Lizard-Dogs, Bugs and Giant Worms

Wrex saw Grunt and I off in the early hours of the morning and left us with the shaman of Clan Urdnot. This Krogan, old beyond belief, stood before us and Grunt knelt down to him as instructed. I had told Wrex about how Okeer's mental imprint programs had failed to teach Grunt anything except that he had been created to fight. Grunt did not know what was expected of him and did not know the ways of his own people, so to prevent Grunt from insulting the esteemed and respected shaman, Wrex had taken him aside and given the young Krogan a crude and quick education on how not to piss off the entire clan.

The squad wished me luck and we all shared a joke about what the Rite could entail. Garrus wondered if Grunt and I would be boxing with other Urdnot Krogan.

"If it involves Krogan it usually involves guns too," I laughed back.

"Still," Garrus chuckled, "for my own amusement I'm gonna picture you with those big puffy gloves your Human boxers wear."

"And Tali's going to picture you in those little shorts they wear," Kasumi giggles.

"Maybe…" Tali purred. Tali hugged me and wished me well, closely followed by Sophie, and I went off to wait for Grunt. When Grunt came back and both of us were loaded into a Tomka to be taken to the Rite, Wrex went back to where he had put up my squad for the night. After the bumpy ride in the Tomka, we were let out in an underground shelter where there was a single access tunnel to the surface nearby.

"This is Tuchanka's most recent scar," the shaman told us, "the last surface city to fall in the Rebellions. Here Krogan have proved their mettle for centuries. Many succeed, but many also die."

"What will happen?" Grunt asked and the shaman shot him a fierce look,

"Who knows? The beasts of Tuchanka will be summoned to you and you will fight. And you will battle until we have decided that your power and usefulness has been proven, or until your corpse lies strewn on the ground."

"If this is to test Grunt's mettle, how is he allowed to bring help?" I asked.

"If the one undertaking the right cannot inspire those around him then he is not worthy, Human. Though this will be the first time I've ever heard of one of your kind having the privilege."

"I won't let Grunt down," I said and my Krogan friend looked approvingly at me, or maybe he was just eager to get into the fight.

"Words are useless," the shaman talked down to me, "only strength will serve to save you. Lack the strength required of you, and you are better off dead."

The area of the ruined and bombed out city that we emerged in resembled a makeshift arena surrounded by high walls, about the same size as a football pitch back on Earth. The arena was barren and lacking even basic cover with the exception of plenty of Krogan corpses lying everywhere. One of the bodies looked as if it could have been there less than a couple of days, others looked weeks and months old while many were just skeletons whose flesh had rotted away long ago. I noticed that parts of the field looked like there had been massive holes that had been filled in afterwards. An icy feeling crept up my spine as I contemplated what could have caused these huge holes to have appeared. I had a vague idea, but did not want to entertain it.

While we had been looking around the shaman had slipped away and behind us, I heard a grinding mechanical noise as a giant hammer began to be raised above the arena and the shaman's voice suddenly boomed out over loudspeaker,

"First the Krogan conquered Tuchanka… and mastered a natural world only we are fit to hold. Then the Krogan were uplifted to the stars to destroy the fears of a galaxy, an enemy only we could chase their lair. Now all Krogan bear the Genophage, our reward, our curse. It is a fight where the only goal is survival!"

The hammer came crashing down and the resulting shockwave had the whole area around us shaking and the dust was kicked up off the ground and got caught in the wind, whirling around us. The added gloom seriously reduced our visibility and I started to hear howling and snarling as whatever we were about to face closed in on us, hidden behind the veil of dust and ash.

"We stick together and watch each other's backs and we'll be fine," I said to Grunt and we stood back-to-back. The dust began to settle a little and packs of Varren suddenly rushed towards us with the obvious intent to rip us limb from limb,

"Grunt! Targets ahead," I yelled. Grunt whipped around and let rip with his shotgun while I lay down heavy fire with my pistol. The heavy slugs of my pistol could deal with feral wild-life easily enough.

A Varren leapt at me with its jaws open, preparing to clamp its huge fangs shut around my neck, but a shot through the mouth sent it to the ground in a heap. Grunt charged into a group of them and using his bare hands he clobbered several and threw others away as if they weighed as much as a pillow. His massive foot came crushing down on a Varren's head and the sound of the skull splitting echoed around us. While Grunt dealt with the Varren up close and personal with his shotgun and fists, I took to picking off the ones that were approaching from further away with lethal accuracy.

The Varren were beginning to spread out around us and several were able to leap onto Grunt's back and take snaps at him. Even with Grunt's fury and my pistol, the numbers of Varren were beginning to tell. Then, out of nowhere, a shadow passed over us and the fierce Tuchanka sun was momentarily blocked from view as a massive winged creature passed over-head and ploughed into the ground behind us. I kicked an incoming Varren across its mouth and looked at this new threat. This beast looked like some kind of horrible dragon-insect cross-breed, five or six times the size of Grunt, and when it landed it began to throw up copious amounts of liquid mixed with large and ugly looking chunks of meat.

Then these "chunks" began to move and before long we had big, vicious looking insects crawling along the ground at us on thick legs. Their eyes glowed yellow and their razor-sharp teeth were ready to slice us in half.

"Klixen!" Grunt shouted to me, "they can breathe fire, Gardner."

"You've got to be shitting me!" I exclaimed as I turned my pistol on them. These beasts, at least waist height, took bullets better than the Varren did. Before long, Grunt and I had to make a run for it to avoid being barbequed. Fortunately for us, the Varren and Klixen were going for each other as well as us. While a group of Varren ran down and started ripping one Klixen to pieces, another Varren swiftly became enflamed as it tried to solo another of the insects. Grunt was dying to charge back into the fight but I restrained him,

"Wait. Let them kill off each other some more, it's less we have to deal with," I told him.

"This is my Rite, I have to prove I'm worthy," Grunt growled.

"There's nothing wrong with fighting smart, Grunt," I said, "take a chance to get a breath and conserve your strength. You want to survive this?"

"Yeah."

"Then fight smart."

Grunt and I skirted around the edges of the arena while the Varren and Klixen depleted each other's numbers. With the sweat dripping off of me and the dust sticking to me, I picked off the few beasts that ventured towards us. Eventually, the Varren had had enough of these fire breathing bugs and ran for it, leaving only the two of us to face them. To make matters worse, the flying Klixen returned and swooped down over our heads, setting the ground around us alight as it went.

"Grunt! Keep moving!" I told him as we ran through the fire and smoke to avoid becoming trapped. The Klixen on the ground scurried after us, screeching and belching flames at us. Grunt bull-rushed one that was unlucky enough to get in his way and when he had it pinned to the ground with his feet, he reached down and tore its head right off. I rolled under another tongue of fire when the flyer came back around and I drew my Widow, ready for its next pass.

"Grunt, keep the klixen off of me; I'll bring down the flying one!"

"Don't miss, Gardner," he shouted back at me as he incinerated one of the crawlers.

With Grunt fighting relentlessly against the incoming fire-breathers, I took a knee and watched the smog filled sky for the flying bug. I heard wing beats coming from behind me and I whipped around and took aim. Through my scope, the Klixen was increasingly monstrous as it flew closer and closer. I pulled the trigger, then again and again. My three shots connected and hit the Klixen squarely in the head sending it veering off to the side, screeching and roaring in pain and anger. Like a missile, it plummeted into the ground and struggled to lift itself up. I reloaded and put three more rounds into it, but it still fought to live and tried to beat its wings and escape. Just as I was lining up my seventh shot and Grunt was closing in on it, determined to finish it off himself, the ground around the klixen seemed to explode from under it. Something rose out of the ground with frightening speed and the Klixen was consumed by the gigantic creature. I could not believe what I was seeing.

A Thresher Maw had come for us.

The head of the thresher maw retreated its way underground again and took the Klixen with it for a snack. With the knot in my stomach tightening, I knew that Grunt and I were next on the menu.

"Gardner…" Grunt looked at me, "it's coming this way! Run!"

The ground under my feet shook violently as the predator encroached on our position and I sprinted as fast as my legs could go. Behind me the rubble and dirt was sent soaring into the air as the Maw emerged with its gaping mouth open ready to swallow Grunt and I up. Both of us unleashed what firepower we had to hand on it, but the huge worm had natural armour plating as thick as the Normandy's. Our shots barely made a scratch. The Thresher Maw turned on us and unleashed a spout of acid at us, missing me by a hair. The acid was so strong that even the smell of it seemed to melt the hair on the inside of my nose and sting my eyes.

After diving out of sight again, the Maw surfaced not a metre behind me as I ran for my life. Its relentless attack was as bad as most of the fights I had been in against Saren and his Geth as well as the Collectors. Grunt hit the beast with a grenade but only served to piss the rampaging animal off and when its body arced over us to dig back into the ground again, it nearly took Grunt with it. That is when my Krogan friend looked at me with a glint of inspiration in his eyes,

"Gardner, we need the Maw to try that again!"

"I know you're crazy Grunt," I said as I ran to rejoin him, "but that's a bit too crazy."

Grunt brought out a modified thermal clip and loaded it into his shotgun,

"Exploding rounds," he said with a menacing laugh, "I get one of these off inside its soft mouth and its brains will be all over this arena!"

The Thresher Maw burst out of the ground too close for comfort once again and dived back under to take another run at us. My heart was thumping and my throat was parched from the dust and ash of Tuchanka. We could not keep this up forever.

The Thresher Maw leapt out at us as if it was a demon summoned up from hell to drag us back down with it. When it spat another load of acid at me, Grunt fired off one of the explosive rounds at the monster's mouth. The only damage was a chunk of its slimy blue tongue that splattered all over the place.

"Got to be closer," Grunt told me.

"How much closer?" I feared the answer I would receive.

"Right down its gullet!" Grunt said fiercely. How we were going to achieve that I did not know, but we only had two ways out of this arena, victory or death.

The Maw emerged some distance away and I put three rounds from my Black Widow into its tongue in rapid succession. Another dose of acid rained down around us before the Thresher Maw burrowed under the ground once again,

"This might be the chance you're waiting for Grunt," I yelled to him, "get ready."

"I'm going to tear this thing apart!" Grunt growled as he stood his ground with his beloved shotgun locked and loaded. The earth below me trembled. I felt like I was caught above the epicentre of an earthquake and that the ground would split and swallow me whole. An eruption of dirt and debris went flying into the air as the Maw surged out of the land and came back down straight on top of Grunt. The Krogan bellowed in rage as the Maw's mouth opened and closed around him,

"Grunt!" I shouted as the body of the Maw began to go back beneath the surface with Grunt inside it.

Amidst the noise of the Thresher Maw's body shredding its way through the earth, I heard the single, dull thud of an explosion going off. The Thresher Maw's body suddenly went limp and almost seemed to fold in on itself as its momentum ceased. I ran to the edge of the hole and looked into it fearing that there would be no trace of Grunt. The Maw was definitely dead, its thick, armoured body lay perfectly still beside me. I could not see Grunt, but then a shot went off and the top of the Maw's head exploded outwards in a shower of ichor and thick, green blood. A powerful Krogan fist burst out of the hole and tried to rip it open further. With a burst of hope, I leapt down onto the Maw's corpse and grabbed Grunt's hand, pulling for all I was worth.

When Grunt's hand emerged, he gasped for air and shouted and yelled in anger, but after realising what he had accomplished, he calmed down and stood atop the Maw's huge head with a proud grin on his face. Still covered in the goo and much more from being inside the Thresher Maw's mouth, the bulky Krogan grinned

"They won't forget this in a hurry," he said with a satisfied voice.

"You just killed a Thresher Maw, on foot," I said in amazement, "I've never heard of that happening."

Grunt laughed happily to himself.

The exuberant shaman greeted us and led us back to the Tomka,

"Glorious!" he exclaimed, "absolutely glorious! Wrex will be most eager to speak with you Grunt. None have defeated a Thresher Maw in over fifteen hundred years. Urdnot Wrex was the last one to achieve such a feat."

"Really?" I said, "he never told me that when he served with me on the Normandy."

"Does this mean I'm a part of Urdnot?" Grunt asked.

"You have passed the Rite, but it is still in Wrex's power to turn you away if he still deems you unworthy. However, after what you have achieved… I think you will have a place amongst us," the shaman said.

A short journey later and we were back at Wrex's camp where the Urdnot clan leader and my entire team were waiting for me. I could not help but notice the shocked and amazed looks on their faces when we disembarked from the Krogan tank and Tali immediately rushed over to me,

"I'm so glad you're ok, I can't believe what you just did!" she said in a relieved voice.

"Yeah we're fine, Grunt put on a hell of show!" I said, hugging her.

"I know," she said, "we all saw it."

"What?" I asked, "how?" The rest of the team came over to congratulate Grunt. Garrus said to me,

"As soon as you and Grunt left with the shaman, Wrex told us to come with him and we got a ride out to the arena. We saw every minute of the Rite. Not gonna say I envy having to fight a Thresher Maw."

"Aw man," I said with a grin, "I was looking forward to telling everybody about that."

"I don't think it would've done it justice," Zaeed said, "it was a bloody impressive thing to see!"

"Although there was a lot of running away from the thing," Garrus added with a laugh.

"And if I had been able to tell the story then there wouldn't have been," I joked and we all went over to where Wrex was waiting for us.

The whole squad was astounded by what Grunt and I had accomplished and were surprised that we had made it back.

"Your probability for success was zero-point-eight-two percent, rounded down," Legion told me in his usual static tone, "we did not anticipate your return."

"The Commander makes a living out of doing the impossible," Jacob replied in admiration.

"I thought our mission was over when that thing appeared," Miranda said, "you really are a credit to Humanity, Commander."

"It was Grunt that killed it, I just pissed it off," I said.

"You just can't help causing trouble can you, Gardner," Wrex said when Grunt and I stood before his throne, "no one's killed the Maw since I undertook the Rite of Passage. But I guess that's what it takes to replace me on the Normandy."

Urdnot Wrex contemplated Grunt as he had done a few times now, then he leaned forward and spoke to Grunt,

"You are Urdnot Grunt. Welcome."

Grunt bowed to Wrex and the clan leader continued,

"You may now own property, join the army and apply to serve under a Battle Master."

"Gardner is my Battle Master," Urdnot Grunt said respectfully, "he has no equal."

"Don't I know it," Wrex laughed, "rise Urdnot Grunt. You're one of us now."

Wrex offered to host us for another night, celebrating and drinking to Grunt's completion of the Rite and the killing of a mighty Thresher Maw.

"I wish we could," I said to my old friend, "but we've done what we came here to do. I should get back to the Normandy."

"What's this big mission you're doing anyway? Is it the Reapers again?"

I nodded grimly,

"Heard of the Collectors? They're attacking Human colonies in the Terminus Systems and abducting the people. Hundreds of thousands have been taken. And they're working for the Reapers."

Wrex looked thoughtful for a while,

"I thought we'd seen those bastards off when we killed Saren and Sovereign. So why are you gathering this group together? I mean seriously… a Geth?"

"I need a team of the best, and needless to say Legion's a tech expert as well as a solid soldier. When we're ready, we're hitting the Omega 4 Relay."

Wrex stared at me,

"Of all the stupid things you've done, Scott, that's number one! If what I hear about that relay is to be believed then you're dead as soon as you enter it."

"We have a plan Wrex, we'll be ready," I smiled at the old Krogan, "are you… worried?"

Wrex looked away, a distant look in his eyes,

"I owe a lot to you, Gardner. You made the rise of clan Urdnot possible. For a long time, I was a mere mercenary wandering the galaxy looking for his next pay-check, until you came along and brought me onto the Normandy. You gave me a purpose that I'm proud of. You gave me something to fight for that is bigger than myself."

I was surprised, I had never seen this side of Wrex, nor did I think that Krogan had a sentimental side,

"I've never heard you talk like this Wrex. If you want to make sure we come back alive you could always come with us."

Wrex laughed at that,

"Can't deny I'm tempted," he said, "but someone has to stay here and keep building the Krogan up into a single, strong society. I never cared much for aliens, but being on the Normandy with your Human crew, Tali, Garrus and Liara? I learned that caring wasn't such a bad thing," he turned to me with a grin on his face, "but if you ever tell anyone what I just said then I'll rip your quad off."

I laughed aloud,

"Human men only have two danglers down there, but I understand the sentiment. Your secret's safe with me," I said.

"Bring them back, Gardner," Wrex said as he looked at Tali, Garrus and his newest clan member, "bring them home. And that goes for you as well. If the Reapers are still out there, then this galaxy's going to need a crazy bastard like you."

I shook Wrex's hand as I went to leave,

"I can't promise anything, Wrex. But you know I'll do the best I can."

"Then I feel sorry for the Collectors," Wrex chuckled.