Noveria, Rift Station Labs
The ride was quiet, tense, relatively short but uneventful, for which Liara was rather thankful for. Still, their arrival itself was rather disturbing, when the group stepped out from the railcar onto the platform. Liara shivered as the occasional steam spurts, damp atmosphere and noticeable but tolerable heat brought back disturbing memories of Feros and the Thorian. At least here she could not feel the unnatural fecundity of the immense precursor. Still, the place was disturbing, and not at all what she expected from a research laboratory on a predominantly arctic planet. The once-pristine walls were pockmarked with bullet holes, scorched black by explosions or melted by biotic fields and rachni acid - and the parts left without battle damage were often coated with a dark black-brown organic material, which she could not place. Her omnitool lit up as she leant closer to take a sample for later analysis.
"Careful, kid." The voice of Wrex was a low rumble. "The bugs already started turning this place into a more accommodating hive of their own."
"Still, we need to get deeper inside" Shepard noted, the facility map projected from his omnitool. "The main containment area is the likeliest location of the queen."
"We could take a short detour to the hangar, Commander. Just to see if there are any vehicles Saren and Benezia could use to escape."
"Garrus is right, Commander." Ashley's voice was tense, her rifle tracking the shadows of faint motions farther down the tunnels. "And we definitely should not split up, as..."
The floor trembled slightly under them, and the distant, muted rumble of an explosion was heard. Shepard motioned Wrex towards the tunnel leading to the hangar, then followed, with the rest of the party closing up. The flickering emergency lightning with the occasional rattling and vapor spurts from the vents ensured that all of them were quite tense - well, except Wrex, as the old krogan warlord marched calmly forward, with a small, grim smile on his face.
The sound of gunfire, interspersed with the hissing of rachni and screams of humans echoed across the tunnel as they got closer to the hangar. Liara tensed, readying both her SMG and biotics when she noted the others doing the same. The disturbingly biomechanical walls seemed to pulse and writhe with a life of their own, or as if live organisms and nutrients were passing beneath the slick, dark walls. The group reached the hangar, and stopped dead in its track.
Close to the opened hangar exit, an orbital shuttlecraft was in flames, the smell of burning flesh already noticeable in the air. A turian loomed before the inferno, a regal asari at his side - the emperor and empress looking down at unruly rioters; half dozen acolytes standing before them with eyes closed, their biotic coronas meshed in a single powerful aura of blue-white light, as they maintained a barrier around them. Liara could see five commandos standing vigil around them, their weapons pointing outwards - towards the backs of maybe two dozen humans and asari, and the undulating mass of rachni before the pulsating barrier. The outer ring of guards blazed with gunfire and biotics, as they desperately tried to hold back the chittering swarm who sought to bring them down with acid and claws while keeping Saren's group from leaving the hangar.
Wrex snarled an untranslatable curse just as Shepard spat a few choice words that made Liara blush, before the small team took cover near the tunnel, unnoticed for the time being - even though the archeologist knew this would change very soon. Her eyes locked on to the face of her mother - and she bit down a horrified whimper as she took in the cold, distant otherness of the Matriarch. Gone was the caring, nurturing philosopher who preached unity and interspecies cooperation. Gone was the mother who always looked at her with distant sadness, love and pride. Now, all she could see was the image of the old asari legends about the Ardat-Yakshi come to life, radiating an aura of cold, calculating malice, a will to crush all who stood in her way.
She twitched as she felt a hand at her shoulder, and she found herself looking into Shepard's eyes. The human was grim, but sparks of concern flickered deeply in his eyes. Liara swallowed, blinked, then nodded at him, the reassuring squeeze of the hand warming her. With a few terse sentences, Shepard outlined their plan, and after a round of acknowledgements, the team started to moved into positions. Liara never knew what gave them away - likely it was one of those minor trips that could make even the best-laid plans fall apart.
As Ashley and Garrus took aim at Benezia and Saren, as Shepard and Wrex got ready to charge, as she herself was gathering her will and biotic power to shield them, the Matriarch's eyes flashed with power, and a blue film of discontinuity blanketed Liara's mind and senses. When the stasis lifted, she could barely suppress a shiver at the changed scene, the image burning itself in her mind in . The rachni horde was gone, but so were the guards of Saren and Benezia, with only the five commandos and three acolytes remaining. For a fraction of a second, only the whine of an incoming aircraft was heard, then the tableau was broken by Garrus' shot exploding the head of an acolyte just before Ashley's shot was deflected by Saren's deploying omnishield. The barefaced turian smirked, and the Matriarch's lips peeled back in a knife-sharp smile before she gestured to her commandos.
With a boom of displaced air and blue flash, Wrex charged ahead, only to be stopped cold by a gesture from Benezia. The two biotic fields collided with an explosion that shook the whole hangar, and Liara was surprised to see the old warlord still standing defiantly. Then her mother's bodyguards were on them, and the young archeologist desperately fought for her life, every erg of biotic energy, every scrap of her concentration focused on dodging the strikes of her assailant, her barrier shimmering and rattling as the commando blasted away with her shotgun, dancing around Liara with lightning-quick darting movements that seemed to leave afterimages of her behind, with her fists and legs blurring as she rained biotic punches and kicks on her. For an endless time, Liara had to endure, constantly reinforcing her barriers, weathering the punishment her assailant sought the chink in her defense. She tried to recall all the training the late Shiala drilled into her, and looked for an opening, while trying to keep an eye on the others as well.
Wrex seemed to enjoy himself, the bellowing laughter of the old warlord echoing off the walls, as he fought with two asari, blue flashes of biotic charges and flash-images of dodging commandos weaving an insane ballet, punctuated by the throaty roars of the three shotguns. Despite being wounded and bleeding, the krogan held his own, his opponents unable to force him on the defensive - after all, Wrex had been doing this even longer than the two bodyguards of the Matriarch. Liara thought that unless Benezia got involved directly, or the other commandos dogpiled him, Wrex would do just fine.
Ashley and Garrus were holding off a third commando, the lithe asari weaving between shots, both the human and the turian sporting dented armor and minor wounds where biotic strikes or the commando's shotgun found their mark. Still, with the two of them working rather well together, they were holding their own, much like Liara herself did.
Shepard was up against the last of the Matriarch's bodyguards, the two figures locked into a whirling, twisting dance of holds, close strikes, and point-blank shots. The asari had a superior smirk on her face as she forced the human back. The Spectre wincing and staggering as a biotic kick cracked his armor, as he barely managed to roll from the stomping boot, before turning the roll into a sweep aimed to put down the asari, who jumped over the human's leg - and had a fraction of a second to appreciate the savage grin on Shepard's face before an omniblade unfolded into her stomach. To her credit, the commando managed to jump back before taking a fatal hit, but the energised blade dealt her a serious wound even so, providing the human with a rather large advantage.
The distraction of checking on her teammates almost cost her head, as she barely managed to throw herself back when her opponent tried to shoot her in the face. Liara shouted and struck out with her hand, the control gesture flinging her attacker back as her biotics enveloped the bodyguard, and slammed her hard against a piece of wreckage from the still-smouldering shuttle - and she winced as the piece of metal impaled the other asari.
Wrex immediately used the minuscule distraction, the bare flickering of the eyes one of his opponents indulged in. An oversized paw shot out with surprising quickness, enveloping the head of the inattentive asari - before the old krogan simply tore off her head with a growl and a pulse of his biotics. His second opponent discharged her shotgun into his chest point-blank, and blood spurted from the deep wound - yet the warlord did not go down, did not even seem to acknowledge the wound, before his head snapped forward, his crest slamming into the asari's head with crushing force, sending her staggering, then with an almost lazy gesture, Wrex lined up his Claymore with her head, and blew her away. The bodyguard fighting Ashley and Garrus staggered when a concussive shot from the turian hit her straight in the chest, bringing down her barrier, just before shrieking in agony as the inferno round from the human set her afire, her screams suffocated by the flames, Ashley's vicious, happy laughter a low and sinister counterpoint. Shepard's omnitool flared and overloaded the barrier and shield of his opponent, the asari almost managing to flash-stepping aside from his stabbing omniblade, before the deep booming of the Spectre's oversized pistol put an end to the duel.
Liara's team prowled closer to the remaining acolytes, who shielded Benezia and Saren with another barrier, seeking to delay the attackers until the two could board the incoming shuttle. As Ashley and Garrus poured fire into the barrier, Wrex grabbed both Liara and Shepard, motioning toward the ceiling of the hangar, where the explosion of the shuttle and the following firefight weakened the structure. The three biotics concentrated, their coronas meshing together in a blue-white luminescence, then Wrex flung out his hand with a snarl, the web of energy enveloping the damaged portion of the ceiling, then the old warlord made a fist, and pulled. Metal shrieked and groaned, debris and dust rained down as the ceiling gave way, intent on burying Saren and Benezia.
The triumphant smirk of Shepard was short-lived, as the detritus was stopped by a blinding blue-white barrier the Matriarch conjured with a shout, though she visibly stumbled under the weight. Wrex bared his teeth in a feral snarl, Liara's eyes shone with power and Shepard felt his nerves strain as the three of them poured more power into their efforts, intent on crushing the enemy - and Benezia was still able to hold up the ceiling, to block their efforts. And Saren simply walked on, guiding the asari beside him, getting ever closer to the open hangar doors where the incoming shuttle was now clearly visible. Garrus and Ashley upped their rate of fire, hoping to overwhelm the barrier deployed by the rapidly tiring acolytes before the renegade Spectre could make his escape.
Liara could see from the corner of her eyes that Garrus moved close to Ashley, the two speaking briefly, before Ashley switched to firing her assault rifle one-handed, unshipping her sniper rifle with the other, yet the barrage on the barrier left up somewhat, as the turian held his fire, his fingers dancing on his omnitool for a few seconds. Then, Garrus nodded at the woman, and the blue flash of a full-powered overload charge slammed into the barrier, scrambling and destabilising it for maybe half a second - but for the two, that was enough. The two sniper rifles boomed practically at the same time, and the concussive charges turned the head of an acolyte into a messy spray of bone, blood, and brain matter. The death of the asari made the other two falter for a second as they struggled to balance the changes in their meshed biotic field - and that second was too long when up against the likes of Ashley and Garrus. The biotic barrier dispersed when the two acolytes fell dead, and Wrex snarled in triumph, redirecting the combined power of the struggling trio to fling the ceiling towards the hangar gate - and Benezia was just a heartbeat too slow to counter.
Gently placing the panting Matriarch down on the floor, propped up against the mound of debris closing off their escape route, Saren turned towards his pursuers, mandibles flaring with a cruel, self-assured smirk, an oversized pistol unfolding in one hand, while the blue-white corona of a biotic flaring up around the other. With a metallic-grey flash, he moved.
The pistol in his hand spat a bolt of corpse-green lightning, and the wounded Wrex was unable to dodge - the bolt ruptured his barrier, melted his shields, dissolved armor, flesh and bone alike, leaving a sizable hole in the old warlord's side, the pain forcing him to a knee as he fought for control against both the pain and the rising blood rage. A flash of orange from the renegade Spectre's omnitool sent a mini-package at Garrus and Ashley, the detonation scrambling and overheating their weapons. Shepard and Liara were thrown back by a biotic field, the human rebounding with appalling swiftness. The temperature dropped to match the outside air, hoarfrost spiderwebbing over the torn hangar decking, then with a flash of gold, Shepard seemingly blurred from existence to reappear behind Saren, omniblade slashing towards the turian's neck while the human's pistol roared against the renegade Spectre's back. Saren's shields collapsed with a crackle, and blood trickled from the newly-created rent of his armor - yet he managed to duck below the slash, and survive the shot, turning to face Shepard, his own pistol coming up to flay the human, who flashed a savage, eager grin at him, before the human moved … and the turian faded, as the blue light of discontinuity once again descended on them, only the maddened chuckle of the turncoat Spectre echoing in the hangar.
The sheer fury of the two humans battered on Liara's mind - sure, Garrus and Wrex were also visibly angry, but something in Ashley and Shepard reached beyond the normal. She supposed it was not that surprising from the Spectre, considering his penchant for using rather esoteric abilities, but Ashley surprised and disturbed her. While the Spectre's fury was a blazing but ultimately controlled volcano, the woman was radiating a red-hot aura of barely-sane anger that set off Liara's internal alarms quite quickly. In a way she could understand their feelings, what with their prey eluded them, true - but at least they were all alive and still in the fight.
She drew closer to Shepard, gathering her courage to reach out, to say something, anything to snap him out of his rage - but the baleful glare full of raw, seething hatred Ashley shot her made the asari reconsider. She hung her head, thinking on her mother's distorted face as they walked deeper within the complex, heading for the main containment area. She considered what she remembered reading about the Rachni Wars, and shuddered, especially when she noted how tense and alert Wrex was. If the partially-organic, claustrophobic tunnels could make an old warlord like him uncomfortable, then perhaps she herself could be allowed a modicum of worry as well, never mind the expectations of cool, detached control she had to live up as both scientist and a Matriarch's daughter.
The young archeologist felt a similar apprehension as on Feros, as if she was voluntarily walking practically into the belly of an enormous beast intent on consuming her - and given what she knew of the rachni's mental abilities and proclivities, that did not sound far-fetched or reassuring. At all. More worrying for her was that a not-insignificant part of her found this normal, or even slightly thrilling. Was she becoming too similar to the stereotypical maidens who ran around the galaxy as Eclipse sisters, dancers, or escorts? When did her nice, regimented, predictable and, most importantly, sane, world become this? And why did she have to enjoy it, especially when he was around?
Her thoughts and nascent daydreaming was interrupted when she realized the everpresent, slowly closing humming and pulsing of the disturbing tunnels changed in pitch and tone; as if the vast entity was struggling to breathe. The mental images from that did nothing to calm her, especially when she noted the anticipatory grin on Wrex's face, and how the four warriors tensed, ready for action - then they stepped out into the devastated containment area, and she couldn't fully suppress a small, horrified sound in her throat.
Sure, the massacre of the hangar deck was brutal and bloody, their path from there leading them across the labyrinthine tunnels numbed her pretty much to brutally torn apart bodies, but still the mere sight of the huge, broken containment chamber and the piteous state of the occupant was more than enough to make even Wrex stop, the krogan lowering his oversized shotgun.
An immense rachni Queen was sprawling on the floor, most of its legs and parts of its main body eaten away by the acid that was likely installed as a safety measure over the containment chamber. The floor was still sizzling and smoking in places where the potent concoction was eating through it. While it did not completely succeed in its original task, the acid was definitely strong and bountiful enough to ensure the eventual demise of the Queen. The team spread out, carefully approaching the dying insect, Liara exchanging her SMG for her omnitool as she catalogued the strange geometrical etchings on the floor, partially destroyed by the struggling Queen during her aborted escape, yet something in them made her mind hurt still. She followed Wrex as the krogan stepped close to the slowly expiring body of the ancient enemy of his kind, and recoiled when the krogan, who had been examining the Queen's head, suddenly spun towards Shepard.
"Butcher, get over here." This was not the voice of Wrex, the krogan mercenary, or the old, quirkily amused travelling companion. This was Warlord Urdnot Wrex, indisputable lord of countless battlefields - and Liara noted how the three soldiers instinctively reacted, all snapping to attention, and Shepard jogged over to them from where he was examining the floor and the strange glyphs. "See these holes? Now, I'm not really an expert on current neurotech, but the pattern of these wounds indicates something was inserted into her central nervous system."
The Spectre thought for a second, shrugged.
"Probably some psychic restraint, or a chemical dispenser wired directly to her brain, to keep her docile and controllable." The human flashed a wry grin. "Seems they have underestimated the dosage."
"Don't play games, Butcher. In case it slipped your mind, the damned insects have excellent genetic memory. Saren had some quite interesting tech devices, and an asari Matriarch to help him." Liara saw Shepard's eyes widen at the implication, before the man's pupils narrowed in concentration.
"I don't like what you suggest, Wrex. I don't like it at all."
The krogan's bitter laughter did not reassure Liara any way whatsoever.
"Do we really have any other chance, Shepard? Any trick you yourself could pull?" The krogan inclined his head towards the partially-erased glyphs, and Liara frowned. Obviously, there was some significance to them, but what could be their purpose? She could not find any corresponding formula, no matter where she looked, her omnitool and usual scientific sources providing no frame of reference at all. And if she wanted to be honest with herself, she did not really want to examine them closer - even if she may be ridiculed for it, the glyphs seemed strangely malevolent and painful to look at too closely. Her frown deepened as she realized that while Garrus and Ashley did react to the markings similar to her (though not nearly as strongly, but they were both soldiers, and neither were asari), Shepard and Wrex didn't seem to care about the glyphs. Her train of thought was interrupted by the Spectre's voice, the human's bitterness almost palpable.
"That's not exactly my specialty, Wrex. And I don't really want to experiment here and now."
"Wise choice, Shepard." The krogan's voice held a surprising amount of respect and … pride? "That still leaves one option clear; well, as long as the Queen's alive, that is."
The implication hit Liara like a brick, and for a brief second, a tidal wave of fury threatened to overwhelm her self-control. She forced herself to calm down, taking deep breaths, a conversation on the Normandy echoing in her head, and she nodded, unaware of the faint smile on her lips.
"I … I think I can do it, Shepard." Her smile widened, filled with sadness. "It's not like we have much choice, do we?"
The Spectre opened his mouth to say something, then grimaced, his lips a thin line as he shook his head.
"Unfortunately, the other possible option is too time-consuming, and poses significant dangers to all parties involved." His voice became somewhat forced, colder, more distant. "If you do it, the risks are more manageable … and confined to a single person."
Garrus coughed as he stepped closer.
"Are you sure about that, Shepard? I can understand the reasoning, but it seems a bit … cold, even for you."
Liara's handwave cut off Shepard's answer.
"No time, Garrus. And while I appreciate the sentiment, I'm quite positive that the Commander and Wrex would not suggest me doing this without good reason."
With a shaky smile and hammering heart, the young archeologist stepped up to the dying rachni Queen, and stretched out a slightly trembling hand, when she felt the Spectre's presence, as Shepard held her other hand, his presence a calm, anchoring rock in the turmoil of her mind. The asari's blue eyes closed for an endless second, and as her fingers touched the carapace of the Queen, Liara's black eyes opened, and the words were torn from her very soul.
"Embrace Eternity!"
An explosion of colors and melodies across the plane of her soul, dancing across the vast majesty of the midnight void in content harmony for seemingly endless aeons.
The surge of expansion, of multiplication beyond numbers, the feeling of swarming hordes of drones, warriors and queens, a whole race driven forward by a foreign, sour note disrupting the eternal harmony, unbalancing and distorting their very being.
Scenes flash by, fields of slaughter on uncountable planets, the chittering, roaring swarm drowning all under the weight of their numbers, accompanied by an ever-fouler dark satisfaction of the gluttonous sour note, before it all turns to ash as the furious visage of a krogan fills the mindscape, nuclear detonations mushrooming behind it. The devastation is terrible, yet there is an underlying sense of hope, of future, free from the outer influence.
Inquisitive, cold, careless machines drill into her, burrowing into carapace, veins, nerves, soul - dispassionately looking for something, forcing her to watch her children experimented upon, torn apart, bred forcibly, mutated horribly in a sick, twisted quest for something.
Two cruel, cold gazes bore into her mind - one somewhat similar to the present, an organic, albeit gleefully forced meld, the old crone making sure that her mind-song burns away parts of her self; the other employing painful, mechanical tendrils that creep along the nerve system, the memory banks of her mind, all wanting to find a single thing. Stars and astrographic charts flash by, mass relays and constellations flicker with maddening speed, sculptures of strange, alien beings - some with four eyes, some with tentacles in place of eyes, others graceful, thin, and impossibly ancient.
Coordinates, fragments of navigational data, a desperate struggle against a vortex pulling her down into the final oblivion, the eternal silence of the ancient song.
She realizes the mind-song is kin to the crone, and her psyche grabs the invader tight, intent to drag the other down with her, to erase the child of the one who dared to invade her mind, to kill so many of her children, and she will have her revenge, the last laugh as she takes from the crone just as she took her children, and …
There is something else in the mindscape, someone else pulled in by the foreign mind-song into their meld, cocooning the crone's whelp in a protective sheath - a living contradiction of sharp, cold glaciers and golden warmth that burns away the tethers of her will. Something vast is aware of her, of them, and the dispassionate, calm regard of the distant observer, its endless, brutal power and merciless will sends her shrieking over the edge.
The vortex of blacker-than-black yawns ever wider, its pull immense, and it takes all their will to teeter on the edge of hurtling in - then the whole mindscape explodes into light and sound.
Liara falls backwards with a scream that quickly turns into sobbing, and for an eternal second she struggles hard to push the Spectre from herself, the memory of that distant, inhuman sliver of warmth making her flinch, while the human held her close and whispered meaningless, soothing things to her. She slowly becomes aware of the others; a hateful, jealous glare, an awkward cough, and a proud yet bloodthirsty chuckling.
"Kids, you act more krogan than a lot of idiots on Tuchanka."
The young archeologist glared at the smirking warlord, and did a half-hearted embarrassed gesture to move away from the Spectre - then she stiffened, turning her face towards the human when he did not immediately release her. Blue eyes met gold-flecked brown, and Shepard nodded apologetically, sadness suffusing his gaze and bearing.
"Sorry about that, Liara." He took a deep breath, scanned their surroundings. "Ash, is the Queen dead?"
The woman smiled, showing teeth.
"Well, if having half her remaining head blown off did not kill it, we can always burn it for a bit."
Garrus looked pensive for a second, then chuckled ruefully before speaking up.
"You know, after Feros, I'm not sure if the Council will praise you for killing off another species to ensure peace, or condemn you for a genocidal monster."