he pushed against it, only for it to not budge in the slightest. "We need the crane."
"I'll see if I can bypass its control panel then," Tali replied as she walked over to the control panel and brought up her wrist comp.
"So, what do we do with her?" Wrex asked as he gestured to Ashley.
"Well, it would probably be best for someone to take her back to the ship," Kaiden admitted with a sigh, before a loud cracking sound made him jump. "Dammit Tali, fix the control panel, don't break it!"
"It's already broken and I'm trying to bypass it. I haven't touched it!" Tali called back.
Another loud cracking noise echoed out in the colony, making Garrus and Wrex look around as well as Kaiden. "Please tell me that's not the foundation breaking," Garrus said out loud in worry as he looked up at the molten crater in the ceiling.
"No, that was something else," Wrex said as he looked around as another crack echoed out, followed by another, and another. Then the floor began shaking.
"I thought you said it wasn't the foundation!?" Garrus yelled as he leaned against a building to support himself.
"It isn't, this feels like a Maw coming up to fight. Something is coming up from below!" Wrex yelled seconds before his words rung true.
Giant tendrils of plant like matter a disgusting pale green yellow in color, burst from the floor all over the colony, as well as some of the walls. Each tendril latched onto something and seemed to solidify in seconds, forming almost bark on its outsides. Then, as they stopped moving and the shaking stopped, large buds began growing all over all of them. Buds larger than humans.
"Uh, this is looking a bit…" Garrus started to say, stopping when he noticed the buds all tuning a disgusting orange color.
"Get away from them!" Kaiden yelled as he let his magic flow and used it to drag Ashley's body over to the side of the mechanical shed.
Both Garrus and Wrex moved away from the pods, as did Tali as one was close to her, just in time as they all began opening, an orange green mist exuding out from them in puffs. As they fully opened, the horror was made real as dozens of human shaped green masses dropped onto the ground with wet squelching noises. The humanoid plant things then proceeded to stand up and brandish their wet, but clearly solid claws, let out unintelligible screams, and then charged.
"Contacts!" Garrus yelled in response as he raised the rifle and fired, filling one of the monsters with a dozen or so accelerator rounds to the chest. It still charged so he aimed at the head and fired another few shots. The creatures head exploded in a green mess. "Aim for the head!"
"Or just hit everything," Wrex muttered as he fired his shotgun with impunity into the oncoming horde of green claws, and then punched another in the face as it neared him.
"They're weak, but there's so many!" Tali yelled as his rifle roared lasers into the horde. Then dust began falling from the ceiling and the whole building shook as the sounds of an accelerator cannon ripped through the air. "Ah, what was that?!"
"Sounded like a spinal accelerator cannon," Garrus muttered as he kept shooting.
"You mean from a ship?" Kaiden asked as his magic protected him and Kaiden and kept pushing the monsters away.
"Yes, from a ship!" Garrus yelled back as the Batarian rifle in his hands overheated, and burned his hands. Spirits! I hate shoddy craftsmanship!"
"Hate it after all these things are dead!" Wrex yelled as the air reverberated from another ship based round being fired somewhere. Somewhere close.
"We need to contact, wait, hold on-," Kaiden said as he suddenly touched his one ear. "The situation. It is bad, sir. The Batarians broke through our defence with an armoured assault and an Asari Spectre. We gave chase up into the colony, but Ashley had somehow gone berserk, and now we're fighting a horde of plant zombies!" Kaiden yelled angrily.
"What is a zombie?" Wrex asked in confusion as he kicked a pant monster to the side.
"A corpse that still moves. And sometimes can still think," Tali said as she let her blade behead a monster that managed to get close.
"That's a thing?!" Wrex said in disgust as he turned and shot another monster, scowling as he could see the bud on the massive vine closing, only to reopen a few moments later and spit out more. "Ugh, they just keep coming. Unless we bust those stalks this will never end!"
"I've tried shooting them, they just regenerate!" Tali yelled in response as the air again reverberated from ship based fire. The sound of distant crumbling stone following it.
"Yes. They blocked the entrance, yes. . . . . .Understood, we'll carve a path!" Kaiden yelled in reply to something on his comms before lowering his hand from his ear. "We need to get back to the ship!"
"What?! Why?" Tali yelled as she continued to gun down monsters, her rifles heat disc glowing dangerous as it was barely having enough time to cool each heat sink.
"Are we running away?" Wrex asked simply.
Kaiden nodded as the sound of more ship based weapons and crumbling stone echoed through the air. "The other tower is crumbling and-," he stopped when a trio of explosions shook the whole tower, "and according to Desolas, the Batarian frigate was moving to the wall below us. We need to get back to the ship before they decide to blow this tower up as well!"
"Shit. We got beat, huh?" Wrex muttered as he blew apart anther monster with his shotgun, putting it into overheat.
"But, how are we going to get past this many of the damn things!?" Garrus asked as he tossed his, again overheating, Batarian rifle into one of the creatures knocking it over, and pulled out a sidearm to finish it off.
"Easy, we run through them!' Tali yelled as she sliced another monster dead, and then stowed her weapon. A second, thinner blade, coming out from the arm of the exosuit as she then used it to kill another.
"Ha, I like the way you think!" Wrex yelled as he began moving forward, charging the monsters and knocking them aside while firing his gun as he moved.
"Dammit, follow fast!" Garrus yelled as he dropped to one knee, grabbed Ashley and threw her over his shoulder.
"I'll cover you!" Kaiden yelled as he pushed him up and forward, creating barriers around the both of them that managed to deflect the strikes of the monsters.
Garruss said nothing as he ran after Wrex and Tali, whose combined armour and bulk of their natural body and exo-suit were knocking aside every monster they ran into. It appeared that the monsters were gathering at them, because as soon as they got past the first bunch of them, not a single one was ahead of them. Though it did appear that the horde was shambling along after them, even as they got out of the colony proper and into the stairway back to the hanger.
Just as they were about to reach the hanger itself the entire tower shuddered and groaned, shifting to the side with a significant angle that knocked them all from their feet.
"Dammit, Joker! If the ship is not ready to depart, get on it!" Kaiden yelled into the comms.
"She's all warmed up. By the way, the tower seems to be falling apart," was his casual response.
"No shit!" Kaiden yelled back as he climbed to his feet along with everyone else, the sound of wailing monsters coming from behind them closer and closer. "Shit! We need to move!"
"We are moving. There's the ship!" Wrex yelled as they all turned into the hanger to see the Normandy sitting there perfectly fine.
Just as a Geth frigate swung into view, floating outside. It was not angled to be aiming at the Normandy, but did fire at an unseen target, its shots shaking the air and knocking everyone from their feet again.
"Dammit, I am not dying here!" Tali yelled as she got up first and kept moving toward the Normandy as the Geth frigate continued to fire at a target. A target that after a few shots, began to fire back, creating bright flashes as its kinetic barriers flashes to life from each hit.
A shot went wide and blew apart a wall of the hanger near its entrance, sending chips and chunks of stone and steel everywhere as the group made it to the walkway to the Normandy, which was now damaged and scarred by rubble and the towers new, worsening angle.
"Almost there. Almost there," Garrus mumbled under his breath as he panted heavily, not used to carrying someone and their gear in such a situation. Luckily the door ahead of them opened before they got there and nothing else impeded their entry.
"Joker, are Desolas, Addaya and Kotchiya back yet?" Kaiden asked aloud as the entre ship rocked.
"Yes, they just flew into our garage door. We're getting out of here while the Geth and Batarian frigates duked it out. Hold on!" Joker replied as the ship shifted again, throwing everyone to the floor as the hatch behind them closed. The ship shook again and again, and the sound of accelerator cannon fire leaked its way into the ship due to proximity. But after a few more shakes and shifts in gravity, the ship levelled out and everything sounded almost calm.
"Kaiden, your group okay?" Desolas' voice suddenly came over the ships comms.
"Yes, we, we are fine, essentially," Kaiden said, sounding very tired.
"Good, as long as everyone is alive," Desolas said his voice sounding more and more displeased as he spoke. "Have everyone clean up and get their wounds looked after. Three hours till debrief."
"U-understood sir," Kaiden said as he looked at Garrus. "I'll take Ashley to the medbay. Everyone can go do what they need to before debrief. I think we've earned it."