Hi guys, sorry for the late update. But the UK has been one hell of oven recently stealing my attention. I was planning for this to be longer and end the Eden Prime section. But ran out of time due to the heat and RL. So, this will be split into two parts. Hopefully, the next one will be updated quickly.
As the clan troopers, rangers and knights began to move into groups, another flare lit up the air. This time with a bright golden light that made it look like another sun had entered the sky. People began to turn to look at it, but a roar from Markus made all eyes focus on him. His booming voice echoed command, fear and anger.
"BELY THAT ORDER!" he yelled, his voice echoing like a dragon. "We have Citadel Spectres here, form into the groups Talia said, but search and subdue,"
People paused for a moment as they processed the order. Looking at either Markus or the flare. As their brains registered what he had said, they began to move into groups without saying anything. They just moved with a grim silence and stoic expressions ready for a fight on their hands.
"What does this mean?" Garrus asked.
"I have no idea," Markus muttered.
OOOOO
Jayne rubbed her ear as she looked around, keeping an eye open for anything that may be coming their way.
"What was that one for?" Alenko asked.
"Spectres," Jayne answered. "If they are here, there is a reason for it. And that reason cannot be good,"
Ashley froze as heard their eyes widening as a thought came to her. Unfortunately for her, the other two noticed.
"Williams," the blood-haired mage asked looking to the knight. "What's wrong?"
She gulped as she shyly looked at the two. "I'm not sure if I should be saying this…"
"Ashley, if the mission depends on it, you need to say it. Lives could be in danger," Alenko said.
Shakely, she nodded and straightened up. "A few days ago, we raided a house. It was a cult safe house," she gulped trying to find the right words and slowly described what she found.
As she struggled to hide her emotions, both Jayne and Alenko looked at each other with worried faces. When the knight finished the two mages looked didn't take their eyes off each other. They stayed like that for a moment before Jayne spoke up.
"What did the runes look like?"
Ashley blinked for a moment before a thoughtful expression, her eyes then drifted to Kaidan's robes and the runes on them. Looking at each of them, she then pointed to one near the tail.
"That one, but it had these little notches on the side," she said.
The Academy mage looked at the rune in question. For the most part, magic is focused on the manipulation of crystals. But runes had their place in magic too. They helped with channelling magic through things like clothing or weapons. But their main use, at least in the modern age, is with magic crystal refinement. Trying to fuse magic with items like swords or guns, was hard and costly. One mistake could destroy the workshop where the blacksmith in question was working. And that wasn't counting how many crystals were needed to start the infusion.
To infuse magic into anything, the magic within the crystal needs to be drained and missed in with the material. The problem is that when anyone cracks open a crystal, the magic inside vanishes fast as the air around it absorbs it. So, hundreds of crystals would be needed to make something out of them. Due to the cost and risk, technology was developed by using crystals as the medium instead of runes. But one main use in such runes that could be ignored was crystal refinement.
Raw magical crystals are unstable. Any mage who uses them would either go insane from the pure power or die in a very bloody explosion of energy. So, a refinement process was developed to dull the power of them making them useable. Allowing them to be used in everyday life.
But what Ashley had said was of major concern. Kaidan looked at the rune. It was a couple of lines going through each other, it being a simple one. And not a complex one. The difference was that the simple runes were easier to make than complex ones. This one had a line with two curves intercepting the line and each other.
"Where were the notches?" Kaidan asked.
"Here, here, here and here," Ash pointed at the endpoints of the curved lines. "They were like a crescent moon,"
Alenko's and Jayne's eyes met, both of them wide as dinner plates. "Corruption," the commander said.
"No doubt," Kaiden nodded. "9 bodies, hearts and heads removed. Blood magic for sure,"
"Why 9?" Ask asked but the two mages shrugged.
"That could be due to anything," Jayne answered. "Citadel races, holy number, how many corrupted crystals they needed, they could only find 9 willing sacrifices. It's hard to tell,"
"Blood magic isn't part of the curriculum at the Academy," Alenko shrugged. "We are only taught how to recognise it and its effect. But the details… they are restricted by the temple for a good reason,"
"Same," Jayne added. "I may have not had the same education as you did, but my teachers did teach the same thing. But if we are facing corrupted crystal users…"
She didn't manage to finish that sentence as a roar echoed making the three react drawing their weapons. They faced a set of ramps leading up into the city itself. The group looked at each other before they made their way up the ramps to the construction site. At reaching the top their eyes widened at the sight in front of them. The street was covered with the spikes that they had seen the Geth impaled people on. These were occupied with what appeared to be dedicated corpses, but something was wrong.
A hiss of steam echoed across the street as the spikes descended. Some of the corpses fell off but others did not. Ashley was about to move forward but was held back by Jaynes whose eyes narrowed at what was happening.
The bodies began to twitch, slowly at first but then began to pick up and a green glow began to pulse from the middle of their bodies. A wet growl echoed as the corpses stood causing the three to back up in shock and horror. The corpses stood allowing the team to get a good look at them.
Their skin was a plaid white with clear signs of decay on parts of their flesh. Loose strands of clothing hung from their bodies with signs of burns along the edges. Large tube-like organs jutted out from parts of their body connecting to a central circle in the middle of their chest. In that circle was a very small crystal that glowed a necrotic green. The colour of the crystal was also mirrored in their eyes and mouth. Their hands had also changed becoming razor-like claws. Its soulless eyes turned to them and it roared.
More and more of the corpses stood and looked towards the team's location before advancing, fast.
"OPEN FIRE!" Jayne yelled, forgetting her pistol and instead using her magic throwing a fireball at the closest with Kadian doing the same, and Ashley firing her repeater with the fire crystal selected.
The fireballs flew through the air and hit the dead as they advanced. As the fireballs hit, the clothing caught fire and burned, but the overall damage was limited. Either that or the undead just ignored the pain and damage. They got close and the group drew their swords. Ashley was the first to move in with her large blade.
Despite her armour, she moved as if she wasn't wearing anything and swung her sword decapitating one of the undead before blocking another attack. But to the amazement of the Knight and others, the headless zombie moved and lashed out at Ashley. She moved out of the way, but not before it managed to nick her. Being a Knight, she was used to pain. It was part of her lifelong training, but the cut she got hurt more than anything she had felt before her jaw tightened as she lunged forward driving her blade into the crystal socket.
The crystal shattered and the circle broke. As it did, the light from the undead died and it fell backwards before turning into a black ichor-like goop. She backed up into an undead as this happened, it grabbed her. Ash was about to attack, but Jayne's cutlass blade bisected the creature before the pirate moved to the next undead.
The knight shook her head before moving on. During Ashley's charge, Alenko formed two metal spikes in his hand before he moved forward and threw them into the undead. As a general rule, mages were to focus on their mind and magic, but less on their body as that is not where their strength lies. While some close combat skills are mandatory, because of their magic this was only a measure to make sure that they could defend themselves if their magic reserves ran out.
Alenko moved around the undead like a dancer, slamming the spikes into the chests of the undead. Each time he did he made sure to move out of the way when they turned into goop. After taking out an undead trying to sneak up on her, Jayne looked towards the Academy mage with a frown. There was something about his movements that bothered her. The way he moved was too precise for a schoolboy mage. Putting the thought aside, she moved to finish off a few more of the undead.
As the last one fell, the group stopped to take in a breath and sigh in relief.
"What the fuck were those things?" Ashley asked.
"I have no idea," Jayne said as she looked towards the schoolboy mage.
"Don't look at me," he defended. "I was only taught to look our for corruption, not the form it takes,"
Jayne shook her head and approached one of the spike machines. She didn't touch it but instead moved around it getting a good look from all angles. The other two joined her but kept their distance from the machine.
"Does this look like Geth tech?" Jayne asked. "I've been around, seen some interesting pieces, but this… isn't like anything I've seen,"
Kadian walked forward and looked at it as well. "I don't remember reading anything about the Geth reanimating the dead," he admitted. "This must be new,"
"And one big problem," A voice said making the group turn, weapons raised, to see a red armoured turrian before them. "I'd lower those weapons if I were you,"
As if they came out of thin air, hooded turrian soldiers stood aiming their weapons at the group. 20 soldiers stood around them, not moving like statutes. Despite her tight lip, Jayne lowered her weapons with the other two following suit. If the turrian smiled, he didn't show it, but instead, he walked up to the group.
"Commander Jayne ' Blood-haired mage' Shepard," he said calmly. "I was wondering when you were going to get here,"
"I would ask how you knew that, but I suppose Spectre scum have their ways," the pirate shot earning a shocked look from her companions but a laugh from the turrian.
"Defiant aren't you. Well do not worry, I'm not here for you or the Obelisk," he said. "I'm here for something else,"
Jayne's brows furrowed as she looked at the Spectre, not trusting him one bit. "And that would be what?"
"We have reason to believe that a cult is operating in the area, and may have taken the Obelisk. We want the cult, you can keep the Obelisk," as he spoke Jayne and Ashley blinked in surprise.
"You don't want to the Obelisk?" Ash asked. "Despite what happened years ago?"
"I work for the Council, not the Imperium. Whatever you do with the Obelisk is up to you," his eyes didn't flicker.
If he was lying, the group couldn't tell. "So, what do you need us for?"
Before the turrian could say anything, three of his soldiers' heads popped with blood spattering everywhere.
"Get to cover!" Jayne and the turrian yelled as the two groups moved.
Several more heads popped as the Spectre squad moved. Once the two groups were in cover, they looked up the street where an asari walked down. Her face was covered with a cloth mask while the rest of her body was dressed in a black and purple leotard. It appeared that she stood on her tiptoes or in extremely high heels. But that wasn't what gained Jayne's attention. Around the Asari's neck and wrists was jewellery with glowing necrotic green gems coupled with purple gems.
"What the fuck?" Jayne muttered as she watched the asari bend down and remove the head of a human male.
His body was crushed under a waggon and the only thing left of him was his torso. The asari brought his head up and pulled back her mask. Semi-fresh blood leaked from the head and dripped into her mouth. She moaned in pleasure before she brought the head down and began to make out with it.
Ashley tried to hold back her vomit but failed, earning the attention of the asari.
"Rejoice!" she declared. "Your deaths will herald the beginning of a new age! Prepare to be sacrificed,"
Jayne's arm erupted in fire as she exited cover and threw a fireball at the asari.