This chapter was hard to write. I was tempted to rewrite the previous chapter too because halfway through this one I had what I thought was a better idea, closer to the Dead Space games but in the end I went with what I had originally though or a close enough modification of what I thought. I also found out how hard it is to write when the character is on his own. You kinda want to move the action along but instead you have to keep describing things. I hope you like what I did here. I promise the next chapter is going to come sooner, I am really not doing this once a month thing on purpose. Anyway. Please I hope you enjoy this and as always leave feedback.
Edited 30.05.2021 for grammatical, stylistic and logical errors.
Following my silent guide down I could not help but conjure up an image of descending to hell, it was getting warmer as we followed the ancient steps down. Despite all my training, despite all that I have seen in this universe and all I know from my original one, my mind could not help but conjure up all kinds of scenarios where I get to the end of the steps and get captured by the rabid cultists that have just been waiting for an appropriate human to sacrifice to their dark god, whatever it was. It didn't help that as soon as I entered the cavern there was something just beyond the visual or aural range. A whisper, a movement, an oppressive feeling. But I haven't talked to an actual live person in more than a few days, this whole necromorph business was quite literally a horror scenario and it didn't help that my guide, who must have been human at some point clearly was not anymore. The way it walked was just wrong for any kind of legs I have seen in this or any universe so far.
Moving at a rapid pace it took us less than ten minutes to climb down and enter what must have been some kind of ceremonial chamber between the steps and the area beyond. The chamber was basically a two and a half meter high wall with an opening at each end, roughly twenty meters long and four wide. At the other end of it there was a gate half of which was cut into with a laser creating a circular hole in the middle of it. The walls were covered in necromorph script and in pictograms depicting the obelisks, rough humanoid shapes and bigger horned humanoids. The orange lights were casting reflections on the stones that really added to the whole underworld vibe. Not that I had much time to admire the carvings of the masters long dead as I kept following my guide who had not varied the speed of it's walking. Too smooth for something purely biological.
Something struck me as odd however seeing all that was left of the necromorphs so far. No lifts, no power, nothing that I could recognise as computer systems. The only thing that even suggested a civilization advanced beyond iron age was the huge megastructure itself with what was clearly an inside landing field for some kind of air transport. That is if you don't count the obelisks themselves. However I could not follow that thought through as we reached the circular hole and stepped through it.
Beyond it was clearly the center of whatever the people here came to do. A few glances around and I revised my earlier statement, not people, not anymore. All covered from head to toe, all moving far too smoothly. I wondered if I brought enough firepower. I wished I had M-451 flamethrower from ME2. Or maybe Cain, then I could have stood up there and just take a few pot shots down. Probably wouldn't have been that effective, aiming Cain with precision was always more of a suggestion than an actual thing but it would have been quite satisfying.
As we walked through the camp no one reacted in any way visible to me or detectable by the sensors in my suit. No one but my guides seemed to care that there was a stranger among them. It was now a positively comfortable 15 degrees celsius here and the darkness was mostly dispelled by the light rigged up all around, however all of them seemed to be set to soft diffuse orange light making anything directly outside of them become a half-shadow. Most disconcerting especially with the silent not-people scurrying around.
Our destination was a small dome shaped house. It looked older than anything else in here, made out of bricks and if my guess was right then they were simple mud-bricks, uneven, rough, crumbling from age even protected as they were from the elements in here. My guide simply stopped in front of it and waved a hand at me in a vague motion that didn't really say anything to me. So I adopted a ready stance, my arms within reach of my weapons.
A few minutes later a shape emerged from the building moving this time in a positively human manner despite being dressed the same way as the not-people I had seen so far here.
"Ah, a visitor, what an unexpected pleasure." she said her voice sounding genuinely pleased. And quite human.
"I would like to say the same. You are the first person I have seen so far." I replied deciding that it would take too long to dance around the issues here. It has been a long few months and I was not in the mood for diplomacy. Not down in a pit under a pyramid on a planet of a long dead species.
"I see. May I inquire what brings you here, to this planet?" she replied sounding offended this time
"You should know more about that than me. You are here after all, digging. But first before we commence with the rest of our business here I have something to do first. Where can I find Nicole Isaacs, I have a message for her from her husband." I said
"I am Nicole Isaacs." she said and uncovered her face, "I have been waiting for him to arrive. Is there something wrong?"
"Your husband is dead. He took his own life after the experiments he had been doing on board an Ishimura ship went out of control. In the message I found he asked whoever found it to tell you that he loved you." I explained without sugar coating it.
"I see." Nicole Isaacs said and there was sadness in her voice.
"Unfortunately whatever he was doing on board that ship did not stop with his death or the deaths of everyone on it. His notes led me here to what he believed was the origin of the obelisks. Can you confirm this?" I said putting a bit of steel in my voice. By this point I was pretty sure that she had been in on it and that they were not doing anything good here either but I needed more information in case leaving a big crater in place of this hill would not stop it.
"Yes, they come from here. They were spun into existence ten thousand years ago. A way for them to do what needed to be done. A holy mission that was corrupted by a single blasphemer. " Nicole said and I could see her eyes brighten slightly. In red. Glowing red just behind her irises.
"What was this mission?" I asked resigning myself to a simple fact now that I would need to kill everyone here.
"To bring back the Great One. Hundreds of millions of years ago the Great One after some titanic struggle laid down on this planet to rest. However he fell into a deep slumber from which he could not wake up. This planet had already been home to life but it would take millions of years for it to become sentient. The Great One would call out in his sleep to them, but it was to no avail until eleven or twelve thousand years ago they dug into the ground looking for precious metals and finally found him. They spoke to him and were offered a chance. To become part of the Great One and to ascend to a higher plane of existence. And they almost succeeded in doing that. Almost. If not for the damned blasphemer the Great One would have been freed from the frozen soil of this planet millennia ago. I wish he was still alive so that I might grant him the punishment he deserves." Nicole said speaking the last words with such venom that I almost shot here right there and then.
"What did he do?" I asked. As long as she kept answering questions that I had I was not about to start a fight.
"He was one of the lead scripture writers for the Obelisks, he was responsible for making sure they did what they were supposed to. However he was different from the others. Either some accident or a mutation he was born with he was unable to hear the glorious voice of the Great One. He altered the code within the Obelisks, he made them kill. Instead of leading necromorphs to their place of transformation, where their sacrifice would be honored for all eternity as part of the Great One he made the Obelisks turn everyone into senseless killing machines. Instead of the great joining in death as they were promised they killed each other damning their souls to be wasted. Never to join the perfection of the Great One." the thing that used to be Nicole answered
"So what is the Great One?" I asked hoping that my guess was wrong
"We cannot comprehend him, our minds are not enough. He is so far beyond that our attempts even guided by him fall short. We can only hope to join with him, only then we will be able to answer that question. The others have already started the process, becoming more than human. In honour of the people who lived and died here I call them necromorphs. For now however I am not able to join them. I still need to oversee the task. But once it's done I shall join them in the eternal bliss." the thing that was Nicole said in a tone of voice that was both full of awe and the kind that teachers use to softly scold children who are being too stupid. All the time she had been talking to me the red glow in her eyes had been growing.
"I see." I said and in one motion raised my Predator and shot her twice. One was right in the middle of her forehead and the second one was slightly off the mark hitting her just to the right of her nose. Spinning around I shot at my guide and used the motion to unsling and unfold my shotgun. My guide was tougher than Nicole and a few shots to centre mass did not do much but slow him down so I aimed my shotgun and pulled the trigger.
Anticipating some anti-zombie action I loaded it with incendiary rounds option. Which proved to be highly useful as I was seeing now. My guide taking the full brunt of the shot was now twisting, twitching and doing his best to appear on fire and in pain without actually making any sound. Letting my HUD feed me info on my targets I selected the next one and fired twice then ducked and rolled into another one letting my weight bowl him over. Then I punched him and heard the rough crack of the neck vertebrae. Before I could stand up several were upon me. I had a stupidly high pain tolerance compared to most sentient species known, only krogan had a higher tolerance than me but then they had to deal with the whole blood rage thing. But even with my pain tolerance and with my dual protection of the armour and my own skin the hits that I was receiving from these creatures were just barely tolerable. Which was a testament to the strength of these things. But my training had provided me with an answer what to do in similar situations, though they had never thought about fighting something like a necromorph, but the general principles still worked. Grabbing the blade I swept it low across their legs as I used all my strength to push in one direction. The blade bit deep and if not for my enhanced strength I imagine it would have stopped there but instead it severed cleanly one leg and made a very deep gash in another making the creature topple and allowing me to escape in the confusion created by it's fall.
Coming to my feet I didn't stop to grab the shotgun on the floor, they were too close now anyway and despite their clearly superhuman strength and toughness I still had the advantage. So far they seemed to be behaving like husks, or something close enough.
One arm extended with the blade pointed at them, I grabbed my Predator with my second hand and was about to wade back into close quarters battle when I heard a very strange thing. A laugh. Slowly turning towards the source of the sound I saw something that I had been dreading since I had seen the red light appear in Nicole's eyes.
"You are a fine warrior for a creature of flesh and bone. Not as fragile as these other humans. They had to be changed before they were worthy of being called my servants. But unlike them I can't see your mind. What are you?" the creature that used to be Nicole said, red glare now dominant in the eye that survived. It jerked up with sudden motion and the other necromorphs backed away, bending their backs in subservience
"A slightly less squishy human. The real question is what are you?" I asked, this all was so familiar to me. I had thought at first that this was Reaper doing but they never seemed to have employed technology like this. Unless of course this one was much older than the others and the techniques had not been perfected yet when it was cast down to this planet.
"I am beyond your comprehension, I am a god, I am the Great One. The one who controls ten thousand stars. Your life is but a grain of sand. I shall take it and do with it as I please." the creature screamed at me in Nicole's voice that had been distorted by what I imagine was Reaper implants of some kind.
"A Reaper then. All of you sound alike." I replied and shot Nicole's corpse three times this time as I rushed forward and swung the blade at her neck. If something has a head, it's a weak spot is a lesson I will never forget from my days of gaming.
The creature was faster by a fraction of a second and evaded me so that the blade only grazed the side of her neck.
"Reaper? No. I am far beyond that now, their minds might be nations but my mind is a galaxy on it's own. They think themselves perfection, a pinnacle of all possible life organic or synthetic. But I am free from that folly. Perfection is a lie. Only the hunger is real. To consume or be consumed that is the ultimate perfection of life. And I shall consume everything." the creature said through Nicole and lunged at me. Twisting to the side I let my other hand gain momentum and then rammed it right into her middle. The light suit that she was wearing beneath all those rags did not stop me, neither did her skin or muscle and my hand buried itself deep inside. Then I kicked her away leaving the grenade that I had been clutching in my hand inside. The corpse of Natalie sneered before exploding. I didn't wait for the other creatures to attack and rushed back the way I came dropping a grenade behind me. I still had plenty left so it didn't matter if it simply slowed them down rather than killed them. I had a plan and I needed time to make it happen. Then I heard the rumble. At first I thought it was an earthquake but then I remembered that in the survey of this planet it was recorded that no tectonic activity is happening. It was dead like Mars. So there was only one thing that could make that sound. The Great One, trying to free itself from it's earthen prison. Which meant I didn't have time to do this carefully. Without slowing I ran up the stairs and into the labyrinth.
Half an hour later I emerged back into the shuttle bay. I had run out of grenades and was down to my Predator and the M-92 and the rumble had become a definite thumping sound with plenty of cracking. Great shuddering cracking that echoed through the structure. I had no time to fix my own shuttle but there were others to choose from. But first my plan. I run from shuttle to shuttle slaving the controls to my omni-tool, before jumping into one and quickly running through the takeoff sequence. The shuttle must have been sitting cold for a long time as it took at least five minutes to spin up it's mass effect core and reinitialize all the critical systems. All the time I was sitting in the seat and attempting to gauge by the sound and feel of those thumps how close the thing was to the surface. Once the system readouts all turned green I pushed the throttle up and all the shuttles rose as one, slaved to my controls. I had not time to do this gracefully so I simply aimed at the opening and pushed the throttles forward making the shuttle jump out of the landing bay as it was a bullet fired from a gun.
And right in time too as less than ten seconds later the whole structure started to come apart as the nightmare creature rose from the depths of earth. It was telling the truth, it was not a Reaper. It had too many tentacles, it looked fleshy despite the huge bulk and a clearly scarred carapace. It looked like a Leviathan's ugly cousin. Some unholy combination of a crab, octopus and a centipede and all of it a thousand times bigger. As I circled around it I could see the battle damage, one claw missing, a score of tentacles ending as short stubs, masses of scar tissue and deep gauges in it's body. Letting the scanners record the thing I noticed that it was not just organic. Certain parts were grafted on, the sensor reading reporting that they were made from non-organic material. I was so fascinated by the creature that I almost missed how one of it's metal appendages rose and the shuttles systems registered a buildup of power inside it. Banking the shuttle sharply I avoided the searing particle beam. Deciding it was time to kill this thing I set the command to the shuttles. There was an explosion where I had landed with my shuttle. I had rigged up a self destruct to the drive core in case I had not returned so now it turned into a sizeable warhead. By my calculations it should be about a kiloton or just a bit more. The explosion staggered the creature, which meant that it had no kinetic barrier protecting it. The other shuttles were gaining altitude at their highest speed. Without human occupants they were capable of quite a lot. I let the shuttle I was in circle around again gaining a bit of distance and altitude.
I sent another command making one of the shuttles stop gaining altitude and dive at the creature.
The creature attempted to intercept it but the shuttle hit just before the power level in one of it's mechanic tentacles rose high enough to fire the particle beam. The shuttle's core went super-critical and inverted the mass effect field inside it compressing the deuterium fuel inside the fusion cell and briefly creating a small pure fusion reaction. A fireball of pure plasma struck the side of the creature with the shockwave reaching me a few seconds later forcing me to fight the controls to keep it on the course I wanted. I needed a direct visual of the thing for the second part of my plan. The Great One was still alive, thankfully it still didn't seem capable of generating barriers so all it had was it's carapace and the huge bulk for protection. I couldn't really tell how injured it was but now it was missing more tentacles and the side that was struck looked smooth as if someone polished it, all the bumps, scars and other less friendly things had been scraped away by the nuclear fire.
It was clearly still alive, letting out a titanic roar that reverberated inside the shuttle so without further ado I sent the command to the other shuttles through my omni-tool. I was very grateful that they were human built. As part of my software package I had been given all kids of over-rides and one of them includes the safety limiters for the mass effect cores. Anything that flew and contained a mass effect core had a safety set into it that prohibited it from accelerating to FLT speeds while the sensors detected something above a certain mass or size in front of it. In theory it stopped terrorists from weaponising ships and shuttles and in practice it stopped anyone ramming into staff accidentally. However humans, bless their ancient distrustful ways, had rigged it in a way that while still complying with the Citadel law also allowed the military to use them as kinetic weapons. Meant only for the last-ditch defense in case of unstoppable alien invasion the codes were usually kept under the strictest control. But as it usually is, whoever my patrons were they had clear access to both Alliance High Command and to the highest government circles of Earth.
The shuttles had risen to just below the storm clouds and now engaging their thrusters and their cores to the full accelerated to FLT straight down. All five of them dove half a second apart, in a staggered pattern to maximise the kinetic force of each strike.
Each one struck at hypervelocity, just about 14 kilometres per second, taking in the account the mass of the shuttle my omni-tool was telling me that each strike was worth about 0.7 kilotons. Five times point seven came out to a total of three point five kilotons. That would have been woefully inadequate to kill a fully functional Reaper but this monster was organic in nature for the most part, already had been wounded and was not capable of generating barriers or shields of any kind. As I continued to circle the strike zone letting the more sensitive mining sensors of the shuttle I requisitioned probe the ground I waited for the dust to settle. The snowstorm kept going as if nothing had happened at all and I didn't have to wait for long as the wind and snow swept the dust cloud away letting me see clearly the results of my gamble. And it had been a gamble. I didn't know nearly enough about it to say for certain how much force you needed to kill it and I didn't know anything about it's regenerative capabilities just what simple observation and logic told me. And they told me that if the Great One had been able to regenerate on it's own, if it had been able to leave the planet it would have long ago and would have went on a rampage until someone stopped it. And it spoke of hunger which led me to suspect that on a frozen world like this, a dead world it was unable to find any sustenance. If I hadn't killed it I have at least injured it and delayed it. Quite probably long enough for me to signal my patrons so that they send a ship here to pulverize what's left of it into small chunks, maybe even burn it later with a well placed nuke or ten.
To my relief both my eyes and the sensors were telling me something quite encouraging. The thing was lying there in several pieces with at least one hole penetrating through the middle and most of it's appendages gone. I was tempted for a second to fly down there and attempt to kick it to make sure but my fatigue won over. I was too tired even for gloating. I was not blind enough to my own emotions not to see how this Obelisk mission had impacted me, emotionally more than physically. The constant chase, loss of Joan all the more painful as we never got to experience in full what had sparked between us, this quite literally pre-historic space monster and all this time the tiny voice in the back of my mind telling me that I was wasting my time. That Reapers are coming and I still haven't done anything to stop them. The active ones. I had actually managed to stop this one. One, mostly dead Reaperified ancient creature. But I needed to do more. To at least set up some kind of covert support network for Shepard when she finally faces them. Maybe with sensor recordings of the creature and my conversation with it I could convince the top people I worked for that Reapers were real. Not much of a chance but at least they could come up with some battle tactics against huge monsters. After all you could never be sure that this was the only one of it's kind.
As I was thinking about all of this I let the shuttle's autopilot follow the rather complicated program that the now dead Ishimura pilots had set up to avoid the worst of the storm layer. Cranking up the heating inside I started peeling off my armour not looking forward to the smell that all the hours and exertion had produced. There were no showers on this shuttle but at least I had a sink and a bathroom and there must be a packet of wet wipes. There was always a packet of wet wipes. With a mental effort I moved the Reaper problem aside and set myself a simple three point plan. Wash myself. Find coffee. Write a report back to HQ while drinking the coffee. I liked the plan. I followed the plan.