Chapter 61. Long May She Reign
16. January 2415 AD, Noveria, Peak 15 Hot Lab
"It's a trick, Shepard. Don't listen to a word it's telling you. We let it go, there won't be anything left of Noveria by the end of next month. You don't want another Rachni War on your conscience, do you?" the krogan bounty hunter said behind him.
"If we kill her, we rob her of any chance to prove that the rachni can be different," the asari scientist reasoned in return. "Sanctioning their genocide was the worst mistake the Council ever made. She deserves a second chance. Everyone does."
"The last time they got their chance, the rachni killed billions of people. I'm not going to take that risk," General Arterius countered.
"She said they didn't have a choice," the asari retorted. "Did you even listen to a word she said?"
"I'm not going to listen to a rachni, Doctor."
"But you're not listening to me either right now. Please. Stop for a second and think about it," the asari urged. "Oily shadows that claimed all," she repeated before explaining. "Someone was using the rachni for their own goal, manipulating them. Doesn't that sound familiar to you?"
"You think they were indoctrinated," Morneau said before turning away from the screen that still displayed the councilor and her asari commandos and towards the argument that had been going on behind him for far too long already.
"Yes!" T'Soni exclaimed with relieve. "That's what made them attack the Council without a warning. They didn't have a choice in it! It was the reapers that made them do it!"
"That's good and all," as he walked over to the tank and leaned against the glass to look at the creature, the specialist asked the one question everyone else seemed to have been too distracted to ask up to now. "But why did the rachni attack us then? Either she's lying to you or she's indoctrinated." Not that it made any difference to him. The rachni weren't his mission, they were just another obstacle on the way to stopping something far worse. The only thing worth noting about that conclusion was that if it was the latter and the queen really was indoctrinated, they'd have to be on the look-out for whatever did it. Director Rei had been clear. They couldn't afford any more compromized personal.
"We couldn't sing to our children," the corpse spoke in place of the queen, who twitched her head at him, blue luminescent eyes seemingly trying to stare behind the mirrored glass of his black visor. "These low spaces-"
"Yeah, yeah. You said that already," he interrupted the corpse's rambling before turning away from the queen and back to the screen where the asari were seemingly making preparations for their own escape by getting to work on one of the thick exterior walls of Peak 15. "The way I see it, she's not going anywhere right now and even if she does find a way out, she'd be a bright red dot on the snow that's just waiting for the Normandy's guns to cap her. Let's focus on why we're here. We can deal with her when we took care of the councilor," ignoring how the previous relief vanished off of the doctor's face, Morneau knew that right now wasn't the time for sensitivity, no matter how horrible this whole situation was for the asari.
"Not if she buries underground and hatches a new brood," Wrex countered with a growl that made the specialist think he was about to really set the krogan off. "Then it'll be too late."
"For Noveria," he replied. "I looked around the place and honestly? I know I won't miss it," sure, a few of the people working here might've had decent intentions when they had come to Noveria but the majority of its inhabitants worked on or supported the progress of projects that were illegal for very good reasons. From illegal ammo mods laced with toxins meant to make the death of their target as painful as possible to weaponized diseases that made you throw up your own intestines a few hours after being infected, there was nothing that could kill someone in the nastiest way possible that wasn't being made on Noveria at any given time. If they took care of it for good, the rachni would just end up doing the decent part of the galaxy a big favour.
"That's how it starts. One planet. But when they're done here, they'll swarm into your precious Fringe and add your people to their menu."
"That's a problem we can think about after we stop Saren. Let's handle one galactic apocalypse at a time, okay?" he offered in return.
"If we let them live, they'll tear through you just like they tore through the Council. You won't stand a chance. First they'll kill you, then they'll kill everyone else and thanks to salarians, my people won't be around to stop them this time," as his red eyes narrowed, the Section 13 agent could only offer a shrug.
"Maybe. Maybe not," he said. While a part of him wanted to say that the HSA wouldn't suffer the way the Council had suffered and didn't need the krogan or anyone else to fight their wars, he couldn't know that for sure. Hence he didn't say it. Instead he pointed to the screen and said the one thing he was completely certain of. "I just know that our one way to maybe stopping the thing that killed the protheans from coming back is slipping away because we're busy contemplating genocide," Morneau realised that this might've been unfair to some members of this misfit team but right now, he couldn't care less. Time was short and he still had a job to finish. Checking his Valkyrie's heat-sink and finding the result satisfactory, he threw a look at the N7 still standing in front of the console and left with a final comment that might just get her and the others to focus on the mission again. "And losing the galaxy because of that is something I won't have on my conscience."
Not a moment later he walked to the other door of the hot labs and pryed open a panel near it to reveal a switch identical to the one that had opened the other blastdoor. Not even giving the others time to make up their mind, he pulled on it and vanished into the next corridor, his partner following behind him.
"Please tell me this is some kind of gamble to get the others to follow you," Yo-yo said as she chased after him through the dark-blue corridor.
"If that's what happens, I'll take it."
"And if it doesn't?"
"Then I'll make do with what I have."
"Fighting T'Soni on your own is a bad idea."
"I know."
"But you're still walking towards the elevator."
"We don't exactly have a lot of options here, okay?" he replied. "Either they get the clue or they don't. One way or another, I'm going down there and I'm going to make her tell me what she knows about the Harbinger."
"She'll kill you."
"She'll try."
"She's got a dozen commandos down there. Not to mention her own biotic powers. This is crazy."
"You're welcome to sit this one out," Morneau said after calling one of the two elevators, prompting the other specialist to fold her arms while he defiantly looked at the indicator above the door, pretending not to be glad to already know her answer.
"And let you be the hero? Not a chance," Yo-yo replied, forcing a hidden smirk out of Morneau.
"No heroes in our line of work, remember?"
Meanwhile, 16. January 2415 AD, Noveria
Dammit.
No matter how sure she was that the moment she'd step away from the console, the queen would be molten by the acid at the hands of Wrex or the turian general, no matter how much she liked to believe that stopping a genocide was more important that fighting and killing the mother of one of her teammates, he was right. There was just no other way to look at it.
"Fall in," Emily only instructed before stepping away from the console and jogging the way the specialists had gone. The two human marines were the first to follow the order, falling in behind her as soon as she had passed them. Next Garrus caught up to her when she had reached the door of the room. Now out of earshot of the queen, the next one who joined were his fellow turians. Whether it was because the queen was already drowning in acid or because the general still intended to honor her command for this mission didn't matter to her right now. What counted was that they were almost back to full strength again. The only ones missing now were Wrex and Liara.
"Hey! Hold up!" she quickly called as she saw the doors close up ahead, causing a grey gauntlet to shoot out from inside and stop the elevator from shutting, thus allowing them to step inside.
"What about Wrex and the doc?" Magic asked, his hand still blocking the door after the last turian had joined them.
"No idea," she replied before looking at the turian general pressed against the wall to her left.
"They were still arguing when we left," he explained, prompting the specialist to remove his hand so that the doors could close.
"Guess that's what happens when you bring civilians to do a soldier's job," another one of the turians, Galviat if she recalled correctly, replied as the descend of the elevator began, causing the turian lieutenant next to him to throw a look at him. "What? You know I'm right. They didn't measure up. We'll be better off without them."
"We still could use their help, Sergeant," she said somewhat worried, leading Emily to believe that much like her, the turian lieutenant was starting to realise what they were heading into.
"They're a bounty hunter without discipline and a scientist without combat training. I don't see how that'll do us any good," Galviat replied confidently.
"They're biotics and we're going up against a squad of huntresses. That's what counts."
"We've fought worse."
"I don't think we have, Galviat," she offered before looking at the third Blackwatch soldier. "Going up against an asari matriarch? We might not walk away from this one unscathed."
"It's not about walking away, it's about winning. And that we always do in the end, Ma'am," Veltax only offered, seemingly equally confident.
"I understand that you're worried, Lieutenant," their leader finally said before placing a hand on her shoulder. "But have faith. Fighting battles like this one is what we're meant to do," the nod it produces seemed to indicate the success of the gesture.
"For the Hierarchy," she spoke.
"For the Hierarchy," Arterius repeated.
There it was. Just like Garrus had told her before Noveria, the Blackwatch operatives seemed to be set on winning, even if they all died in the process. She was a soldier, an N7 to be precise. Being ready to commit to something even if it put your life in danger was part of what she did. However there was still a fine line between risking your life and accepting your death. To her it sounded like the turians had just done the latter, which made them dangerous. To their enemy but also to themselves. If there was one thing that had been beaten into her during her training, it was that there was nothing as crucial to the success of a mission as the will to come back home. It made you cautious, made you pay attention to details, made you stay alive. What was it that her drill instructor had told them in the UWTC on Eden Prime? A dead marine wasn't useful to anyone but the enemy?
"So, I don't want to kill the mood," Garrus began, addressing the specialist. "But what's your actual plan?" It wasn't the first time he had asked that question today but just like the last time, it was justified.
"You see, I'm more of an improvisation-guy, really," he replied. Improvisation? More than likely he meant impulsive. At least that was the impression Shepard was getting. "Besides, I didn't account for you when I left."
"Meaning you didn't actually have a plan when you made us follow you," the turian detective replied before playing with the settings of his weapon, the fine blue hologram appearing at the side of his Pheaston showing that he had just applied a phasic mod to it, an action that almost everyone repeated by the people in the elevator that hadn't already done it. "Great. I'm really starting to regret ever waking up today," he said before repeating the process on his other weapons and glancing at the indicator over the door.
"So you were just going to walk down there? That was your plan?" Emily spoke up.
"Pretty much, yeah."
"Do you at least know what we're walking into?" she said, frowning behind her helmet.
"Asari, geth. Maybe a couple of krogan. We'll find out when the doors open," Magic replied, causing her to glance at the indicator. She could definitely add impulsive to the growing list of his negative character traits.
"Spirits," Garrus muttered while the indicator continued to mercilessly count down in asari numerals. If her HUD was translating it correctly, they should be here any moment.
As if to prove her right, the doors of the elevator came open to reveal a large storage room crawling with small rachni that seamlessly blended in with the green storage racks stacked in neat rows all the way to the next door, in front of which she could already see a number of broken geth platforms and a single dead asari.
Intending not to give them time to swarm them, the human-turian team flooded out of the elevator and began shooting at the small creatures. As the mixture of Phaestons and Valkyrie rifles barked and exploded the rachni workers in bursts of yellowish blood, the N7 saw a panel break off of the ceiling, the armored tentacle that had pushed it away already telling her that the rachni's warriors were about to join the fight. Dropping down to one of the racks and causing it to fall over in the process, the first of the red creatures became a victim of its own aggression, being crushed between the heavy steel frame and the wall. However with its death, it had cleared the path for its brethren and not a moment later, first one then two and finally five of the larger rachni had left the hole in the wall, crawling down the rack and forcing the team to repeat the tactic they had employed earlier. Only this time around, they didn't have Wrex or Liara to back them up.
Or so it seemed.
As a biotic push of Alenko sent the rachni charging at them flying backwards, Emily afforded a glance backwards when she picked up the ping-noise announcing the opening of an elevator behind them. When the doors had opened all the way, the large krogan inside charged out and fired a shot at the rachni that had been about to lash out at Williams.
"Wrex?"
"Heh," he simply smirked before a wall of purple pushed the rachni back and crushed several of them.
"Where the hell were you?" she demanded before realising that he hadn't been the one to push the rachni back.
"Debating," the asari replied as powerful biotic energy danced around her. "I convinced him to postpone our argument in favour of more pressing matters."
Well. Better late than never. There'd be more than enough time to ask them what the hell had even taken them this long to follow her orders once they were back on the Normandy. For now she'd just be glad to be back at full strength again.
"The queen?" she asked the asari before shooting at a small green form trying to jump them from the top of one of the storage racks.
"Alive. For now," Wrex offered as a shot of his shotgun decapitated a rachni warrior that had tried to charge at him.
Two Minutes Later, 2156 CE, Noveria
"I think that was the last of them," the human lieutenant observed while Desolas waited for any of the rachni to offer a final twitch, his rifle still aimed forward. When none of the corpses moved after a few more moments, he lowered the weapon and took a cautious step past the first warrior and towards the door at the other end of the storage room, his eyes now set on the dead commando up ahead. Judging by the purple stain of blood in the shape of a hand on the lock and the red hologram in front of it, she had died sealing the rachni in the same room as her.
Why that task hadn't fallen to one of the geth?
He could only assume that her indoctrinated masters had considered her just as expandable as one of the synthetic drones.
"Lieutenant, can you get us through that door?" Desolas asked, producing a 'yes' from both Shepard's and his own second in command. After the two shared a look, Callius gestured for Alenko to try his luck first. As he activated his omni-tool, the team got some time to breath. Time Desolas decided to use to consider the situation they were in.
They were about to face an asari matriarch, who was arguably among the most powerful biotics in the known galaxy. While the phasic ammunition mod he had equipped his Phaeston with had been created to fight biotic foes, it wasn't the defensive capabilities of the councilor that Desolas was worried about. It was her ability to wipe them all out with one well placed attack. Blackwatch armor might've been developed to offer the best protection turian technology could provide but there was only so much one could do to protect against powers that could tear you apart on a molecular level. One good hit and the armor would be gone and another good hit and the turian wearing it would join it. Adding to that, they wouldn't just have to worry about Councilor T'Soni either. The asari with her likely had more experience in the art of war than he would ever be able to come close to. Century-long lifespans ensured that no one could perfect their craft as much as the few asari that chose to walk the path of a huntress. Whether it was shooting, melee combat or team work. The unit they were about to face had honed those skills for longer than he had been been alive.
With odds like these, he had to count on the nature of this team to make up for the skill-gap. Sure, individually they were all less experienced than the asari commandos but as a unit, they possessed skills and talents that the monotonous commando squad, which had likely fought using the same doctrines and maneuvers for decades if not centuries, did not. Their one strength was the fact that they united a lot of backgrounds. Besides his team, which consisted of a cabal, a hastatim, a sniper and himself, an engineer, who all added their unique skills to the training Blackwatch had given them, they had a former recon sniper, a krogan bounty hunter who might've lived longer than any of the asari, an N7 turned Spectre, two marines, two specialists, and, most morbidly, the daughter of the enemy commander who was a powerful biotic in her own right. Combined they might just have a broad enough pool of experience and abilities to draw from to find something that the huntresses hadn't seen before, something that would even the playing field a little.
"How many huntresses did you see on the screen before you left?" he asked the human specialist.
"Seven," the Section 13 operative replied instantly. "But I saw ten asari walk through the front door on the recording we found. One of those is dead outside, two are unaccounted for and others might've gotten in another way."
"Meaning we'll have to assume that nine of them are still inside."
"Ten with the councilor," the female specialist.
"So one for each of us," he realised. No numerical superiority for them then.
"Plus the geth and krogan that might still be between us and them," Shepard added.
"I don't think that there are many left of them, Ma'am," Williams replied. "Why would they sacrifice an asari to close to door if they still had geth or krogan clones left? Unlike the commandos, those are meant to be expandable." Although the remark caused the bounty hunter to grimace, Desolas realised that it was another reasonable explanation as to why a huntress had to sacrifice herself. "Sure, we didn't find all of the bodies but god knows what the rachni did with some of them after they killed them," as she hesitated for a moment, Desolas could already assume what was on her mind and sure enough, after she ended her pause, she voiced that possibility. "I mean they started eating the scientists as well, didn't they?"
"As horrible as it sounds, it'd also explain where the two other asari went," Lieutenant Alenko injected right before the red lock turned orange."Alright. If no one has any objections, we're good to go."
"I have one," the cipritinian stated with a raised hand.
"Let me guess, Blue. What's our plan?" Urdnot Wrex said in return, an amused 'heh' following the statement.
"No, I've come to terms with not having one this time around," he replied dryly before reaching into one of the pouches built into his armor. "What I was going to say it that we might not want to open this door like it's indestructible," holding up a magnetic breaching charge that looked exactly like the ones stored in the Parnack's armory, Desolas wondered just how he had gotten his hands on that and which quartermaster had handed it out to him. "If we're lucky it might even smash the asari waiting to gun us down."
"I mean it's not a bad idea," Veltax, his own engineer, admitted before procuring a similar charge. Giving his approval before turning to the N7, who was still in command of this mission, Shepard also seemed to agree with the plan, giving the two turians the all clear to start getting to work on turning the door into a deadly, directed projectile. When they were finished and got into position without anyone voicing a concern for possibly hitting the councilor, he noticed the pale complexion on the doctor's face. If he had to take a guess, she was only now starting to realise that at least the majority of the ground team had come to terms with the fact that her mother was an enemy and had to be treated as such.
"On your signal, Commander," he said after Veltax gave him the sign that he was ready to breach.
"Your demo-charges, your plan, your order," the N7 only replied, prompting him to give a nod.
"Blow it," he instructed before adrenaline poured through his veins, allowing him to observe the quick movement it took the engineer to arm the detonator and light its fuze in what seemed like slow motion. When the movement was done, which had likely taken less than two seconds, the door was blown inwards by the charges and without a hint of hesitation, the turian general went through the breaching point first, barely registering the injured asari stuck under the door's remains as he jumped for cover to avoid being hit by the pinpoint shot of a Prefect, a weapon that much like its user had been honed to perfection. Glancing to his left after another shot bounced off the edge of the broad, red and black window frame he had taken shelter behind, he noticed that at least Galviat and the krogan had followed in time to clear the deadly door gap, taking cover behind the frame on the room's opposite side.
After watching more rounds ricochet off from both their and his own cover, the angle at which they came from led him to believe that the shooter was somewhere above them. Checking the reflection of the glass to his right, he concluded that the second level of the room they were in, which seemed to house a number of private rooms, was where the shooter was at. Now the only thing missing was her distance. Peaking out of the corner to see the indoctrinated asari trying to free herself from the heavy door lying on top of her, which no doubt had crushed everything below her waist, he realised something else in addition to spoting the most likely position of the sniper he had been looking for behind the small crack of a barely opened door of a darkened room directly facing their point of entrance.
Personally he had never understood the commando's dislike of helmets, arguing about it with every asari officer he had ever worked with. Although it had frustrated him back then, he was glad for it now. Because now, he'd exploit it. While the krogan would be just as affected as the asari, he was just one, albeit very big, shooter. Besides, he could and probably would just blind-fire regardless of the smoke screen. Reaching for a grenade filled with a substance his visor could see through as clear as if it wasn't there, he held the canister up to Galviat, who understood his intention and produced an identical smoke grenade from a pouch of his own.
Tossing the grenades around the window frames without looking so that they wouldn't expose themselves, the canisters hit the ground somewhere up ahead and popped with a noticeable, loud sound. After giving the smokescreen five seconds to expand, the turian general spun out of his cover and leveled his Phaeston at the asari lying below the door, her injured form clearly visible thanks to his visor allowing him to see through the thick, heated cloud of chemicals. After squeezing the trigger of the Phaeston and allowing a dozen phasic rounds to shred through her barriers, shields and then finally what was left of her torso, he moved on, searching for the sniper hidden in the door upstairs.
When he came up empty at first and focused to see further into the room, it took a depleting hit to his own shields to make him realise that the smoke was dispersing as quickly as it had expanded. As he hunkered back down just before a round punched into the ground where he had been standing, Desolas began considering an explosive solution. However before he could reach for one of the fragmentation grenades stored in his armor and launch it with his Phaeston, two Mantis rounds soared right past him and into the thin doorgap the shots had been coming from, instantly interrupting the sound of the Prefect that had been shooting at him. Looking back through the door right in time to see a blue armored figure withdraw back into cover, he realised that the cipritinian was still as sharp as the day he had earned his marksman honors.
Realising that the enemy fire had died down for the moment, Shepard, Callius and one of the human marines made a break through the door, passing him and barely reaching appropriate cover before a wave of purple energy pushed the last remains of the smoke all the way through the door, taking Veltax, who had been about to follow the the others, with it and forcing him to crawl back to the door while quickly discarding a piece of his forearm's armor. If the purple glow eating away at it was anything to go by, it was probably the best decision that he tossed it all the way across the room. It had been touched by a warp attack, hence it had been a choice between losing the armor or losing the arm.
"You dare stand in his way?" a familiar voice called with accusation as Desolas had been about to reach for another smoke grenade before realising the vanity of that tactic now that the asari had seen it. "You are an even bigger fool than your brother had described you as, General Arterius." A play on his brother. Interesting. Ignoring the clear provocation that was only meant to make him aggressive and cause him to commit a mistake he couldn't take back, Desolas reached for a flashbang for a response. He hadn't become a general by falling for tricks that had been played since the dawn of turian civilization.
"Bring up your barriers as much as you can and tell me what you see," he called to the krogan, who began glowing purple immediately before rising.
"You sent others to do your bidding? It seems you're also as much of a coward as he said you were," the councilor taunted after Wrex had left the window's frame, fired off a shot of his shotun and thrown himself back against the glass hard enough to crack it. Considering the wall of novice fire that had drilled into his barriers and the fresh orange-bleeding cut on the side of his neck, he had gotten very lucky.
"Five asari coming straight for us. The councilor's right behind them," he said before wiping away the blood dripping down his neck and letting out an angry grunt when it began pouring again immediatley. "They'll pay for that." While he was krogan and would recover from the injury within the next hours, his face showed that he wasn't immune to the pain a shot like that caused. It might finally teach him to start wearing a helmet, even if he could breath without it.
Speaking of.
"Cover your eyes!" Desolas shouted before tossing the next grenade past his cover. Only a second after a blinding white flash had illuminated the corridor, the turian leaned to his left and started shooting. While most of the mass accelerator slugs were caught by a much more powerful barrier being projected in front of the asari, likely by the councilor herself who seemed to have been unaffected by the blinding detonation, pure chance and the sheer number of Phasic rounds being fired at them allowed some of the miniscule rounds to slip past all the layers of protection that stood in their way. After two of the huntresses had been hit, dropping to the ground, the remaining three asari recovered from the stunning effect and advanced forward without sparing a thought to their fallen, instead unleashing a mixture of Disciple shotgun rounds and biotic powers which forced Desolas and the others to back down.
As he pressed his back against the glass, he glanced to the reflection again, seeing that the asari were a mere paces away from them by now. Reaching for the standard-issue talon he had taken from the Parnack's armory, which lacked the black-steel and extreme curve of the Blackwatch blade he had lost on Feros while saving the Thorian, he started counting down in his head to the moment when the first huntress would reach his cover. However instead of reaching zero as intended, Desolas lost count when his mandibles involuntarily pressed against his jaw after seeing their asari ally leave the safety of her cover behind the heavy doorframe they had come form.
"Stop this madness, Mother!" Doctor T'Soni called before sending an uncontrolled purple shockwave of her own down the corridor that staggered both the enemy and her team. After he caught his balance again, Desoals prepared himself to see mass accelerator rounds rip into the asari and kill her right then and there. However instead of hitting her, they only passed through empty air thanks to the other Section 13 agent's quick thinking. If he hadn't jumped forward, thrown both himself and the asari on the ground and dragged her into the safety of the decorative, hip-high hydroponic garden right after two purple flashes, their barriers, and one blue burst of electricity, his shields, illuminated the room, she'd be dead now. While orange sparks were chipped off from their cover, it seemed like the colonial-grade steel-alloy it had been built from would last for some time-
Interrupting the thought, Desolas instinctively spun to his left to lash out with the knife after he saw a black figure appear in the edge of his vision. But instead of making it easy and being caught by surprise, the dark-blue skinned huntress now standing in front of him caught Desolas' blow with ease despite his armor's internal servo engines giving it enough strength to punch through krogan body plates before retaliating incredibly quickly. Flinching as a close-range shot of a Disciple drained his shields entirely and a second one punched into his armor, pushing it to its limits, the air was forced out of his lungs. Knowing that he would die if he didn't, he ignored the pain and the red blinking of his HUD, grabbed the barrel of the shotgun just in time to avoid the lethal third shot and smashed his helmet into the asari's face twice before a hand glowing with biotic energy stopped his attack the third time around. Feeling the pressure on his neck increase and being able to see crack's form in the reinforced visor, Desolas put everything he had into a powerful kick aimed at the asari's knee cap. As the force of the bone-breaking blow made the asari to drop to the ground and gave him the opportunity to act, he smacked the Disciple out of her hand, freed his left hand from her grip and started stabbing at her throat and face with the standard-issue military talon until she stopped putting up a fight, ignorant of his surroundings or the purple blood spilling all over him.
Only when he looked up for the first time since the fight had started, did he see the dead asari lying on top of the unmoving Galviat, hear the triumphant roar of the krogan bounty hunter standing on top of his own kill and notice the curses of the injured human sergeant bleeding from her right arm and the orders being shouted by the N7. Instantly looking at the vital signs of his squad to confirm that Galviat still had a heartbeat, he let out a breath he didn't realise he had been holding this entire time.
He was still alive.
Satisfied for now, Desolas pushed the knife back into its sheath after a second attempt, its unfamiliar placement and form making the menial task far from natural, and leaned around the corner again. He had seen three corpses, where were the other three? Before he could answer that question, a wave of purple sent him flying sidewards, again knocking the air out of him as he hit the window.
"I won't allow you to break the cycle!" Councilor T'Soni shouted while Desolas started to feel weightless all of the sudden, incapable of leveling his Phaeston at the asari councilor walking up to his cover and pressing him against the glass. As he watched her dismissively toss Veltax, Wrex, one of the specialist and Shepard, who all had tried to take her by surprise, aside like ragdolls with a circular pulse of biotic energy, he gritted his teeth in pain. "Your brother will bring about our ascension. You won't stand in his way-" as the matriarch was about to keep rambling, another wave of purple staggered her, causing Desolas to fall to the ground, the impact doing the pain or his back no favours. If not for his armor, it'd probably already be broken.
"Mother!" he heard Doctor T'Soni call, who had left the shelter of the hydroponic to confront her mother. "This isn't you. Please, stop while you still can!" Set on using the distraction, Desolas tried reaching for his Carnifx all the while a burst of Phaeston rounds, likely from his lieutenant or the C-SEC detective harmlessly bounced from the councilor's barriers.
"This is exactly who I am, Liara," she said before a wave of her hand into the direction of the door stopped the gunfire and another hand movement made Desolas float again, the grip on his sidearm slipping when he was thrown against the glass, again. "Centuries wasted on living a lie. All the good I could've done if I had seen the truth earlier," repeating the hand movement with her other hand, the asari doctor started to float as well, albeit more reluctantly than Desolas, her own biotics at least giving her a chance to fight back.
"Trust me, you'll regret this, Councilor," the general spoke through clenched mandibles, trying to distract the asari while some of the squad members struggled to get back to their feet.
"My only regret is that it took me this long to recognize the truth of my existence, General," the matriarch argued while the N7 tried to help Veltax to his feet and bring him back to cover, probably aware that her Valykrie alone wouldn't be enough to break the barriers at this distance and that her odds of getting all the way to the councilor to bypass them were slim to none.
"You can still fight the Harbinger, mother!" the younger T'Soni pleaded between ragged breath. "Remember who you are!"
"Why fight those who will save us?" the asari questioned in return, unaware of grey figure silently and quickly closing in on her, the biotic glow that surrounded him quickly fading out as it clashed with the purple field projected by the matriarch. He had seen this before. Callius had called it an annihilation field. It worked similar to a warp attack, only on a less focused but bigger, continuous scale. Would he make it? Desolas had no idea. He might just. However the purple ripples dancing over his body armor weren't a good sign for his success. "The reapers will unlock our potential as they have done to all those who walked before us. They will cleanse us from our weakness and I will help them do it. That is who I am- "sensing either her mistake or the proximity of the human, the councilor spun on her feet just as the human's hand grabbed her neck, the gun that would've been pressed against her spine and biotic nervous system now pointing at her abdomen, far to close for any barrier or kinetic shield to react.
"No!" the asari archeologist cried before the shots started to echo.
He wasn't sure at after which shot he started to fall but what he did know was that the specialist didn't stop until he had unloaded the entire clip of his outdated weapon at point-blank range. Discarding the empty magazine and exchanging it for a new one, he was about to level his weapon at the asari's head and finish the fight for good when the younger T'Soni, having already recovered, threw herself on her mother's bleeding body to shield her.
What happened after that?
Desolas had no idea.
As the strength necessary to lift his head became too much to handle, he lost sight of the dying councilor, managing to turn his head just far enough to see Lieutenant Callius kneel next to the body of Galviat, his vital signs a mystery due to the broken HUD no longer providing any indication. Passing out right as the biotic pressed her helmet against the one of the sniper, Desolas was strangely content with himself despite not knowing if he was actually going to wake up again.
They had won.
That was all that mattered.
It put his mind at peace.
One Minute Earlier, 16. January 2415 AD, Noveria
"I'll be fine, you go and take charge, Commander," Veltax urged while sitting up against the cover they had taken shelter behind. As he reached for and subsequently dropped a stim-pack in the process, she threw a look at the other specialist and at his shaking hands. He was probably bleeding internally. At least that was her guess. With all the armor it was hard to see just what had been broken during the two times he had been thrown around the room.
"I got him," Yo-yo nodded. Throwing a last look at the woman, the N7 did exactly that, jumping over the hydroponic garden just as the last shot echoed through the room.
"No!" she heard Liara cry before throwing herself on the limp, blood-stained body of her mother, forcing the specialist standing right behind her to lower his gun. "No, no, no, no, no!" she sobbed as Emily noticed the beaten look of the specialists' armor.
It looked like it had been burned and shredded at the same time. There was nothing left of the digital camoflague paint and the thinner plates around his forearms had been shaved off entirely. She didn't know what had happened to his armor but judging by the exposed undersuit and the purple rifts in the few pieces of his armor that were still intact, it looked like he had been a few seconds away from looking just like it.
"Come on. You have to get off of her. It's too dangerous," the man said before noticing his the arm the matriarch lifted to touch her daughter, prompting him to move in hopes of getting a clean shot. "Off of her. Now!" he called before Emily placed a hand on the weapon after looking at the matriarch's peaceful face.
"Do not worry," the councilor said in a much calmer, weaker voice than before. "I won't hurt my Little Wing."
"Mother," Liara said between surpressed sobs. "You're back."
"For now," the councilor whispered as her hand finished the embrace of the younger asari. "I can feel it creeping back in. Trying to mend what's been broken, to trap me again. It won't be too long before-" after suppressing a cough, the dying T'Soni went on, adjusting herself so she could look at Emily and the specialist at the same time, her strangely shaped, dark-blue, husk-like eyes flickering in the process. "Too long before I have to watch myself again. So please, make the most of my time. Let me help you stop him."
"If you want to help us, you need to tell us everything," Magic replied coldly while Emily considered pulling Liara away for her own safety, knowing the asari would never forgive her if she did.
"To continue the cycle, Saren needs access to the Citadel," the councilor said before spitting up some blood that stained the white helmet of Liara's armor. "Before their fall, the protheans built the Conduit on a world called Ilos. It is beyond the Mu Relay. I don't know what it was created for but I know that it'll allow him to-" another cough. "To bypass the Citadel's defenses altogether."
"Why the Citadel?" Emily injected.
"I don't know," the asari replied while patting Liara's back, her face growing paler every minute and making the dark-blue, husk-like eyes stand out all the more. "The way to finding the Mu Relay and the Conduit was imprinted in the mind of the rachni queen," she said while touching her daughter's head, her eyes flashing a brief black. Letting go of the hug to touch her daughter's face and brushing her hand against her cheek, the councilor went on. "And now they are imprinted in yours as well. You are the key now. You will stop what I couldn't stop. Succeed where I failed. Save us all."
"Mother, I-" the asari choked on her tears, giving her mother the sign to keep going.
"No matter what I achieved in my life, you were my greatest gift to this world, Liara. I've loved you from the day you were born and suffered every time I had to leave you," as her eyes flickered again, Shepard noticed that the councilor's eyes were now searching the room.
"I know that I am your enemy. I watched myself hurt and torture your companions. But please, I have a favour to ask." After Emily looked at Liara, she nodded. "Please, Commander. I wish to die as myself. I refuse to do his bidding again, even if it is only for my dying breath." Feeling a sickening feeling rise through her body, Emily looked at the councilor. For her it'd be a mercy. For Liara? The opposite. It'd traumatize her. Even more so than she already was.
"Think you can get her away from here?" the specialist muttered, his implication clear.
"She asked me to do it," Emily replied while taking a step towards the crying asari, stopping when she realised Liara was holding on even tighter now. After looking at them for a moment, the specialist pulled her away from the two asari. Then he pulled of his damaged helmet and wiped his sweaty brow. She had to correct her past assumption, he already looked as beaten as his armor. Although she had no idea what he had to do to get that close to the councilor, it was evident that it had taken everything he had. She had seen a lot of people look exactly the way he did right now. They were usually close to passing out, having hit the absolute limit of what their body could do. It was a miracle he was even standing right now, really.
"If you shoot her mom in front of her, there's a chance she won't give you the intel. We can't risk that," he said quietly, the lack of a squad intercom ensuring that Liara wouldn't hear them.
"She'd never do that," she replied immediately.
"You've known her for little more than a week. Care to bet the galaxy on those odds?" While the part about the time span was true, their meeting on Therum hadn't been that long ago, the mindmeld she had shared with the asari made her nod. Thanks to that connection, she knew her better than just about anyone. "She wouldn't."
"Alright. Either way, she already hates me," he replied as he looked at Emily with exhausted, hazel eyes. "It won't make a difference to her if I pull the trigger. But if you do it," he left it up to her to finish that thought.
"Okay. Fine," Emily finally replied before walking back to Liara, who was still holding on to her dying mother, tensing up as she heard two pairs of footsteps close in on her.
"I won't let you kill her," the archeologist replied defiantly.
"I won't kill her," Emily replied. It was a half-truth. She wasn't going to be the one to do it. "But we have to go now, Liara."
"No."
"It's fine," her mother said before starting to pry her off her. "Go." How she still had the strength left to do that? Emily had no idea.
"No!" Liara insisted.
"My Little Wing," the councilor spoke quietly. "Please do me this favour. I wish to join the goddess as myself and not a pawn."
"No," it was a weaker reply than before but despite what Liara was saying, the N7 could see her starting to let go.
"Come on, Liara," she said while cautiously helping the asari get back on her feet, trying to keep her from seeing the huge purple pool of blood that had collected where she had thrown herself on her mother. After sharing a look with the specialist, she started walking to the doorway they had come from, passing Garrus and Alenko, who were tending to the unconscious Arterius seated up against the wall and only stopped their treatment to look at the two of them for one moment. "It's gonna be fine," she lied when they reached the breached door and a lone shot echoed out behind them, its implications causing the full weight of the asari to fall into her arms.
It wasn't going to be fine.
Ten Minutes Later, 16. January 2415 AD, Noveria, Peak 15 Tram Station
Considering that they were carrying two injured, unconscious turians, a passed-out asari and had to go slow enough for Williams and Veltax, who both had insisted on walking themselves, to keep pace, they had made good time back to tram. Then again, they had Wrex to carry the heavy Blackwatch soldiers and no rachni to go through.
Speaking of the rachni.
"General Arterius said something about a neutron purge earlier, didn't he?" Morneau said as the tram approached, feeling the cold air of Noveria brush against his nearly numb face and giving him the first non-burning sensation ever since he had gotten up close and personal with the matriarch. Given how rarely he had used his unnatural abilities to this point, he had almost forgotten how much of a pain Eezo drain really was. Judging the way Lieutenant Alenko was glancing at him every now and again, the older biotic probably knew what he was going through right now. A downward spiral of exhaustion that wasn't going to end anytime soon and would only get worse if nothing was done about it.
"That he did," Yo-yo replied.
Turning back the way they had come and realising that he had trouble doing something as basic as looking straight, he sighed. "Please tell me the trigger isn't that way." It'd be the perfect end to this mess if he had to go back that way, set off the purge and run for his life now. But if that's what it took to get the job done, he would.
"It's activated in the control hub."
"Which is where?" he asked, wondering how the hell he could sweat in this climate.
"The way Blackwatch and I came in," breathing out in relief, Morneau leaned against the railing, something he regretted as soon as he realised he'd have to get back up when the tram arrived.
"You have no idea how glad I am to hear that," he said before suddenly feeling the adrenaline that had been keeping him on his feet leave his system, dizzyness replacing it.
Well.
Shit.
"I can imagine," Yo-yo replied before stopping him from dropping sideways afterhe had lost his balance. "Hey careful now," she said. "Jesus, you really are barely holding on right now, aren't you?" trying to stabilize him again but failing to do so, both of them realised in the same moment that he done for to today.
"Held on. Past tense," he corrected before blackness started to impact his vision. Here he went. With the ground closing in rapidly but suddenly stopping, he could only assume that the other Section 13 agent caught him just in time.
"What's going on? Did he get hit?" a voice he couldn't quite place asked with worry.
"No. It's Eezo drain," another replied while he felt himself being placed on the cold metal ground of the tram station, incapable of pushing himself up again no matter how much he wanted to. "It's what happens when a human biotic goes over the edge."
"Turians get it too," a flanging voice added as a sharp sting punctured his forearm while the silhouette of a man kneeled down next to him. "We're not meant to be biotics. So our bodies just give in once we're past a certain point."
"Is there anything we can do?"
"Well, this should keep him stable for now but he needs to get to the Normandy, asap. Radio Chakwas. Tell her to prep for another casualty."
Casualty?
He didn't have time to be a damn casualty. There was still a neutron purge and a rachni queen to take care of.
"It's alright, Magic. I got you."
Meanwhile, 16. January 2415 AD, Noveria, Peak 15
"Alenko?" she asked.
"Yes, Ma'am," the biotic replied as he rose from his position next to the now fourth unconscious member of their team.
"You go ahead and bring them home," Emily said as the tram reached the platform they were standing on. After handing Liara over to Garrus, she explained. "There's still something I have to do," she said. The mention of the neutron purge had made her remember the queen. Between the fighting, the councilor's death and their number of casualties, which was now up to six, she had forgotten about the creature trapped in the glass tank.
"The queen?" the turian asked..
"Exactly," she nodded before looking at him in expectation. "Well? Want to give your opinion as well?" he had been strangely quiet up to now.
"I'm a jaded cop, Commander. Not exactly the type of person you want to ask to make that kind of decision. Besides, I never was good at choosing."
"Meaning it's up to me."
"Well, since the general's out cold, it's either you or Wrex," he said while adjusting the weight of the asari on his shoulder and looking at the krogan carrying the two heavy turians. "And since I don't see myself and the lieutenants carrying all these guys on our own," he elaborated.
"It's me," she nodded before checking her Valkyrie, not hearing a single protest. "Sent the tram back when you're up. I'll handle the neutron purge as well."
"On your own?" the C-SEC detective replied.
"Everyone else has to bring our wounded out," the N7 replied with a shrug, keeping the part that she didn't exactly think anyone besides her was still in the shape to outrun the purge to herself. There was no way she'd put another one of her team into danger for something she could do just as well on her own. "I'll see you on the Normandy," she called before breaking into a jog, returning to the hot lab a few minutes later, passing all the carnage they had caused and all the blood they had spilled in the process. It had been a tough fight, tougher than any she had had before.
But considering what they had gained,it had been worth it.
Letting go of her weapon and allowing it to dangle from the sling attached to her chest plate, Emily finally looked at the queen and waited for it to reanimate another corpse.
"Your music betrays your success," the reanimated corpse, this time a krogan, spoke. "We can sense that the last of the oily shadows have left this world. Their symphony was silenced."
As she stepped up to the console and rested her hands on it, eyeing the red button that would unleash the acid and the yellow and black switch that would release the queen respectively, she considered everyone's words. The rachni were dangerous and just like the specialist had said, they had attacked them this time as well, despite the queen's claims that it had all been because of her ancestors being indoctrinated herself. That alone added a lot of weight to the necessity of her death. However if she really couldn't control her offsprings, maybe because Binary Helix had figured out a way to isolate her in that tank of hers, and that had been the source of their aggression, killing her would be wrong.
Hell, killing her was wrong one way or another. It was genocide. Plain and simple.
But maybe it was necessary? The threat of the rachni simply was too bi-
No.
No it wasn't.
No matter the risk, genocide wasn't an option. It couldn't be. She wasn't going to compromise her morals because she was scared of something. That was part of the personal code she had made for herself when becoming an N7."
"If I pull this switch, you leave. You don't attack anyone and you never, ever return to the known galaxy. If you do, I'll come after you and I'll end you for good. Is that understood?"
"We wish to sing our own song," the krogan corpse growled. "Far away from the symphony of others."
"I'll take that as a yes," Emily said before pulling on the switch, giving herself no time to second guess the decision. Only when the queen didn't immediately rush out of the tank did she start thinking about the possible consequences.
"What are you waiting for?" she asked quickly.
"Although you are still colorless, we can now sense the pain in your music. That is a weakness the oily shadows exploit every time they sing their dreaded tune," as her head turned and her blue eyes looked at her, Emily tried to make sense of what the queen was saying. When she was done, the only explanation she could come up with was that the queen was worried. What was going on?
"I'm not sure I'm following you."
"You sing a lone song so you well never be louder than their choir. But if you find a harmony, the music of someone who will help you stop the silence they seek to impose, you may compose a new song for all, colorful and colorless alike."
Find herself a harmony?
Hold up, hadn't she said tha-
Nope.
She wasn't going there, definitely not today and probably not ever.
Deciding to make the most out of the opportunity and finding something different to think about, Emily figured she might as well try to get something out of the queen before she left.
"Okay," she muttered, stretching out the word far belong its natural length. "Before you go, is there anything else you can tell me about the oily shadows? How they got to your people? How to fight them?"
"The choir of legion sings an insidious tune to those that listen. It promises harmony, an impossible symphony, all at the cost of embracing the oily shadow. But behind its promise and its colorful songs, there's only blackness and silence." While she understood the communication barrier, she was really starting to grow tired of the way the rachni seemed to talk. If only she could be straight with her and not use those weird metaphors all the time. "The lone with pure intent and noble cause are the first to be claimed by their false song. Only through harmony can one face the blackness of their all-consuming crescendo."
"Still not really following," she admitted. While better than before, it was still really, really cryptic.
"We must go now. Our children need us. The have heeded our music. A new song awaits us. As promised it will be sung far from here. Farewell."
With that the queen left, running forward and into the corridors at a speed Emily didn't think a creature of that size could reach.
Talk about ungrate-
Spinning on her heel as the sound of the krogan hitting the floor startled her, Emily relaxed despite the dozens of insectoid legs crawling through the ceiling into the direction the queen was going. Shaking her head, the N7 then went all the way back to the tram for a second time, using the way to try and come up with a way to report all of this to the Council, Anderson and the HSA. Her objective was dead and Saren was still at large. But she knew what was going on, at least partially, and had learned of a way to stop it from happening. That had to count for something, right? When the sound of the tram's doors opening tore her from her thoughts, Shepard decided that she'd have ample time to come up with an explanation on her way back to the Normandy and instead headed for the control hub. When she had reached it, Emily quickly used the plans she had been given to find a way to trigger the neutron purge. Relieved when she realised that she could set a timer, the commander decided to run a scan of the facility, finding no more life signs besides her own, before deciding that fifteen minutes would be more than enough for her to get out of here.
"Joker, do I have a Kodiak waiting for me?" Shepard asked, her hand hovering over the switch. She'd be damned if she pressed it before she knew she was actually getting out of here.
"Told them to touch down outside the hub, Ma'am. You know, just in case you have to dramatically outrun the explosion and jump to safety at the last possible moment," the pilot replied as upbeat as usual.
"Copy that," Emily said before realising something else, a small smirk spreading under her helmet. She might not need a ride after all and she really had been looking forward to this. officers rarely got to do the driving after all. "Say, did anyone remember to pick up the Mako?"
"Of course. Those things are damn expensive."
And as quickly as that, the smirk faded.
Well, maybe another time.
"Understood," with a press of the button, she expected a warning siren to echo through the control hub with a voice announcing to everyone how imminent their destruction was. Instead she only got a boring timer flashing a bright orange message, counting down from fifteen to zero minutes. "I'll be right out," she added.
One Hour Later, 16. January 2415 AD, HSASV Normandy
"We understand the situation you were in, Commander," Councilor Sparatus, or rather his hologram, spoke, "But we still need you to come back to the Citadel immediately."
Anderson had already warned her about this when they had spoken earlier. As had the enigmatic Director Harper, who despite not being contacted by the Normandy had been the first one to know when she was back and what had happened. The Council wasn't going to be happy about Benezia's death. How could they realistically be expected to?
"I understand, Councilor. I failed my mission," she nodded. While they hadn't said a word about the fact that her 'classified' status as a Spectre was already the main topic of the day for every major news network and written all over the extranet, the still-Spectre got why she was being recalled to the Citadel. They had to sort this out and explain to everyone just how Councilor Benezia T'Soni had ended up dying during the operation meant to safe her. Metaphorical heads would role and her status would be among i-
"Didn't fail mission," Councilor Valern said. "Perimeters were altered beyond your scope. Not your fault. Considering variables, you did excellent. Better than anyone else would've done."
"What Valern is trying to say is that you shouldn't take this the wrong way, Agent Shepard. We know that you did the best you could and we're not blaming you," Councilor Irissa, the asari representative, explained. "But given everything that has occurred since your departure, an indepth interview is necessary. If your reports are true," she began.
"They are. All of it," Emily threw in before Irissa continued.
"Then the threat of a krogan clone army," wait, that was what they were worried about? "is one we cannot ignore."
"And neither are the 'reapers'," the turian added before making air quotes with both of his hands. "Or the Harbinger leading them."
"Council wants to take action," the salarian nodded after sharing a look with his colleagues. "But action requires proof. After today, you are living proof. Your hearing will force our governments to act."
"Hence, we need you to return," Sparatus finally said. "To personally present what you discovered."
"Understood, Councilors."
Codex: The Rachni Wars (11 CE to 28 CE)
Although theoretical methods to uplifting a species had existed for far longer than any of the Council Species had been spacefaring, the true logistics necessary to ascending the krogan people from the rubble of their nuclear devastation and bringing them to the frontlines of the next rachni incursions were of a scale the Union hadn't expected. While the construction of the Shroud, a device meant to stabilize the atmosphere of Tuchanka, had been a gesture of good will and the new-found purpose given the the resigned krogan had progressed the procedure incredibly, the ongoing third rachni incursion, which was even larger than the first two combined, and the knowledge that more would likely follow after it, put a strain on the Council that almost broke it.
As soldiers of all races died to buy time for the krogan population to grow large enough to muster an army and the industries of several core worlds produced weapons, ships and armor not for the rank-and-file troops fighting the insectoid invaders in their own homes but for what many considered to be the product of salarian madness, morale was fading and more worlds were falling every month. With the death toll climbing close to one billion after the rachni ravaged the batarian core world of Tha'Sut and a dozen more salarian and asari colonies in the Attican Traverse, slaying all but a few of their millions of inhabitants, it looked like the Council would fall right until the first krogan deployed during the Siege of Trakalesk III.
An urbanized world shared between asari, salarians and batarians and frequented by visitors of every other race, the sky of Trakalesk III was darkened by a rachni invasion fleet in 27 CE. Although garrisoned by a large PDF and reinforced by a fleet of the Republican Navy, the council troops of the world could do little but delay the inevitable end right until enormous transport ships the size of dreadnoughts, carrying a million krogan shock troops led by the seasoned survivors of the tuchankan nuclear war arrived.
Resilient in nature and obedient to a fault, the krogan soldiers and the reinforcements they cleared the way for delivered the Council the first victory of the Third Incursion. After breaking the rachni siege and taking Trakalesk III's cities back one house-turned-hive at a time in a one year long, brutal fight, the tide had finally turned despite massive casualties. Rejuvenated by their victory, the Council set its eyes on reclaiming what it had lost.
A/N: So, chapter 61. Finally finishing up Noveria and the 16. January 2415 AD (which really, really dragged on longer than I though it would)
With this done, we are headed back to the Citadel... and to some other plot threads (including Redfords which I am sure all of you forgot.) that are all going to lead into the big battle of this "season" ...which none of you talked about in the reviews. So no cookies.
It's Vermire.
Vermire's going to be bigger than in canon.
It's basically going to be Attack of the Krogan Clones. Only the clones are the bad guys. And it's on Kamino. But Kamino's actually Vermire. And it's not Star Wars but Mass Effect but also not really Mass Effect but rather a fanfic adaptation of Mass e-
Okay so it probably won't be attack of the krogan clones but it'll be a larger set-piece than anything we had this season and I just had the Battle of Geonosis in mind when I came up with the idea of krogan clones being somewhat bigger than in canon.
Speaking of things I didn't have this season either, a detailed-ish fight scene. I forgot how much I liked to write those things in the past and how quickly they fill up a chapter (I had a lot more planned for this but before I knew it I hit 10k, and from personal experiene that's the limit of what I can focus on reading in one sitting.)
What else is there to speak about?
Liara's mom's dead.
The rachni queen isn't.
That happened.
We'll see what comes from that.
Do I have anything else to say? Not really. Except well maybe I don't want people reading too much into some of the stuff that happened in this chapter. But also not to little either. (damn that's cryptic.)
On a sidenote, I have the highest respect for whoever wrote the rachni dialogue because damn is it hard to try and phrase stuff with music-comparisions only.
For the record we're at 529 reviews, 831 favorites and 925 follows.
As always, review and le tme know what you think.
See you around next time.
