"They have a mako!" I squealed, running toward the vehicle.
The three of them groaned behind me, commiserating about my driving skills.
Once the thin metal door was lifted up, revealing the skyway to us, I gunned that engine. And the amount of geth we found waiting, which included colossals, was ridiculous. Like, it felt as if they were just throwing themselves at us to die.
Every time we cleared a pocket of them, that stupid ship of theirs would drop off more father down the road.
Eventually, we reached the other side. And in one piece, despite how the others were complaining about the maneuvers I was pulling off, trying to dodge incoming missiles.
A voice came over comms, one of the radio frequencies we had tuned into. "We've got movement... some kind of vehicle. Not one of the geth."
I slowed to a stop, spying a downward slope in the middle of the area to our left.
"Careful." I warned my people. "They're probably people who managed to escape the building."
"So... no pulling a gun on them?"
I laughed at Garrus' words. "Yeah. Don't do that."
We were met with guns trained on us, a layer of security between us and what were obviously scientists, based on their clothes and equipment.
"That's close enough." A man said, glaring at us.
The woman beside him held up a hand in a placating gesture. "Relax, Jeong. They're obviously not geth."
"Get back, Juliana." More intensity to the glare. "Who are you? What do you want?"
"I'm Viridian Shepard." I saw a flash of recognition on his face. I remembered him as well. He'd literally bumped into me once, a few years ago, when I was talking to a contact I had in a different facility. I was surprised he recognized me, especially since we hadn't been formally introduced. Must've inquired about me afterward. "I'm just here to help with your geth problem. Zhu's Hope was cleared out, everyone's alive and accounted for."
Juliana turned to Jeong with a frown. "You said they were all dead."
"I said they were probably all dead."
We talked a little longer, about how their tower was definitely the base of operations for the geth.
"Those headquarters are private property. Remove the geth and nothing else."
How cute. He thought he could intimidate me.
I tilted my head, making my voice warm enough to melt sugar. "Don't worry. My crew isn't like that. Just take care of the geth, and that's it."
He gave me a nod, visibly relaxing, then walked away.
"Um!"
I looked to the woman, curious.
"Before you go... My daughter, Lizbeth. She's missing..."
"Anyone left in that tower-" Liara murmured.
Not quiet enough, because Juliana cut her off. "She's alive! I just know it. I can feel it."
"Do you have any idea where she could be?" I asked gently, dropping the façade I'd used with the man.
"She was working in the ExoGeni building when the attacks came."
"I'll find her." I reached out, taking one of her hands, and gave it a light squeeze.
"Thank you." She smiled weakly at me. "Thank you."
With that taken care of, I looked around the small room they were all gathered in. Huh. A familiar face.
"Gavin, hey there." I walked up, leaning against the table he was working at.
He was typing away on a console. "I was hoping you'd have a moment, Viridian. I've got a bit of a problem."
"I happen to be a problem solver."
"I need to retrieve some data." Looking up at me, now. "It's not a big job, but it pays well."
"You know the way to my heart, Gavin." I opened my omni-tool, ready to make a note. "In the ExoGeni building, yeah?"
A nod. "My console. Just drop the data onto this OSD. It's that simple." He held out the disk in question.
OSD's were small enough that I could just tuck it into one of my hip pockets, so that's what I did.
"Why are we helping him?" The turian asked once we were back in the mako.
"Gavin? Ah, he's a good guy, all things considered. He's a freelancer. Probably sneaking information from the company for his mods, on the side, in all honesty. His mods are highly sought after. He's also always making improvements and creating new prototypes."
"Does he know that you'll be keeping a copy of the data for yourself?"
I turned and winked at Liara. "Nope. That's our little secret."
More geth stood between us and the building. All easily dealt with, again. More fodder than anything, really.
Wrex would've loved all this fighting. Next time I knew we'd meet heavy resistance like this, I'd bring him along. Maybe Virmire.
Within the garage, I left my companions to deal with the geth lying in wait. They'd proven they could hold their own, and I really didn't want to make them feel babysat during fights.
I hacked into the room on the far end and came face-to-face with a colossus. The eep that left me wasn't my finest moment, or how I darted back instead of forward, giving it enough time to fire at me. As I dodged out of the way, I took stock of the situation. The room was very small, not even four feet by four feet, and this thing took up a lot of the space. Rushing at it, I leaped onto one of its legs and jumped to its back. Much like the other day, I slammed my omni-tool's blade deep into the machine's head. The damn thing exploded before I could get clear, and I flew against the opposite wall, hitting with a loud thud.
Liara rushed to my side, helping me to my feet. I dusted myself off, looking around the room, spying Kaidan standing in the doorway.
"What were you thinking, fighting that thing alone like that?" Alenko started in on me.
I rolled my eyes. "I'm not dead. Besides, it's not like I meant to walk in on a colossus in a closet. Just means we have to be careful clearing rooms in this place."
Garrus' voice came from the garage a ways off. "There's a barrier here, blocking us from getting inside the facility."
We walked toward him. I stopped, tilting my head at a sharp drop that disappeared into what looked like a basement. The others continued, not noticing I wasn't with them. They needed to be more aware of their surroundings.
Said the girl who'd just walked into a giant geth.
"Shepard?" The turian called out.
Without thinking, I just stepped forward and let myself drop.
"Shepard!" Kaidan's voice was much closer than where I'd seen him.
Glancing up, I saw the three of them standing at the edge, staring down at me.
"C'mon. Time's wasting. We've got a woman to save and data to collect. Oh, and deal with these geth, since we're here."
I wondered briefly, as they joined me, how long it would take for them all to get used to me doing impulsive shit. Hope it didn't take too long. I didn't need someone yelling "Shepard!" every time.
The tunnel opened up into a wide space, and we walked in slowly, looking around. Taking stock.
A gun went, and I looked over to see a woman with a gun in her hand, pointed at me, just as the bullet hit my shields. I glanced down, then back up at her.
"Nice shot."
"I-" She blinked, unsure what to say to that. She gave herself a shake. "I'm so sorry. I thought you were geth, or one of those varren."
"Lizbeth?"
"Yes. How do you know me?"
"Spoke to your mother, she told us to be on the lookout for you." Curious, I motioned toward her. "Why didn't you evacuate with everyone else?"
"I stayed behind to back up data. Next thing I knew, the geth ship latched on and the power went out. I was trapped." She pointed back the way we'd come. "I tried to get out, but the way was blocked."
"Stay here. We'll take care of the geth, then come back for you."
"You'll have to take care of the energy field they put up, too, if we're going to leave."
"We'll get it down. Anything else?"
"Well." She hesitated. I gave her a smile, trying to tease the words from her. "I don't know for certain, but I'm guessing the geth are here for the Thorian."
Our mind controller? I wasn't letting that go.
"What's a Thorian?" Kaidan asked, frowning.
"It's an indigenous life-form. ExoGeni was studying it."
"Can you tell me where I can find it?"
"I..." She looked around, suddenly shifty. Interesting. Something Geni didn't want getting out to anyone not on the staff? Like a mind controlling life-form?!
Listen, I was not wrong. There was no way I was, and I didn't need a vision to prove it. This Thorian was controlling Ian. Wait. The strange way the colonists in Zhu's Hope were acting. It was controlling the entire colony. ExoGeni was studying its effect on the people there.
And people wondered why I hated them.
"might be able to, but not with the geth around. Look, we need to get out of here, past that field."
"Got it." I turned to go.
"Wait. Do you even know how you're going to do that?"
"The geth ship, I'm sure. It probably has something to do with the power going out and that barrier." A shrug. "It's not that hard to go from point a to point b. We'll be back for you. Also, your mom's alive."
"Wait!" She ran over to me, holding out a lanyard. A keycard on the end of it. "Take this. It'll get you through the locked doors. And thanks, for telling me my mom made it out safely."
When we were far enough away from her, going down another tunnel, I murmured. "Guys. I think this Thorian has the ability to control someone's mind. Remember how the colonists were acting? And Ian? I think they're all being controlled."
Garrus let out a thoughtful hum.
"When you look at it that way, the whole picture, it makes sense." Liara agreed.
Kaidan was still frowning. "We find this thing and kill it."
"Agreed. If ExoGeni can infect a colony without the Alliance or the Council knowing... Imagine what other companies could do. Or-" I stopped myself right there.
"Or what?"
"Well. Imagine if a war broke out. Mind control and war? That would be catastrophic." A more PC way of saying what I'd almost said.
"Stupid machine! Access encrypted files!" A deep voice came from somewhere up the stairs. I leaned over the rail and looked up, wondering if I could see them. No luck. "No, I don't want to review protocol!"
The krogan, it turned out to be, was so wrapped up in the VI, that he completely missed us coming up the stairs to see what the fuss was about.
I stopped a few feet away, crossing my arms and raising an eyebrow.
"I am unable to comply. Please contact your supervisor." The VI recited.
He was only getting angrier. "Damn it. Tell me what I want, or I'll blast your virtual ass into actual dust!"
"Please contact your supervisor for a level 4 security exemption or make an appointment with-"
"Stupid machine!"
"If there is nothing else, please step aside. There is a queue forming behind you for the use of this console."
The krogan spun around, growling at me.
"Yeah, hi. We're the queue. If you could step aside, that'd be great." I motioned with my chin for him to move.
He pulled his shotgun out, but I was quicker with my pistol. He was dead while the barrel of his weapon was still pointed toward the ceiling from unholstering.
"They never just do what I ask." I sighed. "Wouldn't have died, if you'd just listened."
"ExoGeni Corporation reminds all staff that the discharging of weapons while on company property is strictly forbidden."
"Sorry." I held up a hand, the keycard dangling for the VI to see.
"Welcome back, Research Assistant Elizabeth Baynham. What can I do for you?"
"I want to know about the Thorian."
"There has been no new data available on Species 37. All sensors monitoring the observation post at Zhu's Hope have been inactive for several cycles."
I knew it! The Thorian was the reason behind their actions.
"What does the Thorian have to do with Zhu's Hope?" I leaned forward, eager to hear the confirmation to what I'd already pieced together.
"Species 37 is located within the substructure of the Zhu's Hope outpost."
I made a fist and brought my elbow down to my side, mentally patting myself on the back. Taking a moment to compose myself, I refocused.
"Tell me everything you have about the Thorian."
"The Thorian is a simple plant life-form that exhibits a sentient behavior uncommon with other flora. Through dispersion and the eventual inhalation of spores, it can infect and control other organisms, including humans."
I immediately looked over my shoulder at my teammates, my voice urgent. "When we get back to Zhu's, helmets on."
My words were met with nods, expressions serious.
"The Zhu's Hope control group has yielded interesting results. Before sensors went offline, almost 85% of all test subjects were infected."
"ExoGeni is experimenting on those people..." Liara was covering her mouth, from the sound of it.
"We need to contact Joker." Kaidan started.
"Oh, fuck." I opened comms to the Normandy. "Joker? Joker?" Nothing. "Damn, nothing. I hope him and the rest of the crew are okay."
"Within 21 days, 50% of colonists exhibited altered behavior. Within 28 days, 85%." The VI was still going. "The will-subversion manifests as intense pain if directives are ignored. The effect is severe enough that subjects are soon conditioned against even minor thoughts of rebellion. Observation suggests the Thorian views its thralls in a utilitarian way. Care is apparently taken to avoid injuring them, much as a craftsman avoids damaging his tools. As long as no action is taken against the creature's objectives, the subjects are free to pantomime a normal existence until specifically tasked with something."
"What do you wanna bet that when we return to the colony, they attack us?" I asked, half joking.
"The Thorian does not exhibit the focused behavior of a predator. The release of spores is an act of survival, not aggression. It does trigger advanced behaviors in the humans it enslaves, but we have yet to discover whether it recognizes- or is capable of recognizing- humans as more than tools. The Thorian appears to be a diffused creature. Its cognitive abilities are centered in large nerve bundles, but it receives data from kilometers and meandering tendrils. We have discovered bundles approximately one meter in diameter, but these seem insufficient to coordinate the massive sensory potential it possesses. It may simply process such stimulation slowly, or perhaps there is a nerve cluster of a greater magnitude we have not yet encountered."
"What I'm hearing is, we take this thing out by its tendrils." Garrus commented.
"The Thorian is present as a weave of tendrils across much of the lower surface of Feros. Observation of enslaved subjects suggests there may be key clusters that are tended by thralls." Sounded like he was right. Good to know. "Unfortunately, direct observation of Species 37 is limited or non-existent."
When the VI didn't continue, I nodded toward it, used the console to turn it off, then faced my team. "This is going to be fun."
"Taking down a creature that has mind control powers? What's more fun than that." The turian chuckled.
"Exactly."
"Please, don't encourage her." Liara chided him, exasperated.
Kaidan just watched silently.
"Onward!" I sounded the charge, guiding us deeper into the ruins of the ExoGeni building.
