Here y'all go. Don't forget to review at the end. I love the feedback. Criticism is welcome too, helps me get better as a writer.
*POV: Liara T'Soni*
In the 2 days that have passed since Noveria everything still hurts. The world feels… pale compared to what it was before. I know that my mother and I weren't particularly close in the past decade but she was still my mother. Someone that I would move the galaxy for but she was gone now. I would never be able to say sorry for how we last talked, never reconcile and it hurts to know that.
At the last moment of her life though she still loved me. She never blamed me and never judged me for what I wanted to do even when she didn't agree. Taking the time in the past days to think over my life with her, she was a great mother. She taught me everything she could and always made time when she could. I only hope that when I have children that I am as good of a mother to her as she was to me. Hopefully with a better ending though.
That being said I harbored anger towards Wynne. I understand why he acted and most of me agreed it was the right course of action but she was still my mother. The woman who carried and nurtured me. Which brings me to now as I looked for Wynne. I wanted to know how he could act like he did at times; so cold and remorseless.
I hadn't seen him at all since he woke up in the medbay and left. From those who I asked where he was they told me to check the engine room and if he wasn't there Tali's room. They had apparently been almost inseparable since Noveria and from how secretive they were being I was curious. I know they had an appeal towards each other but this was different… well maybe not entirely but there was something else going on.
After checking both the engine room and Tali's and coming up empty I checked the cargo bay and came up empty again. At least it wasn't a total waste as Wrex said they were both in the mess hall. Making my way to the mess hall they were indeed both there.
When I saw them they were going over Tali's omni-tool and discussing something between each other. I caught a couple words as I walked up to them but none of them made any sense to me. They were far too technical for me. Either way when they saw me walking up to them they both quieted down.
Sitting down in front of Wynne I stared into his eyes as he had his helmet off but still had makeup on. Green eyes today with dirty blond hair and a couple small fake scars across his face and gaunt cheeks. I had to at least appreciate that he was good at his makeup if anything.
I didn't say anything for the a bit as I just stared at him and he stared at me. Out of the corner of my eyes Tali was slowly looking back and forth between us observing us. She was getting uncomfortable as the tension rose between Wynne and I but neither of us backed down from the other. Eventually Tali stood up and dismissed herself from the table saying that if he wanted Wynne could come by the engine room later to continue the discussion.
"Wynne… How are you able to do what you do?" he raised an eyebrow in confusion.
"Do what?"
"Kill the way you do. Like it doesn't bother you?"
"Because it doesn't. Killing, if anything, is a chore to do."
"How can you say that?!" I practically shouted, catching the attention of a few people in the area but I didn't care. "Taking a life is sacred. Even when their trying to kill us we should feel remorse; that's someone's mom, son, daughter, father and everything else. Killing should not be a chore."
"Sit down Liara," his voice was cold and realizing I was now standing I was mildly embarrassed and I did. My glare never let up though. "Have you ever murdered someone?"
"I've killed. We all have."
"No. I mean murdered someone? A person who had no way to defend themselves, completely at your mercy; have you ever killed someone like that?" His voice was so cold and distant it was chilling.
"N-no."
"Make sure you never do. It changes you… No matter what you do in your life or if the kill was justified it will haunt you and you will forever be on the outside. Your whole outlook changes and it's almost impossible to find your way back."
"Have you?" he shook his head.
"No. I don't know if I ever will get back what I lost but I know damn well it has to be earned back. I feel like I'm on the right track though," with the look in his eyes I thought back to when Shepard was in the same spot as Wynne had been.
"Is that why you didn't want Shepard to kill that scientist?" He nodded his head at that and responded.
"It marks you Liara. It stains your soul. We can't let that happen to Shepard."
"And your god doesn't care?"
"My god let's people choose who they become. Who they decide to be is their own decision. Not his. That doesn't mean that we can't help others be better, even if we're already damned to hell."
With that Wynne stood up from the table and left me alone with my own thoughts. Watching him walk away I had to wonder who he had murdered and why. Some people might stop trusting someone if they found out they were a murderer but I couldn't give it up with Wynne. No matter what he thought about himself he was trustworthy and had never given anyone here a reason to think otherwise.
Rubbing my temples together at our conversation it had been wholly unfulfilling. Not what I wanted to come out of it at all but I went into it not knowing what I really wanted other than to talk to him and find out how he did what he did. On that front my questions were answered just not in the way I had hoped. Couldn't he have just given me a straight answer.
Standing up from the table I went back to my room and started pouring over all the Prothean data we had. Which, admittedly, wasn't much at all. Just enough to do the bare minimum of research of what was going on with Saren and the Reapers. The bare minimum would have to be enough.
*POV: AedeTorchbearer*
We were closing in on Virmire and every second that passed brought us closer and closer to someone dying. It was inevitable and at this point I was hoping for it to be Kaiden. He had effectively shattered the trust that everyone had of him and had put some strains on everyone else with his actions. Dumbass.
Still, for the most part everyone was sticking together and recognized that he was the only one that really felt like that. Hell, Ashley had gone out of her way to make that stance be known. She did not support Kaiden at all and we all took it as her truth. Besides, she was a reasonable and good person underneath the xenophobia. Someone that I would be happy that they watched my back. That went for everyone besides Kaiden.
Over the last couple days I had spent a good amount of my time with Tali talking about the suit from Ceelo. Discussing ways to incorporate it into armor other than Quarians. We had made some headway but without an area or surplus materials to actually test it we couldn't make any true progression. Not that it mattered at the moment, that was for the future and we had more important things to worry about.
Speaking of which I was currently going over all of my gear from helmet and armor to weapons. I had been fanatically checking them over for the past couple hours searching for anything that could be out of the ordinary. After all that searching, cleaning and maintenance I found absolutely nothing wrong with them but they were all now supremely ready for combat.
To the point where any more maintenance and cleaning would actually be detrimental to the weapons so I had stopped. It left me with about an hour until we had our debriefing for Virmire and about 4 more until we made landfall.
Putting my armor on I clipped my AR to my back, the Breaker pistol to my left thigh, Miss T'Kari's knife to my right thigh and my 1911 to the small of my back and climbed into the back of the Mako. Garrus gave me a quizzical look as I did so but I just waved him off. Once inside the Mako I set an alarm for 45 minutes from now and passed out laying on the chairs. Say what you will, the Mako may drive like a retarded fish swims but its seats were comfy.
When the alarm went off I got up off the seats and made my way to the conference room. Being the last one to arrive wasn't surprising at all to me as I had just taken a nap. Though, Kaiden was standing in the corner and his seat was open; I didn't think twice about taking it. Otherwise, as soon as I arrived Shepard got right into the debriefing.
"Virmire," he said, hitting the clicker showing the planet. "The most we know is that it's a base for Saren. Beyond that we know nothing. Just that a Salarian STG team was sent in and hasn't come out."
"Did they get anything else or have they gone dark?" Garrus asked
"They got a brief message out but it's nothing but static. Can't make anything out of it besides the fact that they are calling for help."
"We know anything about the planet then? Environment, wildlife?" I asked leaning forward in the chair.
"Heavy forest with plenty of water to go around. The signal originated from an island near the hemisphere of the planet so expect it to be hot and humid. As for wildlife there are a few we may run into none of them are predators. So if you do run into them just steer clear and they'll leave you alone."
"Plan?" Wrex asked.
"Get in and find the Salarian STG team. From there we proceed to destroy anything and everything of Saren's that we possibly can. Once we've accomplished that we get the fuck out of there. If Saren is there however, we kill him and head home with our mission done."
"And if he's there and we don't kill him." Ashley.
"We hunt him down and kill him later. No mistakes. Planetfall in 2 hours. Dismissed," and with that we all left and made our own way out. I stuck to Wrex and followed him down to the cargo hold and took a seat on the couch he used as his bed. He gave me a look as I sat down on his couch but just huffed and sat down next to me.
While we sat on his couch we made idle conversation with each other and as you might suspect idle chatter with Wrex amounted to one word answers and sentences. It was quite entertaining if I'm being honest but that was neither here or there. When the conversation inevitably ended I spotted Kaiden coming out of the elevator and stood up to go talk to him; before I could Wrex grabbed onto my arm.
"Nothing stupid now kid."
I nodded at him in understanding before making my way over to Kaiden by the Mako. He gave me an apprehensive look as I approached and put a hand on his pistol. From behind my mask I raised an eyebrow at him but didn't stop in my walk over to him. I stopped about 3 feet from him.
"Will you watch my back this time?" that seemed to take Kaiden off guard for a second by the way he reacted but he recovered as best as he could.
"Yes."
"Then don't worry about me. As long as you have my back I'll have yours," I clapped him on the shoulder and returned to the couch with Wrex. Who gave me a huff and a nod of approval.
After that we sat and stewed until it was time to go. With the only thing to happen before we left being Tali joining us on the couch and everyone else coming in. Once Shepard came in we stood up from the couch and marched into the Mako. Strapping ourselves in, we waited for Joker to give the go ahead.
We didn't have to wait long as the bay doors opened and we shot out the back. The free fall had lost its charm by now and as we descended we all looked at each other with blank faces. Honestly it was at the point where I wanted to survive the fall down but if we did die somehow I couldn't be surprised by the result.
Either way the next 15 or so minutes were boring as all hell for me. I didn't get to drive or shoot the gun and just sat in the back with my fingers intertwined twiddling my thumbs as Shepard did his driving. It wasn't fun but after Noveria I couldn't care all that much, almost falling off a cliff to certain death was eons worse than being blown up.
Our fist stop ended up being one of the gates you have to disable to get to Kirrahe. Getting out Shepard went up with Tali, Wrex and Ashley while the rest of us watched over the Mako and waited for them to return. It didn't take long for them to clear everything out and come back down. Once they did we were off and running again.
We stopped at the next place and this time it was my turn to go along with Garrus and Liara with Shepard. It wasn't anything really to write about as we went up some stairs and killed the geth with a combination of tech and biotic abilities. That or with our weapons, but they did have a juggernaut with them to make it interesting.
Still, the juggernaut got caught up in a singularity from Liara and we all unloaded on it. Its life was pathetically short and most of the geth were quick to go after that. Once that was done and the gate opened we made our way down the road. Only to find yet another gate after we killed a good amount of geth on the way there.
Shepard took Wrex, Tali and Liara with him this time around and again I just watched over the Mako with the others. Like the other two it didn't take them a long time to finish up and before long we were on our way. After the third gate we killed a couple of the large geth whose names I forget but that was about it. Once that was done we found our way to Kirrahe's camp where one of the Salarians waved us down.
We followed him on where to park the Mako and once we were parked we all piled out. Shepard, Liara, Ashley and Kaiden immediately went over to Kirrahe and started talking to the man. Everyone else just hung around behind Shepard as he talked to Kirrahe. That is until the Krogan got brought up, then Wrex was all over them.
"We are not a mistake," I heard him raise his voice as he said that staring down the group with Kirrahe before stepping away and going over to the water.
I didn't say or do anything as I observed their interaction and when Wrex left them I still did nothing. It wasn't my place to say anything really and I didn't really have anything to say in all honesty. Though when I saw Ashley going over to the water to get behind Wrex and Shepard walking to him I couldn't stop myself. It really wasn't my place but Wrex was my friend and I wasn't about to let him be shot in the back by Ashley if things went sour.
"This isn't right Shepard. If there's a cure for the genophage, we can't destroy it," Wrex spoke as Shepard and I walked up. I got behind Wrex as he spoke and he looked at me out of the side of his eye and I gave him a short nod, one that he returned.
"I understand why you're upset Wrex but you need to calm yourself here. Saren is the enemy, he is the one you should be angry with," Shepard responded, never wavering in his conviction.
"Really? Saren created a cure for my people and you want to destroy it," Wrex said, pointing at Shepard. "Help me out here Shepard. The lines of friend and foe are getting a bit blurry."
"This isn't a cure Wrex," Shepard snapped at him with each putting a hand on their weapons. "It's a weapon and if Saren is allowed to use it you won't be able to get the benefits even if it turns out to be true."
"And if it is? That's a chance we, I, need to be willing to take. This is the fate of an entire people Shepard, my people. I've been loyal to you Shepard. Hell, you've done more for me than my family ever did," this time they both pulled out their weapons. "But if I'm going to follow you I need to know it's for the right reasons."
"Wrex," Shepard said slowly as he lowered his gun. "These Krogan aren't your people, they're slaves to Saren, tools. Is that what you want for your people?" It was tense between them for a couple of seconds before Wrex too lowered his weapon.
"No… We were tools for the council once and they neutered us all as a result. And I doubt Saren will be as generous as them," Wrex holstered his weapon before continuing. "You've made your point Shepard. I don't like this at all but I trust you enough to follow your lead on this," he began to walk away with me following him before he stopped and turned back around to Shepard. "When we see Saren though, I want his head."
Shepard gave a curt nod but I let out a small laugh as I walked away with Wrex. Neither of us said anything until we got a good bit away from Shepard and I spotted Ashley holstering her weapon as we walked away. If Wrex saw it, which I believe he did, he didn't say anything about it. When we were a good distance away I talked.
"You'll have to get in line for Saren Wrex. I already got first dibs," Wrex gave a small chuckle at that.
"Then we'll just have to see who's quicker on the draw then," he held out his hand and I took it. "We survive this you should come to Tuchanka some time."
"Thinking of making me an honorary Krogan Wrex? Didn't think you were that sentimental," we both gave out short chuckles.
"Maybe… Just been thinking a lot the last couple weeks."
"Thinking? You? No way," the sarcasm dripping in my voice and he just gave me a blank stare.
"Fuck off pyjak. No, just that the Krogan may not be as gone as I thought. They may just need someone to hit them over the head to get it."
"And you believe that should be you?"
"Is anyone else willing?" he let the question hang in the air before continuing. "Shepard seems to think so, had a talk with him after Noveria while you were out."
"If anyone could do it, it would be you Wrex," that was all I needed to say and he gave me a curt nod and I walked away. Stopping after a couple feet I turned back to him. "You know you would've been a slave to Saren right. He would've never given the Krogan what they wanted, just kept dangling it in front of y'all while you did all his dirty work."
"I know."
That was that as I walked away and found a tree stump to sit on. There I began to admire the scenery around us. It truly was beautiful and all things considered it did hurt to know that in the next few hours this place would be absolutely leveled by a bomb. My thoughts were interrupted by Shepard stepping in front of me and staring down at me.
"You ready for this?"
"What's the plan?"
"We'll be planting an eezo bomb within the base after we've secured an area for it to be brought. The Normandy will be doing the drop off. What's left of Kirrahe's squad and Kaiden will hold down the fort at the AA towers as a distraction," well I guess we'll be leaving Ashley behind then. Damn.
"Then I'm as ready as I'll ever be."
"Good. Kirrahe's talking to his troops and when he's done we'll get started," ah his 'Hold the Line' speech. One of the best speeches out there, all things considered.
"Grab me when we're starting. I want to enjoy the scenery while I still can," Shepard turned around to look at the scenery before turning back to me.
"It is quite beautiful," and with that he left me alone.
I sat there for a couple more minutes enjoying the view when my peace was interrupted again. However, this time it wasn't from Shepard or anyone else. Instead, it came in the form of the coins the preacher gave me and my rosary. Both started to burn inside their pockets, snatching them out of their pockets I held them in my hands and looked at each of them.
For the rosary it burned a bright red almost in my hand but had started to cool down. The coins too started to cool down in my hands but the coins were burning a bright white. As soon as they were cool enough I began to motion to put them back into their respective pockets but as soon as they were close they started to heat up again.
Looking at each of them in confusion I tried to listen to them as I had before to get any sort of idea for what was going on. Well, not listening but feeling to see if they gave anything out. It took me a couple seconds but I did find it for both of them.
The rosary was determination and… faith. Which was a weird thing to feel, even if it was coming from a rosary. As for the coins they radiated stubbornness, power, and serenity. When I recognized these things from the rosary and the coins they seemed to hum in anticipation. Anticipation for what I didn't know but it wanted something out of me and I honestly didn't know what… for now.
Throwing the rosary over my head so it laid on my neck over the armor it hummed in what felt like joy but then it was silent and stayed silent. As for the coins I couldn't really put them on like the rosary but when I put them near my omni-tool they practically vibrated in my hand in wanting. Abiding by their seeming request I put them on the omni-tool and sure enough they stuck to it.
Fingering both the rosary and the coins I couldn't help but shake my head at what had just happened. Thinking on what it could mean for the future my thoughts didn't get far as Shepard interrupted them as he walked up to me. Tapping my shoulder he gestured with his head to where everyone else was. Nodding my head I stood up from my stump and made my way over.
We watched Kirrahe and the remainder of his squad plus Kaiden leave us going one way. About 30 minutes later when they radioed in that they were about to start the distraction we moved in the opposite direction. Into the forest we went in the direction of the base.
It wouldn't be long before we found geth, 6 of them with 2 Krogan. They hadn't noticed us yet and were just keeping watch on the forest as they protected what looked like a communications array. Shepard deemed that it needed to be taken out and none of us disagreed. We lined up our shots not bothering with the Krogan and instead on the Geth fully.
Three overloads and 3 shots rang out back to back and 3 geth were immediately down for the count. From there Shepard, Wrex, Tali and I blitzed the geth while Liara focused on keeping the Krogan controlled with biotics. Ashley and Garrus took shots with their weapons picking off anyone that got out of cover.
It was a freakishly powerful attack and within a minute the geth were scrapped and the Krogan were dead. We double tapped the Krogan just to be safe but that was the end of the fight. With it ended Tali went to work on the Communications array and it was completely shut down within a minute. Just to be sure though, Shepard and Wrex shot the tower. Then we were on our way.
The more we traveled into the forest the more base-like it got. Metal everywhere with stairs and everything showing that the base itself was actually expanding upon itself. When this became obvious Shepard ordered me to periodically send out pulses so we didn't accidentally walk into an ambush. Something that came just a bit too late.
As soon as I hit my pulse 4 signatures showed up around us on all sides. As soon as I looked at where one of them were indicated, I saw a Krogan looking at me down the barrel of his gun. I wasted absolutely no time and grabbed a grenade off my bandolier and threw it at the krogan.
My throw was right on the goddamn money and blew up quite literally on his nose. The top half of his body disappeared into a fine pink mist. That didn't stop the rest of the Krogan from getting in on the action however and started firing.
One got hit by a lift from Wrex and then a warp from Shepard throwing him away and ripping his body apart. The next got caught in a singularity and then was hit by an overload from Tali with a similar result. The last one got pinched by Shepard and I while Wrex charged him and beat the krogan to death with the butt end of his rifle.
With that over with we left the area and made our way to a set of stairs we spotted. Only as we start to go up them we hear the sound of drones. With me taking point I stopped and waited until I got a tap on the shoulder and hit a pulse. Sure enough there were hostiles right at the top of the stairs.
Creeping up the stairs I peeked my eye just over the ledge and spotted 6 drones. Getting back down I turned around and signaled to Shepard that there were six by pointing one finger to the side*. He nodded and sent Tali and Garrus up to me while giving me the sign to use Sabotages. Nodding to him I relayed it to Garrus and Tali and we all peeked at the same time hitting the drones with three simultaneous sabotages.
As we did so we fell back and let Shepard, Wrex and Ashley sweep up the disabled drones. Once that was done we found out that it was their refueling station. We got a safe distance away from the tanker that was there and shot it all together. It exploded but not a big one like I wanted.
From there we followed the walk way until we came onto another platform like the one we had just blown up the drones on. It had a couple solid boxes around it with railing all around. Right across from it too was the entrance to the base and 9 Krogan waiting for us who all opened fire as soon as they saw us.
One of them immediately went down, from what I assume was a neural link attack by Tali. I didn't pass up the opportunity and tossed a grenade at the downed Krogan. It landed right next to his face and blew up eviscerating him. I really wish I had been this accurate in college.
Still, this was not a fun fight in the least. The krogan kept fucking getting up after every shot. At least they were cocky and kept getting out of cover with no shields and getting shot. As of right now Garrus had taken 2 more of them and Shepard had gotten one. Otherwise no one else had gotten one.
With numbers on our side and them still being cocky we started pushing across the bridge to the other side where the Krogan are. Now, when we did this I forgot one very important thing. When you got close to Krogan and they had a straight line to you they will charge you. Something I found out the hard way.
As soon as I was over the bridge behind Wrex two Krogan charged us. Wrex took his head on and smacked him onto the ground before he could finish his charge. I, on the other hand, got slammed into and picked up at the waist.
It knocked the wind out of me but I wasn't anywhere near a wall or a box to slam me into. That gave me just enough time to get my knife out and slam it into the side of his head plate. One quick twist and pop and the headplate popped off.
I've never heard a Krogan scream for and honestly didn't think they could but as soon as his headplate popped he screamed like a stuck pig. It was amazing how high his voice could get as he desperately tried to protect his brain but I wasn't having it. I whipped out my 1911 and put a hollow point into his brain.
Putting the 1911 back away I brought out my Breaker pistol and went into cover. As I got into cover Liara tossed me my AR. Though by then it was almost a moot point. There was only 1 Krogan left and he was currently being shelled by Wrex, Garrus and Shepard. As soon as I got out of cover the Krogan was dead.
Shepard asked for an all green and we all gave it to him. At that he got Tali to hack the doors open and she did so. As we moved through the doors we came upon a terminal. A quick order from Shepard and Tali went to work again. When the question was raised on whether to send the reinforcements to Kirrahe or let them stay with us Shepard chose to keep them on us.
We all nodded in agreement and we were through the doors. We came upon a few husks, a singular Krogan and a couple Thorian Creepers. It was a quick fight with only the singular Krogan posing any real fight. Not that he did as we recognized him as the only threat and killed him almost instantly.
Once they were all dead we left the area and the first room we entered after leaving that room was a small hanger. There were a couple of small geth ships, similar to the transport you ride in in the third game. Just, well, obviously geth.
We didn't stay long in that room and the next one we entered was the one with the Salarians. We walked past them all, 4 boxes in total. The one closest to us had one sitting in almost a meditative state seemingly calm. The next one was standing around pacing obviously agitated. After those two the next two boxes had multiple Salarians who all looked like they had completely succumbed to indoctrination. Just shuffling about in their prison with eyes devoid of a soul.
Shepard tried to talk to them but they didn't respond at all. As for the agitated one he pleaded just a little to hard for it to be believable and when Shepard denied him freedom he ran at the class door and slammed his head into it until he was dead. It was a brutal sight to watch and by the time he collapsed dead only Wrex and I were still looking at it.
Maybe I really do have something wrong with me?
The final one though, the one that seemed to be in a meditative state didn't talk at all. Shepard tried to but the Salarian just didn't respond. When he got no response Shepard ordered us to get going. However, when I made to leave the rosary started burning around my neck. So instead I stayed behind for just a minute and stared at the Salarian who finally opened his eyes, stood up and looked at me.
"I'll need a favor," I said to him as he looked at me.
"I can hear whispers. My team said they heard them too before they turned into zombies. Can't help, bad help."
"Your redemption then. You have one shot and this can be it before you go with your god," the Salarian just looked at me quietly for a second before nodding his head.
"What needs to be done?"
"Go to the hanger next door and come to my location when I call."
"And if I just escape?"
"Then you'll be a failure to Kirrahe and your team."
"I accept."
And with that I opened the door and told him to wait a few minutes until he went to the hanger. I gave his omni-tool my radio frequency and told him to come when I called. I really hoped that I wasn't making a huge mistake but right now I needed a backup plan in case everything went to hell and I wasn't about to leave Ashley behind. Kaiden I would consider it but I wasn't him. I may be an assassin and a bad person but no man gets left behind. Period.
Catching up with everyone I got into the elevator and we went up. Only when we got up did we see an Asari standing at her desk frantically going over the data on it. She stopped dead in her tracks when she saw us. She held up her hands in surrender but most of our guns didn't waver as they were pointed at her.
"Don't shoot! I just want to get out of here before it's too late."
"Name?" Shepard asked.
"Rana Thanoptis. I'm neuroscientist, fuck this job though it isnt worth dying for. You think the indoctrination only affects prisoners. It affects everyone," At that I held my gun a little higher and pointed it at her head while moving forward to step next to Shepard. He raised an eyebrow at me as I stepped forward.
"I thought this was a breeding facility."
"Not at this level. We're studying Sovereign's affect on organic minds… or that's what I assumed as Saren's kept us in the dark mostly."
"You helped him?" Liara asked confused.
"I didn't really have much in the way of negotiating did I? This position is a bit more permanent than I planned on it being. Any longer and I'm probably dead anyways, just like my predecessor."
"Then why shouldn't we kill you?" I asked. Shepard let out a sigh but didn't refute my question and instead stared at Rana with a questioning gaze.
"The elevator behind me goes up to Saren's private lab," she walked over to her desk and hit a button and the elevator opened. "There. Am I free to go?"
"Go, you don't have much time though. Keep your nose clean though, next time I see you associated with something like this you die."
Rana let out a small girly scream and bolted out the door that we came through. We then took the elevator up to Saren's lab. There wasn't much there but there was a second beacon. Shepard made the 'bright' idea of touching the thing and risked being knocked out for who knows how long. However he seemed to be okay after he was done floating like a possessed idiot.
When that was done we made to leave the lab only to be stopped when the projection popped up and Sovereign appeared there in all his glory. He seemed to look over all of us in disgust. It was weird that a machine could display that without a face to speak of but he did it quite well. I quietly hoped that Sam was recording as I had asked him to after Noveria.
"You aren't Saren," were the first words he? It spoke. "Rudimentary organics touch objects you have no hope of understanding. Fumbling in the dark just like your predecessors."
"I don't think that's a VI Shepard," Tali spoke up as we just looked at Sovereign.
"Of course I am not," Sovereign seemed to take offense to that. "I am far beyond your understanding, you will never reach my height! I am Sovereign!" he thundered apparently very proud of the name. He seemed like just an asshole to me to be honest. Though that seemed to be what made it click in Shepard's head.
"Sovereign isn't just a reaper ship. Sovereign is a Reaper," that got reactions out of everyone except for Wrex and I. We just kind of went along with it. Way above our pay grade.
"Reaper? Ah, the label given to us by the Protheans. One to give their destruction a voice, a name to fight against. In the end it doesn't matter, they couldn't resist the cycle and neither will this one."
"The protheans vanished 50,000 years ago. You couldn't have been there?" Liara practically shouted in indignation.
"Organic life is nothing but a mutation. You wither and die, we are the pinnacle of evolution and life. We are eternal and before us you are nothing. Your destruction is inevitable and we will be its facilitators."
"There is an entire galaxy ready to face you," Shepard stated in his commanding voice striding beyond the group to face the Reaper.
"Confidence born of ignorance. You cannot stop the cycle, nothing can."
"What cycle?" I asked.
"It has repeated itself more times than you can fathom. Civilizations rise, evolve, advance and at their zenith they are extinguished. The protheans were not the first, they did not create the Relays, they did not create the Citadel. They merely found them, the legacy of my kind."
"Fuck me. You created the relays and Citadel," Garrus stated looking at the Reaper in shock.
"Why though? Why leave them to us?" Liara asked, trying to find the reason. I provided it before the Reaper could.
"So we advance along a path of their choosing. Ripe for slaughter. A path where they get to face an enemy with the same weapons and technology over and over. A path of no true evolution, of no true development, of contentment. Where the so-called pinnacle of evolution doesn't have to evolve to win. Pathetic," in retrospect calling Sovereign out on that wasn't the brightest of ideas but I couldn't help myself.
"You exist because we allow you to," he snapped. "And you-" Shepard cut the fucker off. Ha!
"We won't," Shepard stated, standing taller than he did before if that was even possible. "This is your last cycle and we will kill you all."
"Better civilizations have tried and failed. You will be harvested and your understanding is not needed. We are legion and we are coming. You can't stop us," and with that the connection ended.
"Okay, time to go," Shepard stated and we all started hauling ass out of the lab.
We pushed outside and came across a few geth on the walkway. With no cover and our superior numbers we killed them and kept on moving. Then we got to the area where the bomb will be set up. We had to kill all the hostiles in the area before Joker could land though. That consisted of 4 Krogan, a singular hopper geth and 6 regular geth.
I took out the hopper before it could start to be annoying. As for the rest Garrus took out one of the regular geth before the fight could really even start. From there it was cover to cover as we slowly pushed them out of their cover and into the open.
The closest call came when one of the Krogan charged Shepard. The combined fire of Garrus, myself and Liara ended his charge short and Shepard put a bullet in his mouth as he landed at his feet.
Other than that it was a solid fight but nothing to really write about. Just a good amount of solid killing. We all worked together as a well oiled machine born of a few months working together. We were practically unstoppable when we all worked together and it was a great sight to see.
Once we had cleared the area Joker came in with the Normandy and dropped off the giant ass Eezo bomb towards the back of the area. When that was done Shepard briefly pondered what to do as we couldn't leave it unattended. He eventually told Ashley to stay and protect the bomb, and we would be coming back to get her. She saluted us and then we were off.
We faced another group of Geth and Krogan as we left her but there were even few than last time and even a man down we mowed through them. After we were done there we went up the path that headed up to Saren only to stop when we saw a Geth dropship fly overhead going straight to the bomb.
"Ashley! We're coming back!" Shepard shouted over the radio only for Ashley to respond instantly.
"No Commander. The dropship is already here and it's bleeding geth all over. Go get Saren."
Shepard didn't like it. Not at all but he couldn't do anything. Saren was the main target and we had to get to him. We just wouldn't be able to get to Ashley. I, however, would be. Let's hope my gamble on the Salarian paid off or my trip in the Mass Effect universe would be over before I wanted it to be.
"Go." I told Shepard and then I was off sprinting back towards Ashley. And as I ran I felt my rosary burn on my neck and the coins burn into my arm.
And that's that for this week folks. A lot more talking than I honestly expected there to be but I hope y'all enjoyed it. I sure as hell did writing.
1*: it's the scuba diver's signal for 6.
Next Chapter: Stubbornness.