Vanguard of Vengeance: Chapter 9

The rocky ground of the planet crunched underfoot as the team stepped out onto the dead world. Cold immediately set in, even through the thick insulation of their hardsuits. Shepard looked out across the landscape. The canyon sides loomed, the nearest protrusion nearly a hundred feet high. Its face was carved into an alien shape, its base formed ribbed pillars that rose to towering heights before joining a high dome covered in strange hollows. Taking a step back to view the structure as a whole, Shepard saw the shape of a gargantuan skull leers from the rock. It was a distended and putrid looking thing, covered as it was by the tendrils of the ever present green weed. Shepard whistled softly to herself as she followed the lines up into the surrounding mountains.

"There is no time, Shepard; we must not linger in the sight of such evil. Out path lies inside the structure. From there we can pass into the underground caverns and into the scar." Javik said. He was already heading for the skull-place.

"What is this place anyway?" Garrus asked as the small party moved quickly towards it.

"It was the chief temple and place of governance for the Zieophs before the war. It was consecrated to their Nightlords with the blood of Prothean slaves taken from our colonies." Javik answered darkly. "It was here that the last battle between Prothean and Zieoph was fought. It was to be the end of them." Javik pointed up into the ashen sky and drew lines as if he had seen the battle himself.

The group drew up short at the base of the temple, where the tall pillars came together to create an inverted Y-shaped frame to a great metal door. The door hung limp and twisted on hinges almost a foot in diameter. Above the mangled portal were inscribed words in thick, twisted black script cut roughly into the rock. They remained translated in Shepard's HUD.

"What does it say?" she asked as Javik took the first step towards the doorway. He stopped and turned around.

"In their language it reads; Mae'n cysgu yn y tywyllwch ac yn aros am doriad y byd, pan fydd yn codi yn y tân i ddifa y sêr. It is their prayer to Death. They chanted it even as air forsook their lungs at the points of our weapons. Come." He disappeared through the doors. Garrus followed him but Ashley balked.

"I don't know, Commander, I'm getting some serious bad vibes about this place."

"You and me both, Chief, you and me both. Come on, we'll take it together." Shepard patted the younger marine on the back. Ashley shook her head but relented. Raising their rifles to shoulder height, the two women stepped inside.

If the architecture of the outside had been macabre, it didn't hold a candle to the inside. The great vaulted hall they found themselves in was the darkest black and seemed to be made of fluid stone. The walls were frozen ripples that undulated unpleasantly. Every now and again Shepard would catch the shape of a face in the marble, only for it to be lost among the folds on a second glance. It was deeply, almost palpably unsettling. Javik and Garrus were ahead, their torch light bouncing off of the floor to splash against the walls.

Shepard sped up to catch them, almost slipping on something that crunched against the dusty floor. She withdrew her boot to find the cracked skull of some long dead nightmare. At once she could see the shape of the outer façade in the distended skull. In life, this creature would have had a head twice the size of a man, though lumpy and oval. If the rest of the skeleton was anything to go off, it would have stood hunched over on bandy legs. Wide and curved shoulders would have carried long, gangly arms ending in clawed, three fingered hands. Most horrible of all, it would have boasted a face full of long and bony tendrils, ribbed like the outer pillars of the temple. Shepard kicked it away in disgust.

"Not much to look at, are they Commander?" Ashley said, pulling a face. If these guys rolled up to Earth, I'dve put the fire to them too." The two of them passed more of the wretched skeletons as they caught up with the two aliens ahead of them. The bodies lay in heaps at the foot of their great walls and in alcoves to the side. Their heads were turned up towards the script that ran across every free space of the wall and their fingers were spread open in inviting gestures. Ahead, Javik had stopped to read another inscription. His fingers stretched inches from the black stone.

"yr estron yn dod â chelwyddau. Maent yn cael eu geni o fywyd a shun y tywyllwch. bwrw hwy allan i'r tân i'w llosgi yn ei olwg," he read. "It is a record of their first contact with the Prothean. They feared us, we didn't follow their mad religion."

"How can you know that?" Ashley asked, "Do you read their language?"

"No, it is not written in the script, but imprinted in the memory of the rock. These words are written in Prothean blood and even dead blood can hold vestiges of those who shed it." The Prothean hissed. "There is more, here; yr awyr yn cael ei duo gan eu niferoedd, y byd yn llosgi yn eu Llwybr. rydym wedi'u cymryd i y cysgodion ac yn ymladd yn yn eu yn awr at y foddhad y arglwyddi nos. They fought us; here they inscribed the records of the battles. The raids, the pitched fights among the stars, the eventual coming of our fleets."

Javik followed the walls. More of the script marched across it, occasionally broken by crude illustration or strange glyph. Often was repeated a mark that looked like an eight legged and thick skulled spider. Javik turned suddenly, looking out across the hall.

"The way down is this way," he said. The group walked breathlessly through smaller halls and narrow halls until they came upon a steep staircase cut down into the body of the hill. A smell of stale air and corruption seemed to pour almost like breath from the yawning hole. Garrus shone a light down, illuminating an endless set of rough steps. More bodies lay broken on the steps. They were not turned up in worship like those above, but instead smashed to pieces. And they were shaped differently, taller, with wide brimmed skulls flat on top with curving undersides.

"Protheans?" Shepard asked, comprehending. Javik grimaced.

"Yes. Their death was a tragedy at the time. They did not value the ultimate sacrifice as those of the later Empire. They did not even die with weapons in their hands. But it at least confirms that what we seek is truly here."

The descent was made in silence. Light made strange shadow plays of the wall frescos as they delved deeper into the underground tunnels of the Zieoph catacombs The stone down here was not the black marble of the halls above, but sandstone as gray as the sky outside. In places water dripped in unpleasant streams that smelled of sulphur and left rivulets that flowed down into the blackness. The caves took on a more natural form as they drove further down until Javik called a halt. He was standing at the edge of a great split in the rock roof. Dull light drifted down to them and glinted on something in the dark.

The first thing that Shepard noticed was that the floor felt different underfoot. I rang hollowly with every step. The walls were different too, purplish black and slick looking. Almost oily. She had seen this surface before. She knelt down and brushed away dirt and sand. Underneath was a floor of metal, cut in diamond shapes almost like the grating of the Normandy.

"Javik, where are we?" She asked in a hushed voice.

"You now stand on the deck of the Narsuuvan. The Sword of the Moon. It was the first dreadnaught of the Prothean people and the vessel of the Empire's first Pradhan. It was… broken in the final battle above this mountain. The pieces were never recovered." The alien fell to his knees and pressed both hands to the dead metal.

Shepard knelt down beside him. "Javik, why are we here?"

"There is something I must find. It will be on the bridge…" he was interrupted. A sound echoed down the dark steps they had just come down, the sound of a pebble dislodged onto rock. "We are not alone here." Both of them stood and trained weapons on the doorway. Silence fell again. Shepard strained her ears, but heard nothing. "It is this way," Javik was off again. The Prothean ship was still alien looking, but lacked the unearthly menace of the temple to death. Javik padded down curved corridors as the other's struggled to keep up. Every now and again the party would freeze, half hearing another sound. At long last, the passage opened up. The bridge of a Prothean warship was simply planned. In basic shape, it resembled a long oval tube with a flattened top and bottom. Bulbous looking consoles dotted the walls and narrow and angular chairs studded the room. Each post was manned by the collapsed bones of a fallen Prothean, still frozen in their crash positions. At the center of the room, a larger Prothean skeleton sat precariously in state. He was swathed in a regal suit of plates that still glinted gold under the layer of dust and grime. Four empty eye sockets still stared balefully ahead.

"The first Pradhan of the Protheans," Javik said reverently. He approached the long dead Prothean with hands open and outstretched. He went to one knee and carefully reached out to touch the Pradhan. He held his hand there and closed his eyes. He stayed that way as if in a trance. Around the room, the rest of the team looked back and forth. Shepard shrugged and silently signaled for them to watch the exits.

Javik moved suddenly, his fingers snapping closed around something that hung loosely from the dead lord's belt. He withdrew his hand and held it up to the light of his rifle. It was small and glinting, about the size of a pack of gum. It was purplish-black like the walls and separated into two halves by an etched line that glowed faintly green. Javik tucked it into his own armour.

"I have what I came for. We may return to your ship."


The silent trip back up through the catacombs and the Zieoph temple were no less eerie than the trip down. Again the team was followed by a strange feeling of being watched. Nothing made itself seen though, and they left the cleft in the temple's face without incident. The Mako remained were they had left it.

"Alright, back on board," Shepard ordered as the four of them jogged across the flaky ground. The hatch popped open ahead of them, allowing Garrus to hop aboard. Javik followed, and Shepard was about to do likewise until Ashley caught her by the elbow. "What is it, Chief?"

"Something here crawls, Commander," she said uneasily. "I could have sworn something blew past us in that lower hall. Something here isn't right." She squatted in the dirt and put her hand in the deep track left by the Mako. "This is ours, right?"

Shepard nodded, the thick tread of the Mako was incredibly distinctive and almost impossible to mistake for anything else in the Alliance arsenal.

"So who left these?" She walked forwards and put a hand in a much narrower and shallower track about fifteen feet from the Mako. They ran almost parallel to the Mako's track and ended in scuff marks. Another set of track ran back out of the valley, messy from speed. "We weren't alone in there, Commander, and whoever was watching us got away clean."


Shepard and the team were welcomed back aboard with little ceremony. Nihlus accepted her report with a thoughtful look, especially when she mentioned their stalker. Then he dismissed her to wait for their arrival at Therum. Shepard was happy for a chance to get her feet out from under her and sit for a while. Therum was close; only one planet over in the Knossos system, but it would still take almost half an hour under full stealth. Shepard settled in for the short cruise down in the mess with a hot cup of naval coffee to drive away the feeling of cold that still clung to her armour and soft undersuit. The hot drink and high caffeine content did much to drive out the chills. Shepard unwound into her cup and closed her eyes, resting her chin on her free hand. After the alien landscape of Armeni, the quiet murmur of the Normandy mess felt like home. Slowly, she let herself slip into a light doze.


The Hunter held on as the ship rattled. Across the cramped hold the Avatar stood proud even in his humble surroundings. Outside the steel cocoon of the transport the Reapers prowled amongst the refugee fleet, striking at will. The Hunter was not afraid, not anymore. Those who feared had already been weeded out, leaving only the strong. And it wasn't enough. The Protheans had been driven from another world, another loss in the Long War.

"The ground fighting was hard, Avatar, we lost many men." The Avatar of Vengeance stirred, his four eyes fixed on the Hunter's.

"They were lives well spent; their sacrifice will be honored amongst the peoples of the Empire. Many of the Reapers' forces were dispatched this day." The Avatar said. It was simple to him, it always had been. Kill the enemy. If more Enemy died than Prothean, it was a good day. Today had not been a good day. Despite the Avatar's stoicism, the Hunter could see the wear of battle beginning to set in. Javik looked to see the Hunter regarding him.

"Shepard…"


"Shepard," Javik said again. Evangeline awoke with a start, spilling a slug of coffee on the table. She gathered the pieces of her shattered decorum and fixed the Prothean with a sharp look. Alien words rose to her throat.

"You know better than to pester me at a time like this, Avatar!" Javik looked taken aback.

"What did you call me, primitive? That title is not for…" he reigned in his anger. "Where did you hear that of that name?" The anger was quickly replaced by suspicion and curiosity. Shepard set down her mug and rubbed at her temples.

"I'm not sure… It just came to me I guess. Why'd you call for me? Is something wrong?" She took up her cup again and tasted it. The drink was cold. She stood to toss it down the drain.

"You were idle; I thought it best that you be roused. In the Empire the penalty for dereliction of duty was death, though I hear that your Earth Alliance is more lax. Simple imprisonment is not a sufficient punishment for treason." He said, completely deadpan.

"Napping between engagements isn't treason, Javik," Shepard retorted. "Now what's the situation, are we at Therum yet?"

"We are. Nihlus calls for your presence. Or will you require more… 'naps.'" Javik made another face, what Shepard hoped was a smile. Shepard left her cup with the mess sergeant and snatched her helmet up from the table. She fell in behind the Prothean warrior and made for the swooping stairs that led upwards through the ship.

"These ruins on Therum, they're Prothean too, right?" She asked. The Prothean was slow to answer, but eventually he did.

"Yes, an advance compound was established after the destruction of the Zieoph, to watch over the ruins of their civilization and to mine the rich molten iron of the planet. An armed camp in the beginning, but eventually more of our scientists and industrialists flocked to the planet. The planet was not so unstable back then, it was the Reapers whose bombardment made it the firestorm it is today. They split the crust and buried the cities."

The doors opened up ahead of them to reveal a buy bridge. Nihlus and Garrus stood side by side at the galaxy map as men and women rushed by on either side. Nihlus looked up as the door opened.

"Ah, Commander, we're almost ready to begin our rescue mission. Are you up for joining the ground team?"

"Is there a reason I wouldn't?" Shepard retorted. Anger flared a little before Nihlus raised a placating hand.

"No offense meant, Shepard. Most Turians prefer a little more than twenty minutes between missions. It's been a long time since I've worked with Humans; I wasn't sure how you operate. You'll head the team then?"

"Not going to lead it yourself, sir?" Shepard asked.

"I'll be running forward scout, just like on Eden Prime. It's how I prefer to operate and I wouldn't want to step on your toes in regards to your team." He motioned towards the marines that hung back around the periphery of the room. "So, we have chosen the drop sight, here." Nihlus pointed with a claw to trace a circle around a clear, flat space of piled black gravel and rock that flared at one end to form a narrow track through the lava fields.

"That's a good LZ, nice and open, right on this highway here, but…" Shepard leaned in and peered at the map. "The road we'd have to take would lead us through choke points here… and here. Plus with this pipeline here…" Shepard's words dropped off as her eyes scanned the landscape. She broke it down, terrain, ambush sites, possible Geth incursions. Already her mind had furnished six half-formed plans. She snapped at one, catching it like a thread in the wind. "Here, we should land here," She peeled back the map the map and indicated a point on the other side of the target compound.

"Path runs through this valley here and doubles back under the cover of this ridge. No lava, no Geth. If we keep it quiet we should be able to hit the compound before the Geth can move to stop us." Nihlus looked taken aback.

"That's… brilliant," Nihlus said, looking at Garrus. The other Turian nodded.

"The Commander's right, this'll get us clear through to the target. Of course, from this side we'll have to scale a cliff here. You'll need a good man on overwatch." Shepard's eyes cut to the offending ridge. It was steeper than she'd imagined.

"Um, didn't think of that..."

"It's a good start. I think we can take that ridge. We'll set down at your location and drop a decoy at the original site. The more Geth we can pull off the doctor's position the better. Shepard, round up a squad and prep for drop."


Therum was nasty, dusty, and hot. The broken and craggy landscape was covered in the shimmers of the sweltering heat that masked the surface. Those shimmers made lining up a shot on the rapidly hopping Geth a nightmare.

"Get down!" Shepard ducked behind a narrow pinnacle of rock as more rounds flailed the land around her. Somewhere off to the left, someone screamed. "Who got hit?" She yelled, stepping out to take another shot. Rounds skittered off of kinetic barriers futilely. Ashley caught the same target in crossfire and managed to knock it down.

"Hampton, ma'am. He'll live another day. Maybe longer if he learns to keep his head down for a change!" Ashley took another shot, this time missing. "We need to find some way up that ridge, ma'am, it's going Gallipoli shaped down here!" there was an explosion behind the marine's position as if to punctuate the point. Shepard shook off the pattering rock fall and squinted back up at the ridge.

"Garrus, can you suppress the enemy center?" Shepard called. The Turian didn't respond, but the shattering of an enemy lurker made his answer clear. "Listen up, marines! I'm not going to order you up that ridge, but there's an Asari doctor on the other side that needs rescuing. I'm going to take a run at it. I'll meet anyone willing to join me at the top!" she turned and raised her rifle. She waited for another blast from Garrus rifle before she hurled herself out into the open ground between the shelter of the rocks and the steep ridge. Shot rained down almost immediately, stirring the ground at her feet into a blender of sharp stone gravel. Shepard twisted this way and that, barely staying ahead of the curtain of fire but always pushing forward. Behind her another scream rang out.

Pushing the fallen soldier from her mind, Shepard threw herself forward, managing to disappear into an overhang that sheltered her from plunging fire. More bodies flung themselves down beside her. Ashley was first, her white plated armour smoking from near misses. "Inspiring, ma'am, but now what?"

"Now we climb, Chief," Shepard replied. She slung her rifle and reached for her belt and pulled a string of grenades. Priming it, she whipped it around the overhang. The short tattoo of blasts preceded an immediate quieting of the Geth guns. "Up and at 'em!" She yelled. She and her squad emerged out onto a quite different slope. Her grenades had blown a wide and shallow breach into the ridge.

As Garrus piled on more suppression, Shepard scrabbled up the loose rock. When no fire returned to pick her men off the slope, she redoubled her efforts, dropping all attempts to avoid attack to increase her speed. Her head crested the rise to find the Geth dead and broken, Nihlus calmly buffing Geth actuator fluid from his shotgun.

"Took your sweet time, Shepard," Nihlus said, offering the human commander a taloned hand. He looked over her shoulder. "A frontal charge, bold."

"And costly," Shepard said as she hauled herself up and over the ridge. She turned to offer Ashley a hand. "It occasionally proves handy when getting past an entrenched enemy."

"Legacy of your action on Torfan?"

"More like a scar. Let's secure that compound." Shepard withdrew her rifle again and extended a hand for Javik, the last member of the small team.

The team made a quick rush for the circular entrance to the Asari's dig. The courtyard was mercifully empty, likely the Geth were off chasing the decoy. The remaining marines stacked up on the narrow tunnel into the stony earth with readied weapons. Garrus slapped the autohack on the door and let it whirl.

"Have your marines hang back, Shepard. I want our entrance held open." Nihlus ordered as the door crunched open.

"Chief?"

"Got it, ma'am, we'll keep the back door open."


The underside of Therum was very much like its topside, blackened, rocky, and hot. The long tunnel down opened into a blocky staging ground for the archaeological team. The room was roughly cut from the surrounding black stone and crammed full of folding benches littered with artifacts, mostly vague metallic shapes and darkened technology. On the edge of the table hung a loose coil of coppery wire bent into the shape of a triple helix. The way down was a rickety looking steel structure that plunged into a chasm beneath their feet. Nihlus took the lead. At his first steps, the scaffold swayed dangerously.

"Perhaps we should take this part slowly," he said. The team followed him one at a time, listening carefully for Geth. Their telltale rattling buzz was gracefully absent. The cavern was breathtaking, the walls rippled in great sheets pressed between tall pillars that disappeared into the ceiling.

"The pillars are part of the old city's kinetic barrier system," Javik supplied, following Shepard's eyes. When the planet's mantle over took them, they resisted just long enough to harden the magma into stone."

The scaffolding terminated in a broad rock shelf halfway down the cleft. Here the cavern closed in again, becoming narrow and close. Looking down, Shepard saw the cave widen again below the ridge. The cave was lit in a dim blue glow, emanating from somewhere further up the cave. At the narrowest point, an elevator hung on a thick steel cable.

"Almost seems too easy, doesn't it?" Garrus asked. Nihlus' answer was drowned out by a horrifying crunch from above. "What was that?" In answer, dust fell from the ceiling in streams. More crunches came from above.

"Whatever it is, it's must have gone right through the marines!" Shepard said worriedly.

"No, it's too far above. Whatever it is it's trying to dig down at us right from the surface." Nihlus said, "come on, I don't want that thing to catch us out here into the open. Quickly, into the elevator!" He led the charge. The team piled into the small elevator in a hurry. Nihlus cranked the controls down, letting the metal box drop to the cavern floor. Geth platforms raised their heads, lights winking on. Soon, the hall was filled with the harsh croaking of the robotic minions. Shots winged off of the metal sideboards and set the elevator swinging. He team huddled within, only Garrus lifting his head to take potshots.

"Anything we can do to get this thing moving faster!" he yelled. He leaned out again and took an unnamed shot. Something far below returned his fire, the shots nicking the steel cable. The metal threads frayed until held by only a narrow string.

"Brace for…" Shepard managed before the line broke. The elevator plunged, the metal screaming as the runners spun unimpinged against the runners. The box hit the bottom of the shaft with a crash. The door burst from its hinges and Shepard found herself thrown from it. She tucked into a roll as she burst across the fallen stone blocks. She landed roughly against the cave wall. Blinking back stars, she looked out across the cavern. Geth rushed forward to engage the team members still trapped with the elevator. Shepard reached for her rifle and found it missing. Going to her other side she snatched up her pistol.

Pulling herself to her feet with a burst of biotic power, Shepard stood and took aim at the nearest Geth. Two hardened rounds made a mess of its slender neck. Battle closed in around her and she pushed herself to meet it. Biotics and weapon pulsed in equal measure until the smoke cleared and the Geth were crushed under foot. Shepard lifted her visor and spat on the ground. She wiped her mouth weakly with the back of her gauntlet.

"Everyone in one piece?" Nihlus called. Several affirmatives sounded in the dust raised by the fight. The dust cloud slowly settled as the team regrouped under the source of the glow. Set high in the wall was a wide oval space covered over by flickering blue kinetic barriers. Suspended in the space was a small figure. As the team moved closer, the figure stirred.

"Hello? Hello out there, can you help me? I'm trapped in here! Hello?" The figure was definitely Asari, young looking, though Shepard knew the Asari didn't age the same as humans. She was wrapped in a short olive and white lab coat that cut off at mid-thigh. She was also floating in midair.

"My name is Nihlus, I'm a Council SPECTRE. Are you Doctor Liara T'Soni?"

"Yes, were you sent to rescue me?" The girl sounded hopeful. "I set these defenses off when the Geth attacked, but it seems I set something else off too. I'm held up here and I can't reach the controls. Please, you have to get me down from here."

"Calm down, Ms. T'Soni, we'll find a way." Nihlus replied. He began looking around for something that might help them, his eyes alighting on a piece of mining equipment in the distance. Before he could bring it up, Javik spoke.

"The way is simple. These 'defenses' of yours are simple shelters for the sandstorms that once ravaged this planet. It is a simple matter to disable the machinery." He raised his particle rifle and carved a deep line in the tiled panel beside the barrier. It spluttered and died, dropping the young Asari to the ground. She dusted herself off and beamed broadly at the Turian, Nihlus.

"Thank you, SPECTRE Nihlus, I… By the goddess, you aren't…" Her eyes fell on Javik. Her hand rose of its own accord as if to confirm by touch that she wasn't imagining things. Javik batted the hand away.

"You will not touch me. The Prothean Empire does not suffer foolish children that stumble through our halls." Liara jerked back. Her face fell, looking crestfallen.

"Oh, ok…" she looked around self-consciously. "If you are not here for my rescue, why have you come? Are you here about the Geth?"

"I'm afraid so, doctor. We've come to collect you; you're needed for a very important investigation that I'm running. Will you come with us to our ship?"

"Yes! Yes, I will come with you. The path behind me leads to a working Prothean elevator. I can work the…" she was interrupted by an explosion and a plume of dust from behind her. The team leveled weapons on the mouth of the elevator. The fire and smoke of the portal parted and a krogan of massive size marched out. He was gargantuan, nearly fifteen feet in height. His armour was a deep black and made of thick bands that enhanced his already massive frame. His wide shoulders braced a massive shotgun about as thick around as Shepard's head.

"I am Udun Balro, battlemaster in the service of Saren," the Krogan spoke in a voice like an open drain. "You cannot pass."


Author's Note:

This chapter was a blast to write, and I'm hoping the conclusion will be equally fun to both read and write. Given the response to the Prothean history segments, I'll definitely be including more. Which is good, because I was hurting for an arc to Javik's character before. Now I have a good idea where I'm taking him, I hope you all will stick around to see.

-Liddle Out