*** Beacon ***
Shepard noticed the train was slowing, and looked over his shoulder. "We must be almost there," he said, "If we're lucky, they left before the beacon got to the station." He climbed to his feet, "Let's get to it."
Kaidan was looking at his omnitool, "Commander, I've got weapons signatures; nukes…antimatter nukes!"
Shepard touched two fingers to Kaidan's omnitool, pulled the data Kaidan was seeing to his own. "Damn. No wonder that thing was in a hurry to get away. Wait…they're moving."
Ash, sniper scope raised to her eye, barked, "Geth! And they're moving heavy stuff…bet they're the bombs!" She fired, trusting her VI-assisted scope to correct for motion.
Shepard knew that two-stage nukes were highly stable, but it still seemed reckless...at first.
Dropping behind one of the train's service pillars, he gestured for 6x Firefight acceleration. As the world seemed to slow down around him, he thought, If we stop them from moving the bombs, we don't have to go as far to disarm them.
He drew his own rifle, double-checking the signatures that Kaidan had detected against his own sensor data. The VI agreed, Two-stage antimatter-fusion warhead, 310MT estimated yield.
As the weapon fitted onto his shoulder and the scope rolled its range, spectrometer, and IFF data into place, he watched through crosshairs: The first geth that Ash had fired upon stumbled, dropping its end of the load as it collapsed. The geth at the other end continued to pull, dragging the cylindrical device along, but struggling visibly.
She turned slightly to the left, zeroed in on the second geth, but an explosion threw her backward, skidding to a stop several meters back.
"Williams!"
Her Alliance-issued neurotronics attenuated the white-hot pain as Shepard pulled her into cover. "Hold on, hold on," he said quickly, "You're hurt." He struggled to fit both of them behind the train's seating pillars.
"I'm okay," Ash objected. "Geth…you have to stop the geth!"
Shepard watched the intelligent armor repairing itself, slowly turning the blackened finish gray and then back to white. "Can't do it without you."
"Need a little help here," Kaidan said from cover. "Looks like about thirty of these guys; we need to stop them while they're moving the bombs, or before any more show up!"
Ash waved Shepard off, "I'm fine, get over—"
"I'm printing your Plate Two," Shepard cut her off, "Soon as I'm done, I'm gone. You print the Panel Three replacement." Holding his left arm slightly away from his body as the omnitool whirred, Shepard watched his ARO for a few seconds, suddenly turned and fired a single shot over the top of the pillar. He raised his voice slightly, "They're moving away," he said to Kaidan.
"I know!" He fired on the lead of a pair crossing the overhead walkway, "They're coming across the bridge! Get yer butt up here and help me stop them!"
Ash finally realized she should be printing a replacement armor plate. "Lieutenant, are they on the overpass?"
"They're walking the nukes across it!" He turned and sighted another geth, running up the ramp on the left.
"Blow it with an RPG!"
"Are you crazy? It's a citykiller…ungh!" Coordinated fire from the balcony threw him to the ground and destroyed his shields.
Shepard studied his tactical overlay and silently cursed the omnitool for not printing faster. "She's right, they're two-stage weapons," he agreed, "Until the fission detonator fires, they're inert; blow the right side of that bridge!"
Ash snapped armor panel into place, and picked up her Banshee, frowning. If not, we'll never know it. Without waiting for her shields to restart, she switched back to her shotgun and rolled to the left side of the train. Leaning briefly out of cover, she sighted on the bridge and launched a pair of RPGs. Fireballs devastated the ramp, and the walkway seemed to tilt in slow motion down to the platform.
The lone geth, dragging its nuclear payload, scrambled for footing. It managed to pull the bomb along until the collapsing bridge hit the platform and bent at its middle; the cylindrical bomb seemed to leap into the air, crush the legs and lower torso of the geth, and bounce across the platform as the bridge crashed to the track.
"Hah!" Kaidan cheered, "We're not dead!"
With Ash's armor repaired, Shepard saw the first bomb had rolled to a stop just ahead of the train. "I'll handle this bomb, but I need cover! Get 'em on that balcony on left!" He pulled his pistol off its legholster and sprinted to the weapon, diving into cover behind it. It took three more shots from Shepard before the partially-crushed geth stopped thrashing.
Ash watched her ARO, trying to lock on to where the geth were positioned. "You can defuse a nuke?"
"Cover! Give him cover!" Kaidan ran across to the ramp, tech relay in hand, and dove behind the wall.
Huddled behind the bomb, Shepard waved his omnitool along its length. The device's outboard accelerators formed an exosleleton that surrounded the weapon itself; as Shepard's VI processed and analyzed the scan data, he studied its exterior controls. This is a mostly turian design, he noticed, Why would the geth have it?
His omnitool displayed its preliminary findings on his ARO,
Centaur-4 derivative with helical fission-pulse cobalt antimatter accelerators
553g helium fusion warhead (1.8K cryo)
Trigger design not in library
Performing deep analysis…
Shepard waved his omnitool vertically, perpendicular to his first pass as the weapon rocked toward him under geth fire. Blue bolts flashed overhead, throwing shrapnel off the far wall.
"I need cover fire! Get them to stop shooting this bomb!"
R. Jenkins: Sir, I've arrived at hospital station, the robots were here, but they're leaving.
Shepard touched his left thumb to his middle fingertip for a text message, "Jenkins, get back here now, we've got robots with fusion bombs!" He ran his right thumb from his little finger's tip to the second joint: 4x acceleration.
Kaidan had reached the top of the ramp, now with two relays in hand as a third signaled readiness. He said, "Williams, I need you to draw their fire long enough for me to spike them!"
"Shield is recharged, I'm ready when you are!"
Kaidan armed all three relays and studied his ARO, making sure he knew where the geth were. "Go!"
Ash stood shotgun to shoulder and launched her last three RPGs, one at each of the clusters of geth on the balcony to her left. Blue bolts of geth assault rifle fire focused on her as she dropped back into cover. Explosions threw debris and smoke into the air along the balcony, but the geth fired through it toward Ash.
Kaidan sprang to his feet, hurled the three tech grenades across the platform toward the same three places, gestured to activate them. High-voltage electrical arcs were audible but obscured by the billowing clouds of black smoke.
Shepard's VI had gathered enough data about the trigger to direct him:
Remove service panel next to keypad
Cut orange wire with lateral blue stripes
The panel had no handle, and the screws appeared to be welded into place.
"This is gonna take some...time," he called. He pulled a multitool off his belt, snapped open a flat blade screwdriver, jammed it under the open edge of the panel and twisted, trying to create a larger opening.
Geth at the farthest end of the E-17 balcony had made it to a smaller service catwalk and were starting across. Kaidan formed a biotic lift field under a massive crate slowly until he could push it from behind, staying in the cover that it offered as he moved. He put his back to it and shoved, letting it retain about 50 kilos of mass.
"They're too far away," Ash called, "Lieutenant, get to cover! They're crossing at the next bridge!"
"I see 'em, and I'm pushing my cover ahead of me. Can you get up the ramp?" Suddenly the crate became harder to push as the geth directed their fire at it. Kaidan increased the amount of Biotic Lift he was applying, and kept pushing his cover ahead of him.
Ash traded her shotgun for the sniper rifle, leaned out of cover just far enough to sight down the lead geth. Its head exploded, but it continued across the bridge; the one unit may have been blinded, but it used data from the others behind it to keep moving across steadily.
"Son of a bitch," she hissed. A second shot through its leg, and the robot collapsed, tumbled under the catwalk's rail and down to the tracks. Ash turned slightly left and aimed at the hips of the next geth, slowing down her awareness to perfect her aim. The robot faltered, grabbed at the rail, threw itself down to the tracks.
Ash switched her ARO from weapon-sight to tactical and back, adjusted her aim and put a round through the next one.
And the next one.
And the next one. Pausing to let the rifle cool, setting up her next shot, she glanced down at the tracks. The damaged geth were pulling themselves hand-over-hand toward her. "Damn these things! Lieutenant, they're coming across the bridge too fast, I can't stop them!"
Shepard's ARO displayed a message from the bomb: TRIGGER HALTED, NETWORK RESTART?
He raised his omnitool, rotated the palm holograph control to Destructive Override, and closed his left hand into a fist.
He felt a distant, stabbing pain in his left hand as a blue-white arc connected his gauntlet controller with the weapon trigger. Sparks jumped off the oversized mechanical switches, and the bomb controls went dark.
Trigger Disabled.
"I got one!" He glanced at his tactical display to see where the geth were.
Ash had traded the Harpoon for her trusty Banshee, firing short bursts at the approaching geth, but the bridge was full of them. "I'm out of grenades! Lieutenant, they're almost across the bridge! Get out of there!"
"They're arming the bombs!" Kaidan executed a Throw at the geth leading the way across the second bridge, hurling it into the ones behind it. "We've got to get over there!" The geth were dishearteningly quick at recovering from the biotic traffic jam.
Pulling the geth rifle off his SmartPak, Shepard made his way up the ramp to the train's right. "Alenko, I'm coming up behind you." He accelerated up to 6x and popped out of cover long enough to see the geth on the bridge, running toward Kaidan. Plucking a tech relay off his belt, he threw it toward the geth on the bridge, activating it immediately. Blue-white lightning connected the androids, briefly freezing them in place; Shepard started firing, timing his shots and aim to hit each robot with three or four bolts from the geth weapon.
Geth on the balcony returned fire, but he was able to keep up his barrage until he noticed his shields were getting low; he dropped back into cover. Crawling as fast as he could, he came up behind the crate where Kaidan had stopped. "You okay?"
"There's still more of 'em on the balcony!"
Shepard adjusted his acceleration back down to 2x, and studied his map overlay. "Looks like they're defending the bombs individually."
Kaidan reached up over the crate with his pistol and switched to the view through its sight. "They should be grenading Williams," he said, "Or setting off those bombs now that the troop ship is gone. They must not have expected armed resistance, and they're only packing small ranged arms, not ordnance."
"That thing was awfully big for a troop carrier; I think we don't have the whole story. But yeah, it was only luck we were here. Too bad Nihlus is out of action, or we might be able to use whatever he brought to tip the scales in our favor." Shepard winced in regret. "Damn. I should have asked his VI for access."
He brought two fingers to his ear, switching the comm out of LOSI mode, "Williams, can you get up here?"
"On my way," she answered.
Occasional fire from the balcony kept her careful to stay in cover.
Shepard studied his overhead display, "How many of those things are left?"
"We're gonna be really exposed if you want to get across that bridge," Kaidan said.
"Even with Williams on point, they'll be oblique to us," Shepard agreed. He put his fingers to his right ear again, "Normandy, this is Team Two. Team one is down. Repeat: Team One is down. Enemy is deploying nukes, we need support; ground, air, or both."
"Team One, Normandy. Copy that. We're currently under fire from heavy enemy surface-to-air. Defending civilians under attack by ground forces."
"Normandy, enemy has staged a gigaton of two-stage nukes! If we can't stop them, everything within fifty kliks gets flash-boiled!"
"Copy that, Two; will update the Captain and advise."
Shepard cursed silently and switched back to LOSI. "Dammit, Normandy's tied up defending civvies. Looks like we're on our own." He checked his map overlay. "Victor Indigo, I need a monitor on those three bombs; if they're configuring for ignition, I need to know about it!"
The VI flashed a confirmation on his ARO.
"Looks like we've got about a dozen bad guys left on the balcony," Kaidan said, "And they've grouped themselves around each of the bombs."
Hunched over, Ash ran to join them from the top of the ramp, diving headfirst and skidding to a stop.
"Williams, you got any ordnance left?"
She shook her head. "No, sir. I'm dry. Small arms only."
"I've got to get over there to disarm those bombs. Trade me your shield generator." He started to reach for the releases on his torso armor.
She was suddenly angry. "We'll shield you across the bridge; I'm not letting them split us up again!" Shepard's mental overclocking allowed him to realize they were newcomers to this fight; she had been fighting - and losing people to - the geth since the invasion started. Ash pointed across the bridge, "If we can get to the balcony over there, they'll have to shoot around each other to get us. We've got to get there before they blow the bridge!"
Still running at a cognitive 2x, Shepard had time to consider the plan, and agreed. "Sierra Hotel, Williams. Alenko, you're on point, but Williams, I want you to stay between us and the enemy. We ready?"
"Born ready," Alenko shifted his position so he could leave cover at a run. "Williams, you set the pace for Shepard; here we go!" With pistol in one hand, he gestured his barrier into place and leapt from cover, charging across the bridge.
Shepard elbowed Williams, "Go!"
As they ran, Shepard glanced left at the balcony; as if coordinated, all three groups rose to fire on them. It wasn't enough to overwhelm Williams' shields, but he could see her struggling not to be shoved into his path by the kinetic force.
As he ran, Kaidan tossed two tech relays toward the geth; both were shot by the geth in midflight. Only Kaidan knew they were dummies; not only did they print faster, he was saving the expensive materials for when he didn't expect to lose them in an attempt to draw fire. He caught the edge of an angled beam to stop himself in cover, checked his weapon quickly and fired around the platform side of the beam.
"Nice shot!" Ash said as she approached the end of the bridge. "Wait…someone's lifting off from the spaceport. It looks alien!"
Shepard looked north and saw a small vehicle lifting away. As he focused on it, his VI switched to Analysis:
Batarian pocket cruiser, BSA-12 Musky.
Heavily modified for long-haul trips, FTL drive.
No transponder.
No registration.
No IFF.
And not even running lights, Shepard realized. He unconsciously slowed his run just a bit as he thought about who could be piloting that ship, and whether they'd taken the beacon, and if this meant he had just failed his Spectre nomination—
With a shriek of metal, the bridge twisted and sheared away from where it joined the stairs from below; Ash, just slightly ahead, leapt to the balcony, but Shepard was too far to make it; he fell to the broken end of the bridge, his arms flailing against the stub of a cantilevered landing. With nothing to grip, he bounced off the edge and started to fall to the ground, 15 meters below.
His VI detected the fall as soon as it started, and activated his dropsuit. Slowing his fall and correcting his attitude, it gave him just enough time to steer over and catch the single elevated rail. He landed with a painful grunt.
Kaidan had only seen that Shepard was on the bridge when it collapsed. "Shepard! Are you okay?"
"I'm okay, I'm all right." He struggled to get a better grip, "Saved by the dropsuit." As the geth noticed he was down, he found himself drawing fire, shields depleting quickly. He threw a leg over the train rail, lifted himself far enough to grab the handrail on his left. "Keep the geth busy!" Pulling himself onto the service platform, his shields collapsed just as he rolled behind the cover of the stairs.
As he looked down the track, he saw an approaching train with a single figure on it. "Jenkins? Jenkins, get down! We're under fire!"
The standing man dropped behind the service pillar. Shepard's "radio ears" crackled, "Thanks! Switching to sniper rifle!"
Kaidan pulled a tech relay off his belt, rolled it along the balcony's inner wall, activated it. The relay shorted itself out spectacularly…and then everything was suddenly quiet. He peeked his pistol around the side of the beam. "Did we get them?" He checked his ARO.
"That's it," Ash gloated, "Bag 'em and tag 'em."
Richard's train slowed and stopped alongside Shepard. He lifted his rifle from atop the pillar and stepped off. "Are you okay, sir?"
"Yeah. Just waiting for my shields to restart. Sounds like we got them." He raised his voice just slightly, "Okay, no mistakes up there. Alenko, Williams, you sure we got no more geth?"
A pistol fired. And again. And again. "Not…anymore," Ash said through her teeth.
Shepard frowned at himself, gestured to the Corporal as he climbed to his feet. "Come on. Let's go see how badly this has gone. I think we just watched the beacon fly away."
"What?"
"I could be wrong," Shepard started up the ramp, "Like I said, let's go find out."
More deliberate gunfire from the balcony.
Each round fired is for someone, Shepard thought. I hope it gives her closure. As he and Richard jogged up the ramps to the balcony, the gunfire continued.
Shepard's ARO popped open a window in front of him, WARNING: Triggers active, 0:03:21.88 and started counting down.
"The nukes!" Shepard selected the defusing app he'd used and sent it to the rest of the team. "We got three minutes! Here's the defusing VI; get on the nukes now! Williams, get the one to the west end of the balcony; Alenko, the other one on that side of the door; I'll get the last one as soon as I get there. Go, go, go!"
Kaidan continued to study his map. Geth robots were still there, but showed no energy signatures. He quickly stood and ran to the closer of the two bombs. As he ran, he saw that Ash had already arrived at the farthest bomb, but was still waiting for the VI to download.
Shepard remembered what he'd done to get access to the trigger's innards, "You'll probably need a multitool to get at the trigger, the service panel screws were welded on the other one."
"Got my knife," Ash pulled the combat blade off her right boot, "No screws on this one at all." She slid the tip of the blade between an external box and the outer casing, twisted slightly, stuck her fingers under it and tore the top half off with a metallic crack. "But mine's open."
The noise made Kaidan look up to see her standing there with the top half of the box in hand. "Wow. Careful, Chief." He twisted underneath each screw head, popping them off methodically.
"I know, nukes are nothing to sneeze at. But I'd rather get it defused instead of letting it sneeze at me."
Shepard came pounding up the ramp, spotted the last bomb and ran to it. His multitool already in hand, he fumbled briefly while trying to find a place to insert it, then read his VI's instructions and simply twisted access grips to remove the panel. "You got the VI yet?"
"Running it now," Kaidan said, "It says this is a Gorgon, but the trigger is unknown."
"Get at least two orthogonal scans of it," Shepard said, "You have a different weapon, you may have a different trigger."
"Mine's a Pegasus-2," Ash said, "Doesn't know this trigger design, either."
"Jenkins, drone aloft ASAP. I don't want anyone shooting at us."
"Right away, sir." Jenkins reached behind to his SmartPak, pulled off the microdrone he had used before, snapped a power cell into place, lowered it to the ground and hurled it into the sky with a grunt. "Drone aloft, sensor suite active."
"Victor Indigo, cancel drone view inset," Shepard said. He waved his omnitool down the length of the bomb, studied the analysis while waiting for the VI to figure out how to disarm the trigger. "Four completely different bombs," he mused. "You'd think these geth had to steal all their weapons." He shook his head. "They really cashed in the family silver for this if that's the case." His omnitool chittered and beeped to itself. "Jenkins, you've got the eyes on this. Don't let anyone shoot me in the back."
"I'm on it, sir. I've got your back."
Kaidan reached into the service panel, then withdrew his hand, and reached in with his multitool. "Willliams, you have a multitool? You can use mine in a minute."
"You're using it. Uh…Corporal…do you have a multitool? Can I use it?"
"You bet, ma'am." Richard reached down with his right hand, opened a belt pouch and pulled his multitool out. He looked away from his omnitool view just long enough to realize he shouldn't just try to toss it to her, and walked slowly along the balcony, closely watching the drone's displays, flexing the tool open as he walked.
Ash took it from him. "Thanks."
"Let me know if you need anything else, ma'am."
Kaidan sat back on the deck as his omnitool glowed and flashed. "I think I got it," he said. He turned to ask Shepard where he'd gotten a nuke-defusing VI, but saw a body on the floor a few meters to the north. "Man down," he muttered to himself, glancing at the omnitool. His VI was still counting down the seconds as it worked, but it looked like it knew what it was doing. Unable to leave the current task, he glanced at Shepard again, saw the Commander was also now in the waiting stage.
Shepard looked up just then, and nodded. "Think I've got it." He looked past Kaidan. "How you doing, Chief? You got that thing under control?"
"I think I got the complicated one," she grumbled, "What the hell is infrablack?"
"Switch your ARO to infrared, and then add the original spectrum back in. It'll jiggle your whole visible spectrum around so you see the spectrum that a turian would. Once you're in that mode, black is a different color. Mine shows up as a kind of faintly day-glow purple."
Ash worked her omnitool carefully. "Infrared…add visible back in…" She recoiled slightly. "Whoa…that's weird." She looked down at the bomb again. "Oh. Infrablack. I get it." She reached in with Jenkin's multitool probe, seemed to find what she was looking for, and pushed the probe down firmly. The bomb jumped suddenly, sparks exploding in her face from the open panel.
"Shit!" She recoiled, steadied herself, and then held very still for a moment. She looked along the balcony at Alenko and Shepard. She held up a hand and looked at it. Her visor, which had automatically darkened, was just fading back to transparent as she flexed her fingers. "Are we dead?"
"Don't feel dead." Kaidan smiled. His omnitool had signaled the trigger on his bomb was now inert; he got up, ran quickly over to Ash and her bomb as she swatted at her omnitool, trying to restart it. He waved his omnitool over "her" bomb. "Looks like you killed it," he said, thumping her shoulder in congratulations.
"And my damned omnitool," she held her left forearm out toward him.
Kaidan gestured for a tech scan, waved his gauntlet over her arm. "Hm. Looks like it. No worries, we'll get it restored. Looks like your suit environment is still running, though."
Shepard stood, rotated the selector on his omnitool, clenched his fist victoriously. The weapon sparked like a firework. "Got it," He said through a grin. He lifted his weapon into the air. "Alenko, Williams, Jenkins: Great work, everyone! We did it!"
Kaidan turned quickly. "Oh, Commander…we need NNP over here." He ran through the balcony access opening, and stood next to the civilian with a hole in his brain, pointing down at him. "I saw him while the defuser was running, but couldn't leave to do anything."
Shepard produced his sprayer of NNP as he ran, then slowed as he realized where the man had been shot. He sprayed NNP into the injury, ears and nose, then rose slowly. "Damn, this is probably just the guy who hands out peanuts on the train. What was he doing?" He sighed, "The brain is what we're trying to preserve," he said, "I don't know how much we can do for this guy." He shook his head regretfully. As he looked up, he saw heat haze and smoke about a kilometer off. "What the…" He jogged through an opening in the wall to the north. As he approached the handrail, the rest of the team came up behind him.
Where the landing field used to be was now a rapidly-cooling molten lake. Smoke billowed from still-burning fires, and the twisted remains of an automated cargo system reached into the circular depression like a deformed, three-fingered hand.
"My god," said Ash. "It's like someone dropped a bomb."
"That must be where the geth ship landed," Kaidan sounded numb.
Richard stepped up to the handrail, seemed to collapse as he leaned on it. "We thought Eden Prime was safe…!"
As he stood looking, Shepard noticed triangular depressions and crushed equipment in the smoking crater. On the level below them was one of those damned impalers, and a technological-looking pillar. Fortunately, no more dead bodies. "Williams, is that the beacon?" A green, rapidly-moving mist swirled around it, and it was emitting a green beam skyward.
"That's the beacon all right…" She managed to sound unsure.
Shepard ran down the ramp to the lower platform to be sure it was unguarded and intact. Putting two fingers to his ear, he said, "Normandy, this is Team Two. Primary objective has been obtained: Beacon is secured. Bomb threat to the colony has been neutralized. We need immediate evac. No casualties, over."
Meanwhile, Kaidan and Ash had walked slowly past him; Kaidan was effusive. "This is amazing! Actual, working Prothean technology. Unbelievable!" He stopped a few steps from the base of the ramp, taking it all in…and just a little bit leery of the unknown.
Ash had watched the beacon emerge over the course of its excavation, and was more familiar with it. Still intrigued, she approached it slowly. "It wasn't doing anything like that when they dug it up." She squinted, took a step to the side, another step closer. "Something must have activated it…" She continued to approach slowly, noticing the beam, watching the green mist-like movements of…whatever that was moving around its base.
Normandy finally answered, "Team Two, Normandy. Copy that. Enemy has ceased action. Uh…apparently they're just…shutting down. We should be on our way to you shortly. Secure the position and stand by."
"Roger, Normandy. Standing by." Shepard looked up with a mix of relief and confusion. Why would they cause all this destruction, and then just leave without the beacon? He turned and walked back to where Kaidan was standing. He pointed warily at the beacon. "This is too easy," he said, "It feels like—"
A piercing, high-pitched shriek filled the area. Both men turned.
The beacon!
The green mist effect was swirling around Ash, seemed to be pulling her closer. She didn't pick up a foot for fear of losing what purchase she still had on the deck, and it was managing to slide her toward itself.
Shepard's first response was to treat it like an electrical hazard: He would have to throw himself at her to break its hold. Assuming the field was centered on the beacon (and subject the usual inverse-square law,) he pushed past Kaidan, ran up a couple of meters to her side so he could tackle her perpendicular to the direction it seemed to be dragging her. Arms open, he leapt at her.
And found himself captured in the field as well. Distractedly, he noticed his hair seemed to be standing on end. His whole body felt electrified.
Goosebumps? He gritted his teeth. I'm not losing anyone today, he thought, and tossed her sideways, hoping to tear them both out of its grip.
It didn't work; he was still sliding toward it as the green, flanging scream rose in pitch.
He tried to drop to the ground, but it was lifting him as it pulled.
Urgent Knowledge Now. Attention!
It's too loud!
His feet were off the ground, his head compressed, spikes thrust into his ears, standing too close to a jet engine.
Not Prothean, not indoctrinated, must know, must understand...
WAIT! QUIET!
Something sharp and painful was pressing slowly into his forehead, being prised open–
Dark Ones will come, have come. Stop them, MUST stop them...too late...
TOO BRIGHT...!
He was falling into the sun, standing under a huge waterfall, free-falling from orbit…
No cost too great, we have denied them return...
STOP!
Convulsing in agony, but unable to move...
Do not resist death:
There is no time left for us, and we will withstand the Ascension.
HELP!
Frozen in fire, his mind bursting with information he could neither understand nor resist.
We are doomed, but our knowledge persis–
-black-
# # #
Having docked with Sovereign again, Saren had made his way to the space that had been set aside for him.
His head hurt, and everything looked reddish and dim, but he had used up a week's worth of the chemical that made it stop in the few hours he'd spent on that cursed human colony. He had to find out what was causing this.
Though the chair where he sat faced a wall, he could not tell with the ARA fully engaged; all he saw was the Search VI's interface. He unconsciously curled up on the chair, his left claw across his face, occasionally massaging his forescalp.
Benezia approached the chair that Saren usually sat in when he was disturbed or upset. This will not be pleasant, but he must know, she thought. "We've identified the ship that was there at Eden Prime: the Normandy, a human Alliance vessel. It was under the command of Captain Anderson." She paused, noticed as he shifted in the seat. "They managed to save the colony."
The dark throbbing in his head already had him annoyed; it was as if she had told him this only to highlight his failure with the ship listening. Saren had to act uninterested in the colony. "And the beacon?"
She realized too late that the crisis had blinded him to the wisdom of silence. "One of the humans may have used it."
Red light flared around him.
FAILURE.
His brain flooded with white-hot fury as Sovereign raged.
THE BEACON WAS FOUND.
Saren leapt from the chair, scattering equipment. He was partly aware of this and concerned about how he could replace it, part of him savored the distress caused. It was peculiar, watching himself behave this way, confusing as well. I need to act like I'm as upset as Sovereign will expect, continue in its confidence. I must find out as much as I can.
KILL IT NOW.
He continued his rampage, hurling another container ahead of him.
Benezia knew there was no reasoning with him for the moment; hands behind her back, she simply leaned aside to dodge the flying debris as he stormed up to her, put his face threateningly close to hers in an attack mode that was older than the species itself, and knew that this too, would pass.
"This human…must be eliminated."
*** Glossary ***
ARA: Augmented Reality Appliance. Surgically-implanted full-time Augmented Reality system often used by the handicapped, professionals who interact with it practically continuously, and dedicated hobbyists. Once installed, they allow a much more fluid interaction, but they are relatively expensive and occasionally troublesome. Nearly always used in conjunction with haptic interfaces.
ARO: Augmented Reality Overlay; an implanted Augmented Reality system
DCE: Distributed Computing Environment
IFF: Identification Friend or Foe; system for distinguishing allies from targets
LOSI: Line Of Sight Intersuit. Short-range battlefield communications protocol used by the Alliance to allow fireteams to communicate with each other over short distances without having to worry about interception. Primary mode of data exchange is optical, but the fallback radio component is also scrambled.
NNP: Nanotech Neurological Preservative. A postmortem means to preserve molecular structure until a scan of sufficient resolution can be applied, or the molecular-level brain structure scanned for silicon simulation.
RPG: Rocket-Propelled Grenade
